|Centuries:||1st century – 2nd century – 3rd century|
|Decades:||160s 170s 180s – 190s – 200s 210s 220s|
|Years:||194 195 196 – 197 – 198 199 200|
|197 by topic|
|State leaders – Sovereign states|
|Birth and death categories|
|Births – Deaths|
|Establishment and disestablishment categories|
|Establishments – Disestablishments|
|Ab urbe condita||950|
|Bahá'í calendar||−1647 – −1646|
|English Regnal year||N/A|
|Chinese calendar||丙子年 (Fire Rat)
2893 or 2833
— to —
丁丑年 (Fire Ox)
2894 or 2834
|Coptic calendar||−87 – −86|
|- Vikram Samvat||253–254|
|- Shaka Samvat||119–120|
|- Kali Yuga||3298–3299|
|Igbo calendar||−803 – −802|
|Iranian calendar||425 BP – 424 BP|
|Islamic calendar||438 BH – 437 BH|
|Minguo calendar||1715 before ROC
|Thai solar calendar||740|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to 197.|
Year 197 (CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 197 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.
- February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Decimus Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide, legionaries sack the town.
- Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius.
- Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. Soldiers embarked on an artificial canal between the Tigris and Euphrates.
- Legio I, II, and III Parthica are levied by Septimius Severus for his Parthian campaign.
- The Roman army marched east to repel a Parthian invasion of Mesopotamia, they loot the royal palace at Ctesiphon and capture an enormous number of its inhabitants as slaves.
- Septimius Severus reconstitutes the Province of Mesopotamia under an equestrian governor commanding two legions.
- Septimius Severus, who had spared the Senate at the beginning of his reign, now excludes it from controlling the Roman empire by declaring a military dictatorship.
Arts and sciences
- Galen's major work on medicines, Pharmacologia, is published.
- February 19 – Clodius Albinus, rival for Roman Emperor (b. 150)
- Cao Ang, first son of Cao Cao (b. 175)
- Cao Anmin, nephew of Cao Cao
- Dian Wei, bodyguard to warlord Cao Cao
- Guo Si, general under Dong Zhuo (b. 146)
- Huche'er, general under Zhang Xiu
- Li Jue, general under Dong Zhuo
- Liang Gang, general under Yuan Shu
- Qiao Rui, general during the Han Dynasty
- Yue Jiu, general during the Han Dynasty