The Roman Civilisation Timeline

The Roman Civilisation 68

753 BC – 716 BC Romulus — first King of Rome Romulus, legendary founder and first king of Rome, rules for 37 years according to tradition. He establishes the Senate (100 patrician elders), divides the people into tribes, and creates the basic military structure. His reign includes the Rape of the Sabine Women — the abduction of women from neighbouring tribes to populate the new city — and wars with the Sabines, Latins and Etruscans. He disappears in a thunderstorm in 716 BC, deified as the god Quirinus.
753 BC Founding of Rome According to Roman tradition, Romulus founds the city of Rome on the Palatine Hill on 21 April 753 BC, after killing his twin brother Remus in a dispute over the city's location and its sacred boundary. The story — wolves, augury, fratricide — is almost certainly mythological, but archaeology confirms continuous settlement on the hills above the Tiber from around this period. Rome begins as one of many Latin villages in central Italy.
715 BC – 672 BC Numa Pompilius — second King Numa Pompilius, a Sabine chosen by the Senate, transforms Rome from a warrior settlement into a functioning state. He establishes the Roman religious calendar, the Vestal Virgins, the College of Pontiffs, and the flamines (priests). Credited with 43 years of peace — an extraordinary reign. The Roman religious institutions he creates will survive, with modifications, for over a millennium.
616 BC – 578 BC Tarquinius Priscus — Etruscan influence begins Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, is the first of the Etruscan dynasty. Under him Rome begins its transformation from a village into a city: the Forum is drained, the Circus Maximus laid out, the Capitoline temple begun. Etruscan engineering, art and religious practice flood into Rome. The triumphal procession, the fasces, the toga — all are Etruscan borrowings that become permanently Roman.
578 BC – 534 BC Servius Tullius — the great reformer Servius Tullius, sixth king, transforms Roman society through the census — a systematic count of citizens classified by wealth into voting classes. The Servian constitution creates the comitia centuriata (assembly of centuries), tying military obligation to political rights. He also expands Rome's boundaries with the Servian Wall and creates the four urban tribes. His reforms lay the constitutional foundations that will persist through the Republic.
534 BC – 509 BC Tarquinius Superbus — the last king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud), seventh and final king of Rome, rules by terror. He murders his father-in-law Servius Tullius, abolishes the Senate's power, and rules as a tyrant in the Greek mould. His son Sextus rapes the noblewoman Lucretia, who kills herself after naming her assailants. Her kinsman Lucius Junius Brutus leads the aristocratic revolt that expels the Tarquins in 509 BC, ending the monarchy forever.
509 BC Foundation of the Roman Republic The expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC establishes the Roman Republic. Power is divided between two annually elected consuls — neither can accumulate the tyrannical power of a king. The Senate, composed of former magistrates, guides foreign policy and controls the treasury. The system of checks and balances — collegiality, annual terms, the veto — becomes the constitutional model Rome will follow for nearly five centuries.
494 BC First Secession of the Plebs The plebeian class — the non-patrician majority — withdraws to the Sacred Mount outside Rome, refusing to serve in the army until their grievances are addressed. The patricians, unable to defend Rome without them, negotiate: the tribunes of the plebs are created, magistrates with the power to veto any action harmful to a plebeian citizen (the sacrosanct "intercessio"). The first great victory of Roman democracy — won by walking away.
451 BC – 450 BC The Twelve Tables Rome's first written law code — the Twelve Tables — is inscribed on bronze and displayed in the Forum around 451–450 BC, following plebeian demands for laws that could not be arbitrarily interpreted by patrician magistrates. The Tables cover debt, property, family law, inheritance and procedure. Though the original bronze was destroyed in the Gallic sack of 390 BC, reconstructed fragments survive. Roman jurists will call them the "source of all law."
