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Large Maya network found under Guatemala jungle

From BBC Headlines datelined 2-2-2018.

Researchers have found more than 60,000 hidden Maya ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough. Laser technology was used to survey digitally beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications. Many structures are thought to be stone platforms used for pole-and-thatch homes.

The landscape, near already-known Maya cities, is thought to have been home to millions more people than other research had previously suggested.

The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten. Archaeologists believe the cutting-edge technology will change the way the world will see the Maya civilisation.

"I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology," said Stephen Houston, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Brown University. Mr Houston told the BBC that after decades of work in the archaeological field, he found the magnitude of the recent survey "breathtaking". He added, "I know it sounds hyperbolic but when I saw the [Lidar] imagery, it did bring tears to my eyes."

Results from the research using Lidar technology, which is short for "light detection and ranging", suggest that Central America supported an advanced civilisation more akin to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China.

"Everything is turned on its head," Ithaca College archaeologist Thomas Garrison told the BBC. He believes the scale and population density has been "grossly underestimated and could in fact be three or four times greater than previously thought".

How does Lidar work? Described as "magic" by some archaeologists, Lidar unveils archaeological finds almost invisible to the naked eye, especially in the tropics. It is a sophisticated remote sensing technology that uses laser light to densely sample the surface of the earth Millions of laser pulses every four seconds are beamed at the ground from a plane or helicopter The wavelengths are measured as they bounce back, which is not unlike how bats use sonar to hunt The highly accurate measurements are then used to produce a detailed three-dimensional image of the ground surface topography

The group of scholars who worked on this project used Lidar to digitally remove the dense tree canopy to create a 3D map of what is really under the surface of the now-uninhabited Guatemalan rainforest. "Lidar is revolutionising archaeology the way the Hubble Space Telescope revolutionised astronomy," Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Tulane University archaeologist, told National Geographic. "We'll need 100 years to go through all [the data] and really understand what we're seeing."

Archaeologists excavating a Maya site called El Zotz in northern Guatemala, painstakingly mapped the landscape for years. But the Lidar survey revealed kilometres of fortification wall that the team had never noticed before. "Maybe, eventually, we would have gotten to this hilltop where this fortress is, but I was within about 150 feet of it in 2010 and didn't see anything," Mr Garrison told Live Science.

While Lidar imagery has saved archaeologists years of on-the-ground searching, the BBC was told that it also presents a problem. "The tricky thing about Lidar is that it gives us an image of 3,000 years of Mayan civilisation in the area, compressed," explained Mr Garrison, who is part of a consortium of archaeologists involved in the recent survey. "It's a great problem to have though, because it gives us new challenges as we learn more about the Maya." In recent years Lidar technology has also been used to reveal previously hidden cities near the iconic ancient temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Maya civilisation, at its peak some 1,500 years ago, covered an area about twice the size of medieval England, with an estimated population of around five million. "With this new data it's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there," said Mr Estrada-Belli, "including many living in low-lying, swampy areas that many of us had thought uninhabitable."

Most of the 60,000 newly identified structures are thought to be stone platforms that would have supported the average pole-and-thatch Maya home. The archaeologists were struck by the "incredible defensive features", which included walls, fortresses and moats. They showed that the Maya invested more resources into defending themselves than previously thought, Mr Garrison said.

One of the hidden finds is a seven-storey pyramid so covered in vegetation that it practically melts into the jungle. Another discovery that surprised archaeologists was the complex network of causeways linking all the Maya cities in the area. The raised highways, allowing easy passage even during rainy seasons, were wide enough to suggest they were heavily trafficked and used for trade. "The idea of seeing a continuous landscape, but understanding everything is connected across many square miles is amazing," said Mr Houston. "We can expect many further surprises," he added.

The Lidar survey was the first part of a three-year project led by a Guatemalan organisation that promotes cultural heritage preservation. It will eventually map more than 5,000 sq miles (14,000 sq km) of Guatemala's lowlands. The project's discoveries will feature in a Channel 4 programme called Lost Cities of the Maya: Revealed, airing in the UK on Sunday 11 February at 20:00 GMT. (Ends)

Circa 500AD: Egypt: Library of Alexandria is burned. Were Christians to blame?

500AD++: Appearance of inventions ... mouldboard plow, horse, crop rotation. Shaping/reshaping of feudal societies.

Circa 500AD: Indian mathematicians introduce the mathematical concept of zero (0).

500AD approx: Rise of the Kingdom of the Khazars?: The Khazars, a little-known kingdom of people in Turkey and/or Southern Russia, possibly descendants of Central Asian nomads, settle north-east of the Black Sea before 500AD, to become embattled with Arabs. The Khazars later felt pressed to convert to either Islam or Christianity - they asserted themselves by adopting Judaism, about 1000AD. Later they moved north into Middle-Eastern Northern Europe.

499AD: South America, which the Chinese called Fusang. The legend tells that in AD499, a Buddhist priest named Hoei-Sin ("Universal Compassion"), returned home from a land eight thousand nautical miles East of China. Fusang probably meant the maguey tree that grows only in Central and South America; it bears red fruit. Also, the legend says that there is no iron in Fusang.
(Item from Gavin Menzies, 1421, The Year China Discovered the World. 2002 - hardcover edition)

498AD: More to come

497AD: More to come

496AD: More to come

495AD: More to come

494AD: China: Severe drought ends about now, having begun about 440AD. Such drought may have led to a westward migration of peoples from Central Asia.

493AD: Defeat and death of Odovacar.

492AD: More to come

491AD: More to come

490AD: More to come

489AD: Iran: A large hospital is set up in Shushtar/Jundishapur, Iran, staffed by Christians expelled from Athens or Northern Turkey (Edessa). China's first permanent hospital was established in AD491 by Hsaio Tzu-Liang, a Buddhist prince of the southern Ch'i dynasty.

489AD: Large Buddhist temples built in China; Buddhists also use cave temples.

488AD: Eastern Goths are now under Theodoric (The Great), son of Theodemir. Theodoric is sometimes for, sometimes against the Eastern Roman Empire. In 488 he set out with a commission from Zeno to regain Italy from Odoacer. By 493 the East Gothic power is over Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia and lands north of Italy. Theodoric marries a daughter to the Visigothic king of France/Spain, Alaric II.

487AD: More to come

486AD: Clovis conquers Syagrius and the Romans in Gaul.

485AD: More to come

484AD: More to come

483AD: More to come

482AD: More to come

481AD: More to come

480AD: More to come

479AD: More to come

478AD: More to come

477AD: Death of Gaiseric.

476AD: Barbarians depose the last western emperor of Rome.

476AD: Last Roman emperor, a boy, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by Goths led by Odoacer (who is now king in Italy). Traditional date for end of Western Roman Empire.

476AD: Last nominal emperor of Rome is a boy, Romulus Augustulus, who is pensioned off by the barbarian general Odoacer, who proclaims himself king of Italy, who is soon overthrown by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. In general, with the Fall of Rome, in the territory between the Rhine estuary and the River Elbe, there is much infighting between German tribes, the Teutons and the Cimbri, Alemanni, Burgundii, the Franks and Lombards, Ostrogoths and Visigoths. Till matters become settled by Charlemagne.

475AD: Germanic Visigoths conquer most of Iberian population, their squabbles and apathy later leaving them open to Arab conquests from south across the Straits of Gibraltar.

474AD-491AD: Rome: Zeno is eastern emperor. From 474AD-475AD, Nepos is western emperor.

473AD-474AD: Rome: Glycerius is western emperor. Leo II is eastern emperor.

472AD: Rome: Olybrius is western emperor. Death of Ricimer.

471AD: More to come

475AD: More to come

474AD: More to come

473AD: More to come

472AD: More to come

4710AD: More to come

470AD: More to come

469: Huns suffer total defeat; Dengizi son of Atilla is killed. Ernak his brother is less ambitious. Huns remained between the Black Sea and the Danube in eastern area of modern Romania. Huns recede, are later mercenaries. Hun artefacts have been found in Beja in southern Portugal, in Granada, various parts of North Africa and in Gloucester, England. Re mercenaries' travels? Huns intermarried with the Bulgars, racially similar to the Huns, also culturally, and with Siberian and Iranian influences.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

468AD: More to come

467AD-472AD: Anthmius is western emperor.

466AD: Visigoth king is Euric (466-485). The kingdom of Toulouse takes in nearly all Gaul south of the Loire River and west of the Rhone, and all Spain except its north-west corner which is under the Suevi.

466AD: Huns send a delegation to Emperor Leo I who has succeeded Marcian. Huns desire a market town on the Danube, but Dengizik of Atilla's clan decides on war in 466-467 and in winter he leads an army across the frozen Danube.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

465AD: Barbarians, Huns from the North-West of India destroy the Roman Empire. From 465AD-467AD, there is no emperor in the west. Hephthalite Huns invade the Sassanian (Persian) Empire which was on the eastern fringe of the Roman Empire. in c.469AD. See Michael McCormick et al, 'Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLIII:2, Autumn 2012, pp. 169-220. (This journal pioneered the study of history and climate in 1979 - Ed)

464AD: More to come

463AD: More to come

462AD: More to come

461AD-465AD: Rome: Severus is western emperor.

460AD: More to come

459AD: More to come

458AD: More to come

457AD-461AD: Rome: Majorianus is western emperor. 457AD-474AD, Leo I is eastern emperor.

456AD: More to come

455AD-456AD: Rome: Avitus is western emperor. Ricimer is Master of the Soldiers.

455AD: Vandals have sacked Rome. By 476 the Western Roman Empire has fallen to barbarians. Justinian 1, emperor of Eastern Empire, resolves to reclaim lost territory.

454-455AD: Battle of Nedao River for Pannonia in 454-455. Huns are opposed by Gepids, Germanics and Iranians. Ellak is killed, the Gepids win. The Roman Marcian had given Ostrogoths lands in northern Pannonia, and in the east has settled Skirians and Heruls. In 469 the Ostrogoths took on the Gepids and won. More forced migrations then occurred. Gepids were forced as far west as Provence, where they were employed protecting the Ostrogoths against the Burgundians. Huns Dengizik and Ernak wanted to keep the lower Danube area.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

454AD: Christianity: Council of Chalcedon (subsequent split of Church into East and West.) Axum a kingdom of Arabia follows the lead of Copts in Egypt and adopts monophysite doctrines, a beginning of decline.

454AD: Rome: Aetius is assassinated. Ostrogoths are settled in Pannonia.

453AD: Death of Atilla the Hun. 453AD: 434AD-453AD: Years that Atilla rules the Huns.

434AD-453AD: Years that Atilla rules the Huns.

452AD: Atilla gets to Mantua area, where he is confronted by the Pope, Leo I, in summer of 452. Negotiators ask Atilla to refrain from taking Rome.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

452AD: In spring of 452 Atilla sets off for northern Italy, with an international force, including Germanics. Gets to the head of the Adriatic, to a city designed to keep away barbarians, Aquileia. Atilla lays it to siege, but it resists for months.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

452AD: Pope Leo I persuades Atilla the Hun not to sack Rome, and in 455AD Pope Leo I reduces some of the savagery of Genseric the Vandal. The Goths finally conquer Rome in 476AD.

Circa 450AD: Fifth Century: The Hungarians (unlike their Slavic neighbours) speak a language of the rare group known as Finno-Ugric - which still survives as Finnish. Despite claims of Hunnish descent, it is thought that they came from the Ural Mountains in Russia and migrated east, then south in contact with Turks and Iranians, taking on a nomadic-herding lifestyle. The word Hungary is though to have come from On Ogur ("ten arrows"), the name of a Magyar tribal confederation. In the Fifth Century AD the Magyars migrated - some west to the Don River, others south to the Caucasus Mountains.

