38 BC

38 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	38 BC XXXVIII BC
Ab urbe condita	716
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 286
- Pharaoh	Cleopatra VII, 14
Ancient Greek Olympiad (summer)	185th Olympiad, year 3
Assyrian calendar	4713
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−631 – −630
Berber calendar	913
Buddhist calendar	507
Burmese calendar	−675
Byzantine calendar	5471–5472
Chinese calendar	壬午年 (Water  Horse) 2660 or 2453     — to — 癸未年 (Water  Goat) 2661 or 2454
Coptic calendar	−321 – −320
Discordian calendar	1129
Ethiopian calendar	−45 – −44
Hebrew calendar	3723–3724
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	19–20
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	3063–3064
Holocene calendar	9963
Iranian calendar	659 BP – 658 BP
Islamic calendar	679 BH – 678 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	38 BC XXXVIII BC
Korean calendar	2296
Minguo calendar	1949 before ROC 民前1949年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1505
Seleucid era	274/275 AG
Thai solar calendar	505–506
Tibetan calendar	ཆུ་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Water-Horse) 89 or −292 or −1064     — to — ཆུ་མོ་ལུག་ལོ་ (female Water-Sheep) 90 or −291 or −1063

Year 38 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday or Monday or a leap year starting on Saturday, Sunday or Monday of the Julian calendar (the sources differ, see leap year error for further information) and a common year starting on Sunday of the Proleptic Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pulcher and Flaccus (or, less frequently, year 716 Ab urbe condita ). The denomination 38 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. It was also the first year (year 1) of the Spanish era calendar in use in Hispania until the 15th century.

Events

By place

Roman Republic

• January 1 – Beginning of the Hispanic era. ^[1]
• January 17 – Octavian marries Livia while she is still pregnant from a recently broken marriage. Octavian gained permission from the College of Pontiffs to wed her while she is still pregnant from another husband. ^{[2] [3]} Three months after the wedding she gives birth to a second son, Nero Claudius Drusus, while he and his elder brother, the four-year-old Tiberius, are living in Octavian's household.
• Octavian appoints Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where he puts down an uprising of the Aquitanians. He also fights successfully against the Germanic tribes, and becomes the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. ^[4]

Births

• January 14 – Nero Claudius Drusus, Roman politician and military commander, future stepson of Augustus Caesar (d. 9 BC)
• Lucius Volusius Saturninus, Roman suffect consul (or 37 BC)

Deaths

• Antiochus I, king of Commagene (b. c. 86 BC)
• Pacorus I, crown prince of Parthia (b. c. 63 BC)

References

1. Della Vida, G. Levi (1943). "The "Bronze Era" in Moslem Spain". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 63 (3): 183–191. doi:10.2307/593870. ISSN   0003-0279.
2. Herbert-Brown, Geraldine (2010). "Livia". In Gagarin, Michael (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 6, 2025.
3. Howatson, M. C., ed. (2011). "Lī'via". The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 6, 2025.
4. Richardson, Geoffrey Walter; Cadoux, Theodore John; Levick, Barbara M. (2003). "Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius". Who's Who in the Classical World. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 6, 2025.