5000 Years of History. Wisdom. Heritage. Vision.
Important events in the early civilization of Ancient Greece 400,000 B. C. to 323 B. C. 3000 B. C. Soldiers from Asia Minor land on Greece and settle there. 2200-1400 B. C. Crete at the height of power at Knossos and Phaestus built. 1500 B. C. Achaean kings build stronghold at Mycenae. 1400 B. C Destruction of palaces at Knossos and Phaestus, probably by Greek raiders from the Peloponnesus. Decline of Cretan civilization. 1400-1200 B C. Age of Mycenae. 1185 B. C. Troy destroyed by Achaeans. 1100 B. C. Dorian invasion of Achaean cities. Mycenae destroyed. 1000 B. C. Dark ages of Greece. Durians invade Peloponnesus, Crete and Rhodes; Aeolians invade Thessaly and Boeotia; Ionians from Attica cross to Western shore of Asia Minor. 800 B. C.-700 B. C. Formation of the city states and rise of aristocrats. 800-600 B. C. Colonization begins as Greece becomes overpopulated. 776 B. C. First Olympic games said to be held. 750 B.C. Homer writes The Illiad and The Odyssey. 621 B. C. Draco writes a code of harsh laws for Athens. 594 B. C. Solon is chosen to lead Athenians and replaces Draco’s laws with a code of his own. 561 B. C. Pisistratus becomes tyrant of Athens. 544 B. C. After being exiled, Pisistratus returns and is tyrant again. 528 B. C. Death of Pisistratus. 507 B. C. Sparta invades Attica and brings about the fall of the tyrant sons of Pisistratus. Cleisthenes leads Athens towards democracy. 499 B. C. Athens and Eretria send help to Ionians resisting Darius of Persia. 492 B. C. First attack by Darius against Athens and Eretria. 490 B. C. Eretria is burned in Darius’ second attack. The Athenians win the Battle of Marathon. 485 B. C. Darius dies and is succeeded by Xerxes. 480 B. C. Themistocles becomes leader of Athens, Xerxes defeats Greek army under Leonidas at Thermopylae. Athenians flee to Salamis. The Persian fleet is defeated at the battle of Salamis. 479 B. C. Persians retreat after losing Battle of Plataea to Spartans. 461 B. C. Pericles becomes leader of Athens and the Golden Age of Athens begins. 431 B. C. Beginning of Peloponnesian Wars. Thebans attack Plataea, Athens’ ally. Attica invaded. 430 B. C. Plague in Athens. Athenians depose Pericles and then reappoint him. Attica invaded again. 429 B. C. Pericles dies. Siege of Plataea. 428 B. C. Cleon, leader of pro-war group, opposes Nicias. 425 B. C. Thucydides begins to write history of the war. 422 B. C. Cleon killed in Thrace. 421 B. C. Peace of Nicias signed by Athens and Sparta. 415 B. C. Alcibiades, Lamachus and Nicias command expedition to Sicily. Alcibiades recalled, flees to Sparta. 413 B. C. Athenian forces in Sicily wiped out. 411 B. C. Sparta and Persia sign treaty. 405 B. C. 10,000 Greeks join Cyrus of Persia’s army. After death of Cyrus, the Athenian Xenophon leads the Greeks home. 399 B. C. Death of Socrates. 347 B. C. Death of Plato. 343 B. C. Aristotle tutors the young Alexander, son of King Philip of Macedonia. 338 B. C. Philip invades Greece and wins Battle of Chaeronea. 336 B. C. Philip is assassinated and is succeeded by Alexander, who is elected general of the Greeks. 333 B. C. At battle of Issus, Alexander defeats Darius of Persia. 331 B. C. Alexander conquers Egypt and defeats Persian army at Gaugamela. 330 B. C. Darius dies. Alexander subdues Iran. 323 B. C. After Alexander’s death, his empire is divided into three parts. Antigonus claims Greece.
About 3000 B. C., when the Pharaohs ruled Egypt and Babylon was the home of mighty kings, bands of sailors set out from Asia Minor. They followed a little chain of islands that led northward across the unexplored sea that,…
Far to the south of the Greek Peninsula lay the large island of Crete. It was the home of a nation of sea-warriors – cruel, dark, handsome men, who claimed the eastern Mediterranean and all the Aegean Sea as their…
Across the plains of Peloponnesus, flashed the swift chariots of knights and warrior-princes. They wore armour of gleaming bronze and bright proud plumes bobbed above their helmets. They were the new men of a new country and they called themselves…
From island to island and town to town, across the wide new world of the Greeks, the minstrel wandered, with a harp slung across his back and a batch of stories in his hand. When he knocked at the gate…
During the Dark Ages, the large kingdoms of Homer’s Achaean heroes had disappeared. The Greek world was now dotted with dozens of little countries. They had begun with fortresses set on hills and crags. Soon each fortress was surrounded by…
Of all the city-states in Greece, Athens was the most fortunate. The city’s guardian was Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. Indeed, the Athenians did well in war and were blessed with wisdom. In the dark days, when barbaric…
In Sparta, the shops in the market place had little gold or jewelry to sell and no fine furniture at all. The people in the streets were not well dressed. Even the temples, although big, were plain and there was…
Across the Aegean, from the oriental court of King Darius of Persia, came messengers to all the city-states of mainland Greece. Their words were smooth, their smiles like sneers and they demanded gifts for their master – earth and water,…
When Themistocles and the people of Athens came home from Salamis, they found only the ashes of a city. Their houses and shops were gone. The Acropolis was littered with chunks of broken limestone and smoke-blackened statues, the ruins of…