China’s Han Dynasty is notable for its military prowess.

The empire has expanded westward to the Tarim Basin (in modern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region), with military expeditions as far west as beyond the Caspian Sea, making possible a relatively safe and secure caravan and mercantile traffic across Central Asia.

The paths of caravan traffic are often called the "Silk Road" because the route is used to export Chinese silk.

Chinese armies had also invaded and annexed parts of northern Korea (Wiman Joseon) and northern Vietnam toward the end of the second century BCE.

Han Dynasty control of peripheral regions is generally insecure, however.

To ensure peace with non-Chinese local powers, the Han court has developed a mutually beneficial "tributary system" in which non-Chinese states are allowed to remain autonomous in exchange for symbolic acceptance of Han overlordship.

Tributary ties are confirmed and strengthened through intermarriages at the ruling level and periodic exchanges of gifts and goods.

In China, the trip hammer, a massive power hammer, usually raised by a cam and then released to fall under the force of gravity, has evolved out of the use of the pestle and mortar, which in turn had given rise to the treadle-operated tilt-hammer.

The latter was a simple device employing a lever and fulcrum (operated by pressure applied by the weight of one's foot to one end), which featured a series of catches or lugs on the main revolving shaft as well.

This device enabled the labor of pounding, often in the decorticating and polishing of grain, and avoided manual use of pounding with hand and arm.

Although historians assert that its origins may span as far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1050 BC–221 BCE), the earliest texts to describe the device are the Ji Jiu Pian dictionary of 40 BCE.

Quintus Labienus, a Roman republican general, following Caesar’s murder had taken the side of Brutus and Cassius, the latter whom he had served in the capacity of an ambassador to the Parthians.

After Brutus and Cassius were defeated at Philippi, Labienus had joined the Parthians, who invade the Roman territories in 40 BCE.

The Parthian army, led by Labienus and their king, Pacorus, crosses the Euphrates and attacks Apamea.

The attack on Apamea fails but Labienus is able to entice the Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause.

The combined Romano-Parthian army then proceeds to defeat Mark Antony's governor L. Decidius Saxa in a pitched battle and takes Apamea.

After the Roman defeat at Apamea, the Parthians split their army.

Pacorus turns south and conquers the Levant from the Phoenician coast through Palestine, with the exception of a few cities that hold out, including Tyre.

Labienus turns north to follow Saxa, who loses most of his troops as he retreats to Antioch, and whom Labienus defeats and kills in Cilicia.

Labienus then proceeds to conquer all of Asia Minor.

Under Labienus and Pacorus, the Parthians have restored their territory to nearly the limits of the old Achaemenid empire and control all of Asia Minor except for a few cities.

The Parthian successes are not to be long-lasting, however.

Antony’s affair with Cleopatra will result in three children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II and Ptolemy Philadelphus.

Antony early in 40 receives two pieces of bad news: that his brother Lucius Antonius and his third wife, Fulvia, on their own initiative and without success, have revolted against Octavian, thus setting off the Perusine War (after the central point of the rising, Perusia, the modern Perugia); and that the Parthians, the eastern neighbors of Rome’s republican empire, have invaded Roman Syria.

In spite of the latter information, Antony, aware of his deteriorating relationship with Octavian, leaves Cleopatra in Egypt and first proceeds to Italy with a large force to oppose Octavian.

Herod and Antony are old friends; but after Antony's departure, Cleopatra had tried unsuccessfully to seduce Herod on his way through Egypt.

Cleopatra will never forgive him for the rebuff.

Her twins by Antony, named Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, are born on December 25 of this year.

The unexpected occupation of Palestine in 40 BCE by Parthian troops, the culmination of a Parthian invasion of the Levant under the command of Barzapharnes, alters the situation for the house of Antipater.

Antigonus, the ambitious son of Aristobulus II, the Jewish High Priest and King of Judea from 66 BCE to 63 BCE and therefore a legitimate Hasmonean, wins the favor of the Parthians and is established by them as king and high priest of Jerusalem after the Parthians, at the instigation of Antigonus, cut off the ears of his his uncle Hyrcanus in order to permanently disqualify him for the priesthood.

Hyrcanus is then taken to Babylonia in chains.

Phasael reportedly commits suicide, while his brother Herod escapes to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power.

Fulvia is at Praeneste during this conflict, known as the Perusine War, but there is evidence that she helps Lucius.

According to Appian, she "urged Ventidius, Asinius, and Calenus from Gaul to help Lucius, and having gathered another army, she sent it to Lucius under the command of Plancus."

Fulvia is exiled after Lucius' surrender to Sicyon, in Greece, with her children.

Appian writes that she met Antony in Athens, and he was upset with her involvement in the war.

Antony then sailed back to Rome to deal with Octavian, and Fulvia died of an unknown illness in exile in Sicyon, near Corinth, Achaea.

However, Octavian shows no mercy for the mass of allies loyal to Lucius; on March 15, the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination, he has three hundred Roman senators and equestrians executed for allying with Lucius.

Sextus, having established his base in Sicily, has continued his rebellion and used his fleet to ravage the coast of Italy for the past few years, but the second triumvirate's first priority has been the Cassius and Brutus faction.

Thus, with the whole island as his base, Sextus has had the time and resources to develop an army and, even more importantly, a strong navy operated by Sicilian marines, which he has used to interrupt the crucial shipments of Sicilian grain to Rome.

Pompeius' own son is put in charge as naval commander in the effort to cause widespread famine in Italy.

Unsurprisingly, Pompeius' control over the sea has prompted him to take on the name Neptuni filius, "son of Neptune."

By the time the triumvirs turn their attentions to Sicily, Sextus is prepared for strong resistance.

The forces of Sextus take Sardinia in 40 BCE.

With his large fleet of ships manned by Sicilian marines and commanded by capable admirals such as Menas, Menecrates and Demochares, Sextus stops all shipments (especially that of grain) to Rome, and blockades Italy so as to disable trade with other nations by sea.

This blockade is severely crippling to the Roman army as well as to the Italian Peninsula.

Both Antony and Octavian are vying for an alliance with Sextus, who is ironically a member of the republican party, not the Caesarian faction.

Octavian succeeds in a temporary alliance when in 40 BC he wins agreement to marry Sextus’s relative Scribonia, a daughter of Lucius Scribonius Libo and Cornelia Sulla, the granddaughter of Pompey the Great and Lucius Cornelius Sulla; Libo is a follower of Pompeius as well as his father-in-law.

Scribonia’s first two marriages had been to former consuls.

Her first husband is unknown, though it had been suggested that he was Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus (consul 56 BCE), as there is an inscription that refers to freedmen (post 39 BCE) of Scribonia and her son Cornelius Marcellinus, indicating that she had a son from her previous marriage and that he was living with her after she divorced her third husband.

He may have died young and been ignored by historians.

With her second husband, Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito, she had a daughter, Cornelia Scipio; she may have also been the mother to Publius Cornelius Scipio, who would become consul in 16 BCE.

Salvito had been a supporter of Pompey.

In 40, Scribonia is forced to divorce her husband and marry Octavian, who is younger than her by several years.

Octavian in turn divorces his wife Clodia, marrying Scribonia to cement the political alliance with her uncle Sextus.

Antony, returning to Italy, lays siege to Brundisium (Brindisi).

However, this new conflict proves untenable for both men.

Their centurions, who have become important figures politically, refuse to fight due to their Caesarian cause, while the legions under their command followed suit.

Meanwhile in Sicyon, Antony's wife Fulvia had died of a sudden illness while Antony was en route to meet her.

Fulvia's death and the mutiny of their centurions allow for the two triumvirs to effect a reconciliation.

According to Plutarch, "there was even more opportunity for a reconciliation with Caesar.

For when Antony reached Italy, and Caesar manifestly intended to make no charges against him, and Antony himself was ready to put upon Fulvia the blame for whatever was charged against himself."

In the autumn of 40 BCE, Octavian and Antony approve the Treaty of Brundisium.

Lepidus is to remain in Africa, Antony in the East, Octavian in the West, while the Italian peninsula is supposedly open to all for the recruitment of soldiers.

In reality, this provision is useless for Antony, who is in the East.

He will never regain his position and influence in Italy.