If you have overcome inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice

“Platus” or Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC – 184 BC)

There are certain turning moments in every nation’s history when the destiny of the whole society changes forever. The significance may not be always obvious at its time, however it is to historians.

The Roman history, which is full of turmoils, conflicts, betrayals and innovations, has also such significant events. Here are the top 10 decisive moments in the Roman history in my opinion:

#1 – Overthrowing Monarchy (509 BC)

The overthrow of the Roman monarchy took place in 509 BC. in a political revolution in ancient Rome. It resulted in the expulsion of the latest king of Rome, Lucis Tarquinius Superbus and the establishment of the Roman Republic.

Roman historians tell that while the king was away on campaign, his son Sextus Tarquinius raped a noblewoman, Lucretia. Afterwards she revleated the offence to various Roman noblemen and then committed suicide. The Roman noblemen led Lucius Junius Brutus, obtained the support of the Roman aristocracy and the people to expel the king and his family and to institute a republic.

The Roman army supported Brutus, and the king went into exile. Despite a number of attempts by Tarquinus to reinstate monarchy, the citizens established a republic and thereafter elected two consuls annually to rule the city.

#2 – Creating the Twelve Tables (450 BC)

The Law of the Twelve Tables was the legislation that stood at the foundation of the Roman law. The tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws. Displayed in the Forum, the Tables stated the right and duties of the Roman citizens. Their formulation was the result of considerable agitation by the plebian class, who had hitherto been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic.

The law had previously been unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests. Twelve Tables were a sequence of definitions of various private rights and procedures. They generally took for granted such things as the institutions of the family and various rituals for formal transactions.

#3 – Winning the Second Punic War (202 BC)

In late 2th century BC the Roman commander Publius Scipio captured Carthago Nova, the main Carthaginian base in the Iberian peninsula. In 208 BC Scipio defeated Hasdrubal, although he was able to move most of his troops into Gaul and then northern Italy in spring of 207 BC. This new Carthaginian invasion was defeated at the Battle of the Metaurus.

At the Battle of Illipa in 206 BC Scipio permanently ended the Carthaginian presence in Iberia. Scipio then invaded Carthaginian Africa in 204 BC, compelling the Carthaginian Senate to recall Hannibal’s army from Italy. The final engagement of the war took place between armies under Scipio and Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202, and resulted in Hannibal’s defeat.

#4 – The Year (146 BC)

The Battle of Corinth of 146 BC, was a decisive engagement fought between the Roman Republic and the Greek city-state of Corinth and its allies in the Achaean League. The battle marked the end of the Achaean War and the beginning of the period of Roman domination in Greek history. It was also notable for the complete and total destruction of Corinth by the Romans in its aftermath.

At the end of the siege Romans entered the city and on the orders of Mummies, set it on fire, killed all the men and enslaved all the women and children, after which the rest of Greece was subjugated by Rome.

#5 – Augustus’s Constitutional Reforms (27 BC and 19 BC)

The Constitutional reforms of Augustus were a series of laws that were enacted by the Roman Emperor Augustus between 30 BC and 2 BC, which transformed the Constitution of the Roman Republic into the Constitution of the Roman Empire.

The era during which these changes were made began when Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and ended when the Roman Senate granted Augustus the title ‘Pater Patriae’ in 2 BC.

#6 – Breaking the Link Between the Emperor and Rome (68-69 AD)

Since he had no heir, Nero’s suicide was followed by a brief period of civil war known as the “Year of the Four Emperors”. Between June 68 AD and December 69 AD, Rome witnessed the successive rise and fall of Galba, Otho and Vitellius until the final accession of Vespasion, first ruler of the Flavian dynasty. The military and political anarchy created by this civil war had serious implications, suc has the outbreak of the Batavian rebellion.

These events showed that a military power alone could create an emperor. The consequence was that the soldiers in the provinces developed a degree of loyalty to their commanders, which they did not have for the emperor. Thus the Empire was in a sense, a union of inchoate principalities, which could have disintegrated at any time.

#7 – Ending the Tradition of Conquest (117-138 AD)

Despite his own excellence as a military administrator, Hadrian’s reign was marked more by the defense of the Empire’s vast territories, rather than major military conflicts. He surrendered Trajan’s conquests in Mesopotamia, considering them to be indefensible. There was almost a war with Parthia around 121 AD but the threat was averted when Hadrian succeeded in negotiating peace. Hadrian’s army crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt, a massive Jewish uprising in Judea (132-135 AD).

Hadrian was the first emperor to extensively tour the provinces, donating money for local construction projects as he went. In Britain he ordered the construction of the famous Hadrian’s Wall, as well as various other such defenses in Germania and North Africa. His domestic policy was one of relative peace and prosperity.

#8 – Dividing the Roman World (284-305 AD)

In 285 Diocletian defeated rival emperor Carinus and briefly became sole emperor of the Roman Empire, which ended the Crisis of the Third Century. Thereafter Diocletian appointed a co-emperor in 286 and delegated further with two junion-emperors.

Diocletian saw that the vast Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor in the face of internal pressures and military threats on two fronts. He therefore split the Empire in half along a northwest axis just east of Italy, and created two equal emperors to rule under the title of Augustus. In 293, authority was further divided. Each augustus took a junior emperor called a caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession.

This constituted what is called the Tetrarchy by modern, as each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. However with the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian, the harmony among the Tetrarchy disappeared.

#9 – The Edict of Milan (313 AD)

The Edict of Milan was an agreement dated 313 AD to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius who controlled the Balkans met in Mediolanum – that is modern-day Milan – and among other things agreed to change policies towards Christians following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from prosecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire. That occurred in 380 AD with the Edict of Thessalonica.

#10 – Sack of Rome (410 AD)

In 410 AD, Alaric – the first king of the Visigoths – took Rome by starvation and sacked it for three days. He invited its remaining barbarian slaves to join him, which many did. At the time the city of Rome was the seat of the richest senatorial noble families and the center of their cultural patronage. To pagans it was the sacred origin of the empire, and to Christians the seat of the heir of Saint Peter. Rome had not fallen to an enemy since the Battle of the Allia, that is over eight centuries before.

Both Christians and pagans wrote embittered tracts blaming paganism or Christianity respectively for the loss of Rome’s supernatural protection and all attacking Stilicho’s failures.

See my other posts at:

• 10 Great Roman Places to Visit
• 10 of Rome’s Greatest Enemies

Can Ergür