Romans – A 1200-Year Overview

Introduction

Roman Britain is constructed during the time when Rome is an Empire ruled by Emperors, and the nature of the Empire and the way it is governed varies significantly during this time, in particular during its first Imperial phase – ‘the Principate’ and the early part of its second phase – ‘the Dominate’. However to understand the nature of the Roman psyche we first need to understand the entity that precedes any of this, namely the Roman Republic, which is what we first interact with, and ‘towards restitution’ of which, all Emperors claimed to be working - particularly when they clearly aren’t!

This is very much a bird’s eye view of the first 1200+ years of the Roman project and, as such, must perforce miss out on a treasury of nuance; hopefully in the future when we concentrate on more specific Romano-British archaeology we can gain closer views of particular periods and people.

Part I: The Republic 750 – 27 BCE

Rome Foundation Myth

The prime myth of Romulus and Remus, although involving in the background divine and kingly origins, is essentially a humble one of abandoned twins, saved and suckled by a she-wolf, and then brought up by shepherds. When the two grow up the two shepherd boys run afoul of their unsuspected connections and they abandon their country and head north to found a new city.

They find a cluster of 7 hills – Romulus wants it to be one hill, the Palatine, and Remus one opposite – the Aventine. The upshot is a quarrel in which Remus is either killed (or, in some tellings, just dies), and Romulus’s city – named Roma after himself – begins on the Palatine.

Eventually the city spreads over all the hills and down into the marshes below, but the Palatine stays the upmarket home of the ruling class, the Patricians, originally a bunch of men supposedly selected by Romulus as ‘the fathers of the city’. For hundreds of years an old hut stands preserved on the hill – said to be Romulus’s. The Aventine remains the downmarket abode of the lowest class, the Plebeians.

The traditional date of this founding varied according to the teller but generally between 753-730 BCE.

The new city soon becomes a centre for many dispossessed men who migrate to it – so essentially it starts as a city of asylum-seekers! Soon Romulus decides they need to find women for all these men, and arranges as massive and somewhat treacherous abduction of women from the neighbouring Sabines and Latins.

He is the first king of Rome and although officially advised by a group of elder patricians – the Senate (it means the elders) he becomes increasingly autocratic – a feature of kings of Rome until the final ruling house – the Tarquins – are overthrown in 509 BCE, the final straw supposedly being the rape of a well respected Roman matron, Lucretia by Tarquin Superbus.

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In reality Rome has been under the hegemony of the Etruscans – forming pretty much the southern tip of Etruria the whole time. Although the Etruscan themselves were not Latin speakers, their cultural influence, particularly with regard to religion, remains present throughout.

The founding myth itself is crystallised in the mid-Republican times hundreds of years later and reflects much of what the Republicans thought of themselves – a people who will be aggressive to neighbours when they feel the necessity, with a sense of having devised their own superior system of governance; a society structured around father figures rather than kings, a deep suspicion of ostentation (like that of kings) – the down-to-earth yeoman family writ large.

The Republic

A new constitution is devised in 509 with many checks and balances, and with much oversight by the Senate. The overall running of the city and its increasing environs is the job of two equal Consuls each appointed by the Senate for a term of one year {though they may be re-appointed in later years}.

It is initially a wholly patrician concern – you need to have held some of the major offices to get into the Senate and you need to be a Patrician to hold major office. There is another class – the Equites (Equestrians, a sort of lower class of aristocracy who had traditionally joined the cavalry); basically entry into its ranks was via a property qualification. As time went on an increasing number of Equestrians would acquire high posts and from thence to the Senate; those that didn’t, tended to do well via trade and industry, agriculture, mining etc. Senators – and Patricians in general – were not supposed to indulge in trade.

For the ordinary citizen – the Plebeians – routes to governance and power were at first non-existent.

However, starting with the aftermath invasion of the Gauls in 390, which the Plebeians see as a failure of defence on the part of the Patricians, over the next couple of centuries things become more inclusive – the Plebeians would occasionally combine and use the strike weapon, with none setting foot across the valley between the Aventine and Palatine, by which they won a number of concessions including having exclusive access to the position of Plebeian Tribune - and such Tribunes could have the power of veto over decisions.

Republican Expansion

The Republic gradually begins to dominate its neighbours within Italy but they are not seen as a force outside its confines for at least 200 years. For many hundreds of years prior to this, the most visible Mediterranean-wide power were the Phoenicians: these were city-states in the Levant, such as Biblos, Tyre, and Sidon, and had traded all round the Med and had then established new offshoot cities along their trade routes – thus Tyre founds a ‘new city’ Carthage, 1500 miles along the North African coast. These offshoot cities were not initially intent on large territorial rule, rather just new cities and trading centres. The Greek pattern was similar in result, with city-states like Athens founding an off-shoot city Syracuse in Sicily, though the reason was more from the Greek idea that the ideal Polis should not exceed a certain size and so looked to found other cities when their own became much larger than this ideal. Such off-shoots were called colonies.

By the 3rd Century BCE the two main powers were Carthage and Greece and they were in conflict in Sicily; Rome was now the major power in central Italy. The Greeks – who had notionally defeated Rome in a battle under the Greek leader Pyrrhus, but so costly was the victory that Pyrrhus knew that

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he “couldn’t afford any more ‘victories’ like that” (hence Pyrrhic victory), and he withdrew. With new respect the Greeks on Sicily ask Rome to help with the Carthaginians: this leads to several huge wars with Carthage. Initially the Romans are totally outclassed at sea and things are not much better on land, and they suffer the ignominy of Hannibal running rampage through Italy for several years. Romans are not too proud to learn from their opponents and this they do so successfully that by the end of the 3rd century BCE, they emerge victorious under the guidance of Scipio, one of the most brilliant generals of Roman history.

Rome is now in possession of significant overseas territories and has to consider their relationship to the people of these areas.

Roman Attitudes to being a good Citizen - ‘Civitas’

The centre of Roman life was ‘the city’. To have your town become a ‘city’ it had to exhibit certain qualities in its populace and certain structures and facilities in its operation. This included a manner of governance and appropriate buildings in which to conduct this; the ability to allow trade and commerce to be conducted safely in designated areas; the provision of decent hygiene – public baths and latrines; proper religious areas/buildings; and, importantly the willingness of the wealthy in funding much of the above. Once Rome was satisfied that a provincial centre of population exhibited all the qualities they demanded of a ‘city’ then it could be granted city status and its people could be viewed as having ‘civitas’ and hence being citizens of itself – and hence of Rome; they were ‘civilised’. Of course such full enfranchisement was only available to adult males – a woman was not a citizen but simply a chattel – the property of first her father, then her husband, and on his death, that of her eldest sons. Thus in theory any adult male plebe had more power than the highest born female patrician, though in practice many of the latter did wield power through their influence on their male patrician relatives. In practice early on Rome is very reluctant to admit that any town west of Italy not run by Romans or Greeks should be considered to have civitas and be granted much in the way of ‘civil’ rights.

For a long time even Rome’s immediate neighbour’s cities in Italy had trouble getting much status – they do get some ‘Latin Rights’, but they are fairly limited, a sort of second-class of citizenship enough to allow some orderly trading and recognition of marriage. This would cause problems culminating in the Social War around 90 BCE, after which all Italy gets citizenship as do some provincial towns demonstrably possessing civitas.

Cities would normally expect to be free of heavy army presence – unless they were in direct trouble, or close to a border with hostile territory, but they would of course all be required to fund the Legions though taxation.

{Once the professional standing army was established, another route to citizenship opened up – serve 25 years in the army and you received citizenship and the right to be set up in a colony [‘colonia’ - usually a town full of veterans], often based around an old fort. Your full service and hence right to citizenship was inscribed on two small leaves of lead – your ‘di-plomba’, or diploma.}

The ideal Republican citizen is a sturdy but unpretentious man, who is a controlling and responsible father to his family (the Pater Familias), who participates in his community and who conducts himself without fuss or ‘show’. There is what might be termed an inverted snobbery attitude towards the manifest splendour of Greek, Egyptian and Persian cities – their opulence and sometimes immodest

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displays, struck the archetypal Republican as decadent. Cato once had a fellow Senator briefly jailed for allowing his wife to wear earrings in public and another was accused of showing off by eating off silver plates at dinner!

Whilst the Romans displayed ambivalent attitudes as to how successfully barbarians such as us would ever really acquire and understand civitas in the true sense, they always allowed that the Greeks understood it before they did. Whilst a true Republican would highly disapprove of some Greek social mores and their indulgence in airy fairy things like philosophy, they felt that the most important aspects of civitas were deeply entrenched in the Greeks. {This is ultimately one of the reasons that at the end of the 3rd Century CE, when Diocletian splits the Empire into an Eastern and a Western half, he makes the Eastern Emperor the senior one, and early in the 4th Century Constantine moves the capital to the east and, within not many generations, the Western half will disintegrate. What we call the ‘fall of the Roman Empire’ is only the fall of the semi-abandoned Western half.}.

The Last 130 Years of the Republic – Aggression, Exploitation, Unrest, Dictators and Warlords

The later stages of the 2nd century saw a great increase in Roman aggressiveness, in particular the destruction of two of the Mediterranean’s great cities, Carthage (which had not been a real threat to Rome for 50 years), and Corinth, a jewel in the Greek crown. This was accompanied by significant intimidation of others and what was in effect a policy of large scale robbery-with-violence’. Lots of wealth flowed back to Rome who began to switch from simple tributes to fleecing other countries by a privatised taxation system known as Tax-Farming {this was directly implemented by ‘Publicani’ who were general civil servants overseeing a variety of tasks – by Biblical times they are known primarily for their hated tax farming – the phrase ‘tax collectors and publicans’ is somewhat tautological and had little to do with tavern owning.}. Long foreign military campaigns by a still mainly citizen army meant that farms were neglected and they got taken over by the large Patrician estates (the ultimate benefactors of the tax-farming). There arose a dispossessed agrarian poor who now flocked to the cities, strengthening a populist faction known as the ‘Populares’ who opposed those representing the mainly Patrician status quo – the ‘Optimates’:- it’s a sort of left and right split – the Populares wanting more power and wealth to the Plebeians and the Optimates wanting to restore/ensure Patrician power. A military hero of the last Punic War, Gracchus, attempted to get land reform but he ends up being battered to death in 133 BCE. The non-Roman citizens of Italy are also not seeing this wealth and still only have ‘Latin Rights’; they revolt in the Social War early in the 1st century BCE, eventually obtaining full civil rights despite not winning the war.

Two generals, Marius (Populares) and his sometime lieutenant, Sulla (Optimates), using their military leverage to outmanoeuvre each other, with fortunes swinging both ways so that sometime Marius is in control of Rome and at other times Sulla. Finally, when apparently outflanked, Sulla wins overall, illegally marches his legions on Rome itself (for the2nd time during the struggles) and ‘persuades the Senate to appoint him Dictator. {At times when the Republic had been under significant stress, in particular during the Punic Wars against Carthage, the Senate gave themselves the ability to appoint someone ‘Dictator’, the idea being that, temporarily (usually only 6 months) freed from the checks and balances of dual consulship etc, he could act more quickly and coherently to cope with the crisis. Obligingly they put no time limit on Sulla’s appointment!}

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Sulla is quite ruthless as Dictator – he would ‘proscribe’ people – which meant that your name went up on a ‘Proscribed’ list and anyone one knew that you could be killed on sight without fear of retribution – thus you either fled Rome or took the consequences, in many instances Sulla would meet out the consequences before you had a chance to flee (an up and coming soldier on Marius’s populares side is one Gaius Julius Caesar). Sulla is able to bring back some semblance of external order, and then – just as a Dictator is supposed to do, he retires. He has, however, set a very dangerous precedent – the overt use of the Army to exert political power – a warlord! It is though a measure of the still strong Republican spirit, that Sulla appreciates that such overwhelming power should never be wielded permanently that once he is retired, a disaffected youth is able to spit at him in the street, without incurring a fatal dose of the wrath of the voluntarily ex- Dictator.

The next major military figure to dominate things is a brilliant young general of Sulla’s, Gnaeus Pompey, who is an Optimate despite coming from non-Patrician stock. As a result of the aggressive policies of expansion the Mediterranean had become a highway for ships laden with wealth making their way to Rome and [as with the Spanish and Portuguese looting 1½ millennia later] this had resulted in vast growth of a Piracy industry. By the 1st century this had become a complete scourge and, after several ineffectual attempts to remove them, Pompey is given the task of ridding the Med of this plague; he ultimately sees them off once and for all. The gratitude of the Senate is such that he becomes a revered statesman at a young age and is known as Pompeius Magnus = Pompey the Great!

Julius Caesar being from a long-standing Patrician family (claiming to be one of the original Patricians of 509) and yet was in the Populares camp, returns to Rome after Sulla dies. He shows himself a very promising young general, popular with both his men and the populace. He is a good friend of one of Sulla’s generals Crassus. Crassus was possibly the richest man in the Republic and acts as both financial backer of Caesar and the glue that allows Pompey and Caesar to work together with him as an unofficial trio effectively running Rome with what is now a populist agenda driven by Caesar. This ‘first Triumvirate’ is formed in 60 BCE and each man takes on a job of Governorship of various Roman provinces.

Caesar is made Proconsul of trans-Alpine Gaul – the longstanding province {essentially Provence} taken over from the Greeks: Proconsuls were an innovation in which people could be appointed for periods significantly exceeding a single year, in this case 5 years, during which they effectively have the devolved power of a Consul. The increased size of the territories – now running from Iberia to the Middle East – has made such decentralisation necessary, but such positions serve to destabilise the power structure of the Republic – which Caesar duly proceeds to demonstrate on a grand scale. He uses unrest in Gaul itself as an excuse to invade it, against the wishes of the Senate. His military genius becomes evident and he eventually takes over all of Gaul to the Channel and the Rhine – producing much bloodshed and a million slaves (all prisoners of war tended to be turned into slaves by Rome). His double foray into Britannia in 55 and 54BCE can be viewed in two lights; as an uncharacteristic failed takeover, or as simply an exercise in boosting those forces in southern Britannia that are in favour of doing business with his Romanised Gaul and reducing the power of those who are fomenting resistance to his project there.

Crassus has take governorship of eastern provinces bordering Persia, currently under the Parthians {Persia is an enemy Rome is never able to conquer and vice versa - Anatolia and the like are often changing hands between the two} and in the conflicts going on there Crassus is killed. Since Crassus

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was the glue that kept Pompey and Caesar together, without him relations finally breakdown and the Triumvirate settlement unravels.

Ultimately Caesar starts another civil war, emulating Sulla by bringing a Legion towards Rome to take ultimate power in 49 BCE {it was a capital offence for a general to exceed his ‘imperium’ – where he is allowed to undertake military activity, and when he crossed the river Rubicon into Italy from cis-Alpine Gaul, this is what Julius does} however, unlike Sulla I don’t think he defies the ultimate ban of crossing the actual boundary of the city itself {the ‘pomoerium’ said to be the boundary ditch dug by Romulus}. Pompey, who by now is very much in Optimate role, attempting to support the Senate, is ultimately defeated by Caesar in Greece and flees to Egypt. Caesar follows only to find that the Pharaoh has decapitated Pompey, and thereupon Caesar falls in with (in several senses) with the Pharaoh’s rival, Cleopatra.

Caesar had long viewed the Republic as being in a somewhat chaotic state and indeed had exploited its organisational weaknesses in becoming rich, popular and militarily supreme, all of which now gave him the chance to try and re-mould the Republic. The Senate give him Dictatorial powers and he attempts a series of reforms. His analysis, borne out by his own exploits, is that the Provinces have become nurseries of military warlords; that the Senate is not providing effective governance; and the Republic is no longer in any sense a unified entity. He sets about a whole series of reforms:- taxation; extending Latin Rights to all territories; land reform; and, in particular, reform of the calendar which had become completely askew from the seasons; he changes from a lunar-based system to a solar one, producing a form we still have today.

In February 44 BCE, as part of his overall project, the Senate declares him Dictator for life. This is too much for many Republicans, since it is effectively restoring the hated concept of Monarchy, and they immediately start planning to assassinate him, which indeed they successfully pull-off a few weeks later, at the feet of the statue of Pompey. It is seen by the Optimates as saving the Republic, but is, in fact, precipitating its demise.

The assassination is seen by many citizens as an attack on the Populares by a bunch of aristocratic Optimates and a new series of civil wars breaks out with Julius’s most able general, Mark Antony, leading the battle against the assassins. Caesar is given an ‘Apotheosis’ – effectively a state funeral in which his body is burnt on a funeral pyre and his soul is seen to ascend to heaven (actually an Eagle released by a slave under the cover of the smoke) so that his now immortal - a God! Temples are quickly built for honouring the Divine Caesar.

Meanwhile an astute young man, Caesar’s nephew and adopted son Octavian Caesar, who shares his analysis, establishes and consolidates considerable political influence. With another general and friend of Julius, Lepidus, Octavian and Mark Antony form a second Triumvirate. After finally defeating Brutus, Cassius et al, they divide the territories between them with Mark Antony having the east, Lepidus North Africa (by now an important source of grain) and Octavian the west. Battles with discontents continue, after one of which Lepidus tries to claim Sicily, and Octavian sends him into exile. Antony, like Caesar before him, falls for Cleopatra, and his embracing of the exotic and opulent eastern lifestyle is an affront to traditional Republican ideals. Also yet more military failures against the Parthians weakens the loyalty of Antony’s soldiers. Yet another civil war ensues in which Octavian is the victor and Antony commits suicide. Octavian, having now inherited Caesar’s wealth

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and having the loyalty of the military and many in the Senate, is in a unique position to attempt to stabilise things.

Part II: The Empire Phase I – The Principate 27 BCE – 284 CE

In 27 BCE Augustus proposes a new Constitutional Settlement – the Principate - with himself as Princeps Civitatis i.e. first citizen of the state – but as he is quick to point out this is only – ‘primus inter pares’, first among equals. He also takes the cognomen ‘Augustus’{Roman names tend to be in three parts – a ‘praenomen’ (your forename which friends &family call you), a nomen (family name), and a cognomen (which can be thought of as an informal descriptor or nick-name and sometimes people just call you by the cognomen)}. Augustus, along with his adopted family name ‘Caesar’ will become titles of rank for later Emperors wishing to emulate him.

His strategy is subtle and cunning – on the one hand he appears to relinquish power, to restore it to the Senate, and indeed to re-establish the full mechanism of Republican governance; on the other he ensures that it is his hands alone that determine how the levers of power get pulled. After four years of wheeler-dealing, and then a health scare, we get a ‘second settlement’ which further enhances his power, and makes some provision for deputising and transition. He also takes the initial title ‘Imperator’ – a long standing military plaudit to any general whom the soldiers believed did a good job in a battle – but in this case it takes on a whole new significance and is where we get the English title ‘Emperor’ from.

Augustus is very careful to show increased respect to the Senators, and is free of pomp and grandeur himself – unlike many Senators he walks to the Senate rather than takes a ‘chair’, he dresses more modestly than most Senators, and often sits quietly at the back, and thanks everyone for their interesting contributions at the end. He urges proper Republican restraint and family values: his own role as Pater Familias to his large family is enshrined in stone in the Ara Pacis monument still visible in Rome (but unfortunately his family fail to live up to the ideal – a bit like John Major’s ‘back to basics’).

Thus is the Empire is born – quietly, surreptitiously, and without ostentation - so much so that several times, when things aren’t going well, the citizenry riot to get the Senate to bring in Augustus to sort it out – not realising he is at the centre of power the whole time. There was little perception that Augustus had turned the glorious Republic back into that much despised state, a Monarchy, – but of course that is just what he had done.

Augustus was horrified by what he saw in war and was anxious to establish what became known as ‘The Pax Romana’ – an Empire-wide haven of safety and the rule of law. He reformed the army; the monetary system (much degraded by then); the legislature; and arranges some devolution of powers; he reforms the welfare system, and he settles tens of thousands of veteran in circumstances where they are well-provided for. {The Ara Pacis is effectively an altar dedicated to the Pax Augustus as the Pax Romana is also called.}

There are also more subtle changes – the Republicans had always seen most territories to the east as basically ‘civilised’, but were highly suspicious of their opulence and grandeur, wanting to ensure their own down-to-earth practicality and the proper gravitas of their father figures would not become

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compromised by decadent siren calls from the east. However the recent large conquests to the West, have brought in an element that appears to have much less civitas and gravitas, and Augustus seems to have felt that a little more openness to eastern grandeur might be an appropriate counterweight to rough Gaulish and Iberian ways. He is a supporter of Virgil’s popularising of the grander view of the founding of Rome by Aeneas, a Prince of Troy. Augustus spends much money on making the city itself grander; “I found Rome in brick and left it in marble!”

Augustus was an ambitious man, who exhibited great ruthlessness and cunning, but he was also a great patriot and over his long ‘reign’ he was able to consolidate his achievements such that they would last, in the East at least, in one form or another, for nearly 1400 years (until the Eastern Empire fell).

The Pax Romana does wonders for expanding trade; merchants can take their goods in safety throughout the empire – roads outside Italy start to be constructed for trade, not just military purposes; the size and openness of cities increases, and the Empire is able to exploit the different efficiencies of production in different areas. Over time agricultural estates will grow large in the production of cash crops, using the cash generated to buy goods which are now in some instances being produced on an industrial scale – e.g. very high quality ceramics are now readily available from the great Samian-ware factories in Gaul. Thus whilst the warlords such as Caesar had increased Rome’s wealth by a sort of external robbery-with-violence, the Pax Romana offers the prospect, in the right hands, of a more enduring internal growth in the economy and an economic interdependence welding together a true ‘Empire’. Unfortunately there will be plenty of hands on the tiller that are not up to the job but when such do arise in the 2nd Century CE, many citizens throughout the Empire will grow to identify themselves with the project as a whole, rather than just having a local view.

Thus the power that comes to occupy Britannia in 43 CE is a very different institution to that which we first encounter with Julius Caesar 90 years before.

The story of this first Principate phase of the Empire – the one that is basically as Augustus conceived it – is one of initially expansion and then reducing aggression with sound economic growth and a sense of unity of purpose across the Empire. It is, however, saddled with a monarchical succession problem that yields Emperors of extremely variable quality and some of these will ultimately run it into profound crisis in the 3rd century CE.

The expansion of territory is at first a tad more muted than in the later stages of the Republic, but quickly gathers pace. The whole Mediterranean coastline is soon within the Empire, with the north-eastern borders often defined by the Rhine and the Danube, the south-eastern by wherever things sit with the Parthians/Persians, and the south to south-western by the fertile coastal strip of North Africa. Here in the north-west, we get, after a mysterious foray to the Channel by Caligula, (who actually did some commendable stuff early on before descending into what may have been mental illness and deciding that he is living God) we get Claudius’s invasion of 43 CE. He was not in any way a military man, and only comes over after the invasion is well underway and stays for just 16 days.

The Julio-Claudian dynasty finished after the 5th Emperor, the highly ‘eccentric’ and now somewhat controversial Nero, commits suicide – well strictly he forces his secretary to plunge in the sword - in 68 CE – ushering in a year of civil war a year in which we get a rapid turnover of Emperors, four in all, finishing with Vespasian who is the first of the Flavian family to rule.

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Vespasian was the first Emperor who’d risen from the Equestrian class reaching the Senatorial via the army and had been a General in the initial invasion of Britain. He sends Agricola to advance the Britannia conquest further. He initiates a fair bit of building – it’s Vespasian who begins the construction of the Coliseum, the largest amphitheatre Rome ever built. The Coliseum was completed by his son Titus, also renowned for his efforts to alleviate the suffering of the victims of the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, but he dies of an illness 2 years later and his brother Domitian takes over.

Domitian expands the Empire – encouraging Agricola to conquer Caledonia; he strengthens borders and the economy but is more totalitarian and dispenses with some of the pretence inherent in the Augustan settlement – but he lacks Augustus’s subtlety and is assassinated in 96 CE by Palace officials and on the same day the Senate appoint a wise and moderate old man Nerva, who’d served every Emperor since Nero – it is the first time they have appointed an Emperor of the Principate.

The Golden Age of the Five Good Emperors

Whilst his reign is not long and is somewhat troubled, he crucially succeeds in re-uniting Senate, Army and people. He had no children and adopted the already successful Trajan as his successor. We are now in a period of nearly a century in which the method of succession is via the sitting Emperor adopting an already successful man to succeed him – this more satisfactory arrangement brings about the golden age of the “Five Good Emperors”.

Despite intruding on some of the few remaining powers of the Senate – Trajan has some of Augustus’ touch, so his autocracy is wielded with ‘moderatio’ rather than ‘contumacia’ (insolence) and he is dubbed “optimus princeps” (the best ruler) by the Senate. He undertakes a large expansion of the Empire, beyond the Danube and in the east as far as the Caspian Sea. Also he ventures into the Parthian strongholds in Mesopotamia down to the Persian Gulf, but battles here were characteristically costly and the territory difficult to hold. His battles are recorded on his magnificent column in Rome. Indeed he was a prolific builder, both in Rome and elsewhere. He makes the tax system fairer and formalises welfare throughout Italy – these latter reforms are effective and are probably due to his wife Pompeia Plotina, a remarkable woman credited with making Rome a generally more tolerant society. All Emperors afterwards will have their appointment greeted by the Senate with “May you be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan!”

The marvellous fellow Spaniard Hadrian is adopted as successor (we almost certainly have Pompeia to thank for this choice) and he decides that Trajan’s conquests have gone too far – there is considerable costs and strain in maintaining their presence in Mesopotamia and well east of the Danube – two complete legions were lost during the later part of Trajan’s reign, including the IX Hispania – the famous lost 9th Legion in north Britain. Hadrian duly decides to withdraw from Mesopotamia, Armenia, Dacia (Romania), and he settles the extent of Britannia by building the Wall. Other permanent fortifications outlined the border on great rivers, the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates etc (his only expansion is on the southern border in North Africa – being mainly with nomad pastoralists this is an easy border to police with just one legion covering 2500km!). This less aggressive attitude is not liked by the Senate, but Hadrian has a wider and longer view – he spends much time travelling throughout the Empire attempting to foster and expand the notion that the Empire is a communal

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enterprise rather than a simple hegemony of the City of Rome. To this end he significantly expands the rights of citizenship and allows any new towns to draw up their own rules of city governance rather than following the letter of the law of Roman civitas. One can argue that Hadrian’s are just the sort of hands that Augustus would be hoping to grasp the tiller of the good ship Pax Romana!

