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Inventions 1000 BC to 1 BC

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Key Moments

Cultural events (Eurasia) of the period include:

• Homer wrote The Odessey and The Iliad, the oldest literature from Europe, around 800 BC.
• The Olympic Games began in Greece in 776 BC.
• Rome was founded by the Etruscans in 753 BC.
• The Greek Alphabet was developed around 750 BC.
• The Book of Genesis was written around 750 BC. The scriptures that would become known as the Old Testament were collected around 580 BC.
• The Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa c600 BC.
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were constructed in 594 BC.
• Scientific specialisation began in Greece (Athens) around 450 BC.
• In Athens, the Parthenon was built in 438 BC.
• Sun Tzu, a general, wrote The Art of War, the first book of military strategy, around 400 BC in China.
• The Hindu epic, The Ramayana was written by Valmiki around 300 BC.
• In 260 BC, the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) were translated into Greek (The Septuagint).
• The Buddhist canon of scripture was completed in Patna (modern India) in 250 BC.
• The Great Wall of China was constructed in 221 BC.
• Vyasa wrote Mahabharata, the world's longest story in verse, around 200 BC.
• From 200 BC, rock cut caves in Ajunta (India) were sculptured and painted with religious themes.
• The Karma Sutra was written in India in 150 BC.
• The Silk Road linking Europe to China was opened in 130 BC.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls were written c100 BC by a Jewish sect, The Essenes; they were hidden in jars where they lay for 2000 years.

Cities and settlements:

• In Sri Lanka, the city of Anuradhapura was founded in 900 BC.
• Carthage (modern Tunisia) was founded by the Phoenicians in 814 BC.
• Byzantium (later Constantinople, the modern Istanbul in Turkey) was founded in 658 BC.
• Tripoli (modern Lebanon) was founded by the Phoenicians in 500 BC.
• The Greeks founded Neopolis ("new city", the modern Naples in Italy) in 400 BC.
• London was settled by Celts c400 BC in the area close to London Bridge.
• Antioch (the Antakia of modern Turkey) was founded by Seleucius I in 334 BC.
• Alexandria was founded (in Egypt) in 332 BC.
• The city of Plovdiv (modern Bulgaria) was founded by Philip II of Macedon c330 BC.
• Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC.

Religious and philosophical leaders:

• Zarathustra (founder of Zoroastrinism) was born in Persia in 628 BC.
• Siddharth Gautama, who would later be known as Buddha, was born in North India in 563 BC.
• The Chinese philosopher, Kung Fu Tse (known as Confucius in the West) was born 551 BC.
• Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, was born in China c520 BC).
• In 500 BC in North India, Mahavira founded Jainism.

Monarchs, rulers and emperors:

• Cyrus The Great (king of Babylon) was born c 585 BC.
• Darius I of Persia was born c550 BC and conquered Egypt in 525 BC.
• Alexander The Great was born in Macedonia in 356 BC.
• In 269 BC, the Indian emperor, Ashoka was born; his missionaries spread Buddhism throughout Asia.
• Hanibal of Carthage was born in 247 BC.
• The Chinese Emperor, Shi Huangdi died in 210 BC and was buried in a large mound outside of modern Xian protected by an army of thousands of life-size teracotta warriors; these would remain undisturbed for over 2000 years.
• Roman general (later ruler), Gaius Julius Caesar (known universally as Julius Caesar) was born in 100 BC. Derivations of his surname would come to mean king or emperor ("kaiser", "czar", "tzar"). The month of July is named after him.
• The Greek Egyptian queen, Cleopatra VII (known in the West simply as Cleopatra) was born in 69 BC, and ruled Egypt before the Romans took over.
• Julius Caesar's nephew, Octavian (known universally as Augustus Caesar after he became emperor of Rome) was born in 63 BC. The month of August is named after him.

In the Greek world, many famous people were born during this period:

• The mathematician, Pythagoras (around 582 BC).
• The historian Heroditus was born c485 BC.
• The philosopher, Socrates (around 470 BC).
• The physician, Hippocrates (460 BC): the medical "Hippocratic Oath" is named after him.
• Plato (the philosopher from whom the adjective "platonic" is derived) was born in 427 BC; the school he founded was the original Acadamy.
• Aristotle (384 BC) was a philosopher who dabbled in science, taught Alexander The Great and founded a school called The Lyceum.
• The geometer, Euclid (born c325 BC) wrote a book of mathematical principles (The Elements, c300 BC) that was still being used over 2000 years later.
• The engineer, Archimedes (c287 BC) who gave the word "eurika" to the world.
• Chief librarian of Alexandria, Eratosthenes (276 BC) was the first person to measure the size of the Earth.

The Battle of Salamis took place in 480 BC; Greece beat Persia and went on to dominate the Mediterranean region. Greece came under Roman rule in 146 BC. A series of conflicts known to the Romans as the Punic Wars took place after 200 BC: Rome beat Carthage and went on to dominate the Mediterranean area. Palestine came under Roman rule in 63 BC. Rome invaded Celtic Britain in 55 BC.

Writers of the Roman world included:

• Publius Vergilius Maro (known in the West as Virgil): 70 BC.
• Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace): 65 BC.
• Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid): 43 BC.

In Central America, the Zapotecs thrived from 400 BC; the great pyramids at Teotihuacan were construced after 150 BC; the Mayan civilisations began c100 BC in Palenque.

In Africa speakers of Niger-Congo languages began migrations from the Cameroon region southwards. These languages now cover most of Africa south of the Saharan.

Iron reached Britain in 700 BC.

On 28 May 585 BC, Cyaxares of Media (modern Iran) and Alyattes of Lydia (modern Turkey) were about to start a battle when a total eclipse of the Sun occurred. The two nations were so frightened that they signed a peace treaty. Because eclipses can be predicted very accurately by astronomers, this remains the earliest historical event that can be dated to the exact day.

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