The year 678 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 76 Ab urbe condita . The denomination 678 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
- Phraortes becomes king of the Medes (according to the chronology proposed by Igor Diakonoff)
- Chu soldiers invade Zheng (according to the Zuo Zhuan)
- King Wen of Chu conquers the state of Deng.
- King Xi of Zhou used his royal clout to give legitimacy to Wu of Quwo as the rightful duke of Jin
- The state of Jin became the first to maintain a standing army
- Jin–Quwo wars end (739–678 BCE), dynastic struggles between two branches of Jin's ruling house
- Kaštaritu is mentioned as "King of the Medes" in an inscription
- According to Herodotus, Ecbatana was chosen as the Medes' capital by Deioces, the first ruler of the Medes.
- Deioces united the Median tribes of Media and made the first Iranian Empire.
- Chu had conquered most of the Nanyang Basin
- Nekauba becomes pharaoh of the twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt
November
- Two solar eclipses occur on the 1st and the 30th over the Penzhina Bay and the South Pacific Ocean respectively.
Deaths
- approximate date of death of Perdiccas I, king of Macedon
- Min, Marquis of Jin
- Duke Wu of Qin, ruler of the state of Qin, had 66 people sacrificed and buried with him
- Deioces