Ages of the World

A territorial atlas · A.D. 192–700

Rome: the provinces
held and lost

From Commodus’s death to the loss of Carthage.
Follow the colour of the land, from the Atlantic to Syria.

A.D. 1921 / 13
Roman world at Commodus’s death
Roman territories, A.D. 192 Approximate large regions of the Roman world. Solid colours show Roman rule, eastern Roman rule, breakaway rule, or territory outside imperial rule. Hatching shows mixed control. Select a region for its history. Britain: Roman Empire Northern Gaul: Roman Empire Southern Gaul: Roman Empire Iberian interior and north: Roman Empire Southern Spain: Roman Empire Balearic Islands: Roman Empire Upper Rhine frontier: Roman Empire Alpine provinces: Roman Empire Italy: Roman Empire Sicily: Roman Empire Sardinia and Corsica: Roman Empire Pannonia: Roman Empire Dalmatia: Roman Empire Middle and lower Danube: Roman Empire Dacia: Roman Empire Greece and Macedonia: Roman Empire Thrace: Roman Empire Anatolia: Roman Empire Aegean islands: Roman Empire Crete: Roman Empire Cyprus: Roman Empire Syria and Palestine: Roman Empire Egypt: Roman Empire Cyrenaica: Roman Empire Tripolitania: Roman Empire Africa and eastern Numidia: Roman Empire Mauretania and western Numidia: Roman Empire Britain Northern Gaul Southern Gaul HISPANIA S. SPAIN Alpine provinces Italy Sicily SARDINIA Pannonia Dalmatia DANUBE PROVINCES Dacia GREECE Thrace ANATOLIA Crete SYRIA Egypt Cyrenaica Tripolitania AFRICA MAURETANIA MEDITERRANEAN SEA BLACK SEA ATLANTIC Beyond the Roman frontier Rome Carthage Constantinople Alexandria Antioch Danube
Roman / Western RomanEastern RomanOutside imperial ruleBreakaway regimeMixed controlChanged at this date

Approximate regional extents, not exact provincial boundaries. Uncoloured land is outside the regions followed here. Hatching does not show the precise location or proportion of each ruler’s territory.

View four dates side by side

How to read the losses

Ochre means that a region is outside the emperor’s government at the selected date. It does not mean its inhabitants ceased to be Roman. Green remains Roman: the eastern empire continued long after the western court ended in A.D. 476.

The dates follow turning points rather than equal intervals. A fifty-year sequence would hide the loss and recovery of Syria and Egypt between A.D. 625 and 650. Compare with 192 keeps the original territory available as a reference.

Sources and the limits of this map

Large regions group several ancient provinces. Their inland edges are editorial approximations clipped to Natural Earth coastlines; they are not surveyed or independently sourced ancient boundary polygons. Narrow frontier changes, small enclaves, Mesopotamian acquisitions after 192 and most campaigning are omitted. The map follows the large regions held in 192, not every later imperial acquisition. The northern edge of the frame omits the far north of Europe.

Southern Spain, later Italy, Mauretania and the Balkan interior use hatching where a single owner would mislead. The A.D. 439 African colour groups the capture of Carthage with the wider settlement of 442. Dacia’s withdrawal is grouped at 275. Cyprus is hatched after the Arab attacks and later shared arrangement.

    Static atlas plates: 192 · 476 · 565 · 700.