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Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	260s BC 250s BC 240s BC – 230s BC – 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC
Years:	239 BC 238 BC 237 BC 236 BC 235 BC 234 BC 233 BC 232 BC 231 BC 230 BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

Contents 1 Events and trends 2 Births 2.1 239 2.2 236 2.3 234 2.4 232 3 Deaths 3.1 239 3.2 238 3.3 237 3.4 234 3.5 233 3.6 232 3.7 230

Events and trends

• The Mauryan Empire reaches its peak; Buddhism flourishes in India.

Births

239

• Quintus Ennius, Latin poet and writer, considered the father of Roman poetry (d. 169 BC)

236

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

234

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

232

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

Deaths

239

• 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 (approximate date)

238

• Andragoras, Seleucid satrap (governor) of Parthia
• Xun Zi, Chinese philosopher (approximate date)

237

• Xun Zi, Confucian philosopher who has contributed to one of the Hundred Schools of Thought (b. c. 310 BC)

234

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

233

• 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

• 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)

230

• Ad Herbal, admiral of the Carthaginian fleet who has battled for domination of the Mediterranean Sea for Carthage in the First Punic War against Rome
• Aristarchus of Samos, Greek astronomer and mathematician (b. c. 310 BC)