Circa 450AD: Legend of this date that Buddhist monks reach shores of America, as recorded by Liang Shu - History of the Liang Dynasty. Story is that Hui Shen and five Afghan monks from Kabul go to Fusang Guo - The Country of the Extreme East - which may have been Mayan Mexico. At this time in Mayan art appear elements such as Buddhist and Hindu elements, eg, a classic lotus yoga pose. (Levathes, When China Rules The Seas)

450-451AD: Atilla has problem of winter conditions with a famine in 450-451 into 452. He takes Aquileia, completely destroys it, later it was re-sacked by the Lombards. Then Atilla moves west, on flat land near River Po, passes Milan, south to Pavia. No idea to take Ravenna, then capital of western empire. Aetius by now has lost the support of the Alans and the Visigoths. Some say, refugees from Atilla founded Venice, though people had been there long before.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

June 451AD: Battle of the Catalaunian Fields of Chalons, to the end of June 451. Ostrogoths fighting for Atilla are led by three brothers; the oldest is Walamir. The Huns attacked the Visigoths, the fighting is monstrous. Visigoth king Theodoric I dies and his son Thorismund takes over. Atilla's offensive fails, he decides to draw up his own funeral pyre rather than meet capture. Aetius decides to siege on Atilla's forces. Could the brothers of Thorismund not be trusted to divide their father's kingdom? Thorismund shies from the fight and returns to Toulouse. Maybe all up, the battles involved 30,000 - 50,000 men. Aetius stopped the fighting. Atilla returned to Hungary and continued his usual demands for tribute.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

7 April 451AD: Atilla lays siege to Metz on 7 April 451. Devastates the area. Atilla then advances through France. Rome has had held Gaul secure till coming of the Vandals, Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians. Atilla fights Aetius. Maybe Atilla follows the river beds for pasture, not the Roman roads. He probably seeks Toulouse, capital for Visigoths since 419AD and now under King Theodoric. Atilla is resisted strongly at Orleans by Aetius who uses Hun and Alani mercenaries. King of the Alans, Sangiban, had promised to give to Atilla the cities Arles and Orleans, a plan foiled by Aetius, who has brought a force over the Alps. Things turn on the decisions of the Visigoths led by Visigoth King Theodoric I, son of Alaric. Aetius leads the Alans (with king Sangiban), Burgundians, Franks, Saxons, plus Visigoths. Atilla has Ostrogoths, plus a rearguard of Gepids led by king Ardaric. The two rears of Atilla versus Aetius' armies have an "accidental fight", before the Battle of Chalons, perhaps, 7-8km west of Troyes.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

C5thAD: India: The C5th astronomer Aryabhata believes the earth is a sphere which rotates on its axis. Has idea that earth moves around the sun, and he also used a number system of nine digits plus zero (0), a sequence later used by Arabs. The Huns finally ruined the wealth of the Gupta Dynasty Buddhist merchants.
See Reader's Digest, History of Man: The Last Two Million Years. Sydney, The Reader's Digest Association, 1973-1974.

451ADl In 451, Atilla ("Scourge of God") might even invade Persia, as the Armenians are rising against the Persians, but these Armenians lose in 451. Atilla is proposed marriage by Honoria (lover of Eugenius, who is executed by Valentinian), daughter of Galla Placidia (who dies 450). Honoria is sent to Ravenna. Atilla has an army of Gepids, Ostrogoths, Skirians, Swabians and Alemans and advances into the Rhinelands to join forces with the Franks, crosses the Rhine, to follow the line of the Moselle. Atilla possibly takes Trier of the Moselle area, known as Roma Secunda, earlier sacked by the Franks in about 447.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

By about 450, Atilla decides to invade the Western Empire.

449AD: More to come

448AD: More to come

447AD: Atilla's own first war is in the Balkans. Then in 447 he tries for Constantinople, going further east than previously, avoiding fortifications on the way. He reduces Sofia. then on 26 January 447, Constantinople has disastrous earthquake which ruins the city walls, which have to be rebuilt, and four days and nights of continuous rain. A major battle takes place in Thrace. Atilla wins and destroys Marcianople, the largest city of Thrace. Then he has disease with his troops, so he does not move to Constantinople. Atilla raises the tribute he charges. He also demands a wide area around the lower Danube, which Constantine regarded as excessive. Emperor Theodosius II decides to put large numbers of Goths into Roman army. He invites Athanaric to see Constantinople. Meantime Atilla sends Skirian King Edika to Constantinople to treat, plus Orestes, father of a future Roman emperor. Edika is invited to assassinate Atilla. Atilla has demanded return of various Hun prisoners. Meetings follow, and Atilla wants peace along the eastern frontier of Rome. Atilla wants to look west, which is more vulnerable.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

446AD: More to come

445AD: More to come

444AD: More to come

443AD: More to come

442AD: More to come

441: Huns in 441 campaign to Margus, negotiate with the bishop there, then move south to take the birthplace of Constantine in Serbia, Nish or Naissius, Also take Sofia and Plovdiv (Philoppolis). Edirne (Hadrianople) also falls to Huns. Huns held out for a new treaty with Constantinople, their commander, Anatolius. By 441 Atilla is still dubious about fighting. In 443 his brother Bleda dies, why/how is a mystery for all time. Atilla is now undisputed king of Huns. He is a multiculturalist with secretary Constantius, from Italy, plus a former doctor named Eudoxius who had earlier led a peasant rising in Loire area of France. Plus two Hellenized brothers (did Atilla distrust the other Huns and they distrust him?). By now, Huns have wooden houses in villages. Huns take many slaves. As Huns take new territory, some people flee, some stay to become rural workers, as with Gepids. Huns are keen on gold objects. Almost nil is known of Hun language, and they did not write. One critic said they worshipped trees. Huns offered horses as burned offerings, perhaps to a deity known to have been respected earlier by the Hsiung-nu in Mongolia. Atilla strengthens central authority over Huns, and asks for support from Skirians (their king, Edika) and Gepids (their king, Ardaric).
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

440AD: Huns in 439 and 440 find wars break out for the empire on several fronts, in October 439 the Vandals occupy Carthage, in 440 the Vandals attack Sicily. Then the Persians attack Armenia. Bleda saw a chance to plunder the Balkans, breaking the treaty of Margus. Atilla has only a minor part in Bleda's campaign.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

439AD: Vandals from Spain arrive to Tunisia/Carthage.

438AD: Rome: The Theodosian Code is produced.

437AD: More to come

436AD: In 436 the Roman Aetius fights the Burgundians, who had come out from the Rhineland about Worms. Aetius crushes Gunther, king of the Burgundians; the Burgundians are given territory in Savoy/Geneva. Aetius has cause to turn to the Huns for support.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

435AD: Treaty of Margus of 435, allows Huns Atilla and Bleda to go from Balkans toward the Alps and the Rhine, campaigning against Germanic peoples.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

434: Hun leader Ruga dies in 434, succeeded by Bleda, who establishes in the Lower Tisza area. Atilla his brother goes further down the Danube to Bucharest area. When Ruga dies, Constantinople calls off earlier agreements and Bleda thought otherwise. A meeting held near Margus (see Bucharest), on Morava River which flows through Serbia. Constantinople agrees to double its tribute and not to ally with any Hun enemies, also to establish a free market on banks of Danube.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

433AD: Ireland: St Patrick (from England) kindles Christianity in Ireland.

432AD: More to come

431AD: More to come

430AD: More to come

429AD: Vandal invasion of Africa.

428AD: More to come

427AD: Rome: Aetius is Master of the Soldiers.

426AD: St Augustine completes writing his book on The City of God. (From Tom Holland, Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. London, Little Brown, 2008.)

425AD: More to come

424AD: More to come

423AD: Historians debate whether a real dark ages, ensues, or despite upheavals, is it a time of transformations and continuities? Frankopan sees rape, pillage and anarcy as Gothsm Alans, Vandals and Huns rampage. Literacy levels fall. Building in stone falls off, as does smelting work, long distance trade falls off. Peter Frankopans, pp, 49ff.

422AD and earlier: The first Hun to threaten Rome is Hun leader Balamber, who is shadowy, then Uldin, better-known (he begins to hold sons of powerful Romans hostage, including Aetius who later became a military leader and often encountered Atilla). With Huns plus Skirians, Uldin crosses the Danube. The next with a detailed life is Hun Ruga, a powerful king, with a brother named Munzduk who has sons Bleda and Atilla. In 422 Ruga sees the Romans withdraw to fight a threat from Persia, so he attacks along the lower Danube, then into Thrace. He settled with Theodosius II, exacting tribute. Aetius once asks Ruge to help him in Italy, and Aetius made a treaty in 433 whereby part of Pannonia is ceded to the Huns. The Huns now have a permanent home.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

420AD:In the 420s, Vandals, displaced by the Huns, settle in North Africa,at Carthage and surrounding provinces. See Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads.

419AD: Pre-Roman conquest of Gaul, capital of Visigoths is Toulouse from 419AD, later conquered by the Carolingians of Aquitaine. Wallia dies and is succeeded by Theodoric I (418-451).

418AD: Rome: Visigoths settle in Aquitania (Southern France)

417AD: More to come

418AD: More to come

416AD: More to come

415AD: Ataulf the Visigoth is murdered at Barcelona. He is succeeded as king by Wallia. Shortly the Roman province in Spain, Aquitaine Secunda, becomes the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse.

414AD: More to come

413AD: More to come

412AD: Visigoths enter Gaul.

411AD: With the Goths, Alaric is succeeded by Ataulf, brother-in-law of Alaric. In time the West Goths (Visigoths) will settle parts of Spain and southern France. Ataulf marries Placidia, daughter of emperor Theodosius.

410AD: Persia takes steps to regulate Christian beliefs and spread of Christianity. Persia holds conferences or this in 410AD, and again in 420 and 420AD. Problems arise of conflict between Christians and Zoroastrians. Nestorian "theology" arises.

410AD: Visigoths have raided the Balkans and Italy and in 410AD they sack Rome, and set up kingdoms in Southern France and Spain. Death of Alaric.

410AD: Alaric the Visigoth sacks Rome, and in the later 400 years is period of the formation of the idea of "western Europe". The Romans had relied on the loyalty of their alliances with the barbarian Germans to their northern borders for security, but these Germans themselves came under attack - from the Huns.

410AD: Britain: Rome abandons its British colonies. (Did remaining Romans become "dark age chieftains"?)

410AD: Visigoths with Alaric capture Rome, and this third time he sacks Rome. (Alaric dies in 410.)

410AD: Alaric invades Rome in 410 but does not sack it. Negotiations: Could the Goths have some territory, eg, Venice, or its hinterlands, Slovenia and eastern Austria. Alaric's adventures (with Huns in his forces) convinced Atilla forty years later that Rome was takeable. Meantime by 419 the Goths/Visigoths in Italy are given parts of Aquitaine and go to Bordeaux and Toulouse in Southern France. In 439 the Vandals under King Geiseric go into North Africa and took Carthage. See re rise of Aetius (in his youth a hostage of both Huns and Alaric), whom Atilla will have to fight. Aetius has military success in France. He is helped by the Alans of the Rhone area, about Lyons, while the Franks come south from Meuse-Scheldt area.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

410AD: Withdrawal of Roman troops from York in England.

409AD-415AD: German tribes including Vandals occupy Spain. In 409, Visigoth Alaric again besieges Rome. In 409AD, Vandals, Alans and Sueves invade Spain.

408AD: Visigoth Alaric besieges Rome. Murder of Stilicho.

407AD: Romans withdraw from Britain.

406AD: Goths of the eastern branch invade Italy under their king, Radagais. Barbarian invasion of Gaul. Roman garrison leaves Britain.

405AD: More to come

404AD: More to come

402AD: The Visigoths under Alaric have meantime been let/invaded into Italy in 402/403, to be repelled by Roman Stilicho (who some say was a Vandal in origins). [Note that about 400AD, Visigoths had advanced through Arras, Amiens, Reims and Paris, to Orleans and Tours] Alaric ends in 410AD besieging Rome.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

401AD: More to come

Circa 400AD: "Jerome even describes the feelings of guilt and laziness that commonly afflict writers when they are not at their work, the little mechanisms of self-delusion, too, that often serve to put off the moment when pen touches paper. `If we spend more than an hour in reading, you will find us yawning and trying to restrain our boredom by rubbing our eyes; then, as though we had been hard at work, we plunge once more into worldly affairs. I say nothing of the heavy meals which crush such mental faculties as we possess. I am ashamed to speak of our numerous calls, going ourselves every day to other people's houses, or waiting for others to come to us.'"
John Romer, Testament: The Bible And Its History. Collins Dove with the Australian ABC. 1989. First pub in 1988. p. 241, re Jerome (who translated The Bible into Latin).

400AD: Russia has waves of Eastern Slavs arriving from roughly the area of Romania - some power concentrates at Kiev.

Circa 400AD: India: Gupta empire grows until it stretches across the whole width of India.

400AD: Opium thebaicum, from the Egyptian fields at Thebes, is first introduced to China by Arab traders.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

400AD: From about 400AD begins the Germanic folk-wandering, part of which is movement from Denmark/Sweden as people moved west into Frisia and England. (See the writings of the monk Bede.) Climatic change might have been one motivation for this people-movement.

399AD: Chinese Buddhist historian, Fa-hien, begins his journey through India.

300AD-400AD: Date is pushed back for use of zero in Mathematics - Carbon dating reveals earliest origins of zero symbol
14 September 2017 - BBC Headlines (no byline).
CARBON dating now shows an ancient Indian manuscript has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol. The Bakhshali Manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought.
It means the document, held in Oxford, has an earlier zero symbol than a temple in Gwailor, India. The finding is of "vital importance" to the history of mathematics, Richard Ovenden from Bodleian Libraries said.
The zero symbol evolved from a dot used in ancient India and can be seen throughout the Bakhshali manuscript. The dot originally indicated orders of magnitude in a number system and eventually evolved to have a hollow centre, the Bodleian Libraries said.
Earlier research had dated The Bakhshali Manuscript to the 8th and 12th Century AD, but now carbon dating has shown it to be centuries older.
Bodleian Libraries said scholars had previously struggled to date it because it is made of 70 leaves of birch bark and composed of material from three different periods. The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902.
The creation of zero was one of the "greatest breakthroughs" in mathematics, Prof Marcus Du Sautoy of the University of Oxford said.

