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THE REPUBLIC OF ROME
507: Brutus and L. Tarquinius Collatinus (who is rapidly displaced) lead a popular revolt – or more likely a
palace coup – to overthrow king Tarquinius Superbus,
establishing the Republic.
506: Brutus and Poplicola elected first consuls.
Wars in Italy
Wars in the West
Wars in the East
Tarquinius Superbus, last King of Rome
Dictator
Consul
483: Sedition of the former consul Spurius Cassius Vicellinus,
who proposes agrarian reforms.
This work by Garry Stevens is
licensed under Creative Commons
licence CC-BY-NC-ND, and is
available for free from
www.garryscharts.com. See terms
of use there. Version 1.8.
Republics (Princeton, 2010); G.
Forsythe, A Critical History of Early
Rome (University of California
Press, 2005) and The History of
Rome podcasts
(thehistoryofrome.typepad.com).
Main source: Brian Taylor's series
of books (Spellmount, 2008),
which correct the traditional
Varronian dating in many cases
prior to 300 BC. Other sources
include H. Fowler, Roman
The timelines for individuals are
not lifespans, but career lengths;
usually starting from their first
position in the cursus honorum.
Maps show the largest cities at
each time.
War of Fidenae/ 2nd War of
Veii
Etruria's largest city razed to the
ground.
1st Celtic Invasion
2nd Celtic Invasion
1st Samnite War
Latins crushed & Latin League
dissolved. Campania annexed.
Rome controls all its neighbouring states.
Conquest of Italy
2nd Samnite War
Etruria made a dependency.
3rd Samnite War
Samnites admitted as allies.
Gallic & Etruscan Revolt
Rome controls all northern and central Italy.
Pyrrhic War
Titus
Quinctius
Capitolinus
Barbatus
446: Leges Valeriae Horatiae. Tribunes declared sacrosanct, plebiscites give
the force of law. 442: Lex Canuleia legalises patrician-plebeian intermarriage,
formerly prohibited by the Twelve Tables. 440: Office of censor created.
Appius
Claudius
Crassus
437-6: Sedition of Spurius Maelius, who buys Etruscan grain to
distribute to the populace. Thwarted by elderly Cincinnatus.
Marcus
Furius
Camillus
Armies maintained in the field for more than one season, and paid.
Sack of Veii marks start of the decline of the Etruscans.
382: Sedition of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus – saviour of the Capitol during the Gallic siege –
who argues for plebeian debt relief. Assasinated.
Camillus, after a lifetime of military achievement against the Etruscans and Celts, is hailed as
the second founder of Rome. He straddles the transition from a mythic Rome to historical fact.
371-367: Obscure period of near-anarchy led by pleb agitation.
363: Leges Licinae Sextia (traditionally held to be supported by Camillus).
Permanent restoration of the consulate. One consul to be a pleb, but only
observed intermittently in the next 20 years. Praetorship created to assist
the consuls and curule aediles. 362: Lucius Sextus Lateranus is elected the
first pleb consul, although records indicate pleb consuls decades before.
Gaius
Marcius
Rutilus
352: Gaius Marcius Rutilus elected the first pleb
dictator, then in 347 the first pleb censor.
Titus
Manlius
Torquatus
342: Hereafter, at least one consul is always a pleb. 335: Leges
Publiliae. At least one censor must be a pleb. Plebs have now
achieved permanent access to the highest magistracies.
330: Rome's most intractable central Italian foes, the Volsci, expelled from the Liris valley. They disappear from history.
Corvus is renowned for holding six consulships, a
record not exceeded until Marius.
Romans adopt the maniple military system from the Samnites.
Lucius
Papirius
Cursor
312: Appius Claudius Caecus builds the road Via Appia to Capua
in Campania for military purposes, and the aqueduct Aqua Appia.
Rome is now much more socially and technologically sophisticated than its neighbours.
Marcus
Valerius
Maximus
Corvus
303: The Aequi, last of Rome's age-old central Italian enemies,
are finally destroyed.
300: Lex Ogulnia. After defending their monopoly on the religious
offices of state for centuries, the patricians open the pontifices
and augurs to the plebs.
287: Lex Hortensia. The plebiscites of the Comitia Tributa, previously only held to be binding on the plebs, are given the force of
law. The Struggle of the Orders ends, and the Republic of the
Nobiles begins.
Appius Claudius is the first Roman whose political biography and
agenda we know in detail.
Appius
Quintus Manius Claudius
Fabius Curius Caecas
Maximus Dentatus
Rullianus
Conquest of Southern Italy
Marcus
Atilius
Regulus
Rome controls all of Italy.
MIddle
Republic
255: After his defeat and capture by the Carthaginians at the B. of Panormus, M.
Atilius Regulus is paroled to Rome, where he argues against peace. He honours his
parole, returning to Carthage, where he meets his death. Hailed as the model of
Roman integrity.
339: B. Mount Gaurus. M. Valerius Maximus Corvus defeats
Samnites. Stalemated when Latins revolt.
Latin War
336: B. Vesuvius. P. Decius Mus I sacrifices himself. 335: B.
Trifanum. T. Manlius Torquatus defeats Latins.
3rd Samnite War
319: B. Caudine Forks. Samnites defeat Romans. 308: 1st
B. Lake Vadimo: Q. Fabius Rullianus defeats Etruscans. 304:
B. Bovianum. L. Papirius Cursor defeat Samnites. First use
of Roman naval forces (in Adriatic).
Grand coalition of Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites and
Italian Gauls. 295: B. Sentinum. Rullianus & P. Decius Mus II
defeat coalition. 293: B. Aquilonia. M. Curius Dentatus
defeats Samnites. Samnites admitted as allies.
Gallic and Etruscan 283: 2nd B. Lake Vadimo. P. Cornelius Dolabella defeat the
Revolt
Italian Gauls and Etruscans in their last stand
Pyrrhic War
275: B. Beneventum. Dentatus defeats Pyrrhus of Epirus.
The Roman legion demonstrates it can hold its own against
the Greek phalanx. Italy secure from Hellenistic threats.
Conquest of
Southern Italy
Rapid conquest of southern Italy after Pyrrhus leaves. At the
end, Rome controls all of Italy.
1st Punic War
242-241: B. Aegates Islands. G. Lutatius Catullus defeats
Carthage. First overseas military engagements.
1st Illyrian War
Punitive expedition against pirates.
3rd Celtic Invasion
222: B. Clastidium. M. Claudius Marcellus defeats Gauls.
2nd Illyrian War
2nd Mithridatic
War
Local clash.
Sullan Civil Wars
82: B. Colline Gate. Sulla defeats Republicans under L.
Cornelius Cinna.
Sertorian War
Pompey defeats the last Marians, led by Quintus Sertorius, in
Spain. Marian resistance destroyed. Sertorius murdered by his
subordinate, prefiguring the later fates of emperors.
3rd Mithridatic
War
72: B. Cabira/Sivas, L. L. Lucullus defeats Mithridates VI. 69: B.
Tigranocerta, Lucullus defeats Tigranes of Armenia. 66: B. the
Lycus, Pompey defeats Mithridates VI. Pompey sweeps through
the East, on the back of Lucullus' victories. Rome's most
tenacious opponent since Hannibal destroyed.
War of
Spartacus/3rd
Servile War
Crassus and Pompey defeat Spartacus. Last of the great slave
revolts.
Gallic Wars
Gaius Julius Caesar defeats Gauls. In one of history's great
genocides, Caesar kills perhaps one-third of the population, and
enslaves one million.
Caesar's Civil War
48: B. Pharsalus. Caesar defeats Republicans under Pompey.
46: B. Thapsus. Caesar def. Republicans under Metellus Scipio.
In acts of magnanimity unusual for a Roman victor, Caesar
consistently forgives his enemies (with some notable exceptions)
War of Sextus
Pompeius
36: B. Naulochus. Agrippa defeats the last Republican, Sextus
Pompeius, son of Pompey, who had threatened Rome's grain
supply from Sicily.
Civil War of Antony 43: B. Forum Gallorum. Octavian sides with the Republicans to
defeat Antony.
War of the
Liberators
42: B. Philippi. Octavian & Antony def. the Liberatores (M. Junius
Brutus and G. Cassius Longinus). Largest battle fought between
Romans (36 legions), save possibly the B. Lugdunum (197 AD).
Perusine War
Octavian defeats L. Antonius, brother of Antony.
War of Actium
31: B. Actium. Octavian & Agrippa defeat Antony and Cleopatra.
Octavian now sole master of the Roman world.
Punitive expedition.
Cantabrian War
Augustus completes conquest of northern Spain.
2nd Punic War
202: B. Zama. P. Scipio Africanus def. Hannibal. Rome's only
rival in the West vanquished after an epic life-or-death
struggle. Syracuse, the last great Greek city-state, captured.
German Wars
1st Macedonian
War
Philip V of Macedon defeats Greek alliance. Rome plays little
part.
T. Claudius Nero and his brother N. Claudius Drusus, sons of
Augustus' wife Livia, defeat Germans. Borders of empire in
Europe mostly stabilised, although Rome will soon move from
the Elbe to the Rhine as a border.
2nd Macedonian
War
197: B. Cynoscephalae. T. Quinctius Flaminius defeats Philip
V. 196: Liberation of Greece from Macedonian threat. Greek
phalanx decisively defeated by Roman legions. Philip loses
all non-Macedonian territory. Greek cities in Asia Minor
placed under Roman protection.
War of Antiochus/
Syrian War
190: B. Magnesia. Cnaeus Domitius & P. Scipio Africanus
defeat Antiochus III of the Seleucid kingdom.
1st Celtiberian War T. Sempronius Gracchus defeat Celtiberians in Spain. First of
a long series of revolts in Spain.
3rd Macedonian
War
168: B. Pydna. L. Aemilius Paulus def. Perseus of Macedon.
Macedon subdivided. Greece and Anatolia made
protectorates. Antiochus IV of the Seleucid kingdom
acknowledges Roman suzerainty over eastern
Mediterranean. Huge numbers of slaves taken from Epirus.
3rd Illyrian War
168: L. Anicius Gallus defeats Genthius. Illyria subdivided.
Lusitanian War
Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus supp. revolt in Spain.
4th Macedonian
War & Achaean
War
Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus supp. revolt of Andriscus.
L. Mummius sacks Corinth. Macedon made a province.
Corinth destroyed, Greece subjugated: end of Greek political
history. Vast numbers of slaves taken from Greece.
3rd Punic War
146: S. Aemilianus sacks Carthage, razing it to the ground.
Numantine/
Celtiberian Wars
S. Aemilianus finally defeats Celtiberians in Spain. Marked
decline in Roman military competence.
1st Servile War
P. Rupilius suppresses Sicilian slave revolt.
Cimbrian War
105. B. Arausio. Teutones and Cimbri def. Romans. Possibly
the greatest battle casualties in Roman history (80,000).
102-101: B. Aquae Sextae, B. Vercellae. They are destroyed
by Marius. Italy made safe from invasion for over 200 years.
Jugurthine War
Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus replaced by Marius and his
subordinate L. Cornelius Sulla, who defeat the Numidians.
Republic of the Patricians
Dominated by the patricians, a group of
families traditionally held to be the descendants of the senators chosen by the
first king, Romulus. Eligibility for office is
strictly hereditary with this class.
The plebeians (the vast majority of the
population) wage a slow-burning campaign over centuries, the Struggle of the
Orders, to open up the high offices of
state. So opposed are the patricians at
every turn, that the plebs are forced to
create their own parallel legislative assembly (the Comitia Tributa) and officers
(the tribunes and plebeian aediles). Eventually the patricians are forced to concede even their most precious privileges,
the religious offices of state.
