An Empire Across Three

coninents
6th Century BCE – Persian (Iranian) Empire
Greek Empire
 Introduction to the chapter

After the establishment of empires in

Mesopotamia
1. Attempts at empire building: across the
region and in the area to the west and east of it.
Sixth century BCE, Iranians - established control
over major parts of the Assyrian empire
Growth in the networks of trade (overland, coasts of
Mediterranean Sea)
In the eastern Mediterranean (Greek Empire), Greek
cities and their colonies benefited from trade.
Greeks also benefited from close trade with nomadic
people to the north of the Black Sea.
 Introduction to the chapter

Greece
 Athens and Sparta: Civic Life
 Late 4th cent. BCE: Alexander (ruler of Macedon) –
led military campaigns and conquered parts of
North Africa, West Asia and Iran, reaching up to
the Beas.
 Alexander’s troops retreated, though many Greeks
stayed behind.
 Introduction to the chapter

Greek Empire
 Ideals and cultural traditions were shared amongst the
Greeks and the local population.
 The region on the whole became ‘Hellenised’ (the Greeks
were called Hellenes)
 Language: Greek.
The political unity of Alexander’s empire
disintegrated quickly after his death.
 For almost three centuries after, Hellenistic culture
remained important in the area.
 Other cultures (especially Iranian culture associated with the
old empire of Iran) were as important as Hellenistic notions
and ideas.
 Introduction to the chapter

Political Disorder (Greek Empire):

Small but well-organised military forces of the central
Italian city-state of Rome took advantage that
followed the disintegration of Alexander’s empire
2nd Century BCE: Established control over North
Africa and the eastern Mediterranean
 Introduction to the chapter

Rome:
Rome was a republic.
Government was based on a complex system of election, but its political
institutions gave some importance to birth and wealth
society benefited from slavery.
They established a network for trade between the states that had once been
part of Alexander’s empire.
In the middle of the first century BCE, under Julius Caesar, a high-born
military commander, this ‘Roman Empire’ was extended to present-day
Britain and Germany.
Main Language: Latin (spoken in Rome), though many in the east
continued to use Greek
The Romans had a great respect for Hellenic culture.
There were changes in the political structure of the empire from the late
first century BCE, and it was substantially Christianised after the
emperor Constantine became a Christian in the fourth century ce.
The two most powerful empires
The two empires that ruled between the birth of Christ
and 630 CE were Rome and Iran.
The Romans and Iranians were neighbours, separated
by narrow strip of land that ran along the river
Euphrates.
They were rivals and fought against each other for much
of their history.
Roman Empire:
The Roman Empire stretched from Spain in Europe to
Syria in the East along the Mediterranean Sea in to
Africa's desert. In the north its boundaries were
marked by the river Rhine and Danube. In the South
by the Sahara desert.

Iranian Empire:
Iran controlled the entire area south of Caspian Sea
to eastern Arabia and at times large parts of
Afghanistan.
The Phases of Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire can broadly divide into two phases-
Early Roman Empire and Late Roman Empire.

• The whole period down to the main part of the 3rd

century can be called the 'early empire'. The period after
3rd Century can be called the 'late empire'.
Roman Empire had a diverse population as compared to
Difference between the Roman Empire and Iranian Empire

that of Iran.
The Parthians and Sasanians dynasties, that ruled Iran in
this period, ruled largely over the Iranian population.
Whereas the Roman Empire was a variety of territories
and cultures bound by the common system of govt.
Many languages were spoken in the Roman Empire, but
for the administrative purposes only Greek and Latin were
used. The upper class of east spoke Greek and those in the
western part spoke Latin.
All the people in the Roman Empire were subjects of
single ruler, the emperor, irrespective of where they lived
and what language they spoke.
The three main players in the political history of the
empire

The Senate -
The Emperor- Body of Wealthy
Source of authority families
The three main players in the political history of the
empire

