THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Classical Age

Age of Philosophers

The world in 400 BCE

In 400 BCE the Persian Empire still stretches from the Aegean to the Indus, but it is shaken: Egypt has broken free, and the ruling king, Artaxerxes II, has just defeated his rebel brother Cyrus at Cunaxa, after which ten thousand Greek mercenaries marched home through hostile lands. Greece is exhausted after the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404 BCE with Sparta defeating Athens; in Athens, the philosopher Socrates will be tried and executed next year.

In the west, Rome is besieging the Etruscan city of Veii, Carthage and Syracuse fight over Sicily, and Celtic tribes are pushing into Italy. In China, the old state of Jin has split into Han, Zhao and Wei, opening the brutal Warring States period. In India, Magadha is becoming the dominant kingdom of the Ganges plain. In Mexico, the Olmec centre of La Venta is being abandoned as the Zapotecs and Maya rise.

Open the map in 400 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Khoisan hunter-gatherers still occupy most of southern Africa. Iron-using Bantu farmers are spreading from the Great Lakes south and west, carrying cattle, crops and new pottery styles toward the Zambezi.

Northern Africa

Egypt has thrown off Persian rule and is governed by Amyrtaeus, sole king of the Twenty-eighth Dynasty. The kingdom of Kush flourishes in Nubia, increasingly centred on Meroë and its iron-working. Carthage dominates North Africa's coast, while Berbers, Saharan nomads and the Nok culture of Nigeria live beyond.

Europe

Sparta, under its two kings Pausanias and Agis II (soon succeeded by his half-brother Agesilaus II), leads Greece after defeating Athens, though the Athenians have restored their democracy. Dionysius I rules Syracuse, the Roman Republic fights its neighbours in central Italy, and Celts of the new La Tène culture are spreading across Europe and into northern Italy. Scythians rule the Pontic steppe and Germanic tribes the north.

Middle East & South Asia

The Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II rules Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan from Susa and Persepolis, though his grip on the Indus is loosening. In India, Magadha under the Shishunaga dynasty is absorbing its rivals from its capitals at Rajagriha and Vaishali, while other kingdoms and republics share the rest of the north and Dravidian chiefdoms the south.

Northern & Central Asia

Scythian, Saka and Massagetae nomads dominate the steppes from Ukraine to Kazakhstan, and the Pazyryk chiefs of the Altai are buried with horses, carpets and tattoos preserved in ice. Ancestors of the Xiongnu and other nomads roam Mongolia and the eastern steppe.

East Asia

China has entered the Warring States period after the partition of Jin into Han, Zhao and Wei was recognized in 403 BCE. Wei, under Marquis Wen and his reforming minister Li Kui, is the strongest state, while King An of Zhou is a powerless figurehead. Gojoseon rules north-western Korea, Yayoi rice farmers are settling Kyushu in Japan, and western Tibet is home to Iron Age peoples later remembered in Tibetan tradition as the kingdom of Zhangzhung.

Southeast Asia

The Đông Sơn bronze culture flourishes in northern Vietnam, and Tai and Austro-Asiatic rice farmers live across the mainland. Austronesian traders link the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the first Indian goods are reaching the region.

Northern North America

The Dorset culture hunts on the sea ice of Arctic Canada and Greenland, while the Norton tradition lives along the coasts of Alaska. Subarctic forest hunters and Pacific Northwest fishing peoples inhabit the rest of Canada.

Southern North America

La Venta, the last great Olmec centre, is abandoned around 400 BCE. The Zapotecs build up their capital at Monte Albán, and Maya cities such as El Mirador grow in the Guatemalan lowlands. The Adena culture builds burial mounds in the Ohio valley.

Northern South America

The Chavín culture is beginning to decline in the Peruvian highlands, while the Paracas people of the south coast bury their dead wrapped in brilliantly embroidered textiles. The Wankarani culture farms the Bolivian high plateau, and Amazonian peoples farm and fish along the rivers.

Southern Cone

Hunter-gatherers live across the Pampas, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Andean-influenced farming villages are growing in north-west Argentina and northern Chile.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians and Papuan farmers live as before. Polynesians inhabit Tonga and Samoa, and New Zealand and the islands of eastern Polynesia remain unsettled.

Events

  1. Peloponnesian War begins between Athens and Sparta
  2. Athens surrenders to Sparta; Egypt revolts from Persia
  3. Zhou king recognizes Han, Zhao and Wei, marking the Warring States period
  4. Battle of Cunaxa and the march of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries
  5. The Olmec centre of La Venta is abandoned (c. 400 BCE)
  6. Socrates is tried and executed in Athens
  7. Rome captures the Etruscan city of Veii

Moments of this period

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Sources