By place Carthage • Accused of
treason by the
Carthaginians after being defeated by the
Romans at the
Battle of the Great Plains,
Hasdrubal Gisco commits suicide to avoid being
lynched by a Carthaginian mob. •
October 19 – The
Battle of Zama (130 kilometers south-west of Carthage) ends the
Second Punic War and largely destroys the power of Carthage. Roman and
Numidian forces under the leadership of the Roman general
Publius Cornelius Scipio and his Numidian ally,
Masinissa, defeat a combined army of Carthaginians and their Numidian allies under the command of
Hannibal and force Carthage to capitulate. Hannibal loses 20,000 men in the defeat, but he is able to escape Masinissa's pursuit.
Roman Republic • Following the
Battle of Zama, the Roman general
Publius Cornelius Scipio gains the cognomen "Africanus" in honour of his feats in North Africa against Carthage.
Egypt • The
Egyptian regent and
chief minister,
Sosibius, retires and
Agathocles, another member of the ruling
clique, becomes
Ptolemy V's guardian. •
Agathocles rule provokes Tlepolemus, the governor of
Pelusium (Egypt's eastern frontier city), into action. Tlepolemus marches on
Alexandria, where his supporters rouse a mob, compelling Agathocles to resign. • The Egyptian boy king,
Ptolemy V, is encouraged by a mob clamouring for revenge against the murderers of his mother
Arsinoe III to agree to Agathocles being killed. As a result, the mob searches out and butchers Agathocles and his family. Tlepolemus takes Agathocles' place as regent. However, he soon proves to be incompetent and is removed. • During this period of confusion and change amongst Egypt’s leadership, armies under the
Seleucid king,
Antiochus III, make serious inroads into the Egyptian territories in
Coele-Syria.
China •
Liu Bang and
Han Xin defeat the remaining loyalists of Xiang Yu. •
28 February: Liu Bang declares himself Supreme Emperor of China, officially beginning the
Han dynasty. • Liu Bang appoints Han Xin the king of
Chu, but he deposes him later in the year after accusing him of disloyalty. • The construction of the new Chinese capital
Chang'an begins. • Liu Bang gives the area of today's
Fujian province to Wuzhu as his kingdom. Wuzhu starts the construction of his own capital Ye (
Fuzhou). • The construction of
Changsha begins. • The armies of Han, led by
Fan Kuai, suppress a rebellion by the
State of Yan, defeating its king
Zang Tu. == Deaths ==