The Aesti (also Aestii or Aests) are an ancient (most probably Baltic) people first described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise Germania (circa 98 CE).

Aestui, the land of the Aesti, according to Tacitus was located somewhere east of the Suiones (Swedes) and west of the Sitones (possibly the Kvens), on the Suebian (Baltic) Sea.

This and other evidence suggests that Aestui was in a region around the later East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast).

Geographical and linguistic evidence suggests that the Aesti were, ethnologically, a Baltic people and possibly synonymous with the Brus/Prūsa or Old Prussians (i.e., not a Germanic people such as the modern Prussians or a Finno-Ugric people, such as the Estonians).

Tacitus almost certainly erred in implying that the Aesti were a hybrid Celtic-Germanic culture: he claimed that while the "Aestian nations" followed the "same customs and attire" as "the Suebians" (at the time a collective term for eastern Germanic peoples), their speech resembled that of the Britons (i.e., a Celtic language rather than the Germanic languages of the Suebii).

The placement of the Tacitean Aestii is based primarily on their association with amber, a popular luxury item during the life of Tacitus, with known sources at the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

The ancient writers, beginning with Tacitus, who is the first Roman author to mention the Aesti in his Germania, provide very little information on them.

Although Tacitus has never traveled to Magna Germania himself and only records information he had obtained from others, the short ethnographic excursus below is the most detailed ancient account of the Aestii that we have:

Upon the right of the Suebian Sea the Aestian nations reside, who use the same customs and attire with the Suebians; their language more resembles that of Britain.

They worship the Mother of the Gods.

As the characteristic of their national superstition, they wear the images of wild boars.

This alone serves them for arms, this is the safeguard of all, and by this every worshiper of the Goddess is secured even amidst his foes.

Rare among them is the use of weapons of iron, but frequent that of clubs.

In producing of grain and the other fruits of the earth, they labor with more assiduity and patience than is suitable to the usual laziness of Germans.

Nay, they even search the deep, and of all the rest are the only people who gather amber.

They call it glesum, and find it among the shallows and upon the very shore.

But, according to the ordinary incuriosity and ignorance of Barbarians, they have neither learned, nor do they inquire, what is its nature, or from what cause it is produced.

In truth it lay long neglected among the other gross discharges of the sea; till from our luxury, it gained a name and value.

To themselves it is of no use: they gather it rough, they expose it in pieces coarse and unpolished, and for it receive a price with wonder. (Germania, chapter XLV).

Tacitus' mention of a cult of the mother of the gods among the Aesti along the eastern Baltic coast does apply to the ancient Estonian and Baltic pagan religions.

He also refers to the Fenni living next to the Aesti—the Fenni being ancestors to the Finns or the Sámi would situate them closest to the Estonians.

Ultimately, Tacitus' use of Aesti could apply equally well to either a specific people or to a grouping of ethnically diverse peoples across a wider area.

Nerva, whose public works are few because his reign is brief, instead completes projects that had been initiated under Flavian rule.

This include extensive repairs to the Roman road system and the expansion of the aqueducts.

The latter program is headed by the former consul Sextus Julius Frontinus, who helps to put an end to abuses.

Frontinus, water commissioner of Rome in 97 and consul in 98, describes, in his treatise De aquis urbis Romae (”Concerning the Waters of the City of Rome”), the city's aqueducts, enumerates the technical and administrative staff responsible for them, and discusses problems of maintenance.

Emperor He had in 96 created as empress one of his favorites, Consort Yin—who comes from the noble lineage of a brother of Emperor Guangwu's wife, Empress Yin Lihua.

She is described as beautiful but short and clumsy, and also jealous.

In particular, she becomes jealous of another of Emperor He's favorites, Consort Deng Sui, who also comes from a noble lineage, as the granddaughter of Emperor Guangwu's prime minister Deng Yu.

Consort Deng is said to have tried to alleviate this situation by acting with humility before Empress Yin, but this further draws her wrath.

Once, when Emperor He was ill, Empress Yin made the remark that if she became empress dowager, the Dengs would be slaughtered—and upon hearing that remark, Consort Deng considers committing suicide, and one of her ladies in waiting saves her by falsely telling her that the emperor had recovered.

However, the emperor did soon recover, and thus Consort Deng and her family escaped a terrible fate.

The Romans are compelled to pay large sums in tribute to the Dacians for maintaining peace, as German revolts along the Rhine are requiring augmented military force in Moesia.

This humiliating situation lasts until Trajan becomes Emperor in 98.

Immediately, he begins preparations for wars that will result in the expansion of the Roman Empire to its maximum extent.

Cappadocia had been established in CE 17 as an imperial province, meaning that its governor (legatus Augusti) is directly appointed by the emperor.

As the Empire's northeasternmost province, it retains a permanent military garrison of two legions and several Auxiliary troops.

At the end of the first century under Emperor Trajan, the province also incorporates the regions of Pontus and Armenia Minor.

Jewish authorities in Iudaea by the end of the first century CE have adopted policies aimed at sharply differentiating Christians from Jews.

Few details are known about the life of Clement, said to have been an early bishop of Rome.

According to Tertullian, Clement was consecrated by Saint Peter, and he is known to have been a leading member of the church in Rome in the late first century.

Early church lists place him as the second or third bishop of Rome after Saint Peter.

The Liber Pontificalis presents a list that makes Pope Linus the second in the line of bishops of Rome, with Peter as first; but at the same time it states that Peter ordained two bishops, Linus and Pope Cletus, for the priestly service of the community, devoting himself instead to prayer and preaching, and that it was to Clement that he entrusted the Church as a whole, appointing him as his successor.

Tertullian too makes Clement the immediate successor of Peter.

