Key dates in Greek history:
• 3000-1200 BC: Bronze Age Cycladic,Minoan, and Mycenaean cultures flourish
• 800 BC: Emergence of city-states
• 5th century: Classical period High point of Athenian culture under Perikles
• 431-404 BC: Peloponnesian Wars defeat of the Athenians by the city-state of Sparta
• 338 BC: Greek army conquered by Philip II of Macedonia
• 333 BC: Alexander the Great declares himself king of Asia Greeece absorbed into his vast empire
• 168 BC: Greece becomes province of Rome
• AD 49-54: St.Paul preaches Christianity in Greece
• 395: Greece becomes part of the new Eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople
• 1453: Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks
• 1821: Start of the Greek War of Independence
• 1832: Great powers establish protectorate over Greece, and appoint Otto of Bavaria king
• 1922: Greeks fail to capture Smyrna from Turks
• 1946: 9 Civil war leaves thousands dead or homeless
• 1981: Admission to the European Union
• 2002: Euro becomes legal currency
• 2004: Greece hosts Olympic Games and wins the football European Cup