Octavian is given the life-long title of Augustus by the senate in Rome, becoming in effect the first Roman emperor

Livy begins writing and publishing his History of Rome, a task which will occupy him for forty years

The first three books of Horace's Odes are published, written on his Sabine farm

The excellence of the arts, particularly literature, during the reign of Augustus Caesar causes it to be remembered as a golden age of culture

A collection of witty love poems, entitled Amores, brings Ovid an early success

Augustus Caesar puts a team of surveyors to work mapping the empire's 50,000 miles of roads, a task which will take them twenty years

Roman author Vitruvius writes De Architectura, now generally known as The Ten Books of Architecture

The Netherlands, or 'low countries' around the Rhine delta, enter history as the Roman province of Germania Inferior

Virgil dies just after completing the Aeneid, and imperial command from Augustus Caesar prevents his executor from destroying the epic

After the death of two of his grandsons, the emperor Augustus formally adopts his stepson Tiberius as his successor

Augustus Caesar insists on Tiberius adopting as his successor Germanicus, a talented young member of the imperial family

Germanicus, designated eventual heir to the throne, marries Agrippina, granddaughter of the ruling emperor

The defeat of three Roman legions in the Teutoberg Forest by Arminius, establishes the Rhine as a natural boundary of the Roman empire

The period of stability achieved during the reign of Augustus Caesar has been given the name Pax Romana ('Roman peace')

The death of Augustus introduces half a century of chaos, as the members of his family compete ruthlessly for power

Tiberius succeeds his stepfather Augustus Caesar as the Roman emperor

Germanicus, nephew and heir of the emperor Tiberius, dies when far away with the army in Syria

The Romans construct the massive Pont du Gard to bring water to the city of Nîmes

Within the tangled and tormented web of the Roman imperial family, Gaius Caesar - nicknamed Caligula - inherits the throne

The death of Cymbeline is a prelude to the renewed Roman invasion of Celtic Britain

Claudius, after the assassination of his nephew Caligula, is selected as emperor by the praetorian guards

The Romans invade Britain and the tribal leader Caractacus fails to hold them in an encounter near the Medway

The emperor Claudius catches up with the Roman army, waiting at the Thames for him to lead the final victory over the English tribes

The Roman emperor Claudius reaches Colchester, where a temple is erected to him as a god

The Roman surgeon Cornelius Celsus describes in De Medicina how to cut stones from a patient's bladder