490s BC

490s BC: events by year

Contents: 499 BC 498 BC 497 BC 496 BC 495 BC 494 BC 493 BC 492 BC 491 BC 490 BC

499 BC

By place

Greece

• After a failed attack on the rebellious island of Naxos in 502 BC (on behalf of the Persians), Aristagoras, to save himself from the wrath of Persia, plans a revolt with the Milesians and the other Ionians. With the encouragement of Histiaeus (his father-in-law and former tyrant of Miletus), Aristagoras, governor of Miletus, induces the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to revolt against Persia, thus instigating the Ionian Revolt and beginning the Greco-Persian Wars between Greece and Persia. The pro-Persian tyrant of Mytilene is stoned to death.
• Aristagoras seeks help with the revolt against the Persians from Cleomenes I, the King of Sparta, but the Spartans are unwilling to respond.
• Miltiades the Younger, the ruler of the Thracian Chersonese, which has been under Persian suzerainty since approximately 514 BC, joins the Ionian revolt. He seizes the islands of Lemnos and Imbros from the Persians.

498 BC

By place

Greece

• Alexander I succeeds his father Amyntas I as king of Macedonia.
• Athens and Eretria respond to the Ionian plea for help against Persia and send troops. An Athenian and Eretrian fleet transports Athenian troops to Ephesus. There they are joined by a force of Ionians and march upon Sardis, the capital of Artaphernes (the satrap of Lydia and brother to Darius I of Persia). Artaphernes, who has sent most of his troops to besiege Miletus, is taken by surprise. However, Artaphernes is able to retreat to the citadel and hold it. Although the Greeks are unable to take the citadel, they pillage the town and set fires that burn Sardis to the ground.
• Retreating to the coast, the Greek forces are met by the Persians under Artaphernes and defeated in the Battle of Ephesus.
• Kaunos and Caria, followed by Byzantium and towns in the Hellespont also revolt against the Persians. Cyprus also joins the rebellion, as Onesilus removes his pro-Persian brother, Gorgos, from the throne of Salamis.

Sicily

• After the assassination of Cleander, tyrant of Gela, power is transferred to his brother, Hippocrates, who subdues the Sicels and conquers the Chalcidian cities of Callipoli, Leontini, Naxos and Zancle (now known as Messina). He also captures the Syracusan city of Camarina, but is prevented from capturing Syracuse itself when Corinth and Corcyra interferes in the war.

By topic

Literature

• The earliest surviving of the Greek poets Pindar's epinikion (Pythian ode 10) is written.

497 BC

By place

Greece

• Artybius ends the rebellion in Cyprus.
• The Persians launch an expedition on the Hellespont and later Caria.

496 BC

By place

Greece

• Hipparchos, son of Charmos (a relative of the 6th century BC tyrant Peisistratos), wins the archonship of Athens as leader of the peace party which argues that resistance against the Persians is useless.

Roman Republic

• The former Etruscan King of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, who has been exiled by the Romans in 508 BC, and his ally Lars Porsena, the King of Clusium, are defeated by the new Roman Republic army in the Battle of Lake Regillus, near Frascati. The outcome of this battle establishes Roman supremacy over the Latins.
• Carthage and Rome make a treaty whereby Roman ships undertake not to trade to the west of Carthage while the Carthaginians undertake not to interfere in Latin politics.

China

• King Goujian of Yue defeats and banishes King Fuchai of Wu, gaining a temporary hegemony in ancient China during the Spring and Autumn Period.

495 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• A temple is built on the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills, in Rome, in honour of the god Mercury.

China

• King Fuchai of Wu ascends to the throne after his father, King Helü of Wu, reigning as the last king of Wu until 473 BC.

494 BC

By place

Persian empire

• Having successfully captured several of the revolting Greek city-states, the Persians under Artaphernes lay siege to Miletus. The decisive Battle of Lade is fought at the island of Lade, near Miletus' port. Although out-numbered, the Greek fleet appears to be winning the battle until the ships from Samos and Lesbos retreat. The sudden defection turns the tide of battle, and the remaining Greek fleet is completely destroyed. Miletus surrenders shortly thereafter, and the Ionian Revolt comes to an end.
• The Persian leaders Artaphernes and Mardonius grant a degree of autonomy to the Ionian cities. They abstain from financial reprisals and merely exact former levels of tribute. The Persians abolish the Greek tyrannies in Ionia and permit democracies.
• The Persians burn down the Temple of Apollo at Didyma.

