Empire27 BCE – 98 CE · 125 years
Roman Empire (Augustus)
The largest and longest-lived Mediterranean empire — and the model every later European state quoted.
What it was
At its peak under Trajan in 117 CE, Rome ruled from Britain to the Persian Gulf and from the Rhine to the Sahara. The empire was held together by roads, citizenship law, professional legions, and a remarkably durable Latin–Greek bureaucracy that outlived even the western half by a thousand years in Byzantium.
Why it mattered
Roman law, the calendar, the alphabet, and the very idea of a continent-spanning state shaped everything from medieval canon law to the U.S. Senate.
From Wikipedia
The Roman Empire was a state that controlled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa during the classical period. The Roman Republic had previously conquered most of these territories, which became ruled by emperors following triumvir Octavian's rise to power and establishment of a Principate regime in 27 BC. By the 4th century AD the empire split into western and eastern halves. The Western Empire collapsed in 476 AD, while the Eastern Empire endured until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Wikipedia: Roman Empire·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.
- SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
- DETAILhistorical-basemaps
- SNAPSHOT1 BCE
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire25
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- World-changing
- First Jewish-Roman War66–73 CEMajor conflict · 600K dead
- Jewish-Roman Wars66–135 CEMajor conflict · 600K dead
- Major conflict · 100K dead
- Early imperial campaigns in Germania12 BCE–16 CESignificant
- Tacfarinas's War17–24 CESignificant
- Roman conquest of Britain43–84 CESignificant
- Battle of Watling Street60–61 CESignificant
- Battle of Napata23 BCERegional
- Battle of Lippe11 BCERegional
- Regional
- Battle of Weser16 CERegional
- Regional
- Aedemon's Revolt40–44 CERegional
- Battle of Medway43 CERegional
- Regional
- Battle of Artaxata58 CERegional
- Battle of Boudicca61 CERegional
- Battle of Arsanias62 CERegional
- Battle of Jotapata67 CERegional
- Battle of Loch Ore83 CERegional
- Regional
- Battle of Tapae86 CERegional
- Domitian's Dacian War86–88 CERegional
+ 1 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 27 BCE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Roman Empire (Augustus) (27 BCE – 98 CE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/roman-empire-augustus · Sources & methodology