Persian Fire (64 page)

632: The failure of Cylon's attempt to become tyrant of Athens.

612: The Medes and Babylonians sack Nineveh.

608: The final collapse of the Assyrian Empire.

600: The exile of the Alcmaeonids from Athens.

594: Solon becomes archon.

586: Nebuchadnezzar sacks Jerusalem.

585: Astyages becomes King of Media. A peace treaty is signed with Lydia after an indecisive war.

566: Inauguration of the Great Panathenaea.

560: The first tyranny of Pisistratus. The return of the Alcmaeonids to Athens.

559: Cyrus becomes King of Persia.

556: Nabonidus becomes King of Babylon.

555: The second tyranny and exile of Pisistratus.

550: Cyrus conquers Media.

546: Cyrus conquers Lydia. The 'Battle of the Champions' between Sparta and Argos. The Battle of Pallene: the third tyranny of Pisistratus; the Alcmaeonids return into exile.

545—540: Cyrus pushes into Central Asia.

539: Cyrus conquers Babylonia.

529: The death of Cyrus. Cambyses becomes King of Persia.

527: The death of Pisistratus. Hippias and Hipparchus become the tyrants of Athens.

525: Cambyses invades and conquers Egypt.

522: Bardiya revolts against Cambyses. The death of Cambyses.

Darius and six accomplices assassinate Bardiya. Darius becomes King of Persia and puts down a revolt in Babylon.

521: Darius suppresses widespread rebellions across the empire.

520: Cleomenes becomes King of Sparta.

519: Athens at war with Thebes in defence of Plataea.

514: The assassination of Hipparchus.

513: Darius invades Scythia.

512—511: The Persian conquest of Thrace.

510: The expulsion of Hippias from Athens.

508: Isagoras becomes archon. Cleisthenes proposes democratic reforms.

507: The exile of Cleisthenes from Athens. Cleomenes and Isagoras are besieged on the Acropolis. Cleisthenes returns from exile and implements his reforms. Athenian ambassadors give earth and water to Artaphernes.

506: The defeat of Cleomenes' invasion of Attica. Athens is victorious over Thebes and Chalcis.

499: The failure of the Persian attack on Naxos. Aristagoras leads an Ionian revolt and travels to Greece in search of support.

498: The Ionians, with Athenian and Eretrian support, burn Sardis.

497: The death of Aristagoras.

494: The Ionians are defeated at the Battle of Lade. Argos is defeated by Cleomenes at the Battle of Sepeia. The sack of Miletus.

493: Themistocles becomes archon. Miltiades escapes from the Chersonese to Athens.

492: The trial and acquittal of Miltiades. Mardonius conquers Macedonia.

491: Darius' ambassadors tour Greece to demand earth and water; those who visit Athens and Sparta are put to death.

490: Datis and Artaphernes lead an expedition across the Aegean. Eretria is sacked. The Battle of Marathon.

487: The first ostracism in Athens.

486: Rebellion in Egypt. The death of Darius. Xerxes becomes the King of Persia.

485: Gelon becomes the tyrant of Syracuse.

484: Xanthippus is ostracised. Rebellion in Babylon.

483: A rich vein of silver is found in the mines at Laurium.

482: Aristeides is ostracised. Athens votes to build two hundred triremes.

481: Xerxes arrives in Sardis. A congress of Greek cities determined to resist the Persian invasion meets at Sparta. Envoys are sent to Gelon. Spies are sent to Sardis.

480: Envoys return empty-handed from Gelon. Xerxes crosses the Hellespont. The Athenians vote to evacuate their city. The battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium. The Battle of Himera. Athens is occupied and burned. The Battle of Salamis. Xerxes retreats to Sardis. Mardonius remains in Thessaly.

479: Athens is occupied a second time. The battles of Plataea and Mycale. Revolt in Babylon. Xerxes leaves Sardis.

472: Aeschylus stages
The Persians.

470: Themistocles is ostracised.

469: The death of Pausanias. The flight of Themistocles to Susa. 466: The Battle of Eurymedon.

460: Athens sends an expedition to Cyprus and Egypt.

459: The death of Themistocles.

457: Aegina is forced to join the Delian League.

454: Destruction of the Athenian expedition to Egypt. The treasury of the Delian League is moved from Delos to the Acropolis.

449: Peace is signed between Athens and Persia. The Peloponnesians refuse an Athenian invitation to a pan-Greek conference. The Athenians vote to rebuild the burned temples on the Acropolis.

447: Work begins on the Parthenon.

Unless otherwise stated, author citations refer to the following texts: Aelian,
Miscellany;
Aeschylus,
The Persians;
Aristides,
Aelius Aristides Orationes,
ed. W. Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829); Athenaeus,
The Learned Banquet;
Cicero,
On Divination;
Ctesias,
Fragments;
Diodorus Siculus,
The Library of History;
Diogenes Laertius,
The Lives and Doctrines of Eminent Philosophers;
Herodotus,
Histories;
Pausanias,
Description of Greece;
Polyaenus,
Stratagems;
Quintus Curtius,
The History of Alexander;
Strabo,
The Geography;
Thucydides,
History of the Peloponnesian War.

Preface

1
  
From bin Laden's 'Declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places,' quoted by Burke, p. 163.

2
  
Gibbon, Vol. 3, p. 1095.

3
  
Herodotus, 1.4.

4
  
Ibid., 1.5. Literally, 'the Persians and the Phoenicians'.

5
  
Herodotus has long been derided as a fantasist: the father not of history but of lies. The past few decades have brought about a fundamental reappraisal of his accuracy: again and again, archaeological discoveries have demonstrated the reliability of his claims. A brief but excellent survey can be found in Stephanie Dalley's article 'Why did Herodotus not mention the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?', in Derow and Parker (eds),
Herodotus and his World.
For the counter-view, still not entirely routed, that Herodotus invented much of his story, see Fehling.

6
  
Herodotus, 1.1.

7
  
). S. Mill, p. 283.

8
  
G. W. F. Hegel,
The Philosophy of History,
2.2.3.

9
  
Herodotus: 7.228.

10
M. de Montaigne, 'On the Cannibals', in
The Complete Essays,
p. 238.

11
Lord Byron, 'The Isles of Greece', 1. 7.