Autumn: SIMEON BAR-KOSEBA, 'prince of Israel', leads a carefully prepared revolt against Rome, after it becomes known that emperor HADRIAN is to build Roman temples in Jerusalem.
Chief Rabbi AKIBA declares SIMEON to be the promised Messiah and calls him Bar-Cochba ("Son of the Stars" from Numbers 24:17).

In Palestine – A Jewish Sabbath Year for the land.
The Jewish planned rebellion against Rome now begins, with the expectation that Jews everywhere would join. Christian Jews refuse to join their rebellion.
In Athens, Greece – The temple of Zeus, begun originally in the 6th century BC, is copmpleted and dedicated by Emperor HADRIAN, and a statue of HADRIAN is erected in the Theatre of Dionysius.
In Palestine – The Roman garrison of Judea of two legions, the VI Ferrata and the X Fretensis, under TINEIUS RUFUS, comes under such pressure that reinforcements are called from neighbouring territories:

The legions, III Cyrenaica, III Gallica and IV Scythia, may also have been involved, putting at risk the stability of other provinces of Rome.
The Roman Tenth Legion is forced to leave Jerusalem to pursue BAR-KOSEBA's guerilla bands, whereupon the rebel BAR-KOSEBA occupies the city.
SIMEON BAR-KOSEBA re-institutes ritual sacrifice in Jerusalem and Qumran is occupied by his followers.
The rebels redistribute imperial estates among local Jewish communities and issue their own Hebrew coinage.

Military recruitment in Italy is urgently increased and even Roman sailors are transferred to the legions in Judea.
Winter: HADRIAN replaces RUFUS with JULIUS SEVERUS (Governor of Britain) as commander of his legions in Judea.
The 5,000 strong XXII Deitoriana Legion brought in from Egypt is almost wiped out by the Jewish rebels.

In Palestine – Eventually, under General SEXTUS JULIUS, the Roman army systematically wipes out 50 Jewish fortresses, and devastates 985 villages in Judea and Galilee. Burial of the dead is prohibited and the stench of putrefaction covers every battle site.
Disenchanted Jews begin renaming their leader BAR-KOZIBA ('son of disappointment').

July: BAR-KOSEBA is driven from Jerusalem and killed at his fortress at Bethar (which also houses the Jewish Sanhedrin) with all its inhabitants and refugees. Their bodies are left to rot and BAR-KOSEBA's head is paraded before the Roman commander and his troops.
The Jewish rebels are defeated and over 580,000 killed.
In the slave markets of Hebron and Gaza, captured Jews are sold for the price of a horse. (source: Dion Cassius 50.69, as quoted by Gibbon 1.XVI. Notes).
The Roman army had suffered such casualties that HADRIAN is not able to announce the usual victory formula to the Senate – "I am well and the army is well."

Jerusalem is plowed over according to the ancient Roman rite of building a new city and rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina (from which all Jews are banned, including Christian Jews) on a grid plan (which still dominates the Old City today) with a magnificent temple to Jupiter Capitolinus (about where the Al Aksa Mosque stands today), theater, public baths, a pool dedicated to the Nymphs, and two marketplaces.
The Tenth Legion's camp is constructed over Herod's palace on the highest point of the city.
HADRIAN has an arch constructed about 440 metres north of the city to commemorate his victory over BAR-KOSEBA.
Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified) is covered by a temple to the goddess Aphrodite/Venus. (See: 326 AD).

HADRIAN prohibits Jewish ordination, public assembly, circumcision, and any religious regulation of the calendar.
All Jews are banned from the whole district of Judea (Galilee thus becomes the centre of Palestinian Jewry), resulting in confusion among Jews in later years over the precise location of the site of their Temple in Jerusalem.

SIMEON BEN GAMALIEL II (reigns c.135-c.175) succeeds his father (GAMALIEL II) as the recognized Jewish leader ('Patriarch') within the Roman empire. He moves the rabbinic academy to Gallilee. He is known for his ruling in Jewish texts on Sabbath law –

Thus continuing to perpetuate the blindness of the Pharisees in technical legalities concerning the Sabbath and its purpose in violation of the written Word of God (see: Mark 2:27-28).
(The Persian/Parthian Empire's leader of their Jews is known as the 'Exilarch').

Rome permits the establishment of a Jewish rabbinic academy at Usha (Jamnia/Jabneh/Yavneh) in Galilee.

Emperor ANTONINUS PIUS (138-161) revokes HADRIAN's Jewish religious prohibitions, but has an equestrian statue of himself erected on Temple Mount (where the Dome of the Rock now stands).

POLYCARP of Smyrna (for 14 Nisan, Passover, following apostolic tradition) travels to Rome to discuss disagreement over which day the resurrection of JESUS should be celebrated annually with ANICETUS of Rome (for Sunday thereafter), but they do not allow the difference to divide them. (See 199).

Under Emperor MARCUS AURELIUS (161-180) the prohibition on Jews visiting Jerusalem is not as strictly enforced.
Bishop MELITO of Sardis describes Roman Jerusalem for pilgrimage purposes as "worthless now because of the Jerusalem above".

Christian Apologist, JUSTIN MARTYR, is martyred for his faith.

The Roman army under LUCIUS VERUS withdraws and returns from its war in the East because of plague and thereby causes it to spread around the Mediterranean. Smallpox plague ravages the Roman Empire until 167.

JUDAH the 'Prince' (reigns c.175–c.220), son of SIMEON BEN GAMALIEL, succeeds to the Jewish Patriarchate of the Roman Empire.

A vicious systematic persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire begins under Stoic philosopher-Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
In southern Gaul – Churches are destroyed after a crowd accuses the local Christians of practicing cannibalism and incest. Forty-seven Christians are martyred in Lyon (Blandina and Pothinus, bishop of Lyon, among them).

In Rome – The popular emperor, PERTINAX, is murdered by the Praetorian Guard, which then proceeds to auction off the emperorship. JULIANUS, a wealthy Senator, outbids others but within months is deposed and murdered.

Roman Emperor, SEPTIMUS SEVERUS, rules; ending civil war and establishing peace.
In Byzantium – SEVERUS builds its Hippodrome.

In Rome – Bishop VICTOR excommunicates the church of Ephesus over the annual date for the celebration of Christ's resurrection, but relents after a plea from IRENAEUS of Lyon. (See 156 and 325).

JUDAH ha-Nasi (the Prince) compiles The Mishna (Oral Law) from the various interpretative efforts and judicial compilations of the rabbinic schools of the 1st & 2nd centuries, thus canonizing the oral traditions including those which JESUS had vigorously condemned. Various rabbis resist a central compilation of the traditions but JUDAH's prestige prevails over their objections.
The Roman government regards JUDAH as their own paid government official with the status of Prefect. (see 415 AD/CE).
The fixing of the Jewish calendar by observation of the New Moon is now supplanted by a 'secret' method of astronomical calculation (the 19 year Babylonian cycle). (see 359 AD).
In Jerusalem, extensive Roman building continues at the southern end of the Temple Mount.
East of Palestine the Jews enjoy significantly more freedom under the Persian/Parthian empire.
Christian theologians (Hippolytus of Rome) now begin teaching that the coming Antichrist will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. This further estranges Christians from Jews.

Emperor SEPTIMUS SEVERUS prohibits Christian and Jewish proselytising, inaugurating the first systematic persecution of Christianity.
CLEMENT of Alexandria writes of the Christian experience, "Many martyrs are daily burned, confined, or beheaded, before our eyes" (probably between the years 202 and 210).

Roman Emperor SEPTIMUS SEVERUS visits Britain, inspects Hadrian's Wall, in Britain and launches a scorched-earth war against Caledonia, massacring all settlements of Picts. York is effectively the centre of the Roman world while the Emperor is in residence for the three years of this cruel war. The Emperor makes his sons rulers: CARACALLA as military head and GETA as civilian ruler in Britain in this time.

See Leviticus 25.

February 4: SEPTIMUS SEVERUS dies in York, leaving his two sons GETA and CARACALLA as joint emperors of the Empire. GETA returns to Rome with his mother and CARACALLA kills more than thirty men who had not supported his earlier attempt to take power by hastening his father's death.
Late December: CARACALLA has his brother GETA murdered, initiating a purge of perceived enemies.

Roman citizenship is conferred on all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire, including Jews, mainly as a method of raising revenue, by Emperor CARACALLA.

