Oct 12, 2008
Naples has its beginnings in the Greek settlement of Neapolis (New City), founded close to the ancient city of Palaeopolis (year approximate).
Marseilles has its beginnings in the settlement of Lacydonis founded by Greek colonists (see agriculture, 331 B.C.).
The Persian religious leader Zoroaster in this century will found a faith whose sacred literature will be the Zend-Avesta. The teachings of Zoroaster (Zarathustra) will dominate Persian religious thought for centuries (but see Alexander the Great, 330 B.C.).
Romans will build the city's Cloaca Maxima in this century (see 753 B.C.). The giant drainage system will drain the marshy area that will become the site of the Roman Forum. Rome remains a small town but begins to experience food shortages. It will have occasional serious famines in this century (see politics, 509 B.C.).
Humped cattle from India become widespread in the Mediterranean countries.
Jerusalem falls March 16 to Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II), who plunders the city and has Judah's king Jehoiachin taken to Babylon, where he will be imprisoned for years (see 587 B.C.).
Wheeled carts drawn by onagers (small Asiatic asses) bring food into Babylon, while riverboats powered by scores of oarsmen bring copper, silver, gold, and vegetable oils from fields north of the Tigris. Camels in long caravans enter the city with dyestuffs, glassware, precious stones, and textiles.
Camel caravans bring occasional plagues to Babylon; flies and mosquitoes that breed in polluted irrigation canals carry malaria, dysentery, and eye diseases.
Babylon is a magnificent city of public buildings faced with blue, yellow, and white enameled tiles that face on broad avenues crossed by canals and winding streets.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, with exotic shrubs and flowers irrigated by water pumped from the Euphrates.
The tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicion declares war on the town of Crisa in what will be called the Sacred War because its instigator represents himself as a champion of the Delphic Oracle (year approximate). Sicion is a city about 11 miles northeast of Corinth, and Cleisthenes will destroy Crisa in his religious zeal (see sports [Pythian Games], 582 B.C.).
Egypt's 26th dynasty king Necho II dies after a 15-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will defend his southern borders against the kingdom of Cush in his 6-year reign as Psamtik II.
The 42-year-old Athenian merchant Solon recovers the island of Salamis from neighboring Megarians and is appointed chief archon to avert a civil war in the city-state, which is suffering economic distress (year approximate). Supported by aristocrats who include the Alcmaeonid family, Solon establishes a timocracy (government by the richest), but although he permits wealthy Athenians to keep many privileges he institutes constitutional reforms that lay the foundations for democracy (demokratia, a word that combines demos [the people] and kratein [to rule]). Solon codifies the city-state's laws to make every male citizen over age 18 a member of the Ekklesia, admitting a fourth class (the Thetes) to that body, which elects magistrates and has final control over policy (see 590 B.C.).
The Athenian archon Solon frees people who have been enslaved for defaulting on debts (the Seisactheia), repeals the Draconian laws that have stood since 621 B.C., and removes the death penalty for crimes other than homicide.
The Athenian archon Solon forbids export of any agricultural produce: his well-intentioned edict will lead to more planting of olive trees. Their roots soak up deep moisture but do not hold soil together, so while exports of olive oil and silver will bring riches to Athens, Solon's edict will hasten the erosion of Greek hillsides (see Plato, 347 B.C.).
Egypt's Psamtik II completes a campaign against his southern neighbor Cush and makes a peaceful visit to Phoenicia, accompanied by priests.
The Athenian chief archon Solon resigns his position and goes into self-imposed exile, having tried to please everyone with his reforms and wound up pleasing almost no one. Not wishing to explain and defend the rules that he has had posted on revolving wooden tablets, he embarks on travels that will take him to Cyprus, Egypt, and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean in the next 10 years.
The Greek poet Sappho flourishes on the island of Lesbos as priestess of a feminine love cult and celebrates the love of women for other women in poems that will survive in papyrus fragments and in quotations by later critics. The geographer Strabo will write some 600 years hence that "Sappho was something to be wondered at. Never within human memory has there been a woman to compare with her as a poet."
Egypt's 26th dynasty king Psamtik II dies after a 6-year reign in which he has crushed the Cushites to his south with help from Greek, Jewish, and Phoenician mercenaries, obliterating the names and royal emblems that have memorialized the 25th (Cushite) dynasty from statues and reliefs. Psamtik is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 570 B.C. as Apries.
Athletes from the Greek city of Croton in Calabria distinguish themselves at the Olympic Games and will continue for decades to surpass many others.
Jerusalem falls once again to Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II) after a 16-month siege (see 597 B.C.). Egypt's king Apries has tried without success to end Babylonian domination of Palestine and Syria but now withdraws his forces; Nebuchadnezzar destroys the city and brings upper-class Jews home in a "Babylonian captivity" that will continue until 538 B.C.
Jerusalem's Great Temple is destroyed by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II). Many Jews flee to Egypt, whose king Apries has failed to help his ally, Judah's king Zedekiah, but welcomes refugees, enlisting many as soldiers in the Persian army of occupation. Apries attacks the Greek colony at Cyrene, some 620 miles west of the Nile Delta, but his army suffers a defeat, mutinies, and elects its general Ahmose as king, precipitating a civil war in the delta.
A battle between Lydia's king Alyattes and the Median ruler Cyaxares comes to a halt May 28 as a near-total solar eclipse turns day into night, frightening the combatants on both sides. It will be claimed that the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, 39, predicted the eclipse, but while it is certain that he has renounced the notion that meteorological occurrences are the work of the gods, modern scholars will express doubts that he could possibly have known enough about astronomy to make such a prediction. Cyaxares dies after a 40-year reign in which he has expanded his realm to cover most of what will become Persia and all of Anatolia to the Halys (Kizil) River; he is succeeded by his son Astyages, who will rule until 550 B.C. Lydia and the Medes make peace, probably through the intervention of Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II), and fix the Halys as the boundary between them.
Greece's Pythian Games are established as a quadrennial event to be held in August during the third year of the 4-year period between Olympic Games. Held in honor of Apollo, the games are held either at the Delphic shrine on Mount Parnassus or on the plain below; open to all Greeks (the Olympics are open only to aristocrats), the events include foot and chariot races and will continue to be held until the 4th century A.D. The tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicion wins the first chariot race.
The former Athenian archon and poet Solon returns after a 10-year self-imposed exile and finds his city-state divided into regional factions.
The Phoenician city of Tyre falls to Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II) after a 13-year siege.
Egypt's 26th (Saite) dynasty king Apries is driven into exile after a 19-year reign and succeeded by the usurper Amasis, who will reign until 526 B.C. as Ahmose II (see 568 B.C.).
The former Egyptian king Apries invades his former realm with support from Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II), but he is defeated and imprisoned; although he escapes, he is later murdered by the usurper Ahmose II, who has him buried with full military honors.
Athenian forces under the command of their general Pisistratos (Peisistratus), 35, capture the harbor of Megara. Related on his mother's side to the reformer Solon, Pisistratos organizes the diakrioi, a new political party of small farmers, shepherds, and artisans (see 561 B.C.).
Daoism (Taoism) is founded by the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi (Lao-tse), 39, in Honan province. He sets down principles of conduct in Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) ("teaching of Dao"). The liberal religion teaches that forms and ceremonies are useless; it advocates a spirit of righteousness, but it will degenerate in future centuries into a system of magic.
Babylon's Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II) dies in October at age 69 (approximate) after a brilliant 43-year reign and is succeeded by his son Amel-Marduk (Evil-Merodach), who will reign only until 560 B.C.
The Athenian general Pisistratos (Peisistratus) makes himself tyrant (chief archon) with support from the city-state's lower classes but is driven out almost immediately by Lycurgus, who leads the city's nobility, and the Alcmaeonid family head Megacles, who has married the daughter of the late Cleisthenes of Sicion and leads the middle class.
Babylon's Chaldean king Amel-Marduk (Evil-Merodach) is deposed by conspirators, who put him to death. He had released Jehoiachin, king of Judah, after 36 years' imprisonment, and the priests of Marduk refused to support him. Amel-Marduk is succeeded by his brother-in-law Neriglissar (Nergal-shar-usur), who will reign until 556 B.C.
Lydia's king Alyattes dies after a 57-year reign in which he has defeated the Medes, driven the Cimmerians out of western Anatolia, conquered the Arians to his south, captured and demolished the Greek city of Smyrna on the west coast of Anatolia, and extended his realm to Ionia (year approximate). He is buried about seven miles north of Sardis and succeeded by his 35-year-old son Croesus, who will reign until 546 B.C. and whose wealth will become legendary but whose rule will be less successful. As his father's viceroy, the new king has captured Ephesus and other cities in western Anatolia, thereby completing Lydia's conquest of the Ionian mainland, but his lack of seapower will oblige him to make alliances with the Ionian islanders instead of conquering them.
