| 3000 B.C.E. | ca. 600–450 B.C.E. |
| – Bronze tools and weapons become common in Greece | – Pre-Socratics develop ideas about the nature of the universe |
| ca. 1900 B.C.E. | 500–338 B.C.E. |
| – Minoan culture begins to thrive on Crete | – Classical period; development of drama, philosophy, and major building projects in Athens |
| ca. 1650 B.C.E. | 499–479 B.C.E. |
| – Mycenaean culture develops in Greece | – Persian wars |
| ca. 1300–1100 B.C.E. | 431–404 B.C.E. |
| – Bronze Age Collapse; migration, destruction | – Peloponnesian War |
| ca. 1100–800 B.C.E. | 427–347 B.C.E. |
| – Dark Age; population declines; trade decreases; writing disappears | – Life of Plato |
| ca. 800–500 B.C.E. | 384–322 B.C.E. |
| – Archaic age; rise of the polis; Greek colonization of the Mediterranean; Homer and Hesiod compose epics and poetry | – Life of Aristotle |
| ca. 750–500 B.C.E. | 371–362 B.C.E. |
| – Sparta expands and develops a military state | – Thebes, with an alliance of city-states, rules Greece |
| ca. 600–500 B.C.E. | 338 B.C.E. |
| – Political reforms in Archaic Athens | – Philip II of Macedonia gains control of Greece |