5th Century BC - Ancient History Timeline

500 - 400 BC

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B.C.

500 Sun Tzu (unknown Chinese authors) write The Art of War

500 Celts settle from Italy to Ireland

500 Pericles of Athens is born

500 Joel is a prophet in Judah

500 Malachi is a prophet in Judah

499 Ionian War (revolt from Persia)

496 Rome defeats the Latin tribes at Lake Regillus

496 Sophocles (tragedian) is born

495 Alexander I rules over Macedonia

494 The first victory of the plebeian class over the patricians for more power

494 Tribunate established in Rome

493 Rome and Latin League make a treaty for protection against Etruscans

492 Persians set to defeat Athens but crippled by a storm

491 Ajatasatru takes control of the Ganges basin

490 Darius I defeated by the Greeks at Marathon

490 Persian Wars

485 Birth of Herodotus

480 Confucious (Chinese philosopher) dies

496 Euripides (tragedian) is born

486 Xerxes demands tribute from Greece but is refused

480 Xerxes invades Greece with 180,000 men, wins at Thermopylae

480 Persians suffer defeats by the Greeks

480 Warring States period begins in China

479 More Persian defeats by the Greeks at Salamis, Plataea and Mycale

478 The Delian Confederacy is established

474 Carthaginians defeat the Etruscans in a naval battle at Cumae

471 Naxo tries to leave the Delian League but is stopped by Athens

469 Birth of Socrates (famous philosopher)

465 Xerxes is murdered and artaxerxes comes to power

460 Birth of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine

460 Birth of Thucydides (historian)

460 Age of Pericles in Athens

457 Aristophanes (comedic writer) is born

457 First Pelopennesian war between Athens and Sparta

452 Wars over succession following the death of Alexander I in Macedonia

450 Laws of the Twelve Tables codified and published in Rome

450 Herodotus (the father of history) visits Egypt

450 Rome begins to found colonies in Italy

450 Carthage establishes new trading posts along the African coastline

449 Sacred War between Athens and Sparta over the Oracle of Delphi

447 The construction of the Parthenon begins

443 Office of the Censor is created in Rome

443 Pericles leads Athens and the 10 generals

431 Second Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta

430 Epidemic of plagues in Athens (Pericles dies in it)

429 Birth of Plato (philosopher, student of Socrates)

424 Thucydides is exiled from Athens

424 Xerxes II is assassinated

424 Darius II rules Persia

413 Athens attacks Sicily and fail

409 Carthage invades Sicily

407 Plato becomes the pupil of Socrates

405 Egypt overthrows Persian rule

404 Athens surrenders to Sparta to end the Peloponnesian War

404 Sparta becomes the most powerful city-state

401 Sparta goes to war with Persia

401 Cyrus the Younger rebels in Persia, but is defeated by Artaxerxes II at Cunoxa

400 Greeks under Xenophone are defeated at Cunaxa, Retreat of the 10,000