Alisa Ahmad Greek Timeline

Trojan War

1250 BCE

Troy abducted the Queen Helen of Sparta, so the Greeks needed a way to get behind the gates of the Troy. They went and fought a battle for 10 years until the Greeks retreated from camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. After discussing and many warnings the Trojans decided to pull the the gift through the gates. When night came the horse opened up and a group of Greek warriors climbed out. This group of warriors was led by Odysseus.

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

This was an early battle won by Greeks because of the “phalanx” formation at the city state of Marathon. The phalanx formation is a fight formation were foot soldiers fight side by side with spear and shield in hand. After the victory Pheidippides ran 26 miles to Athens to inform them about of the victory at Marathon. The marathon race is named after this battle.

Golden Age

455 BCE

The Golden Age is when “Athens becomes very wealthy and powerful as the leaders of the Delian league after the Persian war”. This age led to culture, sculpture, theater, philosophy and democracy. There art portrayed beauty, serene, and youthfulness. They celebrated human form with nude sculptures. Theater had three different genres tragedy was the stories of heros, comedy made fun of politics and important people and satyr was a mix of both.

Building of Parthenon

440 BCE

This was a large temple built in honor of their god Athena, god of war. The temple was built during Athens golden age. The temple is an example of how successful Athens golden age was. Also how they valued wealth, art, and their culture.

Socrates

420 BCE

Socrates was a famous philosopher who strongly believed in wisdom. He also believed in the superiority of argument over writing so; therefore, he didn’t write books. When he taught he only taught in questions and gave few answers to his own questions. In his lifetime he had some issues with Athens because they didn’t like a critic in their city so they threatened to take him to trial for neglecting the gods. When he left Athens he drank poison and died.

Aristotle

345 BCE

Aristotle was born in Macedonia and moved to Athens to study at Plato’s academy. He believed in logic and reasoning. Later King Philippe hired him to prepare his son Alexander the great to be the military leader. Then he returned to Athens to open a school, Lyceum. He then wrote 170 books and 47 still exist today.Later inventions like the telescope and microscope would prove many of Aristotle’s theories to be incorrect, but his ideas formed the basis modern science.

Alexander the Great

330 BCE

Alexander was the son of the king of Macedonia, but his father died when he was a young boy and he was crowned king , so he became a student of Aristotle. He conquered Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt where he became pharaoh. He also spread a new type of culture, a new civilization rose from the blend of Greek and Asian cultures which is now called the Hellenistic Age. Alexander’s reign ended at a young age when he died of malaria at age 33.

Plato

300 BCE

Plato was a student of Socrates and believed that the smartest people should govern society. Which means Plato didn’t believe in democracy, he argued in favor of an “aristocratic of merit” which means rule by the best ans wisest people. He also wanted children to exceed and work to apply their knowledge and give everyone an opportunity so for these reasons he open and academy that lasted 900 years. Plato also wrote a book “Republic” which describes the ideal society.