Visual Timeline: Archaic Period

To navigate the timeline, click and drag it with your mouse, or click on the timeline overview on the bottom.

800 BCE 790 BCE 780 BCE 770 BCE 760 BCE 750 BCE 740 BCE 730 BCE 720 BCE 710 BCE 700 BCE 690 BCE 680 BCE 670 BCE 660 BCE 650 BCE 640 BCE 630 BCE 620 BCE 610 BCE 600 BCE 590 BCE 580 BCE 570 BCE 560 BCE 550 BCE 540 BCE 530 BCE 520 BCE 510 BCE 500 BCE 490 BCE 480 BCE  
 
800 BCE - 700 BCE: Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
 
 
800 BCE - 500 BCE: Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
 
800 BCE - 500 BCE: Archaic period of Greece.
 
 
733 BCE: Traditional date when Corinth founds a colony on Corcyra.
 
 
733 BCE: Corinth founds the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.
 
683 BCE - 682 BCE: List of annual archons at Athens begins.
 
650 BCE: Sparta crushes Messenian revolt.
 
 
650 BCE - 600 BCE: Age of law-givers in Greece.
 
650 BCE: Earliest large scale Greek marble sculpture.
 
 
594 BCE - 593 BCE: In Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
 
580 BCE: The kouroi of Argos, thought to represent Cleobis & Biton, are sculpted.
 
546 BCE - 545 BCE: Persian conquest of Ionian Greek city-states.
 
 
539 BCE: Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
 
514 BCE: Fall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
 
499 BCE - 493 BCE: Ionian cities rebel against Persian rule.
 
 
498 BCE: Ionians and Greek allies invade and burn Sardis (capital of Lydia).
 
495 BCE: Birth of Pericles.
 
492 BCE: Darius I of Persia invades Greece.
 
490 BCE: A combined force of Greek hoplites defeat the Persians at Marathon.
 
487 BCE - 486 BCE: Archons begin to be appointed by lot in Athens.
 
483 BCE: Themistocles persuades the Athenians to significantly expand their fleet, which saves them at Salamis and becomes their source of power.
 
480 BCE: Thebes sides with Persia during Xerxes invasion of Greece.
 
480 BCE: Battle of Thermopylae. 300 Spartans under King Leonidas and other Greek allies hold back the Persians led by Xerxes I for three days but are defeated.
 
480 BCE: Battle of Salamis where the Greek naval fleet led by Themistocles defeats the invading armada of Xerxes I of Persia.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
800 BCE 760 BCE 720 BCE 680 BCE 640 BCE 600 BCE 560 BCE 520 BCE