490 BC

Millennium: 1st millennium BC Centuries: 6th century BC – 5th century BC – 4th century BC Decades: 520s BC  510s BC  500s BC  – 490s BC –  480s BC  470s BC  460s BC Years: 493 BC 492 BC 491 BC – 490 BC – 489 BC 488 BC 487 BC

490 BC by topic Politics State leaders – Sovereign states Birth and death categories Births – Deaths Establishments and disestablishments categories Establishments – Disestablishments

The Battle of Marathon

490 BC in other calendars Gregorian calendar 490 BC Ab urbe condita 264 Armenian calendar N/A Bahá'í calendar -2333 – -2332 Bengali calendar -1082 Berber calendar 461 Buddhist calendar 55 Burmese calendar -1127 Byzantine calendar 5019 – 5020 Chinese calendar [[Sexagenary cycle|]]年 (2147/2207) — to — [[Sexagenary cycle|]]年 (2148/2208) Coptic calendar -773 – -772 Ethiopian calendar -497 – -496 Hebrew calendar 3271 – 3272 Hindu calendars  - Bikram Samwat -433 – -432  - Shaka Samvat N/A  - Kali Yuga 2612 – 2613 Holocene calendar 9511 Iranian calendar 1111 BP – 1110 BP Islamic calendar 1145 BH – 1144 BH Japanese calendar Korean calendar 1844 Thai solar calendar 54

Year 490 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Camerinus and Flavus (or, less frequently, year 264 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 490 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

By place

Greece

• 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 Darius enslaves its inhabitants. 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 11,000 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 Carnea) 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^[1] each way.^[2] 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 "Chariete 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.
• The Athenians begin the building of a temple to Athena Parthenos (approximate date).

Births

• Empedocles, Greek philosopher (d. c. 430 BC)
• Zeno of Elea, Greek philosopher (d. c. 430 BC)

Deaths

• Hippias, tyrant of Athens
• Callimachus, war-archon of Athens
• Appius Claudius Sabinus Inregillensis, semi-legendary founder of the Claudii

References