390 BC The Gallic Sack of Rome A Gallic tribe — the Senones under their chieftain Brennus — defeats the Roman army at the Battle of the Allia and sacks Rome in 390 BC (or 387 BC by some chronologies). The city is burned; only the Capitol holds out. According to legend, the sacred geese of Juno wake the defenders when a night assault is attempted. Rome pays a ransom in gold; when the Romans complain the weights are rigged, Brennus throws his sword on the scales: "Vae victis" — Woe to the conquered.
343 BC – 290 BC The Samnite Wars Three wars against the Samnites — a powerful Italic people of the Apennine mountains — between 343 and 290 BC cement Roman dominance of peninsular Italy. The Second Samnite War (326–304 BC) includes the humiliation of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), where an entire Roman army is forced to pass under the yoke. Rome recovers, learns, adapts — and ultimately prevails. By 290 BC, Rome controls most of Italy south of the Po valley.
264 BC – 241 BC First Punic War Rome's first conflict with Carthage — the great maritime empire of North Africa — begins over Sicily in 264 BC. Rome, a land power with no naval tradition, builds a fleet from scratch, reportedly copying a captured Carthaginian warship. The Romans add the "corvus" — a boarding bridge — to turn sea battles into land fights. After 23 years and enormous losses on both sides, Rome wins Sicily (241 BC), its first overseas province.
218 BC – 201 BC Second Punic War — Hannibal invades Italy Hannibal Barca crosses the Alps with 37 war elephants and an army of 26,000 men in 218 BC, fighting his way to the gates of Rome. He destroys Roman armies at the Trebia (218 BC), Lake Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC) — the latter killing perhaps 70,000 Romans in a single afternoon, the most lethal single day in Roman history. Yet Rome refuses to negotiate, raises new armies, and shifts strategy. Scipio Africanus carries the war to Africa; at the Battle of Zama (202 BC) Hannibal is defeated.
216 BC Battle of Cannae On 2 August 216 BC, Hannibal's army of 50,000 encircles and annihilates a Roman force of 86,000 at Cannae in southern Italy. Approximately 47,500–70,000 Romans die in a single afternoon — among them 80 senators and a consul. The double envelopment tactics Hannibal uses at Cannae become the most studied manoeuvre in military history, copied by commanders from Napoleon to Schlieffen. Rome's response — to keep fighting — defines the Roman character as no other event.
149 BC – 146 BC Third Punic War — Destruction of Carthage The Third Punic War ends with the total destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. The city is besieged for three years; when it falls, the surviving 50,000 inhabitants are sold into slavery and the city is burned for 17 days. The site is later salted — or so the legend goes (the salting is almost certainly apocryphal). The phrase "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed), attributed to Cato the Elder who appended it to every Senate speech, defines Rome's ruthlessness when threatened.
146 BC Destruction of Corinth — Rome masters Greece In the same year as Carthage's destruction, Rome sacks Corinth — the greatest city of mainland Greece — after the Achaean League resists Roman authority. The male population is killed, the women and children enslaved. Greece becomes the Roman province of Achaea. Rome has now absorbed the entire Hellenistic world; Greek culture floods back into Rome in the form of philosophy, art, architecture and literature. "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit" — captive Greece captured her savage conqueror (Horace).
133 BC – 121 BC The Gracchi — land reform and political murder Tiberius Gracchus (tribune 133 BC) proposes redistributing public land to landless citizens, breaking the power of great senatorial estates. He is clubbed to death by senators in the Forum — the first political murder in Rome since the kings. His brother Gaius (tribune 123–122 BC) goes further: grain subsidies, new colonies, extended citizenship. He too is killed, along with 3,000 supporters. The Gracchi open a century of political violence that will end only with Augustus.
107 BC – 86 BC Gaius Marius — the new army Gaius Marius, elected consul seven times (unprecedented), reforms the Roman army by abolishing the property qualification for military service. The Roman legions are now professional soldiers equipped and paid by the state — loyal to their general, not to Rome. Marius defeats Jugurtha of Numidia (106 BC) and destroys two Germanic tribes threatening Italy (Cimbri and Teutones, 102–101 BC). His army reforms, intended to strengthen Rome, create the conditions for a century of civil war.
