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The 220s BC

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

229 BCE15 entries

  • Attalus I of Pergamon wins the Battle of the Harpasus in western Anatolia.
  • The First Illyrian War started when the Roman Senate dispatched an army under the command of the consuls Lucius Postumius Albinus and Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus to Illyria. Rome forced the withdrawal of Illyrian garrisons in the Greek cities of Epidamnus, Apollonia, Corcyra and Pharos and establishes a protectorate over these Greek towns.
  • The Qin general Wang Jian launches a three-pronged invasion of the state of Zhao but is hindered by the Zhao general Li Mu.

228 BCE12 entries

  • Archidamus V, brother of the murdered Spartan King Agis IV, is called back to Sparta by the Agiad King Cleomenes III, who has no counterpart on the throne by then. However, Archidamus V is assassinated shortly after returning.
  • The Illyrian queen Teuta's governor, Demetrius of Pharos has little alternative but to surrender to the overwhelming Roman force. In return, the Romans award him a considerable part of Teuta's holdings to counter-balance the power of Teuta. Meanwhile, the Roman army lands further north at Apollonia. The combined Roman army and fleet proceed northward together, subduing one town after another and besieging Shkodra, the Illyrian capital.
  • The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca is killed in a battle in Hispania, ending his lengthy campaign to conquer the Iberian Peninsula for Carthage. In eight years, by force of arms and diplomacy, he has secured an extensive territory in the Iberian Peninsula, but his death in battle prevents him from completing the conquest. Command of his army in the Iberian Peninsula passes to his son-in-law Hasdrubal.

227 BCE12 entries

  • The Spartan King Cleomenes III imposes reforms on his kingdom which include the cancelling of debts, providing land for 4,000 citizens, and restoring the training of youth in the martial arts. The Ephorate, five elected magistrates who, with the King, form the main executive body of the state, is abolished (four of the five ephors being executed); the powers of the Gerousia, the oligarchic council of elders, is curtailed; and the patronomoi (the board of six elders) is introduced. Cleomenes' changes are designed to make the monarchy supreme and re-create a society of aristocrats, while neglecting Sparta's helots (serfs) and perioikoi (free but non-citizen inhabitants). Eighty opponents of the reforms are exiled, while his brother Eucleidas is installed as co-ruler in the place of the murdered Archidamus V.
  • Sardinia and Corsica are made a combined province. Rome appoints, and in the future annually elects, two praetors (with autocratic consular powers) for this province and for Sicily.
  • Queen Teuta of Illyria finally surrenders to Roman forces and is forced by the Romans to accept an ignominious peace. The Romans allow her to continue her reign but restrict her to a narrow region around the Illyrian capital, Shkodra, deprive her of all her other territory, and forbid her to sail an armed ship below Lissus just south of the capital. They also require her to pay an annual tribute and to acknowledge the final authority of Rome.

226 BCE11 entries

  • An earthquake destroys the city of Camirus and the Colossus of Rhodes on the island of Rhodes.
  • The Greek merchants of Massilia, frightened by Carthaginian successes in Spain (including their exploitation of the Spanish silver mines), appeal to Rome. Rome makes an alliance with the independent Spanish port city of Saguntum south of the Ebro River.
  • The Qin generals Wang Jian, Li Xin and Wang Ben conquer western Yan and its capital Ji. To secure peace, king Xi of Yan executes his son Crown Prince Dan, who is wanted for the attempted assassination of the king of Qin, Ying Zheng.

225 BCE7 entries

  • The state of Qin, its armies led by Wang Ben, conquers the state of Wei.
  • To meet this invasion, the Romans call on the Insubres' enemies, the Adriatic Veneti, the Patavini, and the Cenomani, who rapidly mobilise defensive forces. These armies are placed under the command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Papus and Gaius Atilius Regulus. After the Battle of Faesulae (near Montepulciano) between the Gauls and a Roman army in which the Romans lose many men, the combined Roman forces succeed in outmaneuvering the Gauls and force the invaders towards the coast of Tuscany. Papus pursued and harassed their rear but did not risk a pitched battle. The other Consul, Regulus, had crossed from Sardinia, landed at Pisa, and was marching towards Rome. His scouts met the Celts' advance guard head on near Telamon (modern Talamone), in an area called Campo Regio.
  • A coalition of Cisalpine Gallic tribes (Taurini, Taurisces, Insubres, Lingones, Salasses, Agones, and Boii), reinforced by large numbers of Transalpine adventurers called Gaesatae (Gaesati), invade Italy. Avoiding the Romans at Ariminum, the Gauls cross the Apennines into Etruria and plunder the country.

224 BCE8 entries

  • The Qin Prime Minister Lord Changping, who was born in Chu, incites a Chu rebellion against the Qin invaders. He and the Chu general Xiang Yan then surprise and defeat the Qin army led by Li Xin and Meng Tian in the Battle of Chengfu.
  • After the Spartan King Cleomenes III takes on Pellene, Phlius and Argos, Aratus of Sicyon is forced to call upon King Antigonus III of Macedonia for assistance. Antigonus III's forces fail to pierce Cleomenes' lines near Corinth, but a revolt against Cleomenes at Argos put the Spartans on the defensive.
  • The Romans, led by Consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus, decisively defeat the coalition of Cisalpine Gallic tribes at the Battle of Telamon thus extending Roman influence over northern Italy. On the Roman side Gaius Atilius Regulus, commander of the Roman cavalry, is killed in the battle. On the Gallic side, one of the leaders, Concolitanus, is captured in battle, while the leader of the Gaesatae, Aneroëstes, kills himself when the battle is lost.

223 BCE10 entries

  • King Diodotus II of Bactria is killed by a usurper, Euthydemus I, founder of the Greco-Bactrian Euthydemid dynasty.
  • The Seleucid king Seleucus III is assassinated by members of his army while on campaign against Attalus of Pergamon in Phrygia.
  • The king of Macedonia, Antigonus III Doson, restores Macedonian influence in the Peloponnese for the first time in almost two decades. After signing alliances with the Achaeans, Boeotians, Thessalians and the Acarnanians, Antigonus invades the Peloponnese and drives the Spartans out of Argos, taking Orchomenus and Mantineia in the process.

222 BCE15 entries

  • After taking Acerrae Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus marches on Mediolanum (modern Milan), another stronghold of the Insubres, which also falls into Roman hands, upon which the chieftains of the Insubres lose all hope and surrendered unconditionally. Thus the Romans succeeded in conquering the largest independent Celtic tribe in Italy and firmly established their hegemony over the Po Valley, then the most productive agricultural region in the peninsula.
  • Battle of Sellasia: Cleomenes III of Sparta is defeated by Antigonus III of Macedon and his allies (the Achaean League, the Boeotian League, the Acarnanians, Epirus and the Illyrians under the command of Demetrius of Pharos) near Sellasia (north of Sparta) and flees to Egypt under the protection of King Ptolemy III. Antigonus III's forces occupy Sparta, which is the first time this city has ever been occupied.
  • The Qin general Wang Jian conquers Wuyue, forcing the capitulation of its ruler. The conquered region becomes the province of Kuaiji. This campaign completes the subjugation of the lands formerly held by the State of Chu, and it also serves as a precursor for the Qin campaign against the Yue tribes.

221 BCE17 entries

  • The state of Qi – by now the only other independent state in China –, is invaded by the Qin generals Wang Ben, Li Xin and Meng Tian and surrenders after offering minimal resistance. Ying Zheng, the king of Qin unifies China and proclaims himself the First Emperor, as he is the first Chinese sovereign able to rule the whole country, thus ending the Warring States period. He is known by historians as Qin Shi Huang.
  • King Cleomenes III of Sparta, who is in exile in Egypt, is imprisoned by Ptolemy IV on a charge of conspiracy.
  • Gaius Flaminius builds a second race track for Rome, the Circus Flaminius.

220 BCE23 entries

  • A bronze statue called Gallic Chieftain killing his wife and himself is made (approximate date). A Roman copy after the original statue is today preserved at Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome.
  • Qin Shi Huang begins a system of tree-lined roads to interconnect all parts of China, and begins to join regional walls to form the beginnings of the Great Wall (Wan li chang cheng).
  • A bronze statue called Dying Gallic trumpeter is made (possibly by Epigonus) (230-220 BC). A marble Roman copy after the original statue is today preserved at Museo Capitolino in Rome.