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The 60s

204 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.

60 CE21 entries

61 CE13 entries

  • Battle of Watling Street: Paulinus defeats the rebels, using a flying wedge formation, and imposes wide-ranging punishments on native Britons, but is removed from office after an enquiry instituted by Gaius Julius Alpinus Classicianus (appointed procurator 61) and the Romanisation of Britain continues. Boudica either poisons herself or falls sick and dies.
  • Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, Roman governor of Britain, captures the island of Mona (Anglesey), the last stronghold of the Druids.
  • Prasutagus, king of the Iceni (modern East Anglia), dies leaving a will which passes his kingdom to his two daughters and the Roman Empire. The Roman army however annexes the kingdom as if conquered, depriving the nobles of their hereditary lands and plundering the land. The king's widow, Boudica, is flogged and forced to watch their daughters publicly raped. Roman financiers, including Seneca the Younger, call in their loans.

62 CE20 entries

  • Battle of Rhandeia: The Roman army (two legions) is defeated by the Parthians under king Tiridates I. Paetus surrenders and withdraws his disheveled army to Syria.
  • Emperor Nero marries for the second time, to Poppaea Sabina, ex-wife of Marcus Salvius Otho.
  • The Parthians invade Armenia and lay siege to Tigranocerta. The city is well-fortified and garrisoned by the Romans. The assault fails and king Vologases I retreats. Instead, he makes preparations to invade Syria.

63 CE9 entries

  • Apostle Paul possibly visits Spain.
  • According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea goes to Glastonbury on the first Christian mission to Britain.
  • Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo is restored to command after the Roman debacle at the Battle of Rhandeia. He invades Armenia and defeats Tiridates I, who accepts Roman sovereignty. Parthia withdraws from the war.

64 CE15 entries

  • July 18- 27 – Great Fire of Rome: A fire begins which destroyed three of fourteen of the administrative regions of Rome, more commonly known as the Palatine Hill, the Circus Maximus, and the Oppian hill. Also suffering severe damage were the Campus Martius and the Via Lata.
  • Seneca proclaims the equality of all men, including slaves.
  • Persecution of Christians in Rome begins under Nero. Peter the Apostle is possibly among those crucified.

65 CE22 entries

  • April 19 – The freedman Milichus betrays the Pisonian conspiracy led by Gaius Calpurnius Piso to kill Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.
  • Paul of Tarsus ordains Timothy as bishop of Ephesus (traditional date).
  • Paul writes his first epistle to Timothy in Corinth; afterwards, he goes to Nikopoli to spend the winter.

66 CE17 entries

  • September 22 – Emperor Nero creates the Legio I Italica. He appoints Titus Flavius Vespasian as General of the army of Judea, and Governor of Judea which gives him command of three legions — V Macedonica, X Fretensis and XV Apollinaris.
  • October – The Jewish Revolt commences against the Roman Empire. The Zealots lay siege to Jerusalem and annihilate the Roman garrison (a cohort of Legio III Cyrenaica). The Sicarii capture the fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea.
  • November – Battle of Beth-Horon: Gallus abandons the siege of Jerusalem and chooses, for uncertain reasons, to withdraw west to winter quarters, where he is ambushed and defeated by Judean rebels. Some 5,300 Roman troops are killed, as well as all their pack animals, their artillery (which is to serve the Jews of Jerusalem during Titus's siege operations four years later), and the greatest disgrace of all, the eagle standard of Legio XII Fulminata. Gallus abandons his troops in disarray, fleeing to Syria.

67 CE20 entries

  • Linus succeeds Peter, as the second Bishop of Rome.
  • Siege of Yodfat: Its 40,000 Jewish inhabitants are massacred. The historian Josephus, leader of the rebels in Galilee, is captured by the Romans. Vespasian is wounded in the foot by an arrow fired from the city wall.
  • First Jewish–Roman War: Vespasian arrives in Ptolemais in Phoenicia along with the Legio X Fretensis and Legio V Macedonica, to put down the revolt.

68 CE29 entries

  • June 9 – The Roman Senate accepts Servius Sulpicius Galba, as Roman Emperor.
  • June 9 – Emperor Nero commits suicide four miles outside Rome. He is deserted by the Praetorian Guard, and then stabs himself in the throat.
  • Trajan moves to Scythopolis and crosses the Jordan River with Legio X Fretensis. He lays siege to Jericho and destroys the monastery of Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are originated.

69 CE38 entries

  • July 1 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as emperor.
  • August 1 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis.
  • October 24 – Second Battle of Bedriacum: Flavians under Antonius Primus defeat the Vitellians.