AD 59

Coin of Nero and Agrippina the Younger

AD 59 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	AD 59 LIX
Ab urbe condita	812
Assyrian calendar	4809
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−535 – −534
Berber calendar	1009
Buddhist calendar	603
Burmese calendar	−579
Byzantine calendar	5567–5568
Chinese calendar	戊午年 (Earth Horse) 2756 or 2549     — to — 己未年 (Earth Goat) 2757 or 2550
Coptic calendar	−225 – −224
Discordian calendar	1225
Ethiopian calendar	51–52
Hebrew calendar	3819–3820
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	115–116
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	3159–3160
Holocene calendar	10059
Iranian calendar	563 BP – 562 BP
Islamic calendar	580 BH – 579 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	AD 59 LIX
Korean calendar	2392
Minguo calendar	1853 before ROC 民前1853年
Nanakshahi calendar	−1409
Seleucid era	370/371 AG
Thai solar calendar	601–602
Tibetan calendar	ས་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Earth-Horse) 185 or −196 or −968     — to — ས་མོ་ལུག་ལོ་ (female Earth-Sheep) 186 or −195 or −967

AD 59 (LIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Apronianus and Capito (or, less frequently, year 812 Ab urbe condita). The denomination AD 59 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

By place

Roman Empire

• March 23 – Emperor Nero orders the murder of his mother Agrippina the Younger. He tries to kill her through a planned shipwreck, but when she survives, he has her executed and frames it as a suicide.
• Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, Roman commander in the east, captures Tigranocerta in Mesopotamia. He installs Tigranes VI, a Cappadocian prince, as ruler of Armenia. For the next four years, a cohort from Legio VI Ferrata and Legio X Fretensis is stationed in the capital as bodyguard to the king, supported by fifteen hundred auxiliaries.
• Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus retires from the Roman Senate. He openly shows his disgust at the behaviour of Nero regarding the murder of Agrippina.
• Rioting breaks out between the people of Pompeii and the people of Nuceria during a gladiator fight in Pompeii. Thousands are killed.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• In the Satyricon, Petronius pokes fun at Roman immorality.
• An eclipse on 30 April over North Africa is recorded by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History.

Religion

• Paul the Apostle pleads his case and testifies to his Christianity before King Agrippa II of the Herodians, who responds "You almost persuade me to be a Christian."

Deaths

• March 23 – Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero (b. AD 15)
• Domitia Lepida the Elder, granddaughter of Mark Antony
• Gnaeus Domitius Afer, Roman politician and orator
• Servilius Nonianus, Roman consul and historian