221 BC Chr.

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Heads of state

221 BC Chr.
Qin Shihuangdi becomes the first emperor of the Chinese Empire, united under the Qin Dynasty .	After the death of Antigonus III. Doson becomes his adopted son, Philip V, King of Macedon .
221 BC In other calendars
Buddhist calendar	323/324 (southern Buddhism); 322/323 (alternative calculation according to Buddha's Parinirvana )
Chinese calendar	41st (42nd) cycle , year of the metal dragon庚辰 ( at the beginning of the year earth-rabbit己卯)
Greek calendar	3rd / 4th Year of the 139th Olympiad
Jewish calendar	3540/41
Roman calendar	from urbe condita DXXXIII (533)
Seleucid era	Babylon: 90/91 (turn of the year April); Syria: 91/92 (turn of the year October)

Events

Politics and world events

Asia

Family table of the kings of Qin

• Establishment of the Chinese Empire by Qin Shihuangdi after the victory of Qin State over Qi State .
• Xianyang is becoming a metropolis that can compete with the giant cities of antiquity . The urban area is a square on the Wei River , 18 kilometers long and 13 wide. About 800,000 people live here and a stone bridge decorated with sculptures from Chinese legends crosses the river.
• Molon , satrap of the media , rebels against the king of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus III. and brings Babylonia under his control.

Eastern Mediterranean

Greece after the reign of Antigonus III. Doson

• Antigonus III. Doson dies during a campaign against the Illyrians . His successor as King of Macedonia will be his 17-year-old great-nephew Philip V.

Portrait of Queen Berenike II, Glyptothek Munich

• Ptolemy IV. Philopator has his mother, Berenike II. , And several other prominent opponents murdered a year after he came to power .
• Summer: Antiochus III. , Ruler of the Seleucid Empire , uses the change of throne in Egypt to invade the Egyptian possessions in Syria ( Fourth Syrian War ). The attempt to overcome the Egyptian locking bar in the Bekaa plain, however, fails.

Western Mediterranean

• An Iberian slave murders the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal . Hannibal becomes his successor in Hispania .
• The Romans defeat the Istrians after they plundered Roman ships.

Culture

• Immediately after the accession of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi to the throne, the construction of his mausoleum begins in China .
• Gaius Flaminius instigates the construction of the Circus Flaminius in Rome , the second stadium after the Circus Maximus .

Born

• Eumenes II , King of Pergamon († 158 BC )
• Antiochus , co-ruler of his father Antiochus III. in the Seleucid Empire († 193 BC )

Died

• Antigonus III. Doson , King of Macedonia (* 263 BC )
• Berenike II , daughter of King Magas of Cyrene (* around 272 BC )
• Epigenes , Seleucid officer
• Hasdrubal , Carthaginian general (* 270 BC )
• Lucius Caecilius Metellus , Roman politician and general

Web links

Commons : 221 BC Chr.  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files