TIMES
OLD ROMAN
TIMES
OLD ROMAN
A timeline of the Roman Empire, duh! 2500 years of history in one easy mouthful.
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1. THE EARLY YEARS
BC
1200 Greek army destroys the city of Troy in western Turkey. Roman legend claims that Aeneas, a prince of Troy, reached and founded Rome after many adventures.
1000 Villages are built on the seven hills around the site of Rome. Over time they will join up to create one city.
753 Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus, a descendant of Aeneas.
650 Rome is so big, the seven villages agree to build one forum where they can all meet. This is called The Forum.
616 Rome defeats their nearest enemy town, Alba Longa.
578 King Tarquinius Priscus builds the Cloaca Maxima, the first sewer.
550 King Servius Tullius builds city walls and produces the first Roman coins.
540 A new calendar, later called the Republican, appears. For the first time the months of winter are counted with two new months, Ianvarivs and Febrvarivs.
509 King Tarquinus Superbus is expelled for cruelty. Rome becomes a republic. Rome certainly had early kings, but their names and personalities may be later inventions.
500 The Numan Calendar introduces a thirteenth 'leap-month', Mercedonivs.
396 Rome attacks the Etruscans, taking their city at Veii. The Etruscans have a practice of getting people to fight to the death at funerals. This will develop into Roman gladiatorial battles.
390 Gauls (Celts) sack the city of Rome. The city is saved from destruction because a group of geese cackling alert Roman soldiers.
326 Circus Maximus is built. Blood and gore (‘entertainment’) for everyone!
313 The Appian Way, a Roman road running throughout Italy, is finished.
312 The Aqua Appia (first aqueduct) is built to bring water to a growing Rome.
275 Rome conquers the Greek colonies in southern mainland Italy
265 Rome finishes off the Etruscans.
2. DEALING WITH THE NEIGHBOURS
264-31 Rome and Carthage fight the first Punic war. Neither can win outright, but the war shows Rome's need for a navy.
222 Rome defeats the Gauls in northern Italy.
218-02 Second Punic War. Carthaginian leader Hannibal defeats the Romans and nearly gets to Rome, but is finally driven back.
214 War machines designed by Greek mathematician Archimedes save the city of Syracuse, an ally of Carthage, from a Roman naval attack. But Syracuse falls the next year, and Archimedes is killed by an impatient Roman soldier.
202 Second Punic War ends with victory for Rome, which gains coastal Spain.
196 Romans defeat the Macedonian king Philip V at Cynoscephalae.
189 Antiochus III, king of the Seleucids, is defeated at the battle of Magnesia and surrenders his possessions (parts of modern Greece and Turkey)
146 Third Punic War. Rome destroys Carthage.
146 Rome finally conquers Greece at the battle of Corinth.
133 King Attalus III of Pergamum (now Bergama) wills his kingdom to Rome. The whole Mediterranean Sea is now under Roman control.
130 Romans control most of Spain.
106 The Romans defeat Jugurtha, king of Numidia (central-north Africa).
83 Sulla becomes dictator. The Republic is doomed.
73 Spartacus leads the revolt of the gladiators. It fails. 6000 gladiators are crucified along the road to Rome.
64 Syria is conquered and becomes a Roman province.
63 Pompeus (Pompey) captures Jerusalem and annexes Palestine to Rome.
55-54 Caesar attacks the Celts in Britain, to stop them helping Celts under Roman rule (and to make him look god, not necessarily in that order!). The attack fails miserably, but Caesar later claims it was a success!
53 First Persian War. Rome is defeated by the Parthians at Carrhae (Syria)
51 Caesar crushes the revolt of Vercingetorix in Gaul (France).
49 Caesar becomes dictator.
47 Caesar invades Egypt and appoints Cleopatra queen.
46 Caesar employs the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes to work out a new 12- month calendar (the Julian calendar). Two extra months have to be added (Vndecemvir and Dvodecemvir) because Roman politicians have fiddled with it so much the calendar is a total mess. As a result, this year has 445 days!
