FIRST CENTURY. The most important series of events for all after history in the 1st century of our Christian era are those con vected with the Lord Jesus Christ. They took place almost without any inkling on the part of the generation in which they occurred ex cept for the few who were immediately in con tact with Him. Christ, the Son of God, was born 4 B.C. and died 29 A.D., the anomaly of His birth date being due to the fact that while the Christian era was meant to begin from the year of Christ's birth, by a mistake in chro nology made at the time when the new calendar was introduced (516) His birth was placed four years after it really occurred. He worked as a simple carpenter until He was 30 years of age and then preached His sublime doctrines in Palestine until seized and put to death for political reasons by the Jews. His crucifixion took place in the year 29, on Friday, April 3d, at 3 P.M. His followers were first called Chris tians at Antioch 10 years later (40). He had chosen 12 fishermen — poor, ignorant, unre fined.— whom He made efishers of rime for. His kingdom upon earth. the end of the century, His doctrines were not only known throughout the East, but also in Rome, in south France, in Spain, in the islands of the Medi terranean, in Africa, and they have continued to be the most absorbing interest of men ever since.
When Christ was born, Octavius, the great nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, had reigned over the Romans for more than a quarter of a century with the titles of Augustus and Imperator. Augustus is one of the su premely great men of history. He succeeded in ruling the immense Roman Empire with such wisdom and moderation that the Augustan Age is rightly looked upon as °an oasis of security in the desert of turmoil') of human history, lin which it was both appropriate and fortunate that the great founder of our religion, Jesus Christ, should be (Oscar Browning). The great founder of the Roman Empire was unfortunate in his domestic relations but par ticularly happy in the choice of men whom he gathered around him both for administrative and cultural reasons. Historians and poets have rightly made the Augustan Age an object of envy and admiration to posterity and the term has become a commonplace in all lan guages. The fourteen years of his reign in the Christian era are particularly happy. Augustus was engaged in cementing the Empire and adorning his capital. He quite literally found Rome brick and left it marble. He gave an
example in this respect that was finely followed by many of his successors.
The one serious set back of Augustus' reign was also one of the most important events of this century for after history. This was the defeat (9 A.D.) of a great Roman army under Varus, the governor of the Germanic province, by Arminius (Hermann), a German leader, who had been trained in the Roman military service. This defeat at the forest of Teuto berg prevented Germany from becoming a Roman province. Arminius' victory deserves for that reason to be counted one of the deci sive battles of history; that it was no accident his subsequent successes against the Romans show. He was defeated by Germanicus, 16 A.D., but succeeded in maintaining the independence of the right bank of the Rhine. Roman do minion here would surely have changed the history of the world very considerably for it would almost inevitably have prevented the invasion of England by the Saxons and Angles and perhaps even kept the Northmen much more within their own confines. Arminius was indeed a great German patriot who more than any other succeeded in gathering the Germans about him for united resistance against the Romans and he continued to make head against them until he fell by treachery 21 A.D. .
Augustus was the second of the 12 Caesars whose names have probably been better known to mankind ever since than any other group of men. They were Julius Caesar, Au gustus and Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, who represent the Julian family by na ture and adoption. These were followed by the three military Caesars, Galba, Otho and Vitellius, who together reigned only for a year anda half, throned by the sword and perishing i by it. Next came the three Flavian emperors, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. Domitian died in 96, to be followed before the end of the century by Nerva and Trajan who began a happy era for Rome. There is probably no more difficult problem in history than to estimate properly the true character of the Caesars. Even the character of Augustus is in some dispute, and all of his immediate suc cessors, after passing through a period of his torical condemnation of the bitterest kind, are now vindicated to a considerable extent. The contemporary sources of their history are Suetonius, who loved to delve in all that is worst in human nature, Tacitus who was a politician, and Juvenal the satirist.