Athens restores power to Pisistratos (Peisistratus), who has won the support of Megacles. The Alcmaeonid family will try to share power with the tyrant but not succeed (see 556 B.C.).
Anshan's Cambyses I dies after a reign of about 41 years in which he has been a vassal of Media's king Astyages, whose daughter he has married.
Lydia's new king Croesus invents metal coinage to replace the bean-shaped lumps of electrum used for the past century as a medium of exchange (year approximate; see 657 B.C.). He stamps the coins with the emblem of a lion's head that is difficult to counterfeit and makes each coin the same standard weight and about the same size; the coins enable merchants to calculate the value of a transaction without having to weigh gold or ascertain the weight and purity of metal, olive oil, or other commodity. The electrum coins will soon be introduced in Greece; they are stamped with the likeness of an ear of wheat, a reminder that grain, usually barley, once served as a medium of exchange, but the new coins are lighter and easier to transport than grain or the old lumps of electrum known as dumps, they do not get moldy, and they will play a key role in the commerce that will revolutionize Greek society in this century.
Athens expels her tyrant (chief archon) Pisistratos (Peisistratus) again after he has broken with Megacles (see 559 B.C.). He will spend some years amassing a fortune from his silver mines in Thrace and make Lygdamis tyrant of Naxos (see 546 B.C.).
Babylon's Chaldean king Neriglissar (Nergal-shar-usur) dies after a 3-year reign in which he has assembled a fleet to support a land invasion of Cilician territory. His minor son Labash-Marduk has been murdered, and Neriglissar is succeeded by the Aramaean Nabonidus of Harran, whose mother, Addagoppe, is a priestess of the god Sin. She has helped her son gain office at Babylon, and he begins a 17-year reign in which he will antagonize the city's powerful Marduk priests by favoring the moon god Sin.
Babylon's Chaldean king Nabonidus raids Cilicia and captures his native Harran, which has been ruled by the Medes. He concludes a defensive treaty with Media's king Astyages against the Persians (but see 550 B.C.).
The 47-year-old crown prince Cyrus of Anshan in southwestern Persia goes to war with his neighbor Astyages, king of Media (see 550 B.C.).
The Achaemenian king of Anshan Cambyses I dies after a long reign and is succeeded by his 50-year-old son, who will reign until 529 B.C. as Cyrus II. Median troops rebel, Cyrus captures Media's Astyages, who has reigned since 585 B.C. but is put to death as the Persians plunder the Median capital of Ecbatana, ending the Median empire; Cyrus will create a Persian empire by uniting the Medes, Persians, and other tribes.
Lydia's king Croesus allies himself with Babylon's king Nabonidus in an effort to keep his country from being overrun by the Persians. Egypt and Sparta both promise to send troops, and Croesus invades Cappadocia in eastern Anatolia (but see 546 B.C.).
Babylon's Chaldean king Nabonidus goes into exile, having alienated the priesthood and built temples to the moon god at the expense of his city-state's defenses. He leaves much of his army under the control of his eldest son Belshazzar (Bel-sharusur, Balthasar, or Baltasar), who will rule in his place until 539 B.C.
The Greek philosopher Cleobulus dies at his native Lindus on Rhodes at age 70 (year and age approximate), having ruled as tyrant of Lindus, favored education for women, and written enigmatic verses. He will be quoted for generations as having said, "Learn to bear bravely changes of fortune." His daughter Cleobula has also supported education for women and written enigmatic verses.
The great marble Temple of Artemis completed at Ephesus will survive until 356 B.C. as one of the wonders of the ancient world (year approximate). Built in honor of the Greek goddess of fertility, hunting, and nature, the temple surpasses in its beauty anything yet constructed by the hand of man.
Armenia becomes a Persian satrap after 63 years under the kings of Media. Armenia will remain under Persian control until 317 B.C.
The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus dies at age 78 (year approximate), having tried to explain nature by simplifying observed phenomena (e.g., suggesting that water is the essence of all matter) rather than ascribing them to the whims of the gods. He is credited with having discovered five geometric theorems, one of them being that a circle is bisected by its diameter, but later scholars will question whether all of them originated with him.
The priestess Addagoppe whose grandson Belshazzar (Balthasar) rules at Babylon dies at age 103 and is buried at Harran with all the honors of a queen.
