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Virtue & Power

Timeline

Civilization Timeline

A grand chronology of the ancient civilizations the platform reads — Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Macedon and Rome — across three thousand years from the first states to the fall of the western empire.

This overview places the platform's civilizations on a single timeline, from the first states of Egypt and Mesopotamia through Persia, Greece and Rome, so the great currents of ancient history can be seen together.

  1. c. 3100 BCE

    Unification of Egypt; the pharaonic state begins.

  2. c. 1754 BCE

    The Code of Hammurabi in Babylon.

  3. c. 1550–1069 BCE

    The Egyptian New Kingdom at its imperial height.

  4. c. 800–500 BCE

    The rise of the Greek polis; Rome traditionally founded (753) and the Republic begins (509).

  5. 559–530 BCE

    Cyrus founds the Persian Empire.

  6. 490–479 BCE

    The Persian Wars; the Greek world repels the empire.

  7. 431–404 BCE

    The Peloponnesian War.

  8. 399 BCE

    Death of Socrates; the age of Plato and Aristotle.

  9. 336–323 BCE

    Alexander conquers the Persian Empire; the Hellenistic age begins.

  10. 264–146 BCE

    The Punic Wars; Rome masters the Mediterranean.

  11. 44–27 BCE

    The fall of the Roman Republic; Augustus founds the empire.

  12. 30 BCE

    Death of Cleopatra; the last Hellenistic kingdom absorbed by Rome.

  13. 96–180 CE

    The Roman Empire at its height under the Five Good Emperors.

  14. 330 CE

    Constantine founds Constantinople; the Christian empire.

  15. 476 CE

    The western Roman Empire ends.

Across three thousand years the centre of gravity moved from the river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia to Persia, to the Greek cities, and finally to Rome — each civilization inheriting and transforming what came before.