Timeline 499BCE - 1BCE
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499BC Athens
and Eretria supported an Ionian revolt against Persian rule.
(AP, 7/9/05)
496BC Sophocles (d.406BC), the
2nd Greek dramatist after Aeschylus, was born about this time. He is
considered by some as the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His
works include: "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone."
(eawc, p.11)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.D6)
496BC - 406BC Sophocles added valuable elements to
the developing tragic drama. His work involved all men in the tragic
elements of life. His work included the drama Philoctetes. It was
about how the Greeks needed the aged Philoctetes and his magic bow
to capture Troy, but had exiled him to a remote island. They send
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, to secure the bow by deceit and
trickery. In 1990 the play was rewritten by Seamus Heaney, 1995
Nobel poet laureate, as "The Cure at Troy."
(V.D.-H.K.p.51)(LSA, Spg/97, p.14)(WSJ, 12/3/97,
p.A20)
495BC - 429BC Pericles, Athenian leader during the
early years of the Peloponnesian Wars.
(V.D.-H.K.p.55)
494BC In Rome the first victory
of the plebeian class over the patricians resulted in an agreement
between the two classes to allow the plebeians to elect officers,
and tribunes with the power to veto any unlawful acts of the
magistrates.
(eawc, p.10)
492BC Goujian, the king of Yue
(later part of China’s Zhejiang province), was taken prisoner after
a disastrous campaign against King Fuchai, a neighbor to the north.
After a few years Fuchai let him return home as his vassal.
(Econ, 12/4/10, SR p.3)
492BC Darius put his
son-in-law, Mardonius, in charge of a Persian expedition against
Athens and Eretria, but the loss of the fleet in a storm off Mount
Athos forced him to abandon the operation.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
490BC Sep 2, Phidippides of
Athens set out on his 26-mile run that inspired the Marathon.
Phidippides was sent to seek troops from Sparta to help against the
invading Persian army. The Spartans were unwilling to help, until
the next full moon, due to religious laws. On Sept. 4th, Phidippides
returned the 26 miles Marathon without Spartan troops.
(MC, 9/2/01)
490BC Sep 9, First Persian
attack on Greece. Greeks led by Miltiades defeated the Persians at
the Battle of Marathon. Pheidipiddes, a hemerodromi or long-distance
foot messenger, was dispatched to run 26 miles from marathon to
Athens to announce the victory. He reached Athens and proclaimed:
"Rejoice! We conquer!" The he dropped dead. In the Battle of
Marathon Darius the Great of Persia was defeated by the Greeks. The
Greeks initiated the war when Persia, the strongest power in western
Asia, established rule over Greek-speaking cities in Asia Minor.
[see Sep 12]
(HFA, '96, p.38)(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(SFC, 7/14/96,
p.T7)(eawc, p.10)
490BC Sep 12, Athenian and
Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drove back a
Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon. [see Sep 9]
(HN, 9/12/98)
490BC Empedocles (d.430BC),
Greek philosopher, was born. He is best known for being the
originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements.
An important idea in ancient Greek philosophy is that "Nothing comes
from nothing", so that what exists now has always existed, since no
new matter can come into existence where there was none before. An
explicit statement of this, along with the further principle that
nothing can pass away into nothing, is found in Empedocles
(ca. 490-430 BC): "For it is impossible for anything to come to be
from what is not, and it cannot be brought about or heard of that
what is should be utterly destroyed."
(Econ, 2/7/09,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass)
490BC A Persian force under Datis, a Mede,
destroyed Eretria and enslaved its inhabitants but was defeated by
the Athenians at Marathon.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
490BC - 479BC The Greco-Persian War is commonly
regarded as one of the most significant wars in all of history. The
Greeks emerged victorious and put an end to the possibility of
Persian despotism.
(eawc, p.10)
c490BC - 430BC The Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea
proposed a number of paradoxes to support the claim of Parmenides
that the world was a motionless, unchanging unity. The race between
Achilles and the tortoise is one example.
(WUD, 1994, p.1660)(SFC, 7/14/97, p.E5)
486BC The first stretch of the
north-south Grand Canal was begun and completed by about 400BC. It
became fully navigable in the 14th century.
(WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A50)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)(Econ,
5/22/10, SR p.12)
486BC Darius, ruler of Persia,
died. His preparations for a 3rd expedition against Greece were
delayed by an insurrection in Egypt. He was succeeded by his son
Xerxes.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
486BC - 465BC Xerxes the Great, king of Persia,
ruled Egypt as the 3rd king of the 27th Dynasty. His rule extended
from India to the lands below the Caspian and Black seas, to the
east coast of the Mediterranean including Egypt and Thrace. Persia’s
great cities Sardis, Ninevah, Babylon, and Susa were joined by the
Royal Road. East of Susa was Persopolis, a vast religious monument.
To the north of Persia were the Scythians.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(eawc,
p.11)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
c485BC Athenian democracy was accompanied by an
intellectual revolution with beginnings in Sophism. Sophists
situated ethics and politics within philosophical discourse, which
before was limited to physics and metaphysics alone. Protagoras, the
leading Sophist, stated: "Man is the measure of all things." For him
all truth, goodness, and beauty are relative to man's necessities
and inquiries. In opposition to the Sophists emerged Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle, each of whom offered alternatives to the Sophist's
relativism.
(eawc, p.11)
484BC - 420BC Herodotus was the first historian to
lay out a coherent story. He authored the 9-book history of the
Graeco-Persian War: "Researches into the Causes and Events of the
Persian Wars," and the "The Histories of Herodotus." He also wrote a
book dedicated to his travels through Egypt.
(V.D.-H.K.p.53)(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A12)(eawc, p.11)
484BC - 420BC Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans
were Lydians who had immigrated to Italy from Asia Minor. But modern
scholars believe the Etruscans evolved from an indigenous population
of Iron Age farmers of the Villanovan culture.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
484BC - 420BC The Greeks always called the
Etruscans the Tyrrhenians, after the prince Tyrrhenus who, according
to Herodotus, led them to the shores of Etruria.
(NG, 6/1988, p.718)
484BC - 420BC Herodotus mentioned gold-digging
ants and that some were kept at the palace of the Persian king. It
was later learned that the Persian word for marmot is equivalent to
mountain ant, and that marmots in the Dansar plain of northern
Pakistan bring up gold dust from their burrows.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A10)
484BC - 406BC Euripides was an Athenian tragedian
who brought the gods and heroes down to earth. He presented pictures
of human life that were sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, but
always and undeniably real. [see 480-406]
(V.D.-H.K.p.52)
487BC Sep 23, Greek dramatist
Euripides, was born. He wrote "Medea" and "The Trojan Women." His
plays used a device called "Deus ex Machina," literally "God from a
machine." Today the term refers to sudden events that come from
nowhere to advance the plot. [see 484-406, 480-406]
(MC, 9/23/01)
483BC Themistocles, fearing
destruction at the hands of the Persians, persuaded his fellow
Athenians to build a navy of one hundred triremes. He also oversaw
the fortification of the harbor at Piraeus, which then replaced
Phaleron as the port of Athens.
(www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture7b.html)(AM,
7/05, p.12)
483BC Gautama Siddhartha
Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, died about this time in Kushinagar,
in northern India.
(eawc, p.9)(SSFC, 10/14/07,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha)
482BC Goujian, the king of Yue
(later part of China’a Zhejiang province), marched north with some
50,000 warriors and attacked King Fuchai putting his kingdom to the
sword.
(Econ, 12/4/10, SR p.3)
481BC - 221BC The Waring States period of the Chou
Dynasty. [see 475-221] The states of Ch'in and Ch'u emerged as the
primary competitors in the struggle to found an empire. During this
period a 4-tiered class structure emerged consisting of lesser
nobility (including scholars), the peasant farmers, the artisans,
and the merchants, who held the lowest position in society. This was
also known as the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought with the
emergence of several schools of political philosophy that included:
Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism.
(eawc, p.5,11)
480BC Aug 9, The Persian army
defeated Leonidas and his Spartan army at the battle Thermopylae,
Persia. In 1998 Steven Pressfield authored: "Gates of Fire, An Epic
Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae." In 2006 Paul Cartledge authored
“Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World.”
(HN, 8/9/98)(SFEC, 11/29/98, BR p.3)(WSJ,
11/11/06, p.P11)
480BC Sep 20, Themistocles and
his Greek fleet won one of history's first decisive naval victories
over Xerxes' Persian force off Salamis. Persia under Xerxes attacked
Greece. Athens got burned but the Athenian fleet under Themistocles
trapped and destroyed the Persian navy at Salamis. Phoenician
squadrons were at the heart of Xerxes' fleet; the king of Sidon was
among his admirals. 31 states of the Hellenic League fought Xerxes.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49), (NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(HN,
9/20/98)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A18)
480BC Oct 20, Greeks defeated
the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis. [see Sep 20]
(HN, 10/20/98)
480BC Xerxes performed a
sacrifice at the site of Troy on his way to battle the Greeks.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
480BC The Acropolis temples
were destroyed during the Persian invasion. The ruins lay untouched
for 30 years until 447, when Pericles initiated a reconstruction
program.
(WSJ, 12/14/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A22)
c480BC Vardhamana Mahavira, the semi-legendary
teacher who reformed older doctrines and established Jainism, died.
He is regarded as the 24th and latest Tirthankara, one of the people
to have attained personal immortality through enlightenment. Jainism
was founded as a dualistic, ascetic religion as a revolt against the
caste system and the vague world spirit of Hinduism.
(WUD, 1994, p.762,1488,1580)
c480BC Herodotus said marijuana was cultivated in
Scythia and Thrace, where inhabitants intoxicated themselves by
breathing the vapors given off when the plant was roasted on
white-hot stones.
(WSJ, 2/8/05, p.D7)
480BC - 406BC Euripides, Greek tragic dramatist.
He authored "Medea," "Alcestis," "The Cyclops," "The Trojan Woman,"
and "The Bacchae." His drama dealt with situations that were
analogous to human life. In 1997 Greek archeologists claimed to have
discovered the island cave where he worked. [see 484-406, 487]
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A9)(WUD, 1994, p.492)(USAT,
1/15/97, p.9A)(LSA, Spg/97, p.14)(EEE, p.12)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A8)
479BC Aug 27, A combined Greek
army stopped the Persians at the battle at Plataea.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
479BC Confucius (b.551BC),
K'ung Fu-tzu [K'ung Fu-tse], Chinese philosopher, died. In 2008 Kung
Te-cheng (b.1920), the 77th lineal descendent of Confucius, died in
Taiwan. In 2006 Kung Yu-jen, the 80th lineal descendent was born.
(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.A6)
479BC In China the philosopher
Mo-tzu (d.438BC), founder of Mohism, was born. He taught a message
of universal love and compassion for the common plight of ordinary
people.
(eawc, p.11)
478BC Athens led other Greek
states in the formation of the Delian League to provide money for a
common defense against Persia. Athens used much of the money for
building projects that included the Parthenon. The League continued
even after the end of the Greco-Persian War and transformed into a
naval empire with Athens as its leader.
(eawc, p.11)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.19)
475-221BC The Waring States period. [see
403-321BC]
(SFC, 4/10/97, p.A16)
474BC The Etruscans were routed
by the Greeks of Syracuse in a sea battle off Cumae near Naples.
(NG, 6/1988, p.739)
c470BC Hanno the Navigator, Carthaginian sailor,
described his encounters with “hairy, wild people” on the west coast
of equatorial Africa.
(ON, 11/04, p.11)
c470BC - 469BC Jun 5, Socrates (d.399BC) was born
in Athens. He served as an infantryman during the Peloponnesian War
between Athens and Sparta. A sophist (teacher of philosophy), he
claimed not to know anything for certain and used the interrogatory
method for teaching. He left no written works. He was a major critic
of popular belief in Athens and was the protagonist of Plato's
dialogues. "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of
a vessel." [3rd source has him born in 469]
(V.D.-H.K.p.43)(CFA, '96, p.48)(WU, p.1350)(Hem.,
1/97, p.96)(eawc, p.11)
469BC Sophocles (d.406BC), the
2nd Greek dramatist after Aeschylus, was born. He is considered by
some as the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His works include:
"Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone."
(eawc, p.11)
467BC A meteorite crashed to
earth and convinced Greek philosopher Anaxagoras that heavenly
bodies were not divine beings. He became the world's earliest figure
to be indicted for atheism.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.W4)
465BC Xerxes the Great, king of
Persia, was assassinated.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
465BC - 424BC Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes I, ruled
Persia in the Achaemenis dynasty and Egypt as the 4th king of the
27th Dynasty. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah remember his warmly
because he authorized their revival of Judaism.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
461-429BC In Athens this was the "Age of
Pericles." Athenian democracy reached perfection and the court
systems were completed. A jury system was put in place with the jury
serving as the absolute authority in judicial matters.
(eawc, p.11)
460BC Herodotus turned back in
frustration at the first cataract at Aswan. He stated: "Of the
source of the Nile no one can give any account."
(NG, May 1985, p.629)
460BC Democritus born in
Abdera, SW Thrace. First proposed theory of atoms as the basic
particle of all matter. Only bare fragments of his work survive.
(V.D.-H.K.p.38)
460BC - 400BC Thucydides lived about this time. As
author of the History of the Peloponnesian Wars, he inserted into
his history speeches by important war figures that he made up. He
also wrote on the Athenian slaughter of the Melians. He is
associated with the historical view that cycles of growth, expansion
and decline are a natural part of international life. In 2005 Perez
Zagorin authored “Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common
Reader.”
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/19/06,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides)
455BC Artaxerxes, ruler of
Persia, put down a revolt in Egypt.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
c450BC The golden plate known as the "Phiale
Mesomphalos" was made. In 1998 it was valued at $1.2 million and
held by US Customs.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.W14)
450BC In 2006 archaeologists in
Bangladesh said they had uncovered part of a fortified citadel at
Wari, northeast of Dhaka, dating back to this time that could have
been a stopping off point along an ancient trade route.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
450BC Roman law was codified in the twelve
tablets. The law allowed the plebeians to have knowledge of their
relationship to the law. The plebeians were primarily farmers,
craftsmen and tradesmen with foreign backgrounds. The patricians
made up the aristocracy.
(V.D.-H.K.p.67)(eawc, p.11)
450BC Herodotus journeyed to
the Scythian lands north of the Black Sea and heard tales of women
who were fierce killers of men. He named these women "Amazons," from
a Greek word meaning without one breast. Legend had it that one
breast was removed in order to carry quivers of arrows more
conveniently.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A1,5)
450BC The Nok people of present
day Nigeria began making iron tools.
(ATC, p.110)
450BC Epicharmus, Sicilian
Greek comic poet, died: "The wise man must be wise before, not
after."
