Events, Verisoph

c. 312 BCE The Roman aqueduct 0 cit. Rome built long gravity fed channels to carry fresh water into cities, starting with the Aqua Appia. Aqueducts supplied baths, fountains and homes and supported large urban populations. technology ●●●

c. 312 BCE Founding of the Seleucid Empire 0 cit. Seleucus I Nicator secured Babylon and the eastern provinces after Alexander's death. His empire ruled a vast stretch of the Near East and Central Asia. politics ●●●●

305 BCE Founding of the Ptolemaic Kingdom 0 cit. Ptolemy I Soter took the title of king and established a Greek dynasty ruling Egypt. Alexandria became a leading center of learning and commerce. politics ●●●●

c. 301 BCE Rome adopts and identifies with the Greek pantheon 0 cit. As Rome absorbed Greek culture, it matched its own gods to the Olympians, so Jupiter answered to Zeus and Venus to Aphrodite. Greek myths were retold with Roman names and became the standard classical mythology. culture / religion ●●●

c. 301 BCE Greek and Roman gods are treated as the same deities 0 cit. Zeus and Jupiter, Aphrodite and Venus, Hermes and Mercury came to be seen as one and the same gods under two names. This merging gave the classical world a shared mythology across languages. culture / religion ●●●

c. 301 BCE Serapis is created to unite Greek and Egyptian worship 0 cit. The Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt promoted Serapis, a god blending Osiris and the Apis bull with Greek gods like Zeus and Hades. He was meant to bind Greek and Egyptian subjects in a common cult. politics / religion ●●

c. 301 BCE Hellenistic culture blends the gods of many peoples 0 cit. After Alexander, Greek, Egyptian, and Near Eastern religions mixed freely, producing blended gods and shared mystery cults. This wide syncretism prepared the ground for religions that crossed old borders. culture / religion ●●

c. 301 BCE Euclid's Elements and the axiomatic method 0 cit. Euclid gathered the geometry and number theory of his age into thirteen books built from a handful of definitions, postulates, and step-by-step proofs. The Elements set the model for how mathematics is done, starting from stated assumptions and deducing everything else, and it served as a textbook for over two thousand years. Little is known of Euclid himself, and much of the content he organized rather than discovered. culture / science ●●●●

c. 301 BCE The Stoics make the Logos divine reason 0 cit. The Stoics described the Logos as a rational, fiery principle pervading the cosmos, of which each human mind held a spark. Living well meant living in accord with this universal reason. ●●

c. 301 BCE Zeno of Citium founds the Stoa 0 cit. A merchant turned philosopher, Zeno of Citium began teaching in the Stoa Poikile, the painted porch on the Athenian agora that gave Stoicism its name. He taught that the good life meant living in accord with reason and nature. ●●

c. 280 BCE Berossus carries Babylonian astrology to the Greeks 0 cit. The Babylonian priest Berossus writes the Babyloniaca in Greek, transmitting Mesopotamian history, myth, and astronomy to the Hellenistic world. He is remembered as a founder of astrology in the Greek and later Roman imagination. culture / science ●●

c. 280 BCE 'Museum' and 'music' come from the Muses 0 cit. The Mouseion of Alexandria was a shrine to the Muses, the goddesses of the arts, and gave us 'museum'; from the same goddesses comes 'music'. Two words for high culture are named for minor deities. culture / religion ●●●

c. 277 BCE The Septuagint Begun legendary 0 cit. According to tradition the Hebrew scriptures begin to be translated into Greek at Alexandria about 277 BC, under Ptolemy Philadelphus. This Septuagint became the Bible of Greek-speaking Jews and later of the early church. culture / religion ●●

c. 269 BCE 'Money' comes from the goddess Juno Moneta 0 cit. Rome mints its coins at the temple of Juno Moneta, and her title Moneta gives us both 'money' and 'mint'. The most everyday word in finance is the name of a Roman goddess. economy / religion ●●●●

c. 268 BCE Reign of Ashoka the Great 0 cit. Ashoka expanded the Maurya Empire to its greatest extent and later promoted Buddhism across Asia. His edicts on pillars and rocks spread ideas of moral governance. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 260 BCE Ashoka embraces Buddhism 0 cit. After the bloody conquest of Kalinga, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka turns to Buddhism and promotes it through edicts and missionaries. His patronage transforms Buddhism from a regional sect into a pan-Asian religion. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 251 BCE Archimedes measures curves and approaches the infinite 0 cit. Archimedes found areas and volumes of curved shapes by a method of exhaustion that came close to integral calculus, and he pinned pi between 3 10/71 and 3 1/7. He blended deep proof with mechanical intuition, weighing shapes in his imagination to guess results he then proved. His lost work The Method, recovered from a scraped-over medieval prayer book, revealed just how far ahead of his time he was. science / technology ●●●●

