Region: Southern Europe · Coordinates: 37.082, 22.425 · 52 events
| Year | Source | Account |
|---|---|---|
| 600 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | Megara and Athens appoint Sparta as arbitrator tradition |
| 550 BC | Herodotus, Histories | Croesus sends gifts to Sparta and asks for an alliance; Sparta accepts tradition |
| 499 BC | Herodotus, Histories | Aristagoras asks Sparta for reinforcements, but fails |
| 479 BC | Herodotus, Histories | Pausanias' army leaves Sparta |
| 478 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | While Themistocles stalls in Sparta, waiting on the pretext of an embassy, the walls of Athens rise |
| 470 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | The ephors drag Pausanias, starving in the temple, out still alive, and he dies at once |
| 458 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | The Persian king sends Megabazus with money to Sparta to buy an invasion of Attica, but fails |
| 435 BC | Diodorus Siculus, Library of History | Archidamus, king of Sparta, died after a reign of 42 years. |
| 432 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Alarmed by the siege of Potidaea, Corinth convenes the allies at Sparta and, with Megara and others, accuses Athens |
| 432 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | The Spartan assembly votes by acclamation (the majority) that the truce has been broken |
| 432 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | In the vote of the allies, the majority favors war |
| 424 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta proclaims freedom for 2,000 helots who had served well, then secretly eliminates them, and sends 700 to Brasidas |
| 422 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | With Cleon and Brasidas dead, the Spartan king Pleistoanax and Nicias want peace more eagerly |
| 422 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta convenes the allies and votes on peace; Boeotia, Corinth, Elis and Megara oppose |
| 421 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta and Athens conclude a 50-year alliance, and Athens returns the prisoners from the island |
| 421 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | The ephors Cleobulus and Xenares make secret contact with Boeotia and Corinth and plot to break the treaty |
| 420 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Argive envoys obtain in Sparta a 50-year truce proposal under which the Cynuria question can be settled by battle |
| 418 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta angrily condemns Agis and creates an unprecedented law attaching a board of ten advisers to him |
| 415 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta appoints Gylippus to command the support for Syracuse and begins fortifying Decelea |
| 414 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | He goes into exile in Sparta and advises them |
| 414 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Urged by Syracuse and Corinth and advised by Alcibiades, Sparta prepares to fortify Decelea and invade Attica |
| 413 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Sparta allies with Chios and Erythrae and votes to send 40 ships (influenced by Alcibiades and Endius) |
| 412 BC | Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War | Alcibiades persuades the ephors and sails for Ionia with Chalcideus in five ships |
| 404 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | At the Spartan assembly the peace terms are put forward: tear down the Long Walls and the walls of Piraeus, keep only twelve ships, and so on, and it is agreed not to enslave Athens. |
| 404 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Lysander gives the Laconian ships, the triremes of Piraeus, and 470 talents to Sparta. (The end of summer, closing the war at twenty-eight years and six months.) |
| 398 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Less than a year after Agesilaus's accession, a seer reads a plot by Cinadon in the sacrificial victims; the ephors arrest Cinadon on information from an informer. |
| 383 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Envoys from Acanthus and Apollonia warn at Sparta about the growing power of Olynthus, and the assembly votes to call up an expeditionary army. |
| 382 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Sparta decides to keep garrisoning the Cadmea, puts Ismenias on trial, and sentences him to death. |
| 374 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Polydamas of Pharsalus appeals in the Spartan assembly against the threat of Jason of Pherae. |
| 371 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Athenian and Theban envoys negotiate peace at Sparta. The generals withdraw from each other, and they swear an oath on the condition that the cities be independent. |
| 371 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Thebes proposes writing 'Boeotians' instead of 'Thebans' in the treaty they had signed in the morning, but this is refused and Thebes is excluded from the peace. |
| 371 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | On the last day of the Gymnopaedia, news of the defeat at Leuctra reaches Sparta; the ephors, though grieving, do not stop the chorus. |
| 370 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | Epaminondas enters Laconia with 40,000 hoplites |
| 370 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | As the enemy tries to cross the Eurotas and enter the city, Agesilaus defends it |
| 370 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Before the walls of Sparta, they meet the Arcadian and Theban troops: the cavalry and three hundred young men in ambush counterattack. |
| 362 BC | Xenophon, Hellenica | Epaminondas makes a night march and surprises Sparta, but a Cretan informs Agesilaus, and the defense succeeds. |
| 272 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | He descends on Sparta and takes an attacking posture with Cleonymus |
| 229 BC | Polybius, Histories | Aetolia secretly colludes with Cleomenes of Sparta |
| 227 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | The ephors send Cleomenes to occupy the precinct of the temple of Athena Belbina |
| 227 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | Cleomenes sends assassins to the ephors' table and stages a coup |
| 227 BC | Polybius, Histories | The Cleomenean War breaks out (227–221 BC) |
| 222 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | Antigonus enters Sparta without resistance and restores its laws and institutions |
| 222 BC | Polybius, Histories | Antigonus takes Sparta and restores the old constitution, then returns on news of a Macedonian invasion |
| 218 BC | Polybius, Histories | Passing through Laconia, he camps at Amyclae near Sparta |
| 218 BC | Polybius, Histories | Lycurgus is defeated in a battle near Sparta |
| 217 BC | Polybius, Histories | Lycurgus returns to Sparta and plans an invasion of Messenia |
| 205 BC | Polybius, Histories | The tyranny of Nabis, tyrant of Sparta |
| 195 BC | Livy, History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita) | The Romans formed up beyond missile range and offered battle, but the enemy did not come out, so they returned to camp |
| 195 BC | Plutarch's Parallel Lives | Flamininus begins war against the Spartan tyrant Nabis |
| 191 BC | Polybius, Histories | Sparta is incorporated into the Achaean League by Philopoemen |
| 182 BC | Polybius, Histories | Sparta is again incorporated into the Achaean League |
| 41 BC | Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars | He was sent by way of Sicily and Achaea to the Lacedaemonians under the protection of the Claudian house, and a fire that spread at night endangered his life. |