Historical timeline
BC
The origins of Rome
(Most of these dates are approximate)
1220Destruction of Troy.
1152Traditional date of founding of Alba Longa.
1000–750Phoenician expansion overseas.
1000Latins settle in Latium.
814Traditional date of founding of Carthage.
775Euboean Greeks establish trading post in Bay of Naples.
753Traditional date of founding of Rome.
753–510Period of the kings in Rome.
650Etruscans occupy Latium.
616–578Tarquinius Priscus.
578–534Servius Tullius.
534–510Tarquinius Superbus.
524Defeat of Etruscans at Cumae.
510Ejection of kings.
505Final defeat of Etruscans.
The republic
509Establishment of the republic. First consuls. Dedication of Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill.
496Romans defeat Latins at Lake Regillus.
494Traditional date for the institution of the office of tribune of the people.
451/450The Twelve Tables.
443First censors.
439The murder of Spurius Maelius.
409First plebeian quaestor.
390Gauls sack Rome, but withdraw in return for ransom.
367First plebeian consul elected. Creation of praetorship.
356First plebeian dictator.
351First plebeian censor.
340War against Latins.
338Latin league of states dissolved. Campania becomes Roman.
327–290Samnite wars.
321Disaster at Caudine Forks.
312Appius Claudius Caecus constructs the Via Appia and the Aqua Appia.
310Roman inroads into Etruria.
308Surrender of Umbria.
283Final capitulation of Etruscans.
280–275Pyrrhus leads Greek cities in south of Italy against Rome.
272Surrender of Tarentum and other Greek cities in south.
265Rome now holds all Italy south of theArno.
264First show in Rome with gladiators.
264–241First Punic War.
260Gaius Duilius wins Rome’s first naval victory at Mylae.
241Western Sicily becomes first Roman province.
239–237Rome annexes Corsica and Sardinia.
237Hamilcar overruns southern Spain.
227All Sicily and Sardinia with Corsica become provinces.
221Hannibal assumes command of Carthaginian forces.
219Hannibal captures Saguntum.
218–202Second Punic War.
218Hannibal invades Italy
217Hannibal defeats Romans at Lake Trasimene.
216Hannibal defeats Romans at Cannae.
211–206Scipio’s campaigns in Spain.
202P. Cornelius Scipio (soon to be Africanus) wins the Battle ofZama.
197Spain annexed and divided into two provinces.
191Rome completes conquest of Cisalpine Gaul.
184Cato electedcensor, having been consul in 195.
167End ofthird war against Macedonia, which is divided into four self-governing regions.
167–160Maccabaean revolt in Judaea.
153Roman year begins on 1 January.
149–146Third Punic War.
146Destruction of Carthage and Corinth. Province of Africa established.
144Dedication oftemples to Hercules Victorby Lucius Mummius Achaicus
133Tiberius Gracchus is tribune of the people. Pergamum bequeathed to Rome and in 129 becomes the province of Asia.
123–122Gaius Gracchus is tribune of the people.
121Transalpine Gaul becomes a province.
112–106Wars against Jugurtha.
107First consulship of Marius.
105Cimbri destroy two Roman armies in Gaul.
102–101Marius defeats Teutones and Cimbri.
100Sixth consulship of Marius.
91–88Social War between Rome and Italian allies, who are effectively tired of fighting for Rome without being treated as Roman citizens. The allies lose the war but maketheir point.
88First consulship of Sulla, who is assigned the command against Mithridates VI, king of Pontus. Motion by P. Sulpicius Rufus, tribune of the people, to appoint Marius in Sulla’s place. Sulla marches on Rome, his consular colleague is killed, and Marius is outlawed. Mithridates massacres Roman citizens in Asia. Sulla departs for the East with his army.
87The consul Cornelius Cinna is deposed and driven out of Rome by his consular colleague, Gnaeus Octavius. Marius and Cinna capture Rome and massacre all opposition. They are elected consuls for 86.
86Seventh consulship of Marius (who dies 13 January) and second of Cinna.
