The
Greek city-states make peace with the
Persian Empire through the
Peace of Callias, named after
Callias II, the chief Greek ambassador to the Persian Court, an Athenian who is a brother-in-law of
Cimon.
Athens agrees to end its support for the
Egyptian rebels still holding out in parts of the
Nile Delta, while the Persians agree not to send ships of war into the
Aegean Sea. Athens now effectively controls all the Greek city states in
Ionia.
Pericles begins a great building plan including the re-fortification of Athens main port
Piraeus and its long walls extending to Athens main city.
Pericles proposes a "Congress Decree" allowing the use of 9,000
talents[citation needed] to finance the massive rebuilding program of Athenian temples. This leads to a meeting ("Congress") of all Greek states in order to consider the question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The Congress fails because of
Sparta's opposition.
Pericles places the Athenian sculptor
Phidias in charge of all the artistic aspects of his reconstruction program. Construction begins on the
Temple of Hephaestus in
Athens, while the Athenian Senate commissions
Callicrates to construct a temple to
Athena Nike on the
Acropolis.
The
Second Sacred War erupts between Athens and Sparta, when Sparta forcefully detaches
Delphi from
Phocis and renders it independent.
Rome
The
Law of the Twelve Tables (developed by the
Decemvirates) is formally promulgated in 450 B.C. The Twelve Tables are literally drawn up on twelve ivory tablets which are posted in the
Forum Romanum so that all Romans can read and know them.
When the Decemvirate's term of office expires, the decemviri refuse to leave office or permit successors to take office.
Appius Claudius Crassus is said to have made an unjust decision which would have forced a young woman named
Verginia into prostitution, prompting her father to kill her. This leads to an uprising against the Decemvirate forcing the decemviri to resign their offices. The ordinary magistrates (
magistratus ordinarii) are re-instituted. Appius Claudius is said to have committed suicide as a result of these events.
Pericles leads
Athenian forces in the expulsion of barbarians from the
Thracian peninsula of
Gallipoli, in order to establish
Athenian colonists in the region.[1] Thus
Pericles starts a policy of
cleruchy (klerouchos) or "out-settlements". This is a form of colonisation where poor and unemployed people are assisted to emigrate to new regions.
A revolt breaks out in
Boeotia as the
oligarchs of
Thebes conspire against the democratic faction in the city. The Athenians, under their general
Tolmides, with 1000
hoplites plus other troops from their allies, march into
Boeotia to take back the towns revolting against
Athenian control. They capture
Chaeronea, but are attacked and defeated by the
Boeotians at
Coronea. As a result, the
Athenians are forced to give up control of
Boeotia as well as
Phocis and
Locris, which all fall under the control of hostile oligarchs who quit the
Delian League.[2]
The middle component of the
Long Walls from Athens to the port of
Piraeus is completed.
Achaea achieves its independence from
Athens, while
Euboea, crucial to Athenian control of the sea and food supplies, revolts against Athens.
Pericles crosses over to Euboea with his troops.
Megara joins the revolt against Athens. The strategic importance of Megara is immediately demonstrated by the appearance, for the first time in 12 years, of a
Spartan army under King
Pleistoanax in
Attica. The threat from the Spartan army leads Pericles to arrange, by bribery and by negotiation, that Athens will give up its mainland possessions and confine itself to a largely maritime empire.
The Spartan army retires, so Pericles crosses back to Euboea with 50 ships and 5,000 soldiers, cracking down any opposition. He punishes the landowners of
Chalcis, who lose their properties, while the residents of
Histiaea are uprooted and replaced by 2,000 Athenian settlers.
After hearing that the Spartan army had accepted bribes from Pericles, Pleistoanax, the King of Sparta, is impeached by the citizens of Sparta, but flees to exile in
Arcadia. His military adviser, Cleandridas also flees and is condemned to death in his absence.
Sicily
Ducetius, the Hellenised leader of the
Siculi, an ancient people of Sicily, returns from exile in
Corinth to
Sicily and colonises Cale Acte on the north coast with Greek and Siculi settlers.
In the
Battle of Corbione, Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus leads
Roman troops to a victory over the
Aequi of north-east
Latium and the
Volsci of southern Latium.
Pericles, concerned over the draining effect of years of war on
Athenian manpower, looks for peace with the support of the Assembly. Athenian diplomat,
Callias, goes to
Sparta and after much bargaining arranges a peace treaty with Sparta and her
Peloponnesian allies, thus extending the 5 year truce of
451 BC for another 30 years. According to this treaty,
Megara is to be returned to the
Peloponnesian League,
Troezen and
Achaea become independent,
Aegina is to become a
tributary to Athens but autonomous, and disputes are to be settled by
arbitration. Each party agrees to respect the alliances of the other.
The Temple of
Poseidon is completed south of
Athens at Cape Sunion.
The Plebeians demand the right to stand for election as
consul but the Roman senate refused to grant them this right. Ultimately, a compromise is reached, and consular command authority is granted to
Consular Tribunes ("Military Tribunes with Consular powers" or tribuni militares consulari potestate).
The conservative and democratic factions in
Athens confront each other. The ambitious new leader of the conservatives,
Thucydides, accuses the leader of the democratic faction,
Pericles, of profligacy and criticises the way Pericles is spending money on his ambitious building plans for the city. Thucydides manages, initially, to gain the support of the
ecclesia. Pericles responds by proposing to reimburse the city for all the expenses from his private property, on the condition that he would make the inscriptions of dedication in his own name. His stance is supported by the ecclesia, so Thucydides' efforts to dislodge Pericles from power are defeated.
No
consuls are elected in
Rome, but rather military
tribunes with consular power are appointed in their stead. While only
patricians could be consuls, some military tribunes were plebeians. These positions had responsibility for the census, a vital function in the financial administration of Rome. So to stop the
plebeians from possibly gaining control of the
census, the patricians remove from the consuls and tribunes the right to take the census, and rather entrust it to two
magistrates, called censores who were to be chosen exclusively from the patricians in Rome.
As a result of his failure to effectively challenge
Pericles, the
Athenian citizens
ostraciseThucydides for 10 years and Pericles is once again unchallenged in Athenian politics.
Samos, an autonomous member of the
Delian League and one of
Athens' principal allies with a substantial fleet of its own, quarrels with
Miletus. Miletus, also a member of the Delian League, appeals to Athens for assistance.
Pericles decides in favour of Miletus, so Samos revolts. Pericles then sails to Samos with a fleet to overthrow its
oligarchic government and install a democratic one.
Sparta threatens to interfere. However, at a congress of the
Peloponnesian League, its members vote not to intervene on behalf of Samos against Athens.
The Histories by Herodotus was written that contain the knowledge of the Greco Persian wars.[7]