2Nd Century A.D.

101 A.D.–125 A.D.

105 A.D.: political events

Parthia's Pacoros II dies after a 27-year reign in which he has reclaimed all of his empire. His successor will reign until 147 as Vologases III, suppressing brief rebellions as he battles against the Kushan and Alani (see 109 A.D.).

China's Later Han dynasty emperor Hedi (Ho-ti) dies after a 17-year reign in which court eunuchs and the emperor's in-laws have regained influence. The succession for many years to come will be manipulated by people seeking personal gain: at least eight of the next 12 emperors will ascend the imperial throne at ages varying between 100 days and 15 years, with the result that the country will become increasingly vulnerable to incursions by tribes on its borders.

105 A.D.: communications, media

Paper-making is refined by the Chinese eunuch Cai Lun (Tsai Lun), 55, who receives official praise from the emperor for his methods of making paper from tree bark, hemp, remnant rags and fishnets. The Chinese have been making crude paper for at least 2 centuries, but Cai Lun's paper provides a far superior writing surface than pure silk and is much less costly to produce. His apprentice Zo Po (Tso Po) will make further improvements to the process, and use of paper will spread quickly throughout China. Silk, bamboo, and wooden slips will remain the usual materials for books and scrolls in most of the world for another 2 centuries, and paper will remain a Chinese secret for 500 years; it will not be made in Korea until about 600 and not in Japan until at least 610 (see 751 A.D.).

106 A.D.: political events

Dacia (Romania) becomes a Roman province following the defeat of her king Decebalus by the emperor Trajan in the Second Dacian War that began last year.

109 A.D.: political events

The Parthian king Vologases faces a challenge from an opponent of the Roman emperor Trajan, to whom he has lost his daughter. A brother of the late Pacoros II, he will take the golden throne used since the reign of Mithradates II and presume to reign until 129 as Osroes I.

110 A.D.: political events

The Parthian king Vologases III sells his client kingdom of Osroene to Abgar VII, son of Adiabene's ruler Izates (see 116 A.D.).

110 A.D.: commerce

Caravans make regular departures from Luoyang with Chinese ginger, cassia (a type of cinnamon), and silk to be bartered in Central Asia for gold, silver, grape wine, glassware, pottery, asbestos cloth, coral beads, and intaglio gems from Rome.

110 A.D.: literature

Nonfiction: Of Illustrious Men (De Viris Illustribus) by the Roman biographer Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillis), 44.

114 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Trajan annexes Armenia to the Roman Empire.

115 A.D.: political events

Roman legions occupy Mesopotamia up to the river Tigris.

115 A.D.: literature

Nonfiction: The Lives of the Caesars (De Vita Caesarium) by Suetonius is spiced with sometimes questionable anecdotes gathered from private sources and public records.

115 A.D.: environment

An earthquake in Syria damages Antioch. The local bishop is held responsible (he will be martyred and remembered as St. Ignatius).

116 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Trajan makes Syria a province of Rome and crosses the Tigris to annex Adiabene (see 110 A.D.). He proceeds to the Persian Gulf and conquers territory that becomes the province of Parthia, ousting Pacoros II after a 38-year reign and setting up a son of Osroes I as his puppet to rule as Parthamaspates.

117 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Trajan dies of a stroke at Selinus in Cilicia August 8 at age 63 while en route from Mesopotamia to Italy. His cousin Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 41, commanded a legion in the Second Dacian War that ended in 106 and is advised August 9 at Antioch that he has been adopted by Trajan (whose widow, Pompeia, may have forged her late husband's signature to adoption papers). The Stoic former praetor has governed Lower Panonia (east and west of the Danube), he learns of Trajan's death August 11, and he will reign until 138 as the emperor Hadrian.

117 A.D.: human rights, social justice

Jews throughout the East rise to massacre Greeks and Romans at news of Trajan's death, but Romans mourn the loss of the emperor who has inaugurated a welfare program for the needy. The new emperor Hadrian will put through legislation to prevent Romans from having their slaves castrated at will and forced to fight as gladiators in the arena.

117 A.D.: commerce

The silver content of the Roman denarius will fall to 87 percent in the reign of Hadrian, down from 93 percent in the reign of Trajan.

