User:LuisGomez111/Roman Empire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Roman Empire is the phase of the ancient Roman civilisation characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and the Mediterranean. Usually, "Roman Empire" is the term used to describe the Roman state after the establishment of rule by emperors, but is sometimes in non-specialist contexts used more generally to refer to the expansionary Roman state both after and before the time of the first emperor, Augustus. The 500-year-old Roman Republic (509 BC – 1st century BC), which precedes it conceptually, had been weakened by the civil wars of the Late Republic.[5]
This page is a personal user's work in progress page, not an article, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. Please do not edit. The current version of this article is, or will be located at Roman Empire. |
Roman Empire Res publica Romana[1] | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 BC–476 / 1453 AD | |||||||||||
Motto: [[[SPQR|Senatus Populusque Romanus]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (SPQR) (Latin) "The Senate and People of Rome" | |||||||||||
Capital | Rome (44 BC – AD 28) | ||||||||||
Common languages | Latin, Greek | ||||||||||
Religion | Roman polytheism, later Christianity | ||||||||||
Government | Autocracy | ||||||||||
Emperor | |||||||||||
• 27 — 23 BC | Augustus | ||||||||||
• 476 | Basiliscus | ||||||||||
Legislature | Roman Senate | ||||||||||
Historical era | Classical antiquity | ||||||||||
• Battle of Actium | September 2 31 BC | ||||||||||
27 BC | |||||||||||
• Diocletian splits imperial administration between east and west | 285 | ||||||||||
330 | |||||||||||
• Death of Theodosius the Great, followed by permanent division of the Empire into eastern and western halves | 395 | ||||||||||
476 / 1453 AD | |||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
25 BC[2][3] | 2,750,000 km2 (1,060,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
50[2] | 4,200,000 km2 (1,600,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
117[2] | 5,000,000 km2 (1,900,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
390 [2] | 4,400,000 km2 (1,700,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||
56,800,000 | |||||||||||
• 117[2] | 88,000,000 | ||||||||||
Currency | Solidus, Aureus, Denarius, Sestertius, As | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
* These events marked the end of Western Roman Empire (286 – 476) and Eastern Roman Empire (330 – 1453) respectively. |
Several dates are commonly proposed to mark the transition from Republic to Empire, including the date of Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC), the victory of Caesar's heir Octavian at the Battle of Actium (September 2 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the honorific Augustus. (January 16 27 BC).[6]
The Latin term Imperium Romanum (Roman Empire), probably the best-known Latin expression where the word imperium denotes a territory, indicates the part of the world under Roman rule. Roman expansion began in the days of the Republic, but reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan. At this territorial peak, the Roman Empire controlled approximately 5,900,000 km² (2,300,000 sq mi) of land surface. Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, Roman influence upon the language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law and government of nations around the world lasts to this day.
In the late 3rd century AD, Diocletian established the practice of dividing authority between two emperors, one in the western part of the empire and one in the east, in order to better administer the vast territory. For the next century this practice continued, with occasional periods in which one emperor assumed complete control. However, after the death of Theodosius I in 395, the two halves were permanently divided.[7] The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late fifth century as its territory was seized by Germanic tribes.[8] The East Roman or Byzantine Empire endured until 1453 with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks.[9] Therefore, it is difficult to give an exact date when the Roman Empire ceased to exist, but this article will focus on the empire from 27 BC to the permanent division in 395 AD. For more information, see History of the Roman Empire.