208 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	4th century BC – 3rd century BC – 2nd century BC
Decades:	230s BC  220s BC  210s BC  – 200s BC –  190s BC  180s BC  170s BC
Years:	211 BC 210 BC 209 BC – 208 BC – 207 BC 206 BC 205 BC

208 BC in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	208 BC CCVII BC
Ab urbe condita	546
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 116
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy IV Philopator, 14
Ancient Greek era	143rd Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4543
Bengali calendar	−800
Berber calendar	743
Buddhist calendar	337
Burmese calendar	−845
Byzantine calendar	5301–5302
Chinese calendar	壬辰年 (Water Dragon) 2489 or 2429     — to — 癸巳年 (Water Snake) 2490 or 2430
Coptic calendar	−491 – −490
Discordian calendar	959
Ethiopian calendar	−215 – −214
Hebrew calendar	3553–3554
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−151 – −150
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2894–2895
Holocene calendar	9793
Iranian calendar	829 BP – 828 BP
Islamic calendar	854 BH – 853 BH
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2126
Minguo calendar	2119 before ROC 民前2119年
Seleucid era	104/105 AG
Thai solar calendar	335–336

Year 208 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marcellus and Crispinus (or, less frequently, year 546 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 208 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 under Publius Cornelius Scipio defeat the Carthaginians under their commander Hasdrubal Barca at Baecula (Bailen) in Baetica. As a result, Hasdrubal Barca decides to cross the Pyrenees with his remaining troops into Transalpine Gaul, with the intention of joining his brother Hannibal in Italy.
• The Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus is killed in battle while fighting Hannibal inconclusively near Venusia, Apulia.
• Hannibal destroys a Roman force engaged in the siege of Locri Epizephyri.

Seleucid Empire

• Antiochus III advances into Bactria, which is ruled by the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I, and again meets with success. After resisting a siege of his capital Bactra (Balkh) by the Seleucids, Euthydemus obtains an honourable peace by which Antiochus promises Euthydemus' son Demetrius the hand of one of his daughters.

China

• The Chinese general Zhang Han of the Qin Dynasty pacifies a peasant rebellion led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, and then lays siege to the rebel city of Julu.

Deaths

• Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Roman general who has captured Syracuse during the Second Punic War and has become known as "the sword of Rome" (b. 268 BC)
• Li Si, Chinese philosopher and politician (assassinated) (b. 280 BC)