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Septimius Severus (145-211 CE) was born in the Roman province of Africa, and advanced steadily through the customary succession of offices (the 'cursus honorum') during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. He was governor of Pannonia Superior when word of Pertniax's murder and Didius Julianus' accession reached him in 193 CE.<br/><br/> In response to Julianus' controversial accession through buying the emperorship in an auction, many rivals rose up and declared themselves emperor, with Severus being one of them, beginning what was known as the Year of the Five Emperors. Hurrying to Rome, Severus executed Julianus, and then fought his rival claimants for control of the Empire. By 197 CE, he was the sole power in the Empire, and began once more waging war to expand the borders of the Empire.<br/><br/> Severus fell ill in late 210 CE, fatally so, and died in early 211 CE. He was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, founding the Severan dynasty, the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.
Kshitigarbha, sometimes spelt Ksitigarbha, is a bodhisattva mainly worshipped in East Asian and Theravada Buddhism, and is often depicted as a monk with a halo around his shaved head. His name may translate to 'Earth Treasury' or 'Earth Matrix', and is renowned for his vow to instruct all beings in the six worlds between the death of Gautama Buddha and the ascendance of Maitreya, as well as his oath to not achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied.<br/><br/> Thus, Kshitigarbha is often associated with hell and as the bodhisattva of hell-beings. He is also the guardian of children and patron deity for deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture, where he is known by the name Jizo or Ojizo-sama. In Thailand and Laos, a <i>bhikkhu</i> named Phra Malai is often associated with Kshitigarbha due to their similar qualities, where he descends to Hell to teach and comfort the suffering hell-beings.
Isfandiyar, son of Gushtasp (the 5th Kayanian King) Battles Simurgh, the Fantastic Bird. From the Shah-nama (Book of Kings) the Epic of Medieval Persia by Firdawsi, a 10th century poet. Shiraz, 1330.<br/><br/> The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is an enormous poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD and is the national epic of the cultural sphere of Greater Persia. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells the mythical and historical past of (Greater) Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.<br/><br/> The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the historical links between the beginnings of the religion with the death of the last Zoroastrian ruler of Persia during the Muslim conquest.
Tiger head. Terracotta, 13th-14th century CE. Collection Vũ Tấn. National Museum of Vietnamese History, Hanoi.
Bodhi leaf with dragon decoration. Terracotta, 13th-14th century CE. Collection Vũ Tấn. National Museum of Vietnamese History, Hanoi.
The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language.