170 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	3rd century BC – 2nd century BC – 1st century BC
Decades:	200s BC 190s BC 180s BC – 170s BC – 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC
Years:	173 BC 172 BC 171 BC – 170 BC – 169 BC 168 BC 167 BC

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

170 BC in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	170 BC
Ab urbe condita	584
Armenian calendar	N/A
Assyrian calendar	4581
Bahá'í calendar	-2013–-2012
Bengali calendar	-762
Berber calendar	781
English Regnal year	N/A
Buddhist calendar	375
Burmese calendar	-807
Byzantine calendar	5339–5340
Chinese calendar	庚午年 (2467/2527) — to — 辛未年 (2468/2528)
Coptic calendar	-453–-452
Ethiopian calendar	-177–-176
Hebrew calendar	3591–3592
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	-113–-112
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2932–2933
Holocene calendar	9831
Iranian calendar	791 BP – 790 BP
Islamic calendar	815 BH – 814 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	2164
Minguo calendar	2081 before ROC 民前2081年
Thai solar calendar	374

Year 170 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mancinus and Serranus (or, less frequently, year 584 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 170 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

By place

Greece

In Thessaly, King Perseus of Macedon repulses a Roman army which is commanded by Aulus Hostilius Mancinus. Meanwhile, the Thracian city of Abdera is sacked by Roman and Pergamese troops.

Egypt

With the guardians of the young king Ptolemy VI Philometor demanding the return of Coele-Syria to Egyptian control, the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, decides on a preemptive strike against Egypt and invades the country, conquering all but the city of Alexandria. He is also able to capture Ptolemy VI.
Antiochus IV decides to let Ptolemy VI continue as king of Egypt, but as his puppet. He does this to minimise any reaction from Rome towards his invasion. Antiochus IV then departs Egypt to deal with disturbances in Palestine, but he safeguards his access to Egypt with a strong garrison in Pelusium.
With Antiochus IV now absent from the country, the citizens of Alexandria choose Ptolemy VI's brother Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II as their king. The two Ptolemy brothers agree to rule Egypt jointly with their sister Cleopatra II and Coele Syria is invaded by the Egyptian forces.

Seleucid Empire

The usurped high priest of Judea, Jason, does not abandon his claims to being the high priest which he has lost to Menelaus two years earlier. While Antiochus IV is waging war against Egypt, he succeeds in making himself master of Jerusalem once more and forces Menelaus to seek refuge in the citadel.

Bactria

Around this time, Eucratides, who is either a rebellious Bactrian official or a cousin of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, captures the throne of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom by toppling the Euthydemid dynasty's king Antimachus I.

Births

Dionysios Thrax, a Hellenic grammarian who will live and work in Alexandria and later on Rhodes (d. 90 BC)
Lucius Accius (or Lucius Attius), Roman tragic poet and literary scholar (d. c. 86 BC)