180s

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The 180s decade ran from January 1, 180, to December 31, 189.

• The Quadi are chased westwards, deeper into Germania. The Praetorian prefect, Tarutenius Paternus, achieves a decisive victory against the Germanic tribes.
• March 17 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies after a week's illness at his camp in Vindobona (modern Vienna). He is succeeded by his son Commodus (age 18).
• The Era of the Five Good Emperors ends.
• Rome creates a 4-mile wide buffer zone by the Danube.
• Work begins in Rome on the building of the Column of Marcus Aurelius.
• 180–395 – Late Empire in Rome.
• Northern British from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern-day England, causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.
• Cassius Dio arrives in Rome and becomes a Senator^[1]

• The Goths reach the banks of the Black Sea.

• Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe.

• In his Methodus Medendo, Greek physician Galen describes the connection between paralysis and the severing of the spinal cord.
• Galen's popular work on hygiene is published.

• July 17 – Twelve Christian inhabitants of Scillium in Numidia are executed in Carthage (also in North Africa) (known as the Scillitan Martyrs) – they had refused to swear an oath to the Emperor.
• Commodus creates an official cult of the Zoroastrian god Mithra.

• Imperator Lucius Aurelius Commodus and Lucius Antistius Burrus become Roman Consuls.
• The Antonine Wall is overrun by the Picts in Britannia (approximate date).

• The volcano associated with Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, one of the largest on Earth in the last 5,000 years. The effects of this eruption are seen as far away as Rome and China.^[2]

• Emperor Commodus escapes death at the hands of assassins, who have attacked him at the instigation of his sister Lucilla and a large group of senators.^[3] He puts many distinguished Romans to death on charges of being implicated in the conspiracy; Lucilla is exiled to Capri.^[4]

• The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Liang Province Rebellion break out in China.
• The Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions ends.
• Zhang Jue leads the peasant revolt against Emperor Ling of Han of the Eastern Han dynasty. Heading for the capital of Luoyang, his massive and undisciplined army (360,000 men), burns and destroys government offices and outposts.
• June – Ling of Han places his brother-in-law, He Jin, in command of the imperial army and sends them to attack the Yellow Turban rebels.
• Winter – Zhang Jue dies of illness while his brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang are killed in battles against Han imperial forces. The Yellow Turban rebels become scattered.
• Last (6th) year of Guanghe era and the start of Zhongping era of the Eastern Han dynasty.

• King Gogukcheon (Gaonanwu) of Goguryeo (Gaogouli) pushes Chinese armies back to Liaodong.
• Beolhyu becomes king of Silla.^[5]

• Nobles of Britain demand that Emperor Commodus rescind all power given to Tigidius Perennis, who is eventually executed.^[6]
• Publius Helvius Pertinax is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers go on to attempt to assassinate the governor.
• Tigidius Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus.
• Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to support his pleasures. He participates as a gladiator and boasts of victory in 1,000 matches in the Circus Maximus.

• Zhi Yao, a Kushan Buddhist monk of Yuezhi ethnicity, translates Buddhist texts into the Chinese language during the Han dynasty.
• February – The rebels of the Yellow Turban are defeated by the imperial army, but only two months later, the rebellion breaks out again. It spreads to the Taihang Mountains on the western border of Hebei Province.

• Cleomedes discovers the refraction of light by the Earth's atmosphere.
• A supernova now known as SN 185 is noted by Chinese astronomers in the Astrological Annals of the Houhanshu, making it the earliest recorded supernova.

• Irenaeus writes that there are only four Gospels (approximate date).

• Peasants in Gaul stage an anti-tax uprising under Maternus.
• Roman governor Pertinax escapes an assassination attempt, by British usurpers.

• The Hatepe volcanic eruption extends Lake Taupō and makes skies red across the world. However, recent radiocarbon dating by R. Sparks has put the date at 233 AD ± 13 (95% confidence).

• Septimius Severus marries Julia Domna (age 17), a Syrian princess, at Lugdunum (modern-day Lyon). She is the youngest daughter of high-priest Julius Bassianus – a descendant of the Royal House of Emesa. Her elder sister is Julia Maesa.^[7]
• Clodius Albinus defeats the Chatti, a highly organized German tribe that controlled the area that includes the Black Forest.

• Olympianus succeeds Pertinax as bishop of Byzantium (until 198).

• Publius Helvius Pertinax becomes pro-consul of Africa from 188 to 189.

• Queen Himiko (or Shingi Waō) begins her reign in Japan (until 248).

• Plague (possibly smallpox) kills as many as 2,000 people per day in Rome. Farmers are unable to harvest their crops, and food shortages bring riots in the city.

• Liu Bian succeeds Emperor Ling, as Chinese emperor of the Han dynasty.
• Dong Zhuo has Liu Bian deposed, and installs Emperor Xian as emperor.
• Two thousand eunuchs in the palace are slaughtered in a violent purge in Luoyang, the capital of Han.

• Galen publishes his "Treatise on the various temperaments" (aka On the Elements According to Hippocrates).

• Pope Victor I succeeds Pope Eleuterus as the fourteenth pope, the first from Africa.
• Demetrius of Alexandria becomes Patriarch of Alexandria.
• Pantaenus, who was sent by the bishop of Alexandria to India to preach Christianity, meets with little success.