Rome · 753 BCE–1453 CE
Roman Empire facts: 16 facts and 3 myths
Rome grew from a city with a legendary founding in 753 BCE into a Republic (traditionally 509 BCE) and then an empire, when Octavian became Augustus in 27 BCE. At its height under Trajan in 117 CE it ran from Scotland to the Caspian Sea. The western empire ended when its last emperor was deposed in 476 CE, but the eastern half, which still called itself Roman, lasted until 1453.
16 facts about the Roman Empire
- Rome's founding date is a legend. The traditional date of 753 BCE, with Romulus killing his brother Remus, was worked out by later Romans; the early city's history is mostly story.
- The Republic began, by tradition, in 509 BCE. That is when the Romans dated the expulsion of their last king, Tarquin the Proud. Modern scholars think the real date may be a few years later.
- Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. According to Suetonius, a physician who examined the body on 15 March 44 BCE found that only one wound, the second, in the chest, was fatal.
- Caesar gave us 1 January. His Julian calendar set a 365-day year and moved New Year's Day from 1 March to 1 January. Our calendar is a 1582 refinement of it.
- August is named after the first emperor. In January 27 BCE the Senate gave Octavian the title Augustus, the start of the imperial era, and a month was later renamed in his honor.
- The "Roman peace" lasted more than 200 years. The Pax Romana that began under Augustus brought two centuries of relative stability inside the empire's borders.
- The empire peaked under Trajan. When Trajan died in 117 CE, Roman rule stretched from Scotland to the Caspian Sea. He was also the first emperor born outside Italy, in Spain.
- Rome built more than 120,000 km of public roads. The network began with the Via Appia in 312 BCE. Including local and private roads, recent research has mapped far more.
- The Pantheon's dome is still a world record. Completed around 125–128 CE, it remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.
- Roman concrete could heal its own cracks. A 2023 MIT study found that lumps of lime left by hot mixing react with water seeping into cracks and seal them.
- The Colosseum opened with 100 days of games. Titus inaugurated it in 80 CE. It held about 50,000 spectators, around 45,000 seated and 5,000 standing.
- Hadrian's Wall ran 73 miles, coast to coast. Building began around 122 CE across northern Britain; historians still debate exactly what it was for.
- Pompeii may have died in October, not August. Vesuvius buried the town in 79 CE. The traditional date is 24 August, but an inscription found in 2018 points to mid-October.
- In 212 CE almost everyone became a Roman citizen. Caracalla's edict gave citizenship to all free people in the empire. The historian Cassius Dio, who lived through it, suspected the real aim was more taxpayers.
- Romans loved fermented fish sauce. Garum, made from fish guts and salt, was mass-produced in Spain and North Africa and poured on almost everything.
- The Roman Empire lasted until 1453. Its eastern half, which historians call Byzantine but whose people called themselves Romans, survived until Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on 29 May 1453.
3 myths about ancient Rome
- Myth: Thumbs down meant death in the arena. What the evidence says: No ancient text makes clear which way the thumb pointed. The image comes largely from Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1872 painting Pollice Verso.
- Myth: Romans had vomitoriums to purge at feasts. What the evidence says: A vomitorium was a passage that "spewed" crowds in and out of an amphitheatre. No ancient source uses the word for a place to be sick.
- Myth: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. What the evidence says: Tacitus says Nero was at Antium when the fire of 64 CE broke out. The story that he sang of Troy's fall was a rumor, and the fiddle had not been invented.
Want the dates in order? See the Roman Empire timeline, from the legendary founding to the fall of Constantinople.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Roman Empire begin and end?
It began in January 27 BCE, when the Senate gave Octavian the title Augustus. The western empire ended in 476 CE, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus; the eastern empire lasted until the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453.
How big was the Roman Empire?
At its greatest extent, when Trajan died in 117 CE, it stretched from Scotland to the Caspian Sea, around the whole Mediterranean. Estimates of its population vary widely.
Did gladiators really die on a thumbs-down?
Nobody knows. Ancient texts mention a turned thumb but never make clear which way it pointed; the thumbs-down image comes largely from a painting of 1872.
Sources & further reading
Every fact and date on this page was checked against the sources below on October 13, 2026. Each link was opened and is live:
- World History Encyclopedia — Roman Empire
- World History Encyclopedia — Roman Republic
- Livius — Lucius Junius Brutus and the end of the monarchy
- Suetonius (LacusCurtius translation) — The Life of Julius Caesar
- World History Encyclopedia — Julius Caesar
- World History Encyclopedia — Augustus
- World History Encyclopedia — Trajan
- World History Encyclopedia — Roman roads
- MIT News — Riddle solved: why was Roman concrete so durable?
- World History Encyclopedia — Colosseum
- World History Encyclopedia — Hadrian's Wall
- World History Encyclopedia — Pompeii
- Cassius Dio (LacusCurtius translation) — Roman History, book 78
- National Geographic — Garum, Rome's fish sauce
- World History Encyclopedia — Byzantine Empire
- Encyclopaedia Romana (University of Chicago) — Pollice verso
- University of Queensland — The vomitorium myth
- Tacitus (LacusCurtius translation) — Annals, book 15
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