Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman state under imperial rule. Its beginning is conventionally associated with Augustus’ establishment of the Principate in 27 BCE. It included extensive territories in Europe, North Africa and western Asia; Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean coastline.

The deposition of the western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 CE did not end the whole Roman state. The eastern empire, centred on Constantinople, continued to exist; the Ottomans conquered its capital in 1453. “Byzantium” is a later name for this eastern Roman polity.

Periodization of the history of the Roman Empire

Two broad periods are commonly distinguished, but their boundaries are conventional: institutions changed gradually.

Principate: from Augustus to the third-century crisis. Imperial power coexisted with the Senate, magistracies and republican political language.

• Augustus and the Julio-Claudians: 27 BCE–68 CE.
• Year of the Four Emperors: 69; the civil war began after Nero’s fall in 68.
• Flavians: 69–96.
• Nerva and the Antonines: 96–192.
• The struggle for power in 193 and the Severans: 193–235, interrupted by Macrinus.
• Third-century crisis: conventionally 235–284.

Late empire: changes in power, military organisation and administration from the late third century. This system is often called the Dominate.

• Diocletian ruled in 284–305; the first Tetrarchy of two Augusti and two Caesars was established in 293.
• Constantine ruled from 306 to 337 and became sole emperor in 324.
• Late Rome: Christianisation, changes in provincial administration and relations with neighbouring peoples.
• After Theodosius I died in 395, separate courts governed the eastern and western regions. This did not instantly create two wholly independent national states.
• The end of western imperial rule in the fifth century and the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Imperial history cannot be reduced to a single progressive process of unification or inevitable decline. Warfare, taxation, local institutions and religious change affected regions differently. Roman legal and cultural traditions survived 476.

Monuments and findspots

The history of the empire depends not only on emperors and wars, but also on places where objects survived: forts, towns, limes, hoards, reliefs and inscriptions. A separate hub collects these complexes as working sources for reconstruction.

• Roman Archaeological Sources for Reconstruction
• Vindolanda
• Colonia Ulpia Traiana / Xanten
• Carnuntum
• Dura-Europos

Related topics

• Rome
• Roman Republic
• Roman Kingdom
• Principate
• Dominate

Literature and sources

Works of ancient historians: Cocceianus, L. C. C. D. Historia romana / Lucius Claudius Cassius Dio Cocceianus. Herodianus. Historia de imperio Post Marcum [Aurelium] libri VIII / Herodianus. Historia Augusta / Scriptores Historiae Augustae. Marcellinus, A. Res Gestae Libri XXXI / Ammianus Marcellinus. Tacitus, P. C. Ab excessu divi Augusti / Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus, P. C. De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae / Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Tacitus, P. C. Historiae / Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Tranquillus, G. S. De vita Caesarum libri VIII / Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. Victor, S. A. Liber de Caesaribus / Sextus Aurelius Victor. Zosimus. Historia Nova / Zosimus. Works of modern historians: Alfionov Ya. I. The Emperor Julian and his attitude to Christianity. - Moscow,2012. - 432 p. - ISBN 978-5-397-02379-5. Arkhangelsky S. Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum Prices. - Nizhny Novgorod,1928. Baker D. Tiberius: The Successor of Augustus / Translated from English-Moscow,2004. - 304 p — - ISBN 5-9524-0765-X. Bokshchanin A. G. Social crisis of the Roman Empire in the 1st century-Moscow,1954. - 240 p. Burckhardt Ya. The Age of Constantine the Great / Translated from German-Moscow,2003. - 368 p. - ISBN 5-9524-0395-6. Ocherki po istorii Rimskoi imperii [Essays on the History of the Roman Empire]. - Rostov-on-Don,1995. - 484 p. - ISBN 5-87688-031-0. Guerrier V. I. Rome, city/Roman history before the fall of the Western Roman Empire // Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additions). - St. Petersburg,1890-1907. Gibbon E. Istoriya upadka i krusheniya Rimskoy imperii [History of the Decline and Collapse of the Roman Empire]. Grant M. The Twelve Caesars / Translated from English-Moscow,1998. - 272 p. - ISBN 5-300-01850-3. Grant M. The Collapse of the Roman Empire / Translated from English-Moscow,1998. - 224 p. - ISBN 5-300-01955-0. Grant M. Roman Emperors: A Biographical guide to the rulers of the Roman Empire: 31 BC-476 AD / Translated from English-Moscow,1998. - 400 p. - ISBN 5-300-02314-0. Grimm Yu. Studies on the history of Roman Imperial Power, Vol. 1,2 [: From Augustus to Marcus Aurelius]. - St. Petersburg,1900-1901. - 528+480 p.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Roman Empire