15.3 Europe: 0 to a.d. 100

Europe

Back to Europe: 100 B.C. to 0

An interesting bit of trivia is that while fermented drinks had been known and used by mankind for thousands of years, the process of distilling was discovered only in this first century of the Christian era. The Gaelic uisge beatha was corrupted to "whiskey" and the Germanic Gebrannterwein or Brandewin meaning "burnt wine" was eventually Anglicized to "brandy". (Ref. 211 )

Southern europe

Eastern mediterranean islands

A part of the Roman Empire.

Greece

The city-states of Greece continued to govern themselves although theoretically they were under Roman rule. They were poor by virtue of Roman taxation and were almost destitute morally, spiritually and physically. This was the-time of Plutarch and of Epictetus, the slave philosopher who combined the concepts of the Stoics and Cynics into many ideas paralleling the attitudes of early Christianity, including the Golden Rule. Thus Stoicism, originally the proud and scornful philosophy of aristocrats, found its final and most eloquent voice in a slave. Its doctrine of a final conflagration of the world, its rejection of all pleasures of the flesh, its humble surrender to the hidden will of God, all were preparing for the theology and ethics of Christianity. The age of the Cyrics paved the way for the Christian monks.

Corinth became the wealthiest city of Greece while Athens remained an intellectual center. Eleusis, across the Aegean Sea, became a religious center of sacraments and "mysteries". (Ref. 48 )

Upper balkans

The Roman province of Pannonia, the most southern portion of which comprises present day Yugoslavia, was established in A.D. 9 after defeat of the native Illyrians.

Moesia, which had never been penetrated by Grecian influence, was organized as a province in A.D. 44. The upper Balkans now showed increased activities of all kinds. There was considerable agriculture, mining and herding, as well as commerce with Asia through the port of Salonika in Macedonia. Great cities were built and roads constructed, such as the Via Egnatia, that ran across the Albanian alps to Salonika and Constantinople. In Dacia (Romania) there was a strong tribe of the same name who were never subdued by the Romans in this century. In A.D. 85 they surged out across the Danube into Moesia (now Serbia and part of Bulgaria) but were pushed back by Domitian. The Romans could go no further, however, as the Marcomanni and Quadi, who had occupied Bohemia west of Dacia, joined the fray and defeated Domitian. A peace was signed with the Dacian king, Decebalus, and he subsequently turned on the Germanic tribes and defeated them. Iazygians were also squeezing in between Quadi and Dacians and Roxolani were approaching Dacia from the east. In the area that they did control, the Romans found Thracians useful as soldiers, slaves and especially as gladiators. (Ref. 206 , 48 , 136 , 171 )

Italy

This was a century of some great and some lesser emperors of Rome in what has been called the "Silver Age" to indicate that it was not quite as good as the previous "Golden Age" under Octavian. The Julio-Claudian Dynasty continued under TIBERIUS Claudius Nero who reformed the government and law, advanced construction of public works, elevated the legal status of the provinces and re-subdued and Romanized Gaul and Britain. Tiberius' reign had been saved from any serious Parthian threat because of dynastic quarrels within Parthia. In A.D. 37 when Tiberius was dying he indicated as his successors his young grandson Tiberius Gemellus and the surviving son of Germanicus, Gauius Caesar Germanicus. The latter soon put the former to death and ruled alone as "CALIGULA", a probably insane, megalomaniac given to excesses and obscenities of all kinds. He was assassinated in 41 and Tiberius CLAUDIUS Drusus became emperor. His four wives were his undoing but he actually was a fairly able man and instituted some definite administrative improvements.