And while in one of his works Jerome gives Clement as "the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter" (not in the sense of fourth successor of Peter, but fourth in a series that included Peter), he adds that "most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle".

Clement is put after Linus and Cletus/Anacletus in the earliest account from around 180, that of Irenaeus, who is followed by Eusebius of Caesarea.

The meaning of these early reports is unclear, given the lack of evidence for monarchical episcopacy in Rome at so early a date.

Clement's only genuine extant writing is his letter to the church at Corinth (1 Clement), in response to a dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian church had been deposed.

He asserted the authority of the presbyters as rulers of the church, on the grounds that the Apostles had appointed such.

It was read in church, along with other epistles, some of which later became Christian canon; and is one of the oldest extant Christian documents outside the New Testament.

This important work is the first to affirm the apostolic authority of the clergy.

A second epistle, 2 Clement, was attributed to Clement although recent scholarship suggests it to be a homily by another author.

In the case of the first epistle the scholarly consensus is overwhelmingly in favor of its authenticity, whereas by contrast it is widely accepted that the second epistle is not to be attributed to Clement.

Many scholars believe 1 Clement was written around the same time as the Book of Revelation, around 95-97 CE.

Neither 1 nor 2 Clement is accepted in the canonical New Testament, but they are part of the Apostolic Fathers collection.

The First Epistle of Clement, (literally, Clement to Corinth; Greek, Klēmentos pros Korinthious) is a letter addressed to the Christians in the city of Corinth.

Dating from the late first or early second century, the letter ranks with the anonymous Didache as one of the earliest—if not the earliest—of extant Christian documents outside the canonical New Testament.

The First Epistle does not contain Clement's name, instead being addressed by "the Church of God which sojourneth in Rome to the Church of God which sojourneth in Corinth."

The traditional date for Clement's epistle, which has been elicited by the Epistle to the Hebrews' call for leadership from the church in Rome and is permeated with the earlier letter's influence, is at the end of the reign of Domitian, or c. 96 CE, by taking the phrase "sudden and repeated misfortunes and hindrances which have befallen us" for a reference to persecutions under Domitian.

An indication of the date comes from the fact that the church at Rome is called "ancient" and that the presbyters installed by the apostles have died (44:2), and a second ecclesiastical generation has also passed on (44:3).

The letter was occasioned by a dispute in Corinth, which had led to the removal from office of several presbyters.

Since none of the presbyters were charged with moral offenses, Clement charged that their removal was high-handed and unjustifiable.

The letter is extremely lengthy—it is twice as long as the Epistle to the Hebrews—and includes several references, as Scripture, to the Old Testament, of which the author demonstrates a knowledge.

The letter reveals contemporary church organization, belief, and practice and demonstrates the author’s familiarity with Greek Stoic philosophy and mythology.

Old Bering Sea Culture (100–243 CE)

Ivory Ornamentation, Maritime Mastery, and Cross-Strait Connections

The Old Bering Sea culture (OBS) emerged in the early centuries of the Common Era along the Bering Strait, its sites scattered across northwestern Alaska, the Chukotka Peninsula, and intermediary islands like St. Lawrence and the Diomedes. OBS communities thrived in an environment defined by icy seas and rich marine resources, building a way of life that foreshadowed later Thule traditions.

Their settlements were small but strategic, perched on coasts close to sea-mammal migration routes. Houses were semi-subterranean, dug into permafrost for insulation, their superstructures reinforced with driftwood and whalebone. Within these homes, families crafted some of the most distinctive artifacts of the Arctic world. OBS artisans are celebrated for their elaborately engraved ivory: harpoon heads, knife handles, and ornaments decorated with sweeping curvilinear and geometric motifs. Many of these designs suggest symbolic or spiritual significance, blending functionality with artistry.

Economically, OBS people were consummate marine hunters. Seals, walrus, and small whales formed the subsistence base, augmented by caribou, birds, and fish. Harpoon technology was advanced, with toggling heads designed to secure prey in turbulent waters. Dog traction and umiak-style boats likely expanded mobility, enabling exchange and kinship ties across the Strait.

Most significantly, the Old Bering Sea horizon demonstrates the interconnectedness of Alaska and Siberia. Similarities in house types, tools, and ornament indicate sustained cross-Strait contact. OBS thus represents not an isolated community, but a cultural zone bridging continents, one that set the foundation for the later Thule expansion eastward across the Arctic.

The second century CE is a time of rebellion in Giao Chi, Cuu Chan, and Nhat Nam, largely due to the declining quality of the Han administrators, who concentrate their energies on making their fortunes and returning north as soon as possible.

Revolts against corrupt and repressive Chinese officials are often led by the Han-Viet families.

The fall of the Han dynasty in China in 220 further strengthens the allegiance of the Han-Viet ruling elite to their new society and gives them a sense of their own independent political power.

Meanwhile, among the peasant class there is also a heightened sense of identity fostered by the spread of Buddhism by sea from India to Vietnam by the early third century.

The new religion is often adapted to blend with indigenous religions.

Buddhist temples are sometimes dedicated to the monsoon season, for example, or identified with the guardian spirit of agricultural fertility.

Although ruling-class Vietnamese tend to cling to Confucianism, various local rulers patronize the Buddhist religion, thus helping to legitimize their own rule in the eyes of the common people.

A Han-Viet ruling class owning large tracts of rice lands arises in the first and second centuries CE.

More than one hundred and twenty brick Han tombs will be excavated in northern Vietnam, indicating Han families that, rather than returning to China, had become members of their adopted society and were no longer, strictly speaking, Chinese.

Although they brought Chinese vocabulary and technical terms into their new culture, after a generation or two, they probably spoke Vietnamese.