479-470BC in Greece

Achilles and Aias playing dice, by the Berlin Painter

This post will look at Greece and the wider Greek world from the years 479BC to 470BC. Firstly, a word about our sources. Archaeology can shed some light on this period, but for this time in particular we are indebted to Herodotus' "Histories", the earliest book of history to have come down to us. Other sources, such as the writings of Aeschylus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Pausanias will also form part of the narrative. The Histories of Herodotus end in this time period, thus we will be bidding farewell to them, as to a well-beloved, but occasionally unreliable friend.

The Greek world had been hit with two major invasions in the previous year. The Carthaginians had invaded Sicily to restore an allied Greek tyrant to power in Himera and Xerxes, with a far larger force, had invaded mainland Greece to conquer it for the Persian Empire. The Carthaginians had been defeated at the Battle of Himera and their king killed. The Persians had suffered a much larger, but slightly less decisive defeat at the Battle of Salamis. After the Battle of Salamis the navies of the Persians were no longer a match for the combined Greek navies of the cities that still opposed Persia. Thus, Xerxes retreated to Persia, his fleet withdrew back into the Aegean and a smaller but still very significant land army was left behind under the command of the Persian general Mardonius, to try and continue the campaign in the next year.

A later bust of Themistocles, who had been
instrumental in the Greek victory at Salamis

The Persians had suffered a major defeat at Salamis to be sure, but many generals have lost great battles before going on to win final victory. Salamis had made the war winnable for the Greeks, but it had not yet won the war. The land army of Persia was still undefeated at the beginning of 479BC, but with real problems facing it. They had supply problems. They had lost a lot of troops with the withdrawal of Xerxes back to Asia, which meant that they had numerical superiority, but not overwhelmingly so. There were not really enough Persian troops to try and force their way past the heavily fortified Isthmus of Corinth into the Peloponnese. Their infantry was also far less heavily armoured than the Greek hoplites.

But the Persians had a number of major advantages still. They had a cavalry force that was more fearsome than any in Greece. If a hoplite phalanx was caught on level ground with unprotected flanks, the Persian cavalry could destroy it. But the greatest advantage that Mardonius had was cohesion. In the absence of their king, the Persian army answered to Mardonius and Mardonius alone. The Greek alliance was made up of a patchwork of states, all of whom had competing goals and aspirations. If Mardonius was clever and waited for long enough, he would be able to exploit the divisions and feuds of the Greeks: Divide and conquer.

Kylix from the Providence Painter

The Persian fleet had retreated eastwards and was lying at anchor off the island of Samos in the Aegean. The Greek fleet had been stationed at Aegina and had moved eastwards, possibly to try and liberate Ionia at the urging of some Ionian tyrants. However, the Athenian fleet was probably not with the main Greek fleet, probably due to disagreements between Athens and Sparta as to how to continue the war. The Spartans had not marched from the Peloponnese to liberate Attica, so the Athenian fleet took no action to liberate other states. Deprived of around half their numbers, the Greek fleet halted at Delos and proceeded no further.

It also seems probable that Themistocles had been deprived of his command by the Athenians. Xanthippus now commanded the Athenian fleet and Aristides the Just commanded the Athenian land forces. Xanthippus had been ostracised some years previously, but like Aristides, had returned to Athens when the amnesty was announced.

A coin of Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse

The main Spartan army was at this point still stationed at the Corinthian Isthmus and engaged in wall-building. Their wall grew higher every day but the Isthmus is around 7km wide and a wall of that length is not easy to build in a short space of time. The Athenians, who had fled to Salamis and Troezen, began to return to their lands, as Mardonius and the Persian army were far to the north in Thessaly.

Meanwhile, Potidaea, a Greek city on the western-most of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice had revolted against the Persians as soon as Xerxes had retreated past their lands. They had assumed that the Persians had left Greece defeated and had no wish to continue paying tribute. The Persians remaining in Greece under Mardonius could not allow Greek cities to revolt at will, so Artabazus was dispatched by Mardonius to Potidaea to capture the city and punish it.

A Corinthian helmet

Artabazus attacked Potidaea and the neighbouring city of Olynthus, probably around January of 479BC. Olynthus fell to the Persians, but Potidaea resisted stubbornly. An attempt at taking the city by treason failed when an arrow carrying a message hit a bystander who was not in on the conspiracy and who then raised the alarm.

After about three months, perhaps in March or April of 479 the water surrounding the city receded in a lower tide than anyone had ever seen. This exposed poorly defended parts of the city walls and the Persians decided to attack through the shallows. While they were racing towards the city, the waters returned in the greatest tide that the city of Potidaea had seen. The Persian attacking force was either drowned or slain by the Potidaeans in little boats, as the remaining Persians tried to swim back to the now distant shoreline. This is described by Herodotus and it is perhaps the first account of a tsunami in recorded history.

Facing the wrath of the gods in such a natural disaster, Artabazus ordered the Persian armies to abandon the siege of Potidaea and return to the Thessalian camp of Mardonius. The Potidaeans credited their deliverance to Poseidon, god of earthquakes and the sea.

A coin of Gelo, tyrant of Syracuse

But when Artabazus had besieged Potidaea for three months, there was a great ebb-tide in the sea which lasted for a long while, and when the foreigners saw that the sea was turned to a marsh, they prepared to pass over it into Pallene. When they had made their way over two-fifths of it, however, and three yet remained to cross before they could be in Pallene, there came a great flood-tide, higher, as the people of the place say, than any one of the many that had been before. Some of them who did not know how to swim were drowned, and those who knew were slain by the Potidaeans, who came among them in boats.
Herodotus, Histories, 8.129 written circa 440BC

Mardonius sent a message to the Athenians, using King Alexander I of Macedon as an ambassador, to urge them to make peace with Persia. Very generous terms were offered, but the Athenians turned these down in no uncertain terms. Mardonius was told that Athens would never ally with Xerxes. The Spartans had been worried that the Athenians would make peace and sent their own embassy, but there was no need for Spartan intervention.

Mardonius must have hoped that the Athenians would turn. If their navy joined the Persian navy, the remaining Greeks would be outnumbered and the Peloponnese could be assaulted. Perhaps in frustration, perhaps in an attempt to goad his enemies into making mistakes, Mardonius moved south into Attica. Any Athenians who had returned had to be evacuated once more to the island of Salamis and Mardonius reoccupied Athens.

Mardonius sent a second embassy to the Athenian refugees on Salamis, asking them to come to terms. The Athenians were so enraged that they killed Lycides the Athenian who had allowed the embassy to even be heard. Even the family of Lycides were killed by the mob in their fury. However, while they were still refusing terms with Mardonius, they were losing patience with the Spartans, who remained hidden behind their walls on the Isthmus.

Stadion track at Olympia

The Athenians sent an embassy to the Spartans upbraiding them with cowardice and threatening to leave the alliance unless the Spartan army marched to actually defend Greece instead of just the Peloponnese. It seems that the Spartans were quite unconcerned with this threat. Their walls were nearly completed along the Isthmus and they seem to have thought that they could withstand any Persian attacks. This was a bad miscalculation, as the Athenian navy could combine with the Persian navy and bypass the Isthmus entirely. But the Spartan commanders had little experience of naval warfare and may simply have discounted this possibility. The Spartans delayed giving any answer at all to the Athenian delegation until they had finished celebrating the Hyacinthia festival.

