125 CE

Zhang Heng of Han dynasty China invents a hydraulic-powered armillary sphere. Plague sweeps North Africa in the wake of a locust invasion that destroys large areas of cropland. The plague kills as many as 500,000 in Numidia and possibly 150,000 on the coast before moving to Italy, where it takes so many lives that villages and towns are abandoned. (or was it around 125 BC). Gautamiputra Satakarni, a king of the Andhra dynasty, conquers the Konkan near Bombay. He then controls central India from coast to coast.

In the 120s, the 2nd century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Gautamiputra Satakarni, a king of the Andhra dynasty, conquers the Konkan near Bombay. He then controls central India from coast to coast.source

Conflict & Security

  • Change of emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty from Han Andi to Marquis of Beixiang, then to Han Shundi.source
  • Last (4th) year of the Yanguang era of the Chinese Han dynasty.source

Religion & Belief

  • The Satires of Juvenal intimate that bread and circuses (panem et circenses) keep the Roman people happy.source
  • Pope Telesphorus succeeds Pope Sixtus I as the eighth pope according to Roman Catholic tradition.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Italy, starts to be built (approximate date).source
  • Zhang Heng of Han dynasty China invents a hydraulic-powered armillary sphere.source
  • The Pantheon is constructed in Rome, as it stands today.source

Health & Medicine

  • Plague sweeps North Africa in the wake of a locust invasion that destroys large areas of cropland. The plague kills as many as 500,000 in Numidia and possibly 150,000 on the coast before moving to Italy, where it takes so many lives that villages and towns are abandoned. (or was it around 125 BC)source

Births

  • Aulus Gellius, Roman author and grammarian (approximate date)source
  • Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus, Roman politician (died 193)source
  • Lucius Ferenius, Dutch potter in Heerlen (approximate date)source
  • Lucian, Syrian satirist and rhetorician (approximate date)source

Deaths