[Up: classical timelines] [Robot Wisdom home page]
Greece
45,000 BC to 440 BC: Heracles : Argonauts : Theban cycle : Trojan cycle : Homer : Hesiod : 'Homeric' hymns : Sappho : Aesop : [map] : Aeschylus : Pindar : Herodotus
440 BC to 322 BC: #Sophocles #Euripides #Thucydides #Aristophanes #Xenophon
427 BC to 322 BC: Plato and Aristotle
322 BC to present: Plutarch
Rome
200,000 BC to 44 BC: Plautus : Ennius : Cato : Terence : Varro : Julius Caesar
106 BC to 43 BC: Cicero
44 BC to 17 AD: Nepos : Lucretius : Sallust : Catullus : Vitruvius : Virgil : Horace : Augustus : Livy : Priapea : Tibullus : Sulpicia : Seneca the Elder : Propertius : Ovid
19 BC to present: Velleius : Phaedrus : Valerius Maximus : Seneca the Younger : Petronius : Pliny the Elder : Silius Italicus : Frontinus : Persius : Lucan : Quintilian : Josephus : Martial : Valerius Flaccus : Statius : Rufus : Tacitus : Pliny the Younger : Suetonius : Juvenal : Marcus Aurelius : Apuleius : Gellius : Florus : Cassius Dio : Justin : Historia Augusta : Ammianus : Aurelius Victor : Eutropius : Augustine : Claudian
The Greek timelines here are largely based on Thomas Martin's 1996 book-length overview at perseus.org. [ToC] [site critique] I'll include links to each of his pages (tagged eg [tm1.1]) but also many links to resources not on the Perseus site. (Martin includes some local Perseus links at the bottom of each page, as well.)
c435 BC: possible early version of 'Medea' by Neophron (Neophon) of Sicyon [info]
wrote over 100 plays, but only seven complete ones survive; won tragedy competition more than 20 times [tm10.2.5.1]
bios: Perseus
quotes: Bartlett's
Antigone (442)
bloody exploration of duty vs revenge [tm10.2.5.4]
"Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, Myatt, MIT [txt],
Fordham, eServer, Oz, Bartleby, Diotima, excerpts
Commentaries: Diotima, Perseus, study guide
Ajax (440)
Greek army in Trojan War portrayed as polis [tm10.2.5.3]
"To mock foes, is not that the sweetest mockery?"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, Oz
Commentaries: Perseus
Oedipus the King (430, aka Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus Rex)
"...our ship of State, Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, Myatt, UMich, UVa, MIT [txt], Bartleby, [trilogy] [ditto] [ditto]
Commentaries: Perseus, study guide
The Trachiniae (430, Women of Trachis)
"...my wooer was a river-god, Achelous, who in three shapes was ever asking me from my sire-- coming now as a bull in bodily form, now as serpent with sheeny coils, now with trunk of man and front of ox, while from a shaggy beard the streams of fountain-water flowed abroad."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Jebb-Pers, Torrance-Pers, MIT [txt], eServer, Diotima, Oz
Commentaries: Perseus
Electra (415)
"Tell them, and confirm it with thine oath, that Orestes hath perished by a fatal chance-- hurled at the Pythian games from his rapid chariot; be that the substance of thy story."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, Oz
Commentaries: Perseus
Philoctetes (409)
"There's not a Grecian whom his soul so much Could wish to crush beneath him as Ulysses."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Jebb-Pers, Torrance-Pers, MIT [txt], eServer, PGut, Oz
Commentaries: Perseus
Oedipus at Colonna (406, aka Oedipus at Colonus)
"Inviolable, untrod; goddesses, Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], gopher
Commentaries: Perseus
Tracking Satyrs (Ichneutae)
"I speak to the forest: if any shepherd or any rustic or any charcoal-burner is here, or any saytr from the mountains, child of the river-nymphs, I announce these things to one and all. Whoever can capture the one who stole the cattle of Apollo Paean, his is the reward that stands here."
