(BC 590 - AD 187)
Incubation
590 BC Solon archon of Athens: his reforms, code of laws, poetry.
640-562 Thales of Miletos: science and cosmology.
580 Code of Pittakos at Mytilene.
Development
ca 570 Francois vase.
561-527 The Golden Age of Pisistratus.
ca 535 First Tragic Festival at Athens.
ca 550 Anaximander of Miletos: technical instruments; founds colony of Apollonia.
ca 530 Pythagoras: foundation of Pythagorean colony at Croton.
530-480 Doric temples at Paestum, Agrigento, Selinunte.
ca 510 Organization of free peasant class in Athens.
ca 510 Heracleitos of Ephesos: 'Concerning the Universe'.
ca 510 End of archaic sculpture: beginning of Ionic style.
Maturity
494-479 Medic Wars: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis: fortification of Athens
and building of the Piraeus.
ca 490-460 fl. Aeschylus.
ca 470-410 Sophocles.
ca 450-405 Euripides.
468-457 Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
447-438 The Parthenon, Phidias.
470-399 Socrates.
427-348 Plato.
ca 440 Age of Pericles: colonization in Southern Italy, Sicily, Black Sea.
ca 400 Beginning of Corinthian style.
ca 385-322 Aristotle, teacher of Alexander the Great.
323 Maximum diffusion of Greek culture under Alexander.
283 Ptolemy Soter develops Alexandria as Greek city.
146 Greece falls under Roman domination.
260 AD Greece overrun by the Goths.
(BC 312 - AD 465)
Incubation
312-304 BC End of Samnite War: Roman rule over Campania and Apulia.
312 Appius Claudius censor: opening of the Appian Way to Capua, first Roman road: earliest aqueduct.
322 Stoic school at Athens under Zeno.
306 school of Epicurus at Samos: formative influences of Roman culture.
Development
280-275 Pyrrhic War: unification of Italy.
264-241 First Punic War: conquest of Sicily.
ca 300-240 Development of military machine, the legion.
284-204 Livius Andronicus: translator of Greek classics.
Maturity
219-201 Second Punic War; conquest of Spain.
ca 220-190 fl. Plautus, ca 160 Terence.
ca 200 Introduction of Oriental religions to Rome.
168 Conquest of Macedonia, 146 Greece and Tunisia, 133 Asia Minor.
146 Destruction of Carthage.
87 All Italians made Roman citizens.
74-63 Conquest of Syria and Palestine by Pompey: 58-51 of Gaul by Caesar.
70-13 Cicero, 71-19 Virgil, 59-17 AD Livy, 2-66 AD Seneca.
31 BC Conquest of Egypt.
29 BC-14 AD Augustan Age: rebuilding of Rome: Pax Romana.
41-54 AD Conquest of Britain: the senate opened to Gauls.
ca 100 Maximum expansion of Roman Empire under Trajan.
100-300 Provincial Emperors from Spain, Illyria, Syria.
211 Roman citizenship made universal.
270-300 Revolts in Gaul, Africa, Greece, Syria, Egypt.
410 Sack of Rome by Alaric.
453 Ravaging of Italy by Attila.
476 Imperial ensigns sent to Constantinople by Odeacer the Vandal: end of Western Empire.
(AD 28 - 805)
Incubation
28-33? Supposed teaching of Christ.
Development
ca 35-60 'The Acts of the Apostles': travels of St. Paul: foundation of churches at
Antioch, Ephesus and Rome.
ca 100 The Gospels and the Apocalypse of St. John of Patmos.
ca 100 Establishment of 'the seven churches in Asia' and the authority of bishops.
Maturity
ca 150-200 Establishment of Churches at Alexandria, Carthage and Lyons.
ca 200-220 Tertullian of Carthage attacks heresies.
ca 200-258 Persecution of Christians by Imperial Rome.
ca 230-250 Origen of Alexandria combines Christian and Hellenic philosophy.
285 Beginning of monastic life in Egyptian desert: first pilgrimages to the Holy Places.
ca 300-400 Cult of martyrs developed.
320 Christianity made official religion of Roman Empire by Constantine.
314 Synod of Arles.
325 Council of Nicaea.
ca 350 Athanasian creed.
ca 400 Beginning of Western monasticism: Tours, Lerins.
ca 390-430 St. Augustine: 'The City of God': his struggle with the Manichaeans.
ca 480-500 Conversion of the Franks under Clovis.
ca 500 Schism between Western Church at Rome and Eastern Church at Constantinople.
640 Destruction of the Library at Alexandria by the Arabs.
800-850 Lowest level of the Papacy.
(AD 522 - 1299)
Incubation
ca 520 fl. St. Benedict, Dionysius the Areopagite, Boethius, Priscian.
523 Boethius: 'The Consolation of Philosophy'.
ca 526 Building of pilgrimage shrines at Jerusalem by Justinian:
development of school of mosaic work.
529 St. Benedict founds the Monastery of Monte Cassino.
Development
532-537 Building of Santa Sophia at Constantinople.
547 Building of St. Vitalus at Ravenna: mosaic work.
529-534 Code, Digest and Institutes of Justinian.
533-554 Pacification of the Mediterranean: recovery of North Africa from the Vandals,
Italy from the Ostrogoths, Spain from the Visigoths.
563 St. Columba at Iona, converts the Scots: from 600, in Ireland.
589 Conversion of the Visigoths.
590-604 Pope Gregory the Great: 596, sends Augustine to Britain.
First monk to become pope:
his 'Dialogues' link between classical and mediaeval teaching:
his school of music at Rome establishes Gregorian chant.
Maturity
627-635 Christianization of England by Augustine.
656-682 First Benedictine monasteries in England: Peterborough, Wearmouth, Jarrow.
732 Defeat of the Arabs at Poitiers by Charles Martel.
741-768 Spread of monasticism in France under Pepin the Pious.
768-814 Christian empire of Charlemagne: court school under Alcuin.
754-800 Christianization of Germany by St. Boniface: 800, of Scandinavia:
864, of Moravia and Bohemia.
917 Foundation of the Abbey of Cluny, 926-942 Odo abbot, 948-994 Maieul, 994-1049 Odilo.
ca 1100 Maximum extent of Cluniac empire in Europe under Abbot Hugh.
1215 Albigensian crusade against heretics.
1228, establishment of the Inquisition.
1250-1300 Decadence of monasticism, and control by secular powers.
1306 Holy Roman Empire separates from Rome.
1309 The Pope held captive at Avignon.
(AD 1088 - 1865)
Incubation
1089-1130 Abbey Church of Cluny rebuilt under Hugh: maximum extent of Cluniac influence.
ca 1090-1110 School at Chartres under Ivo: at Mont St. Michel: at Canterbury under Anselm.
1073-1085 Cluniac pope, Gregory VII: 1088-1099 Urban II.
ca 1090 Building of cathedrals at Pisa, Mainz, Winchester, St. Albans.
ca 1070-1110 Normanization of England and Sicily.
1095 First crusade rids France of warlike elements.
Development
1100 Norman kingdom set up in Palestine.
ca 1110-1140 Adelard of Bath in Near East: research mission from Chartres in Spain:
translation of the Koran, logarithmic tables, alchemical works.
1122-1152 Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, leading French statesman under Louis VI and VII.
1118 Order of Knights Templars founded.
1134-1150 Western facade of Chartres cathedral:
scientific and classical studies established there by Thierry.
1148 Norman conquest of Tunis and Tripoli.
Maturity
ca 1165-1200 Notre Dame de Paris, Sens, choir of Canterbury, Chichester, campanile of Pisa.
ca 1215 St. Francis of Assisi, Walter von der Vogelweide, Nibelungenlied.
1167-1243 Universities of Oxford 1167, Padua 1222, Naples 1224, Toulouse 1229, Salamanca 1243.
1200-1240 Cathedrals of Lincoln, Chartres, Rheims, Amiens, Mainz, Laon, Wells,
Peterborough, Ripon, Bamberg, Burgos, Toledo.
1200-1225 Peak of Venetian power: Venetian-Oriental trade: German-Russian trade:
St. Gotthard Pass: Lubeck a free city.
ca 1260 fl. Cimabue, Roger Bacon: ca 1300 Dante, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Chaucer.
1347-1351 The Black Death in Europe.
1378 The Great Schism: two popes at Rome and Fondi.
ca 1480-1500 Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada.
1520 Luther launches the Reformation.
1530-1540 Independence of the Anglican Church: dissolution of the English monasteries.
1789 French Revolution:
1793 dispossession of the church in France and 'abolition of Christianity':
destruction of abbey of Cluny.
ca 1830 Gothic revival in England.
1867 Karl Marx -'religion the opiate of the masses'.
1870-1880 Abolition of Catholic orders and congregations in Germany, of monasteries and theological faculties in Rome; expulsion of Catholic orders from France, of Papal Nuncios from Belgium and Switzerland.
(AD 1446-2223)
Incubation
1439 Visit of Emperor John Paleologus to Florence.
1440 Invention of printing by Gutenberg.
1453-1456 Printing of the Gutenberg Bible at Mainz.
1440 First public library formed by Cosimo Medici.
1450 Formation of the Vatican Library by Nicolas V.
ca 1440-1460 Platonic Academy at Florence.
ca 1440-1460 Schools of painting and architecture in Italy Botticelli at Florence,
Mantegna at Padua, the Bellinis at Venice, Alberti at Rome.
1453 Capture of Constantinople by the Turks drives scientist and artist refugees to Italy.
Development
1450-1480 Universities of Cambridge (Queens) 1447, Glasgow 1451, Freiburg 1457,
Oxford (Magdalen) 1458, Basle 1459, Ingolstadt 1472, Buda 1475,
Mainz and Tubingen 1477, Copenhagen 1479.
