Era · c. 3000 BC – AD 500
The first cities, empires and written records, from the pyramids of Egypt to Greece and the Roman Empire.
Octavian handed formal control back to the Senate and people but received the name Augustus and command of key provinces, creating the system of one-man rule known as the Principate.
After raids and counter-invasions, Augustus granted Kush's envoys their requests, cancelled the tribute and set the frontier at Hiera Sykaminos.
Herod created a major port city that became the capital of the Roman province of Judaea and flourished for centuries.
Rome's largest surviving ancient theatre, later turned into a medieval fortress and a Renaissance palace that is still partly inhabited.
A monumental marble altar to the goddess Pax that became one of the key works of Augustan art; reassembled in 1938 and now housed in the Ara Pacis Museum.
Cahuachi served for centuries as the main ritual centre of the Nazca world before being abandoned as a temple site and reused as a cemetery.
Wang Mang's Xin dynasty collapsed amid famine and rebellion; he was killed in Chang'an in AD 23, and the Han dynasty was restored under Emperor Guangwu in AD 25.
Three Roman legions with their auxiliaries were annihilated; Rome gave up plans for a province between the Rhine and the Elbe.
Augustus's official account of his career was inscribed in Rome and across the provinces; the copy at Ankara survives almost complete and is a key source for his reign.
Liu Xiu restored the Han dynasty with its capital at Luoyang, beginning the Eastern Han, which lasted until AD 220.
Jesus was executed by crucifixion on the orders of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate; his followers' belief in his resurrection gave rise to Christianity.
Sejanus was arrested and executed on the day he was denounced; his family and many associates were killed in the purges that followed.
