September 2

44 BCE: Cicero delivers the
first of his fourteen Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will
make 14 of them over the next several months. From a Jewish perspective it
might be proper to say “a pox on both of your houses.”&nbs…

August 30

70: According to
Josephus, the day one which the Second Temple was set aflame

500: Having conquered
Italy, Ostrogoth King Theodoric gave the Jews freedom to worship.

526 Death of Theodoric
the Great, king of the Ostrogoths (the eastern Got…

Some will agree that “24 little hours” makes such a difference, as the song said a number of years ago. However, as mortal humans, we must remember 2 Peter 3:8; “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand y…

August 22

70:
According to Josephus, Titus began the battering operations against the wall of
the Temple Court 6:4)

634: Abu Bakr,
the father-in-law of Mohammed and first Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate who
was a leader in the “campaign against the …

August 17

986: During the days of
the First Bulgarian Empire, the army of Emperor Samuil of Bulgaria and his
brother defeat the Byzantines led by Basil II. 
The Bulgarian Empire had provided a haven for Jews escaping from the Byzantine
Army so th…

July 21

285:
Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler. This was part of an attempt
to shore up the imperial authority.  In
another such step, Diocletian “ordered all the people …to accept his divinity
and offer sacrifices to him.  Fo…

July 22

1099: During
the First Crusade, in what has to be one of the most ironic moment of the
Middle Ages, Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the leaders who had extorted money
from the Jews in Mainz and Cologne and had participated in the killing of the
Je…