defeats the consuls Carbo and Cinna; Metellus (consul); Sertorius
(Roman General); 78 death of Sylla; 76 Calaguris besieged by
Pompey; the inhabitants, reduced to extremity, feed on their
wives and children.
75 Bithynia bequeathed to the Romans by Nicomedes.
73 Sertorius assassinated by Perpenna and others at Osca.
73 Servile war begins; Roman slaves revolt against their masters,
under Spartacus; defeated, two years afterwards, by Pompey and
Crassus.
72 Lucullus defeats Mithridates the Great at Cabira; 69 defeats
Tigranes; captures Tigranocerta; 68 defeats Mithridates at Zela;
66 again at Nicopolis.
67 Pompey takes Coracesium; 65 dethrones Antiochus Asiaticus.
64 Pontus annexed to Rome; Death of Mithridates the Great.
63 Palestine conquered by Pompey; Cataline defeated and killed at
Pistoria.
60 First triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey and Crassus; Age of
Catullus (poet); Cicero (orator); Sallust (historian); Roscius
(actor), &c.
57 Gaul becomes a Roman province; 55 Cæsar invades Britain.
53 Crassus plunders the Temple of Venus at Hierapolis; his defeat
and death, by the Parthians, near Carrhæ.
51 Siege and capture of Pindenissus by Cicero.
50 Civil war between Cæsar and Pompey; 49 Cæsar crosses the
Rubicon; takes Ariminum; 48 defeats Pompey at Pharsalia, July
30th, death of Pompey.
47 Cæsar defeats Pharnaces at Zela; writes from thence his famous
letter of three words, “Veni, vidi, vici;” I came, I saw, I
conquered; 46 Victorious at Thapsus; Death of Cato; 45 Battle of
Munda; the last in which Cæsar commanded.
44 Cæsar killed in the Senate-house, March 15th, by Brutus,
Cassius, &c.
43 Antony defeats the Consul Pansa, and is defeated the same day
by Hirtius; Cicero murdered by order of Antony; Age of Varro
(historian and philosopher); Diodorus Siculus and Pompeius
(historians).
42 Antony and Octavius defeat Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.
37 Herod, an Idumean, placed on the Jewish throne.
31 Naval battle at Actium; Octavius defeats Antony; _Ends the
Commonwealth of Rome_.
30 Death of Antony and Cleopatra; Egypt becomes a Roman province.
28 _Roman Empire begins_.
27 Title of Augustus given to Octavius; Augustin age; Virgil,
Livy, Ovid, Propertius (poets); Horace (historian); Dionysius
Halicarnassus (antiquarian).
20 Roman standards taken from Crassus restored to Augustus, by
Phraates, king of Parthia; death of Virgil.
19 Noricum and Pannonia conquered by the Romans; Candace, queen
of Meroe, in Ethiopia, blind of an eye, invades Egypt, but is
repelled.
15 Rhætia and Vindelicia conquered by Drusus.
6 Archelaus, surnamed Herod, banished to Vienna, in Gaul.
4 JESUS CHRIST, our SAVIOUR, born four years before the vulgar
era, December 25th.
2 Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem, by order of Herod; his
death; Archelaus succeeds him.
_A.D. First year of the Christian Era, 4004 years after the
Creation._
2 Silk first introduced into Rome.
6 Procurators or governors appointed over Judea.
8 Christ, at twelve years of age, is three days in the temple.
9 Arminius or Herman, a German chief, destroys the army of Varus;
this defeat causes a great sensation at Rome; Ovid banished to
Tomi.
14 Augustus dies at Nola, after a reign of forty-five years;
succeeded by Tiberius; Age of Germanicus (Roman general).
20 Jews expelled from Italy by Tiberius; 28 Age of Strabo
(geographer).
29 John the Baptist commences preaching: 30 Baptizes our Saviour.
31 Our Saviour delivers the Sermon on the Mount.
32 Feeds the 5000: his transfiguration; John the Baptist beheaded.
33 Our Saviour’s death; First Christian Church at Jerusalem.
37 Conversion of St. Paul; Death of Tiberius; succeeded by
Caligula; 40 Caligula assassinated.
