* Rome conquers Egypt & gains the Red Sea's terminus of the Spice Route
* Isidore of Charax writes Parthian Stations, a geography of trade routes
* Parthians sign a treaty of friendship with Romans, fixing their frontier
along the Euphrates (95)
* Consul Manius Aquilius Nepos mints a gold coin bearing the main stars
of Aquila, thus equating himself to the eagle on the Roman Standard (94)
* Parthian emperor, Mithradates II, captures Nepos and pours down his
throat gold melted down from his coins for Roman treaty violations
* Mithradates, Mithra's gift to mankind, sends ambassadors to Sulla as
well as Wu-ti to become a power broker between Rome and China (88)
* Parthian relatives, the Sakas, cross the Pamirs and occupy Taxila (85)
* Varahamihira, a Sakadvipa, is one of Vikramaditya's court advisors
* Sakas pressure Parthia into placing Sanatruces on the throne (77)
* A Candle Star is seen from China between Pisces & Aries that resembles
Venus & remains stationary over a city--where a riot is to be expected
[History of the Han Dynasty. 26]
* A spark is seen to fall from a star & "increase in size as it approached
the earth, and after becoming as large as the moon it diffused as sort of
cloudy daylight, and then returning to the sky changed into a torch; this
is the only record of this occurring. It was seen by proconsul Silanus"
[Pliny. cited by Lydus re: an event c. A.D. 540 "This very thing happened
recently, & foretold a danger of seditions & misfortunes beyond measure"]
* Roman campaigns against Parthia (74 & 66)
* Pompey takes over Judaea & Seleucid kingdom; only Palmyra retains its
independence & role as a great caravan centre--some of the earliest
surviving Chinese silks have been found in its ruins
* Julius Caesar elected as THE Great Pontificator (Pontifex Maximus, 63)
* Triumvirate established over Rome: Caesar, Crassus & Pompey (60)
* An angry mob of Egyptians demand & secure the death of a man posted at
the Roman embassy, because he has killed a cat--even though accidentally
(capital punishment was the traditional sentence for anyone found guilty
of killing a cat in Egypt--although priests were exempt if done ritually
& then mummifying it for Khonsu's wife Bastet, likened to Artemis. 59)
[Diodorus, Library of History. I, 83, iix; Herodotus, Histories. II]
<www.livescience.com/19631-mummified-kitten-offering.html>
* Kusana expels Sakas: from Sakala in Kasmiri, through Gandhara, and down
to Arachosia
* Vikramaditya of Ujjain establishes Vikram Samvat Era (57)
* Solar eclipse observed 530 Shaka Era in Karnataka (9 May 53)
[Kurtakoti copper plate.]
* Parthians rout Romans at Harran: 10,000 led in captivity to Margiana
province bordering Han empire to build & settle a buffer outpost;
[George Rawlinson, The Sixth Oriental Monarchy. p. 172];
34,000 legionnaires are casualties; Triumvir Crassus killed (53)
* Zodiac at Dendera's Temple to Hathor hews into stone: Gemini as Khonsu &
Bastet; Capella (their Ptah) as a mummified cat held by a priest (50)
* Romans redesign Libra to make Egypt's goddess of truth, Maat, more
prominent than the scales, unlike zodiac at Dendera
[Hyginus, De Astronomica.]
* About 10 per cent of Library of Alexandria burns when Caesar attacks
Alexandria during Roman civil war; Cleopatra has Pompey killed (48-7)
* After being elected Pontifex Maximus for a second term, Julius Caesar
changes the Roman calendar from being lunar with erratic leap months to
solar with triennial leap days, & the start of its year from March's
Calendae to January's; adopts nephew Gaius Octavius in his will (46-5)
* Caesar planning campaign against Parthia when assassinated (44)
* Chinese fully record "Caesar's comet" (misidentified as Comet Kirch after
being first comet to have its orbit calculated--incorrectly by Halley)
* Senate makes Octavian, Lepidus & Mark Antony the Second Triumvirate.(43)
* Octavian: has Senate deify Julius Caesar (1st Roman to become a god since
'consecratio', apotheosis, of Romulus as Quirinus); is thus the adopted
son of a "god descended from Mars & Venus, and saviour of all human life"
* Parthia's Pacorus and renegade Roman Quintus Labienus invade Judaea,
capture John Hyrcanus II and place his nephew, Antigonus, on the throne;
all of Asia Minor occupied by either Parthian or Roman legions (40)
* After Pacorus defeats Decidius Saxa and seizes Syria & Judaea, a Jew
prophesies that "the Messiah is to arrive when a Parthian ties his horse
to a tree outside Jerusalem"
* Ventidius Bassus kills Pacorus, retakes Syria &, with Herod, Judaea (38)
* Herod ousts Antigonus, damages Temple and starts rebuilding it (37)
* Antony defeated trying to oust Parthians from Armenia; his soldiers
loot a solid gold statue of Anahiti from a temple at Erez (36)
* Octavian defeats Antony & Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (31)
* Senate legitimises Octavian's rule by granting him as princep its
sovereign power, as well as the title 'Augustus' (27)
* Parthian ships use seasonal monsoons to cross Indian Ocean
* Ambassadors from South India sent to Rome via the Spice Route
* Parthians expatriating to Coromandel Coast finance dockyard engineering
needed to turn Arikamedu into an entrepot of the Spice Route
[The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.]
* Using quadrennial leap years, Augustus "corrects" Egyptian civil calendar
but only at Alexandria (spreading out later, even to Ethiopian Church
using Abyssinian Era, and to Copts using Diocletian Era of Martyrs) (25)
* After Tiberius leads another legion into Armenia, a compromise is reached
for its neutrality and for Parthia's return of Roman Standards captured
from Crassus at Harran, Saxa in Syria, and Antony in Armenia (20)
* Augustus assumes Lepidus' title of Pontifex Maximus upon his death
* Augustus decrees that every man should be enrolled in his hometown
[The Gospel of the Infancy.]
* The Messiah, Joshua, born in Judaea to a Levite, Mary, as his (surrogate)
mother, and to a building contractor for the Romans, Joseph, as his
(legal) father who descend from King David; receives investiture from
Aethiopian/Parthian/Saka Magoi/Sophoi arriving by caravan from the East
[Gospel of the Infancy. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews; XVIII, ix, 1]
later tells the way of salvation from the Jews given over to Hellenism:
bewaring the leaven of the Pharisees, following the Acceptable Year of
the Lord, being born again (into a transcendent soul); Jews/Samaritans
will worship the Father in neither of their holy mountains (so saving
animals too--even black cats, as Joshua's way will eventually save them
from being sacrificed by Druid preists) [Apostles; Messianic exegesis]
* Augustus terminates leap years from Julian calendar temporarily (9)
* Pharisees introduce the use of the lunar calendar as a replacement for
the traditional one to determine the liturgical year: some enlist the
Essenes' aid in trying to harmonise it with Enoch's 364-day calendar
[Hillel, Talmud. b.Pes 33a; Manns, Pour lire la mishna. Thiering]
* Death of Herod the Great divides his kingdom between three sons (4)
* Buddhist texts & images brought to Han court in China from Kusana (2)
* Epoch of the Era of Pisa--Thursday 25 March (1)
