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Millennium: 1st millennium BC
Centuries: 6th century BC – 5th century BC – 4th century BC
Decades: 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC – 400s BC – 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC
Years: 411 BC 410 BC 409 BC – 408 BC – 407 BC 406 BC 405 BC
408 BC by topic
Politics
State leaders – Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
Births – Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments – Disestablishments
Ab urbe condita 346
Armenian calendar N/A
Bahá'í calendar -2251 – -2250
Bengali calendar -1000
Berber calendar 543
Buddhist calendar 137
Burmese calendar -1045
Byzantine calendar 5101 – 5102
Chinese calendar [[Sexagenary cycle|]]年
(2229/2289)
— to —
[[Sexagenary cycle|]]年(2230/2290)
Coptic calendar -691 – -690
Ethiopian calendar -415 – -414
Hebrew calendar 3353 – 3354
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat -352 – -351
- Shaka Samvat N/A
- Kali Yuga 2694 – 2695
Holocene calendar 9593
Iranian calendar 1029 BP – 1028 BP
Islamic calendar 1061 BH – 1060 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar 1926
Thai solar calendar 136
Year 408 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Iullus, Ahala and Cossus (or, less frequently, year 346 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 408 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Events
By place
Persian Empire
- King Darius II of Persia decides to continue the war against Athens and give support to the Spartans. His wife, Parysatis, persuades him to appoint his younger son, Cyrus, as satrap (governor) of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia and commander in chief of the Achaemenian forces in Asia Minor in place of Tissaphernes.
- Tissaphernes' influence is limited to the satrapy of Caria. Darius II also gives Cyrus funds to re-create the Spartan fleet and sends him to Sardis with instructions to increase Persian support for Sparta. Cyrus begins to collect an army of mercenaries (including Greeks) for his own ends.
Greece
- Alcibiades enters Athens in triumph after an absence of 7 years. He leads the religious procession from Athens to Eleusis, thus atoning for his alleged impiety in 415 BC when he was held to have joined in profaning the Sacred Mysteries. Alcibiades is appointed commander-in-chief with autocratic powers and leaves for Samos to rejoin his fleet.
- The Spartan admiral Lysander arrives at Ephesus in autumn and builds up a great fleet with help from the new Persian satrap, Cyrus.
- At the Panhellenic gathering at Olympia, the philosopher Gorgias speaks out against the Spartan alliance with Persia.
Sicily
- The city of Himera is destroyed by the Carthaginians.
By topic
Literature
- Euripides' plays Orestes and The Phoenician Women are performed. Euripides then leaves Athens in dissatisfaction and travels to the court of Archelaus I of Macedon at the King's invitation.
Births
- Eudoxus of Cnidus, Greek astronomer, mathematician, physician, scholar and adherent of Pythagoras (d. c. 355 BC)
- Dion, tyrant of Syracuse (d. c. 354 BC)