41 Seneca banished to Corsica; is recalled eight years
afterwards; Age of Pomponius Mela (geographer).
43 Expedition of Claudius into Britain; 51 Caractacus, British
king, taken as a prisoner to Rome.
52 Paul visits Athens; 54 preaches the Gospel at Ephesus; Age of
Persius (satirist); Age of Lucan the poet.
60 St. Paul arrested; 62 voyage to Rome; 63 arrives in that city.
61 Boadicea defeated by Suetonius Paulinus at Camulodunum.
68 Nero dies: Josephus (historian); Pliny (naturalist); Petronius
(poet).
69 Galba slain; Suicide of Otho; Vitellius slain.
70 Jerusalem taken and destroyed by Titus, September 8th;
Agricola’s fleet sails around Britain; Agricola promotes useful
arts among the Britons.
76 Agricola defeats Galgacus at the foot of the Grampian Hills.
79 Herculaneum, Pompeii, and other cities, overwhelmed by an
eruption of Mount Vesuvius; Death of the elder Pliny.
81 Titus dies, aged 40; Age of Martial (poet); Quintilian
(rhetorician).
96 Domitian slain; Age of Tacitus (historian); Juvenal (satirist).
103 Dacia conquered by Trajan; 106 Age of Pliny the younger;
Plutarch.
117 Death of Trajan, at Selinus, in Cilicia; succeeded by Adrian.
120 Wall built by Adrian across Britain.
139 Death of Adrian, aged 71; Antoninus (emperor); Ptolemy
(geographer).
140 Wall built by Antoninus across Britain.
169 Death of Polycarp the Martyr; Age of Galen (physician).
180 Marcus Aurelius (emperor) dies at Sirmium.
192 The Emperor Commodus slain; Pertinax succeeds him.
194 Severus defeats Niger at Issus; becomes emperor.
210 Wall built across Britain by Severus; 218 Heliogabalus
emperor.
226 Artaxerxes founds second Persian empire; Dynasty of the
Sassanides begins.
238 Maximinus killed by his own soldiers before the walls of
Aquileia. This emperor was a monster of cruelty, and of gigantic
size and strength, being eight feet high.
259 Sapor I captures the emperor Valerian, and flays him alive;
Odenatus king of Palmyra; Gallienus succeeds Valerian.
267 Odenatus dies; Zenobia, his wife, assumes the title of Queen
of the East.
270 Death of Claudius; Aurelian succeeds; regards Zenobia as
a usurper; 272 defeats her at Antioch and Emesa; 273 captures
Palmyra; takes Zenobia prisoner; puts Longinus, her secretary to
death.
275 Emperor Tacitus; 282 Emperor Probus killed, near Sirmium.
286 Age of the emperors Diocletian and Maximianus.
305 Both resign their authority to enjoy private life; the first
retires to Salona in Illyricum, and the other to Lucania.
306 Constantine the Great proclaimed emperor; 313 establishes
Christianity as the religion of the empire; 315 defeats Licinius
at Cibalis; 324 again at Adrianopolis; 328 removes the government
from Rome to Byzantium.
338 Death of Constantine; succeeded by his sons Constantinus,
Constantius and Constans.
348 Sapor defeats Constantius at Singara; 350 Constantius sole
emperor; 351 defeats Magnentius at Mursa; 353, again at Mons
Seleucus.
360 Julian the Apostate (emperor); 363 dies; next year Jovian
dies.
367 Age of Ausonius (poet); 375 Emporor Gratian.
378 Valens defeated by the Goths at Adrianopolis. This was the
most disastrous defeat experienced by the Romans since the battle
of Cannæ.
380 Age of St. Augustine, one of the fathers of the Church.
395 Theodosius, emperor, divides the Roman empire between his
sons Arcadius and Honorius, into Eastern and Western.
403 Stilicho defeated by the Goths at Pollentia.
407 The Alans, Vandals and Sueves invade Gaul and Spain.
408 Alaric takes Rome first time; 409, second time; 410, third
time; the city given up to plunder for six days; Death of Alaric;
Kingdom of Burgundy founded.
441 Age of St. Patrick; 448 Romans leave Britain; next year
Angles and Saxons land under Hengist and Horsa.
451 Attila defeated at Durocatalaunum; 452 destroys Aquileia; 453
Dies.
455 Rome captured by Genseric, king of the Vandals; Heptarchy
established in Britain.
474 Romulus Augustulus, last emperor of the west.
476 _End of the Roman Empire_.
489 Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, becomes king of Italy;
Ostrogoths invade Italy and defeat Odoacer.
496 Clovis the Great, king of France; Feudal system begins.
529 Age of Justinian; Belisarius (Roman general).
622 Mahomet, aged 53, flies from Mecca to Medina, which forms the
first year of the Hegira or Mahometan Era.
632 Death of Mahomet; Abubeker, his successor or first Caliph.
636 Saracens conquer Egypt; destroy the Alexandrian Library.
712 The Moors invade Spain; 713 conquer the Visigoths.
742 Charlemagne, son of Pepin the Short, born; 768 crowned king
of the Franks; 774 crowned king of Italy; 800 crowned emperor of
the West, by Pope Leo III; 814 Charlemagne dies. Charlemagne was
the most powerful Christian monarch of the middle ages; he was a
renowned warrior, he also encouraged learning and religion, and
collected around him the most noted scholars of his time.
827 The Heptarchy united under Egbert, king of England.
843 Kenneth Macalpine first king of Scotland.
849 Alfred, King of England, born; 872 ascends the throne; 901
dies. This monarch rescued his country from the power of the
Danes; encouraged learning and religion; enacted wise laws, and
laid the foundation of the naval power of Britain.
853 Tithes of all England granted to the church.
856 The English crown first disposed of by will.
862 Winchester burnt by the Danes.
867 The monasteries ravaged by the Danes.
886 Ships first built to secure the coasts. Learning restored at
Oxford, by Alfred the Great.
890 Brick and stone first used in building. Time calculated by
wax candles marked.
897 A plague happened which caused great desolation among the
inhabitants.
900 Athelstan created knight, and the first who enjoyed this
title in England.
937 A severe frost, which continued 120 days. The Bible
translated into the Saxon. Colebrand, the Danish giant, killed by
Guy, Earl of Warwick.
944 A storm blew down 1500 houses in London.
945 The first tuneable bells in England were this year hung in
Croyland Abbey.
946 Stealing first punished with death.
955 Edred enjoyed the honor of being the first who was styled
King of Great Britain.
960 Laws to prevent excessive drinking. Wolves’ heads made a
tribute. Eight princes rowed Edgar over the river Dee.
979 Juries instituted.
982 A fire destroyed the King’s palace and a great part of London.
991 The land-tax first levied.
999 Danegelt first levied, to bribe the Danes to leave the
kingdom.
1002 November 13, a general massacre of the Danes began at Welwin
in Hertfordshire.
1012 The priests first inhibited from marrying.
1014 Selling English children and kindred to Ireland, prohibited.
1017 Canute caused the assassins of Edmund, and the traitor Edric
who by a plot of regicide had advanced him to the throne, to be
hanged.
1040 Macbeth murders Duncan king of Scotland.
1058 Edward the Confessor began to cure the King’s evil. Godiva
relieved Coventry from some heavy taxes by riding naked through
the town.
1060 The cross of Waltham erected.
1065 The Saxon laws written in Latin.
1066 William Fitzosborne created earl of Hereford, being the
first Earl created in this kingdom.
1068 The tax of Danegelt was re-established; and the curfew-bell
ordered to be rung at eight every evening, when the people were
obliged, on pain of death, to extinguish their fire and candle.
1072 Surnames first used in England.
1075 William was reconciled with his son Robert, who had rebelled
against him. Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, was beheaded for
rebellion, and was the first English nobleman thus executed.
