Events, Verisoph

c. 4 BCE The Nativity 0 cit. Ussher dated the birth of Jesus to 4 BC, in Bethlehem of Judea, shortly before the death of Herod the Great. Ussher reckoned this as exactly 4000 years after the creation. religion ●●●●●

c. 2 BCE Khoikhoi pastoralism spreads to the Cape 0 cit. Khoikhoi herders, descended from San groups who adopted livestock, spread sheep and later cattle herding into the Cape region around two thousand years ago. They lived alongside San hunter-gatherers, with whom they shared close linguistic and cultural ties. Khoikhoi society was organized around clans and cattle wealth well before European contact. economy / society ●●

c. 1 Kenya at the time of Christ looked nothing like today 0 cit. Two thousand years ago almost none of Kenya's peoples were where they are now. The land was held by Southern Cushitic herders and older hunter-gatherer foragers. The Bantu were only reaching the Lake Victoria basin in the west, and would not settle the central highlands or the coast hinterland for another thousand years. The Luo were still in southern Sudan and the Maasai far to the north; both arrived only after 1500. The map of distinct tribes is only three to eight centuries old, redrawn by migration after the time of Christ. exploration / society ●●●

6 Judea Becomes a Roman Province 0 cit. Rome converted Judea into a directly administered province in 6 CE, governed by prefects and procurators. Tension between Roman rule and Jewish religious life grew over the following decades. politics / religion ●●

9 Wang Mang and the Xin interregnum 0 cit. The official Wang Mang seized the throne in 9 CE and founded the short-lived Xin dynasty. His radical reforms failed and rebellion soon toppled him. politics ●●●

c. 16 Rome expels its astrologers, then obeys them 0 cit. Roman emperors repeatedly banish astrologers from the city while secretly keeping their own, so feared was the power to read a ruler's death in the stars. Astrology sat at the heart of Roman politics even as it was outlawed. politics / religion ●●

25 Restoration of the Eastern Han 0 cit. Emperor Guangwu restored the Han dynasty in 25 CE and moved the capital to Luoyang. This Eastern Han period lasted nearly two centuries. politics ●●●

c. 27 Baptism of Jesus and Start of the Ministry 0 cit. By the traditional reckoning Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan about AD 27, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and begins his public ministry in Galilee. religion ●●●●

c. 30 Crucifixion of Jesus 0 cit. Roman authorities execute Jesus of Nazareth outside Jerusalem around the year 30. His followers' belief in his resurrection founds Christianity, which grows into the world's largest religion. religion ●●●●●

c. 30 Rise of the Kushan Empire 0 cit. Kujula Kadphises united the Yuezhi tribes and founded the Kushan Empire across Central and South Asia. The Kushans linked trade routes between China, India, and Rome. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 30 Philo of Alexandria bridges Logos and Scripture 0 cit. The Jewish philosopher Philo fused Greek thought with the Hebrew Bible, casting the Logos as a mediating power between the transcendent God and the created world. His synthesis shaped later Christian theology. ●●

c. 33 The Crucifixion and Resurrection 0 cit. The traditional dating places the crucifixion of Jesus at Jerusalem in AD 33, with AD 30 the main alternative, followed by the resurrection on the third day in the Gospel accounts. Ussher himself held to AD 33. religion ●●●●●

c. 33 Pentecost 0 cit. Fifty days after the resurrection, in the traditional reckoning of AD 33, the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples at Jerusalem. Acts presents this as the founding moment of the Christian church. religion ●●●●

c. 35 Conversion of Paul 0 cit. About AD 35 in the traditional reckoning Saul of Tarsus is converted on the road to Damascus. As the apostle Paul he becomes the leading missionary of the early church. religion ●●●

c. 45 to c. 58 Paul's Missionary Journeys 0 cit. Between about AD 45 and 58 Paul makes three missionary journeys from Antioch through Asia Minor and Greece, founding churches and writing many of the New Testament letters. exploration / religion ●●●

c. 50 The Council of Jerusalem 0 cit. About AD 50 the apostles and elders meet at Jerusalem to decide whether Gentile converts must keep the law of Moses. Acts 15 records their decision that they need not be circumcised. religion ●●

c. 55 Seneca, the Stoic at Nero’s court 0 cit. The statesman and playwright Seneca served as tutor and adviser to the emperor Nero while writing letters and essays that carried Stoic ethics to a Roman audience. Ordered to kill himself in 65 CE, he died as a Stoic sage was meant to. ●●

c. 60 to c. 62 Paul Imprisoned in Rome 0 cit. About AD 60 to 62 Paul is held under guard in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar, where Acts leaves him preaching freely. Several of his letters are traditionally assigned to this imprisonment. religion ●●

66 to 73 First Jewish-Roman War 0 cit. A Jewish revolt against Roman rule ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 CE. The war scatters the Jewish population and reshapes Judaism. religion / war ●●●

c. 67 Martyrdom of Peter and Paul 0 cit. Church tradition places the deaths of the apostles Peter and Paul at Rome about AD 67, under the persecution of Nero. religion ●●●

c. 67 Buddhism reaches China 0 cit. Chinese tradition dates the official arrival of Buddhism to an embassy under Emperor Ming, followed by the founding of the White Horse Temple at Luoyang. Buddhism goes on to become one of China's three major teachings. religion ●●●●

c. 67 Arrival of Buddhism in China 0 cit. Buddhism reached China from India along the Silk Road during the first century CE. Tradition dates its official introduction to Emperor Ming of Han and the founding of the White Horse Temple. religion ●●●●●

70 Fall of Jerusalem 0 cit. In AD 70 the Roman army under Titus destroys Jerusalem and burns the Second Temple. Christian tradition read the event as the fulfillment of Jesus's prophecy in the Gospels. politics / religion / war ●●●●

c. 70 Academy at Yavneh and the rise of rabbinic Judaism 0 cit. Tradition holds that Yohanan ben Zakkai establishes an academy at Yavneh after the loss of the Temple. There the rabbis reorganize Judaism around Torah study, prayer, and law rather than sacrifice. religion ●●●●

September 70 Destruction of Jerusalem and Fall of Judea 0 cit. In 70 CE Roman legions under Titus captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, ending the First Jewish-Roman War. The Judean commonwealth was crushed and its people scattered. politics / religion / war ●●●●

August 70 Destruction of the Second Temple 0 cit. Roman forces under Titus captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. The date is mourned in Judaism as Tisha B'Av and marked a turning point toward rabbinic Judaism. religion / war ●●●●●

August 70 Roman destruction of the Second Temple 0 cit. Roman forces under Titus crush the Jewish revolt and burn the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The loss of the Temple ends sacrificial worship and forces a lasting reshaping of the religion around study, prayer, and law. Its destruction is still mourned on the fast of Tisha B'Av. religion / war ●●●

c. 73 Fall of Masada 0 cit. According to the historian Josephus, the last Jewish rebels at the desert fortress of Masada died as Roman forces closed in around 73 or 74 CE. The site later became a national symbol in Israel. culture / war ●●

c. 75 The last cuneiform tablet is an astronomical almanac 0 cit. The very last datable cuneiform texts, written when Babylon was already a ruin, are astronomical almanacs. The science of the stars was the final thing the world's oldest written civilization kept recording, outliving its temples and its kings. science / society ●●●

80 The Colosseum opens in Rome 0 cit. The emperor Titus opened the Colosseum with a hundred days of games. Gladiator fights and staged spectacles drew tens of thousands as mass public entertainment. culture / society ●●●●

c. 90 Pascha: Easter grows out of the Jewish Passover 0 cit. The earliest Christians tied Jesus's death and resurrection to the Jewish Passover, Pesach, at which it happened. In most of the world's languages Easter is still called some form of Pascha, from Passover, which is the festival's true root and name, not the Babylonian Ishtar of popular myth. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 95 Revelation names Rome 'Mystery, Babylon the Great' 0 cit. The Book of Revelation casts the Roman Empire as 'Babylon the Great, mother of harlots', turning Babylon into the enduring symbol of worldly power and corruption. The image still drives religious and conspiratorial talk of a 'Mystery Babylon' today. culture / religion ●●●

c. 96 Revelation on Patmos 0 cit. Tradition places the visions of the book of Revelation about AD 96, received by John in exile on the island of Patmos in the reign of Domitian. With it the New Testament canon closes. religion ●●●

c. 98 Tacitus records the gods of the Germanic tribes 0 cit. In his Germania, the Roman historian Tacitus described Germanic worship and matched their gods to Roman ones such as Mercury and Mars. These early gods are ancestors of the later Norse deities. religion / society ●●

c. 98 The interpretatio romana matches foreign gods to Roman ones 0 cit. Romans routinely identified the gods of other peoples with their own, calling a Celtic or Germanic god by a Roman name they thought fit. Tacitus used this method to describe Germanic religion. culture / religion ●●●

