70 BC – 60 BCs

Events in 70 BC – 60 BC 3

• 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.
• 69 BC – 30 BC Cleopatra VII -- the last pharaoh Cleopatra VII (ruled 51-30 BC) is the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Uniquely among the Ptolemies, she speaks Egyptian as well as eight other languages. Her alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony are attempts to preserve Egyptian independence against Rome. After defeat at Actium (31 BC), she commits suicide on 12 August 30 BC. Egypt becomes a Roman province and 3,000 years of pharaonic civilisation end.
• 63 BC Catilinarian Conspiracy Lucius Sergius Catilina, a failed consular candidate, plots to seize Rome by force. Cicero, consul in 63 BC, uncovers the plot through informers and delivers four speeches against Catiline in the Senate — the Catilinarian Orations — still considered the finest forensic rhetoric in Latin. The conspirators are arrested and executed without trial on Senate authority; Cicero is later exiled for this illegality. Catiline dies in battle in 62 BC. The episode reveals both Cicero's greatness and the Republic's fragility.