Eventually wiser counsels prevailed and an outsider named Chileus of Tegea persuaded the Spartans of the folly of alienating the Athenians. The Spartans then sent out a huge force. Herodotus estimates the force at 5,000 Spartiates, with 35,000 more lightly armed helots. When the Athenians arrived the next day to demand action, the Spartan ephors told them that the army was already on the march. A further 5,000 medium infantry perioci are said to have followed the main Spartan army. These numbers may be a little high, but if true, this would be the largest army ever fielded by Sparta and one of the highest ever fielded by any Greek city. The army itself was led by Pausanias, who was a high-ranking Spartan and the regent while Leonidas' son was still a child.

The Argives, who hated the Spartans and who had made some form of deal with Mardonius, sent messengers to inform Mardonius that the Spartan army was leaving the Peloponnese and marching rapidly against him.

Mardonius then proceeded to destroy Athens far more thoroughly than the previous destruction nine months previously. This sack of the city must have happened in or around the months of May or June of 479BC. The Athenians would have once more seen the flames from their temporary dwellings on Salamis. The Persian beacons carried the news of the second sack of Athens all the way to Sardis. Mardonius then retreated northwards after sending a skirmishing cavalry force to engage the Spartan vanguard at Megara. As the armies of Mardonius began their withdrawal and the Athenians on Salamis heard of the march of the Spartan land armies, the Athenian fleet was sent to re-join the Greek naval forces at Delos.

View of the battlefield at Plataea

Mardonius established a large camp near the River Asopus, near the Boeotian city of Plataea. The Spartan advance had only been swift until they reached the Isthmus, at which point they waited for other cities in the Peloponnese to send troops. When their army had been reinforced they marched towards Attica, joining with the Athenian land army at Eleusis. From here they marched into Boeotia and took up a position against the armies of Mardonius.

The army of Mardonius was probably the larger of the two. Ancient Greek sources give a number of 350,000-500,000 troops in the Persian army. Modern scholars estimate perhaps 100,000-120,000. The Greek army was smaller, but of comparable size. Estimates range from about 80,000 to 100,000. The Persians had the advantage in cavalry and had a fortified camp on the plains. The Greeks had the advantage in heavy infantry and their position on the hill gave them a defensive advantage in case they were attacked. Neither side could dare to commit their forces without a clear advantage appearing. If Mardonius lost, he was far from home and his army would be annihilated. If the Greeks lost they would be cut down by the cavalry and they would never again be able to assemble such an army. The stakes were high.

Lekythos by Athena Painter

Mardonius had the advantage in cavalry and decided to use it to harass his enemies. A large detachment of cavalry attacked a weak point in the Greek lines and inflicted some damage. But the cavalry commander, a high ranking Persian noble named Masistius, was killed in the struggle and his loss was a major morale blow to the Persians and a morale boost to the Greeks. After the death of Masistius, the Greek alliance decided to move further down the slopes to be closer to the Persians.

Meanwhile the reunited Greek fleet anchored at Delos received a Samian delegation from Ionia. The Samians recounted that the Persian navy had terrible morale and that they would not risk another battle. The Ionians would revolt once more if the Greeks could destroy the Persian navy. Armed with this information the Greek fleet began to move eastwards towards the coast of Asia.

The Persian navy was anchored at Samos, but word reached them of the movements of the Greek naval forces. Not believing their navy strong enough for another battle as at Salamis, the Persians retreated to the nearby mainland, anchoring near the slopes of Mount Mycale, near the city of Priene. From here they sent whatever Phoenician ships remained in the navy away to the south. It is not clear how many ships remained to the Persians, or who manned these ships. It seems as if many of the ships that remained were Ionian ships, manned by Greeks from the coast of Asia Minor, whose loyalty to Persia was perhaps doubtful.

Faced with poor morale, dubious loyalties and the sheer fact that they would likely be outnumbered, the Persian commanders seem to have decided to not risk battle at all. They would encamp on the shore, create a barricade around their ships and receive some land based reinforcements from Sardis. Thus they would wait out the Greek attack and wait for Mardonius to win the war with the land army in Greece.

View of the battlefield of Plataea from the heights
not far from where the Greeks were encamped

Back in Plataea, the Greek army was now encamped quite close to the Persian army. The greater mobility of the Persian cavalry showed that this was perhaps a mistake. The two armies waited in a stalemate for some eight days before Mardonius launched a cavalry raid that captured supplies incoming for the Greek camp. With no way of forcing Mardonius to an engagement the Greek commanders must have been concerned with this threat to their supplies. Even worse, two days later, another Persian attack threatened their water supply. This could not be risked and the Greeks now contemplated a tactical retreat to a nearby, better position.

However they were so close to the Persian army that such a retreat was risky. How to move safely over broken terrain while still maintaining their cohesion and battle order? Rather than risking the Persians attacking them while on the move, the Greeks were ordered by Pausanias to retreat at night. This went as well as most night operations in ancient warfare, which is to say, it went badly. The army had managed to split up into various detachments, some retreating the wrong way, others not retreating at all. The various groups were still fairly close to each other, but all moving fairly haphazardly and confusedly. This movement was seen by Persian scouts who reported to Mardonius.

Mardonius knew of the dissensions in the Greek ranks and seems to have interpreted this as a full-scale retreat. All that he would need to do is to attack and the retreating Greeks would further split, then flee, then rout. The Persian army was ordered hastily to prepare and attack.

Map of the Battle of Plataea, the Spartans are on the Greek
right

This was a very understandable move by Mardonius, but completely incorrect. The Greeks were not in retreat and were close enough to reform some semblance of a battle line before the Persians were fully engaged. The Greek retreat had accidentally lured Mardonius into the worst type of battle that the Persians could have fought. As they were fighting uphill against formed up phalanxes with their flanks covered, the cavalry could not be properly utilised. The Theban and Thessalian allies of the Persians could fight well against the other Greeks, but even the heaviest Persian soldiers would struggle to face a phalanx head on.

Once the battle had been started and troops committed, Mardonius had no choice but to continue the battle despite his mistake. He displayed great personal courage and sent his bodyguard to try and hold off the Spartans. The fighting was sustained and fierce all along the line, with the Thebans holding the Athenians at bay on the other flank. The other Greek allies of the Persians seem to have been slower to engage and may have not fought wholeheartedly.

The battle was hard-fought and perhaps shifting in the favour of the Greek alliance, when Mardonius was killed fighting. Once news of Mardonius' death passed along the line, the Persian army collapsed, with the exception of Mardonius' bodyguard who continued fighting the Spartans to the death.

Modern drawing of Spartans fighting Persians
at the Battle of Plataea

Where Mardonius was himself, riding a white horse in the battle and surrounded by a thousand picked men who were the flower of the Persians, there they pressed their adversaries hardest. So long as Mardonius was alive the Persians stood their ground and defended themselves, overthrowing many Lacedaemonians. When, however, Mardonius was killed and his guards, who were the strongest part of the army, had also fallen, then the rest too yielded and gave ground before the men of Lacedaemon. For what harmed them the most was the fact that they wore no armour over their clothes and fought, as it were, naked against men fully armed.
Herodotus, Histories, 9.63 written circa 440BC

The Thebans retreated straight towards their own city, fighting a slow, but measured, retreat against reckless Greeks who assumed they were routing and tried to run them down. The majority of the Persians fled towards the camp of Mardonius. A fierce battle was fought for the Persian camp, but the Persians were now disorganised and leaderless and they were slaughtered inside their own fortifications.

White-figure jug by the Athena Painter

Few Persian who made it to the camp survived, but Artabazus led a large number of the Persian allies and retreated directly north towards Phocis, hoping to escape from Greece altogether. He moved at such speed that many of the Greek cities that he passed were not even aware that the Persians had suffered a defeat. As he went north he gathered the Persian garrisons that had been left along the route. Perhaps forty thousand troops escaped with Artabazus. It's not clear if any other troops from Mardonius' army managed to escape.

The Persian camp was looted and vast wealth found by the Greeks. It is possible that Pausanias decided to use the Persian beacon system to transmit a message across the sea of the great Greek victory over the Persians.

On this day, apparently, the Greek fleet, under the command of the Spartan king Leotychidas, had arrived at Mycale. They had expected to see the Persian ships putting out to sea to offer battle, but no battle was offered. Instead the Persians kept their ships beached on the shore behind a barricade of sorts. After sailing back and forth for some time, the Greek fleet made an approach to the shore and called out a message (in Greek) to the Ionian Greeks, asking them to fight against the Persians. This had the double benefit of possibly working and even if it did not work, it would make the Persians distrust the Ionians.

Vase from the Siren Painter

The Persians disarmed the Samians and then sent the Milesians away from the camp to guard the passes. The Greeks then landed nearby and prepared to assault the Persian land camp. This seems to have thrown the Persian commanders off guard. They genuinely don't seem to have considered what would happen if the Greeks landed. They had built a fortified camp, but if they did not give battle on sea or on land, then the Greeks would just surround them and they would die in the siege. They were outnumbered at sea, but the Persians probably had a numbers advantage on land. They decided to fight outside the camp, as to do otherwise would hand over all initiative to the Greeks.

The Persian morale must have been low though. In the course of a year, their navy had declined from the largest navy yet seen on earth, to one so insignificant that it dare not give battle on the sea at all. The news of the Persian defeat at Plataea also seems to have become known.

Vase from the Siren Painter

This is a confusing point. On the one hand Herodotus says that this battle, the Battle of Mycale, took place on the same day as Plataea. On the other hand, he suggests that the Greeks knew of the victory at Plataea, which was a number of days journey away. Some scholars suggest that the Persian beacon system was used to transmit the news and that this would allow the word to spread in a matter of hours rather than days. But this is guesswork. It is more likely that the "same day" hypothesis is simply wrong. Perhaps it happened on the same day that the news reached the Greek fleet. Or perhaps it is just another calendrical mishap. Each Greek city state had their own calendar. They could barely agree on their years never mind their days. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus suggest that the Battle of Himera happened on the same day as either Thermopylae or Salamis. To have so many important battles falling on identical days sounds more like calendrical confusion or people wanting to make the stories symmetrical.

The Athenian contingents deployed nearly opposite the Persian camp, while the Spartan forces marched inland to try and flank around the Persian armies. The Persians formed a type of shield wall with their wicker shields and tried to hold off the Athenians. But the Athenians fought extremely bravely and pushed their way through. The battle descended into a confused mess, with the Persians fighting a type of last stand in their camp, while their allies tried to run away, the Spartans tried to force their way into the camp, the disarmed Samians tried to join the allied Greeks, the other Ionians who still held arms switched sides to join the allies and the Milesians on the hills began to direct the fleeing Persians on winding paths that led them straight back to the Greeks.

Map of the Battle of Mycale

As long as the Persians' shields stood upright, they defended themselves and held their own in the battle, but when the Athenians and their neighbours in the line passed the word and went more zealously to work, that they and not the Lacedaemonians might win the victory, immediately the face of the fight changed. Breaking down the shields they charged all together into the midst of the Persians, who received the onset and stood their ground for a long time, but at last fled within their wall. The Athenians and Corinthians and Sicyonians and Troezenians, who were next to each other in the line, followed close after and rushed in together. But when the walled place had been razed, the barbarians made no further defence, but took to flight, all save the Persians, who gathered into bands of a few men and fought with whatever Greeks came rushing within the walls.
Herodotus, Histories, 9.102 written circa 440BC

The Greek victory was a total one, but with relatively high casualties for the Greek side, because of the last stand of the Persians in their camp. After the victory the Greeks burned all of the ships of the Persians, wiping out all Persian naval power, with the exception of the Phoenician ships that had been sent away previously. Some stragglers from the Persian army did escape, including one of the naval commanders called Artyntes and a son of Xerxes called Masistes. Xerxes was still in Sardis during the year 479 and it must have been bitter news to hear of the complete defeat of his land and sea forces and the complete failure of his expedition. It was a crushing defeat for Xerxes; one of the worst, if not the worst, defeat the Persian Empire had ever suffered.

Pyxis from the Wedding Painter

The allied Greek forces at Plataea spent time looting the Persian camp and hunting down and capturing survivors. After this they spent time trying to divide out the vast spoils and putting up burial mounds for their dead, before deciding what to do next. The Thebans had been the primary Greek supporters of the Persians and their city lay nearby. Ten days after the Battle of Plataea, the allied army moved to besiege Thebes, demanding the surrender of the city and the handover of several oligarchs who had been instrumental in going over to the Persians. Thebes endured a siege of about twenty days before deciding to hand over the Theban oligarchs to Pausanias. They had expected to be able to bribe their way to freedom, but Pausanias executed them instead.

After the victory at Mycale, the Greek fleet held a council with the representatives of the Ionian states. The Spartans, under Leotychidas, seem to have wanted to evacuate the Ionian cities and move them to mainland Greece. This would boost the population of Greece greatly, but it was a very unpopular opinion with both the Ionians and the other Greeks. The Athenians, under Xanthippus, persuaded the Spartans to not pursue the plan further. It is possible that the Spartans believed it would be impossible to defend the Ionian states from further Persian attacks and that this move was for their own protection.

Temple of Nike at Himera, built by the Sicilian tyrants in
memory of their victory over the Carthaginians

The Greek fleet then sailed northwards to the Hellespont where they intended to destroy the famed pontoon bridges of Xerxes. These had in fact been ruined by storms the previous year and there was nothing further for the Greek fleet to do in fact. The Spartan contingent under Leotychidas sailed home, while the Athenians and some of the other allies began to besiege the city of Sestos in the Chersonese. Here there were two high-ranking Persians who were caught in the siege. They resisted for several months, but eventually the two Persian commanders abandoned the siege, slipped out of the town secretly and went their separate ways. One was captured by the Thracians and sacrificed to their gods. The other was captured by the Greeks and crucified on the shores of the Hellespont.

It is at this point that the Second Persian Invasion of Greece is said to have ended and it is here that Herodotus ends his Histories. The book was of course written some decades after the events it describes, and may not have reached its current form until perhaps forty years later, but it was still close enough in time for Herodotus to be able to speak to eyewitnesses of the invasion.

Temple of Athena in Syracuse (afterwards converted into
a church)

In Sicily during this year of 479BC a treaty was concluded between the Carthaginians and the Sicilians who were under the leadership of Gelo of Syracuse. This treaty seems to have largely restored the status quo before the Carthaginian invasion of the previous year. Himera remained under the control of Theron and the plunder and prisoners taken in the battle would not be returned, but Carthage would give up no territory (Himera had not technically been theirs to retake). The weakening of the kings of Carthage stems from this time and no later king would wield the same influence as Hamilcar and his predecessors had done.

With the vast wealth and the many prisoners of war taken in this battle Gelo and Theron embarked on an ambitious building program. Phaeax the architect built impressive sewers in the city of Acragas. A large temple of Olympian Zeus was also begun in Acragas around this time. A temple of Nike was erected in Himera in remembrance of the battle there, while in Syracuse a Temple of Athena was constructed. This temple of Athena survives to this day, but it has seen some later reconstruction work in classical times and has subsequently been converted into a church.

It was around this time that the lyric poet Timocreon made his way to the court of the king of Persia. He was a Greek who had been accused of siding with the Persian invaders or "medizing" as it was called. He had tried to bribe the Athenian general Themistocles to allow him to stay, but Themistocles took his money and then allowed Timocreon to be banished anyway. Timocreon fled to the Persians and continued writing poetry. Not much of Timocreon's work survives, apart from a few very bitter poems, mostly directed against Themistocles. The Persian king allowed him to join his court and Timocreon lived out a rather luxurious life in Persia.

A photo of a recent eruption of Mt Etna

It was in this year that the Parian Chronicle, which is a short Athenian chronicle inscribed on marble columns in the island of Paros, records that Etna erupted and spilled fire over Sicily. There are records of eruptions of Etna in earlier times, but this seems to be the earliest eruption that falls within the realms of reliably recorded history. Etna is of course an extremely active volcano and has regular eruptions, so we can assume that ancient writers would only mention an eruption in Sicily when it was particularly violent.

...The battle in Plataea occurred, the Athenians fighting against Mardonius, Xerxes's commander, which the Athenians won, and Mardonius died in the battle, and the fire erupted in Sicily at Etna…
The Parian Chronicle, written circa 216BC

In the year 478 the Greek cities decided that an offering would be made and dedicated to the gods at the shrine of the Oracle of Delphi. This would be made as a bronze column of serpents. Their intertwining forms would form a pillar, which would be surmounted by the heads of three serpents. Atop the serpent heads would be a golden (or bronze) cauldron. This would be set up as an everlasting memorial to the victory at Plataea that had brought the Greeks their freedom.

Replica of a part of the Serpent Column at Delphi

Meanwhile the war against the Persians continued. A much reduced fleet comprising at least fifty ships sailed against the island of Cyprus. This island was far from mainland Greece and very close to Phoenicia. It's not clear exactly what the point of this attack was, but it is more likely to be a raiding expedition than a serious attempt at conquest of the island. After the attack on Cyprus, the Greek fleet, under the command of the Spartan regent Pausanias, sailed to Byzantium and besieged it. The siege of Byzantium was a success and the Greeks had now secured the trade routes to the Black Sea. With their fleet gone and control of the straits lost, the Persian Empire lost any hope of regaining their possessions in Europe, in the short term at least.

What happens next is unclear, but it seems that Pausanias had perhaps grown over-proud. He was haughty in his dealings with the allied states. Aristides the Just and other Athenian commanders, such as Cimon and Xanthippus were much more popular among the Ionian cities who were being liberated. Pausanias began to dress in Persian clothes and placed a person called Gongylus of Eretria in charge of the conquered Byzantium. Gongylus was also entrusted with several important Persian prisoners, who subsequently escaped (or were released) back to King Xerxes. It was suspected that Pausanias was seriously thinking of betraying the Greeks and trying to take over Greece with Persian help. The victor of Plataea would then become the Persian viceroy in Greece.

Coin of Gongylus (the image on the right may be a portrait)
when he was a ruler of Pergamon under Persian hegemony

Now this may all be later propaganda. Pausanias was disliked by the Athenians and he may have had unusual ideas about the helots, which may have made him disliked by the Spartans. Whatever the truth of the matter, Pausanias was accused of being a traitor and of sending messages to King Xerxes via Gongylus of Eretria. Pausanias was forced to return to Sparta to face charges. There was not really enough evidence for Pausanias to be condemned as a traitor. A letter was said to have been written from Pausanias to Xerxes, offering to betray Greece, but this seems spurious, as surely that would have been enough to condemn any person. Perhaps the letter is a later invention. Pausanias was acquitted, but he was left as a private citizen rather than restored to the commander of the Greek alliance.

However, the allegations were serious enough that Gongylus the Eretrian fled to Persia. Here he was welcomed by Xerxes. Gongylus rose high enough in the Persian king's esteem that he was granted the city of Pergamon to rule. Gongylus would go on to found a dynasty of rulers who would reign the city in the name of the Persian kings for the next century. The flight of Gongylus may be slightly later however. The exact chronology of this time period is slightly disordered.

A broken head, one of three, from the Serpent Column

It was discovered that Pausanias had ordered the Serpent Column to be inscribed with a boastful inscription in his own name, as if he had single-handedly defeated the Persians. The other allies became angry at this, and the Spartans changed the inscription to mention all of the cities who had fought at Plataea. Again, things may not be quite as they seem here. Perhaps the Spartans were actually satisfied with the words of Pausanias but were forced to change them because of the anger of their allies. But in later times, the inscription of Pausanias came to be seen as a proof that he was planning to enslave Greece.

The Serpent Column survives to this day. It has lost the bowl that once stood atop it and it has lost the heads of the serpents. It was moved with Delphi to Constantinople and it has had an eventful history. If you go to Istanbul it can still be seen and I hope to see it in person someday soon.

Serpent Column in Istanbul

After the recall of Pausanias, the Spartans, who had assumed leadership of the anti-Persian alliance, sent out another commander to take control of the fleet near Byzantium. The Spartan commander, Dorcis, had only a few ships with him and the other allies, having had quite enough of the behaviour of Pausanias, simply refused to serve any more under Spartan leadership, especially as they had so few ships. After finding it clear that they would no longer be allowed to lead, the Spartans returned to mainland Greece. As far as they were concerned, the war with Persia was effectively over. They may also have been concerned about continuing the war for too long, as the rulers of Sparta always feared a helot uprising in Laconia. However the more maritime states were concerned with the possibility of a naval resurgence of the Persians and were convinced that the war needed to continue. The Athenians now took charge of continuing the war.

