446 BC

Centuries:	6th century BC · 5th century BC · 4th century BC
Decades:	470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC
Years:	449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC 443 BC

[edit] Events

Achaea achieves its independence from Athens, while Euboea, crucial to Athenian control of the sea and food supplies, revolts against Athens. Pericles crosses over to Euboea with his troops.
Megara joins the revolt against Athens. The strategic importance of Megara is immediately demonstrated by the appearance, for the first time in 12 years, of a Spartan army under King Pleistoanax in Attica. The threat from the Spartan army leads Pericles, to arrange, by bribery and by negotiation, that Athens would give up its mainland possessions and confine itself to a largely maritime empire.
The Spartan army retires, so Pericles crosses back to Euboea with 50 ships and 5,000 soldiers, cracking down any opposition. He punishes the landowners of Chalcis, who lose their properties, while the residents of Istiaia are uprooted and replaced by 2,000 Athenian settlers.
After hearing that the Spartan army had excepted bribes from Pericles, Pleistoanax, the King of Sparta, is impeached by the citizens of Sparta, but flees to exile in Arcadia. His military adviser, Cleandridas also flees and is condemned to death in his absence.

Ducetius, the Hellenised leader of the Siculi, an ancient people of Sicily, returns from exile in Corinth to Sicily and colonises Cale Acte on the north coast with Greek and Siculi settlers.