&
Pai d
m y – al
e Ar sion
T h
ro f es
P
Features of Roman Army
The Army which was a paid and professional army
where soldiers had to put up twenty five years of
service.
The existence of paid army was a distinctive feature of
the Roman Empire.
The army was the largest single organised body of
the Roman Empire.
It had the power to decide the fate of the emperors.
The army was hated by the Senators.
Succession to the throne in the Roman Empire
Family descent, either natural or adoptive, was
the decisive factor in the succession to the throne in the
Roman Empire.
The army was also wedded to this concept.
For e.g. Tiberius was not the natural but adopted son
of Augustus.
The Augustan age
The Augustan age is remembered as the age of peace.
It brought peace after decades of internal strife and
centuries of military conquest.
External warfare was also much less common in the first
two centuries.
Administration of the vast Roman Empire
The vast Roman Empire was controlled and administered
with the help of urbanisation.
All the territories of the empire were organised in to
provinces and were subject to taxation.
Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch - foundations of the
imperial system – took part in the admin. work.
The government was able to collect tax from the
provincial countryside which generated much of the
wealth.
The local upper class was actively involved with the
Roman state in administering their own territories and
collecting taxes from them.
Administration of the vast Roman Empire
Throughout the second and third century the provincial upper
classes provided experienced officers that administered
the provinces and commanded the army.
Thus, they became the new elite of the Roman Empire
1. Controlled the army
2. Looked after the provincial administration
3. They became much more powerful than the senatorial class
4. Had the backing of the Emperors.
Emperor Gallienus consolidated their rise to power by
excluding senators from military command to prevent control
of the empire from falling in to senatorial hands.
 Magistrates

Roman
City
(Urban
Centre)
Territory
(own City Council
jurisdiction)

The villages could be upgraded to the status of city and vice

versa generally as a mark of favour from the emperor.
Advantages of living in the city of Roman Empire

The advantage of living in the city was that

1. it might be better provided for during food
shortages and famines in the country side.
2. The cities had public baths
3. The urban population enjoyed a higher level of
entertainment
The Third- Century Crisis
The first and second centuries were a period of peace, prosperity and
economic expansion. But the third century was a period of crisis.
In 225, new dynasty called Sasanians emerged in Iran. They were
more aggressive and expanding rapidly in the direction of the
Euphrates.
The Germanic tribes (barbarians) began to move against the
Rhine and Danube frontiers.
From 233 to 280 saw repeated invasions - provinces that stretched
from the Black Sea to the Alps and southern Germany..
The Romans were forced to abandon much of the territory beyond
the Danube.
The quick succession of emperors (25 emperors in 47 years) is a sign
of strain faced by the empire in the 3 rd century.
 Family

Structure of Family
There was widespread prevalence of nuclear family.
Adult sons did not live with their parents and it was
exceptional for adult brothers to share a common
household.
Slaves were however included in the family.
 Gender

Status of women
The women enjoyed considerable legal rights in owning and
managing property.
They were married off in the late teens or early thirties.
Arrange marriage was the general norm
Women were often subject to domination by their husbands
Wives were even beaten up by their husbands.
The typical form of marriage was one where the wife did not
transfer to her husband's authority but retained full rights in the
property of her natal family.
Women remained a primary heir to father's property after
marriage. They could become independent property owners after
their father's death.
Divorce was easy for both men as well as women.
 Literacy

Literacy
The rate of literacy varied greatly between different
parts of the empire.

Literacy was widespread in army officers, estate

managers and soldiers

Casual literacy existed and it varied from place to place.

There was a wall in Pompeii (Ancient Roman town
city) which carried advertisements and graffiti,
which indicates high level of casual literacy.
 Culture
Cultural diversity
Vast diversity of religious cults and local deities
Plurality of languages that were spoken (Most of the linguistic cultures were
purely oral)
Aramaic - dominant language group of the Near East
Coptic – Egypt
Punic and Berber - North Africa
Celtic - Spain and the northwest

Late 5th century - Armenian (written language).

Spread of Latin displaced the other widespread written form of languages.

Styles of dresses
Food the people ate
Forms of social organization
Types of settlement
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire

Substantial economic infrastructure:
The Roman Empire had substantial economic
infrastructure of harbours, mines, quarries, brickyards, olive oil
factories etc.
Best conditions suited for crops (goods)- Exceptional
fertility :
Goods for trade consisted mainly wheat, wine and olive oil and
they came from Spain, the Gallic provinces, north Africa, Egypt
and Italy. These areas had conditions best suited for these
crops.
E.g. Compania, Italy, Sicily, Fayum in Egypt, Galilee, Byzacium
(Tunisia), southern Gaul, Baetica (southern Spain)
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire

Liquids like wine and olive oil were transported in
containers called ‘amphorae’.
The fragments and sherds of a very large number of these
survive (Monte Testaccio in Rome is said to contain the
remnants of over 50 million vessels!), and it has been possible
for archaeologists to reconstruct the precise shapes of these
containers, tell us what they carried, and say exactly where
they were made by examining the clay content and matching
the finds with clay pits throughout the Mediterranean.
Vast commercial enterprise:
Spanish olive oil was a vast commercial enterprise that
reached its peak in the years 140-160.
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire

Vast commercial enterprise:
The Spanish olive oil was mainly carried in a container called
‘Dressel 20’.
This suggests that Spanish olive oil circulated very widely
indeed.
By using such evidence (the remains of amphorae of different
kinds and their ‘distribution maps’) - Spanish producers
succeeded in capturing markets for olive oil from their Italian
counterparts.
Spanish producers supplied a better quality oil at lower prices.
In other words, the big landowners from different regions
competed with each other for control of the main markets for
the goods they produced.
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire

Vast commercial enterprise:
The success of the Spanish olive growers was then repeated by North
African producers – olive estates in this part of the empire
dominated production through most of the third and fourth centuries.
Later, after 425, North African dominance was broken (containers
from Africa show a dramatically reduced presence on Mediterranean
markets) by the East: in the later fifth and sixth centuries the
Aegean, southern Asia Minor (Turkey), Syria and Palestine
became major exporters of wine and olive oil.
Behind these broad movements the prosperity of individual
regions rose and fell depending on how effectively they could
organise the production and transport of particular goods, and on the
quality of those goods.
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire

The large expanses of Roman territory were in a much less
advanced state.
Transhumance (moving livestock in seasonal cycle: lowlands in
winter and highlands in summer) was widespread in the country
side of Numidia (Modern Algeria)
As Roman estates (extensive area of land in the country)
expanded in North Africa, the pastures of those communities
were drastically reduced and their movements more tightly
regulated.
Even in Spain the north was economically much less developed.
In these areas peasantry who were Celtic-speaking lived in hilltop
villages known as Castella.
 Economy

Economic activities of the Ancient Roman

Empire
In the Roman Empire water power was very
efficiently used around Mediterranean and there
were advances in the water powered milling technology,
the use of hydraulic mining techniques in Spanish gold
and silver mines.
Well organised commercial and banking
networks existed.
Widespread use of money indicates that the Roman
Empire had sophisticated economy.
 Economy

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

Slavery - Roman world.
Though slavery was institutionalized and was greatly used as labour but
it was not always slaves that performed labour in the Roman
economy.
As peace was established in the first century, the supply of slaves
declined and users of slave labour had to turn to slave breeding or
cheaper substitutes such as wage labour which were easily dispensable.
Most of the time free labour was used, as slaves had to be provided
with food and maintained throughout the year which proved
expensive. This is the reason that the slaves were not employed in the
agriculture.
On the other hand ,slaves and freedmen were extensively used in jobs
where labour was not required in large number that is as business
managers.
 Economy

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

Writers:
Columella (Southern Spain):
Suggested not to use many slaves as they were expensive.

Recommended that landowners should keep a reserve stock of implements

and tools, twice as many as they needed, so that production could be continuous,
‘for the loss in slave labour time exceeds the cost of such items’.
Without supervision no work would ever get done - important for both freed
slaves and slaves.
For a better supervision the slaves were grouped into gang of ten (detailed
consideration of the management of labour)- easy to see who is putting in effort and
who is not.
Pliny the elder:
This method was criticised by Pliny the Elder - the slave gangs were the worst
method of organizing production because slaves who worked in gangs were usually
chained together by their feet.
 Economy

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

The Elder Pliny described:
conditions in the frankincense factories (officinae) of Alexandria,
where, he tells us, no amount of supervision seemed to suffice.
‘A seal is put upon the workmen’s aprons, they have to
wear a mask or a net with a close mesh on their heads, and before
they are allowed to leave the premises, they have to take off all
their clothes.’
Agricultural labour must have been fatiguing and disliked, for a
famous edict of the early third century refers to Egyptian peasants
deserting their villages ‘in order not to engage in agricultural work’.
The same was probably true of most factories and workshops.
A law of 398 referred to workers being branded so they could be
recognised if and when they run away and try to hide.
 Economy

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

Second Century Writer:
Debt contracts between the private employees and
their workers. It was claimed that the employees
were in debt to their employers and as a result were
under tighter control. A large number of families
went in to debt bondage in order to survive.
 Social Hierarchy

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

Social Hierarchies: Tacitus – Roman Historian

Sen
ato
rs
Equities
(Equestrian Class)
Middleclass (Respectable section
attached to great houses -
senatorial)

