5th Century BC

Events in the 5th Century BC 8

• 14000 BC – 300 BC Jomon period World's earliest pottery — hunter-gatherers of the islands The Jomon period is named for the cord-marked (jomon) pottery its people produced — among the oldest pottery in the world. These were sophisticated hunter-gatherers, fishers and foragers who lived a largely sedentary life in the Japanese archipelago for over ten thousand years, long before agriculture arrived.
• 1500 BC – 500 BC Vedic period — the Vedas composed Sanskrit hymns and the roots of Hinduism Following the Indus decline, the Vedic period saw the composition of the Vedas — the oldest scriptures of Hinduism — in archaic Sanskrit. This era shaped Indian religion, the caste system, and the philosophical traditions later expressed in the Upanishads.
• 753 BC – 476 The Roman Civilisation The Roman civilisation — kingdom, republic and empire — shaped Western law, language, architecture, religion and governance more profoundly than any other ancient civilisation. From the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC to the deposition of the last western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD, Rome endured for over twelve centuries, governing at its peak an empire of 70 million people stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia.
• 551 BC – 479 BC Confucius 551–479 BC — founder of Confucianism Kong Qiu (Confucius) was born in the state of Lu in 551 BC. His teachings on social harmony, filial piety, ritual propriety and benevolent government became the foundation of Chinese civilisation for 2,500 years. His conversations were recorded by disciples in the Analects. Confucianism shaped Chinese government, education, family structure and ethics more profoundly than any other single thinker.
• 550 BC – 330 BC Achaemenid Empire — First Persian Empire The largest empire the ancient world had yet seen Founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkans and Egypt to the Indus Valley — the largest empire the world had yet seen. It was renowned for its tolerance of subject peoples, its network of royal roads and the administrative system of satrapies.
• 522 BC – 486 BC Darius the Great Empire at its zenith; Persepolis built Darius I brought the Achaemenid Empire to its greatest extent and organised it into provinces governed by satraps, with a common coinage, road network and postal system. He began the great ceremonial capital at Persepolis. His invasions of Greece, however, met defeat at Marathon in 490 BC.
• 494 BC First Secession of the Plebs The plebeian class — the non-patrician majority — withdraws to the Sacred Mount outside Rome, refusing to serve in the army until their grievances are addressed. The patricians, unable to defend Rome without them, negotiate: the tribunes of the plebs are created, magistrates with the power to veto any action harmful to a plebeian citizen (the sacrosanct "intercessio"). The first great victory of Roman democracy — won by walking away.
• 451 BC – 450 BC The Twelve Tables Rome's first written law code — the Twelve Tables — is inscribed on bronze and displayed in the Forum around 451–450 BC, following plebeian demands for laws that could not be arbitrarily interpreted by patrician magistrates. The Tables cover debt, property, family law, inheritance and procedure. Though the original bronze was destroyed in the Gallic sack of 390 BC, reconstructed fragments survive. Roman jurists will call them the "source of all law."