Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
From the Teutoburg Forest and the death of Augustus to the deposition of the last western emperor and the baptism of Clovis: five centuries of the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean — its height, its crisis, its conversion to Christianity and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms.
38 events · 4 regions · Western and Central Europe, Middle East and Egypt, Balkans and Anatolia, Africa
In the first two centuries AD the Roman Empire was at its height. The disaster in the Teutoburg Forest halted expansion beyond the Rhine, but Britain and Dacia were conquered, and at Trajan’s death in 117 the empire stretched from northern Britain to the Persian Gulf. Hadrian turned to guarding fixed frontiers, Rome was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and in Alexandria Ptolemy summed up the astronomy of antiquity. The Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars were the first signs of strain.
In the third century the empire nearly fell apart: rival emperors, invasions of Goths and other peoples, an emperor captured by the Persians, breakaway realms in Gaul and in the East. Aurelian restored its unity and Diocletian rebuilt the state as the Tetrarchy. Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, ended the persecutions, convened the Council of Nicaea and founded Constantinople; under Theodosius I Nicene Christianity became the religion of the state.
From 376, when the Goths fleeing the Huns crossed the Danube, the West gradually came apart: Adrianople, the crossing of the Rhine, the sacks of Rome in 410 and 455, the loss of Africa to the Vandals and Attila’s invasion of Gaul led to the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476. The East, ruled from Constantinople, survived; in the West the kingdoms of Theodoric’s Ostrogoths and Clovis’s Franks took the empire’s place.
Events
- Battle of the Teutoburg ForestSeptember 9 · Western and Central Europe
- Death of Augustus19 August 14 · Western and Central Europe
- Boudica’s revoltbetween 60 and 61 · Western and Central Europe
- Roman conquest of Britain43 – between 83 and 84 · Western and Central Europe
- Great Fire of Rome19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64 · Western and Central Europe
- Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70 · Middle East and Egypt
- Eruption of Vesuviusbetween 24 August and 1 November 79 · Western and Central Europe
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80 · Western and Central Europe
- Trajan’s Dacian Wars101–106 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Hadrian’s Wall122 – c. 128 · Western and Central Europe
- Ptolemy’s Almagestc. 150 · Middle East and Egypt
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Marcomannic Wars166–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Abritusbetween June and August 251 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284 · Western and Central Europe
- Aurelian Walls271–275 · Western and Central Europe
- Establishment of the Tetrarchy1 March 293 · Western and Central Europe
- Great Persecution24 February 303 – 313 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312 · Western and Central Europe
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313 · Western and Central Europe
- First Council of Nicaeabetween May and June 325 – between July and August 325 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Adrianople9 August 378 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Gothic War (376–382)376 – 3 October 382 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Edict of Thessalonica27 February 380 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395 · Western and Central Europe
- End of Roman rule in Britain383–410 · Western and Central Europe
- Crossing of the Rhine31 December 406 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central Europe
- Vandal conquest of Roman AfricaMay 429 – 442 · Africa
- Battle of the Catalaunian Plains20 June 451 · Western and Central Europe
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Vandal sack of Rome2–16 June 455 · Western and Central Europe
- Deposition of Romulus Augustulus4 September 476 · Western and Central Europe
- Theodoric takes Ravenna490 – 5 March 493 · Western and Central Europe
- Baptism of Clovisbetween 496 and 508 · Western and Central Europe
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Roman Empire
- Wikipedia (English): Fall of the Western Roman Empire
- Wikipedia (English): Migration Period
- Wikipedia (Russian): Римская империя
- Wikipedia (Russian): Падение Западной Римской империи
- Wikipedia (Russian): Великое переселение народов
- Beard M. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. — London: Profile Books, 2015.
- Heather P. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History. — London: Macmillan, 2005.
- Ward-Perkins B. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Ковалёв С. И. История Рима. — 2-е изд. — Л.: Изд-во ЛГУ, 1986.
- Корсунский А. Р., Гюнтер Р. Упадок и гибель Западной Римской империи и возникновение германских королевств (до середины VI в.). — М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1984.
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