The Armenian cities soon revolt and, in 55 BCE, replace Rhadamistus with the Parthian prince Tiridates.

Rhadamistus if forced to flee along with his pregnant wife, Zenobia, of whom Tacitus relates a romantic story.

Unable to bear a long ride on horse, she persuades her husband to kill her so she will not fall into the hands of their pursuers.

Though stabbed and left at the banks of the Araxes, she survives and is found by some shepherds.

They carry Zenobia to the court of Tiridates, who receives her kindly and treats her as royalty.

Vologases, on becoming king of the Parthians in CE 51, had given the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus II, and has now occupied Armenia for another brother, Tiridates.

This will lead ultimately to a long war with the Roman Empire (58–63), which will be ably conducted by the Roman general Corbulo.

Rhadamistus himself returns to Iberia.

However, he is soon put to death by his father for having plotted against the royal power.

After a third missionary journey, Paul delivers a gift of money collected from the other churches to the church of Jerusalem, intending this as a gesture of mutual love between Gentile and Jewish Christians.

Hostility aroused by his attitude toward the law, however, leads to a riot in Jerusalem and to Paul's arrest and imprisonment.

Pallas and the Praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus are in 56, two years after Nero’s accession, accused of conspiring to have Faustus Sulla declared emperor.

Seneca is accused of having relations with Agrippina and embezzlement.

The conspirators are put on trial, but Faustus does not appear to have been implicated.

Seneca succeeds in having himself, Pallas and Burrus acquitted.

According to Cassius Dio, at this time, Seneca and Burrus reduce their role in governing from careful management to mere moderation of Nero.

Nero, however, begins to watch his brother-in-law closely, afraid of his connection to the imperial family.

Crown Prince Zhuang, as heir apparent to the Chinese imperial throne, is often requested by Emperor Guangwu to render opinions in important matters.

In 51, he had been involved in making a major decision in the Han dynasty's relationship with the Xiongnu.

By that point, Xiongnu had had a civil war and divided into two—with the Northern Xiongnu ruled by Chanyu Punu and South Xiongnu ruled by Chanyu Bi.

Han had become allied with the Southern Xiongnu, and in response, Chanyu Punu, also wanting peace with Han, requested a heqin marriage (literally "peace marriage").

During the Western Han dynasty between 200 and 140 BCE, there had been ten instances of such marriage alliances during between Han “princesses” (one actually was an Imperial princess) and Xiongnu chieftains.

In the closing decade of the second century BCE, Emperor Wu of Ha had arranged the marriage of two Han princesses to kings of Wusun; in 31 BCE, Emperor Yuan of Han had married Wang Zhaojun, a lady of the imperial harem, to Xiongnu chieftain Huhanye.

Prince Zhuang had suggested that Emperor Guangwu refuse the proposal, reasoning that the Northern Xiongnu had only made the proposal to alienate the Southern Xiongnu from Han.

Emperor Guangwu agrees.

At the death of Emperor Guangwu in 57, Crown Prince Zhuang ascends the throne as Emperor Ming.

Emperor Nero, unhappy with the growing Parthian influence at the Roman’s doorstep in the East following Vologases’ installation of his brother, Tiridates, on the Armenian throne, directs Corbulo, his general in Asia Minor, to install another puppet king.

A Hasmonean named Aristobulus had already been given Lesser Armenia (Nicopolis and Satala) and Sohaemus of Emesa had in 54 received Armenia Sophene.

Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, written probably while he is imprisoned in Ephesos in 56—57 (or, as some scholars believe, while imprisoned in Rome in the early 60s), promotes a theology of self-emptying love as an antidote to partisanship and a response to adversity, and reveals much about the sharing of missionary work between Paul and the congregations he serves.

In the generally joyful Phillippians, a probable composite of three letters, Paul, in the first letter, thanks the Philippians, with whom he has good relations, for a gift they send him; in the second, he delivers a hopeful report of his legal situation and encourages them to Christian living; in a third, he attacks a Judaizing gnostic group attempting to mislead the Philippians.

Paul makes an eloquent appeal on behalf of a runaway slave, Onesimus, whom he has converted to Christianity, in his Epistle to Philemon, possibly written during his Ephesian imprisonment or during his Roman imprisonment five years later.

He displays in the letter the depth of his Christian humaneness by asking Philemon—a wealthy Christian of Colossae whom he has also converted—for Onesimus's quiet return to his former station (or, in another interpretation, for his complete freedom to become an evangelist).

Nero had begun taking on a more active role as an administrator in 55; he will serve as consul four times between 55 and 60.

During this period, some ancient historians speak fairly well of Nero and contrast it with his later rule.

Cartimandua has seized and holds hostage Venutius' brother and other relatives, Venutius makes war against her in 57, then wars against her Roman protectors.

Building alliances outside the Brigantes, he stages an invasion of the kingdom.

The Romans, having anticipated this, send some cohorts to defend their client queen.

The fighting is inconclusive until Caesius Nasica arrives with a legion, the IX Hispana, and defeats the rebels.

Thanks to this prompt military support from Roman forces, Cartimandua retains her throne.

Tacitus presents Cartimandua in a negative light in his moralizing narratives, the Annals and the Histories.

Although he refers to her loyalty to Rome, he invites the reader to judge her "treacherous" role in the capture of Caratacus, who had sought her protection; her "self-indulgence" (her sexual impropriety in rejecting her husband in favor of a common soldier); and her "cunning strategems" in taking Venutius' relatives hostage.

However, he also consistently names her as a queen (regina), the only one such known in early Roman Britain.

Boudica, the only other female British leader of the period, is not described in these terms.