The resentment that formed between Emperor Sushun and the influential Soga clan leader Soga no Umako resulted in the assassination of the emperor in 593 AD. Although Sushun and his brothers who ruled before him belonged to the Soga clan, it was their uncle, Soga no Umako, who held the strings of power in the land. Sushun’s death left the throne vacant with only the former emperors’ half-sister Suiko (who also happened to be former emperor Bidatsu’s empress-consort) fit to rule. For Soga no Umako, she was perfect. These events led to Shotoku compiling Japanese history around the 6th century AD according to the Bible Timeline Poster with World History.
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Suiko acceded the throne in 593 AD and Soga no Umako also appointed Shotoku Taishi, the son of the former Emperor Yomei, as regent in the same year. The prince was one of the leading Buddhists among the Japanese nobility during the Asuka period and staunchly opposed Shintoism that was supported by the rival Mononobe clan. It seemed that Soga no Umako’s choice of coregent was a good one as Shotoku was an excellent administrator who helped Suiko maintain good diplomatic relations with Japan’s neighbors with his excellent foreign policies.
He established the Twelve Cap and Rank System in 603/4 AD wherein government officials were appointed not because they were born from a noble family, but promoted based on their virtues and merits. It was patterned after the Chinese-style government ranking wherein officials belonged to twelve levels named after virtues (sincerity, benevolence, justice), and distinguished by the color of the cap they wore (purple, yellow, white, blue). He also issued the Jushichijo no Kempo or Seventeen-Article Constitution in 604 AD. One of his greatest legacies was his compilation of the lives of the former emperors and early Japanese history (it was said that his compilation was later included in the Kojiki chronicle).
References:
Picture By Unknown – Japanese Painting Anthlogy, ed.et publ. by SINBI-SHOIN, TOKYO, 1941, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2584076
Brown, Delmer Myers. The Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Louis-Frédéric, and Käthe Roth. Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.
“Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697/Book XIX.” – Wikisource, the Free Online Library. Accessed August 09, 2016. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nihongi:_Chronicles_of_Japan_from_the_Earliest_Times_to_A.D._697/Book_XIX.
“The Creed of Half Japan: Chapter XVIII. The Crown Prince Shōtoku Taishi.” The Creed of Half Japan: Chapter XVIII. The Crown Prince Shōtoku Taishi. Accessed August 09, 2016. http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/chj/chj20.htm.
The Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, also known as the Second Council of Constantinople, was held on the fifth of May to the second of June in 553 AD according to the Bible Timeline Poster with World History. This was during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The ecumenical council presided by the Patriarch of Constantinople Eutychius was the fifth of the seven assemblies held in the city since 381 AD. At least 151 bishops from Greece and North Africa attended the event, but Emperor Justinian decided it would be better if he left out the Italian bishops. Pope Vigilius was at Constantinople at that time and initially attended on the first day, but declined to attend on the second day because of his ill health.
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The council was assembled to confirm the edict of anathematization (condemnation) issued by Emperor Justinian to the Three Chapters between 543 and 544 AD. The condemned Three Chapters included:
* Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428 AD) and his writings
* some writings of Theodoret (393-458 AD) against Cyril of Alexandria
* the letters of Ibas, the bishop of Edessa (435-457 AD) to Maris, the Bishop of Hardaschir
“Jesus depicted as the Good Shepherd”
Theodore and Theodoret both supported Nestorianism which was considered as heresy at that time, while it was only rumored that Ibas supported this kind of belief. Nestorianism, the Christological belief that Christ only had one nature (which was a fusion of human and divine), directly opposed the Chalcedonian Christology that Justinian supported, which upheld the belief that Christ had distinct human and divine natures. The bishops who gathered in the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople agreed to confirm the emperor’s anathematization of Nestorianism after several sessions and condemned the works of the second-century theologian Origen of Alexandria as well.
Pope Vigilius initially rejected the anathematization of the Three Chapters and stood his ground for six months. He only changed his mind (or was forced to) around 554 AD. Justinian allowed him to return to Rome in the same year, but he never arrived in Rome as he died at Syracuse in 555 AD. The anathematization caused a major rift between the bishops of Constantinople and others (particularly in North Africa and Italy) who rejected the council. Vigilius’ death also forced Justinian to appoint the deacon Pelagius as pope to force the Italian bishops to accept the council’s ruling on the Three Chapters.
References:
Picture By Stained glass: Alfred Handel, d. 1946[2], photo:Toby Hudson – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10163206
Kelly, Joseph F. The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009.
“Medieval Sourcebook: Fifth Ecumenical Council: Constantinople II, 553.” Fordham University Medieval Sourcebooks. Accessed August 06, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/const2.asp.
