2nd century BC

One hundred years, from 200 BC to 101 BC
Millennium
1st millennium BC
Centuries
  • 3rd century BC
  • 2nd century BC
  • 1st century BC
Timelines
  • 3rd century BC
  • 2nd century BC
  • 1st century BC
State leaders
  • 3rd century BC
  • 2nd century BC
  • 1st century BC
Decades
  • 190s BC
  • 180s BC
  • 170s BC
  • 160s BC
  • 150s BC
  • 140s BC
  • 130s BC
  • 120s BC
  • 110s BC
  • 100s BC
Categories:
Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments
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Map of the Eastern Hemisphere in 200 BC, the beginning of the second century BC.
Map of the world in 100 BC, the end of the second century BC.

The 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more suitable. It is also considered to be the end of the Axial Age.[1] In the context of the Eastern Mediterranean, it is the mid-point of the Hellenistic period.

Fresh from its victories in the Second Punic War, the Roman Republic continued its expansion in the western Mediterranean, campaigning in the Iberian peninsula throughout the century and annexing the North African coast after the destruction of the city of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War. They became the dominant force in the Aegean by destroying Antigonid Macedonia in the Macedonian Wars and Corinth in the Achaean War. The Hellenistic kingdoms of Ptolemaic Egypt and Attalid Pergamon entered into subordinate relationships with the Romans – Pergamon was eventually annexed. The end of the century witnessed the evolution of the Roman army from a citizen army into a voluntary professional force, which later scholars would misattribute to putative reforms by noted general and statesman Gaius Marius (the so-called Marian Reforms).

In the Near East, the other major Hellenistic kingdom, the Seleucid Empire collapsed into civil war in the middle of the century, following the loss of Asia Minor to the Romans and the conquest of the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia by the Parthian empire. Outlying regions became independent kingdoms, notably the Hasmonean kingdom in Judaea.

In East Asia, China reached a high point under the Han dynasty. The Han Empire extended its boundaries from Korea in the east to Vietnam in the South to the borders of modern-day Kazakhstan in the west. The nomadic Xiongnu were at the height of their power at the beginning of the century, collecting tribute from the Han. Their victories over the Yuezhi set off a chain of westward migrations in Central Asia. Han efforts to find allies against the Xiongnu by exploring the lands to their west would ultimately lead to the opening of the Silk Road.[2]

In South Asia, the Mauryan Empire in India collapsed when Brihadnatha, the last emperor, was killed by Pushyamitra Shunga, a Mauryan general who founded of the Shunga Empire. The Greco-Bactrians crossed the Hindu Kush and established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, but lost their homeland in Bactria to the Sakas, themselves under pressure from the Yuezhi.

Events

The Rosetta Stone, a trilingual decree recording the coronation of Ptolemy V at Memphis in Egypt.

190s BC

180s BC

Tomb of Empress Lü in Changling, Xianyang, Shaanxi
A silver coin of 1 karshapana of King Pushyamitra Shunga (185-149 BC), founder of the Shunga dynasty.

170s BC

Bust of Antiochus IV at the Altes Museum in Berlin.

160s BC

Cleopatra II ruled Egypt in co-operation and competition with her brothers Ptolemy VI and VIII for most of the century.

150s BC

Mural from the tomb of Liu Wu whose principality was at the heart of the Rebellion of the Seven States

140s BC

130s BC

Emperor Wu of Han was probably the most powerful man in the world at the end of the century

120s BC

Drachm of Mithridates II of Parthia, wearing a bejeweled tiara.

110s BC

100s BC

Significant people

Scipio Aemilianus
Antiochus the Great
A bust purported to be of Gaius Marius
Polybius
Terence
Coin of Menander I, the Greek king who ruled most of Northern India (c. 150-130) and converted to Buddhism.
Posidonius was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age.

Politics

Military

Literature

Science and philosophy

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Hipparchus' equatorial ring.
  • According to legend, Liu An invents tofu.
  • The Fibonacci numbers and their sequence first appear in Indian mathematics as mātrāmeru, mentioned by Pingala in connection with the Sanskrit tradition of prosody.[30]
  • Pingala was the first who accidentally discovered binary numbers in which he used laghu(light) and guru(heavy) rather than 0 and 1.
  • Tube drawn technology: Indians used tube drawn technology for glass bead manufacturing which was first developed in the 2nd century BCE
  • The Roman concrete (pozzolana) first used.
  • A system for sending signs to communicate quickly over a long distance is described by Polybios.[31]
  • The earliest known winnowing machine is depicted in a Han Dynasty Chinese tomb model.[32]