44 Caesar stabbed to death by 23 senators. The month Qvintilis is renamed Ivlivs (July) in his honour. His friend Marc Antony and nephew Octavian now rule.
31 Octavian and Marc Antony fight over Cleopatra. Octavian wins; Marc Antony and Cleopatra both commit suicide. Egypt becomes part of the Roman Empire.
27 Octavian becomes the first emperor. The month Sextilis will later be renamed after his title Augvstvs (meaning 'clever-dick').
3. THE HEIGHT OF GREATNESS
20 A treaty between Rome and Persia (Iraq) fixes the boundary between the two empires along the Euphrates river.
13 Rome expands to reach the Danube River in Europe.
6 Jesus is born in Palestine.
AD
5 Rome acknowledges Cymbeline, King of the Catuvellauni, as king of Britain.
6 Augustus expands the borders to the Balkans.
9 Varyan Disaster. Three entire Roman legions are wiped out when they are ambushed beyond the river Rhine. Stupidly they beleived their German guides when they told them a dark narrow trail through a thick wood full of enemy warriors was perfectly safe!
14 Augustus dies and Tiberius becomes emperor.
33 Jesus is crucified.
37 Tiberius dies and the mad Caligula succeeds him.
41 Caligula is assassinated and is succeeded by Claudius.
43 Claudius invades Britannia. Properly.
46 Roma occupies Thrace (northern Greece)
47-8 First revolt by British Celtic sub-kings fails
50 The abandoned British settlement at Londinis becomes the new Roman capital of Britannia, Londinium.
54 Claudius is succeeded by Nero.
58 Rome conquers Armenia.
60-61 Boudicca's Revolt against Roman rule in Britannia narrowly fails.
64 Nero sets fire to Rome (he wants the new buildings all dedicated to him) and blames the Christians for it. Many Christians massacred as a result.
68 Nero commits suicide and is succeeded by Vespasian.
69 Vespasian is succeeded by Tito. Romans conquer the Brigantes, the last independent Celtic tribe in what will one day be England.
70 Tito destroys Jerusalem. Israel becomes part of the Empire.
77 Rome conquers Wales.
79 Mount Vesuvius erupts and the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii are buried.
79 The Colosseum is completed in Rome. Now even more people can get killed for the citizens' 'entertainment'.
80-84 Rome campaigns in the future Scotland, but after a victory in 84 at Mons Graupius, the victorious leader Agricola is recalled to Rome by senators jealous of his success. Britannia is thereafter always divided.
98 Trajan becomes emperor.
106 Trajan defeats Dacia (Hungary and Slovakia), making it a Roman province.
106 Trajan captures the Nabataean capital Petra (Jordan). Nabatea becomes another province.
113 Trajan's Column is built in Rome.
116 Trajan conquers Mesopotamia and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon.
117 Trajan dies, and Hadrian becomes emperor.
120 The 9th Hispanic Legion marches into northern England. They are never seen again, probably massacred by the Brigantes tribe.
122 Hadrian's Wall is built along the northern frontier to protect from the Barbarian Caledonians (Scots).
132-6 Hadrian introduces violently anti-Jewish laws. Jewish revolt in Israel fails.
138 Hadrian is succeeded by Antoninus Pius, who repeals the anti-Jewish laws.
142 Antonine Wall built (Forth-Clyde) to hold back Celts in Scotland.
150-63 Third Revolt in Britannia forces abandonment of Antonine Wall
161 Marcus Aurelius becomes Roman emperor.
164 Roman soldiers return from the eastern provinces with the plague.
180 Fourth Revolt in Britannia. Commodus becomes emperor.
192 After renaming all twelve months after his names and titles and renaming Rome after himself, the mad Emperor Commodus is finally murdered.
208-11 Fifth British Revolt. Picts and Scots breach Hadrian's Wall and ravage northern England. Emperor Severus comes to Britannia and starts a contest between his sons Caracalla and Geta, as to who can be the more brutal.
