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The 290s BC

101 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.

299 BCE8 entries

  • The State of Zhao annexes the State of Zhongshan.
  • The State of Qin annexes eight cities of the state of Chu. Chu then sends an envoy to ask the King of Huai to go to Qin to negotiate peace. Qu Yuan risks his life to go up to the court to persuade the King of Huai not to go to the negotiation.
  • Rome accuses the Etruscans of seeking to ally with the Gauls against Rome. The consul Titus Manlius Torquatus marches an army into Etruria but dies three days after falling from his horse. The new consul Marcus Valerius Corvus ravages Etruria, destroying villages in an attempt to provoke the Etruscans into battle.

298 BCE9 entries

  • Agathocles, king of Syracuse, assists the Italian Greeks against the Bruttians and supports the Greeks against the Romans.
  • Bindusara succeeds his father Chandragupta Maurya as emperor of the Mauryan Empire.
  • The consuls Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus and Gnaeus Fulvius Maximus Centumalus campaign against the Etruscans. Scipio fights a costly indecisive battle near Volaterrae.

297 BCE10 entries

  • Chandragupta Maurya goes to Sravana Belagola, near Mysore, to live in the way of Jains.
  • Ptolemy decides to support Pyrrhus of Epirus and restores him to his kingdom. At first, Pyrrhus reigns with a kinsman, Neoptolemus II of Epirus (who is a son of Cleopatra of Macedonia and a nephew of Alexander the Great), but soon he has him assassinated.
  • Following Cassander's death from illness, Philip IV, Cassander's eldest son, succeeds his father as King of Macedon, but soon after coming to the throne, he suffers from a wasting disease and dies. Antipater, the next son, rules jointly with his brother Alexander V.

296 BCE10 entries

  • The temple to Bellona is erected at the south end of the prata Flaminia, later the Circus Flaminius, in Rome.
  • Gellius has a powerful warband of Semnones reinforce the anti-Roman coalition, which is also joined by yet more cities of the Umbrians.
  • The consul Lucius Volumnius Flamma Violens and the proconsuls Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and Publius Decius Mus devastate the lands of Samnium.

295 BCE16 entries

  • August 19 – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges.
  • The Samnites defeat the propraetor Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus in Umbria in the Battle of Camerinum.
  • The consuls Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and Publius Decius Mus march to Sentinum in Umbria. Facing a coalition army of Samnites, Semnones, Etruscans and Umbrians, they order the propraetors Gnaeus Fulvius Maximus Centumalus and Lucius Postumius Megellus, who were initially tasked with defending Rome, to raid Etruria as far as Clusium. This provokes the Etruscans to march to their homeland's defence, taking the Umbrians with them. In the subsequent Battle of Sentinum against the Samnites and Semnones, Decius is killed in an act of Devotio, and Fabius wins the battle. Gellius Egnatius, the mastermind behind the coalition, is cut down in the fighting, along with 25,000 Samnites and Semnones killed and 8000 captured.

294 BCE13 entries

  • Archidamus IV, king of Sparta, son of Eudamidas I and grandson of Archidamus III, is defeated by Demetrius Poliorcetes of Macedonia in a battle at Mantinea. Sparta is saved only because Demetrius is called away by the threatening activities of his rivals Lysimachus and Ptolemy.
  • Against precedent, Postumius has the Comitia Centuriata vote him a triumph despite senatorial opposition.
  • Without senatorial permission, Postumius marches to Etruria, wins an engagement against the Volsinii and storms the town of Rusellae. The cities of Volsinii, Perusia, and Arretium sue for peace with Rome and obtain truces for forty years.

293 BCE9 entries

  • The Boeotians revolted against Demetrius Poliorcetes, the King of Macedon. They received help from the Aetolians and the Spartans.
  • Due to renewed hostility among some of the Etruscans, who are joined by the Falisci, Carvilius marches to Etruria, storms the town of Troilum and captures five forts. The Falisci then sue for peace and receive a one-year truce.
  • When an invasion of nomads threatens the eastern possessions of his realm (i.e. between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea and the Indian Ocean), Seleucus hands over the government of these lands west of the Euphrates to his son Antiochus. Antiochus is appointed co-regent and commander-in-chief of these territories.

292 BCE6 entries

  • The Falisci renew their efforts against Rome. However, the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva, assisted by former consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus, defeats them in an engagement and ravages their territory and those of the Etruscans. The Falisci and Etruscans again sue for peace, and this ends the Etruscan theatre of the Third Samnite War.
  • The Samnites reappoint Gavius Pontius, the victor of the Battle of Caudine Forks, as general, and in Campania he defeats the consul Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges. However, Fabius is joined by his father, Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus, as legate and de facto general, and they defeat Pontius in battle and capture the general and his camp. They then capture several towns of the Pentri, a prominent tribe of the Samnites.
  • Lysimachus tries to extend his influence beyond the Danube River, but he is defeated and taken prisoner by the Getae (Dacian) king Dromichaetes (Dromihete). Eventually, Lysimachus is set free and a peace is agreed between the Getae and Lysimachus. This peace agreement is strengthened further by the marriage of Dromichaetes with Lysimachus' daughter.

291 BCE12 entries

  • Bai Qi then captures the city of Wan in the state of Chu.
  • The proconsul Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges and legate Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus besiege the Samnite town of Cominium Ocritum, but the consul Lucius Postumius Megellus orders Fabius Gurges to relinquish his command and evacuate Samnium, despite the fact that the Senate had appointed Fabius proconsul to campaign against the Samnites.
  • Postumius captures Cominium Ocritum, the major city of Venusia and other towns, killing 10,000 and capturing 6200. At the proposal of Postumius, the Senate sends 20,000 colonists to occupy Venusia, the largest Roman colony to date. However, angered by the various crimes of Postumius, the Senate does not choose him as one of the leaders of the colony and denies him a triumph.

290 BCE8 entries

  • The consuls Manius Curius Dentatus and Publius Cornelius Rufinus invade Samnium and defeat the Samnites in several engagements. The Samnites sue for peace, thus ending the Third Samnite War. The Samnites are recognised by the Romans as autonomous allies but are subordinate to Rome and must give up land as compensation.
  • Lucius Postumius Megellus, a consul from the previous year, is publicly tried for having used his office to have 2000 of his soldiers work on his farm. He is condemned by all the tribes and fined 50,000 denarii.
  • Berenice, wife of Ptolemy, is proclaimed queen of Egypt. Ptolemy has the city of Berenice built on the Red Sea in her honour. It becomes a great emporium for Egyptian trade with the East.