279. Battle of Ausculum.

278. Gauls raided into Asia Minor and settled in Galatia.

275. Pyrrhus left Italy.

264. First Punic War. (Asoka began to reign in Behar--to 227.) 260. Battle of Mylae.

256. Battle of Ecnomus.

246. Shi-Hw.a.n.g-ti became King of Ts'in.

220. Shi-Hw.a.n.g-ti became Emperor of China.

214. Great Wall of China begun.

210. Death of Shi-Hw.a.n.g-ti.

202. Battle of Zama.

146. Carthage destroyed.

133. Attalus bequeathed Pergamum to Rome.

102. Marius drove back Germans.

100. Triumph of Marius. (Chinese conquering the Tarim valley.) 89. All Italians became Roman citizens.

73. The revolt of the slaves under Spartacus.

71. Defeat and end of Spartacus.

66. Pompey led Roman troops to the Caspian and Euphrates. He encountered the Alani.

48. Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalos.

44. Julius Caesar a.s.sa.s.sinated.

27. Augustus Caesar princeps (until 14 A.D.).

4. True date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

A.D. Christian Era began.

14. Augustus died. Tiberius emperor.

30. Jesus of Nazareth crucified.

41. Claudius (the first emperor of the legions) made emperor by pretorian guard after murder of Caligula.

68. Suicide of Nero. (Galba, Otho, Vitellus, emperors in succession.) 69. Vespasian.

102. Pan Chau on the Caspian Sea.

117. Hadrian succeeded Trajan. Roman Empire at its greatest extent.

138. (The Indo-Scythians at this time were destroying the last traces of h.e.l.lenic rule in India.) 161. Marcus Aurelius succeeded Antoninus Pius.

164. Great plague began, and lasted to the death of M. Aurelius (180). This also devastated all Asia.

(Nearly a century of war and disorder began in the Roman Empire.) 220. End of the Han dynasty. Beginning of four hundred years of division in China.

227. Ardashir I (first Sa.s.sanid shah) put an end to Arsacid line in Persia.

242. Mani began his teaching.

247. Goths crossed Danube in a great raid.

251. Great victory of Goths. Emperor Decius killed.

260. Sapor I, the second Sa.s.sanid shah, took Antioch, captured the Emperor Valerian, and was cut up on his return from Asia {431} Minor by Odenathus of Palmyra.

277. Mani crucified in Persia.

284. Diocletian became emperor.

303. Diocletian persecuted the Christians.

311. Galerius abandoned the persecution of the Christians.

312. Constantine the Great became emperor.

323. Constantine presided over the Council of Nicaea.

337. Constantine baptized on his deathbed.

361-3. Julian the Apostate attempted to subst.i.tute Mithraism for Christianity.

392. Theodosius the Great emperor of east and west.

395. Theodosius the Great died. Honorius and Arcadius redivided the empire with Stilicho and Alaric as their masters and protectors.

410. The Visigoths under Alaric captured Rome.

425. Vandals settling in south of Spain. Huns in Pannonia, Goths in Dalmatia. Visigoths and Suevi in Portugal and North Spain.

English invading Britain.

439. Vandals took Carthage.

451. Attila raided Gaul and was defeated by Franks, Alemanni and Romans at Troyes.

453. Death of Attila.

455. Vandals sacked Rome.

470. Odoacer, king of a medley of Teutonic tribes, informed Constantinople that there was no emperor in the West. End of the Western Empire.

493. Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, conquered Italy and became King of Italy, but was nominally subject to Constantinople. (Gothic kings in Italy. Goths settled on special confiscated lands as a garrison.) 527. Justinian emperor.

529. Justinian closed the schools at Athens, which had flourished nearly a thousand years. Belisarius (Justinian's general) took Naples.

531. Chosroes I began to reign.

543. Great plague in Constantinople.

553. Goths expelled from Italy by Justinian. Justinian died. The Lombards conquered most of North Italy (leaving Ravenna and Rome Byzantine).

570. Muhammad born.

579. Chosroes I died.

(The Lombards dominant in Italy.) 590. Plague raged in Rome. Chosroes II began to reign.

610. Heraclius began to reign.

619. Chosroes II held Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, and armies on h.e.l.lespont. Tang dynasty began in China.

622. The Hegira.

627. Great Persian defeat at Nineveh by Heraclius. Tai-tsung became Emperor of China.

628. Kavadh II murdered and succeeded his father, Chosroes II.

Muhammad wrote letters to all the rulers of the earth.

629. Muhammad returned to Mecca.

632. Muhammad died. Abu Bekr Caliph.

634. Battle of the Yarmuk. Moslems took Syria. Omar second Caliph.

635. Tai-tsung received Nestorian missionaries.

637. Battle of Kadessia.

638. Jerusalem surrendered to the Caliph Omar.

642. Heraclius died.

643. Othman third Caliph.

655. Defeat of the Byzantine fleet by the Moslems.

668. The Caliph Moawija attacked Constantinople by sea.

687. Pepin of Hersthal, mayor of the palace, reunited Austrasia and Neustria.

711. Moslem army invaded Spain from Africa.

{432}

715. The domains of the Caliph Walid I extended from the Pyrenees to China.

717-18. Suleiman, son and successor of Walid, failed to take Constantinople.

732. Charles Martel defeated the Moslems near Poitiers.

751. Pepin crowned King of the French.

768. Pepin died.

771. Charlemagne sole king.

774. Charlemagne conquered Lombardy.

786. Haroun-al-Raschid Abbasid Caliph in Bagdad (to 809).

795. Leo III became Pope (to 816).

800. Leo crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the West.

802. Egbert, formerly an English refugee at the court of Charlemagne, established himself as King of Wess.e.x.

810. Krum of Bulgaria defeated and killed the Emperor Nicephorus.

814. Charlemagne died.

828. Egbert became first King of England.

843. Louis the Pious died, and the Carlovingian Empire went to pieces. Until 962 there was no regular succession of Holy Roman Emperors, though the t.i.tle appeared intermittently.