Republic of the Nobiles
With offices open to both classes, the
ruling families are reconstructed as the
descendants of dictators and consuls of
both patricians and plebs: the nobiles.
The eminence of families now derives
from repeated election to high office,
rather than mere heredity. Further, personal achievement comes to be defined
by success in war, the pinnacle of which
is the award of a triumph.
Quintus
First native Roman dramatist: Gnaeus Naevius, comic playwright.
Unlike the 1st Punic war, Rome fields many excellent generals for the 2nd Punic War, such as Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus,
G. Flaminius Nepos, M. Claudius Marcellus, and P. Cornelius Scipio. Although shorter than the first struggle against Carthage,
the 2nd war is mainly fought in Rome's own backyard, and against one of the great captains of history, Hannibal.
1st Macedonian War
The 2nd Punic War ravages the independent citizen-farmers who had manned the Roman armies for years on end. As they
fall into debt, their lands are confiscated by their creditors, and they swell the numbers of the urban poor in Rome.
P. Scipio Africanus is the first general to acquire a personal following and be hailed as Imperator (‘victorious general’, which became our 'Emperor'), an epithet that would haunt the late Republic and provide a template for the
entire history of the Empire as the loyalty of the soldiers transfers from the state to individual leaders.
2nd Macedonian War
War of Antiochus
Africanus and Flamininus extend the traditional Italian patron-client system to the peoples of conquered
Greek cities. They are philhellenes, championing new philosophies, creeds, and practices.
175 BC
1st Celtiberian War
Optimates
Populares
Others
Tiberius
Sempronius
Gracchus
Terms used in the late republic to denote those senatorial advocates either defending the age-old
privileges of the nobiles (the Optimates) or those championing the vast populace (the Populares).
The distinction lies deeply rooted in the ancient Struggle of the Orders, and can be traced back to
the supposed sedition of the consul Spurius Cassius Vicellinus (483 BC). Over 400 years, ending
with Gaius Julius Caesar, the nobiles assassinated politicians advocating land reform, debt relief,
and Italian rights; each time claiming that the Populares intended to restore the despised rule of
kings (which was quite likely true only in Caesar's case).
M. Porcius Cato the Censor is the archetype of Roman integrity and incorruptibility, a symbol to later generations of
everything that was good and great about Rome: a farmer, soldier, statesman, and zealous defender of ancient Roman values against decadent innovations. But he is also merciless to his enemies, inhuman to his slaves, and spiteful to his political opponents. Author of the first history of Rome to be written in Latin rather than Greek.
Titus
Quinctius
Flamininus
S. Sulpicius Galba, a general and governor in Spain, comes to symbolise the venality, incompetence and treachery of Roman generalship and administration in the Spanish wars.
107-104: Marius reforms the military, recruiting from the landless poor for the first time. This creates a professional army owing loyalty to its general, not the state. In his first consulship, he persuades the Comitia Tributa to overrule the Senate and assign him the command assigned to Numidicus; a tactic to be used by later generals.
104-100: Marius is elected consul for an unprecedented five consecutive terms, violating the Lex Vatinia, winning
military glory by defeating the Germans in what was to be the last invasion of Italy for over 200 years.
2nd Servile War
War of the Cilician Pirates
Quintus Quintus
Caecilius Caecilius
Metellus Metellus
102-100: Mob violence of Saturninus, eventually controlled by his former ally Marius,
who falls from grace. Electoral process hereafter corrupted by bribery and violence.
Cyrenaican Bequest
75 BC
88: Incited by Marius and intimidated by the militia of Sulpicius, the Comitia Tributa strips the elected consul,
L. Cornelius Sulla, of his command for the Mithraditic War. In an unprecedented move, Sulla marches his army
into Rome and spends a year consolidating the Optimates' position. Marius flees.
82-79: Returning to Italy from the Mithraditic War, Sulla again marches on Rome and defeats the Marians.
Following Marius' example, he conducts bloody proscriptions of the Populares. Sulla becomes Dictator, an
office unused since the Punic Wars, to revise the constitution in favour of the Optimates.
3rd Mithraditic War
Macedonicus
Lucius
Appuleius
Saturninus
Marcus
Aemilius
Scaurus
91: In an attempt to forestall further Populares action, and to preserve the
Optimates' dominance, tribune M. Livius Drusus introduces numerous
reforms, including extension of citizenship to the Italians. Misunderstood by all
classes, he is assassinated. In reaction, the Italians revolt in the Social War.
Eminent
Caesar's Civil War
Antony's Civil War
43-42: Octavian (Caesar's heir), Antony (Caesar's chief lieutenant) and Lepidus (a grandee
taken on board to placate the conservatives) take formal control of the state in the 2nd
Triumvirate. They defeat the Liberatores at the B. of Philippi. Mass proscriptions of the
Republicans, most notably Cicero. Senatorial class further debilitated.
31: Octavian and Agrippa defeat Antony and establish a military dictatorship.
War of the Liberators
War of Sextus Pompeius
Perusine War
War of Actium
Danube Wars
1 BC
greatest
orator, who
attempted to
preserve the
republic, but
was outfoxed
by Caesar,
then by Octavian.
Sextus
Pompeius
27: 1st constitutional settlement of Octavian. Perpetual consul, proconsular imperium over many provinces,
and hence command of most legions (20, compared to the Senate's 5). Awarded titles of Augustus
(Illustrious) and Princeps (First Citizen). Transition from ruthless Octavian to benign Augustus.
23: 2nd constitutional settlement. Maintaining the veneer of the Republican constitution, Augustus declines the perpetual consulship but acquires imperium over all proconsuls and the consuls in Rome, and
therefore becomes head of all the legions. Granted the tribunician and censorial powers for life. He also
manoeuvres to make this unique position hereditary in his family (initially to his nephew M. Claudius Marcellus), a concept alien to Rome since the kings, but familiar from the Hellenistic monarchies.
19: L. Cornelius Balbus is the last general outside the imperial family to be awarded a triumph.
Cantabrian War
Gaius
Marius
Optimate.
Lucius Marcus
Licinius Livius Publius Marcus
87-82: Marian Terror: Marius returns to Italy while Sulla is in the east, effectively
Lucius Lucullus Drusus Sulpicius
overthrowing the Senate. Mass proscriptions as a deranged or senile Marius (in
Tullius
pursuit of a prophesised 7th consulship) and his co-consul Cinna annihilate the
Rufus
Cornelius
Gaius
Cicero
Optimates. Cinna eventually stops the violence by murdering Marius' slave followers.
Cinna
Julius
Caesar
70: Pompey and Crassus overturn Sulla's reforms. Senate enfeebled by years of proscriptions.
Publius
Gnaeus
Marcus
Clodius
66-63: Pompey completes conquest of the east, brilliantly reorganising the provinces and clients.
Pompeius
Licinius
Magnus Rome's Crassus Pulcher
60: Pompey, Crassus and Caesar reach an informal arrangement, the 1st triumvi-
58-52: Mob violence of Clodius.
rate, to manipulate the state for their ends. Effective end of Republican politics.
Pompey appointed sole consul.
49-46: Caesar marches on Rome. The Republicans, under Pompey and Cato, flee.
Marcus
Caesar progressively defeats all the Republican armies arrayed against him.
Porcius
46-44: Caesar is consul, dictator, censor and tribune simultaneously, destroying the constitution. He institutes a Populares program, but is assassinated by the Liberatores in 44.
Cato
Gallic Wars
Lucius
Cornelius
Sulla
Numidicus
MonarchY
12: Upon the death of Lepidus, Augustus becomes Pontifex Maximus. All the offices and functions of
state – civil, judicial, military, and religious – are now unified in one person for the first time since the
kings, in an office that will later be known as the emperor of Rome.
1st
Triumvirate
43: Last independent consuls, Pansa
and Hirtius, die in the Civil War of Antony.