117 A.D.: literature

Nonfiction: Historia by Cornelius Tacitus, who dies at age 60. His work covers the years 69 to 96, his Annales the preceding period from 14 to 69.

118 A.D.: architecture, real estate

The Roman Forum commissioned by the late Trajan is completed with triumphal arches, columns, a market complex, and an enormous basilica that all of which replace hundreds of dwellings. Trajan's column has been designed by the architect Appolodorus.

118 A.D.: population

Rome has a population exceeding 1 million, making it the largest city in the world.

120 A.D.: literature

The Delphic priest Plutarch dies in his late 70s at Chaeron, leaving behind his celebrated Parallel Lives—biographies of Greek and Roman legislators, orators, soldiers, and statesmen that attempt to depict character. "So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history," he has written, "when, on the one hand, those who afterwards write it find long periods of time intercepting their view, and, on the other hand, the contemporary records of any actions and lives, partly through envy and ill will, partly through favor and flattery, pervert and distort truth" (see 1579 A.D.).

122 A.D.: political events

Hadrian's Wall goes up in what will be called Britain following the arrival in the spring of the Roman emperor Hadrian on a tour of military inspection. Construction of the 73-mile wall from the Tyne River to the Solvay on the Irish Sea will proceed at a rate of eight to 10 miles per year, across hills and rivers, as architects and engineers work to create a symbol of Roman power and a 15-foot-high defensive barrier against the Picts (Scots) and other tribesmen to the north, known to the Romans as "red-haired barbarians" (see 132 A.D.).

123 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Hadrian averts a war with the Parthians by meeting in person with the late Trajan's puppet king Parthamaspates, to whom he will ultimately give a throne in Osrohene.

125 A.D.: political events

"Bread and circuses" (panem et circensis) keep the Roman citizenry pacified, writes Roman lawyer-satirist Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Juvenal), 65, in his Satires.

125 A.D.: medicine

Plague sweeps North Africa in the wake of a locust invasion that destroys large areas of cropland. The plague kills as many as 500,000 in Numidia and possibly 150,000 on the coast before moving to Italy, where it takes so many lives that villages and towns are abandoned.

125 A.D.: religion

Pope Sixtus I dies at Rome after a reign of about 10 years (year approximate).

125 A.D.: architecture, real estate

Rome's Pantheon is completed for the emperor Hadrian, who has had his Damascus-born chief architect Apollodorus banished and put to death for his outspoken criticism (year approximate). Hadrian himself may have had a hand in designing the great circular structure, which replaces an earlier Pantheon with an edifice that will survive into the 21st century as the oldest major building with its original roof intact. Its dome rises 142½ feet above its marble floor, it will remain the largest dome in western Europe until 1436, and its 27-foot-wide oculus (Great Eye) is open to the sky, illuminating the interior rotunda (see Paris, 1789 A.D.).

125 A.D.: food availability

Famine contributes to the death toll produced by the plague in North Africa and Italy.

126 A.D.–150 A.D.

128 A.D.: agriculture

Roman agriculture declines as imports from Egypt and North Africa depress wheat prices, making it unprofitable to farm and forcing many farmers off the land.

128 A.D.: food and drink

Roman bakeries produce dozens of bread varieties, and the Romans distribute free bread to the poor in times of need.

130 A.D.: architecture, real estate

The Temple of Olympian Zeus is completed at Athens by the Roman emperor Hadrian, who has become enamored of Hellenistic ways and taken the teen-aged Greek youth Antinous as his lover. Begun in 530 B.C., it is the largest temple in Greece (354 feet long, 135 feet wide, and 90 feet in height).

132 A.D.: political events

Hadrian's Wall is completed in Britain after 10 years of work. Built mostly of stone in the east (earth and wood in the west) with at least 16 forts, it has provided work for about 15,000 men, keeping them occupied digging ditches, quarrying rock, cutting stone, and generally preventing idleness which might have led to unrest and rebellions in the ranks. The forts can hold as many as 20,000 men, with ordinary soldiers in barracks that house eight men to a room, while officers enjoy quarters with heated floors, heated bathhouses, and other luxuries.

