Events, Verisoph

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. ●●

165 Antonine Plague wikidata 0 cit. no story pandemic ●●●

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 ●●●

211 Roman Empire reaches its territorial apex ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Roman Empire reached its high point in geographic scope around 211 AD, with deployment of three hundred thousand legions making it a lethal imperial force. ●●

c. 220 to c. 280 Wars of the Three Kingdoms Period 0 cit. no story The rival states of Wei, Shu, and Wu fight for control of China after the fall of the Han dynasty. The era's wars and famines cause one of history's largest population collapses before Jin reunifies the country. politics / 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 ●●●●●

220 Han Empire divides into three realms ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Han Empire collapsed and was divided in 220 A.D. into three independent realms, destroying the monopolistic character of imperial power. ●●

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 ●●●●

249 to 262 Plague of Cyprian wikidata 0 cit. no story pandemic in the Roman Empire (249-262 CE) ●●●

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. 270 The destruction of the Library of Alexandria contested 0 cit. no story The great library declined and was damaged across several events, not one dramatic fire: Caesar’s war in 48 BCE, later imperial turmoil, and the destruction of the Serapeum in 391 CE. The single catastrophic burning is largely a later legend; the real loss was gradual. ●●

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 ●●

c. 3 September 301 Founding of San Marino legendary 0 cit. no story By tradition, the stonemason Marinus founds a monastic community on Mount Titano in 301 CE, the origin of the world's oldest surviving republic. politics / religion ●●

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 ●●●●

28 October 312 Praetorian Guard disbanded 0 cit. After backing his rival Maxentius, who died at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Emperor Constantine I dissolved the Praetorian Guard and demolished its barracks, the Castra Praetoria. The guard had a long history of assassinating and installing emperors, and Constantine wanted no rival power base in the capital. Its role was replaced by new imperial escort units loyal directly to him. politics / war ●●

c. February 313 Edict of Milan 0 cit. Constantine and Licinius agree to tolerate Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, ending official persecution. Christianity moves from outlawed sect toward imperial religion, binding church and European power for over a millennium. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 320 Founding of the Gupta Empire 0 cit. Chandragupta I founded the Gupta dynasty in northern India. The Gupta era is often called a golden age of Indian science, mathematics, and art. politics / science ●●●●

20 May 325 First Council of Nicaea 0 cit. Constantine convenes the first ecumenical council; it produces the Nicene Creed and the first church-wide definition of orthodox Christian doctrine, condemning Arianism. religion ●●●●

325 Council of Nicaea fixes Christian dogma, 325 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At the first Church Council, held at Nicaea in 325, the orthodox Christian position was enacted into the formal dogma of the Church. ●●

325 Councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley traces the Western outlook of Inclusive Diversity, the answer of Both, to early Church councils, established as early as Nicaea in 325 and Chalcedon in 451. ●●

325 The Council of Nicaea fixes the date of Easter 0 cit. The Council of Nicaea sets Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox, a lunar-solar reckoning that makes it a movable feast to this day. The date of the central Christian festival was fixed by astronomy, not scripture. religion / science ●●●●

c. 325 Lent becomes the forty-day fast 0 cit. In the fourth century the church formalizes Lent, a forty-day season of fasting and penance before Easter, echoing Jesus's forty days in the wilderness. The forbidding of eggs and rich food during Lent is one reason eggs became a feast food at Easter's end. culture / religion ●●●

c. 330 Founding of the Byzantine Empire 0 cit. Constantine the Great dedicated Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman East. The eastern empire endured for over a thousand years after Rome fell. politics ●●●●●

11 May 330 Constantine refounds Byzantium as Constantinople 0 cit. Constantine the Great dedicated the old Greek town of Byzantium as his new capital, a Christian 'New Rome' guarding the straits between Europe and Asia. Its position on the Bosphorus, ringed by walls and water, would let the city outlast the western empire by nearly a thousand years. The choice tied the empire's future to Christianity and to the Greek east. politics / religion ●●●

c. 330 King Ezana converts Aksum to Christianity 0 cit. King Ezana adopted Christianity in the mid-fourth century, most likely through Frumentius, a Syrian brought to the court who later became the first bishop of Aksum. This made Aksum one of the earliest states anywhere to embrace the faith, close behind Armenia and around the same time as the Roman Empire. Ezana's later coins replaced the old crescent-and-disc symbols with the cross, marking the change in the state religion. politics / religion ●●●

c. 336 Saturnalia's midwinter customs feed into Christmas 0 cit. The Roman festival of Saturnalia brought feasting, gift-giving, and a loosening of rules in late December, and some of its spirit carried into Christmas. The church set the Nativity in the same season of older winter festivals. culture / religion ●●●

c. 336 Christmas is placed on December 25, the date of the sun's rebirth 0 cit. December 25 was celebrated as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun near the winter solstice, and Christian Rome fixed the birth of Christ on the same day. Scholars still debate how far the sun festival shaped the choice. culture / religion ●●●

c. 350 Kingdom of Kush at Meroe Collapses 0 cit. Around 350 CE the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, centered on Meroe, declined and was raided by the Kingdom of Aksum. The long-lived African state faded, and its capital was largely abandoned. politics / war ●●

c. 350 The great stelae of Aksum are raised 0 cit. Aksum's kings marked royal graves with towering carved granite obelisks, the largest single pieces of stone ever quarried and raised as monuments in the ancient world. The tallest that once stood reached over 30 metres before it fell and broke. One great stele looted by Italy in 1937 stood in Rome for decades and was finally returned to Ethiopia in 2005. culture / religion / technology ●●

361 Agathocles seizes Syracuse by massacre ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Agathocles rose from son of a potter to become Praetor of Syracuse, then orchestrated a massacre of the senate to seize the kingdom through force. ●●

376 to 382 Gothic War of 376-382 0 cit. no story Goths fleeing the Huns revolt inside the Roman Empire and destroy an imperial army at Adrianople, killing Emperor Valens. The settlement that follows plants armed Gothic peoples permanently inside Roman territory. war ●●●

27 February 380 Christianity becomes Rome's state religion 0 cit. Emperor Theodosius I issues the Edict of Thessalonica, making Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Other Christian sects and pagan cults lose imperial favor. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 380 Religion and ideology 0 cit. Organized belief as a structure of authority. Faith, doctrine, moral systems, and ideological programs command loyalty, legitimize rulers, and help define the boundaries of acceptable thought and conduct. pillar / religion ●●●●●

c. 380 'Pagan' becomes the name for the old religions 0 cit. As Christianity spreads, Christians borrow the Latin word paganus, a country-dweller or civilian, as a dismissive label for followers of the old gods. 'Pagan' was never a religion anyone chose to belong to; it was an outsider's name for everyone else. culture / religion ●●●

May 381 First Council of Constantinople 0 cit. The second ecumenical council expands the Nicene Creed, affirming the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The revised creed is still recited in most Christian churches. religion ●●●

387 Armenia divided between Rome and Persia 0 cit. Rome and Sassanid Persia partition the Armenian kingdom between them, ending its independence. Most of Armenia falls under Persian control, with a smaller western portion under Rome. Caught between two great powers, Armenians would spend much of the next fifteen centuries divided along a shifting eastern-western line. diplomacy / politics ●●

391 The Serapeum of Alexandria is destroyed 0 cit. A Christian crowd destroys the Serapeum, the great temple of the god Serapis and one of the wonders of the ancient world. It became a symbol of the violent end of organized paganism in the Roman world. religion / war ●●●

392 Theodosius outlaws pagan worship 0 cit. The emperor Theodosius bans public and private pagan sacrifice and makes Christianity the sole religion of the Roman state. The old cults were driven underground after a thousand years of open worship. politics / religion ●●●●

395 Theodosius splits the empire between his sons 0 cit. On the death of Theodosius I the empire passed to his two sons, Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west, and the halves never again shared a single ruler. Contemporaries saw it as one more division of power, but the split proved permanent. The east, richer and more urban, would survive the shocks that broke the west. politics ●●

399 Faxian's pilgrimage to India 0 cit. The monk Faxian traveled overland to India from 399 to seek Buddhist scriptures. His written account is a valuable record of Buddhist Asia. exploration / religion ●●●

c. 400 Jerusalem Talmud compiled 0 cit. Rabbis in the Galilee complete the Jerusalem Talmud, a commentary on the Mishnah. Though later overshadowed by the Babylonian Talmud, it preserves the legal tradition of the Land of Israel. culture / religion ●●