Antoninus Pius is adopted as Hadrian’s successor and benefits from his predecessor’s efforts: his 23-year reign is probably the most peaceful time in all the whole of life of the Empire! One exception is the British Brigantes becoming troublesome; he quells them and then goes on to build the Forth-Clyde Antonine wall as a further control of the northern border. He was a great administrator – helping cities in trouble, and a great builder of useful stuff – aqueducts in particular. He introduced a number of legal reforms – he institutes the concept that one should not be treated as guilty before a trial. He made it easier for slaves to become freedmen. {Whereas agrarian slaves had a very rough time, urban slaves were on the whole better treated – at least the men – and could take on roles such as accountants and doctors considered unfit for a Patrician to perform.} Antoninus’ wife, Faustina, was very keen to promote education for girls! His was the longest reign since Augustus.

Marcus Aurelius, the last of this ‘Golden Age’ of emperors was again adopted for succession. He was a great intellectual and wrote an extremely significant work of Stoic philosophy. He tended to act according to these principles, with a great sense of duty and respect for others. He actually refuses to be Emperor unless his adoptive brother is also Emperor – this is the first time the Empire has two Emperors. He allows more free speech than any other Emperor and is well liked for his ‘civiliter’ – lack of pomp. {He’s the chap played by Alec Guinness in ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’ and by Richard Harris in ‘Gladiator’}.

During this time there arose a growing pressure at the borders. As well as the usual war with the Parthians in Armenia, there was now pressure on the northern borders from Germanic tribes who were suffering from climactic pressures in the Low Countries and then from migratory pressure from further east, as they moved south. This would be a feature from then on – great waves of migratory pressure driven from often form eastern Europe and beyond. Over the next few hundred years, people are squeezed from further east and try in various forms to extend their territory into the Empire itself.

Unfortunately, unlike the previous four Emperors over the previous 80 years who adopted an already successful person as their son and successor, Marcus has a son Commodus whom he anoints as successor. He has few of his father’s qualities and although his father attempts to educate him in proper governance by making him co-Emperor for a couple of years, Commodus, once in sole charge sound becomes a megalomaniac.

Although following Julius Caesar and Augustus many Emperors had been granted an apotheosis by their successors, only Caligula had actually decided he was divine during his lifetime (though sometimes local cults did adopt other current Emperors as divinities most such didn’t take this seriously), now Commodus does the same – sooner or later he was going to be assassinated and with his assassination, we get a rapid turnover of Emperors again – 5 in a year in 193 CE, at the end of which Septimus Severus (the first African born Emperor) takes charge.

Severus was all for expanding the Empire again – with much war and advance in Parthia, and some expansion south in North Africa. Objecting to Severus naming his dubious son Caracalla as successor, Albinus (the man who has the London wall constructed), with the support of British legions, attempts

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to remove Severus, but when he’s defeated (at Lyon), Severus decides to re-organise Britain in Britannia Superior (the south, capital at London) and Britannia Inferior (the north, capital at York) and then to conquer the Caledonians once and for all. With a large force of more than 40,000, they eventually reach the north coast but suffer greatly from the guerrilla tactics adopted by the Caledonian tribes. The Caledonians agree to cede land up to the Antonine wall but then later rebel and Severus re-invades beyond it with the intention of slaughtering all “even a babe in the mother’s womb, if it be male, let it nevertheless not escape destruction”.

However during this he fell ill and withdrew to York (Eboracum) where he died.

Then, bad news again, his son Caracalla becomes Emperor: awful stuff including the murder of his brother Geta on whom he then pronounces a ‘Damnatio’ – effectively an airbrushing wherein any statues and all inscriptions bearing his name, and indeed all reference to him, must be removed throughout the Empire {you can see such a one at Caer Leon}. We then get Macrinus the first Emperor to have remained an Equestrian – never having achieved ministerial rank – however he doesn’t last long, falling foul of the Severan family and, more importantly of the army, who then kill him and emplace a Severan, Elagabolus, as Emperor, also ultimately killed.

The Third Century Crisis

One thing that is clearer than ever before is that by the 3rd Century CE the army holds the keys to power. Post-Hadrian, the various border parts of the Empire have had what amounts to regional armies, settled there for, in some cases, several generations and establishing a regional rather than Empire-wide loyalty and interest {prior to this the army had been very mobile with legions serving tours of duty in a variety of places so no one legion put down any roots and their loyalty was to Rome (which under Hadrian et al had come to mean to the Empire as a whole}.

The growth of the Sassanid Persian Empire produces strong pressure on the Middle Eastern troops and the last of the Severan Emperors, Alexander, spends a lot of time there. However we are also starting to see the beginning of large scale movements of various Germanic tribes, Goths, Vandals, and Alamanni, moving mainly south along a Rhine-Danube direction. They increasingly cross these rivers, coming into conflict with the armies there. During this time there appears to be the withdrawal of many troops from northern Britain to build and man a number of new forts along the south-east coast and a new military title appears – the Count of the Saxon Shore – there are arguments about whether the prime job of whom was to keep Germanic invaders of Britannia at bay, or, what it is more likely, to simply to help reduce the scourge of Saxon and Frankish pirates who were rife along this coast.

After losing many soldiers to the Germanics, the army there is incensed when Alexander comes and simply tries to buy off the Germans instead of punishing them for incursions – and so they kill him.

This assassination in 235 CE can, in retrospect, be seen as the start of a 50-year long crisis which will change the nature of the Empire forever. It is fuelled by severe inflation which starts with Severan attempts to keep the army happy with pay increases, but is compounded by lack of leadership. During the crisis we get 26 Emperors in 50 years – 14 of these are so-called ‘Barracks Emperors’, soldiers who took power using the troops they commanded. It had long been customary for a new Emperor to

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start by making a ‘donative’ – gift of money to the troops; now as each of the 26 new Emperors buys his way in – often with an army pay increase – the inflation becomes very high!

