406 BC

Last updated

Millennium: 1st millennium BC
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
406 BC in various calendars
Gregorian calendar 406 BC
CDV BC
Ab urbe condita 348
Ancient Egypt era XXVII dynasty, 120
- Pharaoh Darius II of Persia, 18
Ancient Greek era 93rd Olympiad, year 3
Assyrian calendar 4345
Balinese saka calendar N/A
Bengali calendar −998
Berber calendar 545
Buddhist calendar 139
Burmese calendar −1043
Byzantine calendar 5103–5104
Chinese calendar 甲戌(Wood  Dog)
2291 or 2231
     to 
乙亥年 (Wood  Pig)
2292 or 2232
Coptic calendar −689 – −688
Discordian calendar 761
Ethiopian calendar −413 – −412
Hebrew calendar 3355–3356
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat −349 – −348
 - Shaka Samvat N/A
 - Kali Yuga 2695–2696
Holocene calendar 9595
Iranian calendar 1027 BP – 1026 BP
Islamic calendar 1059 BH – 1058 BH
Javanese calendar N/A
Julian calendar N/A
Korean calendar 1928
Minguo calendar 2317 before ROC
民前2317年
Nanakshahi calendar −1873
Thai solar calendar 137–138
Tibetan calendar 阳木狗年
(male Wood-Dog)
−279 or −660 or −1432
     to 
阴木猪年
(female Wood-Pig)
−278 or −659 or −1431

Year 406 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Cossus, Ambustus, Cossus and Potitus (or, less frequently, year 348 Ab urbe condita ). The denomination 406 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.

Contents

Events

By place

Greece

  • Callicratidas is appointed as the navarch of the Spartan fleet, replacing Lysander. Callicratidas assembles a fleet and sails to Methymna, on Lesbos, to which he lays siege. This move threatens the Athenian grain supply.
  • Alcibiades is replaced by a board of generals. Athens sends a member of the board, Admiral Conon, to relieve the siege of Mytilene. To defend Lesbos, Conon is forced to move his numerically inferior fleet from Samos to the Hekatonnesi islands near Methymna. When Callicratidas attacks him, Conon is forced back to Mytilene, where he is blockaded by Callicratidas' Spartan fleet.
  • Athens wins the Battle of Arginusae, near Lesbos, and the blockade of Conon is broken. To relieve Conon, the Athenians assemble a new fleet composed largely of newly constructed ships crewed by inexperienced sailors. This inexperienced fleet is inferior to the Spartans, but its commanders employ new and unorthodox tactics, which allow the Athenians to secure a dramatic and unexpected victory. The Spartan force is soundly defeated, and Callicratidas is killed.
  • Returning to Athens after the battle, Theramenes leads Athenian agitation against the eight generals who have commanded in the engagement; the six who have returned to Athens are condemned for negligence in not having picked up survivors from the ships disabled in the battle. The Athenian generals (including Pericles' son) are put to death.
  • Sparta sues for peace, which the Athenian leader Cleophon rejects. Sparta yields to demands by the Persian satrap Cyrus that Lysander command a fleet in the Hellespont.

Roman Republic

  • The Roman forces begin a decade-long siege against Veii.

Carthage

  • The Carthaginians again invade Sicily and attack Agrigentum (Acragas). Plague breaks out in their camp and Hannibal Mago dies. Himilco assumes command and captures Agrigentum (Acragas), Gela and Camarina. Gela is destroyed and its treasures sacked. The survivors take refuge in Syracuse. The plague is carried back to Carthage by its soldiers.

Births

Deaths

Related Research Articles

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Timeline of ancient Greece

This is a timeline of ancient Greece from its emergence around 800 BC to its subjection to the Roman Empire in 146 BC.

Lysander Spartan admiral in the 5th century BC

Lysander was a Spartan admiral who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC. The following year, he was able to force the Athenians to capitulate, bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end. He then played a key role in Sparta's domination of Greece for the next decade until his death at the Battle of Haliartus.

Year 405 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Barbatus, Capitolinus, Cincinnatus, Medullinus, Iullus and Mamercinus. The denomination 405 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.

Thrasybulus Athenian general and politician

Thrasybulus was an Athenian general and democratic leader. In 411 BC, in the wake of an oligarchic coup at Athens, the pro-democracy sailors at Samos elected him as a general, making him a primary leader of the ultimately successful democratic resistance to the coup. As general, he was responsible for recalling the controversial nobleman Alcibiades from exile, and the two worked together extensively over the next several years. In 411 and 410, Thrasybulus was in command along with Alcibiades and others at several critical Athenian naval victories.

