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 |
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II |
3500-1100 |
Bronze Age (note that, in antiquity, the historical ages were Gold, Silver, Bronze, [Heroic,] & Iron) |
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3500-1450 |
Minoan civilization at Crete (non-Greek-speaking); Linear A syllabary |
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c. 2000 |
First Greek-speaking (IE) tribes enter Greece (the Achaeans?) |
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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 |
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1250 |
Trojan war (traditional) |
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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. |
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III |
1100-750 |
Iron (or Dark) Age: the Age of Homer (the world of the Iliad and Odyssey); Havelock’s total non-literacy |
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1100-875 |
Proto-geometric period in pottery |
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875-750 |
Geometric period in pottery; monarchies overthrown by oligarchies; rise of the polis; beginnings of Athenian cultural prominence; « eighth century renaissance » |
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776 |
First Olympic games |
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IV |
750-480 |
Archaic period: Havelock’s craft literacy; Cole’s pre-rhetoric |
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750 |
adaptation of Phoenician alphabet; revival of writing in Greece |
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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 |
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725-675 |
writing down of the Iliad |
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720-620 |
Orientalizing period in pottery |
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620-480 |
Archaic period proper; oligarchies overthown by tyrants; rise of democracy; standardization and diffusion of Homeric epics; esp. at Athens |
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V |
480-323 |
Classical period |
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480-400 |
Fifth Century: Havelock’s semi-literacy; Cole’s proto-rhetoric |
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534-400 |
Drama at Athens: Aeschylus 525-456; Sophocles 496-406; Euripides 485-406. |
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492-479 |
Persian Wars: defeat of Darius at Marathon 490 and Xerxes at Salamis 480 & Plataea 479 |
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494-434 |
Empedocles of Sicily (teacher of Tisias & Gorgias?) |
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476 |
Corax and Tisias (teacher of Gorgias?) in Sicily (democracy in Syracuse) |
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462 |
Legislation of Ephialtes (pay for jurors) |
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461-429 |
Pericles strategos in Athens |
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451 |
restriction of citizenship in Athens |
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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. |
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469-399 |
Socrates |
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431-404 |
Peloponnesian War; oligarchic interlude in Athens |
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399-323 |
Fourth Century: Havelock’s general literacy; Cole’s rhetoric |
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392 |
Isocrates (436-338) opens his school |
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380 |
Plato (420-348) opens Academy |
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367 |
Aristotle (384-322) comes from Stagira to study at Academy; later opens Lyceum |
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350 |
Demosthenes (384-322); Philip of Macedon most powerful ruler in greater Greece |
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323 |
death of Alexander the Great |
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VI |
323-30 |
Hellenistic period; school rhetoric; Kennedy’s letteraturizzazione |
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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: |
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a. the Ptolemies: Egypt & South Syria (capital Alexandria) |
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b. the Seleucids: Asia Minor & Persia (capital Antioch) |
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c. the Antigonids: Macedonia & Greece (capital Athens) |
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241 |
a fourth power is born when Attalus names himself ruler of part of the Seleucid kingdom with Pergamum as capital (the Attalid dynasty) |
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c. 250 |
confederacies and leagues spring up in Greece; giving groups of cities some autonomy |
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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) |
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215 |
Rome involved in affairs of Macedonia |
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146 |
Greece a Roman province |
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30 |
conquest of Egypt by Rome |
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VII |
753-30 |
Rome: rise of the republic |
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753 |
legendary founding of Rome by Romulus (fr. Aeneas) |
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the 7 kings – some Etruscan – elected by people & advised by senate of elders |
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three tribes based on kinship & 30 wards; later tribes based on residence + wealth (5 classes: richest control assembly/senate) |
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600 |
literacy – based on Gk. alphabet |
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510-270 |
early republic: aristocratic; 2 consuls elected annually; dictator possible; senate governs |
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conflict of the orders: plebians seek security; land; debt relief; equality from patricians; they est. their own magistrates (tribunes) & assembly; threaten secession |
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451 |
the Twelve Tables; intermarriage (445); consulship = 1 + 1 with a veto for each (366) |
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287 |
debt relief; full sovereignty of concilium plebis (287) |
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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 |
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also at this time: conquest of Italian peninsula |
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390 |
Rome almost destroyed by Gauls |
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280 |
war with Greek cities in S. Italy |
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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) |
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270-120 |
middle republic |
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in Italy: peace; common culture; language; and law |
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outside Italy: expansion – Sicily; Punic War with Carthage; Cisalpine Gaul; Illyricum; Macedonia; Greece; Spain; Asia; Gaul; etc. |
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immense wealth coming in; rise of non-senatorial equestrian class |
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Greek influence on art; architecture; literature; oratory; etc. |
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120-30 |
late republic |
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provincial misconduct; army uprisings; senate increasingly oligarchic |
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struggles between the optimates & populares; 1st civil war |
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populist Gracchi; conservative reaction; populist Marius; time of great oratory |
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88 |
Sulla vs. Marius; 2nd civil war |
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later Pompey & Cicero (senatorial party) vs. Caesar & Crassus (popular) |
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60 |
first triumvirate: Caesar; Pompey; Crassus |
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rivalry b/w republican Pompey & dictator Caesar; increasing anarchy |
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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) |
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3rd civil war: first Antony vs. Octavian (both Caesarian); then the two of them vs. Brutus & Cassius (republican) |
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second triumvirate: Octavian; Antony; & Lepidus |
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30 |
death of Antony 30; Octavian becomes emperor (Augustus) |
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VIII |
30 BCE -410 CE |
Rome: the Empire |
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30 BCE -14 CE |
Augustan Age (literature: Vergil; Horace; Ovid; Livy) |
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14 –68 CE |
the Julio-Claudian emperors: Tiberius; Caligula; Claudius; Nero (literature: Lucan; Seneca the Younger; Petronius) |
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69 CE |
« year of the four emperors »: Galba; Otho; Vitellius; Vespasian |
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70-96 CE |
the Flavian emperors: Vespasian; Titus; and Domitian (literature: Elder Pliny; Martial; Quintilian) |
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98-117 CE |
Trajan peak of the empire (literature: Tacitus; Juvenal; the Younger Pliny) |
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117-138 CE |
Hadrian |
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138-192 CE |
the Antonines (Marcus Aurelius: 161-180) |
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193-235 CE |
the Severi |
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235-305 CE |
the Soldier Emperors (Diocletian: 285-305) |
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313 CE |
Constantine’s Edict of Milan grants religious freedom to Christians |
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330 CE |
Constantine moves capital to Byzantium (Constantinople) |
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395 CE |
empired divided between East and West |
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410 CE |
Rome sacked by Gauls |
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527-565 CE |
reign of Justinian – last eastern emperor to use Latin; beginning of Byzantine age (to 1453) |
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