Keep this helpful timeline in hand to remind yourself of the significant periods of time and essential events that took place throughout this important part of world history.
2600 BC: Beginning of the Minoan Period
1450 BC: Development of Linear B writing
1400 BC: Foundation of Mycenaean Palaces
Bronze Age
1370 BC: Palace complex at Knossos destroyed. Minoan civilisation comes to an end.
c.1250 BC: The Trojan War
1200 BC: Destruction of Mycenaean Palaces. Doric invasions
1000 BC: End of Mycenaean civilisation
Iron Age
776 BC: First Olympic Games
c.750 BC: The Iliad and the Odyssey composed. Greek alphabet established. Greek colonies established in Sicily and Southern Italy
630 BC: Colony of Cyrene established
594 BC: Solon renews the laws of Athens.
508 BC: Kleisthenes reforms the Athenian constitution and Athens becomes a democracy!
490 BC: Battle of Marathon: Greece versus Persia I (Greece wins!)
483 BC: Athenians discover silver in the mines at Laureion.
480 BC: Battle of Thermopylae: Greece versus Persia II. Battle of Salamis
479 BC: Battle of Plataea (Greece wins . . . eventually!)
477 BC: Athens establishes the Delian League.
461–445 BC: First Peloponnesian War: Athens versus Sparta (draw)
431–404 BC: Second Peloponnesian War: Athens versus Sparta (Sparta wins.)
430 BC: Plague in Athens
429 BC: Death of Pericles
415 BC: Athenian expedition to Sicily defeated
399 BC: Socrates tried and executed
359 BC: Philip II becomes king of Macedonia.
356 BC: Alexander the Great born
331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats the Persians at Gaugamela and becomes the new King of Persia!
323 BC: Death of Alexander the Great
322 BC: Death of Aristotle
300 BC: Ptolemy the Great founds the library at Alexandria.
214 BC: Philip V of Macedon defeated by the Romans
172 BC: Macedonia becomes a Roman province.
146 BC: Romans invade Greece and take control. Ancient Greece comes to an end.