The islands and coastal lands liberated by the Greek alliance now decided to make their own more formal alliance. Each city would give a fixed amount of ships and/or money to aid in the continued war with the Persians. Each city would also be entitled to a certain share of the plunder, based on the amount of ships. The more ships and money given, the greater the vote of that city in the new alliance. The treasury of this new alliance was decided to be fixed at Delos; the sacred island of Apollo and Artemis in the midst of the Aegean. This was thus known as the Delian League. As the Athenians had the largest navy, they were disproportionately influential from the very beginning in the affairs of the League. The exact amount of ships and money owed by each city was fixed by Aristides the Just. It is said that Aristides lived up to his name and took care that Athens not pay, or give in ships, any less than her fair share.

Remains of temples on the island of Delos

Meanwhile the Athenians had returned to their city after the victory of Plataea. They had been concerned to rebuild their city, but any city that is defenceless is not worth living in. Thus they had decided to prioritise rebuilding their city walls over rebuilding the private houses. The Spartans viewed this with alarm, as the Athenians might perhaps be a threat to them in the future. The Spartans sent an embassy asking the Athenians to leave their city unwalled and to help the Spartans tear down the walls of any city outside the Peloponnese. In this way the Persians could never again have a base of operations in Greece.

This proposal had a hint of fairness in it. Sparta was a famously unwalled settlement. But it is easy to be unwalled if the city is defended by the strongest land army in the region. If cities were left unwalled it would guarantee Spartan supremacy in Greece forever. Themistocles went on an expedition to Sparta to try and negotiate, while at the same time leaving instructions that the wall-building was to proceed at full speed, stopping for nothing and tearing down any building that might furnish materials.

Remains of the foundations of the Themistoclean Walls, near
Pnyx Hill

Themistocles made his way slowly to Sparta to negotiate. When he finally arrived he made excuses and refused to meet with the Spartans. Meanwhile the Athenians were building their walls as fast as they could, even using the broken columns of the burned temples on the Acropolis to patch the walls where possible. Spartan messengers kept arriving, telling the Spartans that the walls were rising. Eventually, when word reached Themistocles that the walls were nearing completion and were defensible, he simply told the Spartans that Athens was now a walled city and that, while Athens would take advice from friends, she would not be talked to as anything but an equal. The Spartans took the rebuke quite calmly, primarily because there was still a great deal of respect for both the Athenians in general and Themistocles in particular due to their gallant conduct in the wars of the previous years.

These walls are known as the Themistoclean Walls and some small ruins of them still survive to this day. It should be remembered that the walls were torn down and rebuilt at later stages in Athenian history. They were remembered for having been built quickly, using any available stone. I was thus surprised to see that the foundations that were yet standing were in fact quite massive. Sections of them can be seen on the Pnyx Hill and elsewhere.

The rebuilt northern walls of the Acropolis, here
reusing drums from the broken columns of the
Old Parthenon Temple

In Sicily the tyrant Gelo (or Gelon) of Syracuse died and was succeeded by his brother Hiero I. Gelo would be remembered fondly in Syracuse and many years later, when the people were casting down the statues of tyrants, they would leave the statues of Gelo standing as a sign of respect for everything he did for Syracuse.

In the year 477 the wars continued between the Delian League and the Persians. Various islands were attacked and their garrisons defeated. City after city joined the League. But while we know that war was ongoing we do not have many details of exactly what happened. At some point during this conflict Pausanias, the disgraced Spartan general, left Sparta as a private citizen and went to Byzantium, where he seems to have controlled the city for some years, much to the displeasure of Athens.

In the year 476 the Spartans do seem to have taken a renewed interest in the war. They sent a force through Greece northwards to Thessaly. The purpose of this was to fully recapture the north of Greece and to punish the powerful Aleuadae family for medizing (supporting the Persians in their invasion). The Thessalians were rather unlike other Greek cities in that they had numerous cities that were all controlled by a single hegemonic family. The members of this family would fight among each other for influence and occasionally other aristocratic families would challenge the Aleuadae for dominance. The leader of this family would be called the Tagus, which was a title analogous, but not identical to King. The Thessalians were also unusual in the Greek world for having a strong emphasis on cavalry, which was quite rare in the better documented Greek states to the south.

A modern bust of Cimon in Cyprus

The Spartan force was far stronger than the Thessalians could hope to match and the Aleuadae family, or at least some of them, were very obviously guilty of medizing. However, Leotychidas didn't arrest them or do anything at all to them even after they submitted to him. In fact Leotychidas had been bribed by the wealthy Thessalian noblemen. The Spartans maintained a strict lifestyle in Sparta, but this does seem to have made their generals very vulnerable to bribery whenever they left Sparta. Leotychidas was placed on trial and fled to the nearby city of Tegea rather than face the charges. He was deposed as king and exiled. His young grandson Archidamus was crowned as the new Eurypontid king of Sparta, under the name Archidamus II.

In Ionia, Cimon of Athens led the navy of the Delian League and continued the war against the Persians. Cimon came from an aristocratic family and was the son of the famous general Miltiades, who had led the Athenians to victory at Marathon. While this may have seemed an impossibly legacy to surpass, Cimon made an attempt to surpass his father in great deeds.

Cimon had taken care to pay off the debts of his father, including the large fine that had been imposed upon his father for treason. This act of filial devotion had restored the family to the good graces of the Athenians and despite how Miltiades had died (in prison and despised by the Athenians), they soon elected his son to military commands. He had married into the powerful Alcmaeonidae family in Athens, but gossips always spread the rumours that he was in love with his sister/half-sister Elpinice.

Cimon ousted Pausanias from Byzantium around this time. He also besieged the city of Eion on the river Strymon, which had been held by the Persian land forces in the region. Other Athenian commanders were in the region but the overall victories appear to have been attributed to Cimon.

Roman copy of the sculpture of
Harmodius and Aristogeiton

In Italy, the city of Croton attacked the city of Sybaris once more. Sybaris had been conquered about 35 years previously, with Milo of Croton taking part in the battle. It is unclear why the conquered city was being attacked again. It seems that whatever struggle between the two cities took place, that Croton was victorious. The Sybarites had asked the Syracusans for aid, but this had not been forthcoming due to internal struggles in Syracuse.

Hiero I had thought to send his brother, whom he suspected of treachery, to aid the Sybarites and to die in the attempt. His brother, fearing the plot, fled to Theron of Acragas. Hiero prepared to attack Theron, but then heard that Theron's conquered city of Himera was restless and offered to free the citizens of Himera from the brutal rule of Theron's son. Theron, fearing the loss of Himera, handed over Hiero's brother to be executed and promptly began executing the prominent citizens of Himera. Thus the two tyrants were once more at peace, but the powerless people in the story, such as the brother and the peoples of Himera and Sybaris, were all far worse off: Never meddle in the affairs of tyrants.

Also in Sicily, the tyrant Anaxilas of Rhegion died. He was succeeded by Micythus, who promised to act as regent until the sons of Anaxilas were to come of age.

Roman copy of the sculpture of
Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Two of the great culture heroes of Athens were Harmodius and Aristogeiton; the two lovers whose assassination of the tyrant's brother had set in motion the events that led to Athenian democracy. There had previously been a statue set up to these men on the Acropolis Hill, but the Persians had destroyed it. The sculptors Kritios and Nesiotes were asked to create a new sculpture to commemorate the achievements of the Tyrannicides, which they did around this time. The original is lost, but numerous copies were later made by the Romans, and these have survived. The original statue group was in bronze, but the Roman copies were in marble. The two statues are moving forward in their stabbing motions and this dynamic forward movement has inspired many other sculptures in history.

