1226 Chronology by Region
250 B.C.E. – 0
ca. 300 B.C.E.: Carthaginians attain height
of power and infl uence as traders and
shipbuilders; date assigned to Namora-
tunga, a cluster of stone pillars in Kenya
that may have served as a calendar;
museum and Great Library are founded at
Alexandria, Egypt.
ca. 280 B.C.E.: Ptolemy II of Egypt com-
pletes a canal between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Red Sea.
ca. 264 B.C.E.: Beginning of the Punic
Wars between Rome and Carthage.
ca. 250 B.C.E.: Dromedaries are intro-
duced into Egypt.
ca. 200 B.C.E.: Formation of kingdom of
Axum in northern Ethiopia.
ca. 146 B.C.E.: Carthage falls to the Ro-
man invaders, marking the end of the
Third Punic War.
ca. 100s C.E.: The Bantu use iron utensils
for cooking, iron spearheads for hunting,
and iron hooks for fi shing.
ca. 150 C.E.: Kingdom of Meroë goes into
decline from competition with the rival
kingdom of Axum.
ca. 200 C.E.: Kingdom of Ghana, a major
gold producer, fl ourishes.
AFRICA
ca. 420 B.C.E.: The Nabataeans estab-
lish a kingdom at Petra, in present-day
Jordan.
ca. 311 B.C.E.: The start of the Seleucid
Empire, which rules Babylonia and Syria.
ca. 66–ca. 73 B.C.E.: The fi rst great revolt
of the Jews of Judea against the Ro-
mans, during which legions under Titus
destroyed Jerusalem, looting and burning
Herod’s Temple.
37 B.C.E.: Herod the Great is made king of
Judea by the Romans.
7 B.C.E.: Jesus of Nazareth born in Bethle-
hem; historians arrive at this date based
on astronomical records.
33 C.E.: Jesus Christ is condemned
to death and crucifi ed in Jerusalem;
Christian religion founded.
ca. 50: Farmers in Near East (and
China) fi rst begin using silos for grain
storage.
67: The apostle Paul, the leading member
of the new Christian faith, is executed on
June 29.
132–135: The second (sometimes
called the third) Jewish revolt against
the Roman Empire; after this revolt the
emperor Hadrian roots out Jews and
Judaism from Judea and bars Jews from
Jerusalem.
ca. 224: Sassanian Dynasty begins in
Persia and will rule until 651.
THE MIDDLE EAST
500 B.C.E. – 250 B.C.E.
0 – 250 C.E.
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