| 386 BC: | Gauls sack Rome; the citadel is saved by the sacred geese. |
| 52 BC: | Caesar defeats the Gaul’s forces assembled by Vercingetorix at Alesia (St. Remis). (Vercingetorix surrenders; is put to death in 46 BC as part of Caesar’s triumph.) |
| AD 9: | Germanic chief Arminius (Hermann) destroyed the 3 Roman legions of Quintilius Varus in Teutoburg Forest. (On receiving the news, the emperor Augustus was raging through the palace: “Varus, give me back my legions!”) |
| AD 61: | British queen Boudicca organized a revolt against Rome and had 70,000 Romans killed before finally losing her close battle. She and her two daughters took their lives. |
| AD 212: | Emperor Caracalla extends the Roman citizenship upon all free inhabitants of the Roman empire. |
| AD 272: | Emperor Aurelianus - for the first time in Roman history! - surrendered some provincial territory back to Dacia, barbaric country between Danube and Carpatian Mountains. (Home of the count Dracula?) |
| AD 410: | Alaric, Christian Visigoth king, sacks Rome. |
| AD 476: | Odoacer, German chieftain, deposes the last West Roman emperor, 3 years old Romulus Augustulus, and proclaims himself the king of Italy. (He formally recognizes the supremacy of the Constantinople emperor.) |
JUDEA, GREECE, AND ROME
| BC:
1050 |
David seizes Jerusalem from Canaan tribe Jebusites. |
| ~950 | Solomon, son of David, builds the First Temple. |
| 587 | Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar burns Jerusalem, razes the First Temple and deports Jews to Babylonian Captivity. |
| 538 | Persian king Cyrus conquers Mesopotamia and orders restoration of Jerusalem temple. Judea - part of the Persian empire. |
| ~323 | With the conquest of the East by Alexander the Great, Judea becomes a part of the multi-cultural empire under the Hellenistic monarchy of Seleucids. |
| ~250 | Jewish culture in Alexandria; the Septuagint Bible
(=Translation of the 70). |
| ~170 | Hellenization of Judea; proposed (and welcomed in the reform circles) construction of gymnasium, consecration of the Temple to Baal Shamin (=Lord of Heavens; ~Olympian Zeus), and the change of the name Jerusalem to Antioch, provokes the revolt of Maccabees (the Hanukkah story). |
| 161 | Rome recognizes the Jewish theocracy as an ally against Hellenistic
powers. Authority of the Temple restituted.
63 Pompey conquers East and captures Jerusalem Temple.Judea becomes a Roman prefecture. |
| AD:
~33 |
Jesus crucified in Jerusalem under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. |
| 46 | End of Jewish dynasty; the emperor Claudius annexes Judea as Roman province. |
| 64 | Nero persecutes the Christian sect in Rome. |
| 70 | Jewish revolt is suppresed by Vespasian Flavius; his son Titus razes Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Siege of Masada (73). |
| 115 | Jewish revolt suppressed by the emperor Trajan. |
| 135 | Emperor Aelius Hadrian decides to build in Jerusalem the temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, and rename the city as Aelia Capitolina. This triggers the revolt of Shimon Bar Kohba. Jerusalem razed; population deported; Judea renamed into Syria Palestina. Diaspora. |
| 303 | Persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian. |
| 313 | Emperor Constantine recognizes Christianity. The name and religious authority of Jerusalem restored. |
| 1948 | United Nations restore the State of Israel as Jewish homeland. |
CAESAR, CICERO, CATULLUS: 3 CHARACTERS OF THE TIME
|
100-44 BC |
106-43 BC |
84-54 BC |
|
| 84 | Dictator Sulla wants young Caesar to divorce Cornelia, daughter of his opponent Cinna. Caesar refuses and has to hide from proscriptions. | Studies in Rhodes under Apollonius Molo. | Born in Verona (from where comes the single surviving manuscript of his poems) to the family of a good friend of Julius Caesar. |
| 80 | Sailing to Rhodes for studying under Apollonius Molo, is captured by pirates; amuses them by threats to kill them all; after paying ransom, hires a ship and seizes them. | Extensively studies at Rome and Greece. Begins his career of a court speaker. Driven by self-assertion of homo novus, pursues the public career in alliance with optimates – aristocratic party. | |
| 63 | Profligate and liberal politician of populistic
trend. Spends lavishly; gets in enormous debt.
