| I | before 3500 | Stone Age: the « neolithic revolution » of near east civilizations (esp. Mesopotamia) sees the rise of irrigation & agriculture; towns & cities; temple architecture; writing; intense social stratification |
| II | 3500-1100 | Bronze Age (note that, in antiquity, the historical ages were Gold, Silver, Bronze, [Heroic,] & Iron) |
| 3500-1450 | Minoan civilization at Crete (non-Greek-speaking); Linear A syllabary | |
| c. 2000 | First Greek-speaking (IE) tribes enter Greece (the Achaeans?) | |
| 1700-1100 | Late Bronze Age Mycenean civilization (Greek-speaking) on mainland; about 1450 takes over Crete. Linear B syllabary. Homer sometimes hearkens back to this world | |
| 1250 | Trojan war (traditional) | |
| 1200-1100 | Second group of tribes (Dorians) enters Greece and destroys Mycenean civilization; many Achaeans emigrate to Asia Minor & become known as Ionian Greeks; others resist and stay on at Athens. Disappearance of Linear B. | |
| III | 1100-750 | Iron (or Dark) Age: the Age of Homer (the world of the Iliad and Odyssey); Havelock’s total non-literacy |
| 1100-875 | Proto-geometric period in pottery | |
| 875-750 | Geometric period in pottery; monarchies overthrown by oligarchies; rise of the polis; beginnings of Athenian cultural prominence; « eighth century renaissance » | |
| 776 | First Olympic games | |
| IV | 750-480 | Archaic period: Havelock’s craft literacy; Cole’s pre-rhetoric |
| 750 | adaptation of Phoenician alphabet; revival of writing in Greece | |
| 750-500 | era of Greek colonization in West and East; continued development of polis culture; rapid increase in commercial & agricultural activity; hoplite revolution; rise of panhellenic religious festivals and games; emergence of rational and scientific thought | |
| 725-675 | writing down of the Iliad | |
| 720-620 | Orientalizing period in pottery | |
| 620-480 | Archaic period proper; oligarchies overthown by tyrants; rise of democracy; standardization and diffusion of Homeric epics; esp. at Athens | |
| V | 480-323 | Classical period |
| 480-400 | Fifth Century: Havelock’s semi-literacy; Cole’s proto-rhetoric | |
| 534-400 | Drama at Athens: Aeschylus 525-456; Sophocles 496-406; Euripides 485-406. | |
| 492-479 | Persian Wars: defeat of Darius at Marathon 490 and Xerxes at Salamis 480 & Plataea 479 | |
| 494-434 | Empedocles of Sicily (teacher of Tisias & Gorgias?) | |
| 476 | Corax and Tisias (teacher of Gorgias?) in Sicily (democracy in Syracuse) | |
| 462 | Legislation of Ephialtes (pay for jurors) | |
| 461-429 | Pericles strategos in Athens | |
| 451 | restriction of citizenship in Athens | |
| 450-400 | The First or Great Sophists at Athens: Protagoras of Abdera (485-410); Gorgias of Leontini (485-380) (teacher of Isocrates); Antiphon (480-411); etc. | |
| 469-399 | Socrates | |
| 431-404 | Peloponnesian War; oligarchic interlude in Athens | |
| 399-323 | Fourth Century: Havelock’s general literacy; Cole’s rhetoric | |
| 392 | Isocrates (436-338) opens his school | |
| 380 | Plato (420-348) opens Academy | |
| 367 | Aristotle (384-322) comes from Stagira to study at Academy; later opens Lyceum | |
| 350 | Demosthenes (384-322); Philip of Macedon most powerful ruler in greater Greece | |
| 323 | death of Alexander the Great | |
| VI | 323-30 | Hellenistic period; school rhetoric; Kennedy’s letteraturizzazione |
| 323-279 | struggle of the diadochoi: Alexander’s Macedonian generals (Antipater; Perdiccas; Antigonus; Ptolemy; Seleucus; etc.) and their descendants (Cassander; Demetrius; Ptolemy II; Antiochus; etc.) jockey for power. Three dynasties emerge: | |
| a. the Ptolemies: Egypt & South Syria (capital Alexandria) | ||
| b. the Seleucids: Asia Minor & Persia (capital Antioch) | ||
| c. the Antigonids: Macedonia & Greece (capital Athens) | ||
| 241 | a fourth power is born when Attalus names himself ruler of part of the Seleucid kingdom with Pergamum as capital (the Attalid dynasty) | |
| c. 250 | confederacies and leagues spring up in Greece; giving groups of cities some autonomy | |
| passim | spread of Greek culture; Greek ruling class; Greek language; rise of cosmopolitan cities (e.g. Alexandria; Antioch; Pergamum; Athens); rhetoric becomes chief tool of education esp. in cities of Greek Asia (e.g. Rhodes) | |
