A century

4th century BC

6 stories from this century.

The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Gaugamela, northern Iraq

The Battle East of the Tigris on 1 October 331 BCE That Ended the Persian Empire When Alexander the Great Defeated Darius III

Alexander the Great's Macedonian army of approximately 47,000 defeated Darius III's Persian army of approximately 100,000 east of the Tigris river on 1 October 331 BCE. Darius fled the field. The Persian Empire that had existed for two centuries collapsed within months. Darius was murdered by his own satrap nine months later. Alexander died of fever at Babylon four years after that.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Athens

The Athenian Philosopher Who Drank Hemlock in 399 BCE After an Athens Jury Sentenced Him to Death by 280 to 220 Votes

Socrates was tried for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens in 399 BCE. The 500-member jury voted 280 to 220 to convict, then by a wider margin to impose death. He drank hemlock at sunset some weeks later in the prison at the western foot of the Acropolis. He was 70.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Bjældskovdal, Jutland

The Iron Age Man Found in a Danish Peat Bog in 1950 With the Rope That Hanged Him Still Around His Neck

Tollund Man was discovered in the Bjældskovdal bog in Jutland on 6 May 1950, his face so well preserved that the finders called the police. He had been hanged with a braided leather noose around 405-380 BCE, aged about 40, and buried face-down in the bog. His last meal was barley-and-flax porridge, eaten 12 to 24 hours before death.

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The Cabinet June 24, 2026 · Cnidus, Caria, Asia Minor

The Greek Mathematician Who Built the Universe Out of Twenty-Seven Nested Rotating Spheres

[Eudoxus of Cnidus](/articles/eudoxus-of-cnidus) — Plato's contemporary and the founder of mathematical astronomy — proposed in the 360s BC that the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon, and five known planets could be explained by 27 concentric spheres rotating around the Earth at different rates and on different axes. The model was the best astronomical framework in the world for the next two centuries.

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The Footnote June 12, 2026 · Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum), Caria, Anatolia

The Tomb That Gave Its Name to Every Tomb

King Mausolus died in 353 BC. His widow built him a tomb so spectacular that for two thousand years every grand tomb in Europe was called by his name.

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The Footnote June 11, 2026 · Cnidus (modern Datça), Caria, Anatolia

The Greek Who Made Geometry Honest

Before Eudoxus, Greek mathematicians could prove statements about simple shapes. Eudoxus invented the method that let them prove statements about curves.

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