Just like Gregory the Great who came before him, the second Pope Gregory came from a noble and wealthy family. He was the son of Marcellus and Honesta, but apart from their names, everything else about his family was shrouded in mystery. He was cared for by the popes in his youth and appointed by Pope Sergius as a subdeacon years after. He worked as a treasurer for the church, chief administrator of the Vatican library, and then elevated as deacon after many years. Finally, he was appointed as the Pope on May 19, 715 AD which is where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History.
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One of the first tasks he undertook after his proclamation as Pope was to fortify the walls of Rome against the Lombards who had penetrated deep into Italy, as well as the Saracens (Muslims) who had dominated Hispania at that time. The task, however, was stopped when the Tiber river rose and flooded the city for eight days.
There was an increase of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims during Gregory II’s pontificate after their conversion to Christianity during the time of Gregory the Great and Augustine of Canterbury. Two of the most prominent of these pilgrims were the Abbot Ceolfrid and King Ina of Wessex. Ceolfrid brought Gregory II a copy of the Bible as a gift, while King Ina visited Pope Gregory and retired in the city of Rome after his abdication. Ina built a school named Schola Saxona in the city. It was established to enable the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to learn more about church doctrine while they stayed in the city.
Pope Gregory II
Theodo, the Christian Duke of Bavaria, also visited Pope Gregory and asked him to convert his people to Christianity. Pope Gregory was all too happy to comply with this request and immediately dispatched Bishop Martinian, Dorotheus, and other church officials to Bavaria to accompany the Duke. The delegates converted the Bavarians and later on, established a local church hierarchy in Theodo’s duchy.
Meanwhile, Gregory had reiterated the importance of marriage, as well as forbade the practice of magic and witchcraft. He also tried to wean the people off from their belief in astrology, as well as lucky and unlucky days that were popular at that time. He also convinced Corbinian, the Frankish monk, to take a break from his life as a hermit and help in the conversion of Bavaria. He was later consecrated as a bishop and began his ministry in Bavaria in 724 after he was sent there by Gregory.
Gregory authorized church repairs and improvement of church decorations during his tenure as pope. He established monasteries in Italy (he even turned his own ancestral house into one) and restored the broken-down sections of the monastery at Monte Cassino between 717 and 718 AD. These parts of the monastery were destroyed by the Lombards during the early years of their invasion.
In spring of the year 721, Gregory called for a synod in Rome that dealt specifically with the subject of marriage. In this council, they agreed to forbid marriage for priests, nuns, and others who were “consecrated to God,” as well as the union between close relatives. Two years later, Gregory helped reconcile the Patriarchs of Grado and Aquileia after a spat between the two. The pope had sent the pallium to the Bishop Serenus, the Patriarch of Aquileia, who took it as a sign of higher authority and then started to meddle on the territory of Bishop Donatus, the Patriarch of Grado. Incensed, the Patriarch of Grado sent a letter to Pope Gregory and informed him about his complaint, so the pope sent letters to both men with a gentle admonition to submit to each other in humility.
The Lombards in Italy
Pope Gregory had a good diplomatic relationship with the Lombard king Liutprand, but he was still worried that Italy would fall completely into the hands of the Lombards. He supported Duke John of Naples in his campaign to regain the ancient city of Cumae and negotiated later with Liutprand for the return of the port of Classis to the Exarch of Ravenna. However, he failed to convince the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, to help him completely get rid of the Lombards in the Italian peninsula.
Conflict with Byzantine Emperor Leo III
In Constantinople, the Emperor Leo III had issued a decree that all icons in his domain be destroyed. It was met with hostility by the citizens of Constantinople which later spread to Greece and other Byzantine-dominated cities. The fight for and against the icons was especially bitter in Greece where a short-lived revolt was immediately suppressed. Still, Leo went on with his destruction of images which would later reach Rome and Pope Gregory. He sent the Byzantine emperor a letter in which he told Leo to stay away from formulating church doctrines and focus on ruling the empire but Leo was adamant and iconoclasm continued in the east, while religious flourished in the West during the medieval period.
Pope Gregory died in early 731 AD and was replaced by Gregory III as pope in the same year.
Gregory was born in Rome around 540 and 545 AD—a time when the city was only a shell of its past self after the repeated invasions of the barbarians. His prominent family members included Pope Felix IV, his father, Giordanus who served as an administrator for the church, and his pious mother, Silvia, who also came from a distinguished family. Silvia was later canonized as a saint along with her husband. Gregory is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History in 590 AD.
