Rome, from the Republic to the last emperor

Founding of the Roman Republic (509 BC (traditional))

According to Roman tradition, the rape of Lucretia by the king's son Sextus Tarquinius sparked a revolt led by Lucius Junius Brutus that expelled King Tarquinius Superbus. Rome replaced the king with two annually elected magistrates, later called consuls. The story survives mainly in Livy and is part legend; modern historians accept a shift from monarchy to aristocratic rule around this time but debate the details and exact date.

• Polybius (3.22) dates Rome's first treaty with Carthage to the consulship of Brutus and Horatius, the first year after the kings, which supports a very early date for the Republic.
• Livy (2.5) says Brutus, as consul, watched his own sons be flogged and beheaded for plotting to bring the Tarquins back.
• Rome kept a priest called the rex sacrorum, 'king of the sacred rites', to perform the king's old religious duties, but Livy (2.2) says the office was placed under the chief priest so the royal title could never threaten liberty.
• Livy (1.56) says Brutus survived the tyrant's purges by pretending to be dim-witted, which is how he got the name Brutus, 'the dullard'.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 1.57-60 and 2.1-5 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Plutarch, Life of Publicola (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Poplicola (free at Open Scriptorium); Polybius, Histories 3.22 (first treaty with Carthage, LacusCurtius); Britannica: Tarquin, king of Rome; Britannica: Lucretia

First Secession of the Plebs and the Tribunes (494 BC (traditional))

Burdened by debt and shut out of power, the plebeians withdrew from Rome to a hill outside the city and refused to serve in the army. To end the walkout the patricians agreed to create the tribunes of the plebs, officials whose persons were sacrosanct and who could protect ordinary citizens against magistrates. Britannica notes that modern scholars debate how much of the traditional account of this first secession is authentic.

• Livy (2.32) says the envoy Menenius Agrippa won the plebs back with a fable in which the body's limbs starve themselves by refusing to feed the belly.
• Even Livy records disagreement about where the plebs went: most said the Sacred Mount, but the annalist Piso said the Aventine.
• Livy (2.33) also notes conflicting traditions on how many tribunes were first created.
• The plebs seceded several more times; the last secession led to the Lex Hortensia of 287 BC, which made plebeian resolutions binding on everyone.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 2.32-33 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 6.49-71 (Menenius Agrippa and the envoys, LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Coriolanus 6-7 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Conflict of the Orders

The Twelve Tables (451 to 450 BC (traditional))

Under plebeian pressure for written laws, a board of ten men (the decemvirs) drafted a code that was set up publicly in the Forum, traditionally in 451 and 450 BC. It covered family law, debt, property, crimes and court procedure. The original tablets are lost, and the text survives only in fragments quoted by later authors such as Cicero and Aulus Gellius.

• Cicero (On the Laws 2.59) says boys in his youth learned the Twelve Tables by heart as a required chant, a custom that had lapsed by his time.
• One clause let creditors 'cut parts' of an insolvent debtor; Aulus Gellius (20.1) says no one remembered it ever being carried out.
• Livy (3.44-54) says the second board of decemvirs turned tyrannical under Appius Claudius, whose attempt to seize the girl Verginia caused another secession.
• Livy (6.1) says that after the Gallic sack Rome had to search out and restore the laws, including the Twelve Tables.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 3.32-34 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); The Twelve Tables, reconstructed text in translation (Avalon Project, Yale Law School); Britannica: Law of the Twelve Tables

Capture of Veii (396 BC (traditional))

Veii was a rich Etruscan city only about 15 km from Rome and its main rival. Rome captured it under the dictator Marcus Furius Camillus, annexed its territory and nearly doubled its land. Many historians think the traditional ten-year siege (406 to 396 BC) was modeled on the Trojan War.

• Livy (5.19-21) says the Romans dug a tunnel under the walls that came up inside the temple of Juno; he admits some details of the story are more fit for the stage than for belief.
• The statue of Veii's Juno was carried to Rome (Livy 5.22), and Camillus later dedicated a temple to her on the Aventine (Livy 5.31).
• Livy (5.23) says Camillus offended Romans by riding in his triumph behind four white horses, an honor thought proper only for Jupiter.
• Rome began paying its soldiers during the Veii war, according to Livy (4.59-60).

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 5.19-23 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Plutarch, Life of Camillus 2-7 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Camillus (free at Open Scriptorium); Livius.org: Veii

Battle of the Allia and the Gallic Sack of Rome (390 BC (Varronian date; Greek sources point to 387/386 BC))

A Gallic army of the Senones routed the Romans at the Allia River and then captured and plundered Rome, while defenders held out on the Capitol. The Gauls left after receiving a ransom in gold. The traditional Roman date is 390 BC, but Greek-based chronology points to 387 or 386 BC; the trauma shaped Roman attitudes to the Gauls for centuries.

• Livy (5.47) says the sacred geese of Juno woke Marcus Manlius when the Gauls tried to scale the Capitol at night.
• Livy (5.48) has the Gallic leader Brennus throw his sword on the scale and say 'vae victis', woe to the conquered; some historians suspect the name Brennus was borrowed from the Gallic leader who invaded Greece in 279 BC.
• Livy (5.49) says Camillus arrived in time to stop the payment, but Polybius (2.18) knows no rescue: the Gauls made terms, gave the city back and went home, partly because the Veneti had invaded their own land. Many historians find this more believable.
• The day of the Allia defeat, 18 July, was marked as an unlucky day on the Roman calendar (Livy 6.1).

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 5.38-49 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Polybius, Histories 2.18 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Camillus 17-30 (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Brennus

Licinian-Sextian Laws (367 BC (traditional))

The tribunes Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius pushed three bills: one opened the consulship to plebeians, one limited holdings of public land to 500 iugera, and one eased debt. After a long political deadlock they passed, and Sextius became the first plebeian consul for 366 BC. The laws were a turning point in the Conflict of the Orders, though how strictly the land limit was enforced is doubtful.

• Livy (6.35) says the tribunes vetoed the election of chief magistrates for several years, leaving Rome without them.
• Livy (6.42) records Lucius Sextius as the first consul from the plebs.
• The settlement also created the praetorship, which patricians at first kept for themselves (Livy 6.42).
• Plutarch (Camillus 42) says the aged Camillus vowed a temple of Concord to celebrate the reconciliation.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 6.35-42 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Plutarch, Life of Camillus 39-42 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Conflict of the Orders

Samnite Wars (343 to 290 BC)

Three wars against the Samnites, tough highland peoples of south-central Italy, decided who would dominate the peninsula. The Second Samnite War brought Rome's humiliation at the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, but Rome recovered, and victory in the Third War, including the great battle of Sentinum in 295 BC, left it master of central Italy.

• At the Caudine Forks (Livy 9.1-6) a trapped Roman army surrendered and was sent under the yoke, a deep humiliation; the Senate later refused to honor the peace (Livy 9.8-11).
• Livy (10.28) says the consul Publius Decius Mus ritually 'devoted' himself and the enemy to the gods and rode to his death at Sentinum.
• Rome's enemies formed a coalition of Samnites, Gauls, Etruscans and Umbrians, but Livy (10.27) says a Roman raid drew the Etruscans and Umbrians home, so only Samnites and Gauls fought at Sentinum.
• Appian's Samnite History survives only in fragments.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 9.1-6 (Caudine Forks; Perseus, Roberts trans.); Livy, History of Rome 8.1-2 (First Samnite War ends; Perseus); Appian, Samnite History fragments (Livius.org); Britannica: Samnite Wars; Britannica: Caudine Forks

Building of the Appian Way (312 BC)

As censor, Appius Claudius Caecus began the Via Appia from Rome to Capua, a military road that secured Rome's hold on Campania during the Samnite wars. In the same censorship he built the Aqua Appia, Rome's first aqueduct. The road was later extended across southern Italy to Brundisium on the Adriatic, though exactly when is uncertain.

• Frontinus (On Aqueducts 1.5) dates the Aqua Appia to 312 BC, the same year as the road.
• Livy (9.29) says Appius later went blind, which people saw as divine punishment for transferring a family cult to public slaves; hence the name Caecus, 'the Blind'.
• Plutarch (Pyrrhus 18-19) says the old, blind Appius had himself carried into the Senate to stop peace talks with King Pyrrhus.
• After the Spartacus revolt, Crassus crucified 6,000 captives along this road (Appian, Civil Wars 1.120).

Sources: Livy, History of Rome 9.29 (Perseus, Roberts trans.); Frontinus, On the Aqueducts of Rome 1.5 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Appian Way (summary); Britannica: Appius Claudius Caecus

Pyrrhic War (280 to 275 BC)

King Pyrrhus of Epirus came to Italy to help the Greek city of Tarentum against Rome. He won at Heraclea (280) and Asculum (279) with elephants and a professional army, but his losses could not be replaced, while Rome kept raising new legions. After campaigning in Sicily he was beaten at Beneventum in 275 and left Italy, leaving Rome master of the south.

• Plutarch (Pyrrhus 21) has Pyrrhus say that one more such victory over the Romans would ruin him, the origin of the phrase 'Pyrrhic victory'.
• Plutarch (Pyrrhus 19) says Pyrrhus's envoy Cineas called the Roman Senate 'a council of many kings'.
• Pliny the Elder (Natural History 8.16) says Romans first saw elephants in this war and called them 'Lucanian oxen'.
• Pyrrhus was killed in 272 BC in street fighting at Argos, reportedly after a woman threw a roof tile at him (Plutarch, Pyrrhus 34).

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus 13-26 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Pyrrhic War

First Punic War (264 to 241 BC)

Rome and Carthage fought for 23 years over Sicily. Rome built its first large war fleets, won at Mylae in 260 BC and finally at the Aegates Islands in 241 BC. Carthage gave up Sicily and paid a large indemnity, and Sicily became Rome's first overseas province.

• Polybius (1.20) says the Romans used a stranded Carthaginian warship as the model for their new fleet and drilled rowers on land (1.21).
• Polybius (1.22) describes the corvus, a boarding bridge with a spike that let Roman soldiers fight at sea as if on land.
• Polybius (1.63) calls it the longest and most intense war he knew of, with Rome losing about 700 warships to Carthage's about 500, many to storms.
• The peace raised Carthage's indemnity from 2,200 to 3,200 talents (Polybius 1.62-63).

Sources: Polybius, Histories 1.20-63 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Punic Wars; Livius.org: Carthage, the Roman wars

Hannibal Crosses the Alps (218 BC)

Opening the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), the Carthaginian general Hannibal marched from Spain through southern Gaul and over the Alps into northern Italy in autumn 218 BC. The crossing cost him heavily in men and animals, but it let him fight the Romans on their own soil. The exact pass he used is still debated.

• Polybius (3.56) says Hannibal reached Italy with 12,000 African and 8,000 Spanish infantry and no more than 6,000 cavalry, citing an inscription Hannibal himself set up.
• Polybius (3.56) says the crossing of the Alps took fifteen days.
• Polybius (3.47-48) mocks writers who claimed gods or heroes guided Hannibal over the mountains.
• Livy (21.37) says rocks were split by heating them and pouring on vinegar; Polybius does not mention this.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 3.47-56 (LacusCurtius); Livy, History of Rome Book 21, ch. 32-38 (Wikisource, Roberts trans.); Britannica: Hannibal, the Alpine crossing; Livius.org: Hannibal Barca

Battle of Lake Trasimene (June 217 BC)

Hannibal ambushed the consul Gaius Flaminius and his army on the narrow road along the north shore of Lake Trasimene in Etruria. Trapped between hills and water in morning mist, the Romans were destroyed and Flaminius was killed. Rome responded by appointing Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator, whose delaying strategy earned him the name Cunctator.

• Livy (22.5) says the fighting was so intense that no one noticed an earthquake that struck that day.
• Livy (22.7), following Fabius Pictor, puts the Roman dead at 15,000.
• Polybius (3.84) stresses the fog that hid Hannibal's troops on the slopes.
• Polybius (3.84-85) also gives about 15,000 dead in the valley, and says some 6,000 who cut their way out surrendered to Hannibal's officer Maharbal the next day.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 3.82-85 (LacusCurtius); Livy, History of Rome Book 22, ch. 4-7 (Wikisource, Roberts trans.); Plutarch, Life of Fabius Maximus 3 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Battle of Trasimene

Battle of Cannae (2 August 216 BC)

In Apulia, Hannibal let the massive Roman infantry push into his center while his cavalry and African infantry closed around their flanks and rear, a classic double envelopment. The consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus died with tens of thousands of his men. Even so, Rome refused to make peace, and much of its Italian alliance held.

• Ancient figures for Roman dead differ: Polybius (3.117) says about 70,000, Livy (22.49) about 48,000.
• Livy (22.51) has Hannibal's cavalry commander Maharbal tell him: you know how to win a victory, but not how to use one.
• Livy (22.57) says that in its panic Rome buried alive a Gallic and a Greek couple in the Forum Boarium as a sacrifice.
• Livy (23.12) says Mago poured out a heap of gold rings taken from dead Roman knights before the Carthaginian senate.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 3.107-118 (LacusCurtius); Livy, History of Rome Book 22, ch. 44-57 (Wikisource, Roberts trans.); Appian, War against Hannibal (Livius.org); Britannica: Battle of Cannae

Battle of Zama (202 BC)

Publius Cornelius Scipio carried the war to Africa and met Hannibal near Zama, in modern Tunisia. Scipio's open formation let the elephants pass, and the Numidian cavalry of King Masinissa helped decide the battle. Carthage made peace in 201 BC, ending the Second Punic War, and Scipio took the name Africanus.

• Polybius (15.6-8) describes a face-to-face meeting between Hannibal and Scipio before the battle.
• Polybius (15.9-12) explains how Scipio left lanes between his units to channel the elephants through.
• Under the peace (Polybius 15.18), Carthage kept only ten warships and paid 10,000 talents over fifty years.
• Polybius (15.5) says Hannibal camped near the town of Zama, but places Scipio near a town called Margaron (Livy's Naraggara); the exact battlefield is still unknown.

Sources: Polybius, Histories 15.5-19 (LacusCurtius); Livy, History of Rome Book 30, ch. 29-35 (Wikisource, Roberts trans.); Britannica: Battle of Zama; Britannica: Second Punic War

Battle of Pydna (22 June 168 BC)

In the Third Macedonian War, Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated King Perseus of Macedon at Pydna. The Macedonian phalanx broke up on uneven ground and the more flexible legions cut into the gaps. Rome abolished the Macedonian monarchy, split the kingdom into four republics, and paraded Perseus in Paullus's triumph.

• Livy (44.37) says the officer Gaius Sulpicius Gallus predicted the lunar eclipse of 21 June 168 BC, so the troops were not alarmed; the eclipse fixes the battle's date.
• Plutarch (Aemilius 19) says even Paullus admitted the bristling pike phalanx was the most terrifying sight he had ever seen.
• Plutarch (Aemilius 38) says Paullus brought so much money into the treasury that Roman citizens stopped paying direct war tax.
• Polybius was among about 1,000 leading Achaeans deported to Italy after the war (Pausanias 7.10), which is how he came to write his history in Rome.

Sources: Livy, History of Rome Book 44, ch. 36-42 (Wikisource, Roberts trans.); Plutarch, Life of Aemilius Paulus 16-38 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Aemilius Paulus (free at Open Scriptorium); Polybius, Histories book 29 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Pydna (168 BCE); Britannica: Battle of Pydna

Destruction of Carthage (149 to 146 BC)

In the Third Punic War Rome besieged Carthage for three years. In spring 146 BC Scipio Aemilianus stormed the city, which was destroyed and its survivors enslaved, and its territory became the province of Africa. Julius Caesar and Augustus later refounded Carthage as a Roman colony.

• Polybius, who was there, reports that Scipio wept over the burning city and quoted Homer's lines on the fall of Troy, fearing Rome's own fate (Polybius 38.21-22; Appian, Punic Wars 132).
• No ancient source says the Romans sowed salt on Carthage; the story appears only in modern times.
• Plutarch (Cato the Elder 27) says Cato ended his speeches by declaring that Carthage should be destroyed; the famous Latin wording 'Carthago delenda est' is a later formulation.
• Cato died in 149 BC, three years before the city fell (Velleius 1.13).

Sources: Polybius, Histories 38.19-22 (LacusCurtius); Appian, The Punic Wars 74-135 (Livius.org); Plutarch, Life of Cato the Elder 26-27 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Marcus Cato (free at Open Scriptorium); Livius.org: Carthage; Britannica: Punic Wars

Sack of Corinth (146 BC)

In the same year Carthage fell, the consul Lucius Mummius crushed the Achaean League and destroyed the great Greek city of Corinth. Its men were killed, women and children enslaved, and its art shipped to Rome. Greece came firmly under Roman control, and Corinth lay mostly empty until Julius Caesar refounded it as a colony in 44 BC.

• Velleius Paterculus (1.13) says Mummius was so uncultured that he warned the shippers that any lost artworks would have to be replaced with new ones.
• Strabo (8.6.23), quoting the eyewitness Polybius, says Polybius saw soldiers playing dice on famous paintings thrown on the ground.
• Mummius took the surname Achaicus for his victory, as Scipio took Africanus (Velleius 1.13).
• Pausanias (7.16) describes the city's capture and the destruction of its walls.

Sources: Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 1.13 (LacusCurtius); Strabo, Geography 8.6.23 (Polybius on the sack, LacusCurtius); Polybius, Histories 39 (fragments on the fall of Greece, LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Corinth

Tribunate and Murder of Tiberius Gracchus (133 BC)

As tribune, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus passed a land law to redistribute public land held beyond the legal limit to poor citizens. He had a fellow tribune who vetoed the law removed from office and then sought a second term, which opponents saw as a bid for tyranny. A mob of senators led by Scipio Nasica killed him and about 300 followers on the Capitol.

• Plutarch (Tiberius Gracchus 20) calls this the first outbreak of civil strife in Rome since the kings that ended in bloodshed and murder.
• Plutarch (TG 19-20) says the attackers used clubs and pieces of broken benches, and that the bodies were thrown into the Tiber.
• Appian (Civil Wars 1.9) says the law capped holdings at 500 iugera, plus 250 per son.
• Plutarch (TG 8) says his brother Gaius wrote that Tiberius was moved to act after seeing the Etruscan countryside worked by foreign slaves.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchus (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchus (free at Open Scriptorium); Appian, Civil Wars 1.7-17 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Ancient Rome, the reform movement of the Gracchi

Death of Gaius Gracchus (123 to 121 BC)

Tiberius's younger brother Gaius, tribune in 123 and 122 BC, passed a wider program: subsidized grain, new colonies, juries drawn from the equestrians, and a proposal to extend citizenship to the Latins. In 121 BC the Senate passed an emergency decree and the consul Lucius Opimius attacked Gaius and his supporters. Gaius had a slave kill him, and thousands of his followers died.

• Plutarch (Gaius Gracchus 17) says about 3,000 people were killed in the aftermath.
• Plutarch (GG 17) says Septimuleius filled the head with lead before claiming its weight in gold.
• Plutarch (GG 18) says Opimius was the first consul to use dictatorial power, and afterwards built a temple of Concord, which outraged the people.
• Plutarch (GG 16-17) says Gaius died in the grove of Furrina across the Tiber, killed at his own order by his slave Philocrates.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Caius Gracchus (free at Open Scriptorium); Appian, Civil Wars 1.21-26 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Gaius Sempronius Gracchus

Cimbrian War (113 to 101 BC)

The Cimbri and Teutones, migrating peoples from northern Europe, defeated several Roman armies, worst of all at Arausio (modern Orange) in 105 BC. Rome broke its own rules and re-elected Gaius Marius as consul each year from 104 to 100 BC. He destroyed the Teutones at Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC and, with Quintus Lutatius Catulus, the Cimbri at Vercellae in 101 BC.

• The Periochae of Livy (67) put the losses at Arausio at 80,000 soldiers and 40,000 servants and camp followers.
• Plutarch (Marius 27) says Cimbrian women at Vercellae killed their children and themselves rather than be captured.
• Plutarch (Marius 11) says the invaders were so many that their numbers were uncertain, reportedly 300,000 fighting men.
• The war is a main reason Marius's repeated consulships, normally illegal, were accepted.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Marius 11-27 (LacusCurtius); Livy, Periochae 66-70 (Livius.org); Britannica: Cimbri

Marius Enlists the Poor (107 BC)

Elected consul for the war against Jugurtha in Numidia, Gaius Marius raised troops by accepting volunteers from the poorest citizens, who had traditionally been excluded from service. Later Romans linked him with a broader set of army changes, though modern historians think many of the so-called Marian reforms developed gradually. Soldiers who depended on their commanders for pay and land became a political force.

• Sallust (Jugurthine War 86) says Marius enrolled men not by property class but anyone who volunteered, mostly the 'capite censi' who owned nothing.
• Plutarch (Marius 13) says soldiers made to carry their own heavy packs were nicknamed 'Marius's mules'.
• Pliny the Elder (Natural History 10.16) says Marius made the eagle the single standard of every legion in his second consulship.
• Marius was consul seven times (107, 104 to 100, and 86 BC), an unprecedented record (Plutarch, Marius 45).

Sources: Sallust, Jugurthine War 84-86 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Marius 7-13 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caius Marius (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Gaius Marius

Social War (91 to 87 BC (main fighting 91 to 88))

After the tribune Marcus Livius Drusus, who proposed citizenship for the Italian allies, was murdered in 91 BC, many allies revolted. They formed their own state with its capital at Corfinium, renamed Italia. Rome won on the battlefield but conceded the main demand: laws of 90 and 89 BC offered Roman citizenship to Italians.

• Appian (Civil Wars 1.38) says the revolt began at Asculum, where the Romans in the town were massacred.
• Velleius Paterculus (2.16) says Corfinium was chosen as the rebels' capital and named Italia.
• Both the young Pompey and Cicero served in this war under Pompey's father, Pompeius Strabo.
• Velleius Paterculus (2.15) says the Italians were only asking for citizenship in the state whose empire they defended with their own arms.

Sources: Appian, Civil Wars 1.34-53 (LacusCurtius); Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 2.13-17 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Ancient Rome, wars and dictatorship c. 91-80 BC

Sulla Marches on Rome (88 BC)

When a tribune transferred Sulla's command against Mithridates to his rival Marius, the consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla persuaded his army to march on Rome. He seized the city, outlawed Marius and his allies, and then left for the East. No Roman commander had ever before taken the city with a Roman army.

• Appian (Civil Wars 1.57) says all Sulla's officers except one quaestor deserted him rather than lead an army against their country.
• Appian (1.60) presents this as the moment when the city was first taken by force as if it were an enemy's.
• Plutarch (Marius 37-39) says the old Marius fled and hid in the marshes near Minturnae, where a Gallic or Cimbrian horseman sent to kill him could not go through with it.
• Marius and Cinna retook Rome in 87 BC and killed many of Sulla's supporters.

Sources: Appian, Civil Wars 1.55-63 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Sulla 7-10 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Sylla (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Ancient Rome, wars and dictatorship c. 91-80 BC

Sulla's Dictatorship and the Proscriptions (82 to 79 BC)

Returning from the East, Sulla won a civil war, crushing his enemies at the Colline Gate in November 82 BC. He was made dictator with no time limit to rewrite the constitution, strengthening the Senate and weakening the tribunes. His proscriptions outlawed political enemies, whose killers were rewarded and whose property was sold. Unusually, he then gave up power and died in retirement in 78 BC.

• Appian (Civil Wars 1.95) says about 40 senators and 1,600 knights were proscribed at first, and many more later.
• Suetonius (Julius 1) says the young Julius Caesar refused Sulla's order to divorce his wife, and Sulla warned that in him there were many Mariuses.
• Plutarch (Sulla 38) quotes his epitaph: no friend ever did him a kindness, and no enemy a wrong, without being fully repaid.
• Sulla doubled the Senate to about 600 members by adding equestrians (Appian 1.100).

Sources: Appian, Civil Wars 1.81-106 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Sulla 28-38 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 1 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Sylla (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Ancient Rome, wars and dictatorship c. 91-80 BC

Spartacus Revolt (73 to 71 BC)

The Thracian gladiator Spartacus and fellow gladiators escaped from a training school at Capua, took refuge on Vesuvius, and gathered a huge army of runaway slaves that beat several Roman forces. Marcus Licinius Crassus finally defeated them in southern Italy in 71 BC, and Spartacus died in battle. Pompey, arriving late, mopped up survivors and claimed much of the credit.

• Plutarch (Crassus 8) says 78 gladiators escaped using knives and spits from a kitchen; Appian (Civil Wars 1.116) says about 70.
• Plutarch (Crassus 10) says Crassus revived decimation, executing one in ten of a unit that had fled.
• Appian (1.120) says 6,000 captured rebels were crucified along the road from Capua to Rome, and that Spartacus's body was never found.
• Plutarch (Crassus 8) says Spartacus's wife, a Thracian prophetess, followed him in the revolt.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Crassus 8-11 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Crassus (free at Open Scriptorium); Appian, Civil Wars 1.116-120 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Spartacus; Britannica: Third Servile War

Catilinarian Conspiracy (63 to 62 BC)

Lucius Sergius Catilina, a debt-ridden aristocrat twice defeated for the consulship, plotted an uprising. The consul Cicero exposed him in a series of speeches, and after a famous Senate debate between Caesar and Cato, five conspirators were executed without trial on 5 December 63 BC. Catiline died fighting at Pistoria in early 62 BC, and Cicero was later exiled for the executions.

• Sallust (Catiline 51-52) reconstructs the debate: Caesar argued for life imprisonment, Cato for death, and Cato's view prevailed.
• Plutarch (Cicero 22) says Cicero announced the deaths to the crowd with the single word 'vixerunt', they have lived.
• Sallust (Catiline 61) says Catiline was found far ahead of his men among the enemy dead, all his wounds in front.
• Plutarch (Cicero 23) says Cato hailed Cicero as father of his country; Cicero himself credits Catulus (Against Piso 6).

Sources: Sallust, The War with Catiline (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Cicero 10-23 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Cicero (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Catiline's War

The First Triumvirate (60 BC (to 53 BC))

Blocked by the Senate, Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar formed an informal alliance that won Caesar the consulship for 59 BC and pushed through each partner's goals. Pompey married Caesar's daughter Julia. Britannica stresses that this was never a legal office and that the name 'triumvirate' for it is modern; the pact weakened after Julia's death in 54 BC and Crassus's death at Carrhae in 53 BC.

• Appian (Civil Wars 2.9) says the writer Varro mocked the alliance in a pamphlet called 'Tricaranus', the three-headed one.
• Suetonius (Julius 20) says wits dated documents to the consulship 'of Julius and Caesar', because Caesar's colleague Bibulus was powerless.
• The partners renewed the pact at Luca in 56 BC.
• Crassus died after his defeat by the Parthians at Carrhae in 53 BC (Plutarch, Crassus 31).

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Caesar 13-14 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Pompey 47 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 19-20 (LacusCurtius); Appian, Civil Wars 2.8-14 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Julius Caesar, the first triumvirate and the conquest of Gaul

Caesar's Gallic Wars (58 to 50 BC)

As governor, Julius Caesar fought a series of campaigns that brought all of Gaul up to the Rhine under Roman rule, bridged the Rhine and twice landed in Britain. His own account, the Commentaries on the Gallic War, is our main source, written to make his case to Romans at home. The wars made Caesar rich, popular and the commander of a loyal veteran army.

• Caesar (Gallic War 4.17-18) says his army bridged the Rhine in ten days in 55 BC.
• Plutarch (Caesar 15) says Caesar fought three million men, killing one million and enslaving another million; Pliny (Natural History 7.92) gives 1,192,000 killed. Both are ancient estimates, not counts.
• Plutarch (Caesar 22) says Cato proposed handing Caesar over to the Germans for attacking during a truce.
• Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC but did not occupy it.

Sources: Caesar, Gallic War Book 1 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar 15-27 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar (free at Open Scriptorium); Livius.org: Julius Caesar; Britannica: Julius Caesar, the first triumvirate and the conquest of Gaul

Siege of Alesia (52 BC)

The Gallic leader Vercingetorix united much of Gaul in revolt and held out in the hill fortress of Alesia. Caesar enclosed it with siege lines facing inward and a second line facing outward against a huge relief army. When the relief army was beaten, Vercingetorix surrendered, ending large-scale resistance in Gaul.

• Caesar (Gallic War 7.69, 7.74) gives the inner siege line as about 11 Roman miles around and the outer line as 14 miles.
• Caesar (7.76) claims the Gallic relief army had 250,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry; historians generally think this is exaggerated.
• Vercingetorix was kept prisoner for about six years, shown in Caesar's triumph in 46 BC and then executed (Cassius Dio 43.19).
• Excavations ordered by Napoleon III in the 1860s at Alise-Sainte-Reine located the siege works.

Sources: Caesar, Gallic War 7.63-74 (siege lines at Alesia, LacusCurtius); Caesar, Gallic War 7.75-90 (relief army and surrender, LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar 26-27 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Alesia (52 BCE); Britannica: Vercingetorix

Caesar Crosses the Rubicon (January 49 BC)

Ordered by the Senate to give up his army, Caesar led troops across the Rubicon, the stream marking the border between his province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy, an act of war against the state. Pompey and much of the Senate fled Italy, and the civil war began. The crossing is usually dated to 10 or 11 January 49 BC by the pre-Julian calendar.

• Suetonius (Julius 32) has Caesar say 'the die is cast' (alea iacta est).
• Plutarch (Pompey 60) says he spoke the phrase in Greek; 'let the die be cast' is a line known from the comic poet Menander (Athenaeus 13.559e).
• Caesar's own Civil War (1.8) moves straight from Ravenna to Ariminum without naming the river.
• The river's location was long disputed; in 1933 Italy officially renamed the Fiumicino as the Rubicone.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 31-33 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar 32 (LacusCurtius); Appian, Civil Wars 2.35 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Julius Caesar, break with Pompey

Battle of Pharsalus (9 August 48 BC)

In Thessaly, Caesar's smaller veteran army defeated Pompey, whose cavalry charge was broken by a reserve line of infantry that Caesar had placed against it. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered as he came ashore in September 48 BC. The victory left Caesar the dominant power in the Roman world.

• Caesar (Civil War 3.99) claims he lost only about 200 soldiers and 30 centurions while 15,000 of Pompey's men died and 24,000 surrendered; these are his own figures.
• Suetonius (Julius 30), citing Asinius Pollio, who was present, reports Caesar's words 'hoc voluerunt', they wanted it.
• Plutarch (Pompey 80) says Caesar turned away and wept when shown Pompey's head.
• Plutarch (Caesar 45; Pompey 69) says Caesar told his men to strike at the faces of Pompey's young cavalrymen.

Sources: Caesar, Civil War 3.82-99 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Pompey 68-80 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Pompey (free at Open Scriptorium); Livius.org: Pharsalus (48 BCE)

Assassination of Julius Caesar (15 March 44 BC (the Ides of March))

Caesar, recently named dictator for life, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius at a Senate meeting in the hall attached to Pompey's theatre. The conspirators hoped to restore the Republic, but his death instead led to new civil wars. Plutarch says he fell at the foot of Pompey's statue.

• Suetonius (Julius 82) says Caesar received 23 wounds, and the doctor Antistius judged that only the second, in the chest, was fatal.
• Suetonius (Julius 82) says Caesar died without a word, though some reported he said in Greek 'kai su, teknon?' (you too, child?).
• Suetonius (Julius 80) says more than sixty men were in the conspiracy.
• Suetonius (Julius 81) says the soothsayer Spurinna had warned Caesar of danger lasting until the Ides of March.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 76-89 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Caesar 60-69 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.9-19 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Marcus Brutus (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Ancient Rome, the dictatorship and assassination of Caesar

The Second Triumvirate and the Proscriptions (November 43 BC (to 33 BC))

Mark Antony, Octavian and Lepidus met near Bononia and divided power, and the Lex Titia of November 43 BC made them triumvirs to restore the state for five years. Unlike the first, this triumvirate was a legal office. They launched proscriptions to kill enemies and seize money for the war against Caesar's assassins; Cicero was among the victims.

• Appian (Civil Wars 4.5) says about 300 senators and 2,000 knights were condemned.
• Plutarch (Cicero 48-49) says Cicero was killed on Antony's orders and his head and hands were displayed on the speakers' platform in the Forum.
• Cassius Dio (47.8) says Antony's wife Fulvia pierced Cicero's tongue with a hairpin.
• Lepidus was pushed aside in 36 BC; the triumvirate's legal term ran out at the end of 33 BC.

Sources: Appian, Civil Wars 4.1-51 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 47.1-17 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Cicero 46-49 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Antony (free at Open Scriptorium); Livius.org: Augustus

Battle of Philippi (October 42 BC)

Antony and Octavian fought Brutus and Cassius in two battles near Philippi in Macedonia. In the first, Brutus beat Octavian's wing while Antony beat Cassius, who killed himself believing all was lost. In the second, about three weeks later, Brutus was defeated and also took his own life. It was the last stand of the armies fighting for the old Republic.

• Plutarch (Brutus 43) says Cassius took his own life after mistaking returning friendly horsemen for the enemy.
• Plutarch (Brutus 36) tells of a ghost that appeared to Brutus and said he would see it again at Philippi.
• Plutarch (Brutus 41) says Octavian, who was ill, had been carried out of his camp shortly before it was overrun, because of a friend's dream.
• Antony won most of the fighting; Octavian's reputation as a general was poor afterwards.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Brutus 36-53 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Marcus Brutus (free at Open Scriptorium); Appian, Civil Wars Book 4 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 47.35-49 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Philippi (42 BCE); Britannica: Battle of Philippi

Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC)

Off the west coast of Greece, Octavian's fleet under Marcus Agrippa defeated the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra's ships broke away and fled to Egypt, and Antony followed; much of his fleet and army then surrendered. Both died by suicide in Alexandria in August 30 BC, Egypt became a Roman province, and Octavian was left sole master of the Roman world.

• Plutarch (Antony 66) describes Cleopatra's 60 ships hoisting sail and fleeing through the battle line, with Antony following.
• Plutarch (Antony 61) gives Antony at least 500 warships.
• Octavian founded a victory city, Nicopolis, near the site, with a monument decorated with captured ship rams.
• Cassius Dio (50.31-35) gives a full narrative, written about 250 years later.

Sources: Plutarch, Life of Antony 61-68 (LacusCurtius); Plutarch, Life of Antony (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 50.31-35 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Actium (31 BCE); Britannica: Battle of Actium

Octavian Becomes Augustus (January 27 BC)

On 13 January 27 BC Octavian announced that he was returning control of the state to the Senate and people. The Senate responded by granting him a large province with most of the legions, and on 16 January voted him the name Augustus, 'the revered one'. Historians usually date the end of the Republic and the start of the Roman Empire to this settlement.

• In his own Res Gestae (34), Augustus says he received the name by decree of the Senate and that the doorposts of his house were wreathed with laurel.
• Suetonius (Augustus 7) and Cassius Dio (53.16) say the name Romulus was considered first but rejected, partly because it suggested kingship; Suetonius says Munatius Plancus proposed 'Augustus'.
• The Senate also set up a golden shield honoring his courage, clemency, justice and piety (Res Gestae 34); a marble copy found at Arles survives.
• The month Sextilis was renamed August in his honor in 8 BC (Cassius Dio 55.6; Suetonius, Augustus 31).

Sources: Augustus, Res Gestae 34 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 53.2-16 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Augustus 7 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Augustus; Britannica: Augustus

Augustus (27 BC to AD 14)

Imperator Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius), Julio-Claudian

Adopted in Julius Caesar's will in 44 BC, Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC. In January 27 BC the Senate granted him the name Augustus, and he ruled as 'first citizen' while keeping the outward forms of the Republic. His reign of more than 40 years set the model for every emperor after him.

How he came to power: He won the civil wars after Caesar's murder, and in 27 BC the Senate voted him the name Augustus and control of the key frontier provinces and their armies.

How it ended: He died at Nola on 19 August AD 14 aged 75; Suetonius describes a peaceful death, while Tacitus and Cassius Dio report a rumor that Livia hastened it (Dio says with poisoned figs).

• His own account of his deeds, the Res Gestae, survives almost complete because it was carved on a temple wall at Ancyra (modern Ankara).
• Suetonius says that after the Teutoburg disaster he would bang his head on a door and cry 'Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!'
• Suetonius reports his boast that he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble.
• The month Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) in his honor in 8 BC.

Sources: Res Gestae Divi Augusti (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Augustus 23, 28, 99-100 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 53.11-18 (the settlement of 27 BC) (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Annals 1.1-10 (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Augustus; Britannica: Augustus

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9 (September))

Germanic tribes led by Arminius, a Roman-trained chieftain of the Cherusci, ambushed the governor Publius Quinctilius Varus and three legions over several days of marching through forest and marsh. Varus killed himself and the legions were destroyed. Rome gave up on making Germany east of the Rhine a province.

• The lost legions, usually identified as XVII, XVIII and XIX, were never re-raised.
• Velleius Paterculus says Arminius held Roman citizenship and equestrian rank and had served with Roman forces.
• Tacitus describes Germanicus' army finding the battlefield six years later, with bones and skulls nailed to trees.
• A battlefield site at Kalkriese, near Osnabruck, found from the late 1980s through coins and weapons, is linked by most scholars to the battle.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 56.18-24 (LacusCurtius); Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 2.117-120 (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Annals 1.60-62 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Augustus 23 (LacusCurtius); Livius.org: Battle in the Teutoburg Forest; Britannica: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

Tiberius (AD 14 to 37)

Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Julio-Claudian

Livia's son and Augustus' stepson, Tiberius was a successful commander who was adopted as heir only after Augustus' grandsons died. He kept the empire stable and its treasury full but grew suspicious and remote, leaving Rome in AD 26 and settling on Capri the next year. Treason trials and the rise and fall of his prefect Sejanus darkened his reign.

How he came to power: Adopted by Augustus in AD 4 and already holding shared powers, he succeeded smoothly on Augustus' death in AD 14, though he made a show of reluctance before the Senate.

How it ended: He died at Misenum on 16 March AD 37 aged 77; Tacitus says the praetorian prefect Macro had him smothered with bedclothes, while Suetonius records several versions, including poison from Caligula and starvation.

• Augustus forced him to divorce his beloved wife Vipsania and marry Augustus' daughter Julia; Suetonius says he wept when he later glimpsed Vipsania.
• Tacitus (Annals 15.44) notes that Christ was executed under Tiberius by the governor Pontius Pilate, one of the earliest non-Christian references to Jesus.
• He left a huge surplus in the treasury; Suetonius (Caligula 37) says Caligula spent 2.7 billion sesterces of it in less than a year.
• His Praetorian prefect Sejanus effectively ran Rome during his absence until Tiberius had him arrested and executed in AD 31.

Sources: Tacitus, Annals 1-6 (Annals 6.50 on his death) (Perseus); Tacitus, Annals Book 6 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Tiberius 7, 73 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 58.28 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Tiberius; Britannica: Tiberius

Caligula (AD 37 to 41)

Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Julio-Claudian

Son of the popular general Germanicus, Gaius was welcomed with joy in AD 37 but soon became notorious for extravagance, cruelty and demands for divine honors. Ancient accounts are so hostile that modern historians treat many stories with caution. He was murdered by officers of his own guard after less than four years.

How he came to power: Tiberius' grand-nephew and adopted grandson, he was named co-heir and was hailed emperor with the support of the Praetorian prefect Macro when Tiberius died in March AD 37.

How it ended: On 24 January AD 41 he was stabbed to death in a palace corridor during the Palatine Games by Praetorian tribune Cassius Chaerea and fellow conspirators (Suetonius, Josephus).

• 'Caligula' means 'Little Boot', a nickname from the miniature soldier's boots he wore as a child in his father's army camps.
• Suetonius says only that he was reported to have planned to make his horse Incitatus consul; Cassius Dio says he promised to. Neither says it happened.
• Suetonius claims that on the Channel coast he ordered his troops to gather seashells as 'spoils of the Ocean'.
• He fell gravely ill a few months into his reign, and several ancient writers date his change for the worse to that illness.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Gaius (Caligula) 9, 37, 46, 55, 58 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 59.14, 59.29-30 (LacusCurtius); Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.1-2 on the assassination (Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Caligula; Britannica: Caligula

Claudius (AD 41 to 54)

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Julio-Claudian

Kept out of public life because of a limp and stammer, Claudius was a scholar who became emperor almost by accident. His reign added Britain to the empire, expanded citizenship and built major harbors and aqueducts. His freedmen ran much of the administration, and his last wife Agrippina secured the succession for her son Nero.

How he came to power: After Caligula's murder in January AD 41, Praetorian soldiers found him hiding in the palace and acclaimed him emperor; the Senate, which had debated restoring the Republic, then gave way.

How it ended: He died on 13 October AD 54; Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio all say he was probably poisoned by Agrippina, most famously with a dish of mushrooms, though Suetonius admits the accounts differ on who gave the poison and how.

• Suetonius says he invented three new letters for the Latin alphabet, which were used during his reign and then dropped.
• He wrote a history of the Etruscans in 20 books and of Carthage in 8, in Greek; both are lost.
• He spent only about 16 days in Britain during the conquest of AD 43, according to Cassius Dio, but celebrated a triumph for it.
• Seneca mocked his deification in a satire, the Apocolocyntosis, roughly 'The Pumpkinification of Claudius'.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Claudius 10, 41-42, 44 (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Annals 12.66-67 on his death (Perseus); Tacitus, Annals Book 12 (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 60.1, 60.23, 60.34 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Claudius; Britannica: Claudius

Claudian Invasion of Britain (AD 43)

Nearly a century after Julius Caesar's raids, Claudius sent four legions under Aulus Plautius across the Channel in AD 43. After victories at river crossings usually placed on the Medway and the Thames, Claudius arrived to lead the final advance on Camulodunum (Colchester). Britain became a province, though fighting went on for decades.

• Cassius Dio says the troops first refused to sail, fearing to campaign beyond the edge of the known world.
• Dio says Claudius brought elephants with him to Britain.
• The British leader Caratacus resisted until AD 51; Tacitus says Claudius spared him after a proud speech in Rome.
• Claudius named his son Britannicus after the conquest.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 60.19-23 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Claudius 17 (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Annals 12.31-40 on Caratacus (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Claudius; Britannica: Claudius

Nero (AD 54 to 68)

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Julio-Claudian

Emperor at 16, Nero began with a well-regarded government guided by Seneca and Burrus but grew increasingly erratic. He had his mother Agrippina killed in AD 59, performed publicly as a singer and charioteer, and rebuilt Rome after the Great Fire of 64 with a vast palace, the Golden House. Revolts in Gaul and Spain and the desertion of his guard ended the Julio-Claudian line.

How he came to power: Adopted by his stepfather Claudius in AD 50 and favored over Claudius' own son Britannicus, he was presented to the Praetorians by Agrippina and the prefect Burrus as soon as Claudius died in October 54.

How it ended: Declared a public enemy by the Senate, he killed himself near Rome on 9 June AD 68 with help from his freedman Epaphroditus; Suetonius gives his last words as 'What an artist dies in me!'

• Tacitus says Nero was at Antium when the fire broke out and opened shelters for the homeless; the story that he sang of Troy's fall is reported as a rumor.
• Suetonius, writing later and more hostile, claims Nero started the fire himself and sang from the tower of Maecenas.
• Cassius Dio says he collected 1,808 victory crowns on his performing tour of Greece.
• Several 'false Neros' appeared in the East after his death, a sign he remained popular with some.

Sources: Tacitus, Annals 15.38-44 on the fire (Perseus); Tacitus, Annals Books 13-16 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Nero 38, 49, 57 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 63.21 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Nero; Britannica: Nero

Revolt of Boudica (AD 60 or 61)

After Roman officials seized the kingdom of the Iceni, flogged its queen Boudica and raped her daughters, she led a great revolt in Britain. Her forces destroyed Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans) while the governor Suetonius Paulinus was attacking the island of Mona (Anglesey) off Wales. Paulinus then crushed the rebels in a pitched battle.

