Octavian, returning to Rome in 41 BCE…

Antony wants Cleopatra for Egypt's wealth, and, as she wants Antony for his Roman armies, he spends the winter of 41-40 as Cleopatra’s lover at Alexandria. (In spite of the romantic accounts of ancient authors, however, she does not at this stage establish a permanent dominance over him, as for more than three years he will make no move to see her again.)

Arsinoe IV is the fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, sister of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII.

Their late father had left Ptolemy and Cleopatra as joint rulers of Egypt, but Ptolemy had soon dethroned Cleopatra and forced her to flee Alexandria.

When Julius Caesar in 48 BCE arrived in Alexandria and sided with Cleopatra's faction, Arsinoe had escaped from the capital with her mentor Ganymedes and joined the Egyptian army under Achillas, assuming the title of pharaoh.

When Achillas and Ganymedes clashed, Arsinoe had had Achillas executed and placed Ganymedes in command of the army.

Ganymedes had initially enjoyed some success against the Romans, negotiating an exchange of Arsinoe for Ptolemy, but the Romans soon received reinforcements and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Egyptians.

Arsinoe had been transported to Rome and forced to appear in Caesar's triumph.

Despite usual traditions of prisoners in triumphs being strangled when the festivities were at an end, Caesar had spared Arsinoe and granted her sanctuary at Ephesus.

Arsinoe has lived in the temple for many years, always keeping a watchful eye for her sister Cleopatra, who sees her as a threat to her power.

Her fears prove well-founded; in 41 BCE, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony orders the twenty-six-year-old Arsinoe executed on the steps of the temple, a gross violation of the temple sanctuary and an act that scandalized Rome.

The priest Megabyzus, who had welcomed Arsinoë on her arrival at the temple as Queen, was only pardoned when an embassy from Ephesus made a petition to Cleopatra.

Arsinoe reportedly was given an honorable funeral and a modest tomb, but no conclusive remains of such a burial have been found.

However, an octagonal monument situated in the center of Ephesus will be proposed in the 1990s by Hilke Thür of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to be the tomb of Arsinoë.

A writer from The Times described the identification of the skeleton as "a triumph of conjecture over certainty".

Although no inscription remains on the tomb, it can be dated to between 50 to 20 BCE.

The body of a woman estimated at fifteen to twenty years old will be found in 1926 in the burial chamber.

Thür's identification of the skeleton is based on the shape of the tomb (octagonal, like the Lighthouse of Alexandria), the carbon dating of the bones (between 200 – 20 BCE), the gender of the skeleton, and the age of the young woman at death.

It is also claimed that the tomb contains Egyptian motifs, such as "papyri-bundle" columns.

Arsinoë, if the monument is indeed her tomb, would be the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty whose remains have been recovered.

Forensic/archaeological analysis of the origins of the skeleton and tomb is ongoing.

…Lucius organizes his troops at Praeneste, and is then forced to retreat with his army to …

…the city of Perusia in Etruria, where Lucius is besieged in December by three armies.

Lucius waits for Antony's legions in Gaul to come to his aid.

However, unaware of the war, Antony is still in the eastern provinces, and his legions are unsure of his commands and do not assist Lucius.

China’s Han Dynasty is notable for its military prowess.

The empire has expanded westward to the Tarim Basin (in modern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region), with military expeditions as far west as beyond the Caspian Sea, making possible a relatively safe and secure caravan and mercantile traffic across Central Asia.

The paths of caravan traffic are often called the "Silk Road" because the route is used to export Chinese silk.

Chinese armies had also invaded and annexed parts of northern Korea (Wiman Joseon) and northern Vietnam toward the end of the second century BCE.

Han Dynasty control of peripheral regions is generally insecure, however.

To ensure peace with non-Chinese local powers, the Han court has developed a mutually beneficial "tributary system" in which non-Chinese states are allowed to remain autonomous in exchange for symbolic acceptance of Han overlordship.

Tributary ties are confirmed and strengthened through intermarriages at the ruling level and periodic exchanges of gifts and goods.

