First Punic War
WarRome and Carthage fight for control of Sicily; Rome wins and gains its first overseas province.
- Date
- 264 BCE – 241 BCE · View on map
- Regions
- EuropeNorth Africa
- Importance
- ★★★★★
- Sources
Rome and Carthage fight for control of Sicily; Rome wins and gains its first overseas province.
Eratosthenes estimates the Earth's circumference by comparing the angle of the Sun's rays at Syene and Alexandria, with a remarkably close result.
In Alexandria, Euclid systematises geometry and number theory in the thirteen books of the Elements, one of the most influential mathematics textbooks ever written.
Hannibal crosses the Alps to invade Italy, but Rome ultimately prevails and Carthage loses its status as a great power.
Hannibal encircles and destroys a much larger Roman army in southern Italy, one of Rome's worst defeats.
The mathematician and engineer Archimedes is killed by a Roman soldier during the fall of Syracuse.
Alexander the Great dies in Babylon aged 32, leaving an empire stretching from Greece to India.