30 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian becomes consul for the fourth time. His partner is Marcus Licinius Crassus the Younger.
• Spring - Octavian leads his army to the Dardanelles, ships them across to Asia Minor and marches into Syria where Herod the Great sends him vows of loyalty and thousands of his own troops in support.
• Summer - Cornelius Gallus lands in Cyrene and occupies Paraetonium. Mark Antony storms the city walls and blockades the harbour, then retreats his army to Egypt and receives the news that Pelusium has opened its gates to Octavian without resistance.
• July 31 - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
• August 1 - Octavian Caesar captures Alexandria. This marks the official annexation of Ancient Egypt to the Roman Republic.
• Cleopatra evacuates her court and treasury to Berenice on the west coast of the Red Sea, but king Malchus of Nabatea attacks from the desert and burns the Egyptian ships.
• August 10 or 12 - With the death of Cleopatra and the execution of her son Caesarion, the Ptolemaic dynasty, the last of Ancient Egypt, comes to an end. The first year of Octavian's reign in Egypt.
• The children of Cleopatra are spared by Octavian and taken back in triumph; Octavia Minor raises Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphus in her household in Rome.
• Octavian claims Cleopatra's treasure in the mausoleum at the Taposiris Magna ; he pays the salaries of his veteran legionaries and gives them land in Italy.

  Asia

• Possible date of composition of the Tirukkuṛaḷ, attributed to Thiruvalluvar.
• First possible date for the invention of the wheelbarrow in history; as the 5th century Book of the Later Han states that the wife of the once poor and youthful imperial censor Bao Xuan of the Chinese Han dynasty helped him push a lu che back to his village during their feeble wedding ceremony, around this year.