• Tacitus says about 70,000 Romans and allies died in the sack of the three towns; Cassius Dio gives 80,000.
• A layer of burnt debris from the destruction is still found by archaeologists under Colchester and London.
• Tacitus says Boudica took poison after the defeat; Dio says she fell ill and died.
• The exact year, 60 or 61, is still debated.

Sources: Tacitus, Annals 14.29-39 (free at Open Scriptorium); Tacitus, Annals 14.31 (Perseus); Cassius Dio, Roman History 62.1-12 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Boudicca

Great Fire of Rome (AD 64 (July))

On the night of 18-19 July 64 a fire broke out near the Circus Maximus and burned for six days before flaring again. Of Rome's fourteen districts, three were destroyed and seven badly damaged. Rumors blamed Nero, who in turn blamed and executed Christians, according to Tacitus.

• Tacitus says only four of the city's fourteen districts escaped damage.
• Tacitus records the claim that Nero sang of the fall of Troy as only a rumor; the 'fiddle' is a later invention, since the violin did not exist.
• Nero used part of the burned land for his huge palace, the Domus Aurea (Golden House).
• Tacitus' account of Christians punished for the fire is one of the earliest pagan references to Christianity.

Sources: Tacitus, Annals 15.38-44 (Perseus); Tacitus, Annals Book 15 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Nero 38 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 62.16-18 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Nero; Britannica: Great Fire of Rome

Galba (AD 68 to 69)

Servius Sulpicius Galba, Year of the Four Emperors

A wealthy aristocrat in his seventies and governor of Spain, Galba joined the revolt against Nero in 68 and became the first emperor from outside the Julio-Claudian family. His stinginess with the troops, harsh discipline and unpopular choice of heir quickly cost him support. He ruled about seven months.

How he came to power: Saluted as emperor by his troops in Spain in April 68 after Vindex's revolt in Gaul (at first he styled himself only legate of the Senate and Roman people), he was recognized by the Senate after Nero's suicide in June.

How it ended: On 15 January AD 69 he was killed in the Roman Forum by Praetorian soldiers won over by Otho (Tacitus, Histories 1.41; Suetonius, Galba 19-20).

• Tacitus' verdict: 'capax imperii nisi imperasset', all would have thought him capable of ruling if he had never ruled.
• He refused the expected cash gift to the Praetorians, saying (Suetonius and Tacitus report) that he chose his soldiers and did not buy them.
• His adoption of the young aristocrat Piso Licinianus as heir, five days before his death, pushed the passed-over Otho to strike.
• He was the first emperor proclaimed outside Rome, showing, as Tacitus put it, that emperors could be made elsewhere.

Sources: Tacitus, Histories 1.5-49 (Perseus); Tacitus, Histories Book 1 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Galba 10, 16, 19-20 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 64.1-6 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Galba; Britannica: Galba

Year of the Four Emperors (June AD 68 to December AD 69)

Nero's suicide in June 68 left no heir, and armies across the empire backed their own commanders. Galba, Otho and Vitellius each held power briefly before Vespasian, backed by the eastern legions, won. The war revealed that the army, not the Senate or family descent, decided who ruled.

• Tacitus wrote that the 'secret of empire' was out: an emperor could be made somewhere other than Rome.
• Two battles were fought near the same village, Bedriacum in northern Italy, in April and October 69.
• The Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, Rome's most sacred temple, burned in the fighting of December 69.
• Tacitus' Histories, which opens with this year, is the main surviving account.

Sources: Tacitus, Histories 1.4 (Perseus); Tacitus, Histories Books 1-3 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Lives of Galba, Otho and Vitellius (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 64-65 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Timeline of the Roman Empire

Otho (AD 69 (January to April))

Marcus Salvius Otho, Year of the Four Emperors

Once Nero's close friend and husband of Poppaea Sabina, Otho was sent off to govern Lusitania when Nero took Poppaea for himself. He backed Galba in 68, then overthrew him when he was not made heir. After his army lost to Vitellius' forces at the first battle of Bedriacum, he chose suicide over prolonging the civil war.

How he came to power: Passed over as Galba's heir, he bribed the Praetorian Guard, who murdered Galba on 15 January 69 and acclaimed Otho emperor that day.

How it ended: He stabbed himself at Brixellum on 16 April AD 69 after his army's defeat at Bedriacum; Tacitus and Suetonius both say he did it to spare Rome further civil war.

• Nero sent him to govern Lusitania (Portugal) for about ten years to get him away from Poppaea, who became Nero's wife.
• Suetonius says he died on the 95th day of his reign.
• Tacitus and Suetonius report that some soldiers killed themselves beside his funeral pyre out of devotion.
• Tacitus says the Roman public expected the worse character of Otho and Vitellius to win, whichever it turned out to be.

Sources: Tacitus, Histories 2.46-50 (Perseus); Tacitus, Histories Book 2 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Otho 3, 11-12 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 64.10-15 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Otho; Britannica: Otho

Vitellius (AD 69 (April to December))

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Augustus, Year of the Four Emperors

Governor of Lower Germany, Vitellius was proclaimed emperor by the Rhine legions at the start of 69 even before Galba died. His generals defeated Otho, but his own rule lasted only months before the eastern legions declared for Vespasian. Rome itself became a battlefield, and the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol burned.

How he came to power: The German legions hailed him emperor on 2 January 69; after his generals beat Otho at the first battle of Bedriacum in April, the Senate recognized him.

How it ended: When Flavian troops took Rome on 20 December AD 69, he was dragged through the Forum, tortured and killed at the Gemonian Stairs; Suetonius says his body was then dragged with a hook into the Tiber (Suetonius, Vitellius 17; Tacitus, Histories 3.84-85).

• Suetonius describes a giant dish he named the 'Shield of Minerva', filled with pike livers, pheasant and peacock brains, flamingo tongues and lamprey milt.
• Touring the Bedriacum battlefield, Suetonius claims he remarked that a dead enemy smells sweet, and a dead citizen sweeter.
• Tacitus says he tried to abdicate in December 69 but his own soldiers and supporters would not let him.
• The great Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol burned during street fighting between his men and Vespasian's supporters.

Sources: Tacitus, Histories 3.68-86 (Perseus); Tacitus, Histories Book 3 (free at Open Scriptorium); Suetonius, Life of Vitellius 10, 13, 17 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 65 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Vitellius; Britannica: Aulus Vitellius

Vespasian (AD 69 to 79)

Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (born Titus Flavius Vespasianus), Flavian

A tough soldier from an Italian family of modest rank, Vespasian was fighting the Jewish revolt when the eastern legions proclaimed him emperor. He ended the civil war, rebuilt the treasury after Nero's spending and began the Colosseum. He founded the Flavian dynasty and became the first emperor to be succeeded by his own natural son.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the legions in Egypt on 1 July 69 and soon by those in Judaea and Syria, he won when his supporters defeated Vitellius and took Rome in December 69.

How it ended: He died of a fever and intestinal illness at Aquae Cutiliae on 23 June AD 79; Suetonius says he insisted on dying on his feet, as an emperor should.

• When Titus objected to a tax on urine collected from public latrines, Suetonius says Vespasian held a coin to his nose and asked if it smelled; 'money doesn't stink' is the later paraphrase.
• Suetonius and Tacitus say he fell asleep during one of Nero's singing performances and fell out of favor for it.
• Josephus, captured in Galilee, claims he predicted Vespasian would become emperor.
• Suetonius records his last joke as 'Vae, puto deus fio', 'Oh dear, I think I am becoming a god.'

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 4-5, 23-24 (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Histories 2.74-81 (Perseus); Josephus, Jewish War 3.399-408 (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 66 (LacusCurtius); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Vespasian; Britannica: Vespasian

Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70 (spring to September))

During the First Jewish Revolt, which began in 66, Titus besieged Jerusalem from about Passover of 70. The Romans breached the walls one after another, and in late summer the Temple was burned and the city sacked. Most of what we know comes from Josephus, a Jewish commander who had gone over to the Romans.

• Josephus claims 1.1 million people died in the siege, a figure modern historians consider exaggerated.
• Josephus says Titus wanted to spare the Temple; the later Christian writer Sulpicius Severus, possibly using Tacitus, says Titus wanted it destroyed.
• Spoils from the Temple appear on the Arch of Titus, which still stands in the Roman Forum.
• Vespasian afterward diverted the Temple tax paid by Jews to Jupiter in Rome, the 'fiscus Iudaicus'.

Sources: Josephus, Jewish War Book 6 (free at Open Scriptorium); Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Whiston translation (Project Gutenberg); Tacitus, Histories 5.1-13 (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.4-7 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

Titus (AD 79 to 81)

Imperator Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (born Titus Flavius Vespasianus), Flavian

Vespasian's elder son commanded the siege of Jerusalem in 70 and shared power with his father for years before succeeding him. His short reign was remembered as generous: he opened the Colosseum and spent heavily on relief after the eruption of Vesuvius and a great fire in Rome. He died suddenly after just over two years.

How he came to power: Already his father's colleague in tribunician power and Praetorian prefect, he succeeded smoothly when Vespasian died on 23 June 79.

How it ended: He died of a fever on 13 September AD 81 at the family villa at Aquae Cutiliae, where his father had died; Suetonius treats it as natural but says Domitian ordered him left for dead, and Cassius Dio repeats a rumor that Domitian packed him in snow to hasten his end.

• Suetonius says that when a day passed without his doing someone a favor, he told his friends 'I have lost a day.'
• He sent away the Jewish queen Berenice, with whom he had a long affair, because Romans disapproved of her (Suetonius, Titus 7).
• The Arch of Titus, set up after his death, shows Roman soldiers carrying the menorah from the Jerusalem Temple.
• Suetonius says 5,000 wild animals were killed in a single day of the Colosseum's opening games.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Titus 7-11 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.18-26 (LacusCurtius); Josephus, Jewish War Book 6 (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Titus; Britannica: Titus

Eruption of Vesuvius (AD 79)

Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under ash and pyroclastic flows. Pliny the Younger, then 17, watched from Misenum across the bay and later described the eruption in two letters to Tacitus. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, died while leading a rescue fleet.

• The traditional date, 24 August, comes from manuscripts of Pliny's letter; a charcoal inscription found at Pompeii in 2018 supports a date in October or later.
• Volcanologists still call this kind of tall, column-forming eruption 'Plinian' after Pliny's description.
• Pliny the Elder, author of the Natural History, died on the shore at Stabiae.
• Excavation at Pompeii began in 1748, ten years after work started at Herculaneum.

Sources: Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16 and 6.20 (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.21-24 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Titus 8 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Pompeii

Colosseum Opened (AD 80)

Begun by Vespasian on the site of the lake in Nero's Golden House, the Flavian Amphitheatre was dedicated by Titus in AD 80 and finished under Domitian. It held perhaps 50,000 spectators for gladiator fights, animal hunts and executions. A reconstructed dedication inscription suggests it was paid for with spoils of the Jewish War.

• Cassius Dio says the opening games lasted 100 days and about 9,000 animals were killed; Suetonius says 5,000 in one day.
• Dio reports that the arena was flooded for a mock sea battle during the opening games.
• Its ancient name was the Flavian Amphitheatre; 'Colosseum' comes from the nearby colossal statue of Nero, and was used in the Middle Ages.
• The poet Martial wrote a book of epigrams, the Book of Spectacles, usually dated to the opening shows.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.25 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Titus 7.3 (LacusCurtius); Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 9 (LacusCurtius); Britannica: Colosseum

Domitian (AD 81 to 96)

Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus (born Titus Flavius Domitianus), Flavian

Vespasian's younger son ruled for 15 years, longer than any emperor since Tiberius. He was a careful manager of finances and provinces and a major builder, but his autocratic style and treason trials made him hated by the senatorial class who wrote his history. He was assassinated in a palace plot, ending the Flavian dynasty.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the Praetorians and confirmed by the Senate on 14 September 81, the day after his brother Titus died.

How it ended: He was stabbed to death in the palace on 18 September AD 96 by a conspiracy of court officials, the blow struck first by Stephanus, steward of his niece Flavia Domitilla (Suetonius, Domitian 17); Cassius Dio says his wife Domitia knew of the plot.

• Suetonius says that early in his reign he spent hours alone catching flies and stabbing them with a stylus.
• Suetonius reports that he liked letters to begin 'Our Lord and God commands'.
• After his death the Senate condemned his memory, ordering his inscriptions erased and his statues removed.
• Rome's Piazza Navona still follows the shape of the stadium he built for athletic contests.

Sources: Suetonius, Life of Domitian 3, 13, 17, 23 (LacusCurtius); Cassius Dio, Roman History 67.15-18 (LacusCurtius); Tacitus, Agricola 39-45 (free at Open Scriptorium); Pliny the Younger, Panegyricus (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Domitian; Britannica: Domitian

Nerva (AD 96 to 98)

Marcus Cocceius Nerva, Nerva-Antonine

Nerva was a veteran senator chosen as emperor on 18 September 96, the day Domitian was assassinated. His short reign was shaken by a Praetorian mutiny, and he answered it by adopting the general Trajan as his son and heir. That adoption began the run of rulers later called the Five Good Emperors.

How he came to power: The Senate recognised him as emperor on the day Domitian was assassinated in September 96.

How it ended: He died of natural causes in January 98; Cassius Dio gives no cause, while the later Epitome de Caesaribus says a fit of shouting in anger at a man named Regulus brought on sweating, chills and a fatal fever.

• Cassius Dio (68.3.3) says that when the Praetorian prefect Casperius Aelianus stirred the guard to demand the execution of Domitian's killers, Nerva bared his collarbone and offered his throat to the soldiers but could not stop them.
• Dio (68.3.4 to 68.4.1) says Nerva, held in contempt because of his age, went up to the Capitol and publicly adopted Trajan, passing over his own relatives.
• Dio (68.4.2) gives his reign as one year, four months and nine days, ending when he was about 65.
• His coins advertise relief from abuses in collecting the special tax on Jews (FISCI IVDAICI CALVMNIA SVBLATA).

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.1 to 68.4 (LacusCurtius); Epitome de Caesaribus 12.10 to 12.11, trans. T. Banchich (De Imperatoribus Romanis); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Nerva; Britannica: Nerva; Livius.org: Nerva

Trajan (AD 98 to 117)

Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Nerva-Antonine

Trajan, a general from Italica in Spain, succeeded Nerva in 98 and became the first emperor born in a province. He conquered Dacia in two wars (101 to 102 and 105 to 106), annexed Arabia, and in 114 to 117 invaded the Parthian empire. The Senate named him Optimus, 'the best', and centuries later new emperors were still acclaimed as 'more fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan'.

How he came to power: Nerva adopted him in October 97 under pressure from the mutinous Praetorian Guard, and he succeeded when Nerva died in January 98.

How it ended: He fell ill on the eastern campaign and died at Selinus in Cilicia in August 117; Cassius Dio says Trajan himself suspected poison, that others blamed a blocked flow of blood, and that he had also suffered a stroke and dropsy.

• Cassius Dio (68.29.1) says that on reaching the ocean at the head of the Persian Gulf, Trajan saw a ship leaving for India and said he would have crossed there himself if he were still young.
• Dio (68.23.1 to 2) says Trajan valued the title Optimus more than his military titles because it described his character rather than his arms.
• His letters with Pliny the Younger survive, including his ruling that Christians should not be hunted out but punished if accused and convicted (Pliny, Letters 10.96 to 97); Tertullian later attacked the logic of this rescript.
• Eutropius (8.5) reports that even in his own day, the late 300s, new emperors were acclaimed with the wish 'more fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan'.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.5 to 68.33 (LacusCurtius); Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96 to 97, with Trajan's reply (Fordham Internet History Sourcebook); Tertullian, Apologeticum 2 on Trajan's rescript (free at Open Scriptorium); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.2 to 8.5, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Trajan; Britannica: Trajan; Livius.org: Trajan

Hadrian (AD 117 to 138)

Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Nerva-Antonine

Hadrian, son of Trajan's first cousin and his ward, became emperor in 117 and immediately abandoned Trajan's new eastern provinces. He spent much of his reign touring the provinces, built the wall in Britain and rebuilt the Pantheon, and crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea (132 to 135/136). A lover of Greek culture, he deified his favourite Antinous after the youth drowned in the Nile in 130.

How he came to power: He claimed Trajan had adopted him on his deathbed in 117, but Cassius Dio, citing his own father, says Trajan's death was hidden for days while the empress Plotina arranged the adoption.

How it ended: He died at Baiae on 10 July 138 after a long illness; Dio says he had begged for poison or a sword and even asked a barbarian servant named Mastor to stab him, but no one would.

• Cassius Dio (69.1.3) says his own father Apronianus, governor of Cilicia, told him Trajan's death was concealed until Hadrian's adoption could be announced.
• Dio (69.4) says Hadrian banished and then executed Trajan's architect Apollodorus, who had once mocked him and later criticised his temple design.
• Dio (69.14.1) claims 580,000 Jewish fighters were killed in the Bar Kokhba revolt, with 50 forts and 985 villages destroyed.
• The Historia Augusta (Hadrian 25.9) preserves a short poem he supposedly wrote to his own soul as he died, beginning 'animula vagula blandula'; that source is unreliable, but the poem is widely accepted as his.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 69 (LacusCurtius); Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.6 to 8.7, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Hadrian; Britannica: Hadrian; Livius.org: Hadrian

Roman Empire at Its Greatest Extent (AD 117 (after the Parthian campaign of 114 to 117))

Trajan's invasion of the Parthian empire in 114 to 117 annexed Armenia and Mesopotamia and briefly carried Roman armies to the Persian Gulf, on top of his earlier conquests of Dacia and Arabia. This is the largest the empire ever was on paper. Revolts broke out behind the lines, and after Trajan's death in 117 Hadrian abandoned the new eastern provinces and made the Euphrates the frontier again.

• Cassius Dio (68.29.1) says Trajan, seeing a ship sail for India from the Gulf, said he would have gone there himself if he were younger.
• Eutropius (8.6) says Hadrian, envious of Trajan's glory, gave up Assyria, Mesopotamia and Armenia, and was talked out of abandoning Dacia too.
• Dacia, conquered in 106, remained Roman until it was abandoned under Aurelian around 271 to 275.
• Trajan's Column in Rome, dedicated in 113, records the Dacian wars in a spiral frieze roughly 190 m long.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.17 to 68.33 (LacusCurtius); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.2 to 8.6, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Trajan; Livius.org: Trajan

Hadrian's Wall Begun (begun c. AD 122)

Hadrian's Wall was begun around 122, when Hadrian visited Britain, and ran 80 Roman miles (about 73 modern miles) from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. Built mostly of stone with forts, milecastles and a ditch, it was garrisoned by auxiliary troops. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

• The Historia Augusta (Hadrian 11.2) says he was the first to build a wall 80 miles long 'to separate the Romans from the barbarians'.
• It was largely built by soldiers of the three British legions, recorded on inscribed building stones.
• Under Antoninus Pius the frontier briefly moved north to the turf Antonine Wall before falling back to Hadrian's line.
• Writing tablets from nearby Vindolanda, mostly written in the two decades before the wall was begun, show daily life on the frontier, including a birthday party invitation.

Sources: Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian 11.2 (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); English Heritage: Hadrian's Wall history and stories; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Hadrian

Antoninus Pius (AD 138 to 161)

Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius, Nerva-Antonine

Antoninus, born at Lanuvium in 86 to a wealthy senatorial family from Nemausus (Nimes), was adopted by Hadrian in 138 on condition that he in turn adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. His reign of nearly 23 years was the most peaceful of the principate; he governed from Italy and pushed the British frontier north with the Antonine Wall (begun about 142). Cassius Dio's account of him survives only in fragments.

How he came to power: Hadrian adopted him on 25 February 138 after his first chosen heir, Lucius Aelius, died, and he succeeded in July 138.

How it ended: He died of illness at his estate at Lorium on 7 March 161; the Historia Augusta says he gave the guard the watchword 'aequanimitas' (equanimity) before turning over as if to sleep.

• The Historia Augusta (Antoninus Pius 2) offers several competing explanations for the name Pius, including supporting his aged father-in-law and saving men Hadrian had condemned at the end of his reign.
• He pressed the Senate to deify Hadrian, which it was reluctant to do.
• The Antonine Wall in Scotland, built of turf on stone foundations, ran roughly 37 miles (about 60 km) between the Forth and the Clyde and was abandoned within about a generation.
• Cassius Dio's books on his reign are almost entirely lost, which is why his reign is so thinly documented.

Sources: Historia Augusta, Life of Antoninus Pius (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); Cassius Dio, Roman History 70 (fragments, LacusCurtius); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.8, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Antoninus Pius; Britannica: Antoninus Pius; Livius.org: Antoninus Pius

Marcus Aurelius (AD 161 to 180)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Nerva-Antonine

Marcus Aurelius succeeded Antoninus Pius in 161 and at once made his adoptive brother Lucius Verus co-emperor, the first time Rome had two equal Augusti. His reign was dominated by a Parthian war, the Antonine Plague and long wars against the Marcomanni and other Danube peoples. In camp he wrote, in Greek, the private Stoic notebooks now called the Meditations.

How he came to power: Adopted by Antoninus Pius at Hadrian's command in 138, he succeeded him on 7 March 161.

How it ended: He died on 17 March 180 on campaign, at Vindobona (Vienna) according to Aurelius Victor or at Sirmium according to Tertullian; Cassius Dio says he had been plainly told that the doctors hastened the death to please Commodus.

• Cassius Dio (72.8 to 72.10) describes a sudden rainstorm that saved a thirsty Roman army from the Quadi; Dio credits an Egyptian magician, while his epitomator Xiphilinus inserts a story crediting Christian soldiers' prayers.
• Tertullian (Apologeticum 5) says letters of Marcus credited the 'German' rain to the prayers of Christian soldiers.
• In 175 the general Avidius Cassius proclaimed himself emperor on a false report of Marcus's death; Dio (72.27 to 72.30) says Marcus refused to look at his head and burned the conspirators' letters unread.
• Dio (72.36.4) called the passage from his reign to Commodus's a fall 'from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust'.

