Roman History – A Complete Timeline
The Roman History Timeline
A complete year-by-year timeline of Roman and Italian history, from prehistory to the founding of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130 AD. The entire body of work is by historian Robert Rizzolo.
PREHISTORY & THE BRONZE AGE
to 3050 BC
This text offers a concise prehistoric timeline of Italy, from dinosaur fossils and early hominids to volcanic eruptions, Neolithic settlements, and the rise of megalithic temples.
3000–1000 BC
This text surveys Italy in the 3rd through the 2nd millennium BC, covering Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures, volcanic eruptions, and the arrival of Indo-European and other groups, setting the stage for early urban settlements and trade networks across the peninsula and islands.
1000–700 BC
Key developments in Italy during the first millennium BC, from Phoenician and Greek colonization to the rise of Etruscan power, the spread of Indo-European peoples, and the legendary founding of Rome.
EARLY ROME & THE REPUBLIC
7th c. BC
Developments in Italy during the 7th century BC. Highlights the continued growth of Greek and Phoenician settlements, & the evolving political landscape in Rome
6th c. BC
Expanding Greek colonies (particularly in southern Italy and Sicily), Etruscan and Samnite advances in Campania, and the transition from monarchy to republic in Rome.
5th c. BC
This text covers the 5th century BC in Italy and Sicily, spanning the expansion of Samnite/Sabellian power in Campania and beyond, the continued growth of Greek colonies (from Capri to Bari and across Sicily), and the political upheavals triggered by both local tyrants and external powers like Carthage.
4th c. BC
4th century BC: Samnites expand, Rome rises, Sicilian tyrants clash with Carthage, Timoleon reforms Syracuse; philosophers shape Sicily & Magna Graecia
3rd c. BC
From the Samnites to Hannibal’s defeat, 300–202 BC forged Rome’s dominance, shaping a vast empire across Italy, Sicily, and beyond.
2nd c. BC
The Seeds of Empire are Planted – Rome expands dominance in Italy and beyond during the 2nd century BC, from temple building and “pizza” references to slave revolts and the fall of Carthage.
1st c. BC
Slave wars, civil strife, and Julius Caesar’s fall usher in Augustus’s reign in the 1st century BC, transforming Rome from Republic to Empire.
THE EMPIRE
1st c. AD
Earthquakes, emperors, and eruptions define 1st-century AD Italy—from Augustus’s death and Nero’s tyranny to the eruption of Vesuvius and rise of the Flavians.
2nd c. AD
Rome peaks under Trajan and Hadrian, but 2nd-century plagues, invasions, and Christian expansion reshape society as the Antonines guide the empire’s grand era.
3rd c. AD
Severan rule, civil wars, plagues, and Diocletian’s Tetrarchy mark Rome’s 3rd century, while Christianity quietly spreads via new dioceses in Italy.
4th c. AD
Rome’s 4th century evolves from Diocletian’s reforms and Christian persecutions to Constantine’s embrace of the Church and Theodosius’s final East-West Empire split.
5th c. AD
Rome’s 5th century: sacks by Visigoths and Vandals, the fall of the Western Empire, and a rising Church reshape Italy’s fate amid chaos and new rulers.
AFTER ROME — THE MEDIEVAL SOUTH
6th c. AD
Italy’s 6th century sees Byzantine-Ostrogoth wars, Lombard invasions, and rising papal power, reshaping dioceses, society, and faith across the peninsula.
7th c. AD
7th-century Italy sees shifting Byzantine-Lombard power, rising papal authority, new dioceses, and raids from Saracens—reshaping its religious and political fate.
8th c. AD
Byzantine Ravenna falls, iconoclasm splits pope from emperor, and the Franks redraw Italy—Pepin creates the Papal States and Charlemagne is crowned Roman Emperor in 800.
9th c. AD
Aghlabid armies conquer Sicily city by city, an emirate rules Bari, Rome’s basilicas are sacked, the Carolingian empire collapses, and the Lombard south splinters into rival states.
10th c. AD
The Battle of the Garigliano clears the mainland, the fall of Rametta completes the Saracen conquest of Sicily, Marozia’s family rules Rome, and Otto I brings Italy under German emperors.
11th c. AD
Norman mercenaries become masters: Civitate, the fall of Bari ends five centuries of Byzantine Italy, Palermo and Salerno taken, Rome sacked to rescue a pope, and the conquest of Sicily completed by 1090.
1101–1130 AD
Roger II gathers the divided Norman inheritance, breaks rebel Bari, and is crowned King of Sicily at Palermo on Christmas Day 1130 — the beginning of the Regno, and the end of this timeline.
The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy
An exhaustive A-to-Z chronicle of Roman and southern Italian history — people, places, families, saints, and towns — also written by historian Robert Rizzolo. Browse by letter: