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Contents

Events

By place

Greece

Roman republic

Sicily

By topic

Arts

Births

Deaths

Events

By place

Greece

★ May — King Xerxes I of Persia marches from Sardis and onto Thrace and Macedonia.

★ August 11 — The Battle of Thermopylae ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. His army engulfs a force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespiae under the Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Greeks under Leonidas resist the advance through Thermopylae of Xerxes' vast army. For two days Leonidas and his troops withstand the Persian attacks; he then orders most of his troops to retreat, and he and his 300-member royal guard fight to the last man.

★ A member of the Agiad royal family, and the son of King Cleombrotus I and nephew of King Leonidas, Pausanias becomes regent for Leonidas' son, Pleistarchus, after Leonidas I is killed at Thermopylae.

★ Phocis and the coasts of Euboea are devastated by the Persians. Thebes and most of Boeotia join Xerxes.

★ King Alexander I of Macedon is obliged to accompany Xerxes I in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aids the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seizes the Greek colony of Pydna and advances his frontiers eastward to the Strymon, taking in Crestonia and Bisaltia, along with the rich silver deposits of Mount Dysorus.

★ Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, as well as former Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in Aegina to serve under Themistocles against the Persians.

★ August — Battle of Artemisium: The Persians achieve a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea. The Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws southward when news comes of the defeat at Thermopylae.

★ Breaking through the pass at Thermopylae from Macedonia into Greece, the Persians occupy Attica.

★ September 21 — The Persians sack Athens, whose citizens flee to Salamis and the Peloponnesus.

★ September 28 — The Battle of Salamis brings victory to the Greeks, whose Athenian general Themistocles lures the Persians into the Bay of Salamis, between the Athenian port-city of Piraeus and the island of Salamis. The Greek triremes then attack furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others. The Greeks sink about 200 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persians fleet is scattered, and as a result Xerxes has to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gives the Greek city-states time to unite against him.

★ An eclipse of the sun discourages the Greek army from following up the victory of Salamis. Xerxes returns to Persia leaving behind an army under Mardonius, which winters in Thessaly.

Roman republic

★ Roman troops march against the Veintes.

Sicily

★ Xerxes encourages the Carthaginians to attack the Greeks in Sicily. Under the Carthaginian military leader, Hamilcar, Carthage sends across a large army.

★ The Greek city of Himera in Sicily, in its quarrel with Acragas, enlists Carthaginian support. With the help of Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, and Theron of Acragas, the Carthaginians are defeated at the Battle of Himera. After the defeat, Hamilcar kills himself.

By topic

Arts

★ The archaic period of sculpture ends in Greece and is succeeded by the transitional (Early Classical) period (approximate date).

Births

★ Euripides, Greek playwright (d. 406 BC)

★ Antiphon, Attic orator (d. 411 BC)

★ Philolaus, Greek mathematician and philosopher (d. c. 405 BC)

Deaths

★ Leonidas I, Agiad King of Sparta (died at Thermopylae)

★ Xenophanes, Greek philosopher

★ Hamilcar, Carthaginian general (suicide after his defeat at the Battle of Himera)