NEw event for January 2016

A war threatens to break out between Parthia and Rome about the supremacy in Armenia and Media under the infant Phraates V.

However, when Augustus sends his adopted son Gaius Caesar into the east with proconsular powers in 1 BCE for a mission to Ariobarzanes, ruler of the Roman client kingdom of Armenia, which the Parthians have invaded, the Parthians eventually prefer to conclude a treaty in CE 1, signed on an island in the river Euphrates, by which once again Armenia is recognized as in the Roman sphere, with Ariobarzanes II of Media Atropene as client king.

The year CE 1, alternately known as 1 AD, is popularly taken to be the birth-year in which Jesus of Nazareth is born, although modern scholarship places the event at about 5 or 4 BCE.

The Gospel of Matthew, in its Nativity account, associates the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who is generally believed to have died around 4 BC/BCE.

Matthew 2:1 states that: "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king" and Luke 1:5 mentions the reign of Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus.

Matthew also suggests that Jesus may have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi and hence even older at the time of Herod's death, but the author of Luke also describes the birth as taking place during the first census of the Roman provinces of Syria and Iudaea, which is generally believed to have occurred in 6 AD/CE.

Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE.

Other scholars assume that Jesus was born sometime between 7 and 2 BC/BCE.

The year of birth of Jesus has also been estimated in a manner that is independent of the Nativity accounts, by using information in the Gospel of John to work backwards from the statement in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry.

By combining information from John 2:13 and John 2:20 with the writings of Flavius Josephus, it has been estimated that around 27-29 AD/CE, Jesus was "about thirty years of age".

Some scholars thus estimate the year 28 AD/CE to be roughly the thirty-second birthday of Jesus and the birth year of Jesus to be around 6-4 BC/BCE.

However, the common Gregorian calendar method for numbering years, in which the current year is 2012, is based on the decision of a monk Dionysius in the sixth century, to count the years from a point of reference (namely, Jesus’ birth) which he placed sometime between 2 BC and 1 AD.

Although Christian feasts related to the Nativity have had specific dates (e.g. December 25 for Christmas) there is no historical evidence for the exact day or month of the birth of Jesus.

Christian tradition, based on the Gospels of Saints Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, has Mary, his mother, being told by an angel that God had miraculously impregnated her.

She and her husband Joseph reportedly traveled to be counted in a census ordered by Augustus, stopping in the town of Bethlehem, the ancestral city of David, to give birth.

The birth of her son, Jesus, is reportedly accompanied by signs and prophecies pointing to his importance as the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel and of God's redemptive purpose for the world.

Jesus is traditionally considered a descendant of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, and David, their most illustrious king.

Reportedly present at the birth are three "wise men from the East" who follow a star to Bethlehem to worship the infant Jesus, presenting him with gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.

In a Biblical event paralleling the account in Exodus of Pharaoh's massacre of Jewish male babies at the time of Moses' birth, Herod the Great, who died between 4 and 1 BC, had allegedly tried to kill the infant males of Bethlehem, forcing Mary and Joseph to take Jesus to Egypt for safety.

Although Herod is certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, the historical accuracy of this event has been questioned, since no other document from the period makes any reference to such a massacre.

Bethlehem is at this time a small rural town, and the number of male children under the age of two would probably not exceed twenty; the number of children actually killed, if any, may have been as few as five or six.

This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history, although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically.

Modern biographers of Herod tend to doubt the event took place; most recent biographies of Herod the Great deny it entirely. (Paul L. Maier, "Herod and the Infants of Bethlehem", in Chronos, Kairos, Christos II, Mercer University Press [1998], p.170.)

The Chinese census shows nearly one million people living in Vietnam.

The population China's of China in its first known nationwide census, taken in 2 CE, is registered as having 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households.

Wang Mang, an official of China’s Han dynasty, had been born in a distinguished family, but his father had died when he was young and he had held minor posts until being made a marquess in 16 BCE.

His father's half sister is the powerful Grand Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, who had been the consort of Emperor Yuan and mother of Emperor Cheng.

Wang Zhengjun (71 BCE–13 CE) was first empress, then empress dowager, and finally grand empress dowager during the reigns of the Emperors Yuan (r. 49–33 BCE), Cheng (r. 33–7 BCE), and Ai (r. 7–1 BCE), respectively.

