The Romans - Timelines

	63 BC	Birth of Gaius Octavius (23 September), son of Gaius Octavius (praetor 61), from Velitrae, and Atia, daughter of Marcus Atius Balbus and Julia (minor), sister of Caesar.
	59	Death of Gaius Octavius senior.
	51	Death of Julia (minor), at whose funeral Octavius delivers the eulogy, his first public appearance.
	48	Octavius elected to the pontifical college.
	46	Is included in Caesar’s triumphal celebrations, but is too ill to accompany him on his Spanish campaign.
	45	Arrives in Spain on his own initiative in May, too late to take part in the battle of Munda, but not too late to make himself useful. He is promoted to patrician rank.
	44	Appointed to replace Lepidus as magister equitum when the Parthian expedition leaves. Is pursuing his military studies with the legions in Illyricum when Caesar is assassinated and it is announced that he is Caesar’s principal heir. He arrives in Rome at the end of April. Antony refuses to cooperate. Octavian responds by sponsoring a lavish games in honour of Caesar (July). Antony leaves for Mutina. Octavian drums up support in the name of Caesar.
	43	Octavian granted imperium and is sent against Antony. With the two consuls dead, and Antony driven into Transalpine Gaul, Octavian demands the consulship, and is elected with Pedius (August). Triumvirate established of Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus (November). They initiate proscriptions. Octavian marries Claudia (b. c.57), Antony’s stepdaughter.
	42	Caesar deified, after which Octavian takes to calling himself divi filius. He and Antony at Philippi defeat Brutus and Cassius, who commit suicide. Octavian is ruthless when dealing with any survivors of the plot against Caesar. Antony goes to the east, Octavian returns to Italy.
	41	Resettlement of Octavian’s veteran soldiers causes unrest in Italy.
	40	Octavian defeats Lucius Antonius at Perusia. Differences between him and Antony nominally resolved at Brundisium. Antony cedes Gaul to Octavian and is confirmed as being in charge of the eastern Roman empire. Lepidus is fobbed off with Africa. Antony marries Octavian’s sister, Octavia (b. c.70), as her second husband. Octavian, having divorced Claudia, marries Scribonia, aunt by marriage of Sextus Pompeius.
	39	Treaty of Misenum between Octavian, Antony, and Sextus Pompeius. Octavian divorces Scribonia after the birth of his only child, Julia.
	38	Octavian marries Livia Drusilla (b. 58), mother of Tiberius and of Nero Claudius Drusus, with whom she was pregnant when divorced by Tiberius Claudius Nero (see genealogical chart of emperors from Augustus to Nero). Sextus Pompeius blockades Italy and defeats Octavian at sea.
	37	Treaty of Tarentum. Triumvirate is renewed for five years.
	36	Sextus Pompeius finally defeated by Agrippa. Lepidus is expelled from the triumvirate. Octavian is granted tribunician power.
	35-34	Octavian campaigns in Illyricum.
	33	Second consulship of Octavian.
	32	Triumvirate is now officially at an end. Octavian takes upon himself the leadership of the Roman people and denounces Antony in the senate. Antony divorces Octavia. Octavian seizes Antony’s will from the guardianship of the Vestal Virgins and reads its contents aloud in the senate. War is declared against Cleopatra. Italy and the western provinces swear allegiance to Octavian.
	31	Octavian’s third consulship, an office he now holds every successive year until 23. Battle of Actium.
	30	Octavian in Egypt. Suicides of Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian has Caesarion (now 17) and Antyllus (Antony’s eldest son) killed. He annexes Egypt, which becomes the private property of the emperor. Virgil publishes his Georgics and begins the Aeneid.
	29	Octavian celebrates triple triumph. Dedication of public buildings, including temple of Divus Julius.
	28	Sixth consulship of Octavian, with Agrippa. Census and pruning of the senate. Octavian is named princeps.
	27	“First Settlement”. Octavian resigns his special powers, but is persuaded to share the running of the state with the Roman people. At a further meeting he assumes the name Augustus and is granted other honours. He leaves for Gaul and Spain, and is away for two years.
	25	Marriage of Julia with M. Claudius Marcellus (b. 42), son of Octavia.
	23	Augustus is ill. Conspiracy of Caepio and Murena is scotched and the two principals executed. “Second Settlement”. Augustus relinquishes the consulship, and receives full tribunician powers for life, and extended imperium, which is regularly renewed. Death of Marcellus. Virgil reads parts of Aeneid to Augustus and his family. Publication of first three books of Horace’s Odes.
	22	Augustus refuses a dictatorship and censorship for life, but accepts a special commission to oversee the corn provision. He departs for the east for three years.
	21	Agrippa marries Julia.
	20	Augustus in Asia Minor, where he makes many administrative changes in the provinces there.
	19	Augustus returns to Rome (October). Annual Ludi Augustales instituted to celebrate the day. Death of Virgil.
	18	Agrippa honoured with tribunician powers.
	17	Augustus adopts Agrippa’s and Julia’s two sons, Gaius and Lucius, as his own sons. Ludi Saeculares and Horace’s Carmen Saeculare.
	16-13	Augustus is in Gaul.
	15	Augustus takes for himself the right to coin gold and silver for the empire.
	13	Return of Augustus to Rome. Death of Lepidus.
	12	Augustus elected pontifex maximus. Death of Agrippa.
	11	Tiberius divorces his wife, Agrippa’s daughter, and marries Julia. Death of Octavia.
	10	Herod names his new city Caesarea in honour of Augustus.
	9	Dedication of Augustus’s Ara Pacis in Rome. Death of Drusus, Tiberius’s younger brother.
	8	The month Sextilis is renamed Augustus. Death of Horace.
	7	Tiberius celebrates triumph for victories in Germany.
	6	Tiberius awarded tribunician powers for five years, but retires to Rhodes.
	5	Twelfth consulship of Augustus. Death of Herod the Great, whose will, dividing his territories between his three sons, is confirmed by Augustus.
	2	Thirteenth consulship of Augustus. He receives the title pater patriae. Julia is banished for adultery to Pandateria, from which she is allowed in AD 4 to move to Rhegium.
	1	Publication of first two books of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria.
	AD 1	Gaius, on a mission to Syria, is consul.
	2	Death of Lucius. Tiberius returns to Rome.
	4	Death of Gaius. Augustus adopts Tiberius, and Tiberius adopts his nephew Germanicus. Tiberius receives tribunician powers for ten years.
	6	Augustus creates aerarium militare and a corps of city vigiles under a praefectus. Judaea made a province of Rome. Provinces of Sardinia (with Corsica) and Moesia transferred to the emperor.
	7	Victories of Germanicus in Dalmatia and Tiberius in Pannonia. Agrippa Postumus, Augustus’s last surviving grandson, is exiled for antisocial behaviour.
	8	Banishment of Ovid. Banishment of Julia, daughter of Agrippa and Augustus’s daughter Julia.
	9	Varus is defeated in Germany by Arminius with the loss of three legions.
	12	First consulship of Germanicus. Birth of Caligula.
	13	Tiberius’s tribunician and other powers renewed for a further ten years, with authority equal to that of Augustus.
	14	Death of Augustus at Nola (19 August) at the age of 76. Tiberius succeeds him. Agrippa Postumus is executed. Augustus’s ashes are placed in his mausoleum, and he is deified (17 September). Death of his daughter Julia.