85Third consulship of Cinna and first of Papirius Carbo. Sulla agrees peace terms with Mithridates.
84Fourth consulship of Cinna and second of Carbo. Cinna is murdered by his soldiers while crossing to Asia to confront Sulla.
83Sulla lands in Italy, and is joined by Crassus and Pompey.
82Consuls are Gaius Marius Junior and Carbo. Sulla defeats opposition forces. Marius commits suicide. Sulla proclaimed dictator. Proscriptions. Constitutional reforms.
80Sulla resigns as dictator and goes into retirement.
78Death of Sulla. The beginning of the end of the republic.
Transition
74Bithynia and Cyrenaica become provinces.
73–71Slave revolt of Spartacus.
70First consulship of Pompey and Crassus. Trial of Verres by Cicero.
67Pompey crushes the pirates.
66–63Pompey, given exceptional powers in the East, defeats Mithridates and reorganizes the region. End of the Seleucid empire. Syria, including Judaea until 40 BC, is made a province.
63Consulship of Cicero. Conspiracy of Catiline. Caesar is elected pontifex maximus. Birth of Caesar’s great-nephew, the future Augustus.
60First triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus and Pompey.
59First consulship of Caesar, who is appointed governor of Cisalpine Gaul with Illyricum for five years, to which the Senate adds Gallia Narbonensis (Transalpine Gaul). Pompey’s actions in the East ratified. Clodius becomes a pleb and is elected tribune of the people.
58–50Caesar’s Gallic Wars. The whole of Gaul becomes part of the empire.
56Renewal at Lucca of first triumvirate.
55Second consulship of Crassus and Pompey. Caesar’s term extended.
55–54Caesar’s invasions of Britain.
53Death of Crassus in Parthia.
52Pompey appointed sole consul.
49Pompey authorized to deal with Caesar, who crosses the Rubicon with his army, signifying that he comes as an invader. Pompey leaves for Greece. Caesar is dictator for eleven days, then resigns.
48Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey takes flight to Egypt, where he is murdered as he steps ashore. Caesar, in pursuit, stays to sort out Cleopatra’s affairs. He is reappointed dictator. Local war in Alexandria.
48–47Caesar in Egypt.
47Alexandrian War concluded with Jewish help. Caesar defeats Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, at Zela.(‘Veni, vidi, vici.’) Reaches Rome in September.
46Caesar is appointed dictator for ten years. He crosses to Africa from Sicily, and crushes Pompey’s supporters at Thapsus. Suicide of Cato. Caesar’s quadruple triumph. Cleopatra in Rome with her twelve-year-old husband (her brother Ptolemy XIV) and her one-year-old son Ptolemy Caesar (popularly called Caesarion). Caesar’s wide-ranging legislation includes the reform of the calendar, necessitating the year having fifteenmonths. He leaves for Spain.
45Final defeat of Pompeians in Spain. Caesar returns to Rome in October.
44Caesar designated perpetual dictator. He is assassinated 15 March, having announced that he will leave Rome on 18 March to lead his armies against the Parthians. MarcAntony, Caesar’s consular colleague, takes control. The Senate, at the instigation of Cicero, grants amnesties to the conspirators, and recognizes Octavian as Caesar’s heir. Octavian holds games in honour of Caesar’s birthday. Antony, having granted himself the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul for five years, besieges the sitting governor, Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators, in Mutina.
43First consulship of Octavian. Formation of second triumvirate: Octavian, Antony and Lepidus. Proscriptions, in which Cicero dies.
42Caesar is officially deified. The chief conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, are defeated at Philippi. Cisalpine Gaul incorporated into Italy. Antony goes to settle imperial affairs in the East.
40Octavian defeats at Perusia army led by Lucius Antonius, consul for 41 and Antony’s brother. ‘Treaty of Brundisium’ effectively divides the Roman world between Octavian and Antony, who marries Octavia, Octavian’s sister.
40–35Trouble with Sextus Pompeius, who finally surrenders in Asia and is executed.