In China, the trip hammer, a massive power hammer, usually raised by a cam and then released to fall under the force of gravity, has evolved out of the use of the pestle and mortar, which in turn had given rise to the treadle-operated tilt-hammer.

The latter was a simple device employing a lever and fulcrum (operated by pressure applied by the weight of one's foot to one end), which featured a series of catches or lugs on the main revolving shaft as well.

This device enabled the labor of pounding, often in the decorticating and polishing of grain, and avoided manual use of pounding with hand and arm.

Although historians assert that its origins may span as far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1050 BC–221 BCE), the earliest texts to describe the device are the Ji Jiu Pian dictionary of 40 BCE.

Quintus Labienus, a Roman republican general, following Caesar’s murder had taken the side of Brutus and Cassius, the latter whom he had served in the capacity of an ambassador to the Parthians.

After Brutus and Cassius were defeated at Philippi, Labienus had joined the Parthians, who invade the Roman territories in 40 BCE.

The Parthian army, led by Labienus and their king, Pacorus, crosses the Euphrates and attacks Apamea.

The attack on Apamea fails but Labienus is able to entice the Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause.

The combined Romano-Parthian army then proceeds to defeat Mark Antony's governor L. Decidius Saxa in a pitched battle and takes Apamea.

After the Roman defeat at Apamea, the Parthians split their army.

Pacorus turns south and conquers the Levant from the Phoenician coast through Palestine, with the exception of a few cities that hold out, including Tyre.

Labienus turns north to follow Saxa, who loses most of his troops as he retreats to Antioch, and whom Labienus defeats and kills in Cilicia.

Labienus then proceeds to conquer all of Asia Minor.

Under Labienus and Pacorus, the Parthians have restored their territory to nearly the limits of the old Achaemenid empire and control all of Asia Minor except for a few cities.

The Parthian successes are not to be long-lasting, however.

Antony’s affair with Cleopatra will result in three children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II and Ptolemy Philadelphus.

Antony early in 40 receives two pieces of bad news: that his brother Lucius Antonius and his third wife, Fulvia, on their own initiative and without success, have revolted against Octavian, thus setting off the Perusine War (after the central point of the rising, Perusia, the modern Perugia); and that the Parthians, the eastern neighbors of Rome’s republican empire, have invaded Roman Syria.

In spite of the latter information, Antony, aware of his deteriorating relationship with Octavian, leaves Cleopatra in Egypt and first proceeds to Italy with a large force to oppose Octavian.

Herod and Antony are old friends; but after Antony's departure, Cleopatra had tried unsuccessfully to seduce Herod on his way through Egypt.

Cleopatra will never forgive him for the rebuff.

Her twins by Antony, named Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, are born on December 25 of this year.

The unexpected occupation of Palestine in 40 BCE by Parthian troops, the culmination of a Parthian invasion of the Levant under the command of Barzapharnes, alters the situation for the house of Antipater.

Antigonus, the ambitious son of Aristobulus II, the Jewish High Priest and King of Judea from 66 BCE to 63 BCE and therefore a legitimate Hasmonean, wins the favor of the Parthians and is established by them as king and high priest of Jerusalem after the Parthians, at the instigation of Antigonus, cut off the ears of his his uncle Hyrcanus in order to permanently disqualify him for the priesthood.

Hyrcanus is then taken to Babylonia in chains.

Phasael reportedly commits suicide, while his brother Herod escapes to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power.

Fulvia is at Praeneste during this conflict, known as the Perusine War, but there is evidence that she helps Lucius.

According to Appian, she "urged Ventidius, Asinius, and Calenus from Gaul to help Lucius, and having gathered another army, she sent it to Lucius under the command of Plancus."

Fulvia is exiled after Lucius' surrender to Sicyon, in Greece, with her children.

Appian writes that she met Antony in Athens, and he was upset with her involvement in the war.

Antony then sailed back to Rome to deal with Octavian, and Fulvia died of an unknown illness in exile in Sicyon, near Corinth, Achaea.

However, Octavian shows no mercy for the mass of allies loyal to Lucius; on March 15, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination, he has three hundred Roman senators and equestrians executed for allying with Lucius.