180s BC

This article concerns the period 189 BC – 180 BC.

Events

189 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Cato the Elder criticizes the consul Marcus Fulvius Nobilior for giving awards to Roman soldiers for doing ordinary tasks, such as digging wells.

Greece

• The defeat of Antiochus III by the Romans in the Battle of Magnesia robs the Aetolian League of its principal foreign ally and makes it impossible for them to stand alone in continued opposition to Rome. The League is forced to sign a peace treaty with Rome that makes it a subject ally of the Republic. Although the League continues to exist in name, the power of the League is broken by the treaty and it never again constitutes a significant political or military force.

Asia Minor

• The Romans under consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, along with a Pergamene army under Eumenes II, defeat the Galatians in Anatolia and make them subjects of Pergamum.
• The city of Philadelphia (now Alaşehir, Turkey) is founded by King Eumenes II of Pergamon. Eumenes names the city after his brother, Attalus, whose loyalty earns him the nickname, "Philadelphus", literally meaning "one who loves his brother".
• The territory of Artsakh first became known for being inhabited by Armenians-notably within the city of Tigranakert, one of four cities named after Tigranes the Great in the ancient Armenian empire.

188 BC

By place

Greece

• The leader of the Achaean League, Philopoemen, enters northern Laconia with his army and a group of Spartan exiles. His army demolishes the wall that the former tyrant of Sparta, Nabis, has built around Sparta. Philopoemen then restores Spartan citizenship to the exiles and abolishes Spartan law, introducing Achaean law in its place. Sparta's role as a major power in Greece ends, while the Achaean League becomes the dominant power throughout the Peloponnese.

Roman Republic

• The continuing quarrels among the Greek cities and leagues increases the conviction in Rome that there will be no peace in Greece until Rome takes full control.
• Through the peace treaty of Apamea (in Phrygia), the Romans force the Seleucid king, Antiochus III, to surrender all his Greek and Anatolian possessions as far east as the Taurus Mountains, to pay 15,000 talents over a period of 12 years and to surrender to Rome the former Carthaginian general Hannibal, his elephants and his fleet, and furnish hostages, including the king's eldest son, Demetrius. Rome is now the master of the eastern Mediterranean while Antiochus III's empire is reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran.

Asia Minor

• Hannibal flees via Crete to the court of King Prusias I of Bithynia who is engaged in warfare with Rome's ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamum.
• Following the peace of Apamea, Eumenes II receives the provinces of Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, Pisidia, and Pamphylia from his Roman allies, as the Romans have no desire to actually administer territory in Hellenistic Anatolia but want to see a strong, friendly state in Anatolia as a buffer zone against any possible Seleucid expansion in the future.

China

• Following the death of Emperor Hui of Han, his mother Empress Lü makes Hui's son Emperor Qianshao of Han and appoints members of her clan as kings, thereby establishing her effective control over China.

187 BC

By place

Seleucid Empire

• The Seleucid king, Antiochus III, attempts to collect tribute from a temple near Susa, Persia, where he was killed. He is succeeded by his son, Seleucus IV, who inherits an empire consisting of Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, western Iran.

Roman Republic

• Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus is elected tribune of the plebs, in which capacity he is recorded as having saved Scipio Africanus from prosecution by interposing his veto. Tiberius is no friend nor political ally of Scipio's, but feels that the general's services to Rome merit his release from the threat of trial like any common criminal. Supposedly, in gratitude for this action, Scipio betrothes his youngest daughter, Cornelia, to him.
• The construction of the Via Aemilia, a trunk road in the north Italian plains, running from Ariminum (Rimini), on the Adriatic coast, to Placentia (Piacenza) on the river Padus (Po), is completed.

Egypt

• Queen Cleopatra I is appointed Vizier (Chief Minister) to the King Ptolemy V Epiphanes.

186 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• The rapid spread of the Bacchanalia cult throughout the Roman Republic, which, it is claimed, indulges in all kinds of crimes and political conspiracies at its nocturnal meetings, leads to the Roman Senate issuing a decree, the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, by which the Bacchanalia are prohibited throughout all Italy except in certain special cases which must be approved specifically by the Senate.

Asia Minor

• Eumenes II of Pergamum defeats Prusias I of Bithynia.

China

• The first burial at the famous archaeological site of Mawangdui is made during the Western Han dynasty of China.

185 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• The Roman general Scipio Africanus and his brother Lucius are accused by Cato the Elder and his supporters of having received bribes from the late Seleucid king Antiochus III. Scipio defies his accusers, reminds the Romans of their debt to him, and retires to his country house at Liternum in Campania. However, Cato is successful in breaking the political influence of Lucius Scipio and Scipio Africanus.

Egypt

• The civil war between the northern and southern areas of Egypt ends with the arrest of Ankmachis by the Ptolemaic general Conanus.

