A Complete History Timeline of Ancient Greece

So 7000 BC is an important year for Greece. Before that, pretty much everyone outside the Middle East was at least semi-nomadic. But in 7000 BC, the people living in what we would call modern Greece learned the big three technologies, right? Agriculture, husbandry, and then a bit later, pottery. So that is a big step forward, right? These guys were the first non-Middle East people to learn those things, or at the very least the first Europeans to learn those things. But even so, we don't really know much about what happens after that. No one's writing anything down, obviously, or even making paintings. So yeah, there's not much to say after that until about 3000 BC. And at this point, the people living here undergo a significant cultural change and also learn bronze working. There was a whole bunch of controversy about what actually happened here, but the most straightforward explanation is that a bunch of guys from the Levant, where they already knew bronze working, came over and taught them, basically. So yeah, cultural change happens and then in around 2000 BC, which is when we start sort of getting a better idea of what's going on, there are these three cultures living in the Greek sort of area. There's the Cyclades, which is basically the people living on the islands. The most interesting things about these guys is their friggin' amazing little sculptures. I mean, just like this. Look at these guys! So yeah, obviously those guys were pretty cool. Next, there's the Minoans, who lived on Crete, and were basically the big kahunas of this whole area. They had the biggest palaces, the most advanced bronze working, and they seem to have been trading with Egypt as well. And then the third set of guys is the Helens, who lived on the mainland. They seem to have taken a lot from the Minoans, but the Helens are by far the least advanced of all the three cultures. Importantly though, by around 2000 BC, the Helens have started to exhibit characteristics of classical Greeks. Their spoken language seems a bit similar to ancient Greek, and they worship the Olympian gods. So that's, you know, you could think of these guys as the first predecessors of the Greeks, that we can recognize as being kind of Greek. And then around 1600 BC, a new sort of Mycenaean civilization arises in mainland Greece. It's headed by a warrior aristocracy, who love hunting and fighting and drinking and doing all those sorts of things. I like to think of them as kind of being jocks. And then around 1450 BC, the Minoans decline, and the Mycenaeans proceed to assimilate Crete and the Cyclades, and you know, also a big chunk of the west coast of Anatolia. So yeah, you know, they basically become the dominant cultural group in Greece, and this period becomes a setting for pretty much all of classical Greek mythology. So yeah, like Hercules, Perseus, you know, all those guys were supposed to have done whatever they did in this period. And some of the myths, like the Siege of Troy, probably actually did happen in this period, quite literally. And the next big thing that happens is a massive collapse and looting and burning of nearly all the civilizations living around the Mediterranean, in around 1200 BC. And this is referred to by historians as the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Now, no one is entirely sure why this happened, but one kingdom that did survive is Egypt. And all they talk about is how they got invaded from the ocean by these guys called the Sea Peoples, who they fended off, but apparently they did so at great cost, because Egypt then goes into a bit of a decline. No one knows exactly who these Sea People were, or whether they were responsible for all the destruction that occurred, but it is a super interesting topic and definitely worth reading into. Bottom line from all this, though, is that among many other civilizations, all the guys in Greece get completely totaled as a result of whatever happens. They forget to write, which is always a very bad sign. Most of their cities fall into ruin, they lose a lot of their bronze working skill, and basically they spend the next 400 years recovering. 800 BC is generally considered the beginning of Ancient Greece. An important date here is 776 BC, which was the date of the first ever Olympic Games. But even before this, the Greeks had started to write again using a new alphabet, which we now recognize as the Ancient Greek alphabet. Like, this is the alphabet that Heterodorus uses, and Socrates, and Plato, and so forth. They're also making that distinctive black-on-red pottery, and the really nice marble sculptures. They're making those columns that we, you know, see on all our government buildings still. And they're doing a lot of trading, and very importantly, there are now a whole bunch of independent city-states, sort of, emerging. Like Athens, and Corinth, and Sparta, Thebes, you know. So the cities mostly hate each other, and go to war all the time, but they also feel they have some sort of common connection with one another. So yeah, this setup is pretty recognizable. Like, Ancient Greece has now properly begun. The last important thing that happens in this period is that there are a ton of popular revolts against the ruling aristocrats. A lot of the time these end in tyranny, but other times the leaders of the revolutions end up having to draw up these constitutions that limit the of, you know, whatever ruling class has been put in. The best example of this is, of course, Athens, when in around 508 BC, the post-revolution regime was so scared of the mob that it actually made itself into, like, a quasi-democracy, and it had, you know, all these things drawn up and sanctified in a constitution. And this may seem kind of reasonable to us, but actually this is super innovative stuff for the time, right? In the Middle East, all the kings are still trying style themselves as gods, while in Europe we're still looking at warrior aristocrats, basically. Government through a constitution, you know, not the power of an individual or divinity, you know, like an actual legal document, is pretty pretty racy and pretty crazy stuff by comparison. After this, things kind of take off. The