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Although Rome had collapsed long before his birth, his family still retained their wealth over the years. Gregory was born in his parents’ villa on the Caelian Hill which, at that time, was one of the richest districts in Rome. The estate was later converted to Saint Andrew’s Monastery, and Gregory’s parents were honored with a lavish picture in the property. He was born during a chaotic era; the plague of Justinian had wiped out the population of many Mediterranean cities while Gothic rulers rose and fell in Italy. He and his mother lived on the family estate in Sicily to weather Totila’s invasion of Rome in 546 AD. They only came back when peace was restored.
Gregory received an education fit for his social class, so over the years he became adept in grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and law. Lessons in theology, however, were given at home since both of his parents were renowned for their piety. All the lessons he learned from his childhood would come in handy for him to navigate the political scene in Constantinople, as well as in Italy during the rule of the Lombards.
Saint Gregory
Gregory as Roman Prefect
In 552 AD, the Emperor Justinian hired Lombard mercenaries as soldiers to reinforce the Byzantine army in the Battle of Taginae against the Ostrogoths. It was a decision he would come to regret as it showed how rich the land of Italy was at that time. The first wave of invasion was led by the Lombard king Alboin in 568 AD. By the following year, the tribe had dominated the city of Milan and well into the region of Liguria. Their march into Italy left a trail of destruction in their wake which made the Lombard invasion the biggest challenge Gregory faced.
Gregory served as a junior administrator in the bureau of the Prefect during the earliest years of his career as a government worker. It seemed that he excelled in his responsibilities because he was rapidly promoted as Prefect of Rome in 573 AD at the age of thirty. The role Gregory took over was still illustrious at that time, but the influence had somewhat diminished over the years. He was the city’s top administrator with responsibilities that included the supervision of local officials, food distribution, maintenance of city infrastructure, as well as the head of the military.
Gregory, however, needed to confront the results of the Lombard invasion as well as Rome’s increased isolation from the seat of Byzantine rule in Constantinople. By 574 AD, the great Byzantine general Narses and Pope John III were dead. Which meant Gregory was left alone to rule Rome. To rule alone might have been the dream of other rulers, but Gregory was different; after much inner struggle and prayers, he eventually decided to become a monk which suited his quiet disposition. Perhaps the responsibilities of the prefect weighed heavily on his shoulders, or it was possible that the position left a bitter taste in his mouth after many Byzantine ministers rose and fell through the whims of the emperor.
The Monk
Whatever the reason, Gregory left the position of the prefect after three years in the office and started to convert his family’s villa in the Caelian Hill to the Monastery of St. Andrew. He was one of the richest men in Rome at that time and the owner of some of the greatest estates in the city, as well as in distant Sicily. He endowed these estates to the church which were later converted into various monasteries and nunneries. He became a monk at St. Andrews for three years which were the happiest of his life.
Gregory in Constantinople
Those three years Gregory spent as a simple Benedictine monk would not last after he was summoned by Pope Benedict in 578 AD out of the monastery and ordained him as the “Seventh Deacon.” The Lombards besieged Rome in the same year while the plague and the death of Pope Benedict worsened the city’s situation. Pope Pelagius was appointed to replace Pope Benedict, and the new pontiff sent Gregory as a papal apocrisiarius (a representative) to Constantinople. His mission was to beg the emperor Tiberius II Constantine to send reinforcements to the beleaguered city of Rome during the Lombard invasion. However, Tiberius was also busy with the Persians in the east and could not afford to send the required troops that would counter the Lombard threat. Instead, he sent a few soldiers with the rest of the delegation to Rome while Gregory remained in Constantinople as representative of the pope.
Gregory would not see Rome for another six years, and Constantinople would have another change of hands after Tiberius was replaced by Maurice as emperor in 582 AD. Gregory, once again, made a petition to the new Emperor to send troops to the city of Rome, but Maurice would not relent. He inherited the Byzantine empire’s problem with the Persians, as well as the new threat of the Slavs and Avars who pressed in from the north. In 585 AD, Pope Pelagius II sent an urgent letter to Gregory in Constantinople and told him to appeal to the emperor again to send for soldiers to besieged Rome, but this request was also denied. These repeated appeals for troops annoyed the emperor, and it seemed the feeling was mutual as Gregory did not hold Maurice in high regard. Although the emperor repeatedly declined his requests, Gregory’s time in Constantinople was not in vain as he developed close friendships with some people and his skills in diplomacy were sharpened through his observation of Maurice’s court.
Return to Rome
Pope Pelagius summoned him back to Rome in 586 AD—he must have breathed a sigh of relief to be back in the city and upon his return, the monks of St. Andrew elected him as the abbot. Gregory spent his time managing the daily affairs of the monastery. He wrote the Magna Moralia or the Exposition of the Book of Job during this period. He also attempted a mission to Britain, but Pope Pelagius recalled him immediately before he could travel out of continental Europe. Back in Rome, Gregory worked as the Pope’s secretary and was appointed as pope when Pelagius died of the plague that raged in the city in 590 AD.
