The table gives some key dates relevant to the development of tragedy in Greece. All dates are BC until marked AD. Memorize the historical dates given in green.
| 1200 | Trojan War (approximate traditional date) |
| 776 | Founding of the Olympic Games (traditional date), basis of the common calendar of the Greeks |
| 753 | Founding of the city of Rome (traditional date) |
| 566 | Re-organization of the Panathenaic festival |
| 536 | Tragic competition begins at the City Dionysia |
| 525 | Birth of Aeschylus (approximate) |
| 514 | Harmodius and Aristogeiton kill tyrant Hippias in Athens, leading to democracy |
| 495 | Birth of Sophocles |
| 490 | Battle of Marathon: Persia attacks Greece and is repulsed |
| 486 | Comic competition introduced into City Dionysia. |
| 484 | Birth of Euripides; Aeschylus wins his first victory. |
| 480 | Battles of Salamis and Thermopylae: Persia tries again, with no better results |
| 472 | Aeschylus' Persians |
| 468 | Sophocles wins his first victory, with his first production (including Triptolemus, which does not survive). |
| 467 | Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, first prize |
| 463 | Aeschylus' Suppliant Women, approximate date |
| 458 | Aeschylus' Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides) |
| 457 | Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, approximate date, assuming the play is actually by Aeschylus (it could also be somewhat later) |
| 456 | Death of Aeschylus (approximate) |
| 455 | Euripides competes for the first time, and finishes third |
| 450 | Sophocles' Ajax, approximate date; this play might be as much as 10 years later |
| 442 | Sophocles' Antigone, approximate date |
| 438 | Euripides' Alcestis, second prize |
| 431 | Beginning of Peloponnesian War, Athens vs. Sparta. Production of Euripides' Medea, third prize |
| 430 | Euripides' Children of Heracles, approximate date. Sophocles' Women of Trachis, approximate date |
| 428 | Euripides' Hippolytus, first prize |
| 425 | Euripides' Andromache, approximate date; outside Athens. |
| 424 | Euripides' Hecuba |
| 423 | Euripides' Suppliant Women |
| 421 | Sophocles' Oedipus the King, approximate date |
| 420 | Euripides' Electra and Sophocles' Electra, approximate dates; which of these plays is earlier is unknown |
| 416 | Euripides' Heracles |
| 415 | Euripides' Trojan Women, second prize |
| 414 | Euripides' Iphigeneia among the Taurians |
| 413 | Euripides' Ion |
| 412 | Euripides' Helen |
| 410 | Euripides' Phoenician Women; Cyclops may have been the satyr play |
| 409 | Sophocles' Philoctetes |
| 408 | Euripides' Orestes |
| 405 | Deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, in that order, a few months apart. Posthumous production of Euripides' Bacchae and Iphigeneia in Aulis, first prize |
| 404 | Fall of Athens, end of Peloponnesian War. |
| 403 | Restoration of Athenian democracy |
| 401 | Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, produced posthumously |
| 399 | Trial and execution of Socrates |
| 323 | Death of Alexander the Great; start of Hellenistic period of Greek history |
| AD 393 | Emperor Theodosius ends the Olympic games |
| 475-476 | Romulus Augustulus last emperor in the West; start of Byzantine period of Greek history |
| 1300 | Approximate date for beginning of Italian humanism and the Renaissance |
| 1453 | Turks conquer Constantinople; final end of Roman empire |