88 BC – 78 BC Sulla — first march on Rome Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a general of the optimates faction, marches his legions on Rome in 88 BC after the popular assembly strips him of his eastern command — the first time a Roman general uses his army against the city itself. He captures Rome, kills his opponents, and departs for the east. On his return in 83 BC he wins a civil war, is appointed dictator, and carries out the first proscriptions — published death lists of political enemies. He resigns voluntarily in 79 BC. The precedent of using army against city is now set.
73 BC – 71 BC Spartacus — the slave revolt Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator, leads the largest slave revolt in Roman history from 73 to 71 BC. Starting with 70 gladiators who break out of a school in Capua, the revolt grows to an army of perhaps 120,000. For two years Spartacus defeats Roman forces repeatedly, twice breaking out of encirclement in southern Italy. Crassus finally defeats him; 6,000 captured rebels are crucified along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome — one every 35 metres.
63 BC Catilinarian Conspiracy Lucius Sergius Catilina, a failed consular candidate, plots to seize Rome by force. Cicero, consul in 63 BC, uncovers the plot through informers and delivers four speeches against Catiline in the Senate — the Catilinarian Orations — still considered the finest forensic rhetoric in Latin. The conspirators are arrested and executed without trial on Senate authority; Cicero is later exiled for this illegality. Catiline dies in battle in 62 BC. The episode reveals both Cicero's greatness and the Republic's fragility.
60 BC – 53 BC First Triumvirate — Caesar, Pompey, Crassus Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus form an informal alliance in 60 BC to dominate Roman politics. Caesar gets the consulship and a command in Gaul; Pompey gets ratification of his eastern settlements and land for his veterans; Crassus gets tax-farming contracts in Asia. The alliance is renewed at the conference of Luca in 56 BC. It begins to disintegrate when Crassus dies at the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC) — defeated by the Parthians, his severed head used as a prop in a performance of Euripides.
58 BC – 50 BC Caesar's Gallic Wars Julius Caesar conquers Gaul (modern France, Belgium and parts of Germany and Switzerland) in a series of campaigns from 58 to 50 BC, recorded in his own Commentarii de Bello Gallico — still used to teach Latin. He bridges the Rhine twice, makes two expeditions to Britain, and suppresses the great revolt of Vercingetorix (52 BC), culminating in the siege of Alesia. The conquest kills perhaps one million Gauls and enslaves another million. Caesar enriches himself enormously and acquires an army of hardened veterans loyal to him personally.
49 BC – 45 BC Caesar's Civil War On 10 January 49 BC, Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon river — the boundary of his province — with his army, an act of war against the Roman state. "Alea iacta est" — the die is cast. Pompey and the Senate flee Italy. Caesar defeats Pompeian forces in Spain, then pursues Pompey to Greece, winning the decisive battle of Pharsalus (48 BC). Pompey flees to Egypt and is murdered on arrival. Caesar defeats the remaining Pompeian forces at Thapsus (46 BC) and Munda (45 BC). He is master of the Roman world.
44 BC Assassination of Julius Caesar On the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, Julius Caesar is stabbed 23 times on the floor of the Theatre of Pompey by a group of senators — the Liberatores — led by Brutus and Cassius. Caesar had been appointed dictator perpetuo (dictator in perpetuity) weeks earlier, making a return to republican government impossible in their view. Mark Antony's funeral oration turns the crowd against the assassins. Caesar's assassination, intended to save the Republic, instead destroys it — the civil wars that follow end with Octavian as Augustus.
43 BC – 36 BC Second Triumvirate — Octavian, Antony, Lepidus Octavian (Caesar's heir), Mark Antony and Lepidus form a legal triumvirate in 43 BC with extraordinary powers. They immediately publish proscription lists: 300 senators and 2,000 equestrians are condemned. Among those killed is Cicero, whose severed head and hands are displayed on the Rostra in the Forum. At Philippi (42 BC) they defeat Brutus and Cassius, both of whom commit suicide. The triumvirs divide the Roman world — Antony takes the east, Octavian the west, Lepidus Africa.
