2000-1400 BC Minoans
1250 BC Trojan War
776 BC Olympic Games
753 BC City of Rome is built (myth of Romulus and Remus, the men said to be raised by a she-wolf)
750-700 BC Homer's epics
650 BC Sparta
650-500 Greek tyrants (Draco, Solon, Peisistratus, Hippias,)
509 BC Last Etruscan Tarquin king is overthrown; Republic of the original 12 tribes of the Italian Peninsula
 

495-429 BC Pericles great Athenian leader who championed democratic ideas
431 Peleponnesian war between Sparta and Athens
390 Gauls sack Rome but withdraws
387-335 BC the Philosophers
359-338 BC Philip of Macedon
Alexander's Empire  in Greece (336-323 B. C.)

First Punic War (264-241 B.C.)
Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.)
The Third Punic War: (149-146 BC) read more

81 Sulla proclaimed dictator, after defeating his rival Marius
73-71 BC Spartacus slave revolts crushed under the leadership of Crassus
59 BC Julius Caesar wins the Gaul campaign read more
46 BC Julius Caesar named First Counsel by the Senate or dictator for life
44 BC Julius Caesar is assassinated
31 BC Battle at Actium between Mark Anthony and Octavian
27 BC to AD 14: Augustus  Roman Imperial Era begins (27 BC - 476 AD)
70-19 BC: Vergil

60 First triumvirate, Pompey, Caesar, Crassus
65-8 BC: Horace
43 BC to AD 18: Ovid
59 BC to AD 17: Livy wrote 142 book history of Rome

B.C. 10, Aug. 1 Tiberius Claudius Drusus is born to Drusus, son of Livia, and Antonia, daughter of Mark I Claudius Family Tree for the novel and BBC film serial
 Antony, in Gaul at Lugdunum (present-day Lyon, France)
circa 4 BC birth of Jesus in the Roman province of Judea
B.C. 9 Death of Claudius' father, Drusus. 
A.D. 4 Elder brother, Germanicus, adopted by Tiberius. 
A.D. 5 Marries Plautia Urgulanilla.
A.D. 14, Aug. Death of Augustus. Claudius' uncle, Tiberius, becomes emperor.

circa 30 crucifixion of Jesus

A.D. 19 Germanicus dies suspiciously.
A.D. 24 Divorces Urgulanilla for adultery and suspicion of murder; marries Aelia
A.D. 37 Death of Tiberius. Caligula becomes emperor; makes Claudius senator and consul. 37-41: Gaius (Caligula)
A.D. 38 Divorces Aelia Paetina to marry Valeria Messalina, then only 18.
A.D. 39 Daughter Octavia born to wife Messalina.
A.D. 41, Jan. 24 Caligula is murdered and the Praetorian Guards declare Claudius emperor. 41-54: Claudius

A.D. 41, Feb.Claudius' first son Britannicus born to wife Messalina.
A.D. 42 Rebellion against Claudius by Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia. Claudius goes into
semi-retirement and Messalina becomes responsible for much of the government.
A.D. 43 Plautius invades Britain, defeating Caradoc at the Battle of the River Medway. Claudius accompanies troops.
A.D. 44 Claudius makes Judea a province upon the death of friend Herod Agrippa.
A.D. 48, Messalina executed for her faithlessness.
A.D. 49 Claudius marries fourth and last wife, Agrippina, his niece
A.D. 50 Claudius adopts Agrippina's son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, later known as Nero.
A.D. 51 Claudius undertakes the draining of the Fucine Lake to create more farmland; builds a harbor.
A.D. 51 Claudius orders the exile of the Jews from Rome.
A.D. 52 Completion of Claudius' two aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia (43 miles long), and the Anio
Novus (54 miles long), which Caligula had begun.
A.D. 54, Oct. 12/13 Claudius dies after being fed poisonous mushrooms by Agrippina. Ascension of Nero as
last emperor of the Julio-Claudian line and the senate deifies him.
A.D. 55 Nero poisons Britannicus, son of Claudius.                                                 
54-68: Nero
64 Rome burns
55-116 AD Tacitus, Roman historian, Histories

66 Massada
69: This year four emperors came and went, Galba, Otho, Vitelius, Vespasian
73  Jerusalem destroyed

69-79: Vespasian (The Flavian Dynasty begins)
79-81: Titus
81-96: Domitian
96-98: Nerva
98-117: Trajan
117-138: Hadrian (refer to Hadrian's Wall in northern England)
135 Jews forbidden to enter Jerusalem

138-161: Antoninus Pius
161-180: Marcus Aurelius (emperor and author of Meditations)
284-305: Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) 300 AD splits the empire into east (Byzantine) and west (Rome)

306-337: The Emperor Constantine
312: Constantine converts to Christianity
313 AD Constantine declares religious tolerance through the Edict of Milan
455 AD Vandals sacked Rome
476 AD Odacer the Visogoth overthrows the last Roman emperor Romulus Agustulus.
483-565 AD Justinian rules from the East; his code of law became a foundation for later ages

Claudius' achievements include the occupation of Britain (from the Roman perspective, of course) his various construction projects, his willingness to allow freedmen to hold greater rights and power, his acceptance of the provincials, like the Gauls, which he did against the will of the aristocracy whose power eroded during his reign-- the revolt led by Scribonianus is a case in point. The fact that 35 senators and hundreds Knights were driven to suicide or executed during his period reveal how little changed from the years dramatized in the novel (Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula). He did try to develop good government in the provinces, and whenever possible he left client kings like Herod Agrippa in place, although he seems to have preferred direct administration from Rome. 

notes for students of I, Claudius by Robert Graves