240s BC

This article concerns the period 249 BC – 240 BC.

Births

247 BC

• Hannibal Barca, Carthaginian military commander (d. c. 183 BC)

246 BC

• Arsinoe III, queen of Egypt from 220 BC, daughter of Ptolemy III and Berenice II (d. 204 BC)

245 BC

• Hasdrubal Barca, Carthaginian general and Younger brother of Hannibal (d. 207 BC)

243 BC

• Mago Barca, Carthaginian general and brother of Hannibal (d. 203 BC)
• Prusias I Cholus (the Lame), king of Bithynia (approximate date)
• Seleucus III Ceraunus, king of the Seleucid Kingdom (d. 223 BC)

242 BC

• Antiochus III the Great, Seleucid king of Hellenistic Syria (d. 187 BC)

241 BC

• Antiochus III the Great, younger son of Seleucus II Callinicus, the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire (d. 187 BC)

Deaths

249 BC

• King Hui of Zhou, last Zhou claimant to the throne of China, is executed.

247 BC

• Alexander of Corinth, Macedonian Greek governor and tyrant
• Moggaliputta-Tissa, Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher
• Zhuangxiang of Qin, Chinese king of the Qin State (b. 281 BC)

246 BC

• Ptolemy II Philadelphus, king of Egypt from 285 BC, second king of the Ptolemaic dynasty, who has extended his power by skillful diplomacy, developed agriculture and commerce, and made Alexandria a leading centre of the arts and sciences (b. 308 BC)
• Antiochus II Theos, king of the Seleucid dominions in the Middle East from 261 BC. He has spent much of his reign at war with Egypt, recovering much of the territory in Anatolia lost in earlier wars between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties (b. c. 287 BC)
• Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Arsinoe, wife of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II Theos, supplanting his first wife, Laodice, whose children she has persuaded him to bar from the succession to the throne in favour of her own.

245 BC

• Apollonius of Rhodes, Greek poet, grammarian, and author of the Argonautica, an epic in four books on the voyage of the Argonauts (b. c. 295 BC)

244 BC

• Eudamidas II, king of Sparta

243 BC

• Persaeus, Greek Stoic philosopher and friend of Zeno of Citium
• Xinling, Chinese statesman and general (Warring States Period)

242 BC

• Maharani Devi, Mauryan empress and wife of Ashoka (approximate date)

241 BC

• Agis IV, Eurypontid King of Sparta who has failed in his attempt to reform Sparta's economic and political structure (b. c. 265 BC)
• Agesistrata, Spartan Queen Consort
• Arcesilaus, Greek philosopher, who has become the sixth head of the Greek Academy founded by Plato (b. c. 316 BC)
• Eumenes I, ruler of Pergamum from 263 BC, liberator of the city from the overlordship of the Seleucids
• Tiberius Coruncanius, Roman consul and military commander for the battles against Pyrrhus of Epirus

240 BC

• Aratus, Greek poet from Soli in Cilicia, best remembered for his poem on astronomy Phaenomena (b. c. 315 BC)
• Aristomachos the Elder, Greek tyrant from Argos
• Asandhimitra, Mauryan empress and wife of Ashoka
• Callimachus, Greek poet and librarian
• Posidippus, Greek epigrammatic poet
• Zou Yan, Chinese philosopher (b. 305 BC)
• Meng Ao, Qin general

Bibliography

• Schinz, Alfred (1996). Axel Menges (ed.). The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China. Stuttgart, London: Daehan Printing & Publishing Co.