5th century BC
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What happened around the world
Europe
- 490 BC Battle of Marathon — Athens first beats Persia and gives the marathon its name
- 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae — Leonidas and his 300 Spartans hold the pass to the last man
- 480 BC Battle of Salamis — Themistocles traps the Persian fleet in a narrow strait
- 464 BC Sparta earthquake — A quake sparks a helot revolt and a rift with Athens
- 447 BC–432 BC Construction of the Parthenon — Pericles and Phidias crown the Acropolis with a masterpiece
- 431 BC–404 BC Peloponnesian War — Athens and Sparta exhaust each other; Athens surrenders
- 430 BC–426 BC Plague of Athens — Wartime epidemic kills up to a quarter of the city, Pericles too
Middle East
- 499 BC–493 BC Ionian Revolt — Asian Greeks defy Persia and spark the Persian Wars
Asia
- c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — By tradition, Gautama passes at Kushinagar; his teaching spreads
- 479 BC Death of Confucius — China loses the teacher whose sayings will shape its state
Who ruled
- China: dynasties
- Zhou 1046 BC – 256 BC
- Rome and Byzantium
- Roman Republic 509 BC – 27 BC