Greece

• The Phoenician allies of the Persians take savage reprisals against the Greeks, whom the Phoenicians regard as pirates.
• The Thracians and Scythians drive Miltiades the Younger from the Chersonesos. Miltiades loads five boats with his treasures and makes for Athens. One of the boats, captained by Miltiades' eldest son, Metiochos is captured. Metiochos is taken as a lifelong prisoner to Persia.
• The Spartan king, Cleomenes I inflicts a severe defeat on Argos at Sepeia near Tiryns.
• The former tyrant of Miletus, Histiaeus is captured by the Persians and executed at Sardis by Artaphernes.

Roman republic

• At the end of a military campaign, the Plebeian element in the Roman army retires to the Sacred Mountain outside Rome. The soldiers in the so-called "Secession of the Plebs" threaten to found a new city. To end the succession, the plebeians gain acceptance from the patricians that they may choose two leaders to whom they give the title of Tribunes. The office of the tribunate is thereby established.
• The Senate and people of Rome appoint Manius Valerius Maximus to the office of dictator.
• The aediles, magistrates of ancient Rome who are in charge of the temple and cult of Ceres, are first established. They are two officials of the plebeians, created at the same time as the tribunes, whose sanctity they share.

493 BC

By place

Persian Empire

• A Phoenician-manned Persian fleet restores Persian control of Cyprus.

Greece

• The Athenian people elect Themistocles as archon, the chief judicial and civilian executive officer in Athens. He favours resistance against the Persians.
• Themistocles starts the construction of a fortified naval base at Piraeus, the port town of Athens.
• Among the refugees arriving from Ionia after the collapse of the Ionian Revolt is a chief named Miltiades, who has a fine reputation as a soldier. Themistocles makes him a general in the Athenian army.

Roman Republic

• Coriolanus captures the Volscian town of Corioli for Rome.
• During his second consulate, the Roman consul Spurius Cassius Viscellinus concludes a mutual defence treaty with the surrounding Latin villages and tribes. The treaty recognises commercial contracts binding throughout their cities. Rome abandons its claim to hegemony over the Latin league. In return, Rome is recognised as the dominant city in the League.

By topic

Literature

• The Athenian poet Phrynicus produces a tragedy on the Fall of Miletus. The Athenian authorities ban the play from further production on the grounds of impiety.

492 BC

By place

Greece

• The first expedition of King Darius I of Persia against Greece commences under the leadership of his son-in-law and general, Mardonius. Darius sends Mardonius to succeed his satrap (governor) in Ionia, Artaphernes, with a special commission to attack Athens and Eretria.
• The Persians under Mardonius subdue and capture Thrace and Macedonia.
• Mardonius loses some 300 ships in a storm off Mount Athos, which forces him to abandon his plans to attack Athens and Eretria.

Sicily

• When Camarina, a Syracusan colony, rebels, Hippocrates, the tyrant of Gela, intervenes to wage war against Syracuse. After defeating the Syracusan army at the Heloros River, he besieges the city. However, he is persuaded by the intervention of forces from the Greek mainland city of Corinth to retreat in exchange for the possession of Camarina.

491 BC

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.

490 BC

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

• 496 BC – Sophocles, Athenian dramatist and statesman
• c. 495 BC
  • Pericles, Athenian politician (d. 429 BC)
  • Zeno of Elea, Greek philosopher (d. c. 430 BC)
• c. 490 BC
  • Empedocles, Greek philosopher (d. c. 430 BC)
  • Phidias, Greek sculptor (d. c. 430 BC)

Deaths

• 498 BC – Amyntas I, king of Macedonia
• 496 BC
  • Pythagoras, Greek philosopher and mathematician
  • Sun Tzu, general, military strategist, and author of The Art of War (traditional date)
• 491 BC– Hippocrates, Tyrant of Gela

References