Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Basic Chronology of the Ancient World - Spring Semester

(authors/works studied this semester in bold)

Map for the basic chronology of the ancient world
Click map to enlarge.

Also see the following complementary timeline:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/world-regions/#/04/World-Map

Date Rome Greece Egypt and West Asia
1069-664 BCE Third Intermediate Period – Period of political disunity in Egypt
753 Traditional date of founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus    
753-509 Traditional period of kings (described by Livy, Rise of [Rome], bk I)    
747-656 Dynasty 25 – Nubian kings conquer and unify Egypt
664-332 Late Period
664-539 Saite Dynasty (Dynasty 26); Egypt is unified and a major power in the Near East
664-610 Reign of Psammetichus I; Greek and Carian mercenaries settle in Egypt
570-526 Reign of Amasis
509-27 Republic    
c. 450-430 Herodotus visits Egypt
404-343 Dynasties 28-30: Persians expelled from Egypt; last period of indigenous rule

4th-Century BCE, Alexandrian Empire

Date Rome Greece Egypt and West Asia
399   Socrates put to death  
c. 380   Plato, Republic  
c. 350   Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics  
343 Persian Re-conquest of Egypt
c. 340   Aristotle, Politics  
336-323   Alexander the Great rules Macedonia (Alexandrian and Persian Empires)  
334-330     Alexander conquers the Persian Empire and founds Alexandria (Egypt) (Ptolemaic Egypt) (Golvin's Alexandria) (Golvin's Canopic Street)
323     Alexander dies in Babylon

323-30 BCE Hellenistic Era

Date Rome Greece Egypt and West Asia
323-275     Succession struggles among Alexander's "Successors" (Diadochoi). Results in Greek Kingdoms of Antigonids in Macedonia and mainland Greece, Attalids in west Asia, Seleucids in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Iran and Iraq, and Ptolemies in Egypt, Libya and the Aegean
The Hellenistic World, 250 BCE
The Hellenistic World, 170 BCE
306-168   Antigonid Dynasty in Macedonia and Mainland Greece  
305-30     Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt, Libya and the Aegean
305-63     Seleucid Dynasty in Syria, Palestine, Iran, and Iraq
c. 280s     The Ptolemies establish Library in Alexandria
281-133     Attalid Dynasty in Pergamon and western Asia Minor
270s     Theocritus, Idylls
264-201 First and Second Punic Wars: Rome defeats Carthage and acquires Sicily as the first Roman province.
The First Punic War, 264-241 BE
The Second Punic War and After, 218-168 BCE
   
166 Terence, The Girl from Andros    
164-141     Revolt of Jews in Jerusalem (Map of Jerusalem in Maccabean period) against the Seleucids. Daniel composed in the early part of this period.
2nd c.     Pergamon altar constructed [Pergamon]
167-150 Polybius, a Greek prisoner in Rome, composes his Histories.
Roman expansion in the later 2nd century BCE
   
133 Romans control Greece, Spain, western Asia Minor, northern Africa    
63     Romans conquer Seleucids; Pompey marches on Jerusalem
60 First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey and Crassus)    
c. 60-55 Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura)    
49-45 Civil war between Caesar and Pompey and their followers    
44-43 Cicero writes the On Duties and†delivers 14 Philippics against Mark Antony    
43 Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Antony and Lepidus); Cicero put to death on Antony's orders    
31 Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra, Battle of Actium    
30     Egypt becomes a Roman province

Roman Empire: 1st - 2nd centuries, CE

Date Rome Greece Egypt and West Asia
27 Octavian takes the name Augustus and becomes first Roman emperor    
30-19 Virgil, Aeneid    
9 Ara Pacis dedicated    
c. 2 BCE - 8 CE Ovid, Metamorphoses    
14 Augustus, Res Gestae (map of the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus)    
c. 30     Jesus crucified (possibly as late as 33) [Jerusalem]
38 Ethnic conflict between Greeks and Jews in Alexandria. Philo leads an embassy of Alexandrian Jewish leaders to Rome    
49 Seneca made tutor of future emperor Nero    
54-55   Paul, 1 Corinthians [Corinth]  
57 Paul, Letter to the Romans    
66-73     Jewish revolt against Rome ("Jewish war") [Jerusalem]
c. 68-69     Gospel of Mark
70     Destruction of Jerusalem temple by Romans
c. 79 Pliny the Elder, Natural History (with reference to the Laocoˆn)    
203 Martyrdom of St. Perpetua
Late 2nd century CE Apuleius, The Golden Ass