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Timeline of Events in Ancient Greece w/ focus on Athens
Event
Homer & Hesiod, Greek Poets
Solon, a powerful Greek aristocrat and lyric poet, appointed sole
archon during a time of great economic crisis in Athens: cancels
the outstanding debts of the poor to the rich and institutes some
democratic reforms
Thales of Miletus predicts eclipse of the sun (“beginning” of Greek
philosophy; so-called pre-Socratics)
Solon dies
Cleisthenes reforms Athenian laws and establishes a democratic
constitution, focusing on the elimination of tribal loyalties
Persian Wars, which Greece wins, largely due to Athenian naval
power (thus enabling Athens to displace Sparta as the reigning
Greek power)
Delian League of city states formed to empower the region—lead
by Athens
First war between Athens and Sparta
Pericles leads Athens, called the “Golden Era,” and represents
height of Athenian Empire
Protagoras arrives in Athens
Acropolis, Parthenon, and other major projects begun in Athens
“Thirty-Year Peace Treaty” reached between Athens and Sparta
Peloponnesian War (extended war between Athens and Sparta;
Sparta wins)
Pericles’s Funeral Oration
Pericles dies from a plague
Cleon, who had been the political nemesis of Pericles, proposes
mass murder of all males of Mytilene (Mytilene, a Athenian colony,
had initiated a revolt against Athens amidst the Peloponnesian
War)
Gorgias arrives in Athens
Athens surrenders to Sparta/ “Thirty Tyrants” rule in Athens
Democracy restored to Athens
Socrates condemned to death
Plato founds his Academy (beginning of so-called “Schools” in
philosophy: Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics)
Death of Isocrates
Aristotle founds the Lyceum (his school)
Date (BC/
‘BCE’)
ca 700s
BCE
594
585
559
508
497-79
477
461-445
460-429
450
449
446
431-404
431
429
427
404
403
399
around 385
338
335