Chronology
Five thousand years, end to end
10 records shown
- 776 BCECultural
The First Olympic Games
Olympia
A single foot race at the sanctuary of Zeus becomes the Greek world's shared calendar.
↓ next - 508 BCEPolitical
Athenian Democracy Established
Athens
Cleisthenes reorganises Attica into ten tribes and hands sovereignty to the assembly of citizens.
↓ next - 432 BCEMonument
The Parthenon Completed
Athens
Fifteen years of work on the Acropolis end with a temple whose columns are deliberately imperfect.
↓ next - 399 BCEPolitical
The Trial of Socrates
Athens
A jury of 501 Athenians condemns a philosopher for impiety; he drinks hemlock rather than flee.
↓ next - 283 BCEDiscovery
Founding of the Library of Alexandria
Alexandria
The Ptolemies attempt to collect every book in the world in one harbour city.
↓ next - 130 BCEDiscovery
The Silk Road Opens
Chang'an
Han envoys reach Central Asia and stitch together a 6,400 km commercial and cultural corridor.
↓ next - 44 BCEPolitical
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Rome
Sixty senators stab the dictator perpetuo at the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March.
↓ next - 30 BCEBattle
Actium and the End of Ptolemaic Egypt
Alexandria
After defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII dies and Egypt becomes a Roman province.
↓ next - 330 CEPolitical
The Founding of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantine dedicates a new Rome on the Bosphorus, at the hinge of Europe and Asia.
↓ next - 476 CEPolitical
The Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Rome
Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus and sends the imperial regalia east.
Range shown: 776 BCE — 476 CE