History of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire
Imperium Romanum  (Latin) Senatus populusque Romanus (SPQR) Senate and People of Rome Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων  (Ancient Greek) Basileía Rhōmaíōn
27 BC – 476 AD (Western) 330–1453 (Eastern)
Aureus of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.
The Roman Empire in 117 AD, at its greatest extent.
Capital		27 BC – 293 AD: Rome 293–330: Rome (nominal) Western Empire only (in consort with Constantinople) (402–480)  Ravenna Whole Empire (330–1453)  Constantinople
Languages		Latin (official until 610) Greek (official after 610) Regional / local languages
Religion		line-height:1.1em From AD 380: Christianity
Government		Mixed, functionally absolute monarchy
Emperor
•	27 BC – AD 14	Augustus (first)
•	98–117	Trajan
•	284–305	Diocletian
•	306–337	Constantine I
•	379–395	Theodosius I
•	474–480	Julius Neposa
•	527–565	Justinian I
•	1081–1118	Alexius I
•	1449–1453	Constantine XI b
Legislature		Senate
Historical era		Classical antiquity to Late Middle Ages
•	Final War of the Roman Republic	32–30 BC
•	Empire established	30–2 BC
•	Empire at its greatest extent	AD 117
•	Constantinople becomes capital	330
•	Final East West divide	395
•	Fall of Western Empire	476
•	Fourth Crusade	1202–1204
•	Fall of Constantinople	29 May 1453
Area
•	25 BC	2,750,000 km² (1,061,781 sq mi)
•	117 AD	5,000,000 km² (1,930,511 sq mi)
•	390 AD	4,400,000 km² (1,698,849 sq mi)
Population
•	25 BC est.	56,800,000
Density		20.7 /km²  (53.5 /sq mi)
Currency		Sestertius, Aureus, Solidus, Nomismac
Preceded by Succeeded by Roman Republic Byzantine Empire
Today part of		53 countries  Albania  Algeria  Andorra  Armenia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Belgium  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Cyprus  Egypt  France  Georgia  Germany  Gibraltar  Greece  Guernsey  Hungary  Iran  Iraq  Israel  Italy  Jersey  Jordan  Kosovo  Kuwait  Lebanon  Liechtenstein  Libya  Luxembourg  Macedonia  Malta  Moldova  Monaco  Montenegro  Morocco  Netherlands  Portugal  Romania  Russia  San Marino  Saudi Arabia  Serbia  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain   Switzerland  Syria  Tunisia  Turkey  Ukraine  United Kingdom   Vatican City
a Officially the final emperor of the Western empire. b Last emperor of the Eastern (Byzantine) empire. line-height:0.95em

Aureus of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.

The history of the Roman Empire covers the history of Ancient Rome from the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC until the abdication of the last Western emperor in 476 AD. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the Republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside of the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Civil war engulfed the Roman state in the mid 1st century BC, first between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and finally between Octavian and Mark Antony. Antony was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In 27 BC the Senate and People of Rome made Octavian imperator ("commander") thus beginning the Principate, the first epoch of Roman imperial history usually dated from 27 BC to 284 AD; they later awarded him the name Augustus, "the venerated". The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: the Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.