(AP, 12/29/97)
448-380BC In Greece Aristophanes, considered by
some as the greatest Greek comedy writer, lived. His work includes
"The Clouds" and "Lysistrata." Greek comedy like Greek tragedy
originated in the Dionysian festivals. In Lysistrata he described
how Greek women abstained from sex until their men stopped fighting
in the Peloponnesian war.
(EEE, p.12)(SFC,11/8/97, p.A10)
447BC Athens under Pericles
initiated a reconstruction program that included the construction of
the Parthenon on the Acropolis.
(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A22)
447BC - 432BC The marble friezes of the Parthenon
were carved.
(AM, 5/01, p.14)
444BC Ikos of Tarentum won the
Olympic Pentathlon. He gave up sex as part of his training regimen.
(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A1)
c444BC - 360BC Agesilaus II, King of Sparta: "If
I have done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be my
monument. If not, no monument can preserve my memory."
(AP, 10/29/97)
440BC - 420BC Sophocles composed his tragedy "The
Trachinian Women." It described what happened when he put on the
robe woven by his wife Deianeira. In 1680 Pierre Puget made his
bronze sculpture of Herakles (Hercules) struggling in the burning
tunic.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.55)
438BC The Parthenon was built
atop the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T7)
434BC The Greek philosopher
Anaxagoras suggested that the sun is just a ball of fire about as
large as the Peloponnesus, floating in the air about 4,000 miles
above the Earth. He believed that the Earth was flat and thereby
estimated the diameter of the sun to be about 35 miles.
(SCTS, p.3-4)
433BC In China the Marquis Yi
of Zeng died about this time. His tomb was discovered in 1978.
(WSJ, 9/27/96, p.A16)
432BC An Athenian devised a
19-year "Metatonic cycle" to reconcile the lunar and solar years.
(SFC, 11/29/03, p.D2)
431BC Euripides wrote his
tragedy "Medea," based on the legend of the sorceress Medea,
daughter of Aeëtes, King of Colchis, and wife of Jason, whom
she assisted in obtaining the Golden Fleece. It describes how Jason
abandoned the sorceress Medea to marry Glauke, a Corinthian
princess.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.55)(WUD, 1994, p.890)
431-404BC The Peloponnesian war between Athens and
Sparta. It was finally won by Sparta. Athenian trade was destroyed
and democracy was overthrown as Athens surrendered to Sparta as a
subject state. Sparta assumed dominance over the Greek world and
replaced many democracies with oligarchies. In 1972 Geoffrey de Ste.
Croix (1910-2000), British Marxist historian, authored "The Origins
of the Peloponnesian War." He pinned the cause of the conflict on
the Spartans.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(EEE, p.12)(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A21)
430BC Thucydides in his History
of the Peloponnesian War tells how the Spartans attempted to destroy
the city of Plataia with a flaming mixture of pitch and sulfur.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)
430BC Legend has it that the
Greek philosopher Empedocles (b.430) climbed Mount Etna only to leap
into its crater in despair. It is said that he jumped in out of
frustration because he couldn’t figure out how the volcano worked.
Empedocles was the author of a work called "On Nature."
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.26)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
430BC - 410BC A mysterious disease killed
one-third of the Athenian population. Thucydides, who was stricken
but recovered, described the plague in Athens (likely an outbreak of
typhus fever) in Book 2 of his History of the Peloponnesian War.
(NH, 6/97, p.11)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
429BC Pericles (b.490BC),
Athenian statesman, died of the plague.
(WUD, 1994, p.1071)(NH, 6/97, p.10)
427BC May 21, Plato (d.347BC),
Greek philosopher, was born. His work included the "Republic," and
the dialogues "Critias" and "Timaeus" in which he mentioned the
island empire of Atlantis. He claimed that an Egyptian priest
confided information about Atlantis to Solon, the Athenian
legislator, whose memoirs Plato claimed to have read. In 1998 2
books on Atlantis were published: "Atlantis Destroyed" by Rodney
Castleden and "Imagining Atlantis" by Richard Ellis.
(HN, 5/21/98)(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)
424BC Thucydides in his history
of the Peloponnesian War tells how the Spartans used pitch and
sulfur against the Athenians at Delium. In this 7th year of the war
unexpected Boeotian horsemen charged on the right flank of Athenian
hoplite column causing many Athenians to flee. Socrates and
Alcibiades retreated into the woods and survived.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)(SSFC, 9/21/03, p.M6)
415BC Greece undertook its
Sicilian Expedition. The overseas adventure destroyed Athenian power
and freedom.
(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.D8)
411BC Aristocratic Athenians,
including students of Socrates, overthrew Athen’s democracy in
conspiracy with Alcibiades. The oligarchic junta lasted only a few
months.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.63)
410BC Darius II, ruler of
Persia, quelled a revolt in Media but lost control of Egypt. He
secured much influence in Greece in the Peloponnesian War through
the diplomacy of Pharnabazus, Tissaphernes, and Cyrus the Younger.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
407BC Euripides wrote "The
Bacchae" while residing at the court of the king of Macedon. He had
left Athens in the last years of its war against Sparta. The play
dealt with the violent introduction of the cult of Dionysos into the
city of Thebes.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A8)
406BC Athenian admirals
abandoned scores of shipwrecked sailors after a victory over the
Spartans at Arginusae. A storm prevented the ships assigned to
rescue the survivors of the 25 disabled or sunken Athenian triremes
from performing their duties, and a great number of sailors drowned.
(Econ, 1/23/10,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arginusae)
406BC Euripides (b.480/484),
Greek tragic dramatist, died. His plays included Phedre, which tells
the story of a queen’s incestuous love for her stepson.
(EEE, p.12)(Econ, 6/20/09, p.89)
406BC Sophocles (b.496/97BC),
the 2nd Greek dramatist after Aeschylus, died. He is considered by
some as the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His works include:
"Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone."
(eawc, p.11)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.D6)
405BC Aristophanes wrote his
play “The Frogs.” It tells how Dionysus, the god of theater, travels
to Hades with his slave Xanthias to bring back the shade of a great
playwright who will revive the declining art of drama and make the
world a better place.
(WSJ, 7/23/04, p.W1)
405BC Persian rule of Egypt
ended.
(eawc, p.9)
404BC Another coup toppled
Athen’s democracy. Leaders included Critias and Charmides, relatives
of Plato. Oligarchs conducted a reign of terror for much of a year
before Athens reclaimed its democracy.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.63)
404BC Artaxerxes II succeeded
Darius II over Persia but was challenged Cyrus the Younger.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
404BC - 399BC Amyrtaios, believed to be a Libyan,
ruled Egypt following the death of Darius II from Sais as the 1st
and only ruler of the 28th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27a.html)
404-338BC Sparta is not able to persist in the
rule of Greece. Power over Greece shifts from Sparta to Thebes and
then to numerous other city-states, none able to maintain rule over
such a large empire.
(http://eawc.evansville.edu)
403-321BC During the Waring States period in
China, the Pu people buried wedged wooden coffins into the cliffs a
1,000 feet above the Yangtze River in Jingzhu Gorge. [see 475-221BC]
(NH, 7/96, p.36,37)
401BC Oligarchs in Athens
schemed a 3rd coup but failed.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.63)
401BC In the Battle of Cunaxa
Cyrus attempted to oust his brother Artaxerxes from rule over
Babylon. Greek forces, hired to help Cyrus, were left stranded when
Cyrus died. The Greek army elected Xenophon to lead them back home.
Xenophon later authored his “Anabasis” (expedition up country),
which told the story of return home. In 2005 Tim Rood authored “The
Sea, The Sea,” an analysis of Xenophon’s life story following his
death.
(WSJ, 5/4/05, p.D10)
400BC In 2007 a 2,400-year-old
golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a
timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria.
(AP, 7/17/07)
c400BC In southern Greece the Phigaleians built a
temple in tribute to Apollo for restoring their homeland taken by
invading Spartans. The temple of Apollo Epikourios near Bassai was
said to have been designed by Iktinos.
(Arch, 9/00, p.16)
c400BC The first temple known to be dedicated to
the "supreme" Zeus was constructed about this time. In 2003 a
2,400BC - year-old headless marble statue was found along with 14
columns depicting eagles, one of the symbols of Hypsistos Zeus, the
chief deity of ancient Greece.
(AP, 8/2/03)
400BC In India Panini's
"Sutra," the earliest Sanskrit grammar, was written.
(EEE, p.12)
c400BC In a wave of Celtic expansion tribes poured
through the Alps into Italy.
(NGM, 5/77)
400BC Korean farmers about this
time brought rice to Japan.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.66)
400BC By this time the
Sarmatians were occupying outposts of the Roman empire in the
Balkans.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
c400BC A nomadic tribal chief was buried at
Pazyryk in southern Siberia. This tomb in the Altay Mountains was
later found and discovered to contain wool fabrics, a carpet, a
saddle of felt and leather, felt figures of swans, a horse harness
with carved wooden rams' heads. and a fleece in near perfect
condition. The origin of the carpet with its 1,125,000 knots is
under debate. It might have come from Assyria or Iran.
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 567-569)
400BC - 300BC In China the Zhuangzi, the 2nd great
Taoist text, was compiled.
(WSJ, 12/26/00, p.A9)
400BC - 300BC The Chinese began suffering from
fierce attacks of nomadic herdsmen, the Hsiung-nu, from the north
and west. They began to build parts of what came to be called the
Great Wall for protection.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.24)
c400BC - 300BC The Greeks founded Neopolis
(Naples), their "New City" in the 4th century BC They carved blocks
of tufa stone to build the city structures and left behind cavernous
quarries. Centuries later the Romans turned the quarries into
cisterns and connected them with tunnels. Water was brought in from
the Serino River in the hills of Avellino, 96 miles to the north.
This provided the water supply until 1883.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 , p.T9)
400BC - 300BC Tamassos was the capital of one of
11 kingdoms on Cyprus that were abolished at the end of the 4th
century and replaced by a unified administrative system.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.20)
400BC - 300 Aeneas the Tactician in his siege
craft manual advised generals defending city walls to throw burning
bags of linen fibers treated with sulfur and pitch on the enemy.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)
400BC - 300BC The Greek writer Ephorus referred to
the Celts, Scythians, Persians and Libyans as the four great
barbarian peoples in the known world.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.11)
400BC - 300BC King Bardhylus united Illyria,
Molossia (Epirus) and part of Macedonia. The Illyrian kingdom
reached its peak.
(www, Albania, 1998)
400BC - 300BC A mint of this time served
Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula with a population of 10,000 to
20,000.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.F6)
c400BC - 300 Praxiteles sculpted Aphrodite, the
1st known sculpture of a nude woman.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.D4)
c400BC - 300 Archestratus was a 4th century Greek
Sicilian. His writings included recipes of the time.
(SFC, 3/31/99, p.A8)
400BC - 300 Theophrastus, a natural historian,
wrote a treatise on pyrophoric minerals.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.58)
c400BC - 200BC The "creative" phase of classical
Greek geometry. The subject was studied by Prof. Wilbur Richard
Knorr (d.1997 at 51) of Stanford who wrote: "The Evolution of
Euclidean Elements," "Ancient Sources of the Medieval Tradition of
Mechanics," "The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems," and
"Textual Studies in Ancient and Medieval Geometry."
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.D5)
400BC - 250CE The Yayoi culture is
identified by its pottery. Mongoloid people from Korea entered Japan
and mixed with the older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34,38)
c400BC - 1100CE Anuradhapura served as the capital
of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) during this period.
(SFC, 9/16/96, p.A9)
399BC Feb 15, Socrates was
condemned to death on charges of corrupting the youth and
introducing new gods into Greek thought. A tribunal of 501 citizens
found Socrates guilty of the charge of impiety and corruption of
youth. Socrates b.(469BC) had been the teacher of two leaders who
were held responsible for the Greek‘s loss to Sparta in the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Plato‘s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo
describe Socrates‘ trial, imprisonment and death.
(eawc, p.11)(HNQ, 3/21/00)
399BC May 7, Socrates
(b.469BC), Greek philosopher, committed suicide. He had been
indicted for rejecting the Gods acknowledged by the State, of
bringing in strange deities, and of corrupting the youth. In
2007 Emily Wilson authored “The Death of Socrates.”
(www.crystalinks.com/socrates.html)(WSJ,
11/24/07, p.W8)
399BC - 393BC Nepherites served as the 1st ruler
of Egypt’s 29th Dynasty. During his rule he entered into an alliance
with Sparta against the Persians. A gift ship to Sparta was lost at
Rhodes, which had defected to the Persians.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
396BC Roman legions sacked the
Etruscan city of Veio, after a ten-year siege, ended the city's long
conflict with Rome.
(NG, 6/1988, p.711)(SFC, 6/17/06, p.A12)
395BC Agesilaos of Sparta
ravaged northwestern Turkey.
(Arch, 7/02, p.8)
394BC Athens, Greece, declared
an embargo on Megara about this time. The ensuing 27-year struggle
left the Athenians humiliated and Magara’s ally, Corinth,
triumphant.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.70)
393BC - 380BC Hakoris served as the 2nd or 3rd
ruler of Egypt’s 29th Dynasty. There is some confusion because a
king named Psammuthis ruled in 393BC. During Hakoris’ reign there
was a 3 year war with Persia.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
391BC - 377BC Hecatomnus, satrap of Caria, ruled
over Mylasa about this time. The Persian king Artaxerxes II Mnemon
appointed Hecatomnus as satrap of this part of the Achaemenid
Empire. A 2,800-year-old tomb and carved coffin, decorated with
reliefs of a bearded reclining man, believed to be Hecatomnus, was
discovered in 2010.
(AP,
8/13/10)(www.livius.org/he-hg/hecatomnids/hecatomnus.html)
387BC Rampaging bands of Celts
captured Rome and then settled down to a life of agriculture in the
Po Valley.
(NGM, 5/77)
384BC Aristotle (d.322 BC) was
born in Stagira, Macedonia. He entered Plato's Academy at age 17.
After several years as tutor to Alexander the Great he returned to
Athens and founded the Lyceum. [see Mar 7, 322 BC]
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(WSJ, 9/30/98, p.A16)(NH,
12/98, p.10)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
384-322BC Demosthenes, Greek statesman: "He who
confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a
sordid, ungenerous spirit."
(AP, 10/4/00)
382BC - 336BC Philip II of Macedon, king of
Macedonia (359-336), and father of Alexander the Great.
(WUD, 1994, p.1081)
380BC Nepherites II, son of
Hakoris, served as the 4th and final ruler of Egypt’s 29th Dynasty.