Tries to save the Catilinarian conspirators from execution. |
Consul; crushes the Catilinarian conspiracy.
Craves and attains the title: pater patriae (Father of the Land). |
|
| 62 | Clodius Pulcher (brother of Clodia Pulchra, love-lady
of Catullus), sneaks in woman’s clothes to Caesar’s wife on the day of
women-only rites of Bona Dea.
No hard feelings, yet the divorce follows: “Caesar’s wife - above suspicions”. |
Prosecutes Clodius Pulcher for impiety and breaking
into Caesar’s house women’s festival. (Infuriates Clodius and, perhaps,
annoys Caesar.)
Later, Clodius Pulcher incriminates to Cicero putting Roman citizens to death without a trial while suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy; Cicero flees to the East. |
Comes to Rome; to his father’s dismay, spends time in literary circles rather than public offices. Writes poetry in Alexandrian style, with the zest and temper of the old iamboi, attacking Caesar with invective verses. (Caesar does not seem to mind.) |
| 60 | First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, Crassus). To seal the deal, Caesar marries his daughter Julia to Pompey. | Falls in love with a gifted socialite lady Clodia Pulchra (= Lesbia of his poems), the wife of Caecilius Metellus and sister of Clodius Pulcher. | |
| 59 | Proconsul of Gallia; starts the Gallic War.
Clodius Pulcher, still Caesar’s ally, gets formally adopted by a plebeian family in order to become People’s Tribune. |
Goes to the Eastern province of Bithynia for
lucrative service; visits brother’s grave near Troy; returns as poor as
he left.
|
|
| 56 | Cicero mars the social image of Clodia Pulchra (Lesbia of Catullus’ poems) in the course of legal defence of her ex-lover Caelius Rufus from the charges she now presses against him. (Cicero calls her “Palatine Medea”) | Bitterly disillusioned in his love for Lesbia, still is consumed with passion. | |
| 54 | Caesar’s daughter Julia, married to Pompey, dies
in childbirth. (Thus ends the alliance with Pompey.)
Senate grows suspicious of Caesar’s advances in Gaul. |
Catullus dies of a pulmonary disease? | |
| 52 | Caesar crushes the Gallic forces of Vercingetorix in Alesia. The young chieftain surrenders, - to be taken to Rome and later die in Caesar’s triumph. | Cicero defends Milo on the charges of Clodius’ murder. (Unprecedented political scandal! One People’s Tribune killed another!!) - The rival gangs of the tribunes - Clodius and Milo - met on the road near Bovillae and got into fight (Cicero called it “the battle of Bovillae”). Clodius is killed; people outraged; Pompey assumes dictatorship - to restore the public order, but has overestimated his popularity. | |
| 49 | Senate orders Caesar to disband his army and report
to Rome.Tribune Mark Antony joins Caesar, who crosses the Rubicon: "The
lot is cast!" Civil War begins.
Pompey's army is defeated; Pompey flees to Egypt and is killed as he stepped ashore. His head is presented to Caesar, who appropriately weeps and punishes the murderers. |
Pompey gathers forces in Greece; Cicero joins him.
After Pompey's defeat, Caesar greets Cicero back to Italy and allows him to return to Rome. |
|
| 47 | In Egypt Caesar is enamoured with the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra, who bears his son. | Cicero (in a mid-life crisis?) divorces terentia, his wife of thirty years, and marries a young girl publilia; the new marriage quickly falls apart. | |
| 46 | After triumphal return, Caesar usurps all power. He craves and attains the honor of the laurel crown worn permanently (handy to cover the receding hairline, his troubling concern). Delighted Caesar pardons all the past enemies. | ||
| 45 | Beloved and learned daughter of Cicero, Tullia, dies. (He is heart-broken, and writes the Consolation to himself.) | ||
| 44 | Despite the premonitions of his wife Calpurnia and
other warnings, Caesar walks to the Capitol on the Ides of March.
The group of conspirators who murdered him included his close froends - such as Brutus. Caesar fell at the feet of Pompey’s sculpture. |
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| 43 | Back to political stage on the wrong side, Cicero incurs the hatred of Mark Antony, one of the new triumvirs. Running from proscriptions, he is caught and killed on the road; his head and hands are nailed to the rostra at Forum, where he so often spoke. |
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