PBA professor remembers the original 90's, 90-99 A.D.

by Dr. Lovejoy


Take a little walk with me, students, as I remember my childhood. It was the decade of 90, a time when it was fashionable for Rome to build a system of aqueducts and for iron plows to be fitted with wheels to control the depth and ease of plowing.

The 90's began with Parthia's Artabanus III dying after a 10-year period in which he had challenged the suzerainty of Pakoros II, who would continue his reign until 105. It ended with the silver content of the Roman denarius rising to 93 percent under the emperor Trajan, up from 92 percent under Domitian.

So what happened in between those years that made the decade in which I lived out my childhood so memorable? The popular culture of the 90's was full of fun and interesting events that I won't soon forget.

This was the decade when exciting new literature dominated our lives. I still remember when John of Ephesus first published Revelation. That's some pretty deep stuff, even today!


Also, there were always some juicy political events to keep the world's attention. Why, I remember it like it was yesterday when Roman emperor Domitian had a ton of his senators executed out of paranoid fears that they were plotting to kill him. And who could forget when the Roman emperor Nerva died suddenly on January 25, 98, at age of 63 after a 16-month reign and was succeeded by his adopted son, who reigned until 117 as the emperor Trajan. It really puts these current political "troubles" into perspective.

And don't think that racism in politics is anything new either. Why, I remember when a Jewish delegation to Rome was led by Rabbi Gamliel II, along with Rabbis Akiva, Joshua and Eleazar to request that Emperor Domitian rescind one of his anti-Jewish proclamations. How's that for racial tension?



And finally, a taste of things to come for the 100's. Zhang Heng left his home in 95 to begin attending University. He would go on to invent the first seismometer as well as the first hydraulic powered armillary sphere. How I lived without that stuff I'll never know.

As I look back and remember the crazy things that I lived through, I imagine what we will think when we look back on the first 90's of this century.