Download Timeline for Chapter 3

HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1
Timeline for Chapter 3
BC
74
73–71
70
67
66–63
63
60
59
58–50
56
55
55–54
53
52
49
48
48–47
47
46
45
44
Bithynia and Cyrenaica become provinces.
Slave revolt of Spartacus.
First consulship of Pompey and Crassus. Trial of Verres by Cicero.
Pompey crushes the pirates.
Pompey, given exceptional powers in the East, defeats Mithridates and
reorganizes the region. End of the Seleucid empire. Syria, including Judaea
until 40 BC, is made a province.
Consulship of Cicero. Conspiracy of Catiline. Caesar is elected pontifex
maximus. Birth of Caesar’s great-nephew, the future Augustus.
First triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus and Pompey.
First consulship of Caesar, who is appointed governor of Cisalpine Gaul with
Illyricum for five years, to which the Senate adds Gallia Narbonensis
(Transalpine Gaul). Pompey’s actions in the East ratified. Clodius becomes a
pleb and is elected tribune of the people.
Caesar’s Gallic Wars. The whole of Gaul becomes part of the empire.
Renewal at Lucca of first triumvirate.
Second consulship of Crassus and Pompey. Caesar’s term extended.
Caesar’s invasions of Britain.
Death of Crassus in Parthia.
Pompey appointed sole consul.
Pompey authorized to deal with Caesar, who crosses the Rubicon with his
army, signifying that he comes as an invader. Pompey leaves for Greece.
Caesar is dictator for eleven days, then resigns.
Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey takes flight to Egypt, where he is
murdered as he steps ashore. Caesar, in pursuit, stays to sort out Cleopatra’s
affairs. He is reappointed dictator. Local war in Alexandria.
Caesar in Egypt.
Alexandrian War concluded with Jewish help. Caesar defeats Pharnaces, son
of Mithridates, at Zela. (‘Veni, vidi, vici.’) Reaches Rome in September.
Caesar is appointed dictator for ten years. He crosses to Africa from Sicily,
and crushes Pompey’s supporters at Thapsus. Suicide of Cato. Caesar’s
quadruple triumph. Cleopatra in Rome with her twelve-year-old husband (her
brother Ptolemy XIV) and her one-year-old son Ptolemy Caesar (popularly
called Caesarion). Caesar’s wide-ranging legislation includes the reform of the
calendar, necessitating the year having fifteen months. He leaves for Spain.
Final defeat of Pompeians in Spain. Caesar returns to Rome in October.
Caesar designated perpetual dictator. He is assassinated 15 March, having
announced that he will leave Rome on 18 March to lead his armies against the
Parthians. Marc Antony, Caesar’s consular colleague, takes control. The
Senate, at the instigation of Cicero, grants amnesties to the conspirators, and
recognizes Octavian as Caesar’s heir. Octavian holds games in honour of
Caesar’s birthday. Antony, having granted himself the governorship of
Cisalpine Gaul for five years, besieges the sitting governor, Decimus Brutus,
one of the conspirators, in Mutina.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
43
42
40
40–35
38
37
33
32
31
31–23
30
29
28
27
2
First consulship of Octavian. Formation of second triumvirate: Octavian,
Antony and Lepidus. Proscriptions, in which Cicero dies.
Caesar is officially deified. The chief conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, are
defeated at Philippi. Cisalpine Gaul incorporated into Italy. Antony goes to
settle imperial affairs in the East.
Octavian defeats at Perusia army led by Lucius Antonius, consul for 41 and
Antony’s brother. ‘Treaty of Brundisium’ effectively divides the Roman world
between Octavian and Antony, who marries Octavia, Octavian’s sister.
Trouble with Sextus Pompeius, who finally surrenders in Asia and is executed.
Octavian, having divorced his wife the previous year after she had given birth
to his daughter Julia, marries Livia, mother of Tiberius and pregnant with
Drusus.
Renewal of triumvirate.
Second consulship of Octavian. Legal end of triumvirate. Octavian steps up
propaganda campaign against Antony.
Antony divorces Octavia, and is attacked in the Senate by Octavian. War
declared against Cleopatra.
Battle of Actium on 2 September.
Successive consulships of Octavian/Augustus.
Having been called back to Italy by mutinies and general unrest, Octavian
returns to the East, arriving in Egypt during the summer. Antony and
Cleopatra commit suicide. Egypt is annexed by Rome and becomes the
personal property of the emperor.
Octavian celebrates triple triumph for victories in Dalmatia, at Actium and in
Egypt. Temple of the Divine Julius dedicated.
Octavian awarded the title of princeps. Octavian and his consular colleague
Agrippa hold a census, the first since 70 BC. They also reduce the number of
senators from 1,000 to 800.