Pope Gregory I
Gregory was initially unwilling to accept his appointment. He greatly enjoyed the secluded life of a monk, and he wrote a letter to Emperor Maurice to ask him not to confirm his appointment. But this was intercepted by the Roman prefect who sent Gregory’s appointment documents to Constantinople. He was ordained as the new pope on the fifth of September in the year 590 AD. He had no time to rest as the plague that raged on inside the city and beyond its walls needed to be addressed. The refugees driven out by the Lombard invasion fled into Rome, and many of the patrician families who might have helped him cope with the crisis had left long ago for Constantinople, so Gregory needed to direct the relief to a city in crisis himself. For many Italians at that time, Gregory was the epitome of charity and godly leadership.
After his successful peace negotiation with the Lombard king Agilulf in 598 AD, Gregory now had time to focus on the people’s spirituality. He addressed the spiritual needs of the citizens of Rome and sent a mission across to convert the Anglo-Saxons who conquered Britain a few years back. The mission was a success, and the group of monks led by Augustine soon established Canterbury as the Catholic church’s center in England.
Gregory was never healthy for much of his life and suffered from various ailments over the years which included gout and indigestion. Perhaps it was the years of austerity inside the monastery that weakened his body or the stress of administering a city during a period of great crises, but he was eager to go when death approached him during the last years of his life.Gregory died in March, 604 AD. His body was buried in Saint Peter’s Basilica. He was one of the few popes who were canonized soon after his death. He would be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of the church during the disintegration of Italy.
The Lombards migrated out of their homeland in Scandia (modern Scandinavia) during the great migration period between the fourth and ninth centuries AD. The Lombards capital at Pavia was recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History starting in the 6th Century AD. The Romans were aware of the tribe’s presence as early as the 9th century AD, but the Lombards were part of the later tribes which streamed into Italy much later after its collapse. They were, however, some of the most resilient and successful groups that invaded Italy. They outlasted other barbarian tribes who came before them, such as the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals.
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The Lombards first settled near the Danube in 487 AD after their migration from Scandia and later crossed the river to settle in overcrowded Pannonia in 526 AD. They were now at the gates of the old Roman empire. They needed to fight for available land to settle on and farm—something Pannonia did not have in abundance. As the Western Roman Empire continued to collapse, the Lombards took advantage of its weakness and closed in on Italy in the years that followed. Their domination of Italy would not have been possible if not for the sheer will and ferociousness of one man: the Lombard king Alboin.
Alboin was one of the greatest kings in Lombard history. He reigned from 560 until his death in 572 AD. He was known for his victory over the Gepids and the death of the tribe’s king Cunimund, after which he married the dead king’s daughter Rosamund. Alboin then led the Lombards from Pannonia to capture the northern part of Byzantine Italy on April 2, 568 AD. His troops entered the city of Milan (Mediolanum) in the same year. According to Paul the Deacon, they besieged and took almost all of the cities in Liguria except for the southern coastal cities.
“Alboin is killed by Peredeo while Rosamund steals his sword”
The citizens of Pavia, however, put up a valiant fight for three years while Alboin rampaged through the Italian countryside up to Tuscany. Rome, Ravenna, and other fortified cities withstood the sieges, but Alboin and the Lombards took city after city in northern Italy in such a short time. The fact that the Italians were afflicted with the bubonic plague some years before and much of the citizens were dead by the time of the invasion did not help them. In addition, the famine which occurred before the arrival of the bubonic plague worsened the people’s situation.
Lombards Capture Pavia
After three years of relentless fighting, the citizens of Pavia (then named Ticinum) finally surrendered to the Lombards. Alboin, however, would not live to see the day that Pavia would be the capital of the Lombards. He was assassinated in Verona after three years in Italy. This was done with the help of his own Queen Rosamund, the daughter of the fallen Gepid king Cunimund, as revenge for the death of her father. Rosamund fled with the king’s assassin Helmichis (who also happened to be her lover) and Alboin’s daughter by his first wife to Ravenna where they were welcomed by Longinus, the Byzantine ruler of the city. (Rosamund and Helmichis were later found dead in Ravenna after an apparent murder-suicide. Before their death, Longinus offered to marry Rosamund if she would get rid of Helmichis and she agreed to this plot. She offered a poisoned drink to Hemlichis, but her new husband figured out her plan and forced her to drink the poison before killing himself.)
The Lombard dukes voted Cleph as the king in 572 AD to succeed Alboin, but he died two years later, and the Dukes did not replace him with another king. Instead, the lands which the Lombards wrested from the Byzantines were divided into duchies and Pavia, now the capital of the Lombards was held by a duke named Zaban. The Dukes would not elect a king until ten years later and by 620 AD, Pavia was the capital of Lombardy as well as its most powerful city.
