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The 90s BC

89 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.

99 BCE6 entries

  • The Han general Li Guangli marches west from Jiuquan with 30,000 cavalrymen to attack the Tuqi King of the Right in the Tian Shan Mountains. After an initial victory, the Han are surrounded, and they lose more than 20,000 men while breaking out of the encirclement.
  • Autumn – The Han general Li Ling leads 5000 crack infantry and a cavalry force from Juyan Lake into the eastern Altay Mountains but is pursued by Qiedihou Chanyu. After a desperate fighting retreat across more than 500km of Xiongnu territory, the Han expedition runs out of arrows. Li Ling surrenders and his force disintegrates in the Tihan Mountains, about 50km from the Great Wall of China.
  • Emperor Wu of Han has the 'Grand Historian' Sima Qian castrated after the latter argues in defense of Li Ling's surrender.

98 BCE6 entries

  • Emperor Wu of Han sends the Han general Gongsun Ao on a mission to rescue general Li Ling from Xiongnu captivity. Gongsun achieves little but receives incorrect information that Li has been training Xiongnu soldiers. Enraged, Emperor Wu exterminates Li's clan.
  • The Senate passes the Lex Caecilia Didia, which bans omnibus bills.
  • Consuls: Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos and Titus Didius.

97 BCE11 entries

  • The censors, Flaccus and Antonius, remove M. Duronius from the senate because of his opposition to sumptuary laws.
  • Sujin becomes emperor of Japan (approximate date).
  • C. Decianus, the prosecutor of Furius, is himself condemned for his remarks about the death of Saturninus.

96 BCE9 entries

  • Consuls: Gaius Cassius Longinus and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus
  • Cyrene is left to the people of the Roman Republic by its ruler Ptolemy Apion.
  • Seleucus VI Epiphanes becomes king of the Seleucid Empire following the death of his father Antiochus VIII Grypus, and defeating in battle Antiochus IX Cyzicenus.

95 BCE7 entries

  • Philip I Philadelphus and Antiochus XI Ephiphanes succeeded as co-rulers after the deposition of Seleucus VI Epiphanes.
  • "Forty-metre structure" at Emain Macha (near modern Armagh, Northern Ireland) was built and destroyed, presumably for ritual or ceremonial purposes.
  • Consuls: Lucius Licinius Crassus and Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex

94 BCE6 entries

  • Approximate date – Nicomedes IV succeeds his father Nicomedes III as king of Bithynia.
  • The Shakas start to control northwest India.
  • Lucius Cornelius Sulla is elected praetor urbanus.

93 BCE3 entries

  • Roman consuls: Gaius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Herennius.
  • End of era Taishi of Emperor Wu of Han China.

92 BCE7 entries

  • 92 BC Levant earthquake, earthquake mentioned in catalogues of historical earthquakes. An earthquake and a tsunami reportedly affected areas of the Levant, including the modern states of Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Syria.
  • Consuls: Gaius Claudius Pulcher and Marcus Perperna.
  • Sulla repulses Tigranes of Armenia from Cappadocia.

91 BCE15 entries

  • Consuls: Sextus Julius Caesar and Lucius Marcius Philippus.
  • Emperor Wu of Han executes Prime Minister Gongsun He (the brother-in-law of Empress Wei Zifu) and his clan because Gongsun's son is accused of adultery with the emperor's daughter Princess Yangshi and witchcraft.
  • The tribune Marcus Livius Drusus proposes extending Roman citizenship to allied Italian cities, but is assassinated, leading to the Social War.

90 BCE19 entries

  • Corfinium in south-central Italy is the center of a rebellion against Rome.
  • Social War continues: Pompeius Strabo and Gaius Marius distinguish themselves.
  • Emperor Wu of Han sends three armies against the Xiongnu under General-in-Chief Li Guangli, Ma Tong and Shang Qiucheng, marching from Wuyuan, Jiuqian and Xihe respectively. An army of Central Asian vassals of Han, under Cheng Mian, captures the king of the vassal state of Jushi, who is suspected of treachery. The Xiongnu General-in-Chief and the former Han general Li Ling fight indecisively against Shang's army.