1076 William refused to pay homage to the see of Rome for the
possession of England, and forbade his bishops to attend the
council that Gregory had summoned. He however sent to Rome the
tribute of Peter-pence. A great earthquake in England, and a
frost from November to the end of April.
1078 William laid the foundation of London.
1079 The Norman laws and language introduced.
1085 Thirty-six parishes, containing a circuit of sixty miles
in Hampshire, were depopulated and destroyed without any
compensation to the inhabitants, in order to make New-Forest for
William’s diversion of hunting. The tyrannical laws of the Forest
were made.
1087 A dreadful famine in England. William went to France and
destroyed the country with fire and sword. He died at Rouen by a
fall from his horse, and was buried at Caen, in Normandy, in the
monastery he had himself founded, but was denied interment by the
proprietor till the fees were paid.
1088 An earthquake in London. A great scarcity this year, and
corn not ripe till the end of November. William II embarked
for Normandy, and made war against his brother Robert. William
returned to England; and Henry his brother, was forced to wander
without a residence.
1091 A tempest which destroyed 500 houses. Great part of London
consumed by fire.
1092 Malcolm, king of Scotland, killed at Alnwick, by the Earl of
Northumberland.
1094 Man and beast destroyed by a great mortality.
1095 Peter the hermit preached up a crusade to the Holy Land.
1096 The Christian princes raised 700,000 men, and began the holy
war. The first single combat for deciding disputes between the
nobility.
1097 The Voyage for the Holy War, was first undertaken. Being
a contrivance of Pope Urban, to compose the divisions of the
church, the whole Christian world being then at discord among
themselves. This war lasted almost three hundred years.
1098 Tower surrounded with a wall. Westminster Hall built. Its
dimensions are 224 feet by 74.
1099 Jerusalem taken by storm, and forty thousand Saracens put to
the sword.
1100 Godwin-Sands, the property of Earl Godwin, first overflowed
by the sea, destroying four thousand acres of land. King Henry
married the lady Maud, daughter of Margaret, late queen of Scots,
and niece to Edgar Atheling, descended from Edmund Ironside. The
use of fire and candle, after eight o’clock at night restored to
the English.
1106 King Henry subdues Normandy, takes Robert prisoner, and
orders his eyes to be put out.
1109 Three shillings levied on every hide of land, which tax
produced £824,000.
1110 Arts and sciences taught again at Cambridge.
1112 A plague in London.
1114 The Thames dry for three days.
1116 A council called of the nobility, which is supposed by some
to be the first parliament.
1122 The order of the Knights Templars founded.
1123 The first park (Woodstock) made in England.
1129 The revenue of the royal demesne altered from kind to specie.
1132 London mostly destroyed by fire.
1134 Duke Robert, having been imprisoned and blinded twenty-eight
years, ended his miserable existence. Wheat sufficient to subsist
100 men one day, sold at one shilling--a sheep 4d.
1136 The distance from Aldgate to St. Paul’s (included),
destroyed by fire in London.
1136 The Empress Maud besieged in Oxford, and made her escape
from thence on foot, being disguised in white, on a snowy night,
to Abingdon. The tax of Danegelt entirely abolished. No less than
fifteen hundred strong castles in the kingdom.
1139 The Empress Matilda lands at Arundel, and claims the crown.
Makes her natural brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, her
general.
1141 Stephen taken prisoner at the battle of Lincoln, and
confined in chains by Maud, in Gloucester gaol. Stephen released.
1148 A new Crusade undertaken.
1151 Gratian of Bologna, the monk, collects the canon laws after
twenty-four year’s labour.
1153 Agreed, between Henry and Stephen, that eleven hundred of
the castles, erected by permission of the latter, should be
abolished. Appeals were first made to the Pope, and canon laws
instituted. There was no regular mode of taxation. Contending
parties supported themselves by plundering each other’s tenants.
There were more abbeys built, than in the hundred years preceding.