Mohammed (also spelled as Muhammad) ibn Abdallah, was born in the western Arabian city of Mecca around 570 AD (He is listed on the Bible Timeline Poster with World history at 571 AD). The family belonged to the prominent Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. His father passed away before he was born who was soon followed by his mother when the boy was six. The young boy was cared for by his grandfather until his death two years later. His uncle took the young orphan in after that.
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“An overview of the major schools and branches of Islam.”
Mecca was a significant stop on the caravan trade that ran through the Arabian peninsula and beyond. Luxury items such as myrrh, frankincense, and gold passed through or were traded in this city. Pilgrims also flocked to the Kaaba to worship the Arabian gods. It was not an isolated city, and it boasted a cosmopolitan population because of trade. However, it was not equal to Rome, Constantinople or Damascus during this period. In Mecca, the young Mohammed learned the ropes on how to manage a trade caravan under the guidance of his uncle.
Mohammed joined his uncle in his teenage years to a caravan trade in Syria where he met the Christian monk Bahira who, according to legend, predicted that Mohammed would be a prophet of God. They came back to Mecca, and Mohammed later became a successful merchant with a reputation for trustworthiness and truthfulness. He was so popular that he earned the titles “al-Sadiq” (truthful) as well as “al-Amin” (trustworthy). These traits did not escape the notice of a wealthy widow named Khadija, who also happened to be a businesswoman involved in the caravan trade herself. She proposed marriage to the younger man (Khadija was fifteen years older than Mohammed) in 595 AD. Mohammed accepted her proposal in the same year. The union between Khadija and Mohammed was a happy one which produced five daughters. It was not until fifteen years later when Mohammed received a visit from the angel Gabriel in a cave named Hira that the history of Islam took off from its origins in this Arabian city and into world history.
References:
Picture By Angelpeream, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12871191
Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Rodinson, Maxime. Muhammad: Prophet of Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Rogerson, Barnaby. The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography. Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring, 2003.
Hegira: is the resettlement of Muhammad and those that followed him to Yathrib (Medina).
From Mecca to Medina
The oasis of Yathrib (later called Medina), located more than 200 miles north of Mecca, presented a solution to Mohammed’s problem. The Yathrib community’s chieftains were desperate to settle old feuds that made it a violent place. They approached Mohammed to solve this problem in 620 AD. The start of Hegira is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History at the beginning of the 6th century AD. Two years later, the Chieftains made a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca to worship at the Kaaba. They also came with a mission: to pledge allegiance to Mohammed and become new converts to Islam. In return, Mohammed, along with his followers from Mecca, would join them in Yathrib to mediate between the warring people in their community and defend each other from common enemies. This offer made a lot of sense for Mohammed. Persecution from the Quraysh authorities had intensified in recent years since Mohammed first preached about Islam. This was not the first time he was forced to send the first converts away from Mecca. The first migration was in 615 AD when Mohammed sent his followers to the court of the Christian king of Ethiopia, Ashama ibn-Abjar, for protection from the Quraysh leaders.
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That was the first Hegira (also called Hijrah) in Islam’s history, but the migration the Muslims made from Mecca to Medina was the most significant for the community. Quietly, over a period of two months in 622 AD, the Muslims of Mecca slipped out in small numbers from under the watchful eyes of the Quraysh leaders. When all of his followers reached safety in Medina, Mohammed made plans to escape along with his friend, Abu Bakr (his cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, stayed behind).
Assassins were sent to Mohammed’s house on the night of their escape, but they safely made their way out of the city and spent the night inside a cave to escape the assassins. The search continued in Mecca, and the assassins followed them outside the city until they reached the mouth of the cave where the two stayed, but they failed to find them inside the cave. The two runaways eventually reached Quba after several days’ journey in the Arabian desert and Mohammed oversaw the construction of a mosque in the area for two weeks before he continued to the city of Medina itself.
“The Hijrah and other earlier Muslim migrations”
New City, Old Realities
The Arabian peninsula was a harsh land to live in, and it was no different in the city of Medina. There were few sources of food in the Oasis and the mad scramble for resources sometimes turned bloody. In this unforgiving environment, petty quarrels sometimes turned into blood feuds and people needed their tribe to protect them and help them survive. The tribalism that dominated the people of Mecca obviously did not work, so Hegira became a way for them to unite beyond their tribes.
From the old tribal ways and worship of pagan gods of Mecca, the Muslims could now start fresh in Medina. Their new community was made up of women and men from the poorest up to the richest, as well as Jews and pagans. For them, early Islam was more than just a new religion. It offered an inclusive community where Muslims, pagans, Christians, Jews, and people from different social classes could live with each other and help one another survive in this harsh land.
