Emperor Wu of Han sends the diplomat
Zhang Qian west to form an alliance with the
Yuezhi against the
Xiongnu. Wu does this after learning from Xiongnu defectors that the Xiongnu had defeated and killed the king of the Yuezhi, had expelled the Yuezhi from their lands and were using their king's skull as a wine goblet. The Yuezhi had subsequently migrated further west.
Soon after his departure for the west, Zhang Qian is detained by
Junchen Chanyu of the Xiongnu. He would remain in Xiongnu custody for more than ten years and would be given a Xiongnu wife.[1]
Wei Zifu enters Emperor Wu's palace as a concubine and becomes pregnant. Enraged, Liu Piao, the mother of the childless Empress
Chen Jiao (wife of Emperor Wu), kidnaps Zifu's brother
Wei Qing, who is rescued by
Gongsun Ao. Wu responds by advancing the careers of members of the Wei family.[2]
Grand Empress Dowager Dou, the grandmother of
Emperor Wu of Han, purges the high administration of officials to consolidate her power. Among those dismissed are Prime Minister Dou Yong and her own half-brother, the General-in-Chief Tian Fen. Two of the young emperor's closest advisors, Zhao Wan and Wang Zang, are arrested and commit suicide.[3]
By topic
Arts and sciences
Hymn to Apollo is written and inscribed on stone in
Delphi; it is the earliest surviving notated music, in a substantial and legible fragment, in the
western world.
Scipio Aemilianus, victor of
Carthage, takes command in
Spain against the
Numantians. He recruits 20,000 men and 40,000 allies, including
Numidian cavalry under
Jugurtha. Scipio, an expert in sieges, builds a ring of seven forts and a ditch
palisade before beginning the
Siege of Numantia. The perimeter of the
circumvallations is twice as long as that of the city. The river Durius (
Douro), enables the defenders to be supplied by small boats.
Caius Fulvius Flaccus, as
consul, is sent against the
slaves. Uprising of 4,000 slaves crushed at
Sinuessa, in
Campania.[citation needed] Slave uprisings repressed in
Attic silver mines and on the island of
Delos.
Scipio Aemilianus captures Numantia,[12] after a siege of eight months, suffering
famine and
pestilence. The remnant population of 4,000 citizens, surrender and set their city on fire. Thus ends the
Numantine War.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, is elected
tribune of the people. He attempts to pass a law to redistribute the public land to benefit small landowners. Opposed by wealthier factions in the
Roman Senate, he is killed by a group of Senators and their followers that same year.
The Kingdom of
Pergamum is deeded to Rome,
Aristonicus starts a rebellion against this.
China
June – A large army of the
Han Dynasty, under the overall command of Han Anguo, attempts to ambush the
Xiongnu leader
Junchen Chanyu in the
Battle of Mayi. By pretending to betray the city of
Mayi, a Han official had lured Junchen onto Han soil. However, a captured Chinese officer tips off Junchen, and so he avoids the ambush. The episode abrogates the Xiongnu-Han treaty (called
heqin 和親 or "harmonious kinship") and marks the beginning of Emperor
Wu's Han-Xiongnu War.
Foreign Minister Wang Hui, who, against the opposition of Han Anguo, had advocated for war, fails to attack the retreating supply column of the Xiongnu and is sentenced to death. He commits suicide.[13]
^Hung, Hing Ming (2020). The Magnificent Emperor Wu: China's Han Dynasty. p. 135.
ISBN978-1628944167.
^Marvin Perry et al., eds. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (Cengage Learning, 2008) p135
^Mayor, Adrienne: "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy" Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009,
ISBN978-0-691-12683-8
^Duggan, Alfred: He Died Old: Mithradates Eupator, King of Pontus, 1958
^Ford, Michael Curtis: The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy, New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004,
ISBN0-312-27539-0
^McGing, B.C.: The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (Mnemosyne, Supplements: 89), Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, 1986,
ISBN90-04-07591-7 [paperback]
^Hansen, Esther V. (1971). The Attalids of Pergamon. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press; London: Cornell University Press Ltd.
ISBN0-8014-0615-3.
^Kosmetatou, Elizabeth (2003) "The Attalids of Pergamon," in Andrew Erskine, ed., A Companion to the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Blackwell: pp. 159–174.
ISBN1-4051-3278-7.
text
^Simon Hornblower and Tony Spawforth, Who's Who (Classical World), pg. 61.