Using Perseus Timelines

1. How do I generate a timeline?
2. What can I find out from a timeline?
3. How do I move around a timeline?

How do I generate a timeline?

The two main uses of Perseus timelines are to look at the distribution of dates in individual documents and in collections of documents.

When you are reading a text that has references to dates, for example, Diodorus' Historical Library, there will be a link to timelines that says:

dates in this document

When you are browsing collections of materials in the Perseus Table of Contents, click on the "Plot Dates" button at the top of each collection to generate a chart for all dates in that collection.

What can I find out from a timeline?

Refer to the figure below or view this timeline with your browser.

• The "From" and "to" boxes indicate that you're viewing dates from 800 B.C. to 83 B.C.
• The red and green bar graph across the top summarizes the distribution of dates by centuries and decades. This text concentrates on the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. and particularly on the 330s and 320s.
• The left-hand column (the Y axis) labels the parts of the document: in this case, the traditional "books", or scrolls, of Diodorus' history. As the text progresses, there is a fairly steady movement from earlier to later dates, as one would expect in a chronological work. Many documents, of course, are not chronological, such as the alphabetically arranged Perseus Encyclopedia.
• Red points indicate single dates; yellow lines indicate date ranges.

How do I move around a timeline?

You can navigate the timeline with the controls below:

• Type the beginning and ending years you want into the text boxes and click the Change button.
• Click the left or right arrows to shift the coverage forward or backward in time. If there are no later or earlier dates in the current document(s), there will be no arrow.
• If you are particularly interested in a small range of dates, select the zoom option and then click on the chart to get more detailed information on the point where you clicked.
• Select the "find date in document" option, then click a point on the chart to jump directly to the mention of the date in the document.

• If you are viewing a timeline for several documents, clicking on the left-hand column will generate a timeline for just one document.
• If you are viewing a timeline for one document, clicking on the left-hand column will bring up the indicated part of the document.
• Click on the bar graph at the top of the chart for a textual list of all dates mentioned in that decade or year. You can also get a list by selecting "list mode" and clicking on the chart. For some documents or collections, the complete list will be very long.