Antoninus Pius recognizes the king of the…

Mithridates IV of Parthia and his son Sanatruces II had taken up the diadem during the invasion of Mesopotamia by the Roman emperor Trajan (98–117) in 116, but were defeated.

After the death of Osroes I in 129, Mithridates IV had assumed the throne and continued the struggle with the rival king Vologases III of Parthia (105–147).

He dies in an attack on Commagene in 140.

Valentinus, an Egyptian by birth and a leading exponent of gnosticism in Alexandria, had moved to Rome in about 136, where he aspires to become pope.

In this year, according to Eusebius, Hyginus had succeeded Telesphorus as pope, instituted godparents at baptism to assist the newly born during their Christian life, and decreed that all churches be consecrated.

Pius, in turn, succeeds Hyginus as pope, possibly in 140.

The Qiang forces annihilate a Han force led by Ma Xian in 141 and set fire to the tomb-gardens of a number of Western Han emperors in the Chang'an region.

Agrarian rebellions eventually start again in Jing (modern Hunan, Hubei, and southern Henan) and Yang (modern Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and central and southern Jiangsu, Anhui) provinces and will not be pacified for the rest of Emperor Shun's reign.

Also in 141, Liang Shang dies.

Inexplicably, Emperor Shun gives his post to his son Liang Ji and gives Liang Ji's post to his younger brother Liang Buyi.

Liang Ji proceeds to seize power at every opportunity, and even though Liang Buyi tries to encourage his brother to be moderate in behavior, his pleas fall on deaf ears.

Claudius Ptolemy, apparently completing his astronomical observations in 141, produces the Geography, an effort to map the known world.

Drawing on the work of Hipparchus, Strabo, and Marinus of Tyre, Ptolemy lists latitudes and longitudes of important locations, with accompanying maps and a description of techniques of mapmaking.

Antoninus, a more traditional builder than Hadrian or Trajan, begins construction of the Temple of Faustina, a monument to his deified late spouse in about 141.

Now adapted to the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, it stands in the Forum Romanum, on the Via Sacra, opposite the Regia.

Herodes Atticus, a fabulously wealthy financier and landowner from Athens, who rises to be consul of Rome in CE 143 (and whose bequests still adorn his home city), is one example of the new Romanized Greek citizens.

Antyllus, a Greek surgeon living in Rome, describes the types of aneurysms and creates a taxonomy related to the lesions' potential for rupture.

He develops specific instructions for a number of operations, also listing the indications and contraindications and describing the complications that could arise from the operations.

His operation for aneurysm will remain the standard procedure until the nineteenth century.

Quintus Lollius Urbicus, governor of Roman Britain between 139 and 142, has ordered garrisons from the three legions stationed in Britain to move one hundred miles (one hundred and sixty kilometers) north of Hadrian’s Wall to strategic positions partially fortified in 80 by governor Agricola.

Along this new frontier the Romans build a thirty-seven-mile- long (fifty-nine kilometer) turf wall—called the Antonine Wall for the emperor Antoninus Pius—on a low, rubble platform about fourteen feet high (four point two meters) and about thirty-five feet thick (three point six meters), protected by a ditch about thirty-five feet wide (twelve meters) and twelve feet deep (three point six meters).

Crossing the isthmus from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, the Antonine Wall, meant to protect the peaceful lowland tribes and provide a reservoir of manpower for conscription, supersedes Hadrian’s Wall.

A military road connects the garrison posts and signal-beacon platforms behind the wall, and forts on either coast protect the flanks.

The Roman poet Juvenal, writing in the early second century, depicts a Roman father urging his son to win glory by destroying the forts of the Brigantes, a British Celtic tribe who live between the rivers Tyne and Humber, and it is possible that one of the purposes of Hadrian's Wall (begun in 122) had been to keep the Brigantes from making discourse with the “Scottish” tribes on the other side.

Antoninus is said by Pausanias to have defeated them after they began an unprovoked war against Roman allies, perhaps as part of the campaign that led to the building of the Antonine Wall.

Emperor Shun is apparently already ill in 144, when he creates his only son Liu Bing, born of his concubine Consort Yu in 143, crown prince.

Virtually nothing is known about his mother, other than that she entered the palace when she was twelve (the year is unknown), and that she was also the mother of Prince Bing's sister Princess Sheng.

Later in the year, Emperor Shun dies, and Crown Prince Bing succeeds him as Emperor Chong.

Empress Dowager Liang serves as regent, and while she personally appears capable, her trust in her brother Liang Ji will lead to a major decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty.