440s BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	6th century BC – 5th century BC – 4th century BC
Decades:	470s BC 460s BC 450s BC – 440s BC – 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC
Years:	449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC 443 BC 442 BC 441 BC 440 BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

Events and trends

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.
449 BC—Romans revolt against the decemvirate. The decemvirs resign and the tribunate is re-established.
449 BC—Herodotus completes his History, which records the events concerning the Persian War.
448 BC—The Peace of Callias between the Delian League and Persia ends the Persian Wars.
448 BC—Phidias finishes a 9 meter high statue of Athena on the 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.
443 BC—Foundation of the Greek colony of Thurii in Italy. Its colonists include Herodotus and Lysias.
442 BC—Sophocles writes Antigone.
441 BC—Zhou ai wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China but dies before the year's end, to be succeeded by Zhou si wang.
440 BC—Famine in Rome.
440 BC—Zhou kao wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
440 BC—Meron determines the two points of the solstice.
440 BC—Democritus proposes the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms.
The metope relief, Lapith fighting a centaur, from the Doric metope on the south side of the Parthenon, is made. It is now preserved at The British Museum in London (approximate date).

Births

c. 446 BC—Aristophanes, Greek playwright (d. c. 386 BC)
446 BC—Marcus Furius Camillus, Roman soldier and statesman (traditional date) (d. c. 365 BC)

Deaths

449 BC—Appius Claudius, former decemvir, suicide
449 BC—Spurius Oppius, former decemvir, suicide
443 BC—Pindar, Greek poet (b. c. 522 BC)
442 BC—Zhou zhen ding wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China