Roman Empire
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The Roman Empire was a state that dominated the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa during the classical period. The Roman Republic had conquered most of these territories, but permanent single-person rule began with Octavian's rise and the establishment of the Augustan Principate in 27 BC. In that year the Senate granted Octavian imperium and the title Augustus, making him the first Roman emperor. The first two centuries saw the Pax Romana, a period of stability and prosperity. Rome reached its greatest territorial extent under Trajan (r. 98–117 AD), while trouble and decline began under Commodus (r. 180–192). The 3rd century brought a 50-year crisis, with the Gallic and Palmyrene empires breaking away; Aurelian (r. 270–275) reunified the empire. Diocletian (r. 284–305) set up two imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West. Constantine the Great (r. 306–337), the first Christian emperor, moved the imperial seat to Byzantium in 330 and renamed it Constantinople. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule both East and West, died in 395 after making Christianity the state religion. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 when Romulus Augustus was deposed by Odoacer, while the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire survived until Constantinople fell in 1453. The Empire's institutions and culture had a lasting influence on language, religion, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, law, and government.