75 BC

By place

Roman Republic

• In Rome, the tribune Quintus Opimius speaks out against Sullan restrictions on the tribunate, in orations noted for sarcasm against conservatives.
• Cicero is quaestor in Western Sicily.
• Nicomedes IV of Bithynia bequeaths his kingdom to Rome on his death. Angered by the arrangement, Mithridates VI of Pontus declares war on Rome and invades Bithynia, Cappadocia and Paphlagonia, thus starting the Third Mithridatic War.
• Third Mithridatic War: M. Aurelius Cotta is defeated by Mithridates in the Battle of Chalcedon.

  Greece

• Julius Caesar travels to Rhodes to study under Apollonius Molon. On his way across the Aegean Sea, he is kidnapped by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in the Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa. The young Caesar is held for a ransom of twenty talents, but he insists they ask for fifty. After his release Caesar raises a fleet at Miletus, pursues and crucifies the pirates in Pergamon.

  By topic

Literature

• Start of Golden Age of Latin Literature.