Aegean Maritime Museum
8th millennium BC Evidence of the transport of obsidian by ship from Melos to the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese.
3rd millennium BC Incised representations of ships on pottery from Syros.
l 5th c. BC Frescos from Akrotiri on Santorini. The “Fleet Fresco”. Decline of Minoan and expansion of Myconian civilisation.
l2th c. BC Greek expedition against Troy and its allies.
1100-800 BC Colonisation and development of Asia Minor and its coasts by the Ionians (Miletus, Ephesus, Phocaea).
ca. 800-700 BC Homeric Epics (Iliad and Odyssey).
7th c. BC Ameinocles the Corinthian designs and builds the first trireme.
542 BC Hipponax mentions the word “trireme” for the first time.
490-479 BC Persian Wars.
482 BC Themistocles proposes and the Athenians agree to use the reserves of silver from Lavrion to build 200 triremes.
480 BC naval Battle of Salamis.
478 BC Formation of the Delian League by Aristeides. Athenian maritime supremacy.
449 BC Beginning of the “Golden Age” of Pericles.
431-404 BC Peloponnesian War. Period of decline in Athenian maritime commerce.
408 BC City of Rhodes built. Between 5th and 1st c. BC. Piraeus, Delos and Rhodes. Important maritime commercial centres.
338 BC Philip ΙΙ King of Macedonia organises the League of Corinth (all of Greece except for the Spartans).
336-323 BC Time of Alexander the Great. Nearchos commander of the fleet.
323-31 BC Time of Alexander the Grate’s successors (Hellenistic period). Founding of the 5 kingdoms:
- Macedonia, with Cassander.
- Syria or the Seleucid kingdom, with Seleucus.
- Egypt, with Ptolemy.
- Thrace, with Lysimachus, and later
- Pergamum, with Attalus Ι.
296-280 BC Construction of the Pharos of Alexandria by the Greek architect and engineer Sostratus.
270 BC The Romans are masters of all Italy.
200-180 BC “Winged Victory” of Samothrace (statue). It shows in detail a trireme prow in natural size
166 BC Delos is proclaimed a free port and achieves great prosperity. Beginning of the decline of Rhodes.
146 BC Destruction of Corinth. Roman supremacy.
88 BC Destruction of Delos by Mithridates.
69 BC Incursion by Athenodorus and end of Delos’s splendour.
31 BC Νaνal battle of Actium. (Augustus Caesar defeats Marcus Antonius).
Year 1 Birth of Christ (under Augustus Caesar).
33 AD Crucifixion of Christ (under Emperor Tiberius).
13-313 AD Construction of large grain ships by Rome.
330 AD Time of Constantine the Great. Founding of Constantinople.
395 AD Division of the Roman Empire into a Western and Eastern Empire.(Byzantine Empire).
6th c. AD Justinian creates a powerful navy. Appearance of the Byzantine dromon. Byzantine maritime supremacy.
1453 AD Fall of Constantinople.
1750-1818 Expansion and apogee of the Greek merchant ‘fleet.
1818-1828 Economic crisis of the Greek merchant fleet.
1821-1826 Decisive role of the Greek merchant man during the Greek War of independence.
1825 Building during the War of Independence of the first Greek steam vessel, the “Karteria” (the first steamship to take part in naval engagements).
1827 Νaval battle of Navarino.
1828-1831 Formation of the first Greek State. Capodistria the first Governor. Merchant navy laws issued.
1832-1855 Continuous expansion of the Greek mercantile sailing fleet.
1856 Establishment of the first Greek steamship company (the Hellenic Steam Navigation Company). Development of Syros into an important maritime commercial centre.
1866-1868 Cretan Revolution.
1870-1900 Expansion of Piraeus and its development into the first Greek commercial shipping centre.
