Peloponnesian League

State · 550–338 BCE · at its largest around 404 BCE

Alliance of Peloponnesian city-states led by Sparta, which defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War and lost its dominance after Leuctra.

On its lands while it lasted

Athenian democracy (508 BCE): The reforms of Cleisthenes in 508/507 BCE created a system in which male citizens voted directly on laws, the earliest well-documented democracy.
Sophocles (c. 497 BCE – 406 BCE): Athenian tragedian, author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone, one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays survive.
Pericles (c. 495 BCE – 429 BCE): Leading Athenian statesman of the city's golden age, who promoted democracy, Athenian naval power and the building programme on the Acropolis.
Battle of Marathon (490 BCE): Athenians and Plataeans defeated the first Persian invasion of Greece, sent by Darius I, on the plain of Marathon.
Herodotus (c. 484 BCE – 425 BCE): Greek historian from Halicarnassus, called the father of history, whose Histories recount the Greco-Persian Wars.
Battle of Salamis (480 BCE): Decisive naval victory of the Greek fleet under Themistocles over the Persian fleet of Xerxes in the straits of Salamis.
Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE): A small Greek force led by King Leonidas I of Sparta held the pass of Thermopylae for three days against the army of Xerxes I before being overwhelmed.
Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (480–479 BCE): Xerxes I led a vast Persian army from Sardis across the Hellespont into Greece, won at Thermopylae and burned Athens, but was defeated at sea at Salamis (480 BCE) and on land at Plataea (479 BCE).
Socrates (c. 470 BCE – 399 BCE): Athenian philosopher who examined ethics through questioning dialogue; he was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock in 399 BCE.
Discobolus (c. 450 BCE): Myron’s bronze statue of an athlete about to throw a discus, a landmark of early classical sculpture; the original is lost and the work is known from Roman marble copies.
Parthenon (447 BCE): Temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, built 447–432 BCE under Pericles; the supreme monument of classical Greek architecture.
Parthenon Marbles (438 BCE): Frieze, metopes and pediment sculptures of the Parthenon, made under Phidias; about half were removed by agents of Lord Elgin in 1801–1812 and are now in the British Museum, the rest in the Acropolis Museum.
Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE): War between Athens and its empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, ending in Athens' defeat; chronicled by Thucydides.
Plato (c. 428 BCE – 348 BCE): Athenian philosopher, student of Socrates and founder of the Academy, whose dialogues, including the Republic, shaped Western philosophy.
Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE): Philosopher and polymath, student of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great, who founded the Lyceum and wrote on logic, biology, ethics and politics.