Every Major Event in Roman History — Timeline | The Complete Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome

Dating note. Events before c. 400 BC are known mainly from later tradition and are approximate; from the Punic Wars onward the chronology is securely established. BC dates count backward; AD dates forward.

1. The Monarchy (753–509 BC)

Date	Event	Significance
753 BC	Traditional founding of Rome by Romulus.	The founding date of the city on the Palatine; the beginning of Roman history.
c. 750 BC	The "Rape of the Sabine Women" (tradition).	The legendary union of Rome with the Sabines; founding of Roman institutions of marriage and the gentes.
715–673 BC	Reign of Numa Pompilius.	Founding of Rome's religious institutions, calendar and priesthoods.
c. 630 BC	Foundation of the colony of Rome on the coast (Ancus Marcius founds Ostia).	Rome gains a port command at the mouth of the Tiber.
578–535 BC	Reign of Servius Tullius; the census and centuriate assembly.	The reform that organised the army and citizen body by wealth; foundation of the later centuriate assembly.
509 BC	Expulsion of Tarquin the Proud; founding of the Republic; first consulship of Brutus and Collatinus.	Abolition of the monarchy; the birth of the Roman Republic and of republican "liberty."

2. The Early & Middle Republic (509–264 BC)

Date	Event	Significance
c. 494 BC	First Secession of the Plebs; creation of the tribunes.	The plebeians win their champions; the beginning of the Struggle of the Orders.
c. 451–450 BC	The Law of the Twelve Tables.	The first written code of Roman law; the foundation of the legal tradition.
c. 449 BC	Second Secession; fall of the Decemvirate (story of Verginia).	Restoration of the consulship; consolidation of plebeian rights.
390 BC	Sack of Rome by the Gauls under Brennus.	Destruction of the city; its recovery and rebuilding under Camillus ("second founder").
367 BC	The Licinian-Sextian laws.	Plebeians admitted to the consulship; end of the patrician monopoly.
343–290 BC	The Samnite Wars.	Roman conquest of central-southern Italy.
340–338 BC	The Latin War.	Roman mastery of Latium; dissolution of the Latin League.
312 BC	Appius Claudius builds the Appian Way.	The first great Roman road; symbol of Roman engineering and of the road system.
287 BC	The lex Hortensia.	Plebiscites (votes of the plebeian assembly) become binding on all; end of the Struggle of the Orders.
280–275 BC	The war against Pyrrhus of Epirus.	Roman victory over a Greek king; mastery of Italy complete; "Pyrrhic victory" enters the language.

3. The Punic Wars & the Conquest of the Mediterranean (264–146 BC)

Date	Event	Significance
264 BC	Outbreak of the First Punic War.	Rome's first war against Carthage; the conflict for Sicily that made Rome a Mediterranean power.
241 BC	Roman naval victory at the Aegates Islands; end of the First Punic War; Sicily becomes a province.	Rome's first province; Carthage's humiliating defeat that bred the Barcids' revenge.
218 BC	Outbreak of the Second Punic War; Hannibal crosses the Alps.	The invasion of Italy by the greatest general of antiquity.
217 BC	Battle of Lake Trasimene.	Hannibal destroys a Roman army in an ambush; death of Flaminius.
216 BC	Battle of Cannae.	The worst defeat in Roman history; Hannibal's double envelopment; Rome refuses to surrender.
212 BC	Roman capture of Syracuse (Marcellus).	The conquest of the great Greek city; death of Archimedes.
207 BC	Battle of the Metaurus.	Destruction of Hasdrubal's army; the doom of Hannibal's campaign in Italy.
202 BC	Battle of Zama.	Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal; end of the Second Punic War; Carthage's power broken.
197 BC	Battle of Cynoscephalae.	Roman defeat of Philip V; end of Macedonian power in Greece.
196 BC	Proclamation of Greek "freedom" by Flamininus.	Roman suzerainty over Greece began to be established.
190 BC	Battle of Magnesia.	Roman defeat of Antiochus III; end of Seleucid power in Asia Minor.
168 BC	Battle of Pydna.	Defeat and capture of Perseus; the abolition of the Antigonid kingdom of Macedon; Rome's mastery of the east complete.
149–146 BC	Third Punic War.	The final war against Carthage.
146 BC	Destruction of Carthage; sack of Corinth.	The end of Carthage and of Greek independence; Rome the unchallenged master of the Mediterranean.

