As a rule, these inscriptions have only incidental importance in the way of fixing dates or establishing details as to the economic history. On the other hand, such a tablet as the Monumentum Ancyranum gives important information as to the life of Augustus, and such pictorial presentations as occur on the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius are of the utmost importance in reproducing the life-history of the period. For mere matters of chronology—having also wider implications on occasion—the large series of coins and medals is of inestimable importance. Without these various inscriptions, as has been said, many details of imperial history now perfectly established must have remained insoluble.
Nevertheless, after giving full credit to the inscriptions as sources of history, the fact remains that for most of the important incidents that go to make up the story, and for practically all the picturesque details of political history, the manuscripts are still our chief sources. The authors whose works have come down to us are relatively few in number, and may be briefly listed here in a few words. For the earliest imperial period we have the master historian Tacitus, the biographer Suetonius, the courtier Velleius Paterculus, and the statesman Dion Cassius. As auxiliary sources the writings of Martial, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, and the Jewish Wars of Josephus are to be mentioned. For the middle period of imperial history Dion Cassius and Herodian, supplemented by Aurelius Victor and the other epitomators, and by the so-called Augustan histories or biographies, are our chief sources. After they fail us, Zosimus and Ammianus Marcellinus have the field practically to themselves, gaps in their work being supplied, as before, by the outline histories. Details as to these writers will be furnished, as usual, in our general bibliography.
THE FIRST CENTURY OF EMPIRE: AUGUSTUS TO NERO (30 B.C.-68 A.D.)
29. Temple of Janus closed for the third time. 28. Senate reduced in numbers. 27. Octavian lays down his powers; is given the proconsular imperium for ten years, and made commander-in-chief of all the forces with the right of levying troops, and making war and peace. He receives the title of Augustus. Provinces divided into senatorial (where no army was required) and imperial where troops were maintained. 23. Proconsular imperium conferred on Augustus with possession of the tribunicia potestas. 20. War against the Parthian king, Phraates. Tigranes reinstated in his kingdom of Armenia. 19. Cantabri and Astures (in Spain) subdued. 15. Rætia and Noricum subjugated by Drusus and Tiberius and included among the Roman provinces. 12-9. Campaigns of Drusus in Germany and subjugation of Pannonia by Tiberius. 4 B.C. Birth of Jesus. 4 A.D. Augustus adopts his stepson Tiberius. 9. Illyricum, having rebelled, is reduced by Tiberius. Arminius, the chief of the Cherusci, a German tribe, annihilates a Roman army under Quintilius Varus. 14. Tiberius, emperor. Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius, quells the revolted legions on the Rhine and makes war on the German tribe of the Marsi. 15. Germanicus invades Germany a second time and captures the wife of Arminius (Hermann). 16. Battle of the Campus Idistavisus. Arminius defeated by Germanicus. 17. Recall and death of Germanicus. 23. Prætorian cohorts collected into one camp outside Rome on the suggestion of Sejanus, who now exercises great influence over Tiberius. 31. Sejanus put to death with many of his friends. 37. Caligula succeeds Tiberius. 41. Murder of Caligula. Claudius succeeds. 42. Mauretania becomes a Roman province. 43-47. Britain subdued by Plautius and Vespasian. 43. Lycia becomes a province. 44. Judea becomes a province. 54. Claudius poisoned by his wife Agrippina and succeeded by her son Nero. 55. Nero poisons his step-brother Britannicus. 58. Domitius Corbulo sent against the Parthians and Armenians. 59. Agrippina murdered by Nero’s orders. 61. Suetonius Paulinus represses the revolt of Boadicea in Britain. 62. Nero murders his wife Octavia. 63. Parthians and Armenians renew the war. The Parthians finally sue for peace. The king of Armenia acknowledges his vassalage to Rome. 64. Destruction of great part of Rome by fire, said to have been started by Nero’s command, but attributed by him to the Jews and Christians. First persecution of the Christians. 65. Piso conspires against Nero. The plot is discovered. 66. First Jewish War. Vespasian sent to conduct it. 68. Gaul and Spain revolt against Nero, who commits suicide.
THE SECOND CENTURY OF EMPIRE: GALBA TO MARCUS AURELIUS (68-180 A.D.)
68. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius succeed each other as emperors. 69. Vespasian, the first Flavian emperor, proclaimed by the soldiers. Vitellius put to death. The aristocratic body purified and replenished. Official worship restored. Public works executed. Reforms in the army and the finances, and the administration generally. Batavian revolt under Claudius Civilis. 70. Fall of Jerusalem. Batavian revolt quelled by Cerealis. 71. Cerealis becomes governor of Britain. 78. Agricola begins his campaigns in Britain. 79. Titus, the second Flavian emperor. Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius. 80. Agricola reaches the Solway Firth. 81. Domitian, the third Flavian emperor. 83. War with the Chatti. 84. Caledonians under Galgacus defeated by Agricola, who completes the conquest of Britain. 86. Dacian invasion of Mœsia. 87. Dacians defeat a Roman army. 90. Peace with the Dacians. 93. Antonius Saturninus, governor of upper Germany, revolts. The rebellion is put down and his papers are destroyed. Domitian executes the supposed accomplices of Saturninus and begins a series of cruelties. Philosophers expelled from Rome. Persecutions of Jews and Christians. 96. Nerva succeeds on the murder of Domitian, and introduces a policy of mildness. 98. Trajan, emperor. 101-102. Dacians attacked and overthrown by Trajan. 106. Dacians finally subdued by Trajan. Their country becomes a Roman province. 114. Parthian War undertaken to prevent the Parthian king from securing the Armenian crown to his family. 116. Parthian War ends with the incorporation of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria amongst the Roman provinces. Trajan dies on his return. Many public works were executed in this reign. 117. Hadrian, emperor. He abandons Trajan’s recent conquests. 118. Mœsia invaded by the Sarmatians and Roxolani. Hadrian concludes peace with the Roxolani. The Sarmatian War continues for a long time. 120-127. Hadrian makes a tour through the provinces. 121. Hadrian’s wall built in Britain. 132. Edictum perpetuum, or compilation of the edictal laws of the prætors. 132-135. Second Jewish War, beginning with the revolt of Simon Bar Kosiba. Many buildings were erected in Hadrian’s reign. 138. Antoninus Pius, emperor. He promotes the internal prosperity of the empire, and protects it against foreign attacks. 139. British revolt suppressed by Lollius Urbicus. Wall of Antoninus (Graham’s Dyke) built. 161. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, joint emperors. 162-165. Parthian War. It terminates in the restoration of Armenia to its lawful sovereign and the cession of Mesopotamia to Rome. 163. Christian persecution. 166. A barbarian coalition of the Marcomanni and other tribes threatens the empire. Both emperors take the field against them. 169. Lucius Verus dies. 174. Victory over the Quadi. Miracle of the Thundering Legion. 175. Avidius Cassius proclaims himself emperor, and makes himself master of all Asia within Mount Taurus. He is assassinated. 178. War with the Marcomanni renewed.