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Relief depicting imperial succession through adoption: Hadrian (right) adopted Antoninus Pius (center left), who in turn adopted the 17-year-old Marcus Aurelius (left) and the 8-year-old Lucius Verus; the head over Hadrian's left shoulder may represent the guardian genius of Aelius Verus, Lucius's late father
This is a timeline of Roman history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in the Roman Kingdom and Republic and the Roman and Byzantine Empires. To read about the background of these events, see Ancient Rome and History of the Byzantine Empire .
Under Roman law, an adoption established a bond legally as strong as that of kinship. Because of this, all but the first and last of the Nerva–Antonine emperors are called Adoptive Emperors . The importance of official adoption in Roman society has often been considered [ 1 ] a conscious repudiation of the principle of dynastic inheritance ...
This is a list of the dynasties that ruled the Roman Empire and its two succeeding counterparts, the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.Dynasties of states that had claimed legal succession from the Roman Empire are not included in this list.
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. [50] The Latin phrase imperium sine fine ("empire without end" [51]) expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire.
Coin of Pescennius Niger, a Roman usurper who claimed imperial power AD 193–194. Legend: IMP CAES C PESC NIGER IVST AVG. While the imperial government of the Roman Empire was rarely called into question during its five centuries in the west and fifteen centuries in the east, individual emperors often faced unending challenges in the form of usurpation and perpetual civil wars. [30]
The "Roman imperial period" in this sense would end with the reforms under Diocletian and the beginning of the Christianization of the Roman Empire. The period is roughly equivalent in span to the "Principate", the early period of Roman imperial rule from Augustus to Diocletian (r. 284–305), succeeded by the "Dominate".
Barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire, showing the Battle of Adrianople. Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire faced its own problems with Germanic tribes. The Thervingi, an East Germanic tribe, fled their former lands following an invasion by the Huns. Their leaders Alavivus and Fritigern led them to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire.