297 BCE
Chandragupta Maurya goes to Sravana Belagola, near Mysore, to live in the way of Jains. Ptolemy decides to support Pyrrhus of Epirus and restores him to his kingdom. At first, Pyrrhus reigns with a kinsman, Neoptolemus II of Epirus (who is a son of Cleopatra of Macedonia and a nephew of Alexander the Great), but soon he has him assassinated. Bindusara, his son, ascends to the Pataliputra throne.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- 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.source
Conflict & Security
- Ptolemy decides to support Pyrrhus of Epirus and restores him to his kingdom. At first, Pyrrhus reigns with a kinsman, Neoptolemus II of Epirus (who is a son of Cleopatra of Macedonia and a nephew of Alexander the Great), but soon he has him assassinated.source
Exploration & Expansion
- Chandragupta Maurya goes to Sravana Belagola, near Mysore, to live in the way of Jains.source
Religion & Belief
- Zipoetes I assumes the title of basileus (king) in Bithynia.source
Culture & Society
- Bindusara, his son, ascends to the Pataliputra throne.source
Deaths
- King Cassander of Macedon, one of the diadochoi ("successors"), the Macedonian generals who have fought over the empire of Alexander the Great after his death (b. c. 358 BC)source
- Chandragupta Maurya, Emperor of the Maurya Empire in India, r. 322–297 BC (approximate date)source
- 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.source