this is my new timeline, tell me what u think. BTW the desision to send missionaries to the Mediteranian countries was real
Pax Buddha
326 BCE: Alexander the Great crosses the Indus and invades Punjab. While mingling with the natives the troops pick up the idea of Buddhism. Alexander himself hangs around some laity. One day he surprises everyone and converts to Buddhism, and proclaims him the next Buddha. This surprise conversion shocks his closest advisers, some of whom even convert themselves.
324 BCE: following Alexander’s conversion Buddhism spreads across his empire.
323 BCE: Alexander dies in Babylon. Following his death Buddhism, never really well grounded in his empire slowly dies out.
Circa 305 BCE: King Ashoka holds the third Buddhist council at Pataliputra. Convened by the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, it was held in order to purify the sangha of the large number of false monks and heretics who had apparently joined the order because of its royal patronage. This council refuted the offending viewpoints and expelled those who held them. In the process, the compilation of the Buddhist scriptures (Tripitaka) was supposedly completed, with the addition of a body of subtle philosophy (abhidharma) to the doctrine (dharma) and monastic discipline (vinaya) that had been recited at the first council. Another result of the third council was, because of the success of Buddhism in Alexander the Greats Empire, the dispatch of missionaries to various countries. Missionaries are dispatched to the Mediterranean countries, like the city states of Greece, Italy and Carthage. In Judea the Buddhists are not very successful, but when they reach Greece their message is heard, and some Greek cities, like Thessalonika and Athens have large populations of Buddhists by the end of the 3rd Century there are even laity in Rome itself.
Sri Lanka is converted by the son and daughter of King Ashoka, Mahinda and Sanghamitta.
234 BCE: Roman Buddhists set up the first western sangha in Rome. Roman Buddhism is comparable to Mahayana Buddhism, idol worship, focus on tradition etc. Roman Buddhism was popular as it already acknowledged the Roman Pantheon, but denies them any special status or role. Their lives in heaven are long and pleasurable, but they are in the same predicament as other creatures, being subject eventually to death and further rebirth in lower states of existence. They are not creators of the universe or in control of human destiny, and Buddhism denies the value of prayer and sacrifice to them. Of the possible modes of rebirth, human existence is preferable, because the deities are so engrossed in their own pleasures that they lose sight of the need for salvation. Enlightenment is possible only for humans. So the Roman Buddhists could keep the comfort of having the old gods, but embrace a more human centered religion.
250 BCE: Independent kingdom of Parthia established.
206 BCE: establishment of Han Dynasty in China, Confucianism is made the state ideology
Approximately 2nd Century BCE: divisions of Mahayana from the main branch of Buddhism (Theravada). Roman Buddhists proclaim support for Mahayana Buddhists
180-87 BCE: Expansion of Han Dynasty in Asia. The Han expanded south of the Yangzi, absorbing land and planting colonies in Annam. Southern Dongbei and north Korea were subjugated, and forces battling the Hunnish Xiongnu nomads penetrated Central Asia as far as the Jaxartes River.
100 BCE: A fourth council, under the patronage of King Kanishka, was held at Jalandhar or in Kashmir. Both branches of Buddhism have participated in this council, including Roman Buddhists, which aimed at creating peace among the various sects, but Theravada Buddhists refuse to recognize its authenticity. Based on the success of Buddhism in the Roman Empire more missionaries are sent into Parthia. The beginning of the network of overlapping overland trade routes known as the Silk Route. The use of the common religion (Buddhism) helps to strengthen it.
1st Century BCE: By the end of the century Pathia had grown into an empire extending from the Euphrates River to the Indus River and from the Oxus River to the Indian Ocean, and the Buddhists gain more and more influence in Pathia. Roman Empire continues to expand under Julius Caesar, who conquered the remainders of Gaul and Spain.
27 BCE: Octavianus emerges from the civil wars without a significant rival, and adopted the title “Augustus†and so became the first Roman emperor. By now all of Italy, Greece, and portions of Asia Minor and Spain are Buddhist, with sangha and laity established across the empire, and a stupa was even set up in Alexandria. Octavianus himself is a Buddhist, and makes it the official religion of the Roman Empire. Soon across the empire new Buddhist schools sprung up, as some sangha already before educated the local boys. Buddhism is now interwoven into the Roman society, but not as such amongst the non-Romans in the Empire, such as the native Celts. In the earliest periods of Romanization, much was probably due to social competition among the native people, whose prestige might be enhanced by possessions or manners which might associate them with such a powerful and successful society as that of Rome, and so the prestigious natives converted to Buddhism. Merchants who also wanted to advance themselves also converted.
