Roman Empire

The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus).

Related Topics:
Ancient Roman - Caesar Augustus

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Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word "imperium" is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world where Rome ruled. One of the first historians to describe this expansion of the Roman territory was the Greek Polybius, writing in the Epoch of the Roman Republic.

Related Topics:
Imperium Romanum - Latin - Greek - Polybius - Roman Republic

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In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome had already accumulated a collection of tribute-states, even beyond the Italian Peninsula. Some old competitors for dominion over the Mediterranean sea like Syracuse and Carthage had already been beaten for good. In the late Republic Augustus (then still "Octavian") added Egypt definitively to the Imperium Romanum. The remainder of this article treats the Roman Empire as Imperial state (see Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic for development of the territory in earlier times).

Related Topics:
Mediterranean sea - Syracuse - Carthage - Egypt - Roman Kingdom - Roman Republic

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Augustus's reforms turning the Roman state into an Empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire.

Related Topics:
Diocletian - 3rd century - Tetrarchy - Eastern - Western Roman Empire

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The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set in 476, when Odovacar deposed the last Emperor and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth he nominally ruled as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks.

Related Topics:
476 - Odovacar - Constantinople - Dux - 1453 - Byzantine Empire - Ottoman Turks

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From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. (Colin McEvedy: The New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History)

Related Topics:
Fall of the Western Empire - Western Eurasia

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The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, military, and monumental architecture, as well as many other aspects of Western life remains inescapable. The Greeks adopted the Roman name in the Middle Ages and were known as Romans, a trend that survives until today in Greece, a result of their cultural position (see Names of the Greeks). Roman titles of power were adopted by successor states and other entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the first and second Bulgarian empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.

Related Topics:
Greeks - Roman name - Greece - Names of the Greeks - Frankish - Holy Roman Empire - First and second Bulgarian empires - Russian/Kiev - German Empire - Roman culture

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