167 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	3rd century BC – 2nd century BC – 1st century BC
Decades:	190s BC 180s BC 170s BC – 160s BC – 150s BC 140s BC 130s BC
Years:	170 BC 169 BC 168 BC – 167 BC – 166 BC 165 BC 164 BC

167 BC by topic
Politics
State leaders – Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
Births – Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments – Disestablishments

Events

King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, believing Judea to be in revolt, returns to there after the failure of his Egyptian campaign and orders his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they meet and to slay those who have taken refuge in their houses. In the space of three days, 80,000 are lost in Jerusalem, 40,000 meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.^[1]
The Jewish priest Mattathias of Modi'in defies the king Antiochus IV's decrees aimed at hellenizing the Jews and specifically defies the order that Jews should sacrifice to Zeus. Mattathias slays a Syrian official and escapes into the Judean hills with his five sons and begins a revolt against Seleucid control of Judea.

Private documents collected by the Romans when they capture Perseus of Macedon incriminate political leaders of the Achaean League. Many influential Greeks are deported to Rome.
On his way back to Rome, the Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paulus is ordered by the Roman Senate to inflict a brutal revenge on Epirus for being an ally of Macedonia. Seventy towns in Epirus are destroyed and at least 100,000 citizens are sold into slavery. These actions take place despite the fact that Epirus has not aided Perseus in his war with Rome.

Lucius Aemilius Paulus returns to Italy with the King of Macedonia, Perseus, as his prisoner for his triumphal procession in Rome, where the Macedonians captured are sold into slavery. The huge amount of booty brought home after the battle enriches Rome allowing the Government to relieve her citizens of direct taxation. As a gesture of acknowledgment for his achievements in Macedonia, the senate awards Lucius Aemilius Paulus the surname Macedonicus.

The Parthians capture the key central Asian city of Herat. This victory effectively chokes off the movement of trade along the Silk Road to China and means that the Hellenic kingdom of Bactria is doomed.