31 BC Battle of Actium On 2 September 31 BC, Octavian's fleet under Agrippa defeats the combined fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII at Actium off the western coast of Greece. Antony and Cleopatra flee to Egypt; Octavian pursues. Antony commits suicide on a false report of Cleopatra's death; Cleopatra kills herself — tradition says by asp — rather than be paraded in Octavian's triumph. Egypt becomes a Roman province. Octavian is the last man standing. The Republic is over.
27 BC – 14 Augustus — the reign Augustus rules from 27 BC to 14 AD — 41 years — transforming Rome from a city of brick to a city of marble. He creates a standing army with fixed pay and terms, a praetorian guard, a professional civil service, and a system of provinces governed by his legates. He reforms taxation, builds roads, reorganises the calendar and patronises Virgil, Horace, Livy and Ovid. The Pax Augusta — Roman peace — begins. His succession is troubled: he outlives three designated heirs before Tiberius succeeds him.
27 BC Augustus becomes first Emperor On 13 January 27 BC, Octavian returns his powers to the Senate in a carefully staged performance of republican modesty. The Senate, gratefully, returns them — and adds the honorific "Augustus" (the revered one). Augustus never calls himself emperor or king; he is princeps (first citizen) and holds a collection of republican offices simultaneously. The fiction of the restored Republic is maintained for centuries, but power is unambiguous: Augustus rules Rome for 44 years and transforms it utterly.
19 BC Virgil completes the Aeneid Publius Vergilius Maro — Virgil — dies in 19 BC leaving the Aeneid, Rome's national epic, incomplete. He had worked on it for eleven years on Augustus's commission. The poem traces the Trojan hero Aeneas — ancestor of Romulus and of the Julian family — from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome's destiny in Italy, weaving myth, history and political flattery into twelve books of Latin hexameter. It becomes the central text of Roman education and will shape Western literature for two millennia.
9 Battle of Teutoburg Forest In September 9 AD, three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus are ambushed and annihilated in the forests of Germania by a coalition of Germanic tribes led by Arminius — a Romanised German who had served in the Roman army. Perhaps 20,000 Romans are killed over three days. Augustus, on hearing the news, repeatedly cried "Varus, give me back my legions!" The Rhine becomes Rome's permanent northern boundary; the Rhine-Danube line, not further conquest, defines the empire's northern edge for four centuries.
14 – 37 Tiberius — the second Emperor Tiberius, Augustus's stepson and reluctant successor, rules from 14 to 37 AD. A brilliant general and competent administrator, he is a suspicious and withdrawn ruler who increasingly governs through his Praetorian prefect Sejanus. The treason trials (maiestas) multiply; Sejanus falls in 31 AD, accused of plotting against Tiberius. Tiberius retires to Capri and never returns to Rome. He dies aged 77, possibly smothered by Caligula. "What a man, and how completely he has escaped notice!" — his own words about himself.
37 – 41 Caligula — madness and murder Gaius Caesar Germanicus — nicknamed Caligula (Little Boot) by his father's soldiers — begins promisingly but within a year descends into what contemporaries describe as insanity. He humiliates the Senate, appoints his horse Incitatus to the consulship (allegedly), proclaims himself a living god, and conducts arbitrary executions. He is assassinated by Praetorian officers on 24 January 41 AD after less than four years. The Senate briefly considers restoring the Republic; the Praetorians instead choose Claudius, found hiding behind a curtain.
41 – 54 Claudius — the unexpected emperor Claudius, considered a fool by his family because of his physical disabilities (a limp and a stammer), proves a capable and reforming emperor. He conquers Britain in 43 AD — the first Roman landing since Caesar's raids — annexes Mauretania and Thrace, extends citizenship rights and reforms the bureaucracy. His fourth wife Agrippina the Younger poisons him with mushrooms in 54 AD to secure the succession for her son Nero. His Histories and Etruscan studies are lost; his memoirs survive only in fragments.
