999 - 0 BC

850 Greek Homer writes the Odyssey and the Iliad
   Greek city of Athens founded
   Birth of Ahab - King of Israel
800 Hesiod is born
   founding of Carthage, by Dido, queen of Carthage
753 Rome founded by Romulus
734 Greek city of Syracuse is founded
700 Cimmerians plunder Asia Minor, live around the Black Sea
   Scythians, a nomadic people of southeastern Europe and Asia on border of China roam
   Aqueducts invented
640 Coins invented
622 Downfall of Assyrian Empire
620 Birth of Alcman - Greek poet who wrote erotic poetry
600 Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus born - founder of Greek philosophy
   Chaldeans under Nebuchadneezer II ruled Mesopotamia.
   Invention of the kite
   Hanging gardens of Babylon created
582 Pythagoras is born
570 Birth of Lao Tzu
563 Buddha lives
551 Confucius lives
550 Cyrus the Great establishes Persia (Iran) as the greatest empire in the world, after conquering Babylonia
   Birth of Aesop - the legendary Greek fabulist
   Birth of Egyptian pharaoh Ahmose II - he later built the temple of Isis at    Memphis
   Birth of Alcmaeon - the first recorded anatomist
525 Birth of Aeschylus ("the father of greek tragedy")
522 Son of Cyrus, Darius I conquers the Ionian Greeks and the Egyptians
509 Foundation of Roman republic
500 Egyptian pharaohs begin to claim divine ancestry
   Carthage controlled the entire North African coast
   Sun Tzu writes the "Art of War"
490 Birth of Phidias
   Birth of Empedocles
482 Birth of Herodotus, Greek historian, 'father of history'
470 Birth of Socrates
460 Birth of Thucydides, Greek historian
   birth of Democritus
   birth of Hippocrates - greatest physician of antiquity, 'father of medicine'
458 Aeschylus writes the "Oresteia"
450 Flowering of Greek culture
   40 ft. Statue of Zeus erected at Olympia by Greek sculptor Phidias
   Birth of the Greek sculptor Alcamenes
449 Roman code of laws developed
445 Antisthenes is born
444 Birth of Agesilaus - King of Sparta from 399 - 360 BC
431 Pelopennisian war between Athens and Sparta
430 Birth of Xenophon
427 Birth of Plato
415 First five books of Bible written
409 Carthage at war with Greece over Sicily
404 Spartans conquer Athens
404 - 371 Sparta the dominant power in Greece
400 Catapults invented
384 Birth of Aristotle
371 Birth of Mencius
369 Birth of Zhuangzi
361 Birth of Agothocles - "the tyrant of Syracuse"
358 Temple of Artemis constructed at Ephesus
356 Birth of Alexander of Macedon (Alexander the Great, or simply Alexander)
353 Mausoleum of Halicarnassus built
341 Epicurus is born - Greek philosopher
335 Alexander the Great conquers the civilized world
334 Alexander conquers Persia
332 Alexander founds Alexandria in northern Egypt
323 Death of Alexander of Macedon
304 Agothocles names himself the 'the King of Sicily' - under Agothocles Siciliy enjoys its last period of independence from Rome
300 Persian Selucid empire rules Persia until 200 AD
   Birth of Euclid
   Birth of Xunzi
280 Colossus of Rhodes built - 100ft. Bronze statue of Greek god Helios
   Pharos of Alexandria built (famous lighthouse)
   Birth of Han Fei
264 - 241 First Punic War - Rome versus Carthage
259 Birth of Qin Shihuangdi
250 Great Wall of China built to protect China's northern borders
225 Colossus of Rhodes destroyed
222 Celts found Milan in Italy
221 - 206 Qin Dynasty
218 - 201 Second Punic War, Hannibal loses Spain to Carthage
206 Beginning of Han dynasty in China
200 - 100 Babylon is the capital of Babylonia
   Alexandria library has almost 500,000 volumes of books, later destroyed
   First use of Vellum as writing material
156 Birth of Wudi
149 Rome destroys Carthage
145 Birth of Sima Qian
106 Birth of Cicero, famous Roman orator, statesman, and writer
100 Silk road built (trade route between China all the way to Europe and Egypt, trade in silk)
   Basques first appear in written history
   Glass-blowing invented
94 Lucretius born
70 Virgil is born, later writes the Aenead
51 Cleopatra becomes queen of Egypt
45 Birth of Wang Mang
44 Ides of March - Caesar assassinated
43 Birth of Ovid
30 Fall of the Egyptian empire as a dominant power
27 Octavian (Augustus Caesar) becomes Emperor of Rome
23 Birth of Pliny the Elder
14 Birth of Agrippina - she was regarded as a model of heroic womanhood
10 b.c. - 10 a.d. Birth of Jesus Christ

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