Oct 14, 2008
Rome's plebeian tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus obtains Senate approval of a measure that would allot land in Transalpine Gaul to veterans of the Cimbric War and establish Latin colonies for other veterans in Achaea, Macedonia, and Sicily (see 101 B.C.). He and the praetor Gaius Serviius Glaucia propose cheaper corn for the very poor as well as other new social laws, but his erstwhile supporter Gaius Marius thinks he has gone too far and breaks their relationship. The former consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus goes into exile to avoid having to swear support for Saturninus's agrarian law, nobles in the Senate disallow Glaucia's candidacy for consulship, the consular elections break down after another candidate is murdered, Saturninus and Glaucia seize the Capitoline Hill and rally supporters, the Senate calls upon Gaius Marius to restore order. The two popular leaders surrender to Marius, who locks them in the Senate chamber, but their enemies tear off the roof and stone them to death, whereupon the Senate rescinds most of Saturninus's radical laws.
Rome's second Servile War ends after 4 years as the consul Marcus Aquillius subdues an army of slaves that has put up a stubborn resistance.
Syria's Seleucid king Antiochus VIII is murdered by his court favorite Heracleon after a 29-year reign in which he has been forced to divide the realm with his half brother, who will reign alone until next year as Antiochus IX.
Cyrenaica's Ptolemy Apion dies, having separated his country from Egypt. He bequeaths the realm to Rome, which accepts the bequest but will not establish a colonial administration there until 74 B.C.
Syria's Seleucid king Antiochus IX is defeated in battle and killed by the son of his late half brother, who will reign briefly as Seleucus VI.
The Lex Licinia Mucia enacted by Rome's Senate at the persuasion of the consul Quintus Mucius Scaevola and his colleagues removes from the citizen rolls certain groups (the so-called Latin and Italian allies) who have not been amalgamated into the republic. The measure produces unrest that will culminate in war (see 91 B.C.).
Armenia Minor's king Artanes is deposed by a descendant of the first king of Armenia Major who has been held hostage for several years by Parthia's Mithradates II but obtains his release by ceding "70 valleys" that border on Media in northwestern Persia. He unites the two countries and at age 45 (approximate) begins a 38-year reign as Tigranes II that will make Armenia the most powerful nation in western Asia (see 93 B.C.).
Armenia's Tigranes II seals an alliance with Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, by marrying his daughter Cleopatra (see 94 B.C.). Tigranes has murdered a neighboring Armenian prince and annexed the kingdom of Sophene. He invades the kingdom of Cappadocia in the name of his new father-in-law (but see 92 B.C.).
The Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla comes to the aid of Cappadocia and forces Armenia's Tigranes II to withdraw (but see 88 B.C.).
Parthia's Mithradates II makes an alliance with Rome and prepares to invade Mesopotamia.
The Roman tribune Marcus Livius Drusus proposes colonial and agrarian reform bills, and introduces a new judiciary bill that would remove the courts from the control of the equites (cavalry) and make corrupt jurors liable to prosecution. An honest provincial governor has refused to allow contract tax collectors (publicans) to practice extortion in his province, and Drusus has tried to resolve the conflict that has arisen between the equestrian and senatorial orders; his proposal fails to satisfy either faction, and opposition to him increases when he moves to extend the franchise to Rome's Italian allies (socii) the Marrucini, Marsi, Paeligini, Umbri, and Vestini, who have been demanding Roman citizenship. Son and namesake of the former consul, Drusus gains support from the influential senior senator Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and some other Senate leaders, but a Social War breaks out between the Romans and their Italian neighbors, other senators become alarmed over the popular unrest, and Drusus is murdered at age 33 (the perpetrators will not be discovered). The disenfranchised tribes set up the Republic of Italia, establish a capital at Corfinium, mobilize 100,000 soldiers, and begin a 3-year "Social War" against Rome (see 90 B.C.; Lex Licinia Mucia, 95 B.C.).
The Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus dies at Rome, having retired from politics 8 years ago.
A Chinese imperial confidant accuses the aging Han emperor Wudi's (Wu-ti's) son and heir apparent of practicing witchcraft against the emperor, the son leads an uprising, thousands of people are killed, and the son commits suicide.
Italian insurrectionists defeat Roman armies in the north, gain victories also in the south, and burst into the Campania (see 91 B.C.). All but one of the Latin cities remain loyal, but Rome has drawn some of its best fighting men from the tribes, and the new consul Lucius Julius Caesar obtains passage of a law granting citizenship to any Italian who desires it. Marcus Aemilius Scaurus is brought to trial on a charge of conspiring with the insurrectionists, but he is acquitted.
The senior senator and former consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus dies at age 73 (year and age approximate), having been a leader of the conservative aristocrats (Optimates) who control Rome's Senate.
The Egyptian army turns against Ptolemy X Alexander and forces him into exile after an 18-year reign in which his late mother, Cleopatra III, ruled as regent until her death in 101 B.C. and his wife, Berenice III, has been sovereign queen since then. Ptolemy X raises a mercenary army in Syria, returns to Egypt, plunders the tomb of Alexander the Great at Alexandria for the wherewithal to pay his troops, further arouses the wrath of the people (who still suspect that he assassinated his mother 12 years ago), and flees to Lycia in Asia Minor, taking Berenice with him (see 88 B.C.).
Rome's Social War ends as tribes in Etruria and Umbria accept citizenship under the law enacted by the Senate. The general Pompeius Strabo has a triumphal procession at Rome, displaying prisoners who include one Publius Ventidius, who will soon be freed and rise in time to become a prominent general and politician (see 43 B.C.).
Parthia's Mithradates II (the Great) dies after a 36-year reign in the closing years of which he has conquered Mesopotamia. A period of unrest follows his death, which leaves his empire wracked by internal dissensions which make it vulnerable to invasion by neighboring Scythians. A challenger to his sovereignty has assumed power in parts of Parthia as Gotarzes I since 95 B.C. and will remain a contender until next year, another rival assumed power 2 years ago and will reign until 77 B.C. as Orodes I, but Mithradates's son-in-law Tigranes II of Armenia invades Parthia and begins a war in which he will recover the 70 valleys that he paid for his freedom in 95 B.C. and overrun four Parthian vassal states, reducing the size of Parthia and extending the borders of Armenia.
Pontus's Mithradates VI Eupator begins the first of three wars that he will wage against Rome. Now 44, Mithradates has made himself master of Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Bithynia, and all of the Black Sea's southern and eastern coasts. A Roman army goes to Campania under the command of the consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla to face Mithradates's challenge (see 87 B.C.).
Egypt's Macedonian king Ptolemy X Alexander is killed at sea between Cyprus and Lycia in Asia Minor (see 89 B.C.). His brother Ptolemy IX Soter returns from Cyprus to resume sole rule, bringing back his brother's widow, Berenice III (who is also his own daughter and whom he now marries). A major rebellion has erupted in the area of Thebes in Upper Egypt, and it will take 3 years of hard fighting to subdue the Thebans, who want to establish a native dynasty. Ptolemy IX's 27-year-old nephew was sent to the Aegean Island of Cos with a large treasure to keep him safe during his late grandmother's war with Syria. He becomes Ptolemy XI Alexander, but he is captured by Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, who has just routed a Roman general and seized Cos (see 84 B.C.).
Roman orator Publius Sulpicius Ruffus, 36, renounces his patrician status in order to gain election to the tribunate, introduces laws that will ingratiate him with the privileged equites class and with Gaius Marius, but also introduces laws that include unseating all senators who are more than 2,000 denarii in debt, distributing freedmen and newly enfranchised Italians among the 35 tribes of Italy, recalling all men who have been exiled without proper trial, and transferring command of the war against Mithradates VI of Pontus from the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla to the Senate's nominee, Gaius Marius, now about 69. Violence breaks out in the Forum between the senatorial faction and supporters of Sulpicius, who organizes a group of about 100 young equites and surrounds himself with a bodyguard of some 3,000 armed men. News of the trouble at home reaches Sulla, who marches on Rome and takes over the city. Marius and Sulpicius flee along with other rebels, Sulla declares them outlaws, Sulpicius is captured at Lavinium and executed, his laws are declared invalid on grounds that the senators who passed them were coerced, and Marius remains at large. Sulla marries (for the fourth time), taking Caecilia Matella as his wife to make important political connections, and orders his legionnaires to suppress the insurrection (Italic War) that began 3 years ago; fresh legions are raised to fight the king of Pontus.
The former consul Quintus Mucius Scaevola is killed in the massacres at Rome, having written an 80-volume treatise on civil law.
The Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla leaves for Greece as proconsul to face Mithradates VI of Pontus after having instituted reforms that will be shortlived (see 88 B.C.). Sulla takes over most of Greece by spring, but a new Roman demagogue appears in the person of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who is elected consul, begins a reign of terror against the reactionary Roman nobility, but is soon dismissed. The former consul Gaius Marius lands in Etruria, raises an army, sacks the port of Ostia, joins forces with Cinna, blockades Rome with help from his general Gnaeus Papirus Carbo, 43, and forces the partisans of Sulla who hold the city to surrender. Elected along with Cinna as consul for 86, he orders the executions of Marcus Antonius, Lucius Lutatius Catulus, Publicus Licinius Crassus, and other prominent figures who in his mind have been treacherously ungrateful.