Persian forces under the command of Cyrus II (the Great) surprise Lydia's rich king Croesus at his capital of Sardis and capture him. Croesus has ruled for 14 years, amassing a great fortune, but Cyrus kills him and conquers his country, ending the Mermnad dynasty founded by Croesus's great-great grandfather Gyges. The Persians take over Ionia, posing a new threat to Athens.
Athens restores Pisistratos (Peisistratus) to power (he has obtained support from Thessaly and from Lygdamis of Naxos). He exiles his opponents, most notably the Alcmaeonid family, and confiscates their lands, which he uses to benefit the poor, making the hectemoroi (sharecroppers) landowners and encouraging industry and trade.
Pisastratos (Peisistratus) introduces the cult of Dionysius to break down the power of the Athenian nobility through its hereditary priesthoods.
The Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus dies at age 65 (age and year approximate), having written treatises on astronomy, cosmology, and geography, used geometry and mathematical proportions in his attempts to chart the heavens, and produced a map of the known world. Where the late Thales held that water was the basic building block of matter, Anaximander has called the essential substance "the unlimited." He has rejected the idea that the Earth is supported or suspended from somewhere else in the universe, suggesting rather that it is at rest at the center of the universe because it has no reason to move in any direction.
The Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus calls air (aer) the basic substance of nature, noting that it is forever in motion, that it is invisible in the atmosphere but becomes visible when it condenses to become mist or cloud, then water, and ultimately earth or stone, and when it is further rarefied it turns to fire. But even while suggesting that known natural processes such as condensation and rarefaction play a role in shaping the world, and that apparent qualitative differences in substances are really just differences in quantity, he still clings to the mystical notion that the universe is hemispherical.
Persian forces defeat the Babylonian king Nabonidus, who has returned after 11 years' exile. The city of Babylon falls October 12 to Cyrus II's general Gobyras, who captures Nabonidus and exiles him to Carmania. Cyrus the Great enters the city October 30 amidst wild rejoicing by the populace (see 538 B.C.).
The Babylonian prince Belshazzar (Balthasar, or Baltasar) tries to expel the forces of Cyrus II but suffers a crushing defeat and is killed (year approximate). He has (by biblical account) held a great feast in which he saw a hand writing the Aramaic words "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin" on a wall, words that are interpreted to mean the destruction of the city by the will of God. Cyrus the Great destroys the city of Babylon and permits its Jews to return to Jerusalem after their 49-year exile. They will rebuild the Great Temple begun by Solomon in 961 B.C. (see 516 B.C.).
The Greek philosopher-sage-mathematician Pythagoras, 48, leaves his native Samos to escape its tyrannical rule and settles with his followers at the city of Croton in Calabria, where he establishes an ethico-political academy (year approximate) (see 530 B.C.).
Persia's Cyrus II (the Great) leads a military expedition against the Massagetai, accompanied by Parsa's king Hystaspes (but see 529 B.C.).
The mathematician Pythagoras of Samos recognizes the need for "irrational" numbers, such as the square root of 2 (year approximate). The ancient Egyptians used fractions as early as 1700 B.C., but Pythagoras demonstrates that in a right triangle (one with a 90° angle) the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (Pythagorean theorem), a concept known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus and applied by 18th century B.C. Babylonians even though it was never formulated (see 510 B.C.; Thales of Miletus, 548 B.C.; Eudoxus of Cnidus, 367 B.C.).
Pythagoras and his followers believe the Earth to be round, basing their belief on observations of the moon and other planets.
Persia's Cyrus II (the Great) is killed fighting the nomadic Massagetai tribe east of the Caspian Sea. Dead at age 71 after a 2l-year reign that has extended his empire from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean and from the Indus to the Mediterranean, he is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 522 B.C. as Cambyses II.
Buddhism has its beginnings in India, where Siddhartha Gautama, 35, has found enlightenment after a long and severe penance at Buddh Gaya, near Benares. Born at Lumbini in Nepal, Siddhartha is a prince who renounced the luxury of palace life 5 years ago, went into the wilderness wearing sackcloth, but found the ascetic life futile. In the next 45 years he will travel up and down the Ganges River; he will be called the Buddha (Enlightened One) and will found monastic orders of a religion that will become dominant in China, Japan, and some other Asian countries (see 483 B.C.).
Vegetarianism will be an essential part of the Buddhist religion, although Siddhartha himself will abandon strict vegetarianism and die at age 84 after feasting on pork.
The Athenian tyrant (chief archon) Pisistratos (Peisistratus) dies after a 19-year reign (preceded by two shorter reigns) and is succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus, who continue their father's benevolent despotism (but see 514 B.C.).
