Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

753 BCE O.S. – 4 Sep 476 CE O.S.77 items

ancient worldempires
Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

Twelve centuries of Rome

From a village of huts on the Palatine to an empire that ran from Hadrian's Wall to the Euphrates, and back to a city ruled by a Germanic general from Ravenna. This timeline follows Rome and its western empire from the legendary founding to the last western emperor in 476. The eastern half lived on as the Byzantine Empire for another thousand years.

How it is built

  1. The kingdom, 753–509 BCE, mostly legend

  2. The Republic, 509–27 BCE

    • The wars with Carthage

      • Hannibal in Italy, nested under the Second Punic War

    • A century of civil wars, from the Gracchi to Actium

  3. The Empire, 27 BCE–476 CE

    • The Principate, from Augustus to the third-century crisis

    • The late empire of Diocletian and Constantine

Filter by tag to follow one thread: war, invasion, civil war, assassination, engineering, religion. Rome was not built lost in a day, and the invasion thread shows how slowly it went.

I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion. — Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapter 71

Dates are Julian as the sources give them; before 45 BCE they are the Roman calendar's.
Corrections go to the editor.

Items

  1. Roman Kingdom

    244 years

  2. Founding of Rome

    Palatine Hill, Rome

  3. Cloaca Maxima

    Outlet of the Cloaca Maxima, Rome

  4. Roman Republic

    482 years

  5. Tarquin the Proud expelled

    Rome

  6. Twelve Tables

    Rome

  7. Gauls sack Rome

    Rome

  8. Via Appia and the first aqueduct

    Via Appia, Rome to Capua

  9. A Pyrrhic victory at Asculum

    Asculum (Ascoli Satriano), Apulia

  10. First Punic War

    ≈ 23 years

  11. Battle of Mylae

    Off Mylae (Milazzo), Sicily

  12. Second Punic War

    ≈ 17 years

  13. Hannibal crosses the Alps

    Western Alps (the pass is disputed)

  14. Battle of Cannae

    Cannae, Apulia

  15. Battle of Zama

    Near Zama, Tunisia (the field is not known)

  16. Carthage destroyed

    Byrsa Hill, Carthage

  17. Crisis of the Republic

    106 years

  18. Tiberius Gracchus killed

    Capitoline Hill, Rome

  19. Battle of Arausio

    Arausio (Orange)

  20. Sulla marches on Rome

    Rome

  21. Spartacus’s army destroyed

    Via Appia, Rome to Capua

  22. Gallic Wars

    8 years · Gaul

  23. Crassus dies at Carrhae

    Near Carrhae (Harran)

  24. Siege of Alesia

    Mont Auxois, Alise-Sainte-Reine

  25. Caesar crosses the Rubicon

    The Rubicon, near Savignano sul Rubicone

  26. Battle of Pharsalus

    Near Pharsalus, Thessaly

  27. Julian calendar takes effect

  28. Assassination of Caesar

    Curia of Pompey, Largo di Torre Argentina

  29. Battle of Actium

    Off Cape Actium, mouth of the Ambracian Gulf

  30. Principate

    ≈ 310 years

  31. Pax Romana

    ≈ 206 years

  32. Julio-Claudian dynasty

    ≈ 94 years

  33. Octavian becomes Augustus

    Rome

  34. Varus loses three legions

    Kalkriese, Lower Saxony

  35. Death of Augustus

    Nola, Campania

  36. Jesus crucified

    Jerusalem

  37. Caligula assassinated

    Palatine Hill, Rome

  38. Invasion of Britain

    Rutupiae (Richborough), Kent

  39. Pont du Gard

    Pont du Gard

  40. Great Fire of Rome

    Circus Maximus, Rome

  41. Year of the Four Emperors

    ≈ 1 year, 6 months

  42. Jerusalem’s Temple destroyed

    Temple Mount, Jerusalem

  43. Vesuvius buries Pompeii

    Pompeii

  44. Colosseum opens

    Colosseum, Rome

  45. Five Good Emperors

    ≈ 83 years

  46. Trajan’s Column

    Trajan's Column, Rome

  47. Hadrian’s Wall begun

    Hadrian's Wall, Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway

  48. Pantheon rebuilt

    Pantheon, Rome

  49. Antonine Plague

    ≈ 15 years

  50. Death of Marcus Aurelius

  51. Commodus strangled

    Rome

  52. The empire auctioned

    Castra Praetoria, Rome

  53. Citizenship for all free men

  54. Crisis of the Third Century

    ≈ 49 years, 8 months

  55. Gallic Empire

    14 years · Gaul

  56. Valerian captured by Persia

    Near Edessa (Şanlıurfa)

  57. Palmyrene Empire

    ≈ 3 years · Palmyra

  58. Aurelian Walls begun

    Porta San Sebastiano, Aurelian Walls

  59. Late Empire

    ≈ 191 years

  60. Tetrarchy

    ≈ 20 years, 4 months

  61. Edict on Maximum Prices

  62. Great Persecution begins

    Nicomedia (İzmit)

  63. Diocletian retires

    Diocletian's Palace, Split

  64. Battle of the Milvian Bridge

    Milvian Bridge, Rome

  65. Edict of Milan

    Mediolanum (Milan)

  66. Council of Nicaea

    Nicaea (İznik)

  67. Constantinople dedicated

    Constantinople (Istanbul)

  68. Battle of Adrianople

    Near Adrianople (Edirne)

  69. Edict of Thessalonica

    Thessalonica

  70. Death of Theodosius

    Mediolanum (Milan)

  71. Vandals, Alans and Suebi cross the Rhine

    The Rhine near Mogontiacum (Mainz)

  72. Alaric sacks Rome

    Porta Salaria, Rome

  73. Vandals take Carthage

    Byrsa Hill, Carthage

  74. Battle of the Catalaunian Plains

    Catalaunian Plains, Champagne (the field is not known)

  75. Aëtius murdered by his emperor

    Rome

  76. Vandals sack Rome

    Rome

  77. Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus

    Ravenna