Wars of the Roman Empire

Wars of the Roman Empire were fought from its birth in 27 BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire sometime around 476 AD. Following the Roman Empire’s defeat of Germanic tribes to the north and East, Rome launched the Conquest of Britain in 43 when it pushed north into central Scotland. Tribes in modern-day Scotland and Northern England rebelled against Roman rule and established two military bases to protect against rebellion and incursions from the north, where Roman troops built and manned Hadrian's Wall in 122. The Jewish Wars were fought from 66 – 135 between the Jews of Judaea Province and the Roman Empire following robberies from their temples and Roman insensitivity. Early successes, including the repulse of the First Siege of Jerusalem and the Battle of Beth-Horon attracted attention from Rome and Emperor Nero ordered troops to crush the rebellion. By the year 68, Jewish resistance in the North had been eliminated. A few areas managed to hold out, but by 132 all Jewish revolts had been quelled by the Roman Empire. The Parthian Wars were fought sporadically between the Roman armies and Armenia and Syria from 161 – 217, mainly over territorial expansion. Control of Mesopotamia changed hands between the Romans and the Parthians until Parthia’s defeat by the Persians in 224, when Persia replaced Parthia as Rome’s rival to the East. Following the murder of Emperor Alexander Severus in 235, the turmoil and civil war that marked the third century was the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. Roman on Roman violence weakened armies leaving the empire open to invasion. Militarily, the empire fell after Rome was overrun by Germanic troops sometime around 476. The exact date of the fall of the Roman Empire is contested, ranging from the onset of its decline in the third century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.