← Annalium map

Plutarch

40 CE – 120 CE

Retrace Plutarch's life across the map — 12 events in chronological order, from a cinematic flythrough to a full timeline.

Life journey

1. Battle of Marathon489 BCE
   The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia under King Darius I to subjugate Greece. The Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat on the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.
2. Battle of Plataea478 BCE
   The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I.
3. Battle of Leuctra370 BCE
   The Battle of Leuctra was fought on 6 July 371 BC between the Boeotians led by the Thebans, and the Spartans along with their allies. The battle occurred in the context of the King's Peace, or Peace of Antalcidas, which had ended the Corinthian War in 386 BC. The Peace was formally renewed in 375 BC, but a disagreement between the Spartans and the Thebans over the protocol for renewing the Peace again in 371 led directly to the battle, which took place in the vicinity of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae. The mainly Theban victory shattered Sparta's immense influence over the Greek peninsula, and the wider Aegean Greek world, which Sparta had gained with its victory in the Peloponnesian War a generation earlier.
4. Battle of Cynoscephalae363 BCE
   The Battle of Cynoscephalae was a military engagement in 364 BC between the forces of Thebes and its Thessalian allies, led by Pelopidas, against the army of Alexander of Pherae. Pelopidas's army defeated Alexander's much larger force, ending Alexander's attempts to secure hegemony in Thessaly, though Pelopidas himself was killed.
5. Battle of the Hydaspes325 BCE
   The Battle of the Hydaspes also known as Battle of Jhelum, or First Battle of Jhelum, was fought between the Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great and the Pauravas under Porus in May of 326 BC. It took place on the banks of the Hydaspes River in what is now the Punjab province of Pakistan, as part of Alexander's Indian campaign. In what was possibly their most costly engagement, the Macedonian army secured a decisive victory over the Pauravas and captured Porus. Large areas of Punjab were subsequently absorbed into the Macedonian Empire; Alexander spared Porus and made him a satrap, effectively reinstating him as the region's ruler.
6. Battle of Ipsus300 BCE
   The Battle of Ipsus was fought between some of the Diadochi in 301 BC near the town of Ipsus in Phrygia. Antigonus I Monophthalmus, the Greek Macedonian ruler of large parts of Asia, and his son Demetrius were pitted against the coalition of three other successors of Alexander: Cassander, ruler of Macedon; Lysimachus, ruler of Thrace; and Seleucus I Nicator, ruler of Babylonia and Persia.
7. Battle of Vercellae100 BCE
   The Battle of Vercellae or Battle of the Raudine Plain was fought on 30 July 101 BC on a plain near Vercellae in Gallia Cisalpina, modern-day Northern Italy. A Celtic-Germanic confederation under the command of the Cimbric king Boiorix was defeated by a Roman army under the joint command of the consul Gaius Marius and the proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus. The battle marked the end of the Cimbrian War.
8. Battle of Chaeronea85 BCE
   The Battle of Chaeronea was fought by the Roman forces of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Mithridates' general, Archelaus, near Chaeronea, in Boeotia, in 86 BC during the First Mithridatic War. The battle ended with a complete rout of the Pontic army and a decisive victory for the Romans.
9. Battle of Fidentia81 BCE
   The Battle of Fidentia took place in September of 82 BC at Fidentia during the context of Sulla's Second Civil War. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus against the Populares forces commanded by Lucius Quincius. The battle resulted in a decisive Optimate victory.
10. Siege of Cyzicus72 BCE
    The siege of Cyzicus took place in 73 BC between the armies of Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman-allied citizens of Cyzicus in Mysia and Roman Republican forces under Lucius Licinius Lucullus. It was in fact a siege and a counter-siege. It ended in a decisive Roman victory.
11. Battle of Cantenna70 BCE
    The Battle of Cantenna was one of the last battles of the Third Servile War and took place in 71 BC near Cantenna, Lucania, about 5 km (3.1 mi) from Giungano. The slave army was annihilated by Marcus Licinius Crassus' legions.
12. Battle of Alesia51 BCE
    The Battle of Alesia or Siege of Alesia was the climactic military engagement of the Gallic Wars, fought around the Gallic oppidum of Alesia in modern France, a major centre of the Mandubii tribe. It was fought by the Roman army of Julius Caesar against a confederation of Gallic tribes united under the leadership of Vercingetorix of the Arverni. It was the last major engagement between Gauls and Romans, and is considered one of Caesar's greatest military achievements and a classic example of siege warfare and investment; the Roman army built dual lines of fortifications—an inner wall to keep the besieged Gauls in, and an outer wall to keep the Gallic relief force out. The Battle of Alesia marked the end of Gallic independence in the modern day territory of France and Belgium.

Event data from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA). Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].