Until Now
PoliticsEconomicsCivilisation

The Pax Romana

Two centuries in which most of the Mediterranean world is not at war with itself.

When
Duration
206 years
Known to
± 10 years
Era
Classical, Holocene

From Augustus to Marcus Aurelius the empire enjoys unusual internal stability, and trade, urbanisation and population all grow. Goods move from Britain to India, a shared legal framework operates across the whole basin, and citizenship steadily widens until it is granted to nearly all free inhabitants in 212 CE. It is peace maintained by an army of some 300,000 and by the suppression of anyone who objected, and it was not peaceful on the frontiers.

Just before

Just after