Empire180 CE – 395 CE · 215 years
Roman Empire (Late)
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
- SNAPSHOT200 CE
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire46
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire375–476 CEWorld-changing · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 30K dead
- Major conflict
- Shapur I's Roman Wars241–262 CEMajor conflict
- Battle of Edessa260 CEMajor conflict
- Aurelian's Germanic Wars270–275 CEMajor conflict
- Hunnic Invasions of Eastern Europe370–395 CEMajor conflict
- Year of the Five Emperors193–197 CESignificant
- Severan Parthian War197–199 CESignificant
- Roman–Sasanian wars224–363 CESignificant
- Crisis of the Third Century235–285 CESignificant
- Gallienus's Scythian Wars253–268 CESignificant
- Gothic War (376–382)376–382 CESignificant
- Fall of the Western Roman Empire395–486 CESignificant
- Battle of Ctesiphon198 CERegional
- Battle of Atra199 CERegional
- Roman–Alemannic wars213–378 CERegional
- Battle of Resaena243 CERegional
- Battle of Misiche244 CERegional
- Regional
- Battle of Philippopolis250 CERegional
- Battle of Abrittus251 CERegional
- Battle of Nestus267 CERegional
- Battle of Lake Benacus268 CERegional
+ 22 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 180 CE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Roman Empire (Late) (180 CE – 395 CE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/roman-empire-late · Sources & methodology