Ancient World
Battle of Pydna (168 BC): Rome Ends the Kingdom of Macedon
Decisive Roman victory; the Third Macedonian War ended and the Antigonid monarchy was abolished.
Region
Europe
Ancient World
Hipparchus (c. 150 BC): Star Catalogue and Precession Found
Hipparchus laid the foundations of quantitative Greek astronomy, including precession, a star catalogue and the first known chord tables.
Ancient World
Venus de Milo (c. 150 BC): The Hellenistic Aphrodite of Melos
The statue was bought by France, presented to Louis XVIII and placed in the Louvre in 1821, where it became one of the most famous ancient sculptures.
Ancient World
Antikythera Mechanism: The Ancient Greek Astronomical Computer
The oldest known geared device, it showed that Hellenistic Greeks could model the movements of the Sun, Moon and probably the planets mechanically.
Ancient World
Gundestrup Cauldron: The Silver Vessel of Celtic Gods
The cauldron became the largest known piece of European Iron Age silverwork and a key, though disputed, source for Celtic religious imagery.
Ancient World
Sack of Corinth (146 BC): Rome Destroys the Achaean League
Corinth was sacked and largely destroyed, the Achaean League was dissolved and southern Greece came under Roman control.
Ancient World
First Servile War (135-132 BC): The Slave Revolt in Sicily
Roman victory; the rebel strongholds of Tauromenium and Enna fell, Cleon was killed and Eunus died in captivity.
Ancient World
Siege of Numantia (134-133 BC): Last Stand in Celtiberia
Roman victory; Numantia surrendered after a long blockade, its people were enslaved or killed and the city was destroyed.
Ancient World
Gracchi Reforms (133-121 BC): Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
Both brothers were killed by political opponents, but their land commission redistributed public land and their methods shaped Roman politics until the fall of the Republic.
Ancient World
Cimbrian War (113-101 BC): Germanic Migrants Threaten Rome
After a decade of Roman defeats, Marius destroyed the Teutones at Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) and the Cimbri at Vercellae (101 BC), ending the threat to Italy.
Ancient World
Marian Reforms (107 BC): How Gaius Marius Changed the Legion
Roman legions increasingly recruited volunteers from the poor, became more uniform and professional, and looked to their generals for rewards.
Ancient World
Battle of Arausio (105 BC): Rome's Disaster Against the Cimbri
Decisive victory of the Cimbri and their allies; two Roman armies were destroyed, and Rome turned to Gaius Marius.