90-109 Trajan Annexes SE Arabia & Corinth Christians Revolt

During this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Domitian (pictured) was murdered in AD 96. He was succeeded by the 66-year-old Nerva who died two years later in AD 98 and his adopted son Trajan (who was at the time Governor of Upper Germany) succeeded him.

Trajan was involved in the Romanian Wars, and then annexed south-east Arabia in 106, gaining a valuable trade route.

The Bishop of Rome from 91-101 was Clement I who had been ordained by Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, and gossip had it that he was a cousin of the Emperor Domitian.

Pope Clement I wrote 'The Epistle to the Corinthians' after a revolt among the Christian community in Corinth.

70-89 Mt Vesuvius Erupts, Jewish & British Enslavement

During this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Vespasian (pictured) died in 79 and was succeeded by his son, Titus.

Titus had commanded the war against Judea after his father returned to Rome in 68, and in AD 70 was responsible for the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

As if a punishment from the gods, Mt Vesuvius erupted nine years later in 79, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy.

Titus died in 81 and was succeeded by his brother Domitian who was troubled by wars against the Germans, Hungarians and Romanians.

In 83, Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain, finally subjugated the Britons at the Battle of Mons Graupius. It was a terrible defeat for the Britons who did not want to become slaves.

The Roman Empire was ruled by rich and powerful landowning Italian families who had an army of slaves working on the land, and a small number of household slaves who were mostly cultured and hopeful of winning their freedom.

The slaves came from all parts of the world - mostly from conquered nations, although a few were native born slaves of slaves.

The most feared among the slaves were the newly arrived Jews captured after the Judean Revolt of 66. They were easy to distinguish from the fair-skinned Germanic and British slaves and the black-skinned African slaves.