Dr. J’s
Illustrated
Classical Age color-coded
Timeline
war
literature/culture
politics
science/philosophy
499-494
Ionian Revolt is crushed by Darius, King of Persia
496
Birth of Sophocles
493
Phrynicus fined for reminding the Athenians of Persian
infamy in his play Fall of Miletus
Miletus
(sacked in 494 by the Persians)
Archonship of Themistokles in
Athens
490
Battle of Marathon (winning general: Miltiades)
489
Trial and death of Miltiades
486
Comedy is introduced into the Great Dionysia
485
Death of Darius; Xerxes becomes King of Persia
Birth of the sophist Protagoras at Abdera
Birth of the sophist Gorgias in Sicily
484
Aeschylus’ 1st dramatic victory, but the play is lost
483
Athens makes a big Silver Strike at the Laurion mines and Themistokles persuades Athenians to build a fleet with the money
481
Birth of Protagoras
480
Battle of Thermopylae (losing general:
Leonides)
Battle of Salamis (winning general:
Themistokles)
Cosmologist Anaxagoras
settles in Athens
Birth of historian Herodotus
(approximate date)
Birth of Euripides on Salamis (approximate date)
479
Battle of Plataea
477
Formulation of the Delian League. Athens, the city-state with the most impressive fleet, promises safety to remote colonies and islands living in the shadow of the Persian Empire, if everyone contributes to the cost of the endeavor. But what starts as a defensive alliance quickly degenerates into a protection racket, and voluntary contributions soon become required. The “Delian” League gets its name from the sacred – and neutral – isle of Delos, the hub of a wheel (CYCLADES) of islands in the Aegean.
476
Phrynichus wins Great Dionysia with Phoenissae, a play about the Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis (Themistokles is choregos!)
472/1
Aeschylus wins with Persians, also about Salamis (Pericles is choregos!)
470/469
Birth of Socrates
468
Sophocles wins first victory over Aeschylus (lost Triptolemus)
467
Aeschylus wins with Seven Against Thebes (with Laius, Oedipus, and the satyr play Sphinx, all lost)
c. 463
Aeschylus wins with Danaid trilogy (only Suppliants survives)
462/1
Ephialtes’ democratic reforms cause the powers of the Areopagus to be abolished; Athens’ alliance with Argos
461
Pericles begins his 29-year stint as strategos in Athens.
1st Peloponnesian War begins between
Athens and Sparta (war ends in 446 BC). Ephialtes is assassinated.
460
Birth of natural philosopher Democritus
Birth of historian Thucydides
458
Aeschylus’ Oresteia wins 18th 1st prize (only surviving trilogy!)
457
Athenian long walls completed: they are now in perfect position to defend themselves against attack, whether from “foreign or Hellenic aggressor” (Pericles)
456
Death of Aeschylus. Legend tells us that an eagle mistakenly identified his bald head as a rock and deliberately dropped a tortoise on it from a great height to break open its shell.
454
Athens
moves the Delian League Treasury to Athens.
With this action, the “Delian League” becomes the “Athenian Empire.”
450
Trial and departure of Anaxagoras on charge of atheism
449
PEACE WITH PERSIA. After the Battle of Plataea (479 BC), all Greeks had agreed not to rebuild anything the Persians had destroyed in order to keep the memory of their insolence and impiety fresh. But when Pericles makes peace with Persia, he suggests that the oath is no longer valid. Sparta and others refuse to discuss this, and Pericles decides that since the Athenians had suffered the most damage defending all of Greece from the Persians (after all, the Acropolis and and its buildings had been burned to the ground…), it is perfectly legitimate to use the funds from the former Delian League treasury (conveniently already in Athens…) to embark upon his Great Building Program, proof positive of Athens’ superiority.
447
Construction on the Parthenon is begun with Delian League funds.
446
30 Years’ Peace between Athens and Sparta
445
Birth of comic playwright Aristophanes
Sophocles’ Ajax
c. 444
Protagoras arrives in Athens
443
Pericles ostracizes the conservative Thucydides (not the
historian)
Sophocles is elected
Treasurer of the Confederacy of Delos
442
Sophocles’ Antigone
441
1st victory of Euripides
Sophocles elected general
(riding on popularity of Antigone)
439/8
Euripides’ Alcestis wins 2nd prize
431
Outbreak of the 2nd Peloponnesian War – Sparta versus Athens
See Dr. J’s Illustrated Pericles’ Funeral
Oration
1st prize: son of Aeschylus
2nd prize: Sophocles
3rd prize: Euripides’ Medea
430
The plague hits Athens
429
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (AKA Oedipus Tyrannos)
Death of Pericles from the
plague
Birth of Plato (approximate date)
428
Euripides’ Hippolytus
427
The Sophist Gorgias begins the sophist craze in Athens
425
Athenian victory over the Spartans at Sphakteria but
Cleon rejects peace offer from the Spartans
Aristophanes’ Acharnians
424
Historian Thucydides exiled for poor military performance
423
Aristophanes’ Clouds unfairly defames Socrates as a sophist
422
Aristophanes’ Wasps
421
Aristophanes’ Peace
The Peace of Nicias between Athens and Sparta
416
The Athenian army brutally quashes revolt on Melos
415
Sicilian Expedition begins (Alcibiades/Nicias in charge)
Alcibiades goes over to the Spartan side
Mutilation of herms in Athens (act of gross impiety)
Protagoras on trial in Athens for impiety
Euripides’ Trojan
Women wins 2nd prize
414
Aristophanes’ Birds
413
The Athenian navy is destroyed at Sicily
411
Oligarchy takes over in Athens
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae
409
Sophocles’ Philoctetes
408
Euripides’ Orestes and his departure from Athens
406
Athens victorious in sea-battle at Arginusae
405
Death of Sophocles (while reciting the Antigone?!)
Death of Euripides (in far-away Macedon)
Aristophanes’ Frogs (bemoaning the loss of these playwrights)
Posthumous presentation of Euripides’ Bacchae – 1st prize
Sparta destroys Athenian
fleet at Aegospotami
404
Athens surrenders. Sparta wins Peloponnesian War.
The Thirty (another oligarchy) takes
over in Athens
403
Democracy is restored in Athens
401
Posthumous presentation of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus by his grandson, Sophocles
399
Trial and death of Socrates
395
Death of Thucydides
386
Death of Aristophanes
384
Birth of Aristotle
Birth of Demosthenes
360
Plato founds his Academy
347
Death of Plato
322
Death of Demosthenes
Death of Aristotle
338
Philip of Macedon conquers Greece with the definitive Battle of Chaironea
N.B. When faced with contradictory information in various sources, I have relied on the Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy for the last word on dates of plays, and on Bury and Meiggs’ History of Greece for historical events.