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The 350s BC

82 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.

359 BCE4 entries

  • The Macedonian King Perdiccas III is killed while defending his country against an Illyrian attack led by King Bardylis. He is succeeded by his infant son, Amyntas IV. The child's uncle, Philip II, assumes the regency.
  • The Illyrians prepare to close in, the Paeonians raid from the north and two claimants to the Macedonian throne are supported by foreign powers. Philip II buys off his dangerous neighbours and, with a treaty, cedes Amphipolis to Athens.

358 BCE9 entries

  • Cersobleptes, in conjunction with his brothers, Amadocus II and Berisades, inherits the dominions of the Thracian king, Cotys I, following his murder. However, the overall management of Thracian affairs is assumed by the Euboean adventurer, Charidemus, who is connected by marriage with the royal family, and who plays the prominent part in the ensuing negotiations with Athens for the possession of the Thracian Chersonese.
  • Philip II of Macedonia invades the hill tribes of Paeonia and decisively beats them.
  • Alexander of Pherae, Despot of Pherae in Thessaly is murdered by his wife's brother at her instigation.

357 BCE6 entries

  • The Macedonian general, Parmenion, wins a great victory over the Illyrians. King Philip II of Macedon, having disposed of an Illyrian threat, occupies the Athenian city of Amphipolis (which commands the gold mines of Mount Pangaion). Philip II now has control of the strategic city which secures the eastern frontier of Macedonia and gives him access into Thrace.
  • The brother-in-law of Dionysius I, Dion, exiled from Syracuse in 366 BC by Dionysius II, assembles a force of 1,500 mercenaries at Zacynthus and sails to Sicily. Dion wrests power from the weak Dionysius II, who is exiled and flees to Locri.
  • Philip II of Macedon marries Olympias, the Molossian princess of Epirus thus helping to stabilize Macedonia's western frontier.

356 BCE16 entries

  • July 21 (traditional date) – The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is burned down by a madman named Herostratus, destroying one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The great temple was built by Croesus, king of Lydia, in about 550 BC and was famous not only for its great size (110 metres by 55 metres), but also for the magnificent works of art that adorned it.
  • With his reforms initiated in this year, the Chinese prime minister Shang Yang starts to transform the once marginal and frontier State of Qin to become the most dominant military force amongst the Warring States of China by the 3rd century BC.
  • The Phocians capture and sack Delphi in whose territory the famous temple and oracle stand. A sacred war is declared against them by the other members of the Great Amphictyonic League. The Phocians, led by two capable generals, Philomelus and Onomarchus, use Delphi's riches to hire a mercenary army to carry the war into Boeotia and Thessaly.

355 BCE4 entries

  • Chares' war party in Athens is replaced by one under Eubulus which favours peace. Eubulus restores the economic position of Athens without increasing the burden of taxation and improves the Athenian fleet while its docks and fortifications are repaired.
  • King Artaxerxes III of Persia forces Athens to conclude a peace which requires the city to leave Asia Minor and to acknowledge the independence of its rebellious allies.
  • King Archidamus III of Sparta supports Phocis against Thebes in the "Sacred War".

354 BCE12 entries

  • The State of Qi is victorious over the State of Wei in the Battle of Guiling, a conflict which involves the military strategy of Sun Bin.
  • The Phocians suffer a defeat in the Sacred War against Athens.
  • The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Caria, the tomb of King Mausolus and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is built.

353 BCE6 entries

  • Mausolus, King and Persian satrap of Caria, dies and is succeeded in 352 BC by Artemisia, his sister and wife.
  • The Phocians threaten Thessaly to their north. Philip II of Macedon saw his opportunity to penetrate south.
  • Clearchus, the tyrant of Heraclea, a Greek city on the Black Sea, is murdered by some of the city's citizens led by Chion after a reign of twelve years. Most of the conspirators are killed by the tyrant's body-guards upon the spot, while others are captured and put to death. Within a short time, the city falls under the rule of the new tyrant Satyrus, Clearchus' brother.

352 BCE4 entries

  • After two initial efforts, Philip II of Macedon drives the Phocians south after a major victory over them in the Battle of Crocus Field. Athens and Sparta come to the assistance of the Phocians and Philip is checked at Thermopylae. Philip does not attempt to advance into central Greece with the Athenians occupying this pass. With this victory, Philip accrues great glory as the righteous avenger of Apollo, since the Phocian general Onomarchos has plundered the sacred treasury of Delphi to pay his mercenaries. Onomarchos' body is crucified, and the prisoners are drowned as ritual demanded for temple-robbers.
  • Consuls: Publio Valerio Publicola & Gaius Marcius Rutilus
  • Philip then moves against Thrace. He makes a successful expedition into Thrace, gaining a firm ascendancy in the country, and brings away a son of Cersobleptes, the King of Thrace, as a hostage. Philip II's Thessalian victory earns him election as president (archon) of the Thessalian League.

351 BCE5 entries

  • First use of the heavy throwing spear, the pilum, (according to Livy) in battle against the Gauls.
  • Demosthenes tries to get the Athenians to cease depending on paid mercenaries and return to the old concept of a citizen army. He also delivers his First Philippic, warning Athenians of the folly of believing that Philip's ill health will save Athens from the Macedonians. In response, Athens' citizens vote for increased armaments.
  • Gaius Marcius Rutilus becomes the first Roman plebeian to be elected to the office of censor.

350 BCE16 entries

  • The building of the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum in Turkey) is completed (approximate date). It is the grave of the Persian satrap and Carian ruler Mausolos and is built under the direction of his wife Artemisia. The mausoleum, which is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is today partly preserved at the British Museum in London.
  • Aristotle argues for a spherical Earth using lunar eclipses and other observations. Also he discusses logical reasoning in Organon.
  • Praxiteles makes the Aphrodite of Knidos (approximate date). A composite of two similar Roman copies after the original marble is now kept at Musei Vaticani, Museo Pio Clementino, Gabinetto delle Maschere in Rome.