261 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	290s BC  280s BC  270s BC  – 260s BC –  250s BC  240s BC  230s BC
Years:	264 BC 263 BC 262 BC – 261 BC – 260 BC 259 BC 258 BC

261 BC by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

261 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	261 BC
Ab urbe condita	493
Armenian calendar	N/A
Assyrian calendar	4490
Bahá'í calendar	-2104–-2103
Bengali calendar	-853
Berber calendar	690
English Regnal year	N/A
Buddhist calendar	284
Burmese calendar	-898
Byzantine calendar	5248–5249
Chinese calendar	己亥年 (2376/2436) — to — 庚子年 (2377/2437)
Coptic calendar	-544–-543
Ethiopian calendar	-268–-267
Hebrew calendar	3500–3501
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	-204–-203
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2841–2842
Holocene calendar	9740
Iranian calendar	882 BP – 881 BP
Islamic calendar	909 BH – 908 BH
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	2073
Minguo calendar	2172 before ROC 民前2172年
Thai solar calendar	283

Year 261 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flaccus and Crassus (or, less frequently, year 493 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 261 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

Roman Republic

• The Romans, determined to win control of Sicily from Carthage, build a fleet based on the model of a captured Carthaginian quinquereme.

Seleucid Empire

• The new Seleucid king Antiochus II reaches an agreement with the king of Macedonia, Antigonus II Gonatas, to work together in trying to push Ptolemy II's fleet and armies out of the Aegean Sea. With Macedonia's support, Antiochus II launches an attack on Ptolemaic outposts in Asia Minor.