450s BC

Events and trends

• 459 BC—Destruction of the Sicilian town of Morgantina by Douketios, leader of the Sikels, according to Diodoros Siculus.
• 459 BC—Ezra leads the second body of Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem.
• 459 BC—Death in exile of the great Athenian politician and military leader Themistocles in Magnesia in Asia Minor.
• 458 BC—Greek playwright Aeschylus completes the Oresteia, a trilogy that tells the story of a family blood feud. The plays will have a great influence on future writers.
• 458 BC—Pleistoanax, son of Pausanius, succeeds Pleistarchus as king of Sparta.
• 458 BC—Cincinnatus is named dictator of the Roman Republic in order to defend it against Aequi. Sixteen days later, after defeating the invaders at the Battle of Mons Algidus, he resigns and returns to his farm.
• 457 BC—Athenian statesman Pericles' greatest reform, allowing common people to serve in any state office, inaugurates Golden Age of Ancient Athens.
• 457 BC—Battle of Tanagra—The Spartans defeat the Athenians, near Thebes.
• 457 BC—Battle of Oenophyta—The Athenians defeat the Thebans and take control of Boeotia.
• 457 BC—Decree of Artaxerxes I to re-establish the city government of Jerusalem. See Ezra 7, Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 1 in Old Testament.
• 455 BC—A thirty years' truce concluded between Athens and Lacedaemon.
• 455 BC—Euripides presents his first known tragedy, Peliades, in the Athenian festival of Dionysia.
• 454 BC—Athens loses a fleet and possibly as many as 50 000 men in a failed attempt to aid an Egyptian revolt against Persia.
• 454 BC—The treasury of the Delian League is moved from Delos to Athens.
• 454 BC—Hostilities between Segesta and Selinunte, two Greek cities on Sicily.
• 453 BC—Taiyuan, a city in China, gets flooded.
• 451 BC—Athens makes peace with Sparta and wages a war against Persia.
• 451 BC—The decemviri come to power in the Roman Republic. They enact the twelve tables, the foundation of Roman Law.
• 450 BC—Battle of Salamis: Athenians under Cimon defeat the Persian fleet.
• c. 450 BC—Perdiccas II succeeds Alexander I as king of Macedonia.

Births

• c. 450 BC—Alcibiades, Athenian general and politician (d. c. 404 BC)

Deaths

• 459 BC—Pleistarchus, King of Sparta
• 459 BC—Themistocles, Athenian politician
• 456 BC—Aeschylus, Greek playwright (b. 525 BC)
• 451 BC—Verginia, legendary victim of the decemviri
• c. 450 BC—Cimon, major political figure in Athens and the son of Miltiades (b. 510 BC)
• 450 BC—Alexander I, king of Macedonia (approximate date)