1155 The castles demolished, agreeably to the treaty of 1153.
1157 The Welsh, subdued, do homage, and swear allegiance. A sect,
called Publicans, rejecting baptism and marriage, came into
England from Germany. The bishops pronounced them heretics; they
were branded in the forehead and whipped.
1174 Henry scourged for the supposed murder of Becket. The
bishops and abbots of Scotland swore fealty to England and its
church. The earls and barons of Scotland swore allegiance to
Henry and his son.
1176 London bridge begun by Peter Colmar, a priest. It was
thirty-three years in building.
1177 Glass windows in private houses first used. Debasers of coin
first severely punished. A new coinage.
1185 A total eclipse of the sun; and, at the same time, an
earthquake, which destroyed Lincoln and other churches.
1186 Near Oxford in Suffolk, was a sort of wild-man caught in
a fisherman’s net. Trial by jury established, or the verdict
of twelve men, to punish offenders with the loss of a leg or
banishment. Henry secreted his concubine (Rosamond, daughter of
Walter, lord Clifford) in a labyrinth at his palace at Woodstock,
who being discovered by his queen Eleanor, was poisoned by her,
and buried at Godstow nunnery near Oxford.
1189 The castles of Berwick and Roxburgh delivered up to William,
king of Scotland, who was, at the same time relieved from
subjection to England. Richard began, with Philip of France, his
expedition to the Holy Land. About this time were those famous
robbers and outlaws, Robin Hood, and Little John. Upon Richard’s
coronation-day, (3rd September,) was a great slaughter of the
Jews in London, who coming to offer their presents to the new
king, were set upon by the mob, to the loss of their lives and
estates; and the example of London was followed by other towns,
as Norwich, St. Edmunds-Bury, Lincoln, Stamford and Lynn.
1190 King Richard marries the Lady Berengaria, daughter to the
king of Navarre, and goes to the Holy Land, having sold some of
the crown lands to raise the money for that expedition. In which
voyage he took the Island of Sicily and Cyprus.
1191 Richard obtained a great victory over Saladin, at Jerusalem,
September 3. He soon after defeated a Turkish troop of 10,000,
who were guarding a caravan to Jerusalem. He took, on this
occasion, 3,000 loaded camels, 4,000 mules, and an inestimable
booty which he gave to his troops.
1192 Multitudes destroyed by a raging fever, which lasted five
months. Two suns appeared on Whitsunday, so resembling each
other, that astronomers could scarcely distinguish which was the
centre of our system, according to Copernicus.
1194 Richard having been absent four years, returned to England,
March 20. He made war with France, and having obtained a great
victory over the French at Gysors “Not we” says he, “but _Dieu et
mon Droit_,” i.e. God and my Right, has obtained this victory.
Ever since, the kings of England have made it their motto.
The king of Scotland carried the sword of state at the second
coronation of Richard.
1197 Robin Hood, being indisposed, and desiring to be blooded,
was purposely and treacherously bled to death. In this reign,
companies and societies were first established in London. Three
lions passant first borne in the king’s shield.
1199 Surnames first used.
1200 The king of Scotland performed public homage to John, at the
parliament held in Lincoln. Assize of bread first appointed.
1204 The Inquisition established by Pope Innocent III. The most
ancient writ of parliament directed to the bishop of Salisbury.
Five moons seen at one time in Yorkshire.
1205 A fish resembling a man taken on the coast of Suffolk, and
kept alive six months.
1207 The first annual mayor and common council of London chosen.
1208 Divine service throughout the kingdom suspended by the
Pope’s interdict.
1209 John excommunicated.
1210 Twenty Irish princes do homage to John at Dublin. The clergy
taxed to the amount of £100,000.
1211 England absolved by the Pope from its allegiance to John.
1212 Great part of London burnt down by a fire which began in
Southwark in Middlesex, and consumed the Church of St. Mary
Overy, went on to the bridge; and whilst some were quenching the
flames, the houses at the other end took fire, so that numbers
were inclosed; many were forced to leap into the Thames, whilst
others, crowding into boats that came to their relief, were the
cause of nearly 3,000 people perishing, partly by water, and
partly by fire.
