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308 BCE

This year falls in the Classical antiquity (c. 500 BCE–500 CE). Large empires rule much of Eurasia, among them Persia, the Maurya and Gupta states of India, Han China and Rome. Classical Greece, the spread of Buddhism and the rise of Christianity belong to this era, which ends as the western Roman Empire falls in the fifth century CE.

Within fifteen years

Philosopher · Classical antiquity · ChinaXunzic. 310–c. 235 BCChinese Confucian thinker who answered Mencius by teaching that human nature is bad and must be shaped by ritual and teachers. Two of his students, Han Feizi and Li Si, built Legalism. He lived about 310 to 235 BC.

Civilization · Classical antiquity · Mauryan EmpireMauryan Empirec. 322–185 BCEThe Mauryan Empire was the first to unite nearly all of India. Chandragupta founded it as Alexander's empire crumbled. His grandson Ashoka, after a bloody conquest, embraced Buddhism and ruled by moral law.