/year

The 40s BC

214 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 1st century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

49 BCE22 entries

  • June – Caesar arrives in Spain; seizes the Pyrenees passes against the Pompeians L. Afranius and Marcus Petreius.
  • August 24 – Caesar's general Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in North Africa by the Pompeians under Attius Varus and King Juba I of Numidia (whom he defeated earlier in the Battle of Utica) in the Battle of the Bagradas, after which he commits suicide.
  • September – Brutus defeats the combined Pompeian-Massilian naval forces of the siege of Massilia, while the Caesarian fleet in the Adriatic Sea is defeated near Curicta (Krk).

48 BCE27 entries

  • May – Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, co-consul with Julius Caesar, destroys Caelius's magistrate's chair on his tribunal.
  • August – Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus, who flees to Egypt. Pompey's army by and large is pardoned.
  • December – Battle in Alexandria: Forces of Caesar and his ally Cleopatra VII and those of rival King Ptolemy XIII and Queen Arsinoe IV. The latter two are defeated and flee the city, but during the battle part of the Library of Alexandria catches fire.

47 BCE15 entries

  • February – Caesar and his ally Cleopatra VII of Egypt defeat the forces of the rival Egyptian Queen Arsinoe IV in the Battle of the Nile. Ptolemy is killed; Caesar, with the aid of Mithridates I of the Bosporus, then relieves his besieged forces in Alexandria.
  • August 2 – Caesar defeats Pharnaces II of Pontus, king of the Bosphorus, in the Battle of Zela (the war Caesar tersely describes as veni, vidi, vici).
  • October – Caesar's invasion of Africa, against Metellus Scipio and Labienus, Caesar's former lieutenant in Gaul.

46 BCE26 entries

  • January 4 – Titus Labienus fights Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
  • April 6 – Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio and Juba I of Numidia at Thapsus. After the battle Caesar grants Legio V Alaudae the right to bear the elephant symbol on its shields and standards, for bravery against a charge of elephants.
  • September 26 – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in fulfillment of a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.

45 BCE16 entries

  • January 1 – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing a solar calendar that is based on the Egyptian calendar of the day.
  • March 17 – Civil War: In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the younger in the Battle of Munda. Labienus dies in battle, Pompey the younger is executed, but Sextus Pompey escapes to take command of the remnants of the Pompeian fleet.
  • The veterans of Julius Caesar's Legions Legio XIII Gemina and Legio X Equestris demobilize. The veterans of the 10th legion are settled in Narbo, while those of the 13th are given somewhat better lands in Italia itself.

44 BCE18 entries

  • March 15 (the Ides of March) – Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, is assassinated by a group of senators, amongst them Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Caesar's Massilian naval commander, Decimus Brutus.
  • March 20 – Caesar's funeral is held. Marcus Antony gives a eulogy and in his speech he makes accusations of murder and ensures a permanent breach with the conspirators against Caesar. He snatches Caesar's bloody tunic and purple toga to show the crowd the stab wounds; the citizens tear apart the forum and cremate their Caesar on a makeshift pyre. Antony becomes the highest ranking politician in Rome.
  • December – Antony besieges Brutus Albinus in Mutina (Modena), with Octavian, an ally of Decimus, who is one of his uncle's assassins, close by.

43 BCE35 entries

  • March – Vibius Pansa set out to link up with Hirtius and Octavian, bringing four legions of recruits, having left one, the legio urbana, to defend Rome.
  • April 14 – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Caesar's assassin Decimus Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, but is then immediately defeated by the army of the other consul, Hirtius. Both consuls are killed (Hirtius does not die until after the Battle of Mutina).
  • November 26 – Octavian meets Antony and Lepidus in Bononia and the three enter into an official five-year autocratic pact, the Second Triumvirate (see lex Titia). To cement their reconciliation Octavian agrees to marry Claudia, a daughter of Antony's wife Fulvia by her former husband Publius Clodius Pulcher.

42 BCE23 entries

  • January – Publius Vatinius, governor of Illyricum, seizes Dyrrachium and is forced to surrender his army (three legions) to Marcus Junius Brutus.
  • August – Lucius Decidius Saxa and Gaius Norbanus Flaccus are appointed by Mark Antony, to lead an advanced force of eight legions to Macedonia along the Via Egnatia into Thrace.
  • October 3 – First Battle of Philippi: The Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight an indecisive battle with Caesar's assassins Marcus Brutus and Cassius. The Roman forces including 2,000 Spartans, who have just arrived, are routed. Octavian takes refuge in the marsh. Cassius' camp is captured by Antony's men and, wrongly fearing that Brutus is dead, Cassius commits suicide. He orders his freedman Pindarus to kill him. Brutus, fearing the impact on morale, secretly buries his beheaded body on Thasos. The Republican navy, in the Adriatic, intercept and destroy the supply ships with two legions of the Triumvirs.

41 BCE8 entries

  • Mark Antony meets Cleopatra VII in Tarsus (Cilicia) and forms an alliance. He returns to Alexandria with her and they become lovers in the winter of 41–40 BC. To safeguard herself and Caesarion, she has Antony order the execution of her (half) sister Arsinoe IV, who is living at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
  • Perusine War: An armed resistance breaks out across Italy; the Umbrian city of Sentinum is captured and destroyed by Quintus Salvidienus Rufus.
  • Lucius Antonius occupies Perusia. He accepts the appeal of the local population. Lucius and Fulvia are defeated by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian in the Battle of Perugia.

40 BCE24 entries

  • May – Gaius Claudius Marcellus, a distinguished member of the Claudii, dies. He leaves Octavia the Younger (the elder sister of Octavian) widowed. She will later marry Mark Antony.
  • Treaty of Brundisium: The Triumvirs agrees to divide the Roman Republic into spheres of influence. Gaius Octavian styles himself "Imperator Caesar" and takes control of the Western provinces. Mark Antony is given the Eastern provinces; the River Drin, the boundary between the provinces Illyricum and Macedonia, is to serve as their frontier. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus controls Hispania and Africa. The treaty is cemented by the marriage of Antony and Octavia the Younger.
  • Sextus Pompey dispatches Menas with four legions and captures Sardinia, driving out Octavian's governor Marcus Lurius. He seizes the capital, Caralis and occupies Corsica. Sextus besieges Cosenza in Bruttium and Thurii in Lucania, ravaging the territory with his cavalry.