470s BC

Events

Contents: 479 BC 478 BC 477 BC 476 BC 475 BC 474 BC 473 BC 472 BC 471 BC 470 BC

479 BC

By place

Greece

• The Persian commander Mardonius, now based in Thessaly, wins support from Argus and western Arcadia. He tries to win over Athens but fails.
• Mardonius attacks Athens once more and the Athenians are forced to retreat, whereupon he razes the city. The Spartans march north to support Athens against the Persians.
• August 27
  • The Battle of Plataea in Boeotia ends the Persian invasions of Greece as the Persian general Mardonius is routed by the Greeks under Pausanias, nephew of the former Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Athenian contingent is led by the repatriated Aristides. Mardonius is killed in the battle and the Greeks capture enormous amounts of loot. Thebes is captured shortly thereafter and the Theban collaborators executed by Pausanias.
  • Meanwhile at sea, the Persians are defeated by a Greek fleet headed by Leotychidas of Sparta and Xanthippus of Athens in the Battle of Mycale, off the coast of Lydia in Asia Minor.
• Potidaea is struck by a tsunami.
• In 479 BC, when Persian soldiers besieged the Greek city of Potidaea, the tide retreated much farther than usual, leaving a convenient invasion route. But this wasn't a stroke of luck. Before they had crossed halfway, the water returned in a wave higher than anyone had ever seen, drowning the attackers. The Potiidaeans believed they had been saved by the wrath of Poseidon. But what really saved them was likely the same phenomenon that has destroyed countless others: a tsunami.

Rome

• The Roman consul Caeso Fabius proposed an agrarian law to distribute land won in recent wars amongst the plebs, but this was rejected by the senate.
• Ongoing hostilities between Rome and the Aequi. No major battle is fought.
• Ongoing hostilities between Rome and Veii. The family of the Fabii requests and is granted sole responsibility for the war, and the Fabii march from Rome, establishing a fortified camp at the Cremera.

478 BC

By place

Greece

• Despite Spartan opposition, Athens is refortified as well as rebuilt after the Persian destruction of the city.
• With the help of the Athenian statesman and general, Cimon, Aristides commands an Athenian fleet of 30 ships that the Spartan commander Pausanias leads to free the Greek cities on Cyprus and capture Byzantium from the Persians and their Phoenician allies.
• While Pausanias is occupying Byzantium, his arrogance and his adoption of Persian clothing and manners offends the allies and raises suspicions of disloyalty. Pausanias is recalled to Sparta, where he is tried and acquitted of the charge of treason, but he is not restored to his command.

Sicily

• Hiero I (Hieron) becomes the Tyrant of Syracuse following the death of his brother Gelo.

China

• A Temple of Confucius is established in (modern-day) Qufu.

477 BC

By place

Greece

• The Spartan co-ruler Leotychides and the Athenian leader Themistocles lead a fleet and army to reoccupy northern Greece and to punish the aristocratic family of the Aleuads for having aided the Persians. Leotychides is caught accepting a bribe during the operations in Thessaly.
• Greek maritime cities around the Aegean Sea no longer wish to be under Spartan control and at Delos offer their allegiance, through Aristides, to Athens. They form the Delian League (also known as the Confederacy of Delos) with Cimon as their principal commander.

Roman Republic

• Roman forces in a stronghold on the Cremera River are defeated by an army of Veientes from the Etruscan city of Veii in the Battle of the Cremera.

476 BC

By place

Greece

• Convicted in Sparta on the charge of accepting a bribe from the Aleudae family whilst leading an expedition to Thessaly against the family for their collaboration with the Persians, the Spartan King Leotychidas flees to the temple of Athena Alea in Tegea, Arcadia. A sentence of exile is passed upon him; his house is razed, and his grandson, Archidamus II, ascends the Spartan throne in his place.
• Cimon of Athens increases his power at the expense of Themistocles. He ousts Pausanias and the Spartans from the area around the Bosporus. The Spartans, hearing that Pausanias is intriguing with the Persians, recall him and he is "disciplined".
• Under the leadership of Kimon, the Delian League continues to fight the Persians and to release the Ionian cities from Persian domination. The capture of Eion on the Strymon from the Persians is led by Cimon.

