491 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:	494 BC 493 BC 492 BC – 491 BC – 490 BC 489 BC 488 BC

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

**491 BC in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	491 BC
Ab urbe condita	263
Armenian calendar	N/A
Bahá'í calendar	-2334 – -2333
Bengali calendar	-1083
Berber calendar	460
Buddhist calendar	54
Burmese calendar	-1128
Byzantine calendar	5018 – 5019
Chinese calendar	[[Sexagenary cycle\|]]年 (2146/2206) — to — [[Sexagenary cycle\|]]年 (2147/2207)
Coptic calendar	-774 – -773
Ethiopian calendar	-498 – -497
Hebrew calendar	3270 – 3271
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	-434 – -433
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2611 – 2612
Holocene calendar	9510
Iranian calendar	1112 BP – 1111 BP
Islamic calendar	1146 BH – 1145 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	1843
Thai solar calendar	53

Year 491 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augurinus and Atratinus (or, less frequently, year 263 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 491 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 envoys to all Greek cities, demanding "earth and water for vassalage" which Athens and Sparta refuse however.
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

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 has been his commander of cavalry.

Roman republic

During a famine in Rome, Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus advises that the people should not receive grain unless they would consent to the abolition of the office of tribune. For this, the tribunes have him condemned to exile. Coriolanus then takes refuge with the King of the Volsci and leads the Volscian army against Rome, turning back only in response to entreaties from his mother and his wife.

By topic

Art

The construction of a relief begins in the Apadana, a ceremonial complex at Persepolis. The relief pictures Darius I and Xerxes I receiving tribute and is now displayed in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Births

Deaths

Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela