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Period: 2200 BCE to 1100 BCE
Minoan Society
The Minoan Society arose on the island of Crete. The inhabitants built a series of lavish palaces throughout the island, which were the centers of society. They had their own writing system made of symbols for vowels. Crete was the center of commerce in the Mediterranean because of its geographic location. After a series of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, and foreign invaders, Minoan society collapsed. -
Period: 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE
Mycenaean Society
Indo-Europeans filtered into the Greek peninsula.They traded with Minoan merchants, and created a system of writing similar to the Minoans'. They built stone fortresses and palaces for protections. They eventually took over the Minoans, and they also settled in Anatolia, Sicily, and southern Italy. -
Period: 800 BCE to 338 BCE
Era of the Classical Greek Polis
A polis is a city-state. They were originally citadels or sites that offered refuge during war or other emergencies. Many poleis had become busy, urban city-states by 800 B.C.E. The governments of poleis varied. Some developed small monarchies, while others were under the rule of locals. These variations in political organization reflected the fact that independent traditions that had developed in each polis. -
600 BCE
Life of Sappho
Sappho was an upper-class Greek poet. She was one of few women in Greece who earned a reputation for her literary talent. She composed nine volumes of poetry. Sappho invited young women over for instruction in music and literacy. Her poems began to reflect her strong traction to women, and critics charged her with homosexual activity. Now, only a few of Sappho's works survive. -
Period: 500 BCE to 479 BCE
Persian Wars
In 500 BCE, Greek cities began to revolt against the Persian empire, which began to invade Ionia. Greece tried to defend itself while the Persians tried to invade it. The Greeks and Persians entered a series of battles known as the Persian Wars. They fought for over a century, but it never escalated into a full-scale war. Eventually, both the Persians and Greeks decided that they did not want to use their resources fighting each other, so the Persian Wars came to an end. -
490 BCE
Darius's Invasion of Greece
As they grew, the Persian empire moved in on Anatolia and Ionia. Fearing an invasion, the Greeks sent a fleet of ships to Ionia to help. Dairus, the ruler of Persia at the time, repressed the rebellion by 493 BCE. He sent a fleet of ships three years later to Athens to attack them. -
490 BCE
Battle of Marathon
The Battle of Marathon took place during the Persian Wars. During this battle, the Athenians defeated the Persians, and then marched back to Athens to fight of the Persian fleet. -
480 BCE
Xerxes' Invasion of Greece
Ten year after Darius's invasion of Greece, his successor, Xerxes invaded Greece. He dispatched a hundred thousand troops and a thousand ships. They capture and burned Athens down. -
480 BCE
Battle of Salamis
At the Battle of Salamis, an Athenian fleet defeated the Persian navy. -
479 BCE
Battle of Plataea
At the Battle of Plataea, the Greeks defeated the Persian army, and their survivors fled to Anatolia. -
Period: 470 BCE to 399 BCE
Life of Socrates
Socrates was an important figure in the development of philosophy. He originally studied the natural world, but soon became disinterested. He began to ask questions about ethics and morals. He thought people could lead honest lives and that honor was more important than wealth or fame. Socrates reflected on the purposes and goals of life and criticized traditional ethical teachings. -
Period: 443 BCE to 429 BCE
Pericles' Leadership in Athens
Pericles was the most popular Athenian leader from 461 BCE until his death in 429 BCE. Even though he was aristocratic, he became popular because his government employed hundreds of people from common classes. Athens became an extremely sophisticated polis under his rule, and was known as “the education of Greece”. -
Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE
Peloponnesian War
After the Persian Wars, some poleis formed an alliance to stop the Persians from entering Greece. This alliance was led by Athens, who provided a military while the other poleis provided financial support. Realizing that Athens was the only one benefitting from this alliance, some poles left and began a revolt, led by Sparta. These tensions led to the Peloponnesian War. Eventually, the Spartans forced the Athenians to surrender, and the Peloponnesian War came to an end. -
Period: 430 BCE to 347 BCE
Life of Plato
Plato was a disciple of Socrates. After Socrates’ death, he wrote a series of dialogues, originally to express Socrates’ ideas. Over time, he began to form his own ideas of the world and human society. He questioned virtue and the true meaning of it. He also believed in a world of Forms or Ideas, and he believed that our world was an imperfect reflection of it. He also advocated for an intellectual aristocracy, where rulers were also philosophers. -
Period: 384 BCE to 322 BCE
Life of Aristotle
Aristotle was a disciple of Plato. He did not believe in Plato’s theory of Forms and Ideas and believed it was unnecessary to understanding the natural world. Aristotle focused on philosophy, but he also wrote about biology, physics, astronomy psychology, politics, ethics, and literature. He helped provide a powerful intellectual framework and shaped though about the world. -
Period: 359 BCE to 336 BCE
Reign of Philip II of Macedon
Philip II was the king of Macedon from 359-336 BCE. He built a powerful army to help him carry out his plan of conquering Macedon, Greece, and the Persian empire. Once they conquered Macedon, they moved onto Greece, which was so weak at the time that they could not defend themselves. The Macedonians took over Greece in 338 BCE. In 336 BCE, he died and left his son to carry out his plans. -
Period: 336 BCE to 323 BCE
Reign of Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon was the son of Philip II of Macedon, and he was also known as Alexander the Great. He succeeded his father at age twenty and began to assemble an army of forty-eight thousand to invade the Persian empire. He started with Ionia and Anatolia, then moved onto Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and some parts of India. He established himself as the emperor of Persia in 330 BCE.