Timeline of ancient Greece

The history of ancient Greek civilization dates back to the Bronze Age, to small rural towns around 2600 B.C. C., and extended until the conquest of Greece by the Romans. The battle of Corinth in the year 146 a. C. is considered the milestone that closes this period in the history of mankind.

Let us see below a brief chronology of the four stages into which the history of ancient Greece is divided, a civilization that would permeate the development of Roman civilization and that would have a fundamental impact on Western culture.

Mycenae and the dark period

Towards the end of the Bronze Age, the Mycenaean civilization developed in Greece; between the 17th and 12th century BC. c.

It is the first Greek civilization, which unfolds in cities such as Pylos and Tirinto in the Peloponnese, Thebes and Athens in central Greece, and Troy in Anatolia; however, its main center was Mycenae. It also had influence in Cyprus, in Asia Minor, in the Middle East of the Mediterranean, and in the Italian peninsula.

The Mycenaeans developed a writing system and in their religion are the antecedents of the later Greek gods, this period being the setting for many ancient Greek myths and legends. They built cities and palaces, and had powerful armies as they traded across the Mediterranean. The Mycenaean civilization collapses without agreement on the causes; some hypotheses include invasions by the Dorians or other peoples, natural and climatic disasters.

The Mycenaean period was followed by the Dark Period, from the 12th to the 8th century BC. C., a name that comes from the absence of written records, since only archaeological remains of this time have been recovered. The writing system developed in the Mycenaean period was restricted to the elites, and it disappears when the Mycenaean culture dies out. The oral tradition collected in later years is the one that preserves for history various events from the Bronze Age.

The economy is impoverished and the migrations of Dorians and Ionians modify, along with Achaeans, Aeolians and Arcadians, the population distribution and its characteristics, without registering a strong political organization as in the Mycenaean period.

archaic greece

The beginning of the archaic period is established in the celebration of the first Olympic Games, in the year 776 a. C. The period closes in the year 499 a. C. with the Ionian uprising against the Persian empire, antecedent of the medical wars.

In this period the small agricultural communities are grouped and the city-states are developed: the polis . The Greek city-states are located in mainland Greece, on the islands and in Asia Minor, and they plan to colonize the Mediterranean and compete with the Phoenicians.

The polis were governed by kings at first but later they were governed by magistrates chosen by the citizens. In this period the Greek alphabet is developed, which arises by adapting the Phoenician alphabet to their language; the first historical records appear around the year 740 a. c.

Around this time , The Iliad and The Odyssey are written and disseminated . Both works narrated the myths that would make up the ancient Greek imagination.

The classical Greek period

The Classical Greek period begins with the Medic Wars, which lasted from 490 to 479 B.C. C., in which the Greek polis rejects the invasion of the Persian empire and defeats it in the battles of Marathon, Salamis and Plataea. It ends with the reign of Alexander the Great, which lasted from 336 to 323 BC. C., beginning the Hellenic period.

In the classical Greek period there is a great development of the polis , accentuating the rivalry between the main city states, Athens and Sparta. This conflict led to the Peloponnesian War, which culminated in 404 BC. c.; After 27 years of fighting, the hegemony of Sparta was consolidated.

As a reaction to Spartan hegemony, Thebes arose, which after defeating Sparta in 371 BC. C. becomes the dominant polis . Its supremacy is interrupted by the irruption of the Macedonians under the reign of Philip II, who, after a two-year campaign, defeat the polis led by Thebes and Athens in the year 338 BC. c.

It is in the classical period that Greek culture reaches its pinnacle, with magnificent expressions in architecture and sculpture, profuse production of ceramic pieces and also pictorial works, few of which have been preserved. The sophist philosophical school is also developed, which in the V century BC. C. had exponents such as Socrates, Parmenides and Democritus, and then in the fourth century BC. C. Plato and Aristotle would emerge.

The theater is accommodated as a literary genre; the tragedy with authors like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comedy of Aristophanes. In addition, oratory is developed and historiography is created, history as a scientific discipline, with Herodotus and Thucydides.  

Hellenic Greece

After the disputes that took place between the main polis , towards the end of the classical period the Macedonians imposed their hegemony. In the year 336 a. C, the son of King Philip II, Alexander III, assumes as king of Macedonia in the year and therefore as the main figure of Greece after the defeat of Thebes and Athens in the year 338 a. c.

Alexander III of Macedonia, whom history would know as Alexander the Great, built an empire in a few years that would stretch from Central Asia and the Indus river valley to Egypt, after quickly conquering the Persian empire.

Alexander dies young, in the year 323 a. C., and the empire is divided under the command of deacons who fight among themselves during the following years. Rome takes advantage of the weakening of the empire and the fight between the Greek polis ; she participated in the disputes supporting various sides. Eventually, Rome achieves the conquest of Greece, and the defeat of Corinth in the year 146 a. C. is considered the end of Hellenic Greece.

The Hellenic period meant the development of the sciences, separating from philosophy. Large research centers such as Alexandria, a city founded by Alexander the Great at the mouth of the Nile River, were created. The study of mathematics was developed, with Euclid’s contributions being a fundamental milestone. In this period, Greek culture spreads through vast regions of the ancient world, beyond the empire they conquered.

Sources

• Miralles, Carlos. Hellenism: Hellenistic and Roman epochs of Greek culture . Montesinos, Barcelona, ​​1989.
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. Ancient Greece: a Political, Social, and Cultural History . Oxford University, 1999.
• Struve, Vasili V. History of Ancient Greece I. Sarpe, Madrid, 1985.