Searching for what I don't know

There is so much I don't know. Right now, I think I'd like a good solid time line of ancient Greece. I need a visual to help me better see the context. So, I think I'm going to do some historical research. I plan on reading The Greek Sophists. At various times troughout my education from elementary school to now, I have been presented with Greek plays, Athenian democracy, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, the Sophists (though very briefly and they were presented like used car salesmen), but I don't think I've ever seen all of it laid out together. I'm not sure why this is important for me, but it is. I'm fascinated by the Sophists because when I read them, and to a large extant much of Greek writing, I don't feel like I'm reading something ancient. I reject this notion that we (meaning humans) started at point A and our moving towards point B a long some sort of continuum. I have to reject it because I have a hard time accepting that we improved by moving from Gorgias to guys like Morton and Agassiz. It used to bug me that it seems we've been having the same conversation for 2500 years. Now, I think it's a good thing.