Plato's Atlantis My Theory
Nerc:
c2500BC Aryan followers of King Yama crossed the Aoxus River from Central Asia into Tajikistan and created a new calendar with the new year (Now Roz, Now-Ruz) marked by spring. This was later celebrated by people in Iran and Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A22)
c2500BC African settlers came to the Canary Islands about this time and brought with them a whistling language later known as "silbo Gomero."
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.D5)
2500BC Cycladic figurines on the islet of Keros were deliberately smashed around this time. In 2006 new research led scientists to believe that Keros was a hugely important religious site where the smashed artwork was ceremoniously deposited. The sea-faring Cycladic culture consisted of a network of small, sometimes fortified, farming and fishing settlements that traded with mainland Greece, Crete and Asia Minor. It became renowned for its elegant flat-faced marble figurines.
(SFC, 1/10/06, p.D7)(AP, 12/31/06)
2500BC A flute made of vulture bone from this time is on exhibit at the Paris Museum of Music.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T7)
2500BC Wooden sandals represent the oldest shoes on exhibit in Toronto at the Bata Shoe Museum, and are from an Egyptian tomb estimated to be 4,500 years old.
(SFE, 10/1/95, p.T-10)
c2500BC The tomb of an Egyptian child from about this time was found to contain toys that included miniature pins and balls and a wicket, the first evidence of bowling.
(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A3)
2500BC The first signs of human habitation at Trier (Germany) date to this time.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T8)
c2500 In India excavations in 2000 revealed a walled city of the middle 3rd millennium at the Dholavira site in Gujarat state.
(AM, 11/00, p.22)
2500BC The Jiroft culture (later Assyria, Persia, southeastern Iran) flourished about this time.
(Arch, 5/04, p.51)
2500BC On Malta by about his time the megalithic temples were no longer in use.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.47)
2500BC In 2006 researchers reported a 4,500-year-old burial in Mexico that showed front teeth ground down so they could be mounted with animal teeth. It was the oldest example of dental work in the Americas.
(SFC, 6/14/06, p.A2)
2500BC The Nuraghic Civilization thrived in Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
2500BC Troy II, the second oldest discernible settlement on the site of the mound of Hissarlik in northwest Turkey, a good 1200 years before the estimated date of the Trojan War.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
2500BC By this time the Sahara desert looked much as it does today.
(ATC, p.109)
2500BC-2000 The Magan-period of Oman. Numerous slag heaps and third millennium remains from mining and smelting have been found at the oasis village of Maysar in central-eastern Oman. Magan supplied copper ingots to the seafaring merchants of southern Mesopotamia.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)(Arch, 9/00, p.48)
2500BC-2000BC Scotland’s Ring of Brogar in Orkney’s West Mainland dates to about this time. In 2005 36 of the original 60 stones remained standing. The original stones stood in a perfect circle 340 feet in diameter.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F10)
2500BC-1500BC Cities flourished in the Indus Valley.
(WH, 1994, p.12)
2500BC-1500BC Mohenjo-Daro in southern Pakistan was an early urban center. As many as 40,000 people lived there
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.74)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)
2500BC-1300 In the Dhofar region of Oman, a fortress was built at Shisur next to a permanent spring and used up to 1500CE.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.52)
2498BC-2491BC Userkaf, grandson of Djedefre, ruled as the 1st king of Egypt’s 5th dynasty. He built a pyramid complex at Saqqara.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty5.html)
2491BC-2477BC Sahure ruled as the 2nd king of Egypt’s 5th dynasty. He built a pyramid complex at Abusir. He established an Egyptian navy and sent a fleet to Punt and traded with Palestine.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty5.html)
2477BC-2467BC Neferirkare, brother of Sahure, ruled as the 3rd king of Egypt’s 5th dynasty. In 1893 local farmers discovered hieratic papyrus at his pyramid complex consisting of some 300 fragments.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty5.html)
2467BC-2460BC Shepseskare ruled in Egypt, according to the Turin King-list, for 7 years. Some seal impressions dated to his reign have been found at Abusir.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2460BC-2453BC Neferefre ruled as the 5th king of Egypt’s 5th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2450BC The Troy treasure discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873 was dated to a Bronze Age Troy of about this time.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
2453BC-2422BC Niusserre (Nyuserre) ruled as the 6th king of Egypt’s 5th dynasty. In 1893 local farmers discovered hieratic papyrus at his pyramid complex consisting of some 300 fragments.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2422BC-2414BC Menkauhor ruled as the 7th king of Egypt’s 5th dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2414BC-2375BC Djedkare ruled at the end of the 6th dynasty.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/04_06/05.html)
c2400BC A site at Chien-kou near Handan of China's Longshan culture shows strong evidence of warfare between communities.
(NH, Jul, p.30)
c2400BC In Egypt the bas-reliefs lining the Mastaba of Akhethetep depict the rural life of a prosperous landowner. The chapel is in the French Louvre.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
2400BC Dagan, a name that appears in early Mesopotamia, and that enters into the composition of proper names in Babylonia about this time. Dagan was later a name for head of the Philistine pantheon.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.99, p.104)
2400BC-1500BC Late Danish Neolithic: In the Ertebolle Culture amber pendants were shaped as animals. This includes the Dagger Period of Northern Europe.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.8)(http://tinyurl.com/9usqn)
2375BC-2345BC Unas ruled at the end of Egypt’s 6th dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
c2350BC Akhethetep, a high ranking official, lived about this time. His mastaba tomb is located in Saqqara, Egypt.
(AM, 11/04, p.72)
2348BC Jul 17, "My Bible also revealed that Noah came ashore on Mt. Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month, 2348BC." In 1999 William Ryan and Walter Pitman authored "Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event That Changed History." They demonstrate how the rising Mediterranean broke through a natural dam in the Bosporus Strait and flooded a freshwater lake that expanded into the Black Sea. [see 5,600BC]
(NG, Nov. 1985, edit., p.559)(NH, 12/98, p.13)
2348BC Nov 25, Biblical scholars have long asserted this to be the day of the Great Deluge, or Flood. [see Jul 17, 2348]
(HN, 11/25/98)
2345BC-2333BC Teti ruled Egypt as the 1st king of the 6th dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2345BC-2181BC In Egypt the "Striding Figure of Meryrahashtef," a 22.5 inch **** statue of a minor 6th dynasty official, was made.
(WSJ, 1/16/02, p.A14)
2340BC-2315BC Sargon I founded and ruled the city-state of Akkad, after he left the city of Kish where he was an important official. He was the first ruler to maintain a standing army. His empire lasted less than 200 years.
(eawc, p.1)
2333BC Userkare ruled in the 6th dynasty of Egypt between Teti and Pepi. He is believed to be a proponent of the group that killed Teti.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0602_userkare/history.html)
2333BC Go-Chosun (Kojoson) refers to the Korean Empire founded by Tangun in 2333 BC that succeeded the first kingdoms of Hwan Gook (7,197 BC) and Bae Dal (3,898 BC) (also known as Gu Ri). The people of Go-Chosun were referred to by the Chinese as "the eastern bowmen." Chosun means "The Land of the Morning Calm."
(www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chosun)(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
2332BC-2283BC Pepi I ruled as the 3rd king of the 6th dynasty. A pyramid of Queen Ankh-sn-Pepi, wife of Pepi I, was discovered in 2000. The "Pair Statue of Queen Ankh-Nes-Meryre II and her son Pepi II Seated" was part of an Egyptian show on view at the NY Met in 1999.
(WSJ, 9/21/99, p.A24)(SFC, 4/3/00, p.A10)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2320BC Sargon conquered the independent city-states of Sumer and instituted a central government.
(eawc, p.2)
c2300BC Phoenicians, a seafaring people, began living along the Levantine coast.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A14)
2300BC Sumerian cuneiform texts mention the land of Magan (possibly Oman) as a source of copper and diorite for the states of Mesopotamia.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)
2300BC A culture traceable to Siberian ancestors made its way eastward across Alaska and through the Arctic to Ellesmere Island's Bache Peninsula. From there Greenland lies just 25 miles across open water in summer or solid sea ice in winter.
(NG, 6/1988, 762)
2300BC The Hmong people lived on the central plains of China. The gradually moved to the mountains of Indochina and Burma and then to Laos and Thailand.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.2)
2300BC A civilization later called the Bactria Margiana Archeology Complex existed about this time in what later became Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Evidence of writing was found at the Annau ruins in 2000.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A12)
2300BC-2000 There was cultural exchange between the Indus Valley civilization and Mesopotamia.
(eawc, p.2)
2278BC-2184BC Pepi II ruled in Egypt as the last king of the 6th dynasty and the last significant king of the Old Kingdom.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2183BC Merenre II followed Pepi II as ruler of Egypt. He ruled for just over a year and was murdered. Nitocris, his sister-wife, took rule.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty6.html)
2183BC-2180BC Nitocris (Nitiqret), the wife-sister-wife of Merenre, rule Egypt.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty6.html)
2269-2255 The Akkadian ruler Manishtusu campaigned against the region of Magan (Oman).
(Arch, 9/00, p.47)
2254-2218 The Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin campaigned against the region of Magan (Oman).
(Arch, 9/00, p.47)
2205-1766 In China the Hsia Dynasty unfolded. No archeological evidence has confirmed this. [see 2100BC-1600]
(eawc, p.2)
2200BC In what is now Bahrain settlements and temples of the city state of Dilmun, known as the city of the gods in ancient Sumerian literature, were found by Danish archaeologists in the 1950s.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.48)
2200BC A culture contemporary with the city state of Dilmun (now Bahrain) was found in 1959 on the island of Umm-an-Nar off of Abu Dhabi.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.48)
2200BC In Greece Indo-European invaders, speaking the earliest form of Greek, entered the mainland.
(eawc, p.2)
2200BC In the Peruvian Andes a native culture built a 33-foot pyramid about this time with an observatory marking the summer and winter solstices. In 2006 archeologists working at the Buena Vista site believed that fisherman from the coast had moved to the site to grow cotton for making fishing nets.
(SFC, 5/15/06, p.A2)
2200BC A statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash was made about this time. The head was later lost and in 2003 the remaining body was looted after the fall of Baghdad. In 2006 it was returned to Iraq’s National Museum.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.A3)
2183BC-2181BC Nitocris (Nitiqret), the wife-sister-wife of Merenre, ruled Egypt.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty6.html)
2181-2161 Egypt’s 7th and 8th dynasties ruled during this period. Wadjkare ruled in Egypt’s 7th dynasty and was followed by Qakare. Eusebius has a 7th Dynasty that consisted of five kings of Memphis, who reigned for 75 days and an Eighth Dynasty that consisted of five kings of Memphis, who reigned for 100 years.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasties7-10.html)
2181-2040 Egypt’s First Intermediate Period. It began with the collapse of the Old Kingdom due to crop failure and low revenues due to pyramid building projects. This seemed to coincide with a period of cooling and drying.
(eawc, p.2)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.114)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2160BC-2140BC Egypt’s 9th and 10th Dynasties ruled over this period from the capital at Herakleopolis. Pharaohs included Meryibre, Merykare, Kaneferre, and Nebkaure.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2145BC Idin-Dagan, a king of Babylonia. and his son Isme-Dagan.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.104)
2137BC Oct 22, This is the date of the earliest recorded eclipse according to the Shu King, the book of historical documents of ancient China. Two royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, failed in their duties to predict the eclipse due to too much rice wine and were executed.
(SCTS, p.27)
2134BC-2117BC Intef I (Antef I) ruled in Egypt’s 11th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2134BC-1991BC Period of Egypt’s 11th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2130BC By this time Sumer regained its independence from Akkadian rule but did not revert to independent city-states. Sumer was ruled from Ur.
(eawc, p.2)
2117BC-2069BC Intef II (Antef II) ruled in Egypt’s 11th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2113BC Ur's golden century began when King Ur-Nammu expanded the Sumerian empire and made his capital the wealthiest city in Mesopotamia. Ur-Namma was the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He made sure Magan (Oman) boats could freely come and go from Ur’s harbor.
(AP, 4/15/03)(Arch, 9/00, p.46)
2100BC Byblos ( Pre-Phoenician city) was burned to the ground probably by the Amorites.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.156)
2100BC The Sumerian King List was written. It recorded all the kings and dynasties ruling Sumer from the earliest times. Eridu was named as the earliest settlement and archeological evidence seems to confirm the claim.
(eawc, p.2)
2100BC Gudeo served as governor of Lagash (Iraq).
(Arch, 9/00, p.46)
c2100BC Stonehenge Phase II incorporated 60 "bluestones" from the Preseli Mountains in southwest Wales, about 135 miles away. 90 bluestones were set up in a horseshoe shape within a circle of another 60. Some 500 years after Stonehenge I fell into disuse, builders created a radically different Stonehenge with dozens of stone pillars weighing up to 4 tons.
(HT, 3/97, p.22)(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T5)(HNQ, 3/3/01)
2100BC Amorites came from the Arabian peninsula and were the first important Semitic settlers in the area of Damascus. They established many small states.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A26)
c2100BC-1900BC In Stonehenge Phase III the builders encircled the bluestones with sarsen stones, a sandstone (probably from a quarry in Avebury, 20 miles away). These were topped by caps and the bluestones were re-arranged and dug into the ground. The axis of the circle was also re-calculated so that one way Stonehenge points to the summer solstice at sunrise and lined up the other way it points to the winter solstice at sunset.
(HT, 3/97, p.22)(SD)
2100BC-1600BC Xia Dynasty of China. The Ba people controlled salt production on the Yangtze River. They then slowly migrated upstream and in 316BC were subjugated by the Qin. Fuling was a burial site for the kings of Ba. Fengdu was the first capital of Ba. The 1996 Tujia minority claim descent from the Ba.
(NH, 7/96, p.31)
2100BC-1600BC The protohistoric Xia period. [see 2205-1766]
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)
2100BC-2000BC Some 15,000 tiny Golden rings, estimated at 4,100 to 4,200 years old, were found in 2005 near Dabene, Bulgaria. They were attributed to proto-Thracians, ancestors of the Thracians, who lived in the area until they were assimilated by invading Slavs in the 8th century.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
2070BC In China the Xia period began according to results from government funded studies in 2000 CE. This was about the middle of the prehistoric Longshan culture.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
2069BC-2060BC Intef III (Antef III) ruled in Egypt’s 11th Dynasty for 8 years.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2068 Shulgi, king of Ur, accepted gold from the king of Magan (Oman).
(Arch, 9/00, p.47)
2060BC-2010BC Mentuhotep II (Nebhetepre), son of Theban Inteff III, ruled for about 39-51 years in Egypt’s 11th Dynasty.
(http://tinyurl.com/9nr3e)([url=http://www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm]www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm[/url])
2040BC-1782BC In Egypt the period of the Middle Kingdom began with its capital at Thebes. It lasted to 1782BC. About this time "The Plea of the Eloquent Peasant" was written calling for a benevolent ruler.
(eawc, p.2)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
2013BC Sumerians built the Ziggurat at Ur (later Iraq) to draw closer attention to the god of the moon.
(SSFC, 4/25/04, Par p.5)
2010BC-1998BC Mentuhotep II, son of Mentuhotep I, ruled in the 11th Dynasty of Egypt for about 12 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/b97e3)([url=http://www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm]www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm[/url])
2000BC The first agricultural tribes appeared on the Bactrian Plain (Afghanistan).
(NG, 3/90, p.62)
2000BC Bronze-age mounds from this time in Turkman SSR indicate that Central Asians built cities around oases and developed a flourishing civilization with monumental architecture, sophisticated gold and silver craft, and irrigation agriculture.
