Ancient Greece: Military History (inc. Wars, Battles, Treaties, etc.) and Notable Events (inc. Natural Disasters, Diseases, Destructions of Cities, etc.)

In this set, Military History does NOT include notable militaristic people/figures, and the framing for the wins/losses of battles depends on the central player of the conflict

2300 BCE / 1184 BCE - Destruction of Troy (All Facts)

• Event in which the namesake fortified citadel was destroyed by fire

• The flames swept through the buildings very rapidly, leaving little to no time for the inhabitants of the city’s citadel to save their valuables

1700 / 1600 BCE - Destruction of Crete (All Facts)

• Event in which the namesake island and its palaces were destroyed due to an earthquake

• Led to the rebuilding of even more magnificent palaces than before including the secondary version of the Palace at Knossos

1600 / 1500 BCE - Minoan Eruption / Destruction of Santorini (All Facts)

• Event in which the namesake island and most of its inhabitants were severely damaged and were buried under a huge layer of lava and debris with much of the island having disappeared and submerged under the sea due to the namesake volcanic event

• First indications of the disaster came when the ground shook violently as though from an earthquake

  • From there, people fled to Akrotiri, taking a few precious possessions

• Then came the explosion, which hurled out huge boulders that smashed down on the houses there

  • Day became night as a huge blanket of ash covered the island

  • Thousands of towns of molten lava poured down towards the helpless town, and the sea began to pour in as the sides of the volcano collapsed

1200 BCE / 1150 BCE / 1050 BCE - Collapse of Mycenean Civilization (All Facts)

• Event which saw the collapse of the namesake civilization likely due to economic and social problems in which internal crises and domestic revolts overwhelmed them and created a power vacuum for newer peoples groups to invade the region and fill

• As a result, massive population movements and migrations occurred in Greece and in the Aegean world, with many of the Greek migrants settling in Anatolia

1200 BCE - 800 BCE - Greek Dark Ages (All Facts)

• Period of Greek history in which there was a decline in social organization including the depopulation of towns and destruction of palaces and increase in illiteracy (or lack of writing) since the collapse of the Mycenean Civilization with its writing system and illustrious past

• Period in which tribes from other areas came to invade and dominate different regions

• Period characterized by its distinctive pottery, which was rather stilted compared to Mycenean pottery

• Period characterized by the perpetuation of Mycenaean religion, in which the Greeks at the time emulated their predecessors through a cult of heroes

  • Evident from their tombs which were marked by great burial mounds

900 BCE - 700 BCE - Greek Colonization (All Facts)

• Period in which the namesake process / system began for the first time across the Mediterranean and in parts of western Asia

• A substantial number of the namesake product were established throughout Anatolia, on the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and in Thrace; by the end of this period

• Process which took place upon Greek expeditions setting sail to all parts of the known world at the time, with each of the namesake product being founded by a particular city-state and with some city-states founding one or more of them

  • Settlers are young men of fighting age who set out in bands of up to 200

776 BCE - Olympic Games (All Facts)

• Event in which the first instance of the namesake sporting event is held in Ancient Greece

648 BCE - Olympic Games (All Facts)

• Event in which two outstanding performances were heralded in Zeus’s sacred grove that year

  • In one, Krauxidas of Krannon triumphed in the new sport of pankration

  • In another, Lygdamis of Syracuse won the horse-race

    • The Syracusans claimed he was the equal of Hercules in size and strength, and thus were delighted with his performance, who proposed to erect a statue in his honor

632 BCE - Cylonian Affair / Coup of Cylon (All Facts)

• Event in which the namesake Athenian attempted to overthrow the city-state’s leader and establish himself as ruler with the support of his father, Theagenes of Megara

• The coup fails, but it causes Athens to develop a need for firm rules and for them to be widely understood and generally accepted, which would lead to its first codified law code

500 BCE - 448 BCE - Greco-Persian Wars (All Facts)

• Fought between Athens and the Delian League & the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire

  • Wealthy Greek cities on the coast of Anatolia were laid to waste by the Persians

  • Caused by Persian expansion into Anatolia, which disrupted old trading links Greece had with Egypt and in which the Persians installed puppet rulers

• City-states in Greece were being drawn into a struggle between burgeoning Greek democracy and eastern despotism, by which the event could be viewed (similar to the Cold War dichotomy of western capitalism and eastern communism)

• Ended with the Peace of Callias, in which Persia agreed to stay out of the Aegean; it lasted for 40 years

499 BCE - 493 BCE - Ionian Revolts (All Facts)

• Series of revolts in Ionia against their Persian overlords which began the Greco-Persian Wars

494 BCE - Battle of Lade (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle in which the Milesian revolts against the Persians were brutally suppressed, ending the Milesian revolts against the Persians once and for all