Jerusalem's Jews rise in anger against construction of a shrine to Jupiter on the site of the (third) Great Temple. Led by the zealot Simon Bar-Kokhba and the rabbi Eleazar, they gain possession of Judaea, beginning a 2½-year insurrection in which the Jews will fight four Roman legions; some 500,000 Jews will be massacred (see 135 A.D.).

132 A.D.: commerce

Merchants in what later will be called the British Isles build structures outside the forts of Hadrian's Wall and offer goods and services (including brothels) to Roman soldiers, who receive salaries in a region that otherwise has virtually no ready money.

132 A.D.: everyday life

The emperor Hadrian saves his lover Antinous in October from being killed by a lion they have hunted along the Nile, but Antinous falls into the Nile a few days later and drowns at age 18 or 20. Hadrian, now 56, weeps inconsolably at the loss, begins to lose his mental faculties, and will have Antinous deified.

135 A.D.: political events

Roman legions under Julius Severus retake Jerusalem and sack the city, kill Simon Bar-Kokhba at the village of Bethar near Caesarea, and end the Jewish War of Freedom (see 132 A.D.). The emperor Hadrian has returned to Rome but sends orders that the site of Jerusalem is to be plowed under and a new city, Aelia Capitolina, built on the site. Judaea is renamed Syria Palestine.

135 A.D.: religion

A Jewish diaspora begins as Hadrian bars Jews from Jerusalem and has survivors of the massacre dispersed across the empire. Many pour into Mediterranean ports, only to be sold into slavery. Christians may enter the new city but only if they have not sided with the Jews in the rebellion.

136 A.D.: political events

The ailing Roman emperor Hadrian dictates his memoirs at a magnificent villa completed near Tivoli (Tibur) outside Rome, with 350 acres of gardens, reflecting pools, fountains, columns, statuary (looted from Greece), a statue of his late lover Antinous, and baths.

138 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Hadrian dies at Baiae July 10 at age 62 after a 21-year reign, still distraught over the loss of his lover Antinous nearly 8 years ago. Loathed by most Romans, he is buried at Rome beside his late wife, Sabina, whom he hated. The first emperor to wear a beard, Hadrian has adopted Greek ways such as pederasty; he has adopted Titus (Aurelius Fulvius Boionus Arrius) Antoninus, 52, February 25 on condition that Antoninus adopt Marus Annius Verus, 17, nephew of his bride Faustina, and Lucius Celonius Commodus, 8, adopted 2 years ago by Hadrian himself. The new emperor Antoninus goes to the Senate and asks in person that the senators confer divine honors on the late Hadrian, an act for which he will be called Antoninus Pius. He will reign until 161.

138 A.D.: commerce

The silver content of the Roman denarius will fall to 75 percent in the reign of Antoninus Pius, down from 87 percent in the reign of Hadrian.

139 A.D.: architecture, real estate

Rome completes a splendid mausoleum for the late emperor Hadrian and his successors (see Castel Sant' Angelo, 590 A.D.)

140 A.D.: political events

The Antonine Wall goes up in what will be called Britain from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde as the Roman emperor Antoninus orders a pullback from Hadrian's Wall (see 132 A.D.). Built of turf on a stone foundation as a barrier against the Picts and Caledonians, the wall is 10 feet high, 14 to 16 feet wide, and will have 13 to 19 forts along its 37-mile length (see 158 A.D.).

140 A.D.: science

The Greek astronomer-geographer-mathematician Ptolemy of Alexandria dies (year approximate), leaving a 13-volume work entitled The Mathematical Collection (He mathematike syntaxis), which Arab astronomers will call The Great Astronomer (Megiste, or, later, Almagest). Believing the universe to be geocentric, with the moon, sun, and planets revolving about the Earth, Ptolemy has recognized that the Earth is round, extending the work of the late astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus (see 127 B.C.), whose star catalog listed 850 stars (Ptolemy has listed 1,022), and he has perfected the epicyclic theory of planetary motions. Few people can read Greek (or any other language), almost everyone in the world will continue to regard the Earth as flat until the 15th century, the Christian Church will embrace his "Ptolemaic system" of a geocentric universe, and it will regard all who question it as heretics (see Aristarchus, 230 B.C.; Nikolaus von Cusa, 1440 A.D.; Rheticus, 1540 A.D.; Copernicus, 1543 A.D.). Ptolemy has also written an eight-volume Guide to Geography (Geographike hyphegesis), which is seriously flawed but does include information on how to construct maps, lists places in Europe, Africa, and Asia according to their latitude and longitude, and will have great influence in future centuries (see 1410 A.D.).

