History of the Roman Empire
History of the Roman Empire began in the eighth century. The Roman empire was started from a small village of Italy’s Tibet River and then it spread to the different continents of the world. The history of the Roman Empire has many legacies in the world. There are many languages such as French, Spanish, Portugees, and Romanian that belong to the roman empire history. Apart from the languages the modern-day calendar, western alphabets and the spread of Christianity in the world, also had their roots in the History of the Roman Empire. Facts of the fall of Rome says that The Roman Empire emerged in 27BCE & the fall of the roman empire happens in 493BCE.
Before the emergence of the empire, Rome was a republic for almost 450 years. However, Rome emerged as an empire during the time period of Augustus Caesar became the ruler in 27BCE and ended when the Roman ruler, Romulus was defeated by the Germanic King in 493BCE.
The Early Dynasties of History of the Roman Empire
In 31BCE, Gaius Octavian, nephew of Julias Caesar, became the emperor of the room and took the name of Augustus Ceaser. Although many historians regard Julius Ceaser as the first emperor, he had never used the title of “emperor” for himself and he was regarded as “Dictator”.
Augustus ruled the empire in 13BCE to 14BCE. He made great achievements and the empire saw many developments during his rule. Moreover, he reformed the Roman laws, secure the borders of the empire and initiated the vast building projects. However, with the death of emperor Augustus, Tiberius became the emperor and he continued with the policies of his predecessor.
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The first five emperors of the Roman empire belonged to the two families and they were known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Galba became the sixth emperor of the empire, but he proved himself unfit for the responsibilities. After his death, Otho succeeded him, but Vitellius started a civil war against him and took over the throne. He was not an efficient ruler and soon engaged himself in the luxurious activities and he was murdered Vespasian’s man and Vespasian took over the power.
The rule of Vespasian was prosperous. He made great development in infrastructure. The successors of Vespasian made great contributions to the stable economy and the empire saw economic prosperity during their rule. However, they were autocratic in their political approach and their autocratic policies made them unpopular among the people and their rule was ended in 96CE.
The Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire History
With the fall of Vespasian, Nirvana-Antonin Dynasty was founded in Rome. They ruled Rome from 96-192CE. However, during their rule, Rome saw prosperity and stability. Five rulers of the Nirvana-Antonin Dynasty are regarded as Good rulers. These are as follows.
- Nerva (r. 96-98 CE)
- Trajan (r. 98-117 CE)
- Hadrian (r. 117-138 CE)
- Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161 CE)
- Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180 CE)
The Severan Dynasty
Severus founded the Severan dynasty in Rome and expanded the empire. He extended the empire to Africa and Britain. Under their rule, the laws of the empire were reformed. Roman citizenship was expanded during this dynasty and include all free men within the empire. This law was said to have been enacted as a means of raising tax revenue, simply because, after its passage, there were more people the central government could tax. Their rule was ended in 235CE with the crisis of the third century.
With the decline of the Severan dynasty in Rome, the empire saw the civil war and the empire was divided into two empires east and west.
Constantine and Rise of Christianity
In 312 Constantine became the ruler of the empire and he unified the two parts of the empire. He used to believe that Jesus Christ was responsible for his victory and he made such laws that promoted the religion of Christianity in the empire. In the following years, Christianity was promoted in the empire and spread into the other parts of the world as well.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
The empire saw its decline in 418CE. There were numerous factors behind the decline of the empire some of them are listed below;
- Political instability due to the size of the empire
- The self-interest of the two halves of the empire
- Invasion of barbarian tribes
- Government corruption
- Mercenary armies
- Over-reliance on slave labor
- Massive unemployment and inflation
The Legacy of the Roman Empire
The inventions and innovations of the empire altered the lives of the people and even today all those inventions are beneficial for the people. The Roman Empire left a great legacy for the world. The following are some of the great contributions of the empire.
- Construction of roads and buildings
- Indoor Plumbing
- Public toilets
- Locks
- Keys
- Newspapers
- Postal System
- Cosmetics
- Magnifying Glass
- The concept of satire in literature
Apart from these fields, they made great innovations in medicine, religion, government, and warfare. They worked on the concept of borrowing from and improving on. They borrowed the concept from the other areas of the world, worked on them, improved them and made great inventions from them.
