Roman Timeline

10000 BCE – 2000 CE · 96 sites

All sites in this period

Continent Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in Europe

Colosseum

72 CE – 80 CE

The Colosseum, Rome's iconic Flavian Amphitheatre, hosted gladiatorial combats and public spectacles, embodying imperial power and engineering innovation.

Roman

100

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Country Record

Oldest City in Jordan

Petra

300 BCE – 700 CE

Petra, the Nabataean capital from ~300 BCE to 700 CE, is famed for its rock-cut tombs and sophisticated water system, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders.

HellenisticRomanLate Antique

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Country Record

Oldest City in Italy

Pompeii

700 BCE – 79 CE

The Roman city of Pompeii was buried in the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, its extraordinary preservation offering an unparalleled window into ancient daily life.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

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Troy

3000 BCE – 500 CE

The legendary city of Homer's Iliad, located at Hisarlık in northwestern Türkiye. Multiple settlement layers spanning over 4,000 years make it one of the most storied archaeological sites in the world.

Iron AgeClassicalRoman

The portico and rotunda of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy

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Known by the Most Names in Italy

Pantheon

27 BCE – 125 CE

The best-preserved monument of ancient Rome — a temple "to all the gods" rebuilt under the emperor Hadrian around 125 CE, crowned by the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built, a perfect hemisphere lit by a single open oculus at its apex. It has stood roofed and in continuous use for nearly nineteen centuries.

Roman

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Continent Record

Northernmost Known Site in Europe

Hadrian's Wall

122 CE – 410 CE

Hadrian's Wall, built AD 122 at the Roman Empire's northern frontier in Britain, stretched 73 miles across the island and served as a military boundary until Roman withdrawal around AD 410.

RomanLate Antique

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Most-Visited Ancient Site in Africa

Carthage

814 BCE – 700 CE

Ancient Phoenician city-state that became Rome's greatest rival, later reborn as a Roman metropolis, embodying over a millennium of Mediterranean history.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

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Ephesus

1000 BCE – 700 CE

One of the greatest cities of the ancient Mediterranean world. Home to the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders), the Library of Celsus, and a theatre seating 25,000.

RomanClassicalHellenistic

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Continent Record

Oldest Complex in Europe

Roman Forum

500 BCE – 600 CE

The political, religious, and commercial heart of ancient Rome, continuously inhabited from the 7th century BCE to the 7th century CE, now one of the world's most iconic archaeological landscapes.

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

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Country Record

Earliest Known Site in Greece

Delphi

800 BCE – 393 CE

Ancient Greek sanctuary and seat of the famed Delphic Oracle, occupied from 800 BCE to 393 CE, perched on Mount Parnassus.

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

The preserved streets of Herculaneum with multi-storey buildings

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Earliest Known Site in Italy

Herculaneum

300 BCE – 79 CE

A wealthy Roman town buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE to a depth of 20 m — more completely preserved than Pompeii, with wooden furniture, carbonized scrolls, and organic material intact.

Roman

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Palmyra

2000 BCE – 273 CE

Ancient oasis city in Syria, Palmyra was a crucial hub on the Silk Road, famed for its fusion of Greco-Roman and Persian architecture and the brief but dramatic reign of Queen Zenobia against Rome.

Bronze AgeIron AgeHellenistic