Ancient Greece and Rome

Greece: Cecrops founds the city of Athens

1556 BCE

Athens was originally called Cecropia in honor of Cecrops, but the name was changed to Athens to please the goddess Athena. The goddess was said to watch over the welfare of this her favorite city.

Greece: Sparta founded

1490 BCE

The city of Sparta was founded when Egyptians and Phoenicians established colonies in Greece.

Greece: Oedipus marries his mother and reins in Thebes

1300 BCE

An oracle predicted that someday Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother... and that's exactly what happened.

Greece: The Trojan war

1194 BCE

A man named Paris took a man named Menelaus's wife. Paris hid in Troy with Menelaus's wife and Menelaus went to war against Troy for ten years ending with Troy getting burned to the ground.

Rome: Aeneas escapeas Troy, founds a kingdom in Italy

1184 BCE

During the attack on the city of Troy Aeneas, a prince, escaped the city and went to Italy and founded a city there.

Greece: Laws of Lycurgus established in Sparta

923 BCE

Lycurgus establishes laws that make the Spartans stronger and happier. The laws were very strict.

Greece: Homer composes the Iliad and the Odyssey

800 BCE

Homer, a blind poet wrote two stories about the Trojan war and the people who fought in it.

Greece: Olympic Games begin record Keeping

776 BCE

The Olympic Games were established by the Greeks to honor the god Jupiter.

Rome: Romulus founds the city of Rome

753 BCE

Romulus returned to his homeland and removed the false king from power. After that he became king and founded the city of Rome.

Rome: Capture of the Sabine women by the Romans

730 BCE

The newly founded Rome needed more women but the women wouldn't come. The Romans threw a party that lots of women came to but then the Romans captured them.

Rome: The Horatii vanquish the Curiatii

670 BCE

The new ruler of Rome loved fighting and started a war. The two sides were evenly matched however so each side sent three men to battle each other. The families of the men were friends and did not want to fight though.

Greece: Draco's bloody laws enacted in Athens

602 BCE

When Draco became the new ruler of Athens he made very strict laws that made the peoples lives more difficult. For example, if you stole a cabbage you would get hanged.

Greece: Laws of Solon reform Athens

593 BCE

Solon changed the laws of Draco so that they were more just to the people. Accused people were allowed to speak in their own defense in front of a jury that met at night in the dark so that they would not be influenced by the appearance of the accused.

Greece: Pisistratus the Tyrant rules in Athens

560 BCE

Pisistratus got into the government and pretended to be very nice. Once he got enough power he took control of the government and became supreme ruler. Even though he took control of the government by force, he ended up being a very wise and good ruler.

Rome: Horatius defends the bridge over the Tiber

509 BCE

The former ruler of Rome, Tarquin, wanted to be king again. He found a powerful ally and marched against Rome. The only problem was that to get there they had to cross a bridge, so Horatius used this bridge to defend Rome.

Greece: Persian War

494 BCE

The king of Persia wanted the land of Greece so he kept finding excuses to go to war with them.

Greece: Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

The Persians attacked Greece with an army of 100,000 men while the Greeks had just 10,000. Although they were outnumbered the Greeks fought with such bravery that the Persians retreated and the Greeks won.

Greece: Battle of Thermopylae; Leonidas

480 BCE

The mighty Persian host was coming to the pass of Thermopylae and the Greeks were ready to fight. The Greeks managed to hold the Persians off for a while but suddenly soldiers came at them from behind. A Greek traitor had told the Persians about a secret goat path in the mountain that they could pass through. The Greeks were defeated.

Greece: The Golden Age of Athens under Pericles

469 BCE

After Cimon had been banished from Athens Pericles became the new ruler. Pericles was a very good general in battle and a wise ruler.

Rome: Cincinnatus serves as dictator for 17 days

460 BCE

The Romans were in another war and weren't doing so well. They called a retired soldier, Cinncinatus, who worked on his farm to serve as dictator. He immediately left his farm and, very quickly, won the war.

Greece: Herodotus writes his histories.

447 BCE

Herodotus traveled the ancient world and wrote about what he saw.

Greece: Pelopenesian War between Athens and Sparta

431 BCE

Athens and Sparta went to war AGAIN but the Spartans had the upper hand on the Athenians. The Spartans burned many fields and towns in Greece and the Athenians were mad. One day Pericles knew that a solar eclipse was going to happen and told his soldiers not to be afraid of it. The Spartans however thought it was a bad misfortune and didn't even try to fight.

Greece: Retreat of the 10,000

401 BCE

There were two princes who when their dad died fought over who would be the next king. Eventually they both gathered their own armies to fight and one of the armies was composed of 10,000 Greeks. The side the Greeks were on lost and they had no way of getting home. Instead of being captured they ran away and had to fight off many attacks from the enemy.

