Roman Empire

B

Civil War

Civil war returned to Rome as one person after another claimed the throne and marched on the capital. In ad 69, known as the Year of the Four Emperors, a savage contest for power exploded the myths adopted by Augustus to hide his dictatorship. The secret of the empire was now clear. Augustus had pretended to follow Roman republican tradition by seeking the Senate’s confirmation of his actions, but in reality the emperor’s authority derived solely from his control of the army.

The savage civil war of the Year of the Four Emperors concluded with the triumph of Vespasian (ad 69-79 ), a plainspoken and practical soldier from the Italian middle class whose style contrasted with the eccentricity of the noble Julio-Claudians. As commander of the Roman armies in the East, Vespasian crushed the Jewish rebellion in Palestine. He then returned to Rome and left his son to destroy both the city of Jerusalem and in ad 73 to conquer Masada, the hilltop fortress near the Dead Sea where the Jews made their last stand. Vespasian’s thriftiness restored the economy after the lavish expenditures of Nero. He recruited senators from among western provinces and also carefully ensured the loyalty of the military to the new dynasty he created, called the Flavians.

C

Flavian and Antonine Emperors

Ancient sources provide very different pictures of Vespasian’s sons. The brief reign of Titus (ad 79-81) was extremely popular, while the Roman people only remembered his brother Domitian (ad 81-96) as a tyrant. Domitian conducted successful military campaigns in which he established a network of forts and palisades (defensive barriers) between the Rhine and Danube rivers. However, he distrusted the Senate and persecuted his opponents in a reign of terror. Historians describe the reign of Domitian as an age of spies, secret denunciations, and executions. Domitian himself was murdered in a palace conspiracy that included his wife Domitia.

In ad 96 the Senate proclaimed Nerva (ad 96–98), who had no children, as emperor. He adopted Trajan, the respected governor of Germany, as his successor and began a new imperial line known historically as the Antonines. During this time, Roman rulers did not rely on heredity to determine which family members would succeed them, but instead adopted successors. Generally these adopted emperors governed the empire far more effectively than their predecessors.

---

---

Trajan (98-117) was a distinguished soldier who became one of Rome’s most beloved monarchs. He was the first emperor born in the provinces and was of Spanish origin. He devoted much of his energy to aggressive wars that extended Roman rule across the Danube River to Dacia (present-day Romania) and into Mesopotamia. Conquering Dacia was important economically, since its rich gold mines accounted for much of Roman wealth in the 2nd century ad. Trajan’s other great campaign, an invasion of the east, was less successful. Although he conquered Arabia, Armenia and Parthia (now part of Iran and Afghanistan) on his way to the Persian Gulf, Trajan overextended himself, and the recently conquered Parthians rebelled and forced him to withdraw.

Trajan made other contributions that show his common sense, administrative skill, and genuine human compassion. He initiated an impressive building program throughout the empire. Both public monuments and private documents reflect Trajan’s concern for social welfare programs, like the distribution of food to poor children. In letters to his special agent Pliny the Younger, he discussed topics such as local finances and dissident Christians in a fair and open-minded way. Trajan was a man with few personal pretensions who treated senators as equals and earned the title of Optimus Princeps (Best of Emperors).

Trajan’s cousin and successor Hadrian (117-138) was a restless traveler whose passion for Greek culture and prickly aloofness greatly displeased the Senate. Despite these traits, he administered the empire well. Hadrian reformed the civil service, suppressed a Jewish revolt, and continued the construction of military highways that enabled troops to march quickly towards the walls or palisades marking the empire’s frontiers. The most famous of the emperor’s building projects, known as Hadrian’s Wall, stretched across 117 km (73 mi) of northern England.

Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius (138–161), had a peaceful reign, but the inactivity of the legions during this prolonged peace caused trouble for his successor as they were ill prepared for fighting. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180), who followed his uncle Antoninus Pius to the imperial throne, was a humane and energetic leader, but war dominated his reign. He fought hard against the German tribes who crossed into the empire when a devastating plague weakened Rome’s western provinces. Marcus Aurelius was also a philosopher who followed the ethical principles of Stoicism, which taught that good is determined by the state of the soul. While Marcus Aurelius led Roman forces on the northern frontier, he wrote part of his famous work, Meditations, which included his Stoic reflections on the virtuous life. When he chose his successor, Marcus Aurelius relied on family ties and designated his son Commodus, known for his vicious behavior, as heir to the throne.

Historians have called the five emperors from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius the “good emperors,” and many feel their reigns represented the high point of the Roman Empire. However, during this same time millions of slaves were denied human rights, and women received no political ones. Plague killed one-third of the population of the western provinces, and the Romans executed Christians and drove the Jewish people from their homeland. Nonetheless, the emperors during this period were effective administrators who promoted prosperity, avoided civil war, respected senators, and supported intellectuals and the arts.

Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus (180-192) was a startling change for the Romans after the series of good emperors. The historian Dio Cassius wrote that Commodus, dressed as a gladiator in the arena, once killed an ostrich and held up its head to the senators “to show that he had the same fate in store for us.” Commodus liked to exhibit his strength and found the games more interesting than the business of empire. Commodus survived many attempts on his life, but eventually his wrestling partner strangled him. Soon after his death, the praetorian guard auctioned off the imperial throne to the highest bidder, and the outraged legions began the first civil war in more than a century.

D

The Peoples of the Empire

The Roman Empire was composed of many ethnic groups, who spoke dozens of languages. Celts, Italians, Berbers, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks could all become citizens of the Roman Empire if the emperor chose to grant that status. The term Roman was not an ethnic description but a political one. Rome successfully assimilated many different groups and gradually extended Roman citizenship to conquered peoples. In ad 14 there were about 5 million citizens among the 50 million inhabitants of the empire, and that number grew continually through the 1st and 2nd centuries ad. Citizenship did not include the right to vote except at the local level, but people highly valued the legal and economic privileges of being a citizen.

The Romans insisted that “barbaric” peoples learn Latin before they became citizens, but they freely extended citizenship to Greeks, whom they considered civilized, although they knew no Latin. Three centuries earlier, Roman statesmen like Cato the Elder had scorned Greek culture, but the Roman elite during the empire spoke fluent Greek and directed their contempt toward other eastern peoples, like Jews and Syrians. Greek philosophers, Asian orators, African religious scholars, Syrian satirists, and Saint Paul himself all boasted Roman citizenship, although they all wrote in Greek. It is not easy to generalize about the Roman influence; it can best be seen in the effects of conquest on specific peoples.

D

1

Gaul

The warlike Celts spread from central Europe to northern Italy, Spain, Britain, and Ireland. Since they left no written documents, their history is recorded only by Greek and Roman writers and in archaeological remains. The Romans in the west absorbed the Celts so thoroughly that Celtic languages survive today only where Romanization failed: Ireland, Wales, the highlands of Scotland, and Brittany (or Britanny) in northwest France. The Romans called the Celts of northern Italy and France Gauls, and they became the most Romanized people of the provinces. In the 2nd century bc Rome moved across the Alps into southern Gaul; by 50 bc Julius Caesar completed the conquest of all Gaul, which included all of modern France. Roman roads and cities appeared everywhere, and southern Gaul was so strongly influenced by the Romans that its residents called it “The Province,” and it is today still known as Provence.

The Gauls intermingled with the Romans and adopted Roman traits so quickly that it is difficult to identify which Romans actually had Gallic blood. The poets Catullus and Virgil and the noted historian Livy all came from northern Italy and were possibly Gauls. Southern Gaul produced the historian Tacitus and the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Gallic elite built many amphitheaters, theaters, and temples in the Roman style. Autun, a city of 80,000, boasted a theater that was the fourth largest in the Roman world and held over 30,000 people. The amphitheater at Nîmes still survives and is used as an arena for bullfights.

Conquest by Rome cost the Gauls their freedom and the wild, warlike spirit that once so terrified their enemies. The Gauls first served as auxiliary cavalry for the Roman army and later were made soldiers in the legions. Rebellions in ad 21 and ad 68 were short-lived, and Gaul continued to prosper. As Roman subjects, the Gauls welcomed the art, religion, and literary culture of Italy. They turned their efforts to agriculture, metalwork, and pottery, which decorated and enriched their cities. Imports of Gallic glass, pottery, and wine replaced local production in Italy and brought great wealth to some Gauls. These wealthy merchants and landholders lived in large villas, one of which had 200 rooms. Such villas became self-sufficient communities during the chaos that marked the last years of the empire. The Gauls became Romanized quickly and contributed their energy and spirit to Roman civilization rather than many specific Celtic traditions.

D

2

Spain

The North African city of Carthage had conquered the Celtic peoples of coastal Spain during the 3rd century bc. After Rome defeated the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 202 bc, it made Spain into two provinces. Almost two centuries later Augustus assembled seven legions in Spain to fight against rebels in the mountainous interior and in the Pyrenees. Augustus established new cities with Roman citizens (including retired veterans) and extended citizenship rights to existing cities. Banditry continued in the mountains, but the people of southern and eastern Spain were peaceful and highly urbanized during the two centuries after Augustus. All of Spain accepted the Latin language except the Basques, who lived in remote areas of the Pyrenees.

Peace also brought considerable prosperity to Spain, with its fertile agricultural lands and rich mines. One scholar estimates that 45 million quarts of Spanish olive oil reached Rome every year from ad 15 to ad 255. Spaniards went to Rome, where some served in the Senate or at the imperial court. There was also a Spanish intellectual circle, including the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan. One emperor, Trajan, and possibly another, Hadrian, were born in Spain, although they both traced their ancestry to Italians colonists who had settled in the province.

	More from Encarta
	•  Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be discontinued. Learn more. •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain