Empire264 BCE – 133 BCE · 131 years
Roman Republic
A 500-year experiment in elected oligarchy that conquered the Mediterranean before destroying itself.
What it was
From the expulsion of the kings in 509 BCE to Augustus in 27 BCE, Rome was governed by elected magistrates and a senate of former magistrates — and yet it managed to absorb Italy, defeat Carthage, and annex the Hellenistic east. The system collapsed under the weight of its own conquests, ending in the civil wars of the 1st century BCE.
Why it mattered
The Republic's vocabulary — senate, dictator, veto, plebiscite — still structures how we argue about democracy.
From Wikipedia
The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilisation beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium. During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.
Wikipedia: Roman Republic·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 BCE
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire87
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Second Punic War218–201 BCEWorld-changing · 500K dead
- Battle of Cannae216 BCEWorld-changing · 55K dead
- Punic Wars264–146 BCEMajor conflict · 1.2M dead
- First Punic War264–241 BCEMajor conflict · 400K dead
- Third Punic War149–146 BCEMajor conflict · 150K dead
- Macedonian Wars214–148 BCEMajor conflict · 100K dead
- Battle of Zama202 BCEMajor conflict · 50K dead
- Battle of Trebia218 BCEMajor conflict · 40K dead
- Battle of Lake Trasimene217 BCEMajor conflict
- Battle of the Metaurus207 BCEMajor conflict
- Sixth Syrian War170–168 BCEMajor conflict
- Battle of Pydna168 BCEMajor conflict
- Lusitanian War147–139 BCESignificant · 50K dead
- Siege of Numantia143–133 BCESignificant · 20K dead
- Roman–Gallic wars390–50 BCESignificant
- Battle of Baecula208 BCESignificant
- Battle of Ilipa206 BCESignificant
- Roman–Seleucid war192–188 BCESignificant
- Roman–Etruscan Wars509–264 BCERegional
- Battle of Messana264 BCERegional
- Battle of Acragas262 BCERegional
- Battle of Lipara260 BCERegional
- Battle of Mylae260 BCERegional
- Battle of Adys256 BCERegional
+ 63 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 264 BCE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Roman Republic (264 BCE – 133 BCE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/roman-republic-early · Sources & methodology