He reigned for only 4 months before being overthrown.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
380BC In Egypt a giant stone
was set at the Nile's exit into the Mediterranean by order of
Pharaoh Nektanebo I. A smaller stela noted the name of the city as
Herakleoin. The city was submerged by an earthquake around 800CE. In
2001 the stones were pulled from the sea.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A9)
380BC - 362BC Nectanebo served as the 1st ruler of
Egypt’s 30th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
380BC - 700 The site at Tra Kieu, Vietnam, is
believed to be Simhapura, the former capital of an Indianized Cham
kingdom.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
373BC The Greek city of Helike
was destroyed by an earthquake. Historians recorded that rats,
snakes and weasels had abandoned Helice just days before the quake
struck.
(NH, 10/02, p.78)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A6)
373BC The Persian army moved to
attack Egypt. They abandoned the effort when the Nile flooded over
the Delta.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
373BC - 288BC In China the Confucianist Meng-Tzu
(Mencius) lived. He departed from the ideas of Confucius by positing
a theory of just rebellion against immoral rulers. [see 371-289BC]
(EEE, p.12)
371BC Jul, Sparta, led by King
Agesilaus II, was decisively defeated in the Battle of Leuctra by
the Thebans under Epaminondas (47), commander of the Boeotian
League, which was an alliance of 11 city states in central Greece.
(HNQ, 10/24/00)(ON, 9/06, p.1)
371BC - 289BC Mencius, Chinese philosopher: "The
great man is he who does not lose his child's heart." [see
373-288BC]
(AP, 11/19/98)
370BC Epaminondas, commander of
the Boeotian League, led an army into the Peloponnese and captured
the prefecture of Messenia, which had been ruled and enslaved by
Sparta for 3 centuries.
(ON, 9/06, p.3)
c369BC - c286BC Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zhou), Chinese philosopher and
writer. His work included the spiritual masterpiece "Inner
chapters." "Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of
education."
(AP, 11/11/97)(NH, 7/00, p.59)(SSFC,
2/18/01, DB p.35)
367BC In Rome the first plebian
consul was elected to the assembly. The Plebeians also became
eligible to serve as lesser magistrates, formerly a position
reserved for the aristocratic class. Because an ancient custom
allowed promotion from the magistracy to the Senate, the
patrician-dominated Senate was broken.
(EEE, p.12)
367BC - 348BC Aristotle studied under Plato at the
Academy in Athens. He left Athens to travel for 12 years and
returned to Macedonia where he tutored Alexander, son of Philip for
3 years. It was Plato who said that "A woman is only a lesser man."
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(SFEC, 10/20/96, Z1 p.2)
367BC - 283BC Ptolemy I (Soter), founder of the
Macedonian dynasty of Egypt. He ruled Egypt from 306-285.
(WUD, 1994, p.1162)
365BC - 360BC Teos, son of Nectanebo, served as
the 2nd ruler of Egypt’s 30th Dynasty. He failed in an attempted
attack on Persia and was deserted by the Egyptians and Greek
mercenaries. He fled to Persia where Artaxerxes II gave him refuge.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
364BC Gan De, noted Chinese
astronomer, reported a viewing of Jupiter and one of its 16 moons.
(SFC, 4/10/97, p.A16)
363BC Artaxerxes III (Ochus),
son of Artaxerxes II, became king of Persia.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
362BC Epaminondas, commander of
the Boeotian League, confronted an army of Spartan and Athenian
troops near Mantinea. The Boeotians won the battle but Epaminondas
died from a javelin wound.
(ON, 9/06, p.3)
360BC Greek philosopher Plato,
in his "dialogues" from about this time, said an island he called
Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths
of the sea." He described Atlantis as "an island situated in front
of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules." In
2011 a US-led research team, using a satellite photo of a suspected
submerged city, suggested a site just north of Cadiz, Spain, as the
site of Atlantis.
(Reuters, 3/12/11)
360BC - 343BC Nectanebo II served as the 3rd and
final ruler of Egypt’s 30th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
359-336 Philip II ruled the Kingdom of Macedonia.
He founded Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
(WUD, 1994, p.1081)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.E1)
358 BC Illyrians were defeated by Philip II of
Macedonia.
(www, Albania, 1998)
356BC Alexander the Great
(d.323) was born in Pella, Greece. Alexander also married the
daughter of Darius, whom he defeated in 333, and a Sogdian princess
while staying firmly attached to his comrade, Hephaistion.
Alexander later married a barbarian princess, Roxana, the daughter
of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great)(WSJ, 5/15/98,
p.W11)(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A4)
354BC Demosthenes wrote a
series of speeches, later called the Philippics, which urged
Athenians to defend the city against Philip of Macedon.
(ON, 9/00, p.12)
352BC The Greek Mausoleum of
Helicarnassus was built. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the
1300s.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.B1)
350BC First evidence of humans in southwest
Colorado: corn pollen. Nomadic hunter-gatherers planted crops in the
spring, then left to forage and hunt over the summer, returning in
the fall to harvest and seek shelter in caves for the winter. They
made baskets of yucca fibers, sometimes waterproofed with pitch from
piñon pine.
(HN, 2/11/97)
c350BC The zi were probably living in Colorado
caves. Their present name comes from a Navajo word meaning "the
ancient ones" or "the ancient enemy."
(HNQ, 7/1/01)
350BC Babylonian tables of
astronomical numbers regularly use zero.
(V.D.-H.K.p.28)
c350BC The time of Praxiteles, Greek Athenian
sculptor.
(WUD, 1994, p.1129)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.19)
c350BC The new philosophy of the Cynics emerged
led by Greek philosopher Diogenes (404-323). He argued against
conventional life and that people should live naturally and strive
for self-sufficiency.
(eawc, p.13)(SFC, 10/29/08, p.G2)
c350BC Temples in Greece began to be used by ill
worshippers hoping for a cure from the gods. These were later
considered as the first hospitals.
(SFEC,6/11/00, Z1 p.2)
c350BC The kingdom of Illyria emerged in the
region of Shkoder in what is now Albania.
(CO, Grolier's Amer. Acad. Enc./ Albania)
350BC The Chavin civilization
had a settlement at this time on the north-western coast of Peru.
The elite of this civilization tracked the movement of the sun
throughout the year.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.84)
350BC - 338BC In China Shang Yang ruled the Ch'in
Dynasty. He operated against the assumptions of a theory of absolute
aggression justified by the "School of Law."
(EEE, p.12)
350BC - 283BC Kautilya, Indian political advisor,
lived about this time. He is generally called Chanakya (derived from
his father's name "Chanak") but, in his capacity as author of the
Arthashastra, is generally referred to as Kautilya derived from his
clan's name "Kotil" (Kautilya means "of Kotil"). He was a master of
the shrewd act of diplomacy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya)
348-345BC Aristotle lived and taught in Assos,
(later Behramkale), Turkey, before he was summoned to teach
Alexander in Macedonia.
(SFC, 10/6/05, p.E8)
347BC Plato (b.427BC), the most
distinguished student of Socrates, died. His real name was
Aristocles. Plato meant broad and he was known to have broad
shoulders. He was a prolific writer and considered by some as the
most important of all Greek philosophers. His works were all in
dialogue form and include: the "Apology," the "Symposium," the
"Phaedo," the "Phaedrus," and the "Republic."
(EEE, p.12)(SFEC, 9/28/97, Z1 p.2)
343BC Artaxerxes III of Persia
led a successful campaign against Egypt and Nectanebo II fled to
Ethiopia. Artaxerxes appointed Pherendares as satrap of Egypt and
returned to Babylon laden with treasures.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
343-332BC In Egypt the Persians ruled for a 2nd
time.
(eawc, p.13)
343BC - 338BC Artaxerxes III (Ochus), king of
Persia, served as 1st ruler of Egypt’s 31st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
342BC Menander (c.~291), Greek
playwright, was born about this time in Athens. He wrote more than
100 plays, but many of his works have been lost. A 9th century
manuscript from a Syrian monastery contains 200 verses from
Menander's play "Dyskolos" ("The Grouch"). In 2003 a scholar
reported another 200 verses in the document appear to be by
Menander.
(AP,
12/6/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menander)
341-270BC Epicurus, Greek philosopher born [342BC]
in Samos, held that happiness is the supreme good. He had studied
under Democritus and was a confirmed atomist. His happiness is
interpreted to mean the avoidance of pain.
(V.D.-H.K.p.71)(eawc, p.14)
340BC Aristotle argued for the
spherical shape of the Earth in his "On The Heavens."
(BHT, Hawking, p.2)
340BC In 1962 a papyrus scroll
was found in a grave, about five miles northwest of Thessaloniki. It
was part of a rich cemetery belonging to the ancient city of Lete.
The original several yards of papyrus, rolled around two wooden
runners, was found half burnt. It dates to around 340 BC, during the
reign of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.
(AP, 6/1/06)
c340BC - 265BC Zeno of Citium, aka Zeno the Stoic,
was born in Cyprus. [see 335-263]
(WUD, 1994, p.1660)
c340BC - 200CE Balathal near Udaipur in northeast
India was reoccupied by a new people who built a massive rampart
around the site and later abandoned it.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)
338BC In Greece Philip of
Macedon conquered the country and was succeeded by his son 2 years
later. Athens ceased to be a major power from this point on.
Philip’s League of Corinth was composed of impotent Hellenic states
that had lost their collective freedom at the battle of Chaeronea.
(eawc, p.13)(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/26/99,
p.A18)
338BC Philip II erected
Olympia’s Philippeion in Athens following his victory at Chaeronea.
The round marble building was completed by his son, Alexander.
(AM, 7/04, p.24)
338BC Artaxerxes III (Ochus),
king of Persia, was murdered by his own commander Bagoas.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
338BC Arses, the youngest son
of Ochus, succeeded his father as king of Persia. He served as the
2nd ruler of Egypt’s 31st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
336BC King Philip II, the
father of Alexander the Great, was murdered at a theater in Aigai in
northern Greece.
(AP, 8/29/09)
336BC Alexander inherited the
throne of Macedonia and all of Greece. He went to see the Oracle of
Delphi but was initially refused entry. He forced his way and
dragged the seeress into the temple. Plutarch wrote: "As if
conquered by his violence, she said, 'My son, thou art invincible.'"
"That is all the answer I desire," replied Alexander. He began his
campaign to acquire new territory in Asia at age 22. Within 4 years
he conquered the entire Persian Empire.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(NG,Jan,1968 , p.1,4)(eawc, p.13)
336BC Arses, king of Persia and
ruler of Egypt’s 31st Dynasty, was murdered by his commander Bagoas.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
335BC Aristotle opened the
Lyceum in Athens which was devoted to scientific work. He invented
the science of logic, and divided the sciences into different fields
distinguished by subject matter and methodology. He believed in the
innate inferiority of slaves and females. He wrote the "Nicomachean
Ethics," a book about virtue and its reward, happiness. He
identified circularity in reasoning as the "fallacy of the
consequent" i.e. A good man is one who makes the right choices.
Greek archeologists claimed to have found the Lyceum site in 1997.
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(USAT, 1/15/97, p.9A)
335BC - 332BC Darius III was raised to the throne
of Persia by the eunuch Bagoas, who had killed the 2 previous
rulers. Darius in turn had Bagoas murdered.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
c335BC - c263BC Zeno the Stoic set up a school in
Athens at the Stoa Poikile (Painted Colonnade), and taught that
happiness consists in conforming the will to the divine reason,
which governs the universe. Thus a man is happy if he fully accepts
what is and does not desire what cannot be. Zeno was a Phoenician
from Kition on Cyprus. He taught that "events were destined to
repeat themselves" in endless cycles. [see 340-265]
(V.D.-H.K.p.71)(NG, Aug., 1974, p.189)(SFC,
7/14/97, p.E5)
334BC Alexander (22) left
Pella, Greece, with 30,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 cavalry and
proceeded to conquer western Asia including Miletus and Samos. His
favorite horse was named Bucephalus. At Gordium, where King Midas is
fabled to have held court, Alexander solved the puzzle of the
Gordian knot by severing it with his sword.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(NG, Jan, 1968 , p.1,4,6)(ON,
1/01, p.9)
c334BC Seleukos I, a general under Alexander the
Great, founded Antioch on the banks of the Orontes River.
(AM, 11/00, p.69)
333BC Alexander first
confronted Darius, king of Persia, and defeated him at the
battlefield of Issus. During the Renaissance German painter Albrecht
Altdorfer (1480-1538) painted a depiction of the battle.
(NG, Jan, 1968 , p.18)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)
333BC Alexander the Great
(353BC-323BC), married a barbarian (Sogdian) princess, Roxana, the
daughter of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes. Alexander also married the
daughter of Darius, whom he defeated in 333, while staying firmly
attached to his comrade, Hephaistion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.68)(Hem., 2/97, p.116)(WSJ, 5/15/98,
p.W11)
333BC Alexander’s forces
overcame the Pisidians of Sagalassos.
(AM, 11/04, p.38)
c333 BC Hittite lands and the village known as
Ancyra (later Angora, Ankora) was conquered by Macedonians led by
Alexander the Great.
(HNQ, 4/15/02)
332BC Jul, In Phoenicia
Alexander stormed the island of Tyre by building a causeway to the
island. He then besieged the city of Gaza. He moved on to conquer
Egypt and founded Alexandria.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71), (NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(Enc.
of Africa, 1976, p.167)
332BC Alexander entered Egypt
and founded Alexandria. A fishing village at the site was called
Rhakotis. In 2007 archeologists found evidence of urban settlement
at Alexandria dating back to about 1,000 BC.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)(AP, 7/26/07)
332-63BC The Hellenistic period in Israel.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
331BC Sep 23, Alexander's
scouts encountered the camp of King Darius near Guagamela. The force
numbered 25,000 horsemen, 50,000 foot soldiers, 200 chariots and 15
war elephants.
(ON, 1/01, p.11)
331BC Oct 1, Alexander the
Great decisively shattered King Darius III's Persian army at
Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that left him master
of the Persian Empire.
(HN, 10/1/98)
331BC Alexander left Egypt and
left Cleomenes of Naukratis in charge. This position was later
claimed by Ptolemy. When Alexander died, Ptolemy's generals divided
the kingdom.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
331BC Alexander conquered the
Persian Empire and made his way to India and conquered part of it.
(eawc, p.13)
331BC The Achaemenid King of
Persia, Darius III, died in Bactria. Bessus, the satrap of Bactria
had him murdered.
(AHD, 1971,
p.10)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
331BC Alexander reached
Persopolis, the capital of Persia, and burned it.
(V.D.-H.K.p.50)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.48)
330BC Alexandria became the
capital of Egypt.
(SSFC, 5/9/04, p.A17)
c330BC Euclid showed that an infinite number of
Prime numbers exists, but occur in no logical pattern.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A3)
330BC - 320BC A Temple of Zeus was built at Nemea,
Greece, on the foundations of an earlier temple.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B2)
329BC Alexander the Great took
Samarkand [in what is now Uzbekistan]. Its ancient name was
Marakanda.