Octavian renounces his special powers and ‘transfers the state to the Roman
people’. He accepts the provinces of Spain, Gaul and Syria for ten years, and
assumes the name Augustus. Agrippa builds the first Pantheon, which is
completed in 25.
The empire
Julio-Claudians and Flavians
Rule of Augustus
23
22
21
18
17
Augustus resigns his eleventh consulship, probably because of illness. He is
awarded full tribunician powers for life, and extended imperium which gives
him authority over any provincial governor and over the army (renewed for
five years in 18 and 13 BC, and for ten years in 8 BC, and in AD 3 and 13).
Famine and plague. Augustus declines a dictatorship and censorship for life,
but accepts the post of corn supremo. He leaves for the East for three years.
Agrippa is forced to divorce his wife and marry Augustus’ daughter Julia,
whose husband Marcellus has died after being married to her for two years.
The Senate is reduced to 600. Agrippa is granted special powers.
Augustus adopts Agrippa’s and Julia’s two sons, Gaius and Lucius, as his own
sons. Saecular Games celebrated.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
15
13
12
11
9
8
7
6
2
3
Tiberius and Drusus, Augustus’ stepsons, defeat the Raeti and Vindelici,
whose territory becomes a Roman province.
Tiberius’ first consulship. Augustus returns to Rome after three years in Gaul,
and Agrippa after three years in the East. Agrippa’s special powers extended
for five years.
Following the death of Lepidus, Augustus is elected pontifex maximus. Death
of Agrippa.
Tiberius is forced to divorce his wife and marry Julia.
Dedication of Ara Pacis in Rome.
Tiberius scores victories in Germany.
Tiberius awarded tribunician powers for five years; he retires to Rhodes.
Death of Drusus. Death of Herod the Great.
Banishment of Julia.
AD
2
4
6
9
13
14
Death of Lucius. Tiberius returns to Rome.
Death of Gaius. Augustus adopts Tiberius, who is granted tribunician powers
for ten years. Tiberius adopts Germanicus, son of Drusus, and departs for
Germany. Law restricting manumission.
Augustus establishes aerarium militare to provide for retired soldiers, and
creates the post of praefectus vigilum.
Varian disaster.
Augustus’ control of his provinces renewed for a further ten years. Tiberius’
powers are also renewed, with imperium equal to that of Augustus.
Census enumerates five million Roman citizens. Death (19 August) and
deification (17 September) of Augustus. Tiberius succeeds him. Mutinies in
Pannonia and Germany. Sejanus appointed commander of imperial guard.
Death of Julia.
Rule of Tiberius
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
26
Germanicus advances to the river Elbe, but is recalled to Rome and the
attempt to extend the Roman frontier is abandoned.
Germanicus celebrates a triumph, then is sent to the East with powers to
reorganize the provinces.
Third consulship of Tiberius, with Germanicus, who falls out with Gnaeus
Piso, legate of Syria. Death, in banishment, of the poet Ovid.
Death of Germanicus in Syria, which Piso is forced by army pressure to leave.
Piso, charged with treason and with procuring the death of Germanicus,
commits suicide.
Fourth consulship of Tiberius, with his son Drusus. Tiberius, however, retires
for a time to Campania.
Drusus awarded tribunician powers.
Sejanus relocates the imperial guard to a camp immediately outside the city
walls. Death of Drusus (attributed to Sejanus by Tacitus).
Pontius Pilate becomes administrator of Judaea. Sejanus persuades Tiberius to
leave Rome.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
27
28
29
31
33
37
4
Tiberius settles in Capri.
Marriage of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina (elder), to
Domitius Ahenobarbus.
Agrippina (elder) and her eldest son exiled. Death of Livia at the age of
eighty-six.
From Capri, Tiberius denounces Sejanus, on whom the Senate pronounces the
death sentence.
Probable date of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth under Roman law.
Drusus, son of Germanicus, becomes one of over sixty well-known people
executed for treason during the rule of Tiberius.
Death of Tiberius (16 March). Gaius (Caligula), Tiberius’ great-nephew,
becomes emperor and is suffect consul with his uncle Claudius. Death of
Tiberius Gemellus, Tiberius’ grandson. Birth of the emperor Nero.
Rule of Caligula
38
39
40
41
Death and deification of Caligula’s sister Drusilla. Riots in Alexandria
between Jews and Greeks.
Conspiracy of Aemilius Lepidus, widower of Drusilla, and C. Lentulus
Gaetulicus, consul in 26 and now legate in Upper Germany, both of whom are
executed. Caligula’s other two sisters are exiled. Caligula is on the Rhine and
in Gaul over the winter.
Caligula makes an expedition to the Channel. On his return to Rome, he orders
a statue of himself to be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem. Deputation of
Alexandrine Jews and Greeks.
Assassination of Caligula. Claudius, with the help of Herod Agrippa in
bringing round the Senate, is made emperor, having promised a donative to
each member of the imperial guard equivalent to ten years’ pay, an
unfortunate precedent. Herod Agrippa (Agrippa I), in addition to his existing
territories, is also made king of Judaea, Samaria and Idumaea, which cease to
be under the jurisdiction of the governor of Syria.
Rule of Claudius
42
43
44
46
47
48
50
51
Mauretania is divided into two provinces.
Invasion of Britain, part of which becomes a province under Aulus Plautius.
Claudius celebrates a triumph for his victory in Britain and names his threeyear-old son Britannicus. Achaea and Macedonia become subject to the
authority of the Senate. Death of Agrippa I. Judaea reverts to being a province.
Achaea is annexed.
Plautius celebrates a triumph for his successes in Britain, the last occasion on
which a subject is so honoured.
As censor, a post he revives, Claudius registers some seven million citizens of
Rome, and opens the way for more provincials to become senators. Death of
the empress Messalina. Claudius marries Agrippina (the younger), the
daughter of his brother Germanicus.
Claudius adopts Nero, son of Agrippina.
Final defeat in Wales of the British chief Caratacus, who is handed over by
Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes. Claudius pardons him and his family
and allows them to live out their lives in Rome. Vespasian is suffect consul.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
53
54
5
Marriage of Nero to Claudius’ daughter Octavia.
Death of Claudius by poison (12 October). Accession of Nero. Claudius is
deified.
Rule of Nero
55
56
59
60
61
62
64
65
66–74
66
68
69
Nero rules initially with the advice of his tutor, Seneca, and Burrus,
commander of the imperial guard. Claudius’ freedman, who was his financial
secretary, is dismissed. Britannicus is poisoned. Gn. Domitius Corbulo
appointed to military command in the East.
Quaestors are replaced by two imperial officers (ex-praetors) at the treasury, to
which Nero transfers forty million sesterces in 57.
Nero finally succeeds in murdering his mother.
Corbulo, after several military successes, settles the Armenian problem, and is
appointed governor of Syria.
In Britain, the Iceni (under Boudica) and Trinovantes revolt, causing great
destruction and slaughter. They are finally defeated by Suetonius Paullinus,
and Boudica commits suicide.
Death of Burrus. Seneca withdraws from public life. Nero marries Poppaea,
having divorced and subsequently murdered Octavia.
Great fire of Rome.
In the wake of a high-level conspiracy, there are many executions and
enforced suicides, including that of Seneca. Death of Poppaea.
First Jewish War.
As First Jewish War begins, Vespasian is appointed military commander in
Judaea. Nero marries Statilia Messalina.
Nero returns from visits to Greece. Verginius Rufus, legate of Upper
Germany, crushes rebellion of Vindex in Gaul. Death of Nero (6 June). End of
the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Galba enters Rome and is accepted as emperor.
Year of the four emperors. Vitellius, governor of Lower Germany, is
acclaimed emperor by his troops and those in Upper Germany. Galba and
Piso, his nominee as successor, is killed by the imperial guard, who make
Otho emperor (15 January). In northern Italy Vitellius defeats Otho, who
commits suicide (14 April). Vitellius arrives in Rome (mid-July). Vespasian,
in Judaea, is proclaimed emperor by Tiberius Alexander, prefect of Egypt (1
July), and is accepted as such by the troops in the East and on the Danube. The
Danube legions capture Rome (21 December). Death of Vitellius (24
December).
From the accession of Vespasian to the end of the Flavian dynasty
70
71
73
74
78–84
Vespasian and Titus are consuls. Titus takes Jerusalem; destruction of the
Temple. Vespasian reaches Rome (October).
Vespasian and Nerva are consuls. Triumph of Vespasian and Titus for
victories in Judaea. Titus is appointed commander of the imperial guard and
receives tribunician powers.
First consulship of Domitian.
Vespasian confers Latin rights on all parts of the Spanish peninsula. Fall of
Masada marks end of First Jewish War.
Agricola is governor of Britain.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
79
80
81
83
84
86–92
96
6
Death of Vespasian and accession of Titus (23 June). Eruption of Vesuvius
and destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii (August).
Fire in Rome destroys Capitoline Temple. Opening of the Colosseum (the
Flavian Amphitheatre).
Erection of Arch of Titus. Death of Titus and accession of Domitian (13
September).
Domitian campaigns in Germany.
Battle of Mons Graupius in Scotland. Agricola is recalled.
Domitian’s Danube wars.
Assassination of Domitian. Senate elects Nerva to succeed him.