490s BC

Last updated • 11 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

This article concerns the period 499 BC – 490 BC.

Contents

Events

499 BC

By place

Greece

498 BC

By place

Greece
Sicily

By topic

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

497 BC

By place

Greece

496 BC

By place

Greece
Roman Republic
China

495 BC

Roman Republic

China

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. [9]
  • 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. [10]
Greece
  • The Phoenician allies of the Persians retaliate fiercely against the Greeks, whom they perceive as pirates, unleashing savage reprisals..
  • 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. [11]
  • The Spartan king, Cleomenes I inflicts a severe defeat on Argos at Sepeia near Tiryns (approximate date). [12]
Roman republic

493 BC

By place

Persian Empire
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

By topic

Literature
  • The Athenian poet Phrynicus produces a tragedy on the Fall of Miletus . [13] The Athenian authorities ban the play from further production on the grounds of impiety.

492 BC

By place

Greece
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.
Rome

491 BC

By place

Greece
  • Darius I sends envoys to all Greek cities, demanding "earth and water for vassalage" which Athens and Sparta refuse. [15]
  • 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 had been his commander of cavalry. [16]
Roman Republic
  • During this year there was a famine in Rome. General Gais Marcius Coriolanus suggested that people should not receive grains unless they agree to abolish the Office of Tribune. Because of this, the Tribunes had him exiled. In response, Coriolanus takes refuge with the leader of the Volsci, eventually leading the Volscian army in a war against Rome. It was only due to entreaties from his mother and wife that he abandoned his war against Rome. [17]
  • On the Via Latina, a main road leading out of Rome, the Temple of Fortuna Muliebras was finished. [18] [19]

By topic

Art

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 its inhabitants are enslaved. 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 11,500 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 Carneia) 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 [22] each way. [23] 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 "Chairete, 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.
Europe
  • Carthaginian navigator Himilco is the first known explorer from the Mediterranean Sea to reach the northwestern shores of Europe (approximate date).

By topic

Architecture
  • The Athenians begin the building of a temple to Athena Parthenos (approximate date).
  • Stelae are once again allowed in Athenian cemeteries, having been banned since 510 BC.

Births

498 BC

496 BC

495 BC

490 BC

Deaths

498 BC

497 BC

496 BC

495 BC

494 BC

493 BC

491 BC

490 BC

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Marathon</span> 490 BC battle in the Greco-Persian Wars

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat on the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th century BC</span> Century

The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">490 BC</span> Calendar year

Year 490 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Camerinus and Flavus. The denomination 490 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.

Year 491 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augurinus and Atratinus. The denomination 491 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.

This article concerns the period 489 BC – 480 BC.

This article concerns the period 479 BC – 470 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of ancient Greece</span> Ancient Greek timeline

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

Year 498 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Siculus and Flavus. The denomination 498 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.

Year 494 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tricostus and Geminus. The denomination 494 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.

Year 492 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macerinus and Augurinus. The denomination 492 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ionian Revolt</span> Military rebellions by Greek cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule (499 BC–493 BC)

The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants, Histiaeus and Aristagoras. The cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia around 540 BC, and thereafter were ruled by native tyrants, nominated by the Persian satrap in Sardis. In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greco-Persian Wars</span> Series of conflicts in the 5th century BC

The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to control the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike.

Mardonius was a leading Persian military commander during the Persian Wars with Greece in the early 5th century BC who died at the Battle of Plataea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Lade</span> Naval battle during the Ionian Revolt (494 BC)

The Battle of Lade was a naval battle which occurred during the Ionian Revolt, in 494 BC. It was fought between an alliance of the Ionian cities and the Persian Empire of Darius the Great, and resulted in a decisive victory for the Persians which all but ended the revolt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artaphernes</span> Persian general and satrap, 513 to 492 BC

Artaphernes, flourished circa 513–492 BC, was a brother of the Achaemenid king of Persia, Darius I, satrap of Lydia from the capital of Sardis, and a Persian general. In his position he had numerous contacts with the Greeks, and played an important role in suppressing the Ionian Revolt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ephesus (498 BC)</span> 498 BC battle during the Ionian Revolt

The Battle of Ephesus was a battle in 498 BC between Persian and Greek forces during the Ionian revolt. The Persians defeated the Greek army and compelled the Athenians and Eretrians to abandon their alliance with the Ionians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Naxos (499 BC)</span> Attempt by Aristagoras to conquer Naxos

The siege of Naxos was a failed attempt by the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras, operating with support from, and in the name of the Persian Empire of Darius the Great, to conquer the island of Naxos. It was the opening act of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would ultimately last for 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Eretria</span> Siege in 490 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars

The siege of Eretria took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. The city of Eretria, on Euboea, was besieged by a strong Persian force under the command of Datis and Artaphernes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Sardis (498 BC)</span>

The siege of Sardis was the first major engagement of the Ionian Revolt. An allied Greek army launched an attack on the Persian satrapal capital of Sardis but were ultimately repelled by Persian forces, however most of the city was set alight during the siege.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Persian invasion of Greece</span> Campaigns by Persia (492–490 BC)

The first Persian invasion of Greece, during the Greco-Persian Wars, began in 492 BC, and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The invasion, consisting of two distinct campaigns, was ordered by the Persian king Darius the Great primarily in order to punish the city-states of Athens and Eretria. These cities had supported the cities of Ionia during their revolt against Persian rule, thus incurring the wrath of Darius. Darius also saw the opportunity to extend his empire into Europe, and to secure its western frontier.

References

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  11. Herodotus, lib vi. c. 41
  12. There is some uncertainty about the date: see Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age by Eric W. Robinson, pp. 7–9
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