Ancient Greece timeline
This chart puts 9 ancient Greek states and periods on one timeline in order, from Minoan civilization (c. 3100 to 1450 BCE) to Achaean League (280 to 146 BCE). On these dates, Sparta lasted longest, about 708 years.
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- Minoan civilizationc. 3100 to 1450 BCE
- Mycenaean Greecec. 1600 to 1050 BCE
- Greek Dark Agesc. 1180 to 800 BCE
- Spartac. 900 to 192 BCE
- Greek city-statesc. 800 to 338 BCE
- Kingdom of Macedonc. 700 to 168 BCE
- Athens508 to 322 BCE
- Empire of Alexander the Great336 to 323 BCE
- Achaean League280 to 146 BCE
- Greek
- People or culture without a state
In order
Minoan civilization
A Bronze Age civilization on Crete, often regarded as Europe's first, known for frescoes and palace complexes at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia. Its Linear A script is undeciphered and its language unknown. Mycenaean Greeks dominated Crete after about 1450 BCE.
Mycenaean Greece
Greek-speaking palace kingdoms that wrote in Linear B, built the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns and traded across the Mediterranean. The palaces were destroyed in the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE.
Greek Dark Ages
After the palaces fell, Linear B writing went out of use and settlements became fewer and smaller. Iron came into general use, and Greeks may have begun settling the Ionian coast of Anatolia around 1000 BCE.
Sparta
A state of full-time citizen soldiers ruling helot serfs, leader of the Peloponnesian League. It beat Athens in 404 BCE, lost to Thebes at Leuctra in 371 and was forced into the Achaean League in 192.
Greek city-states
About 1,500 known city-states, which founded colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Sea and defeated the Persian invasions at Marathon and Salamis. Philip II of Macedon beat Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea in 338 BCE.
Kingdom of Macedon
The Argead kingdom north of Thessaly. Philip II built a professional army and mastered Greece. After Alexander the Antigonids ruled until Rome won at Pydna in 168 BCE.
Athens
Cleisthenes made Athens a democracy in 508 BCE. It led the Delian League, built the Parthenon and was home to Socrates and Plato. It lost the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE and its democracy to Macedon in 322.
Empire of Alexander the Great
Alexander III conquered the Persian Empire, from Egypt to the Indus, in ten years of campaigns. After his death in Babylon in 323 BCE civil wars among his generals, the Diadochi, broke it apart.
Achaean League
A federation of Greek cities in the northern Peloponnese, revived in 280 BCE, that grew into a major power and forced Sparta to join. Its war with Rome ended in 146 BCE, when Lucius Mummius razed Corinth.
Major events
- Thera eruption. The volcano on Santorini buries the Minoan town of Akrotiri under metres of ash in one of the largest volcanic events in human history.
- Late Bronze Age collapse. Palace centres such as Mycenae are destroyed and Linear B writing falls out of use as trade across the eastern Mediterranean breaks down. Scholars debate how widespread the destruction was.
- First Olympic Games. By tradition the first Olympic festival is held at Olympia in honour of Zeus. Greeks later counted years in four-year Olympiads from this date.
- Athenian democracy. Cleisthenes reorganises the citizens of Athens into ten new tribes based on where they live, breaking the power of the nobility. His reforms underpin Athenian democracy, the best known of several Greek democracies.
- Battle of Marathon. Athenians aided by Plataea defeat a larger Persian force sent by Darius I, a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus records 6,400 Persian bodies counted on the field and 192 Athenian dead.
- Battle of Salamis. The Greek fleet, led by the Athenian Themistocles, defeats Xerxes' navy in the straits off Salamis, a turning point in the Persian invasion of Greece.
- Peloponnesian War begins. Spartan king Archidamus II invades Attica, opening the war between Athens's Delian League and Sparta's Peloponnesian League. Persian support for Sparta from 413 BCE helps bring Athens to defeat in 404.
- Death of Socrates. An Athenian jury convicts the philosopher of impiety and corrupting the youth and sentences him to die by drinking hemlock. His students Plato and Xenophon wrote accounts of the trial.
- Alexander invades Persia. Alexander crosses the Hellespont with about 48,100 soldiers and 6,100 cavalry and begins the conquest of the Persian Empire.
Questions
What is the order of ancient Greek states and periods?
By start date: Minoan civilization, Mycenaean Greece, Greek Dark Ages, Sparta, Greek city-states, Kingdom of Macedon, Athens, Empire of Alexander the Great and Achaean League.
Which of the ancient Greek states and periods lasted longest?
On this timeline, Sparta, at about 708 years (c. 900 to 192 BCE).
How many ancient Greek states and periods were there?
This timeline shows 9. Other lists count differently, depending on how they treat rival states and periods of division.
Which came first?
Minoan civilization, c. 3100 to 1450 BCE, is the earliest on this timeline.
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.