A Summary of Key Events in Ancient Greece

Meet Ancient Greece

Map of Ancient Greece (1809), containing all of Magna Graeca, essential for understanding classical history.

Life Around the Aegean Sea Before "Greece"

The Bronze Ageand earlier is definitely a vague time. We don’t know much about the first inhabitants of the area we refer to Greece, the Greek islands, and Crete.
 
Even the early Greeksdidn’t know much about this period. The Classical Period of Greece— the heyday of Athensthat most people think of when they think of Greece— took what stories and evidence they had of this period and used it as the backdrop for Greek mythology.
 
MythBronze Agewas full of convoluted problems and gods defining their roles against humanbeings.
 
Historical Bronze Agewas, as far as we know, less colorful but still very cool.
 
Several important periods within this period include…
  • The Rise and Fall of Minoan Civilization(circa 2600–1100 BCE):
  • Flourished on the island of Crete
  • Named after King Minos, the mythological founder
  • Known for advanced architecture, such as the palace at Knossosand Phaistos
  • Extensive tradenetworks in the Aegean Sea
  • We still can’t read Linear Aor the Phaistos Disc
  • Their demise may tied to “Atlantis” — the destruction of the island of Thera due to volcanic activity, although they remained active if weak
  • The Rise and Fall of Mycenaean Civilization(circa 1600–1100 BCE):
  • Emerged on the Greek mainland
  • Known for the use of Linear Bscript, found in administrative records that were preserved in the fires that destroyed the palaces
  • The Linear Bscript was used to write the Greek language
  • Fortified citadels like Mycenae, for which the era is named
  • Cities with a “th” in the name like Corinthwere founded before this period by non-Greek peoples
  • Trojan War(traditionally dated to circa 1194–1184 BCE):
  • Legendary conflict involving the city of Troyand the Greeks, as described in Homer‘s epics, the Iliadand the Odyssey
  • The remains of Troyhave been found in Anatolia, and Troylevel VI is perhaps the period closest to the historic version of the mythological Trojan War
  • TroyVI probably fell around the same time as the other Mycenaean city states
 
Much more about the late Bronze Age collapse, we do not know. Invaders used to be called Dorians— for the Doric peoples who lived in the Peloponnese(versus the Ionic dialect of Greek)
 
The Linear Brecords tell us something about threats and “Sea Peoples” to the Eastern Mediterranean, and some combination of factors did lead to the collapse of their civilizations around 1177 BC.

Key Events in the Rise of Classical Greece

The beaurocracy collapsed, but life carried on. The people living in Greeceforgot how to write (goodbye, Linear B), but continued making due with what was around.
 
Hence we call it the the Greek Dark Ages, the loss of what was before without major developments… but it didn’t last forever!
  • Greek Dark Ages(circa 1100–800 BCE):
  • Followed the collapse of Mycenaean civilization
  • Characterized by a decline in population, written language, and cultural achievements
  • Archaic Greece(circa 800–480 BCE):
  • Emergence of city-states (polis), including Athensand Sparta, and lawcodes, like Dracoand Solon‘s rules for Athens
  • Development of a new Greek alphabettaken from the Phoenician alphabet
  • Creation of the ancient Olympic gamesto showcase this civic pride
  • Greek colonisationspread throughout Magna Graecia(“Great Greece,” the region of Greek influence and civilizationbeyond mainlandGreece)
  • The establishment of early democracyin some city-states, like Cleisthenes‘ work in Athens–but being a tyrantwas good, too
  • Also many pre-Socratic philosophers like Gorgiasand Pythagorascontributed to mathematics, science, and philosophy
  • Persian Wars (499–449 BCE):
  • Conflicts between the Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Empire— what, why?
  • Greecehad begun to send out colonies around the Mediterranean (throughout the area known as Magna Graecia, mentioned above) including around Ionia, the western part of Anatolia
  • King Cyrus and the Persians(note: Cyrus himself was a Mede, so don’t be confused into thinking the Persiansare any more homogenous than the Greeks) conquered Ioniaand put a tyrantin charge of each one
  • And so began the long history of Greekssiding with Greeksagainst the Persians, Greekssiding with the Persiansagainst Greeks, and people going back and forth
  • The first part of this was the Ionian Revolt(Persians ‘won,’ but suffered some losses)
  • Current King of Kings Darius the Greatdecided to get revenge and keep Ioniasafe by going after mainlandGreecewith his army— the first Persian invasionof Greecewent okay but they left early, and a second invasionalso went okay until they lost the key final Battle of Marathon
  • Now King of Kings Xerxes Iwanted revenge, so he launched the second Persian invasion of Greece— very famous for battles like the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis, and the Battle of Plataea. Again, it all went very bad for Persia overall, which is very weird.
  • The Greeksgot lots of revenge in Ionia, and ultimately the Delian Leaguewas founded to protect Greek interests from Persia.
  • Reknowned historianis Herodotus
  • Golden Age of Athens(circa 480–404 BCE):
  • Height of Athenian democracy, cultural and political achievements
  • Background on earlier Athens: Since Athenswas de facto in charge of the Delian League, as it was the naval powerhouse, the Delian Leaguemorphed somewhat into the AthenianEmpire… like how it moved the meeting place from Delosto the Acropolis of Athensand took some coinfrom the treasury
  • Still, what remains of the Golden Age of Athensis what most people associate with as the entire History of Greece: Pericles‘ leadership, construction of the Parthenon, and contributions to philosophy(Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) and theatre(Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides).
  • The famous templethe Parthenonwas built now
  • Also time for the terrible plague of Athens, occuring during the Peloponnesian War
  • Peloponnesian War(431–404 BCE):
  • Conflict between Athensand Sparta, leading to the decline of the Greek city-states (especially Athens)
  • Reknowned historianis Thucydides, although his incomplete history is completed by Xenophon
  • Athenshad the navy, Spartahad a very strong armyto keep their helots(slaves) in check
  • The Peloponnesian Leaguebegan some assaults on the Athenianpeninsula(the Archidamian War / Ten Years War), and the Delian Leagueresponded with naval battles. Pew pew. So the “first Peloponnesian War“.
  • They signed the Peace of Niciaswhich is a bit of a misnomer because Athensand Spartakept picking fights with allies
  • The worst — and end of the Peace of Nicias— was Athens‘ little trip to Sicily(the Sicilian Expedition). They burned the boats so they couldn’t leave Syracuse and pretty much everything went downhill after that. Let’s blame Alcibiades.
  • Things picked up again then during the phase known as the Decelean War (Ionian War), where Persia decided to team up with Spartaagainst Athens. They were still mad about the Persian Wars.
  • Sparta‘s navy finally got it together and won a lot, including the Battle of Aegospotami. Athenssoon surrended.
  • The Thirty Tyrantswere put in charge of Athensand all the other members of the Delian Leaguegot their own oligarchies.
 

Lesser Key Events in Ancient Greece

There was a bit of an interlude with things like the Corinthian Warwhere Athensregained its independence. The other Greek city-states also didn’t much care for Spartan hegemonyand they showed that at the Battle of Leuctrain Thebes (Thebes did something!).
 
But eventually, the Greekshad bigger fish to fry: Philip II of Macedonand his Macedonian forces.
 
He conquered most of Greece, and what he didn’t manage, his more famous son, Alexander the Great, took care of. Together, Greeceand Macedoniaformed the League of Corinth.
 
Alexander the Great, who fancied himself a second Achilles as recounted in Homer‘s Iliad, took over a lot of other places to, founding many cities called Alexandriawhile heading into Egyptand the East — Troy, Persia, India. He defeated Darius III and created a huge Macedonian Empire.
 
But his tutor Aristotledidn’t teach him any moderation and he died young in Babylonafter the return from India.
 
His generals broke up the empire(Ptolemaic Kingdom, Seleucid Empire, etc.) and so began the wild and crazy Hellenistic Period, generally the next “major” era discussed.
  • Hellenistic Period(323–31 BCE):
  • Following the conquests of Alexander the Great
  • It refers to the spread of Greek culturethroughout the Mediterranean and the Near East— with Alexander’s generals in charge across the Eastern Mediterranean, Greek became the dominant languageand culture.
  • With the sudden ‘bigness’ of the world, it also became an area of reinvestigating questions about life and gave birth to new philosophical schools like Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Pyrrhonism — which mostly promote a self-focused and skeptical worldview, rejecting the city-first mindset of the Classical Greeceera. Hellenistic poetryis also unique for its flowery and erudite style. There are plenty of other academic acheivements, too, including Euclid‘s contributions to mathematics.
 
The exact end of the Hellenistic Periodis (as with any period) debated, but around Augustus‘ victory at the Battle of Actiumand the death of CleopatraVII (the last pharoah of the Ptolemaic Kingdom) and Mark Antony— and the dominance of the Roman Empireand Italyin the East — seems to be a good bookend. The region was broken into more than one Roman province.
 
On the other hand, as Horace wrote, conquered Greececonquered its conquerors (i.e. Ancient Rome). Although under the political guidance of Rome, Greek culturecontinued to have a huge influence upon the entire Mediterranean Seathroughout Classical Antiquity.
 
The boundaries of the Hellenistic Empirealso became the foundations for the eastern Roman Empireor the Byzantine Empire, thanks for Constantine the Great, and eventually the heart of Orthodox Christianity.
 
From that point, we get past Ancient Greekhistory. We move into late antiquityand the Middle Ages. We face a lot of Crusades. There’s more fighting with Turkey(the Ottoman Empire, this time). They fought the Greek War of Independenceand created the Kingdom of Greece— and then were schisms, world wars, and the Greek Civil War.
 
Even today, the economyof Greececan remain rocky (thanks, debt, thanks, European Union), on the Eastern edge of Europewith both internal and external political pressures.
 
But that’s for other historians to discuss. This is ancient historytime.
 
Coming Soon, dedicated pages on:
 
Literature
 
History
 
Philosophy
 
Leisure
 
Archaeology
 
Religion
 
Mythology
 
and more as we review resources to help you teach yourself Classics!