THE TRACK OF GREEK CIVILIZATION

• PALEOLITHIC times ~ 40,000 B.C.: First human inhabitants of Balkan Greece.
• NEOLITHIC period ~ 6000-3000: humans spreads to the island of Crete and the Cycladic islands in a rapid growth of    population: Neolithic Revolution - invention of agriculture.
• BRONZE AGE ~3000-1000 B.C.: Mastery of metalcraft.
• Minoan Crete (king Minos) ~2000 B.C. (~ Myth of Theseus and Minotaur). Apparently a peaceful civilization, destroyed by earthquakes or other calamities; explosion of the island of Thera, ~1600 B.C.
• Mycenean Greece ~1500 B.C. Fortified strongholds surround dynastic palaces - a feature unknown to Minoans. The central city, Mycenae, famous for its lions gate, - the capital of Agamemnon, who lead the Greek forces against Troy ~1200 B.C. Mycenaeans spoke Greek language. Writing: linear B. (Discoveries by Henrich Schliemann; Arthur Evans; Writing deciphered by Michael Ventris).
• Dorian invasion ~1000 B.C.: brought iron weapons. > IRON AGE.
• Dark Ages ~ 1000-800 B.C.: the writing forgotten.
• Archaic period ~800-500 B.C.: More efficient form of writing - alphabetical - came from Phoenicians. Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey.Hesiod, Theogony; Works And Days (Epic poems). Greek culture spreads East and West, flourishing along the coast of Asia Minor - Ionian cities, as well as in Sicily and Southern Italy (Graecia Magna, "the Great Greece").
•  Ionian philosophy - Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus.
•  Pythagorean > Eleatic philosophy - Pythagoras; Xenophanes.
•  Solon the Athenian, one of the so-called Seven Wise Men of the ancient world, reforms the laws of Athens, thus building the foundation of the Athenian Democracy (~590 B.C.)
• Classical Age of Greece ~500-330 B.C.: Short, but glorious period of Athenian supremacy in both political and cultural spheres. Defeat of the Persian invasion. The citadel Acropolis with the Parthenon, temple of Athena Parthenos (Virgin), patron goddess of the city. Attic drama (Attica) - Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.); Sophocles (496-406 B.C.); Euripides (480-405 B.C.) - tragedians; Aristophanes (~430-390 B.C.) - comediographer.
•  Athenian philosophy - Socrates (469-399 B.C.); Plato (429-347 B.C.); Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
• Alexander the Great (|323 B.C.) has spread Greek influence far and wide, thus starting the removal of the centers of Greek culture away from  Greece - in the mixed populations of the near East and northern Africa (Alexandria).
• Hellenistic (Hellas = Greece) ~330-30 B.C.: A relatively long and fruitful period with its multi-ethnic bloom of Greek culture.
• Roman period ~ 150 B.C.- A.D. 476: Conquered by Rome, Greece transformed Rome culturally.

Byzantine period A.D. 330 - 1453: Eastern Roman Empire centered in Constantinople carried on the ancient Greek tradition in Christian world. Fleeing to Italy from the city seized by the Turks, Byzantine monks contributed to the renewal of the interest in ancient letters, thus triggering the European Renaissance.