Constitutional reforms of Solon at Athens.
Mid-sixth century, Athens ruled by a tyranny.
Heraclitus born at Ephesus.
First competition for the best tragedies held at Athens.
Hipparchus murdered by Harmodius and Aristogiton.
Hippias expelled from Athens.
Political reforms at Athens, leading to the foundation of democracy.
Ionia revolts unsuccessfully against Persian rule.
Persians invade Greece and are defeated at Marathon.
First competition for the best comedies held at Athens.
Aeschylus (b. 525) wins his first victory in the tragedy competitions.
Persians invade Greece for the second time, but after victory at Thermopylae suffer defeat at Salamis and Plataea. This date is taken as marking the beginning of the classical period of ancient Greece.
Socrates born.
Euripides (b.c.485) first competes in the tragedy competitions.
Pericles, the Athenian democratic politician, most influential.
Alcibiades born.
Aristophanes born.
Agathon born.
Start of the Peloponnesian war between Sparta and Athens.
Plague at Athens.
Pericles dies of plague.
Plato born.
Athens defeated at battle of Delium.
Spartan general Brasidas killed.
Agathon wins his first tragedy competition. The ‘dramatic’ date of the Symposium.
Athens decides to send an expedition to win control of Sicily, with Alcibiades as one of the generals. The profanation of the mysteries and the mutilation of the herms.
Sicilian expedition. Alcibiades is soon recalled to Athens but escapes into exile.
Democracy at Athens temporarily overthrown by oligarchic (aristocratic) revolutionaries known as ‘the Four Hundred’, but restored within a year.
Alcibiades assassinated. Athens surrenders to Sparta and is governed temporarily by the so-called Thirty Tyrants, oligarchs supported by Sparta.
Returning Athenian exiles help defeat the Thirty in battle. Democracy restored at Athens.
Trial and execution of Socrates.
Traditional date for the founding of the Academy at Athens, with Plato as head.
The (Persian) King’s Peace.
Aristotle is born.
The earliest plausible date for the writing of the Symposium.
Plato dies.
Defeat of Athens at the battle of Chaeronea and the loss of her independence to Philip of Macedon.
Death of Alexander the Great of Macedon, taken as marking the end of the classical period of ancient Greece.