The consular government begins at Rome after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and continues independent 461 years, till the battle of Pharsalia 509 Sardis taken by the Athenians and burnt, which became afterwards the cause of the invasion of Greece by the Persians. About this time flourished Heraclitus, Parmenides, Milo the wrestler, Aristagoras, &c. 504 The first dictator, Lartius, created at Rome 498 The Roman populace retire to mount Sacer 493 The battle of Marathon 490 The battles of Thermopylæ, August 7th, and Salamis, October 20th. About this time flourished Æschylus, Pindar, Charon, Anaxagoras, Zeuxis, Aristides, &c. 480 The Persians defeated at Platæa and Mycale on the same day, 22nd September 479 The 300 Fabii killed at Cremera, July 17th 477 Themistocles, accused of conspiracy, flies to Xerxes 471 The Persians defeated at Cyprus, and near the Eurymedon 470 The third Messenian war begins, and continues 10 years 465 Egypt revolts from the Persians under Inarus, assisted by the Athenians 463 The Romans send to Athens for Solon’s laws. About this time flourished Sophocles, Nehemiah the prophet, Plato the comic poet, Aristarchus the tragic, Leocrates, Thrasybulus, Pericles, Zaleucus, &c. 454 The first Sacred war concerning the temple of Delphi 448 The Athenians defeated at Chæronea by the Bœotians 447 Herodotus reads his history to the council of Athens, and receives public honours in the 39th year of his age. About this time flourished Empedocles, Hellanicus, Euripides, Herodicus, Phidias Artemones, Charondas, &c. 445 A colony sent to Thurium by the Athenians 444 Comedies prohibited at Athens, a restraint which remained in force for three years 440 A war between Corinth and Corcyra 439 Meton begins here his 19 years’ cycle of the moon 432 The Peloponnesian war begins, May the 7th, and continues about 27 years. About this time flourished Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes, Meton, Euctemon, Malachi the last of the prophets, Democritus, Gorgias, Thucydides, Hippocrates, &c. 431 The history of the Old Testament finishes about this time. A plague at Athens for five years 430 A peace of 50 years made between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, which is kept only during six years and ten months, though each continued at war with the other’s allies 421