The Roman Empire laid the foundations for all later European history.
The Roman Empire is generaly held to start in 31 BC, with the battle of Actium. This battle brought Octavian to supreme power, and it was he who was to become the first of the Roman emperors.
The peace which the Roman empire brought to millions of people in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, for more then two hundred years, was an achievement which has only really been matched in the history of the world by the Han empire of China.
This peace allowed a degree of Romanization to take place which could not be eradicated by later invasions. As a result, the whole of European history has been deeply influenced by Rome. The importance of this lies not only in the influence of Roman politics and law, which were thus transmitted to later generations, but also in the Greek achievements, which were an essential element of the Roman heritage.
The Roman empire vanished at different times in different places. The Romans left Britain in AD 410. The last emperor ceased to reign in the western part of the empire in 476. In the east, the empire survived until 1453! However, from around 500 the Roman empire is generally labelled the "Byzantine" empire by modern scholars (but not by the inhabitants themselves, who continued to call themselves Romans until the very end).
