Timeline

All dates are BCE unless otherwise stated; many are approximate, especially those pre-500.

700	Homer; settlement of New Troy (Ilium)
570	Birth of Cleisthenes of Athens
550	Cyrus II the Great founds Achaemenid Persian Empire
546	Cyrus conquers Croesus King of Lydia
540	Cyrus through Mazares and Harpagus incorporates Greeks of Asia into Empire
530(–522)	Reign of Cambyses
529	Death of Cyrus
525	Persian conquest of Egypt; death of Polycrates of Samos
522	Interregnum, usurpation(?) in Persia
522(–486)	Reign of Darius I of Persia
513	Scythian expedition of Darius
508	Democracy instituted at Athens
?505	Death of Cleisthenes
499(–494)	Ionian Revolt
?493	Birth of Pericles
490	Battle of Marathon; accession of Leonidas
486(–465)	Death of Darius I; accession of Xerxes of Persia, son of Darius I and Atossa (daughter of Cyrus the Great)
?484	Birth of Herodotus
481	‘Hellenic League’ alliance formed; oaths sworn at Isthmus of Corinth
480	Invasion of Xerxes
	May – Persian troops cross Hellespont
	June – Persians advance from Hellespont towards central Greece
	August, third week – Greeks take up positions at Thermopylae and Artemisium
	18 August – Full moon: Olympic Games celebrated; Spartans celebrate Carneia
	end August – Battles of Thermopylae (death of Leonidas) and Artemisium
	early September – Persians occupy central Greece (Phocis, Boeotia); Spartans and other Peloponnesians build Isthmus wall
	end September – Persians sack Athenian Acropolis; Battle of Salamis (c. 25 Sept.); Xerxes withdraws to Asia
479	Battles of Plataea and Mycale
478/7	winter – Delian League formed by Athens (minus Sparta and her allies)
477	Debate in Sparta whether to continue active anti-Persian aggression: Sparta decides to withdraw officially from anti-Persian activity but Pausanias does not return from Black Sea approaches
472	Performance at Athens of Aeschylus’s Persians
?470	Regent Pausanias, victor of Plataea, recalled from Byzantium, dies at Sparta through enforced suicide
469	Birth of Socrates
465	Murder of Xerxes, succession of Artaxerxes I
?464	Earthquake at Sparta prompts massive Helot (esp. Messenian) Revolt
462/1	Sparta appeals to Athens for aid versus Helot Revolt under terms of Hellenic League alliance (481); pro-Spartan Cimon, father of Lacedaemonius (the ‘Spartan’), responds positively but Athenians dismissed by suspicious Spartans; followed at Athens by ostracism of Cimon, and democratic reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles
460(–445)	First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and their allies; Sparta wins Battle of Tanagra 458 or 457
?460	Birth of Thucydides
447(–432)	Building of the Parthenon
c. 440	Remains identified as those of Leonidas returned from Thermopylae to Sparta for reburial
440–439	Revolt of Samos from Athens; promised Spartan help does not materialize
431(–404)	Atheno-Peloponnesian War (uneasy peace 421–414)
431	Both Sparta and Athens appeal to Persia for financial aid
?425	Publication of Herodotus’s Histories
424/3	Death of Artaxerxes I; accession of Darius II
421	Peace of Nicias
413	Sparta invades Attica, garrisons Decelea
412/11	Sparta makes formal treaty with Persia via satrap Tissaphernes, ceding sovereignty of Greeks of Asia to Persian paymaster
407	Cyrus the Younger, 16-year-old son of Darius II Great King of Persia, sent as generalissimo to western provinces of the Empire; establishes cordial relationship with Spartan commander Lysander
405	Lysander returns for second tour of duty in the Hellespont region; with massive Persian aid wins Battle of Aegospotami
405/4	Death of Darius II, succession of Artaxerxes II
404	spring – Unconditional surrender of Athens to Sparta; end of Athens’s Aegean naval empire, beginning of Sparta’s
404–403	Thirty Tyrants junta installed at Athens with support of Spartan military garrison
403	King Pausanias of Sparta oversees restoration of democracy at Athens; imposition of general amnesty (for all except the Thirty and their closest henchmen)
402	Sparta covertly supports Cyrus the Younger’s failed bid to overthrow and succeed older brother Artaxerxes II
400	Sparta declares war on Persia in name of ‘liberation of the Greeks’ of Asia
396(–394)	King Agesilaus II of Sparta (r. c. 400–360) takes over anti-Persian comand, by both land and sea
395	Outbreak of Corinthian War (revolt against Spartan imperialism led by Athens, Argos, Boeotia and Corinth, financed by Persia)
394	Agesilaus recalled from Asia to Greece
388	Sparta persuades Persia to abandon Athens and finance another Spartan fleet
387	Sparta gains control of Hellespont
386	Persia and Sparta together enforce the King’s Peace, also known as Peace of Antalcidas (after the chief Spartan negotiator, admiral as well as diplomat): Greeks of Asia once more – as before 480, and during 412–400 – formally tribute-paying subjects of Persian Empire
371	Sparta and allies utterly defeated at Leuctra by Thebes and its allies under Epaminondas
369	Epaminondas oversees liberation of Messenian Helots and refoundation of liberated Messene
368	Epaminondas oversees new foundation of Arcadian Megalopolis
?366	Sparta’s Peloponnesian League ceases to function
359	Death of Artaxerxes II, succeeded by Artaxerxes III, then of Agesilaus II, succeeded by son Archidamus III; Philip II becomes de facto King of Macedon
352	Archidamus briefly occupies Thermopylae in vain attempt to keep Philip out of central Greece
346	Philip wins Third Sacred War, destroys Phocis, celebrates Pythian Games at Delphi
344	Artaxerxes III recovers Egypt (in revolt since 404)
338	Philip II of Macedon (r. 360–336) wins Battle of Chaeronea and gains control of most of mainland Greek world; declares at Corinth a ‘crusade’ against Persian Empire with ‘panhellenic’ forces and himself as supreme commander
336	Philip assassinated, succeeded by son (by Greek wife Olympias) Alexander, Alexander III, later ‘the Great’
335	Alexander destroys Thebes after revolt, exploiting Thebes’s ‘medism’ in Graeco-Persian Wars
334–323	Conquest of Achaemenid Persian Empire by Alexander in name of ‘liberation of the Greeks’ of Asia and revenge for Persian sacrilege under Xerxes, 480–479
331	Decisive defeat of Persian Great King Darius III at Gaugamela (northern Iraq); Alexander becomes ‘King of Asia’
331 or 330	Decisive defeat at Megalopolis of rebellion against Macedon led by Spartan King Agis III – last gasp of Sparta as would-be independent military power
323	Death of Alexander at Babylon; contest opens for control of Alexander’s empire by ‘Successors’, not finally settled till 281; most of old Persian Empire falls to Macedonian self-proclaimed ‘King’ Seleucus I Nicator (‘Victor’), most of old Greece to the Antigonid house based in Macedon