Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	3rd century BC 2nd century BC 1st century BC
Decades:	200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC
Years:	191 BC 190 BC 189 BC 188 BC 187 BC 186 BC 185 BC

Politics
188 BC by topic
State leaders Political entities
Categories
Births Deaths
v t e

188 BC in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	188 BC CLXXXVIII BC
Ab urbe condita	566
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 136
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy V Epiphanes, 16
Ancient Greek era	148th Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4563
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−780
Berber calendar	763
Buddhist calendar	357
Burmese calendar	−825
Byzantine calendar	5321–5322
Chinese calendar	壬子年 (Water Rat) 2510 or 2303 — to — 癸丑年 (Water Ox) 2511 or 2304
Coptic calendar	−471 – −470
Discordian calendar	979
Ethiopian calendar	−195 – −194
Hebrew calendar	3573–3574
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−131 – −130
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2913–2914
Holocene calendar	9813
Iranian calendar	809 BP – 808 BP
Islamic calendar	834 BH – 833 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2146
Minguo calendar	2099 before ROC 民前2099年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1655
Seleucid era	124/125 AG
Thai solar calendar	355–356
Tibetan calendar	阳水鼠年 (male Water-Rat) −61 or −442 or −1214 — to — 阴水牛年 (female Water-Ox) −60 or −441 or −1213

Year 188 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Salinator (or, less frequently, year 566 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 188 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

Greece

The leader of the Achaean League, Philopoemen, enters northern Laconia with his army and a group of Spartan exiles. His army demolishes the wall that the former tyrant of Sparta, Nabis, has built around Sparta. Philopoemen then restores Spartan citizenship to the exiles and abolishes Spartan law, introducing Achaean law in its place. Sparta's role as a major power in Greece ends, while the Achaean League becomes the dominant power throughout the Peloponnese.

Roman Republic

The continuing quarrels among the Greek cities and leagues increases the conviction in Rome that there will be no peace in Greece until Rome takes full control.
Through the peace treaty of Apamea (in Phrygia), the Romans force the Seleucid king, Antiochus III, to surrender all his Greek and Anatolian possessions as far east as the Taurus Mountains, to pay 15,000 talents over a period of 12 years and to surrender to Rome the former Carthaginian general Hannibal, his elephants and his fleet, and furnish hostages, including the king's eldest son, Demetrius. Rome is now the master of the eastern Mediterranean while Antiochus III's empire is reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran.

Asia Minor

Hannibal flees via Crete to the court of King Prusias I of Bithynia who is engaged in warfare with Rome's ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamum.
Following the peace of Apamea, Eumenes II receives the provinces of Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, Pisidia, and Pamphylia from his Roman allies, as the Romans have no desire to actually administer territory in Hellenistic Anatolia but want to see a strong, friendly state in Anatolia as a buffer zone against any possible Seleucid expansion in the future.

China

Following the death of Emperor Hui of Han, his mother Empress Lü makes Hui's son Emperor Qianshao of Han and appoints members of her clan as kings, thereby establishing her effective control over China.

Births

Jing of Han, emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty, who ruled from 157 BC (d. 141 BC)^[1]^[2]

Deaths

Hui of Han, the second emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty, who ruled from 195 BC (b. 210 BC)