The ‘periods’ into which modern historians conventionally divide ancient history are in bold, with Roman periods in italics.
|
1575/50-1100 BC |
Mycenaean Greece |
|
1200 BC |
Trojan War? |
|
1100-776 BC |
Dark-Age Greece |
|
934-609 BC |
Neo-Assyrian empire |
|
776-479 BC |
Archaic Greece |
|
753-509 BC |
Regal Period at Rome |
|
c. 750 BC onwards |
Emergence of the Greek polls (city state) |
|
c. 750-550 BC |
Greek ‘Age of Colonization’ |
|
c. 725-650 BC |
Greek invention of hoplite phalanx? |
|
550-330 BC |
Achaemenid Persian empire |
|
509-287 BC |
Early Roman Republic |
|
490-479 BC |
Persian Wars |
|
490 BC |
Battle of Marathon |
|
480 BC |
Battle of Thermopylae |
|
480 BC |
Battle of Artemisium |
|
480 BC |
Battle of Salamis |
|
479 BC |
Battle of Plataea |
|
479-323 BC |
Classical Greece |
|
472 BC |
Aeschylus’ The Persians first performed |
|
432-430 BC |
Athenian siege of Potidaea |
|
431-404 BC |
Peloponnesian War |
|
431-427 BC |
Spartan siege of Plataea |
|
430 BC |
Athenians win naval battle of Naupactus against Spartans |
|
415-413 BC |
Athenian expedition to Sicily |
|
405 BC |
Athenians lose naval battle of Aegospotami to the Spartans |
|
405-367 BC |
Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse |
|
371 BC |
Thebans beat Spartans at battle of Leuctra |
|
362 BC |
Thebans beat Spartans at battle of (Second) Mantinea |
|
359-336 BC |
Reign of Philip II of Macedon |
|
338 BC |
Philip II defeats a coalition of Greeks at Chaeronea |
|
336-323 BC |
Reign of Alexander the Great |
|
333 BC |
Alexander defeats the Persians at the battle of Issus |
|
323-30 BC |
Hellenistic Greece |
|
305-304 BC |
Demetrius besieges Rhodes |
|
287-133 BC |
Middle Roman Republic |
|
264-241BC |
First Punic War |
|
247 BC-AD 224 |
Parthian (Arsacid) empire |
|
218-201BC |
Second Punic War (Hannibal’s War) |
|
214-205 BC |
First Macedonian War |
|
213-211 BC |
Roman siege of Syracuse |
|
200-196 BC |
Second Macedonian War |
|
197 BC |
Romans defeat Macedonians at battle of Cynoscephalae |
|
192-189 BC |
Roman war with Antiochus III (Selucid king) |
|
171-168 BC |
Third Macedonian War |
|
149-147 BC |
Macedonian Revolt (Macedon made a Roman province) |
|
146 BC |
Greece added to Roman province of Macedonia |
|
149-146 BC |
Third Punic War |
|
133-30 BC |
Late Roman Republic |
|
133 BC |
Tiberius Gracchus, a Tribune of the Plebs, enacts land reform |
|
133 BC |
Kingdom of Pergamum made Roman province of Asia |
|
107 BC |
Marius, a Consul, enrols the unpropertied in the Legions |
|
63 BC |
Death of Mithridates VI of Pontus |
|
63-2 BC |
Conspiracy of Catiline |
|
58-50 BC |
Julius Caesar conquers Gaul |
|
54-53 BC (winter) |
Gauls defeat Romans under Sabinus at Atuatuca |
|
53 BC |
Parthians defeat Romans at battle of Carrhae, death of Crassus |
|
52 BC |
Julius Caesar besieges Alesia |
|
48 BC |
Julius Caesar defeats Republicans led by Pompey at Pharsalus |
|
47 BC |
Julius Caesar defeats Pharnaces II of Pontus at Zela |
|
46 BC |
Julius Caesar defeats Republicans at Thapsus |
|
44 BC |
Assassination of Julius Caesar |
|
30 BC-ad 233 |
The Principate (Early, or High, Roman empire) |
|
30 BC-AD 14 |
Reign of Augustus |
|
AD 9 |
Germans defeat Romans under Varus in Teutoburg Forest |
|
AD 14-16 |
Roman campaigns under Germanicus against the Germans |
|
AD C. 40-C. 112 |
Life of Dio Chrysostom |
|
AD 43 |
Roman invasion of Britain under Claudius |
|
AD C. 50-C. 120 |
Life of Plutarch |
|
AD c. 55-C. 135 |
Life of Epictetus |
|
AD 73/74 |
Roman siege of Jewish fortress of Masada |
|
AD 83 |
Romans under Agricola defeat Caledonians at Mons Grauplus |
|
AD 86 |
Domitian’s forces defeat the Nasamones |
|
AD 98 |
Tacitus’ Agricola written |
|
AD 122-6 |
Hadrian’s Wall built |
|
AD c. 139/42-154/8 and c. 158-64 |
Occupation of the ‘Antonine Wall’ in northern Britain |
|
AD c. 160-220 |
Life of Tertullian |
|
AD 172-5 |
Marcus Aurelius fights the Germans and Sarmatians |
|
AD 180-92 |
Reign of Commodus/ construction of Column of Marcus Aurelius |
|
AD c. 185-254 |
Life of Origen |
|
AD 193-211 |
Reign of Septimius Severus |
|
AD 224 |
Sassanid Persians overthrow Parthians |
|
AD 235-84 |
The ‘Third Century Crisis’ of the Raman empire |
|
AD 235-8 |
Reign of Maximinus Thrax |
|
AD C. 257 |
Sassanid Persian siege of Dura-Europos |
|
AD 284-476 |
The Dominate (Late, or Low, Roman empire) |
|
AD 307-37 |
Reign of Constantine the Great |
|
AD 354-430 |
Life of Saint Augustine |
|
AD 357 |
Battle of Strasburg |
|
AD 359 |
Sassanid Persian siege of Amida |
|
AD C. 370 |
Huns appear in the Roman world |
|
AD 378 |
Goths defeat the Romans at the battle of Adrianople |
|
AD 451 |
‘Romans’ defeat the Huns at the battle of Chalons |
|
AD 475-6 |
Reign of last western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus |
|
AD 476-1453 |
The Byzantine empire |
|
AD 604-29 |
Wars between Byzantium and Sassanid Persia |
|
AD 632-3 |
Ridda (Apostasy) wars in Arabia |
|
AD 633-40 |
Arabs conquer Syria from Byzantines |
|
AD 636 |
Arabs defeat Byzantines at battle of Yarmuk |
|
AD 642 |
Arabs conquer Egypt from Byzantines |
|
AD 651 |
Fall of the Sassanld Persian Empire |
|
AD 1453 |
Fall of Constantinople to the Turks |
|
AD 1812/16-28 |
Rise of Zulu army (reign of Chaka) |
|
AD 1976 |
John Keegan’s The Face of Battle |
|
AD 1976 |
Edward Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire |
|
AD 2000 |
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator |