Anno Domini
Definition
Anno Domini (Latin: "In the year of the Lord"), or more completely Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi ("in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ"), commonly abbreviated AD or A.D., is the designation used to number years in the dominant Christian Era in the world today. This is the conventional designation now used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It defines an epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus. Years before the epoch were denoted a.C.n. (for Ante Christum Natum, Latin for "before the birth of Christ"), although BC (Before Christ) is now usually used in English. The Christian Era is the only system in everyday use in the Western World, and the main system for commercial and scientific use in the rest of the world. However, in academic, historical and archaeological circles, the same epoch is often referred to as the Common Era (CE) and the BC period as Before the Common Era (BCE).While it is increasingly common to place AD after a date, by analogy to the use of BC, formal English usage adheres to the traditional practice of placing the abbreviation before the year, as in Latin (e.g., 100 BC, but AD 100). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini [Nov 2004]
Year of the birth of Jesus (c. 6-4 BC - c. 30 AD) [...]
Alternative Sexuality Timeline 999-1AD
http://www.backdrop.net/bdsm-history/timeline.html [Jul 2004]1 - 999AD
12 AD, Aug. 31: birth of the future Roman emperor,
Caligula
26 AD: The Roman Emperor Tiberius (born Nov 16, 42 BC) retires to
Capri, where he indulges in all forms of sexual exploration.
39 AD, Sept. 4:
birth of the future Roman Emperor, Titus. He was not a Tiberius or Caligula or
Nero, or even a Claudius. But he did complete the coliseum, the site of some of
the bloodiest activities yet to come in Roman history.
41 AD, Jan 21: Roman
Emperor Caligula killed by a guard who had been frequently forced to kiss the
royal middle finger in public, and other things in private. (Birth Aug 31, 12
AD) [Greif 82]
45-68 AD: Reign of Nero (born Dec. 15, 37 BC), who as Emperor
of Rome, would elevate torture to new heights as a spectator sport.
53 AD,
Sept. 15: Birth of Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, who became the Roman Emperor Trajan,
the first non-Italian emperor. His accomplishments were many, not only in
battle, but in the construction of public works. All of the ancient sources
discuss Trajan's homosexuality candidly, differing only in the stories used to
illustrate his sexual preferences. [Greif 82]
69 AD, April 15: The Roman
Emperor Otho (Marcus Salvius Otho), who literally rose to power on his knees
before Nero, stabs himself in the heart.
76 AD, Jan. 24: Birth of Hadrian,
who would become Emperor of Rome and lover of the beautiful Antinous (July 16
c.110) who drowned himself in the Nile at age 21, perhaps in as a self
sacrifice to save the life of his lover and master.
79 AD, Aug 24: Vesuvius
erupts, thereby preserving the homoerotic, and other sexually explicit, wall
murals that would surely have been destroyed by later Christian
"civilizations".
188 AD, April 4: Birth of the Roman Emperor Caracalla. Gay
-- but not leather, he certainly set the standard for a bath house! [Greif
82]
3rd century AD: Sebastian, a handsome young Roman Centurion is beloved
by the emperor Diocletian, who turned against him when he embraces
Christianity. He was stripped and tied to a tree and shot full of arrows by his
fellow centurions. But he survives only to die many years later in a second
martyrdom when he is stoned to death. St. Sebastian has been called the patron
saint of gays, and the patron saint of SM.
205, March 8: Birth of Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus, who would become Heliogabalus, the boy Emperor of Rome.
Blatantly homosexual he was married twice in one night choosing a well hung
charioteer as his husband and a boy named Hierocles as his wife. He sent out
his agents to round up the men with the largest penises in the Roman empire.
Eventually his own guards shoved a sword up his ass and dumped him in a sewer.
He was 17. [Greif 82]
342 AD: The emperors Constantius and Constans, having
inherited much of the empire of their father Constantine, call for Aexquisite
punishment" for homosexuality. [AA]
390 AD: The Roman Emperor Theodosius
sets the punishment for homosexuality as death by burning.
533 AD: Byzantine
Emperor Justinian I, decrees that homosexuality and blasphemy are equally to
blame for famines, earthquakes, and pestilence. He orders castration for
offenders. [AA]
693 AD: The Council of Toledo declares that "sodomists" have
infiltrated the Church and order that clerics who lay with men should be
degraded, exiled, and damned.
809-813: Reign of Abbasid Caliph Al-Amin of
Baghdad, whose mother becomes dismayed by his preference for male eunuchs and
packs his court with girls disguised as boys. These "ghulamiyyat" then become a
fashion in many Moslem courts.
955-964: Reign of Pope John XII who loves
both boys and muscular young men, he dies at the age of 26 from a stroke while
having sex with one of his beautiful young men.
--http://www.backdrop.net/bdsm-history/timeline.html [Jul 2004]