- 202 BC
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Events
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 — TheBattle of Zama (130 kilometres south-west of Carthage) ends theSecond Punic War and largely destroys the power of Carthage. Roman andNumidia n forces under the laedership 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 ofHannibal and forces 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 surname "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 ofPelusium (Egypt's eastern frontier city), into action. Tlepolemus marches onAlexandria , 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 theSeleucid king, Antiochus III, make serious inroads into the Egyptian territories inCoele Syria .China
*
Liu Bang , King of Han, defeatsXiang Yu ofWestern Chu in theBattle of Gaixia , ending theChu-Han contention . Liu Bang declares himself theEmperor of China , officially beginning theHan Dynasty .
* The construction of the new Chinese capitalChang'an begins.
* Liu Bang gives the area of today'sFujian Province to Wuzhu as his kingdom. Wuzhu starts the construction of his own capital Ye (Fuzhou ).
* The construction ofChangsha begins.Births
* Wen, Chinese emperor of the
Han Dynasty (d.157 BC )Deaths
*
Xiang Yu , rebel leader against theQin Dynasty and nemesis ofLiu Bang in theChu-Han contention (b.232 BC )
*Hasdrubal Gisco , Carthaginian general who has fought against Rome in Iberia and North Africa during theSecond Punic War , customarily identified as the son of Gisco (suicide)
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