4. DECLINE AND TOTTERING
212 Caracalla grants Roman citizenship on all free people who live in the Roman Empire. It's not that generous; all new 'citizens' now have to pay Roman taxes!
217 Caracalla is murdered in recently-conquered Edessa.
218 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the last of the Antonines, becomes emperor.
235-85In this 50 years period, forty emperors will rule part or all of Rome!
250 Emperor Decius orders the first empire-wide persecution of Christians.
259 Sixth British Revolt. Britannia, Gaul and Span break away to form a new Gallic Empire. It will take Rome 14 years to reconquer these provinces.
260-98 Second Persian War. After initial defeats, Rome is finally victorious.
279-80 Seventh Revolt in Britannia.
286 Carausius' (Eighth) Revolt in Britannia, which breaks away again.
293 Carausius is murdered by a rival Allectus.
296 As the Romans invade Britannia, Allectus falls on his sword. Diocletian allows Saxons from Germany to settle around the south-eastern coasts of Britannia in return for defending it (the Saxon Shore).
300 The population of the Empire is 60 million (about 15 million are Christians).
303 Diocletian orders a general persecution of the Christians.
312 Constantine becomes emperor.
313 Constantine ends persecution of Christians, recognizing the Christian Church.
330 Constantine I builds a new city, Constantinople (later Byzantium, Istanbul).
337 After Constantine's death, his sons split the empire: Constantine II (Spain, Britain, Gaul), Constans I (Italy, Africa, Illyricum, Macedon, Achaea) and Constantius II (the East).
342 Picts and Scots overrun Hadrian's Wall. Ninth Revolt in Britannia.
350-4 Civil war. The Roman crackdown causes the Tenth Revolt in Britannia.
359 Constantinople becomes the capital of the Roman empire.
360 War with Persia ends in defeat for Rome, and the loss of Nisibis and Armenia.
367-9 Picts and Scots overrun Hadrian's Wall. Eleventh Revolt in Britannia fails.
376 Emperor Valens allows Visigoths to settle within the empire - a bad mistake.
378 Visigoths defeat the Roman army at Hadrianopolis.
380 Emperor Theodosius I makes Christianity the sole religion of the Empire.
383-8 Twelfth Revolt in Britannia under Maximus eventually fails.
393 Theodosius bans the Olympic Games because of paganism.
395 Theodosius' death divides the empire into the Western and Eastern Empires.
401 Some Roman legions are withdrawn from Britannia and not replaced.
406 Barbarians invade Gaul (France). Last Roman troops leave Britannia.
409: Thirteenth and final British Revolt - after the Romans are gone!
410 The Visigoths (from Spain) sack Rome.
451 Roman leader Aetius defeats Attila and his Huns at Chalons.
452 Attila and the Huns invade Italy.
453 Western Emperor Valentinian III orders Aetius murdered - for being popular!
455 The Vandals (from Germany) sack Rome.
476 Odoacer, leader of the Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, deposes the western Roman emperor Romulus and ends the Western Roman empire.
5. THE FALSE DAWN
500 Rome's population has declined to less than 100,000 people!
527 Justinian becomes Byzantine (Eastern Roman) emperor.
534 Justinian retakes southern Spain and north Africa.
536 Justinian reconquers Rome.
540 Justinian finishes the reconquest of Italy.
542 A mysterious plague, possibly the bubonic plague, decimates the Empire.
546 Visigoths retake Rome.
551 Rome retaken for the Empire. Its population is now 30,000.
554 Imperial control of Italy re-established.
565 Justinian dies.
568 Lombards invade northern Italy.
602 Persia attack the Empire in Asia Minor.
614 Persians capture Jerusalem.
614-20Visigoths reconquer Spain from the Roman empire.
619 Persians capture Alexandria in Egypt.
626-7 Persia besieges Constantinople, but is defeated at the battle of Nineveh.
