5 BC
5 BC was a common year starting on Monday or Tuesday of the Julian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Proleptic Julian calendar. In the Roman world, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Sulla. The denomination 5 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
- March - Probable nova in the constellation Aquila.
- c. December - Probable supernova in the constellation Capricornus.
Births
- January 15 - Guang Wu, Chinese emperor of the Han Dynasty
- Aemilia Lepida, Roman noblewoman and fiancée of Claudius
- Domitia Lepida, daughter of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Antonia Major
- Lucius Vitellius the Elder, Roman consul and governor of Syria
- The birthdates of John the Baptist and Jesus are not generally known, but 5 BC is often assumed to be the date. The spring Passover feast has been cited as a possible date for the birth of Christ, assuming that this had relevance to being a Messiah claimant, or that his birthday might have been related to Passover. Others theologically tie his birth to Sukkot, the fall Feast of Tabernacles.
- * John the Baptist
- * Biblically between 16 September - 23 September - Jesus
- * as of a Church decision in 336AD 25 December - Jesus
Deaths
- Acme, Jewish slave and personal maid in the service of the Empress Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus
- Curia, Roman noblewoman and wife of Quintus Lucretius Vespillo