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The 640s BC

33 sourced entries across 9 years, inside the 7th century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

649 BCE3 entries

  • Indabigash succeeds Tammaritu as a king of the Elamite Empire.
  • A revolt led by Shamash-shum-ukin is crushed by the Assyrians.
  • Traditional date of the foundation of Himera by Zancle.

648 BCE5 entries

  • April 6 - The earliest solar eclipse to be chronicled by the Greeks is observed.
  • Messenians in the Peloponnese revolt against Sparta under the leadership of king Aristomenes, beginning a struggle that will continue until 631 BC.
  • Babylon falls to Assyrian forces after a 3-year siege (see 651 BC); starved out by his half brother Ashurbanipal, king Shamash-shum-ukin commits suicide in his burning palace, as the Assyrians slaughter his city's garrison and much of its population.

647 BCE2 entries

  • Ashurbanipal and his Queen in the Garden, from the palace at Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik, Iraq), is made. It is now at the British Museum, London.
  • Elam refuses to extradite an Aramaean prince, giving the king Ashurbanipal of Assyria an excuse to invade the country. He sacks the city of Susa.

645 BCE3 entries

  • The Spring and Autumn Annals, a Chinese book of records, mentions that on December 24 of this year there were five meteors in the sky. It was the first Chinese observation of meteors.

644 BCE4 entries

  • Ardys succeeds his father Gyges as the second Mermnad king of Lydia. During his reign he finds payment of tribute to Assyria preferable to rule by the Cimmerians, who will be routed a few decades later.
  • Cimmerian forces from Anatolia conquer Sardis and reach the peak of their power. King Gyges of Lydia has spent most of his 28-year reign fighting his southern and western neighbors in an effort to gain suzerainty over all of Western Asia Minor. He has helped the rebellion of Psamtik I, but he receives no support from his erstwhile Assyrian ally Ashurbanipal. Gyges falls in a battle against the Cimmerians under king Tugdamme (approximate date).

643 BCE2 entries

642 BCE2 entries

641 BCE2 entries

  • Tullus Hostilius dies, beginning the interregnum.

640 BCE10 entries

  • King Teispes dies after a 35-year reign in which he has ruled the Elamite city of Anshan after being freed from Median supremacy.
  • The interregnum in Rome ends. Ancus Marcius becomes the fourth king of Rome
  • King Ashurbanipal of Assyria achieves a great victory over Elam. He captures its last king, Khumma-Khaldash III, and lays waste to the country.