Timeline of Roman history

This is a timeline of Roman history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in the Roman Kingdom and Republic and the Roman and Byzantine Empires. To read about the background of these events, see Ancient Rome and History of the Byzantine Empire.
Events and persons of the Kingdom of Rome are legendary, and their accounts are considered to have varying degrees of veracity.
Following tradition, this timeline marks the deposition of Romulus Augustulus and the Fall of Constantinople as the end of Rome in the west and east, respectively. See Third Rome for a discussion of claimants to the succession of Rome.

Millennia: [|1st] BC1st–2nd

Centuries: [|7th] BC6th BC5th BC4th BC3rd BC2nd BC1st BC1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th11th12th13th14th15th

0th centuries BC

Year	Date	Event
		Battle of Alba Longa. King of Alba Longa, Amulius, who had previously usurped power is defeated and killed along with his sons by his Brother Numitor, and great-nephew Romulus, who led a sizable warband.
	21 April	Rome was founded. According to Roman legend, Romulus was the founder and first King of Rome, establishing the Roman Kingdom.
		Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women. He celebrates a further triumph later in the year over the Antemnates.
		Rome's first colonies were established.
		Numa Pompilius became the second King of Rome.
		Tullus Hostilius became the third King of Rome.
		Byzantium was founded by Megarian colonists.
		Tullus Hostilius died.
		The Curiate Assembly, one of the [Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Empire\|Roman Kingdom\|legislative assemblies of the Roman Kingdom], elected Ancus Marcius King of Rome.
		Ancus Marcius died.
		The Curiate Assembly elected Lucius Tarquinius Priscus King of Rome.

[|6th] century BC

Year	Date	Event
		The Senate accepted the regent Servius Tullius as King of Rome.
		Servius Tullius was murdered by his daughter Tullia Minor and her husband Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, who declared himself King of Rome on the steps of the Curia Hostilia.
		The patrician Lucretia was raped by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus' son Sextus Tarquinius.
		Overthrow of the Roman monarchy: Following Lucretia's suicide, Lucius Junius Brutus called the Curiate Assembly, one of the legislative assemblies of the Roman Kingdom. The latter agreed to the overthrow and expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and to a provisional constitution under which two consuls acted as a joint executive and a Curiate Assembly held legislative power, and swore never again to let a King rule Rome. It further elected Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia's husband, Died.
		Battle of Silva Arsia: Tarquinian and Veientine forces loyal to Lucius Tarquinius Superbus were defeated in the Silva Arsia by a Roman army. Lucius Junius Brutus was killed. Publius Valerius Publicola, returning to Rome with the spoils of war, Died.
		The consul Publius Valerius Publicola promulgated a number of liberal reforms, including opening the office of consul to all Roman citizens and placing the treasury under the administration of appointed quaestors.
	13 September	The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was ceremonially dedicated to the Capitoline Triad.
		Roman–Etruscan Wars: A Clusian army failed to conquer Rome.
		Roman–Sabine wars: Roman victory over the sabines in the battle of 504 BC by consul Publicus.
		In the face of a potential Sabine invasion, the Senate passed a senatus consultum authorizing the consuls to appoint a dictator, a magistrate who held absolute power during a national emergency. The dictator would in turn appoint the Magister equitum, the commander of the cavalry. The consuls Titus Larcius and Postumus Cominius Auruncus selected the former as dictator.

