88 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	2nd century BC – 1st century BC – 1st century
Decades:	110s BC  100s BC  90s BC  – 80s BC –  70s BC  60s BC  50s BC
Years:	91 BC 90 BC 89 BC – 88 BC – 87 BC 86 BC 85 BC

88 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	88 BC LXXXVII BC
Ab urbe condita	666
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 236
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy IX Lathyros, 1
Ancient Greek era	173rd Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4663
Bengali calendar	−680
Berber calendar	863
Buddhist calendar	457
Burmese calendar	−725
Byzantine calendar	5421–5422
Chinese calendar	壬辰年 (Water Dragon) 2609 or 2549     — to — 癸巳年 (Water Snake) 2610 or 2550
Coptic calendar	−371 – −370
Discordian calendar	1079
Ethiopian calendar	−95 – −94
Hebrew calendar	3673–3674
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−31 – −30
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	3014–3015
Holocene calendar	9913
Iranian calendar	709 BP – 708 BP
Islamic calendar	731 BH – 730 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2246
Minguo calendar	1999 before ROC 民前1999年
Seleucid era	224/225 AG
Thai solar calendar	455–456

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). 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 prompt by his desire to maintain his consular command for the First Mithridatic War in Asia Minor.
• The First Roman Civil War starts with democratic uprising led by Gaius Marius, but the democrats under the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus are crushed by the conservatives 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 — men, women and children — 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.

Deaths

• Publius Sulpicius Rufus, Roman tribune (b. c. 121 BC)
• Mithridates II of Parthia