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The 210s

146 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 3rd century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

210 CE9 entries

  • Having suffered heavy losses since invading Scotland in 208, Emperor Septimius Severus sends his son - Caracalla - to systematically wipe out and torture the Scots into submission.

211 CE14 entries

  • February 4 – Emperor Septimius Severus, having fallen ill, dies in Eboracum (modern-day York) while on campaign in Britain after an 18-year reign. He is later deified by the Senate. His sons Caracalla and Geta succeed him as joint Roman emperors.
  • March – September: Battle of Tong Pass: Cao Cao defeats Ma Chao.
  • December 19 – Geta is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet Caracalla, to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him, and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.

212 CE12 entries

  • The edict of Emperor Caracalla (Constitutio Antoniniana) extends Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire, with the exception of a limited group that may include Egyptians. The Jewish people are among those who receive citizenship. All free women in the Empire are given the same rights as Roman women.
  • Roman jurist Papinian, one of the famous jurists who flourished during the reign of the late emperor Septimius Severus, refuses to write a legal defence for the murder of Caracalla's brother, Emperor Geta. He is beheaded in Rome, in Caracalla's presence.
  • Caracalla quiets the objections of the Roman army to Geta's murder, by huge donations.

213 CE9 entries

  • Cao Cao, the prime minister of the Han dynasty, is titled Wei Gong (Duke of Wei) and given a fief of ten cities under his domain. This later becomes the Kingdom of Wei.
  • Battle of Ruxu: Cao Cao clashes against Sun Quan.
  • Emperor Caracalla leaves Rome and expels some Germanic marauders from Gaul, while his mother, Julia Domna, rules the Empire. He defends the northern Rhine frontier against the Alamanni and the Chatti. Caracalla wins over the Germanic tribes on the banks of the River Main, and gives himself the title "Germanicus". It is probably while campaigning in Germania that he takes a liking to the caracalla, a Celtic or Germanic tunic from which he acquires the name by which he is known.

214 CE18 entries

  • Battle of Xiaoyao Ford: General Zhang Liao under the command of Cao Cao beats back Sun Quan at Hefei.
  • Pang Tong dies in the hands of the enemy in an ambush at the Valley of the Fallen Phoenix.
  • Liu Bei takes Yi Province from his clansman Liu Zhang, forming the later basis for Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.

215 CE11 entries

  • A coin, the Antoninianus, is introduced. The weight of this coin is a mere 1 / 50 of a pound. Copper disappears gradually, and by the middle of the third century, with Rome's economy in crisis, the Antonianus will be the only official currency.
  • Caracalla's troops massacre the population of Alexandria, Egypt, beginning with the leading citizens after the Alexandrian Revolts. The emperor was angry about a satire, produced in Alexandria, mocking his claim that he killed Geta in self-defense.
  • Zhang Liao holds off Sun Quan's invasion force at the Battle of Xiaoyao Ford in Hefei, China.

216 CE14 entries

  • Caracalla provokes a war with Artabanus V (of Parthia) to imitate his idol Alexander the Great. He crosses the Tigris, destroys towns and spoils the tombs of Arbela. The Roman army annexes Armenia.
  • The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are completed with public baths (Thermae), reading rooms, auditoriums, running tracks, and public gardens that cover 20 acres.
  • Mithraism, which had begun in Persia, is on course to be adopted by many Roman soldiers serving in Asia.

217 CE25 entries

  • April 8 – Caracalla is assassinated by his soldiers near Edessa. Marcus Opellius Macrinus, head of the Praetorian Guard, declares himself Roman emperor.
  • December 20 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
  • According to a tradition noted by 19th-century historian Stephen Glover, the earliest recorded game of association football (soccer) took place in Derby, England as a celebration on Shrove Tuesday, the day before commencement of the Lent season on Ash Wednesday, and 47 days before Easter Sunday

218 CE14 entries

  • May 16 – Julia Maesa, an aunt of the assassinated Emperor Caracalla, is banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus, and declares her grandson Elagabalus, age 14, emperor of Rome.
  • June 8 – Battle of Antioch: Elagabalus defeats, with the support of the Syrian legions, the forces of Macrinus. Macrinus flees, but is captured near Chalcedon and later executed in Cappadocia.
  • Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus, escapes to the Parthian court, but is captured at Zeugma and also put to death.

219 CE20 entries

  • Julia Maesa arranges, for her grandson Elagabalus, a marriage with Julia Paula. The wedding is a lavish ceremony and Paula is given the honorific title of Augusta.
  • Guan Yu floods the fortress at Fan (present-day Fancheng District, Xiangyang, Hubei) in the Battle of Fancheng, while Lü Meng captures his base in Jing Province. Guan Yu retreats to Maicheng, falls into an ambush, and gets captured by Sun Quan's forces.
  • Emperor Elagabalus, age 15, is initiated into the worship of the Phrygian gods Cybele and Attis.