479 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	6th century BC – 5th century BC – 4th century BC
Decades:	500s BC  490s BC  480s BC  – 470s BC –  460s BC  450s BC  440s BC
Years:	482 BC 481 BC 480 BC – 479 BC – 478 BC 477 BC 476 BC

479 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	479 BC
Ab urbe condita	275
Ancient Egypt era	XXVII dynasty, 47
- Pharaoh	Xerxes I of Persia, 7
Ancient Greek era	75th Olympiad, year 2
Assyrian calendar	4272
Bengali calendar	−1071
Berber calendar	472
Buddhist calendar	66
Burmese calendar	−1116
Byzantine calendar	5030–5031
Chinese calendar	辛酉年 (Metal Rooster) 2218 or 2158     — to — 壬戌年 (Water Dog) 2219 or 2159
Coptic calendar	−762 – −761
Discordian calendar	688
Ethiopian calendar	−486 – −485
Hebrew calendar	3282–3283
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−422 – −421
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2623–2624
Holocene calendar	9522
Iranian calendar	1100 BP – 1099 BP
Islamic calendar	1134 BH – 1133 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	1855
Minguo calendar	2390 before ROC 民前2390年
Thai solar calendar	64–65

The Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC

Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus (or, less frequently, year 275 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 479 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

By place

Greece

• The Persian commander Mardonius, now based in Thessaly, wins support from Argus and western Arcadia. He tries to win over Athens but fails.
• Mardonius attacks Athens once more and the Athenians are forced to retreat, whereupon he razes the city. The Spartans march north to support Athens against the Persians.
• August 27
  • The Battle of Plataea in Boeotia ends the Persian invasions of Greece as the Persian general Mardonius is routed by the Greeks under Pausanias, nephew of the former Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Athenian contingent is led by the repatriated Aristides. Mardonius is killed in the battle and the Greeks capture enormous amounts of loot. Thebes is captured shortly thereafter and the Theban collaborators executed by Pausanias.
  • Meanwhile at sea, the Persians are defeated by a Greek fleet headed by Leotychidas of Sparta and Xanthippus of Athens in the Battle of Mycale, off the coast of Lydia in Asia Minor.
• Potidaea is struck by a tsunami.
• In 479 BC, when Persian soldiers besieged the Greek city of Potidaea, the tide retreated much farther than usual, leaving a convenient invasion route. But this wasn't a stroke of luck. Before they had crossed halfway, the water returned in a wave higher than anyone had ever seen, drowning the attackers. The Potiidaeans believed they had been saved by the wrath of Poseidon. But what really saved them was likely the same phenomenon that has destroyed countless others: a tsunami.

Deaths

• August 27: Mardonius, Persian general (killed in the Battle of Plataea)
• Confucius, Chinese philosopher (b. 551 BC)

References