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After the death of Wang Mang, Hou Han founded the Eastern Han Dynasty. During this dynasty, which lasted until 220, Buddhism was introduced into China.
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The Romans under Ostorius Scaopula defeated Carctacus of Wales. This eventually led to the complete subjugation of Wales to the Romans twenty years later.
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The city of Rome was nearly destroyed in a catastrophic fire. The fire is said to have been set by Nero. Legend has it that 'Rome burned while Nero fiddled'.
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The Kushan Dynasty was established by Kanishka. The Kushan Empire extended from Benares and Kabul to the Vindhayas. The Kushan capital was at Peshawar. The Kushans thrived on the Chinese-Roman trade that passed through their Empire.
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The Roman emperor Hadrian on a visit to Britain ordered the construction of a defensive wall. The wall stretched 70 miles across Northern England.
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In 180 A.D., Marcus Aurelius died and was succeeded by his son, Commodus. Commodus was the first emperor since Domitian to succeed by virtue of birth, rather than by assassination. Commodus later had two of his prefects executed. He lavished enormous wealth on himself and was strangled in 192 A.D.
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With the end of the Han Dynasty, Tsao Pei assumed power and founded the Wei Dynasty. The Wei dynasty was the first in a series of dynasties known as the Six Dynasties. While the Wei dynasty would eventually be recognized as the legitimate one, for some period of time, three competing kingdoms each claimed to be the legitimate rulers of China.
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Alexander Severus the Roman Emperor conducted an indecisive campaign against the Germanic tribes. Alexander Severus' troops revolted and killed him. Maximinus, a Thracian general, became the new emperor.
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Aurelius Carausius, commander of the Roman fleet in the English Channel, revolted. He established England as an independent kingdom of Britain.
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The Gupta Empire was founded in 320 by Chandragupta I. Under his successor, Samudragupta, the Gupta Empire was extended to include all of Northern India. The Gupta Empire ushered in a new golden age of Indian culture.
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Tatar warriors broke through the Great Wall of China that had been built during the Han Dynasty to provide Northern China with protection against invasion. The Tatars drove out the Western Chin Dynasty, which was forced to move its capital to Nanking.
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In 337 A.D., Constantine died. He left his empire to his sons. The empire soon found itself divided with the Western Roman Empire governed from Rome by Constans and the Eastern Roman Empire governed by Constantius II.
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The Huns, a nomadic Mongol people, swept in from Asia. They managed to defeat the Ostrogoth Empire. This brought to an end an empire that had dominated Eastern Europe for 200 years.
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When Emperor Theodosius died in 395 A.D., the Roman Empire was forever split. Theodosius was succeeded by his sons Arcadius, who ruled the Eastern portion, and Honorius, who ruled the Western.
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In 407 A.D., Constantine led his troops on a withdrawal from Britain. Roman troops never returned to Britain.
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Attila the Hun was leader of the Huns and it was he who had earlier defeated the Visigoths. Attila commanded an army that is said to have numbered as many as half a million men. Attila swept through Gaul. In 451 A.D., Attila faced the Visigoths and Romans together in the battle of Chalons. Attila was defeated in this battle, and forced to withdraw. He went on to invade Italy but was convinced to withdraw by Pope Leo. He died in 453 A.D.
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The Western Roman Empire came to an end when the Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by German mercenaries at Ravenna. The German mercenaries then declared themselves to be the rulers of Italy.
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The last Roman emperor of France was defeated by Clovis I, King of the Salian Franks. After the defeat of the Romans, Clovis established the Kingdom of the Franks.
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Between 503 and 557 A.D.,three successive wars -- interrupted by periods of peace -- are fought between the Persian Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. All have the same basic cause -- an inability to define the borders and the relationship between the two empires. In 567 a 'definitive' peace was reached. Under its terms, Rome agreed to pay the Persians 30,000 pieces of gold annually.
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After nearly four centuries of internal divisions and strife, China was reunited under the leadership of Yang Jian. A member of a respected aristocratic family, Yang Jian founded the Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian used Buddhism to help unite the kingdom.