272 BC

Year 272 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cursor and Maximus (or, less frequently, year 482 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 272 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.

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
Years:	275 BC 274 BC 273 BC 272 BC 271 BC 270 BC 269 BC

272 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	272 BC CCLXXII BC
Ab urbe condita	482
Ancient Egypt era	XXXIII dynasty, 52
- Pharaoh	Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 12
Ancient Greek era	127th Olympiad (victor)¹
Assyrian calendar	4479
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−864
Berber calendar	679
Buddhist calendar	273
Burmese calendar	−909
Byzantine calendar	5237–5238
Chinese calendar	戊子年 (Earth Rat) 2426 or 2219     — to — 己丑年 (Earth Ox) 2427 or 2220
Coptic calendar	−555 – −554
Discordian calendar	895
Ethiopian calendar	−279 – −278
Hebrew calendar	3489–3490
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−215 – −214
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2829–2830
Holocene calendar	9729
Iranian calendar	893 BP – 892 BP
Islamic calendar	920 BH – 919 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	2062
Minguo calendar	2183 before ROC 民前2183年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1739
Seleucid era	40/41 AG
Thai solar calendar	271–272
Tibetan calendar	阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) −145 or −526 or −1298     — to — 阴土牛年 (female Earth-Ox) −144 or −525 or −1297

Roman expansion in Italy from 500 BC to 218 BC through the Latin War (light red), Samnite Wars (pink/orange), Pyrrhic War (beige), and First and Second Punic War (yellow and green). The Roman Republic in 272 BC is marked with dark and light red, pink, orange and beige.

Events

By place

Seleucid Empire

• The Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter is defeated by Egypt's Ptolemy II during the First Syrian War. Ptolemy II annexes Miletus, Phoenicia and western Cilicia from Antiochus. As a result, Ptolemy II extends Egyptian rule as far as Caria and into most of Cilicia.

Egypt

• Egypt's victories solidify the kingdom's position as the undisputed naval power of the eastern Mediterranean; the Ptolemaic sphere of power now extends over the Cyclades to Samothrace, and the harbours and coastal towns of Cilicia Trachea, Pamphylia, Lycia and Caria.

Roman Republic

• Tarentum, a Greek city in Italy, makes peace with the Romans.
• Rome builds the aqueduct Anio Vetus on the Esquiline hill.
• Pyrrhus' departure from southern Italy three years earlier leads to the Samnites finally being conquered by the Romans. With the surrender of Tarentum, the cities of Magna Graecia in southern Italy come under Roman influence and become Roman allies. Rome now effectively dominates all of the Italian peninsula.

Greece

• Cleonymus, a Spartan of royal blood who has been outcast by his fellow Spartans, asks the King of Macedonia and Epirus, Pyrrhus, to attack Sparta and place him in power. Pyrrhus agrees to the plan, but intends to win control of the Peloponnese for himself. As a large part of the Spartan army led by king Areus I is in Crete at the time, Pyrrhus has great hopes of taking the city easily, but the citizens organise stout resistance, allowing one of Antigonus II's commanders, Aminias the Phocian, to reach the city with a force of mercenaries from Corinth. Soon after this, the Spartan king, Areus, returns from Crete with 2,000 men. These reinforcements stiffen Spartan resistance and Pyrrhus, finding that he is losing men to desertion every day, breaks off the attack and starts to plunder the country.
• As they plunder the countryside, Pyrrhus and his troops move onto Argos. Entering the city with his army by stealth, Pyrrhus finds himself caught in a confused battle with the Argives (who are supported by Antigonus' forces and a detachment from Sparta) in the narrow city streets. During the confusion an old woman watching from a rooftop throws a roof tile at Pyrrhus which stuns him, allowing an Argive soldier to kill him.
• Following his death in Argos, Pyrrhus is succeeded as king of Epirus by his son Alexander II while Antigonus II Gonatas regains his Macedonian throne which he has lost to Pyrrhus two years earlier.

India

• The Mauryan emperor, Bindusara, sends the Mauryan army to conquer the southern kingdoms. Kadamba is conquered.

Deaths

• Aristotimus, Greek tyrant of Elis (approximate date)
• Bindusara, emperor of the Mauryan Empire (b. c. 320 BC)
• Ptolemy, son of Pyrrhus of Epirus (b. 295 BC)
• Pyrrhus of Epirus, king of the Molossians (from c. 297 BC), Epirus (306–301 and 297–272 BC) and Macedon (288–284 and 273–272 BC); involved in disputes in southern Italy against Rome and in Sicily (b. 318 BC)