Lower Classes

Slaves
 Social hierarchy

Tacitus described the leading social groups of the early empire as

follows:
1. Senators (patres, lit. ‘fathers’) - Early 3rd Century: Italian
Families / Late Empire (Constantine I): Aristocracy- African and
Eastern Origin
2. Leading members of the equestrian (horse riding - knights) class: /
Late Empire (Constantine I): Aristocracy- African and Eastern Origin
One writer of the early fifth century, the historian Olympiodorus
who was also an ambassador - aristocracy based in the City of
Rome drew annual incomes of up to 4,000 lbs of gold from
their estates besides the produce they consumed directly!
First two groups were (aristocracy) enormously wealthy but less
powerful than the purely military elites who came almost entirely
from non-aristocratic backgrounds.
 Social hierarchy

3. Respectable section of the people (attached to the

great houses)
The ‘middle’ class - considerable mass of persons
connected with imperial service in the
bureaucracy and army but also the more
prosperous merchants and farmers of whom
there were many in the eastern provinces.
Tacitus described this ‘respectable’ middle class as
clients of the great senatorial houses. Now it was
chiefly government service and dependence on the
State that sustained many of these families.
 Social hierarchy

4. Unkempt (untidy) lower class (plebs sordida) and slaves-

addicted to the circus and theatrical displays
vast mass of the lower classes known collectively as humiliores
(lit. ‘lower’)
a) rural labour force of which many were permanently
employed on the large estates
b) workers in industrial and mining establishments
c) migrant workers who supplied much of the labour for the
grain and olive harvests and for the building industry
d) self-employed artisans were better fed than wage labourers
e) a large mass of casual labourers, especially in the big cities
f) many thousands of slaves that were still found all over the
western empire in particular.
 Monetary system

The monetary system of the late empire broke with the silver-based
currencies of the first three centuries because:
1. Spanish silver mines were exhausted
2. Government ran out of sufficient stocks of the metal to support a
stable coinage in silver.
Constantine founded the new monetary system on gold and
there were vast amounts of this in circulation throughout late
antiquity.
The late Roman bureaucracy, both the higher and middle
echelons, was a comparatively affluent group because it drew the
bulk of its salary in gold and invested much of this in buying up
assets like land.
Great deal of corruption, especially in the judicial system and in
the administration of military supplies.
 Social hierarchy

The extortion of the higher bureaucracy and the greed of the

provincial governors were proverbial.
Government intervened repeatedly to curb these forms of
corruption
The Roman state was an authoritarian regime - dissent was
rarely tolerated and government usually responded to protest with
violence.
Yet a strong tradition of Roman law had emerged by the fourth
century, and this acted as a brake on even the most fearsome emperors.
Emperors were not free to do whatever they liked, and the law
was actively used to protect civil rights.
Later fourth century - powerful bishops like Ambrose
confronted equally powerful emperors when they were
excessively harsh or repressive in their handling of the civilian
population.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

‘Late antiquity’ - final, fascinating period in the

evolution and break-up of the Roman Empire (fourth to
seventh centuries).
The fourth century – on ferment (cultural and
economic).
Cultural level - momentous developments in
religious life, with the emperor Constantine deciding
to make Christianity the official religion, and with the
rise of Islam in the seventh century.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

Important changes in the structure of the state:

Diocletian (284-305)
1. Overexpansion had led Diocletian to ‘cut back’ by
abandoning territories with little strategic or
economic value.
2. Diocletian also fortified the frontiers
3. reorganised provincial boundaries
4. separated civilian from military functions,
granting greater autonomy to the military
commanders
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

Important changes in the structure of the state:

Constantine
1. consolidated some of these changes and added others of his own.
2. His chief innovations were in the monetary sphere, where he introduced a new
denomination, the solidus, a coin of 4½ gm of pure gold that would in fact outlast
the Roman Empire itself.
3. Solidi were minted on a very large scale and their circulation ran into millions.
4. The creation of a second capital at Constantinople (at the site of modern Istanbul
in Turkey, and previously called Byzantium), surrounded on three sides by the sea. (easy
to protect from attack, closer watch over Sasanids and the Germanic people)
5. As the new capital required a new senate, the fourth century was a period of rapid
expansion of the governing classes.
6. Monetary stability and an expanding population stimulated economic growth
7. Considerable investment in rural establishments:
a. industrial installations like oil presses and glass factories
b. newer technologies such as screw presses and multiple water-mills
c. revival of the long-distance trade with the East
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

