Ancient World
Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC): Caesar Defeats Pompey the Great
Decisive victory for Caesar; Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered on 28 September 48 BC.
Region
Europe
Ancient World
Julian Calendar (46 BC): How Caesar Reformed the Roman Year
A solar calendar of 365 days with a leap year every fourth year, used across Europe until the Gregorian reform and still used by several Orthodox churches.
Ancient World
Battle of Munda (45 BC): The Last Battle of Caesar's Civil War
Caesar's victory ended organised Pompeian resistance; Labienus was killed and Gnaeus Pompeius was caught and executed weeks later.
Ancient World
Assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BC): The Ides of March
Caesar was killed by a group of senators, triggering a new round of civil wars that ended the Roman Republic.
Ancient World
Second Triumvirate (43 BC): Octavian, Antony and Lepidus
The three men took legal supreme power for five years, proscribed hundreds of opponents including Cicero, and prepared war against Caesar's assassins.
Ancient World
Battle of Philippi (42 BC): The End of Brutus and Cassius
Victory for the triumvirs; Cassius and Brutus took their own lives and the republican cause was destroyed.
Ancient World
Battle of Actium (31 BC): Octavian Defeats Antony and Cleopatra
Decisive victory for Octavian; Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, their army surrendered and Egypt was annexed by Rome in 30 BC.
Ancient World
Pax Romana (27 BC-AD 180): Two Centuries of Roman Peace
About two centuries of internal stability, trade and urban growth across the Mediterranean world, ending with the frontier wars, plague and political crises of the late second and third centuries.
Ancient World
Augustus Becomes First Roman Emperor (27 BC): The Principate
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.
Ancient World
Theatre of Marcellus (13 BC): Rome's Ancient Stone Theatre
Rome's largest surviving ancient theatre, later turned into a medieval fortress and a Renaissance palace that is still partly inhabited.
Ancient World
Ara Pacis Augustae (13-9 BC): Augustus's Altar of Peace
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.
Ancient World
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9): Arminius Destroys Varus
Three Roman legions with their auxiliaries were annihilated; Rome gave up plans for a province between the Rhine and the Elbe.