Timeline of Greek & Roman Antiquity

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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