50

The world in 50

Year 50 (L) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Roman Empire

• Roman Emperor Claudius appoints Agrippa II governor of Chalcis.
• Claudius adopts Nero.
• Cologne is raised to the status of a city.
• In Britain, governor Publius Ostorius Scapula begins his campaign against the recalcitrant Silures of south Wales, who are led by the former Catuvellaunian prince Caratacus. London (Londinium), Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum), Tripontium (near modern Rugby) and the fort of Manduessedum (near modern Atherstone) are founded (approximate date).
• The Iazyges settle in the plains to the east of the Tisza River.
• Romans learn the use of soap from the Gauls.
• Rome now has a population of 1 million.
• Utrecht is founded around this year as a fortress at the Rhine border in the present-day Netherlands.
• In Judea a Roman soldier seized and burned a Torah-scroll. Procurator Cumanus had the culprit beheaded, calming down the Jews and delaying for two decades the outbreak of their revolt^[1]

Asia

• The Tocharian or Yue-Chi tribes are united under the Kushan leader Kujula Kadphises, thus creating the Kushan Empire in Afghanistan and northern India. (approximate date)

By topic

Religion

• The Apostles hold the Council of Jerusalem (approximate date).
• Christianity is introduced throughout Nubia by a high official of Queen Judith.
• The Epistle to the Romans is written (approximate date).

Art and science

• Pedanius Dioscorides describes the medical applications of plants in De Materia Medica.
• Pamphilus of Alexandria writes a poetic lexicon.
• Hero of Alexandria invents a steam turbine (possible date).
• Diogenes, the Greek explorer, discovers the African Great Lakes.
• The distinction between chronic maladies and acute illnesses is made by Thessalos.

Births

• Cai Lun, Chinese inventor of paper and the papermaking process (d. 121)

Deaths

• Abgarus of Edessa, king of Osroene
• Aulus Cornelius Celsus, author of De Medicina
• Gamaliel the Elder, the nasi of the Jewish people in Babylonia
• Philo of Alexandria, Jewish philosopher (b. 20 BC) (approximate date)

References