38Octavian, having divorced his wife the previous year after she had given birth to his daughter Julia, marries Livia, mother of Tiberius and pregnant with Drusus.
37Renewal of triumvirate.
33Second consulship of Octavian. Legal end of triumvirate. Octavian steps up propaganda campaign against Antony.
32Antony divorces Octavia, and is attacked in the Senate by Octavian. War declared against Cleopatra.
31Battle of Actium on 2 September.
31–23Successive consulships of Octavian/Augustus.
30Having been called back to Italy by mutinies and general unrest, Octavian returns to the East, arriving in Egypt during the summer. Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide. Egypt is annexed by Rome and becomes the personal property of the emperor.
29Octavian celebrates triple triumph for victories in Dalmatia, at Actium and in Egypt. Temple of the Divine Julius dedicated.
28Octavian awarded the title of princeps. Octavian and his consular colleague Agrippa hold a census, the first since 70 BC. They also reduce the number of senators from 1,000 to 800.
27Octavian renounces his special powers and ‘transfers the state to the Roman people’. He accepts the provinces of Spain, Gaul and Syria for ten years, and assumes the name Augustus. Agrippa builds the first Pantheon, which is completed in 25.
The empire
Julio-Claudians and Flavians
Rule of Augustus
23Augustus resigns his eleventh consulship, probably because of illness. He is awarded full tribunician powersfor life, and extended imperium which gives him authority over any provincial governor and over the army (renewed for five years in 18 and 13 BC, and for ten years in 8 BC, and in AD 3 and 13).
22Famine and plague. Augustus declines a dictatorship and censorship for life, but accepts the post of corn supremo. He leaves for the East for three years.
21Agrippa is forced to divorce his wife and marry Augustus’ daughter Julia, whose husband Marcellus has died after being married to her for two years.
18The Senate is reduced to 600. Agrippa is granted special powers.
17Augustus adopts Agrippa’s and Julia’s two sons, Gaius and Lucius, as his own sons. Saecular Games celebrated.
15Tiberius and Drusus, Augustus’ stepsons, defeat the Raeti and Vindelici, whose territory becomes a Roman province.
13Tiberius’ first consulship. Augustus returns to Rome after three years in Gaul, and Agrippa after three years in the East. Agrippa’s special powers extended for five years.
12Following the death of Lepidus, Augustus is elected pontifex maximus. Death of Agrippa.
11Tiberius is forced to divorce his wife and marry Julia.
9Dedication of Ara Pacis in Rome.
8Tiberius scores victories in Germany.
7Tiberius awarded tribunician powers for five years; he retires to Rhodes.
6Death of Drusus. Death of Herod the Great.
2Banishment of Julia.
AD
2Death of Lucius. Tiberius returns to Rome.
4Death of Gaius. Augustus adopts Tiberius, who is granted tribunician powers for ten years. Tiberius adopts Germanicus, son of Drusus, and departs for Germany. Law restricting manumission.
6Augustus establishes aerarium militare to provide for retired soldiers, and creates the post of praefectus vigilum.
9Varian disaster.
13Augustus’ control of his provinces renewed for a further ten years. Tiberius’ powers are also renewed, with imperium equal to that of Augustus.
14Census enumerates fivemillion Roman citizens. Death (19 August) and deification (17 September) of Augustus. Tiberius succeeds him. Mutinies in Pannonia and Germany. Sejanus appointed commander of imperial guard. Death of Julia.
Rule of Tiberius
16Germanicus advances to the river Elbe, but is recalled to Rome and the attempt to extend the Roman frontier is abandoned.
17Germanicus celebrates a triumph, then is sent to the East with powers to reorganize the provinces.
18Third consulship of Tiberius, with Germanicus, who falls out with Gnaeus Piso, legate of Syria. Death, in banishment, of the poet Ovid.
19Death of Germanicus in Syria, which Piso is forced by army pressure to leave.
20Piso, charged with treason and with procuring the death of Germanicus, commits suicide.
21Fourth consulship of Tiberius, with his son Drusus. Tiberius, however, retires for a time to Campania.
22Drusus awarded tribunician powers.
23Sejanus relocates the imperial guard to a camp immediately outside the city walls. Death of Drusus (attributed to Sejanusby Tacitus).
26Pontius Pilate becomes administrator of Judaea. Sejanus persuades Tiberius to leave Rome.
27Tiberius settles in Capri.
28Marriage of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina (elder), toDomitius Ahenobarbus.
29Agrippina (elder) and her eldest son exiled. Death of Livia at the age of eighty-six.
31From Capri, Tiberius denounces Sejanus, on whom the Senate pronounces the death sentence.
33Probable date of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth under Roman law. Drusus, son of Germanicus, becomes one of over sixtywell-known people executed for treason during the rule of Tiberius.
37Death of Tiberius (16 March). Gaius (Caligula), Tiberius’ great-nephew, becomes emperor and is suffect consul with his uncle Claudius. Death of Tiberius Gemellus, Tiberius’ grandson. Birth of the emperor Nero.
Rule of Caligula
38Death and deification of Caligula’s sister Drusilla. Riots in Alexandria between Jews and Greeks.
39Conspiracy of Aemilius Lepidus, widower of Drusilla, and C. Lentulus Gaetulicus, consul in 26 and now legate in Upper Germany, both of whom are executed. Caligula’s other two sisters are exiled. Caligula is on the Rhine and in Gaul over the winter.
40Caligula makes an expedition to the Channel. On his return to Rome, he orders a statue of himself to be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. Deputation of Alexandrine Jews and Greeks.
41Assassination of Caligula. Claudius, with the help of Herod Agrippa in bringing round the Senate, is made emperor, having promised a donative to each member of the imperial guard equivalent to ten years’ pay, an unfortunate precedent. Herod Agrippa (Agrippa I), in addition to his existing territories, is also made king of Judaea, Samaria and Idumaea, which cease to be under the jurisdiction of the governor of Syria.
Rule of Claudius
42Mauretania is divided into two provinces.
43Invasion of Britain, part of which becomes a province under Aulus Plautius.
44Claudius celebrates a triumph for his victory in Britain and names his three-year-old son Britannicus. Achaea and Macedonia become subject to the authority of the Senate. Death of Agrippa I. Judaea reverts to being a province.
46Achaea is annexed.
47Plautius celebrates a triumph for his successes in Britain, the last occasion on which a subject is so honoured.
48As censor, a post he revives, Claudius registers some seven million citizens of Rome, and opens the way for more provincials to become senators. Death of the empress Messalina. Claudius marries Agrippina (the younger), the daughter of his brother Germanicus.
50Claudius adopts Nero, son of Agrippina.
51Final defeat in Wales of the British chief Caratacus, who is handed over by Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes.Claudius pardons him and his family and allows them to live out their lives in Rome. Vespasian is suffect consul.
53Marriage of Nero toClaudius’ daughter Octavia.
54Death of Claudius by poison (12 October). Accession of Nero. Claudius is deified.
Rule of Nero
55Nero rules initially with the advice of his tutor, Seneca, and Burrus, commander of the imperial guard. Claudius’ freedman, who was his financial secretary, is dismissed. Britannicus is poisoned. Gn. Domitius Corbulo appointed to military command in the East.
56Quaestors are replaced by two imperial officers (ex-praetors) at the treasury, to which Nero transfers fortymillion sestercesin 57.
59Nero finally succeeds in murdering his mother.
60Corbulo, after several military successes, settles the Armenian problem, and is appointed governor of Syria.
61In Britain, the Iceni (under Boudica) and Trinovantes revolt, causing great destruction and slaughter. They are finally defeated by Suetonius Paullinus, and Boudica commits suicide.
62Death of Burrus. Seneca withdraws from public life. Nero marries Poppaea, having divorced and subsequently murdered Octavia.
64Great fire of Rome.
65In the wake of a high-level conspiracy, there are many executions and enforced suicides, including that of Seneca. Death of Poppaea.
