730-710 BC - the First Messenian War and the Spartans conquer southwest Peloponnese
650 Rise of the tyrants
621 BC Draco's code of law
600 BC Coin currency introduced
500-323 BC - the Classical Period
505 Cleisthenes founds democracy in Athens
490-479 BC - the Greek / Persian Wars led by Xerxes
468 BC - Sophocles writes his first tragedy
461-446 BC - The Peloponnesian Wars begins between Sparta and Athens
449-432 - Construction of the Parthenon and the Acropolis in Athens
441 BC - Euripides writes his first tragedy
443 - 429 BC Pericles becomes leader of Athens
430 BC Plague in Athens
431-405 BC - Second of the Peloponnesian Wars between Sparta and Athens
420 - 410 Construction of Temple of Athena Nike
399 BC - Socrates is tried and executed for his opposition to the Thirty Tyrants
386 BC - Plato, student of Socrates, founds the Academy
384 BC - Aristotle, student of Plato, is born
359 BC - Philip II becomes the king of Macedon
356 BC - Alexander the Great, son of Philip II, is born
333 BC - Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeats the Persians at Issus and is given Egypt by the Persian Satrap where he builds a capital at Alexandria
323 BC - Alexander the Great dies at Babylon
323-31 BC - The Hellenistic Period
300 BC - Ptolemy I founds museum in Alexandria
224 BC - Earthquake destroys the Colossus of Rhodes
200 - 196 BC First Roman victories over Greece
197 BC - King Philip V loses to Roman forces at Kynoskephalai
86 BC - The Roman General Sulla captures Athens
267 AD - The Goths sack Athens, Sparta, and Corinth
286 AD - The Roman Emperor Diocletian divides the Roman empire in two forming modern Greece (the Byzantine Empire)
641 AD - The Slavs overrun Greece
The above information provides a concise background to the Ancient Greek civilisation