3871 entries. Last updated May 18, 2013.

30 CE to 500 CE Timeline Outline

Eras
Themes

Hero of Alexandria

Automata Invented by Hero of Alexandria
(Circa 30 CE – 70 CE)

A mosaic of Jesus Christ, located in the Hagia Sophia.

Christianity Emerges
(30 CE – 100 CE)

A marble bust of Seneca preserved in the Antikensammlung Berlin. (View Larger)

Seneca Denounces Book Collectors and Even the Library of Alexandria
(Circa 49 CE)

The Oldest Surviving Substantial Collection of Buddhist Manuscripts: The…
(Circa 50 CE)

The Alexamenos Grafitto. (View Larger)

Probably the Earliest Surviving Image of the Crucifixion: A Graffito
(Circa 50 CE – 250 CE)

Note-Taking Versus "Place Memory" from Antiquity through the Renaissance and Later
(Circa 50 CE – 1700)

The Role of the "Ordinator" and "Sculptor" in Producing Roman Stone Inscriptions
(Circa 50 CE)

The Mensa Isiaca or Bembine Table of Isis
(Circa 50 CE)

The New Testament Was Probably Written over Less than a Century
(Circa 65 CE – 150 CE)

Destruction of the Second Temple
(66 CE – 73 CE)

Roman Inscriptions on Lead Pipes from Common Text Stamps
(69 CE – 79 CE)

The four authors.

Composition of the Four Gospels
(70 CE – 110 CE)

The Continuing Process of Canonization of the Hebrew Bible
(Circa 70 CE – 90 CE)

The diagram, which accompanies proposition five of Book II of the Elements, is preserved in the University of Pennsylvania. (View Larger)

One of the Oldest and Most Complete Diagrams from Euclid
(75 CE – 125 CE)

The Last Known Datable Cuneiform Tablet
(75 CE)

A fresco of a Pompein couple with stylus, wax tablets, and papyrus scroll, preserved in the Museuo Archeologico Nazionale. (View Larger)

Roman Portraits Celebrating Literacy
(Circa 75 CE)

Papyrus recovered from the Villa of the Papyri

The Only Library Preserved Intact from Roman Times
(79 CE)

An inscription depicting a contemporaneous politician. (View Larger)

Over 11,000 Wall Inscriptions Survived from Pompeii
(79 CE)

Figure nine from Clark's 'The Care of Books,' depicting a Roman reader with his scroll. (View Larger)

The Characteristics of Roman Papyrus Rolls
(Circa 80 CE)

Figure eleven of Clark's 'On the Care of Books,' depicting 'pigeon holes,' the Roman equivalent of book shelves. (View Larger)

Storing Papyrus Rolls in "Pigeon-Holes"
(Circa 80 CE)

A portrait of Martial.

The First Mention of Literary Works Published in Parchment Codices
(84 CE – 86 CE)

Process of Canonizing the Old Testament
(Circa 90 CE)

Ptolemy

At Alexandria Ptolemy Writes the Almagest, the Cosmographia, and the Tetrabiblos
(Circa 100 CE – 178 CE)

The Romance Papyrus. (View Larger)

The Romance Papyrus
(Circa 100 CE – 200 CE)

The Crosby-Schoyen codex, a Coptic bible circa 300, and the oldest book in private ownership. (View Larger)

Translation of the Bible From Greek into Coptic
(Circa 100 CE – 250 CE)

The recto side of the Saint John Fragment. (View Larger)

The Earliest Known Fragment of the New Testament
(Circa 100 CE – 150 CE)

The fragment of De Bellis Macedonicis, the oldest suriving remains of a Latin manuscreipt written on parchment rather than papyrus. (View Larger)

The Sole Surviving Example of Roman Literary Cursive script and the Earliest…
(Circa 100 CE)

Vindolanda Tablet 309, an inventory of wooden goods dispatched dispatched by and to civilians working for the military. (View Larger, with translation.)

The Oldest Surviving Handwritten Documents in Britain
(Circa 100 CE)

Ts'ai Lun

The Invention of Paper in China
(105 CE)

The Most Famous Example of Roman Square Capitals
(113 CE)

Trajan

Probably the Greatest, and Certainly the Longest Lasting of the Roman Libraries
(114 CE)

The Yale Musical Papyrus. (View Larger)

Ancient Greek Songs
(Circa 125 CE)

The Michigan Instrumental Papyrus. (View Larger)

Ancient Musical Notation
(Circa 125 CE)

Several of the leather-bound codices of the Nag Hammadi Library. (View Larger)

The Form of the Manuscript Book Gradually Shifts from the Roll to the Codex
(Circa 150 CE – 450 CE)

Recto of papyrus containing lines from Homer's Illiad, found at Hawara. (View Larger)

The "Hawara Homer"
(Circa 150 CE)

The oldest known image of the Virgin Mary, located in the Cacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome. (View Larger)

The Earliest Known Image of the Virgin Mary
(Circa 150 CE)

The Earliest Runic Inscriptions
(Circa 150 CE)

A Door-to-Door Bookseller in Egypt, Second Century CE
(Circa 150 CE)

Commercial and Private Book Trade in 2nd Century Egypt
(Circa 150 CE)

The Vimose Comb. (View Larger)

The Earliest Known Runic Inscription
(Circa 160 CE)

Fragment 75. (View Larger)

The Oldest Surviving Fragment from the Gospel of Luke
(175 CE – 225 CE)

One of the Oldest Papyrus Codices of the New Testament
(Circa 175 CE – 250 CE)

"Attic Nights" : Lack of Arrangement Makes its Own Kind of Arrangement
(Circa 180 CE)

Irenaeus

Insisting on Only Four Gospels
(Circa 185 CE)

The First Auto-Bibliography
(Circa 190 CE)

The Diptych Document Format
(198 CE)

The front side of the first Egerton papyrus fragment.

One of the Earliest Known Fragments of Any Gospel
(Circa 200 CE)

The Making of a Gospel Book
(Circa 200 CE – 300 CE)

Among the Earliest News Media: Tipao
(Circa 200 CE – 300 CE)

The Transition from the Roll to the Codex Resulted in Both Survival and Destruction of Information
(Circa 200 CE – 400 CE)

The Definition of Book Includes Codices as Well as Rolls
(Circa 200 CE)

The earliest depiction of a Roman book cabinet. (View Larger)

The Earliest Image of a Book Cabinet or Armarium
(Circa 200 CE)

A reconstruction of a portion of the Forma Urbis Romae, showing a section of the Theater of Pompey. (View Larger)

The Forma Urbis Romae
(203 CE – 211 CE)

The Oldest Woodblock Printed Fragments from China
(Circa 220 CE)

The First Important Work of Rabbinic Judaism
(Circa 220 CE)

The Earliest Christian House Church, With the Most Ancient Christian Paintings
(Circa 232 CE)

Origen's Hexapla: Made Possible by the Codex Form, and the First Codices to Display Information in Tabular Form
(Circa 234 CE – 253 CE)

A Frescoe found in Dura Europos depicting scenes from the Book of Ester. (View Larger)

Possibly the Earliest Record of Rabbinic Texts & the Earliest Continuous…
(244 CE – 256 CE)

The Persecution, Imprisonment and Torture of Origen
(249 CE – 251 CE)

Certificates of Conformation to Pagan Religious Practice
(249 CE – 251 CE)

The Heracles Papyrus. (View Larger)

One of the Few Scraps of Classical Literary Illustration on Papyrus
(Circa 250 CE)

Fragment 2687 of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, which supplements fragment 9. (View Larger)

Greek Writings on Music and Rhythm
(Circa 250 CE)

The Crosby-Schoyen Codex: One of the Earliest Extant Papyrus Codices
(Circa 250 CE)

The Earliest Stage of Half-Uncial
(Circa 250 CE – 350 CE)

The Earliest Known Greek Manuscript of the Four Gospels
(Circa 250 CE)

Death of Wei Tan, Discoverer of Ink
(251 CE)

Warrant for the Arrest of a Christian: One of the Earliest Surviving Recorded Uses of the Word Christian
(February 28, 256 CE)

Foundation of Imperial Nanking University
(258 CE – 317 CE)

The Porphyrian Tree: The Earliest Metaphorical Tree of Knowledge
(270 CE)

A map of Israel, with Caesarea Maritima highlightd in blue. (View Larger)

Pamphilus Establishes a Library and Scriptorium and is Executed During…
(275 CE – 309 CE)

Side A of Oxyrhyncus Papyrus 2547. (View Larger)

