Classical Era
500 BCE–500 AD · 66 events
Culture
- Nok Culture Flourishes (500 BCE)
- Herodotus Writes Histories (450 BCE)
- Nazca Lines Created (400 BCE)
- Death of Socrates (399 BCE)
- Library of Alexandria Founded (300 BCE)
- Maya Early Period Begins (300 BCE)
- Camel Trade Routes Across Sahara (100 BCE)
- Teotihuacan Founded (100 BCE)
- Hopewell Culture Peaks (0 AD)
- Pompeii Destroyed (79 AD)
- Maya Classic Period Begins (250 AD)
- Teotihuacan at its Peak (250 AD)
- Maya Writing Flourishes (400 AD)
- Champa Kingdom Flourishes (400 AD)
- Bantu Migrations Complete (500 AD)
Economy
- Persian Royal Road (500 BCE)
Religion
- Compilation of Vedas (500 BCE)
- Ashoka Embraces Buddhism (260 BCE)
- Birth of Jesus (0 AD)
- Coptic Christianity Founded (42 AD)
- Aksum Converts to Christianity (300 AD)
- Buddhism Spreads to China (400 AD)
Sports
- Polo Played in Ancient Persia (500 BCE)
- Roman Colosseum Opens (80 AD)
War
- Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
- Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)
- Peloponnesian War Begins (431 BCE)
- Alexander the Great Rises (336 BCE)
- Alexander Conquers Egypt (332 BCE)
- First Punic War Begins (264 BCE)
- Battle of Changping (260 BCE)
- Hannibal Crosses the Alps (218 BCE)
- Battle of Zama (202 BCE)
- Third Punic War (149 BCE)
- Rome Destroys Corinth (146 BCE)
- Rome Destroys Carthage (146 BCE)
- Spartacus Slave Revolt (73 BCE)
- Battle of Actium (31 BCE)
- Aksum Destroys Kingdom of Meroe (350 AD)
Disaster
- Sparta Earthquake (464 BCE)
- Crete Earthquake Devastates Alexandria (365 AD)
Politics
- Kingdom of Meroe Rises (400 BCE)
- Death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE)
- Maurya Empire Founded (321 BCE)
- Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt (305 BCE)
- Ashoka Becomes Emperor (268 BCE)
- Parthian Empire Founded (247 BCE)
- Qin Unifies China (221 BCE)
- Maurya Empire Collapses (185 BCE)
- Julius Caesar Assassinated (44 BCE)
- Aksum Empire Rises (100 AD)
- Funan Kingdom Established (100 AD)
- Han Dynasty Falls (220 AD)
- Gupta Empire Founded (320 AD)
- Constantinople Founded (330 AD)
- Tiwanaku Empire Rises (500 AD)
Exploration
- Pytheas Sails to the Far North (325 BCE)
- Zhang Qian Opens Silk Road (138 BCE)
Science
- Archimedes Born (264 BCE)
- Eratosthenes Measures Earth (240 BCE)
- Hipparchus Creates Star Catalog (130 BCE)
- Meroe Ironworking Peaks (100 BCE)
- Chinese Invent Paper (105 AD)
- Zhang Heng Builds a Seismoscope (132 AD)
- Aryabhata Born (476 AD)
- Aryabhata Calculates Pi (499 AD)
Further reading
- SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
- Persian Fire by Tom Holland
- The Histories by Herodotus
- The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
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Other eras
- Ancient World (3200 BCE – 500 BCE)
- Medieval (500 AD – 1450 AD)
- Early Modern (1450 AD – 1800 AD)
- Industrial Age (1800 AD – 1945 AD)
- Modern (1945 AD – 2025 AD)
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