This article concerns the period 219 BC – 210 BC.
219 BC
This section is
transcluded from
219 BC.
(edit | history)
By place
Egypt
- Following the defection of one of Ptolemy IV's leading commanders, Egypt's Syrian territories are seriously threatened by Antiochus III, thus initiating the Fourth Syrian War. When the Seleucid ruler captures the important eastern Mediterranean sea ports of Seleucia-in-Pieria, Tyre, and Ptolemais, Ptolemy IV's advisor, Sosibius, and the Ptolemaic court enter into delaying negotiations with the enemy, while the Ptolemaic army is reorganized and intensively drilled.
- The former King of Sparta, Cleomenes III, escapes from his Egyptian prison and, after failing to raise a revolt in Alexandria, takes his own life.
Roman Republic
- The Romans extend their area of domination around the head of the Adriatic Sea as far as the peninsula of Histria by the conquest of peoples who dwell to the east of the Veneti. Thus, with the exception of Liguria and the upper valley of the Po River, all Italy south of the Alps is brought within the Roman sphere.
Iberian Peninsula
- Hannibal lays siege to Saguntum[1] thus initiating the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome. Saguntum is an independent Iberian Peninsula city south of the Ebro River. In the treaty between Rome and Carthage concluded in 226 BC, the Ebro had been set as the northern limit of Carthaginian influence in the Iberian Peninsula. Saguntum is south of the Ebro, but the Romans have "friendship" with the city and regard the Carthaginian attack on it as an act of war. The siege of Saguntum lasts eight months, and in it Hannibal is severely wounded. The Romans, who send envoys to Carthage in protest, demand the surrender of Hannibal.
Greece
- The Roman Senate sends the consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus to Illyria with an army. On discovering Rome's intent, the Illyrian leader Demetrius of Pharos puts to death those Illyrians who oppose his rule, fortifies Dimale and goes to Pharos. After a seven-day siege by the Roman fleet under Lucius Aemilius Paulus, Dimale is taken by direct assault. From Dimale, the Roman navy heads to Pharos, where the Roman forces rout the Illyrians. Demetrius flees to Macedonia, where he becomes a trusted councilor at the court of King Philip V.
- The Cretan city of Kydonia joins the Aetolian alliance.[2]
217 BC
216 BC
215 BC
210 BC
219 BC
217 BC
216 BC
215 BC
214 BC
213 BC
212 BC
- Archimedes of Syracuse, Greek mathematician and scientist, who has calculated formulae for the areas and volumes of spheres, cylinders, parabolas and other plane and solid figures. He has also founded the science of hydrostatics, including the principle of the upthrust on a floating body which has led to his cry, "Eureka". Thirdly, he has invented siege-engines for use against the Romans and the Archimedean screw to raise water (b. c. 287 BC)
- Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, Roman consul from 215 to 213 BC
- Xerxes of Armenia (assassinated by his wife Antiochia)
211 BC
210 BC
Gavin De Beer, Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy, 1969, Viking Press, 319 pages
LeGlay, Marcel; Voisin, Jean-Louis; Le Bohec, Yann (2001). A History of Rome (Second ed.). Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell. p. 77. ISBN 0-631-21858-0.
Goldsworthy, Adrian (2006). The Fall of Carthage. London: Orion Books Ltd. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-3043-6642-2.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 23.21
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 22.57
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 22.61
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 23.24
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 23.27
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 23.29
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 22.56
Qian, Sima. Records of the Grand Historian, Section: The First Emperor, Section: Meng Tian.
Stambaugh, John E. (1988). The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 24. ISBN 0-8018-3574-7.
Qian, Sima. Records of the Grand Historian, Section: The First Emperor, Section: Meng Tian.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 22.49
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 23.30