In 248 Rome celebrated its 1,000th birthday.

753 BC · 248 · 476 · apart: 1229 years

Emperor Philip the Arab held Secular Games for the millennium, counted from Romulus's founding in 753 BC. The Western Empire would fall 228 years later.

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The event

• Founding of Romec. 753 BC · Palatine Hill. Roman tradition holds that Romulus founded the city on the Palatine Hill on 21 April 753 BC. Romans counted years 'from the founding of the City', and the small settlement grew into the centre of a vast empire.

8th century BC · 3rd century · 5th century

More amazing facts

• 782 BC · 753 BC Yerevan is 29 years older than Rome.
• 776 BC · 753 BC The Olympic Games are older than Rome: the first were held in 776 BC, and by tradition the city was founded only 23 years later.
• 776 BC The first Olympic champion on record was a cook.
• 776 BC · 771 BC The first Olympic Games and the fall of China's Western Zhou are five years apart: the games traditionally date to 776 BC, and in 771 BC nomads sacked the Zhou capital, opening the Spring and Autumn period.
• 776 BC · 393 · 1896 The break in the Olympics lasted longer than the ancient Games themselves: they ran for about 1,170 years, traditionally from 776 BC to AD 393, and the next Games came only in 1896 — 1,503 years later.
• 776 BC · 100 BC The ancient Greek 'computer' had a dial for the Olympics.

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