• The Persians inflicted a severe defeat on Greek rebels in this battle in Miletus

  • The city was razed to the ground and its population was deported to Mesopotamia

• Event which is depicted in Phrynicus’s stage play called “The Sack of Miletus”

490 BCE - Battle of Marathon (All Facts)

• Major win for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian wars

• Battle during the first Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece

• Battle in which Miltiades and the Athenian Greeks fought against Datis and the Persians under Darius I during the first Persian invasion of Greece and emerged victorious due to their wit and speed

• Battle in which Miltiades

  • Had heard that the Persians had withdrawn some of their cavalry to the ships to prepare for an attack on Athens from the sea

    • So he chose that time to attack, relying on surprise, speed, and a three-pronged assault across a wide front

    • His forces ran towards the Persian archers, getting underneath their arrows

    • At first, the Persians broke through in the center and pursued him and the Athenians inland

    • The two armies on the flanks, however, defeated the Persian flanks and made a concerted attack on the main force from the rear

    • They then captured seven Persian ships

    • Some 6,400 Persians were killed while the Athenian army’s losses numbered fewer than 200

480 BCE - Battle of Salamis (All Facts)

• Most important win for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian wars

  • It effectively thwarted the Persian invasion of Greece

• Battle during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece which

  • took place in the narrow strait between the namesake island and Greek mainland

  • Themistocles and the Greeks, outnumbered, achieved a stunning victory over the larger Persian fleet led by Xerxes, effectively halting the Persian invasion of Greece

• Battle whose end saw the waters of the namesake strait littered with the wreckage of Persian ships and bodies of King Xerxes’ sailors

  • The Persians lost 200 ships

  • The Greeks lost only 40 ships

• Battle in which the Persians split their forces and in the confused melee that ensured, their ships were rammed by the 200 Athenian triremes which sent 200 Persian ships to the bottom and made the remaining ships and men flee to the Bay of Phalerum

• Battle won by cunning, bravery, and seamanship

  • The Greeks tricked the Persians into believing that they had the Greek fleet bottled up in the straits, but when the battle started it was the Persians who ended up trapped

  • Much credit was given to the Corinthian sailors who headed north into the Bay of Eleusis and deceived Xerxes’ commanders into thinking they were running away and then turned and struck at the Persians with great ferocity

    • Some Greeks thought the Corinthians were actually genuinely retreating only to be stopped by the appearance of a mysterious ship sent by the gods to order them back into battle

      • This story reflects the disunity of the Greeks prior to the battle, when it was obvious that many of the commanders feared for the safety of their own cities while they were absent as opposed to the incoming Persian fleet

• The Greeks, despite being victorious, were as divided as ever when it came to tactics and strategy, with debates lasting well into the night during the battle

  • In the end, Themistocles prevailed and sailed out

• After their defeat at this battle, the Persians tried but failed to negotiate a treaty of alliance with the Athenians against the rest of the Greek world; in which the Delian League was established in response a year later

480 BCE - Battle of Thermopylae (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece

• Led by the Spartan Leonidas, who was the commander of the Greek forces holding the namesake pass; he and his men had withstood the attack of the Persian hordes onto Sparta for two days

  • The contours of the narrow pass and the fighting skill of his men enabled him to repel the enemy with great loss

• However, on the second day, a Greek traitor named Ephialtes revealed the existence of a mountain path to the Persians which would enable them to take the Greeks in the rear

  • When scouts came to Leonidas with the news of Ephialtes’ treachery, he knew he was doomed

  • His force was only 4,000 strong and was there to await reinforcements that were not coming due to a religious celebration

• He and his men died as only Spartans could: sword in hand, glorying in battle, defying death, seeking only honor

  • Despite Leonidas and his men’s heroic stand in the mountain pass, the Persians, under Xerxes I, won the battle and conquered Thessaly

479 BCE - Battle of Platea (All Facts)

• One of the two final battles during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece, it was a major win for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle in which Pausanias and the Greeks defeated Mardonius and the Persians

  • The phalanxes of heavily armed Greek infantry, among whom the Spartans, as usual, distinguished themselves, slaughtered the Persians, who were ultimately demoralized when the Greeks killed Mardonius

  • By the end of the battle, only 3,000 Persians remained alive

• After the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes withdrew his main force to Anatolia to protect his lifeline, the bridges across the Hellespont, but left behind a force of 50,000 troops under Mardonius to continue the war

  • Mardonius ravaged the countryside, setting fire to Athens and then retreated to Boeotia to force the Greeks to fight in a country more suitable to his tactics in which he could employ his numerical superiority in which the Greeks could only field a limited number of men

