Pheidippides, given the task of running from Athens to Sparta to request help at Marathon against the Persians, completes the journey in two days

At Marathon the Athenian hoplites, heavily outnumbered, win a spectacular victory against the Persians – of whom the survivors escape in their ships

Ostracism is introduced in Athens as a way of getting rid of unpopular politicians

Aeschylus wins the prize for tragedy at the City Dionysia in Athens

Themistocles persuades the Athenians to build up their fleet against the expected renewal of the threat from Persia

Xerxes I, renewing the campaign of his father Darius against the Greeks, leads a large army round the Aegean and through Thrace

The Greek city-states meet in Corinth to devise a joint strategy against the Persians

Kritios sculpts a naturalistic male nude, now the earliest surviving masterpiece in a central tradition of Greek art

300 Spartans, led by Leonidas, die attempting to hold the pass of Thermopylae against the advancing Persian army

Athens, abandoned to the advancing Persians, is looted and destroyed

The Athenian fleet defeats a considerably larger Persian force in the narrow strait between Salamis and the mainland

A Spartan army, led by Pausanias, wins a victory at Plataea, completing the rout of the Persians on the Greek mainland

An Athenian force destroys at Mykale the remainder of the Persian fleet, ending the threat from them at sea

Representatives of Athens and other Aegean city-states meet in Delos to form a coalition, later known as the Delian League

The Delian League is formed for mutual defence, but also to liberate the Greek cities of Ionia from Persian rule

A life-size bronze of a racing chariot, with its driver and horses, is presented to Delphi to commemorate a victory in the games

The Olympic games are extended to five days, the first and last of which are taken up with religious ceremonies

Sophocles wins the prize for tragedy in Athens, defeating Aeschylus in the competition

An earthquake in Sparta leads to an uprising by the helots, who take up a defensive position on Mount Ithome

With the army away, Pericles introduces full democracy for all Athenian citizens, enabling them to vote and participate in the administration of the state

Pericles is given the task of constructing Athens' two famous Long Walls, stretching from the city to either side of the harbour at Piraeus

Herodotus, the 'father of history', writes his account of the Greco-Persian Wars from a vantage point in Asia Minor

Simmering hostilities between the allies of Sparta and Athens develop into endemic conflict among the Greek city states of the Peloponnese

Euripides enters the drama contest at the City Dionysia in Athens for the first time

The Athenians transfer into their own keeping the accumulated treasure of the Delian League