492 BC

By place

Greece

• The first expedition of King Darius I of Persia against Greece commences under the leadership of his son-in-law and general, Mardonius. Darius sends Mardonius to succeed his satrap in Ionia, Artaphernes, with a special commission to attack Athens and Eretria.
• The Persians under Mardonius subdue and capture Thrace and Macedonia.
• Mardonius loses some 300 ships in a storm off Mount Athos, which forces him to abandon his plans to attack Athens and Eretria.

  Sicily

• When Camarina, a Syracusan colony, rebels, Hippocrates, the tyrant of Gela, intervenes to wage war against Syracuse. After defeating the Syracusan army at the Heloros River, he besieges the city. However, he is persuaded by the intervention of forces from the Greek mainland city of Corinth to retreat in exchange for the possession of Camarina.

  Rome

• Following the conclusion of the secession of the plebs, a famine strikes Rome. The consuls avert the crisis by obtaining grain from Etruria.
• War with the Volsci is averted because a pestilence affects the Volsci. Rome sends additional colonists to Velitrae and establishes a new colony in Norba.