THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Classical Antiquity

The Augustan World

The world in 1 BCE

At the end of the last year before the Common Era, by some estimates about half of humanity lives under two empires. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, rules the whole Mediterranean, from Spain and Gaul to Syria and Egypt, after ending a century of civil wars at Actium in 31 BCE.

Peace, roads and trade bind his empire together. At the other end of Eurasia, the Han dynasty rules China; this year the young Emperor Ai died and the child Emperor Ping was enthroned, with the powerful courtier Wang Mang as regent, who will one day seize the throne. Between them, the Parthian Empire rules Iran and Mesopotamia, nomads such as the Xiongnu, Sarmatians and Yuezhi control the steppes, and Saka and Indo-Parthian kings rule north-western India, while the Satavahanas hold the Deccan. In Judea, Herod the Great has recently died and Jesus of Nazareth has been born. In the Americas, Teotihuacan is growing fast, and the Nazca are drawing their lines in the Peruvian desert.

Open the map in 1 BCE

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Khoisan hunter-gatherers and the first Khoe herders of sheep live across southern Africa. Iron-using Bantu farmers are spreading south from the Great Lakes toward the Zambezi. Madagascar has not yet been settled.

Northern Africa

Egypt is a Roman province, annexed after the deaths of Cleopatra and Antony in 30 BCE, and the coast from Morocco to Libya is Roman or ruled by client kings such as Juba II of Mauretania. Meroë, under its queens (kandakes), flourishes in Nubia after making peace with Rome, and the kingdom of Aksum is rising in Ethiopia. Berbers and Saharan nomads live beyond.

Europe

Augustus rules an empire covering Italy, Spain, Gaul, Greece and the Balkans, and his armies are campaigning in Germany beyond the Rhine. Client kings rule Thrace and the Bosporan Kingdom in the Crimea. Germanic peoples such as the Marcomanni under Maroboduus hold central Europe, Dacians the Carpathians, Celts Britain and Ireland, and Sarmatians the steppe.

Middle East & South Asia

Rome rules Anatolia and Syria, with Herod's son Archelaus ruling Judea and Aretas IV the Nabataeans at Petra. Phraates V rules the Parthian Empire from Ctesiphon, the Indo-Parthians (Suren) hold eastern Iran and Afghanistan, and Indo-Scythian kings rule north-west India. The Satavahanas rule the Deccan, Kalinga holds the east coast, Tamil kingdoms the south, and the Himyarites are rising in Yemen.

Northern & Central Asia

The Yuezhi tribes in Bactria are about to be united by Kujula Kadphises into the Kushan Empire. Sarmatian and Alan nomads hold the western steppe, while the Kangju and Wusun roam Central Asia and the Xiongnu rule Mongolia.

East Asia

The Han dynasty rules China, Korea's north-west and northern Vietnam from Chang'an; the child Emperor Ping has just been enthroned with Wang Mang as regent. The Xiongnu, now at peace with and partly dependent on Han, rule the steppe. In Korea, the young kingdoms of Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje are emerging, and Yayoi Japan has many small states.

Southeast Asia

Northern Vietnam is governed as Han commanderies, while elsewhere chiefdoms grow rich on sea trade between India and China. Indian traders and ideas reach the Malay Peninsula and the Mekong delta, where the kingdom of Funan will soon arise, and Arakan grows in western Burma.

Northern North America

The Dorset culture lives in the Arctic, and the Norton tradition along Alaska's coasts. In southern Canada, the Laurel and Point Peninsula peoples fish and hunt around the Great Lakes, and the Pacific Northwest peoples live in large cedar-plank villages.

Southern North America

The Hopewell culture of the Ohio valley builds great earthworks and trades obsidian, copper and shells over thousands of kilometres. Teotihuacan is becoming the largest city in the Americas, Monte Albán rules Oaxaca, and the Maya Preclassic cities of the lowlands, such as El Mirador, are at their height.

Northern South America

The Nazca culture of Peru's south coast is beginning to draw its giant lines in the desert, and the Moche are emerging on the north coast. Amazonian peoples farm and fish along the rivers, and the Wankarani and other cultures live on the Bolivian high plateau.

Southern Cone

Hunter-gatherers live across the Pampas, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Farming villages flourish in north-west Argentina and northern Chile, and the ancestors of the Mapuche live in central Chile.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians and Papuan farmers live as before. Polynesians live in Tonga and Samoa, and the great voyages to eastern Polynesia, Hawaii and New Zealand are still many centuries away.

Events

  1. Parthians destroy a Roman army under Crassus at Carrhae
  2. Julius Caesar is assassinated in Rome
  3. Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra at Actium
  4. Octavian takes the title Augustus, becoming the first Roman emperor
  5. Birth of Jesus of Nazareth in Judea (c. 6–4 BCE)
  6. Death of Herod the Great; his kingdom is divided among his sons
  7. Emperor Ai of Han dies; the child Emperor Ping is enthroned with Wang Mang as regent

Moments of this period

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Sources