THE SECOND CENTURY OF EMPIRE: GALBA TO MARCUS AURELIUS (68-180 A.D.)
68. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius succeed each other as emperors. 69. Vespasian, the first Flavian emperor, proclaimed by the soldiers. Vitellius put to death. The aristocratic body purified and replenished. Official worship restored. Public works executed. Reforms in the army and the finances, and the administration generally. Batavian revolt under Claudius Civilis. 70. Fall of Jerusalem. Batavian revolt quelled by Cerealis. 71. Cerealis becomes governor of Britain. 78. Agricola begins his campaigns in Britain. 79. Titus, the second Flavian emperor. Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius. 80. Agricola reaches the Solway Firth. 81. Domitian, the third Flavian emperor. 83. War with the Chatti. 84. Caledonians under Galgacus defeated by Agricola, who completes the conquest of Britain. 86. Dacian invasion of Mœsia. 87. Dacians defeat a Roman army. 90. Peace with the Dacians. 93. Antonius Saturninus, governor of upper Germany, revolts. The rebellion is put down and his papers are destroyed. Domitian executes the supposed accomplices of Saturninus and begins a series of cruelties. Philosophers expelled from Rome. Persecutions of Jews and Christians. 96. Nerva succeeds on the murder of Domitian, and introduces a policy of mildness. 98. Trajan, emperor. 101-102. Dacians attacked and overthrown by Trajan. 106. Dacians finally subdued by Trajan. Their country becomes a Roman province. 114. Parthian War undertaken to prevent the Parthian king from securing the Armenian crown to his family. 116. Parthian War ends with the incorporation of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria amongst the Roman provinces. Trajan dies on his return. Many public works were executed in this reign. 117. Hadrian, emperor. He abandons Trajan’s recent conquests. 118. Mœsia invaded by the Sarmatians and Roxolani. Hadrian concludes peace with the Roxolani. The Sarmatian War continues for a long time. 120-127. Hadrian makes a tour through the provinces. 121. Hadrian’s wall built in Britain. 132. Edictum perpetuum, or compilation of the edictal laws of the prætors. 132-135. Second Jewish War, beginning with the revolt of Simon Bar Kosiba. Many buildings were erected in Hadrian’s reign. 138. Antoninus Pius, emperor. He promotes the internal prosperity of the empire, and protects it against foreign attacks. 139. British revolt suppressed by Lollius Urbicus. Wall of Antoninus (Graham’s Dyke) built. 161. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, joint emperors. 162-165. Parthian War. It terminates in the restoration of Armenia to its lawful sovereign and the cession of Mesopotamia to Rome. 163. Christian persecution. 166. A barbarian coalition of the Marcomanni and other tribes threatens the empire. Both emperors take the field against them. 169. Lucius Verus dies. 174. Victory over the Quadi. Miracle of the Thundering Legion. 175. Avidius Cassius proclaims himself emperor, and makes himself master of all Asia within Mount Taurus. He is assassinated. 178. War with the Marcomanni renewed.
THE THIRD CENTURY OF EMPIRE: COMMODUS TO CLAUDIUS II (180-270 A.D.)
180. Commodus. Peace concluded with the barbarians. 183. Lucilla, Commodus’ sister, conspires against him. In punishing this conspiracy he begins his career of cruelty. 193. Pertinax made emperor on the murder of Commodus. He attempts to restore discipline and is murdered in his turn. Didius Julianus buys the empire of the prætorians. The legions in Syria, Illyricum, and Britain each proclaim a rival emperor. L. Septimius Severus marches on Rome. Murder of Julianus. Severus recognised in Rome. 194. Battle of Issus. Severus defeats his rival Pescennius Niger. 196. Byzantium taken by Severus. Clodius Albinus made emperor by the army in Gaul. 197. Battle of Lugdunum. Clodius defeated. 198. Parthian War. 202. Christian persecution. 208. Caledonia overrun by Severus, who loses many of his men. 210. Wall of Severus in Britain completed. 211. Caracalla, emperor. Alexandrians massacred. 212. Geta, co-ruler and brother of Caracalla, murdered by him. Wars in Dacia and on the Rhine. 217. Macrinus, emperor. 218. Elagabalus (Heliogabalus) made emperor by the soldiers. Defeat and execution of Macrinus. Julia Mæsa and Julia Soæmias, grandmother and mother of Elagabalus, rule. 222. Severus Alexander, emperor. 231. Persian War. 235. Maximinus Thrax, emperor. 236. Invasion of Germany. 237. Gordianus I and II proclaimed emperors in Africa. Defeat and death of the Gordiani. 238. Pupienus Maximus, Cælius Balbinus, and Gordianus III. Maximinus Thrax, Pupienus, and Balbinus killed. 242. Sapor, king of Persia, defeated by Gordianus III. 244. Philip, the Arabian, murders and succeeds Gordianus. 249. Decius made emperor by the Mœsian and Pannonian legions. Battle of Verona. Philip defeated and slain. 250. Christian persecution. Bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem martyred. Battle of Abricium. Decius defeated and slain by the Goths. 251. Gallus and Hostilianus, emperors. 252. Pestilence throughout the greater part of the empire. This lasted fifteen years. 253. Æmilianus, emperor. 254. Valerianus, emperor. The Goths and Burgundians invade Mœsia and Pannonia. The Franks appear in Gaul. 259. Sapor invades Syria and takes Antioch. Valerian drives him back but is captured and enslaved. 260. Gallienus, Valerian’s son and co-ruler, sole emperor. Ingenuus and Regalianus proclaimed emperors. Odenathus of Palmyra drives the Persians back. 261. Macrianus, Valens, and Calpurnius Piso proclaimed emperors. 262. Aureolus proclaimed emperor. The Persians capture Antioch. 264. Odenathus declared Augustus. 265. Postumus repels the Gauls. 267. Death of Odenathus, succeeded by his wife Zenobia. Death of Postumus. Tetricus assumes the empire in Gaul. Age of the Thirty Tyrants. 268. Gallienus slain by the machinations of Aureolus. Claudius II, emperor. 269. Battle of Naissus in Dardania. Claudius defeats the Goths with great slaughter. Zenobia invades Egypt.
