Ancient Greece
(3000 BC-85 BC)
- Aegean Civilization (3000-1200 BC)
- Minoan Culture (3000-1400 BC)
- 3000 BC: people from Asia Minor migrated to the island of Crete; they made bronze weaponry and tools, curvilinear decorated pottery, silver jewelry, and marble sculptures; they had a standard set of measurement units, a written language called Linear A, and buried their dead in circular stone tombs and caves; and they farmed, herded, and fished for food.
- 2000 BC: the Minoans were a great trading power in the eastern Mediterranean; their major exports were olive oil, wine, and honey and their imports were gold, grain, and cloth.
- 1700 BC: an earthquake badly damaged the palace at Knossos and it immediately began to be rebuilt and expanded when a new dynasty came to power; the new palace was three to four stories high, had over 800 large rooms, paintings, sculptures, and a labyrinth of hallways (in which the legendary minotaur supposedly roamed).
- 1625 BC: a volcanic eruption destroyed the island of Thera, a Minoan settlement, and also caused tidal waves that damaged Crete.
- 1600 BC: the Minoan culture had complete control over trade in the Aegean Sea; they lived a rich and luxurious life, gave women the same rights as men, worshipped the bull and the mother goddess, and had a written language called Linear B.
- 1400 BC: another earthquake destroyed the palace at Knossos; already weak, the Minoans fell to the Achaeans.
- Achaean Culture (2000-1200 BC)
- 2000 BC: the Achaeans, an Indo-European people, migrated to southern Greece; they built strong fortress city-states throughout Greece, each ruled by a king.
- 1400 BC: the Arcadians controlled the Aegean sea as far south as Crete; they adopted the Minoan way of life including art, craftmaking, the Linear B language, and their trade which even went beyond that of Minoans, extending as far as Britain.
- 1250 BC: Prince Paris of Troy kidnaped Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, causing the Arcadians to unite under the leadership of King Agamemnon of Mycenae and began the Trojan War.
- 1240 BC: the Arcadians destroyed Troy, a city on the western coast of Asia Minor in the northern Aegean Sea, exiling its inhabitants.
- 1200 BC: still recovering from war, the Arcadians were unable to defend against the invasions of the Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians; the Arcadians were largely enslaved and called helots, but some fled to Achaea in northern Pelopónnisos and others to Asia Minor where they adopted the Phoenician alphabet.
- Archaic Greece (1200-502 BC)
- The Dark Age
- 1200 BC: the Aeolians migrated to the northern Aegean, the Ionians to the central Aegean, and the Dorians to the southern Aegean to Crete; they made iron weaponry and tools, but neglected earlier Aegean culture including writing.
- the invaders developed hundreds of poleis ("city-states"), each consisting of a fortified hilltop and surrounding fields, a warrior king, and an assembly of aristocratic warriors; the most important Aeolian poleis were Thebes, the Ionians had Athens and Miletus, and the Dorians had Sparta and Corinth.
- Sparta
- 1000 BC: Sparta had three classes: the Spartiatai - the governing class, descended from the Dorians, made of up of 2 kings, 28 elders who advised the kings, and the soldiers; the Perioeci - a class of citizens made up of merchants and small business owners; and the Helots - the slave class, descended from the Arcadians.
- 700 BC: Sparta was much the same as other Greek cities, the way of life, the philosophy, and the arts were very similar; but because the Helots outnumbered their rulers 20 to 1, the Spartans needed a strong military state to prevent uprisings.
- 600 BC: the reforms of Lycurgus, a Spartan legislator, changed the Spartan way of life into one centered around the military; if an infant was deformed they were left to die, children started learning warfare at the age of 7, and at age 20 men entered the military where they remained until they were 60 (often their whole life).
- because military was the focus of life, art, literature, and other aspects of culture were unimportant in Spartan society and, while other Greek cities were changing and modernizing, Sparta retained many of the same rituals and ways of life.
- Age of Aristocrats
- 800 BC: as warfare decreased, the need of warrior leaders also decreased and poleis developed aristocratic governments; the aristocrats (sangre azul, Spanish for blue blood) created laws to benefit themselves, including taxing and slavery; more and more wealth went to fewer and fewer people.
- 683 BC: hereditary kingship in Athens was abolished by the nobles (Eupatridae); they gained complete authority and ruled Athens through the Areopagus (Council of Elders) who appointed three archons.
- 621 BC: the statesman Draco codified and published the Athenian law; this limited the judiciary power of the Eupatridae, because the laws applied to everyone.
- 594 BC: the legislator Solon reformed the Draconian code and gave citizenship to the lower classes, including the helots; he restricted the export of grain which lowered its price in Athens, making it easier for the lower class to get food; this was a major blow to the Eupatridae.
- Greek Colonies
- 750 BC: a great colonization movement around the Black Sea, France, Italy, Spain, and North Africa was caused by: (1) a rapid population increase; (2) a consequent shortage of food; (3) and a rise of trade and industry.
- colonies led to the Greeks realizing their common culture and heritage as they made contact with barbaroi ("outsiders"); they also shared ideas with outsiders, most importantly coins from the Lydians; coins led to increased trade and a strong middle class, made up of merchants and small business owners; as their class grew, a rivalry grew between them and the aristocrats.
- Age of Tyrants
- 650 BC: the middle class were able to overthrow many aristocratic oligarchies in Greece, becoming tyrants, because: (1) they were greatly discontent with economic condition; (2) they had become wealthy through growing trade; (3) they gained support from the phalanx, a large formation of armed citizen-soldiers who stood shoulder to shoulder and was the most effective fighting technique of the time.
- 600 BC: Periander established himself as a tyrant in Corinth; he was very popular and helped Corinth become a commercial rival of even Athens.
- 560 BC: Pisistratus established himself as a tyrant in Athens; during his enlightened rule, the forms of government became more democratic.
- 536 BC: Polycrates established himself as a tyrant in the island of Samos; he was very popular and turned the island into a great trading center in the Aegean Sea.
- 527 BC: Hippias and Hipparchus, the sons of Pisistratus, succeeded him as tyrants; their rule was more despotic.
- 510 BC: Hipparchus was unpopular and was executed; Hippias, also unpopular, was exiled to Persia where he lived in the Persian court.
- 485 BC: Gelon, an officer in Hippocrates' army, established himself as a tyrant in Syracuse; he was very popular and he made Syracuse the strongest city in Sicily.
- Classical Greece (502-323 BC)
- Athenian Democracy
- 502 BC: the statesman Cleisthenes was very popular and led the supporters to win a democratic constitution and created a republic; this marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Greek history, in which agriculture, commerce, art, and philosophy flourished.
- the republic had four branches: the Assembly - all adult males (although most of the time only about 5000 met) who met about 40 times a year, voted on laws, could ostracize, and declare war; the Council 500 - 500 randomly picked adult males, over 30 years old, who met all year long, proposed laws, set agenda for the assembly, and ran everyday business; the Jury - randomly picked adult males who met at court trials and decided the innocent and guilty; and the Strategoi - 10 annually elected adult males who made all military decisions.
- Persian Wars (499-479 BC)
- 555 BC: the Greek colonies in Asia Minor were conquered by Croesus, king of Lydia, and brought into the Lydian Empire; he was sympathetic to the Greeks and greatly stimulated economical, political, and intellectual life of the colonies.
- 546 BC: Croesus was overthrown by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. Except for the island of Sámos (which ably defended itself), the Greek colonies in Asia became part of the Persian Empire.
- 499 BC: Athens, Eretria, and Ionia successfully revolted against Persia.
- 493 BC: King Darius I of Persia put down the revolt and, after conquering Miletus, reestablished his absolute control over Ionia.
- 492 BC: in the First Campaign, Mardonius (Darius' son in law) led a Persian fleet to Greece, but most of the ships were wrecked off Mount Athos.