397AD: Circa. To keep entrants to "Europe" at a minimum, arrivals coming via area north of Black Sea, a great wall is built for the 125 miles-long area between Caspian and Black Seas. Wall (built by Sasians to defend Persia) separates order of the south vs chaos of the north (in Central Asia). Wall is manned by 30,000 troops, and protects Merv (in what is now Turkmenistan). Rome helped to finance this wall. But Rome succumbs to fresh attacks. See Peter Frankopans, The Silk Roads. 2016.

396AD: Alaric is defeated by Stilicho in Greece.

395AD: Death of emperor Theodosius breaks union of Empire and West Goths; Arcadius is emperor in east, Honorius is emperor in west. Goths now choose Alaric as their king; and Alaric campaigns in Greece in 395-396, and in Italy in 402-403. Revolt of Alaric and the Visigoths.

394AD: More to come

393AD: More to come

392AD: Rome: Revolt of Arbogaist. Murder of Valentinian II. Eugenius is proclaimed Augustus.

391AD: Temple of Serapis, in Alexandria, where an image of the Sun God hangs suspended by magnetic forces. Christians destroy the temple in 391AD (maybe at behest of Emperor Theodosius?). Last annex of Library of Alexandria is destroyed by fire by order of Theodosius. (Source: James/Thorpe). In 391AD are edicts against paganism.

390AD: Rome: Massacre at Thessalonica.

388AD: Rome: Maximus is defeated and killed.

387AD: More to come

386AD: Beginning of era of north-south division in China (to 589).

486BC: Building in China of The Great Canal under the Wu Dynasty. From 584AD it is extended to stretch some 1800km. In all about 3 million of its 6 million workforce died building it.

385AD: Roman Empire is split into east and west following death of Theodosius, who made Christianity the state religion of Roman Empire.

384AD: More to come

383AD: Rome: Revolt of Maximus in Britain. Death of Gratian.

382AD: Rome: Altar of Victory is removed from the Senate.

381AD: Goths leader Athanaric comes to Constantinople to be received with high honours.

381AD: Council of Constantinople.

380AD: Europe: Christianity is proclaimed the empire's official religion. In 380AD-382AD, Rome settled with Visigoths as allies in Moesia.

In 379AD: Rome defeated at Adrianople. Visigoths cross the Danube.

378AD circa: Roman emperor Valens is killed at Adrianople, battle with Goths. His successor Theodosius the Great makes terms with Goths in 381AD. 338AD: Begins a severe 40-year drought possibly world-wide but affecting the Roman Empire. It probably affected "the Huns" east of the Don River, who began to migrate to their south and westThe Huns reached the Don River about the 370s and crossed it c375AD, after which they attacked areas north of the Black Sea and drove the Goths into the Roman Empire, and the Goths latter attacked the Roman Empire in 378 at Adrianople, Turkey. See Michael McCormick et al, 'Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLIII:2, Autumn 2012, pp. 169-220. (This journal pioneered the study of history and climate in 1979 - Ed) See also, Peter Frankopans, The Silk Roads. 2016

378AD and before: Athanaric - King of the Goths at a time of climatic colding, his people are moved west by the Huns, failed to defend his people and they petitioned the emperor Valens in Constantinople to settle within the empire. Valens agreed, feeling the Visigoths would send men into his army. Most of them settled where they arrived, so food shortages arose; others went to Hadrianople, today's Edirne, a frontier town on Turkish side of the border with Greece. Some such Goths are sold into slavery. Disturbances broke out, partly as some Ostrogoths have crossed the Danube with a king and two other determined leaders also. Fight continued, the Goths were driven away before 378 and in 378 they returned in greater force, with help of some Huns and Alans/Alanis. Valens had been off fighting the Persians, he returned, to have help from nephew Gratian. The Goths, allowed the settle inside the Empire, won.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001., pp. 21ff

378AD circa: About 378, the Alans (Alani) are the first people the Huns meet. The Alani had occupied the area between rivers Volga and Don as bounded by Caucasus mountains, possibly an Indo-European or Iranian people, a nomadic people, never used plough but drove their animals before them. The Huns and Alans fight it out in 370s, the Huns winning. Some Alans went west to fight with others against the Huns, others moved into the Caucasus. Next the Huns met the Sarmatians, who had a language like that of the Alans, they used their women in warfare (re the Greeks re Amazons?). Sarmatians adopt use of the Huns' crossbow. Some Sarmatians went as far west as present-day Hungary, some Sarmatians fought in Atilla's armies. The Huns also drove some Slavs living east of the Vistula to the Danube. A German tribe being controlled by Huns was the Skirians; also the Gepids, Quadi and Heruli. Skirians had once lived in southern Russia. The Gepids had come south from Scandinavia, and were legendarily lazy. They were to meet other Germanic tribes at the mouth of the Vistula, but missed their "migration boats". Gepids reached Dacia in Third Century AD, then went into area east of Hungary, and possibly got on well with Huns. There were also some mysterious "White Huns", maybe from the northern frontiers of Persia, where they ceased nomadism and had a king and a lawful constitution. The White Huns fought the Persians. (See Gibbon in Decline and Fall of Roman Empire here.)
Research now shows only about 25 per cent of Huns were of pure Mongolian stock. The White Huns however stayed away from the main Hun advance through south-east Europe. On the move, the Huns met the Ostrogoths, who did practise agriculture. Their most famous king is Ermaneric, ruling from the Don to the Dnieper and Black Sea to the Pripet Marshes, but Ermaneric committed suicide rather than face the Huns; he is succeeded by Withimir who was killed by the Huns in battle. By end of C4th, the Huns thus controlled the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire.
Also harrassing the Roman frontiers were Germanic tribes from Scandinavia, the Goths, Vandals (from Jutland came along Oder and Vistula rivers re east German and Poland [but what of the Wends?]; then the Visigoths went west on the Rhine to Gaul, across Pyrenees into Spain, and oddly for Germanics, developed their own navy (enabling them to dominate the littorals of North Africa), also Franks and Burgundians. The Goths separated into Visigoths (area between Danube and Dniester rivers) and Ostrogoths - east and south of the Dniester. Franks are a Germanic tribe, settling Belgium and north-east France, then further into Gaul, to become the Merovingians.
Burgundians may have come from the island of Bornholm, settled in the Rhineland. The Burgundians are defeated by Huns in the service of the Romans. The Roman province most threatened by Huns is Pannonia, on the Danube. ie eastern Austria and western Hungary, plus bits of Slovenia and Croatia. near where Budapest now is, a city of Aquincum of 60 thousand people.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001., pp. 24ff.

377AD: More to come

376AD: Overrun by Huns, the West Goths under chief Frithigern cross the Danube to Roman province of Moesia with approval from Imperial Govt. Disputes arise.

376AD: India: Beginning of reign of Chandragupta II. "Golden Gupta age".

375AD: Germanic people, Visigoths, earlier of Romania but forced west by Huns, so they asked for entry to the Roman Empire and were allowed to settle in the Balkans. Rebellious, they took and sacked Rome in 410. Becoming more relaxed, they were asked to help subdue other invading German barbarians of 406AD and later, who had ended up marching across France to occupy much of Spain. They were also given much of south-west Gaul. In 455 the Romans asked the Visigoths to intervene again against these Germans. By 475, treacherously, the Visigoths had taken much Roman territory in France and Spain. Meantime by 476 there was a Germanic takeover in Italy, assisting the fall of the Roman Empire. Italy became an independent Gothic zone by 493. So from 457AD the Visigoths remained the major power in Spain. In 507 however they lost much of their territory north of the Pyrenees. The Goths originally came from Southern Scandinavia, but by 100AD, Roman records suggest they had settled on the south-east coast of the Baltic about mouth of River Vistula. By about 150AD they felt moved to occupy areas about the Black Sea, north and north-west, and attacked Romania/Dacia. In the 270s, the Goths took all Dacia for themselves. They became known as Visigoths (Western Goths, speaking Gothic) while their eastern fellows were Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths). Christian prisoners from Turkey by about 250AD had Christianized some Goths. In 376, Visigoths were allowed to settle within the Roman Empire in Serbia, and they became Arian/Christians (who downplayed any alleged divinity of Jesus). (David Keys)

374AD: More to come

373AD: More to come

372AD: More to come

371AD: More to come

370AD: King of Goths Hermanaric commits suicide as his people have been overrun by Huns.

369AD: More to come

368AD: More to come

367AD: More to come

366AD: More to come

365AD: More to come

364AD: More to come

363AD: Rome: Invasion of Persia. Death of Julian.

362AD: More to come

361AD: More to come

360AD: Embassy from King Meghavarna of Sri Lanka reaches Gupta court; religious monument for Sri Lankan visitors is built.

360AD: Conversion of Visigoths to Christianity.

359AD: Rome: War with Persia.

358AD: More to come

357AD: Rome: Julian's victory over the Alamanni at Strassburg.

356AD: More to come

355AD: More to come

354AD: Rome: Death of Gallus.

353AD: More to come

352AD: More to come

350AD: Conflict between Rome and Persia subsides. persia expands and takes "nodes" important re libnks to Mediterranean. Period of environmental changes arises. Malaria appears in North Sea area. Aral Sea is less saline. Steppes of Central Asia shows differing vegetation. Glaciers grow in Tian Shan mountain range. China has food shortages, famine and emperor has abandoned his capital. The steppe nomad tribes unite, led by Atilla the Hun. Migration ensues 350AD-360AD as tribes are shunted west. Changes show in area of Bactria re North Afghanistan, right to the Roman frontiers on the Danube River. The Huns takes lands north of Black Sea and drive peoples west. Roman Emperor Valens loses conflicts in Thrace in 378AD. Enemies of Europe keep pouring in through areas north of Black Sea. The eastern provinces of Persia are changed, towns are depopulated, irrigation is abandoned, See Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads" A New History of the World. 2015/2016.

By 350AD: Christianity arrives to Axum; a major kingdom of the Arabian Peninsula-Axum invades and subdues Kush in North East Africa.

350AD: Rome: Revolt of Magnentius.

C4thAD: King Ezana of Axum overthrows the Kush, is converted to Christianity, which later influences all Ethiopia.

Circa 350AD: First celebration of 25 December as Christmas in Christian world.

350AD circa: Atilla the Hun, younger brother of Bleda: Atilla has a short square body, large head, deep-seated eyes, swarthy complexion, flat nose and a sparse beard, prefers plain clothing, courteous and diplomatic. The Ostrogoths, Eastern Goths, submit to Hun power, but the West Goths (Visigoths), and the Sarmatians, an Iranian people, flee the Huns. About 80,000 after a petition to Rome settled across the Danube in Roman-controlled country.
Notes: In the early Christian centuries was a widespread movement of peoples, a general lowering of temperatures in Northern Europe, plus encroachment of land by sea. and in the steppe lands of very eastern Europe were cycles of aridity, lasting several hundred years; each time the temperature fell, a new dry cycle drove steppe nomads, Huns included, west in search of fodder. Huns excellent with use of horses, and have superb arrows. It is possible the Huns invented the stirrup. Used blitzkrieg war tactics. A mass movement in to western Europe. The Huns moved other peoples west also, bothering the Romans by about 350AD. Huns moved the Ostrogoths west, and the Visigoths, to the imperial frontiers. Here the Visigoth king Athanric. Huns had moved west from borders of China, see documents of the Han period, mention a warlike people the Hsiung-nu, who may have been the earlier Huns, who caused trouble for Chinese rulers. They exacted tribute of gold, silk and female slaves. Great Wall of China is built against such as these. Chinese beat off the Hsiung-ny by First Century BC. New finds from archaeology in Hungary, Hun graves along the silk road to China, Hun evidence in former Soviet Union, French archaeologists find evidence in North Africa and even in England. Huns concentrated near the middle reaches of River Tisza, from north to south through Hungary, somewhat parallel to the Danube. on a plain with a feeling to it of emptiness. Plains of south-west Hungary. Huns controlled the area in C5th, from the Urals to the Rhone River. Atilla rules his kingdom only eight years, yet he threatened the destruction of Roman empires both east and west. Atilla once takes a cosmopolitan army was far west as Orleans. A writer once wrote of Atilla, he "was a man born to shake the races of the world. The proud man's power was to be seen in the very movements of his body." Huns are highly mobile, family groups of 6-10 families move in groups, and link to others as social co-operatives. Thus, a nomadic kingdom, given to plundering.
See Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001.

349AD: More to come

348AD: More to come

347AD: More to come

346AD: More to come

345AD: More to come

344AD: More to come

343AD: More to come

342AD: Council of Serdica.

341AD: More to come

340AD: More to come

339AD: More to come

338AD: Begins a severe 40-year drought possibly world-wide but affecting the Roman Empire. It probably affected "the Huns" east of the Don River, who began to migrate to their south and westThe Huns reached the Don River about the 370s and crossed it c375AD, after which they attacked areas north of the Black Sea and drove the Goths into the Roman Empire, and the Goths latter attacked the Roman Empire in 378 at Adrianople, Turkey. See Michael McCormick et al, 'Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLIII:2, Autumn 2012, pp. 169-220. (This journal pioneered the study of history and climate in 1979 - Ed)

337AD: Death of Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor. About now, Goths have conflict with other Teutonic peoples, a victory by Ostrogoths with Fastida, king of Gepids. Geberic the Goth beats Visimar, king of Vandals. This leads to Vandals to settle in Pannonia (Hungary). Geberic is succeeded by the famous Hermanaric, who conquers the Heruli, Aestii, Venedi and some other tribes who had gone into southern Russia.

336AD: More to come

335AD: More to come

334AD: More to come

333AD: More to come

332AD: More to come

331AD: More to come

330AD: Constantinople becomes imperial residence. Founded by Constantine in 330AD.

329AD: More to come

328AD: More to come

327AD: More to come

326AD: More to come

325AD: Council of Nicea (in Eastern Turkey) is established by Constantine, to codify major Christian beliefs.

325AD: Council of Nicea; appearance of oldest-known Christian bibles.

324AD: Constantine reunites the eastern and western Roman Empires, and founds Constantinople. Battle of Chrysopolis.

323AD: More to come

322AD: More to come

321AD: Thrace and Moesia are again plundered by the Goths under king Ariaric.
Goths moving south plunder Thrace in 321, to be beaten back by Constantine. Under their sixth king, Filimer, the Goths had migrated in Scythia to settle in an area they called Oium. The Goths are sometimes mistaken for the Getae, an ancient Thracian people. The story of the migration south from Sweden of the Goths was perhaps distributed by noble families, as similar stories arise with the Langobardi and the Burgundians. (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Circa 320AD: Rise of Gupta empire in Ganges Valley, India

319AD: More to come

318AD: More to come

317AD: More to come

316AD: More to come

315AD: More to come

318AD-380AD: then 690AD, Possible dates for early human occupation of Easter Island. (Date from Hancock and Faiia, pp. 227-299).

317AD-337AD: Reign of Constantine, dies 337AD: (Baigent and Leigh, Messianic Legacy)

316AD: More to come

315AD: More to come

314AD: More to come

313AD: Persecution of Christians ends when emperor Constantine grants religious freedom to all faiths.

313AD: Rome becomes Christian. Edict of Milan. Fall of Daia.

312AD: Maxentius is killed and his army routed at Battle of Milvian Bridge, leaving no challenge now to the rule of Constantine (who had fought in "the sign of the Cross", after a dream in which he saw in the sky, the message, "In Hoc Signo Vinces" - "By this sign you will conquer.") (Baigent and Leigh, Messianic Legacy)
In 312AD is battle of Saxa Rubra.

312AD: Eastern Emperor Constantine captures Rome, supposedly after receiving a vision from God. (From Tom Holland, Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. London, Little Brown, 2008.

311AD: Rome: Edict of Toleration.

310AD: More to come

309AD: More to come

308AD: More to come

307AD: More to come

306AD: Rome: Revolt of Maxentius.

305AD: Or earlier, from 270?: Roman coins are dropped on uninhabited Iceland, later to be hoarded by Viking settlers. This period marked the peak of Roman naval power about Britain, when the governor is Carausius, (286-293), so was a Roman ship on a long-range patrol?

304AD: More to come

303AD-304AD: Rome: Edicts against the Christians.

302AD: More to come

301AD: Rome: Edict of Prices.

300AD: Old Kingdom of Kush falls to emperor of Axum, see rising power of Ethiopian plateau to the south, earlier assailed by desert nomads.

Circa 300?AD: Constantinople breaks away from Rome, taxes drive a spiral.

300BC-300AD: Japan: Yayoi Culture: Technical innovations - metal working, the use of pottery wheel and irrigated rice cultivation (from Korea), clan units grow in power.
This item is from a website History Lecture Note timeline on Japanese history by Mineharu Nakayama.

300AD: Japan: Under Jimmu, one group in Japan attains supremacy of most of the country.

300AD-3113BC: For unknown reasons, the start-date of the Mayan Calendar as used from about 300AD.

30BC-300AD: Japan: About this time - the first clear view of the Japanese (by Chinese record 3c BC) - sharp class divisions and living by agriculture and fishing (Occurrence of bronze articles and evidence of established agricultural communities) - a hundred or more tribal units under female or male chieftains of semi-religious status -"queen's country" - a certain hegemony over the others - MATRIARCHAL system - descent of the historical imperial line from the sun goddess.
This item is from a website History Lecture Note timeline on Japanese history by Mineharu Nakayama.

300AD: China: By 300AD appears in China, Invention of "the south-pointing carriage". A figure on the carriage always points south no matter which way the carriage is positioned. This machine used complicated gears. The carriage is displayed at the Science Museum, London. "The world's first cybernetic machine". (Source: James/Thorpe)

299AD: More to come

298AD: More to come

297AD: Use in China of aluminium belt ornaments found in a military commander's grave. Aluminium with admixture of 10 per cent copper and 5 per cent manganese. Not discovered till 1956. It had been thought that aluminium was not isolated till 1827 and not mass-produced till 1889. Historian of Chinese science, Joseph Needham, thought an alchemist discovered how to smelt aluminium by accident and the secret died with him.

299AD:More to come

298AD: More to come

297AD: Rome: Persian invasion. Rome invades Syria. Tigris RIver becomes eastern border of Roman Empire. Peace exists between Rome and Persia till reign of Constantine I.

297AD: Japan: Chinese records - Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians "Land of Wa" (dwarfs) mound burial, purification rituals, "mourning keeper", "fond of liquor", longevity, polygamy, litigation infrequent, group responsibility, class distinctions, slavery, Queen Himiko (or Pimiko), shaman queen, junshi (sacrificial death) - burial-with-retinue: "over a hundred male and female attendants followed her to the grave"
This item is from a website History Lecture Note timeline on Japanese history by Mineharu Nakayama.

296AD: Rome: Recovery of Britain.

295AD: More to come

Coins from the time of the British rebel emperor, Carausius

By 293AD the time of the "Roman emperor of Britain", Carausius had come to its end. Now his place in England's history has been reinforced by the discovery of 52,000 Roman coins in a field near Frome in Somerset. (Cirencester having been a major Roman city in Britain.) Carausius was "a rogue Roman general who broke away from the empire and set up his own dominion in Britain ... a bull-necked, bearded general finally deposed by his finance minister", Allectus. The coins were discovered by a hospital chef and metal detector hobbyist, David Crisp, 63, of Devizes in Wiltshire, who found what he thought was a black stone. But no, it was burnished Roman pottery, with a small coin near it. It took three days of digging to uncover the hoard. And it appears the coins were buried as an offering, rather than being hidden for later recovery. The coins were part of Carausius' general line of propaganda, which seems to have been so successful, other Roman emperors tried to copy him. All of which surprised this website as we'd never heard of Carausius. Now we wonder if he was not the first to dream of a United Britain, free and independent of the powers located in Europe. A wikipedia page reports that he was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul who usurped Roman power in 286, declaring himself emperor of Britain and Northern Gaul. (The Gallic empire of the Batavian Postumous had ended in 273, the Batavians being original tribal settlers of the Netherlands/Rhine delta.) Carausius was also an admiral, and once commanded the Classis Britannica, a fleet which was used to suppress Frankish and Saxon pirates who had been raiding the coasts of Amorica and Belgica. Accused of being a double-dealer, Carausius found that emperor Maximian had ordered his execution, by 286-287, so he defected and declared himself emperor of territory he controlled. His forces consisted of his fleet, three legions stationed in Britain and a legion of foreign auxiliaries who had been stationed in Gaul, various Gaulish merchant ships, and sundry barbarian mercenaries. It apparently is a mystery as to how Carausius with a base of sea-power acquired military power in Britain, which is an interesting question in terms of much later British history of the use of sea-power. Maximian tried to invade Britain in 288-289 to dislodge Carausius, but failed. Carausius minted coins as one of various means of legitimating his regime. Two of his coin-legends were "Restorer of Britain" and "Spirit of Britain", although he was also allied with the Franks of Northern Gaul. He lasted till 293 when Constantine Chlorus went into Gaul to reclaim it for the Roman Empire and to isolate Carausius' territories; but then had to wait for a fleet to be built before he invaded Britain. In time, Allectus assassinated Carausius and took power for himself for thee years till Constantine's forces destroyed Allectus. (Reported in Weekend Australian, 10-11 July 2010)

Carausius revisited

Ahead of his time: Carausius was a pirate, a rebel and the first ruler of a unified Britain. The discovery of a hoard of ancient coins has called attention to a forgotten emperor.

By Alan Clayson, The Indepdendent, UK, Friday, 30 July 2010

One afternoon earlier this summer, in a Somerset meadow, David Crisp stumbled upon 52,000 Romano-British coins, the second-largest such hoard of its kind ever unearthed – and presently on exhibit in the British Museum. Almost 800 of these were minted during the reign of Carausius, which lasted from around AD286 until AD293, the first ruler since the conquest in AD43 to govern Britain without the authority of Rome – and a much-overlooked historical figure. As Roger Bland, the museum's head of portable antiquities, says, "This find presents us with the opportunity to put Carausius on the map. Schoolchildren across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but have never been taught about Carausius – our lost emperor."

For nigh on 10 years prior to its recapture, Britain enjoyed the best of both worlds as a unified and isolationist nation-state that could still claim affinity with the greater dominion of Rome across the Straits of Dover. Indeed, some of the coins that activated Crisp's metal detector are embossed with the motif "AUGGG" (the three 'g's denoting three augusti, or Roman emperors), stressing that Carausius was on equal terms with the other two emperors – one in Constantinople, one in Rome itself – of an increasingly more fragmented federation, riven with incessant warfare.

Regarded, nevertheless, as a glorified squatter, Carausius was recognised only under official sufferance – and, with his passing, his rule was shrugged off in contemporary records as a triviality, just one of around 50 similar territorial uprisings. As a result, an important episode in our island story remained shrouded in distortion and obscurity. There's no mention of Carausius in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and what might be described as the sole major biography is P. H. Webb's The Reign and Coinage of Carausius, which is 88 pages in length and was published in 1908.

The raw facts are that Mausaeus Carausius was born of a humble family dwelling in what was to smoulder into modern Belgium. On the strength of the coins he minted, he was burly, multi-chinned and unshaven – with the intimation that beneath layers of fat, the muscle was rock-hard, and that, if slighted, he could inflict red-fisted reprisal.

He began his working life as a common sailor, serving eventually as a steersman aboard a merchant vessel. His career took off when Rome, attempting to bolster its supremacy by employing the skills of conquered people, sought parochial bruisers to assist in the crushing of revolt in north-eastern Gaul. Emerging as a natural rabble-rouser, Carausius distinguished himself during these expeditions on land, but, a mariner by instinct, he was better placed to rise through the ranks of the newly reconstituted Classis Britannica – the British fleet – being promoted to high admiral after visiting Rome for what amounted to a job interview.

Unaware of any hidden agenda, the Senate commissioned Carausius to patrol the waters of northern Europe for buccaneers, mostly from Baltic and Scandinavian regions. Based in Gesoriacum (Boulogne), Carausius seemed to undertake this task with ruthless competence – according to Eutropius's Epitome of Roman History, penned a century later – until bureaucratic diligence brought to the ears of Rome that not only was he apprehending these nascent Vikings, but was appropriating their stolen goods. It was hinted that he was actually in league with them.

Maximianus, the latest in a line of emperors embroiled in a perpetual turmoil of back-stabbing – literally – and jockeying for position, suspecting the surfacing of a rebel or, worse, rival, made a cursory appeal to Carausius's honour by requesting him to report to the Senate for court martial and, in all likelihood, execution. Ignored, Maximianus then ordered an unsuccessful hunting-down of this bluffly popular naval commander, who, with the means to buy loyalty if necessary, withdrew the fleet into Britain and proclaimed himself the third emperor. Believing might was right and that the gods were on his side, Carausius made a stand behind the moat that was the misty Channel, and defied the continental Goliath.

The extent of the land's acceptance of the takeover is exemplified by the carving of "Carausius" on a tall milestone in distant Carlisle. Thus we had our own sovereign – albeit a probable hybrid of Al Capone, Idi Amin and Long John Silver – and a quasi-imperial insularity that obliged Rome to make a brittle peace, particularly after the defeat of a flotilla hastily assembled by Maximianus. Next came Carausius's subjugating tour of the north and an agreement with the Picts, who, vowing cheerful assistance against Rome, carried on as normal, looting, butchering and raping across the frontier marked by Hadrian's Wall.

