438 BC

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Events

By place

Greece

• The Parthenon on the Acropolis at Athens is completed by Ictinus and Callicrates and is consecrated after 9 years of construction. It is dedicated at the Panathenaea (a festival held in honour of Athena every four years on the Acropolis).
• The colossal statue of the Athena Parthenos, which Phidias has made for the Parthenon, is completed and dedicated. It is made of gold and ivory and stands some 12 metres high.

Italy

• The city of Capua falls to the Samnites.

By topic

Literature

• The Greek playwright Euripides' play Alcestis is performed in the Dionysia, an Athenian dramatic festival.

Art

• Three seated Goddesses (possibly Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite), from the east pediment of the Parthenon, are made (finished in 432 BC). They are now kept at The British Museum in London.
• The Ionic frieze on the north side of the Parthenon, is created (finished in 432 BC). Parts of this frieze are now preserved in museums in Europe, including the Horsemen (at the British Museum, London), and the Marshals and Young Women (now at Musee du Louvre, Paris), which once formed part of the Procession on the frieze.

Births

Deaths