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An 8th-century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, possibly a Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva.<br/><br/> Alternatively, from the posture, the figurine may represent a Sogdian camel rider on the Silk Road covering his mouth and nose against the sandstorms of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang.
Claudius was the first Roman emperor to be born outside of Italy, and he was ostracised and exempted from public office for much of his life due to slight deafness and being afflicted with a limp. It was his infirmity that would save him from the noble purges that occurred during the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula, as he was not seen as a serious threat.<br/><br/> Due to being the last surviving man of the Julio-Claudian family, Claudius was declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard after their assassination of Caligula. Despite his only previous experience being sharing a consulship with his nephew Caligula in 37 CE, he proved to be a capable administrator, as well as an ambitious builder across the Empire. The conquest of Britain began under his reign, and his seeming vulnerability meant that Claudius often had to shore up his position, usually through the deaths of rival senators and nobles.<br/><br/> He was succeeded after his death in 54 CE by his adopted son, Nero.
Third and last emperor of the Flavian dyansty, Domitian (51-96 CE) was the youngest son of Vespasian and most of his youth was spent in the shadow of his more accomplished brother Titus, who earned his renown during the First Jewish-Roman War. When his father became emperor at the end of the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 CE, Titus was given a great many offices while Domitian held honours but no responsibilities. This would go on for many years, until his brother, succeeding his father in 79 CE, himself died unexpectedly from illness in 81 CE. Domitian was suddenly declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard.<br/><br/> During his reign, Domitian strengthened the Roman economy, expanded the Empire's border defenses and initiated a massive building program to restore the debilitated Rome. Further wars were fought in Britain. Domitian ruled more autocratically than previous emperors, seeing himself as the new Augustus, and formed a cult of personality around himself, making him popular with the people but considered tyrannical by the Senate.<br/><br/> After 15 years in power, longer than any emperor since Tiberius, Domitian was assassinated in 96 CE by court officials. His death ended the Flavian dynasty and he was succeeded by his advisor Nerva, his memory condemned to oblivion by the Senate.
The city of Bamiyan was part of the Buddhist Kushan Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era. After the Kushan Empire fell to the Sassanids, Bamiyan became part of the Kushansha, vassals to the Sassanids. The Hephthalites conquered Bamiyan in the 5th century.<br/><br/> After their Khanate was destroyed by the Sassanids and Turks in 565, Bamiyan became the capital of the small Kushano-Hephthalite kingdom until 870, when it was conquered by the Saffarids. The area was conquered by the Ghaznavids in the 11th century. In 1221 the city and its population were completely wiped out by Genghis Khan. The first European to see Bamiyan was William Moorcroft (explorer) about 1824.