Timeline of Roman Emperors and Common Groupings

Timeline of Roman Emperors and Common Groupings This list of Roman emperors goes from the first emperor (Octavian, who is better known as Augustus) to the last emperor in the West (Romulus Augustulus). In the East, the Roman Empire continued until Constantinople (Byzantium) was sacked in A.D. 1453. This takes you through the standard period of Roman emperors, from the end of the 1st century B.C. to the end of the 5th century A.D. During the second period of the Roman Empire, the Dominate - as opposed to the earlier period which was known as the Principate, there was an emperor at Constantinople as well as the one in the West. Rome was originally the capital of the Roman emperor. Later, it moved to Milan, and then Ravenna (A.D. 402-476). After the fall of Romulus Augustulus, in A.D. 476, Rome continued to have an emperor for almost another millennium, but that Roman emperor ruled from the East. Julio-Claudians (31 or) 27 B.C. - 14 A.D. Augustus14 - 37 Tiberius37 - 41 Caligula41 - 54 Claudius54 - 68 Nero Year of the 4 Emperors (ends with Vespasian)68 - 69 Galba69 Otho69 Vitellius Flavian Dynasty 69 - 79 Vespasian79 - 81 Titus81 - 96 Domitian 5 Good Emperors 96 - 98 Nerva98 - 117 Trajan117 - 138 Hadrian138 - 161 Antoninus Pius161 - 180 Marcus Aurelius(161 - 169 Lucius Verus) The next cluster of emperors is not part of a specific dynasty or other common grouping, but includes 4 from the year of the 5 emperors, 193.177/180 - 192 Commodus193 Pertinax193 Didius Julianus193 - 194 Pescennius Niger193 - 197 Clodius Albinus Severans 193 - 211 Septimius Severus198/212 - 217 Caracalla217 - 218 Macrinus218 - 222 Elagabalus222 - 235 Severus Alexander More emperors without a dynastic label, although it includes the year of the 6 emperors, 238.235 - 238 Maximinus238 Gordian I and II238 Balbinus and Pupienus238 - 244 Gordian III244 - 249 Philip the Arab249 - 251 Decius251 - 253 Gallus253 - 260 Valerian254 - 268 Gallienus268 - 270 Claudius Gothicus270 - 275 Aurelian275 - 276 Tacitus276 - 282 Probus282 - 285 Carus Carinus Numerian Tetrarchy 285-ca.310 Diocletian295 L. Domitius Domitianus297-298 Aurelius Achilleus303 Eugenius285-ca.310 Maximianus Herculius285 Amandus285 AelianusIulianus286?-297? British Emperors286/7-293 Carausius293-296/7 Allectus293-306 Constantius I Chlorus Dynasty of Constantine 293-311 Galerius305-313 Maximinus Daia305-307 Severus II306-312 Maxentius308-309 L. Domitius Alexander308-324 Licinius314? Valens324 Martinianus306-337 Constantinus I333/334 Calocaerus337-340 Constantinus II337-350 Constans I337-361 Constantius II350-353 Magnentius350 Nepotian350 Vetranio355 Silvanus361-363 Julianus363-364 Jovianus Here are more emperors without a dynastic label.364-375 Valentinianus I375 Firmus364-378 Valens365-366 Procopius366 Marcellus367-383 Gratian375-392 Valentinianus II378-395 Theodosius I383-388 Magnus Maximus384-388 Flavius Victor392-394 Eugenius 395-423 Honorius [Division of the Empire - Honorius brother Arcadius ruled the East 395-408]407-411 Constantine III usurper421 Constantius III423-425 Johannes425-455 Valentinian III455 Petronius Maximus455-456 Avitus457-461 Majorian461-465 Libius Severus467-472 Anthemius468 Arvandus470 Romanus472 Olybrius473-474 Glycerius474-475 Julius Nepos475-476 Romulus Augustulus