Conon Athenian general

Conon was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who led the Athenian naval forces when they were defeated by a Peloponnesian fleet in the crucial Battle of Aegospotami; later he contributed significantly to the restoration of Athens' political and military power.

Year 392 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Poplicola and Capitolinus. The denomination 392 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.

Battle of Arginusae

The naval Battle of Arginusae took place in 406 BC during the Peloponnesian War near the city of Canae in the Arginusae islands, east of the island of Lesbos. In the battle, an Athenian fleet commanded by eight strategoi defeated a Spartan fleet under Callicratidas. The battle was precipitated by a Spartan victory which led to the Athenian fleet under Conon being blockaded at Mytilene; to relieve Conon, the Athenians assembled a scratch force composed largely of newly constructed ships manned by inexperienced crews. This inexperienced fleet was thus tactically inferior to the Spartans, but its commanders were able to circumvent this problem by employing new and unorthodox tactics, which allowed the Athenians to secure a dramatic and unexpected victory. Slaves and metics who participated in the battle were granted Athenian citizenship.

Battle of Notium

The Battle of Notium in 406 BC, was a Spartan naval victory in the Peloponnesian War. Prior to the battle, the Athenian commander, Alcibiades, left his helmsman, Antiochus, in command of the Athenian fleet, which was blockading the Spartan fleet in Ephesus. In violation of his orders, Antiochus attempted to draw the Spartans into battle by tempting them with a small decoy force. His strategy backfired, and the Spartans under Lysander scored a small but symbolically significant victory over the Athenian fleet. This victory resulted in the downfall of Alcibiades, and established Lysander as a commander who could defeat the Athenians at sea.

Corinthian War Ancient Greek war (395–387 BC)

The Corinthian War was an ancient Greek conflict lasting from 395 BC until 387 BC, pitting Sparta against a coalition of Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, backed by the Achaemenid Empire. The immediate cause of the war was a local conflict in northwest Greece in which Thebes and Sparta intervened. The deeper cause was hostility towards Sparta, provoked by that city's "expansionism in Asia Minor, central and northern Greece and even the west". The Corinthian War followed the Peloponnesian War, in which Sparta had achieved hegemony over Athens and its allies.

The Battle of Mytilene was a battle fought in 406 BC between Athens and Sparta. The Spartans were victorious.

Thrasyllus was an Athenian strategos (general) and statesman who rose to prominence in the later years of the Peloponnesian War. First appearing in Athenian politics in 410 BC, in the wake of the Athenian coup of 411 BC, he played a role in organizing democratic resistance in an Athenian fleet at Samos. There, he was elected strategos by the sailors and soldiers of the fleet, and held the position until he was controversially executed several years later after the Battle of Arginusae.

Callicratidas was a Spartan naval commander in the Peloponnesian War. In 406 BC, he was sent to the Aegean to take command of the Spartan fleet from Lysander, the first navarch.

Leon of Salamis was a historical figure, mentioned in Plato's Apology, Xenophon's Hellenica and Andocides' On the Mysteries (1.94). This Leon may also be the renowned Athenian general Leon of the Peloponnesian War.

The Mytilenean revolt was an incident in the Peloponnesian War in which the city of Mytilene attempted to unify the island of Lesbos under its control and revolt from the Athenian Empire. In 428 BC, the Mytilenean government planned a rebellion in concert with Sparta, Boeotia, and certain other cities on the island, and began preparing to revolt by fortifying the city and laying in supplies for a prolonged war. These preparations were interrupted by the Athenian fleet, which had been notified of the plot, and the Mytileneans sent representatives to Athens to discuss a settlement, but simultaneously dispatched a secret embassy to Sparta to request support.

Eteonicus was a Spartan commander during the Peloponesian and Corinthian Wars. He participated in many key engagements, held important commands and is mentioned multiple times by Thucydides, Xenophon and Diodorus Siculus. His appearance in the record, however, is mostly episodic, with his roles not being particularly influential.

Thorax of Lacedaemonia is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus as acting under Spartan commander Callicratidas during his operations in Lesbos in 405 BC, and as having been commissioned by him, after the capture of Mithymna, to conduct the heavy-armed troops to Mytilene. In the following year we again find Thorax in command of the land-force which cooperated with the fleet under Lysander in the storming of Lampsacus; and he was left at Samos as harmost by Lysander, when the latter was on his way to Athens after the Battle of Aegospotami in 404 BC. According to Plutarch, when the satrap Pharnabazus sent to Sparta to complain of ravages committed in his territory by Lysander, the Lacedaemonian government put Thorax to death, as he was a friend and colleague of the accused admiral, and they had found money in his possession. The date and circumstances of this, however, are very doubtful.

References