Visual Timeline
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Legend:
3000 BCE
2500 BCE
2000 BCE
1500 BCE
1000 BCE
500 BCE
0 CE
3000 BCE: First evidence of habitation at Thebes.
2300 BCE: Bronze is used in the Aegean.
2000 BCE: First shaft graves at Thebes.
2000 BCE - 1450 BCE: Minoan civilization in Crete and the Aegean.
2000 BCE: Early Greeks settle the Peloponnese.
1500 BCE - 1200 BCE: Mycenaean civilization in Greece and the Aegean.
1500 BCE - 1300 BCE: Mycenaean Thebes at its peak of prosperity and influence.
1250 BCE - 1200 BCE: Mycenaean chamber tombs constructed at Thebes.
1100 BCE: Dorian peoples occupy Greece.
1000 BCE: The first distinctive Greek pottery is produced, the Proto-geometric style.
900 BCE: Sparta is founded.
900 BCE: The Geometric style of Greek pottery is first produced.
800 BCE - 700 BCE: Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
800 BCE - 479 BCE: Archaic period of Greece.
800 BCE - 500 BCE: Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
740 BCE - 433 BCE: Greek city-states establish colonies in Magna Graecia.
734 BCE: Corinth founds the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.
683 BCE - 682 BCE: List of annual archons at Athens begins.
660 BCE: Pheidon is tyrant in Argos.
657 BCE - 585 BCE: The Kypselidai are tyrants of Corinth.
650 BCE - 600 BCE: Age of law-givers in Greece.
650 BCE: Sparta crushes Messenian revolt.
650 BCE: Earliest large scale Greek marble sculpture.
625 BCE - 600 BCE: The orientalizing style of Greek pottery becomes popular in Corinth.
625 BCE: Black-figure pottery created in Corinth.
594 BCE - 593 BCE: In Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
580 BCE - 376 BCE: Carthage and Greece fight for dominance in Sicily.
560 BCE: Pisistratos becomes tyrant in Athens for the first time.
560 BCE: The oracles of Delphi and Thebes both tell King Croesus of Lydia that if he attacks the Medes, he will destroy a great empire. Seeing this as a good omen, he goes to war, loses, and the Lydian Empire is destroyed.
546 BCE - 545 BCE: Persian conquest of Ionian Greek city-states.
539 BCE: Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
530 BCE - 522 BCE: Polykrates is tyrant at Samos.
530 BCE: Red-figure pottery style takes precedent over black-figure.
530 BCE: The Andokides Painter invents red-figure pottery.
525 BCE - 456 BCE: Life of Greek tragedy poet Aeschylus.
521 BCE: Darius I (Darius the Great) succeeds to the throne of Persia after the death of Cambyses.
514 BCE: The tyrant of Athens Hipparchos is killed by Harmodios and Aristogeiton - the 'tyrannicides'.
514 BCE: Fall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
508 BCE: Reforms by Cleisthenes establishes democracy in Athens.
507 BCE: Cleisthenes establishes new form of government, Democracy, in Athens.
499 BCE - 494 BCE: Ionian cities rebel against Persian rule.
498 BCE: Ionians and Greek allies invade and burn Sardis (capital of Lydia).
496 BCE - 406 BCE: Life of Greek tragedy poet Sophocles.
495 BCE: Birth of Pericles.
492 BCE: Darius I of Persia invades Greece.
490 BCE: A combined force of Greek hoplites defeat the Persians at Marathon.
487 BCE - 486 BCE: Archons begin to be appointed by lot in Athens.
486 BCE: Xerxes succeeds to the throne of Persia after the death of Darius I.
484 BCE - 407 BCE: Life of Greek tragedy poet Euripides.
482 BCE: Themistocles persuades the Athenians to build a fleet, which saves them at Salamis and becomes their source of power.
480 BCE: Battle of Salamis where the Greek naval fleet defeats the invading armada of Xerxes I of Persia.
480 BCE: The indecisive battle of Artemision between the Greek and Persian fleets of Xerxes I. The Greeks withdraw to Salamis.
480 BCE: Battle of Thermopylae. 300 Spartans under King Leonidas and other Greek allies hold back the Persians led by Xerxes I for three days but are defeated.
480 BCE: Thebes sides with Persia during Xerxes invasion of Greece.
480 BCE: Xerxes I makes extensive preparations to invade mainland Greece by building depots, canals and a boat bridge across the Hellespont.