The Olympics were held this year. Skamandros of Mytilene won the stadion race (the main sprint competition). Dandis of Argos won the diaulos (a race twice as long as the stadion). Theognetos of Aegina won the boys wrestling competition, while an unknown Spartan won the boys stadion. Euthymos of Locris won the boxing and Agesidamos of Locri won the boys boxing. Theagenes of Thasos won the pankration (he had won the boxing competition four years previously). Zopyros of Syracuse won the hoplitodromos (the race in full battle armour), while Theron of Acragas won the tethrippon (chariot race) and Hiero I of Syracuse won the horse race (he owned the horse, but was not the jockey).

Later bust of Pindar the poet

Pindar the poet decided to go to Sicily around this time. He was originally from Thebes, but seems to have left it before the Persian invasion previously. He seems to have had no issues in meddling in the affairs of tyrants. He wrote powerful lyric odes to celebrate the victors of the great games; of the Nemean, Isthmian, Pythian and most importantly, the Olympic Games. Many of the tyrants of Sicily received odes dedicated to them and Pindar seems to have been a welcome guest in Acragas and Syracuse. He was a personal friend of Thrasybulus, the nephew of Theron of Acragas and the actual driver of the chariot of Theron in the tethrippon.

In 475 Cimon led the navies of the Delian League to attack the island of Scyros, which is nearly in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The inhabitants of this isle were reputed to be pirates and more importantly, had not joined the Delian League. The original inhabitants were defeated and at least some of them were expelled from the island. Settlers from other Greek cities, primarily Athens, came to the island and it became an important base for the Athenian navy.

While on Scyros, the Athenian general Cimon is said to have found the bones of the Athenian hero Theseus. It was said that Theseus had died on this island so it is likely that the Athenians were looking for these when they conquered the island. Cimon brought back the supposed relics of the hero to Athens, where the remains were reinterred and a hero shrine instated for Theseus in the centre of Athens. It was known and visible in later times and later travel writers commented on it during the Roman era, but I believe that the tomb has since been lost.

Messapian pottery

In Italy the Messapians defeated the Greek city of Taras (later known as Tarentum in Roman times and Taranto now). The Messapians were an Italian people who lived in the region now known as Calabria and who resisted the encroachments of the Greek colonies from the coastlands.

Heraclitus is said to have passed away around this time. He is remembered as an acerbic, melancholy character, who was obsessed with change. He believed that the universe was in continuous flux. If Thales was to be associated with water, Heraclitus was to be associated with Fire, as he believed the world to be nothing more than rarefied fire undergoing a series of transformations. His philosophy was compelling, but difficult to understand. He was known as the Obscure, or the Riddler, to his contemporaries. Due to his melancholy nature, he is also known as the Weeping Philosopher. He was from Ephesus and was doubtless active during the time of the Ionian Revolt, although it is not known that he took any part in it. He wrote a book and deposited it in the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, but only small fragments have come down to us of it.

A later Roman bust that may represent
Heraclitus

In the circumference of a circle the beginning and end are common. You will not find the boundaries of soul by travelling in any direction, so deep is the measure of it. It is pleasure to souls to become moist. A man, when he gets drunk, is led by a beardless lad, tripping, knowing not where he steps, having his soul moist. The dry soul is the wisest and best. Man kindles a light for himself in the night-time, when he has died but is alive. The sleeper, whose vision has been put out, lights up from the dead; he that is awake lights up from the sleeping. 
Fragments of Heraclitus' works, written circa 480BC?

The Pythagoreans are said to have split into two separate traditions around this time. One group was referred to as akousmatikoi, which translates loosely as "the followers of wise sayings". These interpreted the mystical words of Pythagoras extremely literally and were really only interested in carrying on the ways laid down by their founder. The mathematikoi, which translates as "learners" took a different approach and carried on the musical and mathematical speculations of Pythagoras. Both groups would continue to exist for about a century or so. By the end of this time they had mostly been absorbed into various groups. The mathematikoi Pythagoreans became indistinguishable from other philosophers of the day, while the akousmatikoi Pythagoreans became merged into the various Orphic and mystery cults that flourished at that time.

Also around this time various vase painters flourished, such as the Berlin Painter, the Brygos Painter, the Siren Painter and the Athena Painter. Obviously all of these were active many years before and after this date, but this is a convenient mid-point in their careers in which to mention their work. They were all distinguished red-figure pottery painters, although the Athena Painter also specialised in white-ground pottery painting as well, mostly based around Athens. I have put examples of their work as illustrations throughout the blog.

Etruscan helmet dedicated at Olympia by Hiero I of
Syracuse after the Battle of Cumae

In the year 474 the Etruscans were attacking the Greek coastal city of Cumae, along the western coast of Italy. The Etruscans had a sizeable navy and the small city of Cumae was unable to fight against them. They appealed to the powerful Sicilian city-state of Syracuse. Hiero I, the tyrant of Syracuse, sent them aid and his ships, in combination with whatever Cumae was able to send, were able to defeat the Etruscans. A great naval battle was fought in the Bay of Naples and the Etruscans were badly defeated. Hiero I later dedicated an Etruscan helmet as a prize of battle at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. He also fortified an island near the Bay of Naples called Ischia, leaving a garrison there to guard against further maritime incursions from the Etruscans.

Syracuse was now the strongest of all the Sicilian states. Hiero I had instituted a type of secret police that kept order in the cities and, while he may not have been loved, he was certainly feared. The poet Pindar seems to have left Sicily around this time to return to his native Thebes, while still on good terms with the Sicilian tyrants.

Further south in Italy, the city of Taras formed an alliance with Rhegion against the Messapians. However, even with their new allies, the Greeks of Taras were defeated by the Messapians near Kailia. Not much is known of these wars however. But it is good to remember that other parts of the Greek world also had eventful histories. There is a tendency to look at Greek history as the histories of a few major city-states, such as Athens or Sparta, without remembering that these large cities were in many ways unusual.

In the year 473 I am not aware of any notable event that occurred. I'm sure that many such did occur, but I simply do not know of them.

In the year 472 Theron, the tyrant of the city of Acragas in Sicily, died. His son Thrasydaeus succeeded him as tyrant and ruler of the cities of Acragas and Himera.

Photograph of the Perserschutt when excavated

In the Aegean, the city of Carystus, on the southern edge of the island of Euboea, was forced to join the Delian League. There were certain reasons for this. It was an island state, which benefitted from the security the League provided, but paid no price in ships or treasure to maintain this security. Still, it now seemed that the League was no longer just fighting Persians or even ridding the seas of pirate threats, but bullying other states that didn't want to join it. Some citizens of certain states probably were beginning to be concerned about the strength of this self-defence alliance that had been formed at the end of the Persian invasions. They would also have been concerned about the growing influence of Athens within the League and within Greece itself.

Athens itself was culturally thriving. The city was in a frenetic pace of rebuilding and their pottery workshops were in full swing. The walls around the city had been rebuilt immediately after the Athenians had been returned, but other places were rebuilt more slowly. The houses and the buildings of the Agora were next to be restored.

