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The 310s BC

172 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 4th century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

319 BCE11 entries

  • The Athenian orator and diplomat, Demades, is sent to the Macedonian court, but either the Macedonian regent Antipater or his son Cassander, learning that Demades has intrigued with the former regent Perdiccas, puts him to death.
  • Battle of Orkynia: Antigonus marches his army against Eumenes in Cappadocia and defeats him in battle at Orkynia.
  • Eumenes allies himself with the regent Polyperchon. He manages to escape from the siege of Nora, and his forces soon threaten Syria and Phoenicia. Polyperchon recognises Eumenes as the royal general in Asia Minor.

318 BCE9 entries

  • Cassander, who has allied himself with Ptolemy and Antigonus, declares war on the regent, Polyperchon. Most of the Greek states support him, including Athens. Cassander further effects an alliance with Eurydice, the ambitious wife of King Philip III Arrhidaeus of Macedon.
  • Aristoxenus, a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm, and a pupil of Aristotle, writes a treatise on music called the "Elements of Harmony".
  • In a power struggle in Athens after the death of Antipater, Phocion is deposed as the ruler of Athens, convicted of treason, and executed by those Athenians hoping to restore democracy to the city. Shortly afterward, the Athenians decree a public burial and a statue in his honor.

317 BCE14 entries

  • Menander wins the first prize at the Lenaian festival with his play Dyskolos (The Grouch).
  • After capturing Athens from Macedonia's regent Polyperchon, Cassander entrusts the government of Athens to the Athenian orator, statesman, and philosopher, Demetrius Phalereus.
  • While Cassander is occupied in the Peloponnesus, Olympias leads an army into Macedonia. She is initially successful, defeating the army of King Philip III Arrhidaeus and capturing King Philip and his wife, Eurydice, as well as Cassander's brother, Nicanor. She then has them murdered.

316 BCE15 entries

  • Cassander marries Thessaloniki, half-sister of Alexander the Great. He has Alexander's widow, Roxana and son, Alexander IV of Macedon, imprisoned at Amphipolis in Thrace. They are never to be seen alive again.
  • Eumenes and Antigonus, rivals to Cassander for control of Macedonia, meet in the Battle of Gabiene in Media to the northeast of Susa. Antigonus defeats Eumenes, with the aid of Seleucus and Peithon (the satraps of Babylonia and Media, respectively). The result is inconclusive. However, some of Eumenes' soldiers take matters into their own hands. Learning that Antigonus has captured many of their wives, children and the cumulative plunder of nearly 40 years of continuous warfare, they secretly open negotiations with Antigonus for their safe return. They hand over Eumenes and his senior officers to Antigonus in return for their baggage and families. Eumenes is put to death by Antigonus after a week's captivity.
  • King Hui of Qin decides, on the advice of General Sima Cuo, to invade and annex the ancient states of Ba and Shu in Sichuan, in order to increase Qin's agricultural output and obtain a strategic platform from which to defeat the state of Chu.

315 BCE18 entries

  • The Indian king Porus, ally of Alexander the Great, is killed by Eudemus, another general of Alexander. The son of Porus, Malayketu, seizes his territory back by killing Eudemus.
  • The Romans take Ferentum, a city of Apulia, and this pushes the citizens of Nuceria to end their friendship with Rome.
  • Antigonus drives out Cassander's Macedonian forces of occupation from the Greek islands and forms the island cities in the Aegean into the "League of the Islanders", preparatory to his invasion of Greece. His ally, the city of Rhodes, furnishes him with the necessary fleet.

314 BCE15 entries

  • While the consuls are fighting the Samnites at Tarracina, the Romans elect Gaius Maenius as Dictator with Marcus Foslius Flaccinator as his Magister Equitum (Master-of-Horse, Second-in-Command) and send them into Campania at the head of a large army. When Maenius and Foslius arrive near Capua, the Campanians, hearing about the defeat of the Samnites at Tarracina, start negotiating terms with the Romans; they surrender those who are guilty of the uprising and in turn are reinstated in their alliance with Rome.
  • The Aetolians enter into an alliance with Antigonus, and the League of the Islanders is established under Antigonus' hegemony. Cassander marches against them with his allies Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus and destroys the city of Agrinio.
  • The Roman consuls march their combined army to Tarracina and defeat a Samnite army there; killing 10,000 Samnites in the battle and the subsequent pursuit.

