Crash course on Greek-Roman roots of Western Civilization

So you’ve heard of all the Greek/Roman historical movies, but you are not sure in what order to watch them. To help you out, here is a chronological compilation of all the movies you should watch to get a crash course on the Greek-Roman roots of Western Civilization. Keep in mind the dates are not set in stone, but an approximation of the time periods. Here we go:

  • 1270 BC – Theseus founds Athens by merging many smaller towns. Watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999, 2016, 2017 movies) a story about Theseus based on Shakespeare’s play
  • 1250 BC – Trojan War : watch Troy (2004 movie)
  • 1240 BC – Odysseus returns from Troy : watch The Odyssey (1997 miniseries)
  • 776 BC – Start of Olympic Games
  • 750 BC – Rome is founded : watch Duel of the Titans (1961 movie)
  • 550 BC – Theater born as art form in Athens (first step to modern cinema) (by Thespis, the first actor)
  • 500 BC – Birth of Democracy in Athens (by Cleisthenes, father of democracy)
  • 490 BC – Persian wars begin at Marathon : watch 300 : Rise of an Empire (2014 movie)
  • 480 BC – Battle of Thermopylae : watch 300 (2006 movie)
  • 430 BC – Peloponnesian Wars (Athens vs Sparta) start : Play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018 game)
  • 400 BC – Hippocrates, father of medicine, founds first school of medicine in the world
  • 387 BC – Plato founds the first school of higher education in the world : Plato’s Academy
  • 359 BC – Philip II becomes king of Macedonia : watch Alexander : The Ultimate Cut (2014 edition)
  • 146 BC – Rome invades Greece and ancient Greece comes to an end : watch The Centurion (1962 movie)
  • 73 BC – Spartacus gladiator revolt : watch Spartacus (2010 series)
  • 49 BC – Julius Caesar civil war to Octavian and Mark Anthony & Cleopatra : watch Rome (2005 series)
  • 47 BC – Cleopatra story side by side with Caesar : watch Cleopatra (1999 series)
  • 27 BC – Start of Roman Empire
  • 4 BCish – Birth of Christ : watch The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Risen (2016) Mary Magdalene (2018)
  • 285 – The Roman empire splits into the Western and Eastern (Byzantine Greek) Roman Empires
  • 390 – With the advent of Christianity, Hellenic polytheism used by Greeks and Romans is on the decline until it is fully banned by late 390 AD and the Olympic & Delphic games banned after 12 centuries of being practised. Christianity becomes religion of state : watch Agora (2009 movie)
  • 480 – End of the Western Roman Empire and Dark Ages start in Europe
  • 840 to 1800 – Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation rules western and central Europe
  • 1453 – End of the Eastern (Byzantine Greek) Roman Empire
  • 1776 – US Revolution
  • 1821 – Greek Revolution
  • 1875 – Statue of Liberty built in New York based on Roman goddess Libertas, who herself was based on Greek goddess Artemis Eleftheria
  • 1896 – Olympic games revived in Athens 1,500 years after being banned
  • 1897 – Full-scale replica of Parthenon built in Nashville, Tennessee
  • 1904 – Statue of Vulcan (Hephaistos) built in Birmingham, Alabama becomes the largest cast-iron statue in the world (56 ft/17 meters)
  • 1940 – Greece : First Allied victory of WW2
  • 1957 – The Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community, the first formal version of the EU, which was based on the European Coal and Steel community created after WW2
  • 1969 – Apollo 11 lands first man on moon
  • 1994 – Delphic Games (sister games of Olympics) revived in Berlin 1,600 years after being banned
  • 2004 – Olympic games return home to Athens over 100 years after the first modern Olympic games in Athens
  • 2023 – Artemis 3 will land first woman on moon