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The 220s

126 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 3rd century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

220 CE19 entries

  • March 15 – Cao Cao, Imperial Chancellor and ruler of the Kingdom of Wei, dies.
  • December 11 – Cao Pi receives the abdication of Emperor Xian of Han and proclaims himself emperor of Cao Wei. This ends the Han dynasty, the former emperor being created Duke of Shanyang.
  • Elagabalus divorces Julia Paula and marries Aquilia Severa, a Vestal Virgin. The wedding causes an enormous controversy – traditionally, the punishment for breaking celibacy is death by being buried alive.

221 CE10 entries

  • May 15 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord and descendant of the imperial clan of the Han dynasty, proclaims himself emperor in Chengdu, Sichuan, and establishes the state of Shu Han.
  • June 26 – Emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir, and receives the title of Caesar.
  • July – Elagabalus is forced to divorce Aquilia Severa, and marries his third wife Annia Faustina. After five months he returns to Severa, and claims that the original divorce is invalid. The marriage is symbolic, because Elagabalus appears to be homosexual or bisexual. According to the historian Cassius Dio, he has a stable relationship with his chariot driver, the slave Hierocles.

222 CE20 entries

  • March 13 – Emperor Elagabalus is assassinated, along with his mother, Julia Soaemias, by the Praetorian Guard during a revolt. Their mutilated bodies are dragged through the streets of Rome before being thrown into the Tiber.
  • October 14 – Pope Callixtus I is killed by a mob in Rome's Trastevere after a 5-year reign in which he has stabilized the Saturday fast three times per year, with no food, oil, or wine to be consumed on those days. Callixtus is succeeded by Cardinal Urban I.
  • Battle of Xiaoting/Yiling: The Chinese state of Shu Han is defeated by Eastern Wu.

223 CE9 entries

  • Battle of Dongkou: The Chinese state of Cao Wei is defeated by Eastern Wu.

224 CE14 entries

  • January 1 – Gaius Bellicius Torquatus and Appius Claudius Julianus II begin their one year terms as the new Roman consuls.
  • April 28 – Battle of Hormozdgan: King Ardashir I defeats Artabanus V, destroying the Parthian Empire, and establishing the Sassanid Dynasty. Artabanus V's brother Vologases VI will continue to rule, with Armenian and Kushan support, over outlying parts of Parthia.
  • September – In the Eastern Wu Kingdom, the Emperor Sun Quan orders the demotion of General Zhang Wen and his removal from command, commenting in the decree, "Oh, Zhang Wen, you are so fortunate to be spared from death." Two other officers, General Ji Yan and General Xu Biao are arrested and permitted to commit suicide rather than to be executed.

225 CE10 entries

  • The first Christian paintings appear in Rome, decorating the Catacombs.
  • Emperor Alexander Severus marries Sallustia Orbiana, and possibly raises her father Seius Sallustius to the rank of Caesar.

226 CE9 entries

  • A merchant from the Roman Empire, called "Qin Lun" by the Chinese, arrives in Jiaozhi (modern Hanoi), and is taken to see King Sun Quan of Eastern Wu, who requests him to make a report on his native country and people. He is given an escort for the return trip, including a present of ten male and ten female "blackish-colored dwarfs." However, the officer in charge of the Chinese escort dies, and Qin Lun has to continue his journey home alone.
  • Ctesiphon, until now capital of the Parthian Empire, falls into the hands of the Sasanian Empire, who also make it their capital, after putting an end to the Parthian Dynasty in Iran.

227 CE12 entries

  • Seius Sallustius is executed for the attempted murder of his son-in-law, Emperor Alexander Severus. Sallustius' daughter, as well as Alexander's wife, Sallustia Orbiana, is exiled to Libya.
  • King Ardashir I annexes his new empire from the east to the northwest. He conquers, with his army, the provinces of Chorasmia, Sistan and the island Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. The kings of the Kushan Empire and Turan recognize Ardashir as their overlord.
  • Dongcheon becomes ruler over the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

228 CE15 entries

  • June –October – Battle of Shiting: The Eastern Wu Kingdom defeats the Cao Wei Kingdom.
  • c. February – May – Battle of Jieting: The Cao Wei Kingdom decisively defeats the Shu Han Kingdom.
  • Domitius Ulpianus, a Roman jurist and prefect, is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard, in the presence of Emperor Severus Alexander. His curtailment of the privileges of the palace guard becomes Ulpianus' downfall, who in the course of a riot at Rome is murdered, between the soldiers and the mob.

229 CE8 entries

  • February – May – Battle of Jianwei: The state of Shu Han is victorious over the state of Cao Wei.
  • Eastern Wu merchants reach Vietnam; ocean transport is improved to such an extent that sea journeys are made to the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of Yizhou.
  • Emperor Alexander Severus and Dio Cassius are joint Consuls.