16 BCE: the giant Roman laity is constructed in Rome, which contains a giant gold statue of Buddha, surrounded by traditional Roman columns. The temple has a massive fresco of the pantheon of Roman gods looking down on Buddha.
6 BCE: Judea annexed after the collapse of the puppet kingdom of Herod.
0 CE: Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem.
14 CE: Octavianus dies, and power is passed to Tiberius
12 CE: young Jesus causes a ruckus in a Jewish temple attracts the attention of the Roman authorities in Judea. He is taken back to Rome to be looked at by the Roman Buddhist council (including the Roma Lama) in the Sangha Roma. It is then decided that he is to be taken to a sangha in the Alps where other gifted children are trained to be the next Roma Lama.
34 CE: the Roma Lama, Jassius, dies aged 74. Jesus is chosen to be the next RL. He will reign for 47 years.
43 CE: Rome annexed Britian.
47 CE: in Pathia a large group of the population is now Buddhist, but the Zoroastrians still hold the balance of power.
66-73 CE: First Jewish Revolt in Judea. The Roma Lama goes to Judea to try to broker peace with the Jews, but fails.
70 CE: Destruction of the second Temple and Jerusalem
73 CE: Last stand of Jews at Masada.
81 CE: Jesus, the 14th Roma Lama dies in Rome. His era of Roma Lama was one of peace in the order, but his sermons in Rome at the Laity Roma helped to spread the word of Buddhism, and the translation of the Buddhist texts from the silk route. The Buddhist canon known as the Tripitaka, The Sutra Pitaka primarily composed of dialogues between the Buddha and other people. It consists of three collections of writings: the Sutra Pitaka, a collection of discourses; the Vinaya Pitaka, the code of monastic discipline; and the Abhidharma Pitaka, which contains philosophical, psychological, and doctrinal systemizations and classifications. It consists of five groups of texts: Digha Nikaya (Collection of Long Discourses), Majjhima Nikaya (Collection of Medium-Length Discourses), Samyutta Nikaya (Collection of Grouped Discourses), Anguttara Nikaya (Collection of Discourses on Numbered Topics), and Khuddaka Nikaya (Collection of Miscellaneous Texts). In the fifth group, the Jatakas, comprising stories of former lives of the Buddha, and the Dhammapada (Religious Sentences), a summary of the Buddha's teachings on mental discipline and morality, are especially popular.
The texts are translated into Latin and are inscribed onto the walls of the temples.
98 CE: Trajan becomes Emperor. Trajan, an Antonine ruler, conquered Dacia and Arabia, and won several important victories in Parthia. The Roman Empire had reached its height.
170 CE: The Empire in the west was threatened when a host of Germanic tribes, the most powerful of whom were the Marcomanni, smashed through the Danube frontier, overran the adjacent provinces, and pushed as far as northern Italy, where they lay siege to Apuleia. After a long and grimly fought war, they were pushed back, but the pattern of barbarian pressure and incursion was to continue.
212 CE: Emperor Caracalla extended full Roman citizenship to all free-born subjects of the empire, abolishing the distinction between Roman and provincial, and so doing much to create a common sense of Romanitas (an identity with the traditions and institutions of the Roman world). By now Buddhism is instilled within Romanitas, leading to an era of peace. This weakened the Roman empire, along with corrupt leaders.
226 CE: Ardashir I, a Persian vassal-king, rebelled against the Parthians, defeated them at the Battle of Hormuz (224), and founded a new Persian dynasty, the Sassanids. He went on to conquer several minor neighbouring kingdoms, invaded India, levying heavy tribute from the rulers of the Punjab, and conquered Armenia. He also established Buddhism as the official religion of Persia.
253 CE: The Goths and the Heruli had ravaged the shores of the Aegean.
260 CE: Migration of Germans to the area around the Black Sea. There the most prominent were the Goths, who established two confederacies, the Ostgoths (East Goths) and Visigoths (West Goths). The Buddhist council in Rome decides to send missionaries to the area to convert the tribes.
284 CE: Diocletian takes power. He separates the Empire into the West and East Empires
Pax Buddha
326 BCE: Alexander the Great crosses the Indus and invades Punjab. While mingling with the natives the troops pick up the idea of Buddhism. Alexander himself hangs around some laity. One day he surprises everyone and converts to Buddhism, and proclaims him the next Buddha. This surprise conversion shocks his closest advisers, some of whom even convert themselves.
324 BCE: following Alexander’s conversion Buddhism spreads across his empire.
323 BCE: Alexander dies in Babylon. Following his death Buddhism, never really well grounded in his empire slowly dies out.
Circa 305 BCE: King Ashoka holds the third Buddhist council at Pataliputra. Convened by the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, it was held in order to purify the sangha of the large number of false monks and heretics who had apparently joined the order because of its royal patronage. This council refuted the offending viewpoints and expelled those who held them. In the process, the compilation of the Buddhist scriptures (Tripitaka) was supposedly completed, with the addition of a body of subtle philosophy (abhidharma) to the doctrine (dharma) and monastic discipline (vinaya) that had been recited at the first council. Another result of the third council was, because of the success of Buddhism in Alexander the Greats Empire, the dispatch of missionaries to various countries. Missionaries are dispatched to the Mediterranean countries, like the city states of Greece, Italy and Carthage. In Judea the Buddhists are not very successful, but when they reach Greece their message is heard, and some Greek cities, like Thessalonika and Athens have large populations of Buddhists by the end of the 3rd Century there are even laity in Rome itself.
Sri Lanka is converted by the son and daughter of King Ashoka, Mahinda and Sanghamitta.
234 BCE: Roman Buddhists set up the first western sangha in Rome. Roman Buddhism is comparable to Mahayana Buddhism, idol worship, focus on tradition etc. Roman Buddhism was popular as it already acknowledged the Roman Pantheon, but denies them any special status or role. Their lives in heaven are long and pleasurable, but they are in the same predicament as other creatures, being subject eventually to death and further rebirth in lower states of existence. They are not creators of the universe or in control of human destiny, and Buddhism denies the value of prayer and sacrifice to them. Of the possible modes of rebirth, human existence is preferable, because the deities are so engrossed in their own pleasures that they lose sight of the need for salvation. Enlightenment is possible only for humans. So the Roman Buddhists could keep the comfort of having the old gods, but embrace a more human centered religion.
250 BCE: Independent kingdom of Parthia established.
206 BCE: establishment of Han Dynasty in China, Confucianism is made the state ideology
Approximately 2nd Century BCE: divisions of Mahayana from the main branch of Buddhism (Theravada). Roman Buddhists proclaim support for Mahayana Buddhists
180-87 BCE: Expansion of Han Dynasty in Asia. The Han expanded south of the Yangzi, absorbing land and planting colonies in Annam. Southern Dongbei and north Korea were subjugated, and forces battling the Hunnish Xiongnu nomads penetrated Central Asia as far as the Jaxartes River.
100 BCE: A fourth council, under the patronage of King Kanishka, was held at Jalandhar or in Kashmir. Both branches of Buddhism have participated in this council, including Roman Buddhists, which aimed at creating peace among the various sects, but Theravada Buddhists refuse to recognize its authenticity. Based on the success of Buddhism in the Roman Empire more missionaries are sent into Parthia. The beginning of the network of overlapping overland trade routes known as the Silk Route. The use of the common religion (Buddhism) helps to strengthen it.
1st Century BCE: By the end of the century Pathia had grown into an empire extending from the Euphrates River to the Indus River and from the Oxus River to the Indian Ocean, and the Buddhists gain more and more influence in Pathia. Roman Empire continues to expand under Julius Caesar, who conquered the remainders of Gaul and Spain.
27 BCE: Octavianus emerges from the civil wars without a significant rival, and adopted the title “Augustus†and so became the first Roman emperor. By now all of Italy, Greece, and portions of Asia Minor and Spain are Buddhist, with sangha and laity established across the empire, and a stupa was even set up in Alexandria. Octavianus himself is a Buddhist, and makes it the official religion of the Roman Empire. Soon across the empire new Buddhist schools sprung up, as some sangha already before educated the local boys. Buddhism is now interwoven into the Roman society, but not as such amongst the non-Romans in the Empire, such as the native Celts. In the earliest periods of Romanization, much was probably due to social competition among the native people, whose prestige might be enhanced by possessions or manners which might associate them with such a powerful and successful society as that of Rome, and so the prestigious natives converted to Buddhism. Merchants who also wanted to advance themselves also converted.
16 BCE: the giant Roman laity is constructed in Rome, which contains a giant gold statue of Buddha, surrounded by traditional Roman columns. The temple has a massive fresco of the pantheon of Roman gods looking down on Buddha.
6 BCE: Judea annexed after the collapse of the puppet kingdom of Herod.
0 CE: Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem.
14 CE: Octavianus dies, and power is passed to Tiberius
12 CE: young Jesus causes a ruckus in a Jewish temple attracts the attention of the Roman authorities in Judea. He is taken back to Rome to be looked at by the Roman Buddhist council (including the Roma Lama) in the Sangha Roma. It is then decided that he is to be taken to a sangha in the Alps where other gifted children are trained to be the next Roma Lama.
34 CE: the Roma Lama, Jassius, dies aged 74. Jesus is chosen to be the next RL. He will reign for 47 years.
43 CE: Rome annexed Britian.
47 CE: in Pathia a large group of the population is now Buddhist, but the Zoroastrians still hold the balance of power.
66-73 CE: First Jewish Revolt in Judea. The Roma Lama goes to Judea to try to broker peace with the Jews, but fails.
70 CE: Destruction of the second Temple and Jerusalem
73 CE: Last stand of Jews at Masada.
81 CE: Jesus, the 14th Roma Lama dies in Rome. His era of Roma Lama was one of peace in the order, but his sermons in Rome at the Laity Roma helped to spread the word of Buddhism, and the translation of the Buddhist texts from the silk route. The Buddhist canon known as the Tripitaka, The Sutra Pitaka primarily composed of dialogues between the Buddha and other people. It consists of three collections of writings: the Sutra Pitaka, a collection of discourses; the Vinaya Pitaka, the code of monastic discipline; and the Abhidharma Pitaka, which contains philosophical, psychological, and doctrinal systemizations and classifications. It consists of five groups of texts: Digha Nikaya (Collection of Long Discourses), Majjhima Nikaya (Collection of Medium-Length Discourses), Samyutta Nikaya (Collection of Grouped Discourses), Anguttara Nikaya (Collection of Discourses on Numbered Topics), and Khuddaka Nikaya (Collection of Miscellaneous Texts). In the fifth group, the Jatakas, comprising stories of former lives of the Buddha, and the Dhammapada (Religious Sentences), a summary of the Buddha's teachings on mental discipline and morality, are especially popular.
The texts are translated into Latin and are inscribed onto the walls of the temples.
98 CE: Trajan becomes Emperor. Trajan, an Antonine ruler, conquered Dacia and Arabia, and won several important victories in Parthia. The Roman Empire had reached its height.
170 CE: The Empire in the west was threatened when a host of Germanic tribes, the most powerful of whom were the Marcomanni, smashed through the Danube frontier, overran the adjacent provinces, and pushed as far as northern Italy, where they lay siege to Apuleia. After a long and grimly fought war, they were pushed back, but the pattern of barbarian pressure and incursion was to continue.
212 CE: Emperor Caracalla extended full Roman citizenship to all free-born subjects of the empire, abolishing the distinction between Roman and provincial, and so doing much to create a common sense of Romanitas (an identity with the traditions and institutions of the Roman world). By now Buddhism is instilled within Romanitas, leading to an era of peace. This weakened the Roman empire, along with corrupt leaders.
226 CE: Ardashir I, a Persian vassal-king, rebelled against the Parthians, defeated them at the Battle of Hormuz (224), and founded a new Persian dynasty, the Sassanids. He went on to conquer several minor neighbouring kingdoms, invaded India, levying heavy tribute from the rulers of the Punjab, and conquered Armenia. He also established Buddhism as the official religion of Persia.
253 CE: The Goths and the Heruli had ravaged the shores of the Aegean.
260 CE: Migration of Germans to the area around the Black Sea. There the most prominent were the Goths, who established two confederacies, the Ostgoths (East Goths) and Visigoths (West Goths). The Buddhist council in Rome decides to send missionaries to the area to convert the tribes.
284 CE: Diocletian takes power. He separates the Empire into the West and East Empires