The Rise and Fall of Rome, 264 BC – AD 476

Ancient Rome map of key events

44 battles, turning points and sites of memory from The Rise and Fall of Rome, 264 BC – AD 476, chapter by chapter, each with its date, its story and a…

First Punic War

• Battle of Beneventum ✕ 275 BC
• The Mamertine appeal ● 264 BC
• Battle of the Aegates Islands ✕ 241 BC

Second Punic War

• Siege of Saguntum ● 219 BC
• Battle of the Trebia ✕ 218 BC
• Battle of Lake Trasimene ✕ 217 BC
• Battle of Cannae ✕ 216 BC
• Battle of Zama ✕ 202 BC

Roman conquest of Greece

• Battle of Pydna ✕ 168 BC
• Destruction of Corinth ◆ 146 BC
• Destruction of Carthage ◆ 146 BC
• Bequest of Pergamon to Rome ● 133 BC

Crisis of the Roman Republic

• Murder of the Gracchi ● 133–121 BC
• Sulla’s march on Rome ● 88 BC
• Spartacus revolt ◆ 73–71 BC
• Pompey’s settlement of the East ● 64–62 BC

Julius Caesar and the civil war

• Siege of Alesia ◆ 52 BC
• Caesar crosses the Rubicon ● 49 BC
• Battle of Pharsalus ✕ 48 BC
• Assassination of Julius Caesar ● 44 BC

Augustus and the Roman Principate

• Battle of Philippi ✕ 42 BC
• Battle of Actium ✕ 31 BC
• Roman annexation of Egypt ● 30 BC
• Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ✕ AD 9

Pax Romana

• Roman conquest of Britain ● AD 43
• Destruction of the Second Temple ◆ AD 70
• Fall of Sarmizegetusa ✕ 106
• Hadrian’s Wall ● 122

Crisis of the Third Century

• Battle of Edessa ✕ 260
• Gallic Empire ● 260
• Palmyrene Empire ● 270
• Aurelian Walls ● 271

Diocletian and Constantine

• Diocletian’s Tetrarchy ● 286
• Battle of the Milvian Bridge ✕ 312
• Council of Nicaea ● 325
• Founding of Constantinople ● 330

Adrianople and the sack of Rome

• Battle of Adrianople ✕ 378
• Massacre of Thessalonica ◆ 390
• Crossing of the Rhine ● 406
• Alaric’s sack of Rome ◆ 410

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

• Vandal capture of Carthage ● 439
• Battle of the Catalaunian Plains ✕ 451
• Vandal sack of Rome ◆ 455
• Deposition of Romulus Augustulus ● 476