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| 478–477 |
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| THE DELIAN LEAGUE. The Spartans sent a new commander, Dorcis, to head the allied fleet. The Ionians refused to recognize Dorcis and made an alliance with the Athenians for the expulsion of Persians from all Greek territory. Each ally was to contribute either a quota of ships or of money, and most of the smaller states chose the later. Aristides (called “the Just”) assessed the tribute for the league, whose headquarters and treasury were on the island of Delos. A general assembly (synhedrion) met there, each ally having one vote, but Athens, the richest and most powerful member, soon dominated the Delian League. | 1 |
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| 478–466 |
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| Hieron I, the brother of Gelon, brought the tyranny in Syracuse, now the most powerful state in Sicily, to its height. | 2 |
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| 476–475 |
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| Cimon, the son of Miltiades, was elected strategos, led an expedition to Thrace, captured almost all the Persian forts along the coast, and expelled Pausanias from Byzantium. After a long siege, Cimon took Eion from the Persians and then defeated pirates on the island of Scyros. Athenian cleruchs were sent to both Eion and Scyros. | 3 |
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| c. 475 |
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| Carystus, a city on Euboea, was forced to join the Delian League against its will. | 4 |
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| 474 |
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| Hieron of Syracuse, in alliance with Aristodemus, the tyrant of Cumae in southern Italy, defeated the Etruscans in the naval Battle of Cumae (474). | 5 |
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| 472 |
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| Thrasydaeus succeeded his father Theron as tyrant of Acragas. A cruel and hated ruler, Thrasydaeus was defeated in a war with Hieron of Syracuse and deposed. Acragas and Himera set up democracies. | 6 |
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| 471 |
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| Cimon secured the OSTRACISM OF THEMISTOCLES, who fled to Argos and conducted anti-Spartan activity in the Peloponnese, possibly inspiring the synoecism which united Elis. | 7 |
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| c. 471–469 |
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| Tegea, Argos, and all of Arcadia except Mantinea joined in an anti-Spartan alliance. Argos succeeded in capturing Tiryns and Mycenae (c. 469), but the allies were defeated at the Battles of Tegea and Diplaea, and Spartan hegemony was restored. | 8 |
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| c. 468 |
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| Under pressure from Sparta, Athens condemned Themistocles to death in absentia and sent officers to arrest him. Themistocles fled from Argos to Corcyra, Epirus, and then Macedonia. Around 464, he arrived in Persian territory, where King Artaxerxes made him governor of Magnesia. He died in 462. | 9 |
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| 467 |
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| When Naxos attempted to withdraw from the Delian League, Athens defeated the Naxians and forced them to raze the city's walls and to surrender their navy. After this, Athens frequently interfered in the internal affairs of the “allies,” and the Delian League became, in fact if not in name, an Athenian Empire. Commercial disputes between citizens of two allied states or between an ally and Athens, as well as all capital criminal cases, were now tried in Athenian courts. If an ally rebelled, part of its lands were confiscated and an Athenian colony (cleruchy) was established, which served both a military purpose and a civil one to help relieve unemployment at Athens. If necessary, Athenian garrisons were established under military officers called phrourarchoi, though sometimes only civilian “overseers” (episkopoi) were sent. Athenian surveyors (taktai) reassessed tribute, and the Athenian assembly controlled the use of both the tribute and allied naval contingents. One-sixtieth of the League's tribute was dedicated to the Temple of Athena. | 10 |
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| 467–466 |
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| The Greek colonies of Rhegium and Taras in southern Italy were defeated by the native Iapyges. A democracy was established in Taras, and the Pythagoreans were expelled from all the Italian Greek cities. | 11 |
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| 466 |
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| Cimon defeated the Persians in a great naval victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon River on the south coast of Asia Minor. | 12 |
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