The first Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, adopted son of Julius Caesar, renamed the month Sextilis “August” in his honor, because the great events that led to his rise to power occurred during this month. These included the conquest of Egypt, the death of Cleopatra, the establishment of the Pax Romana — which ended the civil wars plaguing the empire — and more. Each of these events is a good reason to name this hot summer month in honor of the man who may have been the greatest Roman leader of all — a man who left his imprimatur on that vast empire for centuries to come.

A quick glance at the month of August this year substantiates what Emperor August thought more than 2,000 years ago. August really does seem to be a month of major events. What happened this past August? A bloody civil war erupted in Egypt, with hundreds of casualties and the demise of the Muslim Brotherhood government — at least for now. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad massacred some 1,400 people with chemical weapons, shifting the balance of power there: Where it once looked like forces loyal to him had successfully blocked the uprising with the help of Hezbollah, it now looks as if his country will face an international assault led by the United States.

The leaders of Hamas began the year convinced that they had finally managed to burst through the barriers of isolation and an international boycott. Instead, they found themselves caught up in the greatest crisis their movement ever faced since its founding, a crisis that threatens the future of the movement and its very rule in Gaza. And in the midst of all of these events, which could provide years of work for historians to investigate, Israelis and Palestinians returned to the negotiating table during this remarkable month as well. We will only know next year if this was, in fact, a major event or just some fleeting episode in the saga of their long conflict.

I would not have needed this list were it not for the fact that one huge historical event followed the other last month, while the people of the Middle East watched on in awe as these dramas unfolded. They soon began to think of all this as part of some tedious routine, albeit one forced upon them, or as the result of some divine decree. There was Egypt, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, chemical weapons, possible intervention by superpowers threatening one another and a restless Iran. All of these momentous events are reshaping the Middle East. And in the midst of all this, there is Israel — which is still considered to be a foreign malignancy, or a bone stuck in the throats of everyone else, if you will, while they are all caught in the eye of the storm.