Aeschylus, author of the first tragedies existing in European literature, was an Athenian born at Eleusis. He served at Marathon against Darius, 490, and during Xerxes' invasion, 480-479. At Athens he competed in production of plays more than twenty times, and was rewarded on at least thirteen occasions, becoming dominant between 500 and 458 through the splendour of his language and his dramatic conceptions and technique.