479. The Greeks, under the command of Pausanias, at the battle of Platæa, crush the Persian army under the lead of Mardonius. Leotychides and Nanthippus gain a simultaneous victory over the Persian fleet at Mycale. End of the Persian invasion of Greece.
478. The tyranny of Hieron, brother of Gelon, begins at Syracuse. He was noted as a patron of literature.
477. The predominance in Greece passes from Sparta to Athens, by the formation of the Confederacy of Delos.
474. Hieron, of Syracuse, defeats the Etruscans near Cumæ.
471. Themistocles exiled from Athens, the Spartan faction having plotted his ruin, alleging his complicity with the enemy.
Birth of Thucydides.[E]
470 (471). The Publilian law passed in Rome; the plebeians accorded the right of initiating legislation in their assemblies. [See "ROME ESTABLISHED AS A REPUBLIC," i, 300.]
469.[E] Birth of Socrates.
468.[E] Democracy triumphs in the cities of Sicily.
466. Naval victory of the Greeks, under Cimon, over the Persians at Eurymedon. B.C. 470 Cimon had reduced Eion, after a gallant defence by Boges, the Persian governor, who, rather than surrender, cast all his gold and silver into the river Strymon, raised a huge pile of wood, and on it placed the bodies of his wives, children, and slaves—all of whom he had slain—then, having set fire thereto, he flung himself into the flames and perished.