The Roman Empire: Historical Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering major dates, leaders, and events from the founding of Rome through the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

753 BC

The traditional founding date of the city of Rome by Romulus and Remus.

509 BC

The establishment of the Roman Republic following the overthrow of the Etruscan monarchy.

Punic Wars

A series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, famously featuring the Carthaginian general Hannibal.

March 15, 44 BC (Ides of March)

The date of Julius Caesar's assassination by Roman senators, leading to civil war.

27 BC

The official start of the Roman Empire when Octavian accepted the title Augustus and became the first emperor.

Augustus Caesar

Julius Caesar's grand-nephew and the first emperor of the Roman Empire, who established a stable government.

Pax Romana

A famous 200-year period of relative peace and stability across the Mediterranean world starting under Augustus.

Nero

The emperor who blamed Christians for the great fire of Rome in AD 64 and initiated the first state-sponsored persecutions.

Trajan

The first non-Roman-born emperor under whose rule the Roman Empire reached its largest territorial extent.

Diocletian

The emperor who ended the 3rd Century Crisis by instituting financial reforms and creating the tetrarchy (ruling partition).

Constantine the Great

The first Christian emperor who issued the Edict of Milan (religious tolerance) and moved the capital to Constantinople.

AD 476

The official fall and end of the Western Roman Empire when the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed.

Byzantine Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire that survived the fall of the West and lasted until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.