The world: 5th century BC

500–401 BC

Events in this period 6

1. c. 500 BC · India · Religion

   The Buddha

   Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering religious teacher who lived in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of mendicancy, asceticism, and meditation, he attained nirvana at Bodh Gaya in what is now Bihar, India. The Buddha then wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order (sangha). Buddhist tradition holds he died in Kushinagar and reached parinirvana.

2. c. 500 BC · China · Culture

   Confucius

   Confucius, born Kong Qiu, was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the philosophy and teachings of Confucius. His philosophical teachings, called Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, harmonious social relationships, righteousness, kindness, sincerity, and a ruler's responsibilities to lead by virtue.

3. 480 BC · Europe · War

   Battle of Thermopylae

   The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 480 BC at Thermopylae between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it was one of the most prominent battles of both the second Persian invasion of Greece and the wider Greco-Persian Wars.

4. 431 BC – 404 BC · Europe · War

   Peloponnesian War

   The Peloponnesian War was fought in the Eastern Mediterranean between the Athenian-led Delian League and the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League from 431 to 404 BC for hegemony over Ancient Greece. Initially inconclusive, the intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta in 413 BC allowed the Spartan coalition to decisively defeat Athens, beginning a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece.

5. 490 BC · Europe · War

   Battle of Marathon

   The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BCE during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, against a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia under King Darius I to subjugate Greece. The Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat on the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.

6. c. 500 BC · South America · Culture

   Nazca lines

   The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving different-colored dirt exposed. There are two major phases of the Nazca lines, Paracas phase, from 400 to 200 BC, and Nazca phase, from 200 BC to 500 AD. In the 21st century, several hundred new figures have been found with the use of drones, and archaeologists believe that there are more to be found.

Descriptions are the opening paragraph of each Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Open an event for the full text and a link to the source.

Around the same time

• Punic Wars264 BC – 146 BC
• Qin unifies China221 BC
• Fall of Babylon539 BC
• Maurya Empire322 BC
• Library of Alexandriac. 285 BC
• Han dynasty202 BC
• Fall of Nineveh612 BC
• Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)587 BC
• Battle of Gaugamela331 BC
• Battle of the Hydaspes326 BC
• First Punic War264 BC – 241 BC
• Kalinga War261 BC

Other maps for this period

• War mapsGreco-Persian Wars
• War mapsPeloponnesian War
• Epidemics mapPlague of Athens
• Inventions mapCrossbow