479 BCE: Xerxes' Persian forces are defeated by Greek forces at Plataea effectively ending Persia's imperial ambitions in Greece.
478 BCE: Sparta withdraws from alliance against Persia.
478 BCE - 404 BCE: The Delian League in Greece, led by Athens.
469 BCE - 399 BCE: Life of Socrates.
462 BCE - 458 BCE: Pericles introduces democratic institutions in Athens.
460 BCE - 380 BCE: Life of Greek comic poet Aristophanes.
457 BCE: Hegemony of Athens over central Greece.
457 BCE - 445 BCE: First Peloponnesian War.
451 BCE - 403 CE: Life of Athenian statesman and general Alcibiades.
451 BCE: Five years truce between Athens and Peloponnesians.
451 BCE: Thirty years peace between Argos and Sparta.
449 BCE - 448 BCE: Peace between Greece and Persia.
448 BCE: The Peace of Callias with Persia.
448 BCE: Ionian cities become independent from Persia.
447 BCE - 432 BCE: The construction of the Parthenon in Athens by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates under the direction of Pheidias.
446 BCE - 445 BCE: Thirty years peace between Athens and Peloponnesians.
431 BCE - 404 BCE: Thebes sides with Sparta against Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
431 BCE - 404 BCE: The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League) which involved all of Greece.
427 BCE - 347 BCE: Life of Plato.
421 BCE: Peace of Nicias, a truce between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues.
420 BCE: Democritos develops an atomic theory of matter.
415 BCE: The Histories of Herodotus is published. The work is divided into nine chapters, each dedicated to one of the Muses.
412 BCE: Sparta allies with Persia.
404 BCE: End of the Peloponnesian war, Athens defeated at Aigospotamoi, Rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.
403 BCE: Plato turns away from politics toward philosophy.
400 BCE: Pepper is known in Greece.
399 BCE: Trial and death of the philosopher Socrates, who taught in the court of the Agora.
398 BCE - 380 BCE: Plato travels in Egypt, Cyrene, Italy, Syracuse and Sicily.
395 BCE - 386 BCE: The Corinthian Wars between Sparta and an alliance of Athens, Corinth, Argos, Boeotia and Thebes.
384 BCE - 322 BCE: Life of Aristotle.
380 BCE: Plato founds his Academy outside of Athens.
379 BCE - 376 BCE: Sparta establishes a garrison at Thebes.
375 BCE: Thebes defeats Sparta at the Battle of Tegyra.
371 BCE: Thebes defeats Sparta in the Battle of Leuktra.
371 BCE - 362 BCE: Thebes is the dominant city state in Greece.
368 BCE - 365 BCE: Young Philip II is held hostage in Thebes.
367 BCE: Celtic mercenaries fight with the Spartans against Thebes.
364 BCE: Theban general Pelopidas killed at the Battle of Kynoskephalai.
362 BCE: Indecisive Battle of Matinea where Thebes fought against Sparta and Athens. Theban general Epaminondas is killed.
359 BCE - 336 BCE: Reign of Philip II of Macedon.
356 BCE - 323 BCE: Life of Alexander the Great.
350 BCE: The Scythians have absorbed a lot of Greek culture, Scythian artefacts show Greek-style depictions.
347 BCE: Plato dies at his Academy.
343 BCE: Aristotle becomes tutor of young Alexander.
338 BCE: Philip of Macedonia defeats the Greek allied forces of Athens, Thebes and Corinth in the Battle of Chaironeia.
336 BCE - 323 BCE: Reign of Alexander the Great.
334 BCE: Alexander the Great invades the Persian empire.
331 BCE: Egypt is conquered by Alexander the Great without resistance.
323 BCE - 31 BCE: Hellenistic civilization in Greece, the Mediterranean and Asia.
320 BCE: Last recorded examples of Attic Red-Figure Pottery.
307 BCE: Democracy is restored in Athens.
270 BCE: Aristarchos of Samos proposes a heliocentric world view.
146 BCE: Roman influence over Greece begins to rise.
146 BCE: Rome sacks Corinth and dissolves the Achaean league. Greece is ruled by Rome.
140 BCE: Venus of Milo is completed.
88 BCE - 63 BCE: Mithridates of Pontus fights three wars to free Greece from Rome.
86 BCE: The Roman general Sulla sacks Athens.
42 CE - 62 CE: St. Paul goes on missionary journeys across Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.
257 CE - 263 CE: The Goths raid Greece.
267 CE: The Goths sack Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Argos.
Timeline Search
Search through the entire ancient history timeline. Specify between which dates you want to search, and what keywords you are looking for.