Greece: Execution of Socrates in Athens

399 BCE

Socrates was Alcibiades' teacher. Alcibiades was a famous man in Athens who (because of the flattery of his "friends") turned traitor. The people thought it was Socrates' fault for this so they had him executed.

Rome: The Gauls burn Rome

390 BCE

The Gauls were coming so the Romans had to evacuate their city. When the Gauls arrived they were at first impressed by their architecture but soon plundered and burned the city.

Rome: Rome rebuilt

389 BCE

After the Gauls left Rome the Romans immediately went to work rebuilding their city.

Greece: Philip II reigns in Macedonia

360 BCE

Philip was taken to Greece as a hostage when he was young and was raised there. When he found out that his brother the king had died leaving a baby to rule he escaped and became the ruler of Macedonia. Philip was a wise ruler who's army was very strong. He got some gold mines running in his kingdom and soon became very rich. His ultimate plan was to take over Greece.

Greece: Birth of Alexander the Great

356 BCE

When Alexander was born all the other baby boys born on that day were to be brought up with him in the palace and become his bodyguards.

Greece: Alexander begins to reign

336 BCE

When Philip died Alexander took his place as the new king at age 20. Some countries that were under the rule of Philip were glad because they thought that since Alexander was a "mere boy" they could break free from the rule of Macedonia. They were proved wrong, however, when Alexander marched against them.

Greece: Death of Alexander

323 BCE

After returning home Alexander got back into his life of overeating and drinking. At one feast he ate so much that he got very sick. The doctors could not cure the sickness, so he died.

Greece: Alexander's generals battle over his empire; Euclid, Archimedes.

Period: 323 BCE to 276 BCE

After Alexander's death there was no official established ruler. Because of this all his generals fought and killed each other over his empire.

Greece: Ptolemy enslaves Judea by subterfuge.

320 BCE

Ptolemy (one of Alexander's generals) wanted to take control of as much of his empire as he could. He decided to take Judea next, but after he had "conquered" them the Jews wouldn't obey him. They would only obey Ptolemy if he could defeat them in battle. Ptolemy only fought them on the sabbath though because the Jew's law said they couldn't work (or fight) on the sabbath.

Rome: The Appian Way constructed

312 BCE

The Romans loved building roads so they constructed the Appian Way.

Greece: Colossus of Rhodes built

290 BCE

Demetrius wanted to take the island of Rhodes. After besieging it for a whole year he gave up leaving all his war machinery behind. These were sold and the money was used to erect a ginormous statue in honor of the god Apollo whose legs stood on each side of the canal.

Greece: Septuagint translation of the Scriptures made in Alexandria

277 BCE

70 of the Jews were taken to Alexandria to copy the Bible. Because there were 70 of them copying it, it is called the Septuagint. The finished product was very well done.

Rome: First Punic War between Rome and Carthage; Rome gains part of Sicily and Corsica

264 BCE

The Romans decided to take the island of Sicily for their own but the Carthigians wanted it too. After 22 years of fighting the Romans gained a small part of the island.

Greece: Ptolemy attempts to desecrate the Jewish Temple

217 BCE

Ptolemy tried to enter the Most Holy Place in the temple which was an unthinkable act to the Jews. Because the Jews wouldn't let him in he treated them very severely.

Rome: Hannibal crosses the Alps and invades Italy

217 BCE

Hannibal was a man from Carthage that deeply hated Rome. He wanted to conquer Rome but he had to cross the Alps to get there. The journey was dangerous and lots of his men died but he did manage to get through.

Rome: Carthage makes alliance with Syracuse in Sicily; Rome besieges and takes Syracuse; Archimedes slain

215 BCE

Archimedes lived in Syracuse and was very smart. He invented all sorts of great inventions for the Syracusians that helped them win wars. When Rome took Syracuse they killed everyone in the city including Archimedes.

Greece: Sparta makes a treaty with Rome

211 BCE

Sparta, fearing Rome's rising power, made a treaty to preserve their people.

Greece: Maccabees retake Jerusalem and purify Temple

165 BCE

Since the Jews were always attacked on the sabbath they changed their law so that they could protect themselves even on the sabbath. Because they did this they took back Jerusalem.

Rome: Third Punic War between Rome and Carthage; Carthage defeated.

149 BCE

Rome and Carthage got in a war called the Punic war. These wars lasted for many years, but in the end Rome won.

Greece/Rome: Rome conquers Corinth and makes Greece a Roman province

146 BCE

Thus ends the history of ancient Greece, which, though so small, yet was one of the famous countries the world has ever known.