| 215 | Rome involved in affairs of Macedonia | |
| 146 | Greece a Roman province | |
| 30 | conquest of Egypt by Rome | |
| VII | 753-30 | Rome: rise of the republic |
| 753 | legendary founding of Rome by Romulus (fr. Aeneas) | |
| the 7 kings – some Etruscan – elected by people & advised by senate of elders | ||
| three tribes based on kinship & 30 wards; later tribes based on residence + wealth (5 classes: richest control assembly/senate) | ||
| 600 | literacy – based on Gk. alphabet | |
| 510-270 | early republic: aristocratic; 2 consuls elected annually; dictator possible; senate governs | |
| conflict of the orders: plebians seek security; land; debt relief; equality from patricians; they est. their own magistrates (tribunes) & assembly; threaten secession | ||
| 451 | the Twelve Tables; intermarriage (445); consulship = 1 + 1 with a veto for each (366) | |
| 287 | debt relief; full sovereignty of concilium plebis (287) | |
| outcome of the conflict of the orders is a mixed patrician/plebian oligarchy of about 50 noble families who monopolize magistracies & thus senate which is composed of all ex-magistrates | ||
| also at this time: conquest of Italian peninsula | ||
| 390 | Rome almost destroyed by Gauls | |
| 280 | war with Greek cities in S. Italy | |
| features of republic: right to take part given to all adult male citizens but wealthy had more rights: voting first; magistrates control right to address assembly; assemblies not deliberative; only the aristocratic senate debated; the cursus honorum of magistracies: quaestor; aedile; praetor; consul; censor; oratory in law courts and senate (educated; trained; wealthy; intelligent) | ||
| 270-120 | middle republic | |
| in Italy: peace; common culture; language; and law | ||
| outside Italy: expansion – Sicily; Punic War with Carthage; Cisalpine Gaul; Illyricum; Macedonia; Greece; Spain; Asia; Gaul; etc. | ||
| immense wealth coming in; rise of non-senatorial equestrian class | ||
| Greek influence on art; architecture; literature; oratory; etc. | ||
| 120-30 | late republic | |
| provincial misconduct; army uprisings; senate increasingly oligarchic | ||
| struggles between the optimates & populares; 1st civil war | ||
| populist Gracchi; conservative reaction; populist Marius; time of great oratory | ||
| 88 | Sulla vs. Marius; 2nd civil war | |
| later Pompey & Cicero (senatorial party) vs. Caesar & Crassus (popular) | ||
| 60 | first triumvirate: Caesar; Pompey; Crassus | |
| rivalry b/w republican Pompey & dictator Caesar; increasing anarchy | ||
| 45 | by 45 Pompey dead; Caesar killed in 44. Cicero dead in 43 (Ciceronian Age of literature 70-30: Cicero; Caesar; Lucretius; Catullus; Sallust; and Varro) | |
| 3rd civil war: first Antony vs. Octavian (both Caesarian); then the two of them vs. Brutus & Cassius (republican) | ||
| second triumvirate: Octavian; Antony; & Lepidus | ||
| 30 | death of Antony 30; Octavian becomes emperor (Augustus) | |
| VIII | 30 BCE -410 CE | Rome: the Empire |
| 30 BCE -14 CE | Augustan Age (literature: Vergil; Horace; Ovid; Livy) | |
| 14 –68 CE | the Julio-Claudian emperors: Tiberius; Caligula; Claudius; Nero (literature: Lucan; Seneca the Younger; Petronius) | |
| 69 CE | « year of the four emperors »: Galba; Otho; Vitellius; Vespasian | |
| 70-96 CE | the Flavian emperors: Vespasian; Titus; and Domitian (literature: Elder Pliny; Martial; Quintilian) | |
| 98-117 CE | Trajan peak of the empire (literature: Tacitus; Juvenal; the Younger Pliny) | |
| 117-138 CE | Hadrian | |
| 138-192 CE | the Antonines (Marcus Aurelius: 161-180) | |
| 193-235 CE | the Severi | |
| 235-305 CE | the Soldier Emperors (Diocletian: 285-305) | |
| 313 CE | Constantine’s Edict of Milan grants religious freedom to Christians | |
| 330 CE | Constantine moves capital to Byzantium (Constantinople) | |
| 395 CE | empired divided between East and West | |
| 410 CE | Rome sacked by Gauls | |
| 527-565 CE | reign of Justinian – last eastern emperor to use Latin; beginning of Byzantine age (to 1453) |
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