More enduring was Carausius's creation of 10 forts from Brancaster to Porchester along the south-eastern coast. This came to be known as the Saxon Shore for the mercenary crews who, purportedly, earned a fearsome reputation in its taverns, and contained a preponderance of the first Germanic inhabitants of this sceptr'd isle. Ruffians they may have been, but here was a shadowy and guttural-accented link to what was to mutate into England – initially, seven kingdoms under a Carausius-like "bretwalda" – within five generations. The seed had taken hold, but the screams of the newborn Anglo-Saxon child were unimaginable when Carausius was short-listing candidates for what was a Chancellor of the Exchequer by any other name.

The ultimate choice was a certain Allectus, a model of quiet efficiency throughout the prosperity that characterised the Carausian usurpation. While most of the other bullion in the Somerset treasure – the equivalent of four years' pay for a legionary officer – was of the debased mixture of metals in use beyond Britain too, that of Carausius is pure silver. He and Allectus also struck bronze and gold. As much instruments of propaganda as currency, most bore symbols and slogans of triumph and bids for legitimacy. On some, the female figure of, presumably, Britannia, clasps a laureate Carausius by the hand. Others sport the legends "Genius Britanniae" ("Spirit of Britain") and "Restitutor Britanniae" ("Restorer of Britain"), in keeping with perceived native disenchantment with Roman rule. Later engravings even suggest Messianic qualities in Carausius – as instanced by "Expectate veni" ("Come, o long-awaited one") – and promise of not so much a rose-tinted future as the recovery of a wondrous past in "Redeunt Saturnia regna", abbreviated to "RSR" and meaning "The golden age is back!"

Polite society, if not the proletariat in Carausius's kingdom, would appreciate this as an explicit reference to lines from Virgil. High office had bred fine sensibilities, and Carausius appeared to be reneging on his upbringing by aligning with Roman rather than provincial culture, and styled himself as the imperial Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Valerius Carausius. He also considered it politic to adopt the religion of the Eternal City – or at least, have Roman names for the deities that had informed his neo-barbarian youth.

To Allectus and other intimates, these new sophistications and pretensions were regrettable maybe, but harmless. Far more worrying was Carausius's growing certainty about everything he did and said, manifested most dangerously in his choice not to leave strategic initiative to his foes, but to front exploratory invasions of the mainland with eyes fixed on the ultimate prize of Rome. These proved to be exercises in futility, mainly because significant support could not be guaranteed, even within the area in and around Gesoriacum, the toehold on the continent – which was, in any case, to have its harbour blocked to Britain after a siege instigated by Constantius, Maximianus's junior partner.

Causing further anxiety was the non-commitment of scattered tribes and the incumbent and supposedly defected Roman militia. Despite regularly renewed treaties, the Pictish raiders were becoming bolder, and a vague but discernible general disorder and a constant flux of alliances and factions were fuelling the notion that Carausius, once the subject of terrified admiration, was not merely fallible but out of control.

Concentrating on the possible, Allectus arranged – through, possibly, doubtful collusion with Rome – the assassination of his master, shortly after the undermining loss of Gesoriacum. Assuming Carausius's titles and dignities – though content to be "AUG" rather than "AUGGG" on the coinage – the relatively uncharismatic Allectus was in command for only the three more years it took for the Empire to strike back.

Nosing from the mouth of the Seine during an untimely fog and in autumn – at the close of the campaigning season, just as William of Normandy would in 1066 – an armada won a decisive battle somewhere between Chichester and the Isle of Wight. A march inland by troops under the aegis of the Praetorian Guard and the slaying of a routed Allectus spelt the end of a short-lived but independent British Empire. Yet a crucial precedent had been established: that Britain could be a self-sufficient and autonomous realm under a local overlord. The impact rippled across the millennia – and to Mausaeus Carausius, pirate and self-aggrandising chancer though he certainly was, we owe much.

290AD: More to come

289AD: More to come

288AD: More to come

287AD: Roman Empire: The Martyrdom of St Maurice and his Theban Legion. Maurice being a Christian commander of the Roman Army disobeying an order to execute Christians. (From Tom Holland, Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. London, Little Brown, 2008.

286AD: Rome: Revolt of Carausius in Britain.

285AD: More to come

284AD: More to come

283AD: to 283AD: Rome wars again against Persia. Carus died in 284AD, Numerian is murdered on the way home, Carinus is assassinated and Diocletian is left in power.

282AD:

281AD: More to come

280AD: More to come

279AD: More to come

278AD: More to come

277AD: More to come

276AD: Death of Mani in Persia, he is executed for religious reasons, preaching a heresy combining Zoroastrian dualism with Christian theology, angering adherents of either belief. Manicheanism later spreds through Asia, influential till C14th.

275AD: More to come

274AD: Rome recovers Gaul and Britain.

273AD: Egypt: Library of Alexandria is part-destroyed by Aurelian. Damaged further some years later when Diocletian sacked Alexandria.

272AD: Rome: Reconquest of Palmyra and the East.

271AD: The Romans withdraw from Romania in Central Europe. In 271AD, Revolt of Palmyra.

270AD: More to come

From 269AD: St Valentine's Day. Died Rome, 14 February, c.269AD, Saint Valentine, a Christian priest martyred under the persecution of Roman Emperor Claudius II. Valentine's legend has become intermingled with that of another martyr of the same name, a Bishop of Interamna, 50 miles north-east of Rome. Saint Valentine's Day was celebrated as early as the Seventh Century, but by the Fourteenth Century, its religious significance was overshadowed by non-religious customs still observed. The acceptance of St Valentine as a patron saint of lovers seems to be accidental, although he was punished for conducting marriages in secret, despite a decree from Emperor Claudius that marriages be suspended in order to drive men into the army. It may be due to a mediaeval European belief that birds began to mate on 14 Feb? Chaucer (14th Century) mentions St Valentine's Day as a "mating of all the birds".
Italians of the Middle Ages celebrated 14 Feb. as an annual spring festival; love poetry and romantic verses were exchanged between young people. In France, oldsters might reel off the names of young women wishing to marry, such that pairs were formed. This led to trouble which led to government intervention. Customs from Roman times had lingered in Britain, but St Valentine's day was banned by the Puritans, to be reinstated by Charles II in 1660. The diarist Charles Pepys mentions his Valentine's cards to his wife.
In 1477 arose one of the first known St Valentine's Day cards, from one Margery B to John Paston. In 1648, the poet Robert Herrick wrote a Valentine's Day poem to his mistress.
Cards exchanged on the day have been popular only since the late Seventeenth Century. The rise of efficient postal systems was a contributing factor.

268AD: More to come

267AD: Rome: The caravan city of Palmyra in central Syria revolts against Rome.

267AD: Rome: Sack of Athens by the Gauls.

266AD: More to come

265AD: More to come

264AD: More to come

263AD: More to come

262AD: More to come

261AD: More to come

ca. 260AD: Japan: Conjectural date for founding of the Great Shrine of the Sun Goddess at Ise

260AD: Shapur I of Persia defeats Roman emperor Valerian in battle; Valerian captured.

259AD: Persians defeat a Roman army near Edessa and capture emperor Valerian.

258AD: Rome: Postumus establishes Roman Empire in Gaul.

257AD: Rome: Further persecution of Christians.

256AD: More to come

255AD: More to come

254AD: More to come

253AD: More to come

252AD: More to come

251AD: Rome: Emperor Decius is killed in a battle against Goths in Dacia after German tribes have migrated to the area of Rome's frontiers. Later the Goths move across the Rhine and Danube Rivers into the Balkans and Asia Minor, as far as Athens. Rome soon withdraws from Dacia.

250AD: 550AD from about 250AD: A three-hundred year period of unpredictable weather in area of Roman Empire, Remarked as correlative with historical events, not causative. There was however a good deal of upheaval in European economic and political life. Before about 270AD had been a stable, relatively cool period from 100AD. See Michael McCormick et al, 'Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLIII:2, Autumn 2012, pp. 169-220. (This journal pioneered the study of history and climate in 1979 - Ed)

Circa 250AD: Appearance of... huge water-powered Roman grainmill complex in Barbegal, near Arles.

249AD: Rome: Persecution of the Christians.

248AD: More to come

247AD: More to come

246AD: More to come

245AD: More to come

244AD: More to come

243AD: More to come

242AD: More to come

241AD: More to come

240AD: More to come

239AD: More to come

238AD: More to come

237AD: More to come

236AD: More to come

235AD: More to come

234AD: Rome: War on Rhine frontier.

233AD: More to come

232AD: More to come

231AD: More to come

230AD-233AD: Rome: War with Persia.

229AD: More to come

228AD: More to come

227AD: More to come

226AD: Persia: The Parthian Empire breaks up and in 226AD the Sasanids come to power with a capital at Ctesiphon, revival of the now-old religion of Zoroastrianism.

226AD: China: Collapse of the Han Dynasty, and for next 400 years China has short-lived regimes.

225AD: More to come

Circa 224AD: End of Parthian power in Persian empire: beginning of Sassanid dynasty under Ardashir I (224-41).

223AD: More to come

222AD: More to come

221AD: More to come

220AD: End of Han dynasty in China, followed by Three Kingdoms and Jin dynasty.

220AD: China: Han Dynasty, the emperor is expected to have one queen, three other consorts, nine second-rank wives, twenty-seven third-rank wives, and 81 concubines. (Such numbers are important in Chinese numerology). Secretaries ensured that the emperor had intercourse with the correct partner on a correct day. (Source. James/Thorpe).

215AD: More to come

214AD: Rome: Parthian War.

210AD: More to come

208AD: Rome: Caledonians invade Britain.

184AD-205AD: China: In China, rebellion by members of Yellow Turban sect greatly weakens Han dynasty.

202AD-220AD: China: Chinese doctors of the Han dynasty appear to be familiar with the idea of the circulation of the blood in human and animal bodies. About this time, Chinese doctors seemed also aware of human hormones and could distill them from urine for use regarding disorders of sexuality.

200-300AD: Parthain trade empire is extended east to maritime ports of south-east Asia, as far as Malay port of Tun-sun. New role for Indian Ocean.

200AD: Cambodia: The earliest known state of Cambodia is Funan, an empire in the south of today's Cambodia, and on the Mekong delta of south Vietnam. These people are canal builders and have some trade with India and Rome.

AD139-200AD, Medical researcher Galen furthers the work of earlier anatomists of Alexandria, engaging in dissection of humans dead or alive, work by now regarded as unethical. He also dissected animals. Galen produced 16 books on his findings.
130AD-200AD: Galen of Pergamum writes his treatise on medicine.

200AD: Pannonia, a Roman province, (Middle Danube Plain, or today's Hungary), is over-run by various nomadic peoples from the east, Goths, Huns and Turkic Avars.

200AD: Japan: From about 200AD - Overrun by waves of mounted invaders from Korean Peninsula/cultural influences from Korea.
This item is from a website History Lecture Note timeline on Japanese history by Mineharu Nakayama.

C200AD, Chinese discover use of the ship rudder, 1000 years before Europeans discovered it.

Second Century AD: Claudius Ptolemy, the second-century Egyptian astronomer, had hypothesized that a Terra Australis Incognita must lie somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, to balance the known land masses of the northern hemisphere. See McIntyre, Secret Discovery of Australia, pp. 92ff.
Notably, Ptolemy declares the earth is a sphere, placed motionless at the centre of the universe with the sun, moon and planets moving around it.

197AD-199AD: Rome: Parthian War renewed. Conquest of Upper Mesopotamia.

197AD: Rome: Defeat of Albinus at Lugdunum.

195AD-196AD: Rome: Invasion of Parthia.

194AD: Rome: Defeat of Pescennius Niger.

193AD: Rome: Revolts of Septimius Severus, Pescennius, Niger, Clodius Albinus.

Circa 190AD: Rise of Hindu Chola kingdom near Tanjore, Southern India.

186AD: New Zealand: Major volcanic eruption of Mt. Tauo, possibly worst eruption in recorded history. Global cooling resulting is devastating for steppe people of far north-eastern Europe/Russia/Mongolia area.

180AD: Rome: Death of Marcus Aurelius.

177AD-180AD: Rome: War with Quadi and Marcommani.

175AD: Rome: Revolt of Avidius Cassius.

170AD: More to come

167AD: Rome: War with Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges.

166AD: Rome sends an envoy to China. Marcus Aurelius (maybe acting for rich merchants of Rome>) sends envoy to the Persian Gulk and arrives in October to court of the Chinese monarch Huan-ti.

166AD: Rome: Plague spreads throughout the empire. Possibly due to plague being carried by Roman troops who had lately subdued the Parthians.

85AD-165AD: Ptolemy of Alexandria publishes his astronomical theories.

Circa 120-162AD: Kushan King Kanishka rules large areas of northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

162AD: More to come

161AD-166AD: Rome: Parthian War.

160AD: Writing of Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

155AD: More to come

150AD: By about 150AD or later: States in Northern Burma, Annam and Cochin China are partly Hinduized. (From MacNeill)

150AD: Ptolemy synthesizes knowledge of astronomy in Mathematike Syntaxis.

Circa 150AD: Writing of Second Letter of Clement. (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

Circa 150AD: Probable translation of material known as Gospel of the Nazoreans. (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

Circa 150AD: Probable date for writing of Gospel of the Ebionites. (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

150AD-215AD, Clemens Alexandrinus, a scholar treating/commenting the 42 books of Thoth. See, Egyptian Book of the Dead. (Date from Hancock and Faiia).

Circa 140AD: Writing of Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians. (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

135AD: Israel: Ill-fated Jewish revolt led by Bar-Kochba is crushed, Jewish Diaspora begins as Hadrians forbids Jews to live in Jerusalem.

135AD: More to come

132AD-134AD: Rome: Revolt of the Jews in the East. Simon Bar-Kokhba and Rabbi Eleazar lead Jews in revolt against Rome and take Judea.

132AD: China: Appearance of "a seismograph", or, an earthquake weathercock, invented by astronomer royal, Chang Heng. Court officials refused to believe it could work. This device was reconstructed in 1939 by Japanese Immamura Akitsune, at Seismological Observatory of Tokyo Univ. (Source: James/Thorpe).

130AD: More to come

125AD: Quadratus writes an early (perhaps the earliest) apology for Christianity, as "a public defense of Christian teaching". (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

120-150AD: Writing of second edition of Gospel of John. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

120-150AD: Writing of Acts of the Apostles. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

120-150AD: Writing of Apocryphon of James. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

After 120AD: Writing of First Letter to Timothy. (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

120-150AD: Writing of Second Letter to Timothy (Date from Crossman, p. 433)

120-150AD: Writing of Second Letter of Peter. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

C.120AD: Rome after it has absorbed the Nabat area (Arabia) sends an annual trading fleet Egypt to India, by-passing Arab hegemony and land in East-West trade.

123AD: Roman citizens in province of Asia demand that the governor take action to suppress the Christians. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

122AD: More to come

121AD-126AD: Rome: Hadrian's first tour of the provinces. His second tour is in 129AD-134AD.

Circa 120AD: China: In China Zhang Heng introduces the seismograph.

119AD: More to come

118AD: More to come

117-138AD: Rome: Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) In 117AD, Rome (Hadrian) abandons Assyria and Mesopotamia (conquered by Trajan), with Armenia remaining a client kingdom.

116AD: Roman Trajan conquers Assyria and Mesopotamia and reaches Persian Gulf.

115AD: Roman historian Tacitus writes his Annals. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

116AD-117AD: Local Jewish uprisings against Rome appear in Cyprus, Cyrenaica, Mesopotamia and Egypt. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) In 116AD, Rome annexes Assyria and Lower Mesopotamia.

100-115AD: Some scholars feel that the (Christian) Pastoral Letters are possibly composed in this period by a follower of Paul (of Tarsus). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

115AD: New religion, Christianity, spreads quickly in Eastern Syria and in Northern Mesopotamia. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) Rome copes with a Jewish rebellion in Cyrene.

114AD-117AD: Rome: Parthian War. In 114AD, Rome occupies Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia.

114AD: Rome wars on Parthia and annexes Armenia.

113AD; Rome: Trajan's Column is built to show his victory over the Dacians. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

112AD approx: Writing of First Letter of Peter. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

111AD: More to come

110AD: Writing of Letter of Ignatius, Bishop of Syrian Antioch as he is taken to Rome to martyrdom. (Date from Crossman, p. 432)

109AD: More to come

108AD: Polycarp writes to the Christians/Philippians. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

107AD: Ignatius as Bishop of Antioch is arrested and sent to Rome to die in arena. While travelling in Asia Minor he writes to Christians at six churches, Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, Smyrna and Rome. Also to Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

106AD: Romans under Trajan conquer the area of Romania. Annexation of Rome of Arabia Petrea to trade unimpeded with India. Displaced Arabs engage in pan-Arab migration.

105AD-106AD: Rome: Second Dacian war. Annexation of Dacia.

105AD: Petra is reduced by Trajan for assisting the Parthians against Rome. Palmyra moves to prominence as a great entrepot of Oriental overland trade.

Circa 105AD: Paper invented in China, perhaps by Cai Lun.

105AD: China: Paper is invented by imperial eunuch, Cai Lun, of fiber from mulberry bark and hemp. (Item from US Biblical scholar, Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

105AD: Chinese use paper of mulberry leaves and bamboo fibres. (Source: James/Thorpe).

103AD: More to come

101AD: Germanic tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons, raid from their Scandinavian homelands through Central Europe, to be defeated by the Romans. In 101AD-102AD, Rome conducts First Dacian war.

First Century AD: The original Lapps of Finland are invaded by migrants from the Urals of the Baltic. The Lapps themselves were originally from the shores of the Baltic.

Circa 100AD: Appearance of Canonical Mark.

100AD: Rome and China: By about 100AD, China begins to appear on Roman maps. Syrian merchants by now are familiar with the Silk routes between Mediterranean and the Far East.

By AD100: Ethiopia: Axum is hub of a strong empire in highlands, and using port of Adulis, modern Massawa, and in Red Sea trade, wealth of Axum is founded on ivory trade.

100AD: Indian embassy is sent to visit Emperor Trajan in Rome.

100AD approx: Date for Writing of Revelation/Apocalypse of St John. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

100AD: Approx date for writing of Letter of James, probably in Syria. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

100AD - early C2nd: Writing of Gospel of John. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

100AD: Romans build the bridge across the Thames at London. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

100AD: The Gospel of Thomas is written in Greek. It is now known only in its Coptic translation. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

100AD: 1 Clement is written from the Christian Church at Rome to the Church at Corinth. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

100AD: The Christian Letters called 1, 2 and 3 John are written about now. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

In 100AD: The map-maker Marinus of Tyre, is an originator of techniques of map projection. He is the first to put China into correct geographical juxtaposition to Asia/Europe.

100AD: Approx, Roman women in London might wear a bikini made of leather. The bottom half of a specimen has been found on the site of the Bank of England. (James/Thorpe).

98-117AD, Rome: Emperor Trajan, Marcus Ulpius Triaianus. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

96-98AD: Rome: Emperor Nerva: Marcus Cocceius Nerva. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

Circa 97AD: Writing of First Letter of Clement. (After time of persecution by Domitian. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

Late 90sAD: Date for writing of Epistle of Barnabas. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

Early90sAD: Date for writing of Gospel of Luke. (Date from Crossman, p. 431)

95AD: Rome: Emperor Domitian (81-96AD) bans philosophers from Italy. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

95AD: The guide to Christian church order called "Teaching" or Didache, is written about now. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

95AD: China: Han Dynasty extends west to area of Caspian Sea. Chinese general Ban Chao seeks to contact officials of the Roman Empire. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 95AD: One date for the writing by St John of The Book of Revelation.

95AD: Gospel writer John is exiled on island of Patmos. He records apocalyptic visions and sends them to seven Christian churches in western Asia Minor. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

93AD: Jewish historian Josephus writes Jewish Antiquities recording biblical and post-biblical history of the Jews. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

90-95AD: The Gospel of John is completed. It is presumably based on "the distinctive witness" of an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved". This disciple is identified by tradition as the Apostle John, a son of Zebedee. See John 21: 20-24. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 90AD: Writing of Gospel of Matthew. (Date from Crossman, p. 430)

90AD circa: The Goths by the first century AD seem to live in middle part of basin of Vistula, maybe easternmost of the Teutonic people. Their own tradition is that they came from the island Scandza, ie, Sweden (or, perhaps Gotland). They went to Eastern Pomerania, and conquered the Pomeranians and the Vandals. Their sixth king is Filimer. Maybe they also came from Island of Gotland in the Baltic, as Gotland traded with mouth of the Vistula. The Goths are noted by the Romans by third century when they move down the Danube, ravaging. They extort tribute from emperor Gallus, and ravage into maritime areas of Greece and Asia Minor. Goths plunder Thrace in 321, to be beaten back by Constantine. But they had not abandoned their old area of the Vistula.

Patrick Howarth, Atilla, King of the Huns: The Man and the Myth. London, Robinson, 2001 paperback edition.

90AD-C6thBC, First use of a railway, ie, wheeled carts moving on a grooved carriageway. System fell into disuse by 90AD. The Diolkus of Corinth, could move ships on a "railway" of limestone. The idea was forgotten. From the C14th in Europe, miners pushed ore to the surface on rail carts.

88AD-89AD: Rome: Revolt of Saturninus.

85-90AD: The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles are written. These two works are dedicated to a Christian named Theophilus, and join the stories about Jesus and the early church into "one great narrative". (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

85AD: The Gospel of Matthew is written. This gospel is "anonymous" and based on the Gospel of Mark, but it expands more on the teachings of Jesus and had added narratives such as the story of how Jesus was born. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 90AD: Gospels of Mark, John.

85AD-89AD: Rome: Dacian Wars.

83AD: Rome: Battle of Mons Graupius. War with the Chatti.

Circa: 80AD: Writing of Gospel of Matthew.

80AD: The Flavian Colosseum is dedicated by Titus.

80AD: Inaugural gladiatorial games at the Colosseum at Rome celebrated with the killing of 5000 animals. New research indicates that Rome may have cast an empire-wide net in search of exotic beasts from Asia and Africa for such games. Scholars have ignored references to men (including imperial soldiers) on the fringe of empire snaring lions, tigers, elephants and rhinos. These animal captors were but part of a chain of entrepreneurs, shippers and animal keepers involved in the business. A researcher involved is Professor of Archaeology, Roger Wilson, at University of Nottingham. (Reported in world media on 29 June 2002) One view is the Colosseum is consecrated in 79AD.

79AD: June 2001: Renovations at Pompeii: Work proceeds on restoration of one of Pompeii's "luxury hotels" (hospitium) in a suburban area called Murecine ("little walls"), first found in 1959. A fresco in a banqueting room is to be detached and remounted. It appears this "hotel" was being renovated at the time of destruction, as the only bodies in its appear to be those of builders; and the hotel itself was owned by a wealthy merchant named Sulpicius from nearby Pozzuoli. One of the artefacts found in a cheap rooming house, an armband on a woman who was one of a couple locked in an embrace, read: "The Master to his slave-girl". (Dominus Ancillae Suae). Researchers include staff of University of Naples, including Salvatore Nappo, archaeologist-in-charge. Also interested is Jean-Michel Croisille, from University of Clermont-Ferrand, in France. When Pompeii was destroyed, the only escape was by sea from this thriving port on the estuary of the Sarno River. Of the Pompeii site, some 66 hectares, 22ha have still to be excavated. Pompeii remains a popular tourist destination in Italy. It was visited by German poet Goethe in 1787.

24 August 79AD: Volcanic Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy. Pompeii is buried in volcanic ash. See a novel, Robert Harris, Pompeii. Hutchinson, 2003, 432pp., which has enthused reviewers, especially re Roman engineering for water supplies. Pompeii evidently was not quickly destroyed, its covering by ash took about 18 hours.

79-81AD: Rome: Emperor Titus (Titus Flavius Vespasianus). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

79AD: Jewish historian Josephus writes The Jewish War on the conflict in which he had participated. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

78AD: Britain: Julius Frontinus, leading military scientist and governor of Britain 74-78AD, makes the mistake of writing: "I shall ignore all ideas for new works and engines of war, the invention of which has reached its limits, and for whose improvements I see no further hope." (Source, James/Thorpe).

78AD-96AD: India, Kushan Empire prospers, under Kaniska, who is a Buddhist convert; earlier the Parthians, Afghans and Kushans have invaded Northern India.

76AD: Spain: Emperor Hadrian is born. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

75AD: Rome requires that in Jerusalem, the Temple tax, formerly paid by all male Jews for the Temple, now be paid to Rome. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 75AD: Josephus writes "history".

75AD: Likely date for writing of The Letter to the Hebrews. Author is unknown but might have been Apollos, Priscilla, Barnabas or Luke. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

73AD: Masada, Israel: At the fortress Masada near the Dead Sea, about 900 Jewish defenders against Rome commit suicide rather than surrender to Roman troops. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

66AD-70AD: Israel wars against Rome.

Circa 70AD: Signs Gospel; Gospel of Mark; Didache handbook for believers.