(only half survives)
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus
Commentaries:
432 BC: Meton regularises calendar [info]
19 of 92 survive
bios: Perseus
quotes: Bartlett's
criticism: Aristophanes
Alcestis (438)
"See! Death, Lord of All the Dead, now comes to lead her to the house of Hades! Most punctually he comes!"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Medea (431)
"And she hates her children now and feels no joy at seeing them; I fear she may contrive some untoward scheme; for her mood is dangerous nor will she brook her cruel treatment; full well I know her, and I much do dread that she will plunge the keen sword through their hearts..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Children of Heracles (c430, Heracleidae)
"O children, children, come hither! hold unto my robe; for lo! I see a herald coming towards us from Eurystheus, by whom we are persecuted, wanderers excluded from every land."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Hippolytus (428)
"At his back follows a long train of retainers, in joyous cries of revelry uniting and hymns of praise to Artemis, his goddess; for little he recks that Death hath oped his gates for him, and that this is his last look upon the light."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], Bartleby
Commentaries: Pater, Racine
Andromache (c426)
"I Andromache, envied name in days of yore, but now of all women that have been or yet shall be the most unfortunate; for I have lived to see my husband Hector slain by Achilles, and the babe Astyanax, whom I bore my lord, hurled from the towering battlements, when the Hellenes sacked our Trojan home; and I myself am come to Hellas as a slave..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries: Racine-French
Hecuba (c424)
"...but now am I hovering o'er the head of my dear mother Hecuba, a disembodied spirit, keeping my airy station these three days..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
The Suppliant Women (c422, The Suppliants)
"At thy knees I fall, aged dame, and my old lips beseech thee; arise, rescue from the slain my children's bodies, whose limbs, by death relaxed, are left a prey to savage mountain beasts..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
The Madness of Heracles (c417)
"...he, wishing to lighten my affliction and to find a home in his own land, did offer Eurystheus a mighty price for my recall, even to free the world of savage monsters..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Electra (c417)
"And whoso counts me but a fool for leaving a tender maid untouched when I have her in my house, to him I say, he measures purity by the vicious standard of his own soul, a standard like himself."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
The Trojan Women (415)
"Scamander's banks re-echo long and loud the screams of captive maids, as they by lot receive their masters."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries: essay
Iphigenia in Tauris (c414, also spelled Iphigeneia)
"My unhappy fate To Aulis brought me; on the altar there High was I placed, and o'er me gleam'd the sword, Aiming the fatal wound: but from the stroke Diana snatch'd me, in exchange a hind Giving the Grecians..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries: Goethe-German
Helen (412)
"...Hera, indignant at not defeating the goddesses, brought to naught my marriage with Paris, and gave to Priam's princely son not Helen, but a phantom endowed with life, that she made in my image out of the breath of heaven; and Paris thought that I was his, although I never was-- an idle fancy!"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Ion (c410)
"...to the same cave, Where by the enamour'd god she was compress'd, Creusa bore the infant: there for death Exposed him in a well-compacted ark Of circular form..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
The Phoenician Women (c410)
"By some strange chance, my own son, Oedipus, guessed the Sphinx's riddle, and so he became king of this land and received its sceptre as his prize, and married his mother, all unwitting, luckless wretch! nor did I his mother know that I was wedded to my son..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Orestes (408)
"There is naught so terrible to describe, be it physical pain or heaven-sent affliction, that man's nature may not have to bear the burden of it."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Bacchae (405, The Bacchantes)
"Lydia's glebes, where gold abounds, and Phrygia have I left behind; o'er Persia's sun-baked plains, by Bactria's walled towns and Media's wintry clime have I advanced through Arabia, land of promise..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], Bartleby
Commentaries: Pater
Iphigenia in Aulis (405, also spelled Iphigeneia)
"...thou, after letting thy taper spread its light abroad, writest the letter which is still in thy hands and then erasest the same words again, sealing and re-opening the scroll, then flinging the tablet to the ground with floods of tears and leaving nothing undone in thy aimless behaviour to stamp thee mad. What is it troubles thee?"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Cyclops (late)
"Dear friend, dear Bacchic god, whither art roaming alone, waving thy auburn locks, while I, thy minister, do service to the one-eyed Cyclops, a slave and wanderer I, clad in this wretched goat-skin dress, severed from thy love?"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
Rhesus (attribution uncertain)
"The long night through, O Hector, the Argive host hath kindled fires, and bright with torches shines the anchored fleet. To Agamemnon's tent the whole army moves clamorously by night, eager for fresh orders maybe, for never before have I seen such commotion among yon sea-faring folk."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt]
Commentaries:
bios: Perseus, EB11
criticism: Cornford, Crane, essay
History of the Peloponnesian War (431)
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT, eServer
Commentaries: study guide
On The Early History of the Hellenes (c400)
Translations: Fordham
431 BC: Pericles refuses to compromise Athenian freedoms to avoid war with Sparta [tm9.3.3]
431-404 BC: Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta [tm7.1]
430 BC: plague in Athens [medical]
c424 BC: unattributed pamphlet 'Constitution of the Athenians' (by the 'Old Oligarch') [English] [Greek] [Fordham]
c480-411 BC: Antiphon's Speeches [Greek] [English] [info] [bio] [MIT]
c458-c380 BC: Lysias' Speeches [Greek] [English] [MIT]
c440-390 BC: Andocides' Speeches [Greek] [English] [info] [bio] [MIT]
436-338 BC: Isocrates' Speeches and Letters [English] [Greek] [MIT]
no-date: Thrasymachus, Protagoras, Hippias, and Callicles (sophists); Polyclitus the sculptor; Phaleas and Hippodamus (political theorists); Leucippus the atomist; Ion of Chios; Eupolis and Cratinus (Old Comedy); Archelaus the presocratic; Alcmaeon the physician
wrote some 54 'old comedies'; 11 survived
bios: Perseus
lost works: The Banqueters (Daitaleis, 427), The Babylonians (426)
The Acharnians (425; The Acharnenses)
"...how few have been the pleasures in my life! Four, to be exact..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, PGut
Commentaries:
The Knights (424)
"Then come, let us sing a duet of groans in the style of Olympus. Boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo!!"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer
Commentaries:
The Clouds (423; Clouds)
"Then indeed I had to marry the niece of Megacles, the son of Megacles; I belonged to the country, she was from the town..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, PGut
Commentaries: study guide
The Wasps (422)
"Just now a heavy slumber settled on my eyelids like a hostile Mede"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer
Commentaries:
Peace (421)
"Maybe, one of you can tell me where I can buy a stopped-up nose, for there is no work more disgusting than to mix food for a dung-beetle and to carry it to him."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, PGut
Commentaries:
The Birds (414)
"...the crickets only chirrup among the fig-trees for a month or two, whereas the Athenians spend their whole lives in chanting forth judgments from their law-courts..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, PGut
Commentaries:
Lysistrata (411)
"Our country's fortunes depend on us-- it is with us to undo utterly the Peloponnesians."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, EAWC, eServer
Commentaries:
study guide
The Thesmophoriazusae (411)
name = female celebrants of the Thesmophoria festival
"He is rounding fresh poetical forms, he is polishing them in the lathe and is welding them; he is hammering out sentences and metaphors; he is working up his subject like soft wax..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer
Commentaries:
The Frogs (405)
debates Aeschylus vs Euripides
"I tell you when I see Their plays, and hear those jokes, I come away More than a twelvemonth older than I went."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer, Bartleby
Commentaries:
The Ecclesiazusae (392?)
name = female legislators
"Firstly, as agreed, I have let the hair under my armpits grow thicker than a bush; furthermore, whilst my husband was at the Assembly, I rubbed myself from head to foot with oil and then stood the whole day long in the sun."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer
Commentaries:
Plutus (382)
"I came to consult the oracle of the god, not on my own account, for my unfortunate life is nearing its end, but for my only son; I wanted to ask Apollo if it was necessary for him to become a thorough knave and renounce his virtuous principles, since that seemed to me to be the only way to succeed in life."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, MIT [txt], eServer
Commentaries:
c430-367 BC: Dionysius of Syracuse [Plutarch] ditto [cf Brutus]
415 BC: Sicilian expedition [essay]
409-340 BC: [sample court day]
406 BC: battle of Mytilene [essay]
404 BC: Sparta defeats Athens, end of Athenian golden age [tm7.1] [essay]
c400 BC: Plato the comic poet [etext] "Kissing Agathon, I found my soul at my lips. Poor thing! It went there, hoping-- To slip across."
