138 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	3rd century BC – 2nd century BC – 1st century BC
Decades:	160s BC  150s BC  140s BC  – 130s BC –  120s BC  110s BC  100s BC
Years:	141 BC 140 BC 139 BC – 138 BC – 137 BC 136 BC 135 BC

138 BC by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

138 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	138 BC
Ab urbe condita	616
Armenian calendar	N/A
Assyrian calendar	4613
Bahá'í calendar	-1981–-1980
Bengali calendar	-730
Berber calendar	813
English Regnal year	N/A
Buddhist calendar	407
Burmese calendar	-775
Byzantine calendar	5371–5372
Chinese calendar	壬寅年 (2499/2559) — to — 癸卯年 (2500/2560)
Coptic calendar	-421–-420
Ethiopian calendar	-145–-144
Hebrew calendar	3623–3624
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	-81–-80
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2964–2965
Holocene calendar	9863
Iranian calendar	759 BP – 758 BP
Islamic calendar	782 BH – 781 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	2196
Minguo calendar	2049 before ROC 民前2049年
Thai solar calendar	406

Year 138 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Serapio and Callaicus (or, less frequently, year 616 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 138 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

Parthia

• Phraates II becomes Emperor of Parthia.

Asia

• Zhang Qian begins his explorations in central Asia for Chinese emperor Han Wu Di.
• The first Chinese diplomatic mission to the Ferghana valley, led by Chang Chien, is sent.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• Hymn to Apollo is written and inscribed on stone in Delphi; it is the earliest surviving notated music, in a substantial and legible fragment, in the western world.

Births

• Sulla, Roman politician (approximate date) (d. 78 BC)

Deaths

• Diodotus Tryphon (suicide)
• Mithridates I, King of Parthia (b. c. 195 BC)
• Attalus II Philadelphus, King of Pergamon (b. 220 BC)