China's Han emperor Wudi (Wu-ti) dies March 29 at age 68 after a 53-year reign in which he has drained the state's treasury in his efforts to extend Chinese influence abroad. Having made Confucianism the state religion, he has designated an 8-year-old son as his heir apparent and then had the boy's mother accused of a crime and put in prison, where she has died (not wanting the boy emperor to be dominated by relatives as he himself was at the start of his reign, he has condoned the death of the boy's mother). His son Fuling will reign until 74 B.C. as the emperor Zhaodi.
The newly-reelected Roman consul Gaius Marius dies at Rome January 13 at age 70 (approximate). His former co-consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus is forced to commit suicide, having distinguished himself as an orator, poet, and prose writer but having become a bitter foe of his onetime colleague Gaius Marius. Lucius Valerius Flaccus replaces Marius as co-consul, ruling with Lucius Cornelius Cinna, but when Flaccus goes to Asia Minor to challenge Sulla he is murdered by his lieutenant.
Athens falls to the legions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who defeats the forces of Mithradates VI and his allies at the fortified town of Chaeronea on Mount Petrachus. Sulla has married Caecilia Metella, widow of the late Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. His men sack Athens, but Egyptian rulers will help to rebuild the city.
The Roman troops who loot and sack Athens carry off the remains of Aristotle's library; the greatest in Greece, it has been the model for the library of Alexandria.
The Roman general Gnaeus Papirius Carbo is elected consul along with Lucius Cornelius Cinna; the two declare themselves (illegally) consuls for 84 B.C. and make preparations to fight Lucius Cornelius Sulla upon his return from Greece and Asia Minor.
The Roman co-consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna prepares to cross the sea to Dalmatia but is killed by mutinous soldiers, leaving Gnaeus Papirius Carbo as sole consul.
Egypt's Ptolemy XI Alexander deserts the ranks of Mithradates VI of Pontus (who has treated him well and educated him; see 88 B.C.). Seizing an opportunity during a battle with the Roman co-consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla, he goes over to Sulla, who will carry him off to Rome, where he will be held hostage until 81 B.C.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla forces Mithradates VI of Pontus to make peace, evacuate all the territories that he has conquered, surrender 80 warships, and pay an indemnity of 3,000 silver talents. Sulla sails for Brundisium, leaving two legions to police Rome's Asiatic territories and help Lucius Licinius Lucullus collect a fine of 20,000 talents from the Asiatic cities.
The Seleucid king Antiochus XII who has seized Damascus is killed on an expedition against the Nabataeans.
The Seleucid dynasty that has ruled Syria since 312 B.C. comes to an end as Armenia's Tigranes II extends his borders to Mt. Lebanon (see 88 B.C.). The Romans will intervene to restore Seleucid sovereignty, but the dynasty's days are numbered (see 64 B.C.).
Lucius Cornelius Sulla returns to Brundisium in the summer after a long sojourn at Athens, bringing with him 40,000 men and tons of booty. He has been declared a public enemy in his absence, his house has been destroyed, his family and friends have joined him in Greece to escape the fury of the mob, but he attracts supporters as he begins his march north toward Rome (see 82 B.C.).
The Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo faces the legions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla near Clusium. The outcome is not decisive, but Sulla's general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeats Carbo and the son (and namesake) of the late Gaius Marius near Faventia, Carbo flees. Gnaeus Pompey captures him south of Sicily on the island of Cossyra, and he is executed at Lilybaeum, Sicily, at age 48 (approximate).
Legions under the command of Lucius Cornelius Sulla repel rebellious Samnites from the northern environs of Rome in the Battle of the Colline Gate in November (see Samnites, 290 B.C.). The fall of Praeneste late in the year ends the civil war, Sulla appoints himself dictator under the Valerian Law (Lex Valeria), moves to punish cities that have sided with Rome's enemies, and begins a tyranny that will continue until 79.
New legislation enacted at Rome in late January reorganizes the state. The dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla celebrates his victory over Mithradates VI of Pontus with a ceremonial speech in which he chooses the name Felix (meaning lucky).
Egypt's Ptolemy IX Soter dies, leaving his widow (and daughter), Berenice III, to rule alone. Rome's dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla sends Ptolemy's nephew Ptolemy XI Alexander to marry Berenice, but Sulla has consulted neither the queen nor the people of Egypt. She insists on ruling alone, and Ptolemy XI Alexander murders her (see 80 B.C.).
The Japanese emperor Sujin begins a great shipbuilding effort in a move to provide his people with more of the seafood on which so many depend for sustenance.
Egypt's last entirely legitimate Ptolemaic king Ptolemy XI Alexander dies at the hands of an infuriated mob at Alexandria, whose people admired their late queen Berenice III and take revenge on her murderer (see 81 B.C.). The Alexandrians invite an illegitimate 32-year-old son of the late Ptolemy IX Soter to become king. Sent along with the late Ptolemy XI to the Aegean island of Cos in 103 to keep him safe, the young man was captured there in 88 by Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, who has arrived from Syria, married Cleopatra V Tryphaena (who may be his sister), and will reign (with a brief interruption) until 51 as Ptolemy XII Auletes ("The Flute Player"), allowing his country to become virtually a client state of the Roman republic (see 58 B.C.).
The Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix halts public distribution of free grain (see 123 B.C.; 70 B.C.).
The dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix retires voluntarily from public life at the start of the year after having completed substantial constitutional reforms in Rome's legal and judiciary system, reforms that will endure to the end of the republic. The Lex Cornelia Majestatis is designed to prevent provincial governors and army commanders from rebelling. Another law requires that tribunes submit their legislative proposals to the Senate for approval. A new law governs cases of alleged treason, the number of courts for criminal trials is increased, and citizens are given more protection against judicial and administrative excesses. Sulla settles near Puteoli in Campania and sets to work writing his memoirs.
Rome's former dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix dies of fever in the spring at Puteoli outside Naples at age 60, leaving two children by his wife Metella plus an unborn daughter that his fifth wife, Valeria, bears later in the year; the democratic senator and consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus immediately begins efforts to undo Sulla's work, trying to abrogate the Constitution by demanding the recall of exiles, restoration of confiscated lands, distribution of cheap grain, and—ultimately—reestablishment of the office of tribune. Thwarted, Lepidus raises an army of malcontents in Etruria and marches on Rome, but his colleague Quintus Lutatius Catulus defeats him in battle on the Milvian Bridge outside the city (see 77 B.C.).
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus suffers total defeat at the hands of a protégé of the late Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (see 78 B.C.). Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey), 29, forces Lepidus to flee to the Hispanic provinces where he soon dies (see 71 B.C.).
Parthia's Orodes I dies after a 13-year reign in which he has reunited the empire following the chaos that ensued upon the death of Mithradates II in 88 B.C. An 80-year-old brother of Mithradates is recalled from exile among the Scythians and will reign until 70 B.C. as Sinatruces, ending the civil unrest and reestablishing the previous order of succession.
The Greek physician Asclepiades of Bithynia opposes the Hippocratic medicine of 429 B.C., insisting that disease is a result of an inharmonious motion of the corpuscles that compose all bodily tissue. But Asclepiades is the first to distinguish between acute and chronic disease, and many are helped by his recommendations with regard to diet, bathing, and exercise (his patients will include Cicero, Crassus, and Marc Antony).
Mithradates VI of Pontus invades Phrygia, beginning a third Mithradatic War, but the tetrarch Deitotarus of the Tolistobogii in western Galatia drives out the invaders (see 71 B.C.). Deitotarus makes himself an ally of Rome (see 64 B.C.).
Bithynia's king Nicomedes IV dies, bequeathing his ancient district in northwestern Anatolia to the Romans.
China's Han dynasty emperor Zhaodi dies after a 13-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Xun, who will reign until 49 B.C. as the emperor Xuandi.
A third Servile War begins under the leadership of the Thracian slave Spartacus, a gladiator who seizes Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples with the help of other gladiators; while often lionized by the public, such men have been considered no better than criminals or prostitutes by Roman authorities, but Spartacus rallies fugitive slaves to the insurrection (see 72 B.C.).
Rome sends some 40,000 legionnaires against Spartacus and his army of fugitive slaves, whose numbers have grown to the tens of thousands (see 73 B.C.).
The king of Pontus Mithradates VI is driven out of his own country by the Roman legions of L. Licinius Lucullus and takes refuge at the court of Armenia's Tigranes II.
The Battle of Lucania ends in defeat for Spartacus at the hands of the Roman praetor Marcus Licinius Crassus, 41, who has enriched himself in the service of the late dictator Sulla by organizing a fire brigade, refusing to put out fires unless paid in advance, buying up burned-down ruins at a fraction of their value as standing structures, restoring them, charging high rents, and also buying up properties of proscribed Romans (see Spartacus, 72 B.C.). Gnaeus Pompey returns from the Hispanic provinces and destroys the remnants of the servile army. Spartacus is taken prisoner and crucified along with 6,000 others to serve as an example to other rebellious slaves.
Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey break with the Roman nobility and use their troops to gain the consulship. They restore the privileges of the tribunate which were removed by Sulla.
Armenia's Tigranes II completes conquests that extend his empire from the Ararat Valley in the north to the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast. Calling himself "king of kings," Tigranes begins construction of a new capital to be called Tigranocerta at the headwaters of the river Tigris.
Parthia's king Sinatruces dies at age 87 (approximate) after a 7-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 57 B.C. as Phraates III but will not be able to repel the Roman legions of Lucullus and Pompey.
Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey resume distribution of free grain (see 80 B.C.). Some 40,000 adult male citizens of Rome receive grain dispensations, and the number will rise rapidly (see 58 B.C.).
Roman legions under the command of general and epicure Lucius Licinius Lucullus invade Armenia to punish Tigranes II, who has seized Syria; the Battle of Tigranocerta October 6 brings victory to Lucullus, who begins a push into the mountains of Armenia and Parthia toward Pontus (see 68 B.C.).
Lucullus sends cherries from the Black Sea kingdom of Pontus back to Rome, introducing a new fruit tree to Europe.
Roman legions under the command of Lucius Licinius Lucullus administer another defeat to Armenia's Tigranes II near the former capital of Artaxata in September, but Lucullus's troops mutiny. Lucullus is forced to retreat to the south, and his recall gives the king of Pontus an opportunity to regain his realm. Many of the Roman legions have been on campaign for 20 years.
The Seleucid king Antiochus XIII is installed at Antioch (but see 67 B.C.)
Crete falls to the Roman legions.
The Greek philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon dies at age 52 (approximate), having headed the Platonic Academy at Athens and set a new direction for Platonism by rebelling against the Skeptics Arcesilaus and Carneades and moving in a more positive course. He has based his philosophical system on the three schools of Platonism, Peripateticism, and Stoicism.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeats the Mediterranean pirates who have been preying on commerce, interfering with Rome's grain imports from Egypt and North Africa, and holding prisoners for ransom.
The Roman tribune Aulus Gabinius proposes a law that would give Gnaeus Pompey command of the Mediterranean and control of all lands within 50 miles of the coast as a way to halt the depravations of pirates. He also introduces a measure designed to check the lending of money to foreign ambassadors in the city, some of whom have been bribing senators.
The Seleucid king Antiochus XIII at Antioch is treacherously killed by the Arabian prince of Emesa.
Armenia's Tigranes II falls into the hands of Gnaeus Pompey, who has driven Pontus's Mithradates VI to the eastern edge of the Black Sea and imposes a fine of 6,000 talents on Tigranes. The Armenian king will rule henceforth as a vassal of Rome; Mithradates will flee to the Crimea (see 63 B.C.).
Lucius Licinius Lucullus returns to Rome and begins entertaining on a lavish scale at feasts so extravagant that the word Lucullan will be used for millennia to denote flamboyant sumptuousness.
Rome's Asian and Syrian territories are reorganized by Gnaeus Pompey, who destroys the Pontic kingdom of Mithradates VI and establishes four new Roman provinces. He attaches Paphlagonia (including its capital at Sope) to Roman Bithynia (see 74 B.C.), allows the interior regions to remain under native rulers, and leaves as client kingdoms Cappadocia, Eastern Pontus, Galatia, Judaea, and Lycia.
The Roman general Gnaius Julius Caesar, 38, commemorates the death of his father in 85 B.C. with an exhibition put on by 320 pairs of gladiators clad in silver armor (the Senate forbids him to have more lest he use them to gain power or lest the gladiators revolt as did Spartacus a few years ago).
Gnaeus Pompey introduces apricots from Armenia, peaches from Persia, plums from Damascus, raspberries from Mount Ida (southeast of the old city of Troy), and quinces from Sidon to Rome's orchards and cuisine.
Roman legions under the command of Gnaeus Pompey suppress the anarchy that has created disorder in Syria and terminate the Seleucid dynasty that has ruled since 312 B.C. (see Tigranes, 83 B.C.). Rome assumes direct control of Syria, making it a province.
Jerusalem falls to Gnaeus Pompey after a siege as the Romans move to subdue Judaea. Rome annexes Antioch, whose population will grow to exceed 500,000 (see 333 B.C.). Pompey rewards the tetrarch Deiotarus of the Tolistobogii for his support by making him king of western Galatia and giving him part of Pontus (see 74 B.C.). The Senate grants Deiotarus Lesser Armenia and most of the rest of Galatia.
The Catiline Conspiracy rallies Rome's discontented debtors, veterans, ruined nobility, and others under the leadership of Lucius Sergius Catilina, 44. A former governor of Africa, Catiline tried 2 years ago to run for consul on a radical program but was unable to get his name presented to the Comitia Centuriata because of his alleged extortions in Africa. He runs again, but loses to the lawyer, philosopher, and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, 42 (see 63 B.C.).
Roman authorities arrest Lucius Sergius Catiline and his fellow conspirators (see 64 B.C.) The Roman consul Cicero makes eloquent orations against Catiline in the Senate, obtaining support from the aedile Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, and the conspirators are put to death as hostes without appeal.
Mithradates VI of Pontus learns of a revolt by his son and commits suicide in the Crimea (see 66 B.C.).
Gnaeus Pompey completes his conquest of Palestine and makes it part of the Roman province of Syria.
A system of shorthand notation is invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro, formerly a slave of Cicero.
Roman women observe the winter ceremony of the Bona Dea in December; men are excluded, but at the home of Gnaius Julius Caesar a man disguised as a female harpist is discovered. Participants believe him to be the political thug Publius Clodius Pulcher (see 61 B.C.).
Julius Caesar returns from his governorship of Rome's Hispanic provinces, hears that Publius Clodius Pulcher was in his house at the women's part in December of last year, suspects that his wife, Cordelia, a daughter of the late Cinna, permitted Clodius to join the festivities, and divorces her. Clodius is charged with incestum and brought to trial before the Senate. His chief accuser is the politician Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus, who vigorously opposes Julius Caesar in the Senate. Clodius claims that he was 90 miles away at Interamna in December, Cicero presents evidence to the contrary, but Clodius is acquitted (possibly having bribed the jury), and he determines to wreak vengeance on Caesar, who forges an alliance with Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, creating an unofficial triumvirate to rule Rome.
The Roman politician Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio wins acquittal on charges of bribery after Cicero defends him in court. Son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica and adopted son of the general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, Metellus has a daughter, Cornelia, who will marry the triumvir Gnaeus Pompey (see 52 B.C.).
Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus serve as consuls at Rome, the latter working with conservatives in the Senate to block initiatives proposed by Caesar. When mob violence prevents him from vetoing the agrarian proposals, Bibulus announces that he is looking for omens, a constitutional ploy that would ordinarily bring all public business to a halt, but when Caesar ignores the announcement in early May, Bibulus withdraws to his house, where he remains for the rest of the year.
The Senate acts on the advice of Julius Caesar and appoints the former aedile Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther governor of Nearer Spain.
Rome's new triumvirate distributes Campanian lands among Gnaeus Pompey's veterans. The triumvirate is solidified by the marriage of Julius Caesar's daughter Julia to Pompey, whose eastern settlements are confirmed after years of senatorial opposition to such confirmation, and Caesar is granted Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria for a 5-year period.
The city of Florence has its beginnings in Florentia ("Flourishing Town"), a garrison town laid out for Roman soldiers on the Arno River below the hilltop Etruscan town of Faesulae (see commerce [florins], 1189 A.D.).
Julius Caesar invades Gaul, ostensibly to support the Aedui who have been supported by Rome since 121 B.C. but actually with the aim of feathering his own nest and creating a military establishment to rival that of Gnaeus Pompey. A Celtic tribe that occupies what later will be called Burgundy, the Aedui sustained a crushing defeat 3 years ago at the hands of the Sequani and have lost the revenues that they once enjoyed from tolls exacted on the Arar (Saône) River. Helped by Lingones tribesmen, Caesar defeats the Helvetii and their Boii allies at Bibracte (later Autun) and triumphs over the German Ariovistus near Vesontio (later Besançon). When Ariovistus leads an allied army of possibly 75,000 tribesmen against him, Caesar has possibly 35,000 men in his six legions but routs the Germans with help from a contingent of Gallic cavalry. Thousands of Ariovistus's men drown while trying to escape across the upper Rhine between Belfort and Mülhausen. Caesar compels the Sequani to restore all of the Aeduan territory that they seized, but the Gallic wars will continue until 50 B.C.
The Roman orator Cicero is sent into exile at the initiative of critics who include the consul Aulus Gabinius and the wastrel Publius Clodius Pulcher, but Cicero will be recalled next year through the efforts of men who include the tribune of the plebs Titus Annius Milo.
Egypt's Ptolemy XII Auletes flees to Rome under threat of a popular insurrection; his wife, Cleopatra V, dies soon thereafter, and his eldest daughter is proclaimed queen as Berenice IV (see 57 B.C.).
The Roman demagogue Appius Claudius Pulcher distributes free grain to as many as 300,000 in a bid for the consulship.
Julius Caesar's legions defeat the Belgae in northwestern Gaul and force the submission of the Veneti while the demagogue Appius Claudius Pulcher back at Rome becomes praetor. The legionnaires plunder the territory of the Belgae (but see Veneti, 56 B.C.).
