The Roman Empire (60 BCE – 160 CE)

General Summary

By 47 BCE Caesar had won the civil war against Pompei, and soon became dictator,

planning a major reconstruction of republican government. He was assassinated in 44,

however, by a conspiracy of senators acting to save the Republic. Marcus Antonius then

stepped forward as major claimant to power, while the Senate coalesced around Octavian,

an heir listed in Caesar's will. After indecisive battles, the two put off final conflict in a

second triumvirate, including Lepidus. Finally, the former two broke, and in 30 BCE,

Octavian defeated Mark Antony at Actium. In the next twenty years, Octavian (now

named Augustus) created the Principate, a new form of Roman government giving

increased powers to a non-elective Princeps who would evolve into Emperor by the mid-

first century CE.

Tiberius took over as Princeps in 14 CE, having established a solid military reputation in

the Rhine area. His rule was characterized by increasingly withdrawn and autocratic

power. His successor, Caligula, went quickly insane, prompting the Praetorian Guard to

murder him and proclaim Claudius Emperor in 41 CE. Less glamorous than his

predecessors, Claudius did contribute to increased regularization of imperial

administration, and enfranchised new elements into the roman elite, such as equestrians

and some Gaulic chieftains. He in turn was succeeded by Nero in 55, who, after five good

years, rapidly declined into a murderous depravity. After executing some of the Empire's

best generals and senators, he committed suicide in 69, while four generals were in open

revolt, and Judaea was in arms against imperial control. Germanic tribes were also acting

up.

After Nero, four claimants to power emerged. Vespasianus (r. 69-79), the commander in

Judaea, emerged as victor from this Year of the Four Emperors. He established the

Flavian dynasty, represented by his sons Titus (80-81) and Domitian (r. 81-96). A more

sober administration emerged, bringing more equestrians into service, with the Emperors

themselves not originating in Rome. Conflicts with Germanic tribes such as the Quadi

and Marcomanni indicated the future difficulties, while Dacian marauding in the Danube

region provided opportunities for Roman conquest, realized under Nerva (96-98) and

Trajan (98-117).

The most popular Roman Emperor after Augustus, Trajan also engaged in eastern

conquests against Parthia, yet died before the troubled regions could be adequately

secured. His successor, Hadrian (117-138), abandoned Parthian expansion, yet

maintained gains in Dacia and Moesia, allowing the gradual process of Romanization and

Latinization to begin. In his attempts to administratively regularize all regions in the

Empire and rationalize Italy's judicial districts, he incurred the resentment of Italian

elites, and died unpopular, for this as well as for his lack of conquest. The reign of

Antoninus Pius (138-161) showed Rome entirely at peace and with great wealth, though

the economy remained under-developed and extractive. All the while, German tribes had

been migrating west and congesting the Danubian and Rhine border areas.

From the 160s, the Emperor Marcus Aurelias was forced to deal with Marcomanni,

Sarmatian, and Quadi incursions across the Rhine and Danube in numbers never seen

before. Though ultimately able to beat them back, the campaigns increased in cost, made

field generals more popular and restive, and were a sign of looming problems.

Context

The study of Roman imperial history--which in practical terms began from the 60s BCE--

presents the modern reader with certain paradigmatic issues relevant to governments

and societies today. In broadest terms, the persistent dilemma was how to modify

government structures and ethos as state and society expanded geographically and

demographically. The republican ideal of Rome had somewhat made sense in a time

when the state was little more than the preeminent city in a Mediterranean peninsular

area, and needed to ensure its own survival and domination of surrounding locales. By

the middle of the final century BCE, however, Rome had become the center of a multi-

continent empire stretching from Spain to Iraq. Thus, one can present the continuing

civil unrest from 80 to 30 BCE as the inability of an expanded city government to cope

with the needs of an empire's administration.

Part of these needs consisted of large armies far from home. In such cases, powerful

generals could emerge, and after Marius' military reforms of the 90s BCE, the soldiers in

these legions became dependent upon generals for material survival. In turn, soldiers and

veterans strengthened military leaders' political power as a pay-off. As the ensuing half-

century showed, the Senate could not thwart a powerful general with charisma and a

mass base of political support. Also lacking in a city government weighted down with

imperial responsibilities was an efficient Empire-wide civil service and economic

administration. Roman fiscal exactions and provincial administration often were, or at

least appeared, erratic or irrational. A common pattern of Roman governance involved

Rome responding ineffectually at first to a local disturbance, which grew to such extents

that Rome had to invest large human and material assets to bring a resolution to a crisis

that better administration would have prevented. Of course, Roman statesmen had long

thought about reforms in their state and its relations to surrounding areas--Tiberius

