1 C.E. * First year in Tiberius' reign - as a comaius with Augustus (1) * Bar Mitzvah of Joshua * Augustus adopts Tiberius, and makes him coprincep (4) * Augustus re-instates leap years quadrennially for Julian Calendar (4) * Judaea ceases to enjoy home rule as a client kingdom under a Jewish king upon Rome assuming direct rule via a prefect; Syrian governor Quirinius takes a census of Judaeans for collection of property tax from them (6) [Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. XVI, vi, 1] * Abyssinian Era begins (8) * So as to duly ape pharaos of yore, Augustus is deified, albeit upon his death; Tiberius, his adopted son, thereby becomes a son of a god (14) * Han dynasty collapses; Later: the Han will rise again, yet again defeat the Huns, and move the capital east to Luoyang from Ch'ang-An (9-25) * To magi, the Milky Way is a dense crown of stars [Manilius, Astronomica.] * Gondophares, Saka steward king of Parthian fiefdom Sakastan, engages in a reconquista: from Arachosia, through Gandhara, up to Sakala in Kasmira; gains control of Indus Valley linking Silk Road to the Spice Route <www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-07enl.html> * Gondophares (Caspar) declares independence from the Parthian Empire, turning Taxila into the capital of his new Northern Saka kingdom * Kujula founds Kusana's first dynasty, extends kingdom to Tarim Basin * Abgar V, Parthian steward king of Edessa, writes a letter to Joshua, for Him to visit & heal him for which he'd provide sanctuary; in keeping with the promise in His reply, St Thomas will send Addai, a Samaritan disciple, to heal him & found Church of Edessa [Doctrine of Addai. Eusebius] * Last Seder eaten on a Tuesday, Joshua taken into custody the next day [Didascalia: Book 35 of Ethiopic New Testament] * Spread of Christianity begins in the wake of the Resurrection of the Messiah--after having been crucified by Samaritan mercenaries * Indentured to Abban, a building contractor, St Thomas travels through Parthia, baptises Sophoi, & takes some along; is summoned to Caspar's court, & makes him one of the Northern Sakas' converts to Christianity [Acta Thomae. Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in North India.] * On charge of a secret alliance with Parthia, Herod Antipas exiled to Gaul & founds a proto-Merovingian dynasty as a self-styled Son of God (39) * The beast of all apostles murders Messianics saved from a Hellenistic Judaism; later preaches the "mystery" [Romans 16.25, Ephesians 6.19] of "another gospel" [Galatians 1, 2 Corinthians 11.4] - "*my* gospel" [Romans 2.16] to the Gentiles [Galatians 2] of "*my* doctrine" [2 Timothy 3.10] of a spiritual Israel [Romans 9] "not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" all to be called "sons of the living God" via unbiblical, mystical, Egyptian rites: a) "baptism unto death" [6.4] to achieve union with Osiris, as done by initiates into the mysteries of his widow, Isis; [Plutarch; Apuleius, Metamorphoses. 11, 23; Justin Martyr, Apology. 61] b) "adoption" [Romans 8.15] just like that received by Imhotep from Ptah to thereby vicariously await [13.11] the gnostic hope of salvation, apotheosis [Galatians 4], as his "private interpretation" of scriptural prophecy; so becoming a "false teacher/apostle" [2 Peter 2.1, Rev. 2.2] (by impling in Galatians 1.6 that the 12 Apostles instead are heretics who "would pervert the gospel of Christ" by NOT substituting this rite, as practiced by pagan god-kings, for the new commandment in John 13 that Christ's disciples love one another to become, as in 1 John 3, sons of God on their own) and the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus" [Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration. Spencer, Beyond Damascus. Socrates, Ecclesiastical History. Pagels, The Gnostic Paul. Thomas Jefferson] * Kusana is 3rd Reich of the East by Anschluss of Northern Saka kingdom, so making a wandering Jew out of St Thomas who follows those Sakas who fled to India's Saka kingdoms (founded in wake of older expulsions) (47-50) * St Thomas reaches the Malabar coast in Kerala and founds 7 churches: Maliankara, Palaur, Kottakavu, Kokamangalam, Nairanam, Chayal & Kollam ["Thomas Ramaban Pattu." Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in South India.] * Silk first seen in Rome; Rome campaigns against Armenia (58-63) * Emperor Ming-ti's brother, Liu Ying, is the first official sponsor of Buddhist practices in China (65) * Halley's comet appears before doomed war against Rome (Feb. 65 O.S.) [Josephus, Jewish Wars. VI, v, 3] * Arsacid dynasty of Armenia formally established when King Tiridates, Parthia's appointee to that throne, visits Rome for Nero's approval, and brings his fellow magi with him. (66) * Parthian emperor, Valkash I, mints coins in Aramaic, and orders magian priests to record Avistak & Zand from Zoroastrianism's oral tradition, to be called, after its kind of Persian, the Pahlavi ("Parthian") Text * India's first Buddhist missionaries to China well-received by Ming-ti: upon seeing a golden man floating in a halo, interpreted by Minister Fu Yi to be the Buddha, he sends Ts'ai-yin & Ch'in-ching to India for a statue of the Buddha and for Buddhist monks to translate texts * In the First Revolt of the Jews, Rome closes their blood-sacrifice era by sacking Jerusalem & rasing their Temple, as predicted by the Messiah, after besieging it while camped at Armageddon; members of David's royal lineage executed by the miracle-working "christ" Vespasian (70) [Josephus; Tacitus; Suetonius] * House of Judah made desolate; its sceptre to rule a theocracy is given to a nation of Beit Israel which yields fruit, namely Ethiopia--only one to preserve scripture cited by John 7.38 (& all of Enoch's pentateuch) [Gospel of St Matthew, Apostle to Ethiopia. 23.38, 21.43; (Jude 15)] * Onkelos, nephew of Titus & proselyte, translates Pentateuch into Aramaic; this first Targum is transmitted by oral tradition for two centuries * After Dravidian King (Sagamo) embraces Christianity, local Brahmins using a lance pierce St Thomas while praying in a tomb near Carmandal, where he habitually met with descendants of Parthian emigrants to Coromandel Coast; his body is interred at Mylapore in a church built using stonemasonry similar to that used at Arikamedu (72) <www.keithhunt.com/Twelve10.html> [Schurhammer in: Mundadan, Traditions of the St Thomas Christians.] * Last known cuneiform texts, relating to astronomy, one using geometry to to predict Jupiter's motion, herald end of Akkadian language (62 & 75) yet to be read in temples by scribes, and spoken in Babylon till the 200s when Sasanians supplant tolerant Parthian rule, and close pagan temples [Iamblichus] * Western Saka satrapies pledge allegiance to Kusana's Emperor Vima-- considered by the Chinese to be the first foreign conqueror of India (78) [Sagar, Foreign Influence on Ancient India.] * The three great empires of the East--China, Parthia, Kusana--establish order along the Silk Road, which multiplies the caravan trade so much that it adds another route: an intermediate one to Bactra past "Stone Tower" where western & eastern merchants meet to exchange goods; via India there are well-established shipping routes from Egypt & Ethiopia to the Far East with thriving trade in Malaya's international port of Tun-sun, spice trade in Java & Bali (& sporadic trans-Pacific trade likely in Oceania\America); via Taxila much silk shipped from port of Barbaricum on the Indus (mostly as sarees) to Roman empire along with diamonds, turquoise, tortoise shell, spices; its total imports (e.g. via port of Bhrigukaccha, whence "broach") from India annually cost 550 million sesterces in gold [Pliny (the Elder)] * Saka Magoi inaugurate Sakanta Era (to be in continual use by astrologers & Maga Brahmins in India, and in official use as of 1 Chaitra 1878 S.E. six years after becoming a republic) upon the vernal equinox attaining the same degree as Alpherg; Age of Aries ends, Age of Pisces begins (79) [Sakadvipi-siddhanta.] * Pliny dies in rescue effort during eruption of Mt Vesuvius--foreshadows Revelation's prophecy of worst volcanic eruption in history 107 years later when New Zealand's Mt Taupo darkens skies globally (24 October 79) * Flavian Amphitheatre opens: built using the proceeds from the sacking of Jerusalem so as to share the spoils of war with the People of Rome (80) (Roman bloodlust for exotic animals, esp. big cats, to become so colossal that it will make Caspian leopards extinct--but not so for Christians) * Kusana's incursions upset Han power in Tarim region; China's General Pan Ch'ao defeats Kusana, and keeps the peace in the Tarim Basin.(90) * China's first ambassador sent to Rome from Pan Ch'ao's command; yet when Parthians at Persian Gulf say that it is 2 more years to Rome, he returns [Fan Ye, Annals of the Later Han.] * Empire of Kusana reaches its greatest extent under Kaniska who develops Purusapura as his capital, erects great stupas over relics of the Buddha, and convenes the Fourth Buddhist Council at Taxila, after which Northern Buddhism (in which asceticism & ascension become optional for saints & bodhisattas) splits off from the Southern, and begins spreading along the Silk Road; at his court reside Chinese princes held 'hostage'; under his guidance, art develops prolificly, e.g. the Gandhara school--creating images of the Buddha perhaps as early as his reign