Egypt's king Ahmose II dies after a prosperous 44-year reign in which he has withdrawn Greek troops from his military colonies in order to minimize friction with Egyptians, moving them to Memphis and using them as a royal bodyguard. Ahmose is succeeded by his son, who assumes the throne as Psamtik III but will rule only until next year, ending the 26th (Saite) dynasty founded by Psamtik I in 664 B.C.
Egypt enforces taxes on imports and business by making Naukratis the only port to which Greek wares may be brought, a policy instituted by the late king Ahmose II, who has limited Greek trade in his country to Memphis, Naukratis, and Sais.
Persia's Achaemenid king Cambyses II defeats Egypt's Psamtik III at Pelusium, forces Psamtik and his mercenaries to withdraw to Memphis, lays siege to that traditional capital, and seizes Psamtik when the city falls. Cambyses adds the Nile Delta to his empire but loses an army of 50,000 in a blistering sandstorm as he marches to conquer the Amun. He has secretly murdered his younger brother Bardiya (Smerdis) before leaving Persia, and although he initially treats Psamtik with kindness, he later has him executed for conspiring against the Persians (see 522 B.C.).
Cypriot kings transfer their allegiance to Egypt's Persian conquerors, retaining their independence, but Cyprus will soon be incorporated into the fifth satrapy of the Persian Empire (see 499 B.C.).
Athenians appoint the 45-year-old aristocrat Cleisthenes chief archon. Head of the Alcmeonid family, he is the principal member of the nine-man body appointed each year to carry out the city-state's major administrative and (above all) judicial duties (see 514 B.C.).
Persia's Achaemenid king Cambyses II reaches Nubia but learns in March that his throne has been usurped by a "false Smerdis" (Gaumata, a Magian priest from Media); he rushes home from Egypt to reassert his authority, but dies en route under mysterious circumstances (either by his own hand or in an accident) after a 7-year reign. His 36-year-old son-in-law and bodyguard Darius Hystaspes races home from Egypt to Media, where six Persian noblemen help him in September to kill the usurper Gaumata, who has tried to impersonate Cambyses's late brother Bardiya. Darius's father, Hystaspes, has been satrap of Parthia and Hyrcania (see 521 B.C.).
Persian noblemen make Darius Hystaspes king (see 522 B.C.); his father and grandfather are still alive (Hystaspes suppresses a revolt in Parthia and Hyrcania), his family is only a collateral branch of the royal Achaemenid family, and he is not the rightful heir to the throne (some historians will later suggest that he made up the story about killing the usurper Gaumata to cover up the fact that he really killed a brother or half brother of the late Cambyses), but Darius will reign until 486 B.C. as Darius I, making his empire the largest in the world.
A Carthaginian fleet of 60 vessels under the command of Admiral Hanno lands some 30,000 settlers at the mouth of the Rio de Oro on Africa's west coast. The colony will survive for half a century.
Phoenicia continues to grow rich on trade in grain, cloth, wine, and the purple-black dye obtained from a gland of the rare purple sea snail, or murex. Long shallow-draft Phoenician galleys powered by oarsmen slaves and large square sails may long since have circumnavigated Africa (see Necho, 609 B.C.). They supply Phoenicia with African gold and ivory, Spanish silver, tin from the "Tin Isles" (probably Cornwall), gold, iron, and lead from the southern shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea, copper, grain, and cypress from Cyprus, wine from southern France, and slaves from everywhere.
The Persian king Darius I digs a canal to connect the Nile with the Red Sea, continuing work begun nearly a century ago by the pharaoh Necho (see 609 B.C.; Suez, 1854 A.D.). Darius continues work begun by the late Cyrus II to improve the Persian Royal Road between Susa and the Anatolian ports of Ephesus and Smyrna on the Ionian seacoast, following the route that was organized by the Assyrians in about 1200 B.C. Making their way northwestward from Susa to Arbela and thence westward via Nineveh to Harran, caravans can traverse the 1,500-mile distance in 93 days (royal riders can do it in just 20 days or even 9 using a system of relays, and the Greek historian Herodotus will write that "neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night" can stop them).
Reliefs and inscriptions in Persian, Elamitic, and Babylonian chronicle the achievements of Darius I on a steep cliff near Behistun.
Greek lyric poet and epigrammatist Simonides of Ceos, 36, pioneers the epinician ode to honor the victors at the Olympic Games. He will be the first Greek poet to write on commission for fees.