4. The Late Republic & the Fall of the Republic (133–27 BC)

Date	Event	Significance
133 BC	Tribunate and murder of Tiberius Gracchus.	The beginning of a century of political violence in Rome.
123–121 BC	Reforms and death of Gaius Gracchus.	Widening of the reform programme; the Senate uses force against a tribune.
107 BC	Marius recruits the landless into the army; the Jugurthine War.	Creation of the professional army; the rise of the powerful general.
102–101 BC	Marius defeats the Cimbri and Teutones at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae.	Rome saved from the Germanic peoples; Marius at the height of power.
91–88 BC	The Social War.	Revolt of the Italian allies; citizenship extended to them; rise of Sulla.
88 BC	Sulla marches on Rome.	The first use of the army against the state; a fatal precedent.
82 BC	Sulla becomes dictator; the proscriptions.	Mass killing of political enemies; Sulla's reform of the constitution.
73–71 BC	The slave revolt of Spartacus.	The greatest slave rebellion; crushed by Crassus.
60 BC	The First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, Crassus).	The private alliance that broke the Senate's monopoly of power.
58–50 BC	Caesar's conquest of Gaul.	The addition of all of Gaul to the empire; Caesar's rise to supreme power.
52 BC	Battle of Alesia; capitulation of Vercingetorix.	The decisive victory in the Gallic War.
10 Jan 49 BC	Caesar crosses the Rubicon.	The beginning of the civil war against Pompey and the Republic; "the die is cast."
48 BC	Battle of Pharsalus.	Caesar's decisive defeat of Pompey; murder of Pompey in Egypt.
45 BC	Battle of Munda.	Caesar's final victory; sole rule over the Roman world.
15 Mar 44 BC	Assassination of Julius Caesar (the Ides of March).	Caesar is stabbed; the conspiracy intended to save the Republic instead doomed it.
43 BC	Second Triumvirate of Antony, Octavian and Lepidus; proscriptions (including Cicero).	The civil war among Caesar's heirs; the silencing of the Senate.
42 BC	Battle of Philippi.	Defeat and death of the assassins Brutus and Cassius.
31 BC	Battle of Actium.	Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra; the end of the civil wars; the Republic at an end.
30 BC	Suicides of Antony and Cleopatra; annexation of Egypt.	Rome gains Egypt; Octavian is sole master.
27 BC	Octavian granted the title "Augustus."	Foundation of the Roman Empire and the Principate.

5. The Roman Empire & Pax Romana (27 BC–AD 180)

Date	Event	Significance
AD 9	Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (Varus); destruction of three legions by Arminius.	Rome's failure to conquer Germany; the Rhine became the permanent frontier.
AD 14	Death of Augustus; succession of Tiberius.	The first peaceful succession of the empire.
AD 43	Conquest of Britain by Claudius.	Roman Britain added to the empire.
AD 60/61	Revolt of Boudicca in Britain.	A short-lived but violent rising crushed by Rome.
AD 64	Great Fire of Rome (under Nero).	Destruction of much of the city; Nero's rebuilding; the persecution of Christians.
AD 69	The Year of the Four Emperors; rise of Vespasian.	Civil war; foundation of the Flavian dynasty.
AD 70	Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Titus.	The end of the Jewish revolt; the diaspora; the arch of Titus commemorates it in Rome.
AD 79	Eruption of Vesuvius; destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum.	The famous disaster preserved the cities as documents of Roman life.
AD 96–180	The "Five Good Emperors" (Nerva to Marcus Aurelius).	The golden age of the Pax Romana.
AD 117	Greatest extent of the Roman Empire under Trajan.	The empire at its maximum; from Britain to Mesopotamia.
AD 122	Hadrian builds Hadrian's Wall.	The frontier of Roman Britain; a symbol of imperial consolidation.
AD 180	Death of Marcus Aurelius.	Conventional end of the Pax Romana; his son Commodus succeeds.

6. Crisis, Recovery & the Dominate (AD 180–337)

Date	Event	Significance
AD 193	Year of Five Emperors; Septimius Severus founds the Severan dynasty.	Military monarchy; commencement of the end of the old order.
AD 212	Constitutio Antoniniana: citizenship granted to all free inhabitants.	The universalisation of Roman citizenship; end of the old distinction.
AD 235–284	The Crisis of the Third Century.	Civil war, invasion, plague and inflation; the empire nearly dissolved.
AD 260	Capture of the emperor Valerian by the Persians.	The humiliation of Rome; the eastern threat became mortal.
AD 260–272	The Gallic and Palmyrene breakaway empires.	The empire briefly split into three parts.
AD 270–275	Reign of Aurelian; reconquest; building of the Aurelian Walls.	The beginning of recovery; the "restorer of the world."
AD 284–305	Reign of Diocletian; the Tetrarchy; the Great Persecution.	Radical reform of the state; division into four; persecution of Christianity.
AD 312	Battle of the Milvian Bridge; conversion of Constantine.	Constantine's rise; the Christianisation of the empire begun.
AD 313	Edict of Milan (religious tolerance for Christianity).	End of the persecutions; Christianity's freedom.
AD 325	Council of Nicaea.	Definition of the Christian creed at the emperor's summons.
AD 330	Dedication of Constantinople.	Foundation of the new imperial and Christian capital.

7. The Late Empire & the Fall of the West (AD 337–476)

Date	Event	Significance
AD 378	Battle of Adrianople.	Defeat and death of Valens at the hands of the Goths; Rome’s military power shaken.
AD 380	Edict of Thessalonica: Christianity made the official religion.	The pagan-old Roman religion finally displaced.
AD 395	Final division of the empire between Arcadius (east) and Honorius (west).	Division of the empire into east and west.
AD 406	Barbarians cross the Rhine.	The permanent loss of the western provinces begins.
AD 410	Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome.	Rome falls to an enemy for the first time in 800 years; a profound psychological shock.
AD 451	Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (Aetius vs. Attila).	Attila the Hun is checked in Gaul.
AD 452	Attila invades Italy.	Devastation of northern Italy; tradition of the intervention of Pope Leo I.
AD 455	Sack of Rome by the Vandals under Gaiseric.	The second sack of Rome; the origin of "vandalism."
476 AD	Deposition of Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer.	The conventional "fall of the Western Roman Empire."
1453	Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans.	End of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire; the end of the Roman state of all.

How to read this register. Each event lists its date, what happened, and why it matters. For the full story of any event, follow the links to the corresponding narrative volume (1–7) named in the header of each era.

8. Selected Sources

Principal sources for the timeline

World History Encyclopedia — "Roman Empire Timeline." https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Roman_Empire/
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita — Perseus. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0026
Cassius Dio, Roman History — Perseus. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0593

Rome, the mistress of the world, has been taken!— St. Jerome on the sack of Rome, AD 410 (letter to a friend)