Roman imperial period (chronology)

The Roman imperial period is the expansion of political and cultural influence of the Roman Empire. The period begins with the reign of Augustus (r. 27 BC – AD 14), and it is taken to end variously between the late 3rd and the late 4th century, with the beginning of Late Antiquity. Despite the end of the "Roman imperial period", the Roman Empire continued to exist under the rule of the Roman emperors into Late Antiquity and beyond, except in the Western Empire, over which the Romans' political and military control was lost in the course of the 5th-century fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Periodization

In historiography, the "imperial period" is by convention taken to last from 27 BCE to CE 284. In archaeology, on the other hand, the term is usually taken to cover the period of c. CE 1 to 375 (the latter being a conventional date for the onset of the Migration Period). This follows Hans Jürgen Eggers [de] (1955), who used a periodization of "early imperial period" (German: frühkaiserzeitlich) B1 to B2 and "late imperial period" (German: spätkaiserzeitlich) C1 to C3, reflecting the history of Roman pottery imports to Magna Germania and other parts of Barbaricum (Eggers A corresponds to La Tène D). In the chronology of Eggers (1955):^[1]

La Tène period^[2]	stage	D	C	B	A
	absolute date	450–380 BCE	380–250 BCE	250–150 BCE	150–15 BCE
Roman Empire (Barbaricum) [de] period (according to Eggers)	stage	A	B1	B2	C1	C2	C3
	absolute date	100–1 BCE	1–30 CE	30–150 CE	150–200 CE	200–300 CE	300–375 CE
Migration period^[3] (according to Eggers)	stage	D
	absolute date	375–568 CE

The term "Roman imperial period" has been used as opposed to "Late Antiquity", i.e. implying the "early" and "middle" imperial period of the late 1st century BC to the 3rd century CE. The "Roman imperial period" in this sense would end with the reforms under Diocletian and the beginning of the Christianization of the Roman Empire. The period is roughly equivalent in span to the "Principate", the early period of Roman imperial rule from Augustus to Diocletian (r. 284–305), succeeded by the "Dominate".

See also

• History of the Roman Empire
• List of Roman Emperors
• Roman Iron Age

References

1. Eggers, Hans Jürgen [in German] (1955). "zur absoluten Chronologie der römischen Kaiserzeit im Freien Germanien" [To the absolute chronology of the Roman Empire in free Germania]. Jahrbuch des römisch-germanischen Zentralmuseums II [Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum II] (in German). Mainz. pp. 192–244.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2. Die Welt der Kelten. Zentren der Macht. Kostbarkeiten der Kunst [The World of the Celts. Centers of power. Treasures of art] (in German). Ostfildern: Thorbecke Jan Verlag. 2012. p. 524. ISBN 978-3-7995-0752-3.
3. Mączyńska, Magdalena [in Polish] (1993). Die Völkerwanderung. Geschichte einer ruhelosen Epoche im 4. und 5. Jahrhundert [The migration of peoples. History of a Restless Epoch in the 4th and 5th Centuries] (in German). Mannheim. ISBN 3-49-196127-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)