(NG, 3/90)
c2000BC At Arbor Low in Derbyshire, England, a Bronze Age stone circle was constructed.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.21)
c2000BC Silbury Hill, located on the prehistoric site of Avebury (named after nearby Avebury, England), is the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. The artificial hill, which rises up 130 feet, was constructed over three separate phases beginning at least 4,000 years ago. Although the shape of the mound is similar to smaller earthen constructions used for burials, its purpose remains a mystery.
(HNQ, 6/8/01)
2000BC The initial phase of what scientists call Stonehenge III was begun about 100 years after Stonehenge II with the lentil structure familiar to modern visitors. The builders continued improvements on Stonehenge III up until about 1550BC, well before historical records of the Druids or the Romans. Both Stonehenge and a neighboring circular monument were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List--a listing of cultural and natural sites--in 1986.
(HNQ, 3/3/01)
2000BC For as many as 4,000 years, the salty sand of the Taklimakan Desert in China held well-preserved mummies wearing colorful robes, boots, stockings and hats. The people were Caucasian not Asian. The bodies have been exhumed from the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang province since the late 1970s.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.C-1)
2000BC Balathal, outside the city of Udaipur in northeast India, was a Chalcolithic village. The people used copper tools and weapons. Terra-cotta figurines of bulls have been found at the site. It was abandoned and reoccupied c340BC.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)
2000BC Legends from Mecca indicate that the prophet Abraham built the Kaaba about this time. The Kaaba is a shrine meaning cube in Arabic, that enclosed the idols of their gods. Religious rituals were performed around the Kaaba which had a black stone embedded into a corner, said to be a gift to Abraham from the angel Gabriel for his belief in one god. By CE 500 more than 360 idols were housed within the Kaaba.
(ATC, p.57)
2000BC About this time the Egyptians domesticated the cat in order to catch snakes. Advances in astronomy enabled the Egyptians to predict the annual flooding of the Nile.
(eawc, p.2)
c2000BC An Egyptian painting on an interior tomb wall depicted 6 men scrubbing, wringing and folding a cloth.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)
2000BC It was later believed that emeralds were first mined in Egypt about this time.
(WSJ, 2/7/07, p.A12)
2000BC By this time Baltic amber reached the Mediterranean and was found in ancient Mycenaean shaft graves.
(PacDis, Winter/'97, p.10)
2000BC The Timucuan Indians lived on Cumberland Island, Georgia, back to this time.
(Sky, 4/97, p.43)
2000BC The Hittites lived around what is now Cappadocia. They mixed with the already-settled Hatti and were followed by the Lydians, Phrygians, Byzantines, Romans and Greeks. The name Cappadocia comes from the Hittite for "land of pretty horses."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
c2000BC In India Tantra, a quasireligious doctrine, dates back to this time. Its first texts were in Sanskrit and the original adherents practiced ritual copulation.
(WSJ, 12/7/98, p.A1)
c2000BC The Sumerian goddess Inanna was a fertility figure.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.7)
c2000BC A palace was built at Qatanah, 12 miles south of Damascus, Syria, that was discovered in 1999.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A6)
2000BC-1790BC The wooden statue of chancellor Nakhti and carved face of governor Hapidjefai date to Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. They are now in the French Louvre.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
2000BC-1600BC In Mesopotamia the Old Babylonian period began after the collapse of Sumer, probably due to an increase in the salt content of the soil that made farming difficult. Weakened by poor crops and lack of surplus goods, the Sumerians were conquered by the Amorites, situated in Babylon. The center of civility shifted north. The Amorites preserved much of the Sumerian culture but introduced their own Semitic language, an early ancestor to Hebrew, into the region.
(eawc, p.2)
2000BC-1600BC The Middle Minoan period. Middle Minoan I finds polychrome decoration in pottery with elaborate geometrical patterns; we also discover interesting attempts to picture natural forms, such as goats and beetles. There then follows some great catastrophe. Middle Minoan II includes the period of the great palace of Phaestos and the first palace of Knossos. This period also includes the magnificent polychrome pottery called Kamares ware. Another catastrophe occurs. The second great palace of Knossos was built and begins the Middle Minoan III. It was distinguished by an intense realism in art, speaking clearly of a rapid deterioration in taste. Pictographic writing was clearly developed, with a hieratic or cursive script derived from it, adapted for writing with pen and ink.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.17)
2000BC-1600 In Oman a transitional culture known as early Wadi Suq.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)
2000BC-1500BC The events of the Indian Ramayana epic, written around 500BC, supposedly took place about this time period.
(AM, 7/04, p.50)
2000BC-1550BC The Babylonians built an empire.
(WH, 1994, p.12)
2000BC-1500BC In Greece the Minoan civilization, named after the Cretan ruler Minos, reached its height with central power in Knossos on the isle of Crete. The culture was apparently more female-oriented and peaceful than others of the time.
(eawc, p.2)
2000BC-1000BC Early preclassic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
2000BC-1000BC In Italy Indo-Europeans slowly began to inhabit the north by way of the Alps. They brought the horse, the wheeled cart, and artistic knowledge of bronze work to the Italian peninsula. The Greeks and the Etruscans occupied different regions of the peninsula during the 8th century.
(eawc, p.2)
2000BC-500BC Aryan tribes lived in Aryana (Ancient Afghanistan). The City of Kabul is thought to have been established during this time. Rig Veda may have been created in Afghanistan around this time. Evidence of early nomadic iron age in Aq Kapruk IV.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
1997BC-1991BC Mentuhotep III, the last king of the 11th Dynasty of Egypt. He was the son of Imi, a secondary wife of either Mentuhotep II or III. His name is missing from most king’s lists.
(http://tinyurl.com/e37kx)([url=http://www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm]www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm[/url])
1995BC In 2005 Chinese archeologists reported their find of a 4,000 year-old container in northwestern China of noodles made from millet.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.A2)
1991BC-1962BC Amenemhet I (Amenemhat I) founded Egypt’s 12th Dynasty of Egypt and ruled for some 30 years.
(http://www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1991BC-1783BC Egypt, time of the Twelfth Dynasty, the peak of the Middle Kingdom when the Pharaohs won back some of the power which the monarchs of the Old kingdom had enjoyed. It ended with the Middle Kingdom in 1786BC. During the period power was somewhat distributed through the social classes. Religion shifted from a wealth-based system to one based on proper conduct.
(eawc, p.3)(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1980BC-1971BC Sesostris I (Senusret I) became co-regent with Amenenhet I.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1971BC-1929BC Sesostris I (Senusret I) ruled during Egypt’s 12th dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1929BC-1926BC Amenemhet II ruled in the 12th Dynasty of Egypt as co-regent with his father Sesostris I.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1926BC-1892BC Amenemhet II held sole rule during Egypt’s 12th Dynasty.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1900BC King Melchizedek ruled Salem before it became Jerusalem. He charged everybody in his domain a flat 10% tax.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, Z1 p.5)
c1900BC The "Epic of Gilgamesh" was redacted from Sumerian sources written in the Babylonian semetic. The legend was written about 1,600BC.
(eawc, p.3)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C6)
1900BC-1500BC During this period a Semitic group of nomads migrated from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt. They were led by a caravan trader, the Patriarch Abraham, who became the father of the nation of Israel. Ishmael was a son of Abraham had by Hagar. Isaac was a son of Abraham by Sarah. Hebrews trace their lineage through Isaac, Arabs through Ishmael.
(eawc, p.3)(NW, 11/02, p.55)
c1898BC-1866BC In Egypt the Sphinx of Tanis was made. It was later moved to Paris.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A20)
1897BC-1878BC Sesostris II (Senusret II), son of Amenenhet II, ruled as co-regent in Egypt’s 12th Dynasty.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
c1890BC Sinuhe, a professional soldier of high rank in Egypt, serving in the army of Amenemhat II was faced with a change in political power and left Egypt. He fled to Byblos, where he was befriended by a local ruler named Ammienshi, who governed the land of Retenu. He later returned to Egypt, now ruled by Senusret.
(L.C.-W.P.p.21-32)
1878BC-1841BC Senusret III (Sesostris III) ruled as Egypt’s 5th king in the 12th Dynasty. He built a funerary complex to link himself with Osiris, lord of Abydos. Khakaure was Senwosret’s throne name.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1842BC-1797BC Amenemhet III ruled as Egypt’s 6th in the 12th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1800BC By this time the Old Babylonians employed advanced mathematical operations such as multiplication, division and square roots. Their duodecimal system, based on 12 and 6 to measure time, is still used today.
(eawc, p.3)
c1800BC In Egypt walls of limestone were marked with alphabetic inscriptions in the Wadi el-Hol (Gulch of Terror). In 1993 the graffiti markings were discovered by Egyptologist John Coleman Darnell and his wife Deborah and later traced to Semitic people, possibly mercenary soldier scribes or Canaanite workers, living in the area.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A6)(SFC, 11/23/99, p.B10)
1800BC-1400BC The Second Semitic period. Macalister has five historic divisions to cover his excavation of Gezar (Vol. ii, pp. 128-241). This period in pottery shows Egyptian and Cypriotic influence, and here for the first time painted ornament becomes prominent. The figures are outlines in broad brush strokes, and the spaces are filled in afterwards, wholly or partly, with strokes in another color. The subjects are animals, birds, fishes, and geometrical patterns generally, and there can be little doubt that they are crude local imitations of models of Late Minoan ware, directly imported into the country.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.122)
1798BC-1786BC Amenemhet IV ruled in the 12th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1785BC-1782BC Queen Sobeknefru (Nefrusobek) ruled in the 12th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1782BC-1779BC Wegaf ruled at the beginning of Egypt’s 13th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1782BC-1650BC Egypt’s XIII Dynasty was marked by a period of decay, loss of unity, and many short-lived rival Pharaohs. This lasted through the Sixteenth Dynasty. Over 70 kings are listed in this dynasty and their dates are not well known.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/13.html)
1782BC-1570BC Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period. Also dated from 1640-1540.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/13.html)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1780BC Vesuvius erupted about this time and entombed settlements 15km northwest of the volcano. The Avellino event left evidence at the Nola site that people were able to flee the eruption.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.73)
1766BC In China the Shang Dynasty, the 2nd dynasty of the country according to tradition, began. It flourished on the banks of the Yellow River from about 1400BC-1027BC. The period is known for its use of bronze containers, oracle bones and human sacrifice, which ended shortly after the collapse of the dynasty.
(eawc, p.3)
1763 Hammurabi, the Amorite King, conquered all of Sumer. He wrote a "Code of Laws" that contained 282 rules including the principles of "an eye for an eye" and "let the buyer beware." It was one of the first codes of law in world history, predated only by the Laws of Lipit-Ishtar.
(eawc, p.3)
c1760BC Hor ruled in the early part of Egypt’s 13th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1750BC Hammurabi established a code of laws. One of the laws was that if a married woman was caught lying with another man, both should be bound and thrown into the river.
(WH, 1994, p.13)(SFEC, 10/20/96, zone 1 p.2)
1750BC Hammurabi died but his empire lasted another 150 years when the Kassites, a non-Semitic people, conquered most of Mesopotamia with the help of light chariot warfare.
(eawc, p.3)
c1750BC The 1st evidence for the lapidary engraving wheel appeared about this time.
(Arch, 9/00, p.18)
1750BC-1540BC The Hyksos from Syria and Palestine occupied Egypt and introduced the horse and chariot. Taking advantage of the unsettled state of Egypt, Asiatic invaders from Palestine entered Egypt and set themselves up as kings, even adopting Pharaonic titles and customs. The Jewish historian Josephus claims to quote the words of an Egyptian chronicler, Manetho, in describing this period of foreign rule. The Hyksos, whoever they were, had a 'blitz-weapon' - the horse drawn chariot which they had copied from the horse-rearing Mitanni of northern Mesopotamia. And the Mitanni in turn got the horse from Persia, together with the art of riding it. In 2005 Arthur Cotterrell authored “Chariot,” a history of the chariot.
(eawc, p.3)(WSJ, 6/17/05, p.W6)(L.C.-W.P.p.55-56)
c1747BC Khendjer, a Hyksos king, ruled in northern Egypt.
(R4,1998)(http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/history12-17.htm)
c1745BC Sobekhotep II ruled in the 13th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1741BC-1730BC Neferhotep I ruled in the 13th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1730BC-1720BC Sobekhotep IV ruled in the 13th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
c1720BC The Hyksos in northern Egypt dominated the Delta and founded their capital Avaris (Tanis).
(http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/history12-17.htm)
1704BC-1690BC Ay ruled in Egypt’s 13th Dynasty. He was succeeded by Neferhotep II and Nehesy in the 14th Dynasty.
(R4,1998)(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/11_13/12.html)
1700BC Nubia is known as the Kingdom of Kush in the Bible. By this time the Nubians had established sizable cities with a class society of workers, farmers, priests, soldiers bureaucrats and an aristocracy with technological and cultural skills on a level with other advanced civilizations of their day.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
1700BC Knossos was first destroyed by an earthquake. Mycenae, the great city of the Peloponnesus, was another earthquake victim about this time.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
1700BC-1250BC Troy VI, the bronze age settlement of the site of the Trojan War. The inhabitants probably spoke Luvian, an Indo-European language related to Hittite.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1700BC-1100BC This is the Shang Dynasty period of China. [see 1766BC]
(Arch, 9/00, p.34)
1696BC-1686BC Neferhotep, the 22nd king of the 13th Dynasty, ruled Egypt. He was the son of a temple priest in Abydos. In 2005 archeologists unearthed a statue of him. His name means "beautiful and good."
(AP, 6/5/05)
1690BC A kernel of corn was found in 1997 in the McKuen Cave in Eastern Arizona that dated to this time.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
1674BC Sheshi, a Hyksos ruler, conquered Memphis (Egypt). Shesi ruled at the beginning of the 15th Dynasty and was succeeded by Yakubher, Khyan, Apepi I, Apepi II, Anather in the 16th Dynasty, Yakobaam, Sobekemsaf II in the 17th Dynasty, and Intef VII. The Hyksos invaded Egypt in horse-drawn chariots.
(WH, 1994, p.13)(http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/history12-17.htm)
1663BC-1555BC The period of Egypt’s 15th Dynasty. In Egypt the 15th, 16th and 17th dynasties ruled simultaneously.
(http://tinyurl.com/cgmpy)([url=http://www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/avkno]www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/avkno[/url])
c1650 Egypt’s 14th Dynasty kings ruled mostly from the Western Nile Delta. Their dates are not well known and they may have been contemporary with the 13th Dynasty.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/14_17/14.html)
1650BC The volcano Thera, or Santorini in the Aegean Sea, erupted. Akroteri, a Minoan city on the south part of Thera, is being excavated. About 3-6 feet (1-2 m) of ash fell on the city which had a population of about 30,000. The explosion of Thera about this time released energy equal to 200,000 H-bombs. In 1939 Spyridon Marinatos authored “The Volcanic Destruction of Minoan Crete.”
(NH, 5/96, p.3)(AM, 7/00, p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/7ywyr)
1640BC-1540BC Egypt’s 2nd Intermediate Period.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/14_17/index.html)
c1633BC Tao I ruled in Egypt’s 17th Dynasty. In Egypt the 15th, 16th and 17th dynasties ruled simultaneously.
(http://tinyurl.com/avkno)
1628BC The palace at Knossos, Crete, is depicted in the opening of the 1996 book: "Europe: A History" by Norman Davies.
(WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)
c1600BC The Nebra disk, a 12-inch bronze and gold disk from this time, was evidence of ancient German astronomy. It recorded images of the sun, moon and 32 stars.
(AM, 3/04, p.42)
c1600BC Chocolate originated in northern Honduras.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, BR p.8)
c1600BC The Middle Helladic - Late Helladic I. This archeological period describes the settlement patterns of Greece at about this time.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.6)
1600BC The Phaestos Disc (Phaistos) of terra-cotta found in the excavation of the Cretan palace of Phaestos dating to the Middle Minoan III. It is a roughly circular tablet, 15.8-16.5 cm. in diameter. On each face is a spiral band of four coils, indicated by a roughly drawn meandering line; and an inscription, in some form of picture-writing, has been impressed on this band, one by one, from dies, probably resembling those used by bookbinders... On one face of the disc there are 119 signs; on the other face there are 123. they are divided in what appear to be word-groups... by lines cutting across the spiral bands at right angles. These word-groups contain from two to seven characters each. There are forty-five different characters employed.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.83)
1600BC In Egypt a revolution against Hyksos rule began in the south and spread throughout the country.
(eawc, p.3)
1600BC The Kassites, a non-Semitic people, conquered most of Mesopotamia with the help of light chariot warfare.
(eawc, p.3)
c1600BC Mounded royal tombs containing artifacts from this time were found in the ruins of the city of Kerma from ancient Nubia.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
1600BC-1500BC Art pieces attributed to the Xia Dynasty of China are on exhibit at the Shanghai Museum. These include an ax blade, a three legged food vessel, and 3 wine vessels.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-16)
1600BC-1500BC In India the Aryans invaded the Indus Valley region. In 1999 researchers reported that gene patterns confirmed that Caucasoid invaders entered India between 1000 and 2000BC.
(eawc, p.3)(SFC, 5/26/99, p.C2)
1600BC-1400BC Late Minoan period. Late Minoan I pottery is distinguished from the earlier period by the convention that its designs as a rule are painted dark on a light background. The palace of Phaestos was rebuilt. Fine frescoes and admirably sculptured vases in steatite are found. In Late Minoan II the naturalistic figures become conventionalized, and a degeneration in the arts sets in which continues into Late Minoan III. At the end of Late Minoan II an invasion from the mainland occurs apparently resulting in the destruction of the Knossos.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.17)
1600BC-1300BC Messenia, the home of King Nestor, mentioned in Homer's Iliad, is the site of a well excavated palace that dates to this period.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.6)
1600BC-1300BC In Oman a transitional culture known as late Wadi Suq.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)
1600BC1200BC The Mycenaean civilization on the Greek peninsula emerged. It was named after the leading Greek city of this period.
(eawc, p.2)
1600BC-1000BC In India the Early Vedic period of Indian civilization unfolded.
(eawc, p.3)
1595BC The Hittites captured Babylon and retreated. They left the city open to Kassite domination which lasted about 300 years. The Kassites maintained the Sumerian/Babylonian culture without innovations of their own.
(eawc, p.4)
1575BC-1532BC Ipepi (Apophis) ruled as a Hyksos 17th Dynasty king of Egypt.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/14_17/15.html)
1574BC Tao II ruled in the 17th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1573BC-1570BC Kamose ruled as a Hyksos 17th Dynasty king of Egypt.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/18_20/index.html)
1570BC-1546BC Ahmose, Pharaoh of Egypt, ruled in Egypt’s 17th Dynasty. His sister-wife was Queen Ahmosep-Nefertary. During his reign he defeated the Hyksos led by Apophis. Ahmose engaged the Hyksos at their city of Avaris, and the city of Sharuhen for three years.
(L.C.-W.P.p.64)(AM, 7/01, p.52)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1570BC-1070BC Egypt’s New Kingdom Period. Thebes (which encompassed the site known today as Luxor) was the chief city of Egypt. Pharaohs began to abandon royal pyramids in favor of hidden tombs in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. A bust of the Royal scribe Meniou was made in limestone during Egypt’s New Kingdom. It is now in the French Louvre.
(AM, 7/01, p.58)(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1570BC-1070BC Egyptian wall paintings included information on beer production. In 2004 Japan’s Kirin Brewery produced a beer dubbed “The New Kingdom Beer.”
(WSJ, 10/14/04, p.A1)
1551BC-1524BC Amenhotep I (Ahmenophis), son of Amasis I (Ahmose), ruled at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. Inscriptions indicate that he engaged the Nubians in the land of Kush. Some of the southern foes were evidently cave-dwellers (troglodytes), since the inscription goes on to say that 'His majesty captured the Nubian Troglodyte in the midst of his army.
(NG, 9/98, p.17)(L.C.-W.P.p.66)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
c1550BC During the beginning in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty the Opet Festival celebrated the Theban triad of the sun and creator Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu.
(Arch, 7/02, p.36)
1550BC In India writing disappeared for a time with the destruction of the Indus Valley civilization.
(eawc, p.4)
1550BC-1200BC The Late Bronze Age.
(MT, 3/96, p.2)
1532BC-1522BC Khamudi (Aseth) ruled as a Hyksos 15th Dynasty king of Egypt.
(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/14_17/15.html)
1524BC-1518BC Tuthmosis I (Thutmose I) ruled at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1518BC-1504BC In Egypt Tuthmosis II ruled in the 18th Dynasty. Hatshepsut was married to her sickly half-brother when she was about 12.
(ON, 10/99, p.7)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1504BC-1450BC Tuthmosis III, a son of one of the lesser wives of Tuthmosis I, ruled in the 18th Dynasty. In the 15th cent. BCE Thutmose III led his army from Egypt to Megiddo and outflanked the chariots of the Canaanite forces that had revolted against him. [see 1479-1426]
(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1500BC Before this time in India the sap of the palmyra palm was used to make a fermented drink later called a "toddy" by the English.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, Z1 p.5)
1500BC Domesticated dogs companied people to Timor, New Guinea and Australia by about this time. The dogs reverted to a feral existence and in Australia became dingoes.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.14)
1500BC The Shang dynasty began in China.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
c1500BC Stonehenge, a circle of large stones in southern England, was constructed to observe the seasons.
(NG, March 1990, p.110)
c1500BC Linguistic evidence shows that the Canaanites (now more commonly known as the Phoenicians) were non-Jewish Semites whose language was almost identical with Hebrew.
(MT, Spg. '97, p.12)
c1500BC Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and established a calendar with Egyptian features but based on a seven day week. The later 8-day Sukkot festival commemorates the fall harvest and the wandering of the Hebrews in the Sinai desert after the Exodus. In 1998 Jonathan Kirsch authored "Moses: A Life." Miriam was the sister of Moses and led the celebration following the crossing of the Red Sea. [see 1280BC]
(K.I.-365D, p.58)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.5)(WSJ, 4/7/00, p.W17)
c1500BC Egyptian tombs show paintings of apparently Cretan messengers and merchants, called by the name Keftiu, bearing Cretan goods: and in addition we find the actual tangible goods themselves, deposited with the Egyptian dead.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.17)
c1500BC A boy named Djehuti-Irdis (13) died in Thebes. In 2000 a biopsy confirmed that he died of pneumonia.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A13)
c1500BC In 1978 Greek grave robbers at Aidonia dug into ancient tombs believed to be a 3,500BC-year-old palatial cemetery of the Mycenaeneans. The looters plundered 18 graves but left one undisturbed. Objects from the single pit provided archeologists evidence to match the objects of an attempted 1993 sale.
(SFC, 8/13/96, p.B2)
1500BC A court to play ulama was built about this time in Chiapas, Mexico. Olmecs used latex balls for the game. The Olmecs processed rubber using latex from rubber trees mixed with juice from the morning glory vine. The rubber was used to make a bouncy ball for their ball games.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A9)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)
1500BC By this time the kingdom of Kush was established south of Egypt. The Kushites were dark-complexioned Negroids.
(eawc, p.4)
c1500BC In 2002 in southern Italy a settlement was found dating to this time on the River Sarno 6 miles northeast of Pompeii. It was abandoned after being destroyed by a flood in the 6th century BC. It was uncovered by archeologists in 2000.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A10)(Arch, 7/02, p.15)
1500BC Chersonesos on the edge of Sevastopol was the Greek world's most northern colony.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.F6)
1500BC-1400BC The Canaanite "Poem of Aqhat," a work of seasonal writing, dates to this time.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, BR p.9)
1500BC-1200BC The Late Bronze Age. The Amorites in the time of Moses came from northeast Syria. The languages of northeast Syria and Palestine appear to have been 1/3 Semitic, 1/3 Indo-European and 1/3 Hurrian.
(MT, Spg. '97, p.11)
c1500BC-1200BC The Persian prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) founded the religion known as Zoroastrianism. The principal beliefs included the existence of a supreme deity called Ahura Mazda and a cosmic struggle between the spirit of good, Spenta Mainyu, and the spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu. Later adherents to Zoroastrianism are represented by the Parsees of India and the Gabars of Iran.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.35)(www.livius.org/za-zn/zarathustra/zarathustra.htm)
1500BC-1100BC Evidence found in 1998 revealed terraced farming for corn back to this time in northeast Mexico on a hilltop overlooking the Rio Casa Grandes.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A11)
1500BC-1000BC Nubia was colonized by Egypt.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
1500BC-300BC The Lapita archaeological culture of the Western Pacific. It represents an Austronesian-speaking Neolithic population that colonized Oceania.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.22)
1500BC-400CE This period of Greek history was covered by Charles Freeman in his 1999 book "The Greek Achievement."
(WSJ, 8/31/99, p.A20)
1479 Thotmosis II died. He was succeeded by Queen Hatshepsut and his step-son Thotmosis III. Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have reigned as a pharaoh, ruled Egypt as 18th Dynasty regent for Thutmose III. Her name translates as "The Foremost of Noble Ladies." In 1996 Joyce Tyldesley authored "Hatshepsut, The Female Pharaoh."
(AFP, 4/21/06)(ON, 10/99, p.8)(AP, 6/5/05)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1479BC-1425BC Thotmosis III ruled as pharaoh of Egypt. His initial reign was under the guidance of his mother, Queen Hatsheppsut.
(AFP, 4/21/06)
1471BC Tuthmosis III of Egypt built rafts on the Lebanese coast, put them on wagons, and transported them to the Euphrates in order to cross the river and defeat the King of Mitanni. This was his eighth campaign in the thirty-third year of his reign. This was well over 250 miles. He died in the fifty-fourth year of his reign. An inscription at Napata in Nubia tells us about this.
(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)
c1470BC The 97-foot obelisk at Karnak, Egypt, was erected as part of a sun dial and cast its shadow on a temple of the sun god Amun Ra.
(AM, 3/04, p.42)
1458BC In Egypt Queen Hatshepsut, mother of Tuthmosis III, died. Tuthmosis III, in his early thirties, declared war on the Prince of the Syrian city of Kadesh, who had organized a confederacy in Palestine and Syria. Tuthmosis defeated the Syrians following an 8 month siege of Megiddo.
(ON, 3/01, p.11)(AFP, 4/21/06)
1450BC-1300BC The Hittite culture reached its highpoint and dominated the territory North and East of Babylon including Turkey and northern Palestine. By this time the Hittites have constructed a mythology with a state pantheon.
(eawc, p.4)
1453BC-1419BC Amenhotep II (Amenophis II), son of Tuthmose III, ruled in the 18th Dynasty. In the same Giza stele which describes his prowess with a 33-foot oar, there is an account of his skill as a archer. There is no doubt that he did conquer the Asiatic powers of Djahi, Retenu, Mitanni, and 'God's Land'.
(L.C.-W.P.p.91-92)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1419BC-1386BC Tutmosis IV, son of Amenhotep II, ruled in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty with his son as co-regent.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1400BC Around Greece after the destruction of Knossos the Mycenaean civilization replaced the Minoan. Bronze weapons, war scenes on art, Cyclopean defense walls and the burial of male warriors with their weapons indicates that the Mycenaeans were militaristic. The horse drawn chariot emerged about this time. The Mycenaeans dominated the Aegean world for about 200 years.
(eawc, p.4)
1400BC Michael Ventris (d.1956) and John Chadwick (d.1998 at 78) in 1956 published "Documents in Mycenaean Greek." This was a translation of Greek writings known as Linear B discovered by Sir Arthur Evans at the Minoan palace of Cnossos [Knossos] in 1900 and dated to 1400BC.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B6)
c1400BC The Temple of Hatshepsut was built in Luxor.
(SFC,11/20/97, p.B2)
1400BC The tomb of Kha Mirit from this time was later put on display in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy.
(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.E6)
c1400BC A major earthquake occurred in the Middle East.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
1400BC Sumerian writing remained pictographic until about this time.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A6)
1400BC-1200BC Chinese pictorial script first appeared during the Shang dynasty.
(SFC, 5/8/06, p.A1)
1400BC-1200BC The spread of the debased Cretan culture over Southern Asia Minor, Cyprus, and North Syria must have been due to the movements of peoples, one incident in which was the sack of Knossos (and the collapse of the island of Thera): and this is true, whether those who carried the Cretan art were refugees from Crete, or were the conquerors of Crete seeking yet further lands to spoil.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.18)
1400BC-1000BC The Third Semitic period, historic period of pottery which includes the time of the Philistine supremacy. The designs had in fact become 'hieratic', and the fine broad lines in several colors had given place to thin-line monochrome patterns... this change can be most easily accounted for by the assumption that the art passed from one race to another. And the sudden disappearance of fine-line technique coincides so completely with the subjugation of the Philistines, that we can hardly hesitate to painted ware displaying the peculiar Third Semitic characters 'Philistine'.
1400BC-400BC The Olmecs, who called themselves Xi, were the earliest known civilization of Mesoamerica. They influenced the subsequent civilizations of the Maya and Aztec. They inhabited the Gulf Coast region of what is now Mexico and Central America. Their capital was San Lorenzo, near the present day city of Veracruz.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)(SFC, 8/2/05, p.A2)
1386BC-1349BC Amenhotep III (Amenophis III), son of Tuthmose IV, ruled Egypt. His reign marked the culmination of the 18th Dynasty.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1384BC In China P'an Keng founded the city of Anyang. A mature culture with writing and art was developed by this time.
(eawc, p.4)
1350BC-1336BC Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) ruled during the 18th Dynasty Amarna Period of Egypt. He became concerned about abuses in the Osiris cult. He posited a new monotheistic religion dedicated to the worship of the sun. His wife was Nefertiti, daughter-in-law of Amenophis III and Queen Tiye. He moved the capital from Thebes to El-Amarna. After his death the capital was moved back to Thebes, and his successor, a young boy named Smenkhkare reigned for three years. The city of Amarna later vanished.
(NG, 9/98, p.17)(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A33)(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1350BC The 1st recorded smallpox epidemic took place during an Egyptian-Hittite war. Hittite warriors caught the disease from Egyptian prisoners. The king and heir were fatally infected and the empire fell apart.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)(NW, 10/14/02, p.46)
1345BC Tutankhamen (King Tut), Egypt’s boy king, was born. His wet nurse was named Maia.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A7)(USAT, 1/20/04, p.6D)
1345BC The Ebers Papyrus indicated the medical use of willow bark. It contained salicylic acid, an ingredient of modern aspirin.
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.M6)
c1340BC A bust of Nefertiti was made that later ended up in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T5)
1336BC-1334BC The period of the 18th Dynasty under Smenkhkare.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1334BC-1325BC Tutankhamen (10), son of Akhenaten, was Pharaoh of Egypt. Aye, became regent while Tut was growing up and effectively ruled the country.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A7)
c1330BC The capital of Amarna was abandoned. In 2004 it was reported that black plague bacteria was found in the remains of fossilized fleas from Amarna.
(AM, 7/04, p.12)
1330BC A memorial to the servant who suckled Tutankhamen was reported found by French archeologists in 1997 at the Saqqara necropolis 13 miles south of Cairo. Hieroglyphics and a relief that showed a woman with breast and nipple exposed pay tribute to Maya, "who fed the body of a god."
