440s BC

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