Pamphylia (a narrow strip of land in southern Anatolia that curves along the Mediterranean between Cilicia and Lycia) belongs to the satrapy of the Sea Peoples (and its successors) during the fifth century, but its cities are allowed to issue their own coinage.

The Pamphylians, a mixture of aboriginal inhabitants, immigrant Cilicians, and Greeks, have never acquired great political significance and have run the gauntlet of Anatolian conquerors: Phrygians, Lydians, Persians.

Although Aeolian Greeks had founded the city of Side (modern Selimiye), Pamphylia's principal city and port, its citizens speak a peculiar non-Greek language.

Cimon, as leader of an allied fleet of two hundred ships, routs the much larger Phoenician fleet near the mouth of the River Eurymedon in Pamphylia in about 467, destroying or capturing the entire Persian fleet of two hundred triremes, manned by Phoenicians.

He subsequently defeats the King's forces on land, sacking their army camp, and routing their Cyprian reinforcements, thus gravely weakening Persian control over the eastern Mediterranean.

Many new allies are now recruited by the Delian League following Cimon’s victory, such as the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border.

A rare early imperial inscription of the late 460s details the judicial privileges accorded to Phaselis.

Set up by the Rhodians in 700 BCE on an isthmus separating two harbors, it had become the most important harbor city of western Lycia and an important center of commerce between Greece, Asia, Egypt, and Phoenicia.

The city had been captured by Persians after they conquered Asia Minor in the sixth century.

Cimon's victory makes a great impression both in Greece (where it is celebrated by the dedication of a bronze date palm, or phoinix, at Delphi: a punning reference to the defeated Phoenician fleet) and among waverers, outside Greece proper, who have not yet joined the league.

Many new allies are now recruited, such as Aspendus (its wealth attested by a wide range of coinage from the fifth century BCE onward) and the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border. (A rare early imperial inscription of the late 460s details the judicial privileges accorded to Phaselis.)

Hiero, though despotic in his rule, is a liberal patron of literature.

The poets Aeschylus, Pindar, and Bacchylides, a nephew of Simonides of Ceos, are among those who have repaid his hospitality with elegant flattery.

The Alexandrian scholars, who would later compile select lists of the best writers in each kind, included Bacchylides in their "canon" of the nine lyric poets, along with Alcman, Sappho, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides and Pindar.

Of these, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved, and some critics since antiquity have regarded him as the greatest.

Pindar composed choral songs of several types.

According to a Late Antique biographer, these works were grouped into seventeen books by scholars at the Library of Alexandria.

Of his vast and varied corpus, only the epinician odes—poems written to commemorate athletic victories—survive in complete form; the rest are known to us only by quotations in other ancient authors or papyrus scraps unearthed in Egypt.

Hieron's reign is marked by the creation of the first secret police in Greek history, but he is a liberal patron of literature and culture.

The poets Simonides, Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus, and Epicharmus are active at his court, as well the philosopher Xenophanes.

He is an active participant in panhellenic athletic contests, winning several victories in the single horse race and also in the chariot race.

He won the chariot race at Delphi in 470 (a victory celebrated in Pindar's first Pythian ode) and at Olympia in 468 (this, his greatest victory, was commemorated in Bacchylides' third victory ode).

Other odes dedicated to him include Pindar's first Olympian Ode, his second and third Pythian odes, and Bacchylides' fourth and fifth victory odes.

He dies at Catana/Aetna in 467 and is buried there, but his grave will later be destroyed when the former inhabitants of Catana returned to the city.

Hiero is succeeded by his surviving brother, Thrasybulus, but the tyranny at Syracuse lasts only a year or so after his death.

The tribes of Malis, a semi-indigenous Dorian people who contribute to the construction of a temple at Delphi, establish as their center Lamía, in the Sperkhiós River valley at the foot of the Óthris Mountains, near the Gulf of Euboea, in the fifth century BCE.

Taranto, like Sparta, its mother city, had begun as an aristocratic republic, but becomes democratic when the ancient nobility dwindles.

In 466 BCE, Taranto is again defeated by the Iapyges; according to Aristotle, who praises its government, there were so many aristocrats killed that the democratic party was able to get the power, to remove the monarchy, inaugurate a democracy, and expel the Pythagoreans.

Egypt revolts against Persia, starting a six-year war.

An Athenian force sent to attack Cyprus is diverted to support this revolt.

Athens, in a failed attempt to aid the Egyptians, loses a fleet and possibly as many as fifty thousand men.

The Middle East: 465–454 BCE

Intrigue and Rebellion in the Persian Empire

Following the military setbacks in the Greek campaign, Xerxes I retreats to his palatial comforts, immersing himself in lavish architectural projects, notably at Persepolis. His reign, however, ends abruptly in 465 BCE when he is assassinated by Artabanus, his chief minister. This conspiracy also results in the murder of Xerxes’ elder son, Darius, leaving the throne to his younger son, who ascends as Artaxerxes I.

Known to the Greeks as Macrocheir ("Longhand"), Artaxerxes I establishes himself at Susa, the administrative heart of his vast empire. His early reign is fraught with palace intrigue and immediate challenges to his authority. Rebellions flare up in distant provinces, particularly in Bactria and Egypt, regions vital to the empire’s economic and strategic stability.

Suppressing these revolts demands significant military engagement, highlighting ongoing tensions between the Persian center and its peripheral territories. Despite these challenges, Artaxerxes manages to reassert Persian dominance, though at considerable cost, setting the stage for a period of uneasy stability marked by cautious governance and persistent regional discontent.

Xerxes, who had retired to his harem after the debacle in the west and devoted his energies to building palaces at Persepolis, is assassinated in 465 by Artabanus, his chief minister; his younger son succeeds him as Artaxerxes I (his elder brother, Darius, having been also murdered).

Artaxerxes, called by the Greeks Macrocheir (Longhand) spends most of his time at Susa.

Court intrigues at the beginning of Artaxerxes’ reign are followed by revolts in the provinces of Bactria and Egypt, which the Persians suppress after considerable fighting.

Court intrigues at the beginning of Artaxerxes’ reign are followed by revolts in the provinces of Bactria and Egypt, which the Persians suppress after considerable fighting.