Heritage

264-241 BC
First Punic War - Rome defeats Carthage and begins its rise to dominance in the Mediterranean. The Romans hold their first gladiatorial games at much the same time. Rome: Total War™ starts with this conflict.

218-210 BC
Second Punic War - Hannibal crosses the Alps but cannot inflict a decisive defeat. At the battle of Zama, Carthage is defeated and loses the war.

149-146
Third Punic War - results in the eventual destruction of Carthage as a result of a war of aggression by Rome, eager to defeat its old adversary.

129 BC
The Seleucid Empire - one of the successor states of Alexander's empire collapses under pressure from the Romans.

92 BC
Lucullus invades Armenia, starting centuries of warfare between the Roman and Persian empires.

53 BC
The Parthians defeat a Roman army under Crassus at Carrhae. Crassus has molten gold poured down his throat by his captors.

49 BC
Julius Caesar goes to war against Rome and crosses the Rubicon into Italy with his army. Over the next few months, he makes himself Dictator of the Republic.

44 BC
Julius Caesar is murdered by a conspiracy of Senators who want the Republic to return. Civil War is the result.

31 BC
The sea battle of Actium decides the fate of the Roman Empire. Caesar's nephew, Octavian, becomes the first Emperor and takes the name and title of Augustus. Peace and prosperity come to the Roman world.

14 AD
The death of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome. After Augustus, the position of Emperor becomes hereditary and the Roman Republic is effectively dead. Victory in Rome: Total War™ is determined at this point.

122-132 AD
Hadrian's Wall is built across Britannia to keep out the barbarians.

306 AD
Constantine the Great becomes Emperor of Rome, and moves the capital to Byzantium (Constantinople). He also makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman world.

363 AD
After the death of Julian the Apostate the Roman Empire permanently splits into Eastern and Western parts, each with its own Emperor. Rome: Total War™ - Barbarian Invasion starts after this event.

378 AD
The Emperor Valens dies at the Battle of Adrianople when he misjudges the strength and resolution of the Goths. The Goths are being driven into Roman territory by the Huns.

410 AD
Rome is sacked by the Visigoths, an event so terrible that many thought the world was ending!

476 AD
The last Roman Emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed and allowed to retire to his estate because he isn't important enough to murder. This formally marks the Fall of the Roman Empire, even though the Eastern Empire lasts nearly a thousand years longer. So starts the period that is often referred to as the "Dark Ages". Rome Total War™ - Barbarian Invasion nominally ends in this year.

771 AD
Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks.

793 AD
The Viking raid on Lindisfarne is taken as the start of the main Viking raids on Britain. The Medieval: Total War - Viking Invasion™ expansion pack starts with this event.

1054
The Great Schism splits the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Both sides declare the other one excommunicated and heretic.

1066
The MTW Viking Invasion expansion ends in this year. King Harold Godwinson fights the Battle of Stamford Bridge and defeats a Viking Invasion of England, but then takes an arrow in the eye as Saxon England falls to the Normans after the battle of Hastings. Both are included in Medieval: Total War™.

1087
William the Conqueror, King of England, dies. His courtiers steal everything that isn't nailed down and leave his body to rot. Medieval: Total War™ starts its early campaign in this year.

1099
The First Crusade captures Jerusalem.

1189
The Third Crusade lead by, among others, Richard the Lion-hearted, is stopped by Saladin.

1204
The soldiers of the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople and kill many fellow Christians. The Crusades are now no more than excuses for looting, murder and rapine.

1241
The Mongols defeat a Polish and Teutonic army, but do not ravage Western Europe. By a quirk of fate, they return home to elect a new leader after Ogodai Khan, the grandson of Ghengis, drinks himself to death!

1274
Kublai Khan attempts an invasion of Japan. The action in Shogun: Total War™ - Mongol Invasion starts with this event.

1347
The Black Death strikes Europe for the first time. This terrible plague will kill almost a third of the entire population.

1453
End of the Hundred Years War between France and England. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Medieval: Total War™ ends.

1477
The Sengoku Jidai (The Country At War) period of Japanese history begins as the great families of Japan clash for supreme authority. This is the era covered in Shogun: Total War™.

1492
The Reconquista of Spain is completed as the last Moors are driven back to North Africa. The Spanish throne finances the explorations of Christopher Columbus.

1615
The Battle of Sekigehara leaves Leyasu Tokugawa as the undisputed master of Japan. He makes himself Shogun, or "commander-in-chief for suppressing barbarians". He proceeds to shut Japan off from the rest of the world, something his successors continue for 250 years.