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Trace Greece under Rome from Augustus and Hadrian to the eve of Constantinople.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Roman Greece · 27 BC-324 AD
Provincia Achaea

Roman Greece

From the Augustan settlement and the founding of the province of Achaea to the dedication of Constantinople — three and a half centuries during which the Greek world, governed by Roman law and gilded by emperors like Hadrian, became the intellectual heart of the empire. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of Greece under Rome.

27 BC
Augustan Settlement
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In the year of Our Lord

27 BC

Augustan Settlement
  • Political

    Province of Achaea Established

    Augustus reorganises the Greek mainland, detaching it from Macedonia and creating the senatorial province of Achaea with its capital at Corinth.

17 milestones
Full Chronicle

Roman Greece

From the Augustan settlement and the founding of the province of Achaea to the dedication of Constantinople — three and a half centuries during which the Greek world, governed by Roman law and gilded by emperors like Hadrian, became the intellectual heart of the empire. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of Greece under Rome.

  1. Augustan Settlement

    • Province of Achaea Established

      Augustus reorganises the Greek mainland, detaching it from Macedonia and creating the senatorial province of Achaea with its capital at Corinth.

  2. Augustan Settlement

    • Augustus at Athens and Sparta

      Augustus winters in Greece, confirming privileges for Sparta and curtailing those of Athens after the city had sided with Antony.

  3. Julio-Claudian Greece

    • Achaea Transferred to Imperial Administration

      Tiberius removes Achaea and Macedonia from the Senate and unites them under an imperial legate at Moesia, citing the burden of provincial taxation.

  4. Pax Romana

    • Paul Preaches at the Areopagus

      Paul of Tarsus delivers his famous speech 'to the Unknown God' in Athens, marking the first attested encounter between Greek philosophy and the Christian gospel.

  5. Pax Romana

    • Paul Before Gallio at Corinth

      The Jewish community of Corinth accuses Paul before the proconsul Gallio, who dismisses the case — a hearing that provides the firmest date in the apostle's career.

  6. Julio-Claudian Greece

    • Nero Proclaims the Freedom of the Greeks

      Standing before a vast crowd at the Isthmus of Corinth, the emperor Nero declares all Greece free of taxation and tribute in gratitude for its welcome of his artistic tour.

  7. Age of Hadrian

    • Hadrian's First Visit to Athens

      The philhellene emperor Hadrian winters in Athens, is initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and begins a building programme that will transform the city.

  8. Age of Hadrian

    • Dedication of the Olympieion and Foundation of the Panhellenion

      Hadrian inaugurates the completed temple of Olympian Zeus and founds the Panhellenion, a league of Greek cities centred on Athens.

  9. Antonine Greece

    • Herodes Atticus Builds the Athenian Odeon

      The orator and benefactor Herodes Atticus completes a great roofed odeon on the south slope of the Acropolis, in memory of his late wife Regilla.

  10. Antonine Greece

    • Pausanias Completes the Description of Greece

      The traveller Pausanias of Magnesia finishes his ten-book Description of Greece, an indispensable guide to the topography and antiquities of the Greek mainland.

  11. Third Century Crisis

    • Goths Cross the Lower Danube

      Under their king Cniva, the Goths break across the Danube into Moesia and Thrace, opening the first decade of barbarian raids on the Balkan peninsula.

  12. Third Century Crisis

    • The Herulian Sack of Athens

      A seaborne band of Heruli, Goths and Peucini sails into the Aegean, sacks Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Argos and Olympia, and is finally defeated in battle by the Athenian historian Dexippus.

  13. Third Century Crisis

    • Battle of Naissus

      The emperor Gallienus, soon succeeded by Claudius II Gothicus, crushes a great Gothic host at Naissus in Moesia, ending the worst of the third-century invasions of the Balkans.

  14. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

    • Greece in the Diocese of Moesia

      Under Diocletian's reform, Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus are grouped into the new Diocese of Moesia, governed from Thessalonica by the Caesar Galerius.

  15. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

    • The Great Persecution

      Diocletian issues the first edicts of the Great Persecution; churches across Greece are demolished, scriptures burnt, and martyrdoms remembered down to modern times follow.

  16. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

    • Edict of Serdica

      On his deathbed at Serdica, Galerius issues the Edict of Toleration, ending the persecution and recognising the right of Christians to worship within the Roman state.

  17. Constantine and the New Capital

    • Constantine Defeats Licinius at Chrysopolis

      Constantine defeats Licinius at Adrianople and Chrysopolis, reunites the empire under a single Christian sovereign, and chooses the Greek city of Byzantion as his new capital.