Roman Empire

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For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation).

Roman Empire
 Senatus Populusque Romanus (Latin)
 Imperium Romanum  (Latin)
[a]

 Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων (Ancient Greek)

Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn
27 BC–AD 395 (unified)[2]
AD 395–476/480 (Western)
AD 395–1453 (Eastern)

Vexillum
with the imperial aquila

Imperial aquila

The Roman Empire in AD 117 at its greatest

extent, at the time of Trajan's death (with
 its vassals in pink)[3][b]

The Roman Empire from the rise of the city-

state of Rome to the fall of the Western Roman
Empire
Capital Rome
(27 BC–AD 286)
Mediolanum
(286–330, West)
Nicomedia
(286–330, East)
Constantinople
(330–395)
Constantinople
(395–1453, East)[c]
Mediolanum
(395–401 West)
Ravenna
(401–403, 408–450, 457–
461, 475–476 West)
Rome
(403–408, 450–457, 461–
475 West)[5]
Common langua Latin and Greek
ges Regional / local languages
Religion Imperial cult-
driven polytheism
(Before AD 274)
 Joined by
the henotheistic solar cult
of Sol Invictus
(Before AD 380)
Nicene Christianity
(officially from AD 380)
Demonym(s) Roman
Government De Jure Republic, De
Facto Semi-elective absolu
te monarchy
Emperor  
• 27 BC – AD 14 Augustus (first)
• 98–117 Trajan
• 138–161 Antoninus Pius
• 270–275 Aurelian
• 284–305 Diocletian
• 306–337 Constantine I
• 379–395 Theodosius I[d]
• 474–480 Julius Nepos[e]
• 475–476 Romulus Augustus
• 527–565 Justinian I
• 610–641 Heraclius
• 780–797 Constantine VI[f]
• 976–1025 Basil II
• 1143–1180 Manuel I
• 1449–1453 Constantine XI[g]
Historical era Classical era to Late
Middle Ages
• War of Actium 32–30 BC
• Empire 30–2 BC
established
• Octavian named a 16 January 27 BC
ugustus
• Constantinople 11 May 330
becomes capital
• Final East-West di 17 January 395
vide
 • Deposition of 4 September 476
Romulus
Augustus
• Murder of Julius 9 May 480
Nepos
• Fourth Crusade 12 April 1204
• Reconquest of 25 July 1261
Constantinople
• Fall of 29 May 1453
Constantinople
• Fall of Trebizond 15 August 1461
Area
25 BC[6] 2,750,000 km2 (1,060,000 
sq mi)
AD 117[6][7] 5,000,000 km2 (1,900,000 
sq mi)
AD 390[6] 3,400,000 km2 (1,300,000 
sq mi)
Population
• 25 BC[8] 56,800,000
Currency sestertius,[h] aureus, solidu
s, nomisma

Preceded by Succeeded by
Roman Western Roman
Republic Empire
Eastern Roman
Empire

The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum [ɪmˈpɛri.ũː roː

ˈmaːnũː]; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, translit. Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-
Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings
around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was
ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman
emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as
the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was
later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman
Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital
of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent
to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by
the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman
Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic kings
conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle
Ages. Because of these events, along with the gradual Hellenization of the Eastern
Roman Empire, historians distinguish the medieval Roman Empire that remained in the
Eastern provinces as the Byzantine Empire.
The predecessor state of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic, became severely
destabilized in civil wars and political conflicts. In the middle of the 1st century
BC, Julius Caesar was appointed as dictator perpetuo ("dictator in perpetuity"), and
then assassinated in 44 BC. Civil wars and proscriptions continued, eventually
culminating in the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of
Actium in 31 BC. The following year, Octavian conquered the Ptolemaic Kingdom in
Egypt, ending the Hellenistic period that had begun with the 4th century BC conquests
of Alexander the Great. Octavian's power became unassailable and the Roman
Senate granted him overarching power and the new title of Augustus, making him the
first Roman emperor. The vast Roman territories were organized
in senatorial and imperial provinces except Italy, which continued to serve as a
metropole.
The first two centuries of the Roman Empire saw a period of unprecedented stability
and prosperity known as the Pax Romana (lit. 'Roman Peace'). Rome reached
its greatest territorial expanse during the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117); a period of
increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus (177–192). In the 3rd
century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, as
the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires broke away from the Roman state, and a series
of short-lived emperors, often from the legions, led the Empire. It was reunified
under Aurelian (r. 270–275). To stabilize it, Diocletian set up two different imperial
courts in the Greek East and Latin West in 286; Christians rose to positions of power in
the 4th century following the Edict of Milan of 313. Shortly after, the Migration Period,
involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and by the Huns of Attila, led to the
decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic
Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustus in AD 476 by Odoacer, the Western
Roman Empire finally collapsed; the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno formally abolished it
in AD 480. The Eastern Roman Empire survived for another millennium,
until Constantinople fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II.[i]
Due to the Roman Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture
of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development
of language, religion, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, law, and forms of
government in the territory it governed. The Latin language of the Romans evolved into
the Romance languages of the medieval and modern world, while Medieval
Greek became the language of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Empire's adoption of
Christianity led to the formation of medieval Christendom. Roman and Greek art had a
profound impact on the Italian Renaissance. Rome's architectural tradition served as the
basis for Romanesque, Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture, and also had a
strong influence on Islamic architecture. The rediscovery of Greek and Roman
science and technology (which also formed the basis for Islamic science) in Medieval
Europe led to the Scientific Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. The corpus of
Roman law has its descendants in many modern legal systems of the world, such as
the Napoleonic Code of France, while Rome's republican institutions have left an
enduring legacy, influencing the Italian city-state republics of the medieval period, as
well as the early United States and other modern democratic republics.