490s BC

This article concerns the period 499 BC – 490 BC.

Events

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499 BC

By place

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Greece
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498 BC

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By place

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Greece
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Sicily
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By topic

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Literature
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  • The Greek poet Pindar composes his earliest surviving epinikion (Pythian ode 10).

497 BC

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By place

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Greece
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496 BC

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By place

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Greece
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Roman Republic
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China
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495 BC

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Roman Republic

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China

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494 BC

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By place

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Persian empire
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  • Having successfully captured several of the revolting Greek city-states, the Persians under Artaphernes lay siege to Miletus. The decisive Battle of Lade is fought at the island of Lade, near Miletus' port. Although out-numbered, the Greek fleet appears to be winning the battle until the ships from Samos and Lesbos retreat. The sudden defection turns the tide of battle, and the remaining Greek fleet is completely destroyed. Miletus surrenders shortly thereafter, and the Ionian Revolt comes to an end.[9]
  • The Persian leaders Artaphernes and Mardonius grant a degree of autonomy to the Ionian cities. They abstain from financial reprisals and merely exact former levels of tribute. The Persians abolish the Greek tyrannies in Ionia and permit democracies.
  • The Persians burn down the Temple of Apollo at Didyma.[10]
Greece
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  • The Phoenician allies of the Persians retaliate fiercely against the Greeks, whom they perceive as pirates, unleashing savage reprisals..
  • The Thracians and Scythians drive Miltiades the Younger from the Chersonesos. Miltiades loads five boats with his treasures and makes for Athens. One of the boats, captained by Miltiades' eldest son, Metiochos is captured. Metiochos is taken as a lifelong prisoner to Persia.[11]
  • The Spartan king, Cleomenes I inflicts a severe defeat on Argos at Sepeia near Tiryns (approximate date).[12]
Roman republic
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493 BC

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By place

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Persian Empire
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Greece
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  • The Athenian people elect Themistocles as archon, the chief judicial and civilian executive officer in Athens. He favours resistance against the Persians.
  • Themistocles starts the construction of a fortified naval base at Piraeus, the port town of Athens.
  • Among the refugees arriving from Ionia after the collapse of the Ionian Revolt is a chief named Miltiades, who has a fine reputation as a soldier. Themistocles makes him a general in the Athenian army.
Roman Republic
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By topic

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Literature
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  • The Athenian poet Phrynicus produces a tragedy on the Fall of Miletus.[13] The Athenian authorities ban the play from further production on the grounds of impiety.

492 BC

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By place

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Greece
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Sicily
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  • When Camarina, a Syracusan colony, rebels, Hippocrates, the tyrant of Gela, intervenes to wage war against Syracuse. After defeating the Syracusan army at the Heloros River, he besieges the city. However, he is persuaded by the intervention of forces from the Greek mainland city of Corinth to retreat in exchange for the possession of Camarina.
Rome
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491 BC

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By place

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Greece
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  • Darius I sends envoys to all Greek cities, demanding "earth and water for vassalage" which Athens and Sparta refuse.[15]
  • The Greek city of Aegina, fearing the loss of trade, submits to Persia. The Spartan king, Cleomenes I tries to punish Aegina for its submission to the Persians, but the other Spartan king, Demaratus, thwarts him.
  • Cleomenes I engineers the deposing of Spartan co-ruler Demaratus (and his replacement by Cleomenes’ cousin Leotychidas) by bribing the oracle at Delphi to announce that this action was divine will. The two Spartan kings successfully capture the Persian collaborators in Aegina.
Sicily
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  • Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, loses his life in a battle against the Siculi, the native Sicilian people. He is succeeded as Tyrant of Gela by Gelo, who had been his commander of cavalry.[16]
Roman Republic
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  • During this year there was a famine in Rome. General Gais Marcius Coriolanus suggested that people should not receive grains unless they agree to abolish the Office of Tribune. Because of this, the Tribunes had him exiled. In response, Coriolanus takes refuge with the leader of the Volsci, eventually leading the Volscian army in a war against Rome. It was only due to entreaties from his mother and wife that he abandoned his war against Rome.[17]
  • On the Via Latina, a main road leading out of Rome, the Temple of Fortuna Muliebras was finished.[18][19]

By topic

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Art
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490 BC