Timeline
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3000 BCEFirst evidence of habitation at Thebes.
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2000 BCEFirst shaft graves at Thebes.
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2000 BCE - 1450 BCE
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2000 BCEEarly Greeks settle the Peloponnese.
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1500 BCE - 1200 BCE
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1500 BCE - 1300 BCEMycenaean Thebes at its peak of prosperity and influence.
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1100 BCEDorian peoples occupy Greece.
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900 BCESparta is founded.
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c. 800 BCE - c. 700 BCEHomer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
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c. 800 BCE - 479 BCEArchaic period of Greece.
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800 BCE - 500 BCEGreek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
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c. 740 BCE - c. 433 BCE
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683 BCE - 682 BCEList of annual archons at Athens begins.
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c. 660 BCEPheidon is tyrant in Argos.
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c. 657 BCE - 585 BCEThe Kypselidai are tyrants of Corinth.
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650 BCE - 600 BCEAge of law-givers in Greece.
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c. 650 BCESparta crushes Messenian revolt.
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650 BCEEarliest large scale Greek marble sculpture.
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594 BCE - 593 BCEIn Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
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c. 560 BCEPisistratos becomes tyrant in Athens for the first time.
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530 BCE - 522 BCEPolykrates is tyrant at Samos.
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c. 530 BCERed-figure pottery style takes precedent over black-figure.
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530 BCEThe Andokides Painter invents red-figure pottery.
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c. 525 BCE - c. 456 BCELife of Greek tragedy poet Aeschylus.
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521 BCE
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514 BCEThe tyrant of Athens Hipparchos is killed by Harmodios and Aristogeiton - the 'tyrannicides'.
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514 BCEFall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
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c. 508 BCEReforms by Cleisthenes establishes democracy in Athens.
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507 BCECleisthenes establishes new form of government, Democracy, in Athens.
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c. 496 BCE - c. 406 BCELife of Greek tragedy poet Sophocles.
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c. 495 BCEBirth of Pericles.
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487 BCE - 486 BCEArchons begin to be appointed by lot in Athens.
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c. 484 BCE - 407 BCELife of Greek tragedy poet Euripides.
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482 BCEThemistocles persuades the Athenians to build a fleet, which saves them at Salamis and becomes their source of power.
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478 BCE - 404 BCE
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c. 469 BCE - 399 BCELife of Socrates.
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c. 460 BCE - c. 380 BCELife of Greek comic poet Aristophanes.
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457 BCE - 445 BCEFirst Peloponnesian War.
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c. 451 BCE - c. 403 CELife of Athenian statesman and general Alcibiades.
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451 BCEFive years truce between Athens and Peloponnesians.
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448 BCEThe Peace of Callias with Persia.
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446 BCE - 445 BCEThirty years peace between Athens and Peloponnesians.
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431 BCE - 404 BCEThe Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League) which involved all of Greece.
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427 BCE - 347 BCELife of Plato.
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421 BCEPeace of Nicias, a truce between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues.
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420 BCEDemocritos develops an atomic theory of matter.
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403 BCEPlato turns away from politics toward philosophy.
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395 BCE - 386 BCE
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384 BCE - 322 BCELife of Aristotle.
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379 BCE - 376 BCESparta establishes a garrison at Thebes.
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368 BCE - 365 BCEYoung Philip II is held hostage in Thebes.
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364 BCETheban general Pelopidas killed at the Battle of Kynoskephalai.
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21 Jul 356 BCE - 11 Jun 323 BCELife of Alexander the Great.
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347 BCEPlato dies at his Academy.
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336 BCE - 323 BCEReign of Alexander the Great.
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323 BCE - 31 BCE
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320 BCELast recorded examples of Attic Red-Figure Pottery.
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307 BCEDemocracy is restored in Athens.
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270 BCEAristarchos of Samos proposes a heliocentric world view.
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146 BCE
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140 BCEVenus of Milo is completed.
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42 CE - 62 CE
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257 CE - 263 CEThe Goths raid Greece.


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