The major players

Athens:  site information, city map.  The Acropolis seen from the Pnyx.     Fifth-century Athenian coin:

Sparta:  site information   Spartan Acropolis  

Corinth:  site information   Agora at Corinth     Sixth-century Corinthian coin:

Argos:  site information   Argos from the east     Fourth-century Argive coin:

Tragedy performed at City Dionysia from ca. 534.  Theater of Dionysus: plan , aerial view:

Expulsion of the Peisistratid tyranny, beginning of Athenian democracy, 510

Political reforms of Cleisthenes 507: less power to aristocratic families, larger boulê (council)

Ionians rebel against Persia 499

Persian war 490-479.  Vase showing Greek and Persian in combat: .   Athens and Sparta as leaders of the Greeks.

Battle of Marathon 490.  View of Marathon:

Battles of Salamis and Thermopylae 480.  View of Salamis: .  View of Thermopylae: .   Persians sack Athens, but the sacred olive tree sprouts again.

Silver discovered at Laurium 493. Themistocles convinces Athenians to build a navy.

Institution of ostracism in Athens in the 480s;  archons chosen by lot

Delian League formed 477

Temple of Zeus at Olympia built 470-456.  Current state: Reconstructed cross-section:

Earthquake and helot rebellion in Sparta 463

Reforms of Ephialtes 461:  power from Areopagus to assembly/juries

Pindar, 518-446, Boeotia (Pythian 8 446)

Aeschylus, fl. 484-458, Athens (Oresteia 458).  Scene from the story of the Eumenides (ca. 345):

Treasury of the Delian League moves from Delos to Athens 454

Pericles prominent mid-century. Periclean policies:  pay for jury service 460s-450s, citizenship law 451

Parthenon built 447-432.  Details.  Current state:

Sophocles, 496-406, Athens (Ajax and Antigone in the 440s, Oedipus the King in the 420s, Oedipus at Colonus about 406, produced posthumously).   A scene from the Ajax story (ca. 490):

Euripides, fl. 455-405, Athens (Medea 431, Electra in the 410s, Bacchae 405)   Dionysus and maenads (ca. 435):

Herodotus, fl. 445-426, Halicarnassus

Peloponnesian war 431-404

Thucydides, fl. 431-411, Athens (dies 411)

Aristophanes, fl. 430-388, Athens  (Clouds 423, Lysistrata 411)

Plague in Athens 430

Pericles dies 429

Peace of Nicias 421

Sicilian expedition 415

Oligarchy in Athens 411-410

Fall of Athens 404

Thirty tyrants 404-403

Death of Socrates 399

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