Definition and Examples of Americanisms

Definition and Examples of Americanisms An Americanism is a word or phrase  (or, less commonly,  a feature of grammar, spelling, or pronunciation)  that (supposedly) originated in the United States or is used primarily by Americans. Americanism is often used as a term of disapproval, especially by non-American language mavens with little knowledge of historical linguistics. Many so-called Americanisms come from the English, Mark Twain accurately observed more than a century ago. [M]ost people suppose that everyone who guesses is a Yankee; the people who guess do so  because their ancestors guessed in Yorkshire.   The term Americanism was introduced by the Reverend John Witherspoon in the late-18th century. Examples and Observations [F]ew of the grammatical differences between British and American are great enough to produce confusion, and most are not stable because the two varieties are constantly influencing each other, with borrowing both ways across the Atlantic and nowadays via the Internet.(John Algeo, British or American English? Cambridge University Press, 2006)As pioneers, the first Americans had to make up many new words, some of which now seem absurdly commonplace. Lengthy, which dates back to 1689, is an early Americanism. So are calculate, seaboard, bookstore and presidential. . . . Antagonize and placate were both hated by British Victorians. As members of a multiracial society, the first Americans also adopted words like wigwam, pretzel, spook, depot and canyon, borrowing from the Indians, Germans, Dutch, French and Spanish.(Robert McCrum et al., The Story of English. Viking, 1986)Americanisms in British English- Most Americanisms coined [during the 19th century] havent stood the test of time. Wh en a woman disposes of an unwanted admirer we no longer say that she has given him the mitten. We still call experienced travellers globetrotters, but tend to say theyve bought the T-shirt rather than seen the elephant. We prefer more elegant metaphors for a cemetery than a bone-pit. Our dentists might object if we called them tooth carpenters. And if a teenager today told you theyd been shot in the neck you might ring for an ambulance rather than ask what theyd had to drink the previous night.Lots, however, have become part of our everyday speech. I guess, I reckon, keep your eyes peeled, it was a real eye-opener, easy as falling off a log, to go the whole hog, to get the hang of, struck oil, lame duck, face the music, high falutin, cocktail, and to pull the wool over ones eyes―all made the leap into British usage during the Victorian period. And theyve stayed there ever since.(Bob Nicholson, Racy Yankee Slang Has Long Invaded Our Language. The Guardian  [UK], Oct. 18, 201 0)- A list of fully assimilated English words and expressions that started life as American coinages or revivals would include antagonise, anyway, back-number (adjectival phrase), back yard (as in nimby), bath-robe, bumper (car), editorial (noun), fix up, just (quite, very, exactly), nervous (timid), peanut, placate, realise (see, understand), reckon, soft drink, transpire, washstand.In some cases, Americanisms have driven out a native equivalent or are in the process of doing so. For instance, in no particular order, ad has pretty well replaced advert as an abbreviation for advertisement, a press clipping is driving out cutting as a piece taken from a newspaper, a whole new ballgame, that is a metaphorical game of baseball, is what meets the harried circumspect eye where once a different kettle of fish or a horse of another color furnished the challenge, and someone quit his job where not so long ago he quitted it.Such matters probably indicate nothing more than minor, harmless lin guistic interchange, with a bias towards American modes of expression as likely to seem the livelier and (to adopt an Americanism) smarter alternative.(Kingsley Amis, The Kings English: A Guide to Modern Usage. HarperCollins, 1997) American and British CompoundsIn American English, the first noun [in a compound] is generally in the singular, as in drug problem, trade union, road policy, chemical plant. In British English, the first element is sometimes a plural noun, as in drugs problem, trades union, roads policy, chemicals plant. Some noun-noun compounds that entered American English at a very early stage are words for indigenous animals, like bullfrog a large American frog, groundhog a small rodent (also called woodchuck); for trees and plants, e.g. cottonwood (an American poplar tree); and for phenomena like log cabin, the kind of simple structure many early immigrants lived in. Sunup is also an early American coinage, parallel to the Americanism sundown, which is a synonym for the universal sunset.(Gunnel Tottie, An Introduction to American English. Wiley-Blackwell, 2002)Prejudice Against AmericanismsDocumenting the sustained prejudice  against American English over the past century and a half is not dif ficult since the only alteration in the complaint involves  the particular expressions that have come to the attention of the reviewers. So we will leap ahead to 21st century examples parallel to most of the complaints of the past.In 2010, the expressions targeted  for criticism included ahead of for before, face up confront, and fess up for confess (Kahn 2010). A counterargument has often been that these expressions are historically English, but the truths of historical linguistics are seldom persuasive or even seen as germane to the dispute. Americanisms are simply bad English in one way or another: slovenly, careless, or sloppy. . . . Reports like these seethe with disapproval.The same metaphors are used elsewhere in the English-speaking world. In Australia, new forms of language believed to derive from America are seen as a contagion: suffering the creeping American disease is a way to describe a situation the critic deplores (Money 2010). . . .The expressions that give rise to such complaints  are not such ordinary Americanisms as blood type, laser, or minibus. And some are not Americanisms at all.  They share the quality of being racy, informal, and perhaps a little subversive. They are usages that poke fun at pretense and gibe at gentility.(Richard W. Bailey, American English.  English Historical Linguistics, ed. by  Alexander Bergs. Walter de Gruyter, 2012) Passing PrejudicesThe playwright Mark Ravenhill recently tweeted irritably: Dear Guardian sub please dont allow passing. Here in Europe we die. Keep the horrible euphemism over the Atlantic. . . .Ravenhills . . . complaint about passing is that it is an Americanism, one that should be kept over the Atlantic by the verbal equivalent of a ballistic-missile shield, so as to preserve the saintly purity of our island tongue. The trouble with this is that its not actually an Americanism. In  Chaucers Squires Tale, the falcon says to the princess: Myn harm I wol confessen er I pace, meaning before it dies. In Shakespeares Henry VI Part 2, Salisbury says of the dying Cardinal: Disturbe him not, let him passe peaceably. In other words, the origin of this use of passing is firmly on this side of the Atlantic. Its as English as the word soccer―at first spelled socca or socker, as an abbreviation of association football.A lot of other supposed Americanisms arent Americanisms either. Its sometimes thought that transportation instead of the good old transport is an example of that annoying US habit of bolting on needless extra syllables to perfectly good words, but transportation is used in British English from 1540. Gotten as the past tense of got? English from 1380. Oftentimes? Its in the King James Bible.(Steven Poole, Americanisms Are Often Closer to Home Than We Imagine. The Guardian [UK], May 13, 2013) Americanisms in The Telegraph [U.K.]Some Americanisms keep slipping in, usually when we are given agency copy to re-write and do an inadequate job on it. There is no such verb as impacted, and other American-style usages of nouns as verbs should be avoided (authored, gifted etc). Maneuver is not spelt that way in Britain. We do not have lawmakers: we might just about have legislators, but better still we have parliament. People do not live in their hometown; they live in their home town, or even better the place where they were born.(Simon Heffer, Style Notes. The Telegraph, Aug. 2, 2010)