(WUD, 1994, p.1264)
329BC - 326BC After conquering Persia, Alexander
the Great invaded Afghanistan. He conquered Afghanistan, but failed
to really subdue its people. Constant revolts plagued Alexander.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
327BC - 326BC Alexander the Great passed through
the Indus Valley and installed Greek officials in the area.
(eawc, p.13)
326BC Alexander crossed the
Indus river at Hund and then the Jhelum river and defeated King
Porus at the edge of India. This was his last great battle.
(NG, Jan, 1968, p.56)
326BC The Charsadda site (aka
Bala Hisar) in northern Pakistan was besieged by Alexander. It then
passed from Mauryan to Indo-Greek, Parthian, Sassanian, and Kushan
rule. The pagan Kalash of Pakistan later claimed to be descendants
of Alexander's soldiers.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.C)(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)
325BC Pytheas (c380BC-310BC),
Greek merchant, geographer and explorer, made a voyage of
exploration to northwestern Europe around this time. He traveled
around Great Britain, circumnavigating it between 330 and 320 BC. He
claimed to have sailed past Scotland and mentioned a land called
Thule, where the surrounding ocean froze and the sun disappeared in
winter.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas)
325-300BC Flavius Josephus, historian of the first
century, wrote that a Samaritan Temple was built (on Mt. Gerizim)
that was a copy of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Josephus dated it
to the late part of the fourth century. The temple's first chief
priest is said to have been Manasseh, a Jewish priest who married a
Samaritan woman named Nikaso. The Jewish elders forced Manasseh to
choose between the Jewish Temple or his wife. He chose his wife and
her father, Sanballat, built for Manasseh a copy of the Jewish
temple on Mt. Gerizim.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)
323BC Jun 10, Alexander died in
Persia at Babylon at the age of 32. His general, Ptolemy, took
possession of Egypt. Apelles was a painter in Alexander's court. He
had been commissioned by Alexander to paint a portrait of Campaspe,
Alexander's concubine. Apelles fell in love with Campaspe and
Alexander granted her to him in marriage. In 1984 Curtius Quintas
Rufus authored "the History of Alexander." In 1991 Peter Green
authored "Alexander of Macedon, A Historical Biography." “Alexander
the Great” by Norman F. Cantor (d.2004) was published in 2005.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.12E)(WSJ, 2/11/00, p.W6) (ON,
1/01, p.11)(SSFC, 12/25/05, p.M3)
323BC The Temple of Artemis in
Ephesus, a Graeco-Roman seaport (later in Turkey), was completed
after 125 years of construction. It was acclaimed the most beautiful
structure in the world and considered one of the 7 architectural
wonders of the ancient world. Its ruins were discovered in 1869 by
archeologist John T. Wood (d.1890).
(ON, 11/00, p.3)
323BC The Greeks ruled Bactria
(Northern Afghanistan)
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
323BC The death of Alexander
provided an opportunity for an independent state in India.
Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya dynasty, the first Indian
empire with its capital in Patna.
(eawc, p.13)(SC, 5/18/02)
323BC-285BC Ptolemy I Soter,
son of Lagus and commander under Alexander, ruled Egypt as the first
king of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Under his rule the library of
Alexandria was commissioned.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)(http://tinyurl.com/bodry)
323BC - 30BC In Greece this
period is called the Hellenistic Age, the time from Alexander's
death to Roman rule. The principle work on this period is
"Hellenistic Athens" by Prof. William Scott Ferguson (1875-1954). In
1995 Prof. Christian Habicht published "Athens from Alexander to
Antony" in Germany. An English edition was translated by Deborah
Lucas Schneider in 1997.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
323BC - 30BC Ptolemy and his
descendants ruled over Egypt. This era came to be known as the
Ptolemaic period. At the ancient library of Alexandria Callimachus
of Cyrene was the first to catalog writings alphabetically.
(Enc. of Africa,1976, p.167)(SFC, 11/4/96,
p.A11)(SFEC, 11/10/96, Parade p.13)
323BC - 30BC During the
Hellenistic Age the Grand Theater of Ephesus was built into the side
of Mt. Pion and could hold 24,000 spectators.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T7)
322BC Athens was brought under
the control of the Macedonian empire. Demosthenes was sentenced to
death, but he escaped and sought refuge on the island of Calauria,
where he committed suicide after troops followed him. In 1927
Charles Darwin Adams authored "Demosthenes and His Influence."
(ON, 9/00, p.12)
322BC Mar 7, Aristotle (d.322
BC) died. His writings included treatises on logic, metaphysics,
ethics, politics, rhetoric and natural sciences. He first described
language in terms of subject and predicate as well as parts of
speech. Aristotelian logic is based on a small number of unambiguous
constructs, such as, "if A, then B": the truth of one implies the
truth of another. This celebrated rule gives Aristotelian reasoning
the power to establish facts through inference. The constructs also
included A=A, representing that every entity is equal to itself. He
defined politics as the science of the sciences that looks after
well-being. His writings included "De Generatione Animalum." His
"Historia Animalium" was later translated by D'Arcy Wentworth
Thompson." "Hope is a waking dream." The opening of his
"Metaphysics" began: "All men by nature desire to know."
(V.D.-H.K.p.44,45)(I&I, Penzias, p.73)(Hem.,
1/96, p.11)(LSA, Spg/97, p.6)(EEE, p.12)(AP, 8/9/98)(WSJ, 9/30/98,
p.A16)(NH, 12/98, p.10)(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A13)
322BC The Mauryans ruled over
India.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
320BC-c235BC In China the philosopher Hsun-tzu,
the founder of Legalism, lived. He was an orthodox Confucianist and
believed strongly in moral education. He repudiated any belief in a
spiritual realm and believed that human beings are evil by nature.
(eawc, p.13)
316BC The Ba people on the
Yangtze River were subjugated by the Qin.
(NH, 7/96, p.31)
316BC The Ch'in conquered Shu
and Pa (modern-day Szechuan) and gained a serious advantage over the
Ch'u.
(eawc, p.13)
315BC Thessaloniki, Greece, was
founded about this time and flourished during the Roman and
Byzantine eras. In 2008 Greek workers discovered around 1,000
graves, some filled with ancient treasures, while excavating for a
subway system. Some of the graves, dated from the first century B.C.
to the 5th century A.D., contained jewelry, coins and various pieces
of art.
(AP, 3/11/08)
312BC Appius Claudius, the
Blind, as consul began the building of the Via Appia. The historian
Procopius states that the road was completed at this time. It ran
due south from Rome to Capua.
(V.D.-H.K.p.69)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.E5)
312 BC King Glauk of Illyria expelled the Greeks
from Durrës.
(www, Albania, 1998)
310BC Aristarchus of Samos
founded Hellenistic astronomy. Contrary to Aristotle he said that
the earth and all the other planets revolve around the sun. [see
300BC-200BC]
(eawc, p.14)
310BC Pytheas (b.c380BC), Greek
merchant, geographer and explorer, died about this time. He made a
voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe around 325 BC. He
traveled around a considerable part of Great Britain,
circumnavigating it between 330 and 320 BC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas)
309BC Heracles, the
illegitimate teenage son of Alexander the Great, was murdered about
this time during the wars of succession and buried in secret.
(AP, 8/29/09)
309-247 Ptolemy II (Philadelphus). He ruled Egypt
from 285-247?.
(WUD, 1994, p.1162)
304BC Cnieus Flavius, a
commoner, brought justice to Rome by stealing a calendar. He posted
his purloined tablet in the Roman Forum. The letters A-H
corresponded to an 8-day Roman market-day cycle.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)
304BC In India Chandragupta
traded 500 war elephants to Seleucus in exchange for the Indus
region and lands immediately to the West.
(eawc, p.14)
~302BC Mithradates Ktistes shortly after 302 BC
created the Kingdom of Pontus on the southern coast of the Black
Sea. It would be ruled by his descendants mostly bearing the same
name, till 64 BC. He was for a time in the service of Antigonus, one
of Alexander's successors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontus)
301 BC The generals of Alexander fought the Battle
of Ipsus in Phrygia that resulted in the division of the Greek
Empire into 4 divisions ruled by Seleucus, Lysimachus, Cassander and
Ptolemy. Greek cities revolted against Macedonian rule but to no
avail.
(eawc, p.13)
c300BC In 2005 a well-preserved and colorful mummy
from the 30th pharaonic dynasty was unveiled at Egypt’s Saqqara
pyramid complex.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A1)
300BC Euclid compiled his
"Elements of Geometry." Included was his demonstration for "regular
partitioning."
(V.D.-H.K.p.37)(WSJ, 12/9/96, p.B1)
c300BC In Greece Epicureanism and Stoicism
originated in Athens. Both Epicurus and Zeno, the Stoic, believed in
an individualistic and materialistic philosophy. Neither believed in
spiritual substances. The soul was thought to be material. The
Epicureans believed that pleasure is the highest good, and that only
by abandoning the fear of the supernatural can one achieve
tranquility of mind. The Stoics believed that tranquility of mind
was only achieved by surrendering the self to the order of the
cosmos.
(eawc, p.14)
300BC Kautilya (aka Chanakya),
an Indian statesman and scholar, authored the Artha-Shastra (the
Science of Material Gain) at the end of the 4th century BC. This is
the first known treatise on government and economy.
(www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Ancient/Kautilya.html)
300BC In Ireland 2 men were
murdered about this time. In 2005 their preserved remains were found
in a peat bog. One dubbed Clonycavan Man was about 5 feet 2 inches
and used hair gel. The other, dubbed Oldcroghan Man, stood 6 feet 6
inches. "Oldcroghan Man was stabbed through the chest. He was then
decapitated and his body cut in half while Clonycaven Man had his
head split open with an axe before he was disemboweled.
(Reuters, 1/7/06)
300BC Carthago Nova (Cartagena,
Spain) had coins minted in the Greek style. One face bears the image
of Melqart, chief god of Tyre, the other face shows a horse and palm
tree, emblems of Carthage.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.171)
300BC Spain was named by the
Carthaginians about this time as Ispania, meaning land of rabbits.
The Romans changed the name slightly to Hispania, which evolved to
Espana (Spain).
(SSFC, 12/19/10, p.M2)
c300BC As early as this time, travelers went to
Petra in the northwest corner of the Arabian peninsula for its
abundant spring water.
(ATC, p.55)
c300BC Palur in eastern India near Chilika Lake
has yielded red-and-black-ware potsherds, one of which had the image
of a boat.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)
300BC Dura-Europos, a Greek
colony was built on the Euphrates in eastern Syria.
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
c300BC By about this time iron-working had spread
all along the savanna belt of West Africa.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
300BC Seleucia was founded
about this time in southeastern Turkey as a Greek settlement by
Seleucus I Nicator one of Alexander’s generals. Seleucia was on the
west bank and Apamea on the east bank of the Euphrates River. In 64
BC it was conquered and ruled by the Roman Empire and with this
shift the name of the city was changed into Zeugma, meaning
"bridge-passage" or "bridge of boats."
(Arch, 9/02,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma_(city))
300BC-250CE Late preclassic
period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
c300BC-200BC Aristarchus, Greek philosopher of the
late 3rd cent., proposed the Sun as the center of the universe. [see
310BC]
(NH, 9/96, p.70)
c300BC-200BC Apollonius, Greek poet emigrant from
Alexandria to Rhodes, and author of the "Argonautica."
(HH, 1932, p.498)(SFC, 9/15/97, p.E3)
c300BC-200BC In China an emperor dispatched the
sailor Hsu Fu to search the Pacific Ocean for the "drug of
immortality." He came back empty-handed after the first trip and set
out again never to return.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1 p.3)
c300BC-200BC In China Qu Wan, a poet and official,
despaired on the possibility of justice in this world and threw
himself into a river.
(WSJ, 9/24/97, p.A20)
c300BC-200BC In Egypt scientists of the Univ. of
Calif. Berkeley expedition of 1899 uncovered hundreds of crocodile
mummies encased and stuffed with papyrus covered with writings from
the ruins of the city of Tebtunis. The site dated from the 3rd
century BC when Ptolemy the Great ruled.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.A4)
300BC-200BC In 2006
archaeologists at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala dated Mayan
hieroglyphs painted on plaster and stone to this period.
(Reuters, 1/5/06)
300BC-200BC The city of
Berenice on the Mediterranean coast (later in Libya) was named by
the Greeks.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C6)
c300BC-200BC Andronicus Livius, a Roman actor of
the 3rd cent. BC improvised silently and originated pantomime.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.C3)
300BC-200BC During the 3rd
century BC Mongolia became the center of the Hsiung-nu empire.
(www.gobiexpeditions.com)
300BC-200BC In Thailand Ban
Chaibadan on the Pasak River is one of several sites that has
archaeological remains that show the development of a complex
society.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
300BC-64BC Antioch served as
the capital of the kingdom of Syria.
(WUD, 1994 p.66)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls
of Qumran, Jordan, date to this period. The scrolls are usually
identified with the Jewish-monkish cult, the Essenes, know for their
pathological aversion to stool. In 2004 Chicago Prof. Norman Golb
authored “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.” In 2009 Israeli scholar
Rachel Elior theorized that the Essenes, did not exist. She
suggested they were really the renegade sons of Zadok, a priestly
caste banished from the Temple of Jerusalem by intriguing Greek
rulers in 2nd century BC. When they left, they took the source of
their wisdom - their scrolls - with them.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(SFC,
9/6/04, p.A4)(TIME, 3/17/09)
300BC-68BC The Dead Sea Scrolls
dating to this period were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of
Qumran in Jordan in 1947. The scrolls predated the Christian
gospels, but contained many similarities. They also contained some
differences from the traditional (Masoretic) text of the Hebrew
Bible. In 1955 Edmund Wilson published "The Scrolls from the Dead
Sea." In 1998 Hershel Shank published "The Mystery and meaning of
the Dead Sea Scrolls." From 1978-1998 over 6,000 books were written
about the scrolls. The discovery date was later contested as were
many of the historic circumstances surrounding the scrolls [see
Jordan 1947].
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)
295BC The Battle of Sentinum.
Etruria was defeated by Rome and the Etruscan decline continued for
more than 200 years.
(NG, 6/1988, p.739)
290BC Ptolemy I of Egypt
authorized the construction of the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria.
It became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
(www.unmuseum.org/pharos.htm)
290BC The 110-foot Colossus of
Rhodes, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world, was built to
the sun god Helios.
(AM, 7/00, p.16)
287BC In Rome the plebeians
passed a law that allowed the decisions of the assembly to override
the Senate.
(eawc, p.14)
287BC Theophrastus (b.c371BC),
Greek philosopher, died. He produced the 1st known work on plant
reproduction “De historia plantarum. He was a contemporary of
Aristotle and succeeded him as head of the Lyceum.
