he Ionian forces were
utterly inadequate to hold Sardis; and their return was not effected
without a serious defeat by the pursuing army of Persians.

=497.57= [D] The Latins are defeated by the Romans at Lake Regillus.

=495.= Birth of Sophocles.

=494.= The naval battle of Lade, in which the Persians defeat the Asiatic
Greeks. Fall of Miletus.

=494 (492).= First secession of the plebeians from Rome. Creation of the
tribunes of the people. See "ROME ESTABLISHED AS A REPUBLIC," i, 300.

=493 (491).= The Latins are compelled by the Romans to enter into a league
with Rome, which is threatened by the Etruscans, Volscians, and the
AEquians. The Latins obtained the name of Roman citizens; the title
disguised a real subjection, since the men who bore it had the
obligation of citizens without the rights.

=492.= [D] Mardonius heads the first Persian expedition against Greece.

=490.= Battle of Marathon, in which Darius' Persian host is overwhelmingly
defeated by Miltiades, See "THE BATTLE OF MARATHON," i, 322.

=489.= Condemnation and death of Miltiades. See "THE BATTLE OF MARATHON,"
i, 322.

=486.= Darius Hystaspes, of Persia, is succeeded on the throne by his son
Xerxes.

League of Rome with the Hernici.

=484.= [D] Birth of Herodotus, the "Father of History,"

=483.= Aristides, one of the ten leaders of the Greeks at Marathon,
ostracized through the jealousy of Themistocles.

=480.= Second Persian invasion of Greece, this time by Xerxes. Defence of
Thermopylae by Leonidas. See "DEFENCE OF THERMOPYLAE," i, 354. Naval
battle of Artemisium. Athens burned. The Persian fleet vanquished by
Themistocles and Eurybiades at Salamis. Retreat of Xerxes.

[D] Date uncertain.

The Carthaginians attempt the conquest of the Greek cities of Sicily.
Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, defeats their army at Himera.

Birth of Euripides, the celebrated Greek tragic poet.[E]

=479.= The Greeks, under the command of Pausanias, at the battle of
Plataea, 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 Cumae.

=471.= Themistocl