Year 185 ( CLXXXV) was a

common year starting on Friday A common year starting on Friday is any non-leap year (i.e. a year with 365 days) that begins on Friday, 1 January, and ends on Friday, 31 December. Its dominical letter hence is C. The most recent year of such kind was 2021 and the next one will ...

(link will display the full calendar) of the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...

. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lascivius and Atilius (or, less frequently, year 938 ''

Ab urbe condita ''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...

''). The denomination 185 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the

Anno Domini The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...

calendar era A calendar era is the period of time elapsed since one ''epoch'' of a calendar and, if it exists, before the next one. For example, it is the year as per the Gregorian calendar, which numbers its years in the Western Christian era (the Coptic ...

became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

By place

Roman Empire

* Nobles of Britain demand that Emperor

Commodus Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...

rescind all power given to

Tigidius Perennis Sextus Tigidius Perennis (died 185) served as Praetorian Prefect under the Roman emperor Commodus. Perennis exercised an outsized influence over Commodus and was the effective ruler of the Roman Empire. In 185, Perennis was implicated in a plot ...

, who is eventually executed. *

Publius Helvius Pertinax Publius Helvius Pertinax (; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors. Born the son of a freed slave ...

is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the Roman Britain, British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers go on to attempt to assassinate the governor. *

, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against

. * Commodus drains Ancient Rome, 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.

China

* Zhi Yao (monk), 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 Rebellion, 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, Hebei Province.

By topic

Art and Science

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

Religion

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

Births

* Liu Ji (Three Kingdoms), Liu Ji (or Jingyu), Chinese official and minister (d. 233) * Origen, Christian scholar and Theology, theologian (approximate date) * Wang Xiang, Chinese minister of the Cao Wei state (d. 269)

Deaths

* April 21 – Apollonius the Apologist, Christian Apologetics, apologist * Pharasmanes III of Iberia, Pharasmanes III (or P'arsman), Georgian king of Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity), Iberia *

, Roman praetorian prefect (executed)

References

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