3rd Century BC Timeline: Events, People and History

Events in the 3rd Century BC 21

14000 BC – 300 BC Jomon period World's earliest pottery — hunter-gatherers of the islands The Jomon period is named for the cord-marked (jomon) pottery its people produced — among the oldest pottery in the world. These were sophisticated hunter-gatherers, fishers and foragers who lived a largely sedentary life in the Japanese archipelago for over ten thousand years, long before agriculture arrived.
753 BC – 476 The Roman Civilisation The Roman civilisation — kingdom, republic and empire — shaped Western law, language, architecture, religion and governance more profoundly than any other ancient civilisation. From the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC to the deposition of the last western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD, Rome endured for over twelve centuries, governing at its peak an empire of 70 million people stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia.
343 BC – 290 BC The Samnite Wars Three wars against the Samnites — a powerful Italic people of the Apennine mountains — between 343 and 290 BC cement Roman dominance of peninsular Italy. The Second Samnite War (326–304 BC) includes the humiliation of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), where an entire Roman army is forced to pass under the yoke. Rome recovers, learns, adapts — and ultimately prevails. By 290 BC, Rome controls most of Italy south of the Po valley.
322 BC – 185 BC Maurya Empire First empire to unify the subcontinent The Maurya Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BC, was the first state to unify most of the Indian subcontinent under one centralised administration. From its capital Pataliputra it became one of the largest empires of the ancient world.
312 BC – 63 BC Seleucid Empire Greek successor state rules Persia After Alexander's death his general Seleucus seized the eastern territories, founding the Seleucid Empire that ruled Persia for some two and a half centuries. It spread Hellenistic culture across the region before fragmenting and giving way to the resurgent Parthians.
300 BC – 1279 Chola dynasty (South India) A great maritime and temple-building power The Cholas of the Tamil south were one of the longest-ruling dynasties in history, rising from the Sangam age to a medieval maritime empire that projected naval power across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia. They built magnificent temples such as the Brihadeeswarar at Thanjavur and patronised bronze sculpture and Tamil literature.
300 BC Euclid — Elements of Geometry The foundation of mathematics for 2,000 years Around 300 BC, Euclid of Alexandria wrote the Elements, a thirteen-volume treatise that systematised all known geometry into a rigorous axiomatic framework. Starting from just five postulates, he derived hundreds of theorems. The Elements became the most widely used mathematics textbook in history, used in schools until the 20th century, and established the model of deductive proof that underlies all mathematics.
300 BC – 300 Yayoi period Rice farming, bronze and iron arrive from the mainland The Yayoi period brought wet-rice cultivation, bronze and iron metallurgy, and the potter's wheel to Japan from Korea and China. These innovations drove population growth and the emergence of stratified society and local chieftaincies — the foundations of the Japanese state.
287 BC – 212 BC Archimedes of Syracuse The greatest mathematician and engineer of antiquity Archimedes (c.287–212 BC) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer and inventor born in Syracuse, Sicily. Son of the astronomer Phidias, he was possibly related to King Hiero II of Syracuse. He is ranked alongside Newton and Gauss as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. He left nine surviving treatises covering geometry, hydrostatics, statics and mathematical physics, and invented war machines that held Rome at bay for two years. He died when Roman soldiers breached Syracuse in 212 BC — allegedly while working on a geometry problem.
287 BC – 212 BC Archimedes — buoyancy, lever and pi The greatest scientist of antiquity Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287–212 BC) discovered the principle of buoyancy — that a body submerged in fluid experiences an upward force equal to the weight of fluid it displaces — reputedly while stepping into his bath. He proved the law of the lever, calculated pi as lying between 3 10/71 and 3 1/7, determined the surface area and volume of a sphere, and laid the foundations of hydrostatics and statics. He also invented the Archimedes screw for raising water and designed war machines to defend Syracuse against the Romans.
264 BC – 241 BC First Punic War Rome's first conflict with Carthage — the great maritime empire of North Africa — begins over Sicily in 264 BC. Rome, a land power with no naval tradition, builds a fleet from scratch, reportedly copying a captured Carthaginian warship. The Romans add the "corvus" — a boarding bridge — to turn sea battles into land fights. After 23 years and enormous losses on both sides, Rome wins Sicily (241 BC), its first overseas province.
247 BC – 224 Parthian Empire Persian revival; rival of Rome The Parthian (Arsacid) Empire restored native Iranian rule and became Rome's great rival in the east for nearly five centuries, its famed horse-archers and cataphracts repeatedly checking Roman expansion — most notably annihilating Crassus's legions at Carrhae in 53 BC.