(www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e01/01a.htm)(Econ, 11/12/05,
p.88)
287BC - 212BC Archimedes, Greek mathematician,
physicist and inventor. He discovered the principles of specific
gravity and of the lever. His works included "Method of Mechanical
Theorems" and "On Floating Bodies." He named the number, later known
as pi, as the Archimedes Constant. Scientists in 2000 began
translating the Floating Bodies treatisse from a single known
parchment copy, dating to about 1000CE, that was scraped and reused
for a prayer book.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A7)(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.C5)(SFC,
10/14/00, p.C1)(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A4)
285BC - 246BC Ptolemy II (b.c309BC, Philadelphus)
of Macedonia served as the 2nd king of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Dynasty.
During his reign (285-247) he founded the Cyprian port of Famagusta
and built a canal to link the Nile to the gulf of Suez.
(NG, 8/04,
Geographica)(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
280BC The Achaean League was
reformed along political lines. It had been a confederation of
Achaean cities formed for religious observances and was broken up by
the Macedonians.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)
280BC Li Ssu, Legalist scholar,
was born in the kingdom of Ch’u, later a region of China.
(ON, 9/04, p.1)
279BC The Pharos at Alexandria
was constructed. The lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the
World, was toppled by an earthquake in 1303CE. It was rediscovered
by archeologists in the waters off Alexandria in 1996.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, Par p.20)(SFC, 11/4/96,
p.A11)(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.B1)
279BC The Celts plundered the
shrine at Delphi and then retreated north to Thrace. The Thracians
later routed the intruders.
(NGM, 5/77)
278BC Qu Yuan (b.~340BC),
Chinese poet and scholar, died. His poems included “The Lament,”
written following the capture of Yingdu, capital of Chu, by General
Bai Qi of the state of Qin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu_Yuan)
273BC - 232BC Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta
Maurya, ruled India, an area of a million sq. miles, and 50 million
people. He was the most impressive ruler of the Maurya dynasty and
was strongly disposed in favor of Buddhism, which orientation showed
positively in his public policy.
(V.D.-H.K.p.21)(EAWC, p.14)
270BC The Nubian royals opted
for burial at Meroe about this time and pyramids were built there
for some 700 years.
(Arch, 9/02, p.56)
269BC The Roman system of
coinage was established.
(eawc, p.14)
265BC Rome completed its
domination of the entire Italian peninsula and began its pursuit of
a larger empire that resulted in a series of wars with other
nations.
(eawc, p.14)
264BC Rome initiated the Punic
Wars with Carthage, an oligarchic empire that stretched from the
northern coast of Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar. The primary
cause was the Carthaginian expansion into the Greek cities of
Sicily. Carthage was forced to surrender its control over the
western region of Sicily and this marked the end of the first Punic
War. The three Punic Wars: 264-241 BC, 218-202 BC, 149-146 BC, also
known as the Carthaginian Wars, finally resulted in the destruction
of Carthage and Roman control of the western Mediterranean.
(eawc, p.14)(HNQ, 8//00)
262BC War broke out between
Carthage and Rome. Three long wars lasted till 146BC when Carthage
was destroyed by Rome.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.167-8)
261BC Rome captured a Punic
quinquereme. In two months they copied it plank by plank and built
100 like it and eventually the Roman fleet was able to defeat the
Carthaginians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.178)
260BC Ashoka, the 3rd ruler of
the Mauryan empire (India), converted to Buddhism after defeating
the Kalinga region. He began promoting Buddhist teaching throughout
the subcontinent and beyond to Sri Lanka and even Greece.
(www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/ssa/ht04ssa.htm)
259BC Qin Shi Huangdi
(d.210BC), the emperor who unified China, was born about this time.
He became ruler of Qin at age 13. In 2006 Tan Dun’s opera “The First
Emperor,” premiered at the NY Metropolitan with Placido Domingo as
the Emperor. It was based on the life of Qin Shi Huang (First August
and Divine Emperor).
(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.D8)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.87)
256BC The Carthaginian city of
Kerouane was sacked by the Romans.
(NG, 8/04, p.48)
251BC Aryan Hindus occupied
Ceylon. [see Sri Lanka]
(eawc, p.14)
250BC About this time
Eratosthenes ascribed the difference between the positions of the
noon sun at Alexandria and at Styrene at the summer solstice as due
to the curvature of the Earth and not due to the proximity of the
sun. He thereby calculated the radius of the Earth to be about 4,000
miles. The modern value is 3963 miles.
(SCTS, p.6)
250BC About this time
Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek astronomer, proposed the idea of a
sun-centered cosmology.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.106)
250BC In India a general
council of Buddhist monks was held in Patna, where the canon of
Buddhist scripture was selected.
(eawc, p.14)
250BC In India Emperor Ashoka
ordered a sculpture of four Asiatic lions about this time. The image
later became a model emblazoned on India’s passports and currency.
(WSJ, 6/27/07, p.A9)
c250BC In Patan, Nepal, the 4 corners are marked
by stupas said to be constructed on orders of Emperor Ashoka.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A17)
250BC In Persia about this time
two brothers, Arashk (Arash Pers. Arsaces, Lat.) and Tirdat
(Tiridates), with their forces under the command of five other
chiefs, occupied the district of upper Tejen. Arashk (Arsaces) was
to become the first king of the Ashkanian (Arsacid or Parthian)
dynasty. In 2005 the Ashkali community in Kosovo claimed roots to
this period.
(www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/parthian.htm)
250BC A finely burnished red
pottery was introduced by the Parthians into northern Oman.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.53)
250BC - 150BC Punic wars between Rome and
Carthage. [see 264BC & 146BC]
(V.D.-H.K.p.63)
250BC - 1.4k CE The city of Jenne-jeno on the
inland delta of the Niger River (Mali) was inhabited over this
period. Iron tools similar to that of the Nok people indicate that
Nok craftspeople had come to this site. It was discovered by
archeologist in 1977.
(ATC, p.110)
247BC Li Ssu left Ch’u and
traveled to Ch’in, a kingdom where Legalist doctrines were
practiced. He found employment with Lu Pu-wei, the king’s grand
councilor, who was compiling an encyclopedia. Lu Ssu soon became
tutor to Prince Zheng, heir to the throne of Ch’in.
(ON, 9/04, p.2)
246BC Jan 9, Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, 2nd king of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Dynasty, died.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
246BC In China the Ch'in
completed the Chengkuo canal connecting the Ching and Lo rivers.
This created a key agricultural and economic area in western
Szechuan. About the same time the last Chou ruler was deposed.
(eawc, p.14)
246BC Qin Shihuangdi (13),
became the head of Qin, one of 7 major Chinese states.
(AM, 9/01, p.35)
246BC-222BC Ptolemy III
Euergeter served as Egypt’s 3rd ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. In
2010 archeologists discovered a temple, thought to belong to Queen
Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd
century B.C. Archeologists believed that the temple might have been
dedicated to the ancient cat-goddess Bastet.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)(AP, 1/19/10)
241BC Mar 10, The Battle of
Aegusa in which the Roman fleet sank 50 Carthaginian ships occurred.
(HN, 3/10/98)
241BC The Romans incorporated
Sicily as a province.
(AM, 11/00, p.12)
240BC Jun 19, Eratosthenes
estimated the circumference of Earth using two sticks.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
239BC-169BC Ennius, Roman poet:
"A friend in need is a friend indeed."
(SSFC, 5/18/03, Par p.26)(WUD, 1994, p.474)
238BC The Romans occupied
Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
238BC-227CE The Parthians (238 B.C.-A.D. 227)
ruled the Persian Empire despite attempts by the Roman Republic
(133-27 B.C.), the Roman Empire (27 B.C.-A.D. 476) to conquer
it. During the centuries-long struggle, border towns and
provinces in the Near East passed back and forth like
Alsace-Lorraine or the Polish Corridor would in nineteenth-and
twentieth-century Europe. Rarely in the history of human conflict
has a feud such as the one between the empires of Rome and Persia
lasted so long and accomplished so little.
(HNQ, 12/22/00)
236BC Archimedes, according to
the Roman architect Vitruvius, built his first elevator about this
time.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.F4)
234BC - 149BC Cato, Roman statesman and
historian: "If you are ruled by mind, you are a king; if by body, a
slave."
(AP, 1/11/99)
233BC General Quintus Fabius
Maximus led a Roman victory against the Ligurian tribes northwest of
Italy.
(ON, 9/05, p.6)
232 BC King Agron died, the Illyrian throne was
occupied by Queen Teuta.
(www, Albania, 1998)
231BC King Qin Shihuangdi (28),
head of one of 7 major states, embarked on a series of campaigns
that in 10 years created China. The king of Ch’in invaded Han.
(AM, 9/01, p.35)(ON, 9/04, p.3)
230BC Celtic warriors were
repelled at Pergamon. The king of Bithynia had invited some 20,000
Celts as mercenaries and after 50 years of pillaging they were
repelled and settled in Galatia.
(NGM, 5/77)
230BC The capital of Han fell.
Its king and entire extended family were massacred. Han was absorbed
by Ch’in and under Li Ssu’s direction was transformed into a
Legalist state.
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
228BC The Kingdom of Chao fell
to the Ch’in.
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
225BC The Kingdom of Wei fell
to the Ch’in.
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
225BC Polybius, a Greek
historian, described the naked gaesatae, Celtic spearmen, at the
Battle of Telamon, northwest of Rome where the Romans defeated the
Celts.
(NGM, 5/77)
224BC An earthquake reportedly
broke the Colossus of Rhodes at his knees.
(AM, 7/00, p.16)
223BC The Kingdom of Ch’u fell
to the Ch’in. Li Ssu had the royal family spared.
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
222BC The Kingdom of Yen fell
to the Ch’in. The royal family was slaughtered.
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
222BC-205BC Ptolemy IV
Philopater served as Egypt’s 4th ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
222BC - 196BC The Romans showed up at the site of
Milan and subdued the Gauls after 26 years of butchery. Mittaland
was Latinized to Medioland, i.e. middle of the plain, and later
transformed to Milano.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T12)
221BC The Kingdom of Ch’i fell
to the Ch’in and Li Ssu advised King Zheng that there were no other
countries worth conquering. King Zheng proclaimed himself Shi
Huangdi, “First Emperor of the World Under Heaven.”
(ON, 9/04, p.3)
221BC The Qin (Ch’in) unified
China at the end of the "Warring States." King Zheng engaged in a
process of unifying 7 kingdoms in China under a central bureaucracy.
He killed most of the people in the 6 rival kingdoms and buried
alive 400 scholars whose loyalty he questioned. The 1998 Chinese
film "The Emperor’s Shadow" was directed by Zhou Xiaowen. It was a
historical drama of the first emperor (Ying Zheng or Jiang Wen) of a
united China. The 1999 film "The Emperor and the Assassin," directed
by Chen Kaige, was about Zheng.
(eawc, p.5,14)(NH, 7/96, p.31)(WSJ, 9/27/96,
p.A16)(SFC, 6/24/98, p.E3)(SFEC, 12/12/99, Par p.11)(SFEC, 1/16/00,
DB p.42)
221BC - 206BC Qin Shi Huang ruled as the first
emperor of China. His tomb is in X’ian, one of the ancient capitals
of China, and is guarded by thousands of life-sized terra-cotta
soldiers. He fixed Chinese script of 2,500 characters. The Great
Wall of China was completed under Shi Huangdi and his minister Li
Ssu. In 2001 it was found that the Great Wall extended into Gansu
province to Xinjiang and measured 4,470 miles. The wall was extended
during the Ming Dynasty. In 1990 Arthur Waldron authored “The Great
Wall of China.”
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A20)(ON,
9/04, p.3)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.D12)
221BC - 220AD A section of the Great Wall was
built during the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC to 220 AD)
dynasties in northeastern Jilin province. In 2009 the Xinhua news
agency reported the discovery of this section, 11km (6.7 miles)
further east than what was previously thought to be the wall's
terminus.
(AFP, 9/22/09)
218BC The Romans renewed their
efforts against Carthage as Carthage expanded into Spain. This 2nd
Punic War lasted 16 years (202BC) at the end of which Carthage was
forced to surrender all of its territory to Rome except for its
capital city in North Africa.
(eawc, p.15)(HNQ, 8/9/00)
218BC Hannibal crossed Portugal
on his way to storm Rome.
(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.C11)
218 - 201BC Numidia, ancient Roman name for part
of northern Africa roughly equivalent to modern Algeria. In the
Second Punic War (218-201 BC) between Carthage and Rome, western
Numidia supported Carthage. King Masinissa of eastern Numidia joined
the Romans. With the victory of Rome, Masinissa controlled all
Numidia.
(WWW, Encarta, 12/19/98)
217BC Jun 21, Carthaginian
forces led by Hannibal destroyed a Roman army under consul Gaius
Flaminicy in a battle at Lake Trasimenus in central Italy. Hannibal
of Carthage attacked Roman Consul Flaminio at Tuoro on Lake
Trasimeno in Umbria. Hannibal's army of Numidians, Berbers, Libyans,
Gascons, and Iberians was down to one elephant after crossing the
Alps with 39. His army of 40,000 drove the Romans into the lake
where 15,000 died as opposed to 1,500 of Hannibal's men. Two nearby
towns were named Ossaia (boneyard) and Sanguineto (bloodied).
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.37)(HN, 6/21/98)
217BC During the Second Punic
War Rome appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus as dictator to stave off
Hannibal’s Carthaginian army.
(ON, 9/05, p.6)
216BC Aug 2, Hannibal Barca of
Carthage won his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae.
Hannibal seized a grain depot in the small village of Cannae in
order to lure the Romans to battle. Having crossed over the Alps,
Hannibal's forces defeated the Romans at the Trebia River and also
at Lake Trasimene. Thereafter, the Romans were unwilling to commit a
large force to attacking Hannibal. However, Hannibal's spies had
learned two Roman consuls shared command of the legions and
attempted to goad the more impetuous of the two into battle at
Cannae.
(HN, 8/2/98)(HNQ, 11/16/00)
214BC In China the building of
the Great Wall was begun. It was designed to keep out the destitute
and starving nomadic Hsiung Nu people.
(eawc, p.15)
214BC Guangdong province became
a part of China.
(WSJ, 9/16/99, p.A26)
213BC Minister Li Ssu convinced
Ch’in King Zheng to outlaw all philosophies except Legalism. Some
500 Confucian scholars resisted and were buried alive. A number of
Confucian and Taoist libraries were burned.