India

• Pushyamitra Shunga assassinates the Mauryan emperor Brhadrata, which brings an end to that dynasty, after which he founds the Shunga dynasty.

184 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Cato the Elder, along with his colleague, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, are elected censors in Rome. Already the champion of the ancient, austere Roman way of life, Cato inaugurates a puritanical campaign. He aims at preserving the mos maiorum ("ancestral custom") and combating all Greek influences, which he believes are undermining the older Roman standards of morality. He passes measures taxing luxury and strictly revises the list of persons eligible for the Senate. Abuses by tax gatherers are brought under control, and public building is promoted as a worthy cause.
• With concerns rising in Rome over whether Philip V of Macedon is preparing for a new war with the Romans, Appius Claudius Pulcher is sent at the head of an embassy into Macedonia and Greece to observe Philip's activities.
• The town of Pisaurum is established by the Romans as a colony in the territory of the Piceni, a tribe living in the Marche on the Adriatic.
• The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, is completed in Rome by Cato the Elder during the time he is censor. The building is used by the Romans for transacting business and disposing of legal matters.

China

• Empress Lü has Emperor Qianshao of Han deposed and executed. Qianshao had vowed to kill his enemies after learning that his mother was a concubine and that she had been put to death by Empress Lü. Emperor Houshao of Han, a half-brother of Qianshao, ascends to the throne.
• Around this time, Empress Lü outlaws the trade of iron and horses with the vassal state of Nanyue in present-day Vietnam and southern China, being concerned by its military strength. In response, Nanyue's king Zhao Tuo ends his vassal status, declares himself emperor and attacks the neighbouring vassal kingdom of Changsha, seizing a few border towns.

183 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Roman colonies are established at Mutina (later Modena), Pisa and Parma in northern and central Italy.
• The Roman general Scipio Africanus dies at Liternum in Campania.
• The Roman statesman Titus Quinctius Flamininus is sent to the court of Prusias I, king of Bithynia, to demand the surrender of the former Carthaginian statesman and general Hannibal. When Hannibal finds out that Prusias is about to agree to the Roman demands and thus betray him, he poisons himself in the village of Libyssa in Bithynia.

Greece

• The town of Messene rebels against the Achaean League. When the Achaean League's general, Philopoemen, intervenes to try to control the rebellion, he is captured during a skirmish and imprisoned. He is then given poison to take so that he can die honourably.

182 BC

By place

Asia Minor

• The king of Bithynia, Prusias I Chlorus dies and is succeeded by his son, who rules as Prusias II.

181 BC

By place

Egypt

• Ptolemy V is poisoned after a reign of 24 years in which the Egyptian kingdom has declined in power and influence and has lost most of its empire outside Egypt other than Cyprus and Cyrenaica. The elder of his two sons, Ptolemy VI Philometor succeeds him, but since he is an infant, he rules under the regency of his mother Cleopatra the Syrian.

Roman Republic

• Rome founds a colony at Aquileia, on the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the lagoons, as a frontier fortress to check the advance of the Illyrians.

Asia Minor

• Pharnaces I of Pontus decides to attack both Eumenes II of Pergamum and Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia and therefore invades Galatia with a large force. Eumenes leads an army to oppose him, however, hostilities are soon suspended following the arrival of Roman deputies, who have been appointed by the Roman Senate to inquire into the matters in dispute. Negotiations take place at Pergamum but are inconclusive, with Pharnaces' demands being rejected by the Romans as unreasonable. As a consequence, the war between Pontus and Pergamum and Cappadocia is renewed.

China

• Empress Lü of the Han dynasty sends an army under Zhou Zao to attack the formerly vassal state of Nanyue in present-day Vietnam and southern China, but the heat and dampness causes many of Zhou's men to fall ill, and he fails to make it across the mountains into enemy territory.
• Nanyue's emperor Zhao Tuo attacks the other vassal kingdoms of Minyue, Western Ou and Luo and secures their submission. He also attacks the state of Changsha.

180 BC

By place

Greece

• After three years of intriguing against his younger brother Demetrius, including accusing him of coveting the succession to the Macedonian throne and being allied to Rome, Perseus persuades his father King Philip V of Macedon to have Demetrius executed.

Roman Republic

• Rome completes its subjugation of all of Italy with the defeat of the Ligurians in a battle near modern Genoa. Rome deports 40,000 Ligurians to other areas of the Republic.
• Lucca becomes a Roman colony.

Egypt

• Ptolemy VI Philometor, aged 6, rules as co-regent with his mother, Cleopatra I, who, although a daughter of a Seleucid king, does not take King Seleucus IV's side and remains on friendly terms with Rome.
• Following the death of Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus of Samothrace becomes librarian at Alexandria.

Bactria

• Demetrius I starts his invasion of present-day Pakistan, following the earlier destruction of the Mauryan dynasty by general Pushyamitra Shunga.
• Apollodotus I, a general with Demetrius I of Bactria, becomes king of the western and southern parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, from Taxila in Punjab to the areas of Sindh and possibly Gujarat. He maintains his allegiance to Demetrius I.

China

• September 26 – Lü Clan Disturbance. Following the death of Empress Lü, who had been the de facto ruler of the Han dynasty, the Lü Clan is overthrown and massacred by the imperial princes Liu Zhang and Liu Xiang, General-in-Chief Zhou Bo and Prime Minister Chen Ping.
• Fearing reprisals should the young Emperor Houshao and his brothers reach adulthood, the conspirators deny that Emperor Hui was the father of Houshao and his brothers. They overthrow the emperor, and despite the imperial pedigree of Liu Xiang as the son of the eldest son of Gaozu of Han, they eventually agree to elevate Gaozu's oldest surviving son, Emperor Wen, to the throne. After being evicted from the palace, Houshao is executed later in the year.
• Emperor Wen honours the relatives and ancestors of Zhao Tuo, the Chinese-born ruler of Nanyue (in present-day Vietnam and southern China). As a result, Nanyue returns to the Han dynasty as a vassal, although Zhao Tuo continues to call himself an emperor within his own kingdom.

Births

188 BC

• Jing of Han, emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty, who ruled from 157 BC (d. 141 BC)

187 BC

• Demetrius I Soter, king of Syria (approximate year)

186 BC

• Ptolemy VI Philometor, king of Egypt, who will reign from 180 BC (d. 145 BC)

185 BC

• Panaetius of Rhodes, Greek philosopher (d. 110 BC)
• Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, leading general and politician of the Roman Republic. As consul he will be the commander of the final siege and destruction of Carthage and will be the leader of the senators opposed to the Gracchi (d. 129 BC)

184 BC

• Liu Wu, Chinese prince of the Han dynasty (approximate date)

183 BC

• Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, consul in 138 BC, who will have a prominent part in the murder of Tiberius Gracchus by leading a group of conservative senators and other knights in opposition to Gracchus and his supporters (d. 132 BC).

182 BC

• Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt (d. 116 BC)

180 BC

• Apollodorus of Athens, Greek scholar and grammarian (d. c. 120 BC)
• Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, Roman consul (d. 113 BC)
• Viriathus, Lusitanian chieftain and general (d. 139 BC)

Deaths

189 BC

• Fan Kuai, Chinese general and politician of the Han dynasty (during the Chu-Han Contention)
• Liu Fei, Chinese prince and proclaimed king of the former Qi State (Zhou dynasty) (b. 221 BC)
• Zhang Liang, Chinese rebel and taoist, who has helped Liu Bang establish the Han dynasty (b. 262 BC)

188 BC

• Hui of Han, the second emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty, who ruled from 195 BC (b. 210 BC)

187 BC

• Antiochus III the Great, Seleucid king of the Hellenistic Syrian Empire from 223 BC (b. c. 241 BC)

186 BC

• Li Cang, Marquis of Dai, buried in one of the Mawangdui

185 BC

• Brhadrata, Indian emperor, last ruler of the Indian Mauryan dynasty (from 197 BC)

184 BC

• Liu Gong, Chinese emperor of the Han dynasty (b. 193 BC)
• Titus Macchius Plautus, Roman comic dramatist, whose works, loosely adapted from Greek plays, established a truly Roman drama in the Latin language (b. c. 254 BC)

183 BC

• Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, Roman statesman and general, famous for his victory over the Carthaginian leader Hannibal in the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, which ended the Second Punic War and gave him the surname Africanus (b. 236 BC)
• Philopoemen, Greek general and statesman, strategos of the Achaean League on eight occasions and a major figure in the demise of Sparta as a Greek power (b. 253 BC)
• Hannibal, Carthaginian statesman, military commander and tactician, one of history's great military leaders, who has commanded the Carthaginian forces against Rome in the Second Punic War (b. 247 BC)

182 BC

• Prusias I Chlorus, king of Bithynia (b. c. 228 BC)

180 BC

• August 18 – Empress Dowager Lü, de facto ruler of the Chinese Han dynasty and wife of Emperor Gao (b. 241 BC)
• Aristophanes of Byzantium, Greek scholar, critic and grammarian, particularly renowned for his work in Homeric scholarship, but also for work on other classical authors such as Pindar and Hesiod. After early studies under leading scholars in Alexandria, he has been chief librarian since about 195 BC (b. 257 BC)
• Liu Hong, fourth emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty (b. 190 BC)
• Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Roman statesman, consul in 195 BC, censor in 183 BC and colleague of Cato the Elder
• Ptolemy V Epiphanes, king of Egypt (b. 210 BC)