Rome's Senate sends the former consul Aulus Gabinius as proconsul to Syria, where he will serve until 54 B.C., suppressing revolts, introducing administrative changes in Judaea, reinstating John Hyrcanus as high priest at Jerusalem, and rebuilding several towns.
Parthia's Phraates III is murdered by his sons Mithradates and Orodes after a 13-year reign. Mithradates will reign until 54 B.C. as Mithrates III, Orodes until 38 B.C. as Orodes II, but the two will soon quarrel.
Egypt's Ptolemy XII Auletes uses bribery and intrigue at Rome to have himself restored as king, but the Alexandrians send a delegation to present charges of his misrule. They refute Ptolemy's accusations against them, and Ptolemy arranges to have them murdered along with some Romans. He leaves late in the year for Ephesus, where he will purchase the support of Aulus Gabinius, Roman proconsul of Syria (see 55 B.C.).
Nonfiction: On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), 39, is a six-volume didactic poem of Epicurean philosophy dealing with ethics, physics, psychology, and the materialistic atoms suggested by the Greek Democritus in 330 B.C. "Quod ali cibus est aliis fiat acre venerum," says Lucretius ("What is food to one man may be a fierce poison to another").
Rome's Senate gives the triumvir Gnaeus Pompey power to supervise the city's grain supply as a grain shortage looms.
The Veneti on the southern coast of Brittany rebel early in the year against Roman rule, resisting Julius Caesar's interference in their trade with the tribes in Britain (see 57 B.C.). They seize some Roman commissariat officers, enlist the support of some neighboring maritime states, and try to regain their independence, but Caesar has galleys built on the Loire River and in summer defeats a Veneti fleet of more than 200 ships in Queberon Bay, destroying it, executing the tribal leaders, and selling many of the Veneti into slavery. He has his engineers build a wooden bridge that extends more than 300 feet across the Rhine, they accomplish the feat in just 10 days in June, and Caesar becomes the first Roman to cross the river, leaving squabbling Germanic tribes in such awe that nearly all of them send hostages with entreaties for peace. Caesar then defeats the Aquitani in southwestern Gaul and meets with Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus at Luca to make plans for subduing the opposition that has arisen at Rome to the ruling triumvirate.
Poetry: Ave atque Vale (Hail and Farewell) by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, 28, who has visited his brother's grave in Bithynia and has written an elegy. He is famous for his epigrams, his love lyrics, his long poem Attis, and his epithalamium Thetis and Peleus.
Romans vote to renew the consulships of Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, rejecting the candidacy of Optimate leader Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, who has promised to remove Julius Caesar from command in Gaul. The Senate gives Pompey command of two Hispanic provinces, and he sends the former governor of Cisalpine Gaul Lucius Afranius as legate together with Marcus Petreius (see 49 B.C.). The Senate extends Caesar's command in Gaul for another 5 years, and it gives Crassus command of Syria. Crassus leads an expeditionary force to confront the Parthians to the east (see 53 B.C.); Pompey remains at Rome.
Armenia's Tigranes II (the Great) dies after a 40-year reign of which the last 10 was as a vassal of Rome (year approximate). He is succeeded by his son, who will reign as Artavasdes II.
Gnaeus Pompey recalls Aulus Gabinius from his position as proconsul of Syria without consulting the Senate and sends him to Egypt with a mission to restore Ptolemy XII Auletes to his throne (see 57 B.C.). Ptolemy's daughter Berenice IV has married a man reputed to be a Pontic prince. Ptolemy regains his throne with help from Gabinius, and he promptly executes Berenice along with her supporters, but he has spent so much on bribes that he is obliged to bring in one of his Roman creditors (Rabirius Postumus) to manage his finances (see 51 B.C.).
Julius Caesar conducts a second raiding expedition to what later will be called the British Isles, obtains support from the Trinovantes against their rival Catuvellauni, and defeats the Catuvellauni, a powerful Belgic tribe that occupies an area just north of the Thames River, carrying on a prosperous agricultural economy. The Catuvellauni chieftain Cassivellaunus uses guerrilla tactics and chariots to resist the Romans, but Caesar captures his primary fortified settlement and makes peace when Cassivellaunus promises to provide hostages and pay an annual tribute to Rome (promises that will be honored in the breach). The Catuvellani will expand to the north and northwest, building a new capital at Verulamium. Caesar fails to conquer the islands but does open them to Roman trade and influence (see 43 A.D.).
The unofficial triumvirate that rules Rome begins to break apart following the death of Caesar's daughter Julia, who was married to Gnaeus Pompey.
The triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus plunders Jerusalem's (second) Great Temple in the absence of Syria's proconsul Aulus Gabinius (see 165 B.C.). Gabinius returns and manages to suppress the uprisings in Syria and Palestine but incurs the animosity of the tax collectors (publicani). He is charged with treason upon his return to Rome, wins acquittal, but is then condemned for extortion and sent into exile (see 49 B.C.).
Appius Claudius Pulcher becomes consul at Rome.
The brother of Parthia's Mithradates III gains support from the head of a leading family in the realm, defeats Mithradates in battle, has him executed, and will reign alone until 38 B.C. as Orodes II.
Julius Caesar finds the Trinovantes in the British Isles making what later will be called Cheshire cheese.
The Battle of Carrhae in the Mesopotamian desert ends in defeat for seven legions in the worst military disaster ever to befall the Romans. The triumvir Marcus Licinus Crassus has led some 44,000 men across the desert with the objective of reaching Seleucia on the Tigris, but his Armenian allies have deserted him, he has left the Euphrates River to pursue a Parthian nobleman, his men are not accustomed to desert warfare, and he is suddenly attacked in June by a force of about 1,000 heavily armored Parthian cavalrymen and nearly 10,000 horse archers. Carrying lances long enough to skewer two men, the mail-clad warriors decimate the Roman ranks, the legionnaires form a square and try to shield their heads and bodies from the arrows that rain down on them, but the Parthians have 1,000 camels whose riders bring back more arrows as needed to replenish their comrades' quivers. The mounted archers bring down all who flee, the head of his son Publius is displayed to Crassus on the point of a spear, and Crassus himself is killed soon thereafter as he tries to negotiate a peace (the Parthians show their scorn for Roman materialism by pouring molten gold down his throat). Scarcely 10,000 of his 44,000 men escape the massacre, the rest having either been killed or captured.
Julius Caesar suppresses a rebellion among Belgic tribesmen beyond the Rhine, destroying the Eburones.
Riots and fighting in the streets of Rome make it impossible to hold elections as mercenary gladiators hired by Publius Clodius Pulcher battle those of the tribune Titus Annius Milo; Milo has the support of Metullus Scipio, whose daughter Cornelia has married the widowed Gnaeus Pompey. Clodius's thugs burn down the Senate House and continue the disorder that has persisted for months.
Rival gangs continue to fight at Rome in January, and Publius Clodius Pulcher is killed in a brawl at Bovillae on the Appian Way at age 40 by the tribune Titus Annius Milo himself. Milo is impeached and prosecuted, his opponents use intimidation to keep his supporters (who include Cicero) from speaking out in his defense, they also intimidate the judges, and Milo is exiled to Massilia (later Marseilles) (see 48 B.C.).
The Roman triumvir Gnaeus Pompey defends Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio against another charge of bribery (see 60 B.C.) and makes him a colleague in the consulship at Rome, replacing the late Marcus Licinius Crassus.
The Averni chief Vercingetorix leads a general Gallic uprising against the Romans, using guerrilla tactics to harass Julius Caesar's supply lines and avoiding open warfare except on terrain unfavorable to the Romans. He holds the Avernian hill-fort against a Roman assault, attacks the legions, is thrown back, and retreats with 80,000 men to the prepared fortress of Alesia. He tries to withstand a siege by 60,000 Romans, who defeat a reserve army of Gauls in the field, but eventually surrenders to Caesar at Alesia. Caesar returns to Rome in triumph, bringing along Vercingetorix in chains.
Julius Caesar completes his conquest of Gaul and writes an account of his campaigns there, giving detailed descriptions in Commentarii de bello Gallico of the battles that he has fought. His legions have killed or enslaved more than a million people, growing rich in the process.
The consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus tries to have Julius Caesar removed from his command but is outmaneuvered by the tribune Gaius Scribonius Curio.
The former co-consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus goes to Syria as Roman proconsul. Parthia's Orodes II sends troops under the command of his veteran general Osaces to invade Syria, Osaces is killed in battle, but Orodes's son Pacorus remains (see 50 B.C.).
Egypt's semi-legitimate Macedonian king Ptolemy XII Auletes dies at age 61 (approximate) after a 25-year reign in which he has depended heavily on Roman support. He has shared his throne since last year with his daughter Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, now 17, and his son, now 12, who will reign as Ptolemy XII Philopater (but see 48 B.C.).
Parthia's Orodes II learns early in the year that one of his satraps (provincial governors) is conspiring to make the crown prince, Pacorus, king. He promptly recalls Pacorus from Syria (see 45 B.C.).
The Roman consul Gnaeus Pompey travels east to take command of the two legions stationed at Capua with instructions from his fellow consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus to raise more troops.
The Roman politician Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio proposes to the Senate in January that Julius Caesar be declared an enemy of the state unless he disbands his army. As father-in-law of Gnaeus Pompey, Metellus is among those who despise the ambitious Caesar (others include the general Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and his father, Lucius), the Senate adopts Metellus's proposal and appoints the Optimate leader Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in Caesar's place. Told that he must return to Rome alone, Caesar knows that if he obeys that order he will in all likelihood be murdered, so he defies the Senate, leads his 13th Legion across the tiny Rubicon River into Italy January 10, and begins a civil war with the conservative senatorial aristocracy (the Optimates). "The die is cast" ("alea iacta est"), says Caesar, who has been told that he cannot run for office in absentia and has been provoked to take action by the feuding of rival factions at Rome. Ahenobarbus rejects the advice of Gnaeus Pompey and tries to stop the invading army at Corfinium, Caesar defeats him there (he is captured but soon released), and Pompey flees to Greece, as does most of the Senate. Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther is captured but granted clemency. Lucius Ahenobarbus gathers supporters at Massilia (later Marseilles) for a revolt (see 48 B.C.), but the magistrates invest Caesar with legal authority as representative of republican power at Rome, and he is then appointed dictator with support from the praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (whose father of the same name died in 77 B.C.) and those senators who have remained at Rome. Caesar recalls Aulus Gabinius from exile (see 54 B.C.) and grants a general amnesty to all of his enemies except for the exiled Titus Annius Milo (see 52 B.C.; 48 B.C.).
Julius Caesar gives his general Gaius Fabius command of six legions and sends them in the spring from Gaul into the Hispanic provinces. Leaving the dissolute Marcus Antonius (Marc Antony), 34, to administer affairs in Italy, Caesar marches to Spain himself, joining Gaius Fabius at Ilerda (Lérida) on the Sicoris (Segre) River north of the Ebro.
Gnaeus Pompey's legates Lucius Afranius and Marcus Petreius in the Hispanic provinces concentrate five legions against Caesar but avoid battle (see 55 B.C.). Flooding of the rivers creates a shortage of supplies in Caesar's camp; he diverts part of the stream just below Ilerda (Lérida) to permit his legions to ford the river; two Pompeian legions move across the Sicoris to cover their communications, thus giving Caesar a tactical advantage. Afranius withdraws toward the Ebro, Caesar pursues him, and the Pompeians surrender August 2 at Ilerda. Caesar appoints Quintus Cassius Longinus governor of Farther Spain.
Gnaeus Pompey gives the former co-consul Marcus Calipurnius Bibulus command of a fleet in the Ionian Sea, but Bibulus is unable to block Caesar from crossing to Epirus.
Julius Caesar gives his protégé general Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (son of his longtime mistress Servilia) command of a fleet that lays siege to Massilia (later Marseilles), where Ahenobarbus has raised a revolt (see 48 B.C.).
China's Han dynasty emperor Xuandi dies after a 24-year reign and is succeeded by his son Shi, who will reign until his death in 33 B.C. as the emperor Yuandi.
Julius Caesar defeats the rebel forces of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus at Pharsalus in Macedonia, and Ahenobarbus is killed in battle (see 49 B.C.). Marcus Caelius Rufus enlists the support of the exiled Titus Annius Milo in another uprising against Caesar; Milo is killed near Thurii.
Gnaeus Pompey defeats Julius Caesar at Dyrrhachium in late July or early August and both parties spend a few days maneuvering in southern Thessaly. Pompey finally confronts Caesar's vastly inferior force August 9 (by the old Roman calendar still in use) at Pharsalus, massing the main force of his cavalry on the left wing of his infantry with the intention of outflanking and overpowering Caesar's right wing, a seemingly vulnerable mixed force of cavalry and infantry. Caesar has stationed 2,000 of his best legionnaires behind this right wing, and when Pompey's cavalry breaks through they find themselves facing a determined body of men advancing with pila that they use as spears rather than javelins. Confused, the Pompeian cavalry flees the field. Caesar's legionnaires begin to outflank the left wing of Pompey's infantry, Caesar then orders his third division to attack, Pompey's legions break, and some 24,000 of them surrender (nearly as many have either died or taken to their heels, while Caesar's casualties number fewer than 250). Pompey escapes to Larissa with his ally Deitoarus of Galatia, and Caesar becomes absolute ruler of Rome. Pompey's supporter Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther escapes to Rhodes but soon falls into Caesar's hands and is executed (year approximate). Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio has commanded Pompey's center at Pharsalus but escapes to take command of republican forces in North Africa (see 46 B.C.). Pompey's senatorial supporter Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus flees to Egypt but is murdered there September 29. Pompey is deserted by his men and flees to Egypt, is carried ashore from his trireme at Pelusium, and is stabbed to death there on orders from the Egyptian palace clique, who hope thereby to gain favor with Caesar.
Julius Caesar arrives at Alexandria, captures most of the Ptolemaic royal family, is shown Gnaeus Pompey's head, comes under attack from the sea, torches the boats in the harbor, and remains to carry on a war in behalf of Egypt's dethroned queen Cleopatra VII, now 20, who has herself smuggled into Caesar's quarters at Alexandria inside a rolled-up carpet. Cleopatra's 15-year-old sister Arsinoe IV escapes with help from her mentor Ganymedes and joins the Egyptian army headed by Achillas, who is soon executed by order of Arsinoe after he feuds with Ganymedes. She then quickly raises an Arab army and lays siege to Pelusium on Egypt's northwest frontier (see 47 B.C.).
The former Roman co-consul Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus dies of exhaustion, having failed to thwart the ambitions of Julius Caesar. The former consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus has followed Gnaeus Pompey to Greece and supported his opposition to Caesar, but he retires to Mytilene upon Pompey's death (see 46 B.C.).
Julius Caesar sends Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus to Transalpine Gaul as governor and nominates him as an alternate heir should anything befall his fatherless 14-year-old great-nephew and designated heir Gaius Octavius (Octavian).
Roman troops in the province of Farther Spain revolt against their governor Quintus Cassius Longinus, who last year used cruel measures to put down a rebellion at Córdoba. The troops proclaim a new governor (see 47 B.C.).
The fire started by Julius Caesar in Alexandria's harbor spreads to the shore and destroys a warehouse containing some 40,000 scrolls that were probably to be exported, but the great library is unaffected.
Oxen pull some 500 bargeloads of foodstuffs and other imports from the port of Ostia up the Tiger each month to Rome.
Julius Caesar negotiates with her mentor Ganymedes to have the Egyptian princess Arsinoe IV handed over to him in exchange for Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopater (see 48 B.C.), reinforcements from Pergamum enable the Romans to defeat Egypt's Ptolemaic army, Ptolemy tries to flee but is killed, probably by drowning, and anarchy rules. Caesar returns in triumph to Rome, Arsinoe is led in chains to mark his victory, but she soon makes her way to Ephesus and finds sanctuary there in the Temple of Artemis (see 41 B.C.).
Julius Caesar moves east in June to Asia Minor. He defeats Pontus's Pharnaces III August 2 in a battle near Zela (Zile) in east-central Anatolia; Pharnaces has been an ally of the late Gnaeus Pompey, and Caesar announces his victory with the brief dispatch, "I came, I saw, I conquered" ("Veni, vidi, vici"). Caesar visits the Galatian king Deiotarus, whom he pardons for for having helped Gnaeus Pompey last year at the Battle of Pharsalus, but some Galatian princes complain about Deiotarus and he is stripped of some of his territories (see 45 A.D.). Caesar appoints the rich and influential Edomite Antipater procurator of Judaea; an Arab from the land between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aquaba, Antipater has married the daughter of a nobleman from Petra, capital of the kingdom of Nabataea. Given Roman citizenship by Caesar, he appoints his 26-year-old son Herod governor of Galilee (but see 43 B.C.).
The former Roman proconsul of Syria Aulus Gabinius dies at Salonae (later Split) in Dalmatia, having fought for Caesar in Illyricum and restored Egypt's late Ptolemy XII Auletes to his throne.
The former Roman governor of Farther Spain Quintus Cassius Longinus is permitted to leave the province but dies in a shipwreck at the mouth of the Ebro River.
Julius Caesar returns in triumph to Rome with prisoners and has the imprisoned Averni chief Vercingetorix executed (see 52 B.C.). He quells a mutiny of the legions in Campania, crosses to North Africa, and lays siege to the seaport of Thapsus. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio Pius, father-in-law of the late Gnaeus Pompey, assembles a republican army of 14 legions and 15,000 cavalry to relieve the siege, but Caesar destroys Metellus's forces February 6 in the bloody Battle of Thapsus. Caesar's officers cannot control their men, who fall upon Metellus's forces and massacre 10,000 men before order is restored. Pompey's supporter Lucius Afranius escapes from the field with a strong cavalry force but is subsequently taken prisoner and killed, either by Caesar's command or by seditious soldiers. Metellus is captured while trying to make his escape to Spain and commits suicide. Republican leader Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger), a great-grandson of Cato the Elder, hears of the defeat, spends the night reading Plato's Phaedo at Utica, and commits suicide at age 48 rather than surrender; most other republican leaders are killed. Caesar goes on in the next 3 weeks to conquer more territory, adding Numidia to the Roman province of Africa after the suicide outside Thapsus of her 38-year-old king Juba I, whose realm has been invaded from the west by Caesar's ally Bocchus of Mauretania and the Italian adventurer Publius Sittius.