- Darius sent heralds to Greece, requiring tokens of submission from all the Greek city-states; most of the smaller states agreed, but Sparta and Athens refused, killing the Persian heralds as a gesture of defiance.
- 490 BC: Darius, enraged by the Greek insult, sent the Second Campaign and destroyed Eretria; he then sent 30,000 Persians to Marathon, near Athens; 10,000 Athenians, under Miltiades (a Strategoi member), defeated the three times larger force, and the Persians withdrew; according to Herodotus, 6402 Persians died and only 128 Athenians died; Pheidippides, a well known runner, then ran from Marathon to Athens to tell them of their victory.
- 486 BC: Darius was succeeded by his son Xerxes I.
- 481 BC: the Persians crossed the Hellespont strait over a bridge of boats and marched southward.
- 480 BC: Xerxes went to attack Thermopylae, where the Greeks elected the Spartan king, Leonidas I, as their leader; Leonidas and several thousand soldiers were supposed to defend the narrow pass in the Isthmus of Corinth; a traitorous Greek showed the Persians another path around the pass; Leonidas permitted most of his men to withdraw, but he and a force of 300 resisted to the end and were annihilated; the Persians proceeded to Athens, capturing and burning the abandoned city.
- the Greeks went to the Delphic Oracle who said "Safe shall you ever be behind the wooden walls"; the Athenian general, Themistocles, believed the oracle meant ships; so the Greek fleet went to Salamís (an island near Athens), where they were pursued by the Persian fleet; a naval battle followed, where fewer than 400 Greek vessels defeated 1200 Persian vessels; Xerxes, who had watched the battle from a golden throne on a hill overlooking the harbor of Salamís, fled to Asia.
- 479 BC: the Persian forces in Greece were defeated at Plataea, and driven out of Greece.
- Athenian Supremacy
- as a result of its leadership in the Persian wars; Sparta, the greatest army, lost its prestige to the Athenian navy; Athens became the most powerful polis in Greece.
- 478 BC: because the poleis would not surrender their sovereign, the Greek poleis only formed a voluntary alliance, the Delian League; the league was formed to drive the Persians from the Greek cities and coastal islands of Asia Minor.
- 460 BC: Pericles became leader of the popular party and head of the Assembly (he was elected 34 times); the constitution, reformed to further internal democracy, contained provisions such as payment for jury service, thereby permitting even the poorest citizens to serve; Pericles was determined to make Athens the most beautiful city in the world.
- 444 BC: Athens moved the Delian League treasury to Athens and decided poleis could not leave the League; Athens began to exert its power over the other members as its subjects rather than its allies, requiring tribute as well.
- Athens became famous as an artistic and cultural center when; Greek art and architecture arose from the combination of the Dorian power and monumentality with the Ionian elegance and ornateness; its great wealth allowed for the construction of the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and the Propylaea.
- Greek drama became popular with Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes; historians emerged such as Herodotus who wrote "History" on the Persian War and Thucydides who wrote the "History of the Peloponessian War."
- philosophy (love of wisdom) flourished under the Sophists, who were opposed to the belief that everything had an answer and trained public speakers; Socrates, who was a moral philosopher and believed in right and wrong; Plato, who formally taught the ideas of Socrates, established the Academy, and wrote The Republic; and Aristotle, a student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great, and establisher of the Lyceum.
- with the wealth and power of Athens, the other members of the Delian League became angry and envious of Athenian rule.
- The Peloponessian War (431-404 BC)
- 550 BC: the Peloponessian League began; it was a league of the cities in Pelopónnisos (peninsula forming the southern part of Greece), ruled by Sparta.
- 431 BC: Athens gave help to Corcyra in a battle against Corinth, a member of the Peloponessian League.
- 415 BC: the Athenian statesman Alcibiades (?450-?404), made himself the general of the Athenian army; as a demagogue and a "silver tongued devil", he used the fear and hate of the Athenians to create a mob mentality to attack Syracuse; before the attack, he had all statues of Hermes destroyed, which resulted in his charge of impiety; he fled to Sparta, where he helped the Peloponessian League to defeat the Athenians.
- 404 BC: the Peloponessian War ended, with Sparta replacing Athens as the major power in Greece; Sparta placed an oligarchy, known as the Thirty Tyrants, to rule Athens and other harsh ruling bodies in the other poleis.
- 403 BC: the Athenians, under Thrasybulus, revolted and defeated Sparta, restoring their democracy and independence; other Greek poleis followed and also rebelled against Spartan control.
- Corinthian War (395-386 BC)
- 399 BC: Sparta sent an army to Asia Minor, because of the Persian marauders.
- 395 BC: after some success, the Spartan army was forced to return to Greece in order to fight an alliance of Corinth, Athens, Argos, and Thebes; this began the small-scale warfare of the Corinthian War.
- 387 BC: the Spartan general Antalcidas allied with the Persian king Artaxerxes II for aid in his war against Athens; in return, Persia received supremacy over the Greek cities in Asia Minor; Antalcidas commanded the Spartan fleet in battles near the Hellespont, during which the Athenians were driven from the Aegean Sea.
- 386 BC: Antalcidas imposed the Peace of Antalcidas upon the unwilling subjects in Athens, ending the Corinthian Wars.
- The Rise and Fall of Thebes
- 382 BC: Sparta invaded Thebes and captured the city of Olynthus.
- 379 BC: the Theban general Pelopidas led a revolt and drove the Spartan army from Thebes.
- 371 BC: at the Battle of Leuctra, the Theban general Epaminondas defeated Sparta; Thebes replaced Sparta as the major power in Greece; the other poleis resented Theban leadership, which brought a period of civil unrest and economic misery resulting from internecine strife.
- 369 BC: Athens allied with Sparta against Theban supremacy.
- 362 BC: at the Battle of Mantinea, the Theban general Epaminondas was killed; because Thebes' power was dependent on his brilliant leadership, Thebes lost its power.
- Macedonian Supremacy
- 359 BC: Philip II became king of Macedonia; he was a great admirer of Greek culture, and realized that its lack of political unity was its greatest weakness; he immediately conquered nearby Greek colonies and decided to make himself ruler of the peninsula; Philip began to be opposed by many prominent Greek statesmen led by Demosthenes, an Athenian general.
- 349 BC: Philip attacked Olynthus and Demosthenes urged in three speeches, called the Olynthiacs, that Athens aid the polis.
- 346 BC: Olynthus was destroyed, and Demosthenes was sent to negotiate peace with Macedonia; he continued his warnings against Macedonia; among his orations were: the Second Philippic, On the False Embassy, and the Third Philippic.
- 340 BC: Philip attempted to capture Byzantium, but Demosthenes delayed him.
- 338 BC: at the Battle of Chaeronea, Philip defeated an alliance between Thebes and Athens (poleis long hostile to each other).
- Philip called a congress of the Greek states, acknowledging Macedonian supremacy in the peninsula and appointing Philip commander in chief of the Greek forces.
- 336 BC: Philip was assassinated and succeeded by his son, Alexander the Great, who was 20 years old.
- 336 BC: the orator Ctesiphon proposed that Athens honor Demosthenes for his service by presenting him, according to custom, with a golden crown; despite the conquest of Greece by Macedonia, Demosthenes continued to speak for liberation.
- 334 BC: Alexander invaded Persia, extending Greek culture throughout the Macedonian empire (as far east as India, as far south as Egypt, and as west as Greece).
- 330 BC: Demosthenes' enemy Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon for having offered the crown; Demosthenes defended his friend with the speech On the Crown, and as a result, Ctesiphon was acquitted and Aeschines forced into exile.
- 324 BC: Demosthenes was unjustly convicted of accepting a bribe from Harpalus, to whom Alexander the Great, had entrusted huge treasures and who had absconded and found refuge in Athens.
