Ancient Greece timeline (431–30 BC)
In 431 BC Athens and Sparta began the Peloponnesian War, which Athens lost after 27 years; in the 4th century BC Sparta and then Thebes held hegemony, until Philip II of Macedon subdued Greece at Chaeronea in 338 BC. After his son Alexander conquered Persia, the empire broke up into the Hellenistic kingdoms of his generals, and from the 2nd century BC Rome swallowed them one by one until the last, Ptolemaic Egypt, vanished in 30 BC.
The tables below are divided by century from the 5th to the 1st century BC. They also cover how, in the same period, Rome defeated the Samnites, Pyrrhus and Carthage in Italy and became master of the Mediterranean.
5th century BC (431–401 BC)
The age of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Athens at sea faced Sparta on land, and in the end Persian money decided the contest.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 431 BC | Peloponnesian War begins A Theban force made a surprise attack on Plataea, and the Spartan king Archidamus II invaded Attica and burned the fields. | Greece |
| Play this scene Scenario Son of the Cadmea | ||
| 430 BC | Plague of Athens Plague broke out among refugees crowded inside the walls and killed about a quarter of the population (Thucydides). | Athens |
| 429 BC | Death of Pericles He died of the plague, and the cautious Nicias and the hawkish Cleon fought for the lead in the assembly. | Athens |
| 427 BC | Revolt of Mytilene crushed The assembly voted to execute all the men, then voted again the next day and reversed it. | Lesbos |
| 425 BC | Spartans surrender on Sphacteria 292 men, including about 120 Spartan citizens, surrendered to Athens, shattering the belief that “Spartans do not surrender”. | Peloponnese |
| 424 BC | Battle of Delium The Boeotians defeated the Athenians. Among the retreating ranks was the hoplite Socrates. | Boeotia |
| 423 BC | Accession of Darius II After the death of Artaxerxes I he took the throne following a brief succession struggle. | Persia |
| 422 BC | Battle of Amphipolis The Athenian Cleon and the Spartan Brasidas were both killed. | Thrace |
| 421 BC | Peace of Nicias Sworn for fifty years, it broke down within six. | Greece |
| 415 BC | Athenian expedition to Sicily Just before sailing the Herms were mutilated, and Alcibiades, recalled on a charge of sacrilege, defected to Sparta. | Athens · Sicily |
| Play this scene Scenario The Night of the Herms · Person Alcibiades | ||
| 413 BC | Expedition destroyed at Syracuse Both fleet and army were lost and Nicias was executed. The same year Sparta set up a permanent fort at Decelea in Attica. | Sicily |
| Play this scene What if…? What if the Athenian expedition to Sicily had succeeded? | ||
| 412 BC | Alliance of Sparta and Persia The satrap Tissaphernes demanded the Greek cities of Ionia in return for funding the Spartan fleet. | Ionia |
| 411 BC | Oligarchy of the Four Hundred An oligarchic coup that overthrew the democracy collapsed after four months. | Athens |
| 407 BC | Persian prince Cyrus sent to Asia Minor He joined forces with the Spartan admiral Lysander and funded the fleet. | Asia Minor |
| 406 BC | Carthage takes Acragas Acragas, one of the richest Greek cities of Sicily, fell. | Sicily |
| 405 BC | Dionysius I becomes tyrant of Syracuse He made peace with Carthage and ceded the west of the island. | Sicily |
| 405 BC | Battle of Aegospotami Lysander surprised the Athenian fleet drawn up on the beach and captured almost all of it. | Hellespont |
| 404 BC | Athens surrenders; end of the Peloponnesian War The Long Walls were pulled down and the Thirty Tyrants installed by Sparta ruled Athens. | Athens |
| c. 404 BC | Egypt breaks free of Persia Amyrtaeus of Sais became pharaoh, and Egypt regained its independence for about 60 years. | Egypt |
| 403 BC | Athenian democracy restored Exiles led by Thrasybulus drove out the Thirty, and the assembly voted a general amnesty. | Athens |
| 401 BC | Battle of Cunaxa Cyrus, who had made a bid for his brother's throne, was killed, and about ten thousand Greek mercenaries retreated with Xenophon to the Black Sea (the Anabasis). | Mesopotamia |
| Play this scene Scenario The Return of the Ten Thousand · What if…? What if Cyrus the Younger had survived at Cunaxa? · Person Xenophon | ||
4th century BC (399–301 BC)
The century in which, after Spartan hegemony and a brief Theban heyday, Macedon took Greece and Alexander conquered the Persian Empire.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 399 BC | Execution of Socrates Condemned to death for impiety and corrupting the young, he drank hemlock. | Athens |
| Play this scene Scenario Son of the Cadmea · Scenario The Night of the Herms · Person Alcibiades · What if…? What if the Athenian expedition to Sicily had succeeded? · Scenario The Return of the Ten Thousand · What if…? What if Cyrus the Younger had survived at Cunaxa? · Person Xenophon | ||
| 396 BC | Spartan king Agesilaus campaigns in Asia He attacked Persian territory on the pretext of protecting the Greeks of Ionia. | Asia Minor |
| 396 BC | Rome takes Veii The dictator Camillus took the Etruscan city of Veii after a ten-year siege (traditional date). | Italy |
| 395 BC | Corinthian War begins Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, backed by Persia, rose against Sparta. | Greece |
| 394 BC | Battle of Cnidus A Persian fleet led by the Athenian Conon defeated the Spartan fleet. | Aegean |
| 390 BC | Gauls sack Rome The Celt Brennus, after defeating the Romans at the Allia, burned Rome (traditional date; in fact around 387 BC). | Italy |
| 387 BC | King's Peace (Peace of Antalcidas) The Greek cities of Asia Minor and Cyprus were assigned to the Persian king, and the other cities declared autonomous. | Greece · Persia |
| 382 BC | Sparta seizes the citadel of Thebes A Spartan force seized the Cadmea by surprise in time of peace. | Thebes |
| 379 BC | Liberation of Thebes Exiles including Pelopidas overthrew the pro-Spartan regime. | Thebes |
| 378 BC | Second Athenian League The alliance was rebuilt on condition that there would be no tribute and no Athenian settlers. | Aegean |
| 371 BC | Battle of Leuctra Epaminondas broke the Spartan army with an oblique order, his left wing massed fifty ranks deep. The end of Spartan hegemony. | Boeotia |
| Play this scene What if…? What if Sparta had won at Leuctra? | ||
| 369 BC | Founding of Messene The Thebans invaded Laconia, freed the helots of Messenia and founded a new city. | Peloponnese |
| 362 BC | Battle of Mantinea Thebes won, but Epaminondas was killed. Xenophon ended his Hellenica with this battle. | Peloponnese |
| 359 BC | Philip II becomes king of Macedon He took the throne after his brother Perdiccas III was killed by the Illyrians, and created the phalanx of long sarissa pikes. | Macedon |
| 358 BC | Accession of Artaxerxes III He took a firm grip again on an empire shaken by revolts. | Persia |
| 356 BC | Birth of Alexander The same year the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burned by an arsonist. | Macedon |
| 352 BC | Battle of the Crocus Field Philip defeated the Phocians and became head of the Thessalian League. | Thessaly |
| 348 BC | Fall of Olynthus Philip destroyed the city, and in Athens Demosthenes kept up his speeches denouncing Philip. | Chalcidice |
| 346 BC | Peace of Philocrates Athens and Macedon made peace. Demosthenes was one of the envoys. | Athens · Macedon |
| Play this scene Scenario The Last Speech | ||
| 344 BC | Timoleon's expedition to Sicily Timoleon of Corinth drove out the tyrants and revived Syracuse. | Sicily |
| c. 343 BC | Persia reconquers Egypt Nectanebo II, the last native pharaoh, fled south. | Egypt |
| 343 BC | First Samnite War begins Capua in Campania appealed to Rome for help, starting half a century of Samnite wars. | Italy |
| 338 BC | Battle of Chaeronea Philip and eighteen-year-old Alexander defeated the allied army of Athens and Thebes. The Theban Sacred Band was wiped out, and the next year the League of Corinth was formed. | Boeotia |
| Play this scene What if…? What if the Greeks had won at Chaeronea? · Person Demosthenes | ||
| 336 BC | Philip assassinated; Alexander king He was killed by a bodyguard at his daughter's wedding feast. The same year Darius III became king of Persia. | Macedon |
| 335 BC | Destruction of Thebes Alexander razed Thebes after it rebelled and sold its people into slavery. | Thebes |
| 334 BC | Battle of the Granicus Having crossed the Hellespont, Alexander defeated the army of the Persian satraps. | Asia Minor |
| 333 BC | Battle of Issus Darius III fled, leaving his family behind. | Cilicia |