Gracchus had innovated new agrarian laws and moved toward increased political

enfranchisement; Marius had reformed the army after disasters around 100 BCE; Sulla

achieved undisputed power as Dictator and used it to reform the senatorial and

equestrian orders; while Caesar, again as a Dictator--now perpetual-- enacted reforms in

the court system and in the administration of the provinces, as well as in the settlement of

military veterans and in the increased granting of Roman and Latin citizenship to regions

near the capital. Still and all, though, the inauguration of the Principate under Octavian

Augustus was a totally new departure, and while his predecessors considered themselves

to be reforming for the sake of the republic's survival, Augustus' new dispensation set the

state on an entirely new course of political relations and dynamics. Indeed, though

Augustus himself may not have even conceived it as such, the republic was superseded by

his successors in favor of outright Empire with an authoritarian, if not autocratic, ruler.

This exposes another paradigmatic dilemma of the Roman Empire still relevant today.

The excesses of Tiberius were irksome to the senatorial aristocracy, and there was some

conspiracies against him. Still, imperial administration was passably good under him.

The insanity of Caligula and later Nero, however, brought the state to the brink of civil

war and anarchy. This meant that a persistent problem of the imperial period was in the

growing personal rule of the sovereign. Too much relied on the wisdom and fitness of the

ruler. Part of this was due to the close Emperor-military relationship. The military was

always growing, and it depended entirely upon the Emperor. Conversely, an Emperor

without military support was in peril. So, the personality of rule was continually

problematic, and only at the end of the first century, when a truly professional civil

service emerged, was the person of the Emperor somewhat less important. Still, checks

and balances--a clear intent of republican period arrangements--were lacking, to the state

and society's detriment.

In terms of the society, social enfranchisement, and elite circulation, the imperial era

from 40 BCE to 161 CE was a dynamic period. While Rome-based patrician families

dominated Roman society at the beginning through control of the Senate and urban

wealth, from the 40s BCE, starting with measures under Caesar and picking up speed in

the 40s and 80s CE, bourgeoisie and wealthier elements from the regions of Italy and

certain provinces such as southern Gaul and Iberia began to enter the elite arena. Many

of them were of equestrian origin: knights-turned-businessmen with financial interests in

the capital. By the early part of the first century, growing numbers of this new class were

being enrolled in the Senate on the Princeps' initiative. By the time of Vespasianus (70

CE), emperors could emerge from that class. Thus, an enfranchisement of people beyond

Rome's gates was well under way.

Another part of the evolution in Rome, especially beginning in Claudius' time (40s CE),

involved the tribal elements from Gaul and other eastern areas. Sometimes with imperial

support, they were allowed to run for positions of middling elite power, and over

generations, they too--be it from Gaul, along the Rhine, or the Greek parts--could ascend

to senatorial rank. Of course, certain emperor's use of freedmen in administration also

aided this process.

Also in ethnic terms, the end of the era described in this SparkNote, under Marcus

Aurelias in particular, brings Rome face to face with what would become its most

enduring, insurmountable challenge: the German Barbarians. From the time of Augustus,

Rome had seen the German tribes as a military threat, source of labor, and a reservoir of

auxiliary military forces. Some elements of Germanic society were, by the end of the

second century, entering the Roman world, learning Latin, and becoming partially

Romanized. Of course, areas near the Danube, conquered in phases throughout the

period, became thoroughly Romanized by the third century, providing the majority of the

Empire's generals, and several emperors.

In the midst of all these political, military, and social issues of relevance to our era was

the economic situation. Rome was one of the ancient worlds' wealthiest cities, with the

largest population. Its government could count on the material basis to undertake almost

any initiative. This strength, however, was in some respects illusory. Based on tribute

from provinces as well as booty from war, the Roman economy was still ancient,

primitive, and strikingly unproductive, non-innovative, and underdeveloped for the

resources at the state elite's disposal. The continuing, unresolved question was how to

achieve sustainable development, as opposed to mere extractive growth and exploitation

of the imperial margins. Rome never came to a satisfactory answer, and this failure would

have tremendous consequences in the period just after the 160s CE, when the Roman

glue would begin to weaken.

Thus, in almost every aspect, Roman history from 50 BCE to 161 CE illustrates those

challenges characteristic of governance and societal order in all the relatively advanced

states that followed it, in the early modern and modern centuries in particular. Hence its

enduring popularity and didactic value, and hence those qualities that so dramatically set

it off from the medieval morass that was to follow it.