98 Tacitus describes the gods of the Germans 0 cit. The Roman historian Tacitus writes Germania, the earliest account of Germanic religion, describing gods he equates with Mercury (Wodan), Hercules (Donar), and Mars (Tiwaz), and sacred groves without temples or idols. It is the first written window onto the faith that became Norse mythology. culture / religion ●●●

c. 100 to c. 900 Merkabah and Hekhalot mysticism 0 cit. An early current of Jewish mysticism centered on visionary ascents through heavenly palaces (hekhalot) toward the divine throne-chariot. Its texts describe angelic hierarchies, hymns, and techniques for the ascent of the soul. culture / religion ●●●

c. 100 Ancient Greek melody survives in full 0 cit. The Seikilos epitaph, cut into a stone column, is the oldest complete piece of music with notation that survives. It sets a short poem about enjoying life to a written tune. culture ●●

c. 100 Rise of the Kingdom of Aksum 0 cit. Aksum rose as a trading power in the Horn of Africa linking Africa, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. It minted its own coins and later adopted Christianity. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 100 The cult of Mithras spreads through the Roman army 0 cit. Mithraism, a mystery religion centered on the god Mithras slaying a bull, drew many Roman soldiers and met in underground temples. Its origins drew on the Persian deity Mithra reshaped in a Roman setting. religion / war ●●

c. 100 The seven-day week is named for the sun, moon, and planets 0 cit. The planetary week assigned each day to a heavenly body and its god, a system that spread through the Roman world. English kept some Roman names and swapped others for Germanic gods. religion / society ●●●

c. 100 Sunday and Monday are named for the sun and the moon 0 cit. Sunday keeps the Roman day of the sun and Monday the day of the moon, both once treated as divine. The names survived the shift to Christianity across northern Europe. religion / society ●●

c. 100 Saturday keeps the name of the Roman god Saturn 0 cit. Unlike the other weekdays in English, Saturday kept its Roman name, the day of Saturn, without a Germanic substitute. It preserves the old god directly in modern speech. religion / society ●●

c. 100 Hermes Trismegistus merges the Greek Hermes with Egyptian Thoth 0 cit. In the Hellenistic world the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian god of writing Thoth were fused into Hermes Trismegistus, a supposed sage of hidden wisdom. Texts attributed to him shaped later magic, alchemy, and the occult. culture / religion ●●

c. 100 The planetary seven-day week spreads through the Roman world 0 cit. The seven-day week with days named for the sun, moon, and five planets, rooted in Babylonian astrology and merged with the Jewish sabbath, takes hold across the Roman Empire. It is the direct ancestor of the modern week and the planetary names still carried by the days. culture / religion ●●●

c. 100 The Moche of the north coast 0 cit. The Moche build irrigation networks, large adobe pyramids such as the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, and produce some of the finest ceramics and metalwork of the ancient Americas. Their elite tombs, like the Lord of Sipan, reveal a stratified society and rich ritual life. There was no single Moche state but a shared culture across several river valleys. culture / society ●●

c. 100 to c. 900 Merkabah and Heikhalot mysticism 0 cit. An early current of Jewish mysticism focused on visionary ascents through heavenly palaces, the heikhalot, toward the divine throne-chariot, the merkabah of Ezekiel's vision. Its texts describe angelic hierarchies and hymns, and rabbinic law restricted such study to a few advanced initiates. culture / religion ●●

c. 100 Arcana imperii, the secrets of state 0 cit. The Roman historian Tacitus used the phrase arcana imperii, the secrets of empire, for the hidden knowledge and methods that let rulers keep power. The idea that a state holds truths too dangerous for the public runs from Rome through Renaissance thinkers and into the modern world. Historians read Tacitus as describing this practice, not endorsing it. culture / politics ●●

c. 100 Ancestors of the Somali and Rendille take shape contested 0 cit. Language reconstruction points to a "Proto-Sam" community, ancestral to the Somali, Rendille, and Aweer, living near the Tana River and the southern Somali coast in the first millennium CE. From this root the Eastern Cushitic camel peoples later fanned out across the north. The model is widely used but rests on linguistics rather than direct evidence, so it remains contested. society ●●

c. 100 The Gospel of John: 'In the beginning was the Word' 0 cit. John's Gospel opened by identifying the Logos, the Word, with God and declaring that it became flesh in Jesus. It carried a Greek philosophical term into the heart of Christian faith. ●●

c. 100 The Didache forbids abortion and infanticide 0 cit. The Didache, an early Christian manual of teaching, explicitly forbade abortion and the killing of newborns, setting the young church against practices widely accepted in the Roman world. ●●

c. 105 Paper 0 cit. The official Cai Lun is credited with refining papermaking from pulped fibers into cheap writing sheets. Paper spread slowly westward and became the main surface for writing and printing. technology ●●●●●

