753 BC The "foundation of Rome"
By the last century BC, Romans believed that Rome had been founded in exactly 753 BC. The story was that the twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars, were left to die by being put in a basket, set adrift on the river Tiber.
509 BC The creation of the Roman Republic
As with the foundation of the city, later Romans believed they knew the precise date of the beginning of the Republic: 509 BC, when the seventh and last king of Rome, the tyrannical Tarquinius Superbus, was thought to have been ousted by an aristocratic coup
338 BC The settlement of the Latin War
Between 341 and 338 BC the Romans faced a rebellion by their neighbouring Latin allies. After Rome emerged victorious, the settlement they imposed underpinned subsequent Roman conquests of Italy and overseas territories.
264–146 BC The Punic Wars
Rome fought three wars against the great North African city of Carthage. These are known as the Punic Wars.
The First Punic War was fought over control of the island of Sicily.
~200-1 BC the Hellenisation of Rome
During the last two centuries BC, Rome conquered the Eastern Mediterranean by defeating the Hellenistic kingdoms founded by the successors of Alexander the Great. These conquests had profound implications for Roman society.
67–62 BC Pompey in the East
Although far less well known than Caesar’s conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC), the exploits of Pompey in the eastern Mediterranean were more significant in the expansion of Rome. Pompey initially went to the east in 67 BC as part of his campaign against pirates.
31 BC–AD 14 Augustus reintroduces monarchy to Rome
The expansion of the empire destroyed the Roman Republic. Institutions designed for a small city-state could not rule a world empire. Above all, vast military campaigns required generals who commanded armies over wide territories for several years.
AD 235–284 the third century crisis
In the 50 years between AD 235 and 284, the Roman empire suffered chronic political and military instability. Amid endemic civil wars and defeats at the hands of barbarians, emperors came and went with bewildering rapidity.
AD 312 Constantine converts to Christianity
At the battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, the emperor Constantine sent his troops into combat with crosses painted on their shields. By the end of his life, he claimed that before the battle he had experienced a vision in which he was given the divine command.
AD 410 The fall of Rome
In AD 410 the Goths sacked the city of Rome. Sixty-six years later Romulus Augustulus (the ‘Little Emperor’) was deposed, and the Roman empire in the west was at an end.
Senatus populus que Romanus!