  • Despite these disadvantages, the Greeks still triumphed having met the Persian army outside the namesake city at the foot of Mount Cithaeron and, despite some initial setbacks against the Persian cavalry, inflicted a terrible defeat on Xerxes’s army

• Cleverly, the Greek armies, against heavy odds, overthrew the Persian base at Plataea in southern Boeotia

• Despite the victory, however, Persia still remained a threat to Greece

479 BCE - Battle of Mycale (All Facts)

• One of the two final battles during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece, it was a major win for the Greeks against the Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Saw the combined Greek city-states defeat and destroy the Persian fleet

449 BCE - Peace of Callias (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between the Delian League (Athenian Empire) and Persia (Achaemenid Empire) that ended the Greco-Persian Wars

• It acknowledged Athenian supremacy in the Aegean

• Lasted for 40 years

• Was the first compromise treaty between Achaemenid Persia and a Greek city

465 BCE - The Thasian Rebellion (All Facts)

• Event in which a revolt occurs in the namesake city which wished to leave the Delian League

• Prompted by a conflict between Athens and the namesake city over control of silver deposits on the mainland of Greece, in which this city had traditionally held control over its mines

• The namesake city was originally a part of the Delian League and provided the confederacy with a powerful fleet

  • However, when they laid claim to the markets and mines on the mainland, the Athenians got angry and sent a fleet to the namesake city and suppressed the revolt

• The namesake rebels appealed to Sparta for help, but Sparta was unable to because of the earthquake that occurred there and the revolt of the helots and others in Ithome there

  • Thus, the namesake rebels were forced to sue for peace

464 BCE - Spartan Slave Revolt of 464 BCE (All Facts)

• The namesake group in the namesake Greek city take advantage of an earthquake that occurs in this year and revolt against their oppressors

• The violence of the earthquake devastated the city and killed thousands of its inhabitants

• The helots, another name for the namesake group, of Laconia and Messenia rose up and converged on the city from the surrounding countryside to attack the survivors of the disaster

• Despite forcing the helots to withdraw and wage open war, the namesake oppressors were forced to ask Athens to help them lay siege

460 BCE - 445 BCE - First Peloponnesian War (All Facts)

• Fought between Athens and the Delian League & Sparta and the Peloponnesian League

• Consisted of a series of conflicts and minor wars

• Was caused by

  • The (re)building of the Athenian long walls on Piraeus

    • This effectively showed the Spartans that the Athenians did not care about them because the Spartans had argued prior to their being rebuilt that rebuilding these old fortification walls should not occur because they could provide a defense for the Persians if the Persians ever happened to try to capture the city again

  • Megara’s defection

  • Envy and concern felt by Sparta (and Corinth) at the growth of the Athenian Empire due to the Delian League

• Because Sparta was beset by helot revolts, it alienated Athens by rejected its proffered aid, so Athens, in response, allied with Sparta’s enemies such as Megara, which had quarreled with Sparta’s ally of Corinth

• Athens

  • defeated a Corinthian fleet in 460 BCE

  • defeated a Corinthian army sent to raid Megara in 459 BCE

  • defeated Spartans at the Battle of Aegina in 457 BCE

  • defeated Thebans at the Battle of Oenophyta in 457 BCE

• Sparta

  • defeated Athenians at the Battle of Tangara in 457 BCE, but had to recall its forces

• Boeotia, Megara, Phocis, and Euboea all successfully revolted against Athens

• Ended in a 30-year peace treaty which

  • Allowed Athens its sea holdings and Sparta its land holdings

  • obliged Athens to withdraw its troops from territories owned by the Peloponnesian League

    • This treaty was broken after 14 years, thus leading to the second war of the same name

458 BCE - Battle of Aegina (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Spartans during the First Peloponnesian War

• Athens (aided by The Delian League) captured 70 sea ships of and laid siege to the namesake city-state (aided by the Peloponnesian League) and defeated it after two years of fighting

457 BCE - Battle of Oenophyta (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Thebans, an ally of the Spartans, during the First Peloponnesian War

• Athens took control of Boeotia as a result

457 BCE - Battle of Tangara (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Athenians against the Spartans during the First Peloponnesian War

• Land battle that took place in Boeotia

• Caused by

  • Rebuilding of Athens’ walls there

  • Spartan rejection of Athenian military assistance

• Nicomedes and the Spartans defeated Myronides and the Athenians, although both sides suffered great losses

445 BCE - Thirty Years’ Peace (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Athens and Sparta that ended the First Peloponnesian War

• It allowed Athens its sea holdings and Sparta its land holdings

• It obliged Athens to withdraw its troops from territories owned by the Peloponnesian League

