The Romans - Timelines

  • Origins
  • The Republic
  • The Transition
  • The Empire
  • Literature

  • Outline - earliest times to 510 BC

  • Outline 510 - 78 BC
  • Cato the Censor
  • The Gracchi
  • Marius
  • Sulla
  • Outline 74 - 27 BC
  • Pompey
  • Cicero
  • Julius Caesar
  • Brutus
  • Mark Antony
  • Lepidus
  • Agrippa
  • Outline 23 BC - AD 96
  • Augustus
  • Agricola
  • Later Empire
  • Outline 753 BC - AD 400
  • Virgil
  • Horace
  • Ovid
  • Pliny
  • Tacitus

Republic to empire: the Roman revolution timeline

FROM THE DEATH OF SULLA TO JULIUS CAESAR’S CROSSING OF THE RUBICON
74 BC Bithynia, bequeathed by Nicomedes IV, and Cyrenaica become provinces.
73-71 Slave revolt of Spartacus.
70 First consulship of Crassus and Pompey.
67 Pompey crushes the Mediterranean pirates.
66-63 Pompey, given exceptional powers in the east, defeats Mithridates and reorganizes the region. End of the Seleucid empire. Syria, including Judaea until 40 BC, is made a province.
63 Consulship of Cicero. Conspiracy of Catiline. Caesar elected pontifex maximus. Birth of Caesar’s great-nephew, the future Augustus.
62 Caesar is praetor. Bona Dea affair.
60 “First Triumvirate”: Caesar, Crassus, Pompey.
59 Consulship of Caesar, who is appointed governor of Cisalpine Gaul with Illyricum for five years, to which the senate adds Gallia Narbonensis (Transalpine Gaul). Pompey’s actions in the east ratified. Clodius becomes a pleb and is elected tribune of the people.
58-50 Caesar’s Gallic wars, including invasions of Britain 55 and 54 BC, add the whole of Gaul beyond Gallia Narbonensis (Transalpine Gaul) to the empire.
56 Renewal at Lucca of “First Triumvirate”.
55 Second consulship of Crassus and Pompey. Caesar’s term extended.
53 Death of Crassus in Parthia.
52 Death of Clodius. Pompey appointed sole consul.
51-50 Manoeuvring between the senate, Caesar, and Pompey.
49 Pompey authorized to deal with Caesar, who crosses the Rubicon, signifying that he comes as an invader. Pompey, with his troops, leaves for Greece. Caesar crushes Pompeian opposition in Spain. Appointed dictator, he resigns after 11 days, having been elected consul for 48.

FROM CAESAR’S SECOND CONSULSHIP TO THE TRIUMVIRATE
48 After an extended but inconclusive engagement at Dyrrachium, Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey takes flight to Egypt, where he is murdered as he steps ashore. Caesar, in pursuit, stays to sort out Cleopatra’s affairs. He is reappointed dictator. Local war in Alexandria.
47 Alexandrian war concluded with Jewish help. Caesar leaves for Rome, on the way defeating Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, at Zela (“Veni, vidi, vici”).Reaches Rome in September.
46 Caesar appointed dictator for ten years. He crosses to Africa from Sicily, and crushes Pompey’s supporters at Thapsus. Suicide of Cato. Caesar’s quadruple triumph. Cleopatra in Rome with her 12-year-old husband (her brother Ptolemy XIV) and her one-year-old son Ptolemy Caesar (popularly called Caesarion). Caesar’s wide-ranging legislation includes the reform of the calendar, necessitating the year having 15 months. He leaves for Spain.
45 Final defeat of Pompey’s supporters at Munda in March. Caesar returns to Rome in October.
44 Caesar designated perpetual dictator. He is assassinated 15 March, having announced that he will leave Rome on 18 March to lead his armies against the Parthians. Mark Antony, Caesar’s consular colleague, takes control. The senate, at the instigation of Cicero, grants amnesties to the conspirators, and recognizes Octavian as Caesar’s heir. Octavian holds games in honour of Caesar’s birthday. Antony, having granted himself the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul for five years, besieges the sitting governor, Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators, in Mutina.
43 Octavian is assigned the task of dislodging Antony, with the two new consuls, Hirtius and Pansa. Antony is forced to retreat to Transalpine Gaul, but both consuls are killed. The 19-year-old Octavian demands one of the two vacant consulships. When the senate refuses, he takes over the city and insists on elections, at which he and Pedius, his first-cousin once removed, are returned. Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus are now, by a law of the tribune Publius Titius, given responsibility for re-establishing the constitution; their rule is known as the Second Triumvirate. They institute proscriptions to finance their operation and dispose of enemies. Among their first victims is Cicero.

FROM CAESAR’S DEIFICATION TO OCTAVIAN’S ACCESSION OF SPECIAL POWERS AS AUGUSTUS
42 Senate recognizes Caesar as a god. The chief conspirators Brutus and Cassius defeated at Philippi and commit suicide. Cisalpine Gaul incorporated into Italy. Antony goes to settle imperial affairs in the east.
41 Cleopatra journeys to Tarsus to meet Antony, who spends the winter with her in Egypt.
40 Octavian defeats at Perusia army led by Lucius Antonius, consul for 41 and Antony’s brother.“Treaty of Brundisium” effectively divides the Roman world between Octavian and Antony, who marries Octavia, Octavian’s sister.
40-35 Trouble with Sextus Pompeius, who finally surrenders in Asia and is executed.
38 Octavian, having divorced his wife the previous year after she had given birth to his daughter Julia, marries Livia, mother of Tiberius and pregnant with Drusus.
37 Renewal of triumvirate.
33 Second consulship of Octavian. Legal end of triumvirate. Octavian steps up propaganda campaign against Antony.
32 Antony divorces Octavia, and is attacked in the senate by Octavian. War declared against Cleopatra.
31 Battle of Actium 2 September.
31-23 Successive consulships of Octavian/Augustus.
30 Having been called back to Italy by mutinies and general unrest, Octavian returns to the east, arriving in Egypt during the summer. Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide. Egypt is annexed by Rome, and becomes the personal property of the emperor.
29 Octavian celebrates triple triumph for victories in Dalmatia, at Actium, and in Egypt. Temple of the divine Julius dedicated.
28 Octavian and his consular colleague Agrippa hold a census, the first since 70 BC. They also reduce the number of senators from 1000 to 800, of which the first name on the list is Octavian, as princeps senatus.
27 Octavian renounces his special powers and “transfers the state to the Roman people”. He accepts the provinces of Spain, Gaul, and Syria for ten years, and assumes the name of Augustus. Agrippa builds the first Pantheon, which is completed in 25.
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