203- 120 BCE - Polybius was the central historian of the Hellenistic period. Polybius was Greek, however he lived in Rome for a time. He wrote a detailed history of the "inhabited Mediterranean world" from 221 to 146 BCE.

His history focuses on the growth of Rome and the achievements of …

315 - 250 BCE

Theocritus was a native of Sicily who wrote short poems known as idylls. The themes of Theocritus' poetry usually centered around eroticism, "lovers' complaints," and nature. Theocritus' contemporaries believed that Homer's epic's could never be out done and thus writers should limit the length of their work …

400 BCE

Hippocrates was a philosopher who lived in the time of Socrates. His contribution to medical science is notable, since he is regarded to have been the first philosopher to acknowledge a distinction between medicine and philosophy. Hippocrates focused on natural explanations and cures for disease rather than philosophical …

164 BCE

When Seleucid king Antiochus IV, 175- 163 BCE, lead troops into Jerusalem, Judas Maccabaeus lead a revolt in which the Jews were able to capture the Temple of Jerusalem. The holiday of Hanukkah is celebrated each year by Jewish people in remembrance of this event.

295 BCE

A revolutionary figure in Greek literature, who ignored conventional wisdom that writers should stick to short poems, and wrote an epic known as Argonautica. Argonautica tells the story of Jason, who sought the fabled Golden Fleece.

350 BCE

Roxane was the daughter of a Bactrian Baron named Oxyartes. Alexander the Great married Roxane, 327 BCE, as was common practice, to cement relations between his empire and Roxane's state, which he had defeated. Alexander died when Roxane was pregnant with his only heir. Later, Roxane gave birth …