Athenians make democratic changes in their government…

Darius the Great is certainly a great builder and an even greater administrator than his illustrious predecessor Cyrus the Great, completing the organization of the empire into satrapies and fixing the annual tribute due from each province.

He has standardized coinage, weights, and measures and developed and land and sea routes undertaken to promote imperial trade and commerce.

Darius, a probable Zoroastrian who apparently promotes the religion in Persia, has followed Cyrus’s example in respecting native religious institutions, empowering the Judahites to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem and actively supporting Egyptian religion.

Assuming an Egyptian titulary in Egypt, he has built a temple to the god Amon in the Kharga oasis, endowed the temple at Edfu, and initiated restoration work in other sanctuaries.

Preparations for a third Persian expedition are delayed by an insurrection in Egypt, and Darius dies in 486 BCE before they are completed.

The thirty-six-year-old crown prince, a younger son of King Darius by Atossa, sister-widow of the late Cambyses and daughter of Cyrus the Great, inherits the throne in October or December of this year as Xerxes I (Persian: “Khshayarsha”), meaning "ruler over heroes."

Darius has also authorized the Egyptians to reestablish the medical school of the temple of Sais, and has ordered his satrap to codify the Egyptian laws in consultation with the native priests.

Spurius Cassius, serving (according to some sources) a third consulate, proposes an agrarian law designed to aid needy plebeians.

Patricians and wealthy plebeians alike oppose the measure, and (according to the same questionable sources) arrange Cassius’ condemnation and execution in 486.

Xerxes almost immediately suppresses the revolts in Egypt and Babylon that had broken out the year before, and appoints his brother Achaemenes as governor or satrap over Egypt.

Carthage has remained engaged in Sardinia since 510 BCE, but most of the Greek colonies in Sicily have fallen under the rule of tyrants.

The tyrants of Gela, Akragas, and Rhegion have successfully expanded their dominion at the expense of native Sicilians and other Greek cities from 505 BCE to 480 BCE, with the Dorian city of Gela being the most successful.

Syracuse has become a city of great prosperity and culture.

Gelo, taking advantage of an appeal in 485 by the gamoroi (conservative landowners), who had been driven out by the people, makes himself master of this city, making it the new capital of Greek Sicily and leaving his brother Hieron to control Gela.

The Greater or City Dionysia, the annual Athenian state festival in honor of Dionysus, had added comedies to its program in 487 BCE; Aeschylus wins his first victory at in 484 BCE.

Xanthippus is a typical member of the first Athenian generation able to use the new weapon of the popular vote against the old power of family politics.

Almost certainly a member of an old family, Xanthippus had begun his political career by a dynastic marriage into the controversial family of the Alcmaeonids.

He soon left their political camp, probably on the question of relations with Persia, and has taken the new path of legal prosecution as a political weapon.

Perhaps outbid in his search for popular support, Xanthippus is ostracized in 484 BCE.

This novel custom, which made its first historical appearance in 487, is a way of getting rid of a man for ten years without depriving him of his property.

First, a vote is taken as to whether an ostracism should be held in principle; if the voters want one, a second vote is taken, and, if the total number of votes now cast exceeds six thousand, the “candidate” whose name appears on the largest number of potsherds, or ostraca, goes into this special sort of exile.

The 480s BCE in Athens are a period of intense political struggle.

Miltiades had died in disgrace and from 487 BCE to 483 BCE other leaders are successively ostracized.

Though never himself defeated, Themistocles is doubtless attacked repeatedly; he is the man accused by his enemies of being a danger to the established order.

Nonetheless, in 483 BCE he wins his greatest triumph.

The state-owned silver mines at Laurium, worked since Mycenaean times, are the site of a rich strike, and he persuades the assembly, instead of “declaring a dividend,” to devote the whole surplus to increasing the navy.

Thus when Xerxes I, the Persian king, finally marches against the Greeks in 480 BCE, Athens is to have two hundred triremes, though many of the rowers will still be untrained.

Themistocles further succeeds in selling his naval strategy to the Peloponnesians, headed by Sparta, who can raise another one hundred and fifty triremes.

The combined fleet is to fight not on their own doorstep, as Greeks prefer to do, but as far forward as possible, exploiting the geographical situation.