Timeline: Greek

2000 BCE

First Settlers

Wandering tribes begin to settle in Greece in which one of the classical civilizations begins and influences western thought.

1600 BCE

Mycenaean Greece

Bronze Age Greece was inhabited by the Mycenaean people. They took their name from the capital city of their land, Mycenae.They were the second group of Greeks to rule the area.

1194 BCE

Trojan War begins

The Trojan war between the Greeks and the Trojans inhabitants of Troy. It began when Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, kidnapped Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. When the Trojans refused to return her, the Greeks formed an army, led by Agamemnon, including Achilles, Odysseus and the two Ajaxes.

1184 BCE

Trojan War Ends

On April 24, 1184 BCE, the city of Troy fell to invading Greek armies, ending the Trojan War. ... The Trojan War ended when the Greek commander Odysseus devised a plan to invade the walled city. The Greeks pretended to give up. Before leaving the Trojan beaches, they gave the Trojans a present—a giant wooden horse.

1100 BCE

Dorian Invaders

Mycenaean Greece was invaded by Dorian tribesmen from the north. The Dorians had iron weapons which they use to good effect to defeat and conquer the Mycenaeans.

850 BCE

Alphabet was crated

The Greek alphabet was developed from the Phoenician alphabet. This helped with law and all most every thing else

800 BCE

Homer composed his poems

Homer composed his poems – the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is an epic poem set in the Trojan War while the Odyssey tells the story of the adventures of Odysseus on his return from the Trojan war.

776 BCE

First Olympic Games

First recorded Olympic games. The games were held at Olympia. There was one event – the men’s 200m sprint. The games where crated to take the peoples mind of war.

743 BCE

First Messenian War begin

the First Messenian War was a war between two Greek-city states that were in close proximity of each other. Messenia and Sparta were both located on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. It got started in 743 , according to Pausanias, an Ancient Greek traveler and geographer.The two city-states had a fierce rivalry between one another which eventually erupted in violence.

724 BCE

First Messenian War ends

The First Messenian war was fought between Messenia and Sparta and although the Spartans were victorious, it didn’t resolve all the problems. The two sides would fight in two more wars. In fact, these First Messenian Wars broke out as part of a larger, more widespread problem that had been going on for some time. The first war lasted 24 years

650 BCE

Rise of the Tyrants

The rule of aristocratic leaders was challenged by lesser aristocrats or wealthy tradesmen who wanted to overthrow the monopoly of the aristocrats. Known as tyrants they seized power from the aristocracy and took over rule in their stead.

621 BCE

Draco’s Code of Law

The laws of Athens had previously been a set of oral laws. Draco introduced a new set of harsher laws which were written down for all to read. For many crimes the punishment was death.

600 BCE

Money

The first Greek coins appeared. This help make trade easier

508 BCE

Democracy

Democracy began in Athens

495 BCE

Pythagoras

The philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, died in Metapontum. Pythagoras of Samos was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, Western philosophy

490 BCE

First Persian Warr

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

480 BCE