Finally, the Athenians began to give thought to what should be rebuilt on the Acropolis. The Persians had ravaged the Acropolis Hill and the temples there were destroyed beyond repair. Some drums of the columns were reused in the walls, but it seemed sacrilegious to try and repair the broken and ancient statues. The Athenians decided to bury the broken remnants of the temples. It is not clear exactly when this was done, but it must have been done in the decade or so after the invasion of Xerxes. The burial was done deliberately and reverently. The statues were later discovered by a German excavation of the Acropolis and the area they were found in was known as the Perserschutt. Many of the finest Archaic style statues were found here, such as the Kritios Boy and the Moschophoros. These statues are mostly preserved in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. Now that the hill was cleared, the Athenians could eventually look at creating new statues.

View of the Theatre of Dionysius from the Acropolis Hill

On the southern slopes of the Acropolis hill lay the Theatre of Dionysius. In this year the playwright Aeschylus presented a trilogy of tragic plays to the Athenians. They were presented as part of the Great Dionysia Festival and each of the playwrights would present a trilogy of tragedies, and sometimes a bawdy satyr play to lighten the mood.

This particular trilogy of plays is unique in that it contained the play, The Persians, which was a mythologised account of the Battle of Salamis and the aftermath. Aeschylus had himself fought in the battle and many of his audience must have been veterans of this conflict. It is, to my knowledge, the only Greek historical play to have survived from antiquity. It is a useful historical source, being composed so closely in time to the events it describes. Most particularly it is unique in that it is the earliest play yet extant in the world; Greek or otherwise.

Greek tragedy had evolved over the previous decades, with innovators like Thespis and Phrynichus leading the way. The plays had few actors, but very large groups of singers who would act as choruses. Thespis is said to have been the first to introduce a speaking actor that was not part of the chorus. Aeschylus was said to have introduced a second speaker, and Sophocles later introducing a third speaker in his plays. But it may have been Phrynichus who introduced the second speaker.

A scene from Aeschylus' Persians, where the ghost
of King Darius appears to Atossa

The plays would usually focus on a tragic hero, who would be brought low by a fault that was inherent in himself. In this way The Persians is actually a slightly atypical play, although the main character is Xerxes, who has been brought low by his overweening pride and confident belief in the strength of his armies.

The character of Xerxes speaking: Ah! Miserable Fate! Black Fortune! Black, unbearable, unexpected disaster! A savage single-minded Fate has ravished the Persian race! What troubles are still in store for me? All strength has abandoned my body… my limbs… there is none left to face these elders. Ah, Zeus! Why has this evil Fate not buried me, as well, send me to the underworld, among all my men?
Aeschylus, The Persians, written circa 472BC

Aeschylus is considered to be the first of the three great tragedians, with the others being the slightly later Sophocles and Euripides. Only the works of these three survive, which is a pity, as they were far from the only writers of tragedies.

Later bust of Aeschylus

In this year Magnes also won the Comedy competition. He was an early Comic playwright, but none of his plays survive and very little is known about him.

The Olympic Games took place this year. Dandis of Argos won the stadion race. Euthymos of Locri won the boxing, while Tellon of Mainalos won the boys' boxing. Ergoteles of Himera won the dolichos and Callias of Athens won the pankration. Hiero I of Syracuse owned the horse that won the horse race and the city of Argos owned the team of horses that won the tethrippon (the chariot race.)

In the year 471 Micythus, the deputy tyrant of Rhegion, founded the town of Pyxus on the western coast of Italy. It is now known as the town of Policastro Bussentino in present-day Italy. It is not a large town now, but it was probably not a large town then either.

In this year, the people of Athens finally turned against Themistocles. Themistocles had probably saved Athens, and possibly the Greek world, with his decision to build a great navy with the money from the silver mines. This decision has probably changed the course of history. The Athenians knew exactly what Themistocles had done for them and how he had saved them. All the Greek world knew how much he had done against the Persians. And yet, it was not enough to save him from banishment.

Ostraca inscribed with the name of Themistocles,
son of Neokles

Themistocles had made his name as an advocate of democracy, who championed the rights of the common people by causing a fleet to be built. While the hoplite phalanx was seen as the preserve of the nobility, rowing a trireme could be done by anyone and guaranteed a wage for the poorer people in the state. Now that the Persian invasion had been defeated with the navy, and the Delian League was created to preserve the Greeks from future invasion, no one argued about the importance of sea power.

In fact, Themistocles' old rival Aristides, had not only become an advocate for the fleet as well, he had drawn up terms for the new naval alliances of the League. Cimon, the son of Miltiades, was not only an advocate of naval power, but he was also probably a better general than Themistocles as well. Other more strident voices took up the cause of popular democracy. The Spartans no longer viewed him as an ally, after the affair of the clandestine rebuilding of the walls.

Ostraca inscribed with the name of Themistocles,
son of Neokles

Themistocles was no longer needed by the people as a prophetic figure, a champion of the masses or as an admiral. In fact, Themistocles had now become known for taking bribes. He had also become proud, acting as if he had acted single-handedly in saving Greece. And thus, a motion of ostracism was brought before the people. The quorum was reached and Themistocles, son of Neokles, was exiled from Athens for ten years. Themistocles left the city and settled in the city of Argos for some time. It is hard not to wonder what Aristides thought upon seeing the fall and exile of his old rival, who had imposed a similar fate upon Aristides ten years previously.

In Sparta, an even worse fall from grace was occurring. Pausanias, the general who had acted as regent for the son of King Leonidas, and who had led the Greeks to victory at Plataea, was accused once more of treason. This time he was accused of treason against Sparta for conspiring with the helots to overthrow the state of Sparta. Again, Pausanias was a man who had been instrumental in defeating the Persian invasion, but like Themistocles, it seems that this was not enough to save him from his enemies, or from his own pride.

Pistoxenus Painter

Pausanias became aware that he was being hunted and rather than facing arrest he fled to a nearby temple, claiming sanctuary. It was thought to be impious to kill anyone in a temple and temples would protect those who were accused of crimes. It was an unusual system in our eyes, but it may have acted as a way of protecting people from irrational violence of kings and tyrants. It was thought to be impious to drag someone out of a temple against their will, but the Spartan leaders were not going to let Pausanias get away and they set a watch around the temple.

In this year Polyphrasmon won the tragedy competition in the Great Dionysia in Athens. He was a son of the dramatist Phrynichus. Sadly none of his plays survive, even in fragmentary form.

In the year 470 matters came to a head in Sparta. Pausanias had been hiding in the temple of Athena, known as the Temple of Athena of the Brazen House. The Spartans had set a guard over the temple and refused any food to be given to the convicted Pausanias. He refused to go out and face his fate and had been wasting away. As he lay dying in the last throes of starvation, the guards set by the Spartan ephors entered the temple and took him outside the temple boundary, where he died shortly after. He was too weak to resist and the fact that he had died just outside the temple meant that technically the Spartans had not killed someone inside the temple, nor had they allowed someone to be dragged outside of it (as he was too weak to protest). But this was viewed by many as cheating the spirit of the law and the Spartan state was thought to have incurred ritual pollution by this act. Thus died Pausanias, victor of Plataea.