246 BC – 208 BC Construction of the Great Wall begins Linking earlier walls into a unified northern defence Qin Shi Huang ordered the linking and extension of existing northern walls into a continuous defensive barrier against Xiongnu nomads. Hundreds of thousands of workers — soldiers, peasants and convicts — built the wall under brutal conditions. This early wall was largely of earth and wood; the iconic stone wall seen today was built by the Ming dynasty. The wall represents the most ambitious construction project of the ancient world.
245 BC Eureka! — Archimedes discovers buoyancy On Floating Bodies: a submerged body displaces its weight in fluid King Hiero II suspected a goldsmith had mixed silver into a supposedly pure gold crown. He tasked Archimedes to test it without destroying it. The solution came to Archimedes while stepping into a public bath — he noticed the water level rose as he entered, and realised that a body displaces a volume of fluid equal to its own volume. Since gold is denser than silver, a silver-adulterated crown would displace more water than a pure gold crown of the same weight. Legend says he leapt from the bath and ran naked through the streets shouting "Eureka!" (I have found it!). He formalised the principle in his treatise On Floating Bodies, the first systematic work in hydrostatics.
240 BC Eratosthenes measures the Earth First accurate calculation of Earth's circumference Around 240 BC, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, chief librarian at Alexandria, calculated the circumference of the Earth by measuring the difference in the angle of the sun's shadow between Alexandria and Syene (modern Aswan) at noon on the summer solstice. His result of approximately 252,000 stadia is remarkably close to the modern value of 40,075 km — an error of less than 2%. It was the first scientific measurement of the size of a planet.
221 BC – 206 BC Qin Dynasty — First unified China Qin Shi Huang unifies the warring states In 221 BC, Ying Zheng of the state of Qin conquered the last of the warring states and proclaimed himself Qin Shi Huang — First Emperor of China. He standardised weights, measures, currency, axle widths and writing across the empire, creating the template for Chinese civilisation. His dynasty lasted only 15 years but its legacy shaped China for two millennia. The name "China" derives from "Qin".
221 BC – 210 BC Qin Shi Huang — First Emperor of China 221–210 BC — unifier, tyrant, visionary Ying Zheng became king of Qin at age 13 and conquered all rival states by 221 BC, aged 38. As First Emperor he standardised writing, currency, weights and measures across China, built the first Great Wall, and connected the empire with roads and canals. He also burned books and buried scholars alive to suppress dissent. He spent his final years obsessively seeking immortality. His terracotta army of 8,000 warriors was discovered in 1974.
218 BC – 201 BC Second Punic War — Hannibal invades Italy Hannibal Barca crosses the Alps with 37 war elephants and an army of 26,000 men in 218 BC, fighting his way to the gates of Rome. He destroys Roman armies at the Trebia (218 BC), Lake Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC) — the latter killing perhaps 70,000 Romans in a single afternoon, the most lethal single day in Roman history. Yet Rome refuses to negotiate, raises new armies, and shifts strategy. Scipio Africanus carries the war to Africa; at the Battle of Zama (202 BC) Hannibal is defeated.
212 BC Archimedes killed by a Roman soldier Syracuse falls — "Do not disturb my circles" In 212 BC, after a two-year siege, Roman forces breached the walls of Syracuse. Archimedes was working on a geometry problem when a Roman soldier approached and ordered him to come before the general Marcellus. Archimedes refused, saying "Do not disturb my circles." The soldier killed him on the spot. Marcellus was reportedly devastated — he had given orders that Archimedes was not to be harmed, and had admired him greatly. Marcellus arranged for an honourable burial and saw to the welfare of his family. Archimedes was approximately 75 years old.
210 BC Terracotta Army buried with Qin Shi Huang 8,000 warriors guard the emperor in death Qin Shi Huang was buried in a vast mausoleum near Xi'an, guarded by an army of 8,000 life-size terracotta soldiers, horses and chariots — each with individual facial features. The tomb complex also reportedly contained rivers of mercury representing the empire's waterways. The terracotta warriors were accidentally discovered by farmers digging a well in 1974 and are now considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history.
202 BC – 220 Han Dynasty The golden age that defined what it means to be Chinese The Han dynasty ruled for over 400 years and is considered China's first golden age. It consolidated Confucianism as state ideology, expanded the empire into Central Asia, and opened the Silk Road. Paper was invented during the Han period. The ethnic majority of China still call themselves "Han people" after this dynasty. It fell to internal rebellion and warlordism — giving rise to the Three Kingdoms period immortalised in Chinese literature.