Timeline of ancient Greece

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This is a timeline of ancient Greece from its emergence around 800 BC to its subjection to the Roman Empire in 146 BC.

Contents

For earlier times, see Greek Dark Ages, Aegean civilizations and Mycenaean Greece. For later times see Roman Greece, Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Greece.

For modern Greece after 1820, see Timeline of modern Greek history.

Archaic Period (785–481 BC)

Classical Greece (480–323 BC)

Hellenistic Greece (323–30 BC)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delian League</span> Association of ancient Greek city-states under Athenian hegemony

The Delian League was a confederacy of Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian invasion of Greece. The League functioned as a dual –offensive and defensive– alliance (symmachia) of autonomous states, similar to its rival association, the Peloponnesian League. The League's modern name derives from its official meeting place, the island of Delos, where congresses were held within the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo; contemporary authors referred to the organization simply as "the Athenians and their Allies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peloponnesian War</span> War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BC)

The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time, until the decisive intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet, built with Persian subsidies, finally defeated Athens and started a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th century BC</span> Century

The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.

This article concerns the period 469 BC – 460 BC.

This article concerns the period 459 BC – 450 BC.

This article concerns the period 449 BC – 440 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">400s BC (decade)</span> Decade

This article concerns the period 409 BC – 400 BC.

This article concerns the period 349 BC – 340 BC.

This article concerns the period 399 BC – 390 BC.

Year 405 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Barbatus, Capitolinus, Cincinnatus, Medullinus, Iullus and Mamercinus. The denomination 405 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Syracuse (397 BC)</span> Unsuccessful siege by Carthage during Sicilian Wars

The siege of Syracuse in 397 BC was the first of four unsuccessful sieges Carthaginian forces would undertake against Syracuse from 397 to 278 BC. In retaliation for the siege of Motya by Dionysius of Syracuse, Himilco of the Magonid family of Carthage led a substantial force to Sicily. After retaking Motya and founding Lilybaeum, Himilco sacked Messana, then laid siege to Syracuse in the autumn of 397 BC after the Greek navy was crushed at Catana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentecontaetia</span> Greek history period from 479 to 431 BC

Pentecontaetia is the term used to refer to the period in Ancient Greek history between the defeat of the second Persian invasion of Greece at Plataea in 479 BC and the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC. The term originated with a scholiast commenting on Thucydides, who used it in their description of the period. The Pentecontaetia was marked by the rise of Athens as the dominant state in the Greek world and by the rise of Athenian democracy, a period also known as Golden Age of Athens. Since Thucydides focused his account on these developments, the term is generally used when discussing developments in and involving Athens.

The First Peloponnesian War was fought between Sparta as the leaders of the Peloponnesian League and Sparta's other allies, most notably Thebes, and the Delian League led by Athens with support from Argos. This war consisted of a series of conflicts and minor wars, such as the Second Sacred War. There were several causes for the war including the building of the Athenian long walls, Megara's defection and the envy and concern felt by Sparta at the growth of the Athenian Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sicilian Wars</span> Series of wars in Magna Graecia (580–265 BC)

The Sicilian Wars, or Greco-Punic Wars, were a series of conflicts fought between ancient Carthage and the Greek city-states led by Syracuse over control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean between 580 and 265 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Athenian League</span> 4th-century BC maritime confederation of Aegean city-states

The Second Athenian League was a maritime confederation of Greek city-states that existed from 378 to 355 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Athens. The alliance represented a partial revival of the Delian League, which had been disbanded in 404 BC following the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The new League was centered in the Aegean and included over 60 states, among which were Kos, Mytilene, Rhodes, and Byzantium. It was primarily formed as a defensive alliance against Sparta and secondly the Persian Empire. The new League's main objective was to preserve peace in Greece and counterbalance Sparta's growing hegemony and aggression. The League largely revived Athenian influence in the Greek world, reestablishing it as the strongest naval power in the eastern Mediterranean. This time, Athens made conscious efforts to avoid the strict terms that had eventually rendered the previous Delian League unpopular. The alliance lasted until 355 BC, when most of the allied cities became independent following the Social War that broke out in 357 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical Greece</span> Period of ancient Greece from 510 to 323 BC

Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Ancient Greece, marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II. Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought, theatre, literature, philosophy, and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history, which had a powerful influence on the later Roman Empire. Part of the broader era of classical antiquity, the classical Greek era ended after Philip II's unification of most of the Greek world against the common enemy of the Persian Empire, which was conquered within 13 years during the wars of Alexander the Great, Philip's son.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wars of the Delian League</span> 5th century BC military conflicts

The Wars of the Delian League were a series of campaigns fought between the Delian League of Athens and her allies, and the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. These conflicts represent a continuation of the Greco-Persian Wars, after the Ionian Revolt and the first and second Persian invasions of Greece.