Perhaps the Earliest Surviving Text of the Hippocratic Oath
(Circa 275 CE)

A portrait of Eusebius of Caesarea. (View Larger)

One of the Earliest, Most Widely-Used Cross-Indexing Systems
(Circa 280 CE – 340 CE)

Reconstruction of the Contents of the Library of Eusebius
(Circa 280 CE – 339 CE)

Diocletian

The Imperial Library at Nicomedia
(284 CE – 305 CE)

Codex IV found at Nag Hammadi. (View Larger)

Early Christian Papyrus Codices in Coptic Bindings
(300 CE – 350 CE)

The Transition from Papyrus to Parchment
(Circa 300 CE – 700)

One of the four leaves of the Vergilius Augusteus that resides in the Vatican Library.(View Larger)

Manuscript Example of Roman Square Capitals and the Earliest Large Ornamented…
(Circa 300 CE)

The Oldest State-Built Christian Church
(301 CE – 303 CE)

Costs of Professional Writing Measured by the Normal Length of a Line in a Verse of Virgil
(303 CE)

Diocletian

The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians
(February 24, 303 CE – 311 CE)

As a Result of Diocletian's Edict, Police Seize Thirty-Four Biblical Manuscripts in Africa
(May 19, 303 CE)

Eusebius's Tabular Timeline System
(Circa 308 CE – 326 CE)

The Emperor Constantine Converts to Christianity
(October 28, 312 CE – 315 CE)

Constantine

The Edict of Milan Proclaims "Religious Toleration"
(313 CE)

The First Full Length Historical Narrative Written from the Christian Point of View
(Circa 313 CE – 326 CE)

Constantine's Religious Toleration Does Not Apply to Jews
(October 18, 315 CE)

The Role of Books in the Rule of the Earliest Christian Monasteries
(318 CE – 348 CE)

A Sarcophagus Showing a Greek Physician in His Library
(Circa 320 CE)

Constantinus II.

Foundation of Constantinople
(324 CE – May 11, 330 CE)

Constantine Becomes Emperor of the Entire Roman Empire
(September 18, 324 CE)

Contantine Orders Fifty Luxurious Bibles for the Churches of Constantinople
(326 CE – 327 CE)

De rebus bellicis, Including Images of War Machines
(Circa 337 CE – 378 CE)

A page from the Codex Vaticanus. (View Larger)

The Codex Vaticanus
(Circa 350 CE)

The Codex Sinaiticus. (View Larger)

The Codex Sinaiticus
(Circa 350 CE)

The Earliest Egyptian Printed Cloth
(Circa 350 CE)

A bust of Fronto. (View Larger)

"To Fronto Belongs the Unique Distinction of Surviving Solely as the Lower…
(Circa 350 CE – 475 CE)

The recto side of P.Oslo I 4, a section of the mentioned papyrus. (View Larger)

The Most Richly Illustrated Greek Papyrus
(Circa 350 CE)

Folio from Codex Vercellensis. (View Larger)

The Earliest Surviving Manuscript of the Old Latin Gospels
(Circa 350 CE)

The Oldest Surviving Manuscript of the Comedies of Terence
(Circa 350 CE – 450 CE)

Origins of the Lateran Library
(Circa 350 CE – 650)

The Earliest and Largest Part of the Surviving Text of Cicero's De re publica
(Circa 350 CE)

Biblical and Roman Law: Precursor of Footnotes; Early Uniform Pagination
(Circa 350 CE – 450 CE)

The Most Widely Used Medieval Grammar
(Circa 350 CE)

One of the Earliest Treatises on Indian Medicine, Written on Birch Bark
(350 CE – 550)

Possibly the World's First University
(Circa 350 CE)

Title page from the Chronography of 354. (View Larger)

The Earliest Dated Codex with Full-Page Illustrations
(354 CE)

Foundation of the Imperial Library of Constantinople
(Circa 357 CE)

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. (View Larger)

New Testament Canonization in Process
(367 CE)

A page from Codex Bezae Cantabridgensis. (View Larger)

Codex Bezae Cantabridgensis
(Circa 375 CE – 425 CE)

Vergilius Vaticanus

Herald of Christianity and Magus: One of the Oldest Surviving Illustrated…
(Circa 380 CE)

