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. 235–c. 284

   Third-century monetary and fiscal instability

   Wars, competition for armies, and changes of government coincided with alterations to coinage and taxation. Timing and effects varied by region; “inflation” should not be used as one explanation for the entire empire.

2. c. 249–c. 270

   Epidemic associated with Cyprian

   Later sources and Christian testimony describe an epidemic around the time of Cyprian of Carthage. Its disease identity and scale remain uncertain; it is recorded as health and social context, not a confirmed diagnosis.

3. 270–275

   Aurelian, reunification, and Rome’s walls

   Aurelian recovered territories that had fallen under rival governments and ordered new walls for Rome. Reunification was military and administrative, not a lasting solution to every third-century tension.

4. c. 284–c. 305

   Diocletian’s administrative and fiscal reforms

   Diocletian’s government reorganized provinces, further separated civil and military commands, and revised fiscal mechanisms. Measures were gradual and regionally varied; they did not form a uniform “system” from one year.

5. 293

   Diocletian’s Tetrarchy

   In 293, Diocletian established a Tetrarchy of two Augusti and two Caesars alongside reorganized provinces and military and civil offices. The power-sharing arrangement was brief, but it reordered imperial administration.

6. c. 294–c. 301

   Diocletianic coinage and maximum-prices edict

   Diocletian’s monetary reforms reordered denominations and weights; in 301 an edict set maximum prices for many goods and wages. The edict does not prove that ceilings were enforced equally across the empire.

7. 303–311

   Great Persecution and Tetrarchic religious policy

   A series of Tetrarchic edicts targeted Christian buildings, texts, rights, and clergy, with uneven regional enforcement. “Great Persecution” describes imperial policy, not an identical experience for every community.

8. 312

   Constantine wins at the Milvian Bridge

   Constantine defeated Maxentius near Rome and secured control of Italy. Later accounts of religious signs differ; this entry records above all a change in imperial competition.

9. 313

   Milan agreement and religious toleration

   The communication attributed to Constantine and Licinius grants Christians and others freedom of worship and provides for restitutions. It does not establish a state church or exhaust Constantine’s and his colleagues’ changing religious policies.

10. 324

    Constantine as sole ruler

    Defeat of Licinius left Constantine as sole ruler of the empire. Political reunification did not undo the eastern and western administrative infrastructure inherited from the Tetrarchy.

11. 325

    Council of Nicaea and imperial patronage

    Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea to address ecclesial disputes, including the Arian controversy and Easter’s date. It marked a court–church relationship, not the end of doctrinal disagreements.

12. 330

    Constantinople as new imperial capital

    Constantine founded a capital at Byzantium, renamed Constantinople in 330. The move reoriented imperial political power toward the Bosporus without immediately ending Rome’s institutional and symbolic importance.

13. c. 337–c. 395

    Eastern imperial courts and fiscal administration

    After Constantine’s death, several emperors ruled from distinct courts, while the eastern half sustained administration through prefectures, dioceses, army, and taxation. Division was gradual and reversible before 395, not an already complete state separation.

14. 380–391

    Christianization and imperial Nicene legislation

    From 380, Theodosius I’s legislation favored Nicene orthodoxy and restricted some religious practices. It transformed relations between imperial authority and churches, not an immediate religious uniformity in eastern provinces.

15. 395

    Imperial division between East and West

    After Theodosius I died in 395, his sons governed the eastern and western halves. The division did not immediately create two isolated civilizations, but it structured distinct administrations and political trajectories.

16. 476

    Conventional end of the Western Roman Empire

    Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, the conventional date for the end of the western empire. Roman administration and Mediterranean societies did not disappear immediately, and the eastern provinces continued as the Roman Empire.

17. 528–534

    Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis

    Under Justinian, the Corpus Iuris Civilis was compiled and promulgated, reorganizing Roman legislation and jurisprudence for the eastern empire. Its authority and application varied by territory, language, and period.

18. 533–554

    Justinian’s western reconquests

    Justinian’s campaigns temporarily recovered North Africa, Italy, and part of Hispania for the Eastern Roman Empire. They were costly and contested conquests, not a durable restoration of the earlier Mediterranean empire.

19. c. 541–c. 544

    First documented Justinianic plague outbreak

    Late Antique sources record a plague outbreak between 541 and 544 in territories of the eastern empire. Biomolecular evidence supports identification with Yersinia pestis, but its mortality, reach, and historical weight remain debated.

20. 610–641

    Imperial adaptation under Heraclius

    Heraclius’ reign faced Persian wars, pressure in the Balkans, and the first Arab expansion. Military, fiscal, and administrative responses during these decades prepared a transformation of the eastern state, not an instant change.

21. 634–646

    Loss of Syria and Egypt

    Arab campaigns of the 630s and 640s separated Syria and Egypt from eastern imperial rule. The loss reduced fiscal, food, and urban resources without ending Roman institutional continuity in Anatolia and Constantinople.

22. c. 650–c. 750

    Consolidation of the themata administration

    In the seventh century, the themata—districts with military and administrative functions—consolidated to support rule over reduced territories. Their exact origins and evolution remain debated; this was not a single design applied at once.

23. 674–678

    First Arab siege of Constantinople

    Sources place a major Arab siege of Constantinople between 674 and 678. The capital’s resistance preserved the eastern political center without ending Arab-Byzantine raids and wars.

24. 717–718

    Second Arab siege of Constantinople

    The second major Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718 again endangered the capital. Its failure favored the survival of imperial government, though frontiers and regional relationships continued to change.

25. c. 726–c. 843

    Byzantine iconoclasm

    Iconoclastic controversies altered imperial and ecclesiastical politics between 726 and 843, with interruptions and regional variation. They should not be reduced to a universal ban or explained by a single cause.

26. 741

    Ecloga of Leo III and Constantine V

    The Ecloga, issued in 741, reworked Roman law for the Byzantine state and reflects the Christian language of its context. It was neither a simple copy of the Corpus Iuris nor identical legislation across all territories.

27. 800

    Charlemagne’s imperial title seen from the East

    Charlemagne’s imperial coronation in 800 created a rivalry of legitimacy with the Roman emperor in Constantinople. From the eastern perspective, it did not annul the Roman continuity of its own state.

28. 843

    Restoration of icon veneration

    In 843, icon veneration was officially restored in Constantinople. The outcome closed the second iconoclastic phase without retrospectively erasing debates, losses, and continuities of more than a century.

29. c. 850–c. 1100

    Transmission of Greek manuscripts

    Greek manuscript production and copying reached great intensity in the middle Byzantine period, preserving and reworking ancient and Christian texts. It was a practice of varied workshops, readers, and patrons, not passive or exclusive preservation.

30. c. 860–c. 988

    Relations with the Rus and Christianization

    Through raids, trade, diplomacy, and missions, Constantinople developed changing relations with the Rus. Vladimir’s adoption of Christianity in 988 expanded religious and political links without erasing local practices or turning the region into an extension of the empire.