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The 230s

125 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.

230 CE17 entries

  • July 21 – Pope Pontian succeeds Pope Urban I, as the 18th pope of Rome.
  • Seventy bishops hold the council of the Christian Church of Africa.
  • King Ardashir I of the Persian Empire invades the Roman province of Mesopotamia, and unsuccessfully besieges the fortress town of Nisibis (Turkey). His army threatens the border outposts of Syria and Cappadocia.

231 CE7 entries

  • March – August – Battle of Mount Qi: The Chinese state of Shu Han gains a tactical victory, and the state of Cao Wei a strategic victory.
  • Emperor Alexander Severus accompanies his mother Julia Mamaea to Syria, and campaigns against the Persians. Military command rests in the hands of his generals, but his presence gives additional weight to the empire's policy.
  • Origen, disciple of Ammonius Saccas, founder of Neoplatonism, is exiled in Caesarea.

232 CE14 entries

  • Origen founds a school of Christian theology in Palestine.
  • Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Alexander Severus launches a three-pronged counterattack against the Persian forces of King Ardashir I, who have invaded Mesopotamia. However, the Roman army advancing through Armenia is halted. Alexander gives the order to march to the capital at Ctesiphon, but the Romans are defeated, and withdraw to Syria. The result is an acceptance of the status quo, and after heavy losses on both sides, a truce is signed.
  • Relics of St. Thomas are brought to Edessa from India.

233 CE5 entries

  • Emperor Alexander Severus celebrates a triumph in Rome to observe his "victory" the previous year over the Persians (in reality, Severus Alexander advanced towards Ctesiphon in 233, but as corroborated by Herodian, his armies suffered a humiliating defeat against Ardashir I). He is soon summoned to the Rhine frontier, where the Alamanni invade what is now modern-day Swabia. German tribes destroy Roman forts, and plunder the countryside at the Limes Germanicus.

234 CE15 entries

  • Battle of Wuzhang Plains between the Chinese states of Shu Han and Cao Wei: The army of Shu Han retreats, following an inconclusive result.
  • Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Mamaea move to Moguntiacum (modern Mainz), the capital of Germania Superior. His generals have planned a military offensive and built a bridge across the Rhine. Alexander prefers to negotiate for peace by buying off the Alemanni. This policy outrages the Roman legions and he loses the trust of the troops.
  • Saban becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje. He is succeeded by Goi of Baekje later in the same year.

235 CE15 entries

  • March 22 – Emperor Severus Alexander and his mother Iulia Mamaea are murdered by their own soldiers. The soldiers proclaim Maximinus Thrax as emperor. The Severan dynasty ends, marking the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century.
  • September 28 – Pope Pontian resigns, the first to abdicate, because he and Hippolytus, church leader of Rome, are exiled to the mines of Sardinia. Emperor Maximinus persecutes the Christians.
  • November 21 – Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope of Rome.

236 CE12 entries

  • January 10 – Pope Fabian succeeds Pope Anterus as the twentieth pope.
  • Fabian sends seven missionaries to Gaul to evangelize in the large cities.
  • Emperor Maximinus Thrax and Marcus Pupienus Africanus Maximus become Roman consuls.

237 CE11 entries

  • Emperor Maximinus Thrax campaigns on the rivers Danube and Rhine in Germania, defeating the Alemanni, and never visits Rome. He is accepted by the Roman Senate, but taxes the rich aristocracy heavily, and engenders such hostility among them, that they plot against him. He had a road rebuilt in what is now the Golan Heights, between 236 and 237.
  • King Ardashir I of Persia renews his attacks on the Roman province of Mesopotamia.
  • Patriarch Eugenius I succeeds Patriarch Castinus as Patriarch of Constantinople.

238 CE22 entries

  • Emperor Maximinus Thrax campaigns against the Carpians on the Danube in Moesia (Balkans). In spite of the payment of a tribute, the Romans fail to persuade the Goths and the Germanic tribes.
  • Sima Yi, a Chinese general of the Cao Wei state, destroys the outlying northeastern warlord Gongsun Yuan in the Liaodong campaign.
  • c. May – The Senate outlaws Maximinus for his bloodthirsty proscriptions in Ancient Rome and nominates two of its members, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the throne.

239 CE7 entries

  • Queen of Yamataikoku (Japan), Himiko was given Golden signature stamp by Cao Wei (China)
  • Origen publishes the Old Testament in five languages (approximate date).
  • Cao Fang succeeds his adoptive father Cao Rui as emperor of the Cao Wei state, in the Three Kingdoms period of China.