3rd century BC

300 BC – 201 BC · 14 events

What happened around the world

218 BC Hannibal crosses the Alps — Elephants cross the mountains and bring war to Italy
216 BC Battle of Cannae — Hannibal's encirclement becomes the textbook battle

c. 285 BC Library of Alexandria — The Ptolemies try to collect every book in the known world
c. 270 BC Meroë becomes the heart of Kush — Kush moves south to a city of pyramids and iron
c. 240 BC Eratosthenes measures the Earth — Two shadows and geometry reveal the size of the planet
202 BC Battle of Zama — Scipio defeats Hannibal and Rome rules the western sea

c. 261 BC Kalinga War — A bloody conquest turns Ashoka toward Buddhism
260 BC Battle of Changping — Qin crushes Zhao and clears its path to supremacy
240 BC Earliest sure record of Halley's Comet — Chinese chroniclers log it in the youth of the First Emperor
221 BC Qin Shi Huang unifies China — The First Emperor imposes one script, one coin, one law
c. 214 BC Great Wall of China — Qin Shi Huang links old walls into one line against nomads
210 BC Terracotta Army — Thousands of clay soldiers guard the First Emperor's tomb
202 BC Founding of the Han dynasty — Liu Bang founds the dynasty that names the Chinese people
200 BC Battle of Baideng — The Xiongnu trap Liu Bang; Han pays tribute to the steppe

China: dynasties: Zhou 1046 BC – 256 BC, Qin Shi Huang 221 BC – 206 BC, Han 202 BC – 220
India: empires: Maurya Empire 322 BC – 185 BC
Rome and Byzantium: Roman Republic 509 BC – 27 BC