Infographic timeline for Ancient Greece

Agamemnon

1524 BCE

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was a king of Mycenae, the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis.

First Olympic Games

776 BCE

The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympics were at least 500 years old at that time. The ancient Olympics, held every four years, occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus.

Darius I

550 BCE

Darius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. DescriptionDarius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE.

Xerxes

519 BCE

Xerxes I, commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius the Great and his mother was Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great, the first Achaemenid king.

Pericles

495 BCE

Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during its golden age, specifically the time between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically-influential Alcmaeonid family.

First Persian War

492 BCE

The first Persian invasion of Greece, during the Persian Wars, began in 492 BC, and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece.

Second Persian War

482 BCE

The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece at the Battle of Marathon, which ended Darius I's attempts to subjugate Greece.

Battle of Thermopylae

480 BCE

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece.

Socrates

470 BCE

DescriptionSocrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought.

Peloponnesian War

431 BCE

The Peloponnesian War was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta—the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece at the time (431 to 405 B.C.E.). This war shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making Sparta the most powerful city-state in the region.

Plato

428 BCE

DescriptionPlato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.

Catapult

400 BCE

Stone-Hurling Catapult, Greece, 400 BCE
The catapult was an ancient siege machine that could hurl heavy objects or shoot arrows with great force and for considerable distances. ... The Greek Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, who was looking to develop a new type of weapon, invented the catapult about 400 BCE.

The academy at Athens

387 BCE

The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC.

Aristotle

385 BCE

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition.

Philip ||

382 BCE

Philip II of Macedon was the king of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.

Alexander the Great

356 BCE

Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20.

Battle of Chaeronea

338 BCE

The Battle of Chaeronea was fought in 338 BC, near the city of Chaeronea in Boeotia, between the Macedonians led by Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes.

League of Corinth

338 BCE

The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League, was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II during the winter of 338 BC/337 BC after the Battle of Chaeronea and succeeded by Alexander the Great at 336 BC, to facilitate the use of military forces in the war of Greece against Persia.

Homer

12 BCE

The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. He is famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey

Rise of the Tyrants

7 BCE

In ancient Greece, a tyrant was simply a person who ruled a city-state by themselves, but who lacked the traditional or constitutional authority of a king or elected leader. This system of government emerged between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE. Some of the most notable tyrants of Greek history included Cypselus of Corinth, Pheidon of Argos, Polycrates of Samos, Cleisthenes of Sicyon, Peisistratos of Athens, and Athens' Thirty Tyrants.

Democracy

5 BCE

Athenian democracy developed around the sixth century BC in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Athenian democracy is often described as the first known democracy in the world.

Parthenon completed

432

It was created by Pericles and completed in 432 BC.

Draco’s Code of Law

620

The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code created by Draco near the end of the 7th century BC in response to the unjust interpretation and modification of oral law by Athenian aristocrats. ... This enactment of a rule of law was an early manifestation of Athenian democracy.