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Ancient Greece

  • Homer
    1000 BCE

    Homer

    Homer's two epic poems have become archetypal road maps in world mythology. The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed.
  • First Olympic Games
    776 BCE

    First Olympic Games

    The ancient Olympics, held every four years, occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus.
  • Rise of the Tyrants
    750 BCE

    Rise of the Tyrants

    a cruel and oppressive ruler in ancient Greece, and a ruler who seized power unconstitutionally or inherited such power.
  • Draco’s Code of Law
    700 BCE

    Draco’s Code of Law

    The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code created by Draco near the end of the 7th century BC in response to the unjust interpretation and modification of oral law by Athenian aristocrats.
  • Democracy
    600 BCE

    Democracy

    Democracy in ancient Greece served as one of the first forms of self-rule government in the ancient world. The system and ideas employed by the ancient Greeks had profound influences on how democracy developed.
  • 522 BCE

    Darius the Great

    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.
  • Catapult
    500 BCE

    Catapult

    A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Parthenon Completed
    432 BCE

    Parthenon Completed

    Parthenon, temple that dominates the hill of the Acropolis at Athens. It was built in the mid-5th century BCE and dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena
  • Peloponnesian War
    431 BCE

    Peloponnesian War

    The two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, went to war with each other from 431 to 405 B.C. The Peloponnesian War marked a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta, and also ushered in a period of regional decline that signaled the end of what is considered the Golden Age of Ancient Greece.
  • Pericles
    429 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.
  • 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, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
  • Socrates
    423 BCE

    Socrates

    Socrates was a widely recognized and controversial figure in his native Athens
  • Agamemnon
    409 BCE

    Agamemnon

    Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War of Homer's Illiad. He is presented as a great warrior but selfish ruler, famously upsetting his invincible champion Achilles and so prolonging the war and suffering of his men.
  • Academy in Athens
    387 BCE

    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.
  • Philip II
    359 BCE

    Philip II

    Philip II of Macedon was the king of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC.
  • Aristotle
    358 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian
  • Alexander the Great
    356 BCE

    Alexander the Great

    Alexander 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.
  • 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.
  • 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/337 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.
  • Second Persian invasion of Greece
    479

    Second Persian invasion of Greece

    The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece.
  • Xerxes I
    486

    Xerxes I

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