By place Achaemenid Empire • The young king of
Persia,
Arses, objects to being controlled by
Bagoas and attempts to poison him. Instead, Arses and all his children are killed by Bagoas. • Bagoas then seeks to install a new monarch who will be easier to control. He chooses
Codomannus, a distant relative of the royal house, who takes the name
Darius III. When Darius tries to assert his independence from Bagoas' control, Bagoas attempts to poison him, but the king is warned and forces Bagoas to drink the poison himself.
Macedonia • Following
Philip II of Macedon's marriage to
Eurydice,
Alexander and his mother,
Olympias, flee to
Epirus, with
Alexander later moving to
Illyria. However, shortly afterward, father and son are reconciled and Alexander returns; but his position as heir is tenuous. • Macedonian troops, commanded by
Parmenion, trusted lieutenant of Philip II, arrive in
Asia Minor, but are driven back by Persian forces under the command of the Greek mercenary
Memnon of Rhodes. • At a grand celebration of his daughter
Cleopatra's marriage to
Alexander I of Epirus (brother of Olympias), Philip II is assassinated at
Aegae by
Pausanias of Orestis, a young Macedonian bodyguard with a bitter grievance against the young queen's uncle
Attalus and against Philip for denying him justice. Pausanias is killed on the spot. • Following his assassination, Philip II of Macedon is succeeded by his son
Alexander III. Suspecting the princes of the
Lynkestis region of killing Phillip II, Alexander executes them all. The
League of Corinth promotes Alexander to general of a unified Greek army for its planned invasion of
Asia Minor. • Alexander immediately has
Amyntas IV, son of King
Perdiccas III and his cousin, executed. • Alexander puts down a rebellion in Macedonia and crushes the rebellious Illyrians. He then appears at the gates of
Thebes and receives the city's submission. After that he advances to the
Corinthian isthmus and is elected by the assembled Greeks as their commander against
Persia. •
Conscription is introduced in
Athens. Young men are required to perform duties which are part military and part civic. •
Aeschines brings a suit against
Ctesiphon for illegally proposing the award of a crown to the Athenian leader
Demosthenes in recognition of his services to
Athens. == Births ==