Year 159 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dolabella and Nobilior (or, less frequently, year 595 Ab urbe condita) and the Fifth Year of Houyuan. The denomination 159 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.

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• Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur, politician of the Roman Republic and an early authority on Roman law (d. 88 BC) (approximate date)

• Charops of Epirus, ruler of Epirus.
• Alcimus, high priest of Judea.
• Eucratides I, king of Bactria, who has reigned since around 170 BC.
• Eumenes II, king of Pergamon.^[1]
• Publius Terentius Afer (Terence), Roman comic dramatist, the author of six verse comedies that are long regarded as models of pure Latin (b. c. 195 BC) (approximate date).