Rise and Fall of Rome

The Beginnings of Rome

753 BCE

Rome started as a city built on swampland and grew into the powerful empire we learn about today. The legend of the beginnings of Rome deals with Remus and Romulus. Long story short Romulus defeated Remus and started Rome.

The Roman Republic

500 BCE

The Roman Republic has three main levels, the highest of which are the consuls. There are two consuls that have almost limitless power but they only hold 1-year terms. The next level is the Senate this is the law-making section of the government. These people have lifelong terms. The last and lowest level is the Centuriate Assembly, this group was in charge of electing a dictator when Rome was in a crisis.

The Punic Wars

264 BCE

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars between Rome and Carthage. Rome won this war and showed they could beat another large civilization. They also showed that they would not have mercy for those they conquered by flattening Carthage's capital.

The Fall of the Republic

70 BCE

Julius Caesar was a very powerful general in the age of the republic. He had his troops swear their loyalty to him instead of the republic. By doing this he set himself up to march on Rome when the republic did something he believed to be unjust. This happened when the republic wouldn't allow him to continue his conquest. Shortly after he marched on Rome and took the power for himself ending the Roman Republic.

Roman Dynasties

14 BCE

The Roman Empire was split into three dynasties. The first was the Julian Dynasty. The dynasty followed Caesar's bloodline and had some good and some bad emperors. The next dynasty was the Flavian dynasty this dynasty followed a war family that seized the empire for a few generations. The last dynasty was the Five Good Emperors. This dynasty followed emperors who chose their own successors that they believed would best lead the empire.

The Beginning of the End

117

At this point, Rome was at its peak and it started to accumulate some large problems for the empire. The two main problems were infighting and pressure on the borders. The constant infighting was a major problem, at one point there were 26 emperors with a 50-year timespan. This made it very hard for the government to run smoothly. There was a lot of pressure on the borders. There were Germans to the north and Persians to the south. These two major problems started the end of Rome.

Splitting the Empire

284

Emperor Diocletian was the empire that made the decision to split the empire into two. He did this to try and allow the empire's government to run more smoothly because the empire was too big for just on the government to run. While this helped the threats on Rome were too large to overcome.

Roman Christianity

312

Emperor Constantine was the empire that converted Rome to Christianity. He did this by making it politically beneficial to follow this relatively new religion at the time.

The End of Rome

476

At this point, the Western half of Rome had fallen. This meant the end of the Roman empire. But Rome still lived on for thousands of more years through the Byzantine Empire.