180s

This is a list of events occurring in the 180s, ordered by year.

180

By place

Roman Empire

• The Quadi are chased westwards, deeper into Germania. The Praetorian prefect, Tarutenius Paternus achieved a decisive victory against the Germanic tribes.
• March 17 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies after a week's illness at his camp in Vindobona (modern Vienna). He is succeeded by his son Commodus (age 18).
• The Era of the Five Good Emperors ends.
• Rome creates a 4-mile wide buffer zone by the Danube.
• Work begins in Rome on the building of the Column of Marcus Aurelius.
• 180–395 – Late Empire in Rome.
• Porta Nigra is built in Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier).
• Northern Brits from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern-day England causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.

Europe

• The Goths reach the banks of the Black Sea.

China

• This year is often suggested as the first year of the Three Kingdoms period of China.

Oceania

• Lake Taupo erupts, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• In his Methodus Medendo, Greek physician Galen describes the connection between paralysis and the severing of the spinal cord.
• Galen's popular work on hygiene is published.

Religion

• July 17 – Twelve Christian inhabitants of Scillium in Numidia are executed in Carthage (also in North Africa) (known as the Scillitan Martyrs) – they had refused to swear an oath to the Emperor.
• Commodus creates an official cult of the Zoroastrian god Mithra.

181

By place

Roman Empire

• Imperator Lucius Aurelius Commodus and Lucius Antistius Burrus become Roman Consuls.
• The Antonine Wall is overrun in Britannia.

Oceania

• The volcano associated with Lake Taupo in New Zealand erupts, one of the largest on Earth in the last 5,000 years. The effects of this eruption are seen as far away as Rome and China.^[1]

182

By place

Roman Empire

• Marcus Petronius Sura Mamertinus and Quintus Tineius Rufus become Roman Consuls.
• Emperor Commodus escapes death at the hands of assassins, who have attacked him at the instigation of his sister Lucilla and a large group of senators. He puts many distinguished Romans to death on charges of being implicated in the conspiracy, Lucilla is exiled to Capri.

183

By place

Roman Empire

• An assassination attempt on Roman Emperor Commodus by members of the Senate fails.

184

By place

Roman Empire

• The Antonine Wall in Britannia is permanently abandoned.

Asia

• The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Liang Province Rebellion break out in China.
• Zhang Jue leads the peasant revolt against Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Heading for the capital of Luoyang, his massive and undisciplined army (360,000 men), burns and destroys government offices and outposts.
• June – Emperor Ling placed his brother-in-law, He Jin, in command of the imperial army and sends Liu Bei to defeat the rebel forces in Runan. The army surrounds the rebels near the Yellow River and around Nanyang.
• Winter – The stronghold Wan city is besieged and captured. Zhang Jue dies due to illness, his brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang are defeated at Guanzhong. The Yellow Turbans are turned into a scattered bandit force.
• Last (6th) year of Guanghe era and start of Zhongping era of the Chinese Han Dynasty.
• King Gogukcheon (Gaonanwu) of Goguryeo (Gaogouli) pushes Han Dynasty armies all the way back to Liaodong.
• Beolhyu of Silla ascends the throne.

185

By place

Roman Empire

• Nobles of Britain demand that Commodus rescind all power given to Tigidius Perennis who was eventually executed.
• Publius Helvius Pertinax is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers went on to attempt to assassinate the governor.
• Tigidius Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus.
• Emperor Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to support his pleasures. He participated as a gladiator and boasts of victory in 1,000 matches in the Circus Maximus.

Asia

• Reign in India of Vasudeva, Kushan emperor.
• Zhi Yao, a Kushan Buddhist monk of Yuezhi ethnicity, translates Buddhist texts into the Chinese language during the Han Dynasty.
• February – The rebels of the Yellow Turban are defeated by the imperial army, but only two months later, the rebellion breaks out again. It spreads to the Taihang Mountains on the western border of Hebei Province.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• Cleomedes discovers the refraction of light by the Earth's atmosphere.
• A supernova now known as SN 185 is noted by Chinese astronomers in the Astrological Annals of the Houhanshu, making it the earliest recorded supernova.

Religion

• Irenaeus writes that there are only four Gospels (approximate date).

186

By place

Roman Empire

• Peasants in Gaul stage an anti-tax uprising under Maternus.
• Attempted assassination of Roman governor Pertinax by British usurpers.

New Zealand

• The Hatepe volcanic eruption extends Lake Taupo and makes skies red across the world.

187

By place

Roman Empire

• Lucius Septimius Severus, (born in Leptis Magna), is named legate of Lyonnais (Gaul).
• Septimius Severus marries a Syrian princess Julia Domna (age 17), she is the youngest daughter of high-priest Julius Bassianus, a descendant of the Royal House of Emesa. Her elder sister is Julia Maesa.
• Another plague hits Rome.
• Clodius Albinus defeats the Chatti, a highly organized German tribe that controlled the area that includes the Black Forest.

Asia

• Rebellion of Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju. First case of Wuhuan soldiers within the Chinese army joining a rebellion.

By topic

Religion

• Olympians succeeds Pertinax as Patriarch of Constantinople.

188

By place

Roman Empire

• Publius Helvius Pertinax becomes proconsul of Africa.

Asia

• Queen Himiko (aka, Pimiko) is said to have begun her reign in Japan.
• Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun are defeated by Han forces under Liu Yu.

189

By place

Roman Empire

• Plague (possibly smallpox) kills as many as 2,000 people per day in Rome. Farmers are unable to harvest their crops and food shortages bring riots in the city.

Asia

• The Prince of Hongnong succeeds Emperor Ling as Chinese emperor of the Han Dynasty.
• Dong Zhuo has the Prince of Hongnong deposed and installs Emperor Xian as emperor.
• Two thousand eunuchs in the palace are slaughtered in a violent purge in Luoyang, the capital of Han.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• Galen publishes his "Treatise on the various temperaments" (aka On the Elements According to Hippocrates).

Religion

• Pope Victor I succeeds Pope Eleuterus as the fourteenth pope, the first from Africa.
• Demetrius of Alexandria becomes Patriarch of Alexandria.
• Pantaenus, who was sent by the bishop of Alexandria to India to preach Christianity, meets with little success.

Significant people

• Commodus, Roman Emperor

Births

Deaths

References