440 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC
Decades:	460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC
Years:	443 BC 442 BC 441 BC 440 BC 439 BC 438 BC 437 BC

440 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	440 BC CDXL BC
Ab urbe condita	314
Ancient Egypt era	XXVII dynasty, 86
- Pharaoh	Artaxerxes I of Persia, 26
Ancient Greek era	85th Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4311
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−1032
Berber calendar	511
Buddhist calendar	105
Burmese calendar	−1077
Byzantine calendar	5069–5070
Chinese calendar	庚子年 (Metal Rat) 2258 or 2051     — to — 辛丑年 (Metal Ox) 2259 or 2052
Coptic calendar	−723 – −722
Discordian calendar	727
Ethiopian calendar	−447 – −446
Hebrew calendar	3321–3322
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−383 – −382
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2661–2662
Holocene calendar	9561
Iranian calendar	1061 BP – 1060 BP
Islamic calendar	1094 BH – 1093 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	1894
Minguo calendar	2351 before ROC 民前2351年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1907
Thai solar calendar	103–104
Tibetan calendar	阳金鼠年 (male Iron-Rat) −313 or −694 or −1466     — to — 阴金牛年 (female Iron-Ox) −312 or −693 or −1465

Year 440 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macerinus and Lanatus (or, less frequently, year 314 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 440 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

Greece

• Samos, an autonomous member of the Delian League and one of Athens' principal allies with a substantial fleet of its own, quarrels with Miletus. Miletus, also a member of the Delian League, appeals to Athens for assistance. Pericles decides in favour of Miletus, so Samos revolts. Pericles then sails to Samos with a fleet to overthrow its oligarchic government and install a democratic one. Sparta threatens to interfere. However, at a congress of the Peloponnesian League, its members vote not to intervene on behalf of Samos against Athens.

The Histories by Herodotus was written that contain the knowledge of the Greco Persian wars.

Roman Republic

• A famine strikes in Rome.

China

• Zhou Kao Wang becomes king of the Zhou dynasty of China.

By topic

Physics

• Democritus proposes the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms.

Art

• Polykleitos completes one of his greatest statues, the Doryphorus (The Spear Bearer) (approximate date).
• The stela, Demeter, Persephone and Triptolemos, from Eleusis, is made (approximate date). It is now kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
• A temple for Poseidon is erected in Sounion.

Births

• Cynisca, Greek princess of Sparta

Deaths

• Ducetius, a Hellenized leader of the Sicels and founder of a united Sicilian state
• Ezra, Jewish scribe and priest (b. c. 480 BCE)
• Amestris, Achaemenid queen (approximate date)