- 323 BC: Alexander died and left his successor, Antipater; he demanded that the leading rebels be handed over to him, but Demosthenes escaped to the island of Calauria, where he committed suicide. Decline of Ancient Greece (323-85 BC)
- Diadochi
- during the Hellenistic period, the political role and independence of the Greek poleis began to decline gradually; this period was marked, however, by the spread of the Greek culture throughout the ancient world.
- 322 BC: the Macedonian generals began to fight amongst themselves over the vast empire of Alexander; the kingdoms established by these generals were called the Diadochi ("successors").
- 312 BC: a Macedonian general, Seleucus, established himself as an independent ruler of Syria; the Seleucid kingdom had two capitals: Antioch (Syria) and Seleucia (Mesopotamia); the Seleucids observed many of the traditional customs, but the language and culture was strictly Greek.
- 305 BC: Alexander's general, Ptolemy, established himself as an independent ruler of Egypt; the Ptolemaic kingdom was ruled from Alexandria, which developed into one of the great commercial and intellectual centers of the ancient world; the Ptolemies observed many of the traditional customs, but the Greek government was not popular.
- the Macedonian empire devoted itself to the cultivation of art and intellect; Mathematicians such as Euclid and Archimedes; philosophers such as Epicurus and Zeno of Citium; and poets such as Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus were characteristic of the age.
- The Two Leagues
- 290 BC: the poleis of central Greece began to join the Aetolian League, a powerful military confederation, organized for their mutual benefit and protection; expanding with success, it soon dominated all of central Greece and controlled Pelopónnisos, Thessaly, Thrace, and Asia Minor.
- 280 BC: about twelve poleis in northern Pelopónnisos began the Achaean League, a confederation similar to the Aetolian League; each polis in the league was free from each other, but all members participated in a council that met biannually to discuss common policy and economic matters.
- 251 BC: the Achaean League was joined by Sicyon, Corinth, Megalopólis, and Argos; these poleis influenced the league greatly, especially the generals Aratus (Sicyon) and Philopoemen (Megalopolis), who both became leading statesmen.
- 235 BC: the Spartan king Cleomenes III, started a war with the Achaean League in order to force them into the Peloponessian federation; the Achaeans were defeated twice and asked help from Macedonia.
- 222 BC: at the Battle of Sellasia, Cleomenes was defeated and Achaea again became subject to Macedonia.
- Roman Interference
- 220 BC: the Macedonians defeated the Aetolian League; the league decided to ally itself with the Romans, and they became subject to the Romans.
- 206 BC: the Romans defeated some Macedonian forces, obtaining land in Greece.
- 211 BC: Sparta allied with Rome.
- 209 BC: Pergamum allied with Rome.
- 198 BC: the Achaean League allied itself with the Romans against the Macedonians and they became subject to the Romans.
- 197 BC: at the Battle of Cynocephalae, the Macedonians were defeated by the Achaean League, the Aetolian League, and mostly the Romans; the Macedonians gave their sovereignty in Greece to the Romans.
- 189 BC: the Aetolians allied with Syria against Rome; Syria was defeated by Rome and the Aetolians surrendered.
- 168 BC: the Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured 1000 Achaeans including Perseus, son and successor of Philip, and the historian Polybius.
- 167 BC: the Aetolian League was officially dismembered.
- 149 BC: the Achaean League began to war against Rome for independence.
- 146 BC: the Romans destroyed Corinth and made Greece and Macedonia a Roman province, with exception to Athens and Thebes.
- 89 BC: the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI, began to attack Roman-controlled territories; because he promised independence, he was supported by Greece.
- 86 BC: the Romans, under general Sulla, defeated Pontus and the Greek rebellion, conquering Athens, which remained a center of philosophy and learning.
- 85 BC: the Romans conquered Thebes; Roman punishment of all the rebellious cities was heavy, and left Greece in economically and physically in ruins.
