On This Day...

[markusaurelius]

Actually, that was october 29, wiki's wrong here. :wink:

There must be some dispute then as to the date. According to Hydatius, Carthage fell to the Vandals in 439 AD, October 19.
"After taking Carthage by a great Stratagem on 19 October, King Geiseric invaded all of Africa."

[Robert Vermaat]

Oh, and I might be mistaken myself - just spotted a very old typo in one of my Vortigern Studiees pages about chronology: I claim that carthage fell in 339! :oops:

I came up with this regarding the date of the fall of Carthage:

The day Geiseric captured Carthage
The exact date of Geiseric’s raid on Carthage is given in the Reichenau version as
Post consulatum Theodosii XVII et Festi and was shortened in Mommsen’s edition
to Post consulatum Theodosii et Festi.61 Prosper Tiro mentions the capture of
Carthage on the 14th of the calendae of November 439. Most of the Prosper
manuscripts contain this date of 19 October as the day Carthage was taken by the
Vandals. Furthermore, Prosper mentions that from 146 BC the town was a Roman
one for 585 years.62 Marcellinus Comes takes up the same day and year.63 Hydatius
provides 19 October in the fifteenth year of the reign of Valentinian III.64
Cassiodorus’ chronicle contains the same year but no day.65 The seventh-century
Byzantine Chronicon Paschale dates by the month Hyperberetaeus – October – and
the consulate of Theodosius XVII et Festus, as well as by the 31st year and the
seventh indiction of Theodosius II’s reign.66 There is an agreement among these
different sources concerning the year but they differ in the specific day given. The
date of 19 October is important because King Geiseric used it for dating some of his
coins.67 Mommsen tried to base his argument for a general chronology for the
Vandal kingdom upon the Madrid version’s ab ingressu Carthaginis.68

[markusaurelius]

clear as mud

[Robert Vermaat]

October 23, 42 BC: The Second Battle of Philippi – Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat Brutus's army.
Death of Marcus Junius Brutus, Roman senator (b. 85 BC), who commits suicide

October 23, 425 AD: Valentinian is installed in Rome as new Augustus of the West.

[Robert Vermaat]

October 24, 51 AD: Birth of Titus Flavius Domitianus (Domitian), Roman Emperor (81-96).

October 24, 69 AD: Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies and loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius. The legions III Gallica, VIII Augusta and VII Claudia had been made to swear allegiance to Vitellius after the defeat of Otho, but changed their loyalty to Vespasian as soon as they heard of his bid, with the legions of the East. VII Galbiana and XIII Gemina joined them, and together they faced a force sent by Vitellius, conssiting of XXI Rapax, V Alaudae, I Italica and XXII Primigenia together with detachments from seven other legions and a force of auxiliaries. The armies met along the Via Postuma towards Cremona, and fighting continued through the night, when at sunrise the soldiers og III Gallica greeted the sun, and the troops of Vitellius lost heart upon seeing this, believing they greeted reinforcements from the East.

[markusaurelius]

October 28 306 AD—Maxentius, son of the former Emperor Maximian, is proclaimed Emperor.

October 28 312 AD—Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius and becomes the only Roman Emperor in the West. During the battle, he reportedly has a vision of a cross with the words in hoc signo vinces ("In this sign you shall conquer"). <---- church propoganda?

[Robert Vermaat]

October 27, 312 AD: Constantine, preparing for battle against Maxentius, has his famous vision.

Unclear is what the vision was: Lactantius says that Constantine was commanded in a dream to "delineate the heavenly sign on the shields of his soldiers" (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 44.5). He then marked the shields with a sign "denoting Christ", according to Lactantius a Latin cross with its upper end rounded in a P-like fashion (staurogram). However no evidence exists that Constantine ever used that sign, opposed to the better known Chi-Rho sign described by Eusebius.

Eusebius wrote two accounts of the battle. In the Ecclesiastical History he does not mention any vision. In his later Life of Constantine, Eusebius gives a detailed account of a vision, describing how Constantine looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words "?? ????? ????". The Latin translation is in hoc signo vinces—"In this sign, you shall conquer". This was followed by a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the sign against his enemies. Eusebius then continues to describe the labarum, the military standard used by Constantine in his later wars against Licinius, showing the Chi-Rho sign. However, there is no certain evidence of the use of these letters as a Christian sign before a Constantinian silver coin from c. 317.

[Robert Vermaat]

October 28, 97 AD: The emperor Marcus Cocceius Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard, to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.

October 28, 312 AD: Death of the emperor Maxentius (b. 278) at the battle of the Milvian bridge near Rome. Maxentius, on the very ay of his 6th anniversary of his assumption of the throne, fell into the water when the bridge collapsed under the weight of his retreating troops, and he drowned. His body was found the next day and paraded through the city, and later sent to Africa, as a sign that he had surely perished.

October 28, 456 AD: The Visigoths take Bracarense (Braga) on October 28 and sack the city. End of the Suevic kingdom.

[Robert Vermaat]

October 29, 539 BC: Cyrus the Great himself enters the city of Babylon and detains Nabonidus, rulerof the Neo-Babylonian empire.

October 29, 437AD: Flavius Placidius Valentinianus (2 July 419 – 16 March 455) aka Valentinian III, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius.

October 29, 969 AD: Romano-Byzantine troops under Michael Bourtzes and Peter the Eunuch re-occupy Antioch for the emperor Nikephoros II Phokas.

[Robert Vermaat]

October 31, 475 AD: Accession of Orestes' son Romulus Augustus (also known as 'Augustulus or 'little Augustus') at age 10 or 14.

[Robert Vermaat]

November 3, 361 AD: The emperor Constantius II marches West with his army to confront the usurper Julian but dies of illness in Mopsucrenae in Cilicia at age 44 (b. August 7 317 AD). On his deathbed Constantius had himself baptised by Euzoius, the Semi-Arian bishop of Antioch, and then declared that Julian was his rightful successor, leaving Julian sole emperor of the Roman empire.

[Robert Vermaat]

November 6, 355 AD: Constantius elevates his last remaining cousin Julianus (Julian) to the rank of Caesar.

[Robert Vermaat]

November 7, 461 AD: Ricimer elevates Libius Severus to the rank of emperor.

November 7, 630 AD: Birth of Constans II, Roman emperor (d. 668)

[Robert Vermaat]

November 8, 30 AD: Birth of Marcus Cocceius Nerva, Roman Emperor (d. 98)

[Robert Vermaat]

November 9, 959 AD: Death of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos ('purple-born'), Roman Emperor 945 – 959, (b. September 2, 905), possibly poisoned by his son or his daughter-in-law.