Foundations of Western Civilization Timeline.
Timeline of Foundations of Western Civilization:
Based on Lectures by Thomas F.X. Nobel.
See also
lectures by Thomas F.X. Nobel from the Teaching Company:
- 3,500-3,000 B.C.E.
- Emergence of civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Cities and writing develop.
- 3,000-2,000 B.C.E.
- Consolidation of political power in Sumer.
Old Kingdom in Egypt.
Akkadians conquer Sumer.
- 2,000-1,500 B.C.E.
- Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
Ascension of Hittites.
Height of Minoan civilization (Crete).
- 1,500-1,000 B.C.E.
- Egyptian New Kingdom.
Egyptians fight Hittites in several wars.
-
Myceneans conquer Minoans; Trojan Wars (probably trade disputes).
-
Invasion of Palestine by 'sea peoples.'
Exodus of Hebrews from Egypt.
- 1,000 B.C.E.
-
Iron age reaches Central Italy.
- 1,000-500 B.C.E.
- Creation of Phoenician trading networks and colonies.
- Assyria rises and falls.
- Neo-Babylonian kingdom rises and falls.
- Hebrew kingdoms rise, divide, and fall.
- Persia emerges.
- Greek Dark Ages and Archaic period;
'Homer' writes down the oral epic poems of Iliad
and Odyssey.
Greek colonization.
Emergence of the polis.
- 753 B.C.E.
- Founding of the city of Rome.
- 752-509 B.C.E.
- Monarchical period of Rome.
- 509 B.C.E.
- Traditionally, expulsion by the Romans of their last Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud.
- Traditional date for the founding of the Roman Republic.
- 500-350 B.C.E.
- Classical age of Greece:
- Persian and Peloponnesian Wars
- Highpoint of Athenian drama and comedy written by:
Aeschylus,
Sophocles,
Euripedes,
and Aristophanes.
- Philosophers:
Sophists, Socrates,
Plato, Aristotle.
- Historians:
Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon.
- Parthenon built in Athens.
- 449 B.C.E.
- Twelve Tables bearing laws were erected in the Roman forum.
- 436-338 B.C.E.
- Isocrates promoted the idea of a united Greece under Athens and Sparta.
When that failed, he promoted union under Philip of Macedon.
- 429-347 B.C.E.
- Plato.
- 385 B.C.E.
- Approximate date when Plato founds his school, the Academy.
- 384-322 B.C.E.
- Aristotle.
- Demosthenes (same birth and death years), a great orator,
promoted the autonomy of the polis
and he saw Macedon as a threat to Greek liberty.
- 382-336 B.C.E.
- Philip II of Macedonia, who took control of Greece.
- 356-323 B.C.E.
- Alexander the Great, who took control of the Persian Empire.
- 323-31 B.C.E.
- Hellenistic Era: from the death of Alexander the Great to the Roman dominance:
- The 'common' Greek language or koin&eactute; became the form of Greek used throughout the western Mediterranean.
- A world of empires and kingdoms.
- On Alexander's death, his empire was carved apart by his leading generals into kingdoms; those warred with each other till
Rome conquored them all.
- Scientific breakthroughs from:
Euclid (about 300 B.C.E.); Archimedes (287-212 B.C.E.); Aristarchus; Eratosthenes; Potolemy.
- New literary forms, particularly from:
Appolonius (b. about 295 B.C.E.; Argonautica, both an adventure story and a love story);
Menander (b. about 342 B.C.E.; died about 291 B.C.E.); Curmugeon and other 'new' comedies).
- New philosophies:
Stoicism (arising from Zeno (335-263 B.C.E.), who equated knowledge with virtue);
Epicureanism (arising from Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E.), who promoted the aim of philosophy
as renunciation, "the absence of pain from the body and trouble from the soul".
- 338 B.C.E.
- Philip's decisive victory over the Greeks.
- 335 B.C.E.
- Aristotle founds his school, the Lyceum in Athens.
- 323 B.C.E.
- Death of Alexander the Great.
- 287 B.C.E.
- Licinian-Sextian laws "granted the legislation of the plebian assemply full binding power on all the
Roman people".
- 264-241 B.C.E.
- First Punic War between Rome and Carthage (an old Phoenician colony).
Rome then annexed Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.
- 234-149 B.C.E.
- Cato the Elder.
- 218-201 B.C.E.
- Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage.
- 204 B.C.E.
- Rome took the Second Punic War to Carthage when Scipio invaded North Africa.
- 199-197 B.C.E.
- Rome's War in the Balkans against Macedon.
- 171-167 B.C.E.
- Rome's War in the Balkans against Greek cities and leagues.
- 149-146 B.C.E.
- Third Punic War between Rome and Carthage.
- 150-146 B.C.E.
- Rome's further War in the Balkans against Greek cities and leagues.
- 146 B.C.E.
- Rome has annexed Carthage and Greece.
- 133 B.C.E.
- Death of Tiberius Gracchus, murdered in "the first instance of political bloodshed in Rome".
- 121 B.C.E.
- Death of Gaius Gracchus.
- 106-48 B.C.E.
- Pompey.
- 106-43 B.C.E.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (political writings and forensic speeches).
- 100-44 B.C.E.
- Julius Caesar.
- 84-54 B.C.E.
- Catullus (emulated Greek poets; themes of love).
- 70 B.C.E. - 19 C.E.
- Virgil.
- 65-8 B.C.E.
- Virgil.
- 59 B.C.E. - 17 C.E.
- Livy.
- 43 B.C.E. - 18 C.E.
- Ovid.
- 31 B.C.E. - 14 C.E.
- Octavian.
- 27-25 B.C.E.
- Roman Pantheon built, using an arched roof.
- 4 B.C.E. - 65 C.E.
- Seneca (the Stoic).
- 14-68 C.E.
- Rome ruled by members of Julio-Claudian family.
- 35 B.C.E. - 100 C.E.
- Quintillian (rhetorician).
- 40-104
- Martial (satirist).
- 55-117 (approximately)
- Tacitus.
- 60-136
- Juvenal (satirist).
- 69
- Year of civil war for Rome.
- 70-140 (approximately)
- Suetonius.
- 96-180
- Pax Romana under the series of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
- 96-98
- Rule of Nerva, the 1st of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
- 98-117
- Rule of Trajan, the 2nd of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
- 117-138
- Rule of Hadrian, the 3rd of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
- 125-200
- Lucian (satirist).
- 138-161
- Rule of Antonius Pius, the 4th of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
- 161-180
- Rule of Marcus Aurelius, the 5th of Rome's "Five Good Emperors".
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