Empire133 BCE – 27 BCE · 106 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
- SNAPSHOT100 BCE
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire106
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Gallic Wars58–50 BCEWorld-changing · 1.0M dead
- Battle of Actium31 BCEWorld-changing · 50K dead
- Roman-Parthian Wars53 BCE–217 CEMajor conflict · 500K dead
- Second Roman Civil War44–42 BCEMajor conflict · 400K dead
- Social War91–88 BCEMajor conflict · 300K dead
- First Roman Civil War49–45 BCEMajor conflict · 200K dead
- Third Roman Civil War32–30 BCEMajor conflict · 100K dead
- Battle of Alesia52 BCEMajor conflict · 60K dead
- Battle of Pharsalus48 BCEMajor conflict · 30K dead
- Battle of Carrhae53 BCEMajor conflict · 20K dead
- Jugurthine War112–106 BCEMajor conflict
- First Mithridatic War88–84 BCEMajor conflict
- Sulla-Marian Civil War88–82 BCEMajor conflict
- Mithridatic Wars88–63 BCEMajor conflict
- Spartacus Revolt73–71 BCEMajor conflict
- Third Mithridatic War73–63 BCEMajor conflict
- Roman-Kushite War27–22 BCEMajor conflict
- Cimbrian War113–101 BCESignificant
- Battle of Aquae Sextiae102 BCESignificant
- Battle of Vercellae101 BCESignificant
- Second Mithridatic War83–81 BCESignificant
- Sertorian War80–72 BCESignificant
- Significant
- Wars of the Second Triumvirate44–30 BCESignificant
+ 82 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 133 BCE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Roman Republic (133 BCE – 27 BCE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/roman-republic-late · Sources & methodology