100-1 B.C. - Rome Sails for Britain & End of the Intertestmental Period

Introduction

A note on the above photo.

Listen to the era here.

 

100 B.C.

Eyes of Rome turn toward Britain as a source of wealth and trade (Foundations, by Peter Ackroyd, pg. 22)

The Isaiah Scroll, a complete copy of the book of Isaiah, is copied by the Qumran community (100-75 B.C.)

 

75 B.C. 

In Korea, the Goguryeo, a federation of warrior tribes, are living just north of the Yalu River, skilled horsemen and archers, they were culturally related to the nomads of the great Eurasian steppe, from whom they may be descended, they first appear in Chinese records around this year as a group engaged in peaceful trade, however, from the first century AD, they began to gradually move south, raiding northern Korea and stirring up trouble for the Chinese in the process

 

64 B.C.

Strabo, a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire, is born in Amaseia, Pontus, (modern-day Amasya, Turkey), “What the Britons thought about themselves, and their place in the wider world, is a matter of speculation. It is clear, though, that just as Britain was becoming a reality for Rome in the first century B.C., so was Rome looming larger for the Britons. There were trade links: luxury goods from the Roman world began increasingly to be placed in the graves of the British elite; there are finds of glass vessels, of fig pipes, of amphorae once filled with Mediterranean wine. According to Strabo, Britain was an exporter: of hides, hunting dogs and slaves.” (UAS 10)

 

60 B.C.

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian and the author of a universal history called the Library, travels to Egypt between 60-57, his Library consisted of 40 books, 15 of which survive (EB) “and they [the books of the Library] include a description of Britain, in his Greek rendering Pretennia – the first surviving use of the word. Tantalizingly, he promises to return to the subject of Britain in more detail when he comes to describe the actions of Caesar, but that part of the book is lost.” (UAS 9)

 

55 B.C. 

Julius Caesar invades Britain for the first time, it does not go well

        

50 B.C.

Julius Ceasar records the existence of Druids in Britain, he records that the high priests of England, the Druids, adverts to the practice of human sacrifice, he says they create wicker-work which ‘they fill with living men and, setting them on fire, the men are destroyed by the flames,’ in his account the Druids priests are the lawmakers of the land who determine rewards and punishments, they settle disputes over boundaries and over property (Foundation 21)

The Roman writer Pliny (around this time?) records that the Druids ‘esteem nothing more sacred that the mistletoe’ and that the high priests ‘select groves of oak, and use the leaves of the mistletoe in all sacred rites,’ the sacrificial victim was tied to the trunk of the oak tree, and his priestly killers wore chaplets of oak leaves, the Druids practiced divination, magic and astrology, they believed in the immortality of the soul that passes through various incarnations, they worshipped the sun and moon also (Foundation 21)

         (https://druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/a-longer-history )

53   – Battle of Carrhae takes place (between Parthians and Romans), Crassus is captured

and executed by the Parthians (ancient.eu)

47   – Herod the Great begins his career as military governor over Galilee

46   – Octavius (later Ceasar Augustus) accompanies Julius Ceasar on his triumphal

procession after his victory in Africa over his opponents in the Civil War (EB)

45   – Octavius, despite his ill health, joins the dictator, Julius Ceasar in Spain (EB)

44   – Julius Ceasar is assassinated on March 15, the Ides of March, Octavius hears of his

death while completing his academic and military studies in Apollonia (now in Albania), when he travels back to Italy, he is told that Ceasar had adopted him as his son and heir, against the advice of his stepfather and others, he decided to take up this perilous inheritance and proceeded to Rome (EB)

43   – Cicero is assassinated on December 7, Formia, Italy

42   – After the civil war following Julius Caesar’s assassination, Octavian (Augustus) and

Mark Antony defeated the forces of Cassius and Brutus at a major battle near Philippi (ASB 1927)

40    – Herod the Great is appointed king of Judea by the Roman Senate

38    – Octavian (Ceasar Augustus after ____) marries Livia Drusilla and forms a significant

link with the aristocracy (EB)

– The land of present day Spain becomes a Roman province called Hispania; Hispania had already been a part of Greece, and therefore has many Greek ruins, including a 120ft. lighthouse off the coast of Galicia, “The Romans built not only highways, theaters, circuses, bridges, aqueducts, and temples; they also brought their political and juridical institutions and their concepts of social and family life,” wrote the French historian Jean Descola (IWQ 10)

37    – After suppressing a significant opposition from the aristocracy in Jerusalem,

Herod the Great officially begins his reign in Judea

29    – The first temple to the actual “godhead” of the emperor is built in Pergamum in Asia

Minor (CHIPL 43)

– Ceasar Augustus centers his administration of the province of

Africa on the site of Carthage, thereafter it became known as Colonia Julia Carthago,

and it soon grows prosperous enough to be ranked with Alexandria and Antioch; Carthage became a favorite city of the emperors, though none resided there (EB)

27    – Cesar Augustus begins his rule – Gallia Aquitania is established after the Gallic Wars

(it will later be the Duchy of Aquitaine, where Eleanor of Aquitaine is from, and will be part of the Angevin Empire)

19    – Arch of Augustus is built in Rome to commemorate victory over the Parthians

 

END OF INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD

NEW TESTEMANT BEGINS

 

Early in the year 6 B.C., Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the Temple while he is burning incense at the altar and tells him he will have a son and quotes

Malachi 4:5-6, the last prophecy given in the Old Testament:

“He will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:17

John the Baptist is born only months before Jesus

 

6      – Jesus is born in Bethlehem (now in the West Bank) because of Caesar

Augusts’ census (Luke 2:2 says  that this was “the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria” but right now we only have archaeological evidence that Publius Sulpicious Quirinius was appointed governor of Syria in A.D. 6, so either this was a different Quirinius, or it’s the same Quirinius and he had an earlier term before this one.) Jesus was most likely born in a cave that was being used as a stable (Justine Martyr in the second century identified a cave near the village as Jesus’ birthplace, there are written references of the Nativity Cave that go back to A.D. 160)

4       – Magi from the east come to visit Jesus, who is now two years old (magi were

originally a religious caste among Persians, Magi were devoted to astrology,

divination, and the interpretation of dreams, this led to the extension of

the meaning of the word, and by the first century B.C. the terms magi and

Chaldean were generally used to describe fortune tellers and the exponents

of esoteric religious cults throughout the Mediterranean world. “Magus” or

“Sorcerer” is the name given to Simon in Acts 8:9 and several others) When

the Magi (could have been two, or could have been more than three) visited

Herod the Great, the king became fearful that armies from the east would

join together and depose him. Herod the Great had usurped power by

aligning himself with Rome and was not the true heir to the throne)

Herod the Great dies that same year, and his son Archelaus begins his rule in

Judea, but is unusually cruel and tyrannical and is eventually deposed 10

years later—he is the reason Joseph and Mary settle in Nazareth in the

district of Galilee, the gold, incense and myrrh were the most valuable,

transportable and marketable items of the day, and was perfect for

sustaining Mary and Joseph in Egypt, Seneca the Younger is born (stoic

philosopher, dramatist, and statesman)  

– [FIRE BELT EPOCH:]

3      – The Han Dynasty rules in China – Augustus is Ceasar of Rome –

                        – Jesus turns one year old

2      – The Han Dynasty rules in China – Augustus is Ceasar of Rome –

                        – Jesus turns two years old

1      – The Han Dynasty rules in China – Augustus is Ceasar of Rome –

– Jesus turns three years old