681 BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	8th century BC 7th century BC 6th century BC
Decades:	700s BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC
Years:	684 BC 683 BC 682 BC 681 BC 680 BC 679 BC 678 BC

681 BC in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	681 BC DCLXXXI BC
Ab urbe condita	73
Ancient Egypt era	XXV dynasty, 72
- Pharaoh	Taharqa, 10
Ancient Greek era	24th Olympiad, year 4
Assyrian calendar	4070
Balinese saka calendar	N/A
Bengali calendar	−1273
Berber calendar	270
Buddhist calendar	−136
Burmese calendar	−1318
Byzantine calendar	4828–4829
Chinese calendar	己亥年 (Earth Pig) 2017 or 1810     — to — 庚子年 (Metal Rat) 2018 or 1811
Coptic calendar	−964 – −963
Discordian calendar	486
Ethiopian calendar	−688 – −687
Hebrew calendar	3080–3081
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	−624 – −623
- Shaka Samvat	N/A
- Kali Yuga	2420–2421
Holocene calendar	9320
Iranian calendar	1302 BP – 1301 BP
Islamic calendar	1342 BH – 1341 BH
Javanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	N/A
Korean calendar	1653
Minguo calendar	2592 before ROC 民前2592年
Nanakshahi calendar	−2148
Thai solar calendar	−138 – −137
Tibetan calendar	阴土猪年 (female Earth-Pig) −554 or −935 or −1707     — to — 阳金鼠年 (male Iron-Rat) −553 or −934 or −1706

The year 681 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 73 Ab urbe condita . The denomination 681 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.

Events and trends

By place

Middle East

• King Sennacherib of Assyria is assassinated by one or two of his sons in the temple of the god Ninurta at Kalhu (Northern Mesopotamia) after a 24-year reign in which he defeated the Babylonians, made Nineveh (modern Iraq) a showplace, and diverted the waters of the Tigris River into a huge aqueduct to supply the city with irrigation.
• Sennacherib's second wife, Naqi'a (Zakitu), uses her wiles and influences to have the imperial council appoint her son Esarhaddon as her husband's successor in preference to the young man's two older brothers, who flee to Urartu (Armenia). Esarhaddon, unlike his father, is friendly toward Babylon and orders her reconstruction.

Asia

• Xi of Zhou becomes king of the Zhou Dynasty (China).

Deaths

• Sennacherib, king of Assyria