Circa 300 BC in China, the state of Qin attacks eight cities of the state of Chu. Chu then sends an envoy to ask the King of Huai to go to Qin to negotiate peace. Qu Yuan risks his life to go up to the court to persuade the King of Huai not to go to the negotiation.King Wuling of Zhao abdicates the throne of Zhao to his son. Six years later, he State of Qin, lead by commander Bai Qi, wins a decisive victory over the States of Wei andHan in the Battle of Yique. As part of the terms of defeat, Han and Wei are forced to concede land to Qin.
Around the same time in India, Bindusara succeeds his father Chandragupta Maurya as emperor of the Mauryan Empire, ascending to the Pataliputra throne,.while Chandragupta Maurya goes to Sravana Belagola near Mysore to live in the way of Jains.
About 295 BC, Athens falls to Demetrius Poliorcetes after a bitter siege, and its tyrant Lachares is killed. A year or so later, Alexander V of Macedon is ousted by his brother, Antipater II. Therefore Alexander V turns to Demetrius Poliorcetes for help in recovering his throne. However, Demetrius Poliorcetes establishes himself on the throne of Macedonia and then murders Alexander V. Antipater II loses the throne of Macedonia but is able to survive.
In Persia, when an invasion of nomads threatens the eastern possessions of his realm (i.e. between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea and the Indian Ocean), Seleucus hands over the government of these lands west of the Euphrates to his son Antiochus. Antiochus is appointed co-regent and commander-in-chief of these territories.
Further west on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, in 290 BC Berenice, wife of Ptolemy, is proclaimed queen of Egypt. Ptolemy has the city of Berenicebuilt on the Red Sea in her honour. It becomes a great emporium for Egyptian trade with the East.
In 288 in Greece, the Macedonian King, Demetrius Poliorcetes, faces a combined attack from Lysimachus andPhyrrhus, king of Epirus, after Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus form a coalition to block plans by Demetrius to invade Asia Minor. Ptolemy's fleet appears off Greece, inciting the cities to revolt. Athens revolts and Demetrius besieges the city. Pyrrhus takes Thessaly and the western half of Macedonia and, with the assistance of Ptolemy's fleet, relieves Athens from Demetrius' siege. After the Egyptian fleet participates decisively in the liberation of Athens from Macedonian occupation, Ptolemy obtains the protectorate over the League of Islanders, which includes most of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Egypt's maritime supremacy in theMediterranean in the ensuing decades is based on this alliance.
Also about this time, the Sri Maha Bodhi Sacred Fig tree is planted at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
On June 26 in 285 BC, Egypt's Ptolemy I Soter abdicates. He is succeeded by his youngest son by his wife Berenice, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who has been co-regent for three years. After this, Ptolemy I's eldest (legitimate) son, Ptolemy Keraunos, whose mother, Eurydice, the daughter of Antipater, had been repudiated by the new King Ptolemy II, flees Egypt to the court of Lysimachus, the king of Thrace, Macedon and Asia Minor.
Circa 283 BC, The canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea, initially started but not completed by the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II and repaired by the Persian king Darius I, is again repaired and made operational by Ptolemy II. Ptolemy II enlarges the library at Alexandria and appoints the grammarian Zenodotus to collect and edit all the Greek poets. Arsinoe, daughter of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, marries Ptolemy II of Egypt as part of the alliance between Thrace and Egypt against Seleucus.
The Battle of Corupedium in Lydia is the last battle of the Diadochi, the rival successors toAlexander the Great. It is fought between the armies of Lysimachus, King of Thrace andMacedonia, and Seleucus, ruler of Eastern Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Babylonia andIran. Seleucus kills Lysimachus during the battle.
Following the Battle of Corupedium, Lysimachus' widow, Arsinoe, flees to Cassandrea, a city in northern Greece, where she marries her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos. This proves to be a serious misjudgement, as Ptolemy Keraunus promptly kills two of her sons, though the third is able to escape. Arsinoe flees again, this time to Alexandria in Egypt.
Around 281 BC, Seleucus is succeeded as ruler of the Seleucid empire by Antiochus. He is immediately beset by revolts in Syria (probably instigated by Ptolemy II of Egypt) and by independence movements in northern Anatolia.
280 BC saw the passing of Herophilus, Alexandrian physician who has been an early performer of public dissections on human cadavers; often called the father of anatomy.
The aggression of Ptolemy II of Egypt continues to cause friction with Antiochus, who losesMiletus, in south-western Asia Minor, to Ptolemy. Antigonus concludes a peace with Antiochus who surrenders his claim to Macedonia. Thereafter Antigonus II's foreign policy is marked by friendship with the Seleucids.
In China the region of Chu's heartland in the modern Hubei province is overrun by the powerful state of Qin from the west under Bai Qi's leadership. The Chu government moves to the east in various temporary capitals until settling in Shouchun in 241 BC.Around 278 BC marked the death of Qu Yuan, Chinese poet from southern Chu who lived during the Warring States Period. His works are mostly found in an anthology of poetry known as Chu Ci.
By 276 BC the Egyptian King Ptolemy II's first wife, Arsinoe I (daughter of the late King Lysimachus ofThrace) is accused, probably at instigation of Ptolemy II's sister (who also has the nameArsinoe), of plotting his murder and is exiled by the King. Arsinoe then marries her own brother, a customary practice in Egypt, but scandalous to the Greeks. The suffix "Philadelphoi" ("Brother-Loving") consequently is added to the names of King Ptolemy II and Queen Arsinoe II. The former queen, Arsinoe I, is banished to Coptos, a city of Upper Egyptnear the Wadi Hammamat, while her rival adopts her children.
Within a couple of years, Magas of Cyrene marries Apama, the daughter of Antiochus and uses his marital alliance to foment a pact to invade Egypt. He opens hostilities against his half brother Ptolemy II, by declaring his province of Cyrenaica to be independent and then attacks Egypt from the west as Antiochus I takes the Egyptian controlled areas in coastal Syria and southern Anatolia, after which he attacks Palestine. Magas has to stop his advance against Ptolemy II due to an internal revolt by the LibyanMarmaridae nomads.
Impressed by Rome's defeat of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy II sends a friendly embassy. The visit is reciprocated. The Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter is defeated by Egypt's Ptolemy II during the First Syrian War. Ptolemy II annexes Miletus, Phoenicia and western Cilicia from Antiochus. As a result, Ptolemy II extends Egyptian rule as far as Caria and into most of Cilicia.
Egypt's victories solidify the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the easternMediterranean; the Ptolemaic sphere of power now extends over the Cyclades to Samothrace, and the harbours and coastal towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.
In India, The Mauryan emperor, Bindusara, sends the Mauryan army to conquer the southern kingdoms, and Kadamba is conquered.
By 270 BC the Mediterranean port City-State of Carthage, already in control of Sardinia, southern Spain and Numidia, is ruled by an oligarchy of merchants under two Suffetes or chief magistrates. While Carthage's military commanders are strong, the state relies on mercenaries (including Spanish ones) for its soldiers.
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