480s BC

480s BC: events by year

Contents: 489 BC 488 BC 487 BC 486 BC 485 BC 484 BC 483 BC 482 BC 481 BC 480 BC

489 BC

By place

Greece

• After his great victory in the Battle of Marathon, Miltiades leads a naval expedition to Paros to pay off a private score. However, the expedition is unsuccessful and, on his return, he is fined in a prosecution led by Xanthippus and put in prison where he dies of wounds received at Paros.
• The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides "the Just", is made chief archon of Athens.

488 BC

By place

Greece

• The Athenians ostracise Hipparchos for his favouring of appeasement of the Persians.

Sicily

• Theron becomes tyrant of Acragas in Sicily.

487 BC

By place

Greece

• The island of Aegina and the city of Athens go to war. The island has earned the enmity of Athens by earlier submitting to the Persians. The Spartan King, Leotychidas, tries unsuccessfully to arrange a truce in the war.
• The Athenian Archonship becomes elective by lot from all the citizens, an important milestone in the move towards radical Athenian democracy. There are nine archons and a secretary. Three of the archons have special functions: the basileus, or sovereign; the polemarch (originally a military commander); and the archon eponymous (chief magistrate), who gave his name to the year.

486 BC

By place

Persian Empire

• Egypt revolts against Persian rule upon the death of king Darius I. The revolts, probably led by Libyans of the western Delta, are crushed the next year by Xerxes, who reduces Egypt to the status of a conquered province.

Roman Republic

• During his third consulate, the Roman consul Spurius Cassius Viscellinus proposes an agrarian law to assist needy plebeians, a measure violently opposed both by the patricians and by the wealthy plebeians, who have Cassius condemned and executed.

China

• The first part of the Grand Canal of China is built during the reign of King Fuchai of Wu. It links the Yangtze River with the Huai River, and is a measure to ship amble amount of supplies north for intended wars with the northern states of Song and Lu.

By topic

Art

• The construction of a relief in the Apadana, a ceremonial complex at Persepolis, is finished. It shows Darius and Xerxes receiving tribute and is now kept in the Iranbustan Museum in Tehran.

485 BC

By place

Persian Empire

• Darius I, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, dies and is succeeded by his son, Xerxes I. During this time the Persian empire extends as far west as Macedonia and Libya and as far east as the Hyphasis (Beas) River; it stretches to the Caucasus Mountains and the Aral Sea in the north and to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Desert in the south.

Sicily

• Gelo, the tyrant of Gela, takes advantage of an appeal by the descendants of the first colonist of Syracuse, the Gamoroi, who had held power until they were expelled by the Killichiroi, the lower class of the city, and makes himself master of that city, leaving his brother Hieron to control Gela.

484 BC

By place

Persian Empire

• Xerxes I quells the Egyptian revolt against Persian rule. He ravages the Delta region in the process and then appoints his brother Achaemenes satrap (governor) of Egypt.
• Despite an attempt at rebellion, the land and city of Babylon remains solidly under Persian rule.

Greece

• The Athenian general and statesman, Xanthippus, is ostracised.

By topic

Literature

• The Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, wins first prize in drama at the Dionysia festival.

483 BC

By place

Persian empire

• Xerxes I of Persia is encouraged by his cousin and brother-in-law, Mardonius, supported by a strong party of exiled Greeks, to take revenge for the defeat that Darius I suffered at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon in 490 BC. In response, Xerxes prepares for a major expedition to crush the Greeks. To avoid a repeat of the significant losses to the Persian fleet that occurred in 492 BC, Xerxes has a canal cut through the promontory of Mount Athos.

Greece

• The Athenian archon Themistocles realises that the Greeks need to be able to beat the Persians at sea. To carry out this strategy, however, Athens needs far more warships (that is to say the newly developed, specialised triremes) than the 70 it has. Themistocles is initially opposed by other Athenian leaders. However, when the state-owned silver mines at Laurium become the site of a rich strike, Themistocles persuades the assembly, instead of "declaring a dividend," to devote the whole surplus to increasing the navy to a proposed 200 ships.

India

• The Buddhist relics are divided into 8 portions and placed in 8 reliquaries. Each reliquary is then encased in its own burial mound, called stupa. King Ashoka opens the original 8 stupas and divides their relics among many more stupas, probably including the one at Sanchi (approximate date).

Sicily

• Gelo, the tyrant of Syracuse conquers the nearby Sicilian cities of Euboea and Megara Hyblaea, selling their common people into slavery and bringing their oligarchs to Syracuse.

482 BC

By place

Greece

• The Athenian archon Themistocles secures the ostracism of his opponents and becomes the political leader of Athens. The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, is one of those ostracised due to his opposition to Themistocles' naval policy.

China

• While King Fuchai of Wu attends a meeting in Huangchi, in an attempt to gain hegemony over all the other duchies of Zhou Dynasty China, his capital city in the State of Wu is captured in a surprise assault by King Goujian of Yue. In 473 BC the State of Wu will finally be annexed by the State of Yue.

