Struggle between Athens and Sparta. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 400 Conquests of Alexander the Great (334-322 B.C.). He conquers Persia, masters Egypt, and invades India. At his death his empire is divided: Egypt falls under the Ptolemies, Syria under the Seleucidæ. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 300 Babylon absorbed by Parthian Empire. Carthage dominates Spain. Wars between Rome and Carthage. Overthrow of Carthage (202 B.C.). ---------------------------------------------------------------- 200 Judea attains independence under the Maccabees. Growing power of Rome. Macedon a Roman province; Egypt and Syria made Roman protectorates. The Greek States are absorbed into province of Macedon. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 100 Cæsar conquers Gaul and lands in Britain. Egypt becomes a Roman province. Augustus Cæsar. Establishment of the Roman Empire. B.C. [Illustration: FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE PRESENT DAY JAPAN CHINESE EMPIRE INDIA PARTHIAN EMPIRE ARABIA ROMAN EMPIRE BRITAIN] ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTABLE EVENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------- For the first four centuries of the Christian era the Roman Empire absorbed the “known” world, bounded in Europe by the ocean, the Rhine, and the Danube, and in Asia by the Euphrates, and including the Mediterranean districts of Africa. Germanic tribes bore with ever-increasing pressure upon her European borders, and the Parthians defied her in the East. At the close of the third century the centre of political gravity was passing from Rome itself to Byzantium, preparing for the scission of the Empire, into Eastern and Western, which was practically at the close of the fourth century, when it was becoming increasingly clear that Rome could not stand against the Barbarian invaders, notably the Goths under Alaric. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In the fifth century the Empire, long weakened by corruption and the tyranny of the army, was overwhelmed by the Barbarians. Vandals, Western Goths, and Suevi poured into Spain; Franks and Alemanni spread over Gaul; Ostro-Goths and Lombards settled in North Italy; Huns and Avars attacked Thrace. Britain was invaded by Saxons, Jutes, and Angles. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The seventh and eighth centuries were marked by the rapid rise of Mohammedanism in Arabia; the conquests of the Saracens in Egypt, Africa, and West Asia; the establishment of the Caliphate at Bagdad; and their invasion of Spain. Here they were checked by the Franks.