54 BC
Year 54 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Appius and Ahenobarbus. The denomination 54 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
- Consuls: Appius Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.
- Fifth year of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars:
- * July - Second of Caesar's Invasions of Britain: Julius Caesar receives nominal submission from the tribal chief Cassivellaunus and installs Mandubracius as a friendly king.
- * Winter - Ambiorix revolts in Gaul. He joins with Catuvolcus in an uprising against the Roman army. Caesar's senior officers Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta and Quintus Titurius Sabinus are ambushed by the Eburones, and killed along with almost their entire forces.
- Pompey builds the first permanent theatre in Rome.
- Crassus arrives in Syria as proconsul and invades the Parthian Empire, initiating the Roman–Persian Wars, which were to last nearly seven centuries.
- Octavia the Younger and Gaius Claudius Marcellus marry.