48 BC

Year 48 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Rome

• Consuls: Gaius Julius Caesar, Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus.
• Civil War:
  • January 4—Caesar lands at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo).
  • March—Mark Antony joins Caesar.
  • April—Siege of Dyrrhachium.
  • May—Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, co-consul with Julius Caesar, destroys Caelius's magistrate's chair on his tribunal.
  • July 10—Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia; he retreats to Thessaly.
  • August 9—Battle of Pharsalus: Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. Pompey's army by and large pardoned.
  • September 28—Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt (may have occurred September 29, records unclear).
  • October—Julius Caesar reached Alexandria, city founded by Alexander the Great. He is met by an Egyptian delegation from Ptolemy XIII. The Egyptians offered him gifts: the ring of Pompey and his head.
  • Caesar is named consul for a period of five years.
  • Roman temple to Bellona on the Capitolinus outside Rome is burnt to the ground.
  • Siege of Alexandria, Queen Cleopatra VII returned to the palace rolled into a Persian carpet and had it presented to Caesar by her servant. The Egyptian princess only twenty-one years old becomes his mistress.
  • Pharnaces, King of Bosporus defeats the Caesarian Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus in the Battle of Nicopolis (or Nikopol).
  • December—Battle in Alexandria, Egypt between the forces of Caesar and his ally Cleopatra VII and those of rival King Ptolemy XIII of Egypt and Queen Arsinoe IV. The latter two are defeated and flee the city, but during the battle part of the Library of Alexandria catches fire and is burned down.

Asia

• Yuan becomes emperor of the Han Dynasty.

Births

• Lucius Calpurnius Piso, consul under Caesar Augustus (d. 32 AD)
• Consort Ban, Chinese concubine of Emperor Cheng of Han, also a female poet and scholar (d. 6 BC)

Deaths

• September 28—Pompey, Roman politician (assassinated) (b. 106 BC)
• Titus Annius Milo, Roman politician (died in exile)