c400 BC: Ezra edits (forges?) Torah/Pentateuch in Jerusalem (?) [timeline]
399 BC: trial and death of Socrates
to convey the timescale we might 're-set' 399BC to be 1963AD:1162: Trojan war (cf Wm the Conqueror) 1612: Homer and Hesiod (cf Shakespeare) 1768: Solon's lawcode, Sappho, Ionian philosophers (cf Revolutionary War) 1872: Athenian victory at Marathon 1878-1904: 80+ plays of Aeschylus (cf Ibsen) 1883: Persian forces expelled from Greece 1893: birth of Socrates (cf Mao Tse-Tung) 1893: 28yo Sophocles beats 57yo Aeschylus for tragedy 'Oscar' 1893-1956: 120+ plays of Sophocles (cf G Bernard Shaw) 1902-1916: 1st Peloponnesian war (cf WW1) 1922: Herodotus' Histories 1924-1957: 90+ plays of Euripides (cf Eugene O'Neill) 1931: Thucydides' History 1931-1958: 2nd Peloponnesian war (cf WW2) 1935: birth of Plato (cf Elvis, Ralph Nader) 1935-1980: 30+ comedies of Aristophanes (cf Groucho Marx) 1955: 20yo Plato meets 62yo Socrates 1963: death of 70yo Socrates (cf JFK assassination) 1977: 42yo Plato founds Academy (cf Apple Computer) (Academy survives 900+ years) (cf IBM) 1995: 17yo Aristotle begins 20yrs of studies under 60yo Plato 2020: 42yo Aristotle tutors 14yo Alexander 2026: 20yo Alexander becomes king 2040: death of 62yo Aristotle
bios: Beaver, Bartleby, Perseus, Math, phil
sequence: debate
apocrypha: Eryxias
criticism: Pater, Suzanne
Anabasis (The March Up; The Persian Expedition; 7 books)
Greek march into Persia c400BC
"What astounded the queen was the brilliancy and order of the armament; but Cyrus was pleased to see the terror inspired by the Hellenes in the hearts of the Asiatics."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, Fordham, PGut
Commentaries: MIT
The Hellenica (A History of My Times; 7 books)
411-362BC
"While the ships were building, the Syracusans helped the men of Antandrus to finish a section of their walls, and were particularly pleasant on garrison duty; and that is why the Syracusans to this day enjoy the privilege of citizenship, with the title of 'benefactors', at Antandrus."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham [extract] [ditto?]
Commentaries: MIT
Apology of Socrates
"But none of these writers has brought out clearly the fact that Socrates had come to regard death as for himself preferable to life; and consequently there is just a suspicion of foolhardiness in the arrogancy of his address."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
Memorabilia of Socrates (4 books)
"Indeed that saying of his, 'A divinity gives me a sign,' was on everybody's lips. So much so that, if I am not mistaken, it lay at the root of the imputation that he imported novel divinities..."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham [quotes]
Commentaries: MIT
Symposium
"To promote the revelry, there entered now a Syracusan, with a trio of assistants: the first, a flute-girl, perfect in her art; and next, a dancing-girl, skilled to perform all kinds of wonders; lastly, in the bloom of beauty, a boy, who played the harp and danced with infinite grace."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
Oeconomicus (Oikonomikos; The Economist; The Complete Householder)
Socratic dialog
"Then shall we say that a man's enemies form part of his possessions?"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham [extract]
Commentaries: MIT
Agesilaus
king of Sparta
"But the brow of their general was lit with joy as gaily he bade the ambassadors take back this answer to Tissaphernes: 'I hold myself indebted to your master for the perjury whereby he has obtained to himself the hostility of heaven, and made the gods themselves allies of Hellas.'"
