A Brief History
This article presents a timeline of Ancient Greek history and mythology and provides links to more detailed articles about the below listed topics from this site! Please click on the dates to learn more.
Digging Deeper
On an unknown date, about the mid 2nd Millennium BC, the ancient world was rocked by one of the largest volcanic eruptions and explosions in Human history.
Allegedly, around 1250 BC, Heracles completed his “12 labors” by freeing Theseus from the “Chair of Forgetfulness” in the Underworld.
On April 24, 1184 B.C., at least according to traditionalists, the city of Troy fell to Greek invaders, thus bringing about the end of the epic Trojan War that began some ten years earlier in 1194 B.C.
In 669/8 BC, the Argives defeated Sparta in the First Battle of Hysiae.
On September 12, 490 BC, an epic battle was fought between the Greeks (primarily Athens) and the Persian Empire at the plains of Marathon, Greece, about 26 miles from Athens, with the result being a great victory for the outnumbered Greeks and giving rise to the legend of Pheidippides running the long distance to bring news of the victory to Athens, giving the happy word with his dying breaths
Between 415 and 413 BC a battle for Syracuse on the Island of Sicily was fought between the forces of Athens and the forces of Sparta.
On April 25, 404 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.), Lysander’s Spartan armies defeated the Athenians and the war finally ended.
At an unknown date in 331 BC, a Macedonian army of Alexander the Great, led by his regent, Antipater, defeated the forces of Sparta, led by King Agis III.
On August 9, 48 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar, known more familiarly to us as Julius Caesar or simply Caesar, won the Battle of Pharsalus in Central Greece against his arch enemy and former friend, Pompey, decisively winning the pivotal battle of the conflict known as “Caesar’s Civil War.”
On March 9, 2007, the American period action film titled 300 was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters in the United States of America.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is your favorite hero, heroine, god, or goddess from Greek mythology? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times, Second Edition. Yale University Press, 2013.
The featured image on this timeline depicts Phaedra with an attendant, probably her nurse, on a fresco from Pompeii from c. 60 – c. 20 BC. Finn Bjørklid, the copyright holder of this work, a slightly smaller color corrected version of File:Phaedra BM .jpg, published it under the following license: this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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