2nd
Triumvirate
Marcus
Antonius
Nero
Claudius Tiberius
Drusus Claudius
Nero
Marcus
Aemilius
Lepidus
Marcus
Vipsanius
Agrippa
100
Fall
Wars of Empire
Gaius
Sempronius
Gracchus
123-122: Tribune G. Gracchus promotes land, judicial and military reforms. He introduces taxfarming, subsidies for grain, and payments for military clothing. Assasinated by the Optimates.
Jugurthine War
War of Spartacus
Sulpicius
Galba
Tiberius
Gracchus
Roman Revolution
Late
Republic
b
Cimbrian War
Sertorian War
Marcus
Porcius
Cato
133: Tribune T. Gracchus introduces legislation redistributing public lands to the plebs, including the
lands of King Attalus III of Pergamum, who had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. In a radical move,
he takes his proposal direct to the Comitia Tributa, bypassing the traditional (but informal) prerogatives
of the Senate. Enraged by this threat to their customary powers, the nobiles, led by the Pontifex
Maximus Scipio Nasica, lead a mob to assassinate him. Nonetheless, his legislation is passed, and his
brother G. Gracchus works on the Land Commission to implement his reforms.
1st Servile (Slave) War
Sullan Civil Wars
2nd Mithraditic War
Publius
Cornelius
Scipio
Africanus
Scipio
Servius
Aemilianus
Growing civil disorder, exacerbated by impoverished veterans of the Spanish wars returning to Rome.
Growth of the latifundia, large estates run by slaves, created by buying up the lands of the citizen farmers
Numantine Wars
200
Macedonicus
S. Aemilianus — general, statesman, orator, intellectual, philhellene— is a moderate in radical times, and the last
great Roman not involved in the fall of the Republic. His death is one of the minor mysteries of Roman history.
3rd Punic War
1st Mithraditic War
Lucius
Aemilius
Paullus
180:Lex Villia Annalis codifies the cursus honorum, establishing set periods between the holding of offices.
4th Macedonian & Achaean Wars
Social War
Publius
Cornelius
Scipio
First Roman historian: Q. Fabius Pictor, who wrote in Greek.
2nd Punic War
300
Fall of the Republic
An enduring pattern that would last until
the end of the empire in 476 AD is established: warlords (Marius, Sulla, Pompey,
Caesar, Augustus) commanding armies
owing loyalty to themselves, and not any
sense of a polity, take control of the state
by militarily destroying their rivals.
Gaius Fla- Fabius
minius Maximus
Marcus Nepos Verrucosus
Gaius
Claudius
Lutatius
Marcellus
Catulus
227: First steps towards an imperial administration, as Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica
are established as the first non-Italian provinces, governed by praetors.
2nd Illyrian War
Pergamene Bequest
soldiers who man Rome's armies.
The nobiles are not only incapable of
understanding the economic changes
transforming Rome, but also of governing
the burgeoning empire created after the
2nd Punic War. The constitution that
evolved to govern the city of Rome is
inadequate to administer provinces many
weeks or months distant from Rome; the
governors sent to these provinces succumb to venality and corruption; and the
legions that depended on Roman citizenfarmers are obliged to draw on Italian
manpower instead.
Populares politicians repeatedly attempt
to address the long-running issues of the
status of the non-Roman Italians, the use
of the public land, and the status of the
Roman landless.
400
Monarchy
The patrician-plebeian distinction is now
only of religious and antiquarian signifiRoman Revolution
cance. The last Republican standing warRome's conquests in Greece and Asia
lord, Augustus, creates a monarchy, coMinor bring a massive influx of wealth
opting the ancient Republican nobiles.
and slaves, transforming the ancient
citizen-farmer economy to one dominated These families' influence will only end
by ruthless nobile exploitation of the very with the fall of Augustus' dynasty in 68.
Earliest Latin literature: Lucius Livius Andronicus, a Greek freedman,
translates the Odyssey into Latin, and writes the first Latin plays.
3rd Celtic Invasion
3rd Macedonian War
3rd Illyrian War
Lusitanian War
1st Samnite War
85: B. Orchomenus. Sulla defeats Mithridates VI of Pontus.