43 Roman invasion of Britain In 43 AD, Emperor Claudius dispatches four legions under Aulus Plautius to invade Britain. The crossing of the Channel and the campaign up to the Thames are completed in weeks. Claudius himself arrives for the decisive battle at Camulodunum (Colchester), which becomes the first Roman capital of Britain. The province of Britannia is established; within a generation Rome controls most of what is now England and Wales, eventually pushing into southern Scotland.
54 – 68 Nero — art, fire and the end of the Julio-Claudians Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, begins well under the guidance of Seneca and Burrus but deteriorates into a tyrant who murders his mother Agrippina (59 AD), his wife Octavia, and the philosopher Seneca. He fancies himself a great artist and performer — shameful for a Roman aristocrat. The Great Fire of Rome burns for six days in 64 AD; Nero blames the Christians, inaugurating the first persecution. He is deposed by the Senate in 68 AD and kills himself: "What an artist dies in me!"
64 Great Fire of Rome The Great Fire of Rome breaks out on the night of 18–19 July 64 AD in the Circus Maximus and burns for six days and seven nights, destroying three of Rome's fourteen districts entirely and damaging seven more. Of Rome's 1.5 million inhabitants, hundreds of thousands are left homeless. Nero opens his gardens as refugee camps and organises relief. The rumour that he played his lyre while Rome burned — the origin of "fiddling while Rome burns" — is almost certainly false; he was at Antium when the fire began.
69 Year of the Four Emperors Following Nero's death in 68 AD, four emperors seize power in quick succession in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba is murdered by the Praetorians after seven months; Otho kills himself after 95 days when Vitellius's Rhine legions defeat him; Vitellius is dragged through Rome and killed when the Danube legions march on Rome for their general Vespasian. The lesson is brutal and definitive: emperors are made by armies, not by the Senate or birth.
70 Destruction of Jerusalem In 70 AD, Titus — son of Emperor Vespasian — besieges and destroys Jerusalem, ending the First Jewish-Roman War. The Second Temple is burned; the Arch of Titus in Rome commemorates the triumph with a relief of the Menorah being carried away. Perhaps 1.1 million Jews die in the siege and subsequent massacres; 97,000 are enslaved. The Jewish Diaspora — the dispersal of the Jewish people across the Mediterranean — accelerates dramatically. The Colosseum in Rome is built partly with the spoils of Jerusalem.
79 Eruption of Vesuvius — Pompeii destroyed On 24 August 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under metres of ash and pumice. Pompeii's 20,000 inhabitants have perhaps 18 hours to flee; those who remain are killed by the pyroclastic surge. The cities are preserved almost perfectly under the ash — a time capsule of Roman life. Pliny the Elder, commanding the fleet at Misenum, dies attempting to rescue survivors. His nephew Pliny the Younger watches from shore and writes the first eyewitness account of a volcanic eruption in history.
80 The Colosseum opens The Flavian Amphitheatre — the Colosseum — opens in 80 AD under Emperor Titus with 100 days of games. Built by 60,000–100,000 Jewish slaves from the spoils of Jerusalem, it seats 50,000–80,000 spectators. The inaugural games reportedly involve 9,000 animals killed and 2,000 gladiatorial combats. The Colosseum remains the largest amphitheatre ever built and the most visited monument in the world — 6 million visitors annually. It stands as the enduring symbol of Roman engineering and Roman entertainment.
96 – 180 The Five Good Emperors — Rome at its peak The reigns of Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180) are considered the zenith of Roman imperial governance. Each (except Nerva) was adopted by his predecessor on merit rather than blood — the adoptive succession that Gibbon believed made this "the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous." The empire reaches its greatest territorial extent under Trajan.
98 – 117 Trajan — greatest territorial extent Trajan, born in Spain — the first non-Italian emperor — expands the empire to its greatest territorial extent. He conquers Dacia (modern Romania, 101–102, 105–106 AD) and campaigns in the east, briefly annexing Mesopotamia. Trajan's Column in Rome records the Dacian campaigns in 2,662 figures spiralling around 23 scenes. He is the only emperor the Senate accorded the title "Optimus Princeps" — best of emperors. He also conducts the largest building programme since Augustus: markets, forum, column, harbour at Ostia.