70AD: Werner Keller, Jerusalem during the siege by Titus, 70AD: To seal off the city, Titus constructed a "circumvallatio", a massively-high wall of earthwork, strengthened by thirteen fortified strong points and guarded by a close chain of pickets. This stopped the supply of food through tunnels or ditches. The spectre of famine haunted the city, which was filled to overflowing with pilgrims, and death mowed them down in a dread harvest. The craving for food, no matter of what sort, drove men beyond all bounds and killed all normal feeling. "The terrible famine that increased in frightfulness daily annihilated whole families of people. The terraces were full of women and children who had collapsed from hunger, the alleys were piled high with bodies of the aged. Children and young people, swollen with lack of food, wandered around like ghosts until they fell. They were so far spent they could no longer bury anyone, and if they did they fell dead upon the very corpses they were burying. The misery was unspeakable. For as soon as even the shadow of anything eatable appeared anywhere, a fight began over it, and the best of friends fought each other and tore from each other the most miserable trifles. No one would believe that the dying had no provisions stored away... Robbers ran about reeling and staggering like mad dogs and hammered on the doors of houses like drunk men... Their hunger was so unbearable that they were forced to chew anything and everything. They laid hands on things that even the meanest of animals would not touch, far less eat. They had long since eaten their belts and shoes and even their leather jerkins were torn to shreds and chewed..." [From Josephus in his history of the Wars of the Jews]. "Because I tell of things unknown to history, whether Greek or barbarian. It is frightful to speak of it, and unbelievable to hear of it", writes Josephus. His own family suffered with the defenders, and he was not afraid to describe an inhuman occurrence which proves that the raging famine had begun to cloud the brains of the blockaded citizens. Zealots were foraging through the lanes of the city in quest of food. From one house came the smell of roast meat. The men plunged into the house at once and were confronted by Maria, daughter of the noble line of Beth-Ezob in Transjordan, an extremely wealthy family. The Zealots threatened her with death unless she handed over the roast meat to them. With a wild look she gave them what they asked for. Aghast, they found themselves looking at a half-consumed infant - Maria's own child. Soon not only the whole city learned of this, but the news also seeped out through the walls to the Roman camp. Titus swore that he would bury this dreadful deed under the ruins of the whole city... Many fled from death by starvation under cover of darkness and ran into the arms of an equally cruel fate... (Keller, pp. 384-386)

70AD: The Romans under the son of Vespasian, Titus, besiege and destroy Jerusalem and burn the Temple. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

70AD: Sack of Jerusalem by the Romans. (Baigent and Leigh, Messianic Legacy)

70AD, Destruction of Jerusalem and Herod's Temple. End of the Jewish Rebellion.

69AD: Rome: Revolt of Civilis and the Batavi. (Batavi are an early tribe of the Netherlands.)

69-79AD: Rome: Emperor Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

69AD: Jewish historian Josephus is freed by new emperor Vespasian and given Roman citizenship. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

69AD: The Gospel of Mark is written: This gospel is anonymous and is later attributed to John Mark. It is the earliest work to link stories on Jesus' teachings, miracles, travels, death and resurrection in a single narrative. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

April-December 69AD: Rome: Emperor Vitellius (Aulus Vitellius). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

January-April 69AD: Rome: Emperor Otho (Marcus Salvius Otho). Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

68-69AD: Rome: Emperor Galba (Servius Sulpicius Galba). (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

68AD: Rome: Emperor Nero commits suicide. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

68AD, Destruction of Qumran, home of The Essenes, Israel.

68AD: Rome: Rebellion of Vindex.

68AD: Qumran: The Romans destroy Qumran, home of the Essene sect, and the community's scrolls are successfully hidden in caves to be discovered not until 1879 years later. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

67AD: Vespasian conquers all of Galilee while in Jerusalem the Zealot Party take power. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

67AD: Israel: Historian Josephus leads Jewish revolutionaries at Jotapata in Galilee. He is captured by Vespasian and predicts that Vespasian will become emperor. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

66AD: Jewish Revolt against the Romans, a revolt which had been simmering for some time. (Baigent and Leigh, Messianic Legacy)

66AD: Jewish revolt begins.

64-68AD: Rome: Nero lavishly begins to reconstruct Rome. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 64AD: The execution of St Peter in Rome.

64AD: Rome: A great fire burns for nine days from 18 July. Nero blames the Christians and begins to cruelly persecute them. "the first official condemnation of Christianity by the Roman government". (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) The first Roman persecution of Christians begins about now.

66AD: A Jewish revolt against Rome begins in Caesarea and spreads quickly. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

64-66AD: The Procurator of Judea is Gessius Florus, under whose rule the worst in corruption and tyranny is reached. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

64AD, 19 July, Great Fire of Rome, said to have been started by Nero who played his fiddle as it burned.

64AD: Rome: Many Christians arrested/ executed / tortured to death in Rome by Nero. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

63-64AD: Rome: Apostle Peter in Rome asks Silvanus to compose a letter in his name to Christians in Asia Minor. Tradition has it that Peter is crucified upside down during the persecutions by Nero. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

62-64AD: The Roman Procurator of Judea is Lucceius Albinus. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

62AD: (Harold Bloom, Omens of Millennium, p. 228.) Death date for James the Just, brother of Jesus, who headed the Jerusalem congregation of Jesus' own family and followers. (Are they Gnostics? And a Gnostic book is Secret Book of James, although is there is still some doubt as to the existence of Jewish Gnosticism).

62AD: Doubt cast on identity of "brother of Jesus": In October 2002 was discovered an ossuary (box of human bones), of "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", according to an inscription in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. The inscription was translated by scholar Andre Lemaire, of the Sorbonne in Paris. Commentators now doubt the matter, though a Canadian documentary claims to have conducted scientific tests which vindicate believers in the implications of the translation. Linguists and antiquities experts have been debating issues, while a statistician (Camil Fuchs from Tel Aviv University) has estimated that the given combination of names could have come from only three families from the dates in question. Claims are also made of different "handwriting" for the inscription and that there are misspellings. The said James was leader of the Christians of Jerusalem after Jesus' death and is said to have been stoned to death in AD62. (Reported 19 April 2003)

62AD: Jerusalem: Ananus the Jewish high priest orders "the brother of Jesus", James the Just, to be stoned for transgressing the Law. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

62AD: Killing of James the Just at the Temple, Jerusalem.

61AD: In Britain, Queen Boadica (Boudicca) of the Iceni people leads revolt against the Romans, burns down London, and later poisons herself rather than surrender. The Romans took her dead husband's estate.

61AD: The Christian Letter of James is perhaps written about now. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

60AD: Nero sends an expedition to search for the source of the Nile River. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) The source of the Nile is not found till the Nineteenth Century by Englishman Speke)

60-62AD: Paul in Rome is under house arrest, and writes letters to Colossians, a lost letter to the Laodiceans, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is thought that perhaps Paul was beheaded in Rome by Nero in 62AD, and later, perhaps after the fire of 54AD. Others suggest Paul was released and went not to Spain as he had planned, but back to Asia Minor and Crete. Some feel Paul was imprisoned twice from 62AD to 68AD. The Pastoral Letters 1 and Timothy 2 and Titus would date from this period. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

59AD-60AD: Britain: Rebellion of Boudicca (Boedacea) against Rome.

59AD: Procurator of Judea Festus suggests Paul be returned to Jerusalem, but Paul appears to Caesar, that he be sent to Rome for trial. Paul is given an audience before Festus, Agrippa II and his sister Bernice. Paul is sent with military guard on ship to Rome which breaks up on the island of Malta, but all survive. In 59-60AD, Paul winters on Malta and arrives in Rome in early spring. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

57AD: A plot is discovered against life of Paul so Romans transfer him to Caesarea, where he is examined by procurator Felix, who makes no decision. In 57-59AD, Paul is in prison in Caesarea, till Felix is replaced by Festus. In 59-62AD, procurator of Judea is Porcius Festus. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

Circa 50AD: Buddhism reaches China.

Late 50AD: Writing of First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians. (Date from Crossman, p. 427)

Winter 52-53AD Writing of Letter of Paul to the Galatians (Date from Crossman, p. 427)

Winter 53-54AD: Writing of First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. (Date from Crossman, p. 427)

55-56AD: Writing of Writing of Letter of Paul to the Romans. (Date from Crossman, p. 427)

50AD and after 62AD after the martyrdom of James, Writing of Gospel of Thomas. (Date from Crossman, p. 427)

50sAD: Probably writing of "The Egerton Gospel". (Date from Crossman, p. 428)

50sAD in Egypt: Probable writing of "Gospel of the Hebrews". (Date from Crossman, p. 428)

Circa 50AD: Gospel of Thomas; Sayings Gospel Q; First Letters of Paul.

50sAD or earlier, Collection of Miracles of Jesus, later placed into Gospels of Mark and John. (Date from Crossman, p. 428)

60sAD: Possible writing in Egypt of "Gospel of the Egyptians". (Date from Crossman, p. 429)

Early70sAD: Probable date for writing of Gospel of Mark. (Date from Crossman, p. 430)

55AD: A Jewish prophet from Egypt takes a large crowd of pious Jews to the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, and predicts that God will cause the city walls to fall, and allow them to drive out the Romans. Procurator Felix attacks and kills many but the Egyptian escapes. In 55AD, Herod Agrippa II is granted part of Galilee and Perea by Nero. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

55-56AD: Paul winters in Corinth and writes a letter to church in Rome explaining his teachers and asking for their help when he travels to Spain. In 56AD he travels to Macedonia and Asia Minor then to Jerusalem, with money he has collected for the poor in the church at Jerusalem. But crowds in the Temple threaten Paul, he is arrested by Roman soldiers and Jerusalem authorities bring charges of sacrilege against him. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

54AD: Rome: Claudius is poisoned by his wife, Agrippina, so that her son Nero can succeed Claudius. Nero reigns 54-69AD (Nero Claudius Caesar Domitius) (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

53AD: The Sicarii (users of short daggers become radically active against Rome, assassinating Jews who collaborate with Romans, including the former high priest, Jonathan. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

53AD: Herod Agrippa II, son of Agrippa I, is granted rule of northeastern Palestine by Claudius in Rome. Paul writes his letter Galations to the church he founded in Galatia. He has enemies, those who have told the Galations they must keep the Jewish Laws. The church in Corinth asks Paul about marriage relationships, food from pagan sacrifices, manifestations of the Holy Spirit, etc. In 54AD, Paul writes Corinthians I which is delivered by his assistant, Titus. In 54-55AD, Paul finds that new Christian teachers have come to Corinth criticizing his message. Paul writers 2 Corinthians. In 54AD, Paul is evidently imprisoned in Ephesus; he writes his letter to Philippian church. In 55AD, Ephesians devoted to goddess Artemis protest against Paul and he travels north to Macedonia. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

52AD: Paul travels with Aquila and Priscilla to Ephesus. Paul leaves them and journeys to Palestine, then to Antioch. Apollos of Alexandria a follower of John the Baptist, arrives in Ephesus and is taught by Priscilla and Aquila. Apollos becomes an eloquent Christian preacher and goes to Corinth. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

52-56AD: On Paul's Third Missionary Journey he works in Ephesus and travels through Macedonia and Greece. He visits churches in Galatia and returns to Ephesus. Between 52-55AD he works with Ephesus, and sends other missionaries to surrounding cities. In 52AD writes a now-lost letter to Corinthians. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

52-59AD: Procurator of Judea is Antonius Felix, a freedman, brother of Pallas, a powerful freedman in the court of Claudius in Rome. Tacitus felt Felix used "every cruelty and lust". (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

51AD: Paul writes 1 Thessalonians and possibly 2 Thessalonians, the earliest writings of The New Testament. Paul is brought to trial by Jews before Gallio, governor of the area. But Gallio refuses to hear the case. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

Circa 50AD: In first century AD, world's first slot machine, a coin enables people to receive some holy water for ritual washing, invented in Alexandria by Heron, an inventor extraordinaire. He also designed a fire engine, mechanical puppet theatres, an odometer, a new kind of syringe, and forerunner of the theodolite, plus an automatically-opening door. (Source: James/Thorpe). Heron of Alexandria also invented "the first working steam engine", an aeopile, or "wind ball". His concept pre-dated the idea of jet propulsion.

Circa 50AD: At Ostia, Emperor Claudius builds the first of a network of lighthouses. This Ostia lighthouse survived till C15thAD. By 400AD were a network of thirty lighthouses around the Roman Empire. (By 800AD the Arabs and Indians had built a string of lighthouses around the coasts of the Indian Ocean they sailed). Source: (James/Thorpe)

50AD: Establishment of a trade route Rome-India, bypassing overland route middlemen.

50AD: A written collection of Jesus' teachings and shorter sayings is assembled (it is not said where, in Jerusalem?). This collection is later used by the writers of the Gospels. Paul and Silas move to Europe and to Philippi of Macedonia. A Jewish woman, a merchant in purple cloth, Lydia, is converted. Opposition to Paul grows, he and Silas are arrested, beaten, jailed, forced to depart the city. In Thessalonica and Beroae, Paul and Silas start more mixed churches and apposition again drives them from towns. Paul preaches in Athens but evidently has no success there. He once addresses Greek philosophers in the council known as The Areopagus. In 50-51AD, Paul and Silas are in Corinth for 18 months, converting a head of a synagogue and Gentiles. Paul lives and works with Aquila and Priscilla, Jewish Christians who have moved from Rome. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

49-52AD: Paul and Silas (Silvanus), travel Asia Minor and Greece establishing churches (The Second Missionary Journey). (Acts 15:40-18:21) Timothy from Lystra joins Paul and becomes a close associate. Paul and Silas preach in Phrygia and Galatia in Central Asia Minor, establishing Gentile churches. Paul in Galatia has an unknown ailment. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

49AD: Rome: Claudius expels Jews from the city. Allegations the Jews foment unrest at "the instigation of Chrestus". Is this a reference to teachings of the Christians? (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

49AD: Jerusalem: A conference is held of Apostles and other Christian leaders. Are non-Jewish Christians required to observe Jewish matters of Law. Leaders are Peter, John and James brother of Jesus, and they decide that Paul is correct in not requiring Gentiles to observe Jewish Law, while Peter is correct in preaching to Jews to keep their Law. The same arguments surface later in Antioch, but Paul now disagrees with position of Peter, Barnabas and other Jewish Christians. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

48-52AD: Procurator of Judea is Ventidius Cumanus. Between 48-66AD, poor procurators in Judea allow unrest against Rome to grow as the Jewish Zealot Party increasingly resists Rome. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

48AD: Wife of Claudius, Messalina, attempts to overthrow him and marry her lover Silius. Claudius is warned, has them executed, and marries his niece Agrippina, mother of Nero. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

47AD: Ruler Gondophares of the Parthians displaces northern Sakas in Candhara.

