Timeline

6 CE to 500 CE
CE = Common Era, also known as AD

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6 CE: Emperor Ngai is succeeded by a two year-old: Emperor Ruzi. The widow of Emperor Yuan, who ruled from 48 to 32, dominates the royal palace. She makes her nephew, Wang Mang, regent for Emperor Ruzi. Wang Mang is a Confucianist, and many Confucianists look to him to bring to the throne moral purpose.

9 CE: Wang Mang, stages a coup and becomes emperor.

14 CE: Augustus dies. His adopted son, and son-in-law, Tiberius, becomes emperor.

23 CE:.A rebel army invades and burns China's great capital, Chang'an. Rebel soldiers find Wang Mang in his throne-room reciting from his collection of Confucian writings, and Wang Mang is silenced by a soldier cutting off his head.

25 CE:Since 150 BCE, Jews called Essenes have denounced the Jewish majority as apostate and temple worship in Jerusalem as polluted. They describe the majority of Jews as the "sons of darkness" and themselves as "the sons of light."  They live in communes, share, and look forward to Armageddon -- God's day of judgment.

28 CE: Like the Essenes, John the Baptist has seen perversity in Jewish society and has envisioned the coming of an Armageddon that will bring a new Israel under God. But rather than stay separated from others as have the Essenes, John joined various others who traveled about Galilee preaching. John made verbal attacks on the Judah's king (who is subservient to the Romans), Herod Antipas -- the son of Herod the Great. John arounnd this time, give or take a year or two, is imprisoned and executed.

30 CE:A young man named Joshua (Jesus in Greek) has created a following of his own, while recognizing there is none greater than his former leader, John the Baptist. This year, give or take a year or two, he goes to Jerusalem for Passover and there creates a disturbance. He is executed -- by stoning if convicted of blasphemy and by crucifixion for some other offense.

37 CE:.Followers of Jesus keep his movement alive. Among these followers, John the Baptist has been relegated to second standing. The followers continued to worship at Jerusalem's temple, "the House of the Lord." They call themselves the "The Poor" or "The Saints." They look forward to Jesus returning and bringing a New Order. Some among them draw attention to themselves by arguing with other Jews. Some are expelled from the city, and one of them, Stephen, is executed.

37 CE: Tiberius dies. Gaius Caesar, nicknamed Caligula, age 25, begins his reign as Roman Emperor, intent on doing well for the Romans and the empire.

39 CE: Millions have died in China as rival factions have vied for power. The most successful of the rival factions is led by a Han prince, Liu Xiu. He has surrounded himself with educated men and is popular among his troops. His army has not looted when capturing towns, and this has helped him win hearts and minds. He captures the ruined capital, Chang'an. He proclaims himself emperor, restoring the Han dynasty -- to be known as the Later Han, or East Han, dynasty.

40 CE: Japanese have expanded against native people, reaching the Kanto plain, where Tokyo would one day be.

41 CE: Caligula has created fear around him. The fearful conspire and assassinate him. Jews, who had been threatened by his decrees, are saved. Rome's senate is timid. Rather than assert its power, rule by emperors and accident of birth continues.

43 CE: The Roman Emperor Claudius sends troops to conquer Britain.

49 CE: Saul (or Paul) of Tarsus is one of many Jews spreading news to fellow Jews in cities across the empire -- news of  the coming of  Armageddon. Some non-Jews have been attracted to the unique institution of their Jewish neighbors, the synagogue, and some of them have joined the followers of Jesus. The question arises whether these non-Jews should be required to follow Jewish laws, such as circumcision. Paul and others favor compromise. Followers of Jesus against compromise claim that matters of faith should not be based on compromise.

57 CE:.Liu Xiu of the Han dynasty is succeeded by his son, Emperor Ming, who is to reign for eighteen years while China's economy continues to recover from war and chaos. Blending has been taking place in schools of thought, and Emperor Ming associates himself with Daoism and theological Confucianism and declares himself a prophet.

64 CE: Rome, a city crowded with people and wooden dwellings is swept by a great fire. Christians, seen dancing with joy, perhaps believing that Armageddon has arrived, are suspected of having set the blaze.

66 CE: Poverty and hunger in Jerusalem are accompanied by a rebellion. Jewish rebels burn the homes of Jewish aristocrats and kill those aristocrats they can get their hands on, and with whatever weapons they can find they attack outnumbered Roman soldiers. A war has begun that is to last for seven years.

