| ca. 3000–1200 B.C.E. | Helladic period |
| ca. 2000–1100 B.C.E. | Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations |
| ca. 1200–323 B.C.E. | Hellenic period |
| ca. 1100–800 B.C.E. | Greece’s Dark Age; population declines, trade decreases, writing disappears |
| ca. 800–500 B.C.E. | Archaic age; rise of the polis; Greek colonization of the Mediterranean |
| ca. 700–500 B.C.E. | Sparta and Athens develop distinctive political institutions |
| ca. 500–338 B.C.E. | Classical period; development of drama, philosophy, and major building projects in Athens |
| 499–404 B.C.E. | Persian and Peloponnesian wars |
| 336–324 B.C.E. | Alexander the Great’s military campaigns |
| 323–30 B.C.E. | Hellenistic period |
| 323–ca. 300 B.C.E. | Civil wars lead to the establishment of the Ptolemaic, Antigonid, and Seleucid dynasties |
| 168 B.C.E. | Roman overthrow of the Antigonid dynasty |
| 30 B.C.E. | Roman conquest of Egypt; Ptolemaic dynasty ends |