  • This treaty was broken after 14 years, thus leading to the second war of the same name

440 BCE - 439 BCE - Samian War (All Facts)

• War between Athens and Samos

• Samos and Athens were originally allies, but Samos refused to give up its aristocratic regime or autonomy; and then when they attacked Miletus, Athens ordered it not to but it refused the order to Athens blockaded and then invaded Samos and drove out its government and installed a garrison in the city and replaced the government with a democratic one; however, the aristocrats soon returned with Persian support and the democracy was disestablished

431 BCE - 404 BCE - Second Peloponnesian War (All Facts)

• Fought between Athens and the Delian League & Sparta and the Peloponnesian League

• Was a major win for the Spartans against the Athenians, in which they won the war by its end and dominated Greece for at least a decade after their victory

• Sometimes referred to as the “Great” variant of the namesake series of wars, it was quite brutal

• Was caused by renewed fighting due to the violation of the treaty brokered prior 14 years into the 30-year peace

  • Caused by the same causes as the first variant in this series of wars: The Athenians’ empire-building, which brought them into conflict with the other three powerful city-states of the time which were Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes

• During this conflict, the Spartans brought with them a plague which devastated the Athenians and killed many of them including Pericles, making them suffer cruelly

• Athens

  • Inflicted several defeats on the Peloponnesian League

  • Plotted to spark a helot revolt in Laconia and Messenia; forcing the Spartans to evacuate Attica

  • Took hostage Spartan survivors and brought them back to the city as a means of preventing re-invasion by Sparta

• By its end, Athens was never again a major political power in Greece give that in this war, the Spartans had

  • Destroyed all its fortifications

  • Reduced its massive naval fleet to 12 ships

  • Transformed it into an oligarchy

  • Designated it as a subject ally to Sparta

• A peace treaty was never officially signed for this war until 1996, when modern-day Athens and Sparta signed a symbolic one

432 BCE - 429 BCE - Battle of Potidaea (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• The namesake city-state was laid to siege by the Athenians and was forced to surrender to them after being reduced to such a state of hunger that they began eating the bodies of their dead

• The Athenian generals allowed the inhabitants of Potidaea to leave their towns without massacring them, but imposed terms so harsh that many would end up dying in the winter; such as that men were only allowed to take one garment

  • Were criticized in Athens for not insisting on the unconditioned surrender of the namesake city-state

    • The truth of the matter was that the Athenian soldiers were suffering as much as the city’s inhabitants they were attacking

430 BCE - Plague of Athens (All Facts)

• Event which killed up to 100K of the city-state’s population, or 25% of the population at the time; including Pericles

• The invasion of King Archidamus and the Spartans coincided with the arrival of the namesake from Ethiopia, via Egypt and Libya and lands held by the king of Persia

• First appeared in the port of Piraeus

• When it reached the namesake city, the influx of people from the surrounding countryside provided just the conditions in which it could flourish

  • This was because of the overcrowding there, with people crammed together in badly ventilated huts during the heat of the summer

  • Driven by thirst and heat, people plunged into cisterns, where it spread even more

• Its symptoms included

  • burning feelings in the head

  • eyes becoming red and inflamed

  • bleeding from the throat and tongue

  • breath becoming unnatural and smelly

  • progression from chest to stomach, causing vomiting and spams

  • Pustules and ulcers breaking out on the skin

• Doctors were badly hit

• Prayer to the gods seemed ineffectual

• As despair grew, as well as the numbers of dead bodies in the streets; there was a growth in criminal activity including looting, robbery, and sexual abandonment

425 BCE - Battle of Pylos (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• Athenians were led by Demosthenes, son of Alcisthenes

424 BCE - Battle of Delium (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• Athenians were led by Hippocrates of Athens, whose column was halted there by a phalanx of the pro-Spartan Boeotians in which 1,000 Athenians died in the ensuing battle

424 BCE - Battle of Amphipolis (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• Spartans were led by Brasidas

• Athens tried to retake the namesake city, but failed miserably

421 BCE - Peace of Nicias (All Facts)

• Peace treaty signed between Athens and Sparta that temporarily put a halt to the fighting during the Second Peloponnesian War

• The two camps agreed to return to their original positions and exchange POWs

• It allowed Athens to retain Pylos and Sparta to retain Amphipolis

415 BCE - 413 BCE - Sicilian Expedition (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• Athenians suffered a major catastrophe there in which

  • The Syracusans, with the help of their Spartan allies

    • destroyed Nicias’s forces in a great land and sea battle at the namesake location

    • captured and executed Nicias

    • held thousands of Athenian prisoners in appalling conditions in stone quarries, where they died from their wounds and disease

    • destroyed the fleet of Athens

    • made it so that none of the Athenian soldiers would return

• Nicias was forced to command there because politicians in Athens were plotting to execute Alcibiades and when he had learned of this upon being recalled to Athens after taking initial command of the expedition, he defected to Sparta

• Athens mourned heavily as a result of this event, but quickly regained its footing and built new ships

413 BCE - 403 BCE - Dekelian War (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the final stage of the Second Peloponnesian War

• It started when Alcibiades, having defected to Sparta, informed them that their best option in continuing the war was to invade Attica as Athens was failing miserably in its Sicilian Expedition

• Thus, the Spartans established themselves at the namesake city and set about devastating the entire region

411 BCE - Athenian Revolt of 411 BCE (All Facts)

• Event in which the namesake group revolted against their leader, Alcibiades due to a disastrous economic situation there and his intrigues

• The revolt’s results culminate in the establishment of the Council of the Four Hundred, which suspended the preexisting magistracies and replaced them with it

• The revolt’s leaders argued that political life was reserved for the propertied rich and the hoplites and denied to the poor, who rowed on board the triremes

410 BCE - Battle of Cyzicus (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• Alcibiades, having been recalled from Persia, annihiliated the Peloponnesian fleet at this battle

406 BCE - Battle of Arginusae (All Facts)

• Major win for the Athenians against the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• The Athenian fleet, commanded by 8 Strategoi, defeated the Spartan fleet commanded by Callicratidas

  • When they returned to Athens, however, 6 of these 8 men were put to death in the Assembly of Athens after having been accused and charged of failing to rescue the crews of ships disabled in the fight

  • The generals had pleaded that they had dispatched ships to pick up the sailors while they pursued the Spartans, but that a great storm had sprung up making their rescue impossible

  • Despite Socrates having spoken on their behalf, the crowd refused to listen to their defense and they were whipped up by the political rivals of the 6 accused men

  • However, the trial reeked of corruption, with false witnesses and the crowd vying for blood to be drawn; an affair symptomatic of the degradation Athens began experiencing towards the end of the Second Peloponnesian War

    • This was evident in that Theramenes, one of the accusers, was originally the one ordered to pick up the survivors

  • After having put them to death, the Athenians immediately regretted their action

405 BCE - Battle of Aegospotami (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Athenians against Lysander and the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• The Athenians lost all but ten of their many triremes, suffered many casualties, and are facing defeat in the war overall as a result of the battle, which was fought both on land and at sea

• Lysander

  • headed a Spartan fleet built with Persian money

  • destroyed the Athenian vanguard under Philocles

  • Caught the rest of the fleet by surprise before it was ready for sea

  • landed soldiers at the Athenian fortress of Eteonikos

  • seized part of the palisade

  • Fixed grappling irons to the Greek ships and dragged them away

• Lysander’s soldiers routed the Greeks, who resisted as well as they could, but were disorganized by his surprise attack and soon broke and fled

404 BCE - Battle of Munychia (All Facts)

• Fought between Athenians and the Thirty Tyrants and their Spartan-aided garrisons

• Thrasybulus and the exiled pro-democratic / anti-oligarchic Athenians and his 1,000 men defeated a much larger band of men of the Thirty Tyrants on the namesake hill

• After this defeat, the Thirty Tyrants were forced to flee to Eleusis and democracy was restored in Athens

395 BCE - 387 BCE - Corinthian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in Ancient Greece in which Sparta fought against a coalition of city-states comprising Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, backed by the Persian Empire

• Caused by the dissatisfaction with Spartan imperialism in the aftermath of the Second Peloponnesian War from

  • Athens, the loser in the war

  • Corinth and Thebes, Sparta’s former allies who had not been properly rewarded by Sparta

• In a way, it was sort of a “rematch” between Athens and Sparta to the Second Peloponnesian War, except this time Athens had Sparta’s allies on its side

• Had seen the Boeotian League invade Phocis with Athenian support

395 BCE - Battle of Haliartus (All Facts)

• Major loss for Sparta against the Athenians and its allies during the Corinthian War

• In it, Lysander was killed and his army was routed, which was a severe blow to Sparta’s grip on Greece at the time

394 BCE - Battle of Nemea (All Facts)

• Major win for King Agesilaus II and Sparta against the Athenians and its allies during the Corinthian War

394 BCE - Battle of Coronea (All Facts)

• Major win for King Agesilaus II and Sparta against the Athenians and its allies during the Corinthian War

394 BCE - Battle of Cnidus (All Facts)

• Major loss for Peisander and Sparta against the Athenians and its allies during the Corinthian War

• In this battle, the ex-Athenian Conon served as admiral of a Persian fleet and defeated the inexperienced Peisander