Greeks start trading like nuts, and when a city becomes too populous, which happens a lot, they found a new colony. And, you know, through this process, they pretty much colonized the whole north shore of the Mediterranean, as far as France, Spain, even a little bit. If you're interested, the Phoenicians colonized the bottom half. Plus the Black Sea and the east coast of Anatolia. And again, most of these colonies make a big effort to keep ties with Greece and Greek culture. They send athletes to the Olympic Games, and they make lavish offerings to Delphi, you know, etc. Then in about 546 BC, all the Greek colonies in Anatolia fall into the hands of the Persians, who have pretty much conquered the whole of the known world by this point. Like, these guys were seriously immense. Arguably, they're the first empire that ever existed on the earth, and they contained, it's estimated, one third of all the people on the planet. And this includes other places like China and Mexico too. So one in every three people who existed at that time was beholden to the Persian emperor. Not to mention they also had all the biggest cities and the most advanced cities and, you know, all the best farming land in the world. So yeah, basically, you know, a super super power. These guys are a big freaking deal. Anyway, the Greek colonies in Anatolia are pretty unhappy about being ruled by the Persians. So in 499 BC, they revolt. And for some crazy reason, Athens and Eretria decide that they're going to support the revolt. And of course, the revolt is crushed mercilessly by the Persians. And the Persians very reasonably decide to teach Athens and Eretria a lesson. So in 492 BC, they set out with an expeditionary force to conquer Greece. And effectively, this is the start of the Greco-Persian wars. So the Persians marched over into Greece, quickly subjugating Thrace, Macedon, and then burning Eretria to the ground. And then moved on to Athens, where, to everyone's surprise, they got the snot beaten out of them at the Battle of Marathon. Now, this is a big deal. The Persian Empire was massive, as I've already said, and it has just lost a war against two tiny city-states at the very edge of the civilized world. It's, you know, not the biggest war ever, but it's still really embarrassing and really really unexpected. So the Persians decided that now was not the time for half measures, and eventually mounted a full-scale invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Long story short, the massive Persian navy ran into some unlucky storms, and then fell for some Greek trickery, and such. So the army got worried about its supply lines, and most of it had to retreat. The Greeks mopped up the remaining Persians in Greece, and then went further still, taking back pretty much all the colonies in Anatolia. And since then, the Persians didn't really want to have to fight the Greeks again. You know, they didn't know why they keep losing, and it's frustrating. So they were like, we're just gonna leave. So yeah, effectively the Greeks have now won the war, and with all their newfound territory and prestige, Greece became really rich and influential, and basically had a mini-Renaissance. Most of the best sculpture and plus a bunch of really nice plays, and most importantly Plato and Aristotle invented philosophy and science, and founded their academies. So, you know, this is generally considered the golden age for Greece. So after this, Greece and, you know, the unique Greek culture starts to go into a bit of a decline. After the Persian war in 431 BC, Athens and a bunch of its allies fought a war against Sparta and a bunch of its allies. This became known as the Peloponnesian War. It lasted 30 years on and off, causing ludicrous amounts of devastation throughout Greece, and ended with an eventual Spartan victory. Sparta couldn't hold on to its position for long though, and various wars between Greek cities continued for the next half century. The Persians took advantage of all this infighting to reclaim most of what they had lost to the Persian wars, including pretty much the whole of Anatolia. In around 300 BC, with the rest of Greece being worn down by ceaseless wars, Macedonia kind of considered a primitive backwater and, until then, became a big player in Greece. And in 335 BC, a young Macedonian king called Alexander conquers half of Greece and persuades the rest of Greece to swear allegiance to him. He then does the craziest thing anyone could think of and attacks the Persians, who are still by far and away the largest, most technologically and administratively advanced nation the world has ever seen. And somehow, even though he's vastly outnumbered, he wins these three huge land battles against the full might of the Persian army, plus a whole bunch of difficult sieges in between, and, you know, again, just to give you an idea about how crazy all this was, the annual income of Athens, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Greek city at the time, was equivalent to around like 1,500 talents, right? But when Alexander conquered the Persian empire, he inherited a treasury of an estimated 225,000 silver talents, just sitting there in his palaces. So there's a massive wealth disparity here. Greece was so poor comparatively that overall, more Greeks fought against Alexander on the Persian side as mercenaries than in his own army. But still, he won somehow. Anyway, the Persian empire then collapsed, Alexander assimilated it, and then went on even further, conquered a bit of India, and then died at a really inconveniently young age in 323 BC, which prompted his generals to divide up his empire between themselves and then fight countless pointless wars against each other for like the next century. And from my view, this is really the end of the history of ancient Greece, because, you know, while Greek culture remained influential, the post-Alexander empires were so large that Greece itself and its cities and the people living there became far less important. Basically, you know, just being another province for this or that Macedonian dynasty to fight over. Plus, in a moment, the Romans are about to come and take the center stage. So yeah, I think this is an appropriate place to leave it.