Timeline for Ancient Greece
Timeline for Ancient Greece
Early Bronze Age c. 3000-2000 BCE
Early Minoan pottery, Cycladic figurines
Middle Bronze Age c. 2000-1550
Palatial architecture: Knossos, Phaistos
Faience snake-bearing figurines from Knossos; Minoan Kamares Ware pottery
Late Bronze Age c. 1550-1100
Palatial culture on Crete
Minoan palaces (except Knossos) destroyed c. 1450
Knossos destroyed c. 1375
Shaft grave culture on mainland c. 1550-1400
Mycenean palaces (Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes, Tiryns, Athens) and tholos tombs 13th century
Trojan War (?) c. 1250
Destruction of palaces c. 1200-1150
Dark Ages c. 1100-900
Dorian Invasion (?) of mainland Greece c. 1000
Ionian migration to Asia Minor 1050-950
Protogeometric pottery 1050-900
Geometric Age c. 900-700
Geometric pottery 875-750
Founding of the Olympic games 776
Greek alphabet develops 750-700
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey 750-700
Orientalizing Period c. 700-600
Proto-Corinthian pottery 725-650
Proto-Attic pottery 700-600
Attempted coup by Cylon at Athens 632
Sappho late 7th century at Mytilene, Lesbos
Archaic Age c. 600-480
Attic Black Figure pottery 610-525
Solon archon at Athens 594/3
Pisistratus’ first tyranny at Athens 561
Pisistratus’ final tyranny at Athens 546-528
Attic Red Figure pottery 530 ff.
Pisistratus dies; Hippias tyrant at Athens 528/7
Persian conquest of Egypt 525
Darius siezes power in Persia 521
Darius extends Persian empire into India in the east and Thrace in the west 510s
Cleomenes king of Sparta 520-490
Harmodius and Aristogiton murder Hipparchus at Athens 514
Expulsion of Pisistratids from Athens 510
Cleisthenes Jr.’s democratic reforms at Athens 508/7
Ionian revolt from Persia 500-493
Sardis (capital of Persian Lydia) siezed and burned by Athenians and Ionians 498
Persians crush revolt in Cyprus 497
Persians sack Miletus 494
Themistocles archon at Athens; Phrynichus punished for The Capture of Miletus
First Persian expedition to Greece under Darius; Battle of Marathon 490
Second Persian expedition to Greece under Xerxes 480: Battles of Artemisium, Thermopylae, Salamis, Himera
Early Classical Age 480-450
Temple of Aphaia, Aegina c. 490-480
RF Pottery by Berlin Painter c. 490
Kritios Boy, Blond Boy c. 480
Pindar’s lyric poems c.500-438
Delian League founded 478
Delphi Charioteer 478 or 474
RF Pottery by Pan Painter c. 470
Temple of Zeus, Olympia 470-456
Aeschylus’ Persians 472
Temple of Hera, Paestum c. 460
“Aspasia” type statuary c 460
Artemesion God c. 460
Myron’s Diskobolos c. 460
RF Pottery by Penthesileia Painter, Niobid Painter and Achilles Painter c. 460-50
First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta 461-446
Aeschylus’ Oresteia 458
High Classical Age 450-400
Polykleitos’ Doryphoros c. 450-440
Polykleitos’ Diadoumenos c. 430
450-20 Temple of Apollo Epikourios, Bassae
Hephaesteion, Athenian Agora 449-420
Parthenon, Athens 447-432
Sophocles’ Antigone c. 440
Second Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta 431-406
Pericles’ Funeral Oration 431/0
Euripides’ Medea 431
Plague in Athens 430 ff.
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King 429
Peace of Nicias 421-414
Temple of Athena Nike, Athens 420s
Erechtheion, Athens 421-405
Athenian expedition to Sicily 415-13
Euripides’ Trojan Women 415
Euripides’ Bacchae, Iphigeneia at Aulis 408-406
Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus 401
Death of Socrates 399
Plato’s dialogues 399-347
