Timeline of Ancient Greece

The Three Periods of Ancient Greek History are Greek Mythology, the Greek Bronze Age, and Ancient Greece up to the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE.

Greek Mythology (before 1,600 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
5,509 BCE		Start of the Byzantine Calendar.
c.3,000 BCE		Troy (3,000-1193 BCE)
1,950 BCE		Middle Minoan Period (1,950-1,550 CE) based in Crete.
prior to 1600 BCE		Greek Mythology predates Ancient Greek history but forms an integral part of Greek History and Civilisation.
1,600 BCE		Mycenaean Empire (1,600-1,200 BCE)

Greek Bronze Age and Troy (c.1,600-c.1,100 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
c. 1627 BCE		Eruption of Thera
1600 BCE		Greek Bronze Age or Mycenaean Greece (1,600-1,100 BCE)
1193 BCE		Trojan War (1193-1184 BCE)

Hesiod’s Five Ages of Man (1710-300 BCE) dated by Jerome

Year	Date	Event
1710 BCE		Golden Age (1710-1674 BCE)
1674 BCE		Silver Age (1674-1628 BCE) Ended by the Ogygian Flood
1628 BCE		Bronze Age (1628-1472 BCE) Ended by the Deucalion Flood
1460 BCE		Heroic Age (1460-1103 BCE)
300 BCE		Iron Age (1103-300 BCE)

The Three Greek Flood Myths dated by Jerome

Year	Date	Event
c.1628 BCE		Ogygian Flood
c.1472 BCE		Deucalion Flood
		Flood of Dardanus

The Greek Ages (c.1,100-c.600 CE)

Year	Date	Event
1100-800 BCE		Greek Dark Ages
c.800-600 BCE		Classical Antiquity
800-480 BCE		Archaic Greece
480-232 BCE		Classical Greece
232-146 BCE		Hellenistic Greece
146 BCE		Roman Greece (146 BCE-395 CE)
395-1453 CE		Byzantine Empire
610-640 CE		Emperor Heraclius replaces Latin with Greek as the spoken language of the Empire.

Greek History (776-492 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
c.950 BCE		Homer writes the Odyssey and Iliad (c.950-850 BCE).
c.700 BCE		Hesiod publishes ‘Works and Days’ and Theogony.
776 BCE		First Olympic Games. Held every 8 years initially.
775 BCE		Pithecusae in Ischia founded by the Euboeans.
774 BCE		Cumae founded by the Euboeans.
750 BCE		Earliest record of the Greek Alphabet.
750 BCE		Naxos founded by the Euboeans.
750 BCE		Megara Hyblaea founded by the Megarians.
c.730 BCE		Syracuse founded by the Corinthians. It becomes the leading city of Magna Graecia (8th century to 275 BCE).
700 BCE		Delos constructs the Temples of Apollo and Artemis.
700 BCE		First Trireme built in Samos.
699 BCE		Naucratis founded as a Greek colony in Egypt.
697 BCE		Triremes built in Sidon. Iron replaces copper and bronze in ship construction.
660 BCE		Byzantium founded.
c.650 BCE		Nine Lyric Poets (7th-5th century BCE)
600 BCE		Marseille founded by the Phocaeans.
600-265 BCE		Greek-Punic Wars with Phoenician cities in Sicily
600 BCE		Trireme battle between the Phocaeans and Tyre and Carthage.
600 BCE		Thales of Miletos teaches navigation using Little Bear Constellation.
c.570 BCE		Birth of Pythagoras
c.564 BCE		Death of Aesop, creator of Aesop's Fables.
560 BCE		Laws of Solon
560 BCE		Croesus King of Lydia (560-547 BCE)
547 BCE		Persians conquer Lydia.
550 BCE		Hipponax makes first classical reference to a Trireme.
540 BCE		Polycrates has a Fleet of 40 Triremes.
530 BCE		Polycrates builds a Tunnel, 3,380 ft (1,000m) long, to bring water to Samos.
535 BCE		Corsica becomes a Greek Island.
500 BCE		Anaximander of Miletos creates first known map of the World in bronze.

Greco-Persian Wars (490-479 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
492-490 BCE		First Persian Invasion of Greece
490 BCE		Battle of Marathon
480-479 BCE		Second Persian Invasion of Greece
480 BCE		Thermopylae
480 BCE		Battle of Salamis
480 BCE		Battle of Himera: Gelon defeats Hamilcar of Carthage.
479 BCE		Battle of Platae and Mykale ends Greco-Persian War.

Greek History (480-335 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
499 BCE		Hekataios of Miletos writes first Geography of Europe and Asia.
480-404 BCE		Athenian Navy dominant.
474 BCE		Battle of Cumae: Etruscans defeated by Hiero of Syracuse.
467 BCE		Delian League removes the Persians from all Greek cities.
466 BCE		Battle of Eurymedon: Athenian navy defeats the Persian fleet.
460 BCE		Birth of Hippocrates, Father of Medicine.
458 BCE		Aeschylus produces his trilogy of Tragedies.
449 BCE		Acropolis begun.
447 BCE		Parthenon begun.
441 BCE		Sophocles produces Antigone.
431-421 BCE		First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
431 BCE		Plague in Athens.
c. 430 BCE		Herodotus publishes The Histories.
415 BCE		Euripides produces The Trojan Women.
407 BCE		Hippodamus of Miletus builds Rhodes
407-167 BCE		Rhodian Navy
413-404 BCE		Second Peloponnesian War: Athens defeated by Sparta and Persia and loses its Empire and Navy
411 BCE		Aristophanes produces Lysistrata.
404-371 BCE		Sparta replaces Athens as the Sea Power.
399 BCE		Sophocles tried and executed.
397 BCE		Siege of Motya, Carthaginian island fortress in Sicily. First reference to the use of a crossbow.
380 BCE		Plato founds The Academy in Athens. Publishes ‘The Republic’ in c.375 BCE.
371 BCE		The Thebans defeat Sparta, the Helots are freed.
338 BCE		Battle of Chaerona, Macedonia rules Greece.
335 BCE		Aristotle founds the Lyceum in Athens.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
336 BCE		Assassination of Philip of Macedon, succession of Alexander the Great
334 BCE		Invasion of Asia Minor by Alexander the Great.
333 BCE		Siege of Tyre
333 BCE		Battle of Issus
332 BCE		Siege of Gaza and visit to the Oracle of the Siwa Oasis
332 BCE		Occupation of Egypt
331 BCE		Invasion of Assyria and Babylonia
331 BCE		Battle of Gaugamela
330 BCE		Capture of Susa and Persepolis
329 BCE		Battle of Jaxartes
328 BCE		Battle of Gabai
326 BCE		Invasion of India through the Khyber Pass
326 BCE		Battle of Hydaspes against King Porus
323 BCE		Death of Alexander the Great. The Macedonian Empire is divided between the Diadochi.
		The 4 Kingdoms: The Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, The Seleucid Empire of the East, the Attalid Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor and the Kingdom of Macedonia.

Greek History (323-214 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
310 BCE		Zeno of Citium founds the School of Stoicism in Athens.
310-9 BCE		Agothocles of Syracuse conducts a war against Carthage.
307 BCE		Epicurus founds his school of Stoicism in Athens.
306 BCE		First record of a Fleet using Bolt throwing catapults at sea by Demetrius who defeats Ptolemy I in Cyprus.
290 BCE		Lysimachus founds Ephesus and Temple of Artemis.
288 BCE		Demetrius builds 500 warships in Macedonia, including a Seven.
287 BCE		Archimedes (287-212 BCE) born in Syracuse, Sicily.
283 BCE		Pharos of Alexandria completed by Ptolemy I. The Serapium, Temple of Serapis also completed.
290-275 BCE		Pyrrhic War Pyrrhus’ Fleet of defeated by Carthage (274 BCE)
275 BCE		Magna Graecia in southern Italy annexed by Rome.
250 BCE		The ‘Polybolos’, a repeating catapult, is invented by Dionysius of Alexandria.
167 BCE		Romans create Delos as a Freeport, ruining the Rhodian Navy and leading to the Rise of the Pirates of Cilicia.
80 BCE		Antikythera Mechanism, found in a shipwreck.

Macedonian Wars (214-148 BCE)

Year	Date	Event
214-205 BCE		First Macedonian War
200-196 BCE		Second Macedonian War
171-168 BCE		Third Macedonian War
149-148 BCE		Fourth Macedonian War

Greece becomes a Roman Province (146 BCE-330 CE)

Year	Date	Event
146 BCE		Greece becomes a Roman Province (146 BCE-330 CE)
64 BCE		Syria becomes a Roman Province under Pompey.
31 BCE		Battle of Actium; Rome defeats the Egyptian Navy.
30 BCE		Death of Queen Cleopatra VII. Egypt becomes a Roman Province.

Greece becomes the Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE)

Year	Date	Event
330-1453 CE		Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE) This was the Greek speaking Eastern half of the Roman Empire. It was governed by a series of Emperors who ruled from the capital at Constantinople, now Istanbul.

Greece becomes the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922 CE)

Year	Date	Event
1453-1922 CE		Ottoman Period (1453-1922 CE). Constantinople was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which at its peak collected Tribute from 32 Provinces and a number of Vassal states, located in southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.
1923-today CE		Ankara became the capital of the new Republic of Turkey (1923-today). Constantinople was renamed Istanbul in 1930.

Athens, Greece