(SFC,12/897, p.A18)
1325BC Tutankhamen died at age 19. It was later suspected that the young prince was killed on his was to Egypt under the orders of Ay or Horemhab. Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen. In 2005 a CT scan indicated that Tut was not murdered by a blow to the head, nor was his chest crushed in an accident. His death remained a mystery. In 2005 a researcher reported evidence that analysis of wine jugs found in his tomb indicated that the wine was red.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A7)(SFC, 10/27/05, p.A2)
1325BC-1321BC King Ay succeeded Tutankhamun. In 1931 a ring was found by Percy Newberry in a Cairo antiquities shop that bore an inscription indicating that Aye and Ankhesenaten were married.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A7)(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/18_20/18.html)
1321BC Aye died after three years on Egypt’s throne and the walls of his tomb showed another woman, Tiy, as his wife.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A7)
1321BC-1295BC A soldier named Horemhab succeeded King Ay. Some regard him as the last Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty while others think he was the founder of the 19th. Horemhab is thought to have prevented the dynastic marriage of Ankhesnamun, the widow of Tutankhamun, to prince Zananza, son of the Hittite king, Suppilliliumas. Documents discovered at the Hittite capital of Boghaz-Koy in Turkey prove beyond doubt that the young queen was writing to Suppililiumas imploring him to send her one of his sons so that she might make him King of Egypt.
(L.C.-W.P.p.107-110)(NG, May 1985, p.598)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty18e.html)
1300BC Late Helladic III. An archeological period of ancient Greece.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.6)
c1300BC China introduced books around this time.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R55)
1300BC The oldest know shipwreck dates to about this time, the era of the fall of Troy and reign of King Tut. It was found off the southern coast of Turkey at Uluburun (Big Nose/Cape) by Dr. George Bass in 1984. [see 4431BC]
(MT, 3/96, p.2)
1300BC A 50-foot boat was discovered in 1992 at Dover, England.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.13)
1300BC-1200 A sprawling Assyrian administrative center was discovered by Dutch archeologists in 1997 in Rakka, 340 miles north of Damascus. The site included a 15-foot high 2-story building with 2 bathrooms, 2 toilets and a tiled floor.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.B3)
1300BC-1100BC From the late Shang Dynasty (13th to the 11th century BC), a pair of 33-inch-tall ting tripod vessels, will be part of the traveling exhibit from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. [see 1600BC-1100]
(WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11)
1300BC-1100BC A 9-foot-tall bronze standing figure from this time was found in 1986 at a 'sacrificial pit" at Sanxingdui in Sichuan province.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.E1)
1300BC-612BC The Assyrians, a Semitic people, established an empire that spread out from Assur in northern Mesopotamia.
(eawc, p.4)
1300BC-300BC The Omani Iron Age.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.49)
1295BC-1294BC Ramesses I ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty18e.html)
1294BC-1279BC Sethi I (Seti I), son of Rammeses I and the father of Rammeses II, ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty. He restored the ancient gods of Egypt, such as Amun-Re, Ptah, Seth, and Osiris. At Abydos he built a splendid temple to Osiris. Sethi claims to have inflicted a victory against the Hittite king, Mursillis II, the successor to Suppililiumas, at the towns of Yenoam and Bethshael. Seti overran Palestine, made peace with the Hittites in Syria, opened mines and quarries, and enlarged the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. His tomb was discovered in 1817.
(NG, 9/98, p.17,19)(AM, 7/01, p.56)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty18e.html)
1295-1272BC The Hittite king Muwatalli II signed a treaty with Alaksandu, ruler of the Arzawa land known as Wilusa (northwest Turkey), which became Wilios in Bronze Age Greece and then slurred to Ilios for Homer’
Nerc:
1292BC An Egyptian scribe documented that a couple of construction worker twins went off a beer binge. They left their wives at home to chase available women and didn't show up for work. Their brother-in-law was the chief engineer on the job and did not fire them.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Z1 p.5)
1280BC-1200BC Moses lived about this time. We cannot be certain when Moses lived except that it was obviously before the Jews settled in Palestine, when they were still wanderers. The general opinion seems to be that it was at some time within the period of Ramesses and his son. The father-in-law of Moses was a Midianite. Moses reportedly died at Mount Nebo.
(L.C.-W.P.p.123)(MT, Spg. '97, p.11)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A24)
1279BC-1213BC Ramesses II (the Great) ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty. Seti I named him co-ruler early in his life. His capital city was Qantir, 75 miles north of Cairo. A detailed map of the city was created in 1998. His colossal statue, removed from Memphis, now greets the visitor when he leaves Cairo's main railway station. There are huge statues of Ramesses in the Luxor temple... and most gigantic of all, the seated colossi at Abu Simbel. He enlarged the Karnak temple on a scale which makes human beings... look and feel like ants. The tomb of Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramses II, Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, was discovered in 1904.
(L.C.-W.P.p.104,113)(V. Sun, 11/3/95, p.A-20)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19.html)
c1274BC Battle of Kadesh, in the fifth year of his reign Ramesses moved to meet and destroy the forces of the Hittite king, Muwatallis, grandson of Suppililiumas. Here some 70,000BC-100,000 armed men clashed in fury... The battle lasted two days... and was decisive in that the Hittite advanced no further. The Hittites fought off the invading Egyptians. This reflected the power gained from trading metals abundant in Turkey. Ramesses left his mark on a cliff face by the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) when he marched north from Egypt to battle the Hittites.
(L.C.-W.P.p.116-119)(eawc, p.5)(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
1275-1240BC The Trojan War is usually dated to this period.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
1270BC At Abu Simbel, Egypt, Ramses II constructed The Great Temple in his own honor and the Small Temple in honor of his wife Nefertari. Engulfed by sand over the centuries, the temples lay hidden until discovered by a Swiss traveler in 1813. The temples are moved under a 4 year UNESCO project when in 1964 the rising waters behind the Aswan High Dam threaten to drown them.
(NG, May 1985, p.591)
c1260BC A pottery fragment from this time was found in 2004 near Natadola in western Fiji. It was believed to have been made by the Lapita people, who populated Polynesia.
(Arch, 1/05, p.11)
1267-1237 King Hattusili III ruled the Hittites. He wrote a letter to the king of Ahhiyawa (thought to be Mycenaean Greeks) and mentioned that Wilusa was once a bone of contention.
(Arch, 5/04, p.40)
1250BC By this time the Assyrians committed themselves to conquering the Kassite Empire to the south.
(eawc, p.4)
1250BC Some scholars believe that the Mycenaeans waged a successful war with the Trojans of western Asia Minor.
(eawc, p.5)
c1250BC-1200BC Under the direction of Moses the Hebrew people returned to Canaan from Egypt after wandering for several years in the Sinai desert and began the conquest of Canaan. The conquest took some hundred years and after victory they parceled the land of Canaan into tribal territories under a government known as an amphictyony.
(eawc, p.5)
1250BC-1000BC Troy VIIa, another discernible era on the site of the Trojan War. Evidence shows that Troy V was destroyed by fire and that Troy VI saw the establishment of an entirely new principality. An earthquake hit the thriving city of 5-6 thousand people, but after the crisis, the same people returned and repaired the city. The renovated Troy VIIa lasted some seventy years and was then destroyed by a conflagration.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1225BC The Assyrian ruler, Tukulti-Ninurta, captured Babylon and the region of southern Mesopotamia, but their control did not last long.
(eawc, p.5)
1225 BC Earliest known Illyrian king, Hyllus, died.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1225-1175 Earthquakes during this period toppled some city-states and centers of trade and scholarship in the Middle East. Jericho, Jerusalem, Knossos and Troy were all hit.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A19)
1213BC Ramesses II (the Great) Pharaoh during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty, died. In 1976 his mummy was shipped to Paris, where it was treated with radiation and chemicals for protection against bacteriological damage.
(NG, 9/98, p.16,22,32)(www.ancient-egypt.org/history/18_20/19.html)
1213BC-1203BC Maremptah (Merenptah), the 13th son of Rammeses, ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty. He is mainly attested to by three great inscriptions, including 80 lines on a wall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, a large stele with 35 readable lines from Athribis in the Delta and the great Victory Stele from his ruined mortuary temple at Thebes, with 28 lines.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19a.html)
1203BC-1200BC Amenmesse (Ammenemes) about this time led Egypt as the 5th ruler of the 19th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19a.html)
1200BC Afghanistan, near Sheberghan at Tillya Tepe, a temple for the worship of fire was built.
(NG, March 1990,V.I. Sarainidi p.62)
1200BC The first outbreak of human plague may have been the scourge that struck the Philistines in the 12th century BC. The Old Testament account mentions "mice that mar the land."
(NG, 5/88, p.678)
1200BC The end of Mycenaean civilization.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.73)
1200BC Indian ink became increasingly popular. Other cultures developed inks from berries, plants and minerals.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
1200BC-1194BC The period of the 19th Dynasty under Seti II.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19a.html)
1200BC-1020BC The Israelites were ruled by the Judges in a period of relative stability until a Philistine invasion in 1050.
(eawc, p.5)
1200BC-1000BC The archeological evidence later confirmed that a collection of small settlements appeared in the eastern parts of the highlands of Palestine later known as the West Bank.
(AM, 9/01, p.30)
1200BC-400BC The Olmecs built impressive cities and established trade routes throughout Mesoamerica, that included settlements at La Venta and Tres Zapotes.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.T12)
c1200BC-300BC In Peru a pre-Columbian culture flourished over this time in the Andes site of Chavin de Huantar.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A20)
1200BC-300BC The Olmec people ruled southern Mexico and northern Central America.
(WSJ, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1194BC-1188BC The period of the 19th Dynasty under Siptah.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19a.html)
1187BC-1185BC Queen Tawosret (Taweseret) ruled during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty19b.html)
1186BC-1184BC The period of the 20th Dynasty under Sethnakhte (Setnakht).
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1184BC-1153BC The period of the 20th Dynasty under Ramses III. After Ramessu III ascended the throne of Egypt, he fought back two major attacks from the northern countries. Ramses III defended his kingdom from foreign invasion in three separate wars, reorganized Egyptian society into classes based on occupation and built a funerary temple based on the Ramesseum. Ramses, son of Setnakht, twice defended Egypt against invasions from Libyan tribes and in his 8th year from a coalition of migrants referred to in records as the "Sea Peoples." The great Battle against the Sea Peoples was captured in a magnificent picture which Ramesses III caused to be sculpted on the walls of his great temple at Medinet Habu in Thebes.
(L.C.-W.P.p.104,126)(R.M.-P.H.C.p.21)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1184 BC Jun 11, Greeks finally captured Troy. This corresponds to excavation levels VIi or VIIa at the site of Hisarlik, Turkey. [see 1150BC]
(SC, 6/11/02)(Arch, 5/04, p.37)
c1182BC Ramessu III beat back a more formidable attack by northern countries. An inscription describing this war was engraved on the second pylon of the temple of Medinet Habu. The inscription describes how the northerners were disturbed, and proceeded to move eastward and southward, swamping in turn the land of the Hittites, Carchemish, Arvad, Cyprus, Syria, and other places of the same region. The Hittites and North Syrians had been so crippled by them that Ramessu took the opportunity to extend the frontier of Egyptian territory northward... the twofold ravaging of Syria left it weakened and opened the door for the colonization of its coast-lands by the beaten remnant of the invading army.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.23)
c1179BC Ramessu III beat back a Libyan invasion in his fifth year, this invasion was accompanied by war galleys from the northern countries.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.22)
c1176BC "Peoples of the sea" arrived to the Lebanese coast (c1200-1182). They came probably from the Aegean. They toppled the Hittites, destroyed Ugarit on the Syrian coast and swept south to Egypt where Ramesses III stopped them.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
1175BC Rameses III built his temple palace at Medinet Habu.
(eawc, p.5)
1153BC Ramesses III of Egypt died, and was succeeded by a series of weak ghost-kings.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1153BC-1147BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses IV, son of Ramesses III.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1150BC Troy fell about this time. Estimated date for the beginning of the Aeneid. [see 1275-1240BC] After King Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, returned home to Mycenae he was killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover. In 2006 Cathy Gere authored “The Tomb of Agamemnon.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)(Econ, 3/11/06, p.78)
1147BC-1143BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses V, son of Ramesses IV and Queen Ta-Opet. His mummy indicates that he died of smallpox at about age 35.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1143BC-1136BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses VI.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1136BC-1129BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses VII.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1129BC-1126BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses VIII.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1126BC-1108BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses IX.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
c1116BC In China an imperial decree stated that it was a requirement of the heavenly powers that people regularly take a moderate amount of alcoholic drink.
(SFEC, 8/9/98, Z1 p.8)
1114-1076 Tiglath-Pileser I ruled the Assyrian empire.
(eawc, p.5)
1111-255BC Chou dynasty in China.
(V.D.-H.K. p.7)
1108BC-1099BC The period of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty under Ramses X. During his reign workers went on strike for wages not paid.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1100BC The Phoenician alphabet containing only consonants was in use.
(V.D.-H.K.p.25)
1100BC By this time the Mycenaeans were overtaken by Dorian invaders who used iron weapons. Greek culture then entered unto a "Dark Age" period characterized by the disappearance of writing and a decline in architecture that lasted to about 800BC.
(eawc, p.5)
c1100BC-1000BC The first Greek tribes settled on Crete around the 11th century BC.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)
c1100BC-1000BC In Britain Stonehenge Phase IV the path across the henge ditch was extended into the fields and over the hill to the River Avon.
(HT, 3/97, p.22)
1100BC-700BC The Phoenicians traded around the Mediterranean.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
1100BC-265BC The Zhou period in China. [see 1027-771]
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)
1099BC-1069BC The period of Egypt under Ramses XI. He was the last king of the 20th Dynasty and the New Kingdom. Upon his death Hrihor and Smendes divided Egypt between themselves. Hrihor, the high priest of Amon ultimately usurped the sovereignty and become founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty. In Lower Egypt, the Tanite noble Nesubenebded, in Greek Smendes controlled the Delta.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.29)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1085BC After 1085 BC, Egypt split between a northern 21st dynasty claiming national recognition reigning from Tanis and a line of Theban generals and high priests of Amun who actually controlled the south from Thebes. Relations between the two authorities were peaceful. The Tanites were driven from power by Libyan warriors who established their own 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty20.html)
1080BC-945BC High priests ruled Egypt from the capital of Thebes.
(www.ancientroute.com/IndexPharCh.htm)
1075BCE Wenamun, a priest of Amun, moved from Egypt to Byblos during the rule of Ramesses XI. This was recorded in the Golenischeff papyrus found in 1891CE at El Khibeh in Upper Egypt. It is the personal report of the adventures of an Egyptian messenger to Lebanon. Zakar-Baal was governor of Byblos.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Luxor)
1070BC-1044BC Smedes ruled over lower Egypt at the beginning the 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
1969BC-945BC This is the period of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty. The capital moved from Tanis to Libyan, to Nubia, to Thebes, to SAIS, and then back to Nubia and Thebes.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
1069BC-664BCE A black-bronze statue of the falcon-faced god Horus, now in the French Louvre, dates to this time.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A16)
1050BC The Philistines invaded Israel from the North. Facing annihilation the Israelites instituted governmental reform and asked Samuel, the last of the Judges, to select a king.
(eawc, p.5)
1045BC The Zhou King Wu subdued the Shang. [see 1027BC]
(Arch, 9/00, p.37)
1040BC Amenemnisu was the 2nd ruler of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty. He is thought to have ruled for four years possibly as the co-regent with Psusennes I.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
1040BC-992BC Psusennes I was the 3rd king of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
1031BC The Centennial Stump, a giant sequoia, started its growth, and was cut down in 1874CE.
(K.I.-365D, p.146)
1027BC In China the last Shang ruler, Chou Hsin, was conquered by Wu-wang, and the Chou Dynasty began. It lasted to 221BC and is typically divided into three periods.
(eawc, p.5)
1020BC In Israel Samuel selected Saul to be king and unified the tribes into a nation. Saul faced many losses against the Philistines and eventually committed suicide. David in his campaigns against the Philistines proved victorious.
(eawc, p.6)
1027-771BC In China this was the Western Chou period.