c. 251 BCE The Stoics teach virtue as the only good 0 cit. The Stoics held that virtue alone is good and vice alone is bad, while health, wealth and death are indifferent. Freedom came from mastering the judgements within our control and accepting what is not, a discipline they called living in accord with nature. ●●

c. 250 BCE Archimedes screw 0 cit. A rotating screw inside a cylinder lifted water uphill with a simple turn of a handle. It was used to drain mines and irrigate fields and is still used today. technology ●●

c. 247 BCE Founding of the Parthian Empire 0 cit. Arsaces I led a revolt that established Parthian rule over Iran and Mesopotamia. The Parthians became Rome's main rival in the east for centuries. politics ●●●●

241 BCE Treaty of Lutatius 0 cit. Peace treaty ending the First Punic War, under which Carthage evacuated Sicily and paid a large indemnity to Rome. It made Rome the dominant naval power in the western Mediterranean. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

c. 241 BCE Eratosthenes measures the size of the Earth 0 cit. Using the different noon shadows cast at Alexandria and Syene, Eratosthenes estimated the Earth's circumference by simple geometry and got close to the true value. The exact figure depends on the length of his units, which we cannot pin down. The point stands: Greek science already knew the Earth was a globe and roughly how big. science ●●

c. 231 BCE Chrysippus gives Stoicism its system 0 cit. Chrysippus, the third head of the school, built Stoicism into a full system of logic, physics and ethics, writing hundreds of works. The ancients said that without Chrysippus there would have been no Stoa. ●●

c. 222 BCE Qin unification of China 0 cit. The state of Qin conquers the last of the Warring States and its king becomes Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor. The unified imperial model he creates endures in China for more than two thousand years. politics / war ●●●●

221 BCE Standardization under Qin Shi Huang 0 cit. The Qin standardized the writing script, currency, weights, measures, and axle widths across the empire. A centralized bureaucracy replaced the old feudal order. politics / society ●●●●

c. 221 BCE The round coin and Chinese cash under the Qin 0 cit. After unifying China, the Qin standardized currency on the round bronze coin with a square central hole, the ban liang. This shape defined Chinese cash coins for the next two thousand years. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 221 BCE Qin unifies China as a bureaucratic empire 0 cit. The Qin state conquered its rivals and created the first unified Chinese empire under a single emperor. It replaced hereditary lords with appointed officials, standardized writing and measures, and built a centralized bureaucratic state. politics ●●●●●

215 BCE Macedonian-Carthaginian Treaty 0 cit. Secret alliance negotiated between Hannibal of Carthage and Philip V of Macedon against Rome during the Second Punic War. Roman forces captured envoys carrying the text, exposing the pact and triggering the First Macedonian War. diplomacy / politics / war ●●

214 BCE Qin construction of the Great Wall 0 cit. The Qin linked and extended earlier walls into a continuous defensive line against northern nomads. The work used forced labor on a vast scale. technology / war ●●●●

213 BCE Burning of books under the Qin 0 cit. To suppress dissent, the Qin court ordered the destruction of many texts, especially Confucian and historical works. Tradition also records the killing of scholars. culture / politics ●●●

c. 211 BCE Rome introduces the denarius 0 cit. Rome created the silver denarius during the Second Punic War, and it became the backbone of Roman money for centuries. The coin's name survives in later currencies and in the abbreviation d for the penny. economy / politics ●●●●

210 BCE Terracotta Army and death of the First Emperor 0 cit. Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BCE and was buried with thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers guarding his tomb. The army was rediscovered in 1974. culture / politics ●●●●

c. 209 BCE Formation of the Xiongnu Confederation 0 cit. Modu Chanyu united the nomadic tribes of the steppe into a powerful confederation. The Xiongnu became a persistent rival to Han China along its northern frontier. politics ●●●●

