The History of Ancient Greece Podcast: 089

In this episode, we discuss the mid-5th century BC history of two areas that were important economically and politically to Athens--the west (the Sicel Revolt, Syracuse's defeat of Akragas, the establishment of the panhellenic colony of Thurii, and new Athenian alliances with Segesta, Leontini, and Rhegium) and the northeast (the founding of Brea and Amphipolis on the Strymon River and the rise of the Odrysrian kingdom of Thrace and the Spartokid dynasty of the Bosporan Kingdom); Athens' growing hostilities with Macedon; and the breakdown of the Thirty Years' Peace treaty (its inadequacies, the Samian Revolt, and Corcyraean/Corinthian hostilities with the battles of Leukimme and Sybota)

458/454 BC - Diplomatic alliance possibly established between Segesta and Athens

453 BC - Dulcetius organized a federation of the Sicel towns of central Sicily, aiming to bring the Greek cities under native Sicel rule of the island once again

452/1 BC - Sybaris was re-founded

451 BC - Ducetius defeated Akragas and Syracuse in battle

450 BC - Syracuse avenged prior defeat by routing Ducetius' Sicel army at Nomae; Ducetius fled to Syracuse as a supplicant and was spared and exiled to Corinth

448 BC - Perdiccas II ascended to the Macedonian throne

446 BC - Ducetius returned from exile to Sicily to found Kale Akte on the northern coast

446/5 BC - Sybaris was destroyed by Croton once again; the growing power of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace forced the Athenians to founded the colony of Brea somewhere on the lower reaches of the Strymon River

445 BC - Akragas was defeated in battle by the Syracusans; the Athenians and Spartans agreed to the Thirty Year’s Peace treaty; the Sybarites approached Sparta and Athens for help; Leontini and Rhegium concluded diplomatic alliances with Athens

444 BC - The Athenians consolidated and reorganized their empire into five tribute paying areas (including Thrace, the Hellespont, Ionia, Caria, and the Aegean Islands)

444/3 BC - Panhellenic colony of Thurii was founded
442/1 BC - Thurii was defeated in battle by Taras

441/0 BC - Samos quarreled with Miletus

440 BC - Ducetius died from natural causes, the remnants of the Sicel federation were destroyed by Syracusans; the Samians defeated the Milesians, who then appealed to Athens for help; Samos refusal to meet Athens' demands caused them to revolt from the empire and seek aid from the new Persian satrap of Ionia and Caria, Pissuthnes
440/439 BC - Pericles led a nine month siege of Samos, bringing the rebellion to an end
439 BC - The Athenians reorganized their empire once again into four tribute paying areas (Thrace, the Hellespont, Ionia/Caria, and the Aegean Islands)
438 BC - the Archaianaktidai of the Bosporan Kingdom overthrown by Spartokos
438/7 BC - Series of legal and judicial attacks were made on Pericles and his friends
437/6 BC - The Athenians founded the colony of Amphipolis on the upper Strymon River; Pericles led a peaceful expedition into the Black Sea, most likely to secure the continued grain trade with the new Spartokidai dynasty of the Cimmerian Bosporus
436/5 BC - Civil war broke out in Epidamnus (in northwest Greece) between the oligarchs and democrats, who turned to Corcyra and Corinth for aid
435 BC - Corcyra and Corinth went to war over the fate of Epidamnus; the Corcyraean navy defeated the Corinthian navy at the Battle of Cape Leukimme
434 BC - Athens backed Philip I in his quest to rid Perdiccas II from the Macedonian throne
434/3 BC - the Delphic oracle claimed Thurii for Apollo
433 BC - Athens concluded a defensive alliance with Corcyra; the naval battle of Sybota took place which ended in a stalemate but saw Athens and Corinth fight one another (straining the peace); the naval leaders were Lacadaemonius (Athens) and Aristeas (Corinth)
431 BC - Spartokos died and his son Satyros succeeded him as the Bosporan king

Primary Sources:
Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War (Book 1)
Plutarch's Life of Pericles
Diodorus Siculus' The Library of History (Book 12)