(eawc, p.5)
c1010BC-970 King David, the 2nd King of Israel, ruled. He had succeeded Saul.
(WUD, 1994, p.369)
1005BC King David's conquest of Jerusalem. In 1995 Israel launched a 17 month celebration of the event.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, P. A-1)
1004BC David became the king of Israel. He began to build a centralized government based in Jerusalem and implemented forced labor, a census and a mechanism for collecting taxes. In 2000 Jonathan Kirsch authored "King David: The Real Life of the Man Who ruled Israel."
(eawc, p.6)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A4)(SFC, 12/31/00, BR p.8)
c1000BC Irrigation canals were made in the Tucson basin of the American Southwest.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
c1000BC A Bronze Age salt mine of this time in Hallstatt, Austria, had a pine and spruce staircase that survived into the 21st century.
(Arch, 1/05, p.10)
c1000BC The British Bronze Age site Flag Fen, estimated to about this time, was accidentally discovered in 1982 by archaeologist Francis Pryor. Flag Fen is the site of some of the most recent and unusual discoveries of ancient British culture. In 1982 archaeologist Francis Pryor tripped over a piece of wood while walking along a dyke in the Fenlands near Peterborough. Noticing that the wood showed signs of deliberate shaping, he poked around in the peaty, wet soil and soon discovered a series of posts. The wood was set deeper into the ground than the surface of a nearby Roman road, so Pryor knew the wood had to have been placed into the ground well before the Roman engineers arrived on the scene.
(HNQ, 5/12/01)
c1000BC The fertile bottom land of the Copan River valley attracted agriculturists to the region more than 3,000 years ago.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.29)
c1000BC The Phoenicians and other Semites of Syria and Palestine began using graphic signs representing letters. Aleph meaning ox was the sign that represented a sound such as that heard in the pronunciation of the o in bottle, known as a glottal stop.
(AHD, 1971, p.1)
1000BC Ahiram, king of Byblos, had inscribed on his sarcophagus: "His abode in eternity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.154)
1000BC Chaldians traced their origins to about this time in Babylon.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A12)
c1000BCE A brightly colored papyrus of this time depicting a Theban housewife's life after death was found by Herbert Winlock at Thebes in 1912.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-8)
1000BCE Bone lesions in the mummified body of the priest of Ammon from a tomb of the Egyptian 21st dynasty, have been recognized as probably caused by tubercle bacilli.
(WP, 1951, p.5)
1000BCE About this time Kush became independent from Egypt.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.167)
1000BC Israel became a kingdom.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
c1000BC Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem on Mar 13, 1935, confirming biblical history.
(HN, 3/13/98)
c1000BC The Samaritans broke away from the mainstream of Judaism about this time. They believed that God chose Mount Gerizim as the site for the Jews to build their temple.
(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)
c1000BC The Garamantes, a tribal people descended from Berbers and Saharan pastoralists, inhabited the area of the Fazzan in southern Libya.
(AM, 3/04, p.24)
c1000BC The first typical Baltic culture of brushed pottery formed at the turn of the last millennium BC in eastern Lithuania. It was the time when the first hill forts and barrows appeared and the cremation of the dead was introduced.
(DrEE, 10/12/96, p.2)(TB-Com, 10/11/00)
c1000BC In India the Rig Veda, the first Vedic literature was written.
(eawc, p.6)
c1000 The original Hindu calendar in India was based on a lunar cycle and dated back to this time.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A18)
1000BC The Illyrians were Indo-European tribesmen who appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula about 1000 BC. Albanians derive their name from an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshë, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës.
(http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/illyria/)
c1000BC In Kyrgyzstan the capital city of Bishkek was founded.
(MT, Spg. '99, p.4)
1000BC The great Olmec Ceremonial Center, in Tabasco, Mexico, was built about this time. It continued to be used till about 600BC.
(RFH-MDHP, p.241)
1000BC The Olmec kings are thought by some to be responsible for the invention of the ancient Mayan ballgame that often left the loser dead.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.125)
c1000BC In Pakistan some of the monuments at the Uch Monument Complex in the Punjab date to this time.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1000BC In Thailand Ban Prasat pottery from the site at Prasat Hin Phanom Wan dates to this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
c1000BC The Tocharians, an Indo-European group of people, moved east to live in what later became Xinjiang province of western China. They left well-preserved Caucasian mummies of this age and 1,300 year old texts written in an unknown Indo-European tongue. Some evidence showed that they had come from the steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas as the area filled with Iranian immigrants. They settled in the Tarim Basin on the edges of the Taklimakan Desert. They area has also been named Inner Asia, Chinese Turkestan and East Turkestan. The Uighers of Xinjiang sometimes show physical features that reflects Tocharian blood.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A2)
c1000BC A major earthquake struck along the Carmel-Gilboa fault system about this time. The Hebrew city of Har Megiddo, located at the strategic Nahal Iron Pass - the only route where chariots could speed between Egypt and Syria, was destroyed in the quake. This event is likely one described by John of Patmos in the Book of Revelations, where a great quake takes place at Armageddon.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
c1000BC In Peru the tomb of a Huayakuntur Indian of this time was found in Ayabaca province in 1999.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A12)
1000BC The Phoenicians inhabited Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
c1000BC Troy at Hissarlik in northwest Turkey was destroyed by fire and abandoned.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
1000BC-900BC The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BC when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
1000BC-900BC Archeologists in 2005 reported that 2 lines of an alphabet had been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C. The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/10/05)
c1000BC-800 The kingdom of Habushkia was likely centered on the headwaters of the Great Zap River in western Turkey.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
1000BC-600BC This was the late Vedic period in India. The Aryans were integrated into Indian culture and the caste system emerged.
(eawc, p.6)
1000BC-500BC Oct 31, The Celts of Ireland, Great Britain and northern France celebrated Oct. 31 to Nov 2 as their New Year which they called Samhain. The Druid harvest event incorporated masks to ward off evil ones, as dead relatives were believed to visit families on the first evening. The Catholic holiday of All Hallows' Day (aka All Saints' Day) was instituted around 700 CE to supplant the pagan event and Pope Gregory III made the Nov 1 date official. In the 9th century Nov 2, the last day of Samhain, became All Souls' Day. Halloween was transplanted to the US in the 1840s.
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.W17)
1000BC-300 Middle preclassic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1000BC-1BC In Thailand a cemetery at the Noen U-Loke site has revealed jewelry, bronze and iron tools and pottery.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c1000BC-1000CE A civilization in Amazonia, called Patiti or Enin by archeologists, dug channels for an elaborate crop irrigation system.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.T12)
993BC-984BC Amenope was the 4th king of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
984BC-978BC Osochor was the 5th king of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
978BC-959BC Siamun was the 6th king of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
970BCE King David of Israel died about this time. In 2000 Robert Alter authored "The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel." In 2005 Robert Pinsky authored “The Life of David.”
(WUD, 1994, p.369)(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.10)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M1)
965BC Solomon became king of Israel. He was intent on completing the plans of David to make Jerusalem stand out and to affirm the religious commitment of the people. He undertook expensive building projects that included the building of the temple in Jerusalem and raised taxes with increased forced labor to his ends.
(eawc, p.6)
959BC-945BC Psusennes II was the 7th and last king of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
955BC-587BC The Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest built by Moses containing the Ten Commandments, disappeared from Jerusalem during this period. Legend in Ethiopia holds that the Ark was stolen by Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and taken to Aksum where Orthodox Christian monks have watched over it ever since.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
950BC Hiram I, king of Tyre, joined two islands and built an impregnable city in the sea. He sent to David, king of Israel, and later to Solomon, the materials to build palaces and the first great temple of Jerusalem. The building of Solomon's temple is described in the First Book of Kings in the Bible.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.163)(WH, 1994, p.13)
c950BC The Queen of Sheba lived about this time. Local legends from Ethiopia name her Makeda and claim that she was from there. Archeologists have found inscriptions from the ancient Sabean kingdom but no mention of Makeda or Bilqis, the local name for Sheba in Yemen. The Koran claims she ruled from Yemen.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A1)
c950BC The Kebra Negast, a 14th cent. Ethiopian text, claims that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.A6)
950BC Peanuts have been traced back to this time in Brazil and Peru.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)
945BC-924BC The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshenq) founded Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty. He destroyed many Israelite cities, including Rehov, Megiddo and Hazor. Sheshonq I supported Jeroboam against King Solomon's son, Rehoboam
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A9)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
945-712BCE Period of Egypt’s twenty-second dynasty. It is often referred to as the Libyan Bubastite Dynasty. Manetho lists the kings of this Dynasty as being from Bubastis which is located in the eastern delta
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
c938BC Israel’s King Solomon died about this time. The northerners, unwilling to subsidize the financial difficulties of Jerusalem and the national court, separated from the southern people. This created Israel to the north with its capital in Samaria, and Judah to the south with its capital in Jerusalem. Solomon’s son Rehoboam ruled in the south. Only the tribes of Juda and Benjamin remaining faithful to Rehoboam. Jeroboam, the son of Nathan an Ephraimite, ruled 10 tribes in the north.
(eawc, p.6)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/08340a.htm)
930BC Sheshonq I, ruler of Egypt, campaigned in Palestine about this time laying tribute upon the king of Judah.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
924BC-909BC Osorkon I ruled Egypt as the 2nd king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
909BC-894BC Takelot I ruled Egypt as the 3rd king of the 22nd Dynasty. His reign saw the beginning of another fragmentation into 2 power bases.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
c900BC Trade between East Africans and Arabs probably began about this time.
(ATC, p.141)
900BC The Maya site named Blackman Eddy in Belize was occupied from this time to about 1000CE.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
c900BC In Honduras archeologists in 1997 discovered burial caves that date to this time. A cave from the same period was discovered in 1994 near the Talgua River, known as the Cave of the Glowing Skulls. The new cave was called the Cave of the Spiders.
(USAT, 2/12/97, p.9D)
c900BC A group of people in northern Nigeria produced distinct statuettes in baked clay. Their culture is called the Nok culture after a village where the first statuette was found in 1931. The culture may have lasted to about 900CE.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
c900BC Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) was founded about this time. It served as the capital from the 3rd century BC to the 11th century AD.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)(Arch, 7/02, p.32)
c900BC The Fossum panel was carved on a rock outcropping in Sweden about this time and depicted 2 Bronze Age figures with raised axes.
(NH, Jul, p.32)
900BC-840BC The Assyrians expanded their empire to the west. By 840 they conquered Syria and Turkey, territory that had formerly belonged to the Hittites.
(eawc, p.6)
c900BC-800BC Ahab was king of Israel. Pottery, a 4-entry gate at Megiddo, and other structures at Hazor and Gezer are similar to others in the time of Ahab. This kind of data has prompted "the Finkelstein correction," which pushes archeological evidence attributed to David and Solomon more to the time of Ahab and Jezebel, his wife from Phoenicia.
(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A4)
c900BC-800BC Joash was King of Judah in the 9th century. Joash and Ashyahu are common variations of the same name. The temple priest Zechariah was a contemporary to Joash and was put to death by Joash after a dispute. In 1997 a 13 word pottery fragment was dated to this time with the words: "Pursuant to the order to you of Ashyahu the King to give by the hand of Zecharyahu silver of Tarshish to the House of Yahweh. Three shekels."
(SFC,11/4/97, p.A8)
900BC-800BC Sican and Siculian farmers settled the valleys of central Sicily.
(WSJ, 6/9/99, p.A24)
900BC-750BC Villanovan cultures in Italy. From their hamlets Etruscan cities grew. The name comes from Villanova, a site near Bologna where the culture's artifacts were first unearthed more than a century ago.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710, 719)
900BC-400BC The Etruscan period of Italian prehistory. For about 500 years the Etruscans dominated most of the country from Rome to the Po Valley. Apa means father in Etruscan. It means exactly the same in Hungarian.
(NG, 6/1988, p.705)(NG, 10/1988, member's forum)
894BC-883BC Shoshenq II ruled Egypt during the 22nd Dynasty. He is though to have co-regent during the period between Osorkon I and Takelot I.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
883BC-885BC Osorkon II ruled Egypt as the 5th king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
883-859 Ashurnasirpal II. This Assyrian ruler established the new capital city of Kalhu (Nimrud).
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
880BC There was a very high inundation of the Nile in the 3rd year of the reign of Osorkon II.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
860BC-835BC Takelot II ruled Egypt as the 6th king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
858-824 Shalmaneser II, Assyrian ruler.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
845BC During the 15th year of the reign of Egypt’s Takelot II there was warfare in the north and south and great convulsion broke out in the land.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
841BC In China a Zhou king died.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
835BC-783BC Shoshenq III ruled Egypt as the 7th king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
814BC Carthage was founded by Phoenician traders.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)
814-813BC Elissa-Dido, Princess of Tyre, Jezebel's grandniece, fled to North Africa after her brother, King Pygmalion, murdered her husband, Tyre's high priest. She was said to have then founded Carthage on a hilltop now called Byrsa. Byrsa means Oxhide and it was said that Elissa could have as much ground as could be covered by the hide of an ox. She cut the hide into narrow strips and so claimed the whole hill.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.T8)
812-783BC Hada-Nirari III, Assyrian king enumerated the Philistines among the Palestinian states conquered by him.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
810BC-805 Sammuramat ruled Assyria as Queen.
(eawc, p.6)
803BC Hadad-Nirari, Assyrian king, conquered the Palestinian states including the Philistines.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
c800BC Large villages with dome-shaped "pit houses" were constructed in the American Southwest and the inhabitants made plainware pottery bowls.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
800BC Nimrud, capital of Assyria, 500 miles east of Byblos, sample of ivory carving from a piece of furniture depicting a woman in a window wearing an Egyptian wig.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.171)
c800BC The Zhou of China were driven east by nomads.
(Arch, 9/00, p.37)
c800BC In Greece increased trade and governmental defense fortifications allowed for the emergence of city-states to emerge from tribal communities. These grew up among market places and included Athens, Thebes and Megara on the mainland.
(eawc, p.6)
c800BC The Jewish city of Sepphoris was founded about this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.64)
800BC Kingdom of Kush in northern Sudan near present day Karima; its monarchs ruled all of Egypt as the pharaohs of the XXV Dynasty.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.607)
800BC The twenty-fifth dynasty, as noted by Manetho, consisted of three Ethiopic kings. The seat of the empire was originally at Gebel Barkal, or Napata. They subsequently conquered the whole of Egypt. The first monarch of this line was called Sabaco by the Greek writers; the second Sebechos, or Suechos, his son; the third was Tarkos or Taracus.
(RFH-MDHP, A. Layard, 1853, p.62)
c800BC A great change in climate overcame Europe around this time.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T4)
800BC-750BC The Iliad epic was set down by Homer in about the first half of the 8th century, some five centuries after the war it purportedly reports.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.44)
c800BC-700BC The period of Homer, reputed author of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."
(WUD, 1994, p.679)
800BC-700BC The time of Hesiod, the first Greek poet to name himself. His work included "The Theogony" and "Works and Days."
(WUD, 1994, p.666)(eawc, p.7)
c800BC-700BC The Greeks and the Etruscans occupied different regions of the Italian peninsula during the 8th century.
(eawc, p.2)
800BC-700BC Bubastis was the capital of 8th century BC Egypt.
(AM, 7/04, p.12)
800BC-700BC The Languedoc region of France has produced wine since this time. Langue d'oc refers to the language of Occitan spoken in the region. Greeks began planting vineyards in Languedoc around 600BC.
(WSJ, 2/09/99, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T10)(WSJ, 5/30/03, p.A3)
800BC-600BC In India the Brahmans, a priestly caste, began to emerge.
(eawc, p.7)
800BC-500BC In India the Upanishadic philosophy began with the writing of the Upanishads. Doctrines of rebirth and the transmigration of souls began to appear.