Important Terms, People, and Events

Terms

equites - Knights-turned middling entrepreneurs from the provincial Italian towns

with economic interests in Rome. Cultivated by Emperors as a counterweight in the

imperial administration to senators, who saw them as a distinct class. Were co-opted into

Senate, over time replacing most patricians.

Proconsul - Post given to consuls after their year of tenure. Was a provincial military

leadership assignment, its appointment came into hands of emperors as early as

Augustus.

Praetorian Prefect - Head of the Praetorian Guard, the palace guard of the Emperor

and his possessions. Became king-makers at times of socio-political instability. An

Augustinian innovation.

Alimenta - Nerva's loans to small agriculturalists, the proceeds of which went to help

the fisci of Italian and Gaulic towns. Continued by Trajan.

Aelia Capitolina - Trajan's idea to rebuild and repopulate Palestine with a non-

Jewish, Roman capital.

Latifundia - Middle to large estates in Italy and southern Gaul. Material basis for

patrician-equestrian wealth and city-growth.

Names

Sextus Pompei - Consul in 70s BCE, procunsul thereafter. Toured through, Near East

reorganizing provinces there. Was in First Triumvirate with Caesar, before the they broke

ranks and became chief antagonists until 46 BCE, when Caesar triumphed at Munda.

Caesar - Consul, then procunsul in 60s-50s When denied power by the Senate, crossed

the Rubicon with his loyal forces and wrested power in Rome. Established the

Triumvirate with Sextus Pompei, then the two split and became bitter rivals for power.

Built a faction around himself and soon defeated Pompei, after which he took power in

Rome and enacted major reforms of the Senate, settlement, etc. Assassinated by the

Senate, which feared he was destroying the Republic, on March 15, 44 BCE.

Marcus Antonius - A lieutenant of Caesar, saw self as his heir. After Second

Triumvirate of 43-33, in which he shared power with Octavian, the two came into open

conflict. Allied with Cleopatra, but was finally defeated in 30 BCE.

Lepidus - Second Triumvirate member. Retired soon after troops defected to Octavian.

Octavian - Nephew of Caesar, adopted by him before latter's death, and listed as heir in

will. Fought Mark Antony, eventually establishing undisputed, unchallenged rule over

Rome and inaugurating the Principate. Ruled 30 BCE to 14 CE.

Agrippa - Comrade-in-arms, friend, and adviser to Octavian. His generalship assured

Octavian's victories, helped in the urban infrastructure of Rome, and assured the success

of the Rhine campaigns. Died before he could become Emperor.

Augustus - 'Bringer of Increase'; an epithet of the gods given to Octavian by the Senate

in the 20s BCE.

Tiberius - Ruled 14-38 BCE. Strong general under Augustus, passed over as heir

several times. Disliked by Senate for detached, reclusive, at times vicious behavior.

Marcomanni - Germanic tribe in the Rhine area, active from the first century CE.

Varrus - Roman legate sent to quiet the Marcomanni in 7 CE. Was defeated in

Teutoburgian forest in what became a massacre.

Sejanus - Companion to Tiberius, he engineered excessive treason trials and nepotism

in Rome while the Emperor was living on Capri. May have conspired against Emperor.

Tiberius had him murdered in 31 CE.

Caligula - Gaius, 'little boots', son of Augustus' adopted heir Germanicus. Became

Emperor in 38, soon descended into insanity and Hellenistic addictions. Murdered in 41

by Praetorian Guard.

Claudius - Son of Augustus, passed over several times, disliked for physical infirmities.

Became Emperor upon Caligula's death and ruled from 40 – 54 CE. Was administratively

and military successful--conquered Britain--but disliked by Rome elite. Died 54 CE.

Nero - Adopted son of Claudius, and was son of Agrippina the Younger. Early years of

his rule (55-61) went well, then quickly descended into a vicious madness reminiscent of

Caligula; became uninterested in army or administration, obsessed only with Greek

Hellenism. Killed several generals and wives, committed suicide in 69 CE.

Vespasianus - Equestrian background general in Judaea who rose in 69, eventually

fought off other military claimants to the throne, and became emperor from 69-79 CE,

establishing the Flavian dynasty, of which Trajan was a member.

Plautinus - Generla from Claudius' era, conquered Britain for Empire in 44 CE.

Paulinus - General of Claudius who conquered Mauretenia and annexed it for Rome.

Burrus - One of Nero's early tutors during the good years.

Seneca - Roman scholar and early tutor of Nero. Killed by him in terrors.

Corbulo - Sucessfull Roman general in East. Summoned by Nero to Rome and ordered

to commit suicide, which he did, in 66 CE.

Gessius Florus - Roman procurator in Judaea when Jewish Revolt began in 68 CE.

