Pharnaces of Pontus, without waiting for the…

Ptolemy V Epiphanes, Macedonian ruler of Hellenistic Egypt for the past twenty-four years, retains existing alliances in Greece, but the Egyptian kingdom has declined in power and influence and has lost most of its empire outside Egypt other than Cyprus and Cyrenaica.

An able eunuch has been sent to recruit Greek mercenaries; but whatever the King's plans may have been, he dies suddenly in about May 181, possibly by poison, leaving two sons and a daughter.

His six-year-old elder son succeeds to the throne as Ptolemy VI (called Ptolemy Philometeor); his mother Cleopatra, the daughter of Antiochus III and Laodice, who had married Ptolemy V in 193, serves effectively as regent.

The Book of Sirach, also known as the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, is written in Hebrew by Ben Sirach, a Jew who had been living in Jerusalem, and who may have authored the work in Alexandria circa 180–175 BCE, where he is thought to have established a school.

The book, culminating in a long eulogy of the heroes of Israel, fuses traditional wisdom with the author’s esteem for Jewish law.

The book would later be included in the Septuagint; it is accepted as part of the biblical canon by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, but not by most Protestants, and is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.

Although it was not accepted into the Tanakh, the Jewish biblical canon, The Wisdom of Ben Sira is occasionally quoted in the Talmud and works of rabbinic literature.

The Greek Church Fathers also called it The All-Virtuous Wisdom, while the Latin Church Fathers, beginning with Cyprian, termed it Ecclesiasticus because it was frequently read in churches, leading to the title liber ecclesiasticus (Latin and Latinized Greek for "church book").

Today it is more frequently known as Ben Sira or simply Sirach. ("Ben Sirach" should be avoided because it is a mix of the Hebrew and Greek titles.)

Philopoemen's death leads to a change of leadership, as the pro-Roman Callicrates (regarded by Polybius as a sycophant) begins a policy of obeying Rome's every wish.

The central region of the Iberian peninsula, called Celtiberia, is officially conquered in 181 BCE by Quintus Fabius Flaccus, who bests the local Celtiberian people and claims control of several territories.

North Island’s Lake Taupo lies in a caldera created following a huge volcanic eruption approximately twenty-six thousand five hundred years ago.

According to geological records, the volcano has erupted twenty eight times in the last twenty-seven thousand years.

The largest eruption, known as the Oruanui eruption, which occurred around 26,500 Years Before Present in Late Pleistocene, ejected an estimated eleven hundred and seventy cubic kilometers of material and caused several hundred square kilometers of surrounding land to collapse and form the caldera.

The caldera later filled with water, eventually overflowing to cause a huge outwash flood.

Several later eruptions occurred over the millennia before the major eruption in 180 CE, the most recent.

Known as the Hatepe eruption, it is believed to have ejected one hundred cubic kilometers of material, of which thirty cubic kilometers was ejected in the space of a few minutes.

This is one of the most violent eruptions in the last five thousand years (alongside the Tianchi eruption of Baekdu at around 1000 and the 1815 eruption of Tambora), with a Volcanic Explosivity Index rating of 7.

The eruption column is twice as high as the eruption column from Mount St. Helens in 1980, and the ash turns the sky red over Rome and China.

Liu Heng is a son of Emperor Gao of Han and Consort Bo, later empress dowager.

When Emperor Gao of Han suppressed the rebellion of Dai, he had created Liu Heng Prince of Dai.

After Empress Dowager Lü's death in 180, the court officials eliminate the powerful Lü clan, and deliberately choose the Prince of Dai as the emperor, since his mother, Consort Bo, has no powerful relatives, and her family is known for its humility and thoughtfulness.

His nephew, Emperor Houshao, viewed as a mere puppet of Grand Empress Dowager Lü and suspected of not being actually a son of Emperor Wen's older brother Emperor Hui, is deposed and executed.

Emperor Wen’s reign brings a much needed political stability that will lay the groundwork for prosperity under his grandson Emperor Wu.

Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, starts an invasion of India from 180 BCE, a few years after the overthrow of the Mauryan empire by the Sunga dynasty.

Historians differ on the motivations behind the invasion.