117 – 138 Hadrian — the consolidator Hadrian abandons Trajan's eastern conquests, recognising they are indefensible, and devotes his reign to consolidating and fortifying the empire's frontiers. He builds Hadrian's Wall across northern Britain (122–128 AD) — 73 miles of stone — and travels personally to almost every province. A passionate philhellene, he rebuilds Athens and completes the temple of Olympian Zeus. He reorganises the bureaucracy, codifies Roman law and builds the Pantheon — still the best-preserved building of ancient Rome, its concrete dome unsurpassed for 1,300 years.
122 – 128 Hadrian's Wall constructed Hadrian's Wall — 73 miles (117 km) of stone and turf fortification across northern Britain — is constructed from 122 to 128 AD on the orders of Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway, it is garrisoned by up to 9,000 auxiliary troops in sixteen forts. The Wall defines Rome's northern frontier in Britain and is the largest Roman military structure in the world. It remains one of the best-preserved examples of Roman frontier engineering and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
161 – 180 Marcus Aurelius — philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors, is the closest approximation to Plato's philosopher-king in history. He writes the Meditations — a private Stoic philosophical diary — while campaigning on the Danube. His reign is dominated by the Antonine Plague (165–180 AD), which kills perhaps five million people across the empire, and continuous warfare on the northern frontier. He breaks the adoptive succession by allowing his son Commodus to succeed him — a decision Gibbon calls the beginning of Rome's decline.
165 – 180 Antonine Plague The Antonine Plague — possibly smallpox or measles, brought back by soldiers returning from the Parthian campaign — spreads across the empire from 165 to 180 AD, killing an estimated two to five million people. At its peak it kills 2,000 people per day in Rome. It weakens the empire's military and economic capacity at a critical moment, reducing the tax base and forcing the recruitment of barbarians into the legions. The physician Galen, who witnesses the epidemic, provides the most detailed surviving ancient account.
180 – 192 Commodus — the gladiator emperor Commodus, Marcus Aurelius's son and biological successor, abandons his father's serious governance for games, vanity and cruelty. He renames Rome "Colonia Commodiana," renames the months after himself, and fights in the arena as a gladiator — a mortal insult to senatorial dignity. He kills hundreds of animals in the Colosseum and bills the treasury for each appearance. He is strangled in his bath on 31 December 192 AD by a palace conspiracy. His death triggers the Year of the Five Emperors (193 AD) and opens the age of military chaos.
193 Year of Five Emperors In 193 AD — the Year of the Five Emperors — Pertinax, Didius Julianus (who buys the throne at a Praetorian auction), Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus all claim the throne. Pertinax is murdered after 86 days; Julianus is executed after 66 days; Niger and Albinus are defeated by Severus in civil wars. Severus, a North African from what is now Libya, establishes the Severan dynasty and pointedly honours the memory of Commodus — signalling to the Senate that he despises their opinion.
212 Edict of Caracalla — citizenship extended In 212 AD, Emperor Caracalla issues the Constitutio Antoniniana, extending Roman citizenship to virtually all free inhabitants of the empire — an estimated 30–35 million people. The motive is likely fiscal: citizens paid inheritance tax. The effect is profound: the distinction between Roman and provincial is abolished; every free man in the empire is now a Roman. A Syrian, a Gaul, an Egyptian and a Spaniard are legally identical. Roman law becomes universal law.
235 – 284 Crisis of the Third Century From 235 to 284 AD — 49 years — the Roman Empire nearly collapses. Over 50 emperors claim the throne; most are murdered by their own troops within months. The empire simultaneously faces Persian invasion in the east (Shapur I captures Emperor Valerian in 260 AD — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner), Gothic raids across the Danube, plague, economic collapse and the secession of the Gallic Empire (260–274 AD) and Palmyrene Empire (263–273 AD). The currency is debased by 95%; trade collapses; population falls.