105 Cai Lun and the invention of paper 0 cit. The court official Cai Lun is credited with refining papermaking around 105 CE using bark, hemp, and rags. Paper became one of China's most influential contributions to the world. science / technology ●●●●●

c. 125 Epictetus and the Enchiridion 0 cit. Born a slave and later freed, Epictetus taught that some things are up to us and some are not, and that peace comes from caring only about the former. His pupil Arrian recorded his teaching in the Discourses and the handbook known as the Enchiridion. ●●

132 to 136 Bar Kokhba Revolt 0 cit. Simon bar Kokhba leads a final Jewish revolt against Rome that is crushed with enormous loss of life. Rome bans Jews from Jerusalem and renames the province Syria Palaestina. religion / war ●●●

135 Judea Renamed Syria Palaestina 0 cit. After the Bar Kokhba revolt, the emperor Hadrian barred Jews from Jerusalem and renamed the province Syria Palaestina. The period marks the deepening of the Jewish diaspora. politics / religion ●●●

c. 142 Way of the Celestial Masters founded 0 cit. Tradition holds that Laozi appeared to Zhang Daoling, who founded the Way of the Celestial Masters. It is the first organized Daoist religious community, ancestor of later Daoist churches. religion ●●●

c. 150 Babylonian astrology survives in the zodiac and horoscopes 0 cit. The zodiac signs and the practice of reading fate in the planets grew from Babylonian star lore, spread by Greek writers like Ptolemy. Their god-named planets still anchor astrology today. culture / science ●●

c. 150 Ptolemy's Almagest preserves the Babylonian sky 0 cit. Ptolemy's Almagest, the astronomy textbook of the next 1,400 years, is built in part on Babylonian observations and their base-60 arithmetic. Through it, Babylonian science reached the medieval Islamic and European world and shaped astronomy until Copernicus. culture / science ●●●●

c. 150 Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos codifies astrology 0 cit. The same Ptolemy who wrote the great astronomy textbook also writes the Tetrabiblos, the standard handbook of astrology for the next 1,500 years. Astronomy and astrology were one science, taught together, well into the modern age. religion / science ●●●●

c. 150 Ptolemy compiles the Almagest 0 cit. Claudius Ptolemy compiles the Almagest, a mathematical model of an Earth-centered universe with a catalogue of over a thousand stars, built on centuries of Babylonian and Greek observation. It would be the authoritative account of the heavens for fourteen hundred years. culture / science ●●●●

c. 150 Ptolemy maps the world in the Geography 0 cit. Ptolemy's Geography lays out the known world by latitude and longitude with map projections, the foundation of scientific cartography. His underestimate of the Earth's size and overestimate of Asia's reach would later help convince Columbus he could sail west to the Indies. exploration / science ●●●●

c. 150 Ptolemy's Almagest codifies the geocentric universe 0 cit. Ptolemy gathered Greek astronomy into a mathematical model that predicted planetary positions using circles upon circles. It was geocentric and, in hindsight, wrong about the structure of the cosmos. But it worked well enough to guide navigation and calendars for over a thousand years, which is why it was so hard to displace. science ●●

c. 150 Justin Martyr and the logos spermatikos 0 cit. The apologist Justin Martyr argued that a seed of the Logos, the logos spermatikos, was scattered in all people, so that Socrates and other Greeks had glimpsed the truth. Reason itself, he held, pointed toward Christ. ●●

c. 155 Justin Martyr condemns Roman infant exposure 0 cit. In his First Apology, Justin Martyr attacked the common Roman practice of exposing unwanted infants, arguing it was murder and that many exposed children ended up in slavery or brothels. Early Christian writers made rejection of exposure and infanticide a mark of the faith. ●●

c. 175 Marcus Aurelius writes the Meditations 0 cit. The emperor Marcus Aurelius kept a private notebook of Stoic reflections while on campaign, never meant for publication. The Meditations became the most widely read Stoic work, a ruler counselling himself to duty, patience and acceptance. ●●

c. 177 Athenagoras defends nascent life 0 cit. Athenagoras of Athens, in his Plea for the Christians, called abortion murder and rejected the charges of infanticide and cannibalism levelled at Christians. Like Justin Martyr, he tied the new faith to a defence of the unborn and the newborn. ●●

184 to 205 Yellow Turban Rebellion 0 cit. A massive peasant revolt led by Taoist sect leaders shakes the Han dynasty. Suppressing it empowers regional warlords and begins the Han collapse. religion / society / war ●●●

184 Yellow Turban rebellion in China ai_extracted 1 cit. Taoism became a favored ideology for Chinese peasant rebels. The first major such revolt was the Yellow Turbans of 184 AD. ●●

March 193 Praetorians auction the imperial throne 0 cit. After murdering Emperor Pertinax, the Praetorian Guard openly auctioned the imperial throne to the highest bidder. The wealthy senator Didius Julianus won the bidding and was proclaimed emperor, but he was despised by the public and executed within nine weeks. The episode became the classic symbol of the guard's power to make and unmake emperors by force. politics / war ●●●

March 193 Praetorian Guard Auctions the Roman Throne 0 cit. After murdering the emperor Pertinax, the Praetorian Guard publicly auctioned the imperial throne to the highest bidder, the senator Didius Julianus. The episode is one of the starkest documented instances of a military body openly overriding civilian and constitutional authority. It is cited in civil-military relations literature as an extreme case of praetorianism, where armed force replaces political legitimacy outright. politics / war ●●

c. 200 The Mishnah is compiled 0 cit. Judah ha-Nasi redacts the Mishnah, the first written compilation of Jewish oral law. It becomes the foundation of the Talmud and of all later rabbinic Judaism. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 200 to c. 600 Composition of the Sefer Yetzirah 0 cit. The Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Formation, sets out a cosmology in which the world is created through the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Its date is debated, with most scholars placing it between the second and sixth centuries. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 200 The Natya Shastra codifies Indian performing arts 0 cit. The Sanskrit treatise Natya Shastra set out the rules of drama, dance, and music in ancient India. It has guided Indian performing arts for close to two thousand years. culture ●●●

c. 200 The Hermetica are written in Greco-Roman Egypt 0 cit. A body of Greek texts on magic, astrology, alchemy, and the divine mind is composed in Roman Egypt and attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the 'thrice-great' Hermes, a fusion of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth. These Hermetica became the scripture of Western esotericism. religion / science ●●●●

c. 200 Judah ha-Nasi compiles the Mishnah 0 cit. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi gathered the accumulated oral law into the Mishnah, a concise ordered code of rulings and debates in six divisions. Committing the Oral Torah to a fixed text preserved it after the loss of the Temple and gave rabbinic Judaism its legal backbone. culture / religion ●●●

208 Battle of Red Cliffs 0 cit. Allied southern warlords defeated the much larger army of Cao Cao on the Yangtze in 208 CE. The battle set the stage for the division of China into three states. war ●●●

220 Fall of the Han Dynasty 0 cit. In 220 CE the last Han emperor abdicated in favor of the warlord Cao Pi, ending four centuries of Han rule. China fragmented into the rival states of the Three Kingdoms period. politics / war ●●●●

220 Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms 0 cit. The last Han emperor abdicated in 220 CE, ending four centuries of Han rule. China split into the rival states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. politics / war ●●●●●

224 Founding of the Sasanian Empire 0 cit. Ardashir I defeated the last Parthian king and founded the Sasanian dynasty. The empire revived Persian traditions and became a major power for four centuries. politics ●●●●

224 The Sassanids restore Zoroastrian Persia 0 cit. The Sassanid empire makes Zoroastrianism the state church of Persia again and gathers its scriptures, the Avesta. For four more centuries the fire-temples of the wise lord burned across an empire that rivaled Rome. politics / religion ●●

c. 240 Mani begins preaching Manichaeism 0 cit. The prophet Mani proclaims a new universal religion built on a dualism of light and darkness, drawing on Christian, Zoroastrian, and Buddhist ideas. Manichaeism spreads from the Roman Empire to China before dying out centuries later. religion ●●●●

c. 250 Cacao beans as money in Mesoamerica 0 cit. Maya and later Aztec societies used cacao beans as a common medium of exchange for goods in the marketplace. The beans could buy food and other everyday items and were counted out for small transactions. culture / economy ●●●

c. 250 Debasement of Roman coinage 0 cit. To fund wars and spending, Roman emperors repeatedly cut the silver content of the denarius until it held almost no precious metal. The falling quality of coins fed rising prices and eroded trust in the currency. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 250 Rise of the Maya City-States 0 cit. The Classic Maya period saw the flourishing of independent city-states across Mesoamerica. They advanced writing, astronomy, and monumental architecture. culture / science ●●●●●

