Timeline: Archaic Period (800-480 BCE) Greece

776 BCE

First Olympic Games held

Held in honour of Zeus every four years

757 BCE

First Messenian War begins

War between Sparta and Messenia which lasts many years

750 BCE

Homer begins to write the Illiad and Odyssey

750 BCE

Greek colonies established in Southern Italy & Sicily

-They adapt the Phoenician alphabet for their own use, and later adopt metal coinage from Lydia, in Asia Minor
- found colonies on distant shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.These established strong trading ties with their mother city. Greek traders soon dominated maritime trade of the Mediterranean, edging out the Phoenicians who had preceded them.

Period: 743 BCE to 724 BCE

First Messenian War

Spartans are victorious

650 BCE

Greek Tyrants come into power

Cypselus is the first Tyrant of Corinth.

640 BCE

Second Messenian War

Period: 630 BCE to 580 BCE

Sappho - poet

621 BCE

Draconian Laws introduced

A lawyer named Draco introduces strict new laws in Athens that are punishable by death

600 BCE

First Greek coins are introduced

Period: 546 BCE to 510 BCE

Peisistratids tyrants rule over Athens

Peisistratos and his two sons, Hipparchus and Hippias.

525 BCE

Red-figure pottery developed in Athens

510 BCE

Alcmaeonid family and Spartans free Athens from tyranny

508 BCE

Democracy is introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes establishes a constitution and is often called the "Father of Athenian Democracy". This is one of the great accomplishments of the Greek culture.

499 BCE