259 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	280s BC 270s BC 260s BC – 250s BC – 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC
Years:	262 BC 261 BC 260 BC – 259 BC – 258 BC 257 BC 256 BC

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

**259 BC in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	259 BC
Ab urbe condita	495
Armenian calendar	N/A
Bahá'í calendar	-2102 – -2101
Bengali calendar	-851
Berber calendar	692
Buddhist calendar	286
Burmese calendar	-896
Byzantine calendar	5250 – 5251
Chinese calendar	[[Sexagenary cycle\|]]年 (2378/2438) — to — [[Sexagenary cycle\|]]年 (2379/2439)
Coptic calendar	-542 – -541
Ethiopian calendar	-266 – -265
Hebrew calendar	3502 – 3503
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	-202 – -201
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2843 – 2844
Holocene calendar	9742
Iranian calendar	880 BP – 879 BP
Islamic calendar	907 BH – 906 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	2075
Thai solar calendar	285

Events

Finding a willing ally in Antigonus II Gonatas, the king of Macedonia, who has had to deal with Ptolemy II's attempts to destabilise his kingdom, the Seleucid king Antiochus II starts the Second Syrian War against Ptolemy to avenge his father's losses.

The Carthaginians under Hamilcar take advantage of their victory at Thermae in Sicily by counterattacking the Romans and seizing Enna. Hamilcar continues south to Camarina, in Syracusan territory, to try and convince the Syracusans to rejoin the Carthaginian side.