/year

The 50s BC

140 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 1st century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

59 BCE13 entries

  • Consuls: Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus (known in jest as "the consulship of Julius and Caesar" due to Bibulus' Social withdrawal from public view to "consult the heavens" in an effort to invalidate Caesar's intended legislation).
  • The First Triumvirate: Caesar, Pompey and Crassus form an unofficial alliance (or 60 BC).
  • Caesar makes the gazette Acta Diurna (Daily News) public. The Acta contains details of official decrees and appointments; births, deaths, and marriages. Even sport results—the outcome of the gladiatorial contests and chariot races at the capital.

58 BCE16 entries

  • June – Caesar defeats the migrating Helvetii in the Battle of the Arar (Saône).
  • July – Caesar decisively defeats the Helvetii in the Battle of Bibracte.
  • September – Caesar decisively defeats the Suebi led by King Ariovistus in the Battle of Vosges.

57 BCE12 entries

  • May – Battle of the Axona: Caesar defeats the forces of the Belgae under King Galba of the Suessiones.
  • July – Battle of the Sabis: Caesar defeats the Nervii, Roman forces are almost annihilated in an ambush.
  • September – The siege and capture of Aduatuca (modern-day Tongeren) by Caesar.

56 BCE10 entries

  • Clodia accuses her former lover Marcus Caelius Rufus of trying to poison her. The trial ends with the defendant acquitted thanks to the Pro Caelio speech of Cicero. There is no more reference to the formerly well-known Clodia.
  • The three Roman politician-generals of the First Triumvirate — Caesar, Pompey and Crassus — meet at the Luca Conference at the town of Luca (modern Lucca, in Tuscany), near Pisa, where they renewed their fraying political alliance, and further cemented the three men's increasing consolidation of power in the Roman Republic.
  • Autumn – Julius Caesar leads an attack on the Morini and the Menapii tribes of the Belgae on the North Sea. They withdraw into their forests, creating difficulties for Caesar's supply lines. The onset of bad weather forces him to pull back into Gallia Belgica.

55 BCE17 entries

  • May – Julius Caesar defeats a Germanic army and massacres the women and children near the Meuse and Rhine Rivers (now known as the city of Kessel in the Netherlands).
  • June – Julius Caesar crosses the Rhine River near modern-day Koblenz. He constructs a wooden bridge between Andernach and Neuwied (Germany).
  • August 22 or August 26 – Julius Caesar commands his first invasions of Britain, likely a reconnaissance-in-force expedition, in response to the Britons giving military aid to his Gallic enemies. Caesar retreats back to Gaul when the majority of his force is prevented from landing by storms.

54 BCE21 entries

  • July – Second of Caesar's Invasions of Britain: Julius Caesar receives nominal submission from the tribal chief Cassivellaunus and installs Mandubracius as a friendly king.
  • Pompey builds the first permanent theatre in Rome.
  • Crassus arrives in Syria as proconsul and invades the Parthian Empire, initiating the Roman–Persian Wars, which were to last nearly seven centuries.

53 BCE16 entries

  • May 6 – Battle of Carrhae: Romans defeated, and Crassus killed, by Parthians led by General Surena.
  • Crassus sacks the Temple of Hierapolis and the Temple in Jerusalem on his way to engage the Parthians.
  • Julius Caesar suppresses a revolt led by Ambiorix near Sabis (Northern Gaul).

52 BCE15 entries

  • March – Siege and capture of Avaricum (Bourges).
  • July – Battle of the Vingeanne: Julius Caesar rebuffs, with his German auxiliaries, a Gallic cavalry attack of Vercingetorix.
  • September – Battle of Alesia: Julius Caesar defeats the Gallic allies coming to aid Vercingetorix, led by his cousin Vercassivellanus. Vercingetorix surrenders on October 3, signalling the Roman conquest of Gaul. The final pacification of Gaul is completed the following year.

51 BCE11 entries

  • Pompey demands that Julius Caesar lay down his command before he can stand for consul.
  • Consuls: Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Servius Sulpicius Rufus.
  • by March 22 – Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes dies and is succeeded by his eldest surviving daughter Cleopatra VII and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII as co-rulers of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. By August 29, official documents start listing Cleopatra as sole ruler.

50 BCE9 entries

  • Initiation Rites of the Cult of Bacchus, detail of a wall painting in the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, is made (approximate date).
  • The Roman artillery piece called Scorpio is invented.
  • Consuls: Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus.