6

Year 6 (VI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Roman Empire

• Herod Archelaus, ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea, is deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul.
• Iudaea and Moesia become Roman provinces; Syria is guarded by legions X Fretensis, III Gallica, VI Ferrata, and XII Fulminata.
• Augustus sets up a special treasury, the aerarium militare, to pay bonuses to retiring legion veterans.
• Tiberius makes Carnuntum his base of operations against Maroboduus; The Roman legion XX Valeria Victrix fights with Tiberius against the Marcomanni.
• The Pannonians, with the Dalmatians and other Illyrian tribes, revolt, only to be overcome by Tiberius after a hard-fought three year long campaign.
• The building of a Roman fort signifies the origin of the city of Wiesbaden.
• Caecina Severus is made governor of Moesia.
• Publius Sulpicius Quirinius becomes Governor of Syria and nominally of Judea.
• Quirinius conducts a census in Judea (according to Josephus), which results in a revolt in the province, led by Judas the Galilean, and supported by the Pharisee Zadok. The revolt is repressed, and the rebels are crucified, but it results in the birth of the Zealot movement, the members of which regard God as their only master.
• Due to a food shortage in Rome, Augustus doubles the corn rations distributed to the people.
• Due to a catastrophic fire in Rome, the barracks system is created to allow quicker response in the case of emergencies.
• Augustus banishes Agrippa Postumus, one of his adopted sons, to the island of Planasia.
• Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius become Roman consuls.
• Theophilus becomes Archon of Athens. There are no further records of Archons until after 23.

China

• January — Some Chinese fear for the life of the young, ailing Emperor Ping Di as the planet Mars disappears behind the moon this month.^[1]
• February 3 — the boy emperor, Ping Di dies of unexpected causes at age 14; Wang Mang alone selects the new emperor, the Ruzi Ying, age 2,^[1] starting the Jushe era of the Han Dynasty.
• Candidates for government office must take civil-service examinations.
• The imperial Liu clan suspect the intentions of Wang Mang and foment agrarian rebellions during the course of Ruzi Ying's reign. The first of these is led by Liu Chong, Marquess of Ang-Zong (a/k/a Marquis of An-chung), with a small force starting in^[1] May or June.

Births

• Jesus, usually considered the latest possible year of birth, based on the Quirinius census in that year (historicity questionable).
• Nero Caesar, son of Germanicus and Agrippina the elder (d. 30).
• Milonia Caesonia, Roman empress (d. 41).

Deaths

• February 3 – Ping, emperor of Han China (born 9 BC)
• Cleopatra Selene (II), Egyptian ruler of Cyrenaica and Libya (born 40 BC)
• Orodes III, briefly emperor of Parthia

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b c} Klingaman, William K., The First Century: Emperors, Gods and Everyman, 1990, p 66