196 BC

Year 196 BC the fifth year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Purpureo and Marcellus (or, less frequently, year 558 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 196 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.

Roman Republic

 * The Insubres, Gauls of the Po Valley, believed by the Romans to have been incited to revolt by Carthage, are finally defeated.
 * At the Isthmian Games at Corinth, the Roman general and pro-consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus proclaims that all Greeks are to be free and governed by their own laws. For this deed he is hailed in many Greek cities as a saviour and accorded homage alongside the gods.
 * Flamininus accuses the Spartan ruler, Nabis, of tyranny, takes Gythium in Laconia and forces Nabis to surrender Argos.

Anatolia

 * According to the Roman scholar and writer Marcus Terentius Varro, the foundation of a library at Pergamum around this time by Eumenes II of Pergamum, combined with an embargo on papyrus by Ptolemy V, leads to the invention of parchment.

Seleucid Empire

 * Antiochus III's army crosses the Hellespont into Thrace, where he claims sovereignty over territory that has been won by Seleucus I in 281 BC. A war of harassment and diplomacy with Rome ensues. The Romans send ambassadors demanding that Antiochus stay out of Greece and set free all the autonomous communities in Anatolia. To meet these demands would have meant Antiochus III giving up the western part of his Seleucid Empire. Thus Antiochus refuses the Romans' demands.

Deaths

 * Han Xin, general who served under Emperor Gaozu of Han
 * King Xin of Han, vassal ruler under Emperor Gaozu of Han