636-9 Arabs capture Syria and Palestine, and invade the southern parts of the Empire.
673 Arabs besiege Constantinople, but are beaten off.
714-8 Arabs besiege Constantinople, but fail again.
774 Charlemagne (King of France) conquers Rome from the Byzantine rulers.
6. THE BYZANTINE 'EMPIRE'
800 Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III; founds Holy Roman Empire.
840 The Byzantine fleet retakes Bari (Italy) from the Arabs.
846 The city of Rome has only 17,000 inhabitants.
867 Basil I becomes the Byzantine emperor.
879 Basil I defeats the Arabs and reconquers Cappadocia (central Turkey).
968 Emperor Nicephorus II defeats the Arabs and reconquers Syria.
969 Nicephorus II defeats the Bulgars.
1018 Emperor Basil II annexes Bulgaria. The ’new’ empire reaches its zenith.
7. THE LONG GOODNIGHT
1025 Death of Basil II.
1054 The Great Schism, a religious dispute between Rome and Constantinople. The patriarch of Constantinople and the pope in Rome excommunicate each other.
1064 Seljuk Turks invade Armenia.
1071 The Byzantine army of Romanus IV Diogenes is defeated by the Seljuks at Manzikert in Armenia.
1071 Normans led by Robert Guiscard conquer southern Italy from the empire.
1094: Pope Urban II calls the First Crusade. Ostensibly aimed at recapturing the Holy Land, it is really an attempt to undermine the rival Byzantine Empire and the patriarch of Constantinople.
1099 The First Crusade captures Jerusalem. The Crusades re-ignite interest in the empire, not always to its advantage.
1187 Third Crusade. Saladin defeats the crusaders and takes Jerusalem.
1204 Fourth Crusade. The Crusaders, led by the Doge of Venice, sack Byzantium, expel the Greek emperor Alexius III and set up a Latin kingdom under Baldwin I of Flanders. Venice takes imperial territories in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Theodore I Lascaris, son-in-law of Alexius III, flees from Constantinople to Nicaea, new capital of the Byzantine Empire, while Alexius himself founds the empire of Trebizond further east.
1211 Theodore I Lascaris conquers most of Anatolia (modern Turkey).
1261 Constantinople is liberated by the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Paleologus and Greek becomes the official language of the empire.
1291 The Arabs expel the last Crusaders from the Middle East.
1299 Osman I, a mercenary working for the Seljuk Empire, tires of them and sets up the rival Ottoman Empire in what is now northern Turkey. The beginning of the end for both the Seljuk Empire and Byzantium.
1345 Serbia defeats the Byzantines and annexes Macedonia and Thrace.
1347 Plague (Black Death) strikes Constantinople and kills half the population.
1348 Serbia defeats the Empire again and annexes Thessaly and Epirus.
1453 Ottoman Empire under Mehmet II capture Constantinople.
1461 Ottomans conquer the splinter empire of Trebizond. The last bit of the Roman Empire is gone forever. But many books of its learning make their way secretly to Europe, particularly to Roman Italy, where they form the basis for the Renaissance.
