Ancient Greece Timeline

  • Agamemnon
    1524 BCE

    Agamemnon

    Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War of Homer's Illiad.
  • Homer
    850 BCE

    Homer

    Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature.
  • First Olympic Games
    776 BCE

    First Olympic Games

    The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympics were at least 500 years old at that time.
  • Rise of the Tyrants
    650 BCE

    Rise of the Tyrants

    The tyrants were oppressive rulers in Greece. They were influential opportunists who remained in power with the help of mercenary soldiers. The tyrants often emerged from the aristocracy, and the force of public dislike of them varied from place to place.
  • Draco’s Code of Law
    620 BCE

    Draco’s Code of Law

    The draconian law created by Draco as written law for the Athenians.
  • Democracy
    600 BCE

    Democracy

    Athenian democracy developed around the sixth century BC in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica.
  • Darius I
    550 BCE

    Darius I

    Darius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE
  • Xerxes
    519 BCE

    Xerxes

    Xerxes I, commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC.
  • Pericles
    495 BCE

    Pericles

    Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during its golden age, specifically the time between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars.
  • First Persian War
    492 BCE

    First Persian War

    The first Persian invasion of Greece, during the Persian Wars, began in 492 BC, and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
  • Battle of Marathon
    490 BCE

    Battle of Marathon

    The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes.
  • Second Persian War
    480 BCE

    Second Persian War

    The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece.
  • Battle of Thermopylae
    480 BCE

    Battle of Thermopylae

    The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece.
  • Socrates
    470 BCE

    Socrates

    Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought.
  • Parthenon Completed
    447 BCE

    Parthenon Completed

    The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of their power
  • Peloponnesian Wars
    431 BCE

    Peloponnesian Wars

    The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases.
  • Plato
    428 BCE

    Plato

    Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy
  • Catapult
    400 BCE

    Catapult

    Catapults were invented by the ancient Greeks and in ancient India where they were used by the Magadhan Emperor Ajatshatru around the early to mid 5th century BC.
  • The Academy in Athens
    387 BCE

    The Academy in Athens

    The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum.
  • Aristotle
    385 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.
  • Philip II
    382 BCE

    Philip II

    Philip II of Macedon was the king of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.
  • Alexander the Great
    356 BCE

    Alexander the Great

    DescriptionAlexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty.
  • League of Corinth
    338 BCE

    League of Corinth

    The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League, was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II during the winter of 338 BC. After the Battle of Chaeronea and succeeded by Alexander the Great at 336 BC, to facilitate the use of military forces in the war of Greece against Persia.
  • Battle of Chaeronea
    338 BCE

    Battle of Chaeronea

    The Battle of Chaeronea was fought in 338 BC, near the city of Chaeronea in Boeotia, between the Macedonians led by Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes.