120 BC

120 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	120 BC CXX BC
Ab urbe condita	634
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 204
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy VIII Physcon, 26
Ancient Greek Olympiad (summer)	165th Olympiad (victor )¹
Assyrian calendar	4631
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−713 – −712
Berber calendar	831
Buddhist calendar	425
Burmese calendar	−757
Byzantine calendar	5389–5390
Chinese calendar	庚申年 (Metal  Monkey) 2578 or 2371     — to — 辛酉年 (Metal  Rooster) 2579 or 2372
Coptic calendar	−403 – −402
Discordian calendar	1047
Ethiopian calendar	−127 – −126
Hebrew calendar	3641–3642
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−63 – −62
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2981–2982
Holocene calendar	9881
Iranian calendar	741 BP – 740 BP
Islamic calendar	764 BH – 763 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2214
Minguo calendar	2031 before ROC 民前2031年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1587
Seleucid era	192/193 AG
Thai solar calendar	423–424
Tibetan calendar	ལྕགས་ཕོ་སྤྲེ་ལོ་ (male Iron-Monkey) 7 or −374 or −1146     — to — ལྕགས་མོ་བྱ་ལོ་ (female Iron-Bird) 8 or −373 or −1145

Year 120 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Manilius and Carbo (or, less frequently, year 634 Ab urbe condita ) and the Third Year of Yuanshou. The denomination 120 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.

Osroene

Beginning of the kingdom Osroene. The end of the kingdom is in 244 AD.

Events

By place

Europe

• The Teutons and the Cimbri migrate south and west to the Danube valley where they encounter the expanding Roman Republic (approximate date).

Asia Minor

• Mithridates VI Eupator becomes king of Pontus. ^[1]

China

• Retaliating against the Han conquest of the Hexi Corridor in the previous year, the Xiongnu invade the provinces of Youbeiping and Dingxiang, killing or capturing over 1000 inhabitants. ^[2]

Births

• May 21 – Aurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar (d. 54 BC)
• Berenice III, reigning Queen of Egypt (d. 80 BC)
• Lucius Cornelius Sisenna, writer and politician (d. 67 BC)
• Verres, corrupt praetor (approximate date) (d. 43 BC)

Deaths

• Hipparchus, Greek astronomer and mathematician, on Rhodes (approximate date) (b. c. 190 BC)

References

1. Kerr, Anne; Wright, Edmund, eds. (2015). "Mithridates VI". A Dictionary of World History. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 21, 2025.
2. Qian, Sima. Records of the Grand Historian, Section: Xiongnu, Section: Wei Qing & Huo Qubing.