5th century BC

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The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.

This century saw the establishment of Pataliputra as a capital of the Magadha Empire. This city would later become the ruling capital of different Indian kingdoms for about a thousand years. This period saw the rise of two great philosophical schools of the east, Jainism and Buddhism. This period saw

Events

• Demotic becomes the dominant script of ancient Egypt
  .

490s BC

• Naxos
  .
• Persia
  .
• Athenian
  and Ionian troops.
• 498 BC: Leontini subjugated by Hippocrates of Gela.
• Macedon
  .
• 496 BC: Battle of Lake Regillus: A legendary early Roman victory, won over either the Etruscans or the Latins.
• 496 BC: Sophocles is born.
• 495 BC: Temple to Mercury on the Circus Maximus in Rome is built.
• 494 BC: The Battle of Lade, where Persians take back Ionia.
• tribunate
  is established.
• 494 BC: The year Rome changed from an Aristocratic Republic to a Liberalized Republic.
• 493 BC: Piraeus, the port town of Athens, is founded.
• Coriolanus captures the Volscian town of Corioli for Rome
  .
• Mardonius. This marks the start of the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC
  .
• 492 BC: Ajatashartu overthrows his father Bimbisara to become king of Magadha.
• Leotychidas succeeds his cousin Demaratus as king of Sparta
  .
• Gelo becomes Tyrant of Gela
  .
• Miltiades
• marathon
  long-distance race.

480s BC

• 489 BC: Cities of Rhodes unite and start construction of the new city of Rhodes.
• 488 BC: Leonidas I succeeds his brother Cleomenes I as king of Sparta after Cleomenes is judged insane.
• 487 BC: Egypt revolts against the Persians.
• 487 BC: Aegina and Athens go to war.
• 487 BC: Athenian Archonship becomes elective by lot, an important milestone in the move towards radical Athenian democracy.
• 487 BC: Siaspiqa becomes ruler of the Kushite kingdom of Meroe.
• Grand Canal of China
  is built.
• Persia
  .
• 486 BC: Egypt revolts against Persian rule.
• First Buddhist Council at Rejgaha, under the patronage of King Ajatashatru
  . Oral tradition established for the first time.
• 484 BC: Athenian playwright Aeschylus wins a poetry prize.
• Merodach
  ).
• 484 BC: Persians regain control of Egypt.
• Gautama Buddha
  dies.
• 483 BC: Xerxes I of Persia starts planning his expedition against Greece
• 481 BC: The Isthmus of Corinth ends a war between Athens and Aegina.
• 480 BC: King Xerxes I of Persia sets out to conquer Greece.
• 480 BC: Cimon and his friends burn horse-bridles as an offering to Athena and join the marines
• 480 BC: Pleistarchus succeeds his father Leonidas I as king of Sparta.
• August, 480 BC: Battle of Artemisium—The Persian fleet fights an inconclusive battle with the Greek allied fleet.
• August 11, 480 BC: The Battle of Thermopylae, a costly victory by Persians over the Greeks.
• September 23, 480 BC: Battle of Salamis between Greece and Persia, leading to a Greek victory.
• Gelon of Syracuse
  .
• 480 BC: Roman troops march against the Veientines.

470s BC

• Persian Wars
  .
• 479 BC: Battle of Mycale.
• 479 BC: Potidaea is struck by a tsunami.
• 479 BC: Chinese philosopher Confucius dies.
• 478 BC: Establishment of the Temple of Confucius at (modern-day) Qufu.
• 477 BC: The Delian League is inaugurated.
• Leotychides, who is banished to Tegea, as king of Sparta
  .
• Zhou Dynasty
  .
• Etruscans and end Etruscan expansion in southern Italy
  .
• 474 BC: Greek poet Pindar moves to Thebes.
• 473 BC: The Chinese State of Wu is annexed by the State of Yue.
• 472 BC: Carystus in Euboea is forced to join the Delian League (approximate date).
• 472 BC: The tragedy The Persians is produced by Aeschylus.
• 471 BC: Athenian politician Themistocles is ostracized.

460s BC

• 469 BC: Philosopher Socrates is born in Attica, Athens, Greece.
• 468 BC: Sophocles, Greek playwright, defeats Aeschylus for the Athenian Prize.
• 468 BC: Antium captured by Roman forces.
• Zhou Dynasty of China
  .
• Battle of Eurymedon
  .
• Iapyges, a native population of ancient Apulia; Tarentine monarchy falls, with the installation of a democracy and the expulsion of the Pythagoreans
  .
• Artaxerxes I, possibly with Artabanus acting as Regent
  .
• 465 BC: Thasos revolts from the Delian League.
• 464 BC: An earthquake in ancient Sparta, Greece leads to a Helot uprising and strained relations with Athens, one of the factors that lead to the Peloponnesian War.
• Artaxerxes I
  .
• Messenian war
  .
• 462 BC: The revolt of Thasos against the Delian League comes to an end with their surrender.
• 461 BC: Athenian politician Cimon is ostracized.
• 460 BC: Egypt revolts against Persia, starting a six-year war. An Athenian force sent to attack Cyprus is diverted to support this revolt.
• 460 BC: Cincinnatus becomes consul of the Roman Republic.
• 460 BC: Physician Hippocrates is born in Kos, Greece.
• 460 BC: Udayin succeeds his father Ajatashartu to become king of Magadha. Third king of Haryanka Dynasty.

450s BC

• 459 BC: Pleistoanax succeeds his father Pleistarchus as king of Sparta.
• 459 BC: Destruction of the Sicilian town of Morgantina by Douketios, leader of the Sikels, according to Diodoros Siculus.
• 459 BC: Ezra leads the second body of Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem.
• 458 BC: Greek playwright Aeschylus completes the Oresteia, a trilogy that tells the story of a family blood feud. The plays will have a great influence on future writers.
• 458 BC: Cincinnatus is named dictator of the Roman Republic in order to defend it against Aequi. Sixteen days later, after defeating the invaders at the Battle of Mount Algidus, he resigns and returns to his farm.
• 457 BC: Athenian statesman Pericles' greatest reform, allowing common people to serve in any state office, inaugurates Golden Age of Ancient Athens.
• 457 BC: Battle of Tanagra—The Spartans defeat the Athenians, near Thebes.
• 457 BC: Battle of Oenophyta—The Athenians defeat the Thebans and take control of Boeotia.
• Artaxerxes I to re-establish the city government of Jerusalem. See Ezra 7, Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 1 in Old Testament
  .
• Lacedaemon
  .
• 455 BC: Euripides presents his first known tragedy, Peliades, in the Athenian festival of Dionysia.
• 454 BC: Athens loses a fleet and possibly as many as 50,000 men in a failed attempt to aid an Egyptian revolt against Persia.
• 454 BC: The treasury of the Delian League is moved from Delos to Athens.
• 454 BC: Hostilities between Segesta and Selinunte, two Greek cities on Sicily.
• 453 BC: Taiyuan, a city in China, gets flooded.
• 451 BC: Athens makes peace with Sparta and wages a war against Persia.
• Roman Law
  .
• Athenians under Cimon defeat the Persian
  fleet.
• 450 BC: Perdiccas II succeeds Alexander I as king of Macedonia (approximate date).
• Olmecs leave La Venta
  , and it becomes depopulated by 325 BC.

440s BC

• Persian Wars
  .
• 449 BC: Construction begins on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens.
• 449 BC: The Twelve Tables are promulgated to the people of Rome—the first public laws of the Roman Republic.
• tribunate
  is re-established.
• History, which records the events concerning the Persian War
  .
• Acropolis
  .
• 447 BC: Athens begins construction of the Parthenon, at the initiative of Pericles.
• 447 BC: Battle of Coronea—The Athenians are driven out of Boeotia.
• 447 BC: Achaeus of Eretria, a Greek playwright, shows his first play.
• 445 BC: Pericles declares Thirty Years' Peace between Athens and Sparta.
• 445 BC: Artaxerxes I gives Nehemiah permission to rebuild Jerusalem.
• 445 BC: The Lacus Curtius is created by a lightning strike in Rome. It is consecrated by Gaius, Mettius or Marcus Curtius.
• 443 BC: The Roman Republic creates the office of censor, initially exclusive to patricians.
• colonists include Herodotus and Lysias
  .
• Antigone
  .
• Zhou Dynasty of China
  but dies before the year's end.
• 440 BC: Famine in Rome.
• Zhou Dynasty of China
  .
• 440 BC: Democritus proposes the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms.

