To navigate the timeline, click and drag it with your mouse, or click on the timeline overview on the bottom.
700 BCE
600 BCE
500 BCE
400 BCE
300 BCE
200 BCE
100 BCE
0 CE
100 CE
200 CE
300 CE
683 BCE - 682 BCE: List of annual archons at Athens begins.
660 BCE: Pheidon is tyrant in Argos.
657 BCE - 585 BCE: The Kypselidai are tyrants of Corinth.
621 BCE: Draco produces a new law code in Athens.
594 BCE - 593 BCE: In Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
585 BCE: An oligarchy of 80 takes power at Corinth.
570 BCE - 549 BCE: The tyrant Phalaris rules Agrigento, expanding its territory.
560 BCE: Pisistratos becomes tyrant in Athens for the first time.
535 BCE - 522 BCE: Polycrates rules as tyrant of Samos.
524 BCE - 460 BCE: Life of Athenian general and statesman Themistocles.
514 BCE: Fall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
514 BCE: The tyrant of Athens Hipparchos is killed by Harmodios and Aristogeiton - the 'tyrannicides'.
508 BCE: According to Aristotle, the institution of ostracism is introduced in Athens under Cleisthenes.
508 BCE: Reforms by Cleisthenes establishes democracy in Athens.
493 BCE: Themistocles is made archon in Athens.
489 BCE - 473 BCE: The tyrant Theron rules Agrigento.
487 BCE - 486 BCE: Archons begin to be appointed by lot in Athens.
487 BCE: The first ostracism vote takes place in Athens and Hipparchus is exiled.
482 BCE: Aristides is voted in an ostracism in Athens and exiled from the city.
480 BCE: The Tyrant Kadmos permits the establishment of democratic government on Kos.
471 BCE: The general and statesman Themistocles is voted in an ostracism and exiled from Athens.
463 BCE: Pericles leads a prosecution of Cimon on charges of corruption but he is acquitted.
462 BCE - 461 BCE: Radicalisation of democracy in Athens; Cimon exiled, Pericles comes to exercise influence.
462 BCE - 458 BCE: Pericles introduces democratic institutions in Athens.
461 BCE: Cimon is voted in an ostracism in Athens and exiled from the city.
460 BCE - 320 CE: Period of full and direct citizen democracy in Athens.
447 BCE - 386 BCE: The Boeotian federation has a minimum property requirement for participation in the democratic assembly.
417 BCE: In the last recorded ostracism the demagogue Hyperbolos is exiled from Athens.
411 BCE: The oligarchy of the 400 take over the democracy in Athens and in a matter of months is replaced by an oligarchy of 5000.
405 BCE: Dionysius becomes tyrant in Syracuse, Sicily.
404 BCE: End of the Peloponnesian war, Athens defeated By Sparta at Aigospotamoi, Rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.
403 BCE: Restoration of the democracy in Athens, death of the tyrant Critias.
367 BCE: Dionysius II becomes tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily.
355 BCE: Demosthenes begins to deliver speeches in the Athenian assembly.
344 BCE: Timoleon defeats Dionysius II of Syracuse and establishes an oligarchy government.
318 BCE: Phocion is tried for treason and sentenced to death by poisoning.