1213 John resigned his dominions to the Pope, and was absolved.
In this reign, sterling money was first coined.
1216 Wheat was sold for twelve-pence a quarter, and beans and
oats for four-pence a quarter.
1222 The ward-ship of heirs and their lands was granted to king
Henry.
1226 The Pope demanded a sum annually from every cathedral church
and monastery in Christendom. This demand was refused. Thomas à
Becket’s bones were enshrined in gold and precious stones. Two
imposters executed, the one for pretending to be the Virgin Mary,
the other Mary Magdalen.
1228 The Jews obliged to pay a third part of their property to
the king.
1236 Water first conveyed to London with utility. The Pope’s
ambassador going to Oxford, was set upon by the students, and
his brother slain, himself hardly escaping; whereupon the Pope
excommunicated the University, and made all the bishops who
interceded in the University’s behalf, and the students, go
without their gowns, and barefooted from St. Paul’s church to his
house, being about a mile, before he would revoke the sentence.
1246 Titles first used.
1251 Wales entirely subdued and subjected to English laws.
1253 Fine linen first made in England.
1255 All possessing £15 per annum, obliged to be knighted, or pay
a fine. Tapestry introduced by Eleanor, wife of prince Edward.
1264 There were 700 Jews slain in London, because one of them
would have forced a Christian to have paid more than two-pence,
for the use of twenty shillings a week.
1269 About this time, Roger Bacon, a divine of Merton College in
Oxford, was imprisoned by the Pope, for preaching against the
Romish church.
1273 The Scots swear fealty to Edward, June 12.
1275 Jews obliged to wear a badge; usury restrained by the same
act of parliament, October 6.
1279 The first statute of Mortmain. 280 Jews hung for clipping
and coining.
1282 The Rolls in Chancery-lane given to the Jews. Wales reduced,
after having preserved her liberties 800 years.
1284 Edward II born at Caernarvon, and created first prince of
Wales, April 25.
1285 The abbey Church of Westminster finished, being sixty years
in building.
1286 The Jews seized, and £12,000 extorted from them by order of
the king. He likewise laid great fines upon his judges, and other
ministers, for their corruption; the sum imposed upon eleven of
them was 236,000 marks.
1289 15,000 Jews banished.
1291 Charing, Waltham, St. Albans, and Dunstable crosses erected,
where the corpse of queen Eleanor was rested on its way from
Lincoln to Westminster for interment.
1295 The Scots confederate with the French against the English.
1296 Baliol, king of Scotland, brought prisoner to London.
1298 40,000 Scots killed by the English at the battle of Falkirk.
Sir William Wallace defeated at Falkirk. Baliol released.
Spectacles invented.
1301 Parliament declared Scotland subject to England.
1302 The treasury robbed of property to the amount of £100,000.
Magnetic needle first used.
1308 Crockery ware invented.
1314 The king defeated at Bannockburn, in Scotland.
1319 Dublin University founded.
1322 Knights templar order abolished. Under the accusation of
heresy and other vices, all the knights templar were seized by
order of the king, in one day. The knights templar were an order
instituted by Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, for the defence of the
Holy City, and of the pilgrims that travelled thither, and were
afterwards dispersed through all the kingdoms in Christendom.
They were so enriched by the superstitious world, that they
possessed no less than 14,000 lordships, besides other valuable
lands.
1325 The queen and her adherents declared enemies to the kingdom.
1326 The nobility renounce all fealty to Edward. The king resigns
his crown to his son Edward III.
1327 The first general pardon granted at a coronation, which was
afterwards imitated by succeeding kings.
1330 Gunpowder invented. The use of guns by Berthold Swartz of
Cologne in Germany, a monk, who being addicted to the study
of Chemistry, and making up a preparation of Nitre, and other
things, a spark of fire fell into it and caused a quick and
violent explosion; whereupon he made a composition of powder,
and inclosing it in an instrument of brass, found it answer his
intention, and by this accident came the invention of Guns.
1331 The art of weaving cloth brought from Flanders.