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Timelines List

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	World History timeline
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	c. 270 BC
	On the small Greek island of Samos an astronomer, Aristarchus, comes to the startling conclusion that the earth is in orbit round the sun

	264 BC
	A clash in Sicily, between Rome and Carthage, leads to the First Punic War

	264 BC
	The first gladiatorial contests in Rome are part of the entertainment at a funeral, and soon become popular

	c. 260 BC
	The 500,000 scrolls in the library at Alexandria are listed in a catalogue, which itself runs to 120 scrolls

	260 BC
	A Carthaginian quinquereme, captured by the Romans, is used as the model for the first Roman fleet - constructed in two months

	260 BC
	The new Roman fleet wins a decisive victory over the Carthaginians at Mylae, thanks largely to the 'raven' (corvus in Latin)

	c. 250 BC
	The organ, using a mechanical device to pump air through a set of musical pipes, is invented in Alexandria by Ctesibius

	c. 250 BC
	Archimedes (it is said) leaps out of his bath shouting eureka ('I have found it') when he perceives how to test for relative density

	c. 250 BC
	Asoka, extending his rule over much of India, proclaims his Buddhist faith on pillars and in rock inscriptions

	c. 250 BC
	The Chinese develop the crossbow, many centuries before its use in Europe

	c. 250 BC
	The first alchemists, working in Alexandria, are also the world's first experimental chemists

	c. 250 BC
	The digits known now as Arabic numerals make their first tentative appearance in India

	c. 250 BC
	The Romans evolve a system of numerals which, until the end of the Middle Ages, is a handicap to western arithmetic

	c. 250 BC
	Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka as a result of the missionary efforts of the Indian ruler, Asoka

	c. 250 BC
	To help the king of Syracuse extract water from the hold of a ship (so the story goes), Archimedes invents the screw now known by his name

	241 BC
	A Roman naval victory at Trapani, off the northwest tip of Sicily, completes the blockade of the Carthaginians and ends the First Punic War

	241 BC
	At the end of the First Punic War, Sicily becomes Rome's first overseas province

	c. 240 BC
	Spain, with its mines of gold, silver and copper, is a hotly disputed region between Carthage and Rome

	228 BC
	Hamilcar Barca dies fighting in Spain, after establishing a strong Carthaginian presence in the peninusula

	227 BC
	Sardinia and Corsica are annexed by Rome, becoming the second Roman overseas province

	c. 225 BC
	A treaty defines the Ebro river as the Spanish boundary between Carthage and Rome

	221 BC
	After 800 years the Zhou dynasty is brought to an end by the ruler of the Qin kingdom

	221 BC
	The ruthless Qin dynasty establishes control over the whole of central China

	221 BC
	Hannibal succeeds to the command of the Carthaginian forces in Spain, on the death of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal

	c. 220 BC
	The Greek mathematician Eratosthenes calculates the circumference of the world with the help of shadows and camels

	218 BC
	Hannibal crosses the Alps with his elephants, beginning the Second Punic War

	217 BC
	Hannibal surprises and traps a Roman army on a narrow plain beside Lake Trasimene

	216 BC
	Hannibal destroys a Roman army at Cannae, in the most severe defeat ever suffered by Rome

	c. 215 BC
	The Qin emperor joins up earlier fortifications to create the Great Wall of China

	213 BC
	In the Qin dictatorship, all Confucian books are burnt (except those of any practical use) and 460 Confucian scholars are executed

	207 BC
	A delegate from imperial China establishes the kingdom of Nam-Viet with himself as king

	206 BC
	The Qin emperor, Shi Huangdi, is buried at Xi'an with a vast army of terracotta soldiers

	206 BC
	The Han, the first of the great Chinese dynasties, is established

	202 BC
	Hannibal suffers his first decisive defeat by a Roman army, at an unidentified site in north Africa called Zama

	201 BC
	Carthaginian Spain is handed over to Rome to become two new provinces, at the end of the Second Punic War

	c. 200 BC
	Cement is in use for construction in Asia Minor, possibly developed first in Pergamum

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