Changes in the structure of the state - strong urban prosperity:

(a) by new forms of architecture
(b) exaggerated sense of luxury.
The ruling elites - wealthier and more powerful
In Egypt, hundreds of papyri highlights – affluent society where
money was in extensive use and rural estates generated vast
incomes in gold. For example, Egypt contributed taxes of
over 2½ million solidi a year in the reign of Justinian in
the sixth century.
Near Eastern countryside (developed and densely
settled - fifth and sixth centuries)
Social background against which we should set the cultural
developments
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

The traditional religious culture of the classical world,

both Greek and Roman, had been polytheist.
It involved a multiplicity of cults that included both
Roman/Italian gods like Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and
Mars
Numerous Greek and eastern deities worshipped in
thousands of temples, shrines and sanctuaries
throughout the empire.
Polytheists had no common name or label to describe
themselves.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

The other great religious tradition in the empire was

Judaism.
Judaism was not a monolith - great deal of diversity
within the Jewish communities of late antiquity.
The ‘Christianisation’ of the empire in the fourth and
fifth centuries was a gradual and complex process.
Polytheism did not disappear overnight, especially in the
western provinces, where the Christian bishops waged a
running battle against beliefs and practices
they condemned more than the Christian laity did.
The boundaries between religious communities were
much more fluid in the fourth century.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

The general prosperity was especially marked in the East where

population was still expanding till the sixth century, despite the
impact of the plague which affected the Mediterranean in the
540s.
In the West, by contrast, the empire fragmented politically as
Germanic groups from the North (Goths, Vandals, Lombards,
etc.) took over all the major provinces and established
kingdoms that are best described as ‘post-Roman’.
The most important of these were that of the Visigoths in Spain,
destroyed by the Arabs between 711 and 720, that of the Franks
in Gaul (c.511-687) and that of the Lombards in Italy (568-774).
These kingdoms foreshadowed the beginnings of a different kind
of world that is usually called ‘medieval’.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

In the East, where the empire remained united, the reign of
Justinian is the highwater mark of prosperity and imperial
ambition.
Justinian recaptured Africa from the Vandals (in 533) but
his recovery of Italy (from the Ostrogoths) left that country
devastated and paved the way for the Lombard invasion.
By the early seventh century, the war between Rome and
Iran had flared up again, and the Sasanians who had ruled
Iran since the third century launched a wholesale invasion
of all the major eastern provinces (including Egypt).
When Byzantium (Roman empire) recovered these
provinces in the 620s, it was just a few years away from the
final major blow which came from the south-east.
 Late antiquity: cultural transformation

The expansion of Islam from its beginnings in Arabia has

been called ‘the greatest political revolution – Expansion
of Islam
By 642 large parts of both the eastern Roman and
Sasanian empires had fallen to the Arabs in a series of
stunning confrontations.
Those conquests, which eventually (a century later)
extended as far afield as Spain, Sind and Central Asia -
subjection of the Arab tribes by Islamic state (first within
Arabia, Syrian desert, fringes of Iraq)
The unification of the Arabian peninsula and its numerous
tribes - key factor: territorial expansion of Islam.
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

1st Century CE
 Augustus (31 BCE–14 CE)
 Tiberius (14–37 CE)
Caligula (37–41 CE)
Claudius (41–54 CE)
Nero (54–68 CE)
Galba (68–69 CE)
Otho (January–April 69 CE)
Aulus Vitellius (July–December 69 CE)
Vespasian (69–79 CE)
Titus (79–81 CE)
Domitian (81–96 CE)
Nerva (96–98 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

2nd Century CE
Trajan (98–117 CE)
Hadrian (117–138 CE)
Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE)
Marcus Aurelius (161–180 CE)
Lucius Verus (161–169 CE)
Commodus (177–192 CE)
Publius Helvius Pertinax (January–March 193 CE)
Marcus Didius Severus Julianus (March–June 193 CE)
Septimius Severus (193–211 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

3rd Century CE
Caracalla (198–217 CE)
Publius Septimius Geta (209–211 CE)
Macrinus (217–218 CE)
Elagabalus (218–222 CE)
Severus Alexander (222–235 CE)
Maximinus (235–238 CE)
Gordian I (March–April 238 CE)
Gordian II (March–April 238 CE)
Pupienus Maximus (April 22–July 29, 238 CE)
Balbinus (April 22–July 29, 238 CE)
Gordian III (238–244 CE)
Philip (244–249 CE)
Decius (249–251 CE)
Hostilian (251 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

