80s BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	2nd century BC – 1st century BC – 1st century
Decades:	110s BC 100s BC 90s BC – 80s BC – 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC
Years:	89 BC 88 BC 87 BC 86 BC 85 BC 84 BC 83 BC 82 BC 81 BC 80 BC
80s BC-related categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments

80s BC: events by year

Contents: 89 BC 88 BC 87 BC 86 BC 85 BC 84 BC 83 BC 82 BC 81 BC 80 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Consuls: Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Porcius Cato.
• Social War:
  • Roman forces under Lucius Porcius Cato are defeated by the Italian rebels in the Battle of Fucine Lake, Cato is killed.
  • The Roman army of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo decisively defeats the rebels in the Battle of Asculum.
• Lex Plautia Papiria extends citizenship to all Italians who applied for it within 60 days. The new citizens are enrolled in eight designated tribes, to prevent domination of the assemblies.
• Lex Pompeia grants Latin rights to cities in Cisalpine Gaul.
• Cicero ends his service in the Roman army.

Asia Minor

• Mithridates VI of Pontus invades Bithynia and Cappadocia, thus the First Mithridatic War begins.

By place

Roman Republic

• The Social War ends with the defeat of the Italian allies by the Romans. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, age 50, becomes the first Roman commander to march on Rome with his army and to capture the city by force. This extraordinary act is prompt by his desire to maintain his consular command for the First Mithridatic War in Asia Minor.
• The First Roman Civil War starts with democratic uprising led by Gaius Marius, but the democrats under the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus are crushed by the conservatives under Sulla. Marius flees to Africa.
• First Civil War in Rome, between Marius and Sulla. Some Italian cities are destroyed: for instance, Forlì, rebuilt by the praetor Livius Clodius afterwards.
• The Dardani, Scordisci, and the Maedi attack the Roman province of Macedonia.

Greece

• May – King Mithridates VI of Pontus invades Greece. Defeating the Roman forces four times in succession, he conquers Bithynia, Phrygia, Mysia, Lycia, Pamphylia, Ionia and Cappadocia. The Roman province of Asia is dismantled. On the king's orders, the local authorities in every city of the province round up and put to death all resident Italians — men, women and children — in a single day (App.Mith.§§85–91). Plutarch (Sulla 24.4) says that 150,000 are killed, other sources calculate a figure of 80,000 people.

By place

Roman Republic

• Lucius Cornelius Cinna is elected consul of Rome, thus returning the rule of Rome back to the democrats.
• Sulla arrives in Greece and besieges Athens. He orders Lucius Licinius Lucullus to raise a fleet from Rome's allies around the eastern Mediterranean.
• Ostia is razed by Gaius Marius as he comes back from Africa with an army to take Rome by force.

Asia

• March 29 – Emperor Han Wudi dies after a 54-year reign in which he leads the Han Dynasty (China) through its greatest expansion, the Empire's borders span from modern Kyrgyzstan in the west, to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south.

By topic

Technology

• Antikythera mechanism manufactured.

By place

Roman Republic

• First Mithridatic War
  • March 1 – Sulla captures Athens from the Pontic army, removing the tyrant Aristion.
  • Lucius Licinius Lucullus decisively defeats the Mithridatic fleet in the Battle of Tenedos.
  • The Roman forces of Lucius Cornelius Sulla defeat the Pontic forces of Archelaus in the Battle of Chaeronea.
  • The Dardani ally with Pontus and are defeated by Sulla soon after

By place

Roman Republic

• First Mithridatic War: Lucius Cornelius Sulla again defeats Archelaus in the decisive Battle of Orchomenus.

By place

Roman Republic

• The First Mithridatic War comes to an end.

By place

Roman Republic

• Spring – Lucius Cornelius Sulla returns to Italy from his campaigns in Greece and lands with his legions unopposed at Brundisium. He defeats the popular forces of Gaius Norbanus in the Battle of Mount Tifata.
• Gnaeus Pompeius, age 22, raises on his own initiative a private army of three legions from his fathers veterans and clientalae in Picenum.
• Lucius Licinius Murena, the Roman governor of Asia, clashes with the Pontic forces of Mithridates VI, starting the Second Mithridatic War.
• A fire breaks out which burns down the Temple of Jupiter (Jupiter Capitolinus) and destroys the collection of Sibylline Books.

By place

Roman Republic

• Sulla defeats Samnite allies of Rome in the Battle of the Colline Gate, and takes control of Rome.
• Gaius Marius the Younger is besieged at the fortress city of Praeneste in Latium. After a fierce resistance, Marius committs suicide.
• Gnaeus Pompeius is ordered by Sulla to stamp out democratic rebels in Sicily and Africa, while the young Gaius Julius Caesar is acting as a subordinate of Sulla in the east.
• After his campaigns in Sicily and Africa, Pompeius gets the insulting nickname of adulescentulus carnifex, the "teenage butcher".

Dacia

• Burebista unifies the Dacian population forming the first (and biggest) unified Dacian kingdom, on the territory of modern Romania and surroundings. 82 BC is also the starting year of his reign.

By place

Roman Republic

• Sulla is appointed dictator and reforms the Roman government.
• The Second Mithridatic War ends with the status quo.
• Cicero wins his first case.

By place

Roman Republic

• Quintus Sertorius re-enter Iberia with a tiny army (2,600 men) and opens a successful campaign against the Sullan forces.
• Battle of the Baetis River: A force of Democratic exiles under Sertorius defeat the legal Roman army of Lucius Fulfidias in Hispania, starting the Sertorian War, Quintus Metellus Pius takes command on behalf of Sulla.

Egypt

• Ptolemy XII Auletes succeeds Ptolemy XI Alexander II to the throne of Egypt.
• Alexandria comes under Roman jurisdiction.

By topic

Art

• Roman artists begin to extend the space of a room visually with painted scenes of figures on a shallow stage or with a landscape or cityscape.

Literature

• Meleager publishes his Garland, the earliest known anthology of Greek poetry.