297 BC
The year 297 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rullianus and Mus. The denomination 297 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Events
By place
Roman Republic
- Third Samnite War:
Bithynia
- Zipoetes I assumes the title of basileus in Bithynia.
Greece
- Following Cassander's death from illness, Philip IV, Cassander's eldest son, succeeds his father as King of Macedon, but soon after coming to the throne, he suffers from a wasting disease and dies. Antipater, the next son, rules jointly with his brother Alexander V.
- Demetrius Poliorcetes returns to Greece with the aim of becoming master of Macedonia. While Demetrius is in Greece, Lysimachus seizes his possessions in Asia Minor.
- Ptolemy decides to support Pyrrhus of Epirus and restores him to his kingdom. At first, Pyrrhus reigns with a kinsman, Neoptolemus II of Epirus, but soon he has him assassinated.
India
- Chandragupta Maurya goes to Sravana Belagola, near Mysore, to live in the way of Jains.
- Bindusara, his son, ascends to the Pataliputra throne.
Births
Deaths
- King Cassander of Macedon, one of the diadochoi, the Macedonian generals who have fought over the empire of Alexander the Great after his death
- Chandragupta Maurya, Emperor of the Maurya Empire in India, r. 322–297 BC