(eawc, p.7)
800BC-500BC The Archaic period of Greece. It was marked by developments in literature, the arts, politics, philosophy and science. The Peloponnesian city of Corinth, Sparta and cities along the coast of the Aegean flourished. Most of the cities were similar in their political evolution except for the elite dictatorship in Sparta. Most of the cities began as monarchies, evolved to oligarchies, were overthrown during the age of tyrants and eventually established democracies.
(eawc, p.6)
800BC-500BC The Celtic Hallstatt Culture spread across Europe. It was an early iron-using culture named after an Austrian burial site found in the mid-19th century.
(NGM, 5/77)
800BC-500BC Zazacatla in central Mexico covered less than one square mile between during this period. Inhabitants of Zazacatla adopted Olmec styles when they changed from a simple, egalitarian society to a more complex, hierarchical one. Much of it was later covered by housing and commercial development extending from Cuernavaca.
(AP, 1/25/07)
800BC-300BC Scythians dominated the vast lands stretching from Siberia to the Black Sea. Those who roamed what later became Kazakstan and southern Siberia were known as the Saka.
(AM, 5/01, p.32)
c800BC-200CE The Mayan city of Takalik Abaj, in later day Guatemala, served as one of the most important economic and cultural centers of pre-Columbian times.
(NG, May, 04, p.70)
c800BC-200CE Saba culture (Yemen) was a major economic player in the trade routes from India to the Mediterranean during this period.
(Arch, 1/05, p.56)
783BC-773BC Pami (Pemay) ruled Egypt as the 8th king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
782BC Urartian king Argishti the First founded Erebuni, the military and administrative center of the state of Urartu, situated in the location of present-day Yerevan, Armenia.
(www.anahit.am/regions/yerevan/)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.D8)
776BC In Olympia Greece the Olympic Games were born after Iphitos, king of Elis, asked the Delphic Oracle how to save Greece from civil war and plagues. The answer was to revive the Olympics from their mythological roots. Together with Lycourgos of Sparta and Kleosthenes of Pisa a sacred truce was concluded and the games declared at Olympia. The historian Pausanias (c150CE) wrote: "The Olympic victor must not win with money but the fleetness of foot and the strength of body." In the Pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, biting and eye-gouging were forbidden. Adult women were discouraged from attending the games under the penalty of being hurled from the cliffs of Mount Typaion, opposite the stadium
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.R16)
773BC-735BC Shoshenq IV ruled Kush as the 9th king of Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
771BC In China the Chou Dynasty faced difficulty when King Yu alienated the noble class who refused to answer his call for help against invading barbarians. King Yu was killed and the nobles installed a new leader. The capital was moved eastward to Loyang and the "Western Chou" period ended.
(eawc, p.7)
771-471BC The Spring and Autumn Period. Jingzhou was the capital of the Chu Kingdom.
(AMNHDT, 5/98)
771-221 The Eastern Zhou period. The power of the Zhou court waned and frequent state wars took place.
(AM, 7/01, p.62)
753BC Apr 21, Rome was founded. The traditional date for founding by Romulus as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring Sabine women for wives. Archeological evidence indicates that the founders of Rome were Italic people who occupied the area south of the Tiber River.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(V.D.-H.K.p.61)(eawc, p.7)(HN, 4/21/98)
750BC Greeks invent symbols for vowels.
(V.D.-H.K.-p.25)
750BC The era of the Greek poet Homer.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)
c750BC Two Phoenician ships from Tyre carrying amphorae filled with wine sank some 30 miles off the coast of Israel. In 1999 a team led by Robert Ballard discovered the ships at a depth of about 1,500 feet.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A14)
750BC-719BC Piye (Piankhy) ruled Kush (Nubia) and soon moved to extend his rule over Egypt. Kashta, ruler of Kush, had begun a campaign against Egypt. With the help of his son, Piankhy, he was successful and Piankhy became pharaoh of Egypt. The Nubian King Piye conquered the weakened and disunited Egypt and became the first of several Nubian Pharaohs who ruled a unified Egyptian and Nubian state for the next century.
(eawc, p.7)(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
c750BC-700BC The long-running Lelantine War between Chalkis and Eretria, the 2 largest cities on the island of Euboia, was named after the name of the plain that both cities claimed. The two cities had jointly founded Cumae in Italy (c750). When they fell out, the war between them split the Greek world in two.
(Arch, 1/05, p.34)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9047711)
c750BC-700BC Greeks adopted hoplite gear and the phalanx for warfare over this period.
(Arch, 1/05, p.33)
750BC-600BC Greek colonies exert strong influence over newly urbanized Etruscans.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
750BC-117 In 2005 Robin Lane Fox covered this period in his book “The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian.”
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.91)
747BC Feb 26, Origin of Era of Nabonassar.
(SC, 2/26/02)
745BC-727BC Tiglath-Pileser III ruled as the Assyrian king.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
747BC-716BC Piye (Piankhy) consolidated his rule over Egypt and Kush and became the 1st king of the 25th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
742BC The time of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
740BC-725BC Pedubaste I was the 1st king of Egypt’s 23rd Dynasty. Egypt’s rule in this period is not very clear.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
738BC Mittinti, king of Ashkelon revolted, trusting to the support of Rezon of Syria. But the death of Rezon so terrified the king that he fell sick and died. His son Rukipti, who reigned in his stead, hastened to make submission.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
735BC-712BC Osorkon IV ruled Egypt as the 10th and final king of the 22nd Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
c734BC Rezon of Syria, and Pekah of Samaria were in league, whereas Ahaz of Jerusalem had become a vassal of the king of Assyria. The Philistines had attached them selves to the Syrian league, so that Tiglath-Pileser came up with the special purpose of sacking Gaza.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
732BC Tiglath-pileser III, an Assyrian, took Damascus and killed Rezin. He then captured many cities of northern Israel and took the people to Assyria. The Egyptian troops had at one time joined forces with Damascus, Israel and some other states to resist Shalmaneser III at Qarqar.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
729BC Greek colonists settled in Catania, Sicily.
(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A11)
725BC-720BC Tefnakhte I, a prince of western Egypt, ruled as the 1st king of the 24th Dynasty, known as the Sais Dynasty. He attempted to stop an invasion by organizing other Northern Kings with him against invaders from the south. This southern force was comprised of Piankhi’s Nubian forces that wanted to gain control of all of Egypt. The four northern armies under Tefnakht, Osorkon IV of Tanis, Peftjauabastet of Hernopolis, Nimlot, and Input of Leontopolis all enjoyed a relatively easy time in their conquering of the people down to the south, but Piankhi was actually drawing them down. When Tefnakht's forces finally reached Memphis they were massacred and Tefnakht conceded to Piankhi. Tefnakht and the four other leaders were allowed to remain governors of their territories under the new Pharaoh Piankhi.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
722BC Hoshea, the king of Israel, sent messengers to Osorkon in Egypt. He was requesting help against Assyria’s Shalmaneser V. No help was sent. Samaria was captured and the Israelites were taken away to Assyria. The Assyrians conquered Israel and left nothing behind. The Hebrew kingdom of Judah managed to survive. Descendants of the Israelites not exiled by the Assyrians were later known as the Samaritans.
(eawc, p.7)(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.W15)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
722-481BC In China the Ch'un Ch'iu period began. It was characterized by a deterioration of the feudal system and a collapse of central authority.
(eawc, p.5,7)
721-705BC Sargon II ruled as king of Assyria.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c720BC Some Jewish tribes went missing after being sent into exile by the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pilesar III. In 2002 Hillel Halkin authored "Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel," an account of the search for the lost tribes that included the Gadites, Reubenites and tribe of Manasseh (Menashe) and its possible relationship to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo people of Burma.
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M2)
720BC-715BC Wahkare Bakenranef ruled in Egypt as the 2nd king of the 24th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
715-642 Judah absorbed refugees from the Assyrian conquest an achieved the attributes of a state.
(AM, 9/01, p.32)
713BC Azuri, king of the Philistine city of Ashdod, refused to pay tribute and endeavored to stir up the neighboring princes to revolt. Sargon [of Assyria] came down and expelled Azuri, and established in his stead Azuri's brother, Ahimiti.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
712BC-698BC Shebaka of Nubia ruled in Egypt. Some consider him the 1st king of the 25th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
710BC Hanunu of Gaza was in the revolt against the king of Assyria which led to the battle of Raphia, the first struggle between Egypt and Assyria. Hanunu, the king of Gaza, fled to Sebako (Shebaka), king of Egypt; but returned and, having made submission, was received with favor.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71)
705BC-681BC Sennacherib, Assyrian king, also had trouble with the Philistines. Mitinti's son, Rukipti, had been succeeded by his son Sarludari, but it seems as though this ruler had been deposed, and a person called Zidka reigned in his stead. Sennacherib found conspiracy in Zidka, and brought the gods of his father's house, himself, and his family into exile to Assyria, restoring Sarludari to his former throne.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705-681BC At the same time the Ekronites had revolted against the Assyrian. Their king, Padi, had remained a loyal vassal to his overlord, but his turbulent subjects had put him in fetters and sent him to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who cast him into prison. The Ekronites summoned assistance from North Arabia and Egypt, and met Sennacherib at El-Tekeh. Here they were defeated, and Sennacherib marched against Ekron, slaying and impaling the chief officers. Padi was rescued from Jerusalem... Sennacherib then cut of some of the territory of Judah and divided it among his vassals...
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705-681BC Sennacherib ruled the Assyrians and built a new capital in Ninevah where he began to form a library of Sumerian and Babylonian tablets. He managed to subdue the entire region of western Asia.
(eawc, p.7)
701BC The Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.16)
700BC Homer's time. [see 800BC-700]
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.172)
c700BC The White Horse of Uffington, England, a 365-foot long and 130-foot high image scratched into a chalk hillside, was dated to this time from pottery at the site. The shape is typical of the La Tene art style that spread across Western Europe between the 5th and 1st centuries BC.
(AM, 9/01, p.40,43)
700BC A three foot tall bust of Pharaoh Shabako of Egypt was on loan from Cairo at St. Petersburg, Florida.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)
c700BC In what later became Iraq, the huge bearded head of a large winged-bull dating from this time was made.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A9)
700BC Twenty-seven hundred years ago Tarquinia was the cultural capital of the Etruscans. Around 700BC, only half a century after the Greeks rediscovered writing, literacy burst across Etruria. The Etruscans had no g sound, so they made it a c. That's why we have abc rather than alpha, beta, gamma.
(NG, 6/1988, p.708,726)
700BC Arabs made earth bricks later know as adobe as early as this time. The word adobe comes from the Arab word "at-tub."
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8)
c700BC King Hezekiah constructed a 1,750-foot tunnel to bring water into Jerusalem. Archeologists in 2003 dated plant fragments in the tunnel's plaster to this time +/- 100 years.
(SFC, 9/11/03, p.A6)
c700BC Nomadic Kimmerians attacked Phrygia. Strabo later reported that Midas committed suicide at the time of the Kimmerian invasion.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BC A Phrygian king, possibly Midas, ruled into his 60s and was buried in what came to be called the Tumulus Midas Mound at Gordion (later central Turkey). Midas was linked with the worship of the goddess Matar.
(AM, 7/01, p.27)
700BC-600BC A migration of the Cimmerians and Scythians took place in the seventh century BC. These were nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes, who made their way round the eastern end of the Caucasus, burst through into the Moghan plains and the basin of Lake Urmia, and terrorized Western Asia for several generations, till they were broken by the power of the Medes and absorbed in the native population. It was they who made an end of the Kingdom of Urartu, and the language they brought with them was probably an Indo-European dialect answering to the basic element in modern Armenian.
(http://tinyurl.com/btq4l)
700BC-600BC The Armenians, an Indo-European people, migrate from the west to mingle with the people of URARTU. It was ruled by kings of the Orontid dynasty as a satrapy of the Persian empire until the defeat of Persia by Alexander the Great.
(CO Enc. / Armenia)
700BC-600BC The earliest Chinese records of divination using the I Ching date from this period.
(NH, 9/97, p.12)
700BC-600BC The search for the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BC when the Assyrians conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
698BC-690BC Shebitku, nephew of Shebaka, ruled in Egypt as the 2nd king of the 25th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
690BC The underground burial chamber of a warrior prince in the Etruscan town of Veio dated to about this time. It was decorated with roaring lions and migratory birds.
(AP, 6/16/06)
690BC-664BC The Nubian Pharaoh Taharka, brother of Shebitku, ruled over the upper Nile Nubian-Egyptian state. A sculpture of the Cushite king was discovered in the basement of "God's House Tower," an archeological museum, in England in 2000.
(MT, 10/95, p.10-11)(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
689BC Sennacherib of Assyria destroyed Babylon, but his son rebuilt it.
(eawc, p.7)
687BC The Lyrid meteor shower was recorded for the first time in Chinese records. It averages about 10-15 shooting stars per hour and occurs on 4/22 in 1994.
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 40)
681BC-668BC Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib became monarch of Assyria after his father was assassinated. "I had monuments made of bronze, lapis lazuli, alabaster... and white limestone... and inscriptions of baked clay... I deposited them in the foundations and left them for future times."
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)(MofE, 1978, p.1)
c680BC Inhabitants of Paros island (Greece) colonized the northern Aegean island of Thasos, seizing its abundant timber and gold mines. Soldier-poet Archilochus of Paros took part in the colonization of Thasos as well as in conflicts with Naxos.
(Arch, 1/05, p.30,34)
671BC Esarhaddon [of Assyria] recorded a victory over lower Egypt at the cliff face of the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River), between Beirut and Byblos.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
668-627BC Ashurbanipal succeeded Sennacherib as ruler over Assyria. He continued to develop the library and by the time he finished, there were more than 22,000 clay tablets collected.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)(eawc, p.7)
664BC-610BC Psammetichus ruled in Egypt as the 1st king of the 26th Dynasty. He did not gain control of Egypt until his 9th year of rule.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
c662BC The Assyrian Empire collapsed and Egypt enjoyed about a century of independence.
(eawc, p.7)
c660BC Governor Ment (Mentuemhet) served as governor of Upper Egypt, mayor of Thebes, and 4th prophet of Amun.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.E5)
660BC This is the mythical date of the ascension of Japan's first emperor, Jimmu Tenno. He is said to have been descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess, who came from the eye of the god Izanagi.
(HN, 2/11/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.42)
657BC A 2nd influx of Phoenicians surged into Carthage about this time.
(NG, 8/04, p.46)
657BC-525BC Period of Egypt’s Dynasty 26.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
655BC Psammetichus, 26th Dynasty king, gained control of Egypt in his 9th year of rule.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
654BC-657BC Tantamani (Tanwetamani) ruled in Egypt as last Cushite king and the last of the king of the 25th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty25.html)
650BC Babylon by this time was again prosperous following its destruction in 689 by Sennacherib of Assyria.
(eawc, p.7)
650BC The Transylvanian Dacians are first known from their contacts with the Greeks about this time.
(WSJ, 6/18/97, p.A20)
c650BC The time of Archilochus, Greek poet.
(WUD, 1994, p.78)
c650BC Greece began using the drachma for currency.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F4)
650BC The Chinese licensed lady lovers. This is considered as the 1st example of legalized prostitution.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.B3)
650BC-500BC In Greece it was the age of the tyrants.
(eawc, p.6)
650BC-550BC Graves from the Umbrian city of Terni, north of Rome, were dated to this period. The people were known as the Umbri-Nartes and had lived in the region from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.18)
648BC Ashurbanipal destroyed the newly rebuilt city of Babylon.
(eawc, p.7)
642BC The first horse race on record was in the Olympic Games of Greece and the first prize was a "woman of well-rounded domestic skills."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Z1 p.8)
642BC Invading Arabs established a military settlement on what later would become Cairo, Egypt.
(NG, May 1985, p.584)
640BC In Greece the Spartan form of government, adapted from the Dorians, was heavily influenced by militarism. The Messenian wars initiated Sparta's fear of change. They remained isolated by banning trade and discouraging travel outside their territory. Alcaeus, Greek lyric poet, was born in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. His lyrics expounded on contemporary politics, love, hymns to Apollo and Hermes, and some drinking songs.
(eawc, p.8)
c640BC The 1st coins were minted in Lydia (later part of Turkey), and featured face to face heads of a bull and lion.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, WB p.2)
639-609BC King Josiah reigned. The biblical account of Israel's origin was possibly drafted during this time. The leadership reinstituted the exclusive worship of the god of the Israelites centered on the Temple in Jerusalem.
(AM, 9/01, p.30,31)
626BC The time of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah. He was the last political prophet and went to Egypt at the end of his life.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
625BC Thales born in Miletus, (west coast of Anatolia, today Turkey) considered to be the first philosopher and scientist (of Greece). Said to have predicted eclipse of 585BC. Thales proposed a single universal principle of the material universe. Two remarkable ideas: a)he did not resort to animistic explanations for what happens in the world
b)he assumed that the world was a thing whose workings the human mind could understand. He maintained as a first principle that the external world and the internal mind must have much that is in common, how else could that external world be intelligible to the internal mind. The name of this commonality was reason.
(V.D.-H.K.p.31, 33, 216)
625BC The first Greek coins were stamped with the likeness of a wheat head to show that wheat had been used for money before the use of coins.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.E4)
616BC Tarquinius Priscus became the first Etruscan to rule Rome. Legend has it that he was followed by Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710,735)
614BC The Babylonians (particularly, the Chaldeans) with the help of the Medes, who occupied what is today Iran, began a campaign to destroy the Assyrians.
(eawc, p.8)
612BC Ninevah (Mesopotamia), the cradle of Assyrian kings for 2,500 years, fell to the Babylonians and Medes. The Chaldeans, a Semitic people, then ruled the entire region thereby issuing in the New Babylonian period that lasted to 539BC.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C1)(SFC, 3/31/03, p.W5)
612BC Sappho, Greek lyric poet of Lesbos, was born. She is the most famous female poet of the ancient world and is inscribed in the "Palatine Anthology" among the Muses, rather than among the great lyric poets, in the 2nd century BCE. Her poetry explored female sexuality and love in a male dominated society.
(eawc, p.8)
610BC-595BC Nekau II (Necho), son of Psammetichus I, ruled in Egypt as king of the 26th Dynasty. Under his rule Palestine became an Egyptian possession.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
609BC The biblical king Josiah of Judah was slain on Har (Mt.) Megiddo (root of Armageddon) about this time when he was betrayed by Pharaoh Necho, whom he had approached to stop from going to war on the side of the Assyrians against the Babylonians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.180)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
606BC In Cairo the Ben Ezra Synagogue was established.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A1)
605BC-562BC Nebuchadnezzar ruled over his empire centered at Babylon. He undertook some monumental building projects that included the Hanging Gardens. The New Babylonian Revival used glazed bricks for building thereby creating a colorful city. The king was fond of spinach.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B5)(eawc, p.8)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
c604BC-531BC Lao-tzu (Laozi), Chinese philosopher, author of the "Tao Te Ching" (Tao-te-jing) and founder of Taoism (Daoism) lived about this time. He encouraged people to live simply and according to nature. Taoism is one of the three major
Nerc:
c600BC Aesop said: "We hang the petty thieves, but appoint the great ones to public office."
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
c600BC Turquoise was first mined in the American southwest about this time and began to show up in Mesoamerica.
(Arch, 1/05, p.27)
c600BC The Etruscans, believed to be natives of Asia Minor, established cities that stretched from northern to central Italy. They developed the arch and the vault, gladiatorial combat for entertainment, and the study of animals to predict future events.
(eawc, p.8)
c600BC The Greeks established city-states along the southern coast of Italy and the island of Sicily. They contributed letters to the Roman alphabet, religious concepts and artistic talent as well as mythology.
(eawc, p.8)
600BC The great Olmec Ceremonial Center in Tabasco, Mexico, was abandoned about this time.
(RFH-MDHP, p.241)
c600BC The Zapotec city of Monte Alban was founded in the Oaxaca valley.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A24)
c600BC From about this time the Maya gradually sculpted the land to channel water to a growing population.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.A)
c600BC Analysis of pottery from this time indicated that Mayans made cocoa drinks as early as this time.
(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A4)
600BC The first polo game was recorded in north Persia about this time.
(Hem., 7/95, p.87)
c600BC Zoroaster introduced a new religion in Bactria (Balkh), also known as ancient Afghanistan. Zoroastrianism is a Monotheistic religion. [see 1500BC-1200BC]
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
600BC Phoenicians in the pay of Pharaoh Necho II circled Africa, according to Herodotus.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.160)
c600BC-500BC Epimenides, Cretan philosopher, is said to have originated the Liar paradox, by proclaiming that “All Cretans are liars.”
(Econ, 10/4/03, p.77)
600BC-500BC The first democratic governments were established in a few Greek city-states during the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
(V.D.-H.K.p.299)
600BC-500BC Rome by this time was the dominant power in its surrounding area. The conservative government consisted of a kingship, that resembled the traditional values of the patriarchal family; an assembly, composed of male citizens of military age; and a Senate, comprised of elders who served as the heads of different community sects. The Palatine is one of the seven hills of Rome
(eawc, p.7)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)
600BC-500BC The nomadic Scythians bordered the Hallstatt Culture in the East. They introduced to the Celts the custom of wearing trousers.
(NGM, 5/77)
600BC-290BC The Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people, controlled the area of south central Italy during this period.
(AM, 3/04, p.36)
600BC-200BC The Sarmatians were a nomadic tribe that occupied a homeland that stretched from Russia's Don and Volga rivers east to the Ural mountain foothills. The held a sun-worshipping belief system and buried useful objects with their dead for the journey in the unknown afterlife.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
600BC-600CE In 1999 Arthur Cotrell published "From Aristotle to Zoroaster," an A to Z companion to the classical world over this period.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Par p.6)
595BC-589BC Psammetichus II (Psamtik II), son of Nacho II, ruled in Egypt as a 26th Dynasty king. Psamtik II built the temple of Hibis in the al-Khargah oasis, 310 miles south of Cairo. It was built to worship Amun and contained statues of Amun's wife, Mut.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
595-339BC In Greece 4 Sacred Wars were fought for the control of Delphi over this period.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D7)
594BC In Greece Solon, the great elegiac poet, was appointed chief magistrate of Athens. His reforms included political and economic adjustments which led to dissatisfaction in the upper and lower classes.
(eawc, p.8)
593BC The time of the prophet Ezekial. He prophesied the return to the promised land after the destruction of the temple and exile to Babylon.
(MofB, A&E TV, 9/7/96)
589BC-570BC Apries, son of Psamtik II, ruled in Egypt as a 26th Dynasty king.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
587BC King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A18)
c587BC Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah, the Persian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, arrived from Babylon.
(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)
586BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of Mesopotamia, destroyed Jerusalem and recorded his deeds at the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) cliff face between Beirut and Byblos. He destroyed the first Temple, built by Solomon and took the Jewish people into captivity.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.26)
586BC Ezekial, in exile at Babylon, described Tyre as it was before Nebuchadnezzar's attack in the Bible: (Ezekial 27:1-25). This time is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(eawc, p.8)
c586BC The Menashe tribe was lost following the Jewish exile in this year. Jews dispersed across Europe and North Africa. In the 1990s members of Shinglung community from the province of Mizuru in India claimed to be the children of Menashe and began returning to Israel.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A13)
585BC May 25, The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made [by Thales]. A historically registered eclipse occurred during the savage war between the Lydians and the Medians. The event caused both sides to stop military action and sign for peace. The date of the eclipse coincides with the date in Oppolzer's tables published in 1887.
(SCTS, p.27)(HN, 5/25/98)
585BC May 28, A solar eclipse, predicted by Thales of Miletus, interrupted a battle [a Persian-Lydian battle] outside of Sardis in western Turkey between the Medes and Lydians. The battle ended in a draw. [see May 25]
(HN, 5/28/98)(HN, 5/28/99)
585BC In Miletus, Greece, the founding city of philosophy, Thales predicted a total eclipse of the sun. He was the founder of the Milesian school, and taught that all things are composed of moisture. He was the first to propose a rational explanation of the cosmos. By the end of the 6th century, philosophers began to inquire into the nature of being, the metaphysical nature of the cosmos, the meaning of truth, and the relationship between the divine and the physical world.
(eawc, p.8)
c585BC The Greeks settled in the area of Varna, later part of Bulgaria, on the Black Sea and were followed by the Romans, Byzantines and Turks.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T3)
585-572Bc Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon began his 13 year siege of Tyre.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)
580BC-500BC Pythagoras was born on Samos. He journeyed to S. Italy, and was driven out of Croton to the Bay of Taranto where he starved himself to death. He believed in the transmigration of souls, and is said to have discovered the mathematical ratios in musical harmonics.
(V.D.-H.K.p.34)
574BC-570BC Apries, 26th Dynasty king Egyptian ruler, conducted campaigns against Cyprus and Phoenicia.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
573BC Nemea, 70 miles from Athens, became the site for the Olympic games.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A6)
570BC Feb, General Amasis (Ahmose II), proclaimed Pharoah of Egypt by his soldiers, defeated Apries and his Aegean mercenaries and forced his retreat.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
570BC Oct, General Amasis (Ahmose II) defeated King Apries a 2nd time and took control of a united Egypt. Apries sought refuge abroad and later turned up at the court of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
570BC-526BC Amasis (Ahmose II), proclaimed Pharoah by his soldiers, ruled Egypt as the 5th king of the 26th Dynasty. Amasis consolidated Greek merchants to the area of Naukratis. This made for easier control, and created a lucrative income for the crown in the form of taxes.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
567BC Apries, former ruler of Egypt, marched on Egypt at the head of a Babylonian army, but once again, Amasis defeated him, this time capturing the former king.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
c566BC-c468BC Simonides, a Greek poet, was also called Simonides of Ceos. He created one of the first information spaces with his "memory palaces."
(WUD, 1994, p.1328)(Wired, 2/98, p.101)
565BC-545BC The island of Cyprus was under Egyptian control.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.20)
563BC Apr 8, Buddha (d.483BC), Siddhartha Gautama, was born in Northern India. [Nepal] Raja Suddhodana, king of the Sakyas in the 6th century BC, is best known as the father of Buddha. The kingdom of the Sakyas was on what is now the border of Nepal and India. Buddha was born in about 563 BC. The birthplace of the Indian prince Siddartha, who became the monk Buddha, was believed to have been discovered by archeologists in 1996. Lumbini, Nepal, birthplace of Buddha, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. [see May 15]
(http://eawc.evansville.edu, p.9)(V.D.-H.K.p.21)(WSJ, 2/6/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.30)(SFC,12/5/97, p.B2)(HN, 4/8/98)(HNQ, 3/30/99)
563BC May 15, Wesak Day, also known as Buddha's birthday. [see Apr 8]
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A3)
560BC-546BC The rule of Croesus in Lydia. The first coins were produced in Lydia under Croesus. It was a kingdom in western Turkey. Croesus made a treaty with the Spartans and attacked Persia and was defeated.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.345)(WSJ, 11/11/99, p.A24)
551BC Confucius (d.479BC), K'ung Fu-tzu [K'ung Fu-tse], Chinese philosopher, was born in Chufu, China. His followers transcribed his conversations in 20 books called the "Analects" following his death. He was an accountant and later taught the importance of centralized authority and filial piety. Like Aristotle, he believed the state to be a natural institution. He was the 11th child of a 70-year-old soldier. "All eminence should be based entirely on merit." "The way of a superior man is three-fold; virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear." "To see the right and not do it is cowardice." "Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you don't know a thing, to allow that you don't know it. This is knowledge."
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.E4)(http://eawc.evansville.edu, p.9)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.D3)(AP, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 2/27/00, Z1 p.2)(SFEC, 7/9/00, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 1/2/04, p.D8)
550BC Cyrus the Great ruled over Persia.
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)
550BC The Persian Empire began.
(WH, 1994, p.13)
c550 Emperor Justinian built the St. Catherine monastery in the Sinai Desert to honor St. Catherine, an Alexandrian martyr who was tortured to death for converting to Christianity. The site was thought to be the place where Moses saw the Miracle of the Burning Bush.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T6)
550BC Cities were founded in the Po Valley and expansion followed into Campania (by the Etruscans).
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
548BC The Greek Temple of Apollo was destroyed. Amasis, ruler of Egypt, is said to have financed its rebuilding.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
546BC In Greece the first of the Athenian tyrants, Peisistratus, replaced Solon as the ruler.
(eawc, p.9)
546BC The Persians destroyed Egypt’s alliance with the Chaldeans, Lydia and Sparta by first capturing Lydia then the Chaldaeans.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
543BC Colonists from northern India subdued the indigenous Vaddahs (Veddah) of Sri Lanka, known in the ancient world as Taprobane and later called Serendip. Descendants of those colonists, the Buddhist Sinhalese, form most of the population.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(SFC, 9/22/97, p.A10)
543BC-1815CE The Mahavamsa (600BC-400CE), Great Chronicle, describes the history of the Sinhalese people (Sri Lanka) over this period. The 1st part, from King Mahasena, which dates back to the legendary 5th century BC King Vijaya, was written by King Dhatusena's brother, the venerable thera Mahanama in the 6th century CE.
(Arch, 7/02, p.31)(www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/mahavamsa/)
540BC The population of Xanthos in Lycia (later Turkey) committed mass suicide rather than face slavery under invading armies.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, p.T5)
540BC-486BC In India Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, lived. [see 480BC]
(eawc, p.9)
c540BC-470BC The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "the obscure," of Ephesus (486BC) lived about this time. For him reality is flux which originated out of fire (as opposed to the "stable reality" of Parmenides). Plato credits him with saying "One cannot step into the same river twice."
(WUD, 1994, p.662)(eawc, p.10)
539BC Babylon, under Chaldean rule since 612BC, fell to the Persians. Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon after the New Babylonian leader, Belshazaar, failed to read "the handwriting on the wall." The Persian Empire under Cyrus lasted to 331BC, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrus returned some of the exiled Jews to Palestine, while other Jews preferred to stay and establish a 2nd Jewish center, the first being in Jerusalem.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)(eawc, p.8,9)
c539BC Cyrus the Great founded Persia’s Achaemenian Empire which he expanded into India, Libya and Egypt. Pasargadae was his first capital.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T4)
537BC Cyrus the Persian campaigned west of the Indus River.
(eawc, p.9)
535BC Control of Corsica heralded the greatest extent of Etruscan influence.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
533-330BC The Achaemenid dynasty ruled over Persia. It stretched from the time of Cyrus the Great to the death of Darius III.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)
532BC Polycrates became tyrant of the isle Samos, an Ionian city-state near Miletus.
(V.D.-H.K.p.34)
530BC In Greece Pythagorus, mathematician and philosopher, and his followers founded the city of Croton and combined philosophy and literature with political activity as the foundation of their community. He is credited with the Pythagorean theorem and the Pythagorean table of opposites (the "dualism" that underlies Greek thought.
(eawc, p.9)
529BC Cyrus the Persian died and left behind the largest empire to date. His son, Cambyses, succeeded him.
(eawc, p.9)
528BC May 25, Buddha overcame Mara, and attained the Awakening.
(V.D.-H.K.p.22)
528BC May, Buddha (563-483) sat cross-legged under the great Bo tree. The Great Truth consists of the Four Noble Truths:
1)man's existence is full of conflict, sorrow, and suffering.
2)All difficulty and pain is caused by man's selfish desire.
3)There can be found emancipation and freedom-NIRVANA.