67 CE: Christians have been executed for what has been deemed criminal activity. Among the Christians who vanish from history are the apostles Paul and Peter.

68 CE: Emperor Nero seeks to punish the disloyal. A poor politician, he has created enemies among men who command troops. As an army closes in, Nero commits suicide. Rule averts to military men, and rule by members of the family of Augustus (the Julio-Claudians) ends.

69 CE: The first general to have made himself emperor, Servius Galba, has made many enemies and is cut down by a soldier on horseback.

73 CE: The war in Judea ends with Roman soldiers overrunning Masada. The Essenes disappear. Some Jews are taken away as slaves. Rome abolishes Judea as a homeland of the Jews. Christians see the demise of Jews as God's punishment, and Jews put into their synagogue liturgy an anathema against Christians.

79 CE:  Mount Vesuvius erupts, covering Pompeii and other towns. Some Christians see it as God's vengeance against recent persecutions. Some Romans believe that the gods have begun the doomsday that they have long been expecting.

80 CE: Another fire sweeps Rome, for three days and nights.

81 CE: An epidemic of disease has been spreading among the Romans, and the popular emperor, Titus, dies of fever.

95 CE: The Christian bishop in Rome, Clement, supports his authority among other Christian communities by linking God with Rome. In his first letter to Christians in Corinth, he has described a hierarchy of authority that begins with God, goes to Jesus, then to the apostles, and finally to bishops such as he, and he adds that God has granted to Rome "the authority of empire," glory, and honor.

97 CE: With China's prosperity has come another attempt at expansion westward. An army of 60,000 has conquered its way to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. The commander wishes to send an envoy to make contact with the Romans, but the Parthians fear an alliance between Rome and China and a loss of their role as middlemen in trade between the two, and Parthians discourage the Chinese commander with tales of danger.

100 CE: The Japanese have pushed into northeastern Honshu.  They have driven back those called Ainu, and a little mixing between Japanese and Ainu may has been occurring, accounting perhaps, in years to come, for the greater hairiness of the Japanese compared to the Chinese. Kushans have migrated from Bactria into northwestern India. At some unknown date around these times, a Kushan named Kanishka has established an empire. He is a Buddhist. Buddhism has been changing from a way of life to a religion. The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, has been elevated from a teacher to a god, said to be the latest of a series of his incarnations.

107 CE: The Japanese send an ambassador to China. 

107 CE: At the town of Arbela (now Irbil in northern Iraq), in Adiabene (soon to be conquered and called Assyria by the Romans) -- the Parthian king Xosroes murders a Christian bishop.  

110 CE: Having become more aware of the world beyond China, the Chinese are hearing rumors about places of godliness and paradise where the climate is mild, where people are without sickness or disease and where people govern themselves. One such paradise is thought to be in the mountains of  Tibet. There, it is said, waters give one immortality, one can climb a mountain peak and become a spirit with the power to control the wind and rain, or one can climb another nearby peak and ascend to heaven.

129 CE: The Roman Emperor Hadrian visits Jerusalem and orders it rebuilt as a Roman city, to be called Aelia Capitolina.

132 CE: In China a seismograph has been invented. Unlike the Romans, the Chinese have a wheelbarrow, stirrups, a water clock and paper.

132 to 135 CE: A rebellion begins in Jerusalem, led by Simeon ben Kosiba, known by his admirers as Bar Kokhba (Son of a Star). The foremost rabbi and Judaic scholar, Akiva, has hailed Simeon as another King David the conqueror, sent by God -- in other words, the Messiah. Perhaps as many as 580,000 Jews die fighting, including Simeon ben Kosiba. Emperor Hadrian bans Jews from Jerusalem for ten years.  The Romans glut the slave markets with Jewish captives. The prohibition against circumcision is renewed and celebration of the Jewish festivals, observance of the Sabbath, study of the Torah and possession of a scroll of Jewish Law became punishable by death.

142 CE: Zhangling has founded a Daoist church, called "The Way of the Great Masters," moving what was originally a prescribed way of life to an organized religion. He earns the respect of local people by getting done what the emperor's authorities have failed to do: repair roads and bridges, store grain and distribute bread to the starving. Zhangling has created a government that rivals the authority of the emperor.