But all was not well in Medina and for the next two years, the former Meccans remained poor as the city could only support so many people. Apart from the original pagan inhabitants plus the new Muslims, there were also a significant number of Jews who lived in the city. They reached such prominence and wealth that their clans were also considered important in Medina. The new city had few acres of land suitable for farming, and this meant Mohammed would have to find a way to keep his new followers from starvation. For Mohammed, there was only one viable solution: they raided the rich Meccan caravans that passed through the area and returned home to Medina with the loot. This would be their source of income for several years after the Hegira.
The revolt of the Yellow Turbans started in 184 AD amidst the corrupt and turbulent twilight years of Han Dynasty. This peasant revolt started on the outskirts of the Han territory but by 189 AD, the violence had reached the gates of the capital Luoyang. Emperor Ling of Han died young in the same year (33 or 34 years old) but did not name an heir to succeed him. His unexpected death left the decision to declare an emperor into the hands of the empress dowager (Emperor Ling’s widow) and the powerful eunuch Jian Shuo. In May of 189, they declared one of Emperor Ling’s sons, the young Prince of Hongnong as the new Emperor Shao of Han. The eunuch Jian Shuo also secretly planned the wholesale purge of Han generals so that he alone would remain powerful, but the news reached a Han general who organized another purge of the palace eunuchs himself. This eventually led to the Three Kingdoms between 220 – 270 AD as listed on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History.
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A bloody purge of both sides started, but while the eunuchs and the generals were at each other’s throats, a general named Dong Zhou took advantage of the situation and took over the palace. He removed Emperor Shao from his position, imprisoned the empress dowager, and appointed his own ministers. The 14-year old Emperor Shao and his younger brother fled the palace, but the boys returned after they realized the harsh realities of life outside its walls. With no food and no one to shelter them, the boys asked for the protection of Dong Zhou, to which the general agreed. He was smarter than the boys realized as Dong Zhou immediately proclaimed the easier-to-manipulate younger brother, Liu Xie, as Emperor Xian and had the older Emperor Shao poisoned.
The Three Kingdoms: Wei, Shu, and Wu
While the palace eunuchs, Han generals, and Dong Zhou were busy asserting their power in Luoyang, another general, Cao Cao, plotted to gain more power for himself. When the Yellow Turban fighters threatened Luoyang, Dong Zhou set fire to the Han capital and fled with the Emperor Xian to Chang’an. Cao Cao caught up with them and then killed Dong Zhou; he then offered his protection to Emperor Xian in a bid to control the young emperor. When he saw that he had no choice, Emperor Xian accepted Cao Cao’s offer and went back to Luoyang to rule. However, he was nothing more than a puppet emperor as Cao Cao retained most of the power over what remained of the Han empire. The empire was not of much use for either of them too as it had fractured into different states ruled by a general who frequently went up against each other. Cao Cao’s rivals, the generals Liu Bei (later, ruler of Shu Kingdom) and Sun Quan (later, Lord of Wu Kingdom), also rose during this period.
“Statue of Cao Cao in Wuhan”
The three general’s quest for domination peaked in 208 AD at the Battle of Red Cliffs which saw Cao Cao’s navy defeated by Liu Bei’s and Sun Quan’s. Cao Cao and his troops failed to wrest the former Han territories located south of the Yangtze River, and many of his men died during the retreat. The defeated Cao Cao retreated north to Luoyang and did not venture into another battle against the two warlords again. He controlled the remainder of the Eastern Han Empire until his death (although Emperor Xian remained as a figurehead for the rest of his life), and the crown passed on to Cao Cao’s son upon the general’s death. This ended the Han Dynasty’s rule over the Empire (or what remained of it), and new dynasties ushered in the Three Kingdoms period.
The former Han empire was now officially fragmented. The warlord Sun Quan now held the kingdom of Wu with its capital Jianye (modern Nanjing), while Liu Bei ruled from the Shu Dynasty’s capital Chengdu. Cao Pi, Cao Cao’s son, ruled from the remnant of the north, now called the kingdom of Cao Wei.
Unrest and civil wars continued during the Three Kingdoms Period. Over the years, the state of Cao Wei was involved with a series of minor battles with the states of Shu and Wu. Cao Wei was also involved in a war against the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo after the latter invaded Xi’anping near the Yalu River. Cao Wei’s troops ravaged the Goguryeo capital of Hwando in return, and many of its people resettled in Wei territories. The continued unrest within the Cao Wei state led to its gradual decay and eventual fall of Cao Cao’s dynasty to Sima Yan, the first emperor of Jin Dynasty.