Julius Caesar returns in triumph to Rome once again in late July with Cleopatra as his mistress, participating in festivities held to celebrate his successes in Gaul, Egypt, Asia Minor, and North Africa. Reappointed consul together with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, he then uses his power, with the consent of the people, to extend his dictatorship for 10 more years. Caesar grants a pardon to his erstwhile opponent Marcus Claudius Marcellus at the urging of the Senate, which has heard the orator and philosopher Cicero deliver an eloquent speech (Pro Marcello) in Marcellus's behalf (but see 45 B.C.).
Julius Caesar sails in November for the Iberian Peninsula, where Pompey's sons Gnaeus and Sextus hold out (see 45 B.C.).
Julius Caesar grants Roman citizenship to Greek physicians, whose status has until now been that of slave or freedman.
The Battle of Munda in southern Spain March 17 ends the civil war that has engaged the forces of Julius Caesar and those of the late Pompey, whose sons have seized Córdoba. Arriving with an army to put down a revolt by Pompey's sons Gnaeus and Sextus, Caesar halts, lures the rebels into battle, then enters the fray himself to support his 10th legion, and although his 40,000 legionnaires are opposed by about 60,000 rebels, the Pompeian forces misinterpret a tactical shift by Gnaeus to meet a Roman cavalry attack and break ranks under the impression that a retreat has begun; they sustain 30,000 casualties in a hard-fought contest, the legionnaires lose 1,000 killed and 5,000 wounded, Pompey's older son Gnaeus is captured and executed.
The former consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus prepares to leave Greece for Italy but is murdered by one of his attendants at Piraeus in May.
Roman troops lay siege to the city of Apamea in Mesopotamia, where one of the late Gnaeus Pompey's generals has taken refuge. The Parthian prince Pacorus, eldest son of Orodes II, leads a force to relieve the siege (see 50 B.C.; 38 B.C.).
The Galatian king Deiotarus comes under fire at Rome with accusations that he tried to murder Julius Caesar during the dictator's visit to his realm 2 years ago.
Julius Caesar returns to Rome in September and adopts his great-nephew Gaius Octavius (Octavian), now 17, as his son (see 43 B.C.).
Julius Caesar introduces a new 365¼-day "Julian" calendar that begins with January 1 as the first day of the year (see 153 B.C.; B.C. Egyptian calendar, 238 B.C.). The lunar calendar used by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans has become confusing, and as pontifex maximus (official head of religion) Caesar has commissioned the Greek astronomer and mathematician Sosigenes of Alexandria to reform the old calendar of Numa. The new calendar has 30 or 31 days in each of 11 months, 28 in February (plus one every 4 years), and the month of July is so named in Julius's honor, but the solar year is actually 365.2422 days, not 365.25, and the slight discrepancy will produce an accumulated error of 10 days by the middle of the 16th century A.D. (see 1582 A.D.).
Julius Caesar is made dictator for life, elevates Mark Antony to consulship, makes the onetime prisoner of war Publius Ventidius praetor for 43 B.C., but reduces the number of Romans receiving free grain from 320,000 to 150,000. Caesar is assassinated at the Senate March 15 at age 55 by conspirators who include his protégé Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, both former governors of Gaul, and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who had been pardoned by Caesar for fighting alongside Pompey at Pharsalus in 48 B.C. Some 60 men have been involved in the conspiracy, and Caesar sustains 23 dagger thrusts. He has adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavian, now 18, under the terms of his will and made him his chief heir. Caesar's mistress, Cleopatra, returns to Egypt with her 3-year-old son Caesarion. Her 15-year-old brother (and former husband) Ptolemy XIV Theos Philopater is murdered in July, probably with Cleopatra's connivance because she wants Caesarion to inherit the throne as Ptolemy XV Caesar.
Mark Antony, now 39, dines with Gaius Cassius, speaks out in favor of amnesty, is hailed for preventing civil war, but then sees the anger of the crowd at Caesar's funeral and incites a mob to set fire to the assassins' homes. Decimus Brutus flees to Cisalpine Gaul, Marcus Junius Brutus to Macedonia, Cassius to Syria, each taking over as republican governor the province that has been assigned to him.
Marc Antony marches north into Cisalpine Gaul early in the year and lays siege to Mutina (later Modena), where Decimus Brutus has taken refuge with support from the Roman soldier and writer Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa. Gaius Octavius, who now calls himself Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, relieves the siege in April, defeating Antony in two battles and forcing him to retire westward; Hirtius is killed in action April 21 at age 48 (approximate), and Pansa dies of his wounds (both men have been candidates for consul and are granted a public funeral and burial in Rome's Campus Martius). Brutus forces the Senate to elect him consul, pursues Antony into Gallia Narbonensis, but cannot provoke him into a battle. His troops desert him, he tries to join his fellow assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in Macedonia, but a Gallic chieftain captures him and puts him to death on orders from Marc Antony. Antony gains support from the forces of Publius Ventidius and makes Ventidius a consul (see 39 B.C.).
The late Pompey the Great's son Sextus, now 24, is outlawed in August and will spend the next few years ravaging the Italian coast with his fleet, occupying Sicily and blockading ports.
Judaea's procurator Antipater is assassinated by a political rival after barely 4 years in power (see Herod, 37 B.C.).
Octavian joins with Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in November to form a second triumvirate. They propose to raise money for the war against Julius Caesar's assassins by levying a tax on the property of 1,400 rich women, but Hortensia, daughter of the orator Quintus Hortensius, delivers a speech in which she says that women will be happy to support resistance to a foreign enemy but not a civil war in whose inception and conduct they played no part. The rebuked triumvirs impose the levy on only 400 women and impose a similar tax on men.
Agents of Mark Antony stab Cicero to death December 7 at age 66 with the acquiescence of Octavian. Having denounced Antony and his followers in his polemical Philippics, Cicero has fled to his country estate at Gaeta, but Antony's men have dragged him from his litter, and they cut off his head and hands to be displayed on the Rostra in the Forum.
"Not to know what happened before we were born is to remain forever a child," Cicero said, and his work On Duties (De Officis) will remain for millennia the most widely read secular essay on ethics in Western society, listing as it does the cardinal virtues (wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance), advancing a republican theory of political democracy, propounding the idea of natural law that will be common to both theologians and secular philosophers, and popularizing such terms as "the humanities" and "liberal arts" in education.
The late Julius Caesar is officially deified at the behest of the Roman triumvirate, whose members persuade the Senate to erect a temple to Caesar in the Forum and oblige Roman magistrates to take an oath to support the arrangements of the late Caesar.
Gaius Cassius meets with defeat at Philippi in Macedonia at the hands of Marc Antony and Octavian; he commits suicide after hearing a false report that Marcus Junius Brutus has also been defeated. Brutus has, in fact, won a victory over Octavian but is finally defeated 20 days later and also commits suicide. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus has commanded the fleet of Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus; hearing of their defeat, he becomes a privateer and will not become reconciled with Antony until 40 B.C.
The Galatian king Deitotarus shifts his allegiance to the triumvirs following the defeat of the anti-Caesarian party at Philippi.
Egypt's Cleopatra meets Marc Antony at Tarsus, and Antony, now 42, succumbs to Cleopatra, now 28, just as Julius Caesar, at age 51, succumbed 8 years ago. Antony had planned to punish Cleopatra but follows her to Egypt, and she persuades him to have her younger sister Arsinoe IV executed (see 48 B.C.).
Poetry: Eclogues by the Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergillius Maro), 29, are 10 pastoral poems, modeled on those of the 3rd century Greek poet Theocritus, expressing emotion at having had his lands confiscated. Virgil will not obtain restitution of his lands but will receive financial compensation after a personal appeal to Octavian.
Rome's triumvirate confiscates farmland in the Campania for distribution among returning legionnaires.
Marc Antony's wife, Fulvia, and his brother Lucius Antoninus make war against the faithless Antony but are defeated at Perusia. Fulvia dies at Sicyon, Greece, and Marc Antony is left free to remarry. He takes as his wife Octavian's sister Octavia, and Octavian takes Gaul from his fellow triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, leaving Lepidus only Africa.
Parthian forces under the command of their prince Pacorus invade Palestine, where the outbreak of civil war forces the late Judaean procurator Antipater's son Herod to flee to Rome (see 43 B.C.; 37 B.C.).
The Galatian king Deiotarus dies after a 24-year reign.
Octavian's counselor Gaius Maecenas, 30, negotiates an agreement late in the year between Octavian and Marc Antony, averting an armed confrontation between the two at Brundisium (later Brundisi). Maecaneas also arranges Octavian's marriage to one Scribonia in a match calculated to appease her kinsman Sextus Pompey, the powerful republican general. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus makes peace with Antony and is appointed legate (governor) to Bithynia, where he will remain until about 35 B.C.
Rome's triumvirs sign the Pact of Maecenum; negotiated by Gaius Maecenas, the agreement recognizes Sextus Pompey as ruler of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Peloponnese. Pompey's fleet can interrupt Rome's grain supply, and this has put him in a position to dictate terms (see 36 B.C.).
The Roman triumvir Octavian divorces his wanton second wife, Scribonia, and marries Livia, previously the wife of Tiberius Claudius Nero.
The Roman triumvir Marc Antony sends an army under the command of Publius Ventidius to confront the Parthian king Orodes II and expel his forces from Anatolia and Syria. Ventidius defeats the Parthians at the Cilician Gates and at Mount Amanus, lures the Parthian prince Pacorus into battle at Mount Gindarus, gains a victory, kills Pacorus, and has his head displayed in Syrian cities as a warning against those who may hope for Parthian support against Roman rule. Ventidius celebrates his triumph at Rome and dies soon thereafter.
Parthia's Orodes II is killed after a 19-year reign by one of his younger sons, who then eliminates his 30 brothers and their families. The son will reign until 2 B.C. as Phraates IV despite many internal rebellions and external attacks from the Romans, who are bent on revenge for their defeat at Carrhae in 53 (see 36 B.C.).
The Roman triumvir Octavian conquers Iberia and begins to gain ascendancy in the triumvirate that rules Rome. The triumvir Marc Antony returns to Egypt.
Bocchus II of eastern Mauretania seizes the territory of his western neighbor Bogud while Bogud is campaigning in Spain, forces him to flee to Marc Antony in the East, and makes himself sole ruler of Mauretania.
Sculpture: The Laocoön by Rhodian sculptors Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus (see 1506 A.D.).
The Treaty of Tarentum brings peace in the spring between the Roman triumvirs Octavian and Marc Antony. Octavian's sister (and Antony's wife) Octavia has persuaded her husband to come to Tarentum (later Taranto) and loan Octavian the warships that he needs. Octavian arranges the marriage of his admiral and boyhood friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to the daughter of Titus Atticus, a rich friend of the orator Cicero. The pact ends a quarrel between the two triumvirs but will prove shortlived (see 36 B.C.).
Judaea's Herod the Great begins a 32-year reign at age 36, 2 years after his confirmation as king by Marc Antony, Octavian, and the Roman Senate. Son of the late purcurator Antipater, Herod has been equipped with an army to help him drive out the Parthians who invaded Palestine 3 years ago; the Pharisees who represent the most powerful faction of Judaism regard him as a foreigner and will frequently oppose him, but Herod takes steps to consolidate his power and end a feud with the Hasmoneans, a priestly family of Jewish leaders: he divorces his first wife, Doris, and sends her away from his court with their son Antipater so that he may marry the Hasmonean princess Mariamne (see 31 B.C.).
The triumvir Octavian's admiral Marcus Agrippa makes the Mediterranean safe for Roman shipping by defeating the pirate Sextus Pompey with a fleet that includes 120 ships supplied by Marc Antony last year under terms of the Treaty of Tarentum. Octavian has accused Sextus Pompey of breaking his 3-year-old agreement and promoted Agrippa to admiral. Defeated at sea by Agrippa at Naulochus, near Messina, Sextus Pompey flees to Miletus (see 35 B.C.). Marcus Aemilius Lepidus has fought with Agrippa and occupies Sicily in an attempt to raise a revolt against Octavian, but his troops desert to Octavian, who annexes Sicily. He allows Lepidus to retain the title pontifex maximus but places him in captivity at Circeii, where he will live until his death in 13 B.C.
Roman legions under the command of the triumvir Marc Antony attack Parthia's Phraates IV, advancing through Armenia into Media Atropatene, but Phraates defeats Antony (see 38 B.C.). The Romans sustain heavy losses and Antony retreats to Armenia, proceeding thence to Egypt, where he openly marries his mistress, Cleopatra, despite his existing marriage to Octavia.
The triumvir Octavian consolidates Roman power in the Alps and in Illyria. His counselor Gaius Maecenas and executive lieutenant Agrippa administer Rome and Italy during Octavian's prolonged absence. Agrippa wages a strong campaign in Dalmatia.
Octavian's sister Octavia brings fresh troops and money to her husband Marc Antony in Egypt, but he refuses to see her (see 36 B.C.).
The Roman general Marcus Titus captures the fugitive Sextus Pompey in Asia Minor and has him executed at age 32 (approximate).
The Syrian-born Greek poet Philodemus dies at Herculaneum in Campania at age 75 (year and age approximate), having written love epigrams and helped to spread Epicureanism to Rome.
The vassal king of Parthia's Phraates IV in Media makes an alliance with the Roman triumvir Marc Antony, but when Antony withdraws the Parthians reoccupy Media. A revolt in Parthia obliges Phraates to withdraw, the Armenian king Tiridates II drives him from his throne, and he will not be able to regain power until 30 B.C.
Bocchus II of Mauretania dies after a 5-year reign and his North African kingdom becomes a Roman province (year approximate).
China's Han dynasty emperor Yuandi dies after a 15-year-reign and is succeeded by his son An, who will reign until his death in 7 B.C. as the emperor Chengdi.
The triumvir Octavian arouses fears in Rome that Egypt's Cleopatra will dominate the empire by establishing a Hellenistic empire with Marc Antony as its emperor. He publishes what he purports to be the will of Marc Antony, a document in which Antony bequeaths Rome's eastern possessions to Cleopatra. Marc Antony finally divorces Octavia, and her brother has the comitia annul Antony's imperium.
Antony's partisan Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus gives up his position as consul at Rome and joins Antony in the East.
The Battle of Actium September 2 ends in a naval victory for the triumvir Octavian, who becomes ruler of the entire Roman world. He has declared war on Marc Antony and Cleopatra, who are in Greece, and advanced into Greece with his admiral Marcus Agrippa in a struggle for supremacy between aristocracy and democracy that will continue until next year. Antony's longtime partisan Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus has deserted to Octavian shortly before the battle and dies soon afterward; Cleopatra escapes to Egypt with 60 ships, followed by Antony, whose army then surrenders to Octavian.
Judaea's king Herod confesses to Octavian that he has supported Marc Antony, even though Cleopatra has used her influence on Antony to acquire some of Herod's most desirable territory (see 37 B.C.). Octavian restores the lands to Herod and confirms him as king; Herod becomes a close friend of Marcus Agrippa (see 27 B.C.).
The triumvir Marc Antony learns that Octavian is coming after him and commits suicide by falling on his sword at Alexandria August 30 at age 53 (approximate) after hearing a false report that Cleopatra has killed herself. She has died August 29 at age 39 (approximate), applying an asp (a small, poisonous Nile River snake) to her breast after failing to seduce Octavian upon his arrival at Alexandria. That city has grown to become the world's first true metropolis, an opulent city of about 600,000. Neither Cleopatra nor Marc Antony has wanted to be taken alive by Octavian, whose triumph ends the brief civil war in the Roman state, dooming the cause of republicanism (see 27 B.C.). Cleopatra's 17-year-old son Ptolemy XV Caesar (Caesarion) is murdered at Alexandria, the Ptolemaic dynasty ends, and Egypt becomes a Roman province.
Parthia's Phraates IV regains his throne as Armenia's Tiridates II flees to the Romans, taking along one of Phraates's sons as a hostage.
Poetry: The Georgics, or Art of Husbandry by Virgil. Completed after 7 years' work, the didactic four-volume work ennobles the Italian land, its trees, grapevines and olive groves, herds, flocks, and beehives.
The sundial invented by the Chinese serves as a primitive clock. The world goes to bed at nightfall, rises at sunup, and has little need for any better way to keep time.
The prefect of Egypt establishes a firmer line between Rome and Egypt; born in Gaul, Gaius Cornelius Gallus, 41, is a noted poet and a close friend of Virgil as well as a capable statesman. Octavian closes the temple of Janus for the first time since 235 B.C., thereby signaling the achievement of peace throughout his realm.
Greek mariners employed by Octavian open the ancient trade routes from Egypt to India as peace returns to the Roman world.
Octavian and his regent Marcus Agrippa carry out a purge of the Roman Senate after conducting a census. Agrippa has refurbished the city's aqueducts, baths, and sewers.
The Roman Empire that will rule most of the Western world until 476 A.D. is founded January 23 by Octavian, who 1 week earlier received the name Augustus Caesar from the Senate in gratitude for his achievements. Helped by the rich merchant Gaius Maecenas, Octavian makes himself emperor at age 35 with the title Imperator Caesar Octavianus, a title that he will soon change to Augustus Caesar as he begins a 41-year reign.
The emperor Augustus regains Achaea for Rome and makes it a new province.
The emperor Augustus and his chief minister Marcus Agrippa give Judaea's Herod the Great oversight of Cyprus's copper mines with a half share in their profits (see 31 B.C.; 22 B.C.)
The emperor Augustus increases the number of poor Romans receiving free grain from 150,000 to 200,000.
The emperor Augustus undertakes a campaign into the Cantabrian Mountains, where the people have joined with the Asturians in resisting Roman authority.
The exiled Roman poet Gaius Cornelius Gallus incurs the emperor's disfavor and commits suicide at age 44 (approximate) rather than face charges of treason. A former prefect of Egypt, he has written four books of elegies to his mistress "Lycoris" (actually the actress Cyntheris).
The Roman general Petronius secures Egypt's frontier with Ethiopia, consolidating the position established 3 years ago by the late prefect-poet Gaius Cornelius Gallus.
The emperor Augustus takes advantage of weak administrators in Galatia and makes that Asia Minor state a Roman province, although his ultimate ambition is to create a network of vassal states. He makes peace with Parthia's Phraates IV and recovers his son from Armenia.