430s BC

• Cincinnatus again becomes dictator of the Roman Republic; during his term he defeats the Volsci
  .
• 439 BC: According to legend, Gaius Servilius Ahala saves Rome from Spurius Maelius.
• 438 BC: Ictinus and Callicrates finish construction of the Parthenon, located on Athens' Acropolis.
• wonders of the world
  , is completed.
• 434 BC: Conflict occurs between the Greek island of Kerkyra and its mother-city Corinth.
• 434 BC: Anaxagoras tries to square the circle with straightedge and compass.
• 433 BC: Battle of Sybota between Kerkyra and Corinth.
• 433 BC (or later): Burial of Marquis Yi of Zeng in China.
• 432 BC: Athens adopts a 19-year cycle of synchronizing solar and lunar calendars.
• 432 BC: Athens defeats Corinth in the battle of Potidaea.
• Heraclea is founded by Tarentum and Thurii
  .
• 431 BC: The Peloponnesian War begins between Sparta and Athens and their allies.
• 431 BC: Defeat of the Aequi by the Romans under the dictator Aulus Postumius Tubertus.
• black bile, and phlegm, a belief that dominates medical
  thinking for centuries.
• 430 BC: Athens suffers a major pestilence, believed to be caused by epidemic typhus.
• 430 BC: The philosopher Xenophon is born.
• c. 430 BC: First performance of Sophocles's Oedipus Rex.

420s BC

• Chalcidians and their allies are defeated by Athens
  .
• Peloponnesian
  fleet.
• 429 BC: An outbreak of a plague kills over one-third of the population of Athens.
• Macedonia
  .
• 428 BC: Mytilene rebels against Athens but is crushed.
• Corcyra
  , but cancels the effort when the Athenians try to intercept them.
• 428 BC: The Greek colony of Cumae in Italy falls to the Samnites.
• 427 BC: The leaders of the Mytilenian revolt are executed.
• 427 BC: Platea surrenders to the Spartans, who execute over 200 prisoners and destroy the city.
• 427 BC: The Athenians intervene in Sicily to blockade Sparta from the island.
• 428 BC: The philosopher Plato is born.
• Leukas
  .
• 426 BC: When Ambracia invades Acarnania, they seek help from the Spartans and Athenians respectively. The Athenians then defeat the Spartans in the Battle of Olpae.
• Peloponnesus
  .
• 425 BC: The Athenians invade Sphacteria and defeat the Spartans in the Battle of Pylos.
• 424 BC: Sicily withdraws from the war and expels every foreign power. Thus, Athens is forced to withdraw from the island.
• 424 BC: The Athenians try to capture Megara, but are defeated by the Spartans.
• 424 BC: The Spartan general Brasidas captures Amphipolis, which is a setback for Athens. Thucydides is held responsible for the Athenian failure and is ostracised. This gives him time to start writing his history book.
• 423 BC: The Athenians propose a cease-fire, which the Spartan general Brasidas ignores.
• 422 BC: The Spartans defeat the Athenians in the Battle of Amphipolis, where the Athenian Cleon and the Spartan Brasidas are both killed.
• 421 BC: The Peace of Nicias puts a temporary end to the hostilities between Athens and Sparta.
• 420 BC: Alcibiades is elected strategos of Athens and begins dominating Athenian politics.

