Ptolemy hijacks Alexander's funeral cart
321 BCE · Event
The dead king's body — embalmed, enthroned in a golden temple on wheels, two years in the making — sets out for Macedon, and Ptolemy's troops simply steal it in Syria and take it to Egypt. Possession of Alexander is legitimacy itself; the theft makes Egypt a kingdom, wrecks the regent's authority, and starts the first war of the successors.
On these timelines: The Wars of the Diadochi, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Alexander the Great's Conquests, Master
More from The Wars of the Diadochi
- Wars of the Diadochi (322 BCE)
- The generals carve up the empire at Babylon (323 BCE)
- Battle of Ipsus (301 BCE)
- Corupedium: the last Diadochi fall (281 BCE)
- Alexander's family is exterminated (310 BCE)
- The successors crown themselves (306 BCE)
- Perdiccas murdered on the Nile (320 BCE)
- Demetrius the Besieger fails at Rhodes (305 BCE)
Around 321 BCE
- Reign of Alexander the Great (336 BCE)
- Qin Shi Huang unifies China (221 BCE)
- Aristotle (384 BCE)
- Maurya Empire (322 BCE)
- Plato's Republic written (375 BCE)
- Alexander the Great (356 BCE)
- Punic Wars (264 BCE)
- Euclid's Elements (300 BCE)
- Mahabharata (400 BCE)
- Reign of Ashoka the Great (268 BCE)