• As a mark of gratitude, Persia provided money for the leading states - Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth; to help further defeat Sparta; after this battle and its victory by Conon

386 BCE - Peace of Antalcidas / King’s Peace (All Facts)

• Peace treaty signed between Sparta and Persia that ended the Corinthian War

• Brokered by the namesake Spartan diplomat the Persian King Artaxerxes II

• Significantly shifted the balance of power in Ancient Greece

• Gave Persia control over Ionia and Cyprus

• Recognized Sparta as the dominant power in mainland Greece

378 BCE - Theban Conspiracy of 378 BCE (All Facts)

• Event in which (previously) exiled Theban democrats plotted to regain control of Thebes

• During a festival, seven conspirations entered Thebes disguised as women and murdered three magistrates and the leaders of the pro-Spartan ruling party

• Once Epaminondas arrived with reinforcements, the Spartan garrison stationed in Thebes abandoned the city, allowing Thebans to take their city back

• The first of many events that would lead up to the battles that would turn the tide of Greece’s power from Sparta over to Thebes

371 BCE - Battle of Leuctra (All Facts)

• Major win for the Thebans against the Spartans, it was the first major turning point at which they rose to power over the Spartans and Athenians

• Battle in which the Thebans used their “phalanx tactic” to defeat the Spartans

• The Spartans, which by this time relied on mercenaries, were no match for the fresh and confident Thebans

• After this battle

  • The Spartans were hemmed into their part of the Peloponnese by two cities that had recently been established there: Megaopolis and Messene

  • The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, built the new city of Messene over the ruins of Ithome and invited the return of the previous inhabitants and their descendants

362 BCE - Battle of Mantinea (All Facts)

• Battle in which Epaminondas and the Thebans (supported by Arcadians, Argives, Messenians, Thessalians, Euboeans, and the Boeotian League) fought against King Agesilaus II and the Spartans (supported by Athenians (who decided to join the side of the Spartans after years of their own bitter rivalry in order to check the power of Thebes), the army of the namesake city-state, and the Eleans)

• Both sides lost in that

  • Thebes collapsed after the death of Epaminondas in battle, costing the city-state its military leadership and thus supremacy in the region

  • Sparta and its alliance was weakened even more due to the losses it incurred from the battle and inability to maintain its own military leadership and thus supremacy in the region

• The battle enshrined the eclipse of Spartan power and independence of the Peloponnese regions and aggravated the conflict between Thebes and Athens, which was re-emerging as a major Greek power due to the Second Athenian League by this time

• However, the battle was one of many steps that would lead to Philip II of Macedon using the loss on both sides of the battle to his advantage in consolidating his own power and conquering the region

356 BCE - 346 BCE - Third Sacred War (All Facts)

• War which started when the Thebans, who controlled the Amphictyony, forced the Phocians to pay a fine for cultivating the sacred grounds of the Oracle at Delphi or else to go to war with them

• The Phocians, who had once had control of the Oracle at Delphi, chose to go to war to re-establish their position and to avoid the fine

• Thereafter, a period of cruel and confused warfare followed during which the Phocians were generally successful

• However, the war eventually drew in the ambitious Philip II of Macedon, in which he used the war to his opportunity to seize Greek territory

• Philip II of Macedon eventually captured and razed the Phocians’ city of Phocis to the ground and forced them to sue for peace

• Demosthenes Philippics during this war were of no use, as the Athenian armies were sent too late to Olynthus

339 BCE - 338 BCE - Fourth Sacred War (All Facts)

• War in which hostilities between Athens and Philip II and the Macedonians are renewed

• War which saw Philip II of Macedonia occupy Elateia, near Attica (Athens)

• War in which Athens was forced to make peace with Philip II of Macedon after it had seen the destruction of Olynthus by Philip

• War that thus forces Athens to end its involvement in it

• In this war’s aftermath, Thebes was occupied by the Macedonians

  • Nominal self-government continued in some parts of Greece by the end of this war, but they did not have any more autonomy overseas

338 BCE - Battle of Chaeronea (All Facts)

• Major win for Philip II and the Macedonians against the Athenian-Theban alliance during and after the Fourth Sacred War

• Battle in which the Boeotian league is dissolved at the surrender of Thebes to Macedonia

• Its peace terms saw Philip II of Macedonia force Athens to join it and dissolve the Second Athenian League

• Struck by the generosity of their conquerer, the Athenians offer Philip II and his son Alexander citizenship after this battle

• The turning point in this battle was a fake retreat by Philip II of Macedon behind piles of corpses, thus enticing the Athenians into hot pursuit and an eventual ambush sprung by seasoned Macedonian cavalry, led by a very young Alexander the Great

