All dates throughout this book are BC unless stated otherwise.

• 508/7: reforms of Cleisthenes; beginning of Athenian democracy

• 490: first Persian War (Battle of Marathon)

• 481–479: second Persian war; naval battle of Salamis

• 478: creation of the Delian League, instrument of Athenian imperialism

• 462/1: reform of Ephialtes, reducing the powers of the Areopagus and reinforcing the power of the people

• 451: law on citizenship (the requirement to have two Athenian parents to be considered a full citizen); institution of the first political allowance (misthos) for the members of the popular courts

• 447–438: construction of the Parthenon

• 443–429: Pericles reelected as stratēgos

• 431–404: Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (and their respective allies)

• 429: the ‘plague’ in Athens; death of Pericles

• 415: religious scandals in the city (mutilation of the Herms and parody of the Eleusinian Mysteries)

• 415–413: expedition to Sicily with catastrophic consequences for Athens

• 411: first oligarchic revolution (known as the Four Hundred); revolt of the Athenian fleet stationed in Samos: Thrasybulus elected stratēgos by the rowers

• 410: end of the first oligarchic revolution and restoration of democracy; beginning of the revision of the city’s laws

• 406: Battle of Arginusai; trial and conviction of Athenian generals

• 405 (fall): Athenian defeat at Aigos Potamos

• 404–403: Athenian civil war

  • 404 (January?): trial of Cleophon; second performance of Aristophanes’ Frogs

  • 404 (April): surrender of Athens; destruction of the Long Walls linking the city to Piraeus

  • 404 (September?): establishment of the Thirty; reduction of the civic body to 3,000 citizens

  • 404 (December?): capture of Phyle by Thrasybulus and the first resistance fighters

  • 403 (Spring?): dissension among the Thirty; trial and execution of Theramenes

  • 403 (May–June?): Battle of Mounychia in Piraeus; death of Critias and deposition of the Thirty, replaced by the Ten

  • 403 (September or early October): end of the oligarchy and Athenian reconciliation

• 403/2: establishment of the political allowance for the Assembly; distinction between laws and decrees; reinstatement of the law on citizenship; Theozotides’ decree in favor of the orphans of the citizens who had died during the stasis (or 410?)

• 403–401: multiple trials against former oligarchs (in particular Lysias’ lawsuit against Eratosthenes)

• 401: decree granting citizenship to the noncitizen combatants of Phyle

• 401/0: depletion of the last oligarchic stronghold in Eleusis

• 399: trial and acquittal of Andocides; trial and conviction of Socrates