Eventually became the imperial legate after the war.

Galba - Spanish governor revolting in 68-69, during Year of Four Emperors. From

ancient senatorial family, he was accepted in Rome, but had insufficient forces to beat off

other claimants. Was killed in 69.

Otho - One-time crony of Nero who bribed the Praetorian Guard to raise him as

Emperor in 69 CE. Was defeated by Vitellus in 69 CE.

Vitellus - One of four claimants to the throne in 69 CE. Defeated Otho, though

ultimately defeated by Vespasian.

Titus - Vespasian's son and successor, both in command of Palestine and, ultimately,

the Principate. Ruled 79-81 CE.

Quadi - Germanic tribe in Rhine-Danube area.

Domitian - Second son of Vespasian. Unpopular ruler, but not ineffective. Murdered

96 CE.

Dacians - People of Transylvania, possessing organized, fortified kingdom. Harassed

sub- Danubian Roman lands beginning in Domitian's time. Trajan finally burst through

into their lands and annexed the region, leading to its Latinization.

Nerva - Place-holder Emperor after Domitian. Known for Alimenta and adoption of

Trajan as heir.

Chosroes - Parthian king excessively friendly with Armenia, thus encouraging Trajan

to invade Parthian lands from 113.

Trajan - Roman Emperor, 98-117. Most popular emperor after Augustus. Expanded

Roman lands into Danube area and east. Under his rule, Rome had good government and

finances. He treated the Senate well.

Hadrian - Ruled 117-138. Not popular, in that was not an agressive emperor externally,

and seemed to hint at demotion of Italy's status domestically. Faced and put down

another Jewish revolt in Palestine.

Antoninus Pius - Ruled 138-161. His reign was extremely uneventful internally, with

external peace and wealth. Germans start to become restive. Rome's peak of power.

Events

Munda - Last Caesar-Pompei era civil war battle. Caesar defeats Pompei in 46 BCE.

Ides of March - Actually refers the middle of the month; the ides of March simple

means March 15. Made famous because on March, 15 44 BCE, Caesar was murdered by a

group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius. The Senators feared he was becoming a

monarch, and killed Caesar to save the Republic.

Actium - Final Octavian-Marcus Antonius battle, 30 BCE. Mark Antony loses naval

battel as his squadrons and Cleopatra abandon him.

Teutoburgian Forest - Site of Varrus' defeat and massacre of Roman legion by

Germanic Barbarians in 7 CE. Only military disaster of Augustus' reign; ended his plans

to conquer up to Elbe.

Piso's Conspiracy - Conspiracy of several Senators and Roman elites to unseat Nero

and install the senator Piso in 64-65. It failed and all conspirators were murdered,

leading to new trials and terrors.

Bedricum I - Battle between Otho and Vitellus at Cremona in 69 CE. Backed only by

the Praetorian Guard, Otho was outnumbered and defeated.

Bedricum II - Battle between Antonius Primus and Vitellus at Cremona later in 69.

Fighting on Vespasian's behalf, Primus defeated Vitellus when the latter's officers

defected.

Timeline

44 BCE: Caesar defeats Pompeians at Munda Renewed as dictator, then as

dictator for life. Assassinated March 15.

41-33: Second Triumvirate among Mark Antony, Lepidus, Octavian Antony's

Parthian campaigns

33-30: Mark Antony--Octavian Civil War Octavian victorious at Actium, 30.

27 BCE - 14 CE: Augustus' (Octavian's) rule Principate est., 27 and 23. Advances

along Rhine, renewed political stability.

14 CE - 38: Tiberius' rule Growing autocracy, secluded rule, judicial terrors.

38--41: Caligula's rule Caligula becomes increasingly insane, murdered by Praetorians

41-54: Claudius Administrative advances, frictions with Senate, conquest of Britain and

Mauretania

54-68: Nero Good rule at first, then insanity; dynastic intrigues, Rome burns,

Christians persecuted, Jewish Revolt begins.

69: Year of Four Emperors Legions revolt, turn on selves and state, Vespasian wins.

79-96: Titus and Domitian Jewish Revolt ended, increased autocracy, friction with

Senate. Domitian murdered.

96-98: Nerva Alimenta, adoption of Trajan as heir.

98-117: Trajan Rome at peak of power, prestige. Parthian and Dacian campaigns.

117-138: Hadrian Retrenchment in Parthia, lack of foreign adventures, resentment of

Italy and Senate and being 'demoted'.

138-161: Antoninus Pius Rome at peak of power, wealth, peace.

161-180: Rule of Marcus Aurelius

162-165: War Against Parthia Victories at Dura Europa, Ctesiphon.

