AD 56 (
LVI) was a
leap year starting on Thursday A leap year starting on Thursday is any year with 366 days (i.e. it includes 29 February) that begins on Thursday 1 January, and ends on Friday 31 December. Its dominical letters hence are DC. The most recent year of such kind was 2004 and the nex ...
(link will display the full calendar) of the
Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Saturninus and Scipio (or, less frequently, year 809 ''
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 ex ...
''). The denomination AD 56 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
* War between
Rome and
Parthia breaks out due to the invasion of
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
by King
Vologases I
Vologases I ( xpr, 𐭅𐭋𐭂𐭔 ''Walagash'') was the King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 51 to 78. He was the son and successor of Vonones II (r. 51). He was succeeded by his younger son Pacorus II, who continued his policies.
Name
...
, who has replaced the Roman-supported ruler with his brother
Tiridates I of Armenia. (approximate date)
*
Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus
Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus (died AD 66), Roman senator, who lived in the 1st century AD. Notable for his principled opposition to the emperor Nero and his interest in Stoicism, he was the husband of Arria, who was the daughter of A. Caecina ...
becomes a consul in
Rome.
Asian Calendar
* The ''Jianwu'' era of the Eastern
Han Dynasty changes to the ''Jianwuzhongyuan'' era.
Births
*
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
, Roman historian (approximate date)
Deaths
*
Lucius Volusius Saturninus, Roman politician and governor
[ Pliny the Elder, Natural History VII.62]
References
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0056