206 BCE Collapse of the Qin and Chu-Han contention 0 cit. Rebellions broke out soon after the First Emperor's death, and the Qin fell in 206 BCE. Rival leaders Liu Bang and Xiang Yu then fought for control. politics / war ●●●

c. 205 BCE Rome imports the goddess Cybele as Magna Mater 0 cit. During the war with Hannibal, Rome brought the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele to the city as the Great Mother on the advice of an oracle. Her ecstatic cult and priests became a striking foreign presence in Roman religion. religion / war ●●

c. 204 BCE Founding of Nam Viet 0 cit. Triệu Đà established the kingdom of Nam Viet in the region of southern China and northern Vietnam. It is regarded in Vietnamese tradition as an early native state. politics ●●●

202 BCE Founding of the Han dynasty 0 cit. Liu Bang defeated his rivals and founded the Han dynasty in 202 BCE, ruling from Chang'an. The Han became a defining era of Chinese civilization, and Chinese people still call themselves the Han. politics ●●●●●

c. 202 BCE Han China builds a merit civil service 0 cit. The Han dynasty kept the centralized empire but softened harsh Qin rule and began recruiting officials partly by learning and recommendation. This helped create a lasting tradition of bureaucratic government staffed by scholars. politics ●●●●

c. 201 BCE The planets are named for the Roman gods 0 cit. The five planets visible to the naked eye carry the Latin names of Roman gods, a practice inherited from Greek and Babylonian astronomy. These names remain the standard ones used in science today. religion / science ●●●

c. 201 BCE Mercury the planet takes the name of the swift messenger god 0 cit. The fastest-moving planet was named for Mercury, the quick messenger god of the Romans, matching the Greek Hermes. Its swift motion across the sky suited the god of speed. religion / science ●●

c. 201 BCE Venus the planet bears the name of the goddess of love 0 cit. The brightest planet was named for Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty, corresponding to the Greek Aphrodite. Earlier Mesopotamian astronomers had already linked the same planet to Ishtar. religion / science ●●

c. 201 BCE Mars the planet is named for the god of war 0 cit. The reddish planet took the name of Mars, the Roman war god, its color suggesting blood and battle. The link gives us the adjective martial for things related to war. religion / science ●●

c. 201 BCE Jupiter the planet honors the king of the gods 0 cit. The largest planet was named for Jupiter, chief of the Roman gods, fitting its size and brightness. The god's Greek name Zeus survives in the planet's adjective, Jovian. religion / science ●●

c. 201 BCE Saturn the planet carries the name of the old god of time and harvest 0 cit. The slowest of the visible planets was named for Saturn, an ancient Roman god of agriculture and time. The same god gives his name to the weekday Saturday. religion / science ●●

c. 201 BCE Apollonius and the geometry of conic sections 0 cit. Apollonius of Perga wrote a sweeping treatise on the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola, curves he named and studied as slices of a cone. This work sat mostly unused until Kepler and Newton found that planets move along exactly these curves. It is a case of pure geometry waiting nearly two thousand years for its application. science ●●●

c. 200 BCE to c. 200 The Bhagavad Gita is composed 0 cit. The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's discourse to Arjuna within the Mahabharata, is composed sometime in the centuries around the turn of the era. It becomes one of Hinduism's most beloved and influential scriptures. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 200 BCE Roman concrete 0 cit. Romans mixed volcanic ash, lime and water to make a durable concrete that could set underwater. It made possible domes, harbors and structures like the Pantheon that still stand. technology ●●●●

c. 200 BCE The vertical waterwheel 0 cit. Waterwheels captured the energy of flowing water to grind grain and drive machinery. They were among the first machines to replace human and animal muscle with natural power. science / technology ●●●

190 BCE Artaxias I founds the Artaxiad dynasty 0 cit. After the Seleucids are defeated by Rome at Magnesia, the governor Artaxias I declares himself king and founds the Artaxiad dynasty. He builds a new capital, Artaxata, said to have been planned with advice from the exiled Carthaginian general Hannibal. His line consolidates a unified Armenian kingdom. politics ●●

188 BCE Treaty of Apamea 0 cit. Peace between Rome and the Seleucid king Antiochus III after his defeat at Magnesia. It stripped the Seleucids of Asia Minor and confirmed Roman dominance in the eastern Mediterranean. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

c. 185 BCE Fall of the Maurya Empire 0 cit. Around 185 BC the last Mauryan emperor was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga, who founded a new dynasty. The empire that had once unified most of the Indian subcontinent dissolved into smaller states. politics / war ●●●

168 BCE Antiochus Desecrates the Temple 0 cit. In 168 BC by the traditional reckoning Antiochus Epiphanes profanes the Temple in Jerusalem, setting up a pagan altar and forbidding Jewish worship. The books of Maccabees call this the abomination of desolation. politics / religion ●●●