2nd century BC

1st century BC

Year	Date	Event
100 BC	12-13 July	Julius Caesar was born
		Marius was elected consul.
	10 December	Assassins hired by Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and Gaius Servilius Glaucia beat to death Gaius Memmius, a candidate for the consulship.
		Social War (91–87 BC): The Roman clients in Italy the Marsi, the Paeligni, the Vestini, the Marrucini, the Picentes, the Frentani, the Hirpini, the Iapyges, Pompeii, Venosa, Lucania and Samnium rebelled against Rome.
		Sulla's march on Rome: The consul Sulla led an army of his partisans across the pomerium into Rome.
		Social War : The war ended.
		First Mithridatic War: Roman forces landed at Epirus.
		First Mithridatic War: A peace was agreed between Rome and Pontus under which the latter returned to its pre-war borders.
		Sulla's civil war: Sulla landed with an army at Brindisi.
		Second Mithridatic War: The Roman general Lucius Licinius Murena invaded Pontus.
		Sulla's civil war: Sulla was declared dictator.
		Second Mithridatic War: Murena withdrew from Pontus.
		Sulla resigns dictatorship after enacting numerous reforms in the same year.
		Final consulship of Sulla, he leaves Rome once the year is over.
		Sertorian War: Quintus Sertorius landed on the Iberian Peninsula in support of a Lusitanian rebellion.
		Third Mithridatic War: Pontus invaded Bithynia.
		Third Servile War: Some seventy gladiators, slaves of Lentulus Batiatus in Capua, made a violent escape.
		Sertorian War: Marcus Perpenna Vento, by now the leader of the Romans in revolt in Iberia, was executed by the general Pompey.
		Third Servile War: The slaves in rebellion were decisively defeated by Roman forces near Petelia. Their leader Spartacus was killed.
		The last of the Cilician pirates were wiped out by Pompey.
		Third Mithridatic War: Defeated, the Pontic king Mithridates VI of Pontus ordered his friend and bodyguard to kill him.
		Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC): Pompey conquered Jerusalem and entered the Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.
		Cicero was elected consul.
		Second Catilinarian conspiracy: A conspiracy led by the senator Catiline to overthrow the Republic was exposed before the Senate. The five conspirators present were summarily executed in the Mamertine Prison.
		Pompey joined a political alliance, the so-called First Triumvirate, with the consul Julius Caesar and the censor Marcus Licinius Crassus.
		Consulship of Julius Caesar.
		Gallic Wars: Roman forces barred the westward migration of the Helvetii across the Rhône.
		1st Invasion of Britain: Julius Caesar's first invasion of Britain.
		2nd Invasion of Britain: Julius Caesar's second invasion of Britain.
	6 May	Battle of Carrhae: A Parthian army decisively defeated a numerically superior Roman invasion force near Harran. Crassus was killed.
		Gallic Wars: The last Gaulish rebels were defeated.
	10 January	Caesar's Civil War: Julius Caesar illegally crossed the Rubicon into Italy with his army.
	4 January	Caesar's Civil War: Caesar landed at Durrës in pursuit of Pompey and his partisans the optimates.
	November	Caesar left Africa for Iberia in pursuit of Pompey's sons Gnaeus Pompeius and Sextus Pompey.
	15 March	Assassination of Julius Caesar: Caesar was assassinated in the Theatre of Pompey by a conspiracy of senators.
	27 November	The Lex Titia was passed, granting the Second Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the power to make and annul laws and appoint magistrates.
		Liberators' civil war: Augustus and Antony led some thirty legions to northern Greece in pursuit of Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and Gaius Cassius Longinus.
	23 October	Liberators' civil war: Brutus committed suicide after being defeated in battle.
		Augustus marries Livia Drusilla, biological mother of Tiberius making Tiberius the step-son of Augustus.
		Antony's Parthian War: A campaign led by Antony against the Parthian Empire ended in failure.
		The Second Triumvirate expired.
	2 September	Battle of Actium: Forces loyal to Augustus defeated Antony and his lover Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in a naval battle near Actium.
	1 August	Final War of the Roman Republic: Antony's forces defected to Augustus. He committed suicide.
	30 August	Cleopatra committed suicide, probably in Roman custody and by snakebite.
		The province of Egypt was organized. Augustus took the title pharaoh.
		Moesia was annexed to Rome.
		Cantabrian Wars: Rome deployed some eighty thousand soldiers against the Cantabri in Iberia.
	16 January	The Senate granted Augustus the titles augustus, majestic, and princeps, first.
		Augustus indicated his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus (Julio-Claudian dynasty) as his chosen successor by marrying him to his only daughter Julia the Elder.
		The Roman client Amyntas of Galatia died. Augustus organized his territory as the province of Galatia.
		Augustus' campaigns against the Cantabrians in Hispania Tarraconensis, the Cantabrian Wars, ended.
		Coinage reform of Augustus: Augustus centralized the minting of and reformed the composition and value of the Roman currency.
		Marcellus died.
		Augustus married Julia to his general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
		Cantabrian Wars: The last major combat operations ended. The Cantabri and Astures were pacified.
		Augustus adopted the sons of Agrippa and Julia, his grandsons Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar, as his own sons.
		Raetia and Noricum were conquered and annexed to Rome.
		Germanic Wars: Roman forces crossed the Rhine into Germania.
		Agrippa died of fever.
		Augustus married Julia to his general and stepson Tiberius.
		The Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus died from injuries sustained falling from a horse.
		Pannonia was annexed and incorporated into Illyricum.
		Augustus offered Tiberius tribunician power and imperium over the eastern half of the Empire. Tiberius refused, announcing his retirement to Rhodes.
		Augustus was acclaimed Pater Patriae, father of the country, by the Senate.
		Augustus convicted Julia of adultery and treason, annulled her marriage to Tiberius, and exiled her with her mother Scribonia to Ventotene.

[|4th] century

6th century

Year	Date	Event
518	9 July	Augustus Anastasius I Dicorus died.
527	1 April	Augustus Justin I appointed his older son Justinian I the Great co-augustus with himself.
527	1 August	Justin I died.
529	7 April	The Codex Justinianeus, which attempted to consolidate and reconcile contradictions in Roman law, was promulgated.
532		Justinian the Great ordered the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
533	21 June	Vandalic War: A Byzantine force under the general Belisarius departed for the Vandal Kingdom.
533	13 September	Battle of Ad Decimum: A Byzantine army defeated a Vandal force near Carthage.
533	15 December	Battle of Tricamarum: The Byzantines defeated a Vandal army and forced their king Gelimer into flight.
534	March	Vandalic War: Gelimer surrendered to Belisarius and accepted his offer of a peaceful retirement in Galatia, ending the war. The territory of the Vandal Kingdom was reorganized as the praetorian prefecture of Africa.
535		Gothic War (535–554): Byzantine forces crossing from Africa invaded Sicily, then an Ostrogothic possession.
536	December	Gothic War : Byzantium took Rome with little Ostrogothic resistance.
537	27 December	The Hagia Sophia was completed.
541		Plague of Justinian: Outbreak of the first plague pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis, which would kill millions of romans all over the empire and afflict the Mediterranean for centuries to come.
552	July	Battle of Taginae: A Byzantine army dealt a decisive defeat to the Ostrogoths at Gualdo Tadino. The Ostrogoth king Totila was killed.
553		Battle of Mons Lactarius: An Ostrogothic force was ambushed and destroyed at Monti Lattari on its way to relieve a Byzantine siege of Cumae. The Ostrogoth king Teia was killed.
565	March	Belisarius died.
565	14 November	Justinian the Great died.
568		The Lombards invaded Italy.
573		The general Narses died.
574		Augustus Justin II began to suffer from fits of insanity.
578	5 October	Justin II died.
582	14 August	Augustus Tiberius II Constantine died.