Greece in the 8th and 7th Centuries

GREECE IN THE 8TH AND 7TH CENTURIES ● ca. 800 First Greek appearances in the Levant, at a place they called Poseideion in what is now Syria, near the ancient town of Al Mina (Ugarit) and the later town Laodicea. ● 776 Traditional date of the founding of the OLYMPIAN GAMES (also founded by Pelops, the great-grandfather of Agamemnon, by Heracles, and by Lycurgus the semimythical regent of Sparta). The earliest winners are from Pisa, Elis and the neighborhood of the northwest Peloponnesus. ● 756 trad. First colonizing ventures, to the west (Ischia). Cumae founded. ● 753 The life-archonship in Athens is made decennial. There were seven aristocratic holders (Eupatridai) of the office. The office became annual in 683. Basileus, Polemarchos, Archon, 6 Thesmothetai ● ca. 750-700 Homer (in western Asia Minor, Turkey) Hesiod (in Boeotia, central Greece) ● 735 Foundation of Naxos (on island of Sicily) ● 734 Foundation of Corcyra (Corfu) ● 735-710 ? First War between the Spartans and the Messenian Kingdom (semi-mythical). A Second Messenian War and a Third Messenian War (ca. 700-635, on and off) are historical ● ca. 720 ? Surviving examples of `hoplite armor' (Argos) [A. Snodgrass, The Arms and Armour of the Greeks (London 1967), and Archaeology and the Rise of the Greek State (Cambridge 1977)]. ● ca. 710 LELANTINE WAR, over a plain on the island of Euboea, desired both by Eretria and Chalcis, two neighboring towns (Miletus and Eretria, and Samos and Chalcis on opposite sides: first real naval war, international alliances across the Aegean. Samos seems to have invaded or raided Aegina, which was a natural enemy of Corinth. The tyrants of Corinth, from ca. 650, the Cypselids [Cypselus and Peridander] were later allied with Miletus) Discussed by the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. See A.R. Burn, The Lyric Age of Greece. ● ca. 700 King Midas in Phrygia (Lydia) King Gyges of Lydia (678-652) ● ca. 710 Oldest surviving piece of writing in Greek alphabet ● 669 BATTLE OF HYSIAE, between Sparta and Argos. Sparta lost. ● 668-626 Assurbanipal, King of Assyria ● 664 Battle at sea between Corinth and Corcyra ● 632 ? CONSPIRACY OF CYLON in Athens, with aid from his father-in-law heagenes, who was tyrant of Megara. ● 620 FIRST ATHENIAN WRITTEN LAW CODE compiled by Drakon (Draco). ● 612 FALL OF NINEVEH (Assyrian capital) to Cyaxares, king of Media, and Nabopolassar, king of Babylon ● 600 ca. The invention of coinage, in Lydia in the kingdom of Alyattes. ● 594-592 SOLON: archonship and nomothesia