130s BC

130s BC: events by year

Contents: 139 BC 138 BC 137 BC 136 BC 135 BC 134 BC 133 BC 132 BC 131 BC 130 BC

139 BC

By place

China

• Emperor Wu of Han sends an envoy into Bactria, Parthia and Ferghana.

Roman Republic

• The Lusitanian War ends when the rebellion collapses after the assassination of Viriathus by a Roman agent.

By topic

Astronomy

• Hipparchus makes a very precise determination of the length of the synodic month.

138 BC

By place

Parthia

• Phraates II becomes Emperor of Parthia.

Asia

• Zhang Qian begins his explorations in central Asia for Chinese emperor Han Wu Di.
• The first Chinese diplomatic mission to the Ferghana valley, led by Chang Chien, is sent.
• Han Dynasty China intervenes in a war between the Minyue and Eastern Ou during its expansion southward.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• Hymn to Apollo is written and inscribed on stone in Delphi; it is the earliest surviving notated music, in a substantial and legible fragment, in the western world.

137 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Slaves led by Eunus of Apamea in Sicily revolt against the Romans in an event called the First Servile War.
• Tiberius Gracchus, quaestor in Spain, observes that slave labor has displaced small freeheld farms.
• Valencia is founded.
• Numantine War begun, Quintus Pompeius and M. Papilius Laenas were defeated and disgraced by the Numantians in subsequent years.
• Q. Pompeius is brought to trial by Q.Metellus and others, but acquitted.

136 BC

By place

China

• Confucianism is adopted as the state religion in China by the emperor Wu Di.

135 BC

By place

Asia

• Han Dynasty China intervenes in a war between the Minyue and Nanyue during its expansion southward.
• A Han military campaign against the Dian Kingdom established a military commandery in the Yunnan region.

Bactria

• Menander I, King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom dies and is succeeded by Epander.

Roman Republic

• The First Servile War starts.^[1]

134 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Scipio Aemilianus, victor of Carthage, takes command in Spain against the Numantians. He recruits 20,000 men and 40,000 allies, including Numidian cavalry under Jugurtha. Scipio, an expert in sieges, builds a ring of seven forts and a ditch palisade before beginning the Siege of Numantia. The perimeter of the circumvallations is twice as long as that of the city. The river Durius (Douro), enables the defenders to be supplied by small boats.
• Caius Fulvius Flaccus, as consul, is sent against the slaves. Uprising of 4,000 slaves crushed at Sinuessa, in Campania. Slave uprisings repressed in Attic silver mines and on the island of Delos.

Judea

• John Hyrcanus becomes high priest and prince (ruler) of Judea, until 104 BC, following the murder of his father Simon Maccabaeus by Ptolemy the son of Abubus in 135 BC.

By topic

Astronomy

• Hipparchus discovers the precession of the equinoxes.
• Hipparchus creates a star catalogue.

133 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, as consul, is sent against the slaves in Italy. Gaius Marius serves under Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus at Numantia.
• Scipio Aemilianus captures Numantia,^[2] after a siege of eight months, suffering famine and pestilence. The remnant population of 4,000 citizens, surrender and set their city on fire. Thus ends the Numantine War.
• Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, is elected tribune of the people. He attempts to pass a law to redistribute the public land to benefit small landowners. Opposed by wealthier factions in the Roman Senate, he is killed by a group of Senators and their followers that same year.
• The Kingdom of Pergamum is deeded to Rome.

China

• June – A large army of the Han Dynasty, under commanders such as Li Guang, attempt to ambush the Xiongnu leader in the Battle of Mayi. The plot fails, and the battle is determined a draw.

132 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• The First Servile War ends when Publius Rupilius quelled the rebellion.
• The assassination of Tiberius Gracchus, which many historians marked as the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic.

Mexico

• The Late Formative (or pre-Classic) period of the Maya civilization begins.^[3]

131 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• Aristonicus of Pergamon leads an uprising against Rome, and consul Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianius is killed in the fighting.
• The Roman censor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus attempts to remove the tribune Gaius Atinius Labeo Macerio from the Senate, the angry Atinius drags him to be thrown off the Tarpeian Rock, and Metellus is only saved by the intervention of other senators.
• The tribune Gaius Papirius Carbo passes a measure allowing the use of secret ballots in legislative assemblies.
• For the first time in Roman history, both censors are plebeians (Metellus and Quintus Pompeius).
• First Acta Diurna appears in Rome around this time.

130 BC

Births

• 138 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman politician, dictator 82-79 BC (d. 78 BC) ^[4]
• 133 BC – Mithridates VI, King of Pontus^[5][6][7][8]

Deaths

• 137 BC – King Dutugemunu of Sri Lanka^[9][10]
• 135 BC – Simon Maccabaeus, of Judea^[11]
• 133 BC – Attalus III, king of Pergamon, leaving the kingdom to Rome^{[12][13][14][15]}

References