288 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	310s BC  300s BC  290s BC  – 280s BC –  270s BC  260s BC  250s BC
Years:	291 BC 290 BC 289 BC – 288 BC – 287 BC 286 BC 285 BC

288 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	288 BC CCLXXXVII BC
Ab urbe condita	466
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 36
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy I Soter, 36
Ancient Greek era	123rd Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4463
Bengali calendar	−880
Berber calendar	663
Buddhist calendar	257
Burmese calendar	−925
Byzantine calendar	5221–5222
Chinese calendar	壬申年 (Water Monkey) 2409 or 2349     — to — 癸酉年 (Water Rooster) 2410 or 2350
Coptic calendar	−571 – −570
Discordian calendar	879
Ethiopian calendar	−295 – −294
Hebrew calendar	3473–3474
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−231 – −230
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2814–2815
Holocene calendar	9713
Iranian calendar	909 BP – 908 BP
Islamic calendar	937 BH – 936 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2046
Minguo calendar	2199 before ROC 民前2199年
Seleucid era	24/25 AG
Thai solar calendar	255–256

Year 288 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tremulus and Arvina (or, less frequently, year 466 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 288 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

Greece

• The Macedonian King, Demetrius Poliorcetes, faces a combined attack from Lysimachus and Phyrrhus, king of Epirus, after Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus form a coalition to block plans by Demetrius to invade Asia Minor. Ptolemy's fleet appears off Greece, inciting the cities to revolt.
• Athens revolts and Demetrius besieges the city. Pyrrhus takes Thessaly and the western half of Macedonia and, with the assistance of Ptolemy's fleet, relieves Athens from Demetrius' siege.
• After the Egyptian fleet participates decisively in the liberation of Athens from Macedonian occupation, Ptolemy obtains the protectorate over the League of Islanders, which includes most of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Egypt's maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean in the ensuing decades is based on this alliance.

Sicily

• Following the death of Agathocles, some of his disbanded mercenaries seize Messana in northeast Sicily and set up a society, calling themselves Mamertines (Sons of Mars). The city becomes a base from which they will ravage the Sicilian countryside.

Sri Lanka

• The Sri Maha Bodhi Sacred Fig tree is planted at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. This is the earliest known planting date for any planted tree still surviving.