2015. Looking forward to looking back.

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The year MMDCCLXVIII (2768) after the foundation of Rome is upon us. That is, 2015 AD/CE. For most other calendars, you'll obviously have to wait until a different date, as not all calendars have 365 days and a few hours and minutes, nor do they all start on January 1st. In fact, it only became the first day of the year in 153 B.C. when the consuls Quintus Fulvius Nobilior and Titus Annius Luscus were forced to take office earlier than the usual date on the Ides of March (March 15th), due to trouble in Hispania. Still, even later, not every nation started the year on January 1st...

Dead months before he was born? by Syltorian


In 2014, we remembered the outbreak of WW1 and the death of Augustus. What can we look forward to looking back on in the new year, apart from DeviantArt's 15th anniversary?

Well... now with more pictures and a song!

5 years ago... Pope John-Paul II dies, to be succeeded by Benedict XVI;  Hurricane Katrina hits the U.S., and Angela Merkel becomes chancellor of Germany. Also, dA introduces the Llama  on April 1st.

25 years ago... Germany and Yemen are reunified as Yougoslavia begins to break apart; the Baltic States - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - and Namibia declare their indendence; Nelson Mandela is freed from prison; the first web server goes into service; Mr Bean goes on air for the first time; Youtube goes online; the Hubble Space Telescope is launched; the World Health Organisation formally accepts homosexuality is not a disease; Iraq invades Kuwait and the Gulf War starts; the first Polish presidential elections are held; and Channel Tunnel workers digging from both sides meet under the seabed.

Estonia flagLatvia flag Lithuania flag  Namibia flag 

50 years ago... the Maple Leaf features for the first time on the flag of Canada; Malcolm X is assassinated; the first American troops arrive in Vietnam; Alexey Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space, and Luxembourg wins the Eurovision thanks to 18-year old French singer France Gall (thanks!) with Poupée de cire, poupée de son, written by Serge Gainsbourg:




100 years ago... World War I is raging in Europe; poison gas is used for the first time in modern warfare, though it had been used by the Sassanids over a millenium and a half before; it is also the first time civilian targets are bombed from the air, by a German zeppelin; Italy joins the Allies; and the U.S. are nearly drawn into the war by the sinking of RMS Lusitania on May 7th. The Gallipoli Campaign is disastrous for the Allies, in particular ANZAC troops. The Ottomans arrest the first Armenians, starting what some consider a genocide, though Turkey sees matters differently; on a positive note, women get the right to vote in Denmark, the French satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé is founded, and Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into a giant creepy-crawler in Kafka's Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) is published; in a year of so many deaths, Bob Cane, the creator of Batman, American singer Frank Sinatra and French singer Edith Piaf are born. Chaplin's The Tramp opens in cinemas.

<da:thumb id="458890220"/>
Zeppelin by MiGpilot25

Gregor by Culpeo-Fox Metamorphosis by Culpeo-Fox
Illustrations for the Verwandlung by Culpeo-Fox

200 years ago... On June 18th, Napoleon meets his enemies, a certain Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, and Gebhard von Blücher, on the plain of Waterloo. The French imperial army is decisively defeated, and Napoleon is exiled to St Helena. Some months later, the Treaty of Vienna is signed, restauring the monarchy and dividing Europe between the Empires of Prussia, Austria and Russia, with some buffer states to contain France. For personal history, Luxembourg becomes independent for the first time, but is assigned to the King of the Netherlands as a personal possession. Europe outlaws slavery thanks to British Premier Castlereagh. The liberal and national movements in Europe are ignored by grandees like Metternich, setting the stage for numerous revolutions. On the first day of April, Otto von Bismarck is born.

Marschall Vorwaerts! by Pelycosaur24 Final March upon Waterloo by CaptJ3
deviations by Pelycosaur24, LeSoldatMort  and CaptJ3
Otto von Bismarck by Arminius1871
deviation by Arminius1871

250 years ago... Britain passes the Stamp and Quartering Acts, putting pressure on the 13 Colonies by direct taxation, and forced quartering of troops on private individuals respectively. As a reaction, the Sons of Liberty are founded in Boston. In 1773, they willstage the Boston Tea Party. The chain of events leading to the independence of the United States of America is started. Meanwhile, in Austria, Joseph II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor, suceeding Franz I. He has already been King of Germany for a year.

300 years ago... Le Roi est mort. Vive le roi! (The King is dead; long live the King!). The French have another loss to remember. King Louis XIV, the Sun King (Roi Soleil) dies on September 1st, four days before his 77th birthday. On his deathbed, having outlived all his other descendants, he advises his 5-year-old successor and great-grandson Louis XV, not to follow his example and lead so many wars ("ne faites pas comme moi: j'ai trop aimé la guerre"). While Louis XIV is (probably wrongly) credited with having said that after him, the biblical flood could be unleashed for all he cared ("après moi le déluge"), France continues to go strong. - In Oxford, the construction of the Clarendon Building is finished, and in Scotland, the Jacobites are rebelling against George I.

<da:thumb id="342674904"/>
Louis XIV of France by TEAofeyes   Born to see by Syltorian
  Briancon Fortifications by Syltorian

Portrait by TEAofeyes; Statue by BlackRayser The other images are city fortifications begun of Vauban under Louis XIV, though developped later as well.

Clarendon Building in Snow by Syltorian
Clarendon Building

400 years ago... In Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu takes Osaka Castle, ending opposition to his rule as shogun. He will die a year later. In Spain, Cervantes publishes the second volume of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha. Cervantes will die a year later, so we will probably celebrate his memory in 2016.

<da:thumb id="482845330"/>
deviation by Furuhashi

500 years ago... Le Roi est mort. Vive le Roi! (Yes, again). Louis XII dies on the first day of the year, without male issue. His daughters, Claude and Renée, are barred from succession by the Salian Law, and the crown passes to François I, the King famous for introducing the Renaissance into France. The previous year, he had already wed Louis' daughter Claude. François will reign until 1547. Louis and François are thus the first people to be commemorated this year, out of all these journal entries. - San Cristobál de La Habana (Havana, Cuba) is founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar.

Chateau de Chambord 3D by Remy31460
François' castle Chambord in 3D, by Remy31460

600 years ago... It's not the best year for the French to look at History. On St. Crispin's Feast (October 25th), the "few, the happy few" English defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt, "wherefore Englonde may call  and cry: Deo Gratias, Anglia, redde pro victoriam!" (Give thanks to God, England, for the victory). (Agincourt Carol). Meanwhile, the Council of Constance deposes (anti-)Pope John XXII, whilst Benedict XIII holds out tenaciously in Peñiscola, and Pope Gregory XII abdicates. The Great Western Schism looks about to end. From July 4th onwards, there is a sede vacante ('empty chair'), until the election of Martin V in 1417. The council also condemns the Czech religious reformer Jan Hus, who is burnt at the stake on July 6th.

With These Few by MichaelHoweArts
deviation by Unicorn-Knight

800 years ago... The King is not dead, but it's the next worst thing for a monarch: at Runnymede in England, on June 19th, King John is made to sign the Magna Carta by his Barons. Innocent III, the Pope, declares the Charter invalid and excommunicates those who obey it. He also launches the Fifth Crusade (which doesn't get started until 1217). Meanwhile, Domingo Núñez de Guzmán (St. Dominic) founds the Order of the Preachers, or Dominicans (approved by Pope Honorius III in 1216). They become infamous as leaders of the Inquisition, whence the pun on their name: "The Dogs of the Lord", "Domini Canes". Though by their looks, another animal comes to mind (tongue in cheek).

    "At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
    Your rights were won at Runnymede!
    No freeman shall be fined or bound,
    Or dispossessed of freehold ground,
    Except by lawful judgment found
    And passed upon him by his peers.
    Forget not, after all these years,
    The Charter Signed at Runnymede."


                                R. Kipling, 1911

1000 years ago... You guessed it: the King is dead. Vladimir I the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev, leaves this world on July 15th. He was the first of the Rus to abandon paganism and the worship of the slavic gods like Perun, which earned him a sainthood in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, celebrated on the day of his death. His demise is followed by a civil war between his heirs.

1600 years ago... Honorius and Theodosius II, the West and East Roman Emperors respectively, are consuls. Hypatia of Alexandria, a female pagan philosopher, is murdered by Christian monks rioting in the city. Pulled out of the Caesareum, she is stripped and stoned, and then mutilated. She becomes a martyr to the pagan movement, and also an icon for female emancipation, as she rose to independent prominence at the exalted scholarly institution in an age when most women required male guardians by law. The Library of Alexandria, along with its sister institution at the Serapaeum, had already been destroyed when paganism was outlawed in 391 under Theodosius. In India, the King is dead: Chandragupta II.

