150 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	3rd century BC – 2nd century BC – 1st century BC
Decades:	180s BC  170s BC  160s BC  – 150s BC –  140s BC  130s BC  120s BC
Years:	153 BC 152 BC 151 BC – 150 BC – 149 BC 148 BC 147 BC

150 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	150 BC CXLIX BC
Ab urbe condita	604
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 174
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy VI Philometor, 31
Ancient Greek era	157th Olympiad, year 3
Assyrian calendar	4601
Bengali calendar	−742
Berber calendar	801
Buddhist calendar	395
Burmese calendar	−787
Byzantine calendar	5359–5360
Chinese calendar	庚寅年 (Metal Tiger) 2547 or 2487     — to — 辛卯年 (Metal Rabbit) 2548 or 2488
Coptic calendar	−433 – −432
Discordian calendar	1017
Ethiopian calendar	−157 – −156
Hebrew calendar	3611–3612
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−93 – −92
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2952–2953
Holocene calendar	9851
Iranian calendar	771 BP – 770 BP
Islamic calendar	795 BH – 794 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2184
Minguo calendar	2061 before ROC 民前2061年
Seleucid era	162/163 AG
Thai solar calendar	393–394

Year 150 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flamininus and Balbus (or, less frequently, year 604 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 150 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

Carthage

• Scipio Aemilianus is sent by the Roman general, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, to Numidia to obtain some elephants from the Numidian king Masinissa, the friend of his grandfather Scipio Africanus. While there, he witnesses a great but indecisive battle between the Numidians and the Carthaginians. The latter then asks Scipio Aemilianus to arrange a settlement, but the negotiations break down.

Roman Republic

• The Roman Senate shows displeasure with Carthage's decision to wage war against its neighbour without Roman consent, and tells Carthage that in order to avoid a war it has to "satisfy the Roman People". The Roman censor, Cato the Elder, urges the destruction of Carthage and the Roman Senate orders the gathering of an army.

Seleucid Empire

• The pretender to the Seleucid throne, Alexander Balas, who claims to be the son of the late Antiochus IV, defeats the Seleucid king, Demetrius I Soter, in battle and kills him. The Roman Senate, along with Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamum and Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt, support Alexander Balas and he becomes the ruler of the Seleucid Empire. Demetrius I Soter's son, Demetrius, goes into exile in Crete.
• The new king of the Seleucid Empire, Alexander Balas, marries Cleopatra Thea, a daughter of Ptolemy VI Philometor of Egypt.

Asia Minor

• Nicomedes, the son of king Prusias II of Bithynia, who has been sent to Rome to argue for smaller reparations arising from his father's unsuccessful war against Pergamum, gains the support of the Roman Senate to the point where Prusias sends an emissary with secret orders to assassinate Nicomedes. However, the emissary reveals the plot to Nicomedes and persuades him to rebel against his father.
• Mithridates V Euergetes succeeds his uncle Mithridates IV Philopator Philadelphus as king of Pontus. He continues the strategy of maintaining an alliance with the Romans which was started by his predecessor.

Hispania

• The Romans, led by praetor Servius Sulpicius Galba, defeat the Lusitanians in a major battle in Hispania. He then breaks his promise to the defeated Lusitanian rebels by instituting a massacre of 9,000 of their number during the peace talks. Later 20,000 more Lusitanians are sold as slaves in Gaul.

By topic

Art

• The making of the statue Hellenistic Ruler begins and is finished ten years later. It is now kept at the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome.
• The making of the statue Aphrodite of Melos (also called Venus de Milo) begins and is finished 25 years later. It is discovered in 1820 and is now kept at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
• The enlargement of the Great Stupa of Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India begins, taking about 100 years.

Deaths

• Demetrius I Soter, Seleucid king of Syria from 162 BC (b. c. 187 BC)
• Mithridates IV Philopator Philadelphus, king of Pontus