Mithridates' invasion of Greece stopped.
Although suffering crippling losses in men, material, and money in the 1st Punic war, the Romans refuse to accept
anything other than total victory. Where other nations would surrender after a massive defeat, the Romans would raise
another army and return for the next campaign season. However, the war produces no great generals or statesmen.
1st Illyrian War
Hellenistic kingdoms effectively neutralised.
2nd Celtic Invasion Camillus defeats Gauls.
1st Mithridatic
War
Republic of the Nobiles
Domination of the Mediterranean
1st Punic War
387: B. the Allia. Gauls sack Rome. Many records lost.
Gauls paid off by Camillus.
2nd Samnite War
Archetype of
Roman
leadership, civic
virtue and
modesty, but a
bitter opponent of
the plebs.
442-367: Boards of military tribunes with consular powers often elected instead of two consuls as the chief magistrates. The office is obscure. It lacked the religious authority granted to consuls, and seems
to have been devised to deny the plebs the consulship proper.
1st Celtic Invasion
Marius and Sulla defeat Italian uprising.
Alexander the Great
Campania made a dependency.
Cincinnatus
448-7: The Decemviri, a board of ten commissioners with absolute power,
led by the arrogant Appius Claudius Crassus, are appointed to codify and
publish the laws. They attempt to cling on to power, ruling through oppression, but are eventually expelled. The result of their work is the Twelve Tables, which would remain the foundation of Roman law for centuries.
393: M. Furius Camillus defeats, sacks, and enslaves
Rome's greatest enemy to date, Veii, wealthiest city in
Etruria, after a long siege. Start of the Roman slave-based
economy.
Social War
Struggle of the Orders: Stage 2
Early
Republic
Gauls sack Rome. Last violation
of Rome for 850 years.
Lucius
Quinctius
3rd War of Veii
500 BC
1st Cilician Pirates
Peloponnesian War
3rd War of Veii
468: Lex Publilia. Until this time the tribunes had been elected by the Comitia Curiata, an assembly completely dominated by patricians. Plebs succeed in creating a
second and more democratic body, the Comitia Tributa, to elect the tribunes and
pass plebiscites (non-binding resolutions). Number of tribunes increased to five.
Etruscans ejected from the Roman side of the Tiber. 20 year
truce.
Manius Aquillius suppresses Sicilian slave revolt.
Republic of the Patricians
Wars of Survival
Censor
Spurius
Cassius
Vicellinus
War of Fidenae/
2nd War of Veii
2nd Servile War
Military Tribunes alternate with Consuls
Intermittent wars and raids against neighbours in central Italy
Tribune, tribunician power
Thwarted in his
ambitions, Coriolanus
leads the Volsci
against Rome, but is
defeated by the
virtue of Roman
women.
Almost 200 years of intermittent warfare with their central
Italian neighbours—the Aequi, Hernici and Volsci—and their
northern neighbours, the Etruscans. 493: B. Lake Regillus.
The last king, Tarquinius, supported by the Latins and Etruscans, is finally def. in his attempts to retake the throne. 455:
B. Mons Algidus. Cincinnatus defeat Aequi. 443: B. Corbio.
T. Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus defeats Aequi and Volsci.
Struggle of the Orders: Stage 1
491: Start of the conflict of the orders. First secession of the
plebs, who withdraw to the Mons Sacer. They create two offices to
defend their rights against the patricians: two tribunes of the
plebs and two pleb aediles to assist them.
Gaius
Marcius
Coriolanus
Intermittent Wars
and Raids against
Neighbours
Persian Wars
Defends the
Sublician
bridge
against the
Etruscan
king Lars
Porsenna.
491: Latin League formed.
Proscriptions, state violence
Latin War
Mythic
Republic
Civil Wars
Mob violence
Monarchy
Publius Publius Lucius
Horatius Valerius Junius
Cocles Poplicola Brutus
Gaius
Julius
Caesar
Augustus
22: Last elections for the
ancient office
of censor.
1 BC