43-84AD: Rome conquers Britain and establishes Londinium/London. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

46-48AD: On the first Christian missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas travel through Cyprus (home island of Barnabas) and Asia Minor, (Acts 13-14), preaching in Salamis and Paphos, even teaching the new Roman proconsul. With them is cousin of Barnabas, John Mark. Paul preaches in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, but conflict arose over his teaching. But Paul and Barnabas begin teaching Gentiles and found a mixed Gentile-Jewish church. In 47AD, Paul and Barnabas establish mixed churches at Derbe in Lycaonia, Iconium, and Lystra. Paul heals a man in Lystra and the locals try to worship he and Barnabas as embodiments of Greek gods Hermes and Zeus. Later the people turn against Paul and try to stone him to death. In 48AD, Paul and Barnabas revisit the new churches to strengthen them before returning to Antioch. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

Has tomb of the real Gladiator been found? - In the movie Gladiator, his name was Maximus Decimus Meridius, a general who is popular with the Roman emperor, but not with the emperor's son. His real name was Marcus Nonius Macrinus, born in Brescia, Northern Italy, who fought for emperor Marcus Aurelius (between 161-180AD) and became a proconsul. He had a villa at Toscolano Maderno on Lake Garda. Lately his inscribed tomb has been discovered on the banks of River Tiber at Saxa Rubra on the Via Flaminia, north of Rome. Planned to be built is Via Flaminia Archaeological Park, which include the general's tomb and the house of empress Livia, wife of emperor Augustus, which is nearby at Prima Porta. (According to Superintendent of Archaeology in Rome, Prof. Angelo Bottini. Weekend Australian, 18-19 October 2008)

45-47AD: A famine strikes Judea. Christians in Antioch send relief to the church in Judea. The procurator of Judea 46-48 is Tiberius Julius Alexander. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

44AD: Herod Agrippa at festival games in Caesarea accepts flattery as a god, and in five days he is struck with an abdominal problem and dies. His territory is placed under Roman administration with a procurator (Cuspius Fadus 44-46) responsible to the governor of Syria. In 44-45, a Jewish/Judean prophet named Theudas gathers a large following, marches to Jordan River, predicting that God will part its waters and enable the Romans to be driven out. Cuspius Fadus attacks the crowd with cavalry and beheads Theudas. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

43AD: Agrippa arrests Apostle James, son of Zebedee, and James is beheaded. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline) In 43AD, Rome invades and annexes southern Britain.

24 January 41AD: Unpopular Roman emperor Gaius Caesar (Caligula) is assassinated at the Palatine Games.

41AD: After Herod Agrippa has assisted Claudius to succeed as emperor, Claudius gives Agrippa the rule of Syria and Samaria, so re-uniting the territory of Herod the Great. From 41-44AD, Agrippa also rules all Palestine, and is respected by devout Jews for his respect to their Law. 42-44AD, Agrippa supports Jewish nationalism and strongly opposes the new Christian Church. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

41AD: Claudius settles conflicts between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria and assures Jews of their rights. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

41AD: 24 January, Caligula is assassinated and Claudius is proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard. Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus reigns 41-45AD. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline.)

40AD: Caligula orders governor of Syria to erect a statue of Caligula in the Temple at Jerusalem. Jews are outraged and the governor tries to delay the matter. As he is visiting Rome, Herod Agrippa hears of the order, writes to the emperor and persuades him to rescind the order. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

40AD: The royal family of Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia is converted to Judaism. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

40AD: Jews of Alexandria send a delegation to Rome to protest their rights, led by philosopher and scholar Philo of Alexandria. Caligula considers them more foolish than wicked for failing to discern his divinity. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

37-41AD: Rome: Emperor is Gaius Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus) (Nero is born in 37AD) (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

40AD: Rome: Annexation of Mauretania.

38-40AD: Rome: Caligula becomes increasingly convinced of his own divinity. In 38-40, Caligula futilely leads two expeditions into Gaul. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

39AD: Herod Antipas travels to Rome to ask the emperor to give him title of king as earlier given to Herod Agrippa. Caligula instead banishes Herod Antipas to Gaul (charged with secret alliance with Parthians) and gives his territory to Agrippa. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

39AD: Titus is born, son of later emperor Vespasian. (Item from Thomas Robinson, The Bible Timeline)

37AD: More to come

36AD: 30 March (Passover) Crucifixion of Jesus (by a dating citation mislaid).

35AD: More to come

Shroud of Turin tests a boon to believers - (Based on story by Bruce Johnston in Sydney Morning Herald, 29-30 January 2005 from The Telegraph, London) The Shroud of Turin is far older than carbon dating suggests and may date to biblical times, as believers tend to claim, a new study has found. The findings may revive hopes that the cloth is not a medieval fake, but a miraculously-arising record of Jesus' face after the crucifixion. Raymond Rogers, of the University of California's Los Alamos Laboratory, argues that carbon dating tests made on the shroud in 1988 were invalid because they were performed on a replacement section rather than on any of the original linen. His own tests, most of them chemical analyses of fibres he says were taken from the original linen, instead reveal its age to be from 1300 to 3000 years old. Many Catholics believe the cloth bears the image of Jesus after it was used to wrap his body when he was taken from the cross. Researchers, working separately in Arizona, Cambridge and Zurich, carried out tests in the 1980s which concluded the shroud could be dated only to between AD1261 and 1390, and was therefore likely to be a deception devised in the Middle Ages. Even the then cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, was forced to concede that the garment was probably a hoax. But writing in Thermochimica Acta, Mr Rogers said fibres from the original linen showed no trace of a chemical called vanillin. Produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, the compound is found in plant material such as flax. Levels of lignin in material such as linen fall over time. Had the shroud been produced in medieval times, it would still contain vanillin. Mr Rogers, a member of the original Shroud of Turin Research Project, wrote of his surprise at the findings of the radiocarbon dating a decade later. After re-examining the data, he concluded that the sample used for dating in 1988, and the other 32 samples he had taken of the linen fibre from all over the shroud, were not the same. Chemical kinetics, analytical chemistry and other tests proved the "radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth, and so was "invalid in determining the age of the shroud".

(Chronology: 1355: Re Shroud of Turin. First known expositions of the shroud, in Lirey, France, allegedly obtained by a French knight in Constantinople. 1534: Damaged by fire in the Sainte Chapelle, Chambery. Nuns repair it, sewing on a backing cloth. 1578: Shroud arrives in Turin and stays there. 1976: First scientific examination. 1979: Shroud is claimed to be the work of a medieval artist who painted in iron oxide. 1988: Radio-carbon dating tests suggest it is a medieval fake. 2002: A second, faint image of a man's face on the reverse side is exposed during restoration. 2004: New study suggests the shroud is up to 3000 years old.)

Circa 33AD: Traditional date for Jesus Christ, Jewish religious leader, crucified. (C40AD?)

27/33AD: Arrest of John the Baptist.

32AD: More to come

31AD: Rome: Fall of Sejanus.

29AD: In late 28AD or more likely early 29AD, Jesus starts his mission in Palestine, aged 30/31. (This is based on a lecture at UNE by Peter Arzt-Grabner, Associate Prof. of Papyrology, University of Salzburg on 18 July 2013. Arzt-Grabner based his datings on the Gospel of Luke plus cross-comparisons made after consultation of non-literary records on papyrus and other data, to find dates contemporaneous with those of Jesus or matters associated with the life of Jesus.)

29AD: About 29 August and 9 October, 29AD, during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberias, John the Baptist starts his mission in Palestine. (This is based on a lecture at UNE by Peter Arzt-Grabner, Associate Prof. of Papyrology, University of Salzburg on 18 July 2013. Arzt-Grabner based his datings on the Gospel of Luke plus cross-comparisons made after consultation of non-literary records on papyrus and other data, to find dates contemporaneous with those of Jesus or matters associated with the life of Jesus.)

29AD: One view is that John the Baptist is beheaded by Herod this year at the request of Salome.

28AD: About June/July 28AD, Jesus of Nazareth turns 30, near the end of the the 14th year of the reign of Tiberias. (This is based on a lecture at UNE by Peter Arzt-Grabner, Associate Prof. of Papyrology, University of Salzburg on 18 July 2013. Arzt-Grabner based his datings on the Gospel of Luke plus cross-comparisons made after consultation of non-literary records on papyrus and other data, to find dates contemporaneous with those of Jesus or matters associated with the life of Jesus.)

27AD: More to come

26AD: Rome: Tiberius retires to Capri.

25AD: Eastern Han dynasty begins its rule over China.

24AD: More to come

9-23AD: Rule of Wang Mang as emperor of China.

21AD: More to come

19AD: Rome: Death of Germanicus.

17AD: Major earthquake means many Asian cities are destroyed.

16AD: More to come

15AD: More to come

Finding of original site of founding of Rome? In the legend, a wolf suckled twin foundlings, Romulus and Remus. Now, archaeologists have discovered "an underground cavity" 16 metres underground, decorated with seashells, mosaics and pumice stones near the ruins of a palace once occupied by first Roman emperor, Augustus, died 14AD, on the Palatine Hill, which overlooked the Forum of Rome. At the centre of the cavity is an image of a white eagle, (although some parts of the cavity have collapsed). Perhaps, the site is both old and sacred, the site of the worship of The Lupercale? Where the wolf suckled the twins? One spokesman for the find was archaeologist, Prof. Giogio Coric. (Reported later 2008 in world news)

14 AD: Dies Augustus, the first Roman Emperor and adopted son of Julius Caesar.

13AD: More to come

12AD: More to come

11AD: More to come

10AD: Ethiopia: A pagan state, Axum, is founded by the Sabaeans from Southern Arabia.

9AD: German chieftain Herman defeats the Roman, Varus. In 6AD-6AD, Rome has to content with the revolt of Pannonia. In 9AD is revolt of Arminius. Romans build a wall called "the limes" south of the Danube against Germanic warriors.

8AD: More to come

7AD: More to come

6AD: Judea becomes a Roman province.

By circa 6AD: Japan: The YAMATO family gains supremacy (on Nara Plain) and founds the imperial line. Emperor - dual character - functions of a religious leader and a leader of the state - Political and economic organization was still primitive - most of the land - controlled by semiautonomous tribal unit - UJI (bound to the ruling family of the Yamato) UJI - had chiefs and own UJI shrines, a number of subordinate UJI and pseudo-family groupings of farmers, fishermen, weavers, and other types of workers Religious practice - SHINTO "the way of the gods" - the worship of gods or KAMI (natural phenomena, mythological ancestors (often nature gods)) - the line between man and nature was not drawn sharply - unusual or awesome men were easily made into deities - No ethical concepts associated with these religious ideas except the sense of awe and reverence before nature and a concept of ritual purity (NO list of DOS and DON'TS - NO Ten Commandments) (even presently can see - water in front of a shrine to wash mouth and hands) - cultural influences from the nearby continent - iron and bronze.
This item is from a website History Lecture Note timeline on Japanese history by Mineharu Nakayama

5AD: For 5-10AD, The last Indo-Greek King, Strato II, loses the territory between the Chenab and Sutlej rivers.

4AD: 'Roman Gladiator Graveyard' Unearthed In England - Archaeologists believe they have found the world's best-preserved gladiator cemetery in York, England, after unearthing skeletons that suffered the kind of violent injuries usually sustained in a Roman amphitheatre, researchers said on Monday. The York Archaeological Trust has dug up 80 skeletons that date from the first century AD to 4 AD. They were found at the Driffield Terrace site in York where excavation work started in 2004. Gladiators -- famously depicted in Hollywood films by Russell Crowe and Kirk Douglas -- were trained fighters who entertained Roman crowds in savage clashes against other warriors and ferocious animals. (From GeneaNet e-mail newsletter, 12 June 2010)

3AD: More to come

2AD: More to come

1AD: Thessaloniki, Greece: Archaeologists in north-eastern Greece have discovered a Roman burial site with well-preserved remains of chariots and horses in their Evros region, near the border with Bulgaria. It is possible the chariots were being used to take bodies to a cremation site where horses would also be killed for the ceremony. Excavations began last September and continue. The finds are said to be unique in Greece. (Reported 15 February 2003)

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