Roman emperors
27BC-14AD: Augustus/ Octavianus
14-37: Tiberius
37-41: Caligula
41-54: Claudius
54-68: Nero
68-69: Galba
69: Otho
69: Vitellius
69-79: Vespasian
79-81: Titus
81-96: Domitian
96-98: Nerva
98-117: Trajan
117-38: Hadrian
138-61: Antoninus Pius
161-80: Marcus Aurelius
161-69: Lucius Aurelius Verus
180-92: Commodus
193: Pertinax
193: Didius Julian
193-211: Septimius Severus
211-17: Caracalla
209-11: Geta
217-18: Macrinus
218-22: Elagabalus
222-35: Alexander Severus
235-38: Maximin
238: Gordian I
238: Gordian II
238: Pupienus
238: Balbinus
238-44: Gordian III
244-49: Philipp "Arabs"
249-51: Decius
251: Hostilian
251-53: Gallus
253: Aemilian
253-59: Valerian
259-68: Gallienus
268-70: Claudius II
270: Quintillus
270-75: Aurelian
275-76: Tacitus
276: Florian
276-82: Probus
282-83: Carus
283-84: Numerian
283-85: Carinus
284-305: Diocletian
286-305: Maximian
305-306: Constantius I
305-311: Galerius
306-7: Severus
306-8: Maximian
306-12: Maxentius
308-13: Maximinus Daia
311-24: Licinius
311-37: Constantine I
337-40: Constantine II
337-61: Constantius II
337-50: Constans
361-63: Julian
363-64: Jovian
364-75: Valentinian I
364-78: (East) Valens
375-83: (West) Gratian
375-92: (West) Valentinian II
379-95: (West) Theodosius
383-88: Maximus
392-94: Eugenius
395-408: (East) Arcadius
395-423: (West) Honorius
421: Constantius III
423-25: Johannes
408-50: (East) Theodosius II
425-55: (West) Valentinian III
450-57: (East) Marcian
455: (West) Petronius
455-56: (West) Avitus
457-61: (West) Majorian
457-74: (East) Leo I
461-65: (West) Severus
467-72: (West) Anthemius
472: (West) Olybrius
473: (West) Glycerius
473-75: (West) Julius Nepos
473-74: (East) Leo II
474-91: (East) Zeno
475-76: (West) Romulus Augustulus
Eastern Empire alone
474-91: Zeno
475-76: Basiliscus
491-518: Anastasius I
518-27: Justin I
527-65: Justinian
565-78: Justin II
578-82: Tiberius II
582-602: Maurice
602-10: Phocas I
610-41: Heraclius I
641: Constantine III
641: Heracleon
641-68: Constans II
668-85: Constantine IV
685-95: Justinian II
695-98: Leontius
698-705: Tiberius II
705-11: Justinian II
711-13: Philippicus
713-15: Anastasius II
715-17: Theodosius III
717-41: Leo III
741-75: Constantine V
775-80: Leo IV
780-97: Constantine VI
797-802: Irene
802-11: Nicephorus I
811: Stauracius
811-13: Michael I
813-20: Leo V
820-29: Michael II
829-42: Theophilus I
842-67: Michael III
867-86: Basil I
886-912: Leo VI
912-13: Alexander II
912-59: Constantine VII
920-44: Romanus I
959-63: Romanus II
963-69: Nicephorus II
969-76: John I
976-1025: Basil II
1025-28: Constantine VIII
1028-50: Zoe
1028-34: Romanus III
1034-41: Michael IV
1041-42: Michael V
1042-55: Constantine IX
1055-56: Theodora
1056-57: Michael VI
1057-59: Isaac I
1059-67: Constantine X
1068-71: Romanus IV
1071-78: Michael VII
1078-81: Nicephorus III
1081-1118: Alexius I
1118-43: John II
1143-80: Manuel I
1180-83: Alexius II
1183-85: Andronicus I
1185-95: Isaac II
1195-1203: Alexius III
1203-4: Isaac II
1203-4: Alexius IV
1204: Alexius V
1204-5: (Latin) Baldwin I
1205-16: (Latin) Henry
1216-17: (Latin) Peter of Courtenay
1217-19: (Latin) Yolande
1219-28: (Latin) Robert of Courtenay
1228-61: (Latin) Baldwin II
1231-37: (Latin) John of Brienne
1204-22: (Nicean) Theodore I
1222-54: (Nicean) John III
1254-58: (Nicean) Theodore II
1258-61: (Nicean) John IV
1259-61: (Nicean) Michael VIII
1261-82: Michael VIII
1282-1328: Andronicus II
1295-1320: Michael IX
1328-41: Andronicus III
1341-47: John V
1347-54: John VI
1355-76: John V
1376-79: Andronicus IV
1379-91: John V
1390: John VII
1391-1425: Manuel II
1425-48: John VIII
1448-53: Constantine
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