165-180s: Plague in Roman Lands

From Republic to Dictatorship: Caesar to Octavian (50--30

BCE)

Summary

The Pompei-Caesar civil war was violent on a scale not previously experienced by Rome.

It was bad for the Ancient Mediterranean world in general. The war disrupted its

agricultural bases and was economically wasteful, in addition to bringing political

uncertainty, as the petty potentates in client relations to Rome were not sure with whom

to adhere, since they were uncertain who would be victorious. Additionally, much life was

lost, with the elite of Rome and the outlying Italian cities being prominently represented

among the victims. In 47 BCE, Caesar returned from the East, and was publicly pardoned

by the Senate. Pompeii's supporters renewed the Senate with their own numbers, after

which Caesar left to confront North African rebels under Q. Metullus Scipio. Arriving in

the winter of 47-46, he only had half an army, and waited until the spring before

destroying the Pompeiian-supported rebels at Thapsus. His forces massacred the rebels.

The Rome Senate then accorded him the power of Dictator for ten years, allowing him as

well a four-fold triumph: victories over the last ten years were celebrated, including Gaul,

Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. Just after this he defeated a further rebellion under Pompei's

son, Sextus Pompei, in Iberia at Munda. This was the last civil war battle in Caesar's time.

His status as Dictator provided him commands of the army and provinces; financial

control, foreign policy decisions, as well as tribunal veto power over judicial decisions and

legislation. Basically, he had the untouchable power to run government. In 47 BCE he

renewed the Senate, raising its numbers to 900, appointing great numbers of his

supporters. These included Italian town equites, certain freedmen, and ex-centurions.

Caesar also promulgated several points of practical legislation: 1) He changed the

calendar, reforming it into the Julian calendar; 2) he permitted the urban tribunes to

attack street gangs. Collegia were made illegal, but exempted Jews due to their assistance

to him when he was in Alexandria; 3) in urban courts, the jury was divided equally

between equites and senators; 4) he began to break the barriers in the relations between

Rome and the provinces. Caesar was liberal with grants of Roman citizenship, bestowing

it of Cisalpine Gaul, the provincial urban centers, as well as certain individuals, and

elevated other provincial cities to Latin citizen rights status. It was the first wholesale

extension of citizenship. As well, he began appointing outsiders to the Senate; 5) He

planned Caesarian colonies, or the roots of cities in less Romanized areas such as

Southern Gaul, Iberia, Africa, and Asia Minor. In 44 BCE there were 35 legions under

arms. Caesar proposed to settle de-mobilized soldiers and veterans in these cities as well

as Rome's urban unemployed; 6) Caesar tried to change the method of provincial tribute.

It had been based on tithe in kind, but he wanted to shift it to a fixed land tax.

In 44 BCE, Caesar relied on his senatorial supporters to elect him Dictator for Life—

dictator perpetuus. He went on to plan an attack on Parthia, the Persian state in the far

eastern reaches of Roman territories. However, on March 15, 44—the Ides of March—

sixty senators conspired to murder him, on the steps of the Senate House named for

Pompei. Cassius, along with the scholarly, philosophical M. Brutus, were the titular

ringleaders of a group including some older senators who had opposed Caesar all along,

as well as some of his erstwhile supporters who objected to his deprivation of certain

Rome aristocrats of jobs, as well as his growing autocracy. While the conspirators fled

Rome, and later Italy, Caesar's party—the factio—was now left in confusion. One of them,

the competent general Marcus Antonius who was Consul in 44, came to temporary

leadership of the group, declaring an amnesty to the conspirators. He also declared that

Caesar's legislative initiatives would stand.

At Caesar's death, the first thing Mark Antony did was to go to Caesar's residence, take all

the material wealth he could, as well as his will. Another prominent member of Caesar's

factio was M. Aemilius Lepidus, who was about to become governor of Narbonnese Gaul

and brought his seven legions to Rome in order to subdue the capital if need be. Mark

Antony restrained him, and started to move towards predominance. There was one other

player, however. Caesar's will had (allegedly) listed C. Octavian as heir to his personal

fortune and social position. Octavian's grandfather had married a sister of Caesar;

Octavian was thus Caesar's grand nephew. At the age of eighteen, he had (somewhat

unusually) just passed from equestrian to senatorial rank. He was currently out of Italy,

doing military training, and returned to Rome as soon as he heard of Caesar's death,

changing his name to C. Julius Caesar Octavianus. Passing through Italy, he had begun to

collect supporters among veterans from Caesar's legions. He immediately found that

Mark Antony had depleted Caesar's personal as well as state funds. Octavian still needed

an army. He prevailed upon the Senate to provide him with the proconsular command in

Cisalpine Gaul; however Decimus Brutus--related to the co-conspirator--was already on

the ground there. It was around this time that the orator-politician returned to Rome and

delivered his series of addresses entitled the Philippics, in which he repeatedly

condemned Mark Antony as an aspiring despot. At this time those senators who had

supported the assassination allied with Octavian as a brake on growing tyranny, granting

him the propraetorship in Cisalpine Gaul, along with two legions. Around this time, D.

