321 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	5th century BC – 4th century BC – 3rd century BC
Decades:	350s BC  340s BC  330s BC  – 320s BC –  310s BC  300s BC  290s BC
Years:	324 BC 323 BC 322 BC – 321 BC – 320 BC 319 BC 318 BC

321 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	321 BC CCCXX BC
Ab urbe condita	433
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 3
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy I Soter, 3
Ancient Greek era	114th Olympiad, year 4
Assyrian calendar	4430
Bengali calendar	−913
Berber calendar	630
Buddhist calendar	224
Burmese calendar	−958
Byzantine calendar	5188–5189
Chinese calendar	己亥年 (Earth Pig) 2376 or 2316     — to — 庚子年 (Metal Rat) 2377 or 2317
Coptic calendar	−604 – −603
Discordian calendar	846
Ethiopian calendar	−328 – −327
Hebrew calendar	3440–3441
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−264 – −263
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2781–2782
Holocene calendar	9680
Iranian calendar	942 BP – 941 BP
Islamic calendar	971 BH – 970 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2013
Minguo calendar	2232 before ROC 民前2232年
Thai solar calendar	222–223

Year 321 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Calvinus and Caudinus (or, less frequently, year 433 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 321 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

Macedonian Empire

• Antipater appoints Antigonus commander in chief of his army in Asia Minor and sends him with Craterus to fight against Eumenes, the satrap of Cappadocia and a supporter of Perdiccas.
• Leaving Eumenes to hold Asia Minor against Craterus and Antigonus, Perdiccas marches against Ptolemy, but when he fails to cross the Nile he is murdered by mutinous officers. Prominent among the mutineers is Seleucus. A truce is arranged, leaving Ptolemy in power in Egypt and Seleucus in power in Babylon.
• The key remaining generals (diadochi) of the late Alexander the Great agree to the Partition of Triparadisus (a town in northern Syria). This is a power-sharing agreement providing for a new regent to replace Perdiccas and it repartitions the satrapies of the empire that has been created by Alexander the Great. It follows but modifies the Partition of Babylon made two years earlier following the death of Alexander the Great. Under the agreement, Antipater becomes the regent of the Macedonian Empire on behalf of the two kings: the intellectually retarded Philip III Arrhidaeus and the infant Alexander IV of Macedon while Ptolemy is confirmed in possession of Egypt and Cyrene.
• Ptolemy further strengthens his position amongst the diadochi by marrying Eurydice, the third daughter of Antipater.
• Antigonus and Craterus defeat Eumenes in battle but Eumenes escapes. Antigonus and Craterus then besiege him unsuccessfully in the mountain fortress of Nora on the border between Cappadocia and Lycaonia. Craterus is killed during the fighting against Eumenes when his charging horse (Diodorus) falls over him.

Roman Republic

• Continuing successes by Rome's armies against the Samnites forces the Samnites to sue for peace. However, the terms offered by Rome are so stringent that they are rejected by the Samnites and the war goes on.
• Two Roman consuls, Spurius Postumius Albinus and Titus Veturius Calvinus, leading an invading force into Samnium, are trapped in a mountain pass known as the Caudine Forks (Caudium) near Beneventum, where they can neither advance nor retire, and after a desperate struggle, they are forced to submit to the humiliating terms imposed by the Samnite victor, Gaius Pontius. The captured consuls pledge themselves to a five-year treaty on terms most favourable for the Samnites.

India

• Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire, establishes himself as the king of Magadha.

Deaths

• Craterus, Macedonian general (b. c. 370 BC)
• Perdiccas, Macedonian general and regent after the death of Alexander the Great (b. c. 365 BC)
• Zhou Xian Wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China