Roman Empire

Topics represented

Roman Empire (96) · Instituciones y derecho (5) · Instituciones, derecho y ciudadanía (4) · Ciudades e integración provincial (2) · Derecho, escritura y administración (2) · Derecho, escritura y educación (2) · Derechos, alimentos y guerra (2) · Gobierno y conflicto (2) · Guerra, ciudades y tecnología militar (2) · Guerra, comercio y mundo mediterráneo (2) · Guerra, provincias y gobierno (2) · Administración, diplomacia y guerra (1)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. c. 753 BCE

   Traditional foundation of Rome

   Roman tradition places Rome’s foundation in 753 BCE. The date organizes ancient chronologies and civic memory, but should not be presented as an archaeologically demonstrated date for the city’s origin.

2. c. 616 BCE–c. 509 BCE

   Etruscan monarchy and early public works

   Traditions about Rome’s later kings link them to Etruscan connections and early public works. This period is reconstructed from later sources and archaeology, so specific attributions require caution.

3. c. 509 BCE–c. 27 BCE

   Institutions of the Roman Republic

   After the last king’s deposition, the Republic distributed authority among magistracies, assemblies, and the Senate. This does not equate its oligarchic republic with modern democracy or assume unchanged institutions for five centuries.

4. c. 494 BCE

   First plebeian secession and tribunate

   Republican tradition dates a plebeian secession and the creation of the plebeian tribunate to 494 BCE. The episode reflects conflicts over debt, protection, and representation, without equating to modern universal political rights.

5. trad. 451 BCE–trad. 449 BCE

   Law of the Twelve Tables

   Tradition places the codification of the Twelve Tables between 451 and 449 BCE. Their surviving fragments show written fixation of rules, not a complete code or a guarantee of equality before the law.

6. 445 BCE

   Lex Canuleia and marriage between orders

   The Lex Canuleia of 445 BCE repealed the ban on connubium between patricians and plebeians. It was a status reform within Roman citizenship, not the disappearance of social hierarchies.

7. c. 406 BCE–c. 396 BCE

   Siege and capture of Veii

   Roman chronologies place the long siege and capture of Veii roughly between 406 and 396 BCE. Ancient accounts should be read alongside archaeological evidence, not as an unmediated literal chronicle.

8. c. 390 BCE

   Gallic sack of Rome

   Tradition places a sack of Rome by Gallic forces around 390 BCE. The date and several narrative details are debated, but the episode became central to Roman memories of vulnerability and rebuilding.

9. 367 BCE

   Licinian-Sextian laws

   The Licinian-Sextian laws of 367 BCE are associated with opening one consulship to plebeians and with provisions on debt and land. Their effects developed within a socially unequal republic.

10. 343 BCE–290 BCE

    Samnite Wars

    Wars between Rome and Samnite communities unfolded in several phases between 343 and 290 BCE. They consolidated Roman primacy across much of Italy at high human and material cost.

11. 338 BCE

    Dissolution of the Latin League and graded citizenship

    After the Latin War, Rome dissolved the Latin League and applied different citizenship and alliance statuses to Italian communities. Integration was graded and unequal, not a uniform grant of full citizenship.

12. c. 312 BCE

    Appian Way and Aqua Appia

    In 312 BCE, Appius Claudius’ censorship is associated with the Appian Way and the Aqua Appia aqueduct. They are distinct public works illustrating Roman investment in transport, urban supply, and material administration.

13. 287 BCE

    Lex Hortensia

    The Lex Hortensia of 287 BCE made decisions of the plebeian assembly binding on all citizens. The change conventionally closes one phase of the Conflict of the Orders without equalizing wealth or political power.

14. 280 BCE–275 BCE

    War against Pyrrhus

    Rome fought Pyrrhus of Epirus between 280 and 275 BCE in southern Italy. The conflict linked Roman expansion to political and military networks of the Hellenistic Mediterranean.

15. c. 269 BCE

    Early Roman silver coinage

    Numismatic evidence places the development of Roman silver coinage around 269 BCE, in dialogue with standards from Greek Italy. This phase should not be conflated with the later introduction of the denarius.

16. 264 BCE–241 BCE

    First Punic War

    The First Punic War pitted Rome against Carthage from 264 to 241 BCE, with land and naval operations centered on Sicily. Roman victory does not summarize the diverse communities affected by the war.

17. 241 BCE

    Sicily, Rome’s first province

    After the First Punic War, Sicily became Rome’s first province. The province introduced forms of administration and fiscal extraction distinct from the Italian alliance.

18. 218 BCE–201 BCE

    Second Punic War

    The Second Punic War again pitted Rome against Carthage from 218 to 201 BCE. The invasion of Italy, recruitment, and supply demands affected civilian and allied populations.

19. c. 211 BCE

    Introduction of the denarius

    Around 211 BCE, Rome introduced the denarius as a new silver coin during the Second Punic War. Its adoption reorganized Republican currency without immediately replacing every form of payment.

20. c. 211 BCE–c. 146 BCE

    Transfer and appropriation of Greek art in Rome

    During Mediterranean expansion, Greek works, artists, and models reached Rome through trade, commission, and spoils. The process was not a one-way cultural transfer and does not reduce Greek art to Roman property.

21. c. 200 BCE–c. 100 BCE

    Latifundia, slavery, and rural change

    Between the second and first centuries BCE, slavery and large agricultural estates intensified in parts of Italy. The extent and causes of rural depopulation remain debated, so this entry records an uneven process.

22. 200 BCE–168 BCE

    Macedonian Wars

    The Macedonian Wars between 200 and 168 BCE brought Rome into sustained intervention in the Greek world. Perseus’ defeat at Pydna was decisive but did not exhaust the autonomy or conflicts of Greek cities.

23. c. 180 BCE

    Lex Villia annalis and cursus honorum

    The Lex Villia annalis, enacted in 180 BCE, regulated the sequence of magistracies and age requirements associated with the cursus honorum. It formalized elite careers rather than equally opening access to office.

24. 167 BCE

    Suspension of the citizen tributum

    After the defeat of Macedonia, Rome stopped regularly collecting the tributum from its citizens in 167 BCE. The measure did not eliminate provincial taxation or the financial burdens of war.

25. 149 BCE–146 BCE

    Destruction of Carthage and Corinth

    Campaigns from 149 to 146 BCE ended with the destruction of Carthage and Corinth by Roman forces. Both cities had later histories, and this entry does not make military violence an inevitable or civilizing outcome.

26. 135 BCE–132 BCE

    First Sicilian Slave War

    The First Sicilian Slave War unfolded between 135 and 132 BCE. The conflict shows the structural violence of slavery and tensions in the provincial economy without reducing enslaved people to a single experience.

27. 133 BCE–121 BCE

    Gracchan reforms and political conflict

    The tribuneships of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus advanced measures concerning land, grain supply, and political participation. Senatorial opposition and violence exposed limits of Republican institutions; this was not one coherent social program.

28. 133 BCE–129 BCE

    Pergamon bequest and province of Asia

    Attalus III bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 133 BCE; after conflict with Aristonicus, Rome organized the province of Asia. The process transformed administration and resource extraction in Asia Minor.

29. 113 BCE–101 BCE

    Cimbrian War

    Wars against the Cimbri and Teutones mobilized Roman armies in Gaul and Italy. Marius’ victories mattered to his prestige, but do not by themselves prove a single “Marian reform” of the army.

30. 112 BCE–105 BCE

    Jugurthine War

    Rome fought Jugurtha of Numidia in North Africa. The conflict challenged senatorial conduct of war and raised commanders such as Marius politically, without reducing its causes to individual corruption.