The Augustan settlement of 300 years earlier has evolved with no fully objective guidelines on succession and this has now led to people building their own power bases among the more regionalised army from which to launch campaigns for the Emperorship.

By the middle of the crisis the Empire effectively splits into three – of which Britannia is within the western part, the so-called Gallic Empire set up by Postumus, a Batavian general (the Rhine delta in Holland) who makes the capital at Trier; Rome is in the central part, and the eastern section is centred on Palmyra (ruled by Queen Zenobia). The situation is made worse by a bad plague that hits right in the middle of the crisis.

It is now clear that Augustus’s Pax Romana has been breaking down since the end of the five good Emperors and the crisis moves this breakdown on apace. Trade becomes much more localised, cities are less open and many now construct defensive walls. The great Italian agricultural estates have long since been overtaken in competitiveness by North Africa (then very fertile) and Iberia. With a more local dependence, the need for city dwellers to acquire some land for food increases, and large land-owners establish a sort of serf like relationship for people if they want to use parcels of their land. If there is a time wherein the manner of life of medieval western Europe, with its local ‘manorial’ basis, may be judged to have first taken root, it is surely now, since, despite some major reforms from strong Emperors to come, the Pax Romana is never fully mended.

The crisis is brought to an end by the Emperor Aurelian, who appears to have risen from the ranks of the soldiery to inflict a series of defeats on the ‘Barbarians’ and on the other two ‘empires’ (supposedly bringing Zenobia to Rome in golden chains). He thereby re-unites the Empire, in military terms at least, for which he gets the title “Restutitor Orbis” (Restorer of the World) from a very grateful Senate.

Aurelian realises the need some for more wholehearted bonding and unification and one way he tries to do this is by re-inventing the old sun-god cult of Sol. This new, ‘Sol Invictus’ is meant to be the one being supreme to all and to some extent this has some unifying effect, helped by the identification with the main aspect of the cult of Mithras a long-standing religion of many soldiers. Sol is portrayed with the rays of the sun coming out of his head and his birthday is December 25th (then taken as the date of the winter solstice).

Aurelian instigated a number of reforms, including that of the much debased currency, and was very hot on corruption – but unfortunately this is his undoing; lies are spread that he proposes to punish the Praetorian Guard for supposed corruption, and they get their retaliation in first.

The Empire Phase II – The Dominate 284 - ~480 CE (in the West)

The Diocletion Settlement – the Tetrarchy

After another ten years in which 6 Emperors of varying quality faced conflicts on many fronts, another chap coming up from the ranks is the Emperor Diocletion. He realises that with conflicts possible on so many fronts from Gaul to Syria, the job of Emperor is too large for one man. He is also aware that

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succession is one of the basic roots of the problem and he seeks to establish an unambiguous system for the future.

Basically he now divides the running of the Empire into two parts, East and West. Each will have an Emperor – an Augustus. The succession problem will be solved by each appointing a deputy – a Caesar, who as well as having an administrative role, will become Emperor when the current Augusti retire after their term of office which he defines as 20 years. The two new Emperors will then appoint two new Caesars – and so on. Significantly the Eastern Augustus will be the senior and this is the position he takes for himself. This reflects the long held belief that civitas etc is more deeply engrained in the east than the west. Diocletion shows his view that Rome is now somewhat moribund by making the Western capital Milan! To the citizenry at large the Empire is still united and all depictions of the ‘Tetrarchs’ are to show them as identical.

Diocletian also reorganises Britannia into four instead of two, and it is now just a ‘Diocese’ of the prefect of Gaul at Trier {Diocese were run by ‘Vicars’ (deputies) – in our case the Vicar was based in Londinium – though Eboracum (York) was also a capital.}

Remember that the original Augustan settlement forming the Principate was somewhat subtle and surreptitious? Full lip service was still paid to Republican governance, with the Emperor only making ‘recommendations’ to the appropriate assemblies for specific appointments – and most Emperors pretended to be only ‘primus inter pares’. Well - Diocletion stops all that! He is now the Dominus (Lord and Master) and everything revolves around him or his junior counterpart the western Augustus, Maximian, a general who has great trouble with his own appointee to the Count of the Saxon Shore – Carausius. Diocletian is said to have likened their relationship to Jupiter (Diocletian) and Hercules (Maximian); Jupiter is the planner and commander, Hercules the doer.

In fact the whole change of tone is soon evident in very many aspects of the Empire – statues of the Augusti are much more stylised and less realistic, more Godlike, less ordinary human; architecture in which they will be present is to reflect their supreme importance; the wearing of a crown is now common and Diocletian demands that people be obeisant before him. There are still consuls etc., but direct appointees and often only for 6 months. The coinage of Dominate Emperors will soon sport depictions of the current Emperor helping up a kneeling figure, with the inscription ‘Reparatio Reipub’ - Restoring the Republic - the spin on this ‘restoration’ project has always been in inverse proportion to its truth!

One might argue that Diocletian is launching the Dominate style because he is wishing for total monarchy for himself, but this is probably belied by the fact that after the 20 year term both himself and Maximian do abdicate as planned and in 305 the two Caesars, Constantius and Gallus take over as Augusti, and appoint 2 new Caesars. {Some argue that Diocletian was ill and manipulated into it – but he retires nonetheless}. However at Constantius’s death within a year in Eboracum (here trying yet another Caledonian invasion) his son Constantine gives the news to a gathering of his officers in the Principia – located in what is now the crypt of York Minster - a Saxon officer shouts out “Constantine Augustus” (he wasn’t even Caesar) and the whole thing breaks down. A long series of fights with 4 claimants ensues. After various compromise solutions, attempts to sort things out by taking the advice of the retired Emperors, and many battles, by 312 after defeating Maximium’s son Maxentius at the Milvian bridge near Rome, Constantine becomes undisputed Emperor in the East, and later, after further battling, takes total control of both east and west. That Saxon’s call changes the Western world.

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Constantine the Great

Constantine does many reforms and changes, but two things stand out as being of immense lasting importance:-

Even more than Aurelian, he feels the need of a unifying religion, and feels that Christianity, the religion of his mother Helena, being then the most inclusive of all on offer, offers the best scope for such a project – he had soldiers paint the Chi-rho symbol on their shields at Milvian Bridge and felt this had helped win this crucial battle in 312. His own traditional Roman religion seems to take this on in a syncretistic mix. At Milan in 313 CE he issues an Edict of Toleration of Christianity. He is not happy that there seems to be many forms, so he demands that the leaders agree on one form only, hence the Council of Nicea 325 CE is held to decide which (by this time Constantine is sole ruler of both East and West). The Council adopts the Trinitarian form of Bishop Athanasius, rather than the Arian form (wherein Jesus is created by God rather than co-existing eternally) that indeed Helena his mother holds to. He also wishes the religion to be compatible with the previous one of Sol Invictus, and imagery of Jesus takes on some aspects of this, in particular Jesus’ birthday is now taken to fall on Sol’s, Sol’s iconography of sunrays emerging from the head appears in Christianity , the Sabbath moves Saturday to Sun Day.

Constantine’s unifying-religion project will turn out both a success and a source of trouble. It eventually becomes not just tolerated but the sole State religion and the Christians show no toleration of the other religions – thus all other temples in Britain will be smashed and desecrated during the 4th Century, often with Christian churches being built on top. Continuing waves of immigration are now of peoples who have been previously evangelised by Christians spreading the word beyond the Empire and these are often Arian in nature (the concept is probably more easily grasped than that of the Trinity) and when the Empire tries to forcibly ‘convert’ them we get much trouble.

Constantine is even more convinced of the supremacy of the East and he makes this more overt by the creation of a new ‘Rome’ to be built at the strategically positioned Greek town of Byzantium, and to be called Constantinopolis. His mother helps cement these two projects by making Constantinople a great centre of Christianity, combing the Empire for Holy Relics and placing them in the great churches being rapidly built there. {Constantine drives the building of the ‘New Rome’ at such a huge pace that much of it is jerry-built and soon falls down, having to be built again.}

When the Empire in the West ultimately collapses, this eastern capital will continue to be the centre of the Roman Empire project, with varying fortunes, for another 900 years!

Decline

After Constantine we get a variety of Emperors – with a sort of non-Christian interregnum under Julian – but things continue to worsen generally, particularly in the West. Pressure further increases on the Rhine-Danube borders – with a variety of peoples fleeing from the east – at the back of whom are those phenomenal horse warriors, the Huns. This, and administrative and religious strife, saps the energies of the Empire – most evidently in the West.

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Britain – still seen as the Western fringes, suffers particularly from the various Imperial machinations, and experiences much corruption by the second half of the fourth century such that, in 367, a multi-pronged invasion of Irish from the west, Picts, other Britons north of the Wall, and Saxons from the across the channel, easily overwhelms all Roman opposition. A year of chaos ensues with some unsuccessful attempts by Rome to re-establish order. Eventually a highly competent general, Count Theodosius, sorts the problem and is thereby much lauded in Rome – his son ultimately becoming Emperor. A later commander in Britain, Magnus Maximus (originally part of Theodosius’ landing force) is urged by the troops in Britain to attempt to become Emperor in 382 – he lasts for several years before being assassinated in Italy by one of his own men. British tribes long remember him favourably (they call him Macsen Wledic or Guledic). This reflects a trend with many, including some long-standing ‘barbarian’ immigrants among the Goths and Vandals, who want to see the Empire restored to former glories, and to that end are happy to join attempts at usurpation.

Legions are gradually withdrawn for Britain for an increasing number of firefighting operations nearer to Italy. Within another generation, when Britain comes under pressure again, and asks for help in 410 CE, the then Western Emperor, Honorius, says no – he cannot spare any legions – Britain must fend for itself – effectively Britain’s membership of the Empire is at an end.

The Western empire itself teeters from one crisis after another for a further 70 years before final collapse. Its main long-standing legacy in the west is arguably the Roman Catholic Church – whose form and structure still to some extent reflect its take-over of much Roman Civil Service roles at Constantine’s instigation {nomenclature dating from pre-Christian Republican times still dominates e.g. Diocese, Vicar, Curia, Pontiff, etc., as does a highly Patriarchal culture}.

The role of the later Eastern Emperors is sometimes very relevant to the West – most importantly that of Justinian and Theodora in the 6th century, who re-conquer southern and eastern parts of it, probably ensuring that the West stays Trinitarian despite a large Arian constituency among the Goths and Vandals. The East hangs on to it for around a century until the expansion of the Arab Caliphates puts the Eastern Empire under much pressure and it stops bothering with the West.

J S Wykes 8/10/2015

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