• By the time of the end of this battle, most states in Ancient Greece had to join Philip II of Macedon’s (new) League of Corinth

334 BCE - Battle of Granicus River (All Facts)

• Major win for Alexander the Great and the Greeks against the Persians during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the first of their three major battles

  • Took place near the Sea of Marmora

• Alexander the Great defeated the field army of the Persian satraps of Anatolia, which defended the river crossing

  • With only 13 troops of horse, he plunged into the swiftly-running waters and with a fake attack on the Persian left caused the enemy to weaken it center, where the main Greek blow came

• Was the first battle of the war in which the phalanx was used

  • The close formation of long spears behind a wall of overlapping shields that characterized the phalanx devastated Persian lines

• After this battle, the Persians were forced on the defensive in the cities that remained under their control in the region

  • By its end, Alexander the Great had control of Persian Anatolia

333 BCE - Battle of Issus (All Facts)

• Major win for Alexander the Great and the Greeks against Darius III and the Persians during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the second of their three major battles and featured the first encounter between Darius III and Alexander the Great

• Darius III is put to flight and Alexander captures his camp and family, sleeping in the Persian kind’s tent on the night of his victory there

332 BCE - Siege of Tyre (All Facts)

• Orchestrated by Alexander the Great during his campaigns against the Persians, it lasted 8 months due to difficulties he was having with its geographical defensive advantages which he eventually resolved allowing him to breach its fortifications and destroy over half of the city

• 8,000 of the namesake city’s civilians were massacred after the city fell

• Alexander granted pardon to all who had sought sanctuary in the temple, including Azemilcus (the King of the namesake city at the time) and his family, as well as many nobles

• 30,000 residents and foreigners, mainly women and children, were sold into slavery

331 BCE - Battle of Guagamela (All Facts)

• Major win for Alexander the Great and the Greeks against the Persians during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the third of their three major battles

• After the battle, Babylonia and Susa surrender to him

326 BCE - Battle of Hydaspes (All Facts)

• Major win for Alexander the Great and the Greeks against the Porus and the Indians

• Conflict in which Porus met Alexander the Great on a river bank with 40K men and 200 elephants

  • However, Alexander the Great secretly crossed the river by night and swept down on Porus’s exposed flank

  • Some 20,000 Indian infantry and 3,000 cavalry were killed

  • Only 80 of Alexander’s men were killed

• First battle in which Alexander the Great and the Greeks saw and learned how elephants were used as tools and weapons of war in the army of King of Punjab Poros, which had already been used by Oriental societies like those in India for a long time

323 BCE - 30 BCE - Hellenistic Period (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the time period that historians use to describe the time and events between Alexander the Great’s Death in its first year and Cleopatra VII’s Death in its last year

323 BCE - 281 BCE - Wars of the Diadochi (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts fought between the Diadochi (generals / successors) of Alexander the Great over who would rule his empire following his death

323 BCE - 322 BCE - Lamian War (All Facts)

• Was an unsuccessful attempt by the commander Leosthenes who led Athens and a large coalition of Greek states in battle to end Antipater and Macedonia’s control over Greece just after the death of Alexander the Great

  • After Alexander the Great’s death, the Athenians thought they could mount a comeback and gradually began rebuilding their military and financial power with the goal of liberating themselves from Macedonian rule

  • Initially, Leosthenes won some victories over Antipater, who was short of troops and forced to flee to the namesake location

  • However, the war soon went badly for the Athenians as soon as Antipater and the Macedonians received reinforcements

  • After that, Leosthenes was killed

• It was the last time Athens played a significant role as an independent power

• Demosthenes returned to Athens from exile and, alongside the orator Hyperides helped to try and rally Athenians against the Macedonians

322 BCE - Battle of Amorgos (All Facts)

• Major win for Cleitus the White (an officer of Alexander the Great) and the Macedonians against the Athenians during the Lamian War

• This battle signaled the defeat of Athens once and for all as both an empire and politically independent entity

• Battle which saw the Greek fleet beaten off the namesake island and the destruction of Athenian glory forever thereafter

322 BCE - Battle of Crannon (All Facts)

• Major win for Antipater, Craterus, and the Macedonians against Athens (and the Aetolian League)

• The Macedonian victory, though militarily unspectacular and a scrappy affair, convinced the other Greeks to sue for peace

• Battle in which Antipater marched into Greece and forced the reluctant allies to give battle in the namesake location in Thessaly

306 BCE - Battle of Salamis (All Facts)

• Major win for Demetrius and the Antigonids against Ptolemy and the Ptolemaics at sea during the Wars of the Diadochi

• Ptolemy is killed in battle

301 BCE - Battle of Ipsus (All Facts)

• Major loss for Demetrius and the Antigonids against Cassander and the Macedonians, Lysimachus and the Thracians, and Seleucus and the Babylonians and Persians