The Battle of Abacaenum took place between the Carthaginian forces under Mago and the Siceliot army under Dionysius in 393 BC near the Sicilian town on Abacaenum in north-eastern Sicily. Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, had been expanding his influence over Sicels' territories in Sicily. After Dionysius' unsuccessful siege in 394 BC of Tauromenium, a Carthaginian ally, Mago decided to attack Messana. However, the Carthaginian army was defeated by the Greeks near the town of Abacaenum and had to retire to the Carthaginian territories in Western Sicily. Dionysius did not attack the Carthaginians but continued to expand his influence in eastern Sicily.

The siege of Tauromenium was laid down by Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, in the winter of 394 BC, in the course of the Sicilian Wars against Carthage. After defeating the Carthaginians at the Battle of Syracuse in 397 BC, Dionysius had been expanding his territory and political influence by conquering Sicel lands and planting Greek colonies in northeastern Sicily. Tauromenium was a Sicel city allied to Carthage and in a position to threaten both Syracuse and Messina. Dionysius laid siege to the city in the winter of 394 BC, but had to lift the siege after his night assault was defeated. Carthage responded to this attack on their allies by renewing the war, which was ended by a peace treaty in 392 BC that granted Dionysius overlordship of the Sicels, while Carthage retained all territory west of the Halykos and Himera rivers in Sicily.

The siege of Segesta took place either in the summer of 398 BC or the spring of 397 BC. Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, after securing peace with Carthage in 405 BC, had steadily increased his military power and tightened his grip on Syracuse. He had fortified Syracuse against sieges and had created a large army of mercenaries and a large fleet, in addition to employing catapults and quinqueremes for the first time in history. In 398 BC he attacked and sacked the Phoenician city of Motya despite a Carthaginian relief effort led by Himilco II of Carthage. While Motya was under siege, Dionysius besieged and assaulted Segesta unsuccessfully. Following the sack of Motya, Segesta again came under siege by Greek forces, but the Elymian forces based in Segesta managed to inflict damage on the Greek camp in a daring night assault. When Himilco of Carthage arrived in Sicily with the Carthaginian army in the spring of 397 BC, Dionysius withdrew to Syracuse. The failure of Dionysius to secure a base in western Sicily meant the main events of the Second Sicilian war would be acted out mostly in eastern Sicily, sparing the Elymian and Phoenician cities the ravages of war until 368 BC.

References

  1. Leon E. Seltzer, ed. (1952), Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 1157, OL   6112221M
  2. P. Christiaan Klieger (29 November 2012). The Microstates of Europe: Designer Nations in a Post-Modern World. Lexington Books. pp. 165–. ISBN   978-0-7391-7427-2.
  3. Kalinin, Igor. "Одесские достопримечательности — раскопки греческого поселения". odessaguide.net.
  4. M.J. Traister and T.V. Shelov-Kovedyayev, “An inscribed conical clay object from Hermonassa”
  5. "Wadi Caam: The Greeks in Tripolitania!". Temehu. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  6. Spann, P., R. Warner, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies. "Places: 265880 (Dianium/Hemeroskopeion)". Pleiades. Retrieved July 31, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Strabo, Geography, translated by H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed. (1903) Strab. 3.4.6
  8. Greek text: Strabo. ed. A. Meineke, Geographica. Leipzig: Teubner. (1877) Strab. 3.4.6
  9. Smith, William (1852). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (Abacaenum – Hytanis). Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown. pp.  773.
  10. Hind, John. "The Bosporan Kingdom". In Lewis, D.M.; Boardman, J.; Hornblower, S.; Ostwald, M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. VI – The 4th Century BC. Cambridge: CUP. pp. 476–511.
  11. Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN   0-631-19807-5, page 114,"... in the early history of the colony settled in 385 BC on the island Pharos (Hvar) from the Aegean island Paros, famed for its marble. In traditional fashion they accepted the guidance of an oracle, ..."
  12. Freely, John, The western shores of Turkey: discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, p.  91
  13. It is mentioned in the accounts of the famous Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BC and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as city state relating to the Ferghana Valley, and its Greek city Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand, Tajikistan)
  14. Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society By Curtis E. Larsen p. 50
  15. Jona Lendering, Charax at Livius.org
  16. The Greek historian Strabo too writes that: "they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (Chinese) and the Phryni". (Strabo, XI.XI.I)
  17. "The advance of the Greek to Pataliputra is recorded from the Indian side in the Yuga-purana", Tarn, p.145
  18. "The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the Prasians ... Megasthenes informs us that this city stretched in the inhabited quarters to an extreme length on each side of eighty stadia, and that its breadth was fifteen stadia, and that a ditch encompassed it all round, which was six hundred feet in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with 570 towers and had four-and-sixty gates." Arr. Ind. 10. "Of Pataliputra and the Manners of the Indians.", quoting Megasthenes Text Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  19. "The text of the Yuga Purana, as we have shown, gives an explicit clue to the period and nature of the invasion of Pataliputra in which the Indo-Greeks took part, for it says that the Pancalas and the Mathuras were the other powers who attacked Saketa and destroyed Pataliputra", Narain, The Indo-Greeks, p. 112.