Brutus defeated the besieging Mark Antony at Mutina. In this, D. Brutus was assisted by

Octavian, who had linked up with Senate-dispatched relief forces. M. Antony was forced

to retreat to Italy, yet ultimately, his forces overpowered those of Brutus. At this point,

Octavian began to break with the Senate. The latter gave fellow conspirators M. Brutus

and Cassius proconsulships in Macedonia and Syria, respectively. The also Senate did not

appropriate the funds for Octavian to pay his soldiers. In July 43, Octavian forced the

issue by demanding one of the vacant consulships. The Senate refused, giving him the

praetorship instead. Octavian then marched on Rome with eight legions. Through

cultivating the masses—plebs—and raising a veteran-based army, as well as through the

support of military friends such as M.V. Agrippa and C. Maecenas, he was able to

engineer his election as consul. At this point, Lepidus declared for Antony, and senatorial

control of the western provinces collapsed. Octavian then rescinded the amnesty for

Caesar's murderers, and hastened to attempt an agreement with Antony and Lepidus.

The three met in Bononia (near Barcelona) and negotiated the Second Triumvirate. Later

written into law at Rome through the tribune Titius, it was a three-man dictatorship able

to pass laws, appoint all higher magistrates, conscript limitless numbers of soldiers, tax

the populace, and prosecute military actions. This lex Titia has been called the definitive

end of the Roman Republic. The triumvirs then launched the proscriptions against the

anti-Faction camp. 300 senators and 2,000 equites were massacred judicially, including

Cicero. Their properties were confiscated, to pay off soldiers and factio supporters.

The next challenge for the Second Triumvirate were Cassius and Brutus. By 43, the two

had taken over all of Asia Minor as well as other Eastern provinces, and had gotten the

allegiances of lesser potentates, such as Cleopatra and were moving into Macedonia.

Antony and Octavian combined forces and met their opponents at Philippi. In the first

battle, Octavian was initially bested by Brutus, but Antony's troop defeated Cassius, who

then committed suicide. Two weeks later, the factio ended all hopes of the conspirators,

by defeating Brutus, who took his own life as well. The victors went on the divide Roman

lands between them. Earlier, Lepidus and M. Antony had received most of Gaul and

Spain, while Octavian was awarded Italian Islands and Africa, with Italy being shared.

After Philippi, however, Antony seemed ascendant. He received most regions, while

Lepidus was about of favor. To Octavian fell the duty of settling about 100,000 soldiers of

the conspirators; disbanded legions in Italy and southern Gaul, while Mark Antony went

off to discover glory in the East by fighting Parthia. In settling his troops during 42-41,

Octavian incurred the displeasure of Italian aristocrats whose lands were taken. M.

Antony's brother L. Antonius, as well as Mark's wife Fulvia galvanized armed opposition

to Octavian, with Mark's support. Octavian and his colleague Agrippa defeated them at

Perusia, with the aide of troops from Gaul, who saw him as Caesar's heir. in de facto

terms, Octavian had thus taken control of the western Roman regions.

At this point (40 BCE) Antony returned from desultory and costly wars in the East.

Octavian's commander at Brundisium refused him entry into Italy. At this point,

Octavian's ally C.C. Maecenas interceded to produce a new triumviral understanding.

Antony kept control of eastern provinces, while ceding Spain, Gaul, and Illycricum to

Octavian. Lepidus received Africa. The deal was sealed when Octavian's sister, Octavia,

married Mark Antony. Shortly after, a problem emerged in Italy. Sextus Pompei

controlled Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, with a small republican army and a fleet. He

acted as a pirate, disrupting trade and communication for the populations of the

mainland. In 39, he stepped up his campaign, at which time Octavian decided to destroy

him. He had no fleet though, and received one from Mark Antony on condition that he

subsequently transfer four of his legions to the East. Under Agrippa's command,

Octavian's forces finally defeated Sextus at Naulochus. His twenty-three legions

surrendered to Lepidus, who then requested Octavian's evacuation of the area. OCtavian

refused, whereupon Sextus' old forces transferred their allegiance to Octavian, out of war

weariness. At this point, Octavian had the most forces and least liabilities of the three

triumvirate members. Lepidus retired peacefully. For the next five years (38-33),

Octavian remained mostly in the West, as the restorer of peace to the Roman world. Mark

Antony was still off in the East campaigning.