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
Constitution of The Lacedaimonians (Respublica Lacedaemoniorum)
"In view of the fact that immoderate intercourse is elsewhere permitted during the earlier period of matrimony, Lycurgus adopted a principle directly opposite. He laid it down as an ordinance that a man should be ashamed to be seen visiting the chamber of his wife, whether going in or coming out. When they did meet under such restraint the mutual longing of these lovers could not but be increased, and the fruit which might spring from such intercourse would tend to be more robust than theirs whose affections are cloyed by satiety."
a parallel text on the Athenians is sometimes also credited to Xenophon [etext]
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham [extract]
Commentaries: MIT
Cyropaedia (The Education of Cyrus; 8 books)
Cyrus of Persia
"It is obvious that among this congeries of nations few, if any, could have spoken the same language as himself, or understood one another, but none the less Cyrus was able so to penetrate that vast extent of country by the sheer terror of his personality that the inhabitants were prostrate before him: not one of them dared lift hand against him."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
Hiero (Hieron; The Tyrant, A Discourse on Despotic Rule)
dialogue between King Hiero and Simonides
"I know... that you were once a private person and are now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore, that having tested both conditions, you should know better than myself, wherein the life of the despotic ruler differs from the life of any ordinary person, looking to the sum of joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
On Hunting (Cynegeticus; The Sportsman; A Sportsman's Manual)
" Both species [of hunting dog] present a large proportion of defective animals which fall short of the type, as being under-sized, or crook-nosed, or gray-eyed, or near-sighted, or ungainly, or stiff-jointed, or deficient in strength, thin-haired, lanky, disproportioned, devoid of pluck or of nose, or unsound of foot."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
On The Art of Horsemanship (De Re Equestri)
"As our first topic we shall deal with the question, how a man may best avoid being cheated in the purchase of a horse."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
On The Cavalry Commander (Hipparchicus)
"The trooper, in the first place, must be able to spring on horseback easily--a feat to which many a man has owed his life ere now. And next, he must be able to ride with freedom over every sort of ground, since any description of country may become the seat of war."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
Ways and Means (On Revenues)
"...owing to the pressure of poverty on the masses, a certain measure of injustice in their dealing with the allied states could not be avoided; I set myself to discover whether by any manner of means it were possible for the citizens of Athens to be supported solely from the soil of Attica itself, which was obviously the most equitable solution."
Greek etext: Perseus
Translations: Perseus, PGut, Fordham
Commentaries: MIT
c420-353 BC: Isaeus' Speeches [English] [Greek] [MIT]
c400-325 BC: Diogenes the cynic
390-324 BC: Lycurgus' Speeches [Greek] [English] [MIT]
390-322 BC: Aeschines' Speeches [Greek] [English] [Fordham] ditto [MIT]
390-322 BC: Hyperides' Speeches [English] [Greek] [MIT]
384-322 BC: Demosthenes' Speeches [MIT]
English: [1-10] [11-20] [21-30] [31-40] [41-50] [51-61] [Letters] [Exordia]
Greek: [1-10] [11-20] [21-30] [31-40] [41-50] [51-61] [Letters] [Exordia]
380-319 BC: Demades' 'On the Twelve Years' [English] [Greek] [MIT]
360 BC: WS Davis "A Day in Old Athens" [PGut etext]
no-date: Theopompus the historian
bios: Bjorn, Math, Perseus, Italy
c350 BC: Quintus Smyrnaeus
The Fall of Troy
"Because of her own sister's death, for whom Ever her sorrows waxed, Hippolyte, Whom she had struck dead with her mighty spear, Not of her will-- 'twas at a stag she hurled."
Translations: PGut
c370-288 BC: Theophrastus the Aristotelian
c365-285 BC: Crates the cynic
356-323 BC: Alexander the Great [links]
Greek language: guide
histories: Smith ebook, Tarbell ebook (art)
essays: AHB
occ = MC Howatson's Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
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