September 21

19 BCE:
Virgil, the classical Roman poet passes away. Eclogue 4, the so-called
Messianic Eclogue, is the best known of Virgil’s Eclogues or “Selected Poems
also known as Bucolics or “Pastorals.. Written in 40 B.C., during the consulship
o…

September
9

337:
Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans I succeed their father Constantine
I as co-emperors dividing the Roman Empire between the three Augusti.
Constantine was responsible for making Christianity the state religion of the Roman
…

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…

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…