Some historians suggest that the invasion of India was intended to show their support for the Mauryan empire, and to protect the Buddhist faith from the religious persecutions of the Sungas as alleged by Buddhist scriptures (Tarn).

Other historians have argued however that the accounts of these persecutions have been exaggerated (Thapar, Lamotte).

Apollodotus, a general with Demetrius of Bactria, becomes king of the western and southern parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, from Taxila in Punjab to the areas of Sindh and possibly Gujarat.

Reigning from as early as 180 or as late as 165 BCE, he maintains his allegiance to Demetrius.

Pantaleon, who reigns in Arachosia, some time between 190 BCE and 180 BCE, is one of the most enigmatic of the Greek kings in Bactria and India.

A younger contemporary or successor of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius, he is sometimes believed to have been his brother and/or subking.

He is the first Greek king to strike Indian coins, peculiar irregular bronzes which suggests he has his base in Arachosia and Gandhara and wants support from the native population.

The limited size of his coinage indicates a short reign.

Known evidence suggests that he is replaced by his (probable) brother or son Agathocles, by whom he is commemorated on a "pedigree" coin.

Some of his coins (as well as those of Agathocles and Euthydemus II) have another surprising characteristic: these kings are the first in the world to issue coins of copper-nickel (75/25 ratio) alloy, a technology that will not be developed in the West until the eighteenth century, but is known by the Chinese at this time, as some weapons from China’s Warring States Period are known to have been made from the copper-nickel alloy known as "white copper".

This suggests that exchanges of the metallic alloy, or possibly exchanges of technicians, are occurring at this time between China and the region of Bactria.

The practice of exporting Chinese metals, in particular iron, for trade is attested around this period.

Taxila, or Takshashila, in the western Punjab (today represented by the remains in the present Bhir Mound) had become a great Buddhist center of learning during the reign of Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire in eastern India.

Nonetheless, Taxila had briefly been the center of a minor local rebellion, subdued only a few years after its onset.

Two years after the assassination of the last Maurya emperor in 185, the Greco-Bactrian King Demetrius, who had succeeded his father Euthydemus around 200 BCE and conquered extensive areas in what now is eastern Iran and Afghanistan, led his troops across the Hindu Kush to conquer Gandhāra, the Punjab and the Indus valley, thus creating an Indo-Greek kingdom far from Hellenistic Greece.

It is generally considered that Demetrius ruled in Taxila (where many of his coins will be found in the archaeological site of Sirkap, on the opposite bank of the Tamranal River from Taxila.

The Indian records also describe Greek attacks on Saketa, Panchala, Mathura and Pataliputra.)

Demetrius I dies of unknown reasons, and the date 180 BCE is merely a suggestion aimed to allow suitable regnal periods for subsequent kings, of which there are to be several.

Even if some of them are co-regents, civil wars and temporary divisions of the empire are most likely.

The kings Pantaleon, Antimachus, Agathocles and possibly Euthydemus II rule after Demetrius I, and theories about their origin include all of them being relatives of Demetrius I, or only Antimachus.

Eventually, the kingdom of Bactria would fall to the able newcomer Eucratides, who in about 171 would uproot the Euthydemid dynasty of Greco-Bactrian kings and replace it with his own lineage.

Buddhism flourishes in the realms of the Bactrian kings.

The Sunga Empire's wars with the Indo-Greek Kingdom figure greatly in the history of this age, although the net result of these wars remains uncertain.

The Jews under the Syrian Seleucids are treated even more liberally than they had been under the Egyptian Ptolemids, being granted a charter to govern themselves by their own constitution, namely, the Torah.

Greek influence, however, is already becoming manifest.

Some of the twenty-nine Greek cities of Palestine attain a high level of culture.

The years from 188 BCE onward are lean years for the dynasty, because the war with Rome, which had ended in a complete Roman victory, had cost it not only almost the whole of Asia Minor but also a yearly indemnity of fifteen thousand talents.

Unsurprisingly, the first account of Seleucid rule in Palestine tells of an attempt by Heliodorus, the leading minister of Seleucus IV, to deprive the Second Temple in Jerusalem of its treasure.

His failure is soon ascribed to divine protection.

The apocryphal writer Jesus ben Sirach so bitterly denounces the Hellenizers in Jerusalem that he is forced by the authorities to temper his words.