Sources: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (free at Open Scriptorium); Cassius Dio, Roman History 72 (LacusCurtius); Tertullian, Apologeticum 5 (rain miracle) and 25 (death at Sirmium) (free at Open Scriptorium); Historia Augusta, Life of Marcus Aurelius (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Marcus Aurelius; Britannica: Marcus Aurelius; Livius.org: Marcus Aurelius

Lucius Verus (AD 161 to 169 (co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius))

Lucius Aurelius Verus, Nerva-Antonine

Lucius Verus was the son of Hadrian's first chosen heir, Lucius Aelius, and was adopted by Antoninus Pius alongside Marcus Aurelius. Marcus made him a full co-Augustus in 161, and he nominally led the Parthian war of 161 to 166, while generals such as Avidius Cassius did much of the fighting. He married Marcus's daughter Lucilla in 164.

How he came to power: Marcus Aurelius insisted on sharing power with him on taking the throne in March 161, making him the first co-emperor of equal rank.

How it ended: He died early in 169 at Altinum, apparently of a stroke, while returning from the northern front; the Historia Augusta repeats rumours that Marcus or Faustina poisoned him but treats them as slander.

• The Historia Augusta claims he spent much of the Parthian war enjoying himself at Antioch and Daphne while his generals campaigned; it is a hostile and unreliable source.
• Roman forces sacked Seleucia on the Tigris and burned the palace at Ctesiphon during his Parthian war.
• Ancient writers linked the start of the Antonine Plague to his army's return from the East in 165 to 166.
• He was deified by the Senate after his death.

Sources: Historia Augusta, Life of Lucius Verus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); Cassius Dio, Roman History 71 to 72 (fragments, LacusCurtius); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.9 to 8.10, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Lucius Verus; Britannica: Lucius Verus; Livius.org: Lucius Verus

Antonine Plague (AD 165 to c. 190)

The Antonine Plague appeared among Roman troops in the East around 165 to 166, during Lucius Verus's Parthian war, and spread across the empire. The physician Galen described fever, diarrhoea and a skin eruption, and most scholars think it was smallpox, though that is not certain. Death tolls are debated; Cassius Dio says a later outbreak around 189 often killed 2,000 people a day in Rome.

• Ammianus Marcellinus (23.6.24), writing two centuries later, repeats a story that the plague escaped from a shrine opened by soldiers looting Seleucia; this is legend, not established fact.
• Cassius Dio (73.14.3) calls the outbreak in Rome under Commodus the greatest pestilence he knew of, with 2,000 deaths often in a single day.
• Galen left Rome in 166, around the time the disease reached the city, and later treated troops struck by it at Aquileia in 168 to 169.
• Modern estimates of total deaths range widely, and historians still debate whether rural areas were hit as hard as cities.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 73.14.3 to 4 (LacusCurtius); Ammianus Marcellinus, History 23.6.24 (LacusCurtius); Historia Augusta, Life of Lucius Verus 8.1 to 8.2 (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); Josephine Quinn, review of Colin Elliott's Pox Romana, London Review of Books (2024); World History Encyclopedia: Antonine Plague

Commodus (AD 177 to 192 (sole ruler from 180))

Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus, Nerva-Antonine

Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, was made co-emperor in 177 and ruled alone from 180, quickly ending the Danube wars and returning to Rome. After his sister Lucilla's failed plot in 182 his rule grew suspicious and violent, and he left government to favourites. He styled himself a new Hercules, renamed Rome and the months after himself, and fought as a gladiator in public.

How he came to power: Marcus Aurelius made him co-Augustus in 177, and he became sole emperor when his father died in March 180.

How it ended: He was murdered on 31 December 192; Cassius Dio and Herodian agree that his mistress Marcia gave him poison and, when he vomited it up, the athlete Narcissus strangled him, which Dio says happened in his bath.

• Cassius Dio, who was in the Senate at the time, says (73.21) Commodus waved a cut-off ostrich head at the senators, and Dio chewed laurel leaves from his wreath to keep from laughing.
• Dio (73.18) says he killed a hundred bears in a single day from a platform in the amphitheatre.
• Dio (73.15) says he ordered Rome renamed Colonia Commodiana and gave the months names taken from his own titles.
• Dio (73.14.3) reports a plague in Rome during his reign, the greatest he knew of, in which 2,000 people often died in a single day.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 73 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 1.5 to 1.17 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Commodus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Commodus; Livius.org: Commodus

Pertinax (AD 193 (1 January to 28 March))

Publius Helvius Pertinax, Year of the Five Emperors

Pertinax was a self-made man from Alba Pompeia in Liguria who taught school before a long army and governing career, and was city prefect when Commodus was murdered. Proclaimed emperor on 1 January 193, he tried to restore discipline and repair the finances. The Praetorian Guard, unhappy with his strictness and his payments, killed him less than three months later.

How he came to power: After Commodus's murder the conspirators brought him to the Praetorian camp, where he promised a donative, and the Senate acclaimed him on 1 January 193.

How it ended: On 28 March 193 a band of Praetorians stormed the palace; Cassius Dio says Pertinax went out to reason with them and was cut down with his loyal chamberlain Eclectus, his head carried off on a spear.

• The Historia Augusta says his father was a freed slave; Cassius Dio (74.3) says only that his father was not of noble birth.
• Cassius Dio (74.10) gives his reign as 87 days.
• His murder led directly to the Praetorian Guard's notorious 'auction' of the throne.
• Septimius Severus later avenged him, had him deified and added Pertinax to his own name.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 74.1 to 74.10 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 2.1 to 2.5 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Pertinax (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Pertinax; Britannica: Publius Helvius Pertinax; Livius.org: Pertinax

Didius Julianus (AD 193 (28 March to 1 June))

Marcus Didius Severus Julianus, Year of the Five Emperors

Didius Julianus was a rich senator who, after Pertinax's murder, outbid Pertinax's father-in-law Sulpicianus for the support of the Praetorian Guard. The people of Rome jeered him, and three provincial armies proclaimed their own commanders: Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus. As Severus marched on Rome, the Senate condemned Julianus to death.

How he came to power: He bought the Praetorians' support on 28 March 193 by promising each soldier 25,000 sesterces, outbidding Sulpicianus.

How it ended: A soldier killed him in the palace on 1 June 193 after the Senate voted his death; Cassius Dio reports his last words as 'But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?'

• Cassius Dio (74.11) called the bidding 'a most disgraceful business and one unworthy of Rome'.
• Dio (74.13) says crowds shouted at him as a usurper and parricide and refused his money.
• Dio (74.17.5) gives his reign as 66 days and his age as about 60.
• The Historia Augusta life of him is more sympathetic and claims Dio's story of a lavish dinner after his accession was invented; it is not a reliable source either.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 74.11 to 74.17 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 2.6 to 2.12 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Didius Julianus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Didius Julianus; Livius.org: Didius Julianus

Septimius Severus (AD 193 to 211)

Lucius Septimius Severus, Severan

Septimius Severus, born at Leptis Magna in modern Libya, was governor of Upper Pannonia when his troops proclaimed him emperor in April 193. He defeated his rivals Pescennius Niger (194) and Clodius Albinus (197), sacked the Parthian capital Ctesiphon, and created the province of Mesopotamia. He raised soldiers' pay and ruled with open reliance on the army, founding the Severan dynasty.

How he came to power: His legions at Carnuntum proclaimed him on 9 April 193; he marched on Rome, where the Senate deposed Didius Julianus, and then won civil wars against Niger and Albinus.

How it ended: He died of illness at Eboracum (York) on 4 February 211 during his campaign in Scotland; Cassius Dio adds that he died 'not without some help, they say' from Caracalla.

• Cassius Dio (77.15.2) gives his deathbed advice to his sons as 'Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men.'
• Dio (77.14) says Caracalla once drew his sword behind his father's back on campaign in Scotland, and Severus later offered him a sword to finish the job.
• He dissolved the existing Praetorian Guard and refilled it with soldiers from his own Danube legions.
• His triumphal arch, dedicated in 203, still stands in the Roman Forum.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 75 to 77 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 2.9 to 3.15 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Septimius Severus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); Eutropius, Breviarium 8.18 to 8.19, trans. J. S. Watson (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Septimius Severus; Britannica: Septimius Severus; Livius.org: Septimius Severus

The Auction of the Empire (28 March AD 193)

After the Praetorian Guard killed Pertinax on 28 March 193, the soldiers in their camp heard competing offers for the throne. Sulpicianus, Pertinax's father-in-law, bid from inside while Didius Julianus bid from outside the walls. Julianus won with 25,000 sesterces per soldier, but the episode discredited him and set off a civil war won by Septimius Severus.

• Cassius Dio (74.11) says the bids climbed to 20,000 sesterces each before Julianus jumped by 5,000 at once, signalling the figure with his fingers.
• Dio, then a senator in Rome, called it 'a most disgraceful business and one unworthy of Rome'.
• Herodian (2.6) says the soldiers had announced from the walls that the empire was for sale.
• 193 saw five men claim the throne: Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 74.11 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 2.6 (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Didius Julianus; Livius.org: Didius Julianus

Caracalla (AD 198 to 217 (sole ruler 211 to 217))

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus), Severan

Caracalla, elder son of Septimius Severus, was named Augustus in 198 and shared power with his brother Geta after their father died in 211, until he had Geta murdered that December. In 212 he extended Roman citizenship to almost all free people in the empire, and he built the vast Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Obsessed with Alexander the Great, he spent his last years campaigning in the East.

How he came to power: His father made him co-Augustus in 198; he became joint ruler with Geta in 211 and sole emperor after Geta's murder.

How it ended: On 8 April 217, near Carrhae, a soldier named Julius Martialis stabbed him when he dismounted to relieve himself; Cassius Dio says the praetorian prefect Macrinus was behind the plot.

• His nickname came from a long hooded Gallic cloak, the caracallus, that he wore and popularised; officially he was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
• Cassius Dio (78.4.1) claims about 20,000 people associated with Geta, freedmen and soldiers, men and women, were killed after the murder.
• Dio (78.7) says he formed a 16,000-man 'Macedonian phalanx' armed like Alexander's soldiers.
• Dio (78.22 to 78.23) describes a massacre of the people of Alexandria in 215 after they mocked him.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 78 to 79.6 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 4.1 to 4.13 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Caracalla (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Caracalla; Britannica: Caracalla; Livius.org: Caracalla

Geta (AD 209 to 211 (co-emperor))

Publius Septimius Geta, Severan

Geta, younger son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, was raised to Augustus in 209 (some evidence points to 210) and became joint emperor with Caracalla when their father died in February 211. The brothers hated each other; Herodian says they even discussed splitting the empire between them. In December 211 Caracalla had him killed and ordered his memory erased.

How he came to power: His father made him Augustus alongside Caracalla during the British campaign, and he inherited a share of power at Severus's death in 211.

How it ended: Caracalla lured him to a meeting in their mother's apartments in December 211, where centurions killed him as he clung to Julia Domna, according to Cassius Dio.

• Cassius Dio (78.2.5) says he was 22 years and 9 months old when he was killed.
• Herodian (4.1) says the brothers lived in separate halves of the palace with the connecting doors blocked.
• His face was deliberately scraped off the painted Severan Tondo, a family portrait now in Berlin.
• His name was chiselled off monuments, including the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 78.1 to 78.4 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 4.1 to 4.4 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Geta (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Geta; Livius.org: Geta

Constitutio Antoniniana (AD 212)

In 212 Caracalla issued an edict granting Roman citizenship to almost all free inhabitants of the empire, ending the long divide between citizens and provincials. Its text survives only on a damaged papyrus in Giessen, Germany (P.Giss. 40), and the exact exceptions are still debated. Huge numbers of new citizens took the name Aurelius from the emperor.

• Cassius Dio (78.9.4 to 5) says the honour was a pretext to raise revenue, since only citizens paid the inheritance tax, which Caracalla also doubled from 5% to 10%.
• The jurist Ulpian (Digest 1.5.17) records that those in the Roman world were made citizens by the constitution of the emperor Antoninus.
• The papyrus breaks off at the key clause on exceptions, usually restored as excluding the 'dediticii', but scholars disagree.
• Many Egyptian documents after 212 show people suddenly bearing the name Marcus Aurelius.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 78.9.4 to 5 (LacusCurtius); P.Giss. 40 with translations, Dio 78.9.5 and Digest 1.5.17 (ostia-antica.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Caracalla; Britannica: Caracalla

Macrinus (AD 217 to 218)

Marcus Opellius Macrinus, Severan interlude

Macrinus was an equestrian lawyer from Caesarea in Mauretania who became Caracalla's praetorian prefect. Fearing for his life, he arranged Caracalla's murder in April 217 and was proclaimed emperor, the first who had never been a senator. He bought an expensive peace with Parthia, cut new recruits' pay, and was overthrown within 14 months by supporters of Caracalla's family.

How he came to power: The army in Mesopotamia proclaimed him on 11 April 217, three days after Caracalla's murder, which Cassius Dio says he had arranged.

How it ended: After losing a battle near Antioch on 8 June 218 he fled in disguise, was recognised and arrested at Chalcedon, and was executed in Cappadocia.

• Cassius Dio (79.14.2 and 79.41) stresses that he seized the throne while still a knight, before he even held the title of senator.
• Dio (79.39) says he shaved his head and beard and fled by night disguised as an ordinary citizen.
• Dio (79.37 to 79.38) says his Praetorians were winning near Antioch but he was 'defeated by his own cowardice' and fled before the battle was decided.
• He spent his entire reign in the East and never reached Rome as emperor.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 79.11 to 79.41 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 4.12 to 5.4 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Opellius Macrinus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Macrinus and Diadumenianus; Britannica: Macrinus; Livius.org: Macrinus

Diadumenian (AD 218 (Caesar from 217))

Marcus Opellius Antoninus Diadumenianus, Severan interlude

Diadumenian was the young son of Macrinus, who named him Caesar in 217 and gave him the name Antoninus to borrow the prestige of the previous dynasty. In spring 218, to win over the troops, Macrinus raised him to Augustus. After his father's defeat near Antioch he was sent to flee east but was captured.

How he came to power: His father made him Caesar in 217 and co-Augustus in 218.

How it ended: He was captured at Zeugma on the Euphrates while fleeing towards Parthia and was killed in June 218, shortly after his father.

• Cassius Dio (79.34.2) says he was 'only in his tenth year', that is, nine years old, when his father made him emperor at Apamea.
• His father gave him the name Antoninus to tie the new regime to the family of Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla.
• Coins struck for him survive with the titles Caesar and Augustus, among the main evidence for his brief reign.
• The Historia Augusta life of Diadumenianus is short and full of invented material.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 79.17, 79.34, 79.40 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 5.4 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Diadumenianus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diadumenianus

Elagabalus (AD 218 to 222)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Varius Avitus Bassianus), Severan

Elagabalus was a teenage priest of the sun god Elagabal at Emesa in Syria. His grandmother Julia Maesa's party had the legions proclaim him in 218 by claiming he was Caracalla's illegitimate son. In Rome he raised his god above Jupiter, married a Vestal Virgin, and scandalised the Senate and army, until the Praetorians killed him.

How he came to power: Troops of the legion at Raphanea, near Emesa, proclaimed him on 16 May 218, persuaded that he was Caracalla's son, and his forces defeated Macrinus near Antioch.

How it ended: In March 222 the Praetorian Guard killed him with his mother Julia Soaemias; Cassius Dio says their bodies were dragged through the city and his was thrown into the river.

• Cassius Dio (80.9.3) says he married the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, claiming their children would be godlike.
• Dio (80.16) claims he told a man to call him 'lady' and asked doctors to give him a woman's body; Dio was openly hostile, and modern historians debate how to read these claims.
• Herodian (5.5 to 5.6) describes the sacred black stone of his god being brought to Rome and paraded in a chariot.
• The story that he smothered dinner guests under rose petals comes only from the unreliable Historia Augusta (Elagabalus 21.5).

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 79.30 to 80.21 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 5.3 to 5.8 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Elagabalus (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Elagabalus; Britannica: Elagabalus

Severus Alexander (AD 222 to 235)

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, Severan

Severus Alexander, cousin of Elagabalus, became emperor at about 13 in 222, with real power in the hands of his grandmother Julia Maesa and his mother Julia Mamaea. He faced the rise of the Sasanian Persian empire under Ardashir and fought an inconclusive eastern war (231 to 233). His murder by his own troops in 235 ended the Severan dynasty and opened the Crisis of the Third Century.

How he came to power: Elagabalus adopted him as Caesar in 221 under family pressure, and the Praetorians made him emperor when they killed Elagabalus in March 222.

How it ended: In March 235, while preparing a German campaign near Moguntiacum (Mainz), mutinous soldiers killed him and his mother and proclaimed Maximinus Thrax, as Herodian describes.

• Cassius Dio (80.2.2) says the Praetorians murdered his prefect, the great jurist Ulpian, at night even though he ran to the palace and took refuge with the emperor and his mother.
• Dio, who was consul alongside Alexander in 229, ends his History in this reign, partly because he spent little time in Rome.
• Herodian says soldiers despised him for trying to buy peace from the Germans rather than fight.
• The Historia Augusta's claim that he kept images of Christ and Abraham in his private shrine is from an unreliable source and cannot be confirmed.

Sources: Cassius Dio, Roman History 80 (LacusCurtius); Herodian, History of the Empire 6.1 to 6.9 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Life of Severus Alexander (LacusCurtius; a late and often unreliable source); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Severus Alexander; Britannica: Severus Alexander; Livius.org: Severus Alexander

Maximinus Thrax (AD 235 to 238)

Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus Augustus, Crisis of the Third Century (soldier emperors)

Maximinus was a career soldier from the Balkans whose troops proclaimed him emperor after they murdered Severus Alexander in 235. He spent his reign fighting Germans and Sarmatians on the frontiers and squeezed the wealthy for money to pay the army. A revolt in Africa in 238 set off the Year of the Six Emperors, and his own soldiers killed him while he besieged Aquileia.

How he came to power: Acclaimed by the Rhine army after soldiers killed Severus Alexander and his mother at Mainz in March 235.

How it ended: Herodian (8.5 to 8.6) says his own discouraged soldiers killed him and his son Maximus outside Aquileia in spring 238 and sent their heads to Rome.

• Eutropius (9.1) calls him the first emperor chosen by the soldiers without the Senate's approval, and he was not a senator himself.
• Herodian (7.1 to 7.2) shows him staying with the armies on the frontier, and he is not known to have visited Rome as emperor.
• The Historia Augusta claims he was over eight feet tall and wore his wife's bracelet as a ring, but that source is notoriously unreliable.
• His reign opened roughly fifty years of rapid turnover, with more than twenty recognized emperors before Diocletian.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 6.8 (Maximinus proclaimed), Livius.org; Herodian, Roman History 8.5 (soldiers kill Maximinus), Livius.org; Eutropius, Breviarium 9.1 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, The Two Maximini (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Maximinus Thrax (M. Meckler); Livius.org: Maximinus Thrax

Gordian I (AD 238 (about three weeks))

Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus, Gordian dynasty (Year of the Six Emperors, 238)

Gordian was the elderly governor of Africa when local landowners, furious at Maximinus' tax collectors, killed a procurator at Thysdrus and proclaimed him emperor in early 238. The Senate in Rome quickly recognized him and his son Gordian II as co-emperors. When the loyalist governor of Numidia, Capelianus, marched on Carthage and killed his son, the old man hanged himself.

How he came to power: Proclaimed at Thysdrus (modern El Djem, Tunisia) by African landowners in revolt against Maximinus' fiscal agents, then recognized by the Senate.

How it ended: Herodian (7.9) says he hanged himself with his belt after hearing that his son had died and Capelianus had taken Carthage.

• He was about 79 years old, one of the oldest men ever proclaimed emperor.
• Ancient tallies of his reign range from 20 days (Chronographer of 354) to 22 days (Zonaras).
• His supporters in Rome assassinated Maximinus' praetorian prefect, which pushed the Senate into open revolt.
• His grandson Gordian III later became emperor, which is why he was deified and counted as a legitimate ruler.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 7.5 (the Gordians made emperor), Livius.org; Herodian, Roman History 7.9 (end of the two Gordians), Livius.org; Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Gordian I (M. Meckler)

Gordian II (AD 238 (about three weeks))

Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus, Gordian dynasty (Year of the Six Emperors, 238)

Gordian II was serving as his father's legate in Africa when the two were proclaimed joint emperors in 238. Capelianus, the governor of neighboring Numidia, stayed loyal to Maximinus and marched on Carthage with a veteran legion. Gordian II led a large but poorly armed force out to meet him and was killed in the battle.

How he came to power: Proclaimed co-emperor alongside his father during the African revolt against Maximinus and recognized by the Senate.

How it ended: Herodian (7.9) says he died in battle against Capelianus' troops outside Carthage; his body was reportedly never recovered.

• The Historia Augusta claims he kept 22 concubines and owned a library of 62,000 books, but these details come from a source known for invention.
• His death, followed by his father's suicide, led the Senate to choose two of its own, Pupienus and Balbinus, as emperors.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 7.9 (end of the two Gordians), Livius.org; Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians 15 to 20 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Gordian II (M. Meckler)

Pupienus (AD 238 (about 99 days, with Balbinus))

Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus, Senatorial emperors (Year of the Six Emperors, 238)

After the Gordians died, the Senate elected two of its own members, Pupienus and Balbinus, as joint emperors in spring 238. Pupienus, an experienced general and former city prefect, organized the defense of Italy against Maximinus, whose army fell apart at Aquileia. Back in Rome the two emperors distrusted each other, and the Praetorian Guard seized and killed them both.

How he came to power: Elected by the Senate from its emergency committee of twenty (vigintiviri) after the deaths of Gordian I and II.

