Timeline of ancient Greece

This is why you shouldn't use AI for this kind of thing. For one thing, what's the point of using it if you don't even trust it so you have to ask on reddit? Not that you should trust, but that's precisely the problem. I also just find it annoying and even impolite that you want your question answered but it must be made in reference to your AI search. Why couldn't you have asked on reddit and asked the AI and compared the two? (Not that you should be using AI for this kind of question!) Instead of asking someone else not only to answer your question (have you ever heard of google or wikipedia, much less a book?), they also have to weigh a large language model's answer for you, because you're incapable of doing any thinking at all? The AI is correct if there were such a thing as Classical Greek, but there isn't because during the period of Classical Greece, there were several dialects. The dialect your probably thinking of is Attic Greek which was spoken during the Classical period in the region of Attica (the area around Athens) and had a significant literary prestige. It forms much of the basis for Koine which was spoken in the Hellenic world in the wake of Alexander's conquests, but Ancient Greek also includes not only the other forms of Greek spoken in Classical Greece but also Koine, since it was spoken in Antiquity. More on reddit.com

There is no one metric that is universally agreed upon. But essentially, we break things down into pre-history (which is itself further broken down but I won't get into that), then antiquity, some will call earl antiquity the archaic period. Generally, to avoid confusion, we just call it the Bronze Age. Then you get the Bronze Age Collapse, about 1200BCE, and what is called the "Greek Dark Ages". Whether or not the people at the end ofthe Bronze Age in Greece count as Greeks is an area of contention. The Minoans were definitely Greek-ish aesthetically, but were definitely a distinct people, and all of the people of what is now southern and central Greece that just kind of lump together as "The Achaeans" or "Mycenaeans" definitely weren't like...polis-living, hoplite farmers. I don't personally count either as Greek, more "Proto-Greek". Then the Bronze Age Collapse happens, and the Greek Dark Age occurs. Writing goes away. Kingdoms shatter. People live in small settlement, first mostly in the highlands before moving back down to the sea. And this is the period where the Greeks develop into Greeks. When the hoplite class seems to come into existence, and hoplite warfare with it (it could have existed earlier and just changed dramatically), when the city-state comes up, and at the very end of the period is when you get the Homeric Myths finally being made somewhat concrete, in forms near those that we know today. When this ends is also kind of debated. Generally, 800BCE, maybe 750BCE, something like that. Then you get Archaic Greece, the formation of the city-states as powers, all of the little wars, the colonization, the formation of philosophy and early mathematics and all sorts of good jazz. This lasts to about 500BCE. 499BCE begins Classical Greece, because it is the first real issue with the Persians that would blow up beyond trade squabbles. Eventually leading to the Persian Wars. Classical Greece lasts until the Hellenistic Era. The Hellenistic Era either begins with Alexander the Great's death, or I think more appropriately with Alexander the Great's conquests of Central Asia and part of modern Pakistan. Either way, the general date is 323BCE. The Hellenistic Era is named after being "Greek-like", named for a dramatic change in culture and art and all sorts of things due to the influx of new Syrian and Bactrian and Egyptian and Phrygian etc. etc. people into Greek(Macedonian) controlled kingdoms. The Hellenistic Era overlaps with the Roman Republic, specifically the middle and late Republic. It is generally considered to end in 32 or 31BCE with the last Ptolemy, Cleopatra, losing power in Egypt. Thus dies the "Greek" era. Then you have the Republic, and then the Empire, divided into the Principate and Dominate. The principate is Augustus and Trajan and Aurelius and Aurelian, most of the ones that make it into film and stuff. These guys were, at least until the third century, pretty much exclusively Italians. Either Italians from Italy or Italians removed from Italy but living with other Italians, like in Spain or North Africa. Then you have the Crisis of the Third Century. It is a whole lot of civil war. Inflation. Invasion. Infection. Generally bad stuff, the Empire broke into 3 for awhile. You also get Emperors from all over the Empire, no longer just Italians or mostly-Italians or married-into-Italians. But eventually, a dude manage to re-unite it and his name was Aurelian and he was super cool, but then he got assassinated. And then an Illyrian, and someone who legitimately hated Italy and especially Rome, became Roman Emperor, Diocletian. So he avoided Rome, and ruled from Nicomedia, and made 4 emperors, it was dumb as hell, led to 3 civil wars and at one point 5 people claiming to be emperor while a total of 7 had real claims, it was madness. Eventually, Constantine won. And moved his capital to Byzantium. Now this is where my opinion diverges from most people who study the Romans, and most people on this board likely. But this is where the "Eastern Roman Empire" gets its seed, though it wouldn't be a thing in any real political split for another century. It is also where they get the name "Byzantine". Ok that was a shitload. That was probably too much. But I hope it helps. More on reddit.com