Events relating to africa

A cult develops in Rome of the Egyptian goddess Isis, credited with restoring to life her hushand, Osiris, after he has been hacked to pieces

Realistic portraits, done in hot wax and preserved in coffins at Fayyum, vividly depict inhabitants of Roman Egypt

The network of Roman roads stretches eventually from England to Egypt

Ptolemy writes in Alexandria an encyclopedic account of Greek scientific theory in cosmology, astronomy and geography

Plotinus, moving from Alexandria to Rome, teaches the influential philosophy later known as Neo-Platonism

Roman socks, surviving in dry Egyptian tombs, are the earliest known examples of knitting

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, is one of many Christians martyred for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods

St Anthony, one of the early Christian hermits in the Egyptian desert, is tempted by terrifying hallucinations

The Jews of the Diaspora have by now spread through much of the Roman empire, where they are treated with tolerance

Pachomius organizes in Egypt the first community of Christian monks, at Dandara on the Nile

The Cushite dynasty fades away in Nubia, after lasting for 1000 years or more

Frumentius, brought to Ethiopia as a slave, becomes the kingdom's first Christian bishop

A document is distributed by the bishop of Alexandria, formally establishing the contents of the New Testament

The Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete New Testament, is copied out - probably in Egypt

St Augustine reveals that as a young man, studying and teaching in Carthage, he often prayed for 'chastity and continence, but not yet'

The Vandals cross the Rhine into Gaul and move into Spain, from which the Visigoths soon push them on into Africa

Prompted by the fall of Rome to the Visigoths, St Augustine undertakes a great work of Christian philosophy, the City of God

Gaiseric captures Carthage and makes it his base for Vandal raids across the Mediterranean

Belisarius, conquering the Vandals in north Africa, pioneers the strategic concept of the castle

Christianity reaches the kingdom of Dongola, in present-day Sudan

The Arabs establish a garrison town at Kairouan, as a base for the conquest of northwest Africa

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