See also

References

  1. ^ Meister, Chad (2009). Introducing Philosophy of Religion. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-203-88002-9.
  2. ^ "Silk Road, North China". The Megalithic Portal.
  3. ^ Walbank, F. W. (1992). The Hellenistic world ([Rev.] ed.). London: Fontana. p. 101. ISBN 0-00-686104-0.
  4. ^ "Barangay States". History Learning.
  5. ^ Green, Peter (1990). Alexander to Actium : the historical evolution of the Hellenistic age. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-520-08349-3.
  6. ^ Willy Clarysse, Dorothy J. Thompson, Ulrich Luft, Counting the People in Hellenistic Egypt, Volume 2, Historical Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2006) p263
  7. ^ Bernard Mineo, A Companion to Livy (Wiley, 2014) p412 (drawn by author from Polybius and Livy
  8. ^ Walbank, F. W. (1992). The Hellenistic world ([Rev.] ed.). London: Fontana. p. 98. ISBN 0-00-686104-0.
  9. ^ a b Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs, 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest (University of California Press, 1989), p30
  10. ^ Errington, R. M. (1989). "Rome against Philip and Antiochus". In Astin, A. E.; Walbank, F. W.; Frederiksen, M. W.; Ogilvie, R. M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History 8: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC (Second ed.). Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-521-23448-1.
  11. ^ Cartledge, Paul; Spawforth, A. (2002). Hellenistic and Roman Sparta : a tale of two cities (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 74–79. ISBN 0-415-26277-1.
  12. ^ Eckart Kèohne, Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome (University of California Press, 2000) p10
  13. ^ Kim, Jinwung (2012). A history of Korea : from "Land of the Morning Calm" to states in conflict. Bloomington, Indiana. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-253-00024-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ T. Boiy, Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon (Peeters Publishers, 2004) p157
  15. ^ Bringmann, Klaus (2007). A history of the Roman republic. Cambridge, UK: Polity. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-7456-3371-8.
  16. ^ Walbank, F. W. (1992). The Hellenistic world ([Rev.] ed.). London: Fontana. p. 237. ISBN 0-00-686104-0.
  17. ^ Grainger, John D. (2002). The Roman war of Antiochos the Great. Leiden: Brill. pp. 240–246. ISBN 978-90-04-12840-8.
  18. ^ Grainger, John D. (2002). The Roman war of Antiochos the Great. Leiden: Brill. pp. 320–329. ISBN 978-90-04-12840-8.
  19. ^ Grainger, John D. (2002). The Roman war of Antiochos the Great. Leiden: Brill. pp. 341–344. ISBN 978-90-04-12840-8.
  20. ^ Wilson. Nigel Guy (2006). Encyclopedia of ancient Greece. Routledge. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-415-97334-2.
  21. ^ Hölbl, Günther (2013). A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-135-11983-6.
  22. ^ Thapar, Romila (2013). The past before us : historical traditions of early north India (First Harvard University Press ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-674-72651-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. ^ Loewe, Michael (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty". In Twitchett, Dennis; Loewe, Michael (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC–AD 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
  24. ^ Bringmann, Klaus (2007) [2002]. A History of the Roman Republic. Translated by Smyth, W. J. Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-7456-3371-8.
  25. ^ Harris, W. V. (1989). "Roman Expansion in the West". In Astin, A. E.; Walbank, F. W.; Frederiksen, M. W.; Ogilvie, R. M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History 8: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC (Second ed.). Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-521-23448-1.
  26. ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. pp. 380–383. ISBN 978-1-4008-2994-1.
  27. ^ M. Zambelli, "L'ascesa al trono di Antioco IV Epifane di Siria," Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica 38 (1960) 363–389
  28. ^ Bringmann, Klaus (2007) [2002]. A History of the Roman Republic. Translated by Smyth, W. J. Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0-7456-3371-8.
  29. ^ O'Connor, J.J.; Robertson, E F (April 1999). "Hipparchus". Maths History. St Andrews University. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  30. ^ "15 Significant Science and Tech Discoveries Ancient India Gave the World – Arise Arjuna Foundation". Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  31. ^ "Polybius • Histories — Book 10". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  32. ^ Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering (Cambridge University Press, 1985) p118
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2nd century BC
4th century BC ← 3rd century BC ← ↔ → 1st century BC → 1st century
200s BC 209 BC 208 BC 207 BC 206 BC 205 BC 204 BC 203 BC 202 BC 201 BC 200 BC
190s BC 199 BC 198 BC 197 BC 196 BC 195 BC 194 BC 193 BC 192 BC 191 BC 190 BC
180s BC 189 BC 188 BC 187 BC 186 BC 185 BC 184 BC 183 BC 182 BC 181 BC 180 BC
170s BC 179 BC 178 BC 177 BC 176 BC 175 BC 174 BC 173 BC 172 BC 171 BC 170 BC
160s BC 169 BC 168 BC 167 BC 166 BC 165 BC 164 BC 163 BC 162 BC 161 BC 160 BC
150s BC 159 BC 158 BC 157 BC 156 BC 155 BC 154 BC 153 BC 152 BC 151 BC 150 BC
140s BC 149 BC 148 BC 147 BC 146 BC 145 BC 144 BC 143 BC 142 BC 141 BC 140 BC
130s BC 139 BC 138 BC 137 BC 136 BC 135 BC 134 BC 133 BC 132 BC 131 BC 130 BC
120s BC 129 BC 128 BC 127 BC 126 BC 125 BC 124 BC 123 BC 122 BC 121 BC 120 BC
110s BC 119 BC 118 BC 117 BC 116 BC 115 BC 114 BC 113 BC 112 BC 111 BC 110 BC
100s BC 109 BC 108 BC 107 BC 106 BC 105 BC 104 BC 103 BC 102 BC 101 BC 100 BC
90s BC 99 BC 98 BC 97 BC 96 BC 95 BC 94 BC 93 BC 92 BC 91 BC 90 BC
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