3rd Century CE
Gallus (251–253 CE)
Aemilian (253 CE)
Valerian (253–260 CE)
Gallienus (253–268 CE)
Claudius II Gothicus (268–270 CE)
Quintillus (270 CE)
Aurelian (270–275 CE)
Tacitus (275–276 CE)
Florian (June–September 276 CE)
Probus (276–282 CE)
Carus (282–283 CE)
Numerian (283–284 CE)
Carinus (283–285 CE)
 Diocletian (east, 284–305 CE; divided the empire into east and west)
Maximian (west, 286–305 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

4th Century CE
Constantius I (west, 305–306 CE)
Galerius (east, 305–311 CE)
Severus (west, 306–307 CE)
Maxentius (west, 306–312 CE)
 Constantine I (306–337 CE; reunified the empire)
Galerius Valerius Maximinus (310–313 CE)
Licinius (308–324 CE)
Constantine II (337–340 CE)
Constantius II (337–361 CE)
Constans I (337–350 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

4th Century CE
Gallus Caesar (351–354 CE)
Julian (361–363 CE)
Jovian (363–364 CE)
Valentinian I (west, 364–375 CE)
Valens (east, 364–378 CE)
Gratian (west, 367–383 CE; coemperor with Valentinian I)
Valentinian II (375–392 CE; crowned as child)
Theodosius I (east, 379–392 CE; east and west, 392–395 CE)
Arcadius (east, 383–395 CE, coemperor; 395–402 CE, sole emperor)
Magnus Maximus (west, 383–388 CE)
Honorius (west, 393–395 CE, coemperor; 395–423 CE, sole
emperor)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

5th Century CE
Theodosius II (east, 408–450 CE)
Constantius III (west, 421 CE, coemperor)
Valentinian III (west, 425–455 CE)
Marcian (east, 450–457 CE)
Petronius Maximus (west, March 17–May 31, 455 CE)
Avitus (west, 455–456 CE)
Majorian (west, 457–461 CE)
Libius Severus (west, 461–465 CE)
Anthemius (west, 467–472 CE)
Olybrius (west, April–November 472 CE)
Glycerius (west, 473–474 CE)
Julius Nepos (west, 474–475 CE)
Romulus Augustulus (west, 475–476 CE)
Leo I (east, 457–474 CE)
Leo II (east, 474 CE)
Zeno (east, 474–491 CE)
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

6th Century
518 9 July Augustus Anastasius I Dicorus died
527 1 April Augustus Justin I appointed his older son 
Justinian I the Great co-augustus with himself.1 AugustJustin I died.
529 7 April The Codex Justinianus, which attempted to consolidate
and reconcile contradictions in Roman law, was promulgated.
532J ustinian the Great ordered the construction of the Hagia Sophia
 in Constantinople.
533 21 June Vandalic War: A Byzantine force under the general 
Belisarius departed for the Vandal Kingdom.13 SeptemberBattle
of Ad Decimum: A Byzantine army defeated a Vandal force near 
Carthage.15 DecemberBattle of Tricamarum: The Byzantines
defeated a Vandal army and forced their king Gelimer into flight.
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

6th Century
534 March Vandalic War: Gelimer surrendered to 
Belisarius and accepted his offer of a peaceful retirement
in Galatia, ending the war. The territory of the 
Vandal Kingdom was reorganized as the 
praetorian prefecture of Africa.
535 Gothic War (535–554): Byzantine forces crossing
from Africa invaded Sicily, then an Ostrogothic possession.
536 December Gothic War (535–554): Byzantium took 
Rome with little Ostrogothic resistance.
537 27 December The Hagia Sophia was completed.
 List of Roman Rulers Chronologically

6th Century
552 July Battle of Taginae: A Byzantine army dealt a decisive
defeat to the Ostrogoths at Gualdo Tadino. The Ostrogoth  king 
Totila was killed.
553 Battle of Mons Lactarius: An Ostrogothic force was
ambushed and destroyed at Monti Lattari on its way to relieve a
Byzantine siege of Cumae. The Ostrogoth king Teia was killed.
565 March Belisarius died. 14 November Justinian the Great died.
568The Lombards invaded Italy.
573 The general Narses died.
574 Augustus Justin II began to suffer from fits of insanity.5785
October Justin II died.
582 14 August Augustus Tiberius II Constantine died.