Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

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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