The state of Shu was also plagued with and weakened by internal strife until it fell to the state of Wei in 263 AD. The state of Wu did not fare any better as it was also involved in other wars and plagued by rebellions. Succession problems added to its gradual fragmentation, and it fell to the stronger kingdom of Cao Wei in 264 AD after the death of its last ruler, Sun Hao.
References:
Picture By Dhugal Fletcher from Singapore, Singapore – Cao Cao, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15870384
Bauer, Susan Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Perkins, Dorothy. Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History, and Culture. Routledge, 2013.
Gallienus’ fate was directly linked to his father, Valerian, who ruled with him from the start of his proclamation in 253 AD. His father declared him Caesar and later, confirmed as Augustus, while he served as the ruler of the western part of the Roman empire which bordered the lands of the barbarians. Gallienus can be found on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History in 260 AD.
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He was the son of Valerian by a woman named Egnatia Mariniana and grandson of Egnatius Victor Marinianus, the former governor of Arabia and probably Macedonia (Moesia Superior). It was likely that he was born in Falerii from a senatorial class Etruscan family in 218 AD. He had married Cornelia Salonina before he was declared an emperor at the age of thirty-three or thirty-five. The couple had three sons: Valerian II, Saloninus, and Marinianus.
Gallienus was well-versed in Latin and Greek. He became a patron of the Athenian philosopher Plotinus later in life. As expected, he served in the military in his youth and was stationed in the Rhine and Danube frontiers to counter the attacks of the barbarian tribes. His father, Valerian was declared by his troops as emperor after the death of Aemilianus. Gallienus was set as junior emperor soon after.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. – Ephesians 6:12
Coregency with Valerian
In the same year as his appointment as Augustus, Valerian appointed his son as ruler of the western portion of the empire and left for the east to face the Persian threat of invasion. For the most part, Valerian remained in charge of policy-making (which included the persecution of Christians) until he was taken captive by Shapur I in Mesopotamia. Gallienus was declared as consul between 255 and 257 AD. He made his son Valerian II as Caesar in an attempt to secure his dynasty. This son came with him in his campaigns in the west but remained on the Danube when his father went to secure the Rhine frontier.
In 258 AD, Valerian II disappeared from historical records, and it seemed that Ingenuus, the governor of a part of Pannonia, had a hand in his disappearance. The rogue governor took advantage of Valerian I’s campaigns in the east as well as Gallienus’ preoccupation in the West and declared himself emperor instead. Gallienus swiftly traveled to Pannonia to quell the revolt, and he defeated Ingenuus at the Pannonian city of Mursa or the city of Sirmium. Ingenuus was killed by his own troops or he committed suicide soon after the fall of the Sirmium; Valerian II was replaced by his brother Saloninus as Caesar.
Gallienus also had to deal with the invasion of the Alemanni, Juthungi, and Franks in the middle of his reign. The Alemanni, along with the Juthungi, invaded Italy and nearly succeeded in reaching Rome. These invaders were repelled only by the troops hastily assembled by the Senate which consisted of the Praetorian Guard and civilians. The Alemanni were cornered by Gallienus’ troops and defeated in Mediolanum (modern Milan). The tribe’s defeat so crushed them they did not invade again until ten years later.
Rebellions and Death
Much of Gallienus’ reign was marred by invasions of barbarian tribes and internal strife. The revolt of Regalianus, the governor of a part of Pannonia, was one of the first efforts to depose Gallienus. Regalianus declared himself emperor, and he ruled for six months before he died in an invasion of the Roxolani. Gallienus’ father, Valerian, was captured in Mesopotamia by Shapur I, while a Roman official named Fulvius Macrianus took advantage of the power vacuum and declared two of his sons as emperors. Macrianus’ sons journeyed west to face Gallienus, and they were joined by the Pannonians but were defeated by general Aureolus in Illyricum.
The brothers were later killed in Emesa (present-day Homs, Syria), but it seemed that Gallienus’ troubles did not stop there. He barely had time to put down the revolt led by Macrianus when another revolt led by a Batavian commander named Postumus boiled over in the territories of Germania, Gaul, Brittania, and Hispania. The troops stationed in Gaul declared him as emperor and executed Gallienus’ son, Saloninus, as well as his guardian Silvanus. When news of his son’s death reached him, Gallienus gathered his troops to face Postumus. The revolt dragged on until 263 or 265 AD. Gallienus never got back the territories wrested from him by Postumus.
The Heruli also invaded cities of Greece, but the tribe’s troops were defeated by Gallienus and his troops in the Battle of Naissus. Aureolus, a successful Roman military commander, sided with Postumus and rebelled against Gallienus. He then declared himself the new emperor but was defeated by Gallienus in Pontirolo Nuovo and forced to retreat to Mediolanum. Gallienus pursued Aureolus in Mediolanum, but he was murdered while his troops besieged the city. His family and supporters were killed on the order of the Senate after his death.
