5th century BC

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

The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. Location 23°43'35.69"E 37°58'17.39"N
"400s BC" redirects here. For the decade, see 400s BC (decade).
Millennium: 1st millennium BC
Centuries:
Timelines:
State leaders:
Decades:
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments

This century saw the establishment of Pataliputra as a capital of the Magadha Empire. This city would later become the ruling capital of different Indian kingdoms for about a thousand years. This period saw the rise of two great philosophical schools of the east, Jainism and Buddhism. This period saw Mahavira and Buddha spreading their respective teachings in the northern plains of India. This essentially changed the socio-cultural and political dynamics of the region of South Asia. Buddhism would later go on to become one of the major world religions.

This period also saw the work of Yaska, who created Nirukta, that would lay the foundation stone for Sanskrit grammar and is one of the oldest works on grammar known to mankind.

This century is also traditionally recognized as the classical period of the Greeks, which would continue all the way through the 4th century until the time of Alexander the Great. The life of Socrates represented a major milestone in Greek philosophy though his teachings only survive through the work of his students, most notably Plato and Xenophon. The tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as the comedian Aristophanes all date from this era and many of their works are still considered classics of the western theatrical canon.

The Persian Wars, fought between a coalition of Greek cities and the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire was a pivotal moment in Greek politics. After having successfully prevented the annexation of Greece by the Persians, Sparta, the dominant power in the coalition, had no intention of further offensive action and considered the war over. Meanwhile, Athens counter-attacked, liberating Greek subjects of the Persian Empire up and down the Ionian coast and mobilizing a new coalition, the Delian League. Tensions between Athens, and its growing imperialistic ambitions as leader of the Delian League, and the traditionally dominant Sparta led to a protracted stalemate in the Peloponnesian war.

Events

490s BC

480s BC

470s BC

460s BC

450s BC

440s BC

430s BC

420s BC

410s BC
  • 419 BC: The Peace of Nicias is broken when Sparta defeats Argos.
  • 418 BC: The Spartans win a major victory over the Athenians in the Battle of Mantinea, the biggest land battle of the Peloponnesian War.
  • 416 BC: The Athenians capture the island of Melos and treat the inhabitants with great cruelty.
  • 416 BC: The Athenians adhere to a plea of help from Sicily and start planning an invasion of the island.
  • 415 BC: The sacred Hermae busts in Athens are mutilated just before the expedition to Sicily is sent away. One of the culprits, Andocides, is captured and is forced to turn informer. He names the other mutilators, among them Alcibiades, who are sentenced to death in their absence.
  • 415 BC: Alcibiades defects from Athens to Sparta after having learned about his death sentence.
  • 414 BC: The Athenians try to make a breakthrough in their siege of Syracuse but are defeated by the Spartans.
  • 413 BC: Demosthenes suggests the Athenians leave Syracuse in order to return to Athens, where help is needed. However, Nicias refuses and they are again defeated in battle by the Spartans. Both Demosthenes and Nicias are killed.
  • 413 BC: Caria allies itself with Sparta.
  • 412 BC: The Persian Empire starts preparing an invasion of Ionia and signs a treaty with Sparta about it.
  • 411 BC: The democracy in Athens is overthrown and replaced by the oligarchic Council of Four Hundred. This council is itself soon defeated and order is almost restored, when the Five Thousand start ruling. Early next year, they are also overthrown and the old democracy is restored.
  • 410 BC: Athens regains control over its vital grain route from the Black Sea by defeating Sparta in the Battle of Cyzicus.

400s BC
  • 409 BC: Athens recaptures Byzantium, thereby putting an end to its revolt against Athens and taking control of the whole Bosporus.
  • 409 BC: The city of Rhodes is founded.
  • 409 BC: The Carthaginians invade Sicily.
  • 408 BC: The Persian king, Darius II, decides to aid Sparta in the war and makes his son Cyrus a satrap. However, Cyrus starts collecting an army to benefit his own interests, rather than his father's.
  • 408 BC: Alcibiades returns to Athens in triumph after an absence of seven years.
  • 407 BC: The Athenian fleet is routed by the Spartan one in the Battle of Notium, which gives Alcibiades' opponents a reason to strip him of command. He never returns to Athens again.
  • 406 BC: Athens defeats Sparta in the Battle of Arginusae and the blockade of Conon is lifted.
  • 406 BC: Sparta sues for peace, but Athens rejects this.
  • 406 BC: The Carthaginians once again invade Sicily and return to Carthage with spoils of war, but also with the plague.
  • 405 BC: The Spartan king Pausanias lays siege to Athens, which makes the city start starving.
  • 405 BC: Dionysius the Elder rises to power in Syracuse. He signs a peace with Carthage and starts consolidating and expanding his influence.
  • April 25, 404 BC: Athens surrenders to Sparta, ending the Peloponnesian War. Sparta introduces an oligarchic system, the Thirty Tyrants, in Athens.
  • 404 BC: Egypt rebels against Persian rule.
  • 403 BC: The Chinese state of Jin is divided into three smaller nations.[1]
  • 403 BC: Some exiled Athenians return to fight the Thirty Tyrants and restore democracy in Athens. They are, however, narrowly defeated by the Spartans in the Battle of Piraeus. After this, the Spartan king Pausanias allows democracy to be restored in Athens.
  • 403 BC: Thrasybulus restores the Athenian democracy and grants an almost general amnesty.
  • 403 BC: The Athenians adopt the Ionian alphabet.
  • 401 BC: Cyrus the Younger rebels against the Persian king Artaxerxes II but is, however, eventually slain in battle.
  • 400 BC: After Cyrus has been killed, his Greek mercenaries make their way back to Greece, where Sparta is so impressed with their feats in and march through Persia that they declare war on the Persians.
  • 400 BC: The Carthaginians occupy Malta.
  • 400 BC: The Egyptians successfully revolt against Persian rule.
  • 400 BC: London has its origins as far back as this time.
  • 400 BC: Jōmon period ends in Ancient Japan.

Significant people
Themistocles
Leonidas I
Xerxes I
Pericles
Sophocles
Aristophanes
Pindar
Hippocrates
Herodotus
Parmenides
Socrates

Visual arts

Literature

Science and philosophy

Sports

Inventions, discoveries, introductions
  • Cast iron is first used in the Chinese Kingdom of Wu with the innovation of the blast furnace, and soon becomes widespread for agricultural tools and weapons during the Warring States.
  • Trebuchet catapult is first used by followers of the Chinese philosopher Mozi.
  • The Greeks invent the Anchor with flukes.
  • The Greeks start to use shear-leg cranes for construction and loading of ships.
  • The Greeks invent linear perspective.
  • The Greeks develop an indirect lost wax process for casting bronze.
  • The Chinese hydraulic engineer Ximen Bao (西門豹) oversees an enormous canal system for agricultural irrigation, while employed by Marquis Wen of Wei (文侯) (445 BC–396 BC).
  • The Chinese philosopher Li Kui writes the Book of Law (Fajing, 法经) in 407 BC, the basis for the law codes of the following Qin Dynasty and partially that of the Han Dynasty.
  • Scholars commonly accept that the Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita was written.
  • Creation of the Berlin Foundry Cup (early 5th century).
  • The oldest known Maya Calendar

Sovereign states

See: List of sovereign states in the 5th century BC.

Decades and years
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References
  1. Zhao, Dingxin (2004). "Comment: Spurious Causation in a Historical Process: War and Bureaucratization in Early China". American Sociological Review. 69 (4): 603–607. doi:10.1177/000312240406900407.
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