Roman Emperor CARACALLA (an obsessive imitator of ALEXANDER THE GREAT), in response to a disorder in the city, orders a general massacre among the population of Alexandria, Egypt, involving many Jews and Christians.

In Parthian (Persian) Babylonia – Two Babylonian disciples of patriarch JUDAS the Prince (ABBA ARIKA and SAMUEL BAR ABBA) begin to propagate the Mishna and related literature as the normative canon of Jewish practice. These two becomes the heads of rabbinic academies at Sura and Nehardea, respectively, and cultivate a native Babylonian rabbinate which increasingly provides the officers for Jewish religious courts.

Emperor ELAGABALUS (VARIUS AVITUS BASSIANUS, notorious for his public homosexual orgies) commands Jews and Christians to worship the oriental sun-god Elagabalus (Baal of Emesa, known as Elah-Gabal). His mother's family were hereditary high priests of sun-god Baal at Emesa.

Christian scholar ORIGEN settles in Caesarea, Palestine.
He regards Jews mourning on the Mount of Olives over their lost Temple as pathetically misguided.

Roman Emperor, SEPTIMUS ALEXANDER, is assassinated by his troops, resulting in 50 years of political and economic instability. The old monetary system of emperor Augustus is destabilized and silver is debased to token value.
Renewed punishments, including exile and death, are directed at Christian Clergy as propagators of the faith.

In Parthian Empire – The Sasanian rulers protect Jews from interference by fanatical Magian priests and innovative Jewish officials.
Thus Babylonia becomes the mediator to the High Middle Ages (9th-12th centuries) of the traditional Palestinian Judaism that had been transplanted to its soil.

January: Roman emperor DECIUS issues an edict for the suppression of Christianity, requiring all citizens to offer sacrifice as an oath of allegiance. Many Christians refuse and are tortured and executed.
In Carthage and Alexandria – Anti-Christian feelings generated lead to pogroms against Christians.
In Antioch, Syria – Bishop BABYLAS goes to his martyr death singing Psalm 116:15 –

Plague ravages the Roman Empire. At its height from 251 to 266 AD it kills 5,000 a day in Rome.

The Christian church in Rome has c.30,000 members, 150 pastors, and great influence in the capital of the empire. Unfortunately, this influenced the church to adopt hierarchical structures like the Roman government and to claim jurisdiction over smaller churches within its sphere of influence.

Sasanians invade the Empire and sack Antioch in Syria.
Under Roman Emperor GALLIENUS Christians are permitted to live unharmed.

An independent empire is established in Gaul under former Roman officials.

The 'Unconquered Sun' is proclaimed god of the Roman Empire.

Emperor DIOCLETIAN (284-305) restores stability to the empire.

Emperor DIOCLETIAN appoints MAXIMIANUS as joint ruler (Augustus), and with the appointment of two junior emperors (Caesars), the Roman Empire is ruled by a college of four (tetrarchy) until the abdication of the two senior emperors in AD 305.

In Jerusalem – The Tenth Legion leaves Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), and the Romans build a new city wall.

In Palestine – The Palestinian Talmud (Gemara), a commentary on Mishna, is completed (Talmud Yerushalmi). This probably stimulates Babylonian Jews to prepare a compilation of their own from records of study and decisions of their own rabbinic academies and courts.
Within the Roman Empire, tensions between rabbinic circles and the official Patriarch continue to increase.

In the Roman Empire – Under Emperor DIOCLETIAN church burnings mark the last great anti-Christian campaign until the edict of GALERIUS give Christians the right to practise their religion and rebuild their churches unmolested.

The Huns (Hsiung-nu) invade China. (See 370 AD).

In Spain – The Christian Synod of Elvira forbids Christians to eat with Jews and intermarry with them. Essentially Jews are declared personae non gratae.

See Leviticus 25.

Four rulers now claim the title of Emperor of Rome, one of whom is CONSTANTINE (whose mother is a Christian).

In the Edict of Milan, Emperor CONSTANTINE I guarantees freedom of religion (legal recognition) for Christianity.

October 18: Emperor CONSTANTINE decrees –

December 11: Emperor CONSTANTINE issues a decree to the Roman municipal authority in Cologne, Germany – 'We give permission by a general law to all authorities to appoint Jews to the Curia...'.