During this time, a succession of her male relatives have held the title of regent.

In 8 BCE, Wang Mang had been appointed regent for Emperor Cheng, but Cheng had died in 7 BC or 6 BCE and been succeeded by Emperor Ai, who is not related to Empress Dowager Wang.

Wang Mang thus resigned.

After Ai died childless in the year 1 BCE, the throne had been passed to his cousin Emperor Ping - then a child of 9 years old.

Wang Mang had been appointed regent by the Grand Empress Dowager Wang.

Dissatisfied with his father's dictatorial regency, in 3, Wang's son Wang Yu conspires with Emperor Ping's maternal uncles of the Wei clan against Wang, but after they are discovered, Wang has not only Wang Yu and the Weis (except Consort Wei) put to death, but also uses this opportunity to accuse many actual or potential political enemies as being part of the conspiracy and to execute or exile them.

From this time forward, the Han Dynasty exists only in name.

Furthermore, Wang Mang also designates his daughter as the empress consort to Emperor Ping to codify his legitimacy to power.

Archelaus of Cappadocia had remarried in 8 BCE, this time to the widowed Greek Client Monarch Pythodorida of Pontus, who has two sons and a daughter from her first husband Polemon I of Pontus.

When Archelaus married Pythodorida, she moved her and her family from the Black Sea to Elaiussa Sebaste.

Pythodorida is to remain with Archelaus until he dies; they will produce no offspirng.

Archelaus’ marriage to Pythodorida links their kingdoms together; thus, both monarchs have indirect control of their spouses’ realms.

Their marriage arrangement, like that of Archelaus’ daughter Glaphyra to Alexander of Judea, was doubtless orchestrated by Augustus, thereby to bind together the royal houses of Anatolia as surrogates for Roman suzerainty Although Archelaus is liked by the Romans, he experiences less success with his subjects.

On one occasion during the reign of Augustus, some Cappadocian citizens had lodged an accusation against Archelaus in Rome.

Future Roman Emperor Tiberius, beginning his civil career, had defended Archelaus from these accusations, which had ended to no avail.

Archelaus gives greater attention to Gaius Caesar, one of Augustus’ grandsons, than to Tiberius, who is one of Augustus’ stepsons.

This has caused Tiberius to become jealous, in time leading to his hatred of him.

Between 6 BCE – and CE 2, Tiberius has lived in self-imposed on the Greek island of Rhodes, while Gaius Caesar is in the Eastern Mediterranean performing various political and military duties on behalf of Augustus.

Gaius is seriously wounded in CE 2 while attempting to suppress an uprising in the area of Armenia.

The much admired Roman temple later known as the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, built around 19-16 BCE by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who had also been the original patron of the Pantheon in Rome, is rededicated in CE 1 or 2 to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus.

As the two brothers are the heirs to Augustus, they have promising legal and military careers.

In the year 2, Gaius is sent to the east and Lucius to the west.

Lucius dies at the age of nineteen of an illness on August 20 of the same year, in Massilia (Marseille) on his way to Spain, leaving Gaius as the emperor’s sole heir.

Tiberius has been seeking permission to return to Rome from Rhodes for some time.

Augustus withholds his permission until the year 2, only allowing Tiberius to return on the condition that he withdraw completely from public life.

Lucius’ mother Julia, daughter of the Augustus and estranged wife of Tiberius, is arrested for adultery and treason; Augustus sends her a letter in Tiberius' name declaring the marriage null and void.

Several of her supposed accomplices are exiled (including Sempronius Gracchus), or put to death (especially Iullus Antonius, son of Mark Antony and Fulvia).

It is hard to reconstruct what actually happened, but it was proved in court that she had taken part in nightly drinking parties on the Roman Forum and that Iullus Antonius was certainly her lover.

Many other men are also reported to have enjoyed her favors, but this may have been gossip.

Hesitating whether or not to execute her, Augustus decides on Julia's exile, in harsh conditions.

She is confined on an island named Pandateria (modern Ventotene), with no men in sight, forbidden even to drink wine (Dio Cassius 55.10, Suetonius, Vita Augusti 65).

The island itself measures less than 1¾ kms.

She is to be allowed no visitor unless her father has given permission and has been informed of the stature, complexion, and even of any marks or scars upon his body" Suet.

ibid.).

Scribonia, Julia's biological mother, accompanies her into exile.