440s BC

Millennia:	1st millennium 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 442 BC 441 BC 440 BC
Categories:	Births - Deaths - State leaders - Sovereign states Establishments - Disestablishments

Events and trends

• 449 BC — Construction begins on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens.
• 449 BC — The Twelve Tables are promulgated to the people of Rome — the first public laws of the Roman Republic.
• 449 BC — Romans revolt against the decemvirate. The decemvirs resign and the tribunate is re-established.
• 449 BC — Herodotus completes his History, which records the events concerning the Persian War.
• 448 BC — The Peace of Callias between the Delian League and Persia ends the Persian Wars.
• 448 BC — Phidias finishes a 9 meter high statue of Athena on the Acropolis.
• 447 BC — Athens begins construction of the Parthenon, at the initiative of Pericles.
• 447 BC — Battle of Coronea — The Athenians are driven out of Boeotia.
• 447 BC — Achaeus of Eretria, a Greek playwright, shows his first play.
• 445 BC — Pericles declares Thirty Years Peace between Athens and Sparta.
• 445 BC — Artaxerxes I gives Nehemiah permission to rebuild Jerusalem.
• 445 BC — The Lacus Curtius is created by a lightning strike in Rome. It is consecrated by Gaius, Mettius or Marcus Curtius.
• 443 BC — The Roman Republic creates the office of censor, initially exclusive to patricians.
• 443 BC — Foundation of the Greek colony of Thurii in Italy. Its colonists include Herodotus and Lysias.
• 442 BC — Sophocles writes Antigone.
• 441 BC — Zhou ai wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China but dies before the year's end, to be succeeded by Zhou si wang.
• 441 BC — Zhou si wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China but dies before the year's end.
• 440 BC — Famine in Rome.
• 440 BC — Zhou kao wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
• 440 BC — Meron determines the two points of the solstice.
• 440 BC — Democritus proposes the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms.

Births

• c. 446 BC — Aristophanes, Greek playwright
• 446 BC — Marcus Furius Camillus, Roman soldier and statesman (traditional date)

Deaths

• 449 BC — Appius Claudius, former decemvir, suicide
• 449 BC — Spurius Oppius, former decemvir, suicide
• 443 BC — Pindar, Greek poet
• 442 BC — Zhou zhen ding wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China