GREECE IN THE 8TH AND 7TH CENTURIES

First Greek appearances in the Levant, at a place they called Poseideion in what is now Syria, near the ancient town of Al Mina (Ugarit) and the later town Laodicea.

Traditional date of the founding of the OLYMPIAN GAMES (also founded by Pelops, the great-grandfather of Agamemnon, by Heracles, and by Lycurgus the semi-mythical regent of Sparta). The earliest winners are from Pisa, Elis and the neighborhood of the northwest Peloponnesus.

The life-archonship in Athens is made decennial. There were seven aristocratic holders (Eupatridai) of the office. The office became annual in 683. Basileus, Polemarchos, Archon, 6 Thesmothetai

First War between the Spartans and the Messenian Kingdom (semi-mythical). A Second Messenian War and a Third Messenian War (ca. 700-635, on and off) are historical

Surviving examples of `hoplite armor' (Argos) [A. Snodgrass, The Arms and Armour of the Greeks (London 1967), and Archaeology and the Rise of the Greek State (Cambridge 1977)].

LELANTINE WAR, over a plain on the island of Euboea, desired both by Eretria and Chalcis, two neighboring towns (Miletus and Eretria, and Samos and Chalcis on opposite sides: first real naval war, international alliances across the Aegean. Samos seems to have invaded or raided Aegina, which was a natural enemy of Corinth. The tyrants of Corinth, from ca. 650, the Cypselids [Cypselus and Peridander] were later allied with Miletus) Discussed by the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. See A.R. Burn, The Lyric Age of Greece.