c. 250 Diophantus and the roots of algebra 0 cit. Diophantus wrote Arithmetica, a collection of problems solved with a shorthand notation and a search for whole-number answers, earning him the label father of algebra in the Greek line. His equations in whole numbers still carry his name as Diophantine problems. Centuries later a note Fermat scribbled in a copy of this book gave the world its most famous unsolved puzzle. science ●●●

c. 274 Aurelian promotes Sol Invictus as a unifying sun god 0 cit. The emperor Aurelian raised the cult of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, as a state god drawing on eastern and Roman solar worship. The sun cult gathered several traditions into one imperial religion. politics / religion ●●

280 Jin dynasty briefly reunifies China 0 cit. The Jin dynasty conquered the last of the Three Kingdoms in 280 CE. Its unity was short-lived and soon gave way to renewed division. politics ●●●

c. 293 Diocletian divides the Roman world 0 cit. The emperor Diocletian split the overstretched empire into eastern and western halves ruled by a college of four emperors, the Tetrarchy. The move was meant to steady a state worn down by civil war and invasion, and it set the precedent for a separate government in the Greek-speaking east. politics / society ●●

c. 300 The concept of the ten sefirot 0 cit. The sefirot are ten divine emanations or attributes through which the hidden God becomes active in creation. First named in the Sefer Yetzirah, they were later elaborated into the central map of Kabbalistic theology. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 300 Rise of the Ghana Empire 0 cit. The Ghana Empire arose in the western Sahel and grew wealthy from the gold and salt trade. It was the first of the great West African trading empires. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 300 Rise of Tiwanaku 0 cit. Tiwanaku grew into a major Andean state near Lake Titicaca. It influenced a wide region through its religion, architecture, and agriculture. culture / society ●●●

c. 300 The halo in Christian art descends from images of the sun gods 0 cit. The radiant halo used to mark holy figures grew out of the sun-rays shown around gods and emperors, such as Sol and Helios. Early Christian art adopted the device for Christ, saints, and angels. culture / religion ●●

c. 300 The Ptolemaic system becomes cosmic orthodoxy 0 cit. Ptolemy's Earth-centered cosmos, with the sun, moon, and planets on circles and epicycles around a fixed Earth, becomes the accepted picture of the universe for scholars and, later, the Church. To question it was to question the order of creation. religion / science ●●●

c. 300 Bantu-speaking farmers reach modern KwaZulu-Natal 0 cit. Bantu-speaking farming communities, part of the broader Bantu expansion out of central Africa, reached the eastern coastal regions of what is now South Africa by around the third century CE. They brought iron-working, cattle keeping, and cultivated crops such as sorghum and millet. Archaeological sites like Silver Leaves and Broederstroom document this early Iron Age settlement. society / technology ●●●

c. 300 Alchemists adopt the ouroboros as a symbol of the Great Work 0 cit. Greco-Egyptian alchemical manuscripts, including works attributed to Cleopatra the Alchemist, depict the ouroboros with the caption 'the One, the All' (hen to pan), using it to represent the unity of matter and the cyclical alchemical process. This use persisted through medieval and Renaissance alchemy into modern Jungian psychology, where Carl Jung took it up as an archetype of psychic wholeness. religion / science ●●

301 Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices 0 cit. Facing severe inflation, the emperor Diocletian set legal ceilings on the prices of goods and wages across the empire. The edict was widely ignored and did little to halt rising prices. economy / politics ●●●

c. 301 Armenia becomes the first Christian state legendary 0 cit. By tradition, King Tiridates III converts and makes Christianity the religion of the Armenian kingdom after Gregory the Illuminator brings him to the faith. This is generally regarded as the first time a state adopted Christianity, more than a decade before Rome's Edict of Milan. The traditional date of 301 is debated, with some scholars favoring around 314, so it is treated as approximate. politics / religion ●●●

c. 304 Age of division and the Northern and Southern dynasties 0 cit. From the early fourth century, nomadic peoples ruled the north while Chinese dynasties held the south. This long period of disunity lasted until the Sui reunification. politics / war ●●●

c. 309 The Byzantine solidus 0 cit. Constantine introduced the gold solidus, which held its weight and purity for centuries and became a trusted currency across the medieval Mediterranean. Its stability earned it a reputation as the dollar of the Middle Ages. economy / politics ●●●●