22 June 168 BCE Fall of the Kingdom of Macedon 0 cit. At the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC the Roman legions crushed the Macedonian army of King Perseus. The Antigonid monarchy was abolished, and Macedon was broken up and later annexed by Rome. politics / war ●●●

168 BCE to 161 BCE Maccabean revolt and the rededication of the Temple 0 cit. Jews led by the Maccabees revolt against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV, who had banned Jewish practice and defiled the Temple. Their victory restores Jewish worship and independence under the Hasmonean dynasty. The rededication of the Temple is remembered in the festival of Hanukkah. politics / religion / war ●●

167 BCE to 164 BCE The Maccabean Revolt 0 cit. Jewish fighters led by the Maccabees rebelled against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV after he restricted Jewish practice. Their rededication of the Temple is commemorated as Hanukkah. religion / war ●●●

165 BCE The Maccabean Revolt and Rededication 0 cit. Judas Maccabeus and his brothers drive out the Seleucid forces and rededicate the Temple in 165 BC by the traditional reckoning. The feast of dedication, Hanukkah, commemorates the event. politics / religion / war ●●●

c. 161 BCE to c. 70 The Pharisees and the doctrine of the Oral Torah 0 cit. The Pharisees taught that alongside the Written Torah of Moses ran an Oral Torah, an unwritten body of interpretation and law handed down through the sages. This claim, rejected by the rival Sadducees, became the foundation of the later rabbinic and legal tradition of Judaism. culture / religion ●●●

c. 150 BCE Hellenistic astrology fuses Babylon and Egypt 0 cit. In Greek-ruled Egypt, Babylonian planetary science, the zodiac, and Egyptian ideas combine into horoscopic astrology, complete with the twelve houses and the rising sign. This Hellenistic synthesis is the direct ancestor of all Western astrology. culture / religion ●●●●

146 BCE Destruction of Carthage 0 cit. In 146 BC Roman forces ended the Third Punic War by storming and razing Carthage. The city was destroyed, its people enslaved, and its territory became the Roman province of Africa. politics / war ●●●●

c. 140 BCE The Hasmonean Kingdom 0 cit. The Hasmonean dynasty established an independent Jewish state in Judea that lasted until Roman intervention. It expanded Judean territory across much of the region. politics / religion ●●

c. 140 BCE Hipparchus builds on Babylonian records 0 cit. The greatest Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, uses centuries of Babylonian eclipse and planetary records to build his own theories, borrowing their arithmetic and their degrees. Babylonian science is the hidden foundation beneath Greek astronomy. culture / science ●●●

138 BCE Zhang Qian's mission and the opening of the Silk Road 0 cit. Emperor Wu sent the envoy Zhang Qian west around 138 BCE to seek allies against the Xiongnu. His journeys opened the overland trade routes later known as the Silk Road, linking China with Central Asia and beyond. economy / exploration ●●●●●

136 BCE Confucianism becomes state ideology 0 cit. Under Emperor Wu, the Han court adopted Confucianism as the guiding philosophy of the state. Officials were increasingly chosen for their knowledge of Confucian classics. politics / religion ●●●●

124 BCE Han China founds the Taixue imperial academy 0 cit. Emperor Wu of Han established the Taixue in 124 BC to train officials in the Confucian classics. It tied advancement in the state to a standard curriculum, an early link between schooling and government service. politics / society ●●●

c. 118 BCE The Han wu zhu coin 0 cit. Emperor Wu of Han standardized the bronze wu zhu coin, which stayed in production in various forms for over seven hundred years. It gave China a stable and long-lived unit of small change. economy ●●●

108 BCE Marian reforms of the Roman army 0 cit. Consul Gaius Marius opened army recruitment to landless citizens, previously excluded, turning the Roman army into an effectively professional, standing force rather than a temporary levy of property owners. The state now equipped soldiers, who served long terms for pay and expected land grants on discharge. The reform strengthened Rome militarily but made legions loyal to individual generals rather than the state, a factor in the civil wars that followed. politics / war ●●●

c. 108 BCE Marian Reforms Professionalize Rome's Army 0 cit. The consul Gaius Marius opened army recruitment to landless citizens and put the state, rather than individual soldiers, in charge of equipping the legions. Soldiers now served long terms for pay and looked to their generals, rather than the Senate, for land grants and rewards after discharge. The reform created Rome's first professional standing army and tied soldiers' loyalty to individual commanders, a shift historians link to the collapse of the Republic. politics / war ●●●

