Events

• 586 BC – Sakadas of Argos
  Argos
  Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
  
   wins the prize for aulos
  Aulos
  An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
  
   playing at the Pythian games, the first of three times. His aulos nomoi, especially one portraying the victorious combat of Apollo
  Apollo
  Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
  
   with the Python
  Python (mythology)
  In Greek mythology, Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in Greek sculpture and vase-paintings as a serpent. He presided at the Delphic oracle, which existed in the cult center for his mother, Gaia, "Earth," Pytho being the place name that was substituted for the earlier Krisa...
  
  , remained popular for over two hundred years (Anderson and Mathiesen 2001).
• 405 BC – Aristophanes
  Aristophanes
  Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
  
  , in The Frogs
  The Frogs
  The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
  
  , defends Aeschylus
  Aeschylus
  Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
  
  ' treatment of poetry and music against the brilliance of Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  , whom he criticizes for many musical transgressions, and charges Socrates
  Socrates
  Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
  
   with having advocated the destruction of the musical and literary traditions of tragedy (Anderson, Mathiesen, and Anderson 2001a).

Classical music

• 138 or 128 BC - Athenios son of Athenios composes the First Delphic Hymn
  Delphic Hymns
  The Delphic Hymns are two musical compositions from Ancient Greece, which survive in substantial fragments. They were long regarded as being dated circa 138 BCE and 128 BCE, respectively, but recent scholarship has shown it likely they were both written for performance at the Athenian...
  
   (Bélis 1992, 48–49 and 53–54; Pöhlmann and West 2001, 71).
• 128 BC - Limenios, son of Thoinos
  Limenius
  Limenius was an Athenian musician and the creator of the Second Delphic Hymn in 128 BC. He is the earliest known composer in recorded history for a surviving piece of music...
  
   composes a "Paean and Prosodion to the God" (i.e., Apollo
  Apollo
  Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
  
  ), today called the Second Delphic Hymn
  Delphic Hymns
  The Delphic Hymns are two musical compositions from Ancient Greece, which survive in substantial fragments. They were long regarded as being dated circa 138 BCE and 128 BCE, respectively, but recent scholarship has shown it likely they were both written for performance at the Athenian...
  
   (Pöhlmann and West 2001, 71).
• between 200 BC and 100 AD – the Seikilos epitaph
  Seikilos epitaph
  The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, near Aidin,...
  
  , "Hoson zēs, phainou", inscribed on a stone funerary monument

Musical theatre

• 408 BC – Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
   – Orestes (one of the earliest surviving fragments of ancient Greek music is from this play)
• 409 BC – Euripides – Iphigenia in Aulis

Births

• ca. 485 BC – Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  
• ca. 375–360 BC – Aristoxenos of Tarentum
  Aristoxenus
  Aristoxenus of Tarentum was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony, survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and...
  
  
• 2nd century BC – Athenios son of Athenios
• 2nd century BC – Limenios, son of Thoinos
  Limenius
  Limenius was an Athenian musician and the creator of the Second Delphic Hymn in 128 BC. He is the earliest known composer in recorded history for a surviving piece of music...
  
  

Deaths

• ca. 406 BC – Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  
• ca. 300 BC – Aristoxenos of Tarentum
  Aristoxenus
  Aristoxenus of Tarentum was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony, survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and...
  
  
• 2nd or early 1st century BC – Athenios son of Athenios
• 2nd or early 1st century BC – Limenios, son of Thoinos
  Limenius
  Limenius was an Athenian musician and the creator of the Second Delphic Hymn in 128 BC. He is the earliest known composer in recorded history for a surviving piece of music...
  
  

Sources

• Anderson, Warren, and Thomas J. Mathiesen. 2001. "Sacadas [Sakadas] of Argos". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Anderson, Warren, Thomas J. Mathiesen, and Robert Anderson. 2001a. "Aristophanes". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Anderson, Warren, Thomas J. Mathiesen, and Robert Anderson. 2001b. "Euripides". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Bélis, Annie (ed.). 1992. Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes, vol. 3: "Les Hymnes à Apollon". Paris: De Boccard. ISBN 2-86958-051-7
• Pöhlmann, Egert, and Martin L. West. 2001. Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments, edited and transcribed with commentary by Egert Pöhlmann and Martin L. West. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-815223-X