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Timeline of Roman History
The essential events of Roman history in chronological order, from the legendary founding to the deposition of the last Western emperor.
Play the timeline game in RomeDrill →The Kingdom (753–509 BC)
| Date | Event | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| c. 753 BC | Founding of Rome | Traditionally dated by Varro to 21 April 753 BC, when Romulus founded the city on the Palatine after killing Remus. Years were later reckoned ab urbe condita from this date; archaeology shows Palatine huts from the 8th century BC. |
The Early and Middle Republic (509–133 BC)
| Date | Event | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 326–304 BC | Second Samnite War | Sparked by the colony at Fregellae and the Naples affair. After disaster at the Caudine Forks (321 BC) and defeat at Lautulae (315 BC), Rome recovered, ringed Samnium with colonies and roads (Luceria, Via Appia) and imposed peace in 304 BC. The flexible manipular legion is usually linked to these wars. |
| 280–275 BC | Pyrrhic War | Rome's first war against a Hellenistic army. Pyrrhus won at Heraclea and Asculum, campaigned in Sicily, was checked at Beneventum and went home; Tarentum fell in 272 BC, leaving Rome mistress of peninsular Italy. |
| 264–241 BC | First Punic War | Rome's first overseas war (264–241 BC). Rome built its first major fleet, won at Mylae and Ecnomus, failed in Africa under Regulus, and finally won at the Aegates Islands; Carthage ceded Sicily and paid an indemnity. |
| 218–201 BC | Second Punic War | Hannibal defeated Rome at the Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae but could not break its Italian alliance. Scipio conquered Spain, invaded Africa and won at Zama (202 BC); Carthage lost its empire and fleet and Rome became master of the western Mediterranean. |
| 217 BC | Battle of Lake Trasimene | Hannibal trapped Gaius Flaminius' army between the hills and the lake on 21 June 217 BC; about 15,000 Romans died, including the consul, and as many were captured. Rome responded by naming Fabius Maximus dictator. |
| 216 BC | Battle of Cannae | Hannibal's 50,000 encircled about 80,000 Romans near the River Aufidus; some 50,000 were killed, including the consul Aemilius Paullus and 80 senators. Capua and much of the south defected, but Rome refused to negotiate. Maharbal reputedly told Hannibal he knew how to win a victory but not how to use one. |
| 202 BC | Battle of Zama | Scipio, with Masinissa's Numidian cavalry, inflicted Hannibal's only major defeat; some 20,000 Carthaginians fell. Carthage sued for peace and Scipio took the name Africanus. |
| 149–146 BC | Third Punic War | Rome declared war in 149 BC using Carthage's fight with Masinissa as pretext. After two years of bungled operations Scipio Aemilianus, elected consul for 147 BC below the legal age, sealed off the city and stormed it in spring 146 BC. |
The Late Republic (133–27 BC)
| Date | Event | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 91–87 BC | Social War | The war of the socii broke out after the murder of Livius Drusus. Rome split the rebels by granting citizenship (Lex Julia, 90 BC; Lex Plautia Papiria, 89 BC) while Pompeius Strabo and Sulla beat them in the field; serious fighting was over by 88 BC. All Italy south of the Po became Roman. |
| 73–71 BC | Third Servile War | Led by the Thracian Spartacus with the Gauls Crixus and Oenomaus, the slaves ranged the length of Italy and beat several Roman armies. Crassus, given eight legions, penned them in Bruttium and destroyed them in Lucania; Pompey caught 5,000 fugitives and claimed credit for ending the war. |
| 58–50 BC | Gallic Wars | Caesar defeated the Helvetii and Ariovistus (58), the Belgae (57) and the Veneti (56), crossed the Rhine and the Channel (55–54), and crushed the great revolt of Vercingetorix (52). The conquest gave him wealth, fame and a veteran army. |
| 53 BC | Battle of Carrhae | Crassus sought military glory to match Pompey and Caesar. Surena's horse archers, resupplied with arrows by a camel train, destroyed the army: about 20,000 died and 10,000 were captured. The lost standards were recovered by Augustus through diplomacy in 20 BC. |
| 52 BC | Siege of Alesia | Caesar's inner line ran about 11 Roman miles (16 km) and the outer about 14 (21 km), studded with towers, ditches and traps. Vercingetorix surrendered, was kept prisoner for six years and was strangled after Caesar's triumph in 46 BC. |
| 49–45 BC | Caesar's Civil War | Caesar overran Italy in two months, beat Pompey's legates at Ilerda, and defeated Pompey himself at Pharsalus (48 BC). After the Alexandrian War and Zela he destroyed the remaining Pompeian armies at Thapsus (46 BC) and Munda (45 BC), famously sparing many of his opponents. |
| 48 BC | Battle of Pharsalus | Pompey, pressed by the senators in his camp to fight, relied on Labienus's 7,000 cavalry to turn Caesar's right; six picked cohorts, using their pila as spears, broke the charge. Pompey fled to Egypt. Surveying the dead Caesar said, 'They would have it so.' |
| 44 BC | Assassination of Julius Caesar | Led by Marcus Brutus, Gaius Cassius, Decimus Brutus and Trebonius, the conspirators struck three days before Caesar was to leave for a Parthian war. They had no plan for what followed; Antony secured Caesar's papers and funds, and an amnesty was patched up on 17 March. |
| 42 BC | Battle of Philippi | In the first battle Antony stormed Cassius's camp while Brutus overran Octavian's; Cassius, wrongly believing all lost, killed himself. Three weeks later Brutus was forced to fight, was beaten and took his own life. The victory was chiefly Antony's; about 19 legions fought on each side. |