c. 101 BCE The Celts honor Lugh, the Dagda, and Brigid 0 cit. Celtic peoples worshiped gods such as the skilled Lugh, the fatherly Dagda, and the goddess Brigid, known mostly from Irish texts and Roman accounts. Many local deities were tied to springs, rivers, and tribes. culture / religion ●●

c. 101 BCE The Nazca and their desert geoglyphs 0 cit. On the arid southern coast the Nazca culture etches enormous lines and figures into the desert floor, the Nazca Lines, and digs underground aqueducts called puquios to survive in a dry land. The exact purpose of the geoglyphs is still debated, with explanations ranging from ritual pathways to water and astronomical markers. culture / religion ●●

c. 100 BCE to c. 100 Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism 0 cit. New sutras and the bodhisattva ideal give rise to the Mahayana movement within Indian Buddhism. Mahayana becomes the dominant form of Buddhism in East Asia. religion ●●●

c. 100 BCE Founding of Teotihuacan 0 cit. The city of Teotihuacan was established in the Valley of Mexico. It grew into one of the largest cities in the ancient world with its great pyramids. culture / society ●●●●

c. 91 BCE Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian 0 cit. Sima Qian completed a comprehensive history of China from legendary times to his own era. It set the model for later Chinese official histories. culture ●●●

c. 84 BCE to c. 70 BCE Tigranes the Great builds a short-lived empire 0 cit. Tigranes the Great expands Armenia into a brief regional empire stretching from the Caspian toward the Mediterranean, taking the title King of Kings and building a new capital, Tigranocerta. His empire collapses quickly when Rome intervenes; the Roman general Lucullus defeats him at Tigranocerta in 69 BCE. Armenia soon becomes a buffer and battleground between Rome and Parthia. politics / war ●●●

74 BCE to 72 BCE The revolt of Spartacus 0 cit. An enslaved gladiator named Spartacus led a rebellion of tens of thousands against Rome. The uprising was defeated and thousands of the captured were crucified along the Appian Way. society / war ●●●

63 BCE Pompey Takes Jerusalem 0 cit. The Roman general Pompey captures Jerusalem in 63 BC and Judea comes under Roman power. This sets the political stage of the New Testament era. politics / war ●●

63 BCE Roman Conquest of Judea 0 cit. The Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and brought Judea under Roman influence. Local client rulers governed under Roman authority. politics / war ●●●

c. 57 BCE Founding of Silla 0 cit. Silla was founded in the southeast of the Korean peninsula as one of the Three Kingdoms. It later unified much of Korea under its rule. politics ●●●

c. 51 BCE Slavery in ancient Rome 0 cit. Slavery was central to the Roman economy, and enslaved people may have made up a fifth to a third of Italy's population. Most were captives of war, put to work in fields, mines and households. economy / society ●●●●

c. 51 BCE The cult of Isis reaches Rome and the wider empire 0 cit. The Egyptian goddess Isis gained a devoted following across the Roman Empire, with temples and mystery rites promising salvation. Her worship crossed classes and endured into late antiquity. culture / religion ●●

c. 50 BCE Glassblowing 0 cit. Craftsmen learned to inflate molten glass with a blowpipe to shape vessels quickly. Glassblowing made glass affordable and common for the first time. technology ●●

c. 50 BCE Salt as a medium of exchange 0 cit. Salt was valued for preserving food and was traded across long distances as a form of payment. Its economic importance survives in words and phrases tied to wages and value. culture / economy ●●

c. January 50 BCE Julius Caesar Crosses the Rubicon 0 cit. Julius Caesar led his legion across the Rubicon River into Italy, defying the Roman Senate's order to disband his army before returning to Rome. The act triggered civil war and marked one of the clearest breaches of the principle that Roman generals should not turn their armies against the civilian state. It became a lasting example of praetorianism: a military commander using his troops for domestic political power. politics / war ●●●

15 March 45 BCE Assassination of Julius Caesar 0 cit. Roman senators stab Caesar to death on the Ides of March, hoping to save the Republic. Instead the murder triggers civil wars that end the Republic and bring one-man rule under Augustus. politics ●●●●

c. 45 BCE July and August are renamed for Julius Caesar and Augustus 0 cit. The month Quintilis was renamed July for Julius Caesar after his calendar reform, and Sextilis became August for the emperor Augustus. Both men were later honored as divine by the Roman state. culture / politics ●●

15 March 44 BCE Julius Caesar is assassinated 0 cit. Senators who feared Caesar was becoming a king stabbed him to death in an attempt to save the republic. Instead his death led to civil war and the end of republican government. politics / war ●●●●

c. 37 BCE Founding of Goguryeo 0 cit. Goguryeo arose in the north of the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. It grew into a powerful kingdom that resisted Chinese expansion. politics ●●●

2 September 32 BCE Battle of Actium 0 cit. Octavian's fleet defeats Antony and Cleopatra off the coast of Greece, leaving him sole master of the Roman world. The victory ends the Roman Republic's civil wars and opens the age of emperors. politics / war ●●●●

August 30 BCE End of Ptolemaic Egypt 0 cit. In 30 BC, after defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII took her own life and Octavian annexed Egypt. The death of the last Ptolemaic ruler ended three centuries of Greek dynastic rule over Egypt. politics / war ●●●●

c. 29 BCE Pali Canon written down in Sri Lanka 0 cit. Sri Lankan monks commit the Buddhist scriptures to writing for the first time, according to Theravada tradition. The written Pali Canon anchors the Theravada school of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. culture / religion ●●●

c. 28 BCE Praetorian Guard established 0 cit. Emperor Augustus formally organized the Praetorian Guard as a standing bodyguard for the Roman emperor, drawing on the older tradition of a general's personal cohort. Nine cohorts were stationed in and around Rome, eventually barracked at the Castra Praetoria. The guard became the most privileged unit in the Roman army, with higher pay and shorter service terms than legionaries. politics / war ●●

c. 28 BCE Augustus Establishes the Praetorian Guard 0 cit. Emperor Augustus formalized the Praetorian Guard, an elite force stationed in and around Rome to protect the emperor. Over the following two centuries the Guard repeatedly made and unmade emperors, becoming the textbook case of praetorianism, where the very troops meant to guard the state's ruler instead control who rules. The term "praetorian" entered later political vocabulary to describe any military force that dominates civilian government. politics / war ●●

16 January 27 BCE End of the Roman Republic 0 cit. On 16 January 27 BC the Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus, confirming his sole authority over the Roman state. The move marked the effective end of the Republic and the beginning of imperial rule. politics ●●●●●

27 BCE Founding of the Roman Empire 0 cit. Augustus became the first Roman emperor after the end of the civil wars. His reign began a long period of imperial rule over the Mediterranean world. politics ●●●●●

c. 27 BCE Augustus turns the republic into empire 0 cit. After winning the civil wars, Octavian took the title Augustus and held real power while keeping the outward forms of the republic. Rome shifted from shared republican rule to one-man imperial government. politics ●●●●●

c. 24 BCE Rome keeps the accounts of an empire 0 cit. Roman households and the state kept systematic accounts. Heads of households recorded daily cash in a diary and posted it to a formal ledger, and the emperor Augustus published a summary of imperial finances, the rationarium, and left a record of his own accounts. Roman practice tracked receipts and payments carefully but did not use the balancing double-entry method that came later. economy / politics ●●

c. 20 BCE Herod the Great Expands the Temple 0 cit. Herod the Great, a Roman client king, launched a major expansion of the Second Temple and its complex in Jerusalem. The Western Wall is a remnant of that platform. culture / religion ●●

c. 19 BCE Herod Rebuilds the Temple 0 cit. Herod the Great begins a grand rebuilding of the Temple about 19 BC. This enlarged Second Temple is the one known in the Gospels. politics / religion ●●

c. 18 BCE Founding of Baekje 0 cit. Baekje was founded in the southwest of the Korean peninsula as one of the Three Kingdoms. It became a center of maritime trade and cultural exchange with Japan. politics ●●●

c. 14 BCE Augustus establishes standing imperial legions 0 cit. Augustus fixed legionary service at a set term of years, standardized pay, and stationed a fixed number of standing legions permanently along the frontiers rather than raising armies for individual campaigns. He created a state treasury, the aerarium militare, funded by new taxes to pay veterans' discharge bonuses. This turned the Roman army into a permanent institution of the empire rather than a citizen levy raised for each war. politics / war ●●

c. 11 BCE Rome transports Egyptian obelisks to the imperial capital 0 cit. Emperor Augustus has obelisks shipped from Egypt to Rome to adorn the Circus Maximus and other public spaces, beginning a long practice of Western powers relocating Egyptian obelisks as trophies of conquest and prestige; later popes re-erected several in the 16th century as Christianized monuments topped with crosses. culture / politics ●●