Britain was not conquered until the reign of the unpopular Roman emperor, Claudius, in 43 CE. After an earlier token invasion by Julius Caesar in 55 BCE (and again the following year), Britain was perceived as a misty, wild country, inhabited by fierce, blue-painted warriors. In 43 CE the main... More
In 170 BCE, when the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus, decided to invade the Ptolemaic Empire, a Roman envoy, Popilius, arrived to ‘persuade’ him not to. Popilius drew a circle in the sand round the king with a stick: he then told him not to leave the circle until he had agreed... More
By the middle of the 5th century, much of the Western Roman Empire was de facto independent, through the practice of federation, by which tribes were allowed to settle on Roman land in exchange for supplying troops for the empire’s defence. Invading Huns displaced several tribes who were driven into... More
The years 59–53 BCE were defined by the political dominance of Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus under an unofficial alliance known as the First Triumvirate. Caesar was instrumental in bringing about the alliance in his attempt to increase his political power following his successful governance in Hispania. Pompey aimed to... More
Rome began as a small settlement in the 8th century BCE and, legend has it, its first king was Romulus, who killed his twin Remus, to seize power. Rome became a republic in 509 BCE, when its final king, the cruel Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by a popular uprising.... More
For centuries Rome and its satellite colonies suffered from raids by Celtic and Germanic tribes from territories to the northwest of the Italian peninsula, a region they knew as ‘Gaul’ (Latin ‘Gallia’). From trading colonies at Massilia (Marseilles) and Narbo (Narbonne), the Romans established Gallia Narbonensis (aka Transalpine Gaul) as... More
Roman Londinium was built in c. 50 CE where the City of London is now located. It grew around the northern end of a garrison timber bridge (Thames Bridge). The Thames allowed easy movement of goods between Britain and the continent. After Queen Boudicca burnt Londinium to the ground during... More
The Mediterranean coastline of modern France was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 121 BCE, and ‘civilized’ early; its inhabitants were termed bracata (‘trousered’), as opposed to the uncouth comate (‘long-hairs’) and presumably untrousered, northerners. Caesar completed the conquest of Gaul (58–51 BCE), and defined the crude tribal divisions that... More
Julius Caesar invaded Britain (Britannia) in 54 BCE where he received tribute and subdued the Trinovantes. After this, he returned to his conquests in Gaul. In 43 CE, the Emperor Claudius despatched four legions to conquer Britain. After General Vespasian and his legion successfully routed the British, Claudius entered Colchester... More
In 1914 Romania was an independent monarchy, which had been created from Moldavia and Walachia. Romania joined with the Allies against the Central Powers in 1916, in World War 1. This created a stalemate when the Romanians were defeated in their attempt to seize the disputed territory of Transylvania. They... More
Between April 1919 and March 1920, the kingdom of Romania and the First Hungarian Republic were engaged in war. The war began after Hungary’s government, angered by the Paris Conference’s decision to cede Hungarian border territories to Romania, resigned. Bolsheviks briefly took over the government in March 1919; their belligerence... More
After initially declaring itself neutral, Romania eventually joined with Nazi Germany and its allies in November 1940. The government had been taken over by a military dictatorship under Mareşal Ion Antonescu and committed a large number of troops to the eastern front. It joined Germany in its invasion of the... More