Directory

196 BCE

Empress Lü and Prime Minister Xiao He of the Han dynasty have the former General-in-Chief Han Xin executed, suspecting that he was planning a rebellion in cooperation with the rebel Chen Xi. Flamininus accuses the Spartan ruler, Nabis, of tyranny, takes Gythium in Laconia and forces Nabis to surrender Argos. According to the Roman scholar and writer Marcus Terentius Varro, the foundation of a library at Pergamum around this time by Eumenes II of Pergamum, combined with an embargo on papyrus by Ptolemy V, leads to the invention of parchment.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Antiochus III's army crosses the Hellespont into Thrace, where he claims sovereignty over territory that has been won by Seleucus I in 281 BC. A war of harassment and diplomacy with Rome ensues. The Romans send ambassadors demanding that Antiochus stay out of Greece and set free all the autonomous communities in Anatolia. To meet these demands would mean Antiochus III giving up the western part of his Seleucid Empire. Thus Antiochus refuses the Romans' demands.source
  • At the Isthmian Games at Corinth, the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus proclaims that all Greeks are to be free and governed by their own laws. For this deed he is hailed in many Greek cities as a saviour and accorded homage alongside the gods.source

Conflict & Security

  • Empress Lü and Prime Minister Xiao He of the Han dynasty have the former General-in-Chief Han Xin executed, suspecting that he was planning a rebellion in cooperation with the rebel Chen Xi.source
  • The king of Huainan, Ying Bu, fearing execution, rebels against the Han dynasty. Gaozu and Cao Shen crush the rebellion but Gaozu is wounded by an arrow, and his health subsequently deteriorates.source
  • Flamininus accuses the Spartan ruler, Nabis, of tyranny, takes Gythium in Laconia and forces Nabis to surrender Argos.source
  • A Han army defeats a raid on the northern frontier by the rogue Xin of Han. Xin is killed in battle.source
  • Emperor Gaozu of Han and his generals, including Cao Shen and Zhou Bo, defeat the rebellion of Chen Xi.source
  • The Insubres, Gauls of the Po Valley, believed by the Romans to have been incited to revolt by Carthage, are finally defeated.source
  • Gaozu sends Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue in present-day Vietnam and southern China, a seal recognizing his rulership in return for his nominal submission to the Han. Zhao Tuo accepts his vassal status.source
  • Gaozu deposes the king of Liang, Peng Yue, on suspicion of conspiracy. He is then executed on the orders of Empress Lü.source

Religion & Belief

  • A new category of Roman priests, the tresviri epulones, are elected to supervise the feasts of the gods; the first three men selected are Gaius Licinius Lucullus, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Laeca.source

Crime & Justice

  • Increasingly paranoid, Gaozu briefly arrests Prime Minister Xiao He but is persuaded to release him.source

Culture & Society

  • The first triumphal arch built in Rome.source
  • According to the Roman scholar and writer Marcus Terentius Varro, the foundation of a library at Pergamum around this time by Eumenes II of Pergamum, combined with an embargo on papyrus by Ptolemy V, leads to the invention of parchment.source

Deaths

  • Xin, Chinese king during the Warring States periodsource
  • Peng Yue, Chinese general of the Western Han dynastysource
  • Han Xin, Chinese general during the Chu–Han Contentionsource
  • Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Roman consul and censorsource