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The Pax Romana

28 BCE – 180

Two centuries in which one could travel from Scotland to Egypt in safety

In depth

The peace rested on conquest and slavery; Tacitus has a British chieftain say the Romans make a desert and call it peace. But it was real enough that the Mediterranean population probably reached a level not surpassed until the sixteenth century. Greenland ice cores show lead pollution from Roman mines not exceeded until the industrial revolution.

For children

For two centuries the Mediterranean was one realm without internal wars. Roads, aqueducts and a common currency bound it together. A merchant could travel from Britain to Egypt without crossing a border — it took a thousand years before anything comparable existed again.

Connects to

The Roman Empire28 BCE
Caesar assassinatedOct 46 BCE
The Roman roads301 BCE – 200
The Antonine Plague165 – 180

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org