230s BC

This article concerns the period 239 BC – 230 BC.

Births

239 BC

• Quintus Ennius, Latin poet and writer, considered the father of Roman poetry (approximate date)

238 BC

• Masinissa, king of Numidia (approximate date)
• Philip V, king (basileus) of Macedonia (d. 179 BC)

236 BC

• Scipio Africanus, Roman general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic (approximate date) (d. 183 BC)

235 BC

• Ellalan, king of the Anuradhapura Kingdom (d. 161 BC)

234 BC

• Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Elder), Roman statesman, (d. 149 BC)
• Mete Khan, Xiongnu emperor, (d. 174 BC)

232 BC

• Xiang Yu, Chinese rebel general against the Qin dynasty, as well as the later nemesis of Liu Bang in the civil war of the Chu-Han contention (d. 202 BC)

231 BC

• Hieronymus, tyrant of Syracuse (d. 214 BC)
• Han Xin, prominent Chinese general of the early Han dynasty is born.

Deaths

239 BC

• Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedon from 277 BC who has rebuilt his kingdom's power and established its hegemony over Greece (b. c. 319 BC)
• Diodotus I, king of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (b. c. 285 BC)
• Huanhui of Han, Chinese king of the Han State

238 BC

• Andragoras, Seleucid governor (satrap) of Parthia
• Autaritus, Gallic mercenary leader
• Chunshen, Chinese nobleman
• Hannibal, Carthaginian general
• Kaolie of Chu, Chinese king of the Chu State
• Lao Ai, Chinese eunuch and official
• Xun Zi, Chinese philosopher (approximate date)

237 BC

• Xun Zi, Confucian philosopher who has contributed to one of the Hundred Schools of Thought (b. c. 310 BC)
• Istolatios, warlord of the Turdetani (Iberian Peninsula), crucified by Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal)

235 BC

• Aristippus, Greek tyrant of Argos
• Lü Buwei, Chinese politician (b. 291 BC)

234 BC

• Pharnavaz I of Iberia, King of Georgia
• Zenodotus of Ephesus, first librarian of the Library of Alexandria

233 BC

• Deidamia II is the Greek princess and daughter of Pyrrhus II of Epirus (approximate date)
• Han Fei, Chinese philosopher who, along with Li Si, has developed Xun Zi's philosophy into the doctrine embodied by the School of Law (or Legalism) (b. c. 280 BC)

232 BC

• Ashoka, Indian emperor, who has ruled the Maurya Empire across the Indian subcontinent from 273 BC (b. 304 BC)
• Cleanthes of Assos, Stoic philosopher who has been the head of the Stoic school from 263 BC, after the death of Zeno of Citium (b. c. 301 BC)

231 BC

• Agron, king of the Ardiaean Kingdom (Western Balkans)

230 BC

• Adherbal, admiral of the Carthaginian fleet who has battled for domination of the Mediterranean Sea for Carthage in the First Punic War against Rome
• Agron of Illyria as aforementioned (vid. supra)
• Aristarchus of Samos, Greek astronomer and mathematician (b. c. 310 BC)