Jerome's Chronicon
(Circa 380 CE)

The Edict of Thessalonica makes Nicene Christianity the Official State Religion of the Roman Empire
(February 27, 380 CE)

Saint Jerome. (View Larger)

St. Jerome Criticizes Luxurious Manuscripts
(384 CE)

The Last Major Surviving Historical Account of the Late Roman Empire
(Circa 385 CE)

The Only Ancient Manual of Roman Military Instructions that Survived Intact
(Circa 390 CE)

Early Christians May Have Destroyed What Remained of the Alexandrian Library Because of its Pagan Contents
(391 CE)

The First Collection of Bio-Bibliographies
(392 CE)

The Roman Empire Splits Permanently into Eastern and Western Halves
(393 CE)

The Latest Known Inscription Written in Egyptian Hieroglyphs
(August 24, 394 CE)

The First Western Autobiography
(397 CE – 398 CE)

At the Beginning of the Dark Ages Production of New Manuscripts Essentially Ceased
(Circa 400 CE – 600)

The Charioteer Papyrus
(Circa 400 CE)

The recto side of Folio Two of Quedlinburg Itala. (View Larger)

The Oldest Surviving Illustrated Biblical Manuscript
(Circa 400 CE)

Page 215 of MS G.67, depicting the acts of the apostles. (View Larger)

"The Earliest Evidence for Tooling on a Leather Bookbinding"
(Circa 400 CE)

The Johnson Papyrus, a fragment of an early fifth century herbal. (View Larger)

The Oldest Extant Book Illustrations of Plants
(Circa 400 CE)

A Diptych Depicting Roman Orators Holding Papyrus Rolls
(Circa 400 CE)

The Durability of Papyrus
(Circa 400 CE)

The "Architecture" of Early Latin Gospel Books
(400 CE – 800)

The mentioned diptych, portraying Emperor Honorius in both panels.

The Oldest Surviving Consular Diptych
(406 CE)

A map of Britannia from A Classical Atlas of Ancient Geography by Alexander G. Findlay. New York: Harper and Brothers 1849. (View Larger)

The Withdrawal of Roman Legions from Britannia Results in the End of Literacy…
(410 CE – 449 CE)

A depiction of Alaric I by German painter Ludwig Thiersch. (View Larger)

The Goths Sack Rome
(August 24, 410 CE)

The City of God
(413 CE)

John Cassian Introduces Monastic Life to Europe
(Circa 415 CE)

One of the Few Surviving Sources for the Administrative Structure of the Late Roman Empire
(Circa 420 CE)

A section of the Codex Ephraemi from the National Library in Paris, containing Matt. 20:16-23. (View Larger)

Early Fifth Century Palimpsest
(Circa 425 CE)

The Earliest Surviving Copy of the Vulgate Gospels
(Circa 425 CE)

The Earliest Image of Codices in a Book Cabinet and Possibly the Earliest Image of a Bookbinding in Wall Art
(426 CE – 450 CE)

The Introduction of Christianity to the Irish
(431 CE)

Fragment 26v of the Cotton Genesis, depicting Abraham. (View Larger)

Fragments of a Fifth or Sixth Century Codex
(Circa 450 CE – 550)

The Earliest Treasure Bookcovers Made of Ivory
(Circa 450 CE)

The Codex Alexandrinus
(Circa 450 CE)

The Church Assumes Role of Educator and Civil Service for the Tribal Kingdoms
(Circa 450 CE – 650)

The Church Replaces the Roman State as the Source of Order and Stability
(Circa 450 CE – 650)

The Smallest Codex Known from Antiquity
(Circa 450 CE)

The Codex Mediceus of Virgil
(Circa 450 CE)

Surviving in Only One Deeply Corrupt Renaissance Manuscript
(Circa 450 CE)

The Last Victory Achieved by the Western Roman Empire
(451 CE)

Karl Briullov's interpretation of Geiseric's sack of 455. (View Larger)

The Second Sack of Rome
(455 CE)

The Imperial Library of Constantinople is Damaged by Fire
(475 CE)

Composition of the Babylonian Talmud
(Circa 490 CE – 542)

Achilles sacrificing to Zeus from the Ambrosian Iliad. (View Larger)

The Only Illustrated Homer from Antiquity
(493 CE – 508)

The Franks Convert to Christianity
(497 CE)

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