The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Rōmānum, Classical Latin: [ɪmˈpɛri.

ũː roːˈmaːnũː]; Koinē Greek:

Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, romanized: Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of
ancient Rome. As a polity it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in
Europe, North Africa and West Asia ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus to
the military anarchy of the third century, it was a principate with Italy as metropole of the provinces
and the city of Rome as sole capital (27 BC – 286 AD). Although fragmented briefly during the
military crisis, the empire was forcibly reassembled, then ruled by multiple emperors who shared rule
over the Western Roman Empire (based in Milan and later in Ravenna) and over the Eastern Roman
Empire (based in Nicomedia and later in Constantinople). Rome remained the nominal capital of
both parts until 476 AD, when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople (Byzantium - Ancient
Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion), following the capture of Ravenna by the barbarians of Odoacer and
the subsequent deposition of Romulus Augustus. The fall of the Western Roman Empire to
Germanic kings, along with the hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine
Empire, conventionally marks the end of Ancient Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
The predecessor state of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic (which had replaced Rome's
monarchy in the 6th century BC) became severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political
conflicts. In the mid-1st century BC Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and then
assassinated in 44 BC. Civil wars and proscriptions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian,
Caesar's adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The
following year Octavian conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, ending the Hellenistic period that had begun
with the conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Octavian's power then
became unassailable, and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power and
the new title Augustus, effectively making him the first Roman emperor.
The first two centuries of the Empire saw a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known
as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). Rome reached its greatest territorial expanse during the reign
of Trajan (98–117 AD). A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of
Commodus (177-192). In the 3rd century the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its
existence, as the Gallic Empire and Palmyrene Empire broke away from the Roman state, and a
series of short-lived emperors, often from the legions, led the empire. The empire was reunified
under Aurelian (r. 270–275). In an effort to stabilize it, Diocletian set up two different imperial courts
in the Greek East and Latin West in 286. Christians rose to positions of power in the fourth century
following the Edict of Milan of 313. Shortly after, the Migration Period, involving large invasions by
Germanic peoples and by the Huns of Attila, led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With
the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD
by Odoacer, the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed – the (Eastern Roman) Emperor Zeno
formally abolished it in 480 AD. Nonetheless, some states in the territories of the former Western
Roman Empire would later claim to have inherited the supreme power of the emperors of Rome,
most notably the Holy Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, usually described by modern
historians as the Byzantine Empire, survived for another millennium until it collapsed when
Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks of Sultan Mehmed II in 1453.[n 8]
Due to the Roman Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome
had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, art, architecture,
philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed, and far beyond. The Latin
language of the Romans evolved into the Romance languages of the medieval and modern world,
while Medieval Greek became the language of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Empire's adoption of
Christianity led to the formation of medieval Christendom. Greek and Roman art had a profound
impact on the Italian Renaissance. Rome's architectural tradition served as the basis for
Romanesque, Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture, and also had a strong influence on
Islamic architecture. The corpus of Roman law has its descendants in many legal systems of the
world today, such as the Napoleonic Code, while Rome's republican institutions have left an
enduring legacy, influencing the Italian city-state republics of the medieval period, as well as the
early United States and other modern democratic republics.