| 332 BC | Fall of Tyre; Alexander enters Egypt He took the island city of Tyre after a seven-month siege, and Egypt surrendered without a fight. | Phoenicia · Egypt |
| 331 BC | Founding of Alexandria; Battle of Gaugamela Darius was beaten again at Gaugamela, and Babylon and Susa opened their gates. | Egypt · Mesopotamia |
| 330 BC | Palace of Persepolis burned; Darius III killed The Achaemenid dynasty came to an end. | Persia |
| 323 BC | Alexander dies in Babylon After his death at 32 the wars of his generals, the Successors, began. | Mesopotamia |
| 322 BC | End of the Lamian War; Demosthenes takes his own life The Athenian democracy was replaced by an oligarchy with a property qualification. Aristotle also died that year. | Greece |
| 321 BC | Partition of Triparadisus The generals redivided the empire's satrapies, and Seleucus received Babylon. | Syria |
| 316 BC | Cassander takes Macedon He executed Alexander's mother Olympias and the next year founded Thessaloniki. | Macedon |
| 306 BC | The Successors' “Year of the Kings” When Antigonus and Demetrius took the title of king, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander followed. | Eastern Mediterranean |
| 305 BC | Demetrius besieges Rhodes He withdrew after a year, and the Rhodians sold the siege engines he left behind to build the Colossus of the sun god. | Rhodes |
| 301 BC | Battle of Ipsus Seleucus's elephants decided the battle and Antigonus was killed. The shape of the Hellenistic kingdoms was set. | Phrygia |
3rd century BC (290–202 BC)
The century in which, while the Hellenistic kingdoms fought each other, Rome united Italy and beat Carthage in two Punic Wars.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 290 BC | End of the Samnite Wars Having beaten the allied army at Sentinum in 295 BC, Rome became master of central Italy. | Italy |
| Play this scene Scenario Son of the Cadmea · Scenario The Night of the Herms · Person Alcibiades · What if…? What if the Athenian expedition to Sicily had succeeded? · Scenario The Return of the Ten Thousand · What if…? What if Cyrus the Younger had survived at Cunaxa? · Person Xenophon · What if…? What if Sparta had won at Leuctra? · Scenario The Last Speech · What if…? What if the Greeks had won at Chaeronea? · Person Demosthenes | ||
| 283 BC | Battle of Lake Vadimo Rome defeated an Etruscan and Celtic alliance. | Italy |
| 281 BC | Battle of Corupedium Seleucus defeated Lysimachus but was assassinated the same year. | Asia Minor |
| 280 BC | Pyrrhus invades Italy Called in by Tarentum, King Pyrrhus of Epirus won at Heraclea and the next year at Asculum, but at great cost (a “Pyrrhic victory”). | Italy |
| 279 BC | Celts invade Greece King Ptolemy Ceraunus of Macedon was killed, and the Celts came south as far as Delphi before withdrawing. | Macedon · Greece |
| 277 BC | Antigonus Gonatas becomes king of Macedon He defeated the Celts at Lysimachia. The Celts who crossed into Anatolia later became the Galatians. | Thrace |
| 275 BC | Battle of Beneventum Pyrrhus was beaten by Rome and went home to Epirus. | Italy |
| 272 BC | Death of Pyrrhus; Tarentum surrenders Pyrrhus died in street fighting at Argos, and Rome became master of the Italian peninsula. | Greece · Italy |
| 264 BC | First Punic War begins When the Mamertines of Messana asked for help, a Roman army crossed the sea for the first time. | Sicily |
| 260 BC | Battle of Mylae A Roman fleet fitted with the corvus, a hooked boarding bridge, won its first sea battle. | Sicily |
| c. 247 BC | Arsaces founds Parthia The nomadic Parni took Parthia in the east of the Seleucid kingdom. | Iran |
| 243 BC | Achaean League retakes Corinth Aratus of Sicyon drove the Macedonian garrison out of the Acrocorinth. | Peloponnese |
| 241 BC | Battle of the Aegates; end of the First Punic War Carthage gave up Sicily and paid an indemnity of 3,200 talents. | Sicily |
| 238 BC | Rome seizes Sardinia Rome took Sardinia (and then Corsica) from a Carthage shaken by the Mercenary War. | Sardinia |
| 237 BC | Hamilcar Barca lands in Iberia Carthage began to build a new power base in Iberia, with its silver mines. | Iberia |
| c. 228 BC | Founding of Carthago Nova Hasdrubal founded “New Carthage” in south-eastern Iberia. | Iberia |
| 222 BC | Battles of Sellasia and Clastidium Macedon defeated Cleomenes III of Sparta, and Rome subdued the Celts of the Po valley. | Greece · Italy |
| 218 BC | Hannibal crosses the Alps After taking Saguntum, Hannibal crossed the Alps with his elephants and won at the river Trebia (Second Punic War). | Iberia · Italy |
| 216 BC | Battle of Cannae Hannibal's encirclement destroyed tens of thousands of Romans in a single day. | Italy |
| 212 BC | Rome takes Syracuse It fell after a two-year siege, and Archimedes died at this time. | Sicily |
| 206 BC | Battle of Ilipa Scipio drove the Carthaginians out of Iberia. | Iberia |
| 202 BC | Battle of Zama Scipio and the Numidian cavalry defeated Hannibal. Carthage lost its fleet and could no longer make war without Rome's permission. | North Africa |
2nd–1st centuries BC (200–30 BC)
The period in which Rome brought down Macedon, the Seleucids and Carthage in turn, and finally took Egypt, the last Hellenistic kingdom.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 200 BC | Battle of Panium The Seleucid Antiochus III defeated the Ptolemaic army and took Coele-Syria. | Syria |
| Play this scene Scenario Son of the Cadmea · Scenario The Night of the Herms · Person Alcibiades · What if…? What if the Athenian expedition to Sicily had succeeded? · Scenario The Return of the Ten Thousand · What if…? What if Cyrus the Younger had survived at Cunaxa? · Person Xenophon · What if…? What if Sparta had won at Leuctra? · Scenario The Last Speech · What if…? What if the Greeks had won at Chaeronea? · Person Demosthenes | ||
| 197 BC | Battle of Cynoscephalae Roman legions broke the Macedonian phalanx. The next year Flamininus proclaimed “the freedom of the Greeks”. | Thessaly |
| 190 BC | Battle of Magnesia Rome defeated Antiochus III, and by the Peace of Apamea the Seleucid kingdom lost everything west of the Taurus. | Asia Minor |
| 168 BC | Battle of Pydna Perseus, the last king of Macedon, was defeated and his kingdom split into four. | Macedon |
| 167 BC | Maccabean revolt Against the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem, Mattathias and Judas Maccabeus rose in revolt. | Judaea |
| 148 BC | Macedon becomes a Roman province After crushing the revolt of Andriscus, Rome began to rule it directly. | Macedon |
| 146 BC | Destruction of Corinth and of Carthage In the same year Rome burned Corinth and, after a three-year siege, destroyed Carthage. | Greece · North Africa |
| 141 BC | Parthia conquers Mesopotamia Mithridates I entered Seleucia. | Mesopotamia |
| 133 BC | Kingdom of Pergamon bequeathed to Rome By the will of Attalus III, Rome's province of Asia was created. | Asia Minor |
| 63 BC | Pompey's settlement of the East He ended the Seleucid dynasty, made Syria a province and entered Jerusalem. | Syria · Pontus |
| 52 BC | Battle of Alesia Vercingetorix surrendered, effectively ending Caesar's conquest of Gaul. | Gaul |
| 31 BC | Battle of Actium Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra. | Greece |
| 30 BC | Death of Cleopatra VII; end of the Ptolemaic dynasty The last Hellenistic kingdom disappeared and Egypt became a Roman province. | Egypt |
This era in the game
The Classical Greece era of Crown & Plough begins in 431 BC, the year the Peloponnesian War starts. Born as an Athenian rower, a Spartan warrior, a Theban noble or a scribe at the Persian court, you hear of the events on this timeline as the news of their year, and sometimes stand on those battlefields yourself.
The Sicilian Expedition, Cunaxa, Leuctra and Chaeronea are turning points whose outcomes can differ from reality. When one life ends you carry on as your children, and can live on into the age of Alexander and of Rome.
Be born in the Classical Greece → Classical Greece guide
Frequently asked questions
When did the Peloponnesian War begin and end?
It began in 431 BC and ended with the surrender of Athens in 404 BC. It paused with the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC and flared up again around the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC.
How did hegemony in Greece change in the 4th century BC?
Sparta held it from 404 BC, Thebes after the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, and with the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC Philip II of Macedon took Greece.
When did the Hellenistic period end?
The Hellenistic period is usually taken to run from Alexander's death in 323 BC to 30 BC, when Cleopatra VII died and Egypt became a Roman province.