Jesus of Nazareth was a Jewish religious leader who would become the central figure in the Christian faith and one of the most important prophets of Islam. The details of the life of the real person are difficult to separate from the mythical figure. What is known for sure is that he was born, baptized preached and was executed by roman officials. While the specifics of his life remain in dispute his impact on the history of the world is certainly not.
The first city to reach a population of over a million people is a disputed question, one that we will probably never receive an entirely clear answer to. Still the probable most likely answer would be Rome around the year zero.
After a failed Jewish revolt armies under the command of future Emperor Titus Vespasianus in 70 CE laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. After breaching the city, they launched an extremely violent sack destroying the Second Temple, ending its titular era. This event would cement Roman control over the province of Judea and extenuate the already large Jewish diaspora.
One of mankind's most famous and longstanding trade routes the silk road connected the kingdoms of Europe and the Islamic world to the rich trade goods of China and the far east. During the course of its over millennia of existence traders on its routes would carry both material and intellectual goods across the world and was a great driver of cultural exchange until it slowly lost relevance as the early modern era brought a greater focus on oceanic trade.
The Library of Alexandria was one of the most famous centers of learning in the ancient world, founded in the 3rd century BCE under the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. It aimed to collect all human knowledge, gathering hundreds of thousands of scrolls from Greece, Egypt, the Near East, and beyond. It would last as a center of academic study until a period of decline after the roman conquest of Egypt, famously being accidentally burned as Caesar took the city and most likely being destroyed during the crisis of the third century.
The Edict of Milan was an edict issued by Emperor Constantine after his victory over his rival Maximian and capture of Rome; it ended the persecution of Christians and making religious freedom imperial law as well as returning any confiscated property. This allowed for the previously underground religion to begin gaining public prominence with the emperor himself being baptized at the end of his life after uniting the empire through military force undoing the Tetrarchy.
Organized by the first Christian emperor of Rome, the first council of Nicaea reconciled several schismatic aspects of the early church, most famously the Arian controversy, the belief that Jesus, being created by God, had a beginning and was not of the same substance as the father. It is the origin of the Nicene Creed, the defining document of orthodox Christian belief.
The philosopher Plato founded what is thought of as the first institution of higher education in 387 BC inside the city of Athens. Legally incorporated as a place of worship for the muses academy taught a wide variety of topics, including mathematics, natural sciences and politics its most famous student being one Aristotle.
According to traditional historical and biblical accounts the Torah as adopted as the basis of Judean law in 444 BCE after its reading in a public square. Certain modern historians question this narrative however suggesting that its mass adoption accorded possibly even centuries later.
What is now known as Athenian Democracy was created in the wake of the Athenian revolution in 507 BCE and the overthrow of the Athenian aristocratic class (the "Eupatridae.") All free male citizens were expected to take part in the governance of the state; most major decisions, such as a declaration of war, would be made by a vote of a public assembly. The day to day running of the city was done by the "Council of Five Hundred" a group selected not by vote, but by lottery. This system was designed to prevent the establishment of an entrenched elite and allow governance by and for the people, it was revolutionary for its time, despite excluding women and non-citizens.
