343 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	5th century BC · 4th century BC · 3rd century BC
Decades:	370s BC · 360s BC · 350s BC · 340s BC · 330s BC · 320s BC · 310s BC
Years:	346 BC · 345 BC · 344 BC · 343 BC · 342 BC · 341 BC · 340 BC

343 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	343 BC CCCXLII BC
Ab urbe condita	411
Ancient Egypt era	XXXI dynasty, 1
- Pharaoh	Artaxerxes III of Persia, 1
Ancient Greek era	109th Olympiad, year 2
Assyrian calendar	4408
Bengali calendar	−935
Berber calendar	608
Buddhist calendar	202
Burmese calendar	−980
Byzantine calendar	5166–5167
Chinese calendar	丁丑年 (Fire Ox) 2354 or 2294     — to — 戊寅年 (Earth Tiger) 2355 or 2295
Coptic calendar	−626 – −625
Discordian calendar	824
Ethiopian calendar	−350 – −349
Hebrew calendar	3418–3419
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−286 – −285
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2758–2759
Holocene calendar	9658
Iranian calendar	964 BP – 963 BP
Islamic calendar	994 BH – 993 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	1991
Minguo calendar	2254 before ROC 民前2254年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1810
Thai solar calendar	200–201

Year 343 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Corvus and Arvina (or, less frequently, year 411 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 343 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

Persian Empire

• The King of Persia, Artaxerxes III, personally leads the Persian forces invading Egypt. The Persians are keen to access Egypt's gold and corn supplies. The town of Pelusium in the Nile Delta puts up resistance, but Pharaoh Nectanebo II is forced to retreat to Memphis.^[1] As the situation deteriorates, Nectanebo II leaves for exile in Nubia. His departure marks the end of the 30th Dynasty, the last native house to rule Egypt.
• With Nectanebo II's flight, all organised resistance to the Persians collapses, and Egypt once again is reduced to a satrapy of the Persian Empire. A Persian satrap is put in place in Egypt. The walls of the country's cities are destroyed and its temples are plundered. Artaxerxes and his commander-in-chief, General Bagoas, leave Egypt loaded with treasure.

Greece

• The Athenian statesman Demosthenes has Aeschines indicted for treason. However, Aeschines drags up the inappropriate past of one of Demosthenes' associates, Timarchus and is acquitted by a narrow margin.
• King Philip II of Macedon again marches against Cersobleptes, King of Thrace, and defeats him in several battles, and reduces him to the condition of being a tributary.
• Phalaikos unsuccessfully lays siege to Kydonia on the island of Crete.^[2]

Italy

• The native Italian tribes, the Lucanians and Bruttians, press down upon the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia, including Tarentum. Responding to calls for help from these former Greek colonies, King Archidamus III of Sparta sets sail with a band of mercenaries for Italy.
• After his surrender to the Corinthian general Timoleon, who takes over as ruler of Syracuse, the former tyrant, Dionysius II, is allowed to retire to Corinth to live in exile, although he dies within the year. The Syracusan constitution is changed by Timoleon with the new constitution designed to have safeguards against tyranny. Timoleon invites new settlers from Greece to come to Sicily.

Roman Republic

• The most powerful group of the native tribes in highland Italy, the confederated Samnites, swarm down into Campania. The citizens of the city of Capua appeal to Rome for help in settling their internal quarrels and to save their city from destruction from the Samnites. The Romans respond, which begins the First Samnite War.

Births

• Philetaerus, founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum in Anatolia (approximate date) (d. 263 BC)

Deaths

• Dionysius II, tyrant of Syracuse (b. c. 397 BC)

References

1. George Rawlinson, The History of Herodotus, J.G. Wilkinson, J. Murray, 1880
2. C. Michael Hogan, Cydonia, Modern Antiquarian, January 23, 2008