The 65th Olympiad held at Olympia introduces a new event: a footrace in which contestants wear armor (see 648 B.C.; 408 B.C.).
Phoenicia's island city of Tyre has a population of 25,000; Old Tyre on the mainland is even larger.
Persia's Darius I suppresses a third rebellion at Susa and establishes his authority in the East after having defeated nine rebel leaders in 19 battles since gaining the throne 2 years ago.
Persia's Darius I goes to Egypt and puts his Egyptian satrap Aryandes to death for attempting an insurrection.
Jerusalem's Great Temple is rebuilt 70 years after its destruction by the Babylonian troops of Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadrezzar II) (see 165 B.C.).
The Greek philosopher Parmenides dies at Elea in southern Italy where he has promoted the idea that the multiplicity of existing things and their changing forms and motion are merely an appearance of a single eternal reality, or Being, and that "all is one" (year approximate). Metaphysics will stem in part from Parmenides's logical concept of Being and his method of basing claims about appearances on this concept.
The murder of his younger brother Hipparchus enrages the chief Athenian archon Hippias, who has hundreds of aristocrats executed or sent into exile (see 527 B.C.). The homosexual couple Aristogiton and Harmodius has been involved in the cabal that has murdered Hipparchus, Hippias sees the plot as being directed against his own rule, and a wife of one suspect is tortured to death (the Greek word tyranny will come to have negative connotations in part because of cruel actions such as those of Hippias). The exiled aristocrat Cleisthenes, now 56, leads opposition to Hippias (see 510 B.C.).
Scythian warriors repel the forces of Persia's Darius I, who has invaded their territory in the Crimea and southern Russia (year approximate).
The Persian king Darius I yields to the guerrilla tactics of the nomadic Scythians and allows them to retain their lands beyond the Danube.
The Athenian tyrant (chief archon) Hippias is overthrown after 17 years in power with help from a Spartan army sent to support the opposition party of Cleisthenes, who has translated the oracular pronouncements of the priestess at Delphi to mean that Sparta should free Athens from the Hippian tyranny (see 508 B.C.).
The city of Croton in Calabria gains allies from smaller, neighboring cities to defeat the Sybarites, raze their city to the ground. The people of Croton will soon drive out followers of the philosopher-sage-mathematician Pythagoras of Samos and establish a democracy.
Rome overthrows her Tarquin (Etruscan) king, becomes a republic, and begins her struggle to dominate Italy and the world (see 753 B.C.). The Etruscans are a civilized people who believe in an afterlife, but legend will relate the uprising to the rape of Lucretia, beautiful and virtuous wife of the Roman general Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, by Sextus Tarquinius, a son of the king Tarquinius Superbus. Lucretia tells her father and husband about the rape, makes them swear vengeance, and stabs herself to death. Her husband's cousin Lucius Junius Brutus agitates against the Tarquins, raises a people's army, and drives out the Tarquins (see Tribune, 471 B.C.).
The Greek historian Herodotus will write in this century that "India is the farthest known region of the inhabited world to the East," but while natives of the Caucasus Mountains practice cannibalism, a great civilization is developing in China.
The Athenian demagogue Isagoras wins appointment as tyrant (chief archon), but Cleisthenes appeals to the city-state's common people (demos), promising them a proto-democracy based on the individual political responsibility of citizens rather than on clan affiliation. Citizenship is to be based on the village or city ward in which a man sired by an Athenian father registers upon reaching the age of 21; the roughly 140 villages are to be grouped into three divisions, one for the city of Athens and one each for the inland and coastal regions of Attica. A 500-man council is to advise the tyrant, and the complex system does amount to a form of democracy (demos plus kratos, meaning decisive voice), although that word will not be used for some decades to come (see 506 B.C.; Themistocles, 493 B.C.).
Sparta's rival kings Cleomenes I and Demaratus determine to overthrow the proto-democracy set up by Cleisthenes at Athens (see 508 B.C.). Calling on support from allies in the Peloponnese and elsewhere, they assemble a large invasion force, but the Peloponnesian part of the army falls apart, and the Athenians defeat their hostile neighbors in Boeotia and Euboea (see 499 B.C.).
Rapidly worsening climatic changes in northern Europe create food shortages (year approximate).
600 B.C.–576 B.C. 575 B.C.–551 B.C. 550 B.C.–526 B.C. 525 B.C.–501 B.C.
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