260 Emperor Valerian captured by Persia In 260 AD, Emperor Valerian is captured by the Sassanid Persian king Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner by a foreign enemy. He dies in captivity, probably in 264 AD. Shapur commemorates the victory with rock-cut reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam showing Valerian kneeling before him — images that will shock the Mediterranean world for centuries. The catastrophe triggers the final fragmentation of the empire into three competing states.
270 – 275 Aurelian — restorer of the world Lucius Domitius Aurelianus — "Restitutor Orbis" (Restorer of the World) — reunites the fragmented empire in five years (270–275 AD). He defeats the Palmyrene Empire (272 AD), capturing Queen Zenobia, and the Gallic Empire (274 AD). He builds the Aurelian Walls around Rome — still largely standing today — and introduces the cult of Sol Invictus as a unifying state religion. He is murdered by his own officers in 275 AD, but the empire he leaves behind is intact, a remarkable achievement in a century of dissolution.
284 – 305 Diocletian — the great reorganiser Diocletian ends the crisis of the third century by systematically reorganising the empire. He creates the Tetrarchy — four co-emperors (two Augusti and two Caesars) ruling different regions simultaneously. He doubles the size of the army, triples the bureaucracy, reforms taxation and the currency, and fixes prices in the Edict on Maximum Prices (301 AD) — the most ambitious price control in history. He conducts the Great Persecution of Christians (303–311 AD) — the last and worst. He retires voluntarily in 305 AD — the only emperor to do so.
306 – 337 Constantine the Great Constantine I reunites the empire after defeating his rivals — culminating in the defeat of Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge (312 AD), where Constantine reportedly sees a cross in the sky with the words "In this sign, conquer." Whether genuine vision or political calculation, Constantine legalises Christianity with the Edict of Milan (313 AD), convenes the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and founds Constantinople (330 AD) as the empire's new capital on the Bosphorus. His conversion transforms Western history.
312 Battle of Milvian Bridge On 28 October 312 AD, Constantine defeats his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber north of Rome. Maxentius drowns in the river when the pontoon bridge collapses. Constantine reportedly attributes his victory to the Christian God, having ordered his soldiers to mark their shields with the Chi-Rho symbol. The battle ends the last civil war of the Tetrarchy and gives Constantine control of the western empire. Its consequences — the Christianisation of Rome — rank among the most significant in world history.
313 Edict of Milan — Christianity legalised In 313 AD, Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius issue the Edict of Milan, granting religious toleration throughout the empire and specifically restoring confiscated property to Christians. Christianity moves from a persecuted sect to a tolerated — and soon favoured — religion. Within decades it becomes the state religion. The Edict marks the beginning of the end of classical paganism and the beginning of Christendom. Its effects will shape the next 1,700 years of Western civilisation.
325 Council of Nicaea In 325 AD, Constantine convenes the first ecumenical council of the Christian church at Nicaea (modern Iznik, Turkey). Some 300 bishops attend. The council condemns Arianism — the belief that Christ is subordinate to God the Father — and produces the Nicene Creed, the foundational statement of Christian orthodoxy still recited in churches today. Constantine chairs sessions personally, wearing purple and gold, presiding over a theological dispute he barely understands. Church and state are now inextricably linked.
330 Constantinople founded On 11 May 330 AD, Constantine dedicates his new capital — Constantinople — on the site of the Greek city Byzantium, at the strategic junction of Europe and Asia. The city is designed as a new Rome: it has seven hills, a Forum, a Senate, a hippodrome and grain doles. Its position on the Bosphorus makes it almost impregnable by land and sea. Constantinople will serve as the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire for 1,123 years — until its fall to the Ottomans in 1453.