These eastern campaigns proved M. Antony's undoing as they distracted him from Italy,

weakened his forces, and made him ultimately appear a political and cultural turncoat.

This was at the same time that Octavian was acting as the restorer of Rome, fighting

Italian and southern Gaul brigands, engaging in urban renovation programs, etc. A major

spoiler here was Cleopatra, the erstwhile lover of Caesar. After his death, she had

returned to Egypt and assumed the crown. When M. Antony was in the East in 40, he had

called on her to explain her actions; they had become lovers and she bore him two

children. Shortly thereafter, the Parthians invaded Syria, advancing through Asia Minor

as well as into Judaea. Parthinii invasions also began in Macedonia. These Antony drove

back, and after Naulochus, he returned east, inviting Cleopatra to stay with him and

repudiating Octavian's sister. He drove the Parthians out of the eastern territories,

rearranged Asia Minor's provinces, and installed Herod as Judaea's king. In 36 he

undertook an offensive against the Parthians. At Phraaspia he sustained initial victories,

but his Armenian auxiliaries deserted, and the Parthians attacked his siege and baggage

train, which Antony lost, along with 20,000 soldiers. A retreat was necessary. The defeat

was a big blow. Antony was politically and financially weakened, with a depleted military.

He also became more financially and emotionally dependent on Cleopatra, who had

borne him a third son. In the donations of Alexandria, he named this son, Ptolemy

Caesar, as the heir to Caesar's position. War between Octavian and M. Antony was now

imminent.

In 33, the triumvirate came to a legal end. For the next year, Mark and Octavian engaged

in mutual slander, with Mark seeming less roman all the time. The real break came in 32.

By this time both contenders had blocs of supporters in the Senate. When Octavian came

to address the Senate one day, 300 Antony supporters fled to the East, to join their

leader. With these, Mark formed a government in exile in Asia Minor, and raised a thirty-

legion army as well as a 500-ship fleet. In retaliation, Octavian released what he claimed

was Mark's will. In it, Mark indicated that he intended to move the state's capital to

Alexandria, and that he intended to be buried next to Cleopatra--the Queen of kings. This

put him on treasonous ground, so Octavian could present himself as a savior of the

Republic. Italian towns passed 'spontaneous' resolutions of support for Octavian, while

the latter laid a 25% income tax to support his large forces. The final battle was in 31.

Antony's forces were in Greece, and went south to the bay of Anbracia. While Octavian

followed these units south, Mark's fleet went to Actium, where Agrippa blockaded Mark's

forces. Then, all engagement stopped for two weeks. Mark finally decided on a naval

battle. He divided his fleet into four squadrons, himself commanding the right flank.

While he fought well, the other two dropped back, and the fourth, under Cleopatra's

command, simply fled. Mark was defeated, with his ground forces surrendering two

weeks later. Meanwhile, Mark and Cleopatra had fled for Egypt, and Octavian followed in

30. While the latter was in pursuit, Mark heard that Cleopatra had killed herself, so chose

suicide, but ended up dying in Cleopatra's arms, as she had not tried to take her own life.

When Octavian arrived in Egypt, he had Ptolemy Caesar killed, thereby extinguishing the

Ptolemaic dynasty. Egypt was made Octavian's personal property and annexed to the

Roman Empire. Arriving in Rome, Octavian was acclaimed with a triple triumph, after

which he reduced the Roman army from sixty to twenty-eight legions. Veterans were

accorded lands in over thirty colonies, the land for which was bought rather than

expropriated. Antony's (living) supporters were given an amnesty.

Commentary

The first question that has to be asked is why did Caesar win the civil war with Pompei?

Most basically, he was the better general of the two. His army was better and faster,

allowing him always to be on the offensive, and allowing him in turn to always provide his

(retiring) soldiers with the material bases for survival. In the post-Marius era, a general's

ability to support his current and retired soldiers was paramount in determining his own

survivability. As well, Caesar demonstrated repeatedly his ability to provide clemency to

erstwhile opponents, and was thus able to a gather more supporters to his banners.

Therefore, through growing army power, increasing finances, and patronage, Caesar

ascended to the rank of the most powerful Roman warlord and obtained powerful

supporters, made up of a coalition of some senators, growing numbers of mounted and

wealthy equities from provincial Italian municipalities, as well as foot-soldiers and elites

fro regions where his own reputation was based, such as Gaul. All the while, he could

count on the support of centurions and veterans. While they made him great, he looked

after them, and al these groups came together into the factio--Caesar's faction. Caesar

was also unusual, in that he combined being a good general with great political and

legislative skills, as well as excellent rhetorical capabilities.

