Rome

Founding of Rome

753 BCE

Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus. The Roman monarchy was, according to Roman legend, ruled by the Etruscans. The Romans overthrew the Etruscan king and began a Republican government.

12 Tables

451 BCE

The twelve tables were the foundation of Roman law. They stated the rights and duties of all Roman citizens. This greatly helped with class struggles as plebians could be part of the law and stand up to the patricians abusing their power. This helped create a more balanced Rome

Rome defeats allies

338 BCE

When Rome defeated its allies in the Latin League, they offered them citizenship of the republic in return for loyalty and troops. This meant that with every expansion, the also expanded their military. This led to rapid expansion of Rome.

Romans control almost entire Mediterranean

140 BCE

By 140 BC the Romans had control over the Mediterranean world spanning from Spain to Anatolia. They conquered many territories and turned them into puppets of Rome such as the Seleucid Empire. Under the leadership of Pompey, Rome defeated just about the rest of the Mediterranean.

Julius Caesar

70 BCE

Caesar was the one who began to replace the Republic with an empire. Caesar wanted glory and wealth and went to war A LOT. He had many victories making him very powerful. Caesar committed illegal acts and went back to Rome to defeat Pompey. In 44 BC Caesar was assassinated and the newly forming empire was left to Octavian.

Augustus Caesar

1 CE

Octavian took on the name Augustus and followed in Julius's footsteps. Augustus instituted traditional republican beliefs and turned the republic into a bureaucratic tool. He transformed the senate and managed the enormous empire. He instituted taxation and a messenger service. When he died the senate deified him.

The Empire at its Greatest

117

Under the leadership of Trajan, the empire encompassed most of England to Germany and Romania, all of North Africa and extended to the borders of the Parthian Empire. All around them were barbarians. Rome came close to defeating the Persians, but stopped trying after Trajan died. During this time the Romans started exploring the Ocean and began trading across it gaining loads of wealth. The Romans had amazing architecture and engineering during this time.

Murdering of Emperors

235

In 235 CE Alexander was murdered and in the next 50 years all of the emperors were either assassinated or died in battle. This was a major factor in the fall of the Roman empire. Without a stable government Rome was bound to fall. The only thing emperors were worried about was not getting killed so they neglected the actual empire. Roman leadership declined in quality as the emperor was in charge of everything but messages couldn't travel quickly and the emperor couldn't be everywhere at once.

Diocletian

284

Diocletian began to pull the empire back out of its hole. He continuously split the empire up and created co-emperors to help manage the huge empire. He hoped to end the cycle of assassinations. He made the army bigger and reformed the economy. He also banned Christianity. Diocletian retired and a civil war broke out leading to new leadership by Constantine.

Fall of Rome

476

There are many reasons given for the fall of Rome but some of the key ones include invasions, economy, and emperors. The weak borders of Rome led to many invasions by barbarians. They didn't handle invasions well because of overexpansion and had to spend lots of money on the military. This led to too much overspending on the military. The size of the empire due to expansion made it really hard to govern as well. Emperors were constantly being assassinated leading to political instability.