  Ancient Female Scientists by Pelycosaur24 Hypatia of Alexandria by Alda-Rana
Deviations by Pelycosaur24  and Alda-Rana

1700 years ago... Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius are consuls. The Arch of Constantine near the Colosseum is completed, though most of the carvings are "recycled" from older monuments. Constantine celebrates his victory of the new emperor of Maxentius, but refuses to hold the pagan rites associated with the triumph after his recent awakening to Christianity. Crucifixion is abolished as a form of punishment,

Arch of Constantine by Syltorian
The Emperor at War by Syltorian

1800 years ago... Quintus Maecius Laetus and Marcus Munatius Sulla Cerialis are consuls. Emperor Caracalla stages the Alexandria Massacre: 20'000 are put to the sword because someone in the city had produced a satire on Caracalla's claim that his murder of his brother Geta was an act of self-defense. He also devaluates the currency by introducing a new coin, the antoninianus: at 1.5 silver content of a denarius, it was valued as 2 denarii. This starts off a catastrophic inflation as less and less silver content goes into the coins, until it reaches a proportion of silver to base metal of 1:20 (down from 98% in the Republic).

1900 years ago... Lucius Vipsanius Messala and Marcus Pedo Vergilianus are consuls. While Trajan is engaged in the Parthian Wars, the Jews living in Cyrenaica, Cyprus, Egypt, Alexandria and Mesopotamia revolt against the Romans. The tomb of Pompey is destroyed in Alexandria, and many people are massacred. It takes the Romans 2 years to put the revolt down. The war becomes known to the Jews as the "Rebellion of the Diaspora", to the Romans as the Kitos War, after the victoriouus general Lusius Quietus. 

Apollo in Cyrene by Syltorian We need a fallen palm in this play... by Syltorian
Cyrenaica

2000 years ago... Drusus Iulius Caesar (son of the Emperor Tiberius) and C. Norbanus Flaccus are consuls. The future Roman emperor Aulus Vitellius is born on September 24th. He will reign a for a few months in 69 A.D., from late September to mid-December. The same year, the wife of emperor Claudius and mother of Nero, Agrippina the Younger, is born on November 6th (according to some datings). She will be executed, on the order of her son, in 54 A.D. Meanwhile, Agrippina's father Germanicus reaches the battlefield of the Varian Disaster of 6 years before, and buries what remains of the dead, while Aulus Caecina Severus leads his troops into a Germanic ambush, narrowly escaping a second Teutoburg. Lucius Seius Strabo dies immediately after being promoted Governor of Egypt from his previous job as Praetorian Prefect, while his infamous son, Lucius Aelius Seianus (Sejanus) starts his harrowing tenure as the Prefect of the Praetorians, which will last until his equally horrifying execution in 31 AD.  

Untitled by Syltorian
Germanicus returns with the lost eagles of the Varian Legions XVII, XVIII and XIX. Coin struck under his son, Caius Iulius Caesar (Caligula).

2100 years ago... Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Caius Marius are consuls. Athens realises it has made something of a rather serious miscalculation. In the war between Mithridates of Pontus and Rome, it sided with Pontus. General Lucius Cornelius Sulla is not amused. "I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels" (Plutarch, Sulla, 13.4), he tells the envoys as his army throws up siegeworks around the ancient city. On the Calends of March (March 1st), Marcus Ateius is the first Roman soldier over the walls. The Roman soldiers do what they do best, and one of the greatest bloodbaths in history follows. Meanwhile, in Rome, the consuls have satisfied their lust for blood after murdering the friends of Sulla. Caius Marius exits history in this year by joining his ancestors on the Ides of January (13th January), leaving Lucius Valerius Flaccus to take up the post of consul for the rest of the year. Rome stands at the brink of its first civil war. Fittingly, the Roman politician and historian Caius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), who writes on the decline of the Republic, is born this fateful year. Of course, at this time the Roman calendar is rather messy, as the number of its months and days varies at the whim of the Pontifex Maximus (then Quintus Mucius Scaevola), who is supposed to keep it in concordance with the seasons but often shortens or lengthens the year depending on whether he likes the people who serve as that year's consuls. Scaevola narrowly escapes being murdered by the pro-Marian Caius Flavius Fimbria at Marius' funeral, as the dagger-wound turns out to be non-fatal. Four years later, the Marians will succeed in cutting him down in the Temple of Vesta.
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Iulii at War by Syltorian <da:thumb id="133064374"/>
Portraits by RiccardoMenicanti and nyaar. Roman battle scenes on a monunument of some 50 years later. Propylaos by Meldelen

2200 years ago... Evohe! Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus Marcius Philippus are consuls, as the Roman Republic becomes scared out of its wits by rumours of orgiastic rituals practiced at the Bacchanalia, the festivals of Bacchus-Dionysus-Liber Pater. Public morals are not only offended by the events themselves, but also by the complete overthrow of social structures, as slaves may officiate as priests and thus hold power over lay freemen. Not to mention the lewd behaviour of women! As a slavewoman recounts the goings-on, the Senate is utterly shocked. It outlaws the Bacchanalia in all of Italy. Who cares that it does not actually have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of their Italic Allies? Not consul Spurius Postumius Albinus, for sure. This marks the first time Rome treats its Allies as subjects. But hey, Rome also has it's first Venationes (staged animal hunts, then largely in the forum, as there would not be an amphitheatre for more than two centuries). You can spite Postumius and the Senate by celebrating Bacchus with these songs: Bacche bene venies, and Hymm to Bacchus.

Nennig Mosaic: Man vs. Leopard by Syltorian

2400 years ago... In the same year as the Greek playwright Aristophanes breathes his last, the dogs doze peacefully in Rome, when they should have barked. Thankfully, the geese are awake. As Gallic troops, having already captured the rest of the Eternal City, try to scale the Capitol, the guards - in particular, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus - rush to throw them back down. Capitolinus gets overconfident by this success (or so the Senators say, and the Senators are honourable men...), and is killed for trying to overthrow the Republic some years later. By being thrown from the Tarpeian Rock of the Capitol, no less. The Sack of Rome, which gave rise to the saying Vae Victis! (Woe to the vanquished) is now dated to 386/7 B.C. rather than 390 B.C. as Varro calculated. The Republic recovers quickly, but never forgets the humiliation by a passing troop of Gauls.

Celtic troopers by VincentPompetti warrior charging by VincentPompetti Gallic noblemen by VincentPompetti
Deviations by pegasusandco for a book on the (much later) Gallic Wars.
<da:thumb id="503865322"/> Animals 006 by Katibear-Stock
Geese by dottyjammies and Katibear-Stock
She's a sweetie, really! by Syltorian
Maybe they should have put Cave Anserem (Beware the Goose) here.

2500 years ago... the Apadana Reliefs in Persepolis are finished. Also, the King is dead... The shāhanshāh (King of Kings) Darius the Great (Dārayavauš) dies after a reign of 36 years. He is succeeded by his son, Xerxes (Xšaya-ṛšā), though another son, Artabazanes, briefly and bloodily contests the claim. Psammetichus of Egypt seizes the moment to revolt, but the ancient kingdom's brief independence is squashed the next year.

    Darius about himself in the Behistun inscription: "I am Darius, the great king, king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of countries, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arsames, the Achaemenid (...).These are the       countries which are subject unto me, and by the grace of Ahuramazda I became king of them: Persia, Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, the countries by the Sea, Lydia, the Greeks, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia,       Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdia, Gandara, Scythia, Sattagydia, Arachosia and Maka; twenty-three lands in all." (Full Text).


Untitled by Syltorian
Persian "Immortals" or archers from a relief of Darius' Palace at Susa (Shush), the Persian winter capital, now in Berlin's Pergamon Museum (my photograph, too small to put in the real gallery).

Gate by Leogon A nation's glory:Persepolis II by Leogon A nation's glory:Persepolis I by Leogon
deviations by Leogon

3700 years ago... The King is dead. This time, it's Hammurabi of Babylon, who set up the first public code of laws. Probably. As far as we can be sure of dates. At this stage, dates become approximations by the rough decade.

2013-BADASS_HAMMURABI by Vandrell<da:thumb id="478130209"/>
Deviation sby Vandrell and DamiMercury

3'421'300 years ago... or so.

<da:thumb id="369783984"/> Mammut borsoni by Leogon Homotheriums on the hunt by Leogon 
deviations by Leogon, a choice amongst many other creatures of that far-way age.

Most of this information has been collected from Wikipedia. Featured images are used with permission of their creators, to whom I extend my deep thanks for allowing me to use them in this journal.

Fireworks All the Best for 2015! Fireworks

© 2014 - 2024 Syltorian
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Eliasome's avatar
And then there is Methuselah -- a bristlecone pine tree -- that is nearly 5,000 years old, which means is was alive at the dawn of human civilization!  The stories it could tell....