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Year 88 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sulla and Rufus (or, less frequently, year 666 Ab urbe condita) and the First Year of Houyuan. The denomination 88 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

Roman Republic

• The Social War ends with the defeat of the Italian allies by the Romans. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, age 50, becomes the first Roman commander to march on Rome with his army and to capture the city by force. This extraordinary act is prompted by his desire to maintain his proconsular command for the First Mithridatic War in Asia Minor.
• The First Roman Civil War starts with an uprising led by Gaius Marius, but the populares under the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus are crushed by the optimates under Sulla. Marius flees to Africa.
• First Civil War in Rome, between Marius and Sulla. Some Italian cities are destroyed: for instance, Forlì, rebuilt by the praetor Livius Clodius afterwards.
• The Dardani, Scordisci, and the Maedi attack the Roman province of Macedonia.

Greece

• May – King Mithridates VI of Pontus invades Greece. Defeating the Roman forces four times in succession, he conquers Bithynia, Phrygia, Mysia, Lycia, Pamphylia, Ionia and Cappadocia. The Roman province of Asia is dismantled. On the king's orders, the local authorities in every city of the province round up and put to death all resident Italians in a single day (App.Mith.§§85–91). Plutarch (Sulla 24.4) says that 150,000 are killed, other sources calculate a figure of 80,000 people.

Births

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Deaths

• Demetrius III Eucaerus, king of the Seleucid Empire
• Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Roman consul
• Lady Gouyi, mother of Zhao of Han (b. 113)
• Manius Aquillius, Roman consul and general
• Ptolemy X Alexander I, king (pharaoh) of Egypt
• Publius Sulpicius Rufus, Roman statesman
• Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur, Roman consul
• Quintus Poppaedius Silo, Italian tribe leader

References

1. Pompey, Command (p. 11). Nic Fields, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84908-572-4
2. Pompey, Command (p. 39). Nic Fields, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84908-572-4

• 88 BC