Some key dates in Ancient Rome and the major events afterward that shaped what happened in Rome. 

REGAL ROME

753 BC                        Traditional date for the foundation of Rome

THE REPUBLIC

509 BC                        Traditional date of the expulsion of the kings and foundation of the Roman Republic

496 BC                        Battle of Lake Regillus (defeat of Latin League)

396 BC                        Destruction of Veii

390 BC                        Gauls sack Rome

343-290 BC                Samnite Wars

280-275 BC                Pyrrhus of Epirus invades Italy but fails to defeat Rome and leaves

272 BC                        Rome defeats Tarentum;  now controls the Italian peninsula

264-241 BC                First Punic War

218-201 BC                Second Punic War

197-150                      Rome wages various wars against Alexander the Great’s successor kingdoms

149-146 BC                Third Punic War

146 BC                        Carthage and Corinth sacked

133 BC                        Tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus

123 BC                        Tribunate of Gaius Gracchus

122-104                      War against Iugurtha; rise of Marius

111-101                      War against the Cimbri and Teutones in Gaul, Spain, Northern Italy

102 BC                        Marcus Antonius’ war against Cilician pirates

91-87 BC                    Social War

88 BC                          Sulla marches of Rome

84 BC                          Sulla returns to Rome from the East; passes reforms as dictator; resigns, and dies in 79 BC

73-71 BC                    Revolt of Spartacus

67 BC                          Pompey wages war against pirates

LATE REPUBLIC

60                                First Triumvirate (Pompey, Caesar, Crassus)

58-53                          Julius Caesar wages war in Gaul

49-48                          Civil war of Pompey and Julius Caesar

44BC                           Julius Caesar assassinated on Ides of March

43 BC                          Second Triumvirate (Mark Antony, Lepidus, Octavian)

PRINCIPATE

31 BC                          Battle of Actium ends civil wars of the Republic.  Principate begins

AD 14                          Death of Augustus

AD 14-68                    Julio-Claudian dynasty (Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero)

AD 69                          Year of the Four Emperors

AD 69-96                    Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian)

AD 96-97                    Reign of Nerva

AD 97-117                  Reign of Trajan; expands empire to its greatest extent

AD 117-138                Reign of Hadrian

AD 138-192                Antonine dynasty (Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus)

AD 192                        Year of the Emperors

AD 192-235                Severan dynasty (Septimius Severus, Carcalla, Elagabalus, Alexander Severus); Caracalla extends                                               citizenship to all freed people within the \ empire in AD 212; Sassanians overthrow Parthians in 226

AD 235-284                Years of military crisis

AD 249-252                Reign of Decius (increased raids across Rhine)

AD 260                       Sassanians kill Valerian

AD 260-268               Reign of Gallienus

AD 270-275                Reign of Aurelian

LATE ANTIQUITY

AD 284- 305               Reign of Diocletian; creation of tetrarchy rule

AD 306-337                Reign of Constantine

AD 212                        Edict of Toleration

AD 378                        Battle of Adrianople.  Goths defeat the Eastern empire army

AD 410                        Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth

AD 455                        Vandals sack Rome

AD 476                        Ostrogoths depose last Western emperor (Romulus Augustulus)

AD 527-565                Justinian in Constantinople attempts to reconquer the Western empire