Read-only — Curated Demo
Curated Demo · Documentary · 509 BC – 476 AD
Rise and Fall of Rome
From republic to empire to fragmentation — the institutions, alliances, and economic shocks that built and unwound Rome over a millennium.
Factions
The Senate
Patrician institution
Aristocratic body steering policy through the Republic and into early Empire.
The Legions
Professional army
Source of expansion, civil war, and eventually emperor-makers.
The Plebs
Urban citizenry
Demanded grain, games, and political reform; tribunes formalized their leverage.
Barbarian federates
Frontier peoples
From foes to settlers to imperial successors as Rome's grip loosened.
Timeline
509 BC
Founding of the Republic
Tarquin expelled, consular system established.
27 BC
Augustus becomes Princeps
Republic ends in form; Empire begins in fact.
212
Edict of Caracalla
Citizenship extended to all free inhabitants of the Empire.
410
Sack of Rome by the Visigoths
Symbolic blow to the western order.
476
Deposition of Romulus Augustulus
Conventional end of the Western Empire.
Scenarios
What if Caesar had refused the dictatorship?
- ↳ Republic: Senatorial faction retains primacy a generation longer.
- ↳ Civil war: Conflict shifts to Pompey's heirs.
What if grain shipments from Egypt failed?
- ↳ Rome: Bread riots and political collapse within months.