Chapter 7 The Roman World
Section 4
With the fall of
the Republic, a new phase of Roman development began under the
leadership of the so-called Julio-Claudian family. From a city-state,
the Republic had now emerged as a full-fledged empire. As the Julio-Claudians
sought to rationalize the empire’s government, republicanism was swept
away and replaced with a centralized imperial bureaucratic
administration. Under this strong, central government, Rome established
a period of peace, stability, and prosperity throughout the
Mediterranean world that would be remembered for generations.
Augustus and the
Principate
Back
in Rome in 29 B.C. Octavian faced the task of restoring order in the
empire. He had no intention of establishing a dictatorship but he had
come to realize that it was impossible to return to the old republican
system. A very astute politician, Octavian under the pretense of
"restoring the Republic" succeeded in establishing a new
political order which we call the empire. Octavian himself, however, was
very careful to avoid the title of king or emperor (the modern term came
from the Latin imperator, a title
given by soldiers to victorious generals). Instead, he presented himself
as princeps, the first citizen. He made clear that he had no more superior
powers than other magistrates and that his leadership came from his
higher moral authority (auctoritas).
In 27 B.C., the Senate gave him the honorific title of Augustus,
“the revered one”. In total control of the army, Augustus brought to
the Roman people what they were craving for: peace. After so many years
of anarchy, civil wars, and devastation the Romans wanted order and
stability. Augustus gave it to them and they praised him for that. For
more than forty years, Augustus remained at the head of the state, until
his death in A.D. 14, and this very long reign made possible a smooth
transition toward the new regime. Augustus wanted to be the guide but to
rule the empire in collaboration with the senators.
Augustus’s reign was a turning point in the history of Rome
since it concluded a century of disorder and create the foundation of a
new order, two centuries of peace and prosperity. Augustus divided the
administration of Rome and her empire between himself and the Senate
but, contrary to the latter, Augustus surrounded himself with a
professional, well-trained administration. Little by little the imperial
administration increased its field and at the end of the reign most
financial and administrative matters, as well as the military, was under
Augustus’s control.
In foreign affairs, Augustus initially hoped to put an end to
military adventures. But soon, once the army reorganized he started a
vast program of pacification in the West, especially in Gaul and Spain,
and a series of conquests that pushed the border of the empire to the
Danube river. His ultimate ambition was to push the border of the empire
from the Rhine to the Elbe river in order to shorten the length of his
northern frontier and so make it more defensible. When German tribes
under their war leader Arminius wiped out three Roman legions in 9 A.D.,
however, Augustus decided to retreat to the Rhine. He came to realize
that further conquests might overextend the resources of the empire in
finances and manpower. In the east he was more cautious and preferred to
use diplomacy to settle problems with the Parthian empire in Persia.
In domestic matters, the legacy of what became known as the
“Augustan Age” was even more impressive. Augustus initiated a vast
building program. He took special care of the city of Rome, organizing
its police force, fire brigades, and food and water supplies. He boasted
that he had found Rome a city of brick and had left it a city of marble.
Augustus also presided over moral and religious reforms. The gods
had made possible the empire, he argued, so it was just and wise to
praise them for it and show them respect. Temples were restored, new
ones were built, and many half-neglected cults were reorganized.
Preoccupied with what he saw as a growing moral decadence, Augustus
legislated against adultery and encouraged people to marry and have lots
of children.
Literature in the
Augustan Age
In
literature, the Augustan period is known as the Golden Age of Latin
literature, and includes many late-Republican writers such as the poet
Catullus, the philosopher Epicurus, the
orator-politician-lawyer-philosopher Cicero, and Julius Caesar himself,
whose mastery of the Latin language (especially in his war commentaries)
made him required reading for students of Latin prose. Realizing that
literature and the arts could enhance his fame, Augustus patronized the
arts. Literature flourished under his reign: the poets Horace and Ovid;
the historian Livy; and above all the poet Virgil who in his epic poem the
Aeneid tried to imitate
Homer by offering Rome a national epic that tied its origins to the
ancient city of Troy.
The Julio-Claudians
and the Flavians
The
successors of Augustus are known as the Julio-Claudians. They
consolidated imperial rule at the expense of the power of the Senate.
Consequently, our contemporary and later Roman sources are not always
very kind to them. They depict Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) as a suspicious and
cruel tyrant, Caligula (A.D. 37-41) as a monster, Claudius (A.D. 41-54)
as an old fool under the spell of his wives and freedmen, and Nero (A.D.
54-68) as an unpredictable and cruel tyrant. Such characterizations,
however, are rather unfair to them and overlook their contributions to
the Roman world.
Tiberius was a good soldier and a competent administrator despite
his difficult situation as the direct successor of the great Augustus.
Caligula was probably not a very balanced man but he was the first to
make the senators realize who now held the real power in
Rome. His reported announcement that he intended to have his favorite
horse, Incitatus,
serve as a consul was certainly a symbolic gesture intended to make them
understand the unlimited nature of the imperial power.
Claudius, perhaps even more than Augustus, should be remembered
as the founder of Roman imperial administration, the system that
presided over more than a century and a half of provincial prosperity
and stability. Claudius also did much to further extend Roman
citizenship to people in the provinces of the empire.
As for Nero, his passion for art and spectacles was not
understood by the senators. In addition his decision to build an
extravagant palace in Rome on land expropriated after the great fire of
A.D. 64 was unwise since many were convinced that he was responsible for
the fire in the first place. In an effort to exonerate himself, Nero
used the small Christian community as scapegoat, and thereby became the
first to begin the persecutions. The Christian tradition did not pardon
him for it and this has not helped his reputation. As revolt broke out,
Nero was forced to commit suicide, but soon the Romans were brutally
reminded of the fragility of the order of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
After Nero’s death in A.D. 69, civil war raged in the Roman
world. The Praetorian Guard, an imperial bodyguard first formed by Augustus, had already
intervened several
times in succession disputes, notably when they had forced Claudius to
accept the throne. As they once again interfered chaos ruled in Rome.
Eventually, four generals claimed the throne in turn. The last one,
Vespasian, finally managed to re-establish order.
During the reigns of Vespasian (69-79) and his two sons, Titus
(79-81) and Domitian (81-96), order, peace and prosperity returned to
the Roman world. These Flavians, as they are known, were not from
the old Roman aristocracy
like their predecessors, but from Italy. In fact, they had only recently
been admitted to the senatorial order. Despite such socially
questionable origins, however, they proved to be good
administrators, especially in financial matters.
In
96 a new dynasty established itself on the throne: the Antonines.
Five emperors presided over the destiny of the Roman empire for nearly a
century: Nerva (96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus
(138-161), and Marcus Aurelius (161-180). They are known as the five
good emperors.
With the exception of Nerva, the Antonines were all of provincial
rather than Roman origins. Consequently, they continued the opening up
of Roman imperial society by admitting more and more members of the
provincial elites, particularly in the western provinces like Gaul and
Spain, into the Senate and the imperial administration. The Roman Empire
was no longer ruled solely by a small oligarchy drawn from the old Roman
aristocracy.
The Five Good Emperors were especially interested in providing
their subjects with a good, honest, and efficient administration, as
well as a sound imperial financial policy. Hadrian in particular spent
most of his time touring the provinces of the empire inspecting their
administration. The Antonine emperors managed to get along reasonably
well with the Senate, but they progressively increased the scope of
imperial administration. For example, they instituted a state program to
help poor parents raise and educate their children. To insure the
continuation of good government, all but Marcus Aurelius refused to
choose family members as successors, preferring instead to name the most
able successor possible as their heirs to the throne.
The Antonines also saw the Roman Empire reach the limits of its
territorial expansion. Trajan added Dacia (modern Rumania), Armenia,
Mesopotamia, and large parts of Arabia to the empire. His successor
Hadrian followed Augustus’s example, however, and to prevent the
empire from becoming overextended, he withdrew from all these eastern
additions except Dacia, which had valuable gold mines. Hadrian also
followed a policy of building defensive fortifications along the
empire’s frontiers, particularly on the Rhine and Danube Rivers and in
northern Britain, where he built a wall some 80 miles long to guard
against incursions into the Roman provinces by
“barbarian” tribal peoples.
Roman Imperial
Civilization
Several
essential characteristics helped the Romans build their empire and
maintain its peace. The Romans had a talent for ruling others and
maintained their authority through an efficient government both at home
and abroad. Law, military organization, and widespread trade and
transportation held the empire together and brought peace for more than
200 years. The period from the beginning of Augustus’s reign in 27
B.C. until the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 A.D. is known as the time
of the pax Romana, or Roman Peace.
Government.
The Roman government provided the strongest unifying force in the
empire. The government maintained order, enforced the laws, and defended
the frontiers. By the 2nd century A.D. the position of the emperor had
been well-established. He ruled without real opposition and was able to
insure the goodwill and cooperation of the elite in governing. Both in
the central administration and in the provinces, members of the
aristocracy participated in government, but all important decisions were
made by the emperors, most of whom were competent and conscious of their
responsibilities. From 27 B.C. to 180 A.D., only two short periods of
civil war disrupted the imperial government. In general, the system
initiated by Augustus proved successful and advantageous for the vast
majority of the inhabitants of the empire.
The provinces.
The Roman Empire was divided into provinces, territorial units governed
by a representative of Rome. During the Pax Romana, provincial
administration was both more efficient and fair than it had been under
the republic, largely because the government in Rome now kept a closer
check on provincial governors than before. Moreover, any citizen in the
provinces could appeal a governor’s decision directly to the emperor.