161 CE: Marcus Aurelius becomes Rome's emperor. He is a Stoic -- another philosopher king --  and wants to do his best for Romme.

178 CE:.Iraeneus succeeds Bishop Pothinus (178) in Lyons. Iraeneus counts twenty different varieties of Christianity and combats what he considers heresies. He seeks conformity of views among Christians. Before he dies in 202, the collections of books of the New Testament will be formed. Other gospels are destroyed. There are only four gospels he claims, just as there are only four winds, four corners of the universe and four pillars holding up the sky. Some gospels are buried, to be discovered centuries later on papyrus fragments preserved by the dry climate in southern Egypt.

180 CE: Marcus Aurelius has been fighting against Parthian military offensives and invasions by Germans. Rome has also suffered from a smallpox epidemic to be known as the Great Pestilence. He is disheartened by not having been able to make the world a better place and blames humanity. He has continued monarchy and authoritarianism by passing rule to his son, Commodus, and he dies.

184 CE: Corruption has prevailed at the royal palace. Local gentry, despite their Confucianism, are oppressing peasants. Reforms are neglected. A Daoist named Zhang Jue, who called himself "The Good Doctor of Great Wisdom," had been moving about in the countryside, spreading word of the emperor having lost the mandate of heaven, and he is offering magical healing. His movement has grown to hundreds of thousands, and the year to rise against the capital has arrived. This is the Yellow Turban rebellion. Another civil war in China begins, to last for years.

193 CE:.Emperor Commodus is a disappointment. Commodus is assassinated.

197 CE: Rule has passed to another soldier: to Lucius Septimius Severus -- the first emperor who is not distinctly of Roman origin. He is Syrian. He believes in terror rather than conciliation. He has sixty senators arrested and thirty executed for having sided with his rival.
He will expel Roman aristocrats from positions of authority in and outside the army. power. During the rule of his family, the Syrian sun god, Sol Invictus, will become an official god of the empire.  Rome is being swallowed by its empire.

200 CE: Power in China has passed to warlords, and respect for Confucianism fades with the collapse of the Han dynasty. Kingdoms have arisen in southern Cambodia, and there Hinduism and Buddhism coexist peacefully. The importation of camels to the Sahara has increased trading there. The Soninke of Ghana is growing as a commercial power. Indonesians are settling in Madagascar.

203 CE: Origen, who is around twenty years-old, succeeds the wealthy Christian scholar, Clement of Alexandria, as leader of the Christian school in Alexandria. Clement  has helped Christianity blend with Plato's philosophy and has championed allegorical interpretations of scripture.

208 CE: The Parthian empire has suffered from plague and their rule has shrunk to Mesopotamia alone. A king named Ardashir has arisen in Persia. .

217 CE: The Daoist cult leader, Chang Lu, descendant of Zhangling (see 142 CE) has warred with a neighboring Daoist cult, led by Chang Hsiu. He has been overrun by the warlord Cao Cao and he dies. Legend will describe his grave being opened and his body discovered to be miraculously preserved, signifying his special place in heaven.

224 CE: Ardashir's army defeats the Parthian army. Four hundred years of rule by the Parthian dynasty, the Arsacids, comes to an end. Ardashir is the first king of a new dynasty, the Sassanids, which will rule across Persia and Mesopotamia.

242 CE: At Ctesiphon, capital of the Sassanid Empire, Ardashir's son and successor, Shapur I, is tolerant of religious diversity and has given a 27-year-old named Mani permission to spread his religion, to be known as Manichaeism, around the empire. Mani believes that his views are the sum and perfection of all religious wisdom. With worldly knowledge having become a greater part of religious thought, Mani's religion includes his positions on the origins of the universe, anthropology, history, botany, zoology and geography. Manichaeism, includes Zoroastrianism struggle between good and evil, and Mani calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ.

250 CE: Since the last of the Severan emperors in 235, Rome has had fifteen different military-emperors, most of whom had died violent deaths. Rome is in chaos. Economic activity has declined. In the western half of the empire roads are deteriorating and cities have shrunk. Agricultural estates are growing as fortresses and ignoring Rome. Emperors have debased money in order to pay soldiers. In Gaul hordes roam about pillaging. Piracy has increased. Rome's trade with China has ended. Having lost their faith in government, more people are seeking refuge in religions that promise well-being.

250 CE: Roughly five percent of people within the Roman Empire have become Christian. Having become more visible, Christians are increasingly under attack for refusing to take part in ceremonies to appease Rome's gods. People are blaming Christians for the anger of the gods. A wave of executions takes place, initiated by Emperor Decius, with the bishop in North Africa, Cyprian, describing the persecutions of Christians as God's punishment for their not doing His will. "We," he writes, " are receiving the thrashing we deserve."

258 CE: A second wave of executions take place, initiated by the Emperor Valerian. Cyprian is executed by beheading, witnessed by thousands, those near him throwing pieces of cloth to catch his blood. Romans are impressed by the willingness of Christians to suffer and die for what they believe in. Many see the state as more of an enemy than the Christians.

276 CE:.The Zoroastrian priesthood is opposed to rivals in the Sassanid Empire, including Christianity and Manichaeism. Under a new Sassanid king, Hormizd, Mani is executed and his followers are persecuted, and they scatter. Manichaeism spreads into the Roman Empire.

280 CE:.In China, wars among rival lords produces nominal unity and a new emperor: Jin Wu. By now, Mahayana Buddhism has grown in China. Introduced some two hundred years before, it has offered people salvation amid war and strife.

284 CE: Commanders of rival Roman armies fight for power, and a commander of humble birth from Illyricum, Diocletian, emerges as emperor. Diocletian likes the trappings of power and the grand style of Asian emperors and proclaims himself the earthly representative of Rome's supreme god, Jupiter.

300 CE: Christians across empire are about ten percent of the population. In the eastern half of the empire they are twenty or more percent of the population. North Africa had become largely Christian, the result of Christian evangelists having learned the Coptic and Berber languages.

300 CE: Bantu speaking people have expanded into eastern Africa, alongside hunter-gatherers.

305 CE: To better rule the empire, Diocletian has created four vice-emperors -- military men who are to govern separate sections of the empire. Diocletian has attempted to restore Rome's ruined economy by fixing prices. Everyone has been ordered to remain at his present occupation and location -- adding to what will someday be a part of feudalism. Diocletian has attempted another purge of Christians, but their numbers are too vast, and the persecutions drag on. Because of ill-health, he abdicates, leaving his vice-emperors in charge.

311 CE: In China, Empress Jia has slaughtered many. Civil war has weakened the country, and, spotting the weakness, a tribal army arrives at the capital, Luoyang. The tribal army slaughters thousands. It is the beginning of rule by Xiongnu chieftains in northern China.

312 CE:.The armies of two sons of former vice-emperors, fight each other. The army of Constantine wins, and Constantine becomes emperor of the western half of the Roman Empire. Constantine's mother is a Christian.

313 CE:.The Edict of Milan, agreed to by Constantine and the emperor of the eastern half of the empire, Licinius, makes Christianity a legal faith.

317 CE: Chinese flee from the Xiongnu in northern China. The Jin emperor, Yuan, sets up rule in southern China at the city of Jiankang (Nanjing).

320 CE:.Economically, local areas in India have been functioning at world class levels, but India has been fragmented politically.  The ruler of Magadha, Chandra Gupta, extends his power in the Ganges Valley.

321 CE: Constantine makes the day of the sun god Sol Invictus (Sunday) a holy day and a day of rest for Christians.

324 CE:.Constantine defeats the eastern emperor and becomes emperor of all the empire. He prefers the more Christianized eastern half of the empire and founds a new capital in the east called New Rome, eventually to be known as Constantinople (in the 1900s to be changed to Istanbul).

325 CE: Christianity is receiving state support, new churches, more wealth and more elaborate rituals. Christianity's bishops defer to the authority of Constantine, who wants to heal divisions within the Church. Constantine presides over the Church's first ecumenical (general) council, at Nicea, to decide the nature of Jesus Christ. Bishop Arius and Arian Christianity lose. The doctrine of the Trinity is accepted.

333 CE: Constantine widens the gap between Christianity and Judaism, decreeing that Christians of Jewish heritage will either break all ties with Judaism or be executed.

337 CE:.According to Bishop Eusebius, with Constantine at his death-bed, Constantine chooses baptism. Bishop Eusebius is the Church's leading theoretician, a scholar of history and theology. He has written of the Roman Empire as having arisen to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus Christ and to unify the world under the authority of God. He associates Rome with God's eternal order and peace.

351 CE:.A German named Ulfilas, who was converted to Christianity in Constantinople, has turned forty. He has translated the Bible and is doing missionary work among his fellow Goths outside the empire. As a result, Goths entering the empire are largely Christian.

357 CE:.Chandra Gupta's son, Samudra Gupta is halfway through his forty-five years of rule. He is extending the Gupta empire.

363 CE: Constantine's grandson becomes emperor. Disillusioned by bloodshed within the family of Constantine, and a secret admirer of Hellenistic culture, he is to be known as Julian the Apostate.  Lacking the hostility felt by Christians toward Jews, he rescinds a law that forbids marriage between Christians and Jews. He rescinds the law that bans Jews from entering Jerusalem, and he abolishes privileges that have been bestowed upon the Christian clergy.

367 CE:.Emperor Julian is killed while fighting an army of the Sassanid Empire. Christians rejoice at news of his death and express their belief that Julian's death was the work of God. The Sassanid king, Shapur II, is devoted to Zoroastrianism and has been attempting to exterminate his empire's Christians.

372 CE:.A monk introduces Mahayana Buddhism to Koguryo (northern Korea), and the king of Koguryo welcomes Buddhism and patronizes it.

378 CE:.Christians are back in power. Germans have been invading the Roman Empire. The Christian emperor of the eastern half of the empire, Valens, is defeated by Christianized Germans called Goths, at Adrianople.

384 CE:Buddhism spreads to the royal family of Paekche (southern Korea) and to Silla (central Korea). These two Korean states make Buddhism their state religion.

388 CE:.The Sassanid king, Shapur III, has ruled for five years and has lifted the persecutions of Christians, believing they are of more value to him working and paying taxes. Zoroastrian priests are upset.

390 CE:.The three Korean states, Koguryo, Paekche and Silla have adopted Buddhism as their state religion. Buddhist prayers are offered for the well-being of their kingdom, for recovery from illness and for the conception of children. Aristocrats leave the animist shamans to those they considered unsophisticated. Soldiers fight wars not only for their king but for the Way of the Buddha.

395 CE:.Christian emperors have been persecuting pagans, Jews and Arian Christians. Christian mobs have been attacking what are described as works of the devil. Pagan temples have been robbed of their treasures. Libraries have been destroyed, causing the disappearance of many writings. Emperor Theodosius, who has described heretics as insane, dies. Augustine is named bishop of Hippo (in North Africa).

400 CE:.On the plains of what someday will be called the United States, the bow and arrow is replacing the spear, the bow and arrow giving hunters and warriors a greater striking distance. Bantu speaking people have reached the southern tip of the African continent. By now, on twin-hulled sailing craft sixty feet long, Samoans have traveled across 2000 miles (3200 km) of ocean to the Marquesas Islands. And in such boats the Polynesians are migrating from the Marquesas to the Society Islands, including Tahiti, and to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) farther east.

407 CE:.The greatest invasion into the Roman Empire occurs in the winter of 406-07, across the frozen Rhine. Resistance is feeble. Germanic tribes overrun Gaul all the way to the Pyrenees.

408 CE:.Roman legions are withdrawn from Britain, and Picts, Scots and Saxons invade the Britons.

409 CE:.Among the Germans who overran Gaul are those called Vandals, and they are now in Spain.

410 CE:.Goths sack Rome. Pagans see it as the work of Rome's old gods and blame the Christians. Pagan members of Rome's senate are afraid of retaliation from the Christians if they speak out. The Christian scholar Jerome laments that in the ruins of Rome the whole world has perished.

413 CE:.In response to the charge that Christianity was to blame for the fall of Rome, Bishop Augustine overturns the theory of Rome that was devised by Bishop Eusebius. The Roman Empire, he claims, was influenced both by God and by demons. Rome, he writes, was a product of sin and based on self-love, robbery, violence and fraud. He describes the Romans as the most successful brigands in history.

414 CE: Changra Gupta II dies. His empire extends to India's west coast. India is enjoying prosperity. Hinduism is tolerant and happy. Hinduism is absorbing aspects of Buddhism and Jainism, which, born amid suffering, are now losing their appeal.

415 CE: Hypatia of Alexandria is hated by local Christians. She is a mathematician, teacher and devoted to neo-Platonist paganism. A Christian mob pulls her from her chariot and murders her.

420 CE: In southern China, Liu Yu has forced the Jin emperor to abdicate in his favor. Liu Yu begins what is to be known as the Liu Song dynasty.

421 CE:.Under the Sassanid king Bahram V, persecution of the Christians begins again. Many Christians flee into the eastern half of the Roman Empire.

429 CE: An army of around 80,000, mostly Vandals, cross from Spain into North Africa.

430 CE:.The Vandals have conquered all the way to Augustine's city, Hippo. While the Vandals have Hippo surrounded, Augustine dies.

441 CE:.Anglo-Saxons, running from northern Europe and away from advancing Huns, are invading Britain.

445 CE: In northern China, Buddhist monasteries have become economically powerful landowning enterprises with hereditary serfs. Buddhists have been creating enemies, and Daoists inspire a movement against Buddhism. The Xiongnu ruler issues an edict against the Buddhists. Orders go out for all Buddhists monks to be put to death and all Buddhist images and books to be destroyed.

446 CE: Vortigern has been leading the Britons against the Picts (from Scotland) and Scots (from Wales), using Anglo-Saxon mercenaries.

451 CE: Attila the Hun crosses the Rhine into Gaul.

453 to 455 CE: In southern China, Buddhism has been adopted by the Liu Song emperor, but Buddhism proves no deterrent to strife and chaos. The emperor is assassinated by his son, who takes power and is assassinated by his brother, who becomes the south's Emperor Xiao Wu.

458 CE:.Anglo-Saxons are sending the Celtic Britons fleeing westward toward and into Wales, to Ireland and across the English Channel into what is today called Brittany.

465 CE: In southern China, Emperor Xiao Wu is succeeded by a sixteen-year-old who is assassinated six months later. The murdered boy is succeeded by his uncle, Emperor Ming (Mingdi), who is to have all of his brothers and nephews executed.

466 CE: Northern China has a new Xiongnu ruler, Emperor Xian-wen. He declares himself a Buddhist. Buddhism is restored in the north. He guards against his own assassination by massacring other princes in his extended family.

475 CE: Emperor Ming is succeeded by his ten-year-old son, Emperor Shun, and in his behalf more murders follow.

476 CE: A German commander of Rome's army, Odoacer, seizes power in Rome.

477 to 479 CE: Emperor Shun is assassinated. What is left of the royal Liu family is discredited. A state official deposes the Liu family and founds a new dynasty, called Chi, and the Chi family begins killing one another.

484 CE: Hephthalites (Huns) kill the Sassanian king, Firuz, and his cavalry and much of the Sassanid nobility. They capture the king's family and treasury.

488 CE: The emperor in the eastern half of the Roman Empire, Zeno, sends an army of Germans, led by Theodoric, across the Alps against Odoacer.

493 CE: Theodoric's army defeats Odoacer's army. Theodoric assumes the title of King of Italy, and the Bishop of Rome befriends Theodoric.

496 CE: The king of the Germanic Franks, Clovis, has extended his rule in northeastern Gaul, spilling much blood. His wife, Clotilda, is a Trinity believing Christian. Clovis accepts his wife's faith for himself and his subjects.

497 CE: Persia has suffered drought and famine. Persians rebel against the Sassanid king, Kavad (son of Firuz). A Zoroastrian priest, Mazdak, proclaims that he has been sent by God to preach that all men are born equal and that no one has the right to possess more than another. He claims that he is reforming and purifying Zoroastrianism. The world, he says, has been turned from righteousness by five demons: Envy, Wrath, Vengeance, Need and Greed. His followers plunder the homes and harems of the rich.

500 CE: Migrating Bantu speakers, on the move for more than a century, arrive in southern Africa. Camels have been established as a means of transportation in northern Africa.

500 CE: Incompetent government has led to a failure by the Chinese to defend their northern border. By the year 500 a dynasty of Xiongnu kings, the Tuoba Wei, are dominating the whole of northern China, and culturally they are becoming more Chinese. In the south, meanwhile, a recent string of Chinese families had risen and fallen from power while engaging in rampages of murder as a way of settling disputes over who was to rule.