753 BC - AD 476
Follow the turning points that carried Rome from kingship to republic, empire and the transformed world of late antiquity.
More than twelve centuries
The dates below follow the conventional western chronology. They connect political turning points with wars, disasters, reforms and cultural change.
Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town near the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. Smaller and wealthier than nearby Pompeii, it contained elegant houses, shops, public baths, temples, and busy streets.
Read full entry ->Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. It was a busy centre of trade and agriculture, with crowded streets, public buildings, shops, workshops, temples, baths, and private homes.
Read full entry ->According to Roman tradition, the city of Rome was founded on 21 April 753 BC by Romulus, a legendary warrior who became its first king. The story combined divine ancestry, heroic adventure, family conflict and political ambition. Although modern archaeology presents a more gradual account of Rome’s development, the traditional foundation story remained central to Roman identity for centuries.
Read full entry ->According to Roman tradition, the Roman Republic began in 509 BC after the overthrow of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. His expulsion ended the Roman monarchy and introduced a new political system in which elected magistrates governed alongside the Senate and popular assemblies.
Read full entry ->In the early fourth century BC, a Gallic army defeated the Romans near the River Allia, entered Rome and devastated much of the city. Roman tradition dated the disaster to 390 BC, although modern historians often place it in 387 or 386 BC. The sack became one of the most traumatic events in Rome’s early history and remained a powerful symbol of national danger for centuries.
Read full entry ->The Punic Wars were three major conflicts fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They transformed Rome from a powerful state in Italy into the dominant power of the western Mediterranean. Carthage was ultimately destroyed, but victory came at an enormous cost and profoundly changed Roman warfare, politics, society and expansion.
Read full entry ->In 133 BC, the Roman tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was beaten to death during a violent confrontation in Rome. Around three hundred of his supporters were also killed, and their bodies were thrown into the River Tiber. His death marked a dangerous turning point in the history of the Roman Republic, demonstrating that political disputes could be settled through organised violence rather than debate, negotiation and law.
Read full entry ->In January 49 BC, Julius Caesar led troops across the River Rubicon and entered Italy in defiance of the Roman Senate. By bringing an army into territory where he had no legal right to exercise military command, Caesar turned a political crisis into civil war. The crossing became one of the most famous moments in Roman history and an enduring symbol of an irreversible decision.
Read full entry ->Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome on 15 March 44 BC, a date known as the Ides of March. A group of senators attacked him during a meeting and stabbed him repeatedly. The conspirators claimed that they were defending the Roman Republic from tyranny, but the killing failed to restore Republican government. Instead, it produced further civil wars and helped bring about the rise of Augustus and the Roman Empire.
Read full entry ->The Battle of Actium was fought on 2 September 31 BC off the western coast of Greece. The forces of Octavian confronted the combined fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Octavian’s victory decided the final civil war of the Roman Republic, led to the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra and left Octavian as the undisputed ruler of the Roman world.
Read full entry ->Augustus was the first Roman emperor and the founder of the political system known as the Principate. He ruled from 27 BC until his death in AD 14, bringing an end to the civil wars that had destabilised Rome for generations. Augustus avoided presenting himself as a king or dictator. Instead, he combined Republican offices, military command, religious authority and personal prestige to create a monarchy that appeared to preserve the Roman Republic.
Read full entry ->In AD 43, the Roman emperor Claudius ordered a major invasion of Britain. An army commanded by Aulus Plautius crossed the English Channel, defeated British resistance and established a permanent Roman presence on the island. The campaign strengthened Claudius’s political position and began a conquest that would transform much of Britain over the following decades.
Read full entry ->In July AD 64, a devastating fire swept through Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero. It burned for several days, destroyed large areas of the city and left much of the population without homes. The disaster became one of the most famous events in Roman history, partly because of accusations that Nero caused the fire and then blamed the Christians. Ancient evidence does not prove that Nero started it, but the catastrophe permanently damaged his reputation.
Read full entry ->In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted with catastrophic force and buried several communities beside the Bay of Naples. Pompeii was covered by falling pumice and ash, while Herculaneum was overwhelmed by extremely hot volcanic surges. Thousands escaped, but many others died. The disaster preserved buildings, objects and traces of human lives, creating one of the most important archaeological records of the Roman world.
Read full entry ->Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. It was a busy centre of trade and agriculture, with crowded streets, public buildings, shops, workshops, temples, baths, and private homes.
Read full entry ->Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town near the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. Smaller and wealthier than nearby Pompeii, it contained elegant houses, shops, public baths, temples, and busy streets.
Read full entry ->The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Emperor Trajan. By AD 117, Roman power stretched from Britain and the Atlantic coast to Mesopotamia, and from the Rhine and Danube frontiers to the deserts of North Africa and Arabia. The empire covered approximately five million square kilometres and governed tens of millions of people. Its extraordinary size demonstrated the strength of Roman armies and administration, but it also revealed the difficulties of defending such an enormous territory.
Read full entry ->In AD 212, Emperor Caracalla issued an edict that granted Roman citizenship to nearly every free inhabitant of the empire. Known as the Constitutio Antoniniana, the decree transformed citizenship from a privileged status held by a minority into a shared legal identity across the Roman world. It marked the culmination of centuries during which Rome had gradually extended citizenship to conquered peoples, allies, soldiers and provincial communities.
Read full entry ->Diocletian became Roman emperor in AD 284 after the mysterious death of Emperor Numerian. Born into an ordinary provincial family, he rose through the army during one of the most unstable periods in Roman history. His accession ended one succession struggle but began a much larger transformation of imperial government. Diocletian reorganised the administration, military, taxation and leadership of the empire, helping it survive the Crisis of the Third Century.
Read full entry ->In the early fourth century AD, the Roman government ended its official persecution of Christians and introduced a policy of religious toleration. The process began with an edict issued by Emperor Galerius in AD 311 and was strengthened by an agreement between Constantine and Licinius in AD 313. Christianity became a lawful religion, confiscated property was restored and Roman subjects were permitted to worship according to their own beliefs. These decisions transformed the relationship between the Roman state and Christianity.
Read full entry ->On 11 May AD 330, Emperor Constantine formally dedicated the city of Constantinople as a new imperial centre. Built on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, it occupied a commanding position between Europe and Asia. The city became the principal capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and remained a centre of imperial power for more than a thousand years.
Read full entry ->In August AD 410, an army led by the Gothic king Alaric entered Rome and looted the city for three days. It was the first time in nearly eight centuries that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. Although Rome was no longer the main residence of the western emperors, its capture shocked the ancient world and revealed the growing weakness of the Western Roman Empire.
Read full entry ->In AD 476, the Germanic military commander Odoacer removed the young emperor Romulus Augustulus from power. The deposition is traditionally regarded as the end of the Western Roman Empire. It did not bring Roman civilisation to an immediate end, and another emperor still claimed the western throne, but it marked the disappearance of a separate imperial court in Italy.
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