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By place

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Greece
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  • Darius I sends an expedition, under Artaphernes and Datis the Mede, across the Aegean to attack the Athenians and the Eretrians. Hippias, the aged ex-tyrant of Athens, is on one of the Persian ships in the hope of being restored to power in Athens.
  • When the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor rebelled against Persia in 499 BC, Eretria joined Athens in sending aid to the rebels. As a result, Darius makes a point of punishing Eretria during his invasion of Greece. The city is sacked and burned and its inhabitants are enslaved. He intends the same fate for Athens.
  • September 12 – The Battle of Marathon takes place as a Persian army of more than 20,000 men is advised by Hippias to land in the Bay of Marathon, where they meet the Athenians supported by the Plataeans. The Persians are repulsed by 11,500 Greeks under the leadership of Callimachus and Miltiades. Some 6,400 Persians are killed at a cost of 192 Athenian dead. Callimachus, the war-archon of Athens, is killed in the battle. After the battle, the Persians return home.
  • Before the Battle of Marathon, the Athenians send a runner, Pheidippides, to seek help from Sparta. However, the Spartans delay sending troops to Marathon because religious requirements (the Carneia) mean they must wait for the full moon.
  • The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, mentions Pheidippides as the messenger who runs from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then runs back, a distance of over 240 kilometres[22] each way.[23] After the battle, he runs back to Athens to spread the news and raise the spirits. It is claimed that his last words before collapsing and dying in Athens are "Chairete, nikomen" ("Rejoice, we are victorious").
  • Hippias dies at Lemnos on the journey back to Sardis after the Persian defeat.
  • Cleomenes I is forced to flee Sparta when his plot against Demaratus is discovered, but the Spartans allow him to return when he begins gathering an army in the surrounding territories. However, by this time he has become insane, and the Spartans put him in prison. Shortly after, he commits suicide. He is succeeded as King of Sparta by a member of the Agiad house, his half-brother, Leonidas.
Europe
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  • Carthaginian navigator Himilco is the first known explorer from the Mediterranean Sea to reach the northwestern shores of Europe (approximate date).

By topic

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Architecture
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  • The Athenians begin the building of a temple to Athena Parthenos (approximate date).
  • Stelae are once again allowed in Athenian cemeteries, having been banned since 510 BC.

Births

496 BC

495 BC

490 BC

Deaths

498 BC

497 BC

496 BC

495 BC

494 BC

493 BC

491 BC

490 BC

  1. ^ Guo, Ming (May 2017). "The Study of Two International (Regional) Systems before and after the Greco-Persian Wars". Proceedings of 3rd International Symposium on Social Science (ISSS 2017). Atlantis Press. pp. 221–224. doi:10.2991/isss-17.2017.49. ISBN 978-94-6252-341-8.
  2. ^ FORTIS, LUCA (2010). "Iran's Mediterranean shores". Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali. 77 (3 (307)): 373–381. ISSN 0035-6611. JSTOR 42740908.
  3. ^ "Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, chapter 108". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  4. ^ Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen; Gadd, Cyril John; Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière; Boardman, John; Lewis, David Malcolm; Walbank, Frank William; Astin, A. E.; Crook, John Anthony; Lintott, Andrew William (1970). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. p. 485. ISBN 978-0-521-22804-6.
  5. ^ Livy, 2.21
  6. ^ Livy, 2.25
  7. ^ Livy, 2.26
  8. ^ Livy, 2.23
  9. ^ Herodotus, lib vi. c. 33
  10. ^ Weber, U. (2020). Das Apollonheiligtum von Didyma - Dargestellt an seiner Forschungsgeschichte von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart, p. 275-279.
  11. ^ Herodotus, lib vi. c. 41
  12. ^ There is some uncertainty about the date: see Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age by Eric W. Robinson, pp. 7–9
  13. ^ Burn, Andrew Robert; Rhodes, P. J. (2016-03-07). "Themistocles, Athenian politician, c. 524–459 BCE". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6340. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  14. ^ Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronicle [1].
  15. ^ "The Greeks - Themistocles". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  16. ^ "Hippocrates, Tyrant of Gela, fl.498-491". www.historyofwar.org. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  17. ^ "Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus | Roman legendary figure | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  18. ^ "Roman Timeline of the 5th Century BC | UNRV". www.unrv.com. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  19. ^ "Fortuna Muliebris, Roman Goddess of the Luck of Women". www.thaliatook.com. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  20. ^ "Art: Procession of Tribute Bearers". Annenberg Learner. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  21. ^ "The Dr. Norman Solhkhah Family Assyrian Empire Gallery | The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago". oi.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  22. ^ International Spartathlon Association Archived June 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ The Great Marathon Myth Archived August 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Sommerstein, Alan H. (2002). Greek drama and dramatists. London: Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 0-415-26027-2. OCLC 47838053.
  25. ^ Pardo, Ramon Pacheco. An Analysis of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. p. 107. doi:10.4324/9781912282357.
  26. ^ Livy. From the Founding of the City.
  27. ^ "Cleisthenes of Athens | Biography & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  28. ^ "Gelon | tyrant of Gela and Syracuse | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-11-30.