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456 BC

The first of the Athenian sculptor Phidias' monuments to Athena, the bronze Athena Promachos, is placed on the Athenian Acropolis. It measures about 9 metres high and is the largest statue yet to be erected in Athens.

537 BC?????!!!!!

457 BC

Athenian forces block the routes back to the Peloponnese, so the Spartans decide to remain in Boeotia and await the Athenian attack. The Athenians and their allies, with 14,000 men under the command of Myronides, meet the Spartans at Battle of Tanagra. The Spartans win the battle, but they lose many men and so are unable to follow up on their victory.

That Arno!!


458 BC

The Athenian playwright Aeschylus completes his trilogy The Oresteia (which comprise Agamemnon, Choephoroi (The Libation Bearers) and The Eumenides).

459 BC

The Aequi occupy Tusculum. In response to the threat, the Roman Senate decide to send an army to help the allied city, under the command of consul Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. In addition, the consul Fabius Vibulanus, who was at that point besieging Antium, moves his forces to attack Tusculum. The Tusculans are able to recapture their city. A truce is then arranged with the Aequi.

460 BC

Egypt revolts against Persian rule. The Egyptian leader, Inaros, asks Athens for assistance, which is willingly provided as Athens has plans to trade with and colonise Egypt. A force of 200 Athenian triremes, which is campaigning in Cyprus, is immediately ordered to Egypt to render assistance.

461 BC

Ephialtes, with the support of Pericles, reduces the power of the Athenian Council of Areopagus (filled with ex-archons and so a stronghold of oligarchy) and transfers them to the people, i.e. the Council of Five Hundred, the Assembly and the popular law courts. The office of Judge is made a paid position and is recruited by lot from a list to which every citizen can have his name added.

462 BC

Ephialtes passes a law in the Athenian ecclesia, which reforms the Areopagus, limiting its power to judging cases of homicide and religious crimes. He considers the Areopagus to be the centre of conservatism and Ephialtes' victory is seen as a defeat for the conservatives and the members of the oligarchy.


Greece

463 BC

In Athens, the democratic statesman Ephialtes and the young Pericles attempt to get the oligarchic Kimon ostracized for allegedly receiving bribes. Kimon is charged by Pericles and other democratic politicians with having been bribed not to attack the King of Macedonia (who may have been suspected of covertly helping the Thasian rebels). Though Kimon is acquitted, his influence on the Athenian people is waning.

465 BC

King Xerxes I of the Persian Empire, together with his eldest son, is murdered by one of his Ministers, Artabanus the Hyrcanian. The Persian general, Megabyzus, is thought to have been one of the conspirators in the assassination.

466 BC

Kimon carries the war against Persia into Asia Minor and wins the Battle of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia. This is a decisive defeat of the Persians as Kimon's land and sea forces capture the Persian camp and destroy or capture the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes (manned by Phoenicians). Many new allies of Athens are now recruited, such as the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border.