References:
Meijer, Fik. Emperors Don’t Die in Bed. London: Routledge, 2004.
Bauer, S. Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Bray, John Jefferson. Gallienus: A Study in Reformist and Sexual Politics. Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1997.
Honorius was born on September 9, 384 AD to the emperor Theodosius I and his wife, Aelia Flacilla. He had an older brother named Arcadius and he received the title nobilissimus puer (Most Noble Child) at a very young age. He became consul in 386 AD when he was just two years old, lived with his father in Rome when he was five, and returned two years later to Constantinople where he was declared as co-emperor of the Western Roman Empire by Theodosius. Honorius is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History at 395 AD.
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Milan served as the Western Roman Empire’s capital during the first year of the young emperor’s reign. Honorius received the western half of the empire while his brother ruled the eastern half when their father died in 395 AD. The Roman empire was divided a long time ago when Constantine the Great transferred the capital from Rome to Constantinople, but it was during the time of Honorius and Arcadius, however, that the split between the two became more obvious.
Honorius was a timid and indecisive ruler who was easily manipulated by the Popes of Rome and various advisers. Particularly the general Stilicho, who was of Vandal and Roman descent. In an effort to control Honorius, Stilicho convinced the young ruler to marry his elder daughter Maria and when she died, replaced her with a younger daughter, Thermantia. Both unions, unfortunately, did not produce an heir.
“Honorius became Augustus on 23 January 393, at the age of eight.”
Reign
Honorius’ reign was marred with barbarian invasions, and one of the biggest threats to the empire’s security was King Alaric I, leader of the Visigoths. It was because of the threat posed by Alaric’s barbarian horde that pushed Honorius to move the imperial court from the northern Italian city of Milan to the coastal and heavily fortified city of Ravenna. Alaric and his forces were only stopped with the help of Honorius’ father-in-law, Stilicho, who held the real power in the empire. It was also during Honorius’ reign when a large part of Gaul was wrested from the empire by a united barbarian force which consisted of the tribes of Quadi, Alans, Ostrogoths, and Vandals. Radagaisus, another Gothic chieftain, led his troops into Italy but failed and was subdued under the leadership of Stilicho.
Rebellions were a frequent event during much of Honorius’ reign. Comes Gildo, the ruler of the province of Africa, attempted to switch allegiance and join the Eastern Roman Empire. This put Honorius in a difficult situation as the province was the source of Rome’s grain and Gildo’s desertion could mean food shortages in the capital. Gildo and his troops were defeated by his own brother, Mascezel, who was sent by Stilicho to subdue the rebels. The rebellion took two years to subdue, and Gildo committed suicide after his defeat.
The Roman province of Britannia was also wracked with revolts that were led by different men during a four-year period. These revolts were led by Marcus (rebelled in 406-407), Gratian (407), and Constantine III (407). All were quelled with the help of Stilicho. However, Britain was left to fend for itself by 410 AD—another sign that the empire was on its way down. A usurper named Maximus rose in the province of Spain in 409. He was declared as emperor by the troops, but later fled after the rebellion he led was quashed in 411 AD.
Fall of Stilicho
Whatever his reasons for his wholehearted support of Honorius, it was undeniable that Stilicho was effective against barbarians and would-be usurpers. The father-in-law kept his timid son-in-law on his throne for many years, but Honorius was too easy to manipulate, and this trait became Stilicho’s downfall. While he was away on an official assignment in Constantinople, a rumor was circulated in the palace by an official called Olympius that Stilicho planned to declare his son as the new emperor of the Eastern Empire. Stilicho, as a result, was arrested along with his son and they were executed along with many of their allies. Honorius’ wife, Thermantia, was spared, but the couple divorced, and his ex-wife returned to her mother, Aelia Flacilla. Stilicho’s troops did not escape the purge, and many of them were killed, while those who lived quickly defected to the Visigoth king Alaric I. This swelled Alaric’s troops, and he used this to full advantage two years later in the disastrous sack of Rome in 410 AD.
Last Years and Death
Two more rebellions broke out in Rome itself in the years 409 and 414—both of which were led by a man called Priscus Attalus. He was initially supported by the Visigoths, but Alaric discarded him in 409 AD when he thought Attalus hindered the negotiations with Honorius. In 414 AD, Attalus rebelled once again, but he was captured by Honorius’ troops and exiled to the Aeolian Islands soon after. Honorius died in 423 AD after an illness and Joannes, a patrician, temporarily ruled the Western Empire until the proclamation of Valentinian III as emperor. Hispania, Britannia, and the parts of Gaul wrested by the barbarians during Honorius’ reign never reverted to back Roman control.