147 A.D.: political events

Parthia's Vologases III dies after a prosperous 42-year reign in which he has contended successfully with rivals. His son will reign until 191 as Vologases IV, restoring the unity of his empire, but only briefly (see 161 A.D.).

151 A.D.–175 A.D.

158 A.D.: political events

Roman forces in what later will be called the British Isles move their frontier forward to Hadrian's Wall (see 140 A.D.).

161 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Antoninus Pius dies of fever at Lorium in Etruria March 7 at age 73 after a 23-year reign marked by prosperity in the provinces, liberal relief to cities in distress, construction of aqueducts and baths, progress in art and science, increased importance of the Roman Senate, and construction of the Antonine Wall in what later will be called Britain. Antoninus is succeeded by his adopted son Marcus Annius Verus, now 40, who will reign until 180 as Marcus Aurelius.

Parthia's Vologeses IV invades the Roman provinces of Cappadocia and Syria (see 162 A.D.).

161 A.D.: commerce

The silver content of the Roman denarius will fall to 68 percent under Marcus Aurelius, down from 75 percent under Antoninus Pius.

162 A.D.: political events

Rome sends a powerful expeditionary force under the command of Lucius Verus to repel the Parthian king Vologases IV, who last year invaded Cappadocia and Syria. Fighting will continue until 165.

165 A.D.: political events

Parthia's Vologases IV withdraws from Cappadocia and Syria after the Romans have destroyed Doura-Europus and Seleuce, burned the Parthian royal palace at Ctesiphon, and even advanced into Media.

165 A.D.: medicine

Roman legions returning from the east spread a plague that may be smallpox, and it moves through much of Europe and the Near East, seriously depopulating the empire.

165 A.D.: religion

Pope Anicetus dies after an 11-year reign and is succeeded by a cleric who will reign until 174 as Soter.

165 A.D.: literature

The Cynic philosopher Peregrinus sets fire to himself at the Olympic Games, committing public suicide. He has been denounced as a fraud by the 48-year-old Syrian-born Athenian rhetorician and satirist Lucian, whose humorous Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Dead, Charon, and other writings have gained him a reputation for wit and eloquence.

166 A.D.: agriculture

Rome expropriates peasant lands and awards them to returning legionnaires, few of whom will make good farmers.

167 A.D.: political events

The first full-scale barbarian attack on Rome destroys aqueducts and irrigation conduits, but the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius repels the invaders, ending the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) that has kept the empire relatively free of conflict since the days of the emperor Augustus.

168 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor Lucius Verus subdue the Marcommani, a barbarian tribe from north of the Danube that has been in northwestern Italy for 7 years.

169 A.D.: political events

The Roman co-emperor Lucius Verus dies early in the year at age 39, leaving Marcus Aurelius to reign alone.

A full Roman army moves out in the fall to repel the Marcommani, who have broken the peace concluded last year. The Romans will drive off the Marcommani in the next 3 years, and the tribe will be virtually annihilated—as much by plague (which also infects the Roman army) as by force of arms.

174 A.D.: political events

The Roman legions of Marcus Aurelius defeat the Quadi in a victory that will be commemorated by a great column at Rome.

174 A.D.: religion

Pope Soter dies after a 9-year reign and is succeeded by a cleric who will reign until 189 as Eleutherius.

175 A.D.: political events

Roman legions in Asia revolt under the leadership of Avidus Cassius following rumors that the emperor Marcus Aurelius has died. Having helped to defeat the Parthians 10 years ago, Cassius proclaims himself emperor with the encouragement of his officers, but they assassinate him and send his head to Marcus Aurelius, who persuades the Senate to pardon Cassius's family.

176 A.D.–200 A.D.

176 A.D.: political events

Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus enter Rome after a campaign north of the Alps and receive a triumph for their victories over the barbarians.

177 A.D.: religion

Marcus Aurelius begins a systematic persecution of the Christians at Rome, where they oppose emperor-worship and thus pose a danger to the established order. The persecution forces adherents to the new religion to practice in secret; many take refuge in the catacombs—the underground cemetery outside the city hewn out of solid rock since Etruscan times, and the fish becomes a symbol of Christianity (the initial letters of Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter spell ichthus, the Greek word for fish).

179 A.D.: exploration, colonization

The Bavarian city of Regensburg (Ratisbon) has its beginnings in the Roman legionary camp Castra Regina on the right bank of the Danube formerly occupied by a Celtic village.

180 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius dies March 17 at age 58 after a week's illness either at his camp on the Save in Lower Pannonia or at Vindobona (later Vienna). He is succeeded by his son Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, now 18, who will rule tyrannically and recklessly until his murder in 192.

180 A.D.: medicine

Methodus Medendo by the Greek physician Galen, 52, at Rome correlates extant knowledge of medicine into a system that will influence medical thinking for 15 centuries, but his hundreds of treatises based on empirical therapy are speculative in terms of physiology and pathology and will mislead future generations. Galen has fled the city's plague after 16 years of practice in which he has treated Roman gladiators, merchants, and emperors. He has dissected two human corpses, in defiance of Roman law, and dissected Barbary apes to develop a view of anatomy that is basically correct. But he mistakenly attributes gout to overindulgence (see Garrod, 1859 A.D.) and asserts that the inner walls of the heart contain invisible pores (see Columbus, 1559 A.D.; Harvey, 1628 A.D.).

180 A.D.: literature

Nonfiction: Reflections, or Meditations left behind by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is a compendium of his Stoic philosophy: "Nothing can come out of nothing any more than a thing can go back to nothing"; "Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them"; "What is good for the swarm is good for the bee"; "A man's happiness is to do a man's work"; "The act of dying is also one of the acts of life."

181 A.D.: literature

The Athenian rhetorician and satirist Lucian dies at age 64 (year and age approximate), having once written, "A boy of five years old serene and gay,/ Unpitying Hades hurried me away./ Yet weep not for Callimachus; if few/ The days I lived, few were my sorrows too."

183 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Commodus escapes death at the hands of assassins who have attacked him at the instigation of his sister Lucilia and a large group of senators. He puts many distinguished Romans to death on charges of being implicated in the conspiracy and puts others to death for no reason at all.

185 A.D.: political events

Rome's capable praetorian prefect Perennis is put to death at the request of a deputation from Britain representing mutinous legionnaires.

185 A.D.: sports

The emperor Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to support his pleasures and his soldiery. He himself has participated with enthusiasm as a gladiator and boasts of victory in 1,000 matches, having by one account sliced off "the noses of some, the ears of others, and sundry features of still others," while also slaughtering exotic animals brought from as far away as Africa and even India.

189 A.D.: political events

The Roman mob blames a grain shortage on the mercenary freedman Cleander, who succeeded Perennis as prefect 4 years ago. Cleander is sacrificed to the mob.

189 A.D.: medicine

Plague (possibly smallpox) kills as many as 2,000 per day in Rome. Dying farmers are unable to harvest their crops, dying carters are not able to deliver what grain there is, and food shortages bring riots in the city.

189 A.D.: religion

Pope Eleutherius dies at Rome after a 15-year reign and is succeeded by a cleric who will reign until 198 as Victor I.

189 A.D.: architecture, real estate

The column of Marcus Aurelius is completed at Rome.

191 A.D.: political events

Parthia's Vologases IV dies after a 44-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 208 as Vologases V (see 195 A.D.).

192 A.D.: political events

The emperor Commodus alarms Romans by appearing dressed as a gladiator and announcing that he will assume the consulship at the start of next year. His mistress, Marcia, finds her name on the imperial execution lists, whose names include also his chamberlain, Eclectus, and the prefect of praetorians, Laetus; they hire the champion wrestler Narcissus to strangle the insane Commodus, and he is assassinated at Rome December 31, ending the Antonine line that has held power since 138 (see 193 A.D.).