The emperor Augustus acts to reduce the exorbitant price of spices in Rome. He orders the prefect of Egypt, Aeilius Gallus, to lead a campaign aimed at incorporating the south Arabian spice kingdom into the Roman Empire, but the expedition will fail.
The emperor Augustus's nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus dies at Baiae in Campania at age 19 while serving as a curule aedile. He married the emperor's daughter Julia 2 years ago, Augustus delivers his funeral oration, the youth is buried in Augustus's mausoleum, and his mother, Octavia, retires from public life. Marcus Agrippa divorces his second wife, Marcella, to marry Julia, becoming Augustus's son-in-law and co-regent.
The architect Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio) dies at age 45 (approximate) after writing what will survive as Ten Books of Architect, giving the recipe for cement, a Roman invention: one part chalk, two to three parts sand, 14 to 20 percent water; with cement used for buildings and structures exposed to a lot of water (bath houses, aqueducts, harbor facilities) to contain volcanic puzzolanic sand that is harder and more durable (year approximate). The recipe will be lost in centuries to come (see transportation [White], 1820 A.D.).
The emperor Augustus departs for the East, leaving Marcus Agrippa in charge at Rome. He gives Judaea's Herod the Great more territory and will increase it again in 20 B.C., extending his realm beyond Palestine to embrace lands east of the Jordan River and northward into Syria.
Regensburg is founded on the Danube in a part of Gaul that will become Bavaria (see politics [Drusus], 15 B.C.).
Rebuilding of Jerusalem's Great Temple begins under the Judaean king Herod the Great (see 54 B.C.). A convert to Judaism in his youth, Herod has been building theaters, hippodromes, and other public buildings; the new structure will be the third Great Temple (see 64 A.D.).
Roman legions under the command of Marcus Agrippa gain a decisive victory over the Cantabrian in Spain after a long and difficult campaign.
The emperor Augustus orders his legions to advance across the Danube into the Balkans, hoping to enlarge the northern province of Illyricum.
The Pont du Gard is completed by Roman engineers across the Gard River 19 kilometers northeast of Nimes; an aqueduct bridge 600 yards long, it has three tiers of arches rising 160 feet above the river.
Poetry: The Aeneid by Virgil is a great epic about the legendary Aeneas of Troy from the fall of that city to his arrival in Italy, his wars and alliances with the native peoples, and his establishment of Rome: "I sing of arms and of the man" ("Arma virumque cano"). Having spent more than decade on the work, Virgil sets off for Athens to spend 3 years in the east but falls ill, meets the emperor Augustus, is persuaded to return, and dies September 21 at age 50, a few days after landing at Brundisium. His body is buried at his request in Naples on the road to Pozzuoli, where his tomb will be a place of worship for centuries.
The statesman Marcus Agrippa returns to Rome from his victorious campaign in Spain and receives the same power of a tribune (tribunicia potestas) enjoyed by Augustus.
Poetry: Amores by the Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), 25, who has been educated for a career in law but has devoted himself instead to writing love poems.
Poetry: Carmen Saeculare by the Roman poet-critic Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 47, is an ode sung by a chorus of youths and maidens at a great festival of games put on by the emperor Augustus. Horace is well known for his Odes ["Seize the day; put no trust in the future," carpe diem; qua minimum credula postero (I, ix)], his Satires ["There is a certain method in his madness" (II, iii)], and his Epistles ["Well begun is half done" (I, ii)].
Rome extends her frontier to the upper Danube by annexations following an uprising by Germanic tribesmen. The emperor Augustus's 23-year-old stepson Nero Claudius Drusus triumphs over the Rhaeteians, conquers what later will become Bavaria, and will be called Drusus Germanicus.
The vice-regent Marcus Agrippa visits Judaea at the invitation of Herod I and uses the occasion to establish colonies for veterans at Berytus and Heliopolis in what later will be Lebanon.
Poetry: Heroides by Ovid: "Where belief is painful, we are slow to believe" (II, ix).
The Temple of Dendur in Lower Nubia is erected by the emperor Augustus on the bank of the Nile.
Augsburg has its beginnings in the Gallic colony Augusta Vindelicorum founded by the Roman emperor Augustus on a 1,500-acre plateau between the rivers Lerch and Wertach, which meet in the plain below (see 1276 A.D.).
The former Roman triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus dies in captivity at Circeii, where he has been held in confinement since 36 B.C.
The Roman admiral-statesman Marcus Agrippa falls ill during a severe winter and dies in March at age 50 (approximate). The emperor Augustus delivers a stirring funeral oration for the man who did so much to help him reach the heights of power.
Nero Claudius Drusus returns to Rome after pacifying Germanic tribes and is made urban praetor (see 15 B.C.). He will soon return to the northern provinces, ravage the territories east and north of the Rhine, fortify Roman positions on the river, but put the tribes under no permanent subjection.
The emperor Augustus's sister Octavia dies at age 58 (approximate), having tried dutifully to please her late husband, Marc Antony, and cement relations between him and her brother.
Nero Claudius Drusus dies on the Rhine at age 29 (approximate) and will be remembered as Drusus senior. He has married a daughter of Marc Antony and is survived by two sons and a daughter.
The Marcomanni in what later will become Bohemia expel Boii tribespeople from their domain (see 191 B.C.).
The emperor Augustus's rich counselor Gaius Maecenas dies childless at age 62 (approximate), leaving his fortune (including his palace and gardens on the Esquiline Hill) to Augustus.
The lyric poet Horace dies at Rome November 27 at age 54, having written odes and verse epistles that will survive for more than 2,000 years.
China's Han dynasty emperor dies after a 25-year reign and is succeeded by his infant son Xin, who will reign until next year as the emperor Aidi and then be succeeded by his infant brother Kan, who will reign until his death in 6 A.D. as the emperor Pingdi.
The Roman emperor Augustus orders every man in the empire to take his wife and family to the place of his birth so that a census may be made for purposes of levying a head tax to support the growing financial needs of the empire.
The infant Jesus is born in a stable at Bethlehem near Jerusalem to a Jewish carpenter's wife who professes to have been a virgin. Joseph of Nazareth has been en route home to his native town pursuant to the emperor's order. The first-born child of his wife, Mary, will be baptized at age 30 by her cousin John the Baptist after working as a carpenter and rabbi at Nazareth and will claim to be the Messiah for whom the Jews have waited. (Year of the nativity determined by modern astronomers on the basis of a conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter within the constellation Pisces, a conjunction that gives the appearance of a great new star and the fulfillment of a prophecy by Jewish astrologers at Sippar in Babylon, who have predicted the arrival of a long-awaited Messiah, or savior, at some time when the two planets would meet. Some astronomers, however, will cite Chinese and Korean annals referring to a stellar flare-up, or nova, that blazed in the skies for 70 days in the spring of 5 B.C.).
The last of Paphlagonia's native rulers dies (year approximate; see 65 B.C.). The interior territories are incorporated into the Roman province of Galatia.
Judaea's heir apparent Antipater conspires against his half brothers Aristobulus and Alexander and secures their execution in order to clear the way for his own succession to the throne of their father, Herod the Great (year approximate; see 5 B.C.).
Judaea's heir apparent Antipater stands trial for participating in a plot against his father, Herod the Great, and Herod's brother Pheroras (year approximate; see 6 B.C.; 4 B.C.).
Judaea's Herod the Great dies in late March or early April at age 68 after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. In his 32-year reign he has secured many benefits for the Jews and erected fortresses, aqueducts, theaters, and other public buildings, not only in Judaea but also at Beirut, Damascus, Antioch, Rhodes, and elsewhere. He has made Judaea generally more prosperous and begun rebuilding the Great Temple at Jerusalem, but his mental faculties have been unstable in recent years. His sister-in-law Salome has poisoned his mind against her sister, he has murdered Mariamne (with whom he was once truly in love) along with her two sons, her brother, her scheming mother, and even her grandfather. He has had a total of 10 wives and 14 children but has disinherited and executed his firstborn son, Antipater, 5 days before his death. Herod's final will stipulates that (subject to approval by the emperor Augustus) his sons Archelaus shall succeed as king of Judaea and Samarai with his sons Philip and Antipas sharing the rest of his realm as tetrarchs. Archelaus will reign until 6 A.D.
Parthia's Phraates IV is murdered after a 36-year reign that was interrupted by a usurper who drove him from his throne for nearly 2 years beginning in 29 B.C. He has sent four of his five sons to Rome, where they are held as hostages by the emperor Augustus, and has been poisoned by his favorite wife, Musa, a former slave girl given to him as part of an exchange of gifts with the Romans. She eliminates Phraates's sons by other women and will rule jointly until 4 A.D. with her own son, Phraatakes, whom she marries according to Magian custom.
Poetry: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) by Ovid scandalizes Rome: "It is expedient that there should be gods, and since it is expedient let us believe that gods exist" (I); "Nothing is stronger than habit" (II).
The population of the world reaches roughly 250 million, up from 100 million in 3000 B.C. (see 1000 A.D.).
100 B.C.–76 B.C. 75 B.C.–51 B.C. 50 B.C.–26 B.C. 25 B.C.–1 B.C.
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