The Romans now turn their focus from…

Marcus Aurelius marches eastwards with his army, accompanied by auxiliary detachments of Marcomanni, Quadi and Naristi under the command of Marcus Valerius Maximianus.

The Roman general Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria, who earlier had served under the late Emperor Lucius Verus, has by 175 virtually become a prefect of all of the eastern provinces, including control of the important province of Egypt.

In this year, Avidius Cassius takes the occasion of a rumor of Marcus Aurelius' death to proclaim himself emperor.

Marcus, very much alive, makes peace in the north with those tribes not already subjugated, and prepares to march against Avidius, who, having been accepted as Emperor by Syria, Palestine and Egypt, Cassius carries on his rebellion even after it has become obvious that Marcus is still alive.

Of the eastern provinces, only Cappadocia and Bithynia do not side with the rebels.

Cassius' fortunes decline quickly and the rebel general dies at the hands of one his own centurions after only one hundred days of power and before the campaign against him can begin.

The emperor, who apparently arrives in Antioch after the fact, uses the opportunity to make a tour of pacification and inspection in the East, first visiting Antioch, then crossing to Egypt.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius tours the eastern provinces, traveling in the company of his wife and son from Alexandria to Athens, where, like Hadrian before him, he, together with Commodus, is initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries (though that esoteric religious cult does not seem to have impinged at all upon his philosophical views).

The empress Faustina, who had been with her husband in the Danubian wars as well, dies during the journey.

Great public honors are bestowed upon her in life and in death, and in his Meditations, Marcus speaks of her with love and admiration. (The ancient sources accuse her of infidelity and disloyalty—complicity, in fact, with Avidius Cassius—but the charges are implausible.)

Marcus Aurelius manages, after a long struggle, to push back the invaders.

Numerous Germans settle in frontier regions like Dacia, Pannonia, Germany and Italy itself.

This is not a new thing, but this time the numbers of settlers require the creation of two new frontier provinces on the left shore of the Danube, Sarmatia and Marcomannia, including today's Czech Republic and Hungary.

The emperor's plans are, however, prevented by the revolt in East led by Avidius Cassius.

The emperor, after the successful suppression of Cassius' revolt, returns to Rome for the first time in nearly eight years of expensive and largely ineffective campaigns against the Marcomanni and other Danubian tribes.

Marcus Aurelius is the first emperor since Vespasian to have a son of his own and, though he himself is the fifth in the line of the so-called Five Good Emperors who had each adopted their successor, it seems to have been his firm intention that Commodus should be his heir.

Marcus Aurelius grants Commodus the rank of Imperator on November 27, 176.

The eunuchs continue their corrupt ways, and the people are burdened with increasingly heavy taxes.

As Emperor Ling grows older, not only does he take no remedial actions, he continues to tolerate, for the most part, the eunuchs' corruption.

The major defeat of the Han cavalry by the Xianbei in 177 further drains the imperial treasury.

The Hou Hanshu records a memorial submitted in 177 CE: Ever since the [northern] Xiongnu ran away, the Xianbei have become powerful and populous, taking all the lands previously held by the Xiong-nu and claiming to have 100,000 warriors.

… Refined metals and wrought iron have come into the possession of the [Xianbei] rebels.

Han deserters also seek refuge [in the lands of the Xianbei] and serve as their advisers.

Their weapons are sharper and their horses are faster than those of the Xiong-nu.

The Xianbei reach their peak under Tanshihuai Khan (reigned 156-181) who expands the vast, but short lived, Xianbei Empire.

Tanshihuai was born in 141.

According to the Hou Hanshu, his father Touluhou had been serving in the Southern Xiongnu army for three years.

Returning from his military duties, Touluhou was furious to discover that his wife had become pregnant and given birth to a son.

He ordered the child put to death.

His wife replied: “When I was walking through the open steppe a huge storm developed with much lightning and thunder. As I was looking upward a piece of hail fell into my mouth, which I unknowingly swallowed. I soon found out I had gotten pregnant. After ten months this son was born. This must be a child of wonder. It is better to wait and see what happens.”

Touluhou did not heed her words, however, so Tanshihuai had been brought up secretly in the ger (yurt) of relatives.

When Tanshihuai was around fourteen or fifteen years old, he had become brave and sturdy, showing talent and ability.

Once, when people from another tribe robbed his maternal grandparent’s herds, Tanshihuai pursued them alone, fought the robbers and managed to retrieve all the lost herds.

His fame spread rapidly among the Xianbei tribes and many came to respect and trust him.

He then placed some laws and regulations in force, which none dared violate, and decided between litigants.

Because of this, he was elected supreme leader of the Xianbei tribes at the age of fifteen and established his ordo (palace) at Mount Darkhan.

He has defeated the Dingling to the north (around Lake Baikal), the Kingdom of Buyeo to the east (north of Korea), and the Wusun to the west (Xinjiang and Ili River).

His empire stretches seven thousand kilometers and includes all the lands of the former Xiongnu.

Tanshihuai according to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, regarded as the official and authoritative historical text on the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history covering the years 184-280 CE, divided his territory into three sections: the eastern, the middle and the western.

Uneasiness at the Han court about this development of a new power on the steppes finally results in a campaign on the northern border to annihilate the confederacy.

Tthirty thousand Han cavalry in 177 attack the confederacy.

The Han commanders are Xia Yu, Tian Yan, and Zang Min, each of whom had commanded units sent respectively against the Wuhuan, the Qiang, and the Southern Xiongnu before the current campaign.

Each military officer commands ten thousand cavalrymen and advances north on three different routes, aiming at each of the three federations.

Xianbei cavalry units commanded by chieftains of each of the three federations almost annihilate the invading forces.

Eighty percent of the troops are killed and the three officers, who bring only tens of men safely back from the front, are stripped of their commands.

The Quadi again rebel,soon followed by their neighbors, the Marcomanni, and Marcus Aurelius once again heads north in 177 to begin his second Germanic campaign (secunda expeditio germanica).

Celsus criticizes the Christian belief in Jesus as the incarnation of God and attacks Christianity as a threat to the state in The True Word, or The True Discourse (now lost; known through the reply made in the third century by Origen in his Contra Celsum) written around 177. (Origen will consider it a fabricated story.)

He writes at a time when Christianity is being actively persecuted and when there seems to have been more than one emperor.

Celsus writes that Jesus's father was a Roman soldier named Panthera.

Celsus seems to have been interested in Ancient Egyptian religion, and he seems to know of Jewish logos-theology, both of which suggest The True Word was composed in Alexandria.

Celsus shows himself familiar with the story of Jewish origins.

Origen will write in 248, bringing to light again a book written in the days of Marcus Aurelius but still in circulation.

Sometimes quoting, sometimes paraphrasing, sometimes merely referring, Origen will reproduce and reply to Celsus' arguments.

Since accuracy is essential to his refutation of The True Word, most scholars agree that Origen is a reliable source for what Celsus said.

Celcus, conceding that Christians are not without success in business (infructuosi in negotiis), wants them to be good citizens, to retain their own belief but conform to the state religion.

It is an earnest and striking appeal on behalf of the Empire, and shows the terms offered to the Christian sects, as well as the importance of the various sects at the time.

It is not known how many are Christians at the time of Celsus but, as a comparison, the estimation of Wilken of the Jewish population of the empire to have been about ten percent may be quoted. (Robert Louis Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, [Yale: University Press, 2nd edition, 2003])

The Christians are certainly fewer.

It is unlikely their influence throughout CE 100-400 was greater than what the physical evidence reveals.