263 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	290s BC  280s BC  270s BC  – 260s BC –  250s BC  240s BC  230s BC
Years:	266 BC 265 BC 264 BC – 263 BC – 262 BC 261 BC 260 BC

263 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	263 BC CCLXII BC
Ab urbe condita	491
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 61
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 21
Ancient Greek era	129th Olympiad, year 2
Assyrian calendar	4488
Bengali calendar	−855
Berber calendar	688
Buddhist calendar	282
Burmese calendar	−900
Byzantine calendar	5246–5247
Chinese calendar	丁酉年 (Fire Rooster) 2434 or 2374     — to — 戊戌年 (Earth Dog) 2435 or 2375
Coptic calendar	−546 – −545
Discordian calendar	904
Ethiopian calendar	−270 – −269
Hebrew calendar	3498–3499
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−206 – −205
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2839–2840
Holocene calendar	9738
Iranian calendar	884 BP – 883 BP
Islamic calendar	911 BH – 910 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2071
Minguo calendar	2174 before ROC 民前2174年
Seleucid era	49/50 AG
Thai solar calendar	280–281

Year 263 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mesella and Crassus (or, less frequently, year 491 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 263 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 Romans under the consul Manius Valerius Messalla secure the alliance of Hiero II of Syracuse. The treaty with Rome restricts Hiero's kingdom to southeast Sicily and the eastern coast of Sicily as far as Tauromenium. From this date until his death, Hiero remains loyal to the Romans.
• The Romans capture Hadranum.

Greece

• Alexander II of Epirus attacks and conquers the greater part of Macedonia. However, he is then driven out of both Macedonia and Epirus by Demetrius II, the son of King Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia.
• The Athenians and Spartans, worn down by several years of war and the devastation of their lands, make peace with Antigonus II of Macedonia who thus retains his hold on Greece.
• Cleanthes succeeds Zeno of Citium in his Stoic School in Athens.

Asia Minor

• Eumenes I succeeds his uncle Philetaerus to the throne of Pergamum. As Philetaerus was a eunuch, he adopted his nephew Eumenes (the son of Philetaerus' brother also named Eumenes) as his successor.

Births

• Antigonus III Doson, king of Macedonia from 229 to 221 BC (d. 221 BC)

Deaths

• Philetaerus, founder (reigned from 282 BC) of the Attalid dynasty, a line of rulers of a powerful kingdom of Pergamum, in northwest Asia Minor (b. c. 343 BC)