Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot
333 BCE · Event
At Gordium, shown the ancient wagon whose knot no one could untie — its unraveller destined, the oracle said, to rule Asia — Alexander either finds the hidden pin or simply draws his sword and cuts it. Either way the prophecy is claimed, and the phrase enters every language.
On these timelines: Master, Alexander the Great's Conquests, Ancient Greece
Around 333 BCE
- Reign of Alexander the Great (336 BCE)
- Peloponnesian War (431 BCE)
- Wars of the Diadochi (322 BCE)
- Aristotle (384 BCE)
- Plato (428 BCE)
- Maurya Empire (322 BCE)
- Plato's Republic written (375 BCE)
- Punic Wars (264 BCE)
- Alexander the Great (356 BCE)
- Euclid's Elements (300 BCE)