The Middle East: 141–130 BCE

The Huainanzi, a second century BCE Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty that blends Taoist, Confucianist, and Legalist concepts, including theories such as Yin-Yang and the Five Phases, is written under the patronage of Liu An, Prince of Huainan.

Advisor to his nephew, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu An is a legendarily prodigious author.

The text, also known as the Huainan honglie ("The Great Brilliance of Huainan"), is a collection of essays presented as resulting from literary and philosophical debates between Liu and guests at his court, in particular the scholars known as the Eight Immortals of Huainan.

The Huainanzi is the first Chinese classic text to use the Pythagorean comma, and to precisely analyze twelve-tone tuning in Chinese music (McClain and Ming 1979:213, 206), although the latter had been preceded by bronze inscriptions on the (433 BCE) bells of the Marquis Yi of Zeng (Temple 1986:199).

The date of composition for the Huainanzi is more certain than for most early Chinese texts.

Both the Book of Han and Records of the Grand Historian record that when Liu An paid a state visit to his nephew the Emperor Wu of Han in 139 BCE, he presented a copy of his "recently completed" book in twenty-one chapters.

An eclectic compilation of chapters or essays that range across topics of mythology, history, astronomy, geography, philosophy, science, metaphysics, nature, and politics, the Huainanzi discusses many pre-Han schools of thought (especially Huang-Lao Daoism), and contains more than eight hundred quotations from Chinese classics.

Chinese puppeteers develop the shadow play, a form of puppetry in which flat cutout figures are silhouetted against a translucent screen and manipulated with rods while the puppeteer intones the story to musical accompaniment.

Shadow puppetry originates during the Han Dynasty when one of the concubines of Emperor Wu of Han died from an illness.

The emperor was devastated, and he summoned his court officers to bring his beloved back to life.

The officers made a shape of the concubine using donkey leather.

Her joints were animated using eleven separate pieces of the leather, and adorned with painted clothes.

Using an oil lamp, they made her shadow move, bringing her back to life.

A list enumerating the Seven Wonders of the World first appears in about 130 in a poem written by Antipater of Sidon in the Greek “Anthology”.

His top seven are the pyramids of Egypt, the Walls and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, and the Colossus of Rhodes.

All Seleucid lands east of the Euphrates are gone by 141 BCE, and attempts by Seleucid kings Demetrius II in 141 BCE and Antiochus VII in 130 BCE cannot halt the rapid disintegration of the kingdom.

The Parthians capture the major Seleucid city of Seleucia (which is the eastern capital of the Seleucid empire) in 141 BCE, giving their king Mithridates control over Mesopotamia and Babylonia.

Parthia now controls over all the land between the Euphrates and Indus Rivers.

The Parthians defeat a major Seleucid counterattack in 139 BCE breaking the Seleucid army and capturing Demetrius II, effectively ending Seleucid claims to any land east of the Euphrates River.

The term Tocharian or Tokharian is based on the ethnonym Tokharoi used by Greek historians (e.g.

Ptolemy VI, 11, 6).

The first Greek mention of the Tocharians appeared in the first century BCE, when Strabo presented them as a Scythian tribe, and explained that the Tocharian—together with the Assianis, Passianis and Sakaraulis—had taken part in the destruction of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (present day Afghanistan-Pakistan) in the second half of the second century BCE.

These Tocharians have frequently been identified with the Yuezhi and the later (and probably related) Kushan peoples.

Many scholars believe the Yuezhi originally spoke a Tocharian language.

However, the debate about the origins and original language(s) of the Yuezhi and the Kushan continues, and there is no general consensus.

The geographical term Tokharistan usually refers to first millennium Bactria.

Today, the term is associated with those Indo-European languages known as "Tocharian".

Tocharian A is also known as East Tocharian, or Turfanian (of the city of Turpan), and Tocharian B is also known as West Tocharian, or Kuchean.

Based on a Turkic reference to Tocharian A as twqry, these languages were associated with the Kushan ruling class, but the exact relation of the speakers of these languages and the Kushan Tokharoi is uncertain, and some consider "Tocharian languages" a misnomer.

The term is so widely used, however, that this question is somewhat academic.

Tocharians in the modern sense are, then, defined as the speakers of the Tocharian languages.

The last Greco-Bactrian king, Heliocles I, retreats and moves his capital to the Kabul Valley.

The eastern part of Bactria is eventually occupied by Pashtun people.

Near East (141–130 BCE): Artistic Excellence and Hasmonean Ascendancy

The era from 141 to 130 BCE in the Near East is characterized by notable cultural achievements and significant political developments, particularly involving Judaea and the declining Seleucid influence.

In the artistic realm, this period witnesses the creation of one of the most renowned masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture, the Venus de Milo. Carved from marble by Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Maeander between 130 and 100 BCE, the statue portrays the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans), embodying beauty and love. Originally slightly larger than life-size at approximately two hundred and three centimeters (six feet eight inches), the statue is distinguished by its exquisite craftsmanship despite having lost part of an arm and its original plinth. Today, this celebrated sculpture resides in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Politically, the era is defined by significant developments in Judaea, where the Seleucid pretender Diodotus recognizes Hasmonean sovereignty in exchange for a nominal tribute. This pivotal recognition establishes a theocratic government in Judaea—an institution unprecedented in biblical texts—and marks a critical juncture in Jewish history. Under native Hasmonean leadership, Judaea progressively asserts its autonomy, driving out the remaining Greco-Syrian Seleucid forces. The Hasmonean kingdom expands to a scale reminiscent of the semi-legendary united monarchy under King David. However, this growth is accompanied by persistent internal political and religious conflicts, reflecting the complex nature of governance and cultural identity in this transitional period.

Legacy of the Era

The era from 141 to 130 BCE solidifies cultural and political transformations that leave lasting imprints on the Near East. The creation of iconic art such as the Venus de Milo symbolizes the enduring Hellenistic influence, while the rise of the Hasmonean kingdom reshapes Judaea’s political and religious landscape, setting the stage for future historical dynamics in the region.

A marble statue created by a sculptor of Antioch on the Maeander River is today known as the Venus de Milo at the Louvre Museum in Paris; it is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture.

Created sometime between 130 and 100 BCE, it is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the Romans).

It is slightly larger than life size at two hundred and three centimeters (six feet eight inches) high.

Part of an arm and the original plinth were lost following its discovery.

From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch.

The Seleucid pretender Diodotus recognizes Hasmonean rule over Judea in exchange for a minor tribute; this is the origin of the Judaean theocracy, an institution not found in any biblical text.

Judah's native Hasmonean rulers gradually drive the Greco-Syrian Seleucids from the country and set up a revived kingdom of Judaea, bringing it to its greatest extent since the semi-legendary United Monarchy under David.

Internal political and religious discord continues, however.

The workshops of Rome are busy throughout this era creating marble copies of the vast number of bronze statues taken as spoils from the destroyed cities of Carthage and Corinth, and from Pergamon, newly bequeathed to Rome by its final king.

The First Servile War, an unsuccessful rebellion of enslaved people against the Roman Republic, is prompted by slave revolts in Enna on the island of Sicily.

It is led by Eunus, a former slave claiming to be a prophet, and Cleon, a Cilician who becomes Eunus's military commander.

After some minor battles won by the slaves, a larger Roman army arrives in Sicily and defeats the rebels.

The Lusitanian War, a twenty-year conflict between the Celtiberian tribes of Hispania Citerior and the Roman government, is the last conflict of the Celtiberian Wars fought by the Romans to subdue those people along the Ebro.

The war ends in a Roman victory and the Roman conquest of the modern Algarve and Alentejo, Portugal.

Hipparchus of Rhodes, a working astronomer at least from 147 BCE, compiles the first (known) star catalog; it contains approximately eight hundred and fifty entries.

Hipparchus also develops a location system of lines on the surface of the Earth (the forerunners of latitude and longitude).

Relatively little of Hipparchus' direct work survives.

Although he writes at least fourteen books, only his commentary on the popular astronomical poem by Aratus will be preserved by later copyists.

Most of what is known about Hipparchus comes from Strabo's Geographia ("Geography"), and from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia ("Natural history"), both written in the first century, and from Ptolemy's Almagest, compiled in the second century, with additional references to him by the fourth-century writers Pappus of Alexandria and Theon of Alexandria in their commentaries on the Almagest.