History

Main article: History of the Roman Empire

See also: Campaign history of the Roman military, Roman-Persian Wars, and Roman Kingdom

The Augustus of Prima Porta

(early 1st century AD)

Bust of Tiberius Julius Sauromates II (d. 210 AD), ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom in Roman Crimea, one of
Rome's client states

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Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it
did not expand outside the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Then, it was an "empire" long
before it had an emperor.[10][11][12][13] The Roman Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense,
but a network of towns left to rule themselves (though with varying degrees of independence from
the Roman Senate) and provinces administered by military commanders. It was ruled, not by
emperors, but by annually elected magistrates (Roman Consuls above all) in conjunction with the
senate.[14] For various reasons, the 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval,
which ultimately led to rule by emperors.[11][15][16][17] The consuls' military power rested in the Roman
legal concept of imperium, which literally means "command" (though typically in a military sense).
[18]
Occasionally, successful consuls were given the honorary title imperator (commander), and this is
the origin of the word emperor (and empire) since this title (among others) was always bestowed to
the early emperors upon their accession.[19]

Rome suffered a long series of internal conflicts, conspiracies and civil wars from the late second
century BC onwards, while greatly extending its power beyond Italy. This was the period of the Crisis
of the Roman Republic. Towards the end of this era, in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was briefly
perpetual dictator before being assassinated. The faction of his assassins was driven from Rome
and defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC by an army led by Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted
son Octavian. Antony and Octavian's division of the Roman world between themselves did not last
and Octavian's forces defeated those of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In 27
BC the Senate and People of Rome made Octavian princeps ("first citizen")
with proconsular imperium, thus beginning the Principate (the first epoch of Roman imperial history,
usually dated from 27 BC to AD 284), and gave him the name "Augustus" ("the venerated"). Though
the old constitutional machinery remained in place, Augustus came to predominate it. Although the
republic stood in name, contemporaries of Augustus knew it was just a veil and that Augustus had all
meaningful authority in Rome.[20] Since his rule ended a century of civil wars and began an
unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, he was so loved that he came to hold the power of a
monarch de facto if not de jure. During the years of his rule, a new constitutional order emerged (in
part organically and in part by design), so that, upon his death, this new constitutional order operated
as before when Tiberius was accepted as the new emperor. The 200 years that began with
Augustus's rule is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). During this period,
the cohesion of the empire was furthered by a degree of social stability and economic prosperity that
Rome had never before experienced. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down
"mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred.[21] The sixty years of JewishRoman wars in the second
half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and
violence.[22]

The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his
outliving a number of talented potential heirs. The Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more
emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year
of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. Vespasian became the founder of the
brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the NervaAntonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good
Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically-inclined Marcus Aurelius.
In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the
emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and

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iron"[23]a famous comment which has led some historians[attribution needed], notably Edward Gibbon, to take
Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.[citation needed]

In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of
the empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous an
emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution and, following its collapse, the
Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife,
economic disorder, and plague.[24] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewed as
marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. Aurelian (reigned 270275) brought
the empire back from the brink and stabilized it. Diocletian completed the work of fully restoring the
empire, but declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly
as domine, "master" or "lord".[25] This marked the end of the Principate, and the beginning of
the Dominate. Diocletian's reign also brought the empire's most concerted effort against the
perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great Persecution". The state of absolute monarchy that began
with Diocletian endured until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453.[citation needed]

Diocletian divided the empire into four regions, each ruled by a separate emperor, the Tetrarchy.
[26]
Confident that he fixed the disorders that were plaguing Rome, he abdicated along with his co-
emperor, and the Tetrarchy soon collapsed. Order was eventually restored by Constantine the Great,
who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the
new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian
dynasties, the empire was divided along an eastwest axis, with dual power centres in
Constantinople and Rome. The reign of Julian, who attempted to restore Classical
Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian
emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after
making Christianity the official religion of the empire.[27]

The Roman Empire by 476

The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century as Germanic migrations
and invasions overwhelmed the capacity of the Empire to assimilate the migrants and fight off the
invaders.[citation needed] The Romans were successful in fighting off all invaders, most famously Attila,[citation
needed]
though the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that
the empire started to dismember itself.[citation needed] Most chronologies place the end of the Western
Roman Empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to
the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[28][better source needed] By placing himself under the rule of the Eastern
Emperor, rather than naming himself Emperor (as other Germanic chiefs had done after deposing
past emperors), Odoacer ended the Western Empire by ending the line of Western emperors. [citation
needed]

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The empire in the East often known as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in its time as the
Roman Empire or by various other names had a different fate. It survived for almost a millennium
after the fall of its Western counterpart and became the most stable Christian realm during the
Middle Ages. During the 6th century, Justinian I reconquered Northern Africa and Italy. But within a
few years of Justinian's death, Byzantine possessions in Italy were greatly reduced by
the Lombards who settled in the peninsula.[29] In the east, partially resulting from the
destructive Plague of Justinian, the Romans were threatened by the rise of Islam, whose followers
rapidly conquered the territories of Syria, Armenia and Egypt during the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and
soon presented a direct threat to Constantinople.[30][31] In the following century, the Arabs
also captured southern Italy and Sicily.[32] Slavic populations were also able to penetrate deep into
the Balkans.[citation needed]

The Roman (Byzantine) Empire c. 1263.

The Romans, however, managed to stop further Islamic expansion into their lands during the 8th
century and, beginning in the 9th century, reclaimed parts of the conquered lands. [33] In 1000 AD, the
Eastern Empire was at its height: Basil II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia, culture and trade
flourished.[34] However, soon after, the expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 with the Byzantine
defeat in the Battle of Manzikert. The aftermath of this important battle sent the empire into a
protracted period of decline. Two decades of internal strife and Turkic invasions ultimately paved the
way for Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to send a call for help to the Western European kingdoms in
1095.[30]

The West responded with the Crusades, eventually resulting in the Sack of Constantinople by
participants in the Fourth Crusade. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 fragmented what
remained of the Empire into successor states, the ultimate victor being that of Nicaea.[35] After the
recapture of Constantinople by Imperial forces, the Empire was little more than a Greek state
confined to the Aegean coast. The Roman Empire finally collapsed when Mehmed the
Conqueror conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453.[36