481 BC

By place

Persian Empire

• The Persian King Xerxes I arrives at Sardis and begins to build up his great army and navy for the invasion of Greece. Egypt contributes 481 ships.

Greece

• The Congress at the Isthmus of Corinth, under the presidency of Sparta, brings together a number of the Greek city states, who agree to the end of the war between Athens and Aegina. They also discuss the threat from the Persians. Athens is unwilling to place her forces under Sparta and its king Leonidas. Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse, wants high command, but Sparta and Athens refuse. However, during the Congress, Gelo has to withdraw due to Carthage's plans to invade Sicily. Finally, Themistocles agrees that Athens' navy serve under a Spartan admiral to achieve the unity of the Greek states. Nevertheless, Thebes and Thessaly are unwilling to support Athens against the Persians and Crete decides to remain neutral.

China

• The Spring and Autumn Period, which has begun in 722 BC, ends, while the Warring States period officially begins in 403 BC.

480 BC

By place

Greece

• May – King Xerxes I of Persia marches from Sardis and onto Thrace and Macedonia.
• The Greek congress decides to send a force of 10,000 Greeks, including hoplites and cavalry, to the Vale of Tempe, through which they believe the Persian army will pass. The force includes Lacedaemonians led by Euanetos and Athenians under Themistocles. Warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale can be bypassed elsewhere and that the army of Xerxes is overwhelming, the Greeks decide not to try to hold there and vacate the vale.
• August 11 – The Battle of Thermopylae ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. His army engulfs a force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespiae under the Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Greeks under Leonidas resist the advance through Thermopylae of Xerxes' vast army. For two days Leonidas and his troops withstand the Persian attacks; he then orders most of his troops to retreat, and he and his 300-member, all sire guard fight to the last man.
• A member of the Agiad royal family, and the son of King Cleombrotus and nephew of King Leonidas, Pausanias becomes regent for Leonidas' son, Pleistarchus, after Leonidas I is killed at Thermopylae.
• Phocis and the coasts of Euboea are devastated by the Persians. Thebes and most of Boeotia join Xerxes.
• King Alexander I of Macedon is obliged to accompany Xerxes in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aids the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seizes the Greek colony of Pydna and advances his frontiers eastward to the Strymon, taking in Crestonia and Bisaltia, along with the rich silver deposits of Mount Dysorus.
• The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, as well as the former Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in Aegina to serve under Themistocles against the Persians.
• August – The Persians achieve a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea. The Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws southward when news comes of the defeat at Thermopylae.
• Breaking through the pass at Thermopylae from Macedonia into Greece, the Persians occupy Attica.
• September 21 – The Persians sack Athens, whose citizens flee to Salamis and then Peloponnesus.
• September 28 – The Battle of Salamis brings victory to the Greeks, whose Athenian general Themistocles lures the Persians into the Bay of Salamis, between the Athenian port-city of Piraeus and the island of Salamis. The Greek triremes then attack furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others. The Greeks sink about 200 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persian fleet is scattered, and as a result Xerxes has to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gives the Greek city-states time to unite against him.
• An eclipse of the sun discourages the Greek army from following up the victory of Salamis. Xerxes returns to Persia leaving behind an army under Mardonius, which winters in Thessaly.

Roman Republic

• Roman troops march against the Veintes.

Sicily

• Xerxes encourages the Carthaginians to attack the Greeks in Sicily. Under the Carthaginian military leader, Hamilcar, Carthage sends across a large army.
• The Greek city of Himera in Sicily, in its quarrel with Akragas, enlists Carthaginian support. With the help of Gelo, the tyrant of Syracusae, and Theron of Akragas, the Carthaginians are defeated in the Battle of Himera. After the defeat, Hamilcar kills himself.

Persian empire

• The Imperial treasury at the Persepolis Palace is completed after a building time of thirty years.

By topic

Arts

• The archaic period of sculpture ends in Greece and is succeeded by the Severe (Early Classical) period (approximate date).
• A sculpture of a Dying warrior is made in the left corner of the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaea in Aegina (approximate date). Today, it is preserved at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek in Munich, Germany.
• The sculpture of a Kritios Boy is made on Acropolis, Athens (approximate date). It is now preserved in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
• Work begins on the detail Musicians and Dancers on a wall painting in the Tomb of the Lionesses in Tarquinia. It is finished some ten years later.

Births

• 484 BC
  • Herodotus, Greek historian
  • Achaeus of Eretria, a Greek tragedian, was born in the town of Eretria in the island of Euboea
• 483 BC – Gorgias, Greek philosopher (approximate date)
• 481 BC – Protagoras – Greek presocratic philosopher
• 480 BC
  • Euripides, Greek playwright
  • Antiphon, Attic orator
  • Philolaus, Greek mathematician and philosopher (approximate date) (d. c. 405 BC)

Deaths

• 488 BC – Miltiades, Athenian general
• 485 BC – Darius I, ruler of ancient Persia
• May 483 BC – Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism
• 481 BC – Ssu-ma Niu – highest ranking aristocrat among disciples of Confucius
• 480 BC
  • August 11 – Leonidas I, king of Sparta
  • Xenophanes, Greek philosopher

References