410s BC

• 419 BC: The Peace of Nicias is broken when Sparta defeats Argos.
• 418 BC: The Spartans win a major victory over the Athenians in the Battle of Mantinea, the biggest land battle of the Peloponnesian War.
• Melos
  and treat the inhabitants with great cruelty.
• 416 BC: The Athenians adhere to a plea of help from Sicily and start planning an invasion of the island.
• Hermae busts in Athens are mutilated just before the expedition to Sicily is sent away. One of the culprits, Andocides
  , is captured and is forced to turn informer. He names the other mutilators, among them Alcibiades, who are sentenced to death in their absence.
• 415 BC: Alcibiades defects from Athens to Sparta after having learned about his death sentence.
• 414 BC: The Athenians try to make a breakthrough in their siege of Syracuse but are defeated by the Spartans.
• 413 BC: Nagadaska is deposed by people of Magadha. Thus, ending Haryanka dynasty. He succeeded by Shishunaga who founded Shaishunaga dynasty.
• defeated in battle
  by the Spartans. Both Demosthenes and Nicias are killed.
• 413 BC: Caria allies itself with Sparta.
• 412 BC: The Persian Empire starts preparing an invasion of Ionia and signs a treaty with Sparta about it.
• Council of Four Hundred
  . This council is itself soon defeated and order is almost restored, when the Five Thousand start ruling. Early next year, they are also overthrown and the old democracy is restored.
• 410 BC: Athens regains control over its vital grain route from the Black Sea by defeating Sparta in the Battle of Cyzicus.

400s BC

• 409 BC: Athens recaptures Byzantium, thereby putting an end to its revolt against Athens and taking control of the whole Bosporus.
• 409 BC: The city of Rhodes is founded.
• 409 BC: The Carthaginians invade Sicily.
• Darius II, decides to aid Sparta in the war and makes his son Cyrus a satrap
  . However, Cyrus starts collecting an army to benefit his own interests, rather than his father's.
• 408 BC: Alcibiades returns to Athens in triumph after an absence of seven years.
• 407 BC: The Athenian fleet is routed by the Spartan one in the Battle of Notium, which gives Alcibiades' opponents a reason to strip him of command. He never returns to Athens again.
• 406 BC: Athens defeats Sparta in the Battle of Arginusae and the blockade of Conon is lifted.
• 406 BC: Sparta sues for peace, but Athens rejects this.
• 406 BC: The Carthaginians once again invade Sicily and return to Carthage with spoils of war, but also with the plague.
• Pausanias lays siege to Athens
  , which makes the city start starving.
• Dionysius the Elder rises to power in Syracuse
  . He signs a peace with Carthage and starts consolidating and expanding his influence.
• April 25, 404 BC: Athens surrenders to Sparta, ending the Peloponnesian War. Sparta introduces an oligarchic system, the Thirty Tyrants, in Athens.
• 404 BC: Egypt rebels against Persian rule.
• 403 BC: The Chinese state of Jin is divided into three smaller nations.^[1]
• 403 BC: The first hydraulic engineering in China for a large irrigation canal system is designed by Ximen Bao.
• Pausanias
  allows democracy to be restored in Athens.
• 403 BC: Thrasybulus restores the Athenian democracy and grants an almost general amnesty.
• 403 BC: The Athenians adopt the Ionian alphabet.
• 401 BC: Cyrus the Younger rebels against the Persian king Artaxerxes II but is, however, eventually slain in battle.
• Persia
  that they declare war on the Persians.
• 400 BC: The Carthaginians occupy Malta.
• 400 BC: The Egyptians successfully revolt against Persian rule.
• 400 BC: London has its origins as far back as this time.
• Ancient Japan
  .
• Kingdom of D'mt
  is disestablished.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• Warring States
  .
• Trebuchet catapult is first used by followers of the Chinese philosopher Mozi.^{[citation needed]}
• The Greeks invent the Anchor with flukes.
• The Greeks start to use shear-leg cranes for construction and loading of ships.
• The Greeks invent
  linear perspective
  .
• The Greeks develop an indirect lost wax process for casting bronze.
• The Chinese
  Marquis Wen of Wei (文侯) (445 BC–396 BC
  ).
• The Chinese philosopher
  Han Dynasty
  .
• Scholars commonly accept that the Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita was written.
• Creation of the Berlin Foundry Cup (early 5th century).
• The oldest known Maya calendar

Sovereign states

See:

References