ON THIS DAY ·
Assassination of Caligula
The emperor Caligula is assassinated by his own Praetorian Guard, who then find Claudius hiding behind a curtain and make him emperor.
WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.
The moment in context
By AD 117, Trajan’s empire reached from the Atlantic into Mesopotamia, and his armies had briefly reached the Persian Gulf. Its size was the result of very different campaigns. Claudius had invaded Britannia in AD 43; Trajan took Dacia in two difficult wars between 101 and 106, securing its gold and helping establish the Latin from which Romanian would develop. His eastern conquests were less lasting. After roughly two years Hadrian surrendered them.
From Pax Romana, chapter 7 of The Rise and Fall of Rome, 264 BC – AD 476 (AD 117).
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Cities as the operating system. Rome’s senior officials relied on thousands of local arrangements. In chartered towns and existing communities, landowners helped administer courts…
- The turn — Hadrian’s Wall, AD 122. Hadrian inherited the greatest extent of Trajan’s empire and surrendered Mesopotamia. The wall begun in AD 122 across northern Britain made his…
- What it changed — Romanization becomes self-sustaining. Roman culture took root beyond Italy. By 180 Gaul, Spain and Africa had produced senators and authors; Trajan and Hadrian came from Spain, and the…
Then ask the room: Rome governed a quarter of humanity with fewer administrators than a modern mid-sized city. How — and what was the hidden price of governing so cheaply? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Get the printable study guide for Rome free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME