The BibleGospel Companion
Battle · Between the Testaments331 BC

Alexander ends the Persian empire at Arbela

Dated from the sources quoted below

True span4004 BC – AD 100
Beginnings · 4004 BC – 1996 BC · 12 eventsBeginnings4004 BC – 1996 BCThe Patriarchs · 1996 BC – 1635 BC · 34 eventsPatriarchs1996 BC – 1635 BCEgypt and the Exodus · 1635 BC – 1451 BC · 19 eventsExodus1635 BC – 1451 BCConquest and Settlement · 1451 BC – 1400 BC · 7 eventsConquest1451 BC – 1400 BCThe Judges · 1405 BC – 1095 BC · 13 eventsJudges1405 BC – 1095 BCThe United Kingdom · 1095 BC – 975 BC · 38 eventsUnited Kgdm1095 BC – 975 BCIsrael and Judah · 933 BC – 721 BC · 27 eventsIsrael & Judah933 BC – 721 BCJudah Alone · 721 BC – 586 BC · 22 eventsJudah alone721 BC – 586 BCThe Exile · 586 BC – 538 BC · 7 eventsExile586 BC – 538 BCReturn and Restoration · 538 BC – 400 BC · 13 eventsReturn538 BC – 400 BCBetween the Testaments · 400 BC – 4 BC · 8 eventsBetween400 BC – 4 BCThe Life of Jesus · 6 BC – AD 33 · 42 eventsJesus6 BC – AD 33The Apostles and the Early Church · AD 30 – AD 100 · 29 eventsThe ChurchAD 30 – AD 100331 BC — Alexander ends the Persian empire at Arbela323 BC — Alexander dies and his empire is divided280 BC — The Hebrew Scriptures are translated into Greek203 BC — Antiochus the Great takes Jerusalem and annexes Judea168 BC — Antiochus Epiphanes desecrates the temple168 BC — The Maccabees rise; the temple is cleansed56 BC — Rome takes Jerusalem under Pompey37 BC — Herod the Great is made king of Judea
the events of this period, each at its year — this one outlinedplaced only by its order in the narrativethe whole thread →

Told in

Daniel 8:1–8In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.Daniel 8:20–21The ram which you saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.
Opening words from the World English Bible (public domain); the passage list is in-house

How we know the date

Daniel's vision names its own subject: the goat from the west is “the king of Greece” and the great horn between his eyes “the first king” (Daniel 8:21). The timeline shows the event the vision looks toward. ISBE's Old Testament chronology (1915) gives 331 BC.

Written in-house from the sources below · every year is a quotation

The sources, word for word

“Alexander's defeat of Darius III, or Codomannus, at Arbela in 331 brought the Persian empire to an end, fulfilling the long-cherished ambition of the Greeks for mastery of Asia.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT · gives 331 BC

Sources