TIMELINE OF GREEK HISTORY
Ca. 7th to 4th
millennium BC NEOLITHIC small
agricultural communities, herding
ca. 3500 BC BRONZE
AGE
2000 1470 Minoan
Palace Period Linear
A
CRETE central
administration, monumental Architecture, surplus,
taxation, art
1470 1200 Mycenaean Palace Period Linear
B
Mainland
Greece and Crete Citadels
on heights with monumental walls,
palaces,
highly organized administration, art, etc
(ca.
1250 = Traditional date of the TROJAN WAR a real event?)
(ca.
1200 Destruction and Decline of Mycenaean citadels)
1200 1050 Post-Palatial
Period Some remnants of Mycenaean culture remain around some
citadels,
but significant decline
ca. 1050 776 BC (Traditional DARK
AGES Return
to state similar to
date of the 1st
Olympic Games)
(also called IRON AGE) Neolithic
period; writing lost, small
local
communities, no monumental
architecture
776 479 BC ARCHAIC
PERIOD Population
growth, overseas colonization,
Trade increases, monumental
architecture
begins again (sanctuaries),
introduction
of the alphabet, Rise of the Polis
(ca.
750? HOMER,
ILIAD, ODYSSEY)
546 BC The Persian Cyrus overthrows Croesus king of
Lydia, which leads to Persian encroachment on freedom of
Greek
communities in Asia Minor and eastern Aegean islands)
499 Ionian
Revolt these communities revolt from
Persian control, Athens helps out possibly leading to invasion of Greece by
Persians:
PERSIAN
WARS : Persians invade Greece
490 Battle
of Marathon: Athenians defeat Persians on land
480 Battles
of Thermopylae (Greek defeat) and Salamis (Greek naval victory led by Athens)
479 Battles
of Plataea (land victory for Greeks) and Mycale (sea victory for Greeks) =
DEFEAT
OF PERSIANS BY GREEKS, BEGINNING OF
479 323 BC CLASSICAL
PERIOD Flowering
of Greek culture in terms of literature
(birth
of historical writing, drama, philosophy),
architecture,
art, and politics (height of Athenian democracy)
431 404 Great
Peloponnesian war between Athens
and her allies and Sparta and her allies = ends in defeat
of
Athens, but the city is allowed to recover quickly
338 Battle
of Chaeronea: Philip of Macedon
defeats the united Greeks
334 323 BC Campaigns
of Alexander of Macedon in Asia Minor:
Egypt, Persia, Afganistan, India, as far as
Persian
Gulf.
323 BC Death of Alexander
323 31 BC HELLENISTIC
PERIOD Alexanderıs
generals carve up his empire and
spread
Greek culture and language
to
Egypt (Ptolemies), Syria and the Near East
(Seleucids)
and Turkey (Attalids in Pergamum)
146 BC Romans destroy
Carthage and Corinth in Greece
much of Greece becomes a Roman province =
(BEGINNING
OF REAL ROMAN INFLUENCE IN GREECE)
88 BC Roman
general Sulla sacks Athens, takes many works of art to Rome
31 BC The
battle of Actium (fought off the coast of Greece)
Octavian
(the future Augustus) defeats Anthony and Cleopatra, securing
his
position as sole ruler of the Roman world; he soon becomes emperor
=
ROMAN PERIOD
Bronze statue in the National
Museum, Athen (5th cen)
Stone relief sculpture (5th cen) the hieros gamos
Scene from a black figure vase
showing the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus