Introduction to &#39;The Chronology of Early Greek History&#39;

Philip Thibodeau

Introduction to 'The Chronology of Early Greek History'

2025, The Chronology of Early Greek History

Abstract

This is a draft of the Introduction to a forthcoming work, 'The Chronology of Early Greek History'. Drafts of its chapters will be posted here each month through 2028. Here is an Abstract for the book: This book is a study of the chronology of events in the Greek world, both legendary and real, before the Persian Wars. The first part accounts for dates ancient writers gave for the sack of Troy and uses their Trojan epochs to calibrate the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Attic king lists along with other mythographic timelines. The second part investigates the objective chronology of the Archaic era, documenting how changes in the way dates were fixed caused them to become artificially elevated. Lower datings for the Cypselid dynasty at Corinth, Solon’s career, the Messenian Wars, and various poets from Tyrtaeus to Sappho are defended. The final part of the book reexamines the evidence for the textualization of the Homeric and Hesiodic epics and places this in the middle of the sixth century BCE.

Chapter 1-Greece: Mythology, History and Chronology Greek tradition maintained a continuous sequence between the Mycenaean and Archaic periods, indicating the succession of generations but, in the first instance, giving no details about the length of each of these (none being suggested until after the time of Herodotus). It was also supposed that, soon after the Trojan War, Dorian Greeks from the north had invaded the Peloponnese, conquering its southern and eastern regions, including Sparta (also known as Lacedaemon). These Dorians had a different dialect and culture from the Ionian Greeks of Attica (the region dominated by Athens, separated from the Peloponnese by the Isthmus of Corinth), as well as the Ionian Greeks of the Aegean islands and Asia Minor (now known as Anatolia). According to legend, the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese was led by the Heraclids (Heracleidae), who were great-great-grandsons of the hero Heracles, and so not themselves regarded as Dorians. The Heraclids did not take the land route to the Peloponnese through the isthmus but crossed the narrow Gulf of Corinth by ship from Naupactus in Aetolia. After their victory, they distributed control over Sparta, Corinth, Messenia and Elis between members of their group, with Sparta being allocated to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin sons of Aristodemus, one of the Heraclids [4]. That gave rise to two lines of Spartan kings, the Agiads (named after Agis, the son of Eurysthenes) and the Eurypontids (after Eurypon, son of Procles) of which, according to Herodotus (writing in the 5 th century BC), the Agiad line was regarded as the more senior [5]. In the 4 th century AD, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, taking his information from Diodorus Siculus, i.e. Diodorus of Sicily (in a section of his history which has not otherwise survived, some of which was taken in turn from Apollodorus), stated in his chronicle that the Heraclids entered the Peloponnese 80 years after the fall of Troy, uprooting almost all the people there apart from the Arcadians. He went on to give the names of the subsequent Spartan kings in both the Agiad and Eurypontid lines, noting that Alcamenes was the 8 th generation descendent of Eurysthenes in one line whereas, in the other, Theopompus, the contemporary of Alcamenes, was the 5 th generation descendent of Procles. There were 322 years from the beginning of the reign of Eurysthenes to the end of that of Alcamenes, and 288 years from the accession of Procles to the end of the reign of Theopompus. Eusebius also noted that the Heraclids appointed Aletes king of Corinth, the first in a line of 11 Corinthian kings who reigned in total for 326 years. The final king, Telestes, was killed by his own family, the Bacchids, after reigning for 12 years. The Bacchids then maintained control of Corinth for the next 90 years through the appointment of an annual prytanis (magistrate) from amongst their number [6]. Concerning the rulers of Athens, Eusebius, following Castor of Rhodes (who, like Diodorus, lived during the 1 st century BC, a century later than Apollodorus), wrote in his chronicle that the Erechtheids had been kings of Athens for 450 years, the dynasty consisting of 15 kings from Cecrops I (a contemporary of Prometheus and Atlas) to Thymoetes (whose reign ended just before the invasion of the Peloponnese by the Heraclids). A timescale of 352 years was indicated from the start of the dynasty to the death of Theseus, and 77 years from the accession of the next Athenian king, Menestheus (in whose reign Troy fell to the Greeks) to the end of the reign of Thymoetes. Similarly, Argos had been ruled by 9 kings, from Inachus to Sthenelus, over a period of 382 years, towards the end of which Cecrops I became king of the Athenians. Danaus then drove Sthenelus out of Argos and founded a dynasty of 5 kings who ruled in total for 162 years. The Argives were then ruled from Mycenae for 215 years by a dynasty of kings including Atreus, Agamemnon (who captured Troy in his 18 th year) and Orestes, before Cometes lost the throne to the invading Heraclids. In Athens, after the end of the Erechtheid dynasty, Melanthus of Pylus (whose reign coincided with the Heraclid invasion), followed by his son Codrus, ruled in total for 58 years. Athens was then ruled by hereditary archons (magistrates) for 209 years, beginning with Medon, son of Codrus, and ending with Alcmaeon, son of Aeschylus. For the next 70 years, Athens was governed by a succession of seven archons, who each served 10-year terms. After that, archons held power for just one year each, the first of these being Creon. Aristotle (or possibly one of his students), in The Athenian Constitution, written during the 4 th century BC, presented a similar picture of the transition from kings to hereditary archons to fixed term archons, but gave fewer chronological details and said it was uncertain whether the first hereditary archon was Medon or his son Acastus. He also indicated that several archons served together, one having the senior role and, when the office became an annual one, the eponymous archon, i.e. the one who gave his name to the year, was the head of the group. In the chronicle of Eusebius, the author went on to give the complete list of kings (17 in total), hereditary archons (13 altogether) and the 7 archons who served 10-year terms. He gave reign-lengths for the kings and hereditary archons consistent with the overall timescale given by Castor, so were presumably taken from that source, but Eusebius commented that these figures could not be considered reliable, because other historians gave different timescales. According to the list, Thymoetes, the last of the Erechtheidae, was the great-grandson of Theseus, who was supposedly a contemporary of Heracles. Eusebius wrote that the Heraclids occupied the Peloponnese during the reign of Melanthus in Athens, and he went on to indicate that Aeschylus, last but one of the hereditary archons, was a contemporary of the Spartan kings Alcamenes and Theopompus [7]. Around this time, the Spartans began their rise to dominance in the Peloponnese by winning the first of their wars against the Messenians. According to the poet Tyrtaeus, writing around two generations after the event, this victory was achieved under the leadership of Theopompus. It enabled the Spartans to create a strictly hierarchical society with outsiders, mainly Messenians, at the base, these being the helots, i.e. slaves, whose labour enabled Spartan males to devote their entire time to achieving military excellence [8]. Alcamenes and Theopompus were the last Spartan kings mentioned in the chronicle of Eusebius, but we know from other sources that both lines of kings continued long after this time. However, they formed part of a structure of government which included five magistrates, known as ephors, who were elected for a one-year term, and could not be re-elected. The chief ephor, who was in some ways more powerful than either of the kings, gave his name to the year. Whether this system came into operation after the reigns of Alcamenes and Theopompus, or at a later time, is uncertain [9]. More generally, there can be little certainty about any Greek historical details from this period or earlier, and the same situation applies for more than another hundred years into the future. The first major Greek historian is generally considered to have been Hecataeus of Miletus, who lived in the middle of the 6 th century BC. Although little of his work has survived, we know from other sources that he expressed scepticism about the details of events described in earlier accounts, and their timescale. Nevertheless, he was not able to provide a solution to the problems. The next important historian, Herodotus, who lived half a century later, similarly expressed scepticism about events involving gods and demigods, but continued to rely on generation times (for want of anything better) to provide a timescale for historical events [10]. 1.3 Herodotus and the Persian Wars Perhaps because, although he was an Ionian Greek, Herodotus was born within the Persian Empire in Halicarnassus, on the western coast of Asia Minor, a long way from the Greek mainland, he was interested in the customs, geography and history of all of the regions in the world in which he lived. The main thread running through his nine-book work, The Histories, was the history of the Persians, from their rise to power under Cyrus the Great to their invasions of Greece under Darius I and Xerxes I, close to the time when Herodotus was born. Interrupting this narrative were accounts, sometimes lengthy, of other people such as the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Lydians and Greeks, providing background to their interactions with the Persians. So, for example, when writing about the Greeks, he said that Lycurgus, famed for introducing the Spartan code of laws and for re-organising the army, was the uncle of King Labotas of Sparta (grandson of Agis), and acted as his regent [11]. Later, he noted that Miltiades, who led the Athenians (and their allies from Plataea) to victory over the army of Darius at Marathon, effectively ending the first Persian invasion of Greece, claimed descent from Philaeus, son of the great Ajax, who was believed to have settled in Athens. Herodotus gave no generation count, but it is known that the Philaid family in Athens were claiming in the mid-sixth century to be 12 generations removed from Ajax, and Miltiades himself was apparently 3 generations further down the line [12]. More directly, Herodotus stated that Leonidas, the Agiad king of Sparta who died at Thermopylae trying to hold back the army of Xerxes, could trace his ancestry back 20 generations to Heracles, through his father

The earliest surviving historical accounts of the great civilizations of the Old World, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, were written in Greek, many centuries after most of the events described were said to have taken place. We shall go on to consider these in chapter 3. Before then, let us first consider what Greek historians wrote about events closer to their homeland. In fact, to be precise, they wrote nothing about Greece or the Greeks, because these words are derived from Roman terminology (Graecia and Graeci). Instead, "Greek" historians such as Herodotus, like their compatriots, regarded themselves as "Hellenes", and their land as "Hellas", but we shall follow common practice and use the terminology introduced by the Romans. Greek tradition maintained a continuous sequence between the Mycenaean and Archaic periods, indicating the succession of generations but, in the first instance, giving no details about the length of each of these (none being suggested until after the time of Herodotus). It was also supposed that, soon after the Trojan War, Dorian Greeks from the north had invaded the Peloponnese, conquering its southern and eastern regions, including Sparta (also known as Lacedaemon). These Dorians had a different dialect and culture from the Ionian Greeks of Attica (the region dominated by Athens, separated from the Peloponnese by the Isthmus of Corinth), as well as the Ionian Greeks of the Aegean islands and Asia Minor (now known as Anatolia). According to legend, the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese was led by the Heraclids (Heracleidae), who were great-great-grandsons of the hero Heracles, and so not themselves regarded as Dorians. The Heraclids did not take the land route to the Peloponnese through the isthmus but crossed the narrow Gulf of Corinth by ship from Naupactus in Aetolia. After their victory, they distributed control over Sparta, Corinth, Messenia and Elis between members of their group, with Sparta being allocated to Eurysthenes and Procles, the twin sons of Aristodemus, one of the Heraclids [4]. That gave rise to two lines of Spartan kings, the Agiads (named after Agis, the son of Eurysthenes) and the Eurypontids (after Eurypon, son of Procles) of which, according to Herodotus (writing in the 5 th century BC), the Agiad line was regarded as the more senior [5]. In the 4 th century AD, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, taking his information from Diodorus Siculus, i.e. Diodorus of Sicily (in a section of his history which has not otherwise survived, some of which was taken in turn from Apollodorus), stated in his chronicle that the Heraclids entered the Peloponnese 80 years after the fall of Troy, uprooting almost all the people there apart from the Arcadians. He went on to give the names of the subsequent Spartan kings in both the Agiad and Eurypontid lines, noting that Alcamenes was the 8 th generation descendent of Eurysthenes in one line whereas, in the other, Theopompus, the contemporary of Alcamenes, was the 5 th generation descendent of Procles. There were 322 years from the beginning of the reign of Eurysthenes to the end of that of Alcamenes, and 288 years from the accession of Procles to the end of the reign of Theopompus. Eusebius also noted that the Heraclids appointed Aletes king of Corinth, the first in a line of 11 Corinthian kings who reigned in total for 326 years. The final king, Telestes, was killed by his own family, the Bacchids, after reigning for 12 years. The Bacchids then maintained control of Corinth for the next 90 years through the appointment of an annual prytanis (magistrate) from amongst their number [6]. Concerning the rulers of Athens, Eusebius, following Castor of Rhodes (who, like Diodorus, lived during the 1 st century BC, a century later than Apollodorus), wrote in his chronicle that the Erechtheids had been kings of Athens for 450 years, the dynasty consisting of 15 kings from Cecrops I (a contemporary of Prometheus and Atlas) to Thymoetes (whose reign ended just before the invasion of the Peloponnese by the Heraclids). A timescale of 352 years was indicated from the start of the dynasty to the death of Theseus, and 77 years from the accession of the next Athenian king, Menestheus (in whose reign Troy fell to the Greeks) to the end of the reign of Thymoetes. Similarly, Argos had been ruled by 9 kings, from Inachus to Sthenelus, over a period of 382 years, towards the end of which Cecrops I became king of the Athenians. Danaus then drove Sthenelus out of Argos and founded a dynasty of 5 kings who ruled in total for 162 years. The Argives were then ruled from Mycenae for 215 years by a dynasty of kings including Atreus, Agamemnon (who captured Troy in his 18 th year) and Orestes, before Cometes lost the throne to the invading Heraclids. In Athens, after the end of the Erechtheid dynasty, Melanthus of Pylus (whose reign coincided with the Heraclid invasion), followed by his son Codrus, ruled in total for 58 years. Athens was then ruled by hereditary archons (magistrates) for 209 years, beginning with Medon, son of Codrus, and ending with Alcmaeon, son of Aeschylus. For the next 70 years, Athens was governed by a succession of seven archons, who each served 10-year terms. After that, archons held power for just one year each, the first of these being Creon. Aristotle (or possibly one of his students), in The Athenian Constitution, written during the 4 th century BC, presented a similar picture of the transition from kings to hereditary archons to fixed term archons, but gave fewer chronological details and said it was uncertain whether the first hereditary archon was Medon or his son Acastus. He also indicated that several archons served together, one having the senior role and, when the office became an annual one, the eponymous archon, i.e. the one who gave his name to the year, was the head of the group. In the chronicle of Eusebius, the author went on to give the complete list of kings (17 in total), hereditary archons (13 altogether) and the 7 archons who served 10-year terms. He gave reign-lengths for the kings and hereditary archons consistent with the overall timescale given by Castor, so were presumably taken from that source, but Eusebius commented that these figures could not be considered reliable, because other historians gave different timescales. According to the list, Thymoetes, the last of the Erechtheidae, was the great-grandson of Theseus, who was supposedly a contemporary of Heracles. Eusebius wrote that the Heraclids occupied the Peloponnese during the reign of Melanthus in Athens, and he went on to indicate that Aeschylus, last but one of the hereditary archons, was a contemporary of the Spartan kings Alcamenes and Theopompus [7]. Around this time, the Spartans began their rise to dominance in the Peloponnese by winning the first of their wars against the Messenians. According to the poet Tyrtaeus, writing around two generations after the event, this victory was achieved under the leadership of Theopompus. It enabled the Spartans to create a strictly hierarchical society with outsiders, mainly Messenians, at the base, these being the helots, i.e. slaves, whose labour enabled Spartan males to devote their entire time to achieving military excellence [8]. Alcamenes and Theopompus were the last Spartan kings mentioned in the chronicle of Eusebius, but we know from other sources that both lines of kings continued long after this time. However, they formed part of a structure of government which included five magistrates, known as ephors, who were elected for a one-year term, and could not be re-elected. The chief ephor, who was in some ways more powerful than either of the kings, gave his name to the year. Whether this system came into operation after the reigns of Alcamenes and Theopompus, or at a later time, is uncertain [9]. More generally, there can be little certainty about any Greek historical details from this period or earlier, and the same situation applies for more than another hundred years into the future. The first major Greek historian is generally considered to have been Hecataeus of Miletus, who lived in the middle of the 6 th century BC. Although little of his work has survived, we know from other sources that he expressed scepticism about the details of events described in earlier accounts, and their timescale. Nevertheless, he was not able to provide a solution to the problems. The next important historian, Herodotus, who lived half a century later, similarly expressed scepticism about events involving gods and demigods, but continued to rely on generation times (for want of anything better) to provide a timescale for historical events [10]. 1.3 Herodotus and the Persian Wars Perhaps because, although he was an Ionian Greek, Herodotus was born within the Persian empire in Halicarnassus, on the western coast of Asia Minor, a long way from the Greek mainland, he was interested in the customs, geography and history of all of the regions in the world in which he lived. The main thread running through his nine-book work, The Histories, was the history of the Persians, from their rise to power under Cyrus the Great to their invasions of Greece under Darius I and Xerxes I, close to the time when Herodotus was born. Interrupting this narrative were accounts, sometimes lengthy, of other people such as the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Lydians and Greeks, providing background to their interactions with the Persians. So, for example, when writing about the Greeks, he said that Lycurgus, famed for introducing the Spartan code of laws and for re-organising the army, was the uncle of King Labotas of Sparta (grandson of Agis), and acted as his regent [11]. Later, he noted that Miltiades, who led the Athenians (and their allies from Plataea) to victory over the army of Darius at Marathon, effectively ending the first Persian invasion of Greece, claimed descent from Philaeus, son of the great Ajax, who was believed to have settled in...

When did Beautiful Helena live in Sparta? Although Homer's Iliad is well-known in the world, it is with a lot of ambiguities and questions. The main question is: When did it happened? The archeologists led many thorough excavations and scrutinies in the area of the supposed troy, and the conclusion was that the ruins suffered from, at least,ten major destructions, and among them the 7a was the most probable which could be identify as the Homer's Troy, although that was not only one possibility. According to it, the Greek destroyed Troy during the Bronze Age. (Cline, more: 2015-2020.) In short, I argue the destruction happened int the 13th century B.C. could be a remarkable and important battle concerning the Bronze Age Collapse, it is without doubt, but Homer's Iliad happened int the 9-8th centuryB.C. and there mor evidences. Sparta was established in the 10th entury, Carthage was founded in 814 B.C. and its legendary queen, Dido, lived in the 9th century B.C. and, as a indirect evidence, the custom of claiming the wife back is known from the Bible, from tKing David's era, aswell. What could be a key explanation which could solve the problem of the weak-non-existing-Mycaene's role in the epos: Agamemnon was the king not of a city-state, but a group of people known the indigenous Greek, or myconean Greek, who, as the Hitittes of the Dark Age, could survive while many of their home-cities were destroyed, and, even, Mycénae was rebuilt int 6 century B.C.Although, the recent DNA examinations show that there were inner migrations in the examined period, and a few foreign human elements settled and influenced the Greek culture during the Dark Age, the radical change is apparent, and at the end of the deep social and political changes among the tribes and cities, a new reunion was needed to strengthen the Greek military forces in international matters. At the end of the transformation, an already weakened and lonely city-state of Troy was a good probe to measure the reinforcement of the Greek common force. It was hard, but successful. As there are more and more datas collected about the Hittites and other Anatolian cities and states, the main question altered a little bit: Did it hapen around theOlympic Games invented by the Greekswhen the Hittitesand its alleged allies were atotally defeated an immigrated group of people from the Canaan or around the foundation of Karthago, as being with Canaanite origin the Trojan migrants, maybe, partly,Hitittes, could settel in this new Phoenician enclave easily? Dido, Spartan Helene, and a suprising character, King david's wife, Mikhal van cut the debate in short. Concerning Carthage's foundation and its queen,Dido, her life, it is clear that she lived in the 9 th c. B.C., thus, her met to Aeneas could happen around the 9th c. B.C. It solves the question of chronology in an easy way, however, it is useful to examine the Spartan princess' life and ?Mikhal's fate.

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