(ON, 9/04, p.4)
212BC Archimedes (b.287BC),
Greek mathematician, died. Legend holds that he was killed by a
Roman soldier during an invasion of Syracuse, because he was too
busy doing calculations to obey the soldier’s orders.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A4)
211BC Roman legions overran the
Greek settlement of Morgantina on Sicily.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A13)
210BC Qin Shi Huang (b.259BC),
the first emperor of China, died while on a journey. His death was
kept quite until the entourage returned home. He was buried near the
city of Xi'ab in Central China with some 7-8,000 larger-than-life
terracotta soldiers. The soldiers had real weapons and each had
distinct facial features. Villagers found the 1st terracotta figure
in 1974. [see Jul 11, 1975] Qin Shi Huangdi provided his empire with
a uniform script, currency, a measuring system and a bureaucracy.
(Smith., 4/95, p. 33,34)(WSJ, 3/11/97, p.A20)(HN,
7/11/01)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.87)
210BC Crown Prince Fu Su, an
anti-Legalist, committed suicide on orders from a forged message.
Prince Hu-hai was installed as the Second Emperor. Chief eunuch Chao
Kao and Li Ssu shared power at first but Chao Kao gained the backing
of Hu-hai.
(ON, 9/04, p.4)
208BC Ch’in Chief eunuch Chao
Kao had Li Ssu arrested and condemned to death. Most of Li Ssu’s
reforms, including standardized writing, measurement and money,
survived for over 2,000 years.
(ON, 9/04, p.4)(EWH, 1968, p.57)
207BC In China the Ch'in
Dynasty ended.
(eawc, p.14)
207-195BC In China Han Kao-tzu (Liu Ping), a man
of humble origins, became the first ruler of the Former Han Dynasty.
The dynasty lasted to 9CE.
(eawc, p.15)
206BC Rome destroyed
Carthaginian forces at the Battle of Metaurus in northern Italy.
(ON, 9/05, p.7)
206BC-25CE In 2003 China's Xinhua News Agency
reported that archaeologists in western China had discovered five
earthenware jars of 2,000BC-year-old rice wine in an ancient Han
dynasty tomb (206BC-25CE), and its bouquet was still strong enough
to perk up the nose.
(AP, 6/21/03)
206BC-220CE The Han Dynasty
ruled in China. The Western Han period. In the early Han period
Prince Liu Sheng had a jade suit made of 2,498 pieces sewn together
with gold thread for his death. Jade was also used to make plugs for
his bodies orifices.
(NH, 7/96, p.31)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(WSJ,
2/19/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 9/27/96, p.A16)
205BC-180BC Ptolemy V Epiphanes
served as Egypt’s 5th ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. He became
ruler at age 5 following the death of his father. He married
Cleopatra I and died at age 29 while putting down insurgents in the
Delta. His wife became regent for their young son.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
204BC The sacred stone of
Cybele, the Great Mother, was brought to Rome, and her worship was
established.
(RFH-MDHP, p.206)
204BC-202BC Greece and most of
Asia Minor came under the control of the Romans after the Roman
victory over Carthage in the 2nd Punic War.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)(ON, 9/05, p.7)
203BC Hannibal and his army
returned home to defend Carthage against Roman forces.
(ON, 9/05, p.7)
203BC Quintus Fabius Maximus,
Roman general and dictator, died shortly before Hannibal’s final
defeat. The name Fabian has come to mean “using a cautious strategy
of delay and avoidance of battle.”
(ON, 9/05, p.7)
202BC The Han Dynasty began in
China.
(ATC, p.33)
202BC Roman forces under Scipio
Africanus defeated Hannibal of Carthage on the Plains of Zama in
northern Tunisia.
(NG, 8/04,
p.44)(www2.cs.uh.edu/~clifton/hannibal.html)
c200BC Trade between the Arabs and East Africans
on the Indian Ocean was established. It took this long to learn the
seasonal winds known as the monsoons to sail across the Indian
Ocean. Between Nov. and March the monsoon blows from the northeast.
Between April and Oct. the monsoon blows from the southwest.
(ATC, p.141)
200BC The Chinese natural
history classic "Erya" said that the Yangtze River was teeming with
baiji, a freshwater white dolphin. By 1998 the baiji were on the
verge of extinction.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A8)
c200BC At this time the Chinese were using the
sternpost rudder to steer their ships.
(ATC, p.12)
c200BC The Egyptian priest Hor cared for the ibis
galleries. His writings explained that hundreds of people were
involved in the animal mummification business at Saqqara.
(AM, 9/01, p.29)
c200BC The Greek Venus de Milo statue of marble
was sculpted about this time. It was found in 1820 on Melos and is
now in the Louvre. [2nd source says 2,500 years old]
(WUD, 1994, p.1586)(SFEC, 3/9/96, Z1 p.5)
200BC In Greece Skepticism
arose under the influence of the Carneades. It had close ties to
Sophism and taught that because all knowledge is achieved through
sense perception, nothing can be known for sure. [see Heisenberg
1901-1976]
(eawc, p.15)
c200BC Drawings in stone of this time showed women
milking elk in what later became northern Iran.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, Z1 p.8)
c200BC In Mexico migrations began toward the area
north of Lake Texcoco where the urban center of Teotihuacan
developed.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.T8)
c200BC A Sanskrit marriage manual dates back to
this time
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Z1 p.2)
200BC-100BC The excavation of
Pergamon (now Bergama), Turkey, in 1876 by German archeologist
uncovered a monument called the Great Altar with a frieze of the
mythological hero Telephos. The Telephos Frieze recounts the story
of Telephos, a son of Herakles and legendary founder of Pergamon. It
is viewed as political propaganda legitimizing the rule of
Pergamon's Attalid lineage (after Attalos, its first king's father).
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-1)
200BC-100BC The Silk Road made
the city of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan rich. Spice and silk merchants
stopped here on their way from China to Europe.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A1)
200BC-500CE The Tunisian city
of Leptiminus was a major port for the shipment of olive oil
throughout the Roman Empire. The ancient city is today largely
covered with olive groves. The entire surface of the city (some 150
hectares) has been surveyed by teams from the Univ. of Michigan. Two
kinds of pottery were made there: African Red Slip Ware and
amphorae.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.7)
c200BC-650CE Caves at Ajanta, India, were painted
and sculpted during this period with court scenes and tales from the
Jataka and Bodhisattvas.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A28)
199BC-150BC Greco-Bactrian
kingdom. Now Afghanistan, it was then a major stop on the silk route
between Rome and China.
(NG, March 1990, Geographica)
199BC-150BC Early in the 2nd
century BC the Romans made Macedonia into a province and obliterated
the city of Corinth.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
c196BC In Egypt the Rosetta Stone, found in 1799,
was inscribed about this time. It affirmed the rule of Ptolemy V
(age 13) in 3 languages.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.B1)
195BC China's 1st Han Emperor
Liu Pang died and his empress Lu Zhi took the empire for her own
family.
(NG, Feb, 04,
p.13)(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0830015.html)
190BC In the US state of New
Mexico a volcanic lava flow occurred at the 114,000 acre El Malpais
National Monument and covered wood that was later dated to this
time.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A25)
190BC Hipparchus was born in
what is now Turkey. He calculated the length of a year to within 6
1/2 minutes and was the first to explain the Earth's rotation on its
axis. He also compiled the first comprehensive catalog of the stars.
[see 160-125BC]
(LAT, 3/30/05)
190BC-180BC The “Wisdom
of Sirach” was written about this time in Hebrew. Its apocalyptic
tone reflects the shock of the Jewish religious establishment at the
encounter with Hellenic culture.
(Econ, 1/20/07,
p.91)(www.updated.org/sirach.shtml)
c190BC-120BC Hypsicles of Alexanderia,
mathematician. He wrote “On the Ascension of Stars,” in which he was
the first to divide the Zodiac into 360 degrees.
(SSFC, 5/9/04,
p.A17)(www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/TLAstronomy.htm)
186BC In China Li Cang, the prime minister of
Changsha, died. Lady Dai, his wife, died about 20 years later. Her
tomb was found in the early 1970s on Mawangdui, a hill in Changsha,
near the capital of Hunan Province. More than 1,400 equally
well-preserved artifacts were found around her, designed to help her
in the afterlife.
(AP, 9/17/09)
184BC In Rome Cato the Censor
(234-149) was elected as one of two censors, i.e. assessors of
property and moral conduct. He aimed to preserve Roman ways and
tried to extirpate Greek influences.
(V.D.-H.K.p.65)
184BC In India the Maurya
dynasty ended when the last ruler was assassinated by an ambitious
army commander.
(eawc, p.15)
183BC-182BC Hannibal,
Carthaginian general, committed suicide. Some reports said that a
comet in the night sky was an omen of his death.
(www2.cs.uh.edu/~clifton/hannibal.html)
180BC The Great Altar of
Pergamon was built at Pergamos in Asia Minor (later Turkey). It
depicted the battle of the gods of Olympus against the giants.
(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.W14)
180BC The Liu clan regained
control of China and enthroned Emperor Wen, a surviving son of Liu
Bang.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.13)
180BC The state of Meroe in
Nubia was a great cultural center whose scribes developed an
alphabet to better express the Nubian language around this time.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
180BC-164BC Ptolemy VI
Philometor served as Egypt’s 6th ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. His
regent mother died around 176BC and Ptolemy ruled under the control
of his guardians, Eulaeus and Lenaeus.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
175BC-164BC King Antiochus IV,
Seleucid tyrant, ruled Syria.
(MH, 12/96)(SFC, 12/6/04, p.B2)
171BC There was a major wave of
migration to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. The migration of other
peoples from mainland Asia around this time brought metal tools,
rice and new farming techniques. Computer modeling in 2011 showed a
that the migration also had significant impact on linguistic
development.
(AP, 5/5/11)
170BC The rebel Maccabees were
able to gain victory in Jerusalem occupied by Antiochus IV During
the re-dedication of the temple they stretched a days worth of oil
out to 8 days for which the holiday of Hanukkah is celebrated.
(SFC, 11/27/96, zz1 p.F1)
170BC Lucius Accius, Roman
poet, wrote "Has oderint dum metuant" (Let them hate us, so long as
they fear us). This became a favorite phrase of Emperor Caligula.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.D3)
170BC-160BC The Bactrian--Parthian era of
Afghanistan.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
168BC The Greek city of Aigai
was destroyed by the Romans.
(AP, 8/29/09)
168BC Illyria and Epirus were
conquered by Rome.
(CO, Grolier's Amer. Acad. Enc./ Albania)
168BC Syria’s Seleucid king
Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled over Israel and tried to outlaw
Judaism. He tried to Hellenize the Jews by erecting idols. The Jews
resisted and began the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees were
successful until internal dissension tore them apart.
(eawc, p.15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
167BC Antiochus IV, the
Hellenistic tyrant of the what later became called the Middle East,
began to increase religious persecution against the Jews in
Palestine and outlawed observance of the Torah. This included the
circumcision of males, dietary restrictions and observance of the
Sabbath. He installed a cult of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. The
Jewish priest Mattathias of Modin defied Antiochus, escaped outside
Lydda with his 5 sons and began a revolt.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.27)
167BC Rome presented to Athens
the island of Delos, whose prosperous slave and commodities market
brought large profits.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
165BC Romans captured King Gent of Illyria and
sent him to Rome. Illyria went under Roman control.
(www, Albania, 1998)
165BC Jerusalem and sacred
temple of Judah were recaptured by the Maccabees. They used
guerrilla tactics and elephants as tanks to throw off the tyranny of
the Greco-Syrian oppressors. During the cleanup they found one
container of the sacred oil used to light the temple's candelabra
known as a menorah. They gathered to light the oil which was
expected to last only a day, but lasted eight nights. The event was
memorialized in the celebration of Hanukkah (rededication), the
Feast of Lights. [see 164BC]
(SFC,12/10/97, Z1 p.4)(SFC,12/23/97, p.A13)(WSJ,
11/27/98, p.W8)
164BC Ptolemy VI Philometor
went to Rome and left Egypt under the rule of his brother Ptolemy
VII Euergetes II Physcon.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
164BC The Temple of Jerusalem
was recaptured by forces under Judah Maccabee, religious
traditionalists from the countryside. [see 165BC] The restoration of
Jewish law was also a victory over Jewish factions who wanted to
turn Jerusalem to a city modeled after the Greek pagan city-states.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.W15)
163BC-145BC Ptolemy VI
Philometor was called back to Egypt and agreed to split their rule.
Physcon assumed rule of the western province of Cyrenaica and
Philometor ruled Egypt.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
161BC Elara (b.235BC), Tamil
king (205BC-161BC), died. He ruled Sri Lanka from the ancient
capital of Anuradhapura.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elara_(monarch))
161BC - 137BC The legendary King Duthagamani ruled
Sri Lanka. He began construction of the Ruvanvali stupa. His brother
Saddhatissa completed the project.
(Arch, 7/02, p.34)
160BC-125BC Hipparchus, Greek
mathematician and astronomer, often called the father of modern
astronomy. He attempted to calculate the distance to the moon and
the sun. His estimate for the distance to the moon was 67r vs. the
modern value of 60.267r. He estimated the sun to be 37 times farther
than the moon and at least 12 times greater in diameter than the
Earth. His figures were accepted for 17 centuries until the
invention of the telescope and precise astronomical instruments.
Together with Ptolemy he graded the visible stars into six
magnitudes. The first magnitude was comprised of about 20 of the
brightest stars. He compiled a stellar catalogue in Alexandria which
shows the position of 1080 stars. [see 190BC]
(SCTS, p.7-8,137,142)
160BC - 220BC The Weerdinge Couple, 2 men dating
to this period, were found in a Holland bog in 1904.
(AM, 7/97, p.66)
156BC - 141BC In China Han Ching-ti ruled the Han
Dynasty.
(eawc, p.15)
155BC-213 Some evidence has it that the Ark of the
Covenant was brought to Ethiopia during this period. The 1992 book
"The Sign and the Seal" by Graham Hancock presents the evidence.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
154BC In China Han Ching-ti
wrote the laws of inheritance that made all sons co-heirs of their
father's estate.
(eawc, p.15)
c150BC Agora's Stoa of Attalos, a massive
colonnaded monument at the foot of the Acropolis, was dedicated by
King Attalos of Pergamon.
(AP, 4/16/03)
c150BC The craft of paper making was developed in
China around this time. Paper was made by soaking flattened plant
fibers and then allowing them to dry on a screen.
(ATC, p.89)
c150BC Cival was a large and sophisticated Mayan
city of some 10,000 people.
(USAT, 5/11/04, p.7D)
150BC In 2005 archaeologists at
the San Bartolo site in Guatemala led by Guatemalan Monica Pellecer
Alecio found the oldest known Maya royal burial, from around 150 BC.
Excavating beneath a small pyramid, that team found a burial complex
that included ceramic vessels and the bones of a man, with a jade
plaque, the symbol of Maya royalty, on his chest.