CONSTANTINE as emperor makes possible the building of the famous Christian shrines in Aelia (Jerusalem), beginning one of Jerusalem's most splendid and prosperous periods until 614 AD/CE.
The rate of monetary inflation now begins to rise out of control. In the following 36 years the 'silver' denarius (standard coin of the early empire) devalues from 4,350 to the new gold solidus, to 4,600,000 denarii to the solidus. (105,747%).

June 19: First Christian Council (Synod) of Nicea begins.
The seventh canon of the Council of Nicea decrees that 'custom and ancient tradition' require that the bishop of Aelia (Jerusalem) should hold an honoured position in the Christian Church.
The Council also decrees against the Passover (Quartodeciman) date for celebrating Easter, and tends to now see diversity as a threat to unity.
Emperor CONSTANTINE authorizes Bishop MAKARIOS of Aelia to demolish the temple of Aphrodite in Jerusalem in order to uncover the 'tomb of Christ'.

CONSTANTINE's mother, HELENA AUGUSTA, makes a tour of the eastern provinces of the empire, culminating in Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem).
Here the suburb of Mount Sion is now confused with the Biblical Mount Zion.
Emperor CONSTANTINE orders that the temple of Aphrodite/Venus be demolished and the soil (which had provided a flat surface for the temple) be removed, and instructs Bishop MACARIUS of Jerusalem to build a church on its site.

May 11: In Byzantium – The new capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople (New Rome), is founded by Emperor Constantine, who brings the Palladium, the wooden statue of Pallas Athena, sacred talisman of old Rome, to his new city.

The anonymous 'Bordeaux Pilgrim' reports that Jews anoint the "lapis perfusus" rock near HADRIAN's statues on Temple Mount in Aelia (Jerusalem) in mourning for the loss of their Temple, and that the "crypta" of Jesus and Golgotha hill are not yet enclosed by the basilica.

Caesar CONSTANTINE dies.

In the Persian (Sassanid) Empire – The increasing identification between Christianity within the Roman Empire and the politics of Roman power causes the Christians within the Persian empire (under Shapur II) to be seen by the authorities as a danger to the State and steps are implemented to eliminate them. Many massacres occur which eventually cost more than 160,000 Christian lives!

CONSTANTINE II becomes sole emperor.
Jews, in the towns of Sepphoris, Tiberius, and Lydda, rise in rebellion over laws forbidding them from owning slaves (crippling Jewish industry), but it is quickly suppressed.

Emperor CONSTANTIUS II forbids Christians to convert to Judaism and describes Jews in his official statute as "savage," "abominable," and "blasphemous."

In Gaul – JULIAN (Flavius Claudius Julianus, later 'the Apostate') resides in Lutecia (later Paris) to direct his troops in the north and north-eastern borders.

Growing disunity over fixing of the Jewish calendar between the Jews of Syrian Antioch and of Palestine compels Patriarch HILLEL II to publish the astronomical principles for regulation of the Jewish calendar. (see 200 AD).

Emperor CONSTANTIUS II dies and is succeeded by JULIAN.

July 19: Emperor JULIAN meets Jewish leaders in Antioch and writes to Patriarch HILLEL II promising to make Jerusalem a Jewish city again.
He orders the Jewish Temple's reconstruction. ALYPIUS is appointed to carry out the task.

Christians gather in the Martyrium of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pray that the Jewish Temple reconstruction be stopped.
May 27: The reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple is reportedly halted by an earthquake that ignites gases accumulated under the old Temple foundations, which erupt in 'globi flammarium' – balls of fire.
(JULIAN also attempts to restore the temple of Delphi. The oracle is reported to have responded with nothing but a wail over its departed glory).
JULIAN's death causes the project to be abandoned.
JULIAN is succeeded by pro-Christian emperor JOVIAN.

In Rome – Bishop DAMASUS institutes a great annual ceremony in honour of Peter and Paul as giving primacy to Rome over eastern Christianity, and as continuing protectors of the city.
He latinizes the Mass, which had up to now be conducted in Hellenistic Greek (the language of the New Testament), and changes its simple ceremony into a lengthier and more formal one with an element of grandeur to counterbalance impressive pagan ritual. (From this the West acquired the 'kyrie', the 'sanctus', the 'gloria', and creed rituals of episcopal Christianity).
378: He holds a synod which demands state intervention to ensure that western bishops are subject to the bishop of Rome, and that the bishop of Rome could not be compelled to appear in court.

In Britain – A successful attack by Picts, Scots, and Saxons.

In Britain – Roman authority is restored by THEODOSIUS.

First appearance of the Huns in Europe. (See 304 AD).

August: In Upper Macedonia – Emperor VALENS tries to quell a revolt of Visgoths (whom he had allowed to settle as a buffer against their unruly Ostrogoth cousins), provoked by exploitation by local Roman officals, but they destroy nearly two thirds of the Roman army at Adrianople.
From now on Rome depends largely on its allies (federati) and mercenaries for its defence.

THEODOSIUS I becomes Roman emperor.

THEODOSIUS I summons a council of the whole church (the so-called Second Ecumenical Council of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) which ratifies his doctrinal decree for all Christendom.

JEROME completes the translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate).

Bishop AMBROSE of Milan rebukes emperor THEODOSIUS I for daring to punish Christians for burning down a Jewish synagogue (at Callinicum on the Euphrates) at the instigation of the local bishop. AMBROSE writes to the emperor "The maintenance of civil law is secondary to religious interest". The emperor submits.
All marriages between Jews and Christians are forbidden by law.

In Constantinople – A tall monlithic obelisk of porphyry from the temple at Karnak in Egypt is erected at the city's Hippodrome.

February: THEODOSIUS I prohibits all sacrifices and attendance at any pagan temples.
In Egypt – Christians in Alexandria burn the library.

November 8: THEODOSIUS I completely prohibits the worship of pagan gods.
Jerusalem has now become a Christian holy city, though not always a charitable one, shifting the centre of religious interest from Temple Mount to Golgotha at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
THEODOSIUS I uses ALARIC and his Goths to quell a revolt by pretender EGNATIUS, a puppet of the Frankish leader ARBOGAST. EGNATIUS is killed, but ALARIC is disenchanted by Rome's lack of appreciation.

Death of THEODOSIUS I (the Great). His empire is divided between East (under his son ARCADIUS) and West (under his son HONORIUS advised by General STILICHO) becomes final.

In Greece – After failing to conquer Constantinople, ALARIC and his Goths terrorize Greece, until General STILICHO brings troops from the West.
ALARIC is however now appointed as a 'prefect' of a large part of Illyricum by the Eastern emperor ARCADIUS.

The Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) is completed.

Barbarian invasions of the empire begin.

Eastern Emperor ARCADIUS dies.
Emperor THEODOSIUS II prohibits Jews from holding any advantageous office of honour in the Roman state.

Visigoths (under ALARIC) invade Italy, sack Rome.
Western Emperor HONORIUS tells Britain to arrange its own defence.

Bishop AUGUSTINE of Hippo, North Africa, employs the duty of Roman magistrates to control Christian heretics and religious dissent within the North African church. He gives this a theological base from Luke 14:23 ('compel') with dire consequences for both Jewish and Christian history, particularly in central and western Europe (i.e. the Inquisition).
Church conference at Carthage, North Africa, condemns Donatism and Pelagianism as heretical.

Visigoths begin conquest of Spain.
Emperor THEODOSIUS II publicly reprimands the Jewish Patriarch GAMALIEL II and strips him of the rank of 'praefectus praetorio'. (see 200 AD/CE)
A mob of Christians in Alexandria murder the last great pagan teacher, HYPATIA.
December 26: After the discovery of three Jewish tombs at Kfar Gamala on the coastal plain of Palestine from a dream by  presbyter LUCIAN, identifying them as NICODEMUS, STEPHEN (the first martyr) and GAMALIEL (the teacher of Saul of Tarsus),  Bishop JOHN of Jerusalem re-inters "Stephen's" remains in the Basilica of Mount Sion which he had built around the Upper Room of the Last Supper.

April 30: Byzantine Emperor HONORIUS outlaws opposition to AUGUSTINE's doctrines of 'original sin' and 'predestination'.

On the death of the Jewish Patriarch GAMALIEL, the patriarchate and the Jewish council associated with it is ended.

The East Roman empire abolishes the Jewish Patriarchate and now diverts its Jewish tax to the imperial treasury.
THEODOSIUS II orders the compilation of laws known as the Theodosian Code.
Vandals begin the conquest of North Africa.