300 B.C.E. * Chandragupta abdicates his throne, converts to Jainism, becomes a monk & starves himself to death to prove his detachment from material things * Library of Alexandria built by Athenian exile Demetrius of Phaleron under the patronage of Ptolemy I (295, with an annex set up ~235) * Part of Babylon's population moved to new capital, Seleucia (275) * Ptolomies have Red Sea canal re-excavated, re-establishing maritime Spice Route between Carthage and India * Roman expansion stirs up conflicts with Greek colonies & city-states, and First Punic War with Carthage * Revolts against Antiochus II partly due to his satraps' rejection of Hellenism conferring inherent powers to rule onto a master race * Andragoras, the Seleucid satrap of Parthia, declares independence (256) * Diodotus, the Seleucid satrap of Bactria, declares independence (255) * Emperor Asokaditya, Samudragupta, employs for himself the Buddhist term for a "universal ruler"--one establishing dharmic rule over all; bans blood sacrifice in the capital, establishes hospitals, even for animals, & nonviolence as the policy of the Gupta Empire; convenes Third Buddhist Council, and sends missionaries to Carthage, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Parthia, Bactria, Ceylon & destinations in India; as court physician he appoints Caraka, founder of Ayurvedic medicine (258-47) * Parthia is overrun by Parni/Dahae relatives from the north who kill Andragoras; Arsaces, a Scythian/Saka robber baron, coronated in Asaak by the patriarch of the Surenites, so founding the Arsacid dynasty as of 14 April 247 (but using Zoroastrian calendar in year 1 of "Arsacid Era") [Strabo; Trogus/Justin] * Jupiter occults delta Cancri at dawn in Egypt (3 sep. 240) [Ptolemaeus, Almagest, X.iii.] * The Decree of Canopus issued by Ptolemy III fails to persuade Egyptian priests to introduce a leap day to the 365-day calendar (239) * After conquering Hyrcania & defeating Seleucus II, Arsaces secedes & makes Hecatompylos (Hundred Gates), along the Silk Road, his capital (238-28) * Ch'in dynasty unites the entirety of China for the first time, ruthlessly annexing all other feudal states: aided by espionage, bribery & war (221) * Construction of second Great Wall of China begins in an attempt to keep out invading Mongols; extended to central China (220-206) * First effective dam of a major river is built on the Yangtze * Emperor Shih Huang-ti orders the burning of libraries' contents (except for medicine, agriculture, astrology/divination, the glorification of the Ch'in, esp. its brand of legalism) and of scholars able to rewrite the lost information from memory (213) * Khonsu's reputation as a healer enhanced after his symbol as the star Canopus cures an illness of Ptolemy IV, whereupon he calls himself "Beloved of Khonsu Who Protects His Majesty and Drives Away Evil Spirits" * Antiochus III forces Parthia to resubmit to Seleucid suzerainty (210-208) * After lightning strikes the temple of Mater Matuta in Satricum, a pair of snakes are seen slithering out of the temple to Jupiter (207) [Livy] * Han dynasty overthrows Ch'in, burns Shih Huang-ti's Imperial Library (206) * After a shower of meteorites near Rome alarms the populace, the Decemvirs upon consulting Sybilline texts inform the Senate of verses stating that whensoever a foreign enemy shall have carried war into the land of Italy, he may be expelled & conquered if the "Idaean mother" be brought from Pessinus; Senate sends a diplomatic mission to acquire the Needle of Cybele (a conical meteorite serving as an icon of the Phrygian mother goddess) from the king of Pessinus who refused their request until an earthquake shook his palace, and the goddess spoke from her shrine: "It is my will, Rome is a worthy place for any god; delay not." (205) [Livy; Ovid; Herodian] * A bolide crosses Italy from east to west, a bit south of Rome, and a loud detonation follows, as well as another shower of meteorites. In expiation, according to custom, religious exercises during nine days are ordered; the Needle of Cybele arrives in Rome and is installed in the Temple of Victory; Hannibal retreats from Italy and is defeated * From a shadow at Alexandria and the lack thereof at Syene at noon on the summer solstice, Eratosthenes calculates the polar circumference of the earth 200 B.C.E.