473 Æschylos carried off the first prize with _The Persians_ (the
first of the extant plays), which belonged to a tetralogy that
included two tragedies, _Phineus_ and _Glaucos_, and a satyric
drama, _Prometheus the Fire-stealer_.
_The Persians_ has the interest of being a contemporary record
of the great sea-fight at Salamis by an eye-witness.
471 Æschylos appears to have produced this year his next tetralogy,
of which _The Seven against Thebes_ survives.
The play was directed against the policy of aiming at the
supremacy of Athens by attacking other Greek States, and, in
brief, maintained the policy of Aristeides as against that of
Themistocles.
Birth of Thucydides.
468 Sophocles gained his first victory in tragedy with his
_Triptolemos_; Æschylos defeated.
Æschylos charged with impiety, on the ground that he had
profaned the Mysteries by introducing on the stage rites known
only to the initiated; tried and acquitted; departure for
Syracuse.
467 Æschylos at the court of Hieron at Syracuse, where he is said to
have composed dramas on local legends, such as _The Women of
Ætna_.
Death of Simonides.