A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

Lucian of Samosata

A Chronology of Lucian's World

By: Paul S. Cilwa Posted: 6/7/2026 Page Views: 23
Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #LucianOfSamosata #Timeline #Chronology #RomanEmpire #MarcusAurelius #ParthianWar #AntoninePlague
A timeline of Lucian's life amidst the historical events of the 2nd century Roman Empire.
Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s) (1613 words)

The events of this novel take place in the 2nd century of the common era, largely under the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Lucian of Samosata was a real person—a Greek-speaking Syrian rhetor, satirist, and the author of the earliest known work of science fiction. The chronology below sets the events of his life (as I have imagined them, sticking where I can to what the historical record will support) against the events of the Roman world in which he lived. Years marked with an asterisk are dates established by the novel; the rest are matters of history. Readers in a hurry may skip this page. Readers who like the small satisfactions of working out what was happening when may find it useful.

The Long View

Year (CE) Year (Rome) Year (Selucid) Lucian's Age Lucian's Life The Roman World
67 BCE 687 245 — — Pompey clears the Mediterranean of pirates, settling many as olive-growers in Cilicia.
70 CE 823 381 — — Titus destroys the Second Temple at Jerusalem. The Jewish diaspora deepens; Yochanan ben Yitzhak's great-great-grandfather walks out of the burning city carrying an infant daughter in a basket.
117 870 428 — — Trajan dies. Hadrian becomes emperor.
125 * 878 436 0 Lucian is born in Samosata, on the upper Euphrates, capital of the former kingdom of Commagene, now a Roman frontier town. Hadrian on the throne; the empire at its greatest territorial extent and at peace.
129 882 440 4 — Galen of Pergamon is born. He will become the leading physician of the period and personal doctor to Marcus Aurelius.
132–135 885–888 443–446 7–10 Lucian enters elementary school under the Bithynian schoolmaster Sostratos; learns the Homeric epics by heart by age eight. (Chapter 1.) Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, brutally suppressed by Hadrian. Jewish exile from Jerusalem becomes permanent.
135 * 888 446 10 Lucian goes up to the next level of schooling, the grammatikos, under a freedman from Antioch. —
138 891 449 13 — Hadrian dies. Antoninus Pius becomes emperor — will rule for twenty-three years of peace and good administration.
139 * 892 450 14 A sophist comes to Samosata from Antioch and performs at the small odeion. Lucian, present, is permanently marked by the experience. (Chapter 1.) —
142 * 895 453 17 Lucian is sent as apprentice to his uncle Zenodoros, a sculptor. Cracks a practice slab on his first morning, is slapped by his uncle, runs out of the shop, and leaves Samosata. (Chapter 1.) —
142–144 * 895–897 453–455 17–19 Lucian spends two years in Antioch, working at the rhetorical schools. —
144 * 897 455 19 Lucian sails out of Seleucia Pieria on the Aphrodite's Favor and meets Demetrios on the first night out. They have been together since. —
144–147 * 897–900 455–458 19–22 The first travels: Athens, Smyrna, the Greek east. Lucian studies under various philosophers and rhetors. —
147 * 900 458 22 Lucian meets Hermione the Christian at Miletus; attends a synaxis in a house near the harbor; comes away unconverted but permanently interested. (Chapter 7.) Justin Martyr is active in Rome, writing his first Apology to Antoninus Pius.
153–161 906–914 464–472 28–36 The long road west: Athens, Rome, Italy, Gaul, Massilia, Lugdunum. Lucian performs in theaters and odeons across the empire and builds a reputation as a rhetor. Antoninus Pius's long peace. Roman governance reaches its administrative high point. Galen establishes his medical practice.
March 161 914 472 36 Lucian in Hispania, working toward Tarraco. Antoninus Pius dies. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus become co-emperors — the first time Rome has had two senior emperors at once.
Summer 161 914 472 36 — Vologases IV of Parthia invades Armenia and Syria. Roman governor Attidius Cornelianus defeated in the field. Severianus and his army destroyed at Elegeia in Armenia. The Parthian War begins.
Autumn 161 * 914 473 36 Lucian crossing into the Spanish interior; eventually arrives at Mariana for the events of the murder trial. (Chapters 22–25.) The sickness that the Roman armies have encountered in the East comes up the Euphrates. It reaches Samosata in the month of Hyperberetaios. Lucian's mother dies first; his sister Tabitha nurses her, falls sick on the day of the burning, recovers, and is taken in a Saracen raid two weeks later. The Apollo priest is killed at his own altar.
January 162 915 473 36 Lucian, having ridden south from Mariana, is in Castulo, Corduba, and Gades in quick succession. Uncle Zenodoros, recovering from the plague, writes to Lucian believing the whole family is dead. The letter is sent through caravans and ships and will take nearly a year to find him.
Spring 162 915 473 37 Lucian and Demetrios climb Mons Calpe, take ship for Tingis, encounter Celer on the crossing. (Chapters 28–29.) Lucius Verus reaches Antioch and takes command of the eastern war.
Winter 162/163 915–916 473–474 37 Tingis layover. The Bad Water incident in the Baquates camp. (Chapter 30.) Roman counter-offensive against Parthia underway.
December 162 * 915 474 37 Saturnalia in Corduba. Bassus the garum merchant delivers Zenodoros's letter to Lucian at the inn. Lucian learns of his family's deaths. (Chapter 26.) —
Spring 163 * 916 474 38 Carthage; the voyage to Alexandria with Buces the Thracian and the discovery of hemp; presentation of manuscripts at the Serapeum library; the Krocodilopolis investigation. (Chapters 31–34.) Verus's army winters at Antioch; advance into Armenia begins.
July 163 * 916 474 38 Voyage Alexandria to Seleucia Pieria on the Tyche; pirate intercept off Cyprus; supper with the Isaurian captain Trokondas; the rabbi Yochanan ben Yitzhak on board. (Chapter 35.) Cilician/Isaurian piracy quietly resurgent in the eastern Mediterranean as imperial naval attention shifts to the Parthian war. The arrangement of tokens with merchant captains is by now standard practice.
August 163 * 916 474 38 Antioch; Sabbath dinner at Yochanan's house; ride east to Hierapolis Bambyce; visit to the temple of Atargatis. Antioch crowded with Verus's legions and the supply contractors who follow them.
September 163 * 916 474 38 Samosata. The burned plot. Phokas at the south-gate shop. The olive-wood box. Hermippus tells Lucian what really happened to Tabitha. The Two Witnesses conversation. The rag from the rubble. (Chapter 36.) —
October 163 * 916 475 38 The ride east toward Edessa. The truth-and-fiction conversation; the seed of True Stories. Fever takes hold. Admission to the hospital at Edessa. The vision of the Isle of the Blessed: Plato, Socrates, Heracles, and the family. (Chapter 37.) Avidius Cassius beginning to take command of significant Roman forces in the East.
November 163 * 916 475 38 Recovery at Edessa. Reunion with Tabitha. Departure for Antioch and Athens. (Chapter 38.) The sickness, which had appeared to subside, begins quietly to return. The physicians of Edessa exchange letters with their colleagues at Antioch and Caesarea.

What Came After

The novel ends in November of 163 CE. The historical record continues. For readers curious about the further course of events:

Year (CE) Event
165 Avidius Cassius sacks Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital. The Roman army winters there. The Antonine Plague, which had been simmering in the eastern provinces for several years, breaks out catastrophically in the Roman ranks and is carried west with the returning troops.
166–180 The Antonine Plague sweeps the empire, killing perhaps a quarter of the population in affected regions. Marcus Aurelius's reign is dominated by epidemic and by the Marcomannic Wars on the northern frontier.
169 Lucius Verus dies, possibly of plague. Marcus Aurelius rules alone.
~170 Lucian, settled in Athens, begins writing the works for which he is best remembered: True Stories (the satire of fabulist travel-writing that opens with the declaration "I am about to tell you a great many lies"), Dialogues of the Dead (the short satirical conversations between dead philosophers and heroes), the Lover of Lies, the Sale of Lives, On the Death of Peregrinus, and dozens of others.
~180 Marcus Aurelius dies, probably of plague, at Vindobona on the Danube frontier. His son Commodus succeeds him.
~190 Lucian, in his late sixties, takes an administrative post in Roman Egypt. He dies sometime after this; the exact date is unknown.

A Note on Ages

Lucian is thirty-eight when this novel ends; Demetrios, who was nineteen the night he met Lucian on the deck of the Aphrodite's Favor, is forty. Tabitha is twenty-five. Veritas the monkey is of indeterminate age and will, on the question of his seniority, accept no testimony but his own.

A Note on Dates

Educated Greeks and Romans of this period did not number their years from the birth of Christ. They counted from a variety of starting points depending on context: Romans by the consuls of the year ("in the consulship of Laelianus and Pastor") or by ab urbe condita, the number of years since the founding of Rome, in 753 BCE; Greeks by Olympiad ("year 3 of the 236th Olympiad"); Syrians by the Seleucid era, dated from Seleucus I's return to Babylon in 312 BCE (a Samosata-born Greek would give his year of birth as 436 of the Seleucid era); Jews by anno mundi, from the creation of the world (Yochanan ben Yitzhak would put the year of this story at about 3923). The Christian era was not invented until the sixth century. For ease of reference I have given all dates in the Common Era reckoning that is standard for English-language readers; in Lucian's own conversation he would more naturally have used the Seleucid era.

And, if you're checking the math, note that the Seleucid month of Hyperberetaios, which occurs in autumn, is the first month of their year.