• Antigonus is killed in battle

• After this battle, the Diadochi temporarily agreed to divide the Hellenistic world up accordingly, but this division would not last

  • Cassander would keep Macedonia

  • Lysimachus would keep Thrace and Anatolia as far as the Taurus Mountains

  • Seleucus would keep northern Syria

  • Ptolemy would keep southern Syria

  • Demetrius would keep areas of Anatolia, Greece, the Cyclades, and Phoenicia

281 BCE - Battle of Corupedium (All Facts)

• Major win for Seleucus and the Seleucids against Lysimachus and the Syrians, in which Seleucus took and became king of Syria

• Was the final battle involving the Diadochi of Alexander the Great, thus closing the Wars of the Diadochi

279 BCE - Battle of Thermopylae (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Greek Aetolians, Boeotians, Athenians, and Phocians against Brennus and the Gauls at the namesake pass, which advanced further into the Greek mainland heading for the east via the Thrace and Hellespont regions

275 BCE - “Elephant” Battle (All Facts)

• Major win for Antiochus and the Seleucids against the Celts

• Battle in which the namesake animal was used by the Greeks after having been let loose by Antiochus and the Greeks against a superior army of Celts, in which they turned their chariots and cavalry against their own troops

• When the battle was won, Antiochus insisted that the sole memorial consist of a carved version of the namesake animal

274 BCE - 168 BCE - Syrian Wars (All Facts)

• Series of six wars between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt over the region then called Coele-Syria (southern Syria and Lebanon), one of the few avenues into Egypt

• These conflicts drained the material and manpower of both the Seleucids and Ptolemaics and led to their eventual destruction and conquest by Rome and Parthia

261 BCE - Battle of Cos (All Facts)

• Major win for Antigonus II and the Antigonids against Ptolemy II and the Ptolemaics during the Syrian Wars, which essentially diminished Ptolemaic naval power

260 BCE - 253 BCE - Second Syrian War (All Facts)

• War which is concluded via a marriage alliance between Antiochus II and Berenice, a daughter of Ptolemy II

229 BCE - 222 BCE - Cleomenean War (All Facts)

• Major win for the Achaean League (with the help of Antigonus III and the Antigonids) against Cleomenes III and the Spartans

222 BCE - Battle of Sellasia (All Facts)

• Major win for the Achaean League (with the help of Antigonus III and the Antigonids) against Cleomenes III and the Spartans during the Cleomenean War

219 BCE - 217 BCE - Fourth Syrian War (All Facts)

• Major win for Ptolemy IV and the Ptolemaics against Antiochus III and the Seleucids

217 BCE - Battle of Raphia (All Facts)

• Major win for Ptolemy IV and the Ptolemaics against Antiochus III and the Seleucids during the Fourth Syrian War

200 BCE - Battle of Panium (All Facts)

• Major win for Antiochus III the Great and the Seleucids against Scopas of Aetolia (acting general / regent for Ptolemy V) and the Ptolemaics during the Fifth Syrian War

• The Seleucids annihiliated the Ptolemaic army and conquered the province of Coele-Syria

• The Ptolemaics never recovered from its defeat in the battle and thereafter ceased to be an independent and/or great power of Ancient Greece

200 BCE - 197 BCE - Second Macedonian War (All Facts)

• Major loss for Philip V and the Antigonids of Macedon against Titus Flaminius and the Roman Republic

• Rome was allied with Pergamum and Rhodes during this war

• Took place in Illyria

197 BCE - Battle of Cynoscephalae (All Facts)

• Major loss for Philip V and the Antigonids of Macedon against Titus Flaminius and the Roman Republic during the Second Macedonian War

• A decisive Roman victory, it marked the end of the Second Macedonian War

192 BCE - 188 BCE - Roman-Seleucid War (All Facts)

• Major loss for Antiochus III and the Seleucids against the Roman Republic

191 BCE - Battle of Thermopylae (All Facts)

• Major loss for Antiochus III the Great against Consul Manius Glabrio and the Roman Republic during the Roman-Seleucid War

190 BCE - Battle of Magnesia (All Facts)

• Major loss for Antiochus III the Great and the Seleucids against Publius Cornelius Scipio and Publius Scipio Africanus and the Roman Republic during the Roman-Seleucid War

• Publius Cornelius Scipio and Publius Scipio Africanus were both sent by Rome to Greece and then to Anatolia in order to finally settle the Seleucid Problem Rome was having

• The Romans were supported by the Kingdom of Pergamum

146 BCE - Destruction of Corinth (All Facts)

• Event which marks the end of Ancient Greece as a politically independent entity