Through this provincial organization, the Roman Empire brought a
certain uniformity to the Mediterranean world. Cities were governed in
imitation of Rome, complete with their own local Senates and
magistrates. Local elites took pride in governing and embellishing their
cities. Theaters, amphitheaters, public baths, and temples could be seen
all over the empire from Britain to North Africa to Syria. Cities were
in fact the main beneficiaries of the empire’s prosperity. Wealth was
concentrated in the hands of the urban elites, who did everything
possible to improve the lives of the urban population and to entertain
them.
On the other hand, the vast majority of the population living in
the countryside saw little improvement in their living conditions.
Indeed, Roman civilization was primarily urban—for those living far
from the cities it had a limited impact, if any at all. Although the
Roman authorities maintained a level of peace never before known, they
were never able to eradicate brigandage and thievery in the countryside
altogether. Traveling outside the main centers of the Roman world was a
dangerous enterprise and, for most of the population, a luxury they
could not afford. For most people in the provinces, the only way to get
away from their native villages was to join the Roman army.
The army.
Augustus had reorganized the Roman army. It was divided almost evenly
between citizen legionaries and non-citizen auxiliaries. A legion had
approximately 5,500 men, and auxiliary units were roughly similar.
Legionaries served for 20 years, and auxiliaries for 25 years, at the
end of which service they would receive citizenship. An estimated
250,000 to 300,000 soldiers guarded the empire at the time of
Augustus’s death. Although this number rose under later emperors, the
total number of Roman soldiers probably never exceeded about
500,000—hardly an adequate number to defend some 6,000 miles of
borders.
The troops were stationed in great fortified camps at strategic
locations throughout the empire. However, there was no central, mobile
army in the empire that could be dispatched on short notice to a trouble
spot. In emergencies, the emperors had to move units from their own
areas to the threatened location. Thus, although the system was
efficient for low-intensity threats to security, it was not suited
coping with simultaneous threats at many different locations.
Law.
The Roman legal system combined two different approaches to law.
Stability in the system was achieved by laws, or statutes, passed by
popular assemblies or the Senate, which specified exactly what could or
could not be done and what the penalties were for breaking the law. In
addition, Roman law also tried to address questions of equity, or
fairness, by allowing magistrates, including provincial governors, to
decide at the beginning of their tenures what legal actions they would
hear. In judging such cases, the magistrates took into account new
social and economic circumstances that might require a modification or
adaptation of the law.
Roman law also unified the empire. The Romans distinguished
between two legal systems. The ius civile, or civil law, applied
between citizens. The ius gentium, or law of peoples, applied
between a citizen and a foreigner. In the ius gentium,
magistrates were not tied to traditional interpretations of the law but
were allowed to innovate as necessary to achieve fairness and justice.
Over time, however, these two approaches blended, and eventually Roman
law became a single, universal system. Even so, the Romans never imposed
their legal system on the provinces. They allowed local customs to
continue to guide the lives of provincials. Nevertheless, although such
local customs never fully disappeared, over time more and more peoples
adopted the Roman system because of its greater technical flexibility
and intellectual value. The extension of Roman citizenship also helped
the spread of the Roman legal system since citizens were by definition
subject to Roman laws.
The magistrates and the Senate were helped in legal matters by
professional jurists, the jurisconsults. These jurists were interested
in developing general legal principles that could be applied regardless
of the locale or the historical background of a problem. They wanted
above all to find legal principles that could apply to all human
beings—the ius naturale, or natural law. In later years, the
Roman system of law became the foundation for the laws of all the
European countries that had once been part of the Roman Empire, as well
as the laws of the Christian Church.
Trade and
transportation.
Throughout the time of the Pax Romana, agriculture remained the primary
occupation of people in the empire. A new type of agricultural worker, a
tenant farmer known as the colonus, began to replace
slaves on the large estates. Each of these farmers received a small plot
of land from the owner. In return, the colonus had to remain on the land
for a certain period of time and to pay the owner with a certain amount
of the crops. Most agricultural activities, however, continued to be
performed by independent farmers who were mostly interested in feeding
their families and had very little surplus to sell.
The Roman Empire provided enormous opportunities for commerce,
and the exchange of goods was relatively easy. Taxes on trade remained
low, and people everywhere used Roman currency. Rome and Alexandria
became the empire’s greatest commercial centers. Alexandria was
particularly important since Egypt was the granary of the empire,
producing the grain surpluses with which the emperors fed the urban
population of Rome itself. From the provinces, Italy imported grain and
raw materials such as meat, wool, and hides. From Asia came silks,
linens, glassware, jewelry, and furniture to satisfy the tastes of the
wealthy. India exported many products such as spices, cotton, and other
luxury products that Romans had never known before.
Manufacturing also increased throughout the empire during the Pax
Romana. Italy, Gaul, and Spain made inexpensive pottery and textiles. As
in Greece, most work was done by hand in small shops. To a considerable
extent, what made all this commercial activity possible was an elaborate
and extensive network of roads combined with safe sea lanes throughout
the Mediterranean.
Transportation greatly improved during the early period of the
empire as the Romans built up a great network of roads linking the
cities. Ultimately there were about 50,000 miles of roads binding the
empire together. Most roads, however, were built and maintained for
military purposes. Local roads were not paved and bad weather conditions
often made travel overland impossible. Although individual merchants
might travel the roads, giving way when necessary to the legions or the
imperial post riders, most goods were carried more cheaply and quickly
by sea. It was cheaper, for example, to transport grain by ship from one
end of the Mediterranean to the other than to send it 75 miles overland.
Consequently, one Roman priority was the suppression of piracy
throughout the Mediterranean.
Life in the Empire
The
Pax Romana provided prosperity to many people, but citizens did not
share equally in this wealth. Extreme differences separated the lives of
the wealthy from those of the poor. Rich citizens usually had both a
city home and a country home. Their residences included such
conveniences as running water and baths. Many of the nearly one million
residents of Rome, on the other hand, lived in crowded three and
four-storied tenement houses. Fire posed a constant threat in such
residences because of the torches the poor had to use for light and the
charcoal they used for cooking. In part to keep the poor of the cities
from rebelling against such conditions, public entertainments became a
major feature of civic life throughout much of the empire.
The Roman satirical poet, Juvenal, once noted with great disdain
that the Roman masses were interested in only two things: “panem et
circenses,” or bread and games. He was referring to the imperial
policy of providing free food and public entertainments to the
population of the city. In fact, a large part of being a public official
even in the days of the republic had been giving games and distributing
food for the people to enjoy. This was one reason public office was so
expensive.
Under Augustus 77 days were devoted to such public spectacles and
festivals every year. By the end of the 2nd century the number was up to
nearly 200 days. These games, originally to honor the gods, included
three main types of entertainment: drama and other performances in the
theaters: horse and chariot races in the Circus: and gladiatorial shows,
live fights to the death between individual warriors, in the
amphitheater.
Romans enjoyed the theater, especially light comedies and
satires. Performers such as mimes, jugglers, dancers, acrobats, and
clowns also became quite popular. Nothing, however, was more popular
than chariot racing. In Rome, the races were held in the Circus Maximus,
a racetrack that could accommodate 250,000 spectators. The races pitted
four professional teams, the Red, White, Blue, and Green, against each
other. Spectators bet heavily on the races, and especially enjoyed the
sometimes spectacular crashes that frequently occurred.
Romans were a violent people. They did not object to bloody
spectacles in the amphitheater, where wild animals were brought to fight
each other or professional fighters. Often, condemned criminals were
thrown into the arena to be torn to pieces by beasts. But the most
popular entertainment offered in the amphitheaters were gladiatorial
combats. Such shows could and often did end with the death of one or
both of the fighters, who were usually slaves. In Rome, these spectacles
were performed in the Coliseum, built under the emperors Vespasian and
Titus in the second half of the 1st century, which seated some 50,000
spectators.
The games were so popular that while they were in progress the
city could seem deserted—a situation that led the Stoic philosopher
Seneca to complain bitterly:
“Who respects a philosopher or any liberal
study except when the games are called off for a time or there is some
rainy day which he is willing to waste?”
Science,
Engineering, and Architecture
The
Romans were less interested in scientific research to increase knowledge
than in collecting and organizing information. Galen, a physician who
lived in Rome during the 100s A.D., for example, wrote several volumes
that summarized all the medical knowledge of his day. For centuries,
people regarded him as the greatest authority in medicine. Similarly,
people accepted the theories of Ptolemy in astronomy, partly because he
brought the knowledge and opinions of others into a coherent system.
Unlike the Greeks, who were primarily interested in knowledge for
its own sake, and preferred abstract reasoning to practical scientific
research, the Romans were eminently practical. They tried to apply the knowledge
they gained from the Greeks, for example, in planning their
cities, building water and sewage systems, and improving farming
methods. Roman engineers surpassed all other ancient peoples in their
ability to construct roads, bridges, aqueducts, amphitheaters, and
public buildings. Perhaps their most important contribution was the
development of a new type of concrete, which made such large
buildings possible in both financial and engineering terms.
Roman architects designed great public buildings—law courts,
palaces, temples, amphitheaters, and triumphal arches—for the
emperors, imperial officials, and the government. Although they often
based their buildings on Greek models, however, the Romans learned to
use the arch and the vaulted dome, features that allowed buildings to be
built much larger than the Greeks had been able to do. With such tools
and techniques, the Romans emphasized size as well as pleasing
proportions in their architecture.