4)The Noble Eightfold Path is the way to liberation: The middle way, known as the Eightfold Path: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right mode of living, right endeavor, right mindfulness, and right of concentration...
(V.D.-H.K.p.22)
526BC-525BC Psammetichus III ruled for a short time as the last king of Egypt’s 26th Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
525BC Cambyses, king of Persia, met and defeated the Egyptians in front of their city at Pelusium just a few weeks after the death of Pharaoh Amasis. This marked the beginning of Egypt’s 27th Dynasty. Psammetichus III tried to revolt against Cambyses and was killed.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
525BC On the island of Samos, Greece, castles were built. Samos was the site of the Temple of Hera, one of the 7 ancient Wonders of the World.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T10)
c525BC Acroliths, or partial statues, of Olympian deities were later found in Morgantina in central Sicily that were made by Greeks and dated to this time.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A13)
525BC Greek drama grew out of the Dionysian festivals.
(eawc, p.9)
525BC-522BC Cambyses II, son of Cyrus and ruler of Persia, served as the 1st ruler of Egypt’s 27th Dynasty. Cambyses added to his Persian empire by conquering Egypt. During his rule an army sent to Siwa Oasis was overcome by sandstorm and buried. Herodotus said the army numbered 50,000 men. A Jewish document from 407 BC known as 'The Demotic Chronicle' speaks of the Cambyses destroying all the temples of the Egyptian gods. Herodotus informs us that Cambyses II was a monster of cruelty and impiety.
(eawc.edu, p.9)(Arch, 9/00, p.18)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
524BC-456BC Aeschylus, Greek poet and dramatist, lived about this time: "Everyone's quick to blame the alien."
(AP, 10/12/98)
525BC-465BC Aeschylus is credited with being the inventor of drama and for introducing a second actor into the plays held every year in Athens in honor of Dionysus. His plays are considered to be the beginning of tragic drama. His stories were drawn from conflicts between the individual and the cosmos. Late in his career he wrote his plays in groups of three. These included the "Oresteia," "Prometheus Bound" and the "Danaides." In the Danaides only the first play, "The Suppliant Women," has survived. It was about 50 sisters who fled 50 cousins they were supposed to marry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.51)(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)(eawc, p.9)(WSJ, 12/5/01, p.A18)
522 Mar, Bardiya (Smerdis), another son of Cyrus and pretender to the throne, seized power in Persia as Cambyses was returning home.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
522BC Aug, Cambyses II, son of Cyrus of Persia and the 1st ruler of Egypt’s 27th Dynasty, died from a dagger wound in Syrian Ecbatana.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
c522BC Sep 4, Pindar (d.~443), Greek poet, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1094)(MC, 9/4/01)
522BC Sep, Darius hastened to Media, Persia, and with the help of six Persian nobles, killed Bardiya (Smerdis), another son of Cyrus, who had usurped the throne. Darius defended this deed and his own assumption of kingship on the grounds that the usurper was actually Gaumata, a Magian, who had impersonated Bardiya after Bardiya had been murdered secretly by Cambyses.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
522BC A revolt broke out in Egypt following the death of Cambyses, but it was put down by a Persian general named Darius, who succeeded Cambyses.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
522BCE Darius the Great (558-486), son of Hystaspes, succeeded Cambyses as emperor of Persia. He engaged in many large building programs including a system of roads and instituted the first postal system.
(WUD, 1994, p.367)(eawc.edu, p.9)(ON, 4/04, p.9)
522BC The Greek Temple of Apollo was begun on the island of Naxos on the orders of the tyrant Lygdamis. It was never completed.
(SFEC,12/21/97, p.T6)
c522BC Zoroaster died during a nomadic invasion near Balkh [ancient Afghanistan].
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
522BC-486BC Darius the Great expanded the Achaemenid (Persian) empire to its peak, when it took most of Afghanistan, including Aria (Herat), Bactriana (Balk, and present-day Mazar-i-Shariff), Margiana (Merv), Gandhara (Kabul, Jalalabad and Peshawar), Sattagydia (Ghazni to the Indus river), Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta), and Drangiana (Sistan). The Persian empire was plagued by constant bitter and bloody tribal revolts from Afghans living in Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta).
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
521BC Darius of Persia made Susa his administrative capital. He restored the fortifications and built an audience hall (apadana) and a residential palace.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
521 BC The name Armenian was mentioned for the first time in the Behistan (Behistun) inscription of the Mede (Persian) Emperor Darius from this year: "I defeated the Armenians."
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)(ON, 4/04, p.7)
521-486 The Persians under Darius fought the Scythians in a series of battles.
(AM, 5/01, p.33)
520BC-519BC Darius of Persia authorized the Jews to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, in accordance with an earlier decree of Cyrus. The Hebrew’s began to rebuild Solomon’s Temple destroyed in the sack of 586BCE. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was begun. It was remodeled many times and destroyed in 70CE.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(eawc, p.10)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
520BC-486BC Darius, ruler of Persia, occupied Egypt and is considered the 2nd ruler of the 27th Dynasty. During his rule a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea, probably begun by Necho I in the 7th century BC, was repaired and completed.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
519BC Darius put down a third rising in Susiana, Persia, and established his authority in the east.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
519BC Darius of Persia attacked the Scythians east of the Caspian Sea and a few years later conquered the Indus Valley.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
518BC Pindar (d.438BC), considered by some as the greatest Greek lyric poet, was born in Cynoscephalae, Boeotia. His odes celebrated the games held at religious festivals. Athletic victory served as the ground for his poetic fancy and religious, moral and aesthetic insights.
(eawc, p.10)
518BC Darius visited Egypt and put to death its satrap, Aryandes.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
518BC Persian leader Darius the Great founded Persepolis as his ceremonial capital.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A26)
517-509BC Darius the Persian conquered the Indus Valley region.
(eawc, p.10)
516BC Trilingual texts were chiseled on the cliffs at Behistun by Darius.
515BC Mar 10, The building of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem was completed.
(HN, 3/10/98)
515BC Parmenides of Elea was born. He founded the Eleatic school in the Phocaean colony in southern Italy. He was the first to focus attention on the central problem of Greek metaphysics: the nature of being. For Parmenides the laws governing the universe are stable and change is merely an illusion.
(eawc, p.10)
513BC Darius, after subduing eastern Thrace and the Getae, crossed the Danube River into European Scythia, but the Scythian nomads devastated the country as they retreated from him, and he was forced, for lack of supplies, to abandon the campaign.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
510BC In Greece Hippias, the son of Peisistratus, succeeded his father and was overthrown by a group of nobles with the help of Sparta.
(eawc, p.10)
510BC-490BC In Egypt the temple of Hibis was rebuilt during the reign of Darius.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)
509BC The Romans overthrew King Lucius Tarquinius and established a republic with rule by the senate and the people of Rome (SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus).
(V.D.-H.K.p.61)(http://eawc.evansville.edu, p.10)(Econ, 11/6/04, p.85)
509BC The Fall of the Tarquin dynasty in Rome marked the beginning of Etruscan Decline.
(NG, 6/1988, p.711)
508BC In Greece Cleisthenes, the father of Athenian democracy, ruled Athens. His reforms granted full rights to all free men of Athens.
(eawc, p.10)
c504BC The Philistine city of Ekron burned to the ground. Archeologists in 1996 discovered a stone block inscribed with the city's name and its kings. The city is referred to in the biblical book of I Samuel, which tells of the Philistine capture of the Ark of the Covenant and transport to Ekron. A plague later afflicted the city and the ark was sent back to Judea.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.A10)
c500BC The El Pilar Maya site in Belize was founded about this time.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.D)
500BC Confucius composed the Analects about this time. 5 things constitute perfect virtue: gravity, magnanimity, earnestness, sincerity, kindness.
(PC Comp. 12/94, p.278)
500BC The game of Go was devised in China about this time.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.128)
500BC The Chinese learned to ferment soybean around this time. The fermentation removed toxins and made soy easier to digest. It had already been used for thousands of years as fertilizer.
(SSCM, 8/13/06, p.6)
c500BC In 2004 Egyptian archeologists uncovered the limestone sarcophagus of Badi-Herkhib, the elder brother of a governor of Bahariya, who lived around 500 B.C.
(AP, 12/12/04)
c500BC The use of characters for writing spread to Greece where vowels were added and the basis for all Western alphabets was established. The Greeks invented a reed pen.
(I&I, Penzias, p.45)(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
c500BC The height of Greek sculpture began with the work of Phideas. His masterpieces include the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, the Parthenon reliefs, and the statue of Zeus in the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The 2nd most important sculptor, Myron, is renowned for his statue of the discus thrower.
(eawc, p.10)
c500BC In India the city of Varanasi was also known as Kashi and Benares and has been a center of civilization for 2,500 years. It is the home of the Hindu god Shiva.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.T4)
c500BC Lars Porsena ruled as the Etruscan king in central Italy. His capital, Clusium, was later believed to lie under the rubble of the Tuscan city of Chiusi.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.85)
c500BC The Garamantes of southern Libya began constructing underground tunnels to link shafts to sandstone aquifers.
(AM, 3/04, p.27)
c500BC Phoenicians founded Tripoli about this time.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.D12)
c500BC The Persians developed a mail system that was later described by Herodotus for its efficiency.
(ATC, p.34)
c500BC Monumental ceremonial centers on the Peruvian coast were abandoned about this time. The period was later found to correspond with an increase in el Nino frequency,
(AM, 9/01, p.18)
c500BC Copper concentrations in the Greenland ice core indicate that twice the normal level was produced at this time.
(PacDis, Fall/'96, p.48)
c500BC North African people settled in present-day Nigeria and began making iron tools.
(ATC, p.2)
c500BC The Charsadda site (aka Bala Hisar) in northern Pakistan was initially occupied during the Achaemenid period.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.C)
c500BC The city of Hund in northern Pakistan was founded about this time on the banks of the Indus River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.C)
500BC The Carthaginians inhabited Sardinia.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T4)
500BC In Thailand black Phimai pottery and bracelets indicate that the site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was occupied at this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)
c500BC Camels from Asia began showing up in North Africa.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, Z1 p.8)
c500BC A major earthquake occurred in the Middle East.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
c500BC-400BC Before the rise of Rome, the Etruscans had the most powerful nation in ancient Italy. The Etruscans (who called themselves the Rasenna) inhabited central Italy and greatly influenced the Romans in terms of language, architecture and even fashion (evidence points to the toga as an Etruscan invention). Unfortunately, no Etruscan literary works survive, so most documentation comes from Greek and Roman literary sources as well as archaeological evidence. Their military and political power was eroded over the course of the 5th century BC with Rome rising as the dominant power on the peninsula in the 4th century BC.
(HNQ, 2/8/01)
500BC-400BC A Byzantine shopping mall was uncovered in 1998 in Jerusalem at the site of a new mall. One inscription read "For the victory of the Blues" in Greek. It was a reference to the competing factions of Blues and Greens at horse races.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A8)
c500BC-400BC In China the first stretch of the north-south Grand Canal was built.
(WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A50)
500BC-400BC The Tairona civilization established a city (Teyuna) later known as Ciudad Perdida (lost city) east of Santa Maria, Colombia, about this time. Its ruins were only rediscovered in 1975.
(AM, 11/04, p.19)
500BC-300BC Small groups of Nok people began to search for new land to settle to the south and east of present day Nigeria.
(ATC, p.136)
500BC-300BC Cival, about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered in 1984. It was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated to this time.
(LAT, 5/5/04)
c500BC-200BC In India the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad-Gita is a part, was put into its final form.
(PC Comp. 12/94, p.278)(eawc, p.10)
500BC-50BC The Celtic La Tene culture was named after a Swiss site on Lake Neuchatel where a cache of richly ornamented artifacts were discovered.
(NGM, 5/77)
c500BC-100CE Qataban flourished in the 5th-1st centuries BC in what is now southern Yemen. Qataban had a democratic form of government and gained rule over a large area, but its influence and dominions shrank with the emergence of the Himyarites late in the 2nd century BC. Qataban was conquered by Saba' in the early centuries CE.
(HNQ, 7/20/00)
500BC-200CE The Nok people lived in the area of present day Nigeria and used iron tools. Evidence indicates that the Nok were making iron as early as 450BC. Their language became the root of the 300 distinct languages spoken in central and southern Africa. The legendary "Dinya Head" is a life sized terra cotta of a woman with plaited hair.
(ATC, p.110,136)(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A12)
c500BC-500CE A Tequesta burial site, discovered in Florida in 1998 and known as the Miami Circle, dated to this time.
(AM, 9/01, p.18)
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 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 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 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 ruled over 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 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)
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 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 joined with other Greek states in the formation of the Delian League. 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)
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 climbed Mount Etna only to leap into its crater in despair. It is said that since he couldn't figure out how the volcano worked, he jumped in out of frustration.
(PacDisc. Spring/'96, p.26)
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)
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)
c406BC Euripides (b.480/484), Greek tragic dramatist, died.
(EEE, p.12)
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 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 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 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-300 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 **** 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 (469-399 BC) 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-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)
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.
(NH, 10/02, p.78)
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 reb
Nerc:
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-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)
355BC Alexander the Great (d.323BC) was born about this time. Alexander III later married a barbarian princess, Roxana, the daughter of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes. Alexander also married the daughter of Darius, whom he defeated in 333, and a Sogdian princess 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)
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 Anasazi 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 In Greece the new philosophy of the Cynics emerged led by Diogenes. He argued against conventional life and that people should live naturally and strive for self-sufficiency.
(eawc, p.13)
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)
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)
344BC Alexander the Great brought cultivated rice to the west after his invasion of India. [see 326BC and 331BC]
(Hem., 12/96, p.82)
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 (d. 291), Greek playwright, was born 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)
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 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 BCE. 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)
323-30BC 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)
323-30BC 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)
323-30BC 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)
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 BCE. He traveled around a considerable part of Great Britain, circumnavigating it between 330 and 320 BCE.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas)
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)
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)
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)
c300BC By about this time iron-working had spread all along the savanna belt of West Africa.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
c300BC Zeugma was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals in southeastern Anatolia.
(Arch, 9/00, p.40)
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-68CE 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.”
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.74)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)(SFC, 9/6/04, p.A4)
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan around 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.
(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)
287-212BC 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)
273-232 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)
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)
c250BC 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 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-1400CE 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 Eeuergeter served as Egypt’s 3rd ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)
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)
234-149BC 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)
222-196BC 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)
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)
216 BC 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)
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)
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 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-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–220CE 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-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)
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.
&
Nerc:
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 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-100CE The Mayan site of Palenque was settled by farmers over this period.
(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)
100BC-500CE 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-668CE The Three Kingdoms era of Korea.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.E3)
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)
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)
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.
(AP, 8/26/97)
55BC Pompey dedicated his theater, the first to be constructed of stone in Rome.
(RFH-MDHP, p.214)
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.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.3)
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 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)
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 48BCE. 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)
43BCE Dec 7, Cicero (b.106BCE), 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-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)
32-23BC 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 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 Romans turned Ghadames, Libya, into a garrison town.
(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 In China Confucius suggested that effigies be used to be buried with a dead emperor instead of real people.
(Hem, 6/96, p.143)
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-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)
4BC-65CE Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman intellectual born in Spain. He was a Stoic philosopher and playwright and wrote a version of "Medea." Seneca was Nero's teacher. Nero had Seneca compose his speeches. Seneca and his colleague were ordered by Nero to contrive the murder of Agripinna. He was forced to commit suicide after the conspiracy of Caius Piso to murder Nero. His wife Paulina cut her wrists together with Seneca but Nero ordered that she be saved. Seneca's blood did not flow well and he asked for poison which was refused. He then requested a hot bath to increase the blood flow and apparently was suffocated by the steam.
(V.D.-H.K.p.80)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)(SFEC, 8/2/98, Z1 p.8)
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)
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