Ancient Rome: from the founding to the fall

Ancient Rome from its legendary founding in 753 BCE through the kings, the Republic and the Empire, to the deposition of the last western emperor in 476 CE, with the Eastern Empire to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 as an epilogue: its eras, dynasties and major reigns, its wars and battles, its laws, buildings, roads and aqueducts, and the writers we know it from. A sample timeline built from the sources cited on each moment. **How to read it.** Chapter headings mark the eras. Eras are navy bands, the legendary kings light grey, dynasties grey, reigns ochre, wars brick, political struggles green and the Eastern Empire purple; everything else is a moment, linked to the article it draws on. Related things (a battle and the war it ended, a law and the law it led to) are linked. The tag `legend` marks what we know only from tradition. **Dates.** The line is the Gregorian calendar extended back. Years before about 300 BCE are the traditional (Varronian) ones, and the kings' reigns are legend. Before 45 BCE, days are dates in the old Roman calendar, which had drifted from the seasons (by about two and a half months in 168 BCE); their Julian equivalent is mostly unknown, so they are placed as if they were Julian. From 45 BCE days are Julian: the Gregorian line shows them one or two days earlier before 200 CE, on the same day in the 3rd century, and one to nine days later after it (the fall of Constantinople, 29 May 1453, reads 7 June). Either way, the source's date is kept under **Historical dates**, and each moment's **Date precision** says how it is dated. A date known only to its year sits at mid-year (1 July).

133 moments · 0753-01-01T00:00:00Z BCE – 1453-06-07T00:00:00Z CE · by @athan · @athan