The death of Crassus at Carrhae brings to an end the first triumvirate

Gladiators have metal studs on their boxing gloves, and a public bout is expected to go on until the loser dies

Julius Caesar crosses the river Rubicon (the southern boundary of Gaul) with his army – and in doing so launches a civil war

Julius Caesar defeats his rival Pompey at Pharsalus, in Greece, and makes himself master of the Roman world

Cleopatra gives birth to a son and calls him Ptolemy XV Caesar (later known by the nickname Caesarion)

Vercingetorix is a prize exhibit in Caesar's great triumph in Rome, but the Celtic chieftain is strangled once the procession is over

Julius Caesar's new calendar is introduced, at a time when its predecessor has become out of step with the seasons by three months

On March 15, the Ides of March, Julius Caesar is stabbed to death during a meeting of the senate

Octavian, an 18-year-old student in Apollonia, hears that he has been named by his uncle, Julius Caesar, as his successor and heir

Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus meet in Bologna and form an alliance known as the second triumvirate

Octavian and Mark Antony defeat the armies of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, after which Brutus and Cassius commit suicide

Virgil's reputation is established by his ten Eclogues, influenced by the Italian countryside in the region of his birth near Mantua

Maecenas buys a farm for Horace, in the Sabine hills near Tivoli - the most fruitful of his many acts of patronage

Octavian defeats the forces of Antony and Cleopatra (both are at sea with their fleets) in a battle off the Greek coast at Actium

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

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