430 BC

Events

The army of Sparta loots Attica for a second time, but Pericles is not daunted and refuses to revise his initial strategy. Unwilling to engage the Spartan army in battle, he again leads a naval expedition to plunder the coasts of the Peloponnesus, this time taking 100 Athenian ships with him.
Potidaea finally capitulates to the siege by Athenian forces in the winter.
An outbreak of a plague hits Athens and the disease ravages the densely packed city (modern DNA analyses of material from ancient cemeteries suggest the mortal desease may have been typhus). The plague wipes out over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers as well as Pericles' two sons. Roughly one quarter of the Athenian population dies. The fear of plague is so widespread that the Spartan invasion of Attica is abandoned, their troops being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy.
Pericles becomes ill from the plague but he recovers, temporarily. He is deposed from his position as General (or Strategos), but is later reappointed.

Polyclitus completes one of his greatest statues, the Diadumenos (Diadem-bearer).