Hellenes: Greek History and Mythology

HELLENES AND GREEK HISTORY AT A GLANCE c3000 – 1400 Minoan Ages — Crete supreme. c1400 – 1100 Mycenaean Age — Mycenae and other Peloponnesian cities, inhabited by Achaeans, supreme. Sometimes called ‘Homeric Age’ because Homer, who lived much later, described it. c1100 – 800 Dark Ages — Dorian invasion. Greeks move into Ionia. Homer perhaps lived c 900. 800 – 600 Age of Colonisation — Colonies throughout Mediterranean and Black Sea. 776, First Olympic games. Delphic oracle gains influence. Spartan system established. 600 – 500 Sixth Century — Sometimes called the ‘Age of the Tyrants.’ Peisistratus at Athens. Solon and Cleisthenes found Athenian democracy. Philosophers and poets in Ionia and the islands. 500 – 400 FIFTH CENTURY DEFEAT OF PERSIANS (490, 480-479) ATHENIAN EMPIRE THE PERICLEAN AGE. FULL DEMOCRACY FOR ATHENIAN CITIZENS. WRITING OF HISTORY, TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. THE PARTHENON. SCULPTURE AND POTTERY. PELOPONNESIAN WAR (431-404). SOCRATES. 400 – 300 Fourth Century — Death of Socrates. Athens has lost her Empire, but her philosophers, orators and sculptors are famous. Greece submits to Philip of Macedon (338). Conquests of Alexander (332-323). c30 – 146 Hellenistic Age — Alexandria more important than Athens as centre of learning. Greece becomes part of Roman Empire(146). 146 B.C. – 328 A.D. — Greece part of Roman Empire. 328 – 1453 — Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire starting with founding of Constantinople. 1453 – 1821 — Greece under Turkish rule. War of Independence begins (1821). 1832 — Greece an independent kingdom. SOME PERSIAN KINGS Cyrus the Great (549 – 529) — First King of Persia. Conquered Croesus. Darius the Great (521 – 486) — “Remember the Athenians”. Xerxes I (486 – 465) — Second invasion of Greece. Artaxerxes II (45 – 362) — The “March-up Country”. Darius III (336 – 330) — Last King of Persia. Defeated by Alexander.