How it ended: Herodian (8.8) says the Praetorians dragged Pupienus and Balbinus from the palace to their camp and killed them, after the two quarreled over calling in Pupienus' German guards.

• A rioting crowd in Rome forced the new emperors to name the boy Gordian III as Caesar, according to Herodian (7.10).
• The joint reign is generally given as 99 days.
• He was an old man, probably in his sixties or seventies, who had been consul twice (the second time in 234) and prefect of Rome.
• Some sources and modern books call him Maximus, from the last part of his name.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 7.10 (the Senate appoints Pupienus and Balbinus), Livius.org; Herodian, Roman History 8.8 (soldiers kill Pupienus and Balbinus), Livius.org; Historia Augusta, Maximus and Balbinus (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Pupienus and Balbinus (R. McMahon)

Balbinus (AD 238 (about 99 days, with Pupienus))

Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus, Senatorial emperors (Year of the Six Emperors, 238)

Balbinus was a senior senator chosen with Pupienus to lead the Senate's revolt against Maximinus in 238. While Pupienus went north to face Maximinus, Balbinus stayed in Rome, where street fighting broke out between the people and the Praetorian Guard. Once Maximinus was dead, the Praetorians, resentful of emperors chosen by the Senate, killed both rulers.

How he came to power: Elected co-emperor by the Senate, alongside Pupienus, in spring 238.

How it ended: Herodian (8.8) reports that the Praetorians killed him with Pupienus after Balbinus refused to summon Pupienus' German bodyguard, fearing a coup.

• During his time in Rome, fighting between the Praetorians and civilians set part of the city on fire, according to Herodian (7.12).
• The two co-emperors were meant to share power equally, a rare experiment that ended in mutual suspicion.
• After their deaths the Guard proclaimed the 13-year-old Gordian III sole emperor.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 7.12 (civil war in Rome), Livius.org; Herodian, Roman History 8.8, Livius.org; Historia Augusta, Maximus and Balbinus (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Pupienus and Balbinus (R. McMahon)

Gordian III (AD 238 to 244)

Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius, Gordian dynasty

Grandson of Gordian I, he was named Caesar to calm a Roman mob and became sole emperor at about 13 after the Praetorians killed Pupienus and Balbinus. His father-in-law, the praetorian prefect Timesitheus, guided the government and led a war against the Persian king Shapur I. Gordian died on campaign in early 244 and was succeeded by his prefect Philip.

How he came to power: Proclaimed sole emperor by the Praetorian Guard in summer 238 after the murder of Pupienus and Balbinus.

How it ended: Roman writers such as Eutropius (9.2) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (27.2) blame a plot by Philip, while Shapur I's inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam claims Gordian was killed in battle against the Persians at Misiche.

• Eutropius (9.2) says he opened the doors of the Temple of Janus, the traditional sign that Rome was at war, before marching east.
• Shapur I renamed the battle site Misiche as Peroz-Shapur, meaning victorious is Shapur.
• Eutropius says soldiers built him a monument near Circesium on the Euphrates.
• He married Tranquillina, daughter of his prefect Timesitheus, in 241.

Sources: Herodian, Roman History 8.8 (Gordian III becomes sole emperor), Livius.org; Eutropius, Breviarium 9.2 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 27, translated by T. Banchich (DIR); Shapur I, inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (SKZ), English translation hosted by Roger Pearse; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Gordian III (M. Meckler); Livius.org: Gordian III

Philip the Arab (AD 244 to 249)

Marcus Julius Philippus, Crisis of the Third Century

Philip came from Shahba in modern southern Syria and was praetorian prefect when Gordian III died in 244. He made a quick peace with Persia, then presided over Rome's millennium celebrations in April 248. Revolts on the Danube led him to send the general Decius, whose troops proclaimed Decius emperor, and Philip was killed fighting him in 249.

How he came to power: As praetorian prefect, he was acclaimed by the army in Mesopotamia after Gordian III's death in early 244.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.3) says he was killed at Verona and his son at Rome; Zosimus (1.22) places his death in the battle against Decius.

• Shapur I's inscription says Philip paid Persia 500,000 denarii to make peace.
• He renamed his home town Shahba as Philippopolis and rebuilt it as a Roman city; its ruins survive.
• Eusebius (Church History 6.34) claims Philip was a Christian who did penance at Easter; most historians doubt it.
• His 12-year-old son, also Philip, was made co-emperor and was killed in Rome in 249.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.3 (tertullian.org); Eusebius, Church History 6.34 (New Advent); Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book VI (free at Open Scriptorium); Zosimus, New History 1.19 to 1.22 (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Philip the Arab; Livius.org: Philip the Arab

Rome's 1,000th Birthday Games (AD 248 (April 21))

By the traditional founding date of 753 BC, Rome turned 1,000 years old on 21 April 248. Emperor Philip the Arab and his son celebrated with lavish games and spectacles, and the mints struck coins announcing a new age (saeculum novum). The celebration came in the middle of a century of invasions, civil wars and plague.

• Eutropius (9.3) says the thousandth year of the city was celebrated with games and spectacles of vast magnificence.
• Coins of Philip and his family show animals displayed at the games with the legend SAECULARES AUGG, and other issues proclaim SAECULUM NOVUM, a new age.
• The Historia Augusta lists elephants, elk, tigers, lions, hippopotamuses and more gathered for the show, but its numbers are unreliable.
• Within a year of the celebration, Philip was dead and Decius was emperor.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.3 (tertullian.org); Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 28 (Latin text, The Latin Library); Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians 33 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Philip the Arab

Decius (AD 249 to 251)

Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius, Crisis of the Third Century

Decius, a senator born near Sirmium in Pannonia, was proclaimed by the Danube legions in 249 and defeated Philip. He ordered all inhabitants of the empire to sacrifice to the gods and obtain a certificate proving it, which turned into the first empire-wide persecution of Christians. In 251 he and his son Herennius Etruscus died fighting the Goths under Cniva at Abritus in modern Bulgaria.

How he came to power: Sent by Philip to restore order on the Danube, he was proclaimed emperor by his troops and defeated Philip in 249.

How it ended: He died at the battle of Abritus in June 251; the Epitome de Caesaribus (29.3) says he drowned in a swamp and his body was never found.

• Dozens of the sacrifice certificates (libelli) required by his edict survive on papyrus from Egypt.
• Bishop Cyprian of Carthage wrote On the Lapsed about Christians who obeyed the order.
• He and Herennius Etruscus were the first Roman emperors killed in battle against a foreign enemy.
• He took the name Trajan to link himself with the famous conqueror of Dacia.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.4 (tertullian.org); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 4 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, and Cyprian, De lapsis (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Church History 6.39 to 6.42 (New Advent); Epitome de Caesaribus 29 (DIR); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Trajan Decius (G. Nathan and R. McMahon); Livius.org: Decius

Herennius Etruscus (AD 251 (co-emperor with Decius))

Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, Family of Decius

Herennius Etruscus was the elder son of Decius, made Caesar in 250 and Augustus in 251. He went with his father against the Gothic king Cniva, who lured the Roman army into marshy ground near Abritus. He was killed in the fighting, and his father died soon after.

How he came to power: Named Caesar in 250 and raised to Augustus, co-ruler with his father, in 251.

How it ended: He died at Abritus in June 251; Aurelius Victor (29.5) says he was killed in battle and that Decius told the troops the loss of one soldier mattered little.

• He was one of the first two Roman emperors to die fighting a foreign enemy.
• His mother, Herennia Etruscilla, was honored as Augusta.
• His reign as Augustus lasted only a few months.

Sources: Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 29 (Latin text, The Latin Library); Epitome de Caesaribus 29.3 (DIR); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian (C. Fuhrmann)

Trebonianus Gallus (AD 251 to 253)

Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus, Crisis of the Third Century

Gallus was governor of Moesia and survived the disaster at Abritus, after which the army proclaimed him emperor in 251. He agreed to let the Goths leave with their plunder and paid them an annual subsidy, which made him unpopular. His reign was hit by the Plague of Cyprian, and in 253 his own troops killed him and his son Volusianus when the usurper Aemilian marched on Italy.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the surviving army after Decius died at Abritus in 251.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.5) says he and Volusianus were slain at Interamna (Terni) in 253, and Aurelius Victor (31.2) says their own soldiers killed them in hope of reward from Aemilian.

• Zosimus (1.24) says he agreed to pay the Goths a yearly sum to stay out of Roman lands.
• Eutropius (9.5) says his reign was remembered only for pestilence and disease.
• He adopted Decius' surviving son Hostilian and made him co-emperor.
• A nearly complete bronze statue at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is identified as Trebonianus Gallus.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.5 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.23 to 1.28 (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus (R. S. Moore); The Met: Bronze statue of the emperor Trebonianus Gallus

Hostilian (AD 251)

Gaius Valens Hostilianus Messius Quintus, Family of Decius

Hostilian, Decius' younger son, stayed in Rome with his mother while his father and brother fought the Goths. After Abritus, the new emperor Trebonianus Gallus kept the boy as co-emperor to show continuity with the old dynasty. He died within months in 251.

How he came to power: Caesar under his father; made Augustus by Trebonianus Gallus after Decius' death.

How it ended: Aurelius Victor (30.2) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (30.2) say he died of plague, while Zosimus (1.25) accuses Gallus of having him killed.

• He was still a child or young teenager when he became Augustus.
• He was the last surviving male of Decius' family.
• Coins calling him Augustus were struck under Gallus, not under his father.

Sources: Epitome de Caesaribus 30.2 (DIR); Zosimus, New History 1.25 (tertullian.org); Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 30 (Latin text, The Latin Library); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian (C. Fuhrmann)

Volusianus (AD 251 to 253 (with his father))

Gaius Vibius Volusianus, Family of Trebonianus Gallus

Volusianus was made Caesar when his father Trebonianus Gallus took power in 251 and was promoted to Augustus after Hostilian died. He ruled jointly with his father during the plague years and the renewed Gothic and Persian threats. Both were killed by their own soldiers in 253 as the usurper Aemilian approached.

How he came to power: Made Caesar by his father in 251 and Augustus later that year after Hostilian's death.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.5) says he and his father were slain at Interamna (Terni) in 253; Aurelius Victor (31.2) says their own soldiers killed them hoping for rewards from Aemilian.

• He held the consulship with his father in 252.
• His reign overlapped with the spread of the Plague of Cyprian, described by Bishop Cyprian in On Mortality.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.5 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 30 to 31 (DIR); Cyprian, De mortalitate (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus (R. S. Moore)

Aemilian (AD 253 (about three months))

Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, Crisis of the Third Century

Aemilian commanded on the lower Danube and won a victory over the Goths in 253, after which his troops proclaimed him emperor. He marched on Italy and beat Gallus near Interamna, after which Gallus and Volusianus were killed by their own men. When Valerian came south with the Rhine and Alpine armies, Aemilian's soldiers killed him near Spoletium.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by his Danube troops after defeating the Goths in 253.

How it ended: The Epitome de Caesaribus (31.2) says he was defeated near Spoletium or a bridge between Spoletium and Rome; most sources say his own soldiers killed him, though Aurelius Victor says illness.

• The Epitome says he was born on the island of Meninx (Djerba, Tunisia) and calls him a Moor.
• Ancient tallies of his reign run from 88 days to four months.
• The Epitome links the name of the Sanguinarian bridge to his death there.

Sources: Epitome de Caesaribus 31 (DIR); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.6 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.28 to 1.29 (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Aemilius Aemilianus (T. Banchich)

Valerian (AD 253 to 260)

Publius Licinius Valerianus, Licinian dynasty (Valerian and Gallienus)

Valerian, an elderly senator commanding troops in the Alps, was proclaimed emperor in 253 and made his son Gallienus co-ruler. He persecuted Christians in 257 and 258, when Bishop Cyprian of Carthage and Pope Sixtus II were executed. In 260, during a war against Shapur I near Edessa, he was captured and never returned.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by his troops while marching to help Gallus, he defeated Aemilian and was recognized in 253.

How it ended: He died in Persian captivity at an unknown date; Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 5) claims Shapur used him as a footstool and had his skin preserved, a story historians treat with caution.

• Eutropius (9.7) says he grew old in slavery among the Persians.
• Shapur I celebrated the capture in rock reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur that still survive in Iran.
• He divided the empire's defense with his son, taking the East while Gallienus held the West.
• Eusebius (Church History 7.10) records that he was friendly to Christians at first before turning to persecution.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 5 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.7 (tertullian.org); Eusebius, Church History 7.10 (New Advent); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valerian and Gallienus (R. Weigel); Livius.org: Valerian

Gallienus (AD 253 to 268 (sole ruler from 260))

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus, Licinian dynasty (Valerian and Gallienus)

Gallienus ruled with his father Valerian from 253 and alone after Valerian's capture in 260. In his sole reign the West broke away under Postumus, the East was held by Odaenathus of Palmyra, and invaders reached Italy, Spain and Greece. He built up a mobile cavalry force and ended the persecution of Christians, but officers murdered him in 268 while he besieged the rebel Aureolus at Milan.

How he came to power: Made co-emperor by his father Valerian in 253; sole emperor after Valerian's capture in 260.

How it ended: Zosimus (1.40) describes a plot by senior officers including Claudius and the prefect Heraclianus; the Historia Augusta (Two Gallieni 14) clears Claudius, a likely piece of later propaganda.

• Eusebius (Church History 7.13) preserves his rescript returning confiscated property to Christian churches.
• Porphyry (Life of Plotinus 12) says Gallienus and his wife Salonina honored the philosopher Plotinus, who asked them to found a city of philosophers in Campania.
• Aurelius Victor (33.34) says he barred senators from army commands, a turning point in Roman government.
• Eutropius (9.8) lists losses under him: Dacia, raids on Greece and Asia, and Germans reaching Tarraco in Spain.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.7 to 9.11 (tertullian.org); Eusebius, Church History 7.13 (New Advent); Zosimus, New History 1.37 to 1.40 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, The Two Gallieni (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valerian and Gallienus (R. Weigel); Livius.org: Gallienus

Valerian Captured by Shapur I (AD 260)

In 260 Valerian led an army against the Persian king Shapur I, who was attacking Edessa and Carrhae in Mesopotamia. The Roman army, weakened by plague, was defeated, and Valerian was captured, reportedly during negotiations. He never returned, and the disaster encouraged breakaway states in both West and East.

• Shapur's own trilingual inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht says he captured Valerian along with senators and the praetorian prefect.
• Rock reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur show Roman emperors submitting to Shapur on horseback.
• Lactantius (5) claims Shapur used Valerian as a footstool for mounting his horse; this Christian account was written to show a persecutor punished.
• Eutropius (9.7) says Valerian grew old in slavery among the Persians.

Sources: Shapur I, inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (SKZ), third campaign, English translation hosted by Roger Pearse; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 5 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.7 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.36 (tertullian.org); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valerian and Gallienus (R. Weigel); Livius.org: Shapur I

The Gallic Empire of Postumus (AD 260 to 274)

In 260 the Rhine commander Postumus revolted against Gallienus, killed Gallienus' son Saloninus at Cologne, and ruled Gaul, Britain and for a time Spain as a separate Roman empire. He defended the frontier well, but was killed by his own troops in 269 after refusing to let them sack Mainz. His successors Marius, Victorinus and Tetricus held on until Aurelian defeated Tetricus at Chalons in 274.

• Eutropius (9.9) credits Postumus with restoring the exhausted provinces during his ten-year rule.
• The Gallic emperors appointed their own consuls and struck their own coins, but presented themselves as Roman emperors, not Gallic kings.
• Eutropius (9.13) says Tetricus secretly invited Aurelian to rescue him from his own mutinous army and then betrayed it in battle.
• Tetricus was spared, walked in Aurelian's triumph, and later governed Lucania in Italy.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.9 to 9.13 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.38 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, The Thirty Pretenders (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Postumus (M. Polfer); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Tetricus I (M. Polfer); Livius.org: Gallic Empire

Claudius Gothicus (AD 268 to 270)

Marcus Aurelius Claudius, Illyrian emperors

Claudius, a Balkan officer, became emperor after the murder of Gallienus in 268. He beat the Alamanni in northern Italy and then won a great victory over the Goths at Naissus (Nis, Serbia), probably in 269, though some historians date it to 268. He died of plague at Sirmium in 270, and the Senate honored him lavishly.

How he came to power: Chosen by the army near Milan after Gallienus was murdered in 268, then confirmed by the Senate.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.11) and Zosimus (1.46) say he died of disease (plague) in 270; the Epitome de Caesaribus (34.3) instead says he gave his life for the state in a ritual self-sacrifice.

• Eutropius (9.11) says the Senate hung a golden shield for him in the Senate house and set up a golden statue on the Capitol.
• Constantine the Great's propaganda later claimed Claudius as an ancestor, a link most historians think was invented.
• His title Gothicus means conqueror of the Goths.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.11 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.41 to 1.46 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 34 (DIR); Historia Augusta, The Deified Claudius (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Claudius II Gothicus (R. Weigel)

Quintillus (AD 270)

Marcus Aurelius Claudius Quintillus, Illyrian emperors

Quintillus, brother of Claudius Gothicus, was proclaimed emperor in Italy when Claudius died in 270, and the Senate accepted him. The Danube army chose Aurelian instead, and Quintillus' support collapsed. He died at Aquileia after a very short reign.

How he came to power: Proclaimed in Italy after his brother Claudius died, with the Senate's consent.

How it ended: The Historia Augusta (Aurelian 37.6) says he opened his veins when his troops deserted him, while Jerome and the Chronographer of 354 say he was killed at Aquileia.

• Eutropius (9.12) gives him 17 days; the Chronographer of 354 gives 77 days.
• Most imperial mints struck coins for him, which suggests a reign longer than 17 days.
• Eutropius praises him as perhaps even better suited to rule than his brother.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.12 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 34.5 (DIR); Historia Augusta, Aurelian 37 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Quintillus (T. Banchich)

Aurelian (AD 270 to 275)

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus, Illyrian emperors

Aurelian, a cavalry commander from the Danube lands, became emperor in 270 and spent his reign at war. He drove invaders out of Italy, defeated Zenobia of Palmyra in 272 and the Gallic emperor Tetricus in 274, and celebrated a triumph as restorer of the world. He also built new walls around Rome, reformed the coinage and gave up the province of Dacia, before officers killed him in 275.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the Danube army in 270 after Claudius' death, he replaced Quintillus.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.15) says a secretary forged a list of officers marked for execution, and the frightened officers killed him at Caenophrurium in Thrace in 275.

• He took the title Restitutor Orbis, restorer of the world, after reuniting East and West.
• Eutropius (9.15) says he built a temple to the Sun in Rome filled with gold and precious stones; it was dedicated to Sol Invictus in 274.
• Eutropius (9.14) says he crushed a revolt of mint workers in Rome who had been debasing the coinage.
• Coins from the Serdica mint call him deo et domino nato, born god and lord.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.13 to 9.15 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.47 to 1.62 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, The Deified Aurelian (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Aurelian (C. Korner); Britannica: Aurelian; Livius.org: Aurelian

The Palmyrene Empire and Zenobia (AD 270 to 273)

After Valerian's capture, Odaenathus of Palmyra defended Rome's East against Persia; when he was murdered in 267, his widow Zenobia ruled for their young son Vaballathus. From 270 she seized Egypt and much of Asia Minor, and by 272 her son was styled Augustus, an open break with Rome. Aurelian defeated her armies at Immae and Emesa, captured her as she fled toward the Euphrates, and destroyed Palmyra after a second revolt in 273.

• Eutropius (9.10) credits Odaenathus with beating the Persians and reaching Ctesiphon.
• Zosimus (1.59) says Zenobia died on the way to Rome, while Eutropius (9.13) says she walked in Aurelian's triumph and her descendants still lived in Rome.
• Zosimus (1.56) says the philosopher Longinus, her adviser, was executed after Palmyra fell.
• The Historia Augusta's colorful portrait of Zenobia is among its least reliable sections.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 1.44 and 1.50 to 1.61 (tertullian.org); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.10 and 9.13 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, The Thirty Pretenders 30 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Vaballathus and Zenobia (J. Long); Britannica: Zenobia; Livius.org: Zenobia

Aurelian Walls Begun (AD 271 (completed under Probus))

After Germanic Juthungi raiders broke into Italy in 270 and 271, Aurelian ordered a new wall around Rome, the first since the Republic. The brick-faced circuit ran about 19 kilometers and folded existing buildings, such as the Pyramid of Cestius, into its line. It was finished under Probus and raised in height around 400, and large stretches survive today.

• Eutropius (9.15) says Aurelian surrounded the city with stronger walls.
• Zosimus (1.49) says the work was completed under Probus.
• The Historia Augusta claims the walls were nearly 50 miles around; the real figure is about 12 Roman miles.
• Rome's earlier Servian Wall dated to the 4th century BC and had long been overgrown by the city.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.15 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.49 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Aurelian 21 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; Historia Augusta, Aurelian 39 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Aurelian (C. Korner); Britannica: Aurelian

Tacitus (AD 275 to 276)

Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Crisis of the Third Century

Tacitus became emperor in late 275 after Aurelian's murder and was confirmed by the Senate. He went east with his half-brother Florian to fight Goths and Heruli raiding Asia Minor and won the title Gothicus Maximus. He died in summer 276 after a reign of about six months.

How he came to power: Chosen by the army after Aurelian's assassination (per Zosimus and Zonaras) and confirmed by the Senate.

How it ended: Zosimus (1.63) says he was murdered by men who had killed his relative Maximinus, governor of Syria, while the Historia Augusta reports a fever.

• The Historia Augusta claims he was related to the historian Tacitus and ordered copies of his works; historians reject this as invention.
• The Historia Augusta's story of a six-month interregnum with no emperor before his election is not possible according to modern scholars.
• Tradition says he was 75, but this cannot be confirmed.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 1.63 (tertullian.org); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.16 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Tacitus (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Tacitus (R. McMahon); Livius.org: Tacitus (emperor)

Florianus (AD 276 (about 88 days))

Marcus Annius Florianus, Crisis of the Third Century

Florianus was Tacitus' praetorian prefect and probably his half-brother, and he took power when Tacitus died in 276. The eastern armies backed the general Probus instead. Florian marched against Probus in Cilicia, but after some inconclusive skirmishing his own troops killed him near Tarsus.

How he came to power: Seized power on Tacitus' death in 276, apparently without waiting for the Senate.

How it ended: His own soldiers killed him near Tarsus after a short standoff with Probus' army.

• The Chronographer of 354 gives his reign as 88 days; Eutropius (9.16) says two months and twenty days.
• His family name, Annius, differs from Tacitus' Claudius, so they were not full brothers.
• He seems to have had the bigger army but lost the war of nerves with Probus.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.16 (tertullian.org); Zosimus, New History 1.64 (tertullian.org); Historia Augusta, Tacitus 13 to 14 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Florian (R. McMahon)

Probus (AD 276 to 282)

Marcus Aurelius Probus, Illyrian emperors

Probus, a general from Sirmium, won the throne in 276 and spent six years clearing Germanic invaders out of Gaul and defeating usurpers such as Saturninus, Proculus and Bonosus. He used soldiers on public works, including draining land and planting vineyards. In 282 his troops mutinied and killed him at Sirmium.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the eastern armies in 276; Florian's troops killed Florian and accepted him.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.17) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (37.4) say mutinous soldiers killed him in an iron tower at Sirmium in 282.

• Eutropius (9.17) says he allowed Gauls and Pannonians to grow vines and had soldiers plant vineyards near Sirmium and in Upper Moesia.
• Eutropius also reports his remark that soon soldiers would not be needed, which is said to have angered the army.
• He finished the Aurelian Walls of Rome, according to Zosimus (1.49).

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.17 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 37 (DIR); Historia Augusta, Probus (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Probus (R. McMahon); Livius.org: Probus

Carus (AD 282 to 283)

Marcus Aurelius Carus, Carus and his sons

Carus was praetorian prefect when Probus was killed in 282, and he made his sons Carinus and Numerian Caesars right away. Leaving Carinus in the West, he invaded Persia in 283, took Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and pressed beyond the Tigris. He died suddenly in camp that summer.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the army in 282, around the time of Probus' murder; he did not seek the Senate's approval.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.18) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (38.3) say he was killed by lightning near Ctesiphon; other accounts mention illness, and some modern historians suspect foul play.

• Eutropius (9.18) says he was born at Narbo (Narbonne) in Gaul; other sources give different origins.
• His capture of Ctesiphon was helped by a civil war inside the Persian royal family.
• His sudden death led to talk of a prophecy that no Roman would pass Ctesiphon, which appears in the Historia Augusta.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.18 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 38 (DIR); Historia Augusta, Carus, Carinus and Numerian (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Carus (W. Leadbetter); Livius.org: Carus

Carinus (AD 283 to 285)

Marcus Aurelius Carinus, Carus and his sons

Carinus, the elder son of Carus, governed the West while his father and brother campaigned in Persia, and became senior emperor after their deaths. He defeated the usurper Julianus near Verona in 285, then met Diocletian's army at the Margus River in Moesia. He died there, and Diocletian became sole emperor.

How he came to power: Made Caesar by his father in 282 and Augustus in 283.

How it ended: Aurelius Victor (39.11) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (38.8) say a tribune whose wife he had seduced killed him, even though his army may have been winning; Eutropius (9.20) says his troops deserted him.

• Eutropius (9.19) paints him as cruel and debauched, a portrait probably shaped by Diocletian's propaganda.
• His praetorian prefect Aristobulus kept his post under Diocletian, which hints at betrayal.
• He and Numerian took the title Britannicus Maximus after a campaign in Britain.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.19 to 9.20 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 38.7 to 38.8 (DIR); Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 39 (Latin text, The Latin Library); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Carinus (W. Leadbetter); Livius.org: Carinus

Numerian (AD 283 to 284)

Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus, Carus and his sons

Numerian, the younger son of Carus, went with his father to Persia and became co-emperor with his brother Carinus when Carus died in 283. On the march back he traveled in a closed litter, reportedly because of an eye disease. In November 284 soldiers found him dead inside it, and the army chose Diocletian, who accused the prefect Aper.

How he came to power: Caesar under his father; Augustus after Carus' death in 283.

How it ended: Eutropius (9.18) says he was murdered in a plot led by his father-in-law, the praetorian prefect Aper, and that the death was discovered by the smell of the body.

• Eutropius (9.20) says Diocletian killed Aper with his own sword in front of the army.
• The Historia Augusta says Diocletian had been told by a Druid woman that he would be emperor after killing a boar (aper in Latin); the story is from that unreliable source.
• The Historia Augusta also calls Numerian a gifted poet and orator.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.18 and 9.20 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 38.4 to 38.5 (DIR); Historia Augusta, Carus, Carinus and Numerian 11 to 15 (unreliable), LacusCurtius; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Numerian (W. Leadbetter); Livius.org: Numerian

Diocletian (AD 284 to 305)

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, Tetrarchy

Diocletian, born Diocles to a humble family in Dalmatia, was proclaimed emperor by the army in November 284 and defeated Carinus in 285. He shared power with Maximian and then with two Caesars in the Tetrarchy, enlarged the army and bureaucracy, reorganized the provinces, and tried to fix prices by law in 301. In 303 he launched the Great Persecution of Christians, and in 305 he became the first emperor to retire voluntarily.

How he came to power: Proclaimed by the eastern army at Nicomedia in November 284 after Numerian's death, then beat Carinus at the Margus in 285.

How it ended: He died in retirement at Split around 311 or 312; Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 42) and the Epitome de Caesaribus (39.7) suggest he died in despair, possibly by his own hand.

• The Epitome de Caesaribus (39.6) says that when asked to return to power he replied that if they could see the cabbages he had grown at Salona they would not suggest it.
• Eutropius (9.26) says he made people prostrate themselves before him (adoratio) instead of simply saluting him.
• His retirement palace forms the heart of the old town of Split in Croatia.
• He ruled for over 20 years, the longest reign since Antoninus Pius.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.19 to 9.28 (tertullian.org); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 7 to 19 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Epitome de Caesaribus 39 (DIR); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diocletian (R. Mathisen); Britannica: Diocletian; Livius.org: Diocletian

Maximian (AD 286 to 305 (Caesar from 285; briefly back in power 306 to 308))

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius, Tetrarchy

Maximian, a soldier from Pannonia and an old comrade of Diocletian, was made Caesar in 285 and Augustus in 286, ruling the West with the title Herculius. He fought the Bagaudae rebels in Gaul, Germanic raiders and the British usurper Carausius, and campaigned in Africa. He abdicated with Diocletian in 305, returned to power beside his son Maxentius in 306, and later turned against his son-in-law Constantine.

How he came to power: Appointed Caesar by Diocletian in 285 and raised to co-Augustus in 286.

How it ended: Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 30) says that after a failed plot against Constantine at Massilia in 310 he was allowed to choose his death and hanged himself.

• Eutropius (9.27) says he agreed to retire only reluctantly.
• Diocletian took the divine companion Jupiter (Iovius) and Maximian took Hercules (Herculius).
• His daughter Fausta married Constantine, the man he later tried to overthrow.
• Eutropius (9.27) describes him as openly cruel and violent in temper.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.20 to 9.27 (tertullian.org); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 26 to 30 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Maximianus Herculius (M. DiMaio); Britannica: Maximian; Livius.org: Maximian

The Tetrarchy (AD 293 (1 March) to 305)

In 293 Diocletian and his co-Augustus Maximian each adopted a junior emperor, or Caesar: Constantius in the West and Galerius in the East. The four rulers split the frontiers between them and governed from cities such as Nicomedia, Sirmium, Milan and Trier rather than Rome. The system held through Diocletian's reign but broke down into civil war soon after 305.

• Eutropius (9.22) says the Caesars were bound by marriage: Constantius wed Maximian's stepdaughter Theodora and Galerius wed Diocletian's daughter Valeria.
• Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 7) complained that the empire now had more soldiers and officials than taxpayers could support.
• A porphyry statue group of four embracing Tetrarchs, taken from Constantinople in 1204, is built into St Mark's Basilica in Venice.
• By 308 there were several rival claimants calling themselves Augustus.

Sources: Eutropius, Breviarium 9.22 (tertullian.org); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 7 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diocletian (R. Mathisen); Livius.org: Tetrarchy

Diocletian's Price Edict (AD 301)

In late 301 the Tetrarchs issued an Edict on Maximum Prices, setting legal ceilings for goods, services and wages across the empire, with death as the penalty for breaking it. Its preamble blames greedy traders for prices that had risen far beyond reason. Fragments of the inscribed text survive from many sites, mostly in the Greek East.

• It lists maximum prices for well over a thousand items, from grain and wine to clothing, transport and wild animals.
• Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 7) says goods disappeared from the markets, blood was shed over trifles, and the law was eventually set aside.
• The preamble lashes out at profiteers who even resent good harvests because they lower prices.
• A fragment of the edict is held in Berlin, and others were found in Greece and Turkey.

Sources: Edict on Maximum Prices, Preamble (trans. Jones), Fordham Ancient History Sourcebook; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 7 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Diocletian, domestic reforms; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diocletian (R. Mathisen)

The Great Persecution (AD 303 to 311)

On 23 February 303, the festival of the Terminalia, Diocletian and Galerius had the church at Nicomedia destroyed, and an edict the next day ordered scriptures burned and churches demolished. Further edicts targeted clergy, and in 304 everyone was ordered to sacrifice. Enforcement varied by region, being harshest in the East, until Galerius issued an edict of toleration in 311.

• Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 10 to 15) blames Galerius for pushing Diocletian into the persecution.
• Lactantius (12) describes soldiers smashing the church at Nicomedia within sight of the palace.
• Eusebius wrote The Martyrs of Palestine as an eyewitness account of executions in his province.
• In the West, Constantius reportedly went no further than pulling down church buildings, according to Lactantius (15).

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 10 to 15 and 34 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Church History 8.2 (New Advent); Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History VIII and The Martyrs of Palestine (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diocletian (R. Mathisen)

Abdication of Diocletian (AD 305 (1 May))

On 1 May 305 Diocletian at Nicomedia and Maximian at Milan resigned on the same day. Galerius and Constantius became the senior emperors, with Severus and Maximinus Daia as the new Caesars, passing over Constantine and Maxentius, the sons of emperors. Diocletian retired to his palace near Salona while the succession he designed soon fell apart.

• Eutropius (9.28) says Diocletian was the only person since the empire's founding to return voluntarily from such power to private life.
• Lactantius (19) describes the ceremony at Nicomedia, where the crowd expected Constantine to be named Caesar and was stunned when he was not.
• Lactantius claims Galerius pressured the ailing Diocletian into stepping down.
• Constantine was proclaimed emperor by his father's troops at York just over a year later, in July 306.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 17 to 19 (New Advent); Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (free at Open Scriptorium); Eutropius, Breviarium 9.27 to 9.28 (tertullian.org); Epitome de Caesaribus 39.5 to 39.6 (DIR); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Diocletian (R. Mathisen); Britannica: Diocletian

Constantius I (AD 305 to 306 (Caesar from 293))

Flavius Valerius Constantius (nicknamed Chlorus, 'the Pale', in later Byzantine writers), Tetrarchy / Constantinian

Constantius was the senior western emperor for barely fourteen months, but as Caesar he had already won back Britain from the breakaway regime of Carausius and Allectus in 296. Lactantius presents him as the one Tetrarch who only went through the motions of the Great Persecution. His death at York set off the chain of events that brought his son Constantine to power.

How he came to power: Made Caesar of the West in 293 under Diocletian's Tetrarchy, he was promoted to Augustus when Diocletian and Maximian abdicated on 1 May 305.

How it ended: He died of illness at York (Eboracum) on 25 July 306 after a campaign against the Picts, with his son Constantine at his side, as the Origo Constantini and Eusebius both report.

• The nickname 'Chlorus' (the pale) is not found in contemporary sources; it was attached to him by later Byzantine writers.
• In 296 his forces recovered Britain from the usurper Allectus, an event celebrated on the famous Arras medallion showing him welcomed at London.
• Lactantius (Mort. Pers. 15) says he allowed churches to be pulled down but kept the human beings, the true temple of God, unharmed.
• Constantine was acclaimed emperor by his father's army at York on the day Constantius died, 25 July 306.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 15 and 24; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 15 and 24 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.13 to 1.22; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.13 to 1.22 (free at Open Scriptorium); Origo Constantini (Anonymus Valesianus, part 1) 2.4, Constantius dies at York; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constantius I Chlorus (Michael DiMaio); Britannica: Constantius I

Galerius (AD 305 to 311 (Caesar from 293))

Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus, Tetrarchy

Galerius was the driving force, according to Lactantius, behind the Great Persecution of Christians that began in 303. After a heavy defeat by the Persians around 297, he crushed them in 298 and forced a favorable peace. On his deathbed in April 311 he issued an edict of toleration allowing Christians to worship again, asking them to pray for his health.

How he came to power: Diocletian's Caesar in the East from 293 and his son-in-law, he became senior Augustus when Diocletian abdicated on 1 May 305 and chose the new Caesars himself.

How it ended: He died in spring 311 of a long and horrific illness, which Lactantius and Eusebius describe in graphic detail as a rotting, worm-infested cancer and present as divine punishment for his persecution.

• In his victory over the Persian king Narseh in 298 he captured the king's wives and family; the triumph is celebrated on the Arch of Galerius that still stands in Thessaloniki.
• Lactantius depicts him as a giant, brutal man (Mort. Pers. 9) who kept bears and threw people to them for sport (ch. 21); this comes from a hostile Christian pamphlet and should be read as such.
• His Edict of Toleration of 30 April 311, quoted in full by Lactantius (ch. 34) and Eusebius (HE 8.17), is often called the first imperial edict to grant Christians legal toleration, though Gallienus had already halted persecution in 260.
• His fortified palace at Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia), named after his mother, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 9 to 35; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 9 to 35 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Church History 8.16 to 8.17; Eusebius, Church History 8.16 to 8.17 (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Galerius (Michael DiMaio); Britannica: Galerius

Severus II (AD 306 to 307 (Caesar from 305))

Flavius Valerius Severus, Tetrarchy

Severus was a career soldier placed on the throne as Galerius' man in the West. When Maxentius seized Rome in October 306, Severus led the old army of Maximian against the city, but the troops were bribed and went over to Maxentius and his father. He fled to Ravenna, surrendered on a promise of safety, and was executed in 307.

How he came to power: An army officer and friend of Galerius, he was made Caesar of the West in 305 and promoted to Augustus by Galerius after Constantius I died in 306.

How it ended: After his army deserted him to Maxentius he surrendered at Ravenna in 307 and was put to death; Lactantius (ch. 26) says he was made to open his veins, while the Origo Constantini (4.10) says he was held captive in a state villa near Rome and executed when Galerius invaded Italy later in 307, a place Zosimus (2.10) names as Tres Tabernae.

• The Origo Constantini (4.9) calls him low in character and origin and 'given to drink', which is why it says Galerius liked him.
• The army he led against Rome had served Maximian for years, which is why it switched sides so easily when Maximian returned.
• Maximian persuaded him to surrender at Ravenna with a promise that his life would be spared, a promise that was not kept.
• His son Severianus was later killed by Licinius in 313, according to Lactantius (ch. 50).

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 25 to 26; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 25 to 26 (free at Open Scriptorium); Origo Constantini (Anonymus Valesianus, part 1) 3.6 to 4.10; Zosimus, New History 2.10; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Severus II (Michael DiMaio)

Maxentius (AD 306 to 312 (unrecognized ruler of Italy and Africa))

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, Tetrarchy (usurper)

Maxentius ruled Italy and North Africa for six years without ever being recognized by the other emperors. He defeated invasions by both Severus and Galerius, and built heavily in Rome, including the huge Basilica of Maxentius in the Forum. Christian writers cast him as a tyrant, but he actually ended persecution in his territory.

How he came to power: Son of the retired emperor Maximian, he was passed over in 305 and seized power in Rome on 28 October 306 with the support of the Praetorian Guard and the people.

How it ended: He was defeated by Constantine at the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312 and drowned in the Tiber when the bridge of boats collapsed during the retreat (Lactantius 44; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.38).

• The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in the Roman Forum, which he began, was completed by Constantine after his death.
• His young son Valerius Romulus died around 309 and was deified; a tomb and circus next to his villa on the Via Appia are associated with him.
• Constantine's propaganda branded him a tyrant, yet Maxentius had restored confiscated property to Christians in his realm.
• In 2006 archaeologists on the slopes of the Palatine found a buried set of imperial insignia, including scepters, that are widely attributed to him.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 26 to 27 and 43 to 44; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 26 to 27 and 43 to 44 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.26 to 1.38; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.26 to 1.38 (free at Open Scriptorium); Zosimus, New History 2.9 to 2.17; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Maxentius (Michael DiMaio); Britannica: Maxentius

Constantine I (AD 306 to 337 (sole emperor from 324))

Flavius Valerius Constantinus (Constantine the Great), Constantinian

Constantine reunited the empire after twenty years of shared and contested rule and was the first emperor to back Christianity. He called the Council of Nicaea in 325 and refounded Byzantium as Constantinople in 330. He also reformed the army and introduced the gold solidus, a coin that stayed stable for centuries.

How he came to power: Acclaimed emperor by his father's troops at York in 306, he fought his way through a series of civil wars, defeating Maxentius in 312 and Licinius in 324 to rule the whole empire.

How it ended: He fell ill around Easter 337, was baptized on his deathbed and died near Nicomedia on 22 May 337 (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 4.61 to 64); Eusebius does not name the bishop, but Jerome's Chronicle says it was Eusebius of Nicomedia.

• The two main sources for his conversion disagree: Lactantius (ch. 44) describes a dream before the Milvian Bridge, while Eusebius (VC 1.28) reports a sign in the sky that Constantine described to him under oath years later.
• In 326 he had his eldest son Crispus executed and soon after his wife Fausta died; the ancient sources give no reliable reason.
• His gold solidus, introduced around 309, remained a standard coin of the Mediterranean world for about 700 years.
• He was baptized only on his deathbed in 337, by a bishop whom Jerome names as Eusebius of Nicomedia, a sympathizer of Arius.

Sources: Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.19 to 1.40, and Book 4.61 to 4.64; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.19 to 1.40, and Book 4.61 to 4.64 (free at Open Scriptorium); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 24, 29 to 30 and 44; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 24, 29 to 30 and 44 (free at Open Scriptorium); Origo Constantini (Anonymus Valesianus, part 1) 2.2 to 6.35; Zosimus, New History 2.8 to 2.39 (a hostile pagan account); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constantine I (Hans A. Pohlsander); Britannica: Constantine I; Livius.org: Constantine the Great

Licinius (AD 308 to 324)

Valerius Licinianus Licinius, Tetrarchy

Licinius was Constantine's partner and brother-in-law, marrying his half-sister Constantia at Milan in 313, where the two agreed the policy of religious toleration. They ruled East and West for a decade with uneasy peace and one civil war in 316. In 324 Constantine defeated him decisively and became sole emperor.

How he came to power: An old comrade of Galerius, he was made Augustus of the West at the Conference of Carnuntum on 11 November 308, and later won control of the whole East by defeating Maximinus Daza in 313.

How it ended: Defeated by Constantine at Adrianople and Chrysopolis in 324, he surrendered and was confined at Thessalonica, where he was put to death in 325, officially on suspicion of plotting a new revolt.

• The text usually called the Edict of Milan actually survives as a letter Licinius issued in Nicomedia in June 313 (Lactantius ch. 48).
• He was made an Augustus at Carnuntum in 308 without ever having served as a Caesar.
• Constantine's son Crispus commanded the fleet that beat Licinius' navy in the Hellespont in 324.
• Constantine first spared his life at his wife Constantia's request, then had him killed months later.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 45 to 48; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 45 to 48 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Life of Constantine 2.1 to 2.18; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 2.1 to 2.18 (free at Open Scriptorium); Origo Constantini (Anonymus Valesianus, part 1) 5.13 to 5.29; Zosimus, New History 2.18 to 2.28; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Licinius (Michael DiMaio); Britannica: Licinius

Maximinus Daza (AD 310 to 313 as Augustus (Caesar from 305))

Galerius Valerius Maximinus (called Daia or Daza), Tetrarchy

Maximinus was a former shepherd boy promoted by his uncle Galerius. After Galerius died he took the eastern provinces and revived the persecution of Christians, even encouraging cities to petition him against them. Allied with Maxentius against Constantine and Licinius, he invaded Licinius' lands in 313 and was crushed.

How he came to power: Nephew of Galerius and a career soldier, he was made Caesar in the East in 305 and claimed the title Augustus around 310.

How it ended: Defeated by Licinius near Adrianople on 30 April 313, he fled to Tarsus and died there in summer 313; Lactantius (ch. 49) says he took poison and died in agony.

• Lactantius (ch. 19) claims he had been a herdsman before Galerius made him a soldier, guard officer, and then Caesar.
• He had forged 'Acts of Pilate' mocking Jesus circulated and taught in schools, according to Eusebius (HE 9.5).
• After the battle of Campus Ergenus he threw off the purple and fled dressed as a slave, according to Lactantius (ch. 47).
• Licinius later put his wife and children to death to remove any rival claim (Lactantius ch. 50).

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 18 to 19, 32, 36 to 38 and 45 to 50; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 18 to 19 (free at Open Scriptorium); Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 47 to 50, his flight and death (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Church History 9.1 to 9.11; Eusebius, Church History 9.1 to 9.11 (free at Open Scriptorium); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Maximinus Daia (Michael DiMaio)

Battle of the Milvian Bridge (28 October 312)

Constantine invaded Italy and defeated Maxentius just north of Rome, at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber. Maxentius' army was driven into the river and he drowned when a temporary bridge of boats collapsed. The victory gave Constantine control of the West and became the founding story of his Christian rule.

