445 BC

Events

By place

Greece

• Pericles, concerned over the draining effect of years of war on Athenian manpower, looks for peace with the support of the Assembly. Athenian diplomat, Callias, goes to Sparta and after much bargaining arranges a peace treaty with Sparta and her Peloponnesian allies, thus extending the 5 years truce of 452 BC for another 30 years. According to this treaty, Megara is to be returned to the Peloponnesian League, Troezen and Achaea become independent, Aegina is to become a tributary to Athens but autonomous, and disputes are to be settled by arbitration. Each party agrees to respect the alliances of the other.
• The Temple of Poseidon is completed south of Athens at Cape Sunion.

Persian empire

• Nehemiah, the Jewish cup-bearer to Artaxerxes I at Susa, is given permission by Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem as governor of Judaea.

Roman Republic

• A new law, the Lex Canuleia removes the ban on inter-marriage of the Roman classes, i.e. plebeian with patrician.

Births

• Antisthenes, Athenian philosopher (d. c. 365 BC)

Deaths