66–74First Jewish War.
66As First Jewish War begins, Vespasian is appointed military commander in Judaea. Nero marries Statilia Messalina.
68Nero returns from visits to Greece. Verginius Rufus, legate of Upper Germany, crushes rebellion of Vindex in Gaul. Death of Nero (6 June). End of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Galba enters Rome and is accepted as emperor.
69Year of the four emperors. Vitellius, governor of Lower Germany, is acclaimed emperor by his troops and those in Upper Germany. Galba and Piso, his nominee as successor, is killed by the imperial guard, who make Otho emperor (15 January). In northern Italy Vitellius defeats Otho, who commits suicide (14 April). Vitellius arrives in Rome (mid-July). Vespasian, in Judaea, is proclaimed emperor by Tiberius Alexander, prefect of Egypt (1 July), and is accepted as such by the troops in the East and on the Danube. The Danube legions capture Rome (21 December). Death of Vitellius (24 December).
From the accession of Vespasian to the end of the Flavian dynasty
70Vespasian and Titus are consuls. Titus takes Jerusalem; destruction of the Temple. Vespasian reaches Rome (October).
71Vespasian and Nerva are consuls. Triumph of Vespasian and Titus for victories in Judaea. Titus is appointed commander of the imperial guard and receives tribunician powers.
73First consulship of Domitian.
74Vespasian confers Latin rights on all parts of the Spanish peninsula. Fall of Masada marks end of First Jewish War.
78–84Agricola is governor of Britain.
79Death of Vespasian and accession of Titus (23 June). Eruption of Vesuvius and destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii (August).
80Fire in Rome destroys Capitoline Temple. Opening of the Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheatre).
81Erection of Arch of Titus. Death of Titus and accession of Domitian (13 September).
83Domitian campaigns in Germany.
84Battle of Mons Graupius in Scotland. Agricola is recalled.
86–92Domitian’s Danube wars.
96Assassination of Domitian. Senate elects Nerva to succeed him.
The ‘five good emperors’
96Accession of Nerva, who takes an oath that he will not execute any senator.
97Nerva adopts Trajan as co-ruler and successor.
98Death of Nerva. He is succeeded by Trajan, who is campaigning on the Rhine.
99Trajan arrives in Rome, having made preparations along the Danube frontier for a forthcoming campaign.
100Hadrian, first-cousin once removed of Trajan, who is also Hadrian’s guardian, marries Vibia Sabina, Trajan’s great-niece.
101Trajan invades Dacia, which is finally annexed in 106.
102Decebalus, Dacian king, capitulates and becomes a client king of Rome.
104Death of the poet Martial. New war against Decebalus.
105Arabia annexed.
106Death of Decebalus and annexation of Dacia.
107Trajan’s 123-day triumph.
111Correspondence between Pliny, governor of Bithynia, and Trajan about the Christians.
112Dedication of Trajan’s Forum, incorporating Trajan’s Market.
113Dedication of Trajan’s Column. Trajan prepares for Parthian campaign.
114–116Trajan conquers Mesopotamia, capturing Babylon and Ctesiphon, capital of the Parthian empire.
116Jewish risings are brutally put down, with the virtual destruction of the Jewish communities in North Africa, Alexandria and Cyprus.
c. 117Death of the historian Tacitus.
117Trajan dies in Cilicia on his way home, having left Hadrian in charge of the armies in the East. Trajan’s widow, Pompeia Plotina, announces that he had adopted Hadrian, who is hailed emperor by the army in Syria. Roman empire at its greatest extent.
118Four former consuls and senior commanders, all Trajan’s men, are executed on the orders of the Senate. Hadrian reaches Rome.
121Hadrian in Gaul, Upper Germany, Raetia and Noricum.
122Hadrian in Lower Germany, Britain (where he begins construction of Hadrian’s Wall), Gaul and Spain. Suetonius is dismissed from his post as director of the imperial correspondence for some disrespectful behaviour relating to the empress Sabina.