193 A.D.: political events

The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helfius Pertinax, 67, against his will to succeed the late Commodus as emperor, but his strict and economical rule arouses quick opposition and he is murdered March 28 by members of the praetorian guard who invade the imperial palace. The empire is auctioned off to the highest bidder and goes to Rome's wealthiest senator, Didius Julianus, 61, who has made a fortune in shipping and who outbids the father-in-law of the late Pertinax by offering 300 million sesterces. Legates in Britain, Syria, and Pannonia challenge Didius Julianus, and the Pannonian legate Lucius Septimius Severus, 47, offers his troops on the Danube huge bonuses if they will leave immediately for Rome. They proclaim him emperor April 13, he declares himself the avenger of Pertinax, and he marches his men 800 miles in 40 days. Septimius Severus enters the capital June 1 in full battle dress, has Didius Julianus put to death in the palace baths, replaces the praetorian guard with a 15,000-man force from his own Danubian legions, and begins a reign that will continue until 211.

193 A.D.: commerce

The silver content of the Roman denarius will fall to 50 percent under Septimius Severus, down from 68 percent under Marcus Aurelius.

194 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Septimius Severus marches east and crushes an army headed by his Syrian legate (Gaius) Pescennius Niger (Justus) near Antioch and has him executed. He then marches west to confront the forces of Decimus Clodius Albinus, whom he named caesar (junior emperor) when he left for Rome last year but who has declared himself emperor (see 197 A.D.).

195 A.D.: political events

Parthia's Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger in his claim to the imperial Roman throne (see 194 A.D.). The province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support, and Vologases is able to recover the area (but see 198 A.D.).

195 A.D.: population

"Scourges, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, and wars are to be regarded as blessings to crowded nations since they serve to prune away the luxuriant growth of the human race," writes the Carthaginian ecclesiast Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus), 35. He was converted to Christianity 5 years ago.

196 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Septimius Severus sacks Byzantium and reduces it to the status of a village.

197 A.D.: political events

The Roman emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Decimus Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (later Lyons) February 19 (see 194 A.D.). Albinus commits suicide, legionnaires sack the town, and it will never regain its prosperity. Severus returns to Rome, has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed and justifies his usurpation of the throne by declaring himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius, claiming also to be a descendant of the late emperor Nerva. He marches east late in the year to repel a Parthian invasion of Mesopotamia.

198 A.D.: political events

The emperor Septimius Severus defeats Rome's Syrian legate Pescennius Niger, invades Parthia, and retakes Ctesiphon and Seleucia while internal rebellions preoccupy Vologases V.

198 A.D.: religion

Pope Victor I dies at Rome after a 9-year reign and is succeeded by a cleric who will reign until 217 as Zephrynus.

199 A.D.: political events

Rome's war with Parthia ends following a second unsuccessful effort by the emperor Septimius Severus to capture the pro-Parthian city-state of Hatra in central Mesopotamia (but see 200 A.D.).

200 A.D.: political events

Rome annexes Mesopotamia to the empire, having subdued the Parthians and others who seek dominion over the Near Eastern country (see 199 A.D.). The emperor Septimius Severus will remain in the east for a while with his Syrian wife, Julia Domina.

Huns invade what later will be called Afghanistan (see 80 A.D.). Living and even sleeping on their horses, they eat raw meat, travel in groups called "hordes," disfigure their sons' faces in infancy to make them look ferocious, and terrorize all who dare to oppose them (see 360 A.D.).

The Japanese empress Jingu sends a vast fleet to invade Korea. The Koreans capitulate at sight of the huge multi-oared ships and offer tribute.

200 A.D.: religion

Jewish Talmudic law has its beginnings in the 39 tractates of the Mishnah compiled by Palestinian scholar-patriarch Judah ha-Kadosh, 65, of Sepphoria.

101 A.D.–125 A.D. 126 A.D.–150 A.D. 151 A.D.–175 A.D. 176 A.D.–200 A.D.