What are the dates for the "early empire', "middle republic" etc? (Roman)?

Question

What are the dates for the "early empire', "middle republic" etc? (Roman)?

Answer 1

When dealing with terms like "early Empire", you can only use approximations: there are no exact dates when the early period ends and the middle period begins. It more or less transitions slowly. But I'll give some approximations:

The Roman Kingdom was from 753 BC to the overthrow of the Kings in 508 BC. Pretty straight forward.

At this point, it is the Early Republic. It is hard to say when the middle Republic begins, but a good date would be either the invasion of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 280 BC, or the start of the First Punic War in 264 BC. It is at this time that the Romans dominate the Italian peninsula (completed 272 BC), start getting exposed to Greek culture, and get involved in very massive, bloody wars.

The Middle Republic saw the domination of most of the Mediterranean by Rome. I would say the late Republic begins around 100 BC. At this point, Rome gets involved in a lot of internal conflict. You have the rise of Marius and Sulla, the Social War (91 BC), and the Triumvirates.

The exact date the Republic ends is open to contention. It could be 42 BC with defeat of the "Liberators", 31BC with the victory of Octavian at Actium, or 27 BC when Octavian become Augustus. But when the Republic does end, it is the beginning of the Early Empire and the Principate.

The Early Empire can probably go up to the end of the Reign of the Five Good Emperors. When Marcus Aurelius dies (180 AD), it is considered the end of the Pax Romana, and even during Aurelius' reign things were getting bleak with bararian invasions and a very bad plague. I guess from Commodus on it can be called the Middle Empire, until the assassination of Alexander Severus and his mother in 235 AD.

When Alexander was assassinated, rule of the Empire fell to one of his barbarian officers, and for the next few decades there was constant civil war among the "Barracks Emperors," generals who assassinated and seized power from each other. In the mean time, Rome was under almost constant attack from external enemies as well. This is known as the Crisis of the Third Century. It ends with the reign of Diocletian in 286AD.

At this point the Principate ends and it is the beginning of the Dominate, where the Emperor had a lot more power and authority. It is also the beginning of the Later Roman Empire. I would date the end of the later Roman Empire to 476 AD. Though the date 476 had very little meaning to the contemporary Romans, it marks the overthrow of the last Western Roman Emperor. From here on, there is only an Eastern Emperor. This is the start of the Byzantine Empire.

But it is hard to exactly date the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. It might be the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine in 330 AD, the Justinian's reconquest beginning in 536, or the transition from Latin to Greek as the official language of the Empire in 620 AD. But as with all the other dates, it is a slow process from Roman to Byzantine and all dates are only approximations.

Answer 2

It's mostly divided into Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

Roman Republic: 508 BCE (founding of the Republic) to 27 BCE (reign of Augustus Octavian Caesar)

Roman Empire: 27 BCE to 476 CE (fall of the western Roman Empire)

and some consider the Byzantines as "Roman" as well

Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire:

3rd-4th century CE (splitting of the empire into Eastern and Western) to 1453 (Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans)