View source for 326 BC

{{More citations needed|date=March 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2011}}
{{Year nav|-326}}
{{BC year in topic|326}}
[[File:Battle hydaspes crossing.png|thumb|The Battle of Hydaspes]]
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Year '''326 BC''' was a year of the [[Roman calendar|pre-Julian Roman calendar]]. At the time, it was known as the '''Year of the Consulship of Visolus and Cursor''' (or, less frequently, '''year 428 ''[[Ab urbe condita]]'''''). The denomination 326 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 ==
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=== By place ===

==== Macedonian Empire ====

* Spring &ndash; [[Alexander the Great]] crosses the [[Indus]] near [[Attock]] and enters [[Taxila (ancient)|ancient Taxila]], whose ruler, [[Taxiles]] (or Ambhi), furnishes 130 [[war elephant]]s and troops in return for aid against his rival [[King Porus|Porus]], who rules the lands between the [[Hydaspes]] (modern [[Jhelum River]]) and the Acesines (modern [[Chenab River]]).

* On the left bank of the Hydaspes, Alexander fights his last great battle, the [[Battle of the Hydaspes River]]. He and his general [[Craterus]] defeat the [[India]]n King Porus. Alexander founds two cities there, [[Alexandria on the Indus]] or Alexandria Nicaea (to celebrate his victory) and [[Alexandria Bucephalous]] or Bucephala (named after his horse [[Bucephalus]], which dies there); and Porus becomes his friend and ally.
* [[Philip (son of Machatas)|Philip]], an officer in the service of Alexander the Great, is appointed satrap of India, including the provinces to the west of the Hydaspes, as far south as the junction of the Indus with the Acesines. Philip is put in charge by Alexander of building the city of [[Alexandria on the Indus]].
* Alexander continues on to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River. East of Porus' kingdom, near the [[Ganges River]], Alexander faces the powerful empire of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]] ruled by the [[Nanda dynasty]]. Fearing the prospects of facing another powerful Indian army and exhausted by years of campaigning, his army mutinies at the [[Beas River|Hyphasis River]] (the modern [[Beas River]]) and refuses to march further east, thus making this river mark the easternmost extent of Alexander's conquests.
* Following the mutiny of his army at the Hyphasis River, Alexander is persuaded by his army leaders to abandon his plans for invading the [[Ganges River|Ganges Valley]]. Alexander appoints [[Nearchus]], a [[Crete|Cretan]] with naval experience, as admiral and places under his command all in the ranks of his army with any knowledge of seafaring. Nearchus has Indian shipwrights build 800 vessels, some as large as 300 tons, to take the army through [[Persian Gulf]] waters to Babylon. Alexander the Great begins the return march down the Indus to the sea.
* After the departure of Alexander from India, [[Philip (son of Machatas)|Philip]] is assassinated by some of the mercenary troops under his command. Alexander names [[Eudamus]] and [[Taxilas]] as replacement rulers of Philip's territories.

==== Roman Republic ====
* Following their defeat by the [[Roman Republic|Roman]] forces in [[Naples]], the [[Samnites]] declare war on Rome starting the [[Second Samnite War]]. To help defeat the Samnites, the Romans make alliances with the peoples of Central [[Italy]] to the north of [[Samnium]] and with the [[Apulia]]ns to the southeast.</onlyinclude>
== Births ==
*[[Pharnavaz I of Iberia]], later King of [[Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity)|Iberia]]<ref>[[Cyril Toumanoff|Toumanoff, Cyril]] (1963) ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', [[Georgetown University Press]], p. 9.</ref>

== Deaths ==
* [[Coenus (general)|Coenus]], son of [[Polemocrates of Elimeia|Polemocrates]] and son-in-law of [[Parmenion]] and one of [[Alexander the Great]]'s generals in his Persian and Indian expeditions{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

== References ==
{{reflist}} 

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