(AP, 12/14/05)
150BC-100BC In 1901 pieces of
an ancient Greek calculating machine, called the Antikythera
Mechanism, were discovered by sponge divers exploring the remains of
a shipwreck off the tiny island of Antikythera. Radiocarbon dating
suggested it was built around 65 BC, but in 2006 newly revealed
lettering on the machine indicate a slightly older construction date
of 150 to 100 BC. In 2008 researchers said the device, which
originally contained 37 gears, included the cycle of the Greek
Olympics.
(http://tinyurl.com/y255xr)(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A15)
150BC-200CE In Oman triliths,
small, 3-stone monuments, were set in rows in the Mahra tribal
territory. Many were inscribed with an undeciphered south Arabic
script. The Mahra and Shahra are Semitic, non-Arabic speaking tribes
in the Dhofar Mountains that even today control much of the
frankincense region.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.53)
149-146BC Rome and Carthage fought the 3rd Punic
War that resulted in the total defeat of Carthage. All inhabitants
of Carthage were sold into slavery and the city was burned to the
ground. As a result of the Punic wars Rome expanded its empire to
cover Spain, North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt.
(eawc, p.15)(HNQ, 8/9/00)
146BC Roman forces breached the
walls of Carthage. All inhabitants were sold into slavery. The city
was burned to the ground and the land was sown with salt.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(NG, 8/04, p.46)
146BC-30BC All Hellenistic territory became
subject to Rome over this period.
(eawc, p.15)
146BC-30BC Roman civilization as a result of the
Punic Wars witnessed a series of cultural conflicts and
assassinations.
(eawc, p.15)
145BC In China Su-ma Ch'ien,
the historian and author of the "Records of the Historian," was
born. He included social and economic consideration in his history
but mentioned nothing of Han Wu-ti and his administration. He was
eventually castrated by Wu-ti after writing an apology on behalf of
the Hsiung Nu. He died around 90BC.
(eawc, p.15)
141BC Wu Di (15) became China's
5th Han emperor.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.14)
141BC The Romans incorporated
Macedonia as a province.
(AM, 11/00, p.12)
137BC Dutugemunu, Sinhalese
king of Sri Lanka (161BC to 137 BC), died. He gained rule after
defeating Elara, a Tamil usurper from India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutugamunu)
133BC China's Emperor Wu Di
declared war on the Xiongnu, a nomadic people in northwest China.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.15)
133BC In Rome Tiberius Gracchus
was elected as tribune. He and his brother, elected in 123BC, strove
for reforms in the Roman Republic, but failed due to the
conservative customs of the upper class and their resistance to
change. Marius and Sulla, 2 military leaders, followed the attempts
of the Gracchi.
(eawc, p.15)
133BC Attalus III of Pergamon
bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. It became the province of Asia.
(AM, 11/00, p.12)
130BC The Huns pushed the Kushan and Scythian
nomads west across the Central Asian steppes.
(NG, March 1990, p.63)
130BC The Great Silk Road
opened from China to the West.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
123BC In Rome Gaius Gracchus
was elected as tribune. [see 133BC]
(eawc, p.15)
123BC The Romans won a victory
over the Gauls near a 3,000 foot peak that was named Mt.
Sainte-Victoire in commemoration. It established a marker between
civilization and barbarism.
(WSJ, 2/13/04, p.A12)
c119BC The Huns invaded China.
(ATC, p.33)
117BC In China the original
salt monopoly was set up during the Han dynasty.
(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A1)
116BC-27BC Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar
and author.
(AM, 11/00, p.78)(WUD, 1994 p.1581)
113BC The army of John
Hyrcanus, leader of the Hasmonean rulers in Judea, burns down a
Samaritan Temple and the surrounding city. The temple is thought to
be copy of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Archeologists in 1995
find stone fragments inscribed with the Ten Commandments written in
the Samaritan script, similar to an ancient form of Hebrew known as
Paleo-Hebrew.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)
108BC-62BC Catiline, tyrant of Rome. He was
defeated by Cicero. This was a period when civil conflict had become
epidemic.
(V.D.-H.K.p.75)
106BC Jan 3, Marcus Cicero (d.43BC), Roman
orator, statesman and author, was born. He was elected Consul in 63.
He chose to support Pompey over Caesar and was murdered by Mark
Antony: "What is more unwise than to mistake uncertainty for
certainty, falsehood for truth?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(AP, 4/10/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
106BC-48BC Pompey. He was a rival to Caesar for
Roman power.
105BC The Jihong Bridge across
the Lancang River in Yunnan, China, was built. It linked 2 portions
of the Southern Silk Road.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T5)
105BC The heart of ancient
Numidia lay in the eastern region of what is now Algeria in Northern
Africa. The Numidians were originally nomadic horsemen. They were
defeated by Roman troops in the Jugurthine War in 105 BC and
conquered by Rome in 46 BC. The Vandals and Byzantines ruled
successively before Arabs conquered the area in the seventh century
AD. Jugurtha was the king of Numidia.
(HNQ, 6/2/98)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.D3)
104BC Rome faced a slave
retaliation in Sicily.
(eawc, p.15)
c100BC Jul 12, Gaius Julius Caesar (d.44BC), Roman
general and statesman, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.208)(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 7/12/98)
c100BC Camulodunum (later Colchester in
southeastern England) was established about this time as a fortress
dedicated to the Celtic god of war.
(Arch, 7/02, p.46)
c100BC The Bantu-speaking people began expanding
and moving southeast. It is thought that they originated in the
Congo basin (now Zaire) or the mountains of Cameroon. They used
iron, grew millet and kept goats.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.169)
100BC The Greek poet Meleager
gathered a collection of poems in his “anthologia” (The Greek
Anthology).
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
100BC In 2005 archaeologist
William Saturno said he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya
mural not seen for nearly two millennia. Discovered at the San
Bartolo site in Guatemala, the mural covers the west wall of a room
attached to a pyramid.
(AP, 12/14/05)
c100BC The Shilla Dynasty began in southeastern
Korea and grew to become a top-heavy feudal system that covered most
of South Korea for almost 900 years.
(SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)
c100BC The community situated on an island in the
Seine River was known by the Romans in the first century BC as
Lutetia. At the time, it was occupied by the Gallic tribe called
Parisii. As the city grew into a Roman trading center, it came to be
known as Paris.
(HNQ, 4/18/02)
c100BC The area around Palenque (Mexico) was 1st
occupied.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.C5)
100BC - 1BC A Roman fortified
citadel was built about this time in Moldova. It may have protected
a town occupied by a late-era Sarmatian king.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
100BC - 1BC The painted cave of
Naj Tunich in the Peten of Guatemala began attracting pilgrims.
(AM, 7/97, p.52)
c100BC - 1BC Diodorus Siculus,
Greek historian of the late 1st century.
(WUD, 1994 p.405)(AM, 7/01, p.31)
100BC - 100AD The Mayan site of Palenque was
settled by farmers over this period.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
100BC - 500AD The Hopewell Mounds of Ohio were
erected by a mound building culture of this period that dominated
the eastern US.
(AM, adv. circular, p.2)
100BC - 668AD The Three Kingdoms era of Korea.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.E3)
100BC - 1300AD This represents the time period of
the Anasazi culture of northern Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah
and Colorado.
(WUD, 1994, p.53)
96BC - 81BC The Circus of Domitian was built in
Rome. It later became the Piazza Navona.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T5)
95BC - 55BC The Artaxiad King Tigranes I extends
the Armenian state from Georgia in the north to Mesopotamia and
Syria in the south.
(CO Enc. / Armenia)
95BC - 51BC T. Lucretius Carus author of the epic
poem "On the Nature of Things", about the science of physics, yet
dedicated to pleasure. He was a devoted follower of Epicurus.
(V.D.-H.K.p.70)
94BC-56BC Tigranes (Dikran) the Great, a scion of
the Eastern Dynasty, ruled. He welded the two Armenian satrapies
into one kingdom, and so created the first strong native sovereignty
that the country had known since the fall of Urartu five centuries
before.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
90BC After centuries of
decline, Etruscans become Roman citizens.
(NG, 6/1988, p.711)
89BC Roman general Cornelius
Sulla sacked Clusium, the Etruscan capital.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.85)
89BC - 80BC Mithridates, ruler of Pontus in the
north of Asia Minor, made war on Rome and overran much of Asia Minor
and parts of Greece. The Athenians joined Mithridates and was
consequently besieged by the Roman Gen'l. Sulla.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
87BC Chinese Emperor Wu Di
died. Sima Qian, historian of the era, had been castrated by Wu Di
for daring to stand in support of a disgraced general.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.21)
87BC Haley's comet was
observed.
(NG, Aug., 1974, K.F. Weaver p.223)
c81BC - 30BC Mark Antony had
Cicero murdered. He cut off his hands and had them nailed to the
senate rostrum as a warning to other men who might wish to speak the
truth.
(V.D.-H.K.p.73)
80BC Cicero journeyed to Greece
and Asia suffering from pthisis [tuberculosis], and returned cured
after 2 years.
(WP, 1951, p.27)
80BC-70BC The Romans built the Flavian Amphiteatre
and named it after the family name of Emperor Vespasian. The
Colosseum could seat 50,000 spectators and had underground chambers,
dens and passageways, an area known as the hypogeum.
(SFC, 10/15/10, p.A5)
74BC According to Pliny the
Roman General Lucullus introduced cherries to Europe. Greeks had
cultivated cherries hundreds of years before this.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.E3)
73BC Rome faced a 2nd slave
uprising in Sicily.
(eawc, p.15)
70BC Oct 15, Virgil (d.19BC)
[Vergil] (Publius Vergilius Maro), Roman poet, was born in Mantua.
He wrote about the mythical founding of Rome in the Aeneid, which
told the legend of Rome's founder and was considered a national
epic.
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)(HN, 10/15/98)(AMNHDT, 5/98)
70BC - 15BC Vitruvius, author of De Architecture,
translated to Italian in 1531.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)
69BC Cleopatra (d.30BC),
daughter of Ptolemy XII, was born. She was queen of Egypt from
51BC-49BC, 48BC-30BC. During her reign she declared earthworms to be
sacred and her subjects were forbidden to kill them.
(WUD, 1994, p.276)(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A16)(SFC,
10/29/98, p.A13)
69BC The Roman Gen'l. Lucullus
experienced an attack by the Samosatans with a flammable mud called
maltha (semisolid petroleum and gases). The event was later recorded
by Pliny the Elder (23-79CE), a Roman naturalist.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)
66BC Tigranes I, King of
Armenia was forced to become a tributary of Rome.
(CO Enc. / Armenia)
65BC Dec 8, Quintus "Horace"
Horatius Flaccus (d.8 BC), Roman poet and satirist best known for
his three books "Odes," was born. "Drop the question what
tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that Fate allows
you."
(HN, 12/8/98)(AP, 11/4/00)
64BC The Greek settlement of
Seleucia (in southeastern Turkey) was conquered and ruled by the
Roman Empire and with this shift the name of the city was changed
into Zeugma, meaning "bridge-passage" or "bridge of boats."
(Arch, 9/02,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma_(city))
63BC Sep 23, Caesar Augustus
(63BC-14CE) was born in Rome. Augustus, first emperor of Rome, ended
the era of the Roman Republic and introduced the Pax Romana, the era
of peace. Augustus held power but shared administrative tasks with
the Senate, consuls, and tribunes who continued to be elected: "Make
haste slowly."
(V.D.-H.K.p.63)(AP, 9/23/97)(AP, 11/20/97)(HN,
9/23/98)
63BC Cicero was elected Consul
of Rome. During this time he suppressed a conspiracy to murder the
entire Senate.
(WSJ, 6/11/02, p.D7)
63BC The Romans conquer the
Jews The Jews appealed to Pompey to settle internal dissention. The
Romans intervened and began their occupation of Palestine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.102)(eawc, p.15)
63BC Caesar's troops plundered
Terena in Portugal's Alentejo province.
(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.C11)
61BC Jul 7, Commagene, a small
kingdom of the upper Euphrates, under the reign of King Antiochus,
had a citadel area in front of which a lion was sculpted in relief
with recognizable constellations on or near the lion's body. Prof.
Otto Neugebauer of Brown Univ. studied the marks and identified the
date of the sculpture.
(K.I.-365D, p.127)(NG., Mar., 1961, pp.390-405)
59BC - 52BC Caesar’s legions battled the
Gallo-Celtic tribesmen of King Vercingetorix in northern Burgundy.
(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.F4)
55BC Aug 26, Roman forces under
Julius Caesar invaded Britain. 80 war galleys with some ten thousand
foot soldiers prevailed over the native Britons.
(AP, 8/26/97)(ON, 6/09, p.6)
55BC Pompey dedicated his
theater, the first to be constructed of stone in Rome.
(RFH-MDHP, p.214)
54BC Jul, Roman forces under
Julius Caesar invaded Britain for a 2nd time. He was accompanied by
Mandubracius, an exiled British chieftain. The expedition of 10,000
foot soldiers and 2,00 cavalry was followed by a number of privately
owned vessels commissioned by Roman merchants eager to take
advantage of Caesar’s anticipated victory.
(ON, 6/09, p.7)
54BC The Eburons, A Belgian
tribe under the command of their King Ambiorix, won a victory
against the Roman Legion.
(http://www.trabel.com/tongeren-history.htm)
54BC The Romans under Julius
Caesar fought the first skirmishes with the Celts in England.
British chieftain Cassivellaunus, who had killed the father of
Mandubracius, led a guerilla style war against Caesar’s legions.
Caesar’s forces prevailed and Cassivellaunus agreed not to make was
against Mandubracius.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.3)(ON, 6/09, p.7)
54BC Gaius Valerius Catullus
(b.~84BC), Roman poet, died about this time. He became famous for
his epicurean lifestyle and erotic poems.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus)(Econ,
2/23/08, p.103)
54BC - 52BC The Gauls rose in revolt against
Caesar.
(ON, 6/09, p.7)
53BC Sep 23, Augustus, the
first Roman emperor, or Caesar, was born. His ascension to the title
of emperor marked the end of true Roman democracy, even though the
Senate survived for generations. [see 63BC]
(MC, 9/23/01)
53BC Caesar claimed to have
wiped out the Celtic Eburones after they conspired with other groups
in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones lived in
an area that later came be known as part of Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands.
(AP,
11/14/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eburones)
53BC The Persians defeated the
Romans in the Battle of Carrhae. Some 20,000 Romans under Crassus
were killed by the Parthian army and 10,000 were captured. The
Parthians then used the Romans as guards on their eastern frontier
in what later became Turkmenistan.
(ATC, p.33)(HC, 9/3/04)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.59)
52BC Pompey dedicated his
Temple of Venus Victrix.
(RFH-MDHP, p.214)
c52BC Cicero defended Titus
Milo for the murder of Publius Clodius. The setting is the
background for the historical detective novel: "A Murder on the
Appian Way" by Steven Saylor.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.E5)
52BC Caesar climaxed his
conquest of Gaul at Alesia in northern Burgundy where he vanquished
Celtic forces under Vercingetorix.
(NGM, 5/77)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T4)
51BC - 49BC Cleopatra was queen of Egypt from
51BC-49BC and 48BC-30BC.
(WUD, 1994, p.276)
50BC Jun-Aug, In Egypt the
"Zodiac of Dendera," a map of the stars of this period, was carved
in stone. It is now in the French Louvre.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
50BC Virgil first described the
Damask Rose.
(TGR, 1995, p.3)
50BC Maastricht, Netherlands,
began as a Roman settlement.
(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.F2)
49 BC Jan 11, Julius Caesar led
his army across the Rubicon, plunging Rome into civil war. [see Jan
12, Mar 10]
(HN, 1/11/99)
49 BC Jan 12, Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul.
[see Jan 11, Mar 10]
(HN, 1/12/99)
49BC Mar 10, Julius Caesar
crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy. The event was noted by
Suetonius in the phrase: "The die is cast." [see Jan 11]
(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.5)(HN, 3/10/98)
49BC Mauretania (now northern
Morocco and Algeria) became a client kingdom of Rome.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
48BC Aug 9, Julius Caesar
defeated Gnaius Pompey at Pharsalus.
(HN, 8/9/98)
48BC Sep 28, On landing in
Egypt, Pompey was murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt.
(HN, 9/28/98)(MC, 9/28/01)
48BC The library at Alexandria
was ravaged by fire during the fighting between Caesar and Ptolemy
XIII.
(WSJ, 6/1/00,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria)
47 BC Aug 2, Caesar defeated
Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares "veni, vidi, vici," (I came,
I saw, I conquered).
(HN, 8/2/98)
47BC Julius Caesar adopted a
modified form of the Egyptian Calendar. Together with Sosigenes, an
astronomer from Alexandria, the new calendar spreads the last 5-6
days of the Egyptian calendar amongst alternate months. March 1
began the year as a carry over from the old Roman calendar.
(K.I.-365D, p.84)
46BC Caesar's calendar went
into effect at the time of the first new moon after the winter
solstice.
(K.I.-365D, p.86)(AM, 11/04, p.9)
46BC The heart of ancient
Numidia lay in the eastern region of what is now Algeria in Northern
Africa. They were conquered by Rome in 46 BC. The Vandals and
Byzantines ruled successively before Arabs conquered the area in the
seventh century CE.
(HNQ, 6/2/98)
45BC Jan 1, The Julian calendar
took effect.
(MC, 1/1/02)
45 BC Feb 29, The first Leap
Day was recognized by proclamation of Julius Caesar. Under the old
Roman calendar the last day of February was the last day of the
year.
(HN, 2/29/00)
45BC Mar, Caesar defeated the
least of his rivals and was proclaimed dictator for life.
(ON, 6/09, p.7)
c45BC Colonia Julia Equestris,
a Roman veterans' colony, was founded in what is now Nyon,
Switzerland. Nyon is derived from the Celtic name Noviodunum.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.10)
44BC Mar 15, Roman Emperor
Julius Caesar (b.100BC) was murdered by Brutus, Cassius and other
conspirators on the Ides of March. Caesar had defeated Pompey in
battle and had Pompey murdered in 48BC. He was perceived as a big
threat to the Roman Aristocracy and so his murder was supported by
Cicero and most Romans. In 2006 Adrian Goldsworthy authored “Caesar:
Life of a Colossus.”
(ATC, p.24)(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 10/24/06, p.D6)
44BC Quintilis, the fifth month
was changed to Julius in honor of Julius Caesar. A bright comet was
declared by the Romans to be the soul of Julius Caesar ascending to
join the gods.
(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A12)
44BC Caesar began building a
colony at Butrint, Albania. Titus Pomponius Atticus described the
area as "the quietest, coolest, most pleasant place in the world."
(Reuters, 6/13/06)
43BC Mar 20, Ovid (d.17?18CE),
Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet, was born. His writings included:
"The Art of Love."
(WUD, 1994, p.1032)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(HN,
3/20/01)
43 BC Apr 21, Marcus Antonius
was defeated by Octavian near Modena, Italy.
(HN, 4/21/99)
43 BC Nov 27, Octavian, Antony
and Lepidus formed the triumvirate of Rome.
(HN, 11/27/98)
43BC Dec 7, Cicero (b.106BC),
considered one of the greatest sons of Rome was assassinated on the
orders of Marcus Antonius. Cicero, elected Consul in 63, had chosen
to support Pompey over Caesar. He translated Greek works that they
might be understood by his fellow Romans, and tried to apply Greek
ethical thought to Roman business and politics. His last work was
"On Duties," where he propounds a common solution to all social
problems i.e. "Always do the right thing... that which is legal...
that which is honest, open and fair...keeping your word... telling
the truth... and treating everyone alike. In 2002 Anthony Everitt
authored "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician,"
a biography based on his letters. In 2006 Robert Harris authored
“Imperium,” a novel that covers Cicero’s early courtroom feats.
(V.D.-H.K.p.74)(HN, 12/7/98)(WSJ, 6/11/02,
p.D7)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)
42BC Oct 23, Marcus Junius
Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar,
committed suicide after his defeat at the Battle of Philippi.
Octavian and Mark Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi in
Macedonia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1081)(MC, 10/23/01)
42BC Nov 16, Tiberius Claudius
Nero (d.37CE, Roman Emperor, was born. Tiberius was chosen by
Augustus in 4CE as emperor of Rome.
(V.D.-H.K.p.77) (HN, 11/16/98)
37BC King Herod (d.4BC) reigned
over Judea. During his reign underground support structures were
built for an expansion of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Wall of
King Herod's Second Temple is the famed "Wailing Wall."
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.D1)(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A13)(WSJ,
4/9/97, p.A10)
37BC Virgil (b.70BC), Roman
poet, authored the 4th of his Eclogues. This included text regarding
the newborn son of Consul Polio in which Virgil said the child would
initiate a golden age in which lion and lamb would lie together amid
peace and plenty. Early Christians took this as a prediction of
Christ.
(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.W12)
37BC - 448CE The Koguryo kingdom straddled what
is now North Korea and part of South Korea and the northeastern
Chinese region of Manchuria. It spread Buddhism throughout the
region.
(AP, 2/1/04)
37BC - 668CE The Koguryo
kingdom (Gaogouli in Chinese) flourished during this time. At its
height the territory stretched from central Manchuria to south of
Seoul, Korea. It was later taught to be one of Korea’s three
founding kingdoms.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
33BC Agrippa called for the
construction an aqueduct, 500 fountains and 700 basins for central
Rome.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T4)
32BC Pompey's theater was
damaged in a storm and repaired by Augustus who especially noted
that in repairing it he nowhere recorded his own name.
(RFH-MDHP, p.214)
32BC A Roman coin dating from
this time bore the images of Cleopatra on one side and Marc Antony
on the reverse. It represented one three hundredth of a Roman
soldier's salary and was probably minted to pay the wages of those
stationed in Egypt.
(AFP, 2/14/07)
32BC - 23BC Octavian ruled as Consul over Rome by
self election.
31BC Sep 2, The Naval Battle of
Actium in the Ionian Sea, between Roman leader Octavian and the
alliance of Roman Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.
Octavian soundly defeated Antony's fleet which was burned and 5000
of his men were killed. Cleopatra committed suicide. The rivals
battled for control of the Roman Empire in the naval battle of
Actium, where Cleopatra, seeing Antony's navy being outmaneuvered by
Octavian's, ordered her 60 ships to turn about and flee to safety.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.18)(HNPD, 7/30/98)(MC, 9/2/01)
c31BC Augustus founded the city
of Nikopolis in Epirus (northwestern Greece) to commemorate his
victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium.
(AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.10)
31BC Rome under Emperor
Augustus annexed the Carthage territory.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.T8)
31BC An earthquake occurred at
the Qumran caves by the Dead Sea when Herod ruled in Jerusalem. This
was the site where fragments of scrolls from the books of Psalms and
Numbers were later found, as well as a human skeleton beneath
boulders from the earthquake.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
30BC Jul 30, Mark Antony, lover
of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII and claimant to the Roman
throne, stabbed himself when faced with certain defeat at the hands
of his rival Octavian. Antony expected to be named the heir to Rome
after the assassination of his friend and confidant Julius Caesar,
but had not counted on Caesar naming his adopted son Octavian as his
successor. Shaken by his loss at Actium and abandoned by his allies,
Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed him in death shortly
afterward when she allowed herself to be bitten by a venomous asp.
(HNPD, 7/30/98)
30BC Aug 30, Cleopatra, the
7th and most famous queen of ancient Egypt, committed suicide about
this time.
(AP, 8/30/97)
30BC Rome gained control over
Egypt. The wheat fields of Egypt became one of Rome's main sources
of food. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)(SFC, 11/4/96,
p.A11)
30BC Construction began on the
Temple of Isis in Sabratha, Libya. It was completed in 14CE.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.D12)
29BC Cicero complained that
"Two of my shops have fallen down... The tenants have fled... Even
the mice have migrated." [see 43BC]
(SFEC, 9/28/97, Z1 p.2)
28BC Oct 9, The Temple of
Apollo was dedicate on the Palatine Hill in Rome.
(HN, 10/9/98)
28BC In Rome the mausoleum of
Emperor Augustus(d.14AD) was built.
(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.P16)
27BC An earthquake hit Egypt
and devastated the temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor, which dated to
about 1389.
(AP, 4/26/11)
27BC The Roman senatorial
province of Achaea was established. It comprised all of Greece south
of Thessaly.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)
27BC - 14CE Octavian, adopted son of Julius Caesar
ruled as Rome's first emperor. He was given the name Augustus
(revered or exalted one) and put an end to the chaos and power
struggles that had occurred after Caesar's assassination. He also
expanded the empire by conquering the territory that ran along the
Rhine and Danube rivers.
(ATC, p.26)
25BC Augustus received two
trade groups from India.
(ATC, p.33)
25BC Strabo, a geographer and
scholar from Alexandria, made the most comprehensive map of the
known world.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)
19BC Sep 20, The Roman poet
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, b.70BC) died. His epic "The Aeneid"
became one of the great classics of Western literature. The story it
tells runs from the end of the Trojan War to the start of the Roman
Empire.
(WUD, 1994 p.1587)(MC 9/20/01)
19BC Agrippa had the Aqua
Virgo built in Rome.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T4)
19BC A wine jug bearing
reference to King Herod was found in an ancient garbage dump near
the synagogue at Masada, Israel. The cone-shaped, two-handled jug
held about 20 gallons of wine and had been shipped from Italy.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.D1)
19BC Lucius Cornelius Balbus
led 20,000 men of the 3rd Augusta Legion across the Hamada al-Hamra
(Red Rocky Plain) in the first Roman attack on the Garamantian
heartland (Libya). Romans turned Ghadames, Libya, into a garrison
town.
(Arch, 9/02,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamantes)(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.D12)
16BC Flying Swallow (16) became
empress to China's Emperor Cheng.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.12)
15BC King Herod of Judea built
the coastal settlement of Caesarea. It was razed to the ground in
1265.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
12 BC Aug 31, Caligula (Gaius
Caesar), 3rd Roman emperor (37-41 CE), was born.
(YN, 8/31/99)
10BC Aug 1, Claudius (d.54CE).,
Roman Emperor, was born. Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar Drusus, the
nephew of Tiberius and grandson of the wife of Augustus, was made
emperor after Caligula.
(HN, 8/1/98)
9BC The Ara Pacis (Altar of
Peace), ordered by Augustus Caesar, was constructed in Rome. In 2005
the Museum of the Ara Pacis opened in Rome.
(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.P16)
8BC Augustus, emperor of the
Roman Empire. The Roman Senate changed the name of the month
Sextilis to Augustus, and an extra day was added while subtracting a
day from February.
(K.I.-365D, p.89)
8BC Augustus Caesar ordered a
census under the consulship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius.
4,233,000 Roman citizens were counted.
(www.biblehistory.net/volume2/Quirinius.htm)
8BC Horace (b.65BC), Roman
poet, died. In 2002 J.D. McClatchy edited "Horace: The Odes, New
Translations by Contemporary Poets.
(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.M2)
c7BC Dionysius of
Helicarnassus, Greek rhetorician and historian in Rome, died. He
said that history is philosophy learned from examples.
(WUD, 1994, p.405)(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.75)
6BC Apr 17, Jupiter was in a
rare alignment with the constellation Aries and marked an important
date for ancient astrologers. Jesus was believed to have been born
in this year.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.C1)
6BC - 4BC Publius Quinctilius Varus served as
Roman governor of Syria.
(http://www.rovenet.com/tno/tacitus%20named%20officials/varus.html)
c5BC - 65CE Seneca, Roman statesman:
"Malice drinks one-half of its own poison."
(AP, 6/8/98)
c4BC The Second Temple in
Jerusalem was rebuilt a few years before the birth of Jesus under
King Herod. Jerusalem at this time had a population of about 100,000
people.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)
4BC Publius Sulpicius Quirinus
served as Roman governor of Cilicia, which was annexed to Syria.
(www.botcw.com/bible/kjv/easton/east0953.htm)
4BC King Herod the Great died.
He governed Judea from 37BC.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A12)
4BC Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(d.65) (aka Seneca the younger), Roman intellectual, was born in
Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger)
4BC - 40CE Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great,
tetrarch of Galilee for this period. He examined Jesus at the
request of Pilate. He executed John the Baptist. Pontius Pilate
served as governor of the island of Ponza before he was made
procurator of Judea.
(AHD, 1971, p.618, 706)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T12)
3BC Sep 14, Jupiter appeared to
pass very close to the star Regulus, "the King's Star."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, Par p.9)
3BC - 2BC Astronomical events occurred at this
time and coincided with the probable birth of Jesus Christ. During
the conjunctions of 3BC, Jupiter, the King Planet, came into contact
with the King Star, Leo the Lion, which was also the sign for the
Jewish tribe of Judah.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A16)
2BC Feb 17, Jupiter again
appeared to pass very close to the star Regulus, "the King's Star."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, Par p.9)
2BC May 8, Jupiter appeared to
pass very close to the star Regulus, "the King's Star" for a 3rd
time in recent months.
(SSFC, 12/23/01, Par p.9)
2BC Jun 17, Jupiter and Venus
drew close together and appeared to fuse as a single star. This was
later thought to be the Biblical star of Bethlehem.
(SSFC, 12/23/01, Par p.9
2BC Heratosthene of Greece drew
a map that showed 3 continents about equal in size labeled: Europe,
Asia and Libya.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, Z1 p.8)
2BC The Maccabeans built an
aqueduct in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A10)
1BC Mar 1, Start of the revised
Julian calendar in Rome.
(SC, 3/1/02)
Go to 1-299AD