• Lactantius (ch. 44), writing within a few years, says Constantine was told in a dream to mark a Christian sign (probably the Chi-Rho) on his soldiers' shields.
• Eusebius (VC 1.28) gives the more famous version of a cross of light in the sky with the words 'by this conquer', which he says Constantine told him under oath many years later.
• Maxentius chose to fight outside the walls even though Rome had withstood earlier sieges; Lactantius says he was swayed by a Sibylline oracle that the enemy of Rome would perish that day.
• The battle took place on the sixth anniversary of Maxentius' seizure of power, 28 October.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 44; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 44 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.27 to 1.38; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.27 to 1.38 (free at Open Scriptorium); Zosimus, New History 2.15 to 2.16; Britannica: Battle of the Milvian Bridge; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Maxentius (Michael DiMaio)

Edict of Milan (February to June 313)

Meeting at Milan in February 313, Constantine and Licinius agreed to grant freedom of worship to Christians and everyone else, and to return confiscated church property. The text survives as a letter Licinius sent to provincial governors from Nicomedia in June 313. It ended the persecution in the East for good.

• The surviving text is a rescript posted by Licinius at Nicomedia on 13 June 313, preserved by Lactantius (ch. 48) and in Greek by Eusebius (HE 10.5).
• It granted religious freedom not only to Christians but to all people, so that 'whatever divinity' there is might be favorable to the emperors.
• Christians had already been granted legal toleration by Galerius' edict of 311; the 313 agreement added the restoration of church property.
• The Milan meeting also sealed the marriage of Licinius to Constantine's half-sister Constantia.

Sources: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 48; Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 48 (free at Open Scriptorium); Eusebius, Church History 10.5; Eusebius, Church History 10.5 (free at Open Scriptorium); Fordham Internet History Sourcebook: Galerius and Constantine, Edicts of Toleration 311/313; Britannica: Edict of Milan; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Licinius (Michael DiMaio)

First Council of Nicaea (May to July 325)

Constantine summoned bishops from across the empire to Nicaea in Bithynia to settle the dispute over the teachings of Arius about the nature of Christ. The council produced a creed declaring the Son 'of one substance' (homoousios) with the Father, and also set rules on the date of Easter and church discipline. It was the first council meant to speak for the whole church.

• Tradition later fixed the number of bishops at 318; Eusebius, who was there, says more than 250 (VC 3.8).
• Constantine attended in person and, according to Eusebius (VC 3.10), entered the hall in robes glittering with gold and precious stones.
• Only two bishops refused to sign the creed, and they were exiled along with Arius.
• The creed recited in churches today is the expanded version associated with the Council of Constantinople of 381, not the original Nicene text.

Sources: Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6 to 3.21; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6 to 3.21 (free at Open Scriptorium); The Canons and Creed of the First Council of Nicaea (New Advent translation); Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 1.8 to 1.9; Britannica: First Council of Nicaea; Britannica: Arianism

Founding of Constantinople (11 May 330 (dedication))

After defeating Licinius near Byzantium in 324, Constantine chose the old Greek city as his new imperial residence and greatly enlarged it. It was formally dedicated on 11 May 330 and named Constantinople. It became the capital of the eastern empire until 1453.

• Constantine himself is said to have traced the line of the new walls on foot; the story is told by Philostorgius and later writers.
• Zosimus (2.32) says Constantine gave the people of the city a free grain distribution that was still running in Zosimus' own day, and Constantine also gave it a Senate modeled on Rome's.
• Statues were brought from cities all over the Greek world to decorate it; the Serpent Column from Delphi still stands in Istanbul's Hippodrome square.
• Zosimus, a pagan, blamed Constantine for wasting public money on hasty, needless buildings there (2.32).

Sources: Zosimus, New History 2.30 to 2.32; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 1.16; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.48; Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.48 (free at Open Scriptorium); Britannica: Istanbul (history of Constantinople); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constantine I (Hans A. Pohlsander)

Constantine II (AD 337 to 340 (Caesar from 317))

Flavius Claudius Constantinus, Constantinian

Constantine II ruled the western provinces from Trier after his father's death. Unhappy with his share and claiming guardianship over his teenage brother Constans, he marched into Italy in 340. He was caught in an ambush by Constans' generals near Aquileia and killed.

How he came to power: Eldest surviving son of Constantine I, made Caesar as an infant in 317, he became Augustus in 337 and took Gaul, Britain and Spain when the brothers divided the empire.

How it ended: In 340 he invaded the territory of his youngest brother Constans and was killed in an ambush near Aquileia, his body thrown into the river Alsa (Zosimus 2.41; Epitome 41.21).

• He was made Caesar on 1 March 317, when he was still a baby.
• After the execution of his half-brother Crispus in 326, the boy took over Crispus' role as the nominal imperial presence in Gaul, based at Trier.
• He allowed the exiled bishop Athanasius to return to Alexandria in 337.
• After his death his brother Constans took over his entire realm, ruling two thirds of the empire.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 2.39 to 2.41; Eutropius, Breviarium 10.9; Epitome de Caesaribus 41.18 to 41.21; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constantine II (Michael DiMaio and Robert Frakes); Britannica: Constantine II

Constans (AD 337 to 350 (Caesar from 333))

Flavius Julius Constans, Constantinian

Constans ruled two thirds of the empire after 340 and campaigned against the Franks and Sarmatians. A firm supporter of Nicene Christianity, he pressured his brother Constantius II to restore Athanasius. Ancient writers accuse him of harshness and vice, and in 350 his officers backed Magnentius in a palace coup.

How he came to power: Youngest son of Constantine I, made Caesar in 333, he became Augustus in 337 with Italy, Africa and Illyricum, and took his brother Constantine II's lands after defeating him in 340.

How it ended: Overthrown in January 350 by the general Magnentius, he fled toward Spain and was caught and killed at Helena (modern Elne, in the Pyrenees) by Magnentius' men (Zosimus 2.42; Eutropius 10.9).

• He crossed to Britain in the winter of 343, a dangerous Channel crossing that Firmicus Maternus praised as a heroic feat.
• Eutropius (10.9) and Aurelius Victor accuse him of serious vices; these are hostile reports and hard to verify.
• The usurper Magnentius was proclaimed at a birthday party at Autun in January 350 while Constans was out hunting.
• The Epitome de Caesaribus (41.23) says he was 27 when he was killed.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 2.41 to 2.42; Eutropius, Breviarium 10.9; Epitome de Caesaribus 41.21 to 41.24; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constans I (Michael DiMaio and Robert Frakes); Britannica: Constans I

Constantius II (AD 337 to 361 (Caesar from 324))

Flavius Julius Constantius, Constantinian

Constantius II spent much of his reign fighting Persia in the East and usurpers in the West. His victory over Magnentius at Mursa in 351 was one of the bloodiest battles of the century. A committed supporter of the anti-Nicene (Arian-leaning) party, he repeatedly exiled Athanasius. He visited Rome only once, in 357, which Ammianus describes in a famous passage.

How he came to power: Middle son of Constantine I, he became Augustus of the East in 337 amid a purge of his male relatives, and became sole emperor after defeating the usurper Magnentius in 351 to 353.

How it ended: He died of a fever at Mopsucrenae in Cilicia on 3 November 361 while marching against his cousin Julian, who had been proclaimed emperor by his troops (Ammianus 21.15).

• After Constantine's death in 337, nearly all of the emperor's male relatives except his sons and two young nephews were murdered; ancient writers disagree on how responsible Constantius was.
• Ammianus (16.10) describes his entry into Rome in 357, where he stood motionless in his chariot, never turning his head or wiping his nose.
• He had the obelisk now in front of the Lateran in Rome brought from Egypt and set up in the Circus Maximus in 357.
• On his deathbed, according to Ammianus (21.15.5), he is said to have named Julian his successor, though Ammianus reports this as a story.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 14 to 21 (esp. 16.10 and 21.15); Zosimus, New History 2.40 to 2.55 and 3.1 to 3.11; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 2; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Constantius II (Michael DiMaio and Robert Frakes); Britannica: Constantius II

Julian (AD 361 to 363 (Caesar from 355; proclaimed Augustus by his troops in 360))

Flavius Claudius Julianus (Julian the Apostate), Constantinian

Julian was raised a Christian but secretly turned to traditional Greek religion and philosophy, openly declaring it once he was emperor. In Gaul he won a major victory over the Alamanni at Strasbourg in 357. As emperor he restored temples, barred Christians from teaching classical literature, and launched a large invasion of Persia that ended with his death.

How he came to power: A cousin of Constantius II who survived the purge of 337, he was made Caesar in Gaul in 355, proclaimed Augustus by his troops at Paris in 360, and became sole emperor when Constantius died in 361.

How it ended: He was mortally wounded by a spear in a skirmish during his retreat from Persia and died on 26 June 363; Ammianus (25.3) says no one knew who threw it, while Libanius later claimed it was a Christian in his own army.

• The famous last words 'You have won, Galilean' come from the church historian Theodoret, writing about 80 years later, not from any eyewitness.
• Ammianus Marcellinus, who served in the Persian campaign, is our best eyewitness source, and he admired Julian.
• His surviving writings include a satire, the Misopogon ('Beard-Hater'), mocking the people of Antioch who mocked his philosopher's beard.
• He ordered the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt in 363; Ammianus (23.1.3) reports that balls of fire burst from the foundations and stopped the work.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 25.3 (the death of Julian); Ammianus Marcellinus, History 16.12 (battle of Strasbourg); Zosimus, New History 3; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 3.1 to 3.21; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Julian (Walter E. Roberts and Michael DiMaio); Britannica: Julian; Livius.org: Julian the Apostate

Jovian (AD 363 to 364)

Flavius Jovianus, Non-dynastic

Jovian took over a trapped Roman army deep in Persian territory. To get it home he made a humiliating treaty with Shapur II, giving up five regions east of the Tigris and the fortress city of Nisibis. A Christian, he reversed Julian's religious policies. He died before reaching Constantinople.

How he came to power: An officer of the imperial guard, he was chosen emperor by the army in Persia on 27 June 363, the day after Julian's death.

How it ended: He died suddenly at Dadastana on the border of Bithynia and Galatia on 17 February 364, after about eight months; Ammianus (25.10.13) mentions charcoal fumes, fresh plaster, or overeating as possible causes.

• The surrender of Nisibis, which had resisted three Persian sieges, was regarded by Ammianus (25.9) as a national disgrace.
• Ammianus (25.5) says some soldiers at first misheard the acclamation of 'Jovianus' as 'Julianus' and thought Julian had recovered.
• The Epitome de Caesaribus (44.1) says his family came from the region of Singidunum (modern Belgrade), and Ammianus (25.10.13) says he died in his thirty-third year, so he was born around 331.
• Ammianus compares his sudden death to that of Scipio Aemilianus, hinting at possible foul play without asserting it.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 25.5 to 25.10; Zosimus, New History 3.30 to 3.36; Eutropius, Breviarium 10.17 to 10.18; Epitome de Caesaribus 44; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Jovian (Thomas Banchich); Britannica: Jovian

Valentinian I (AD 364 to 375)

Flavius Valentinianus, Valentinianic

Valentinian spent his reign defending the Rhine and Danube frontiers, building and repairing forts on a large scale. He divided the empire with his brother Valens, keeping the West. A Christian, he was notably tolerant of other beliefs, but Ammianus portrays him as savagely bad-tempered.

How he came to power: A Pannonian army officer, he was chosen emperor by the leading officers at Nicaea on 26 February 364 and soon made his brother Valens co-emperor for the East.

How it ended: He died at Brigetio on the Danube on 17 November 375 after a burst blood vessel or stroke while shouting in fury at envoys of the Quadi (Ammianus 30.6).

• Ammianus (29.3.9) reports that he kept two man-eating she-bears, named Gold Flake and Innocence, near his bedroom.
• He made his eight-year-old son Gratian co-emperor in 367, so the dynasty was secure after his death.
• His policy of religious toleration was praised even by the pagan Ammianus (30.9.5).
• His sudden death in a rage over the Quadi's insolence is described in detail by Ammianus, who was writing within a generation.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 26.1 to 26.5 (accession); Ammianus Marcellinus, History 30.5 to 30.9 (death and character); Zosimus, New History 4.1 to 4.17; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valentinian I (Walter E. Roberts); Britannica: Valentinian I

Valens (AD 364 to 378)

Flavius Valens, Valentinianic

Valens defeated the usurper Procopius in 366 and fought the Goths and Persians. In 376 he allowed large numbers of Goths fleeing the Huns to cross the Danube, but Roman officials' abuse of them caused a revolt. Without waiting for his nephew Gratian's army, he attacked them at Adrianople and lost two thirds of his army.

How he came to power: Younger brother of Valentinian I, he was made co-emperor and given the East on 28 March 364.

How it ended: He was killed at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378 and his body was never found; Ammianus (31.13.12 to 16) gives two versions, one that he fell among the common soldiers, the other that he was burned alive in a farmhouse.

• Unlike his brother, he supported the anti-Nicene (Homoian) form of Christianity and exiled Nicene bishops.
• The great aqueduct of Valens in Istanbul, completed in 368, still bears his name.
• The Gothic crossing of 376 was approved by Valens himself, who hoped to recruit the Goths as soldiers (Ammianus 31.4).
• Ammianus ends his history with the battle of Adrianople and its aftermath.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 31.12 to 31.13 (Adrianople and Valens' death); Ammianus Marcellinus, History 26.4 to 26.10 (accession and Procopius); Zosimus, New History 4.1 to 4.24; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valens (Noel Lenski); Britannica: Valens

Gratian (AD 367 to 383 (senior western emperor from 375))

Flavius Gratianus, Valentinianic

Gratian came to the throne young and was tutored by the poet Ausonius. After Valens' death at Adrianople in 378 he appointed Theodosius to rule the East. Under the influence of Ambrose of Milan he acted against traditional cults, removing the Altar of Victory from the Senate house in 382 and cutting state funding for pagan priesthoods.

How he came to power: Son of Valentinian I, he was made Augustus at age eight in 367 and became senior emperor of the West when his father died in 375.

How it ended: When the general Magnus Maximus rebelled in Britain in 383, Gratian's army deserted him near Paris and he was caught and killed at Lyon on 25 August 383 by Maximus' officer Andragathius (Zosimus 4.35; Socrates 5.11).

• Zosimus (4.36) says he refused the robe of pontifex maximus, the old chief priesthood every emperor had held since Augustus; modern scholars debate the date and details.
• He was marching to help Valens in 378 and had just beaten the Alamanni when Valens attacked the Goths without him.
• His tutor Ausonius, a leading Latin poet, became consul in 379.
• His favoritism toward a unit of Alan bodyguards, whose dress he adopted, is said by Zosimus (4.35) to have alienated the Roman army.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 27.6 (made Augustus in 367); Zosimus, New History 4.35 to 4.36; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.11; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Gratian (Walter E. Roberts); Britannica: Gratian

Valentinian II (AD 375 to 392)

Flavius Valentinianus, Valentinianic

Valentinian II reigned nominally for seventeen years but never held real power, first under Gratian, then his mother Justina, then Theodosius and the Frankish general Arbogast. In 387 he was driven out of Italy by Magnus Maximus and restored by Theodosius. Isolated at Vienne and in conflict with Arbogast, he died in 392.

How he came to power: Son of Valentinian I and Justina, he was proclaimed Augustus by the army at age four on 22 November 375, days after his father's death, without Gratian's prior consent.

How it ended: He was found hanged in his palace at Vienne in Gaul on 15 May 392; Socrates, Zosimus and Orosius say the general Arbogast had him killed, Sozomen gives both versions, and many modern historians think it was suicide.

• Ambrose of Milan defied his mother Justina in 386 by refusing to hand over a church to the Homoian (Arian) Christians.
• In 384 the senator Symmachus petitioned him to restore the Altar of Victory, and Ambrose persuaded him to refuse.
• Ancient sources disagree on his birth year; Ammianus and Zosimus say he was four in 375, which points to 371.
• His death led to the usurpation of Eugenius, backed by Arbogast, which Theodosius crushed at the Frigidus in 394.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 30.10 (his acclamation); Zosimus, New History 4.42 to 4.54; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.25; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valentinian II (Walter E. Roberts); Britannica: Valentinian II

Battle of Adrianople (9 August 378)

Goths who had been admitted into the empire in 376 rebelled after mistreatment by Roman officials. Valens attacked their camp near Adrianople (Edirne, Turkey) without waiting for his nephew Gratian's army. The returning Gothic cavalry routed the Romans; about two thirds of the army and Valens himself died.

• Ammianus (31.13.19) compares the slaughter to Cannae, Rome's worst defeat against Hannibal.
• Valens attacked after a long march in the August heat, while his men were hungry and thirsty, Ammianus says (31.12.13).
• Among the dead were two senior generals, Trajan and Sebastian, and dozens of tribunes.
• The battle led to the treaty of 382 that settled the Goths as a semi-autonomous people inside the empire.

Sources: Ammianus Marcellinus, History 31.12 to 31.13; Zosimus, New History 4.20 to 4.24; Britannica: Visigoth (the crossing of 376 and Adrianople); Livius.org: Adrianople (378); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valens (Noel Lenski)

Theodosius I (AD 379 to 395)

Flavius Theodosius (Theodosius the Great), Theodosian

Theodosius settled the Goths inside the empire after Adrianople by treaty in 382 and defeated two western usurpers, Magnus Maximus in 388 and Eugenius in 394. He made Nicene Christianity the official religion, convened the Council of Constantinople in 381, and in 391 to 392 banned pagan sacrifice. On his death the empire passed to his two sons and was never ruled by one man again.

How he came to power: A Spanish general from a military family, he was appointed emperor of the East by Gratian on 19 January 379, after Valens' death at Adrianople.

How it ended: He fell ill after the campaign against Eugenius and died at Milan on the night of 17 January 395, a few hours after attending the victory games, as Socrates (5.26) reports.

• After his troops massacred thousands of people at Thessalonica in 390, Ambrose of Milan barred him from communion until he did public penance (Theodoret 5.17 to 18).
• The Obelisk of Theodosius, which he set up in the Hippodrome of Constantinople in 390, still stands in Istanbul.
• The ancient Olympic Games stopped during or soon after his reign; no surviving law explicitly bans them, so the link to his anti-pagan laws is an inference.
• He was the last emperor to rule both the eastern and western halves, briefly, from September 394 to January 395.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 4.24 to 4.59 (a hostile pagan account); Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.2 to 5.26; Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History 5.17 to 5.18 (Thessalonica massacre and penance); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Theodosius I (David Woods); Britannica: Theodosius I; Livius.org: Theodosius I

Edict of Thessalonica (27 February 380)

Issued by Theodosius I with his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, the edict (Cunctos populos) ordered all peoples of the empire to follow the faith taught by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, meaning Nicene Christianity. Others were branded heretics. It is often described as making Christianity the state religion, though pagan worship was not banned until laws of 391 and 392.

• The text survives in the Theodosian Code, book 16, title 1, law 2.
• It names Pope Damasus of Rome and Bishop Peter of Alexandria as the standards of correct belief.
• The edict targeted rival Christian groups, especially Arians, more than pagans.
• The following year Theodosius convened the Council of Constantinople, which restated the Nicene faith.

Sources: Theodosian Code 16.1.2 (Fordham Internet History Sourcebook); Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History 7.4 (quotes the law); Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.6 to 5.8; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Theodosius I (David Woods); Britannica: Theodosius I

Final Division of the Empire (17 January 395)

Theodosius I died at Milan on 17 January 395, leaving the East to his son Arcadius (about 17) and the West to Honorius (10). The empire had often been shared before, but this time the halves never came back under a single ruler. Real power fell to ministers, above all the general Stilicho in the West.

• Both sons had already been made Augustus in their father's lifetime, Arcadius in 383 and Honorius in 393.
• Contemporaries did not see it as a formal partition; laws were still issued in the names of both emperors.
• The Western Empire ended in 476, while the Eastern Empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
• Zosimus (4.59 and 5.1) blames the weakness of the young emperors and their ministers for the troubles that followed.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 4.59; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.26; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Theodosius I (David Woods); Britannica: Theodosius I

Honorius (AD 395 to 423)

Flavius Honorius Augustus, Theodosian dynasty

The younger son of Theodosius I, Honorius was made Augustus as a boy in 393 and inherited the western half of the empire in January 395, while his brother Arcadius took the East. For years the real power lay with his general and father-in-law Stilicho, whom Honorius had executed in 408. His reign saw Britain slip away, the Rhine frontier collapse, and Alaric's Goths sack Rome in 410.

How he came to power: Inherited the West on the death of his father Theodosius I in January 395, having been co-emperor since 393.

How it ended: Died at Ravenna in August 423 of dropsy (edema) according to Olympiodorus as summarised by Photius, who gives 27 August; Socrates Scholasticus and most modern accounts give 15 August.

• He married two daughters of Stilicho in turn, Maria and then Thermantia; Zosimus (5.28) and Jordanes (Getica 154) both say the marriages were never consummated.
• Procopius (Wars III.2.25-26) tells a story that when Honorius heard 'Rome has perished' he thought it meant his large pet cockerel named Rome; Procopius reports it as hearsay, and no earlier source confirms it.
• He moved the western court from Milan to Ravenna around 402, where marshes made the city easy to defend.
• His brother Arcadius ruled the East until 408, then Arcadius's young son Theodosius II, so the two halves were run by related but rival courts.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 2.14-27, LacusCurtius; Zosimus, New History 5.28 (Honorius's marriages to Maria and Thermantia), tertullian.org; Zosimus, New History 6.1-13 (Honorius, Alaric, Attalus), tertullian.org; Olympiodorus, Histories, as summarised in Photius, Bibliotheca cod. 80; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Honorius; Britannica: Honorius

Britain left to itself (c. AD 409 to 410)

In 407 the usurper Constantine III took much of Britain's army to Gaul. Zosimus says that around 409 the Britons, raided by barbarians, expelled the Roman magistrates and defended themselves. Around 410 Honorius reportedly wrote to the cities of Britain telling them to look after their own security, and imperial rule there was never restored.

• The only ancient source for Honorius's letter is Zosimus (New History 6.10), and some scholars argue the text originally meant Bruttium in southern Italy, not Britain.
• Zosimus (6.5) says the Britons 'freed their cities' from barbarians on their own and lived no longer under Roman laws.
• Gildas, writing in the sixth century, quotes an appeal known as the 'groans of the Britons' to a Roman commander he calls Agitius, usually identified as Aetius (Gildas, On the Ruin of Britain 20).
• Regular supplies of new Roman coins to Britain stopped in the early 400s, which archaeologists use to trace the end of Roman administration.

Sources: Zosimus, New History 6.5 and 6.10, tertullian.org; Gildas, On the Ruin of Britain 20, Fordham Internet History Sourcebooks; Encyclopaedia Romana (University of Chicago): the end of Roman Britain and the Saxon advent; Britannica: Roman Britain (the end of Roman rule)

Alaric sacks Rome (24 to 27 August AD 410)

After years of failed negotiations with Honorius's court at Ravenna, the Visigothic leader Alaric entered Rome on 24 August 410 and plundered it for three days. It was the first time an enemy had captured the city since the Gauls around 390 BC. The physical damage was limited, but the shock across the Roman world was enormous.

• The Goths carried off Honorius's half-sister Galla Placidia, who in 414 married Alaric's successor, the Gothic king Athaulf (Olympiodorus via Photius).
• Jerome, writing from Bethlehem, lamented that 'the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken' (Letter 127.12).
• Augustine began The City of God around 413 partly to answer pagans who blamed the disaster on Rome's abandonment of the old gods.
• Jordanes (Getica 158) says Alaric died soon after in southern Italy and was buried in the diverted bed of the river Busentus; the tomb has never been found.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 2.14-27, LacusCurtius; Augustine, The City of God, Book 1, New Advent; Jerome, Letter 127 (to Principia), New Advent; Olympiodorus, as summarised in Photius, Bibliotheca cod. 80; Britannica: Sack of Rome (410 CE)

Constantius III (AD 421 (February to September))

Flavius Constantius Augustus, Theodosian dynasty (by marriage)

Constantius was a career general from Naissus in the Balkans who became the dominant figure at Honorius's court after Stilicho's fall. He crushed the usurper Constantine III in 411, forced the Goths to hand back Honorius's sister Galla Placidia, and married her in 417. Honorius made him co-emperor in February 421, but he died that September.

How he came to power: Raised to co-emperor by Honorius on 8 February 421 after a decade as the West's leading general and husband of the emperor's sister.

How it ended: Died of illness on 2 September 421; Olympiodorus (via Photius) says it was pleurisy and that the loss of his freedom as emperor had worn on his health.

• Olympiodorus describes him riding in public looking dejected and sullen with big eyes, but being sociable at dinners and even competing with the entertainers.
• The eastern emperor Theodosius II refused to recognise him as Augustus, and Constantius was reportedly planning war over it when he died.
• He was the father of the future emperor Valentinian III and of Justa Grata Honoria, the princess later linked with Attila.
• Olympiodorus says he was generous until his marriage, then grew grasping, and that after his death many petitions from people he had wronged reached Ravenna.

Sources: Olympiodorus, Histories, as summarised in Photius, Bibliotheca cod. 80; Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 3.4, LacusCurtius; Zosimus, New History book 6 (events of 409-410 leading to Constantius's rise), tertullian.org; De Imperatoribus Romanis: western emperors page, note on Constantius III; Britannica: Constantius III

Joannes (usurper) (AD 423 to 425 (usurper))

Joannes (Iohannes), usurper, Usurper

Joannes was a senior palace official, by most accounts chief of the imperial notaries, who was proclaimed emperor at Rome after Honorius died in 423, while the legitimate heir, the child Valentinian, was in Constantinople. The eastern emperor Theodosius II never recognised him and sent an army under Ardabur and Aspar. Joannes was captured at Ravenna in 425 and executed, and Valentinian III was installed in his place.

How he came to power: Proclaimed at Rome in November 423 by the western court officials after Honorius died without a son.

How it ended: Captured at Ravenna in 425 and executed at Aquileia; Procopius (Wars III.3.9) says one of his hands was cut off and he was paraded on a donkey in the hippodrome before he was killed.

• Socrates Scholasticus (Church History 7.23) says an angel disguised as a shepherd guided Aspar's troops through the supposedly impassable marshes around Ravenna; this is a pious tradition, not a verified detail.
• His general Aetius brought a large Hun army to help him, but it arrived just after Joannes had fallen; Aetius then made his peace with the new regime.
• Procopius (Wars III.3.6-7) calls him gentle and sensible, says he listened to no slanderers and committed no unjust killings, at least not willingly.
• Olympiodorus, as summarised by Photius, says that at his inauguration a voice was heard saying 'He falls, he does not stand.'

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 3.5-9, LacusCurtius; Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.23, New Advent; Olympiodorus, as summarised in Photius, Bibliotheca cod. 80; De Imperatoribus Romanis: western emperors page, note on Johannes

Valentinian III (AD 425 to 455)

Placidus Valentinianus Augustus, Theodosian dynasty

Son of Constantius III and Galla Placidia, Valentinian became emperor at six in 425, with his mother as regent and the general Aetius as the real power for most of his reign. During his thirty years the West lost Africa to the Vandals and faced Attila's invasions of Gaul and Italy. In 454 he murdered Aetius in the palace, and in 455 he was assassinated.

How he came to power: Installed as western Augustus on 23 October 425 by an army sent from Constantinople by his cousin Theodosius II after the usurper Joannes was crushed.

How it ended: Killed on 16 March 455 in the Campus Martius by Optila and Thraustila, former followers of Aetius; Procopius (Wars III.4.36) blames the senator Petronius Maximus as the man behind it.

• He killed Aetius himself in September 454; Procopius (Wars III.4.28) reports a Roman telling him he had cut off his right hand with his left.
• He married Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of the eastern emperor Theodosius II, in Constantinople in 437, tying the two courts together.
• His sister Honoria reportedly sent her ring to Attila asking for help, which Attila treated as a marriage offer and a claim to half the West (Jordanes, Getica 223-224).
• He was the last male of the Theodosian dynasty in the West; after his death the West had nine emperors in twenty-one years.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 3-4, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 223-224, 235 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.24 (Valentinian proclaimed), New Advent; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Valentinian III; Britannica: Valentinian III

Vandals take Carthage (19 October AD 439)

The Vandals under King Gaiseric crossed from Spain to Africa in 429 and spent a decade overrunning the Roman provinces there. On 19 October 439, in peacetime, Gaiseric seized Carthage, the second city of the western empire. The loss of Africa's grain and taxes badly weakened the western government and gave the Vandals a fleet that could raid Italy.

• Procopius (Wars III.7.30) says Gaiseric's reign was reckoned as 39 years from the day he captured Carthage.
• Augustine died in 430 while the Vandals were besieging his city of Hippo Regius, as his biographer Possidius records.
• Jordanes (Getica 168) describes Gaiseric as of moderate height, lame from a fall from his horse, a man of few words who despised luxury.
• A treaty in 442 effectively recognised the Vandal kingdom, the first fully independent barbarian kingdom inside the western empire.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 3.22-26 and 7.30, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 167-169 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); Possidius, Life of Augustine 28-31, tertullian.org; Britannica: Gaiseric

Attila and the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (June AD 451 (traditionally 20 June))

In 451 Attila the Hun invaded Gaul. The Roman general Aetius allied with the Visigothic king Theodoric I and other peoples and met him on the Catalaunian Plains in Champagne. The battle was bloody and indecisive in the field, but Attila withdrew from Gaul, and Theodoric was killed.

• Jordanes (Getica 223-224) says Attila claimed Valentinian III's sister Honoria had invited him, and he demanded her as a bride with half the western empire as dowry.
• Jordanes (Getica 217) gives 165,000 dead; modern historians, and Britannica, regard the traditional casualty figures as exaggerated.
• The exact site is unknown; opinion is divided between areas near Chalons and Troyes.
• Attila invaded Italy the next year, 452, and died in 453; the Greek historian Priscus, who met him in person, left the best eyewitness description of his court.

Sources: Jordanes, Getica 180-218 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); Priscus, at the court of Attila, Fordham Internet History Sourcebooks; Britannica: Battle of the Catalaunian Plains

Petronius Maximus (AD 455 (March to May))

Petronius Maximus Augustus, Last western emperors

Petronius Maximus was a wealthy senator who had twice been consul and prefect of Italy. He took the throne the day after Valentinian III was murdered and forced Valentinian's widow Eudoxia to marry him. When the Vandal king Gaiseric sailed for Rome in 455, Maximus tried to flee and was killed by a crowd.

How he came to power: Proclaimed emperor at Rome on 17 March 455, the day after Valentinian III's murder, which Procopius says he had arranged.

How it ended: Killed on 31 May 455 as he fled the city; Procopius (Wars III.5.2) says Romans stoned him and tore his body apart, while Jordanes (Getica 235) says he was killed by a Roman soldier named Ursus.

• Procopius says the widowed empress Eudoxia, forced into marriage with him, secretly invited Gaiseric to come and avenge Valentinian (Wars III.4.37-39).
• He married his son Palladius to Valentinian's daughter Eudocia to tie himself to the old dynasty.
• His reign of roughly 75 days ended just days before the Vandals entered Rome.
• Procopius blames him for persuading Valentinian to murder Aetius, though Procopius wrote a century later.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 4.16-5.2, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 235 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Petronius Maximus; Britannica: Petronius Maximus

Avitus (AD 455 to 456)

Eparchius Avitus Augustus, Last western emperors

Avitus was a Gallo-Roman aristocrat from the Auvergne and a former general who was proclaimed emperor in Gaul in July 455 with the support of the Visigothic king Theodoric II. Unpopular in Italy and short of money, he lost the backing of the generals Ricimer and Majorian. They defeated him near Placentia (Piacenza) in October 456, and he was deposed.

How he came to power: Proclaimed emperor in Gaul in July 455 after the death of Petronius Maximus, backed by the Visigoths and Gallic nobles.

How it ended: After his defeat at Placentia on 17 or 18 October 456 he was made bishop of Placentia and died soon afterwards; the sources do not agree on whether he died naturally or was killed.

• His son-in-law, the poet Sidonius Apollinaris, delivered a verse panegyric for him in Rome on 1 January 456 (Sidonius, Carmen 7).
• Jordanes (Getica 240) says he held power for only 'a few days'; in fact he reigned about fifteen months.
• His son Ecdicius led the defence of Clermont (Arverna) against the Visigoths in the 470s; Jordanes (Getica 240) says he held out a long time before the city was given up to them.
• He is one of the very few Roman emperors to end his career as a bishop.

Sources: Jordanes, Getica 240 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters (Dalton translation), tertullian.org; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Avitus; Britannica: Avitus

Vandal sack of Rome (June AD 455)

Days after Petronius Maximus was killed, the Vandal king Gaiseric landed and entered Rome in June 455. For about two weeks his men systematically looted the city, then sailed back to Carthage with treasure and captives, including the empress Eudoxia and her daughters. Tradition says Pope Leo I persuaded Gaiseric to limit burning and killing.

• Procopius (Wars III.5.4) says the Vandals tore off half the gilded bronze roof of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
• Procopius (Wars III.5.5) says one of Gaiseric's ships, loaded with statues, sank on the way back to Africa.
• Valentinian III's daughter Eudocia was married to Gaiseric's son Huneric, who later became king of the Vandals.
• The word 'vandalism' was coined in 1794 by the French bishop Henri Grégoire, long after the event; the sack was organised plunder rather than mindless destruction.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 4.36-5.7, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 235 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); Britannica: Gaiseric

Majorian (AD 457 to 461)

Julius Valerius Majorianus Augustus, Last western emperors

Majorian was a soldier who had served under Aetius and who, with Ricimer, overthrew Avitus. As emperor he campaigned in Gaul and Spain, issued reforming laws, and assembled a fleet to retake Africa from the Vandals. The Vandals destroyed that fleet in Spain in 460, and on his return Ricimer had him arrested and executed in 461.

How he came to power: Acclaimed emperor by the army on 1 April 457, after Avitus's fall, with the support of the general Ricimer; he was formally invested as Augustus late in 457.

How it ended: Deposed by Ricimer on 2 August 461 and executed five days later near Dertona (Tortona); Jordanes (Getica 236) says he was killed at Dertona near the river Ira.

• One of his laws (Novel 4, 458) banned the stripping of Rome's ancient buildings for stone and set penalties for officials who allowed it.
• Procopius (Wars III.7.4-14) tells a story that he dyed his hair and visited Gaiseric's court in disguise as his own ambassador; historians treat this as legend.
• His invasion fleet was destroyed in 460 in the harbour near Elche (Portus Illicitanus) on the Spanish coast; the chronicler Hydatius says traitors guided the Vandals to it.
• Modern historians often call him the last western emperor who made a serious, sustained effort to restore imperial power.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 7.4-14, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 236 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Majorian; Britannica: Majorian; Livius.org: Majorian

Libius Severus (AD 461 to 465)

Libius Severus Augustus (Severus III), Last western emperors

Libius Severus was a senator from Lucania chosen by the general Ricimer after Majorian's execution. The eastern emperor Leo I never recognised him, and key western commanders, Aegidius in Gaul and Marcellinus in Dalmatia, refused to obey him. Real power stayed with Ricimer throughout his reign.

How he came to power: Proclaimed at Ravenna on 19 November 461, chosen by Ricimer after the execution of Majorian.

How it ended: Died at Rome in 465 (Jordanes, Getica 236, says in the third year of his reign); the chronicler Cassiodorus reports a rumour that Ricimer poisoned him, but many modern historians think he may have died naturally.

• After his death the West had no emperor at all for about eighteen months.
• He was never recognised by the eastern court in Constantinople.
• Very little is known about his personality; ancient writers mention him almost only by name and dates.
• Ricimer, the real power, was the son of a Suevic prince and grandson of the Visigothic king Wallia; his barbarian birth and Arian faith kept him from taking the throne himself.

Sources: Jordanes, Getica 236 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Libius Severus

Anthemius (AD 467 to 472)

Procopius Anthemius Augustus, Last western emperors

Anthemius was a Constantinople aristocrat and son-in-law of the former eastern emperor Marcian, chosen by Leo I to rule the West. He married his daughter to Ricimer and joined a huge eastern-western expedition against the Vandals in 468, which failed disastrously. Relations with Ricimer broke down into civil war, and Anthemius was killed when Ricimer's forces took Rome in 472.

How he came to power: Appointed by the eastern emperor Leo I and proclaimed near Rome on 12 April 467.

How it ended: Killed on 11 July 472 after Ricimer captured Rome; according to John of Antioch he was found hiding in a church disguised as a beggar and beheaded by Ricimer's nephew Gundobad.

• The 468 expedition against the Vandals under Basiliscus, described by Procopius (Wars III.6), was one of the largest naval operations of late antiquity and ended in defeat.
• His daughter Alypia was married to Ricimer, the man who later besieged and killed him.
• Jordanes (Getica 237-238) says he called on Riotimus, king of the Brittones, who brought 12,000 men to fight the Visigoths in Gaul and was defeated by King Euric.
• He was the last western emperor sent with large-scale eastern backing in men and money.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 6-7, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 236-239 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Anthemius; Britannica: Anthemius

Olybrius (AD 472 (April to November))

Anicius Olybrius Augustus, Last western emperors

Olybrius was a senator from the great Anician family and husband of Placidia, a daughter of Valentinian III. That marriage made him the candidate the Vandal king Gaiseric wanted on the western throne. Ricimer proclaimed him emperor during the war against Anthemius in 472, but Olybrius died of illness later that year.

How he came to power: Proclaimed emperor by Ricimer in April 472 during Ricimer's war with Anthemius.

How it ended: Died of illness, usually reported as dropsy, on 2 November 472; Jordanes (Getica 239) says he died barely eight months after taking power.

• His wife Placidia had been carried off to Carthage by the Vandals in 455 and later released.
• Ricimer, the general who made and unmade emperors for 16 years, died in August 472, a few months before Olybrius.
• The eastern emperor Leo I had actually sent Olybrius to Italy to mediate, not to become emperor, and did not recognise him.
• Procopius (Wars III.7.1) says he died a short time after taking the throne.

Sources: Procopius, Wars III (Vandalic War I) 6.6 and 7.1, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 239 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Olybrius

Glycerius (AD 473 to 474)

Glycerius Augustus, Last western emperors

Glycerius was commander of the palace guard when Ricimer's nephew Gundobad had him proclaimed emperor at Ravenna in 473. The eastern court never accepted him and backed Julius Nepos instead. When Nepos landed in Italy in 474, Glycerius gave up without a fight and was made a bishop.

How he came to power: Proclaimed at Ravenna on 3 March 473 by Gundobad; Jordanes (Getica 239) says it was 'rather by usurpation than by election'.

How it ended: Deposed by Julius Nepos in June 474 and ordained a bishop; Jordanes (Getica 239, 241) says he was made bishop at the Port of Rome and later held the bishopric of Salona; the date of his death is unknown.

• He was never recognised by the eastern emperor Leo I.
• Jordanes (Getica 241) notes the irony that Nepos later fled to Dalmatia, the very place where Glycerius was then bishop.
• Some later sources accuse him of involvement in Nepos's murder in 480, but this is not proven.
• His patron Gundobad left Italy soon after and later became king of the Burgundians.

Sources: Jordanes, Getica 239-241 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Glycerius

Julius Nepos (AD 474 to 475 (claimed the title in Dalmatia until 480))

Julius Nepos Augustus, Last western emperors

Nepos was ruler of Dalmatia and a relative by marriage of the eastern imperial family, sent by Constantinople to replace Glycerius in 474. He gave up the Auvergne to the Visigoths and appointed Orestes as his top general. Orestes turned on him in 475, and Nepos fled to Dalmatia, where he still claimed to be emperor until he was murdered.

How he came to power: Chosen by the eastern emperor Leo I and backed by the eastern court, he landed in Italy in June 474 and deposed Glycerius.

How it ended: Murdered near Salona in Dalmatia in 480; the Anonymus Valesianus (7.36) says he was killed by his own men, and the chronicler Marcellinus Comes names the counts Viator and Ovida.

• The eastern emperor Zeno told Odoacer in 476 that he should take back Nepos as his lawful emperor; Odoacer did not, though coins were struck in Nepos's name in the West.
• He was the nephew of Marcellinus, an independent general who ruled Dalmatia.
• Some modern historians treat his death in 480, not the events of 476, as the legal end of the western line of emperors.
• The general Orestes, whom Nepos had promoted, was the one who drove him out (Jordanes, Getica 241).

Sources: Anonymus Valesianus, part 2, 7.36, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 239-241 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Julius Nepos; Britannica: Julius Nepos

Romulus Augustulus (AD 475 to 476)

Romulus Augustus ('Augustulus'), Last western emperors

Romulus was a boy, probably in his early teens, whom his father, the general Orestes, made emperor after driving out Julius Nepos in 475. The eastern court never recognised him. In 476 the soldier Odoacer killed Orestes and deposed Romulus, and no new western emperor was named.

How he came to power: Proclaimed at Ravenna on 31 October 475 by his father Orestes, who held the real power.

How it ended: Not killed: deposed by Odoacer in September 476 and sent to live in Campania with an income of 6,000 gold pieces (Anonymus Valesianus 8.38); his later fate is unknown.

• 'Augustulus' means 'little Augustus' and was a mocking nickname; his name joined Romulus, Rome's founder, and Augustus, its first emperor.
• His father Orestes had once been secretary to Attila the Hun (Anonymus Valesianus 8.38).
• Jordanes (Getica 242) says he was exiled to the Castle of Lucullus in Campania, near Naples.
• A letter of Cassiodorus (Variae 3.35), written about 507 to 511, mentions a pension for a 'Romulus', which some historians think may be him, still alive under Theodoric.

Sources: Anonymus Valesianus, part 2, 8.37-38, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 241-243 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Romulus Augustulus; Britannica: Romulus Augustulus; Livius.org: Romulus Augustulus

Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus (4 September AD 476)

Odoacer, a soldier of barbarian origin in the Roman army in Italy, led a mutiny when the general Orestes refused the troops land. He killed Orestes, deposed the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus, and chose not to name a new western emperor. He ruled Italy as king, nominally under the emperor in Constantinople, until Theodoric the Ostrogoth overthrew him in 493.

• Odoacer spared Romulus and gave him an income of 6,000 gold pieces (Anonymus Valesianus 8.38).
• According to the Byzantine historian Malchus, Odoacer sent the western imperial regalia to the emperor Zeno in Constantinople, saying one emperor was enough.
• Jordanes (Getica 243) wrote that the western empire which Augustus began 'perished with this Augustulus', which is part of why 476 became the standard date.
• Julius Nepos still claimed the western throne from Dalmatia until 480, and contemporaries treated 476 as a change of regime rather than the end of the world; the idea of a single 'fall' came later.

Sources: Anonymus Valesianus, part 2, 8.37-38, LacusCurtius; Jordanes, Getica 242-243 (Mierow translation, Project Gutenberg); De Imperatoribus Romanis: Romulus Augustulus (and Odoacer); Britannica: Odoacer

The Eastern Roman Empire lasts until 1453 (AD 476 to 1453 (Constantinople falls 29 May 1453))

The eastern half of the empire, ruled from Constantinople, survived the fall of the West and lasted almost a thousand more years. Modern historians call it the Byzantine Empire, but its people called themselves Romans to the end. It ended when the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II took Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a siege of 53 days that began on 6 April.

• The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in the final assault; accounts of exactly how he died differ.
• The name 'Byzantine Empire' was popularised by Western scholars after the empire had fallen; its citizens called it the Roman Empire.
• Mehmed II's army used large cannon against the land walls first built under Theodosius II in the 400s.
• The Venetian doctor Nicolo Barbaro kept a day-by-day eyewitness diary of the siege, a key source for its dates.

Sources: Nicolo Barbaro, diary of the siege of Constantinople (excerpt), De Re Militari; Britannica: Fall of Constantinople; De Imperatoribus Romanis: Theodosius II (eastern emperor, builder of the land walls)