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The 350s BC

81 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

  • Euboean mercenary Charidemus recaptures the Thracian Chersonese for Athens. He receives, from Athens, a golden crown for his part in the victory.
  • 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.
  • With Pydna and Potidaea occupied, Philip II decides to keep Amphipolis anyway. He also takes the city of Crenides from the Odrysae and renames it Philippi.

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 BCE3 entries

  • 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

  • The Etruscans are badly defeated by the Romans and abandon their attacks on the city and sue for peace.
  • 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.

350 BCE16 entries

  • The Corinthian capital is made in the tholos at Epidaurus. It is now preserved at the Archaeological Museum in Epidaurus, Greece (approximate date).
  • 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.