Wang Bi, whose most important works are commentaries on Laozi's Tao Te Jing and the I Ching, serves as a minor bureaucrat in the Kingdom of Wei.

Married with a daughter, he dies of pestilence at the age of 24.

The text of the Tao Te Jing that appears with his commentary will widely be considered as the best copy of this work until the discovery in 1973 of the Mawangdui texts.

Sima Yi, a strategist, general, and politician of the Three Kingdoms era of China, is perhaps best known for defending Cao Wei from Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions.

Shu's Northern Expeditions after Zhuge Liang's death, had ceased for some years, and peace had returned to the Kingdom of Wei.

The emperor, Cao Rui is now an adult and, taking advantage of the peace, had turned to palace building, costing the state extravagant amounts of money and alienating his ministers and people.

In this environment, Gongsun Yuan, a powerful warlord, had rebelled.

After a campaign to suppress the rebellion was foiled by flooding, Sima Yi had been dispatched the next year, and although initially being set back by more flooding, he had defeated Gongsun Yuan and exterminated his family.

This campaign had brought him even greater prestige.

Cao Rui died not long afterward and the next emperor, again very young, Cao Fang, had ascended to the throne.

This time two regents had been appointed, Sima Yi and the son of Cao Zhen, Cao Shuang.

Cao Shuang was very jealous of Sima Yi's great power and prestige, and sought total control over the Kingdom of Wei.

At the advice of an advisor, he had persuaded the emperor to promote Sima Yi to personal instructor to the emperor.

Although among the highest of positions a person could be given, it is an honorary position only and Sima Yi had been left without any real political authority, although he has maintained his military command.

Zhu Ran of the Kingdom of Wu in 241 had Fancheng under siege.

Sima Yi had personally gone to lift the siege, and had succeeded in driving the attackers away.

He had then succeeded in the year 243 in defeating Zhuge Ke of Wu.

In contrast to this, Cao Shuang's attempts to attack the Kingdom of Shu had ended in failure, making the difference between his abilities and Sima Yi's all the more obvious.

Sensing danger, Sima Yi had retired from his position in 247, citing illness as the reason.

Suspicious, Cao Shuang had sent an advisor to visit Sima Yi, to check whether or not he was truly ill. Sima Yi, then advanced in age, had pretended to be senile.

As Cao Shuang's advisor completely believed the act, Cao Shuang finally felt safe that he had no challenge to his power.

Sima Yi has since bided his time and in 249 springs into action while Cao Fang and Cao Shuang are outside the capital on an official visit to Cao Rui's tomb.

He moves on the imperial palace with an army and persuades the emperor's mother to issue an order to arrest Cao Shuang in order to save the kingdom from its irresponsible government.

Cao Shuang and his allies, with an imperial order declaring them rebels, surrender, expecting to be spared.

Sima Yi instead executes them all.

With complete power over the Kingdom of Wei now in his hands, Sima Yi becomes chancellor.

Sima Yi, to deceive Cao Shuang into letting down his guard, had stopped all political activities in May 247 and later retired, and he goes further in pretending to be ill and senile.

In the winter of 248-249, Cao Shuang's protégé Li Sheng is named as the administrator of Jingzhou, and before he leaves for his position, Cao Shuang sends Li Sheng to check on Sima Yi.

Cao Shuang and his followers are overjoyed when Li reports that Sima Yi is indeed ill and dying, that he could not even hear clearly what Li Sheng had said.

Cao Shuang, sensing that Sima Yi no longer poses a threat to him, draws his attention away from Sima.

On January 6, 249, Cao Shuang and his brothers leave the capital to accompany the child emperor Cao Fang to pay respects to Cao Rui at his resting place at Gaoping Tomb, and they continue to stay out on a hunting expedition.

Sima Yi and his sons launch a coup d'état and seize control of the capital city by first closing all the city gates.

Sima then assigns his protégés to take over the positions held by Cao Shuang's brothers after taking the armory: Excellency over the Masses Gao Rou replaces Cao Shuang, and Imperial Herdsman Wang Guan replaces Cao Xi to command the imperial bodyguards.

Sima Yi goes to see the Empress Dowager, requesting her to give an order to arrest Cao Shuang and his brothers on charges of treason.

Huan Fan, an advisor of Cao Shuang, escapes with the seal signifying the power of Grand Commander and brings it to Cao Shuang.

Cao Shuang is in a dilemma, unsure whether to surrender his power or not.

Cao Shuang's family and loved ones are in Sima Yi's control, and Sima Yi promises that Cao Shuang will not be harmed, as Sima is only after Cao's power.

Eventually, Cao Shuang agrees to surrender and gives up his power.

On January 10, 249, Cao Shuang returns to Luoyang, the capital of Cao Wei, and his fate is sealed.

Once having gained power, Sima Yi has Cao Shuang and his brothers arrested on charges of treason, then has them executed.

Sima Yi refuses to take the position of Imperial Chancellor awarded to him, and remains as Grand Tutor.

Philip the Arab, since becoming the emperor of Rome in 244, has dedicated himself to building his native Syrian hamlet of Shahba' up to a metropolis.

The city has been renamed Philippopolis in dedication to the emperor, who is said to have wanted to turn the city into a replica of Rome itself.

Temples, triumphal arches, baths, a theater, and a great wall surrounding the city have all been built based on the plan of a typical Roman city.

The building of the city stops abruptly after the death of Philip in 249.

The initial success of Decius leads his army to proclaim him emperor, allegedly against his will, in the spring of 249.

He immediately marches on Rome, and Philip's army meets the usurper near modern Verona in the summer.

Decius wins the battle and Philip is killed, either in the fighting or assassinated by his own soldiers who are eager to please the new ruler.

When the news of Decius' success reaches Rome, Philip's eleven-year-old son and heir is murdered.

The Emergence of the Frankish Identity (3rd Century CE)

By the first half of the third century CE, the Frankish identity emerged as a fusion of various earlier Germanic groups inhabiting the Lower Rhine valley and adjacent lands to the east. This development was not a single political event but a gradual social transformation, as distinct tribes such as the Chatti, Sicambri, Chamavi, and Bructeri came together under a shared identity.

The Franks: A Fluid and Evolving Ethnicity

• The Frankish identity was dynamic, evolving through alliances, warfare, and interaction with Rome.
• Contemporary sources vary in how they define the Franks, making it unclear whether all individuals labeled as Franks identified themselves as such.
• Their ethnic and social composition likely shifted over time, with new groups incorporating into the Frankish confederation.

The Franks in Roman Texts: Both Enemies and Allies

• The Franks were first identified in the 3rd century CE, described by Roman authors as a distinct ethnic group living north and east of the Lower Rhine.
• They appear in Roman records alternately as:
  • Enemies, conducting raids into Roman Gaul.
  • Allies, serving as foederati (federated troops), laeti (semi-independent settlers), or dediticii (surrendered peoples under Roman rule).

Significance of the Frankish Formation

• The Franks played a crucial role in the later transformation of the Roman Empire, eventually establishing powerful post-Roman kingdoms.
• They laid the foundation for the Frankish Kingdom, which under the Merovingians and later Carolingians, became the dominant power in Western Europe.
• Their dual role as both foes and auxiliaries of Rome reflected the broader trend of Germanic integration into the Roman military and political system, which would eventually contribute to the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of medieval European states.

The Frankish identity, though initially a loose confederation of Germanic tribes, evolved into one of the most powerful political entities of the post-Roman world, shaping the course of European history for centuries to come.

The Japanese clans’ construction of massive mounded tombs on the Yamato Plain inaugurates Japan’s so-called Kofun period, an era in the history of Japan from around 250 to 538.

The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from this era.

Following the Yayoi period, the Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes referred to collectively as the Yamato period.

While conventionally assigned to the period from 250 CE, the actual start of Yamato rule is disputed.

The Kofun period is illustrated by an animistic culture which existed prior to the introduction of Buddhism.

Politically, the establishment of the Yamato court, and its expansion as allied states from Kyushu to the Kanto are key factors in defining the period.

Also, the Kofun period is the oldest era of recorded history in Japan.

However, as the chronology of the historical sources are very much distorted, studies of this age require deliberate criticism and the aid of archaeology.

The archaeological record, and ancient Chinese sources, indicate that the various tribes and chiefdoms of Japan did not begin to coalesce into states until 300, when large tombs began to appear while there were no contacts between western Japan and China.

Some describe the "mysterious century" as a time of internecine warfare as various chiefdoms competed for hegemony on Kyūshū and Honshuū.

The oldest Japanese kofun is said to be Hokenoyama Kofun located in Sakurai, Nara, which dates to the late third century.

The Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiones), an East Germanic tribe, may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr (the Island of the Burgundians), and from there to mainland Europe.

The Burgundians' tradition of Scandinavian origin finds support in place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g., Musset, p. 62).

Possibly because Scandinavia was beyond the horizon of the earliest Roman sources, including Tacitus (who only mentions one Scandinavian tribe, the Suiones), Roman sources do not mention where the Burgundians came from, and the first Roman references place them east of the Rhine (inter alia, Ammianus Marcellinus, XVIII, 2, 15).

Early Roman sources consider them simply another East Germanic tribe.

The population of Bornholm (the island of the Burgundians) in about 250 largely disappears from the island.

Most cemeteries cease to be used, and those that are still used have few burials (Stjerna, in Nerman 1925:176).

The Limes Germanicus (Latin for Germanic frontier) is a line of frontier (limes) fortifications that bound the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes from the years 83 to about 260 CE.

At its height, the limes stretched from the North Sea outlet of the Rhine to near Regensburg on the Danube.

The Lower Germanic Limes extend from the North Sea at Katwijk in the Netherlands along the then main Lower Rhine branches (modern Oude Rijn, Leidse Rijn, Kromme Rijn, Nederrijn).

The Upper Germanic Limes start from the Rhine at Rheinbrohl (Neuwied (district)) across the Taunus mountains to the river Main (East of Hanau), then along the Main to Miltenberg, and from Osterburken (Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis) south to Lorch (Ostalbkreis) in a nearly perfect straight line of more than seventy kilometers.

The proper Rhaetian Limes extend east from Lorch to Eining (close to Kelheim) on the Danube.

The total length is five hundred and sixty-eight kilometers (three hundred and forty-one miles).

It includes at least sixty castles and nine hundred watchtowers.

The pressure of the barbarians had begun to be felt seriously in the later part of the second century, and after long struggles the whole or almost the whole district east of the Rhine and north of the Danube is lost, seemingly all within one short period, about 250.

The Nördlinger Ries has been a very attractive site for human settlement from Paleolithic times forward.

The valley of the Danube had abounded with game, and many caves in the slopes of the crater provided shelter for Neanderthals and their successors.

The Ries has always been densely populated.

From 450 to 15 BCE, Celtic peoples had built their settlements on the tops of the hills.

Remains of Celtic ring walls and sanctuaries can be found all over the region.

They had been replaced about CE 90 by the Romans, who had secured the region by building forts and the Limes (which was some kilometers north of the present district).

In about 250, the Alamanni, a coalition of Germanic tribes from beyond the Limes Germanicus, drive the Romans from the modern area of Donau-Ries.

Getian insurgents, Goths, and Sarmatians have harassed Dacia during the two centuries of Roman rule in the western Balkans, and major migrations of ‘barbarian’ tribes have begun by the middle of the third century CE.

During the third century, East-Germanic peoples, moving in a southeasterly direction, had migrated into Dacian territories previously under Sarmatian and Roman control, and the confluence of East-Germanic, Sarmatian, Dacian and Roman cultures has resulted in the emergence of a new Gothic identity.

Part of this identity is adherence to a pagan religion, the exact nature of which, however, remains uncertain.

In 238, an army described by the Romans as Gothic had crossed the Danube and plundered the Roman province of Moesia Inferior, taking numerous hostages, which were later returned to the Romans in exchange for monetary compensation.

Within two years—possibly on the basis of a contractual agreement which had ended the same raid—Goths were enlisted into the Roman Army for Gordian III's campaign against the Persians, which had ended in 243-244.

At the conclusion of this campaign, the Gothic soldiers had been released from military duty and all subventions stopped.

This had been met with widespread disapproval, and by 250, a large army consisting of Goths, Vandali, Taifalae, Bastarnae and Carpi had assembled under the Gothic king Cniva.

Together with a number of Roman deserters and some members from such other tribes as the Vandals, the Goths cross the Danube in 250 and overrun the Roman provinces of Moesia and Thrace.

Their war chief Cniva leads his army to sack Philippopolis, called by the Romans Trimontium, the capital of Thrace.