Modern painting of Themistocles arriving at the
court of his enemy King Admetus

When they found that he was on the point of expiring, just as he was, in the chamber, they brought him out of the temple, while the breath was still in him, and as soon as he was brought out he died. They were going to throw him into the Kaiadas, where they cast criminals, but finally decided to inter him somewhere near. But the god at Delphi afterwards ordered the Lacedaemonians to remove the tomb to the place of his death—where he now lies in the consecrated ground, as an inscription on a monument declares—and, as what had been done was a curse to them, to give back two bodies instead of one to the goddess of the Brazen House. So they had two brazen statues made, and dedicated them as a substitute for Pausanias.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.134, written circa 400BC

Themistocles was now under suspicion. He was living in exile at Argos and was suspected by the Spartans of being involved in the plot of Pausanias, although it's really not clear if he was, or if there even was a plot of Pausanias. Themistocles slipped away from Argos and sailed to Corcyra (modern Corfu) before fleeing to Admetus, the King of the Molossians. Admetus was in fact a personal enemy of Themistocles, but he took pity on a fugitive and allowed Themistocles to stay in his kingdom. The Spartans would however pursue Themistocles once they learned of his whereabouts.

Around this time in Cyprus, which was now a disputed territory between the Persians and the Aegean Greeks, the Idalion Tablet was made. This was a bronze tablet from the city of Idalion that records the Greek language but written with an ancient script known as the Cypriot Syllabary.

This recorded a contract made by King Stasicyprus of Idalion and some physicians who had cared for the soldiers and people of the city during a long siege. It is unclear what dates should be taken for this siege. It may have begun in 478, but may also have taken place during the time of the Ionian Revolt, or been an entirely unrelated war.

The king had asked the physicians to treat the people without charge and in gratitude the king gifted a plot of land to the physicians forever. This is sometimes referred to as the first public health plan, but considering that it was an emergency action during wartime, this may be overstating the case.

Painting by the Pistoxenus Painter

Around this time the great Temple of Zeus in Olympia was begun. The architect of this temple was Libon of Elis and he tried to incorporate certain curved lines into the construction, to make the overall appearance more pleasing to the eye.

In this year Polyzalus, tyrant of Gela and brother of Hiero I of Syracuse, owned the team of horses that won the chariot race at the Pythian Games in Delphi. To commemorate this victory a bronze statue was made and dedicated. It is known as the Charioteer of Delphi and is one of the few nearly intact bronzes to survive from this era, as many were melted down for weaponry. The figure is a magnificent sculpture. The statue is in motion yet calm, active yet poised. The expression no longer shows the "Archaic smile" but is instead focused intently on the task at hand.

Around this time the Pistoxenus Painter, the Wedding Painter and the Providence Painter flourished. These were red-figure vase painters who worked mostly in Athens. Vase painters in Athens are better known than other areas, because Athens has been the focus of such study, but at this point Attic vase-painting also had a high prestige value outside Athens and their works would have been very popular in other regions of Greece and the wider world. This was yet another instance of the growing cultural influence of Athens.

Around this time Damon of Athens was flourishing. He was a musicologist; someone who specialised in the teaching of music and the theory of teaching music. Music was held to be an important art and Athenian education was at least partly a musical education. Thus Damon may have acted partly as a music teacher, but also partly as an overall teacher and advisor to the youth of Athens. One of his most promising pupils was a young man named Pericles. Pericles' father was Xanthippus, who had commanded the Athenian naval forces at Mycale. Xanthippus had entrusted his son's education to Damon and was expecting great things of his son.

Later bust of Parmenides

Finally, the philosopher Parmenides was active, or flourished at least, around this time. He was from Elea, on the south-western coast of what is now Italy and his followers are sometimes referred to as Eleatic philosophers. He wrote a poem called On Nature, parts of which survive to this day. As is so often the case with the early Greek philosophers it is hard to know exactly what he believed, however, he does seem very concerned with being.

Rather than concern himself with the substance of world and question whether the primary substance was water or air or fire, Parmenides was concerned with Being itself. He believed that nothing could come from nothing and that true vacuums were an impossibility. Thus, because nothing could come from nothing and there was never any space for matter to move to, Parmenides seems to have come to the rather unusual conclusion that there was never any change in the universe. His universe was a type of unchanging immovable sphere outside of which nothing could be comprehended. It is a strange picture and one that seems very easy to dismiss.

The thoughts of Parmenides are perhaps poorly phrased, but his thoughts were laid out in a clear type of argument. Most people clearly disagreed with him, after all, it seems obvious that the world changes, but in a world without clear rules for logic, it was hard to disprove him or see the flaws in his reasoning. His followers, Melissus and Zeno provided additional arguments for his ideas and in certain ways Parmenides laid down a challenge for future thinkers: Either disprove Parmenides or admit that reasoning leads to absurdities.

Vase by the Brygos Painter

But I have always thought that the central questions of Parmenides are actually quite pertinent to modern cosmology. We still hold it as an axiom of physics that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. We no longer believe in the impossibility of pure vacuums, but we dilute the concept by allowing for quantum vibrations and other things that would make our vacuums not truly empty (in Parmenides' eyes at least). The idea of the universe as an unchanging sphere, when viewed from some impossibly hypothetical outside, is hardly cutting edge physics, but it is still interesting to imagine if an outside observer of the universe would actually see it expanding or contracting. After all, the amount of matter/energy remains the same?

I'm not wanting to imply that Parmenides was presciently predicting modern physics or cosmology, or anything of the sort. But I'm just wanting to show that his ideas are not as strange as they might sound on first hearing. If one considers for too long the nature of matter as a whole, it is hard to avoid odd thoughts.

And this brings our look at the period to a close. The ten year period began with the great defeats of Persia at Plataea and Mycale and ended with the cities of Athens and Sparta triumphant, but pursuing very different paths. Parmenides may have been wrong to say that change was impossible. But one thing at least has remained constant over the last few decades that we have examined in Greek history. We can ponder the fates of Miltiades, Aristides, Leotychidas, Pausanias and Themistocles and remember that it was difficult to be a politician in ancient Greece.

Our judgment thereon depends on this: "Is it or is it not?"
Parmenides, On Truth, written circa 470BC, preserved in fragmentary quotations

Dionysius and Silenus by the Brygos Painter

Primary Sources:
Fragments of Heraclitus' works, written circa 480BC?
Aeschylus, The Persians, written circa 472BC
Pindar, Odes, written circa 475BC
Parmenides, On Truth, written circa 470BC, preserved in fragmentary quotations
Herodotus, Histories, written circa 440BC
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, written circa 400BC
The Parian Chronicle, written circa 216BC
Plutarch, Life of Aristides, written circa AD100
Plutarch, Themistocles, written circa AD100
Pausanias, Description of Greece, written circa AD150

Secondary Sources:
Historical eruptions on Mount Etna
Etruscan helmet dedicated by Hiero I at Olympia after Battle of Cumae, held in the British Museum

Related Blog Posts:
489-480BC in Greece
479-460BC in the Near East
479-460BC in Rome
469-460BC in Greece