360 – 363 Julian the Apostate — the last pagan emperor Julian II, nephew of Constantine, is the last Roman emperor to attempt to reverse the Christianisation of the empire. A gifted soldier and intellectual, he is raised a Christian but privately converts to Neoplatonism. On becoming emperor in 360 AD he restores pagan temples, removes Christian privileges and attempts to revive the old religion. He dies on campaign against Persia in 363 AD — pierced by a spear, possibly thrown by one of his own men. "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean" — his reported dying words, probably apocryphal.
376 – 382 Visigoths cross the Danube In 376 AD, the Visigoths — fleeing the Hunnic invasion from the east — are permitted by Emperor Valens to cross the Danube into Roman territory. They are promised land and food; instead Roman officials exploit and abuse them. They revolt. At the Battle of Adrianople (378 AD), the Visigoths annihilate the Roman eastern army and kill Emperor Valens — the worst Roman military defeat since Cannae. For the first time a major barbarian group settles permanently inside the empire's borders with their own leadership intact.
380 Edict of Thessalonica — Christianity becomes state religion In 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius I issues the Edict of Thessalonica, declaring Nicene Christianity the only legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. All subjects must profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria. Heretics lose civil rights; pagan sacrifice is banned. In 391 AD Theodosius closes all pagan temples and outlaws pagan worship entirely. The Olympic Games — held every four years since 776 BC — are abolished in 393 AD as a pagan festival. Rome's millennium of gods is over.
395 Division of the Empire On the death of Theodosius I in 395 AD, the Roman Empire is permanently divided between his two sons: Arcadius takes the east (capital Constantinople), Honorius takes the west (capital Ravenna, later). This is not the first division — Diocletian and others had divided administration before — but it is the last. The two halves will never reunite. The Eastern Empire (Byzantine) will survive for another 1,058 years; the Western Empire has 81 years left.
406 Rhine crossing — barbarians flood into Gaul On the night of 31 December 406 AD, the Rhine freezes solid and vast numbers of Germanic peoples — Vandals, Suebi, Alans and Burgundians — cross into Roman Gaul. The Rhine frontier, Rome's western defence line for four centuries, collapses in a night. Within three years these peoples have spread across Gaul, Spain and North Africa. The western empire loses its tax base and its ability to defend its borders. The sequence of events that will end the empire has begun.
410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths On 24 August 410 AD, Alaric and his Visigoths sack Rome — the first time the city has fallen to a foreign enemy in 800 years, since Brennus and the Gauls in 390 BC. The sack lasts three days. Though restrained by ancient standards (Alaric is a Christian and spares the churches), the psychological shock is immense. Jerome writes from Bethlehem: "My voice is choked, and sobs cut short my dictation. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken." Augustine begins writing the City of God in response.
434 – 453 Attila the Hun Attila rules the Hunnic Empire from 434 to 453 AD, terrorising both halves of the Roman Empire. He devastates the Balkans repeatedly, extracts enormous tribute from Constantinople, and invades Gaul in 451 AD — defeated at the Catalaunian Plains by the Roman general Aetius and his Visigothic allies in one of the most consequential battles in history. He invades Italy in 452 AD, sacking Aquileia and threatening Rome, but withdraws — perhaps due to plague, perhaps due to Pope Leo I's legendary intervention. He dies in 453 AD, apparently of a nosebleed on his wedding night.
455 Sack of Rome by the Vandals In June 455 AD, the Vandals under King Gaiseric sack Rome for fourteen days — a more thorough plundering than Alaric's three-day raid of 410 AD. They strip the gilded roof tiles from the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and carry off the treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem (themselves looted by Titus in 70 AD). The Empress Eudoxia and her daughters are taken to Carthage. The word "vandalism" enters languages across the world. Rome will never recover its former wealth.
476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire On 4 September 476 AD, the Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus — the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire — at Ravenna. Romulus is a teenager, and his very name — combining the founder of Rome with the founder of the empire — gives the moment a bitter symmetry. Odoacer sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople, declaring there is no need for a separate western emperor. Edward Gibbon will later mark this date as the end of ancient history. The Eastern Empire — Byzantium — continues for another 977 years.