Dates given in the form 525/4, 508/7 etc. refer to the Athenian calendar year, which began and ended in the summer. Surviving plays of Aeschylus are shown in capitals.
Year BC
525/4 Traditional date of Aeschylus’ birth at Eleusis, west of Athens
514 Hipparchus, brother of the autocrat (‘tyrant’) Hippias, assassinated by Harmodius and Aristogeiton
510 Hippias expelled with Spartan aid
508/7 Cleisthenes establishes democracy at Athens
499 (?) Aeschylus’ first tragic production
490 First Persian invasion; battle of Marathon, in which Aeschylus takes part and his brother Cynegeirus is killed
485/4 Aeschylus wins the tragic competition for the first time
483–480 Themistocles creates great Athenian navy
480 Second Persian invasion, and sack of Athens; battles of Thermopylae (land), Artemisium (sea) and Salamis (sea); Xerxes leaves Mardonius to winter in Greece. Carthaginian offensive in Sicily defeated by Gelon of Syracuse at Himera
479 Persians defeated at Plataea (land) and off Mycale in Asia Minor (sea), and lose control of the Asian Greeks
479/8 Xanthippus (Pericles’ father) captures Sestos on the Hellespont; brings Xerxes’ bridge-cables to Athens
478/7 Foundation of Athenian-led alliance (often called the Delian League) comprising most Greek states of the northern and eastern Aegean and its islands
477/6 Phrynichus wins tragic competition with Themistocles as his sponsor (choregos), probably with a play or plays about the Persian War
473 (?) Death of Phrynichus
473/2 Aeschylus victorious with Phineus, THE PERSIANS, Glaucus of Potniae and Prometheus the Fire-Bearer; Pericles, aged twenty-three, is his choregos
c. 470 Themistocles ostracized (exiled without charge by popular vote). Aeschylus visits Sicily at invitation of Hieron of Syracuse (Gelon’s brother); produces The Women of Aetna there, and restages The Persians (and perhaps Glaucus of Potniae as well?)
469/8 Sophocles victorious for first time, perhaps defeating Aeschylus
468/7 Aeschylus victorious with Laius, Oedipus, SEVEN AGAINST THEBES and The Sphinx (Sophocles not competing)
464/3 (?) Aeschylus defeats Sophocles with The Egyptians, THE SUPPLIANTS, The Danaids and Amymone.
462/1 After Cimon’s army, sent to aid Sparta against rebellious subjects, is dismissed by the Spartans, Athens ends its alliance with Sparta and makes a new one with Sparta’s enemy Argos. Cimon is ostracized. Ephialtes carries laws drastically reducing constraints on powers of democratic institutions but is assassinated shortly thereafter; Pericles begins to emerge as leading figure in his place
460 Athens makes alliance with Megara, which is already at war with Sparta’s ally Corinth
459 Outbreak of open war with Sparta and her allies (which lasts, with intervals, until 446). Major expedition to Cyprus (against Persians) diverted to Egypt, where Athenians and allies will be engaged for five years
459/8 (winter) State funeral for between fifteen hundred and two thousand Athenians (out of a total citizen population unlikely to have exceeded two hundred thousand) killed in year’s fighting in Europe, Asia and Africa
459/8 (spring) Aeschylus wins the last of his thirteen lifetime first prizes with the Oresteia (AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATION-BEARERS, THE EUMENIDES and Proteus)
456/5 Death of Aeschylus at Gela (Sicily)
456/5 Euripides’ first production
432/1 Aeschylus’ son Euphorion wins one of several first prizes he gained by producing his father’s plays (though some of them may have been his own), defeating Sophocles and Euripides (Euripides’ production included Medea); the latest plausible date for the production of PROMETHEUS BOUND and Prometheus Unbound. Outbreak of Peloponnesian War