| 32 BC | Oath of all Italy | Antony divorced Octavia, and his will, betrayed by the defectors Plancus and Titius, reportedly asked for burial in Alexandria beside Cleopatra. Octavian, whose triumviral powers had lapsed, based his position on the oath, recalled in the Res Gestae: 'tota Italia swore allegiance to me of its own accord.' |
| 31 BC | Battle of Actium | Agrippa had cut Antony's supply lines by seizing Methone and other bases, and disease and desertion thinned his forces. After the escape of Antony and Cleopatra, the land army under Canidius Crassus capitulated within a week. Octavian founded Nicopolis on the site of his camp. |
| 27 BC | First Augustan Settlement | On 13 January 27 BC Octavian 'restored the Republic'; on 16 January the Senate named him Augustus and gave him Spain, Gaul, Syria and Egypt as his province. Conventionally the start of the Principate and the Roman Empire. |
The Principate (27 BC – AD 235)
| Date | Event | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| AD 43 | Claudian conquest of Britain | Aulus Plautius led legions II Augusta, IX Hispana, XIV Gemina and XX; the future emperor Vespasian commanded II Augusta. Claudius spent sixteen days on the island, took the enemy capital Camulodunum (Colchester), celebrated a triumph and named his son Britannicus. |
| AD 64 | Great Fire of Rome | Three regions were levelled and seven badly damaged. Nero, at Antium when it began, organised relief but was rumoured to have sung of Troy's fall; he blamed the Christians and built the Domus Aurea on the cleared land. |
| AD 64 | Neronian persecution of the Christians | Tacitus (Annals 15.44) says Nero fastened the guilt for the fire on the Christians and staged the executions in his Vatican gardens and circus. Christian tradition places the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul at Rome in this persecution or soon after. |
| AD 66–73 | First Jewish–Roman War | Nero sent Vespasian with three legions in 67; Galilee fell first, Jerusalem to Titus in 70 and Masada in 73/74. Josephus's Jewish War is the main source. The spoils funded the Colosseum, and Jews thereafter paid the fiscus Judaicus. |
| AD 69 | Year of the Four Emperors | Galba was murdered on 15 January, Otho killed himself on 16 April, Vitellius was killed on 20 December, and Vespasian founded the Flavian dynasty. Tacitus's Histories narrate the year. |
| AD 70 | Siege of Jerusalem | Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as chief of staff, took the city with legions V, X, XII and XV. The Temple was destroyed and its menorah and table carried in the triumph of 71, as shown on the Arch of Titus. |
| AD 79 | Eruption of Vesuvius | Traditionally dated 24 August, though evidence now favours October. Pliny the Elder died at Stabiae attempting a rescue by sea; Pliny the Younger's account gives volcanology the term 'Plinian eruption'. |
| AD 101–106 | Trajan's Dacian Wars | The first war made Decebalus a client; the second ended with his suicide and the creation of the province of Dacia, Rome's last major lasting conquest. The booty paid for Trajan's Forum, and 123 days of games followed. |
| AD 132–136 | Bar Kokhba Revolt | Hadrian summoned Sextus Julius Severus from Britain; Dio reports 580,000 Jewish dead and 985 villages destroyed, with heavy Roman losses. Jews were barred from Jerusalem and the province was renamed Syria Palaestina. |
| AD 166–180 | Marcomannic Wars | Marcomanni and Quadi broke into Italy c. 170, besieging Aquileia and destroying Opitergium. Marcus fought back from Carnuntum and Sirmium and planned new provinces of Marcomannia and Sarmatia, which Commodus abandoned in 180. The Column of Marcus Aurelius depicts the wars. |
| AD 193 | Year of the Five Emperors | Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Septimius Severus, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus all claimed the throne. Severus, backed by the Danube legions, eliminated his rivals by 197 and founded the Severan dynasty. |
Crisis and Late Empire (AD 235–476)
| Date | Event | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| AD 303–311 | Great Persecution | The first edict ordered churches razed, scriptures burned and Christians stripped of rank; later edicts imprisoned clergy and (304) demanded universal sacrifice. Enforced harshly in the East under Galerius and Maximinus Daza but barely at all by Constantius in Gaul and Britain, it left the Donatist dispute over traditores in Africa. |
| AD 312 | Battle of the Milvian Bridge | Constantine defeated Maxentius, who drowned in the Tiber on the sixth anniversary of his accession. Lactantius says Constantine was told in a dream to mark the shields with a Christian sign; Eusebius tells of a cross of light in the sky with the words 'By this conquer'. Constantine then disbanded the Praetorian Guard. |
| AD 378 | Battle of Adrianople | Valens and perhaps 10,000–20,000 men were destroyed when the Gothic cavalry of Alatheus and Saphrax struck the Roman flank; the emperor's body was never found. Ammianus, who ends his history here, called it the worst defeat since Cannae. |
| AD 410 | Sack of Rome (410) | After two earlier sieges, a huge ransom and the setting up of the puppet emperor Priscus Attalus, Alaric's Goths entered by the Porta Salaria and sacked Rome for three days, sparing the great basilicas. They carried off Honorius' sister Galla Placidia. The shock prompted Augustine's City of God; Alaric died at Cosentia within months. |
| AD 451 | Battle of the Catalaunian Plains | Aetius, with Theodoric I's Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians and Alans, fought Attila's Huns, Ostrogoths and Gepids to a standstill; Theodoric fell and Attila withdrew across the Rhine. Aetius is said to have let him go to keep the Visigoths in check. Jordanes is the chief source. |
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