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The 10s

117 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 1st century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

10 CE12 entries

  • The usurper Wang Mang (who rules during a brief interregnum known as the Xin dynasty) outlaws the private purchase and use of crossbows. Despite this, Liu Xiu, the later Emperor Guangwu of Han, buys crossbows in the winter of AD 22 to aid the rebellion of his brother Liu Yan (styled Bosheng) and Li Tong.
  • The Euthydemid dynasty, a Greek dynasty in Bactria, is brought to an end.
  • Ovid completes Tristia III (the "Sorrows") describing the sadness of banishment.

11 CE7 entries

  • An edict is issued effecting an empire-wide ban on divinatory practices, especially astrology. The edict requires any consultation between a customer and a practitioner to be conducted with at least one third party witness present, and bans inquiry into anyone's death.
  • Satakarni begins his reign as Emperor of the Andhra Empire (AD 11–29).
  • Artabanus II becomes ruler of Parthia.

12 CE8 entries

  • The Armenian Artaxiad dynasty is overthrown by the Romans.
  • Annius Rufus is appointed Prefect of Judea.
  • Ovid stops writing Fasti, because of the lack of resources (being far from the libraries of Rome). He completes 6 books that detail festivals found in the Roman calendar.

13 CE9 entries

  • Ovid publishes books 1-3 of his Epistulae ex Ponto.
  • Abgarus of Edessa is reinstalled as king of Osroene.
  • The Senate passes a senatus consultum restricting the reduced Vigintisexviri to the Ordo Equester.

14 CE20 entries

  • August 19 – Augustus, the first Roman emperor, dies and is declared to be a god.
  • Augustus' third (and final) 20-year census of the Roman Empire reports a total of 4,973,000 citizens.
  • Famine hits China; some citizens turn to cannibalism.

15 CE14 entries

  • May – As part of his campaign against the Germanic peoples, Germanicus captures Thusnelda, wife of Arminius.
  • Varna (Odessus), on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, is annexed to the Roman province of Moesia.
  • Summer – Germanicus launches a two-pronged attack from Vetera and Moguntiacum. On his return journey, he recaptures the aquila of Legio XIX and visits the battlefield of the Teutoburg Forest. Germanicus arranges the burial for the remains of Varus' army.

16 CE10 entries

  • Germanicus employs the North Sea fleet to avoid dangerous rivers, embarking an army in the Rhine Delta, aboard circa 1,000 ships. He defeats the Germans at the Amisius river estuary and the Weser, but during its return, the Roman fleet is partially destroyed by storms.
  • A Roman army of 50,000 men commanded by Germanicus gains a great victory at Idistaviso, defeating the German war chief Arminius, and recovering the lost eagles of Varus' legions.
  • Vonones, the beleaguered king of Armenia, is summoned to Syria, by Roman governor Creticus Silanus.

17 CE10 entries

  • May 26 – Germanicus returns to Rome as a conquering hero; he celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti and other Germanic tribes west of the Elbe.
  • An earthquake in Anatolia destroys the city of Sardis and damages several other cities.
  • Tacfarinas, Numidian deserter from the Roman army, begins a guerrilla war against the Romans. He leads his own Musulamii tribe and a coalition of Berbers, attacking the Limes Tripolitanus, a fortified zone (limes) of the Roman Empire in Africa.

18 CE14 entries

  • Winter – Germanicus Caesar arrives in Syria, as new commander-in-chief for the Roman East.
  • Germanicus concludes a peace treaty with Artabanus II of Parthia, in which he is recognized as king and friend of Rome.
  • Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, governor of Syria, ignores the order of Germanicus to send Syrian-based legions, including Legio VI Ferrata and Legio X Fretensis, to Armenia to back him in his planned coronation of Artaxias III.

19 CE13 entries

  • Germanicus Julius Caesar, commander in chief of the Roman legions in the East and beloved by the legionaries, falls ill and dies. On his deathbed he accuses Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him.
  • King Vonones I is removed to Cilicia and kept under house arrest. He escapes, but is caught and killed by a retired Roman legion veteran.
  • Agrippina the Elder accuses Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso of having assassinated her husband Germanicus Julius Caesar in Antioch. However, there is no credible evidence and the charge is never proven. (In ancient times, when medical science was not advanced, poison was usually suspected whenever a young, healthy person died suddenly. There was no way to pinpoint and trace the substance after death; therefore, it was considered a quick, easy and non-traceable form of homicide.)