1463 Completion of the Doge's Palace at Venice
1489, of the Sistine Chapel at Rome
1506, foundation stone of St Peters' Rome
1520, of Medici Chapel, Florence.
ca 1500-1520 fl. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Durer.
1509 Establishment of the Aldine Press at Venice.
1487-1500 Voyages to Cape of Good Hope by Diaz 1487, San Salvador by Columbus 1492,
Labrador by Cabot 1498, Calcutta by Vasco da Gama 1498, Venezuela by Vespucci 1499,
Brazil by Cabral 1500, round the world by Magellan 1519-1522.
1519-1521 Conquest of Mexico by Cortes, 1532-1534 of Peru by Pizarro.
ca 1520 fl. Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, Machiavelli, Anosto.
Maturity
ca 1530-1560 Beginnings of modern medicine by Paracelsus, astronomy by Copernicus,
anatomy by Vesalius, zoology by Gessner.
ca 1590-1620 Elizabethan Renaissance in England: Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Marlowe, Donne ca 1600 fl Cervantes, Montaigne, Galileo, El Greco. 1620 Boehme, Spinoza, Rembrandt.
ca 1600-1630 Discovery of terrestrial magnetism by Gilbert 1600,
laws of gravitation by Galileo 1602,
laws of planetary motion by Kepler 1603,
logarithms by Napier 1614,
laws of refraction by Snellius 1616,
circulation of the blood by Harvey 1628.
1661 Foundation of modern chemistry by Boyle, modern microscopy by Leeuwenhoek.
1675 Discovery of speed of light by Ole Roemer.
1700-1780 First encyclopaedias, Chambers 1727, Diderot's 1751-80, Britannica 1771.
ca 1800 Beginnings of modern music fl Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart.
1810-1835 First public scientific societies, museums, picture galleries.
1874 Universal education in England.
ca 1890 Popularization of newspapers, public libraries.
(AD 1859 -2636)
Incubation
1859 Darwin, 'Origin of Species': J. S. Mill, 'On Liberty'.
1862 Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables'.
1865 Clerk Maxwell, 'Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'; Tolstoy, 'War and Peace'.
1866 Dostoievsky, 'Crime and Punishment'.
1867 Ibsen, 'PeerGynt'.
1863 Salon desRefuses.
1865 Principles of heredity established by Mendel, antiseptic surgery by Lister.
1861 Emancipation of serfs in Russia.
1862 State socialism advocated by Lasalle.
1864 International Workers Association.
1867 Karl Marx 'Das Kapital'.
1859 Suez Canal begun: first oil-well discovered in U.S.
first electric-light plant in New York: discovery of spectroanalysis.
1861 construction of telephone by Reiss.
1866 of dynamo by Siemens, of transatlantic cable.
1867 invention of dynamite, the typewriter, the collotype process.
ca 1866 Madame Blavatsky in New York: Mary Baker Eddy founds Christian Science.
1860-85 Shri Ramakrishna teaching in India.
1865 Unification of the United States after the Civil War, of Mexico after French intervention.
Development
1868 Bakunin's 'Alliance Internationale'.
1869 German Social Democratic Party.
1871 Trades Unions legalized in England.
1870 Franco-Prussian War.
1871 First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris.
1874 International Red Cross.
1875 International Postal Union.
1872 Wundt, 'Principles of Physiological Psychology'.
1895 Freud, Psycho-analysis.
1875 Foundation of the Theosophical Society by Madame Blavatsky.
1876 Max Müller's programme for translation of the Sacred Books of the East.
1876 Invention of telephone by Bell.
1877 phonograph by Edison.
1878 repeating-rifle by Mannlicher, microphone by Hughes.
1879 electric bulb by Edison.
1883 first automobile factories.
1883 Nietzsche, 'Zarathustra'.
1889 Shaw, 'Fabian Essays'.
1898 Tolstoy, 'Resurrection'.
1881 Canadian Pacific Railway Co. formed: Panama Canal begun.
1884 St. Gotthard Tunnel.
1889 Eiffel Tower.
1891-1901 Trans-Siberian Railway.
1894 Trans-Andean Railway.
1895 electric submarine.
1895 Discovery of the cinema, wireless, x-rays.
1897 Discovery of helium, 1898 of radium.
1903 Formation of Bolshevist Party in Russia under Lenin and Trotsky.
1902 Lorentz' electron theory.
1900 Max Planck's quantum theory.
1905 Einstein's theory of relativity.
1908 Early aeroplane nights by Wright brothers, airship flights by Zeppelin and Santos Dumont.
1914-1918 First World War.
1910 Mexican Revolution
1917 Russian Revolution.
ca 1915 Popularisation of the cinema.
ca 1920 Popularisation of the automobile.
ca 1925 Popularisation of radio.
ca 1935 Popularisation of air transport.
Maturity
1939-1945 Second World War.
1944 The splitting of the atom.
1945 first atomic bombs.