313 BCE22 entries

  • Aristodemus and his mercenary army (recruited the year prior) cross over to the Peloponnese and fight Alexander, the son of Polyperchon, at Cyllene, and liberate Patrae and Aegium from Cassander's garrisons. Aristodemus then returns to Aetolia, leaving a sizeable force in the Pelopponese who help the city of Dyme eject its garrison, despite a failed intervention by Alexander.
  • Philip marches into Acarnania to prevent Aeacides from linking up with the Aetolians. Philip defeats Aeacides in battle, killing many Epirotes and capturing 50 leading supporters of Aeacides, sending them as prisoners to Macedon. Aeacides, with the remnant of his forces, joins the Aetolians. Philip catches up to Aeacides and the Aetolians at Oeniadae and defeats them in battle. Aeacides, who was wounded in the Battle of Oeniadae, dies a few days later. The remaining Aetolian army takes refuge in the surrounding mountains.
  • In the spring of 313 a revolt against Lysimachus is under way in the Greek cities of the northwestern Black Sea coast. Callatis, Istria and Odessus rebel. The latter two are quickly taken by Lysimachus, but Callatis holds out. Antigonus sends a fleet and an army under a general named Pausanias to aid the city, he also persuades the Thracian king Seuthes to rebel. Lysimachus leaves part of his army to continue the siege, while he himself marches against Pausanias. He fights his way past Seuthes through the Haemus Mountains and captures Pausanias' force, enrolling them in his army. Pausanias is killed in battle, but most of his officers are ransomed back to Antigonus.

312 BCE33 entries

  • Ptolemy captures Chalcis, removes Cassander's garrison, but does not install a garrison of his own. Eretria and Carystus, both on Euboea as well, join Antigonus' alliance. Ptolemy crosses over to mainland Greece and captures Oropos, again removing Cassander's garrison, he then hands it over to Antigonus' ally, the Boeotian League. After Oropos he invades Attica putting pressure on Athens to negotiate a truce. From Attica he marches on Thebes, captures it and removes Cassander's garrison. He moves on to Phocis, drives out Cassander's garrisons in that region as well, and moves into Opuntian Locris, where he besieges Opus.
  • The Roman censor, Appius Claudius Caecus, a patrician, enters office and begins construction of the Appian Way (the Via Appia) between Rome and Capua. He also embarks on a program of political reform, including the distribution of the landless citizens of Rome among the tribes, which at this time constitute basic political units. Appius also admits sons of freedmen into the Roman Senate. He also asserts the right of freed slaves to hold office.
  • The Corcyraeans come to the aid of Apollonia and Epidamus and help the Apollonians and the people of Epidamus to remove the garrisons Cassander put there. They free Apollonia, but give the city of Epidamus to the Illyrian king Glaucias.

311 BCE21 entries

  • Upon entering Mesopotamia Seleucus manages to persuade some of the Macedonian veterans settled at Carrhae to join his cause. He then marches on to his old satrapy (province) of Babylonia gathering additional force along the way.
  • Through clever diplomacy Antigonus is able to lull the Nabateans into a false sense of security. Demetrius, with a force of 4,000 light infantry and 4,000 cavalry, is sent to make another raid on Petra. The Nabateans, reacting quickly, are able to foil the attack. Demetrius negotiates terms with the Nabateans and returns to his father with hostages and gifts (including 700 camels)
  • Antigonus sends one of his generals, Athenaeus, with 4,000 light infantry and 600 cavalry to make a raid on Petra, the capital city of the Nabateans, to carry off hostages and possessions. The raid is initially successful, but a surprise attack by the Nabateans destroys Athenaeus' raiding force, only 50 horsemen escaping.

310 BCE14 entries

  • The tyrant of Syracuse, Agathocles, escapes from the siege of the city by the Carthaginians with a fleet and carries the war with the Carthaginians back into his enemy's territory. He defeats the Carthaginians in the Battle of White Tunis.
  • The cities of Antigonia Troas (later known as Alexandria Troas) and Antigoneia (later known as Nicaea) are founded by Antigonus I Monophthalmus.
  • Ptolemy attacks Cilicia, territory held by Antigonus, but is driven out by Demetrius.