THE FOURTH CENTURY OF EMPIRE: AURELIAN TO THEODOSIUS (270-395 A.D.)
270. Aurelian, called Restitutor Orbis, becomes emperor. He defeats the Goths and makes peace with them. Alamanni invade Umbria and are defeated by Aurelian in three engagements. 273. Palmyra and its queen Zenobia taken by Aurelian. Egypt revolts and is subdued. 274. Tetricus, who had maintained himself as emperor in Gaul, Britain, and Spain, defeated at Châlons. 275. Tacitus, emperor. 276. Probus and Florian, emperors. They clear Gaul of its German invaders and pursue them across the Rhine. 282. Carus, emperor. Sarmatians defeated. Persian expedition. 284. Diocletian, emperor. He makes Nicomedia in Bithynia his capital. 285. Maximian, joint emperor for administration of the West. 293. Constantius Chlorus and Galerius named cæsars. 296. Constantius recovers Britain. Revolt of Egypt suppressed by Diocletian. Battle of Carrhæ. Galerius defeated by the Persians. 297. Galerius defeats the Persians and makes a treaty securing Mesopotamia to the Romans. 298. Constantius defeats the Alamanni at Langres. 303. Christian persecution. 305. Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian. Constantius and Galerius, emperors. 306. Constantine the Great succeeds his father Constantius in the rule of Spain, Gaul, and Britain. Maxentius emperor at Rome. Maximian resumes the purple. Licinius made emperor. 310. Maximian executed by Constantine. 312. Defeat and death of Maxentius. 313. Edict of Milan issued by Licinius and Constantine, inaugurating religious toleration. 314. War between Licinius and Constantine. 323. Battles of Hadrianopolis and Chalcedon. Defeat of Licinius. 324. Licinius executed. Constantine sole ruler. 325. First general council at Nicæa. 330. Byzantium, or Constantinople, becomes the capital of the empire. 337. Constantine II, Constans, and Constantius II divide the empire. 340. Battle of Aquileia between Constantine II and Constans. Death of Constantine II. His dominions fall to Constans. 350. Death of Constans. Revolt of Magnentius. 353. Constantius II sole emperor. 357. Battle of Argentoratum (Strasburg); Julian defeats the Alamanni. 361. Julian, “the Apostate,” emperor. 362. Edict granting general toleration. 363. Persian War. Julian is victorious at Ctesiphon, and in other battles, but is at last obliged to retreat and is killed. Jovian emperor. He makes peace with the Persians, resigning five districts beyond the Tigris. He places Christianity on an equality with other religions. 364. Valentinianus I and Valens, emperors. 367. Gratianus emperor for the West. 374. War with the Quadi. 375. Valentinian II reigns conjointly with Gratian on the death of Valentinian I. 376. Huns and Alans attack the eastern Goths. Valens permits the Goths to settle in Thrace. 378. Goths threaten Constantinople. Battle of Hadrianopolis. Goths defeat the Romans with great slaughter. Death of Valens. 379. Theodosius the Great, emperor of the East. 380. Theodosius becomes a Christian. He successfully continues the war against the Goths and makes a treaty with them which is followed by their establishment in Thrace, Phrygia, and Lydia, and the enrolment of large numbers in the army of the Eastern Empire. 383. Clemens Maximus revolts against Gratian, who is captured and put to death. 387. Maximus makes himself master of Italy. Theodosius restores Valentinian II, and puts Maximus to death. 390. Massacre of the inhabitants of Thessalonica by order of Theodosius in revenge for the murder of officials. 392. Valentinian II murdered. Eugenius emperor of the West. 394. Theodosius defeats Eugenius and becomes the last emperor of the whole Roman world. 395. Death of Theodosius. Arcadius becomes emperor of the East and Honorius of the West.