By topic

Literature

• The Greek poet Pindar visits Sicily and is made welcome at the courts of Theron of Acragas and Hieron I of Syracuse. They commission some of his greatest poetry. It is through these connections that Pindar's reputation spreads all over the Greek world.

475 BC

By place

Greece

• Cimon leads an Athenian attack on the island of Skyros and expels the indigenous inhabitants who are regarded as pirates.
• The first recorded eruption of Mt. Etna.

China

• Zhou Yuan Wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty.

By topic

Arts

• The painter Polygnotus of Thasos begins his work (approximate date).

474 BC

By place

Italy

• Hiero I, tyrant of Sicily, allied with naval forces from the maritime Greek cities of southern Italy to defeat the Etruscan navy in the Battle of Cumae as the Etruscans try to capture the Greek city of Cumae. This victory marks the end of the Etruscan aggression against the Greeks in southern Italy and saves the Greeks of Campania from Etruscan domination.
• Taranto signs an alliance with Rhegion, to counter the Messapii, Peuceti, and Lucanians, but the joint armies of the Tarentines and Rhegines are defeated near Kailìa (modern Ceglie Messapica).
• Hiero builds Castello Aragonese on the island of Ischia.

By topic

Literature

• The Greek poet Pindar moves to Thebes after two years at the Sicilian Court of Hiero I of Syracuse. While at Thebes, he composes lyric odes to celebrate triumphs in the Olympic Games and other athletic events.

473 BC

By place

China

• The State of Wu is annexed by the State of Yue.

Japan

• The Hikawa Shrine is established in Saitama, Saitama.

472 BC

By place

Greece

• Carystus in Euboea is forced to join the Delian League after the Athenians attack the city (approximate date).

By topic

Literature

• The tragedy The Persians is produced by Aeschylus. It is the oldest surviving classical Greek play.

471 BC

By place

Greece

• Athenian politician Themistocles loses the confidence of the Athenian people, partly due to his arrogance and partly due to his alleged readiness to take bribes. As a result, he is ostracized and retires to Argos.
• The colony of Pixunte (Pixous) is founded in Magna Graecia.

470 BC

By place

Greece

• Suspected of plotting to seize power in Sparta by instigating a helot uprising, Pausanias takes refuge in the Temple of Athena of the Brazen House to escape arrest. The sanctuary is respected, but the Spartans wall in the sanctuary and starve Pausanias to death.

By topic

Architecture

• The construction of the Temple of Zeus, begins at Olympia, Greece. This includes the relief sculpture (of which fragments now remain at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia) of Apollo with battling Lapiths and centaurs (approximate date).

Art

• The Charioteer, in the Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, is created in commemoration of a victory in the Pythian Games of 478 or 474 BC (approximate date). It is now preserved at the Delphi Archaeological Museum.
• Pan Painter makes a "bell krater" (an earthenware piece that is used to mix water and wine) which has a red-figure decoration of Artemis slaying Actaeon. It is now preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (approximate date).

Births

• 470 BC
  • Mozi, Chinese philosopher (approximate date) (d. c. 391 BC)
  • Socrates, Athenian philosopher (d. 399 BC)

Deaths

• 479 BC
  • Confucius, philosopher (b. 551 BC)
  • Mardonius, Persian commander at Plataea
  • Ephialtes, betrayer of Greece at the Battle of Thermopylae
• 476 BC – Zhou Jing Wang / Ji Gai, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
• 475 BC
  • Pythagoras of Samos, mathematician
  • Heraclitus of Ephesus, Greek philosopher (b. c. 535)

References