Next, we must ask why he was killed. While the individual conspirators may have had

individual, opportunist motives, in general terms, the assassins all felt they were acting to

preserve the republic from growing tyranny and dictatorship of an individual who had

made his writ stick by dint of armed force. Of course, Caesar's senatorial expansion had

represented an attack on the exclusivity of the legislative body and its reduction to a

rubber stamp. This greatly offended senatorial aristocracies going back hundreds of

years. The irony here, though, is that from the days of Sulla, all had seen their own

actions in the context of republic-restoration, not recognizing that a government suited to

running the affairs of a large city-state was totally inadequate to the needs of a multi-

continent empire with a changing socio-economic complexion.

In the same way, the second triumvirate could not last. After Caesar had put forward the

model of one man ruling all, no one was likely to be interested in prolonged power

sharing. More concretely at least between Octavian and Mark Antony, tension pervaded

their relations. Mark Antony perceived himself as the true heir with the proper

experience, and viewed Octavian as an inexperienced neophyte. Indeed, on the surface,

the latter was hampered from the start. He was quite young, and had no military

reputation or demonstrable martial skills. He also went on to only muddle through in

these matters. Further, he was financially strapped from the very beginning of the

contest, thanks to Mark Antony, and ran the risk of becoming the Senate aristocracy's

creature in their ostensible quest to preserve the republic. Still, Octavian had the

legitimacy of Caesar's will on his side, as well as a growing body of senators who saw

Mark Antony as the preeminent threat to the republican order. These latter Octavian was

well able to manipulate, just as he cultivate the masses and provincial equities in a way

beyond Mark Antony's capacity.

Thus, trust was conspicuously absent from these two triumvir's relations. Preeminence

was needed, and it was assumed to be obtainable through war. In this, Mark Antony had

more lucrative enemies, but also faced more costly and more enervating campaigns.

Conversely, Octavian perceived that it was now possible to obtain a good reputation

without engaging in far-flung campaigns. People in Otaly and other parts of the Roman

core were sick of war, and needed the reestablishment of law and order for human and

material survival. Octavian held himself out as able to provide all this, as his settlement of

ex-soldiers shows. Thus in addition to the conflict of two individuals, what emerged was

the conflict of two political programs, Mark Antony's based on the old rules of power

politics, and Octavian's resting on new concepts. With critical mass tending in Octavian's

favor, it would have required superb generalship for Mark Antony to prevail, and he was

caught short here, even though Octavian was not an exceptional commander and had to

rely on allies such as Agrippa. It is important to remember, though, that while what was

at stake was the recasting of Rome politically and somewhat sociologically, it is highly

likely that none of the major protagonists had any idea that they were on the cusp of an

historical hinge, and were all ostensibly fighting for the restoration of the republic as they

conceived it. None of the leaders, by 30, were looking beyond the situation at hand.

A brief note should be made of Antony's Cleopatran diversions. First, Italian Romans

were in no way at the point of tolerating anything hinting at a demotion in status in

comparison to another region of the state. Second, Egypt under Cleopatra appeared to

most Romans as an odd melding of Pharaonic and Hellenic, with none of the positive

attributes of republican government and society. Third, and perhaps most directly

resonant at the time, though Romans were soon to live under monarchs in all but name,

citizens of the republic had a deep, chronic distaste for kings. This was what Egypt had,

and what Mark Antony was purported by Octavian's propagandists to have in store for

Rome.

The Early Principate: Augustus and Tiberius (30 BCE--37 CE)

Summary

After winning the post-Caesar civil war, Octavian wanted to assure the Roman aristocracy

and masses of the return of normalcy, meaning peace and republican procedure in rule.

He began with gestures in this direction. Octavian disbanded the majority of the

mobilized war-era legions, annulled illegal orders, and declared an amnesty for most

civil-war actors, with the exception of Mark Antony's chief lieutenants at Actium.

Reversing a Caesarian measure, Octavian also reduced the Senate in two phases, from

1000 to 800, and then finally to 600, endearing the older Rome aristocracy in the

process. In 28 BCE Octavian and his friend Agrippa were joint consuls. For the first time

in twenty years, the consuls stayed at home and engaged in no major military campaigns.

AS well, they conducted a census, for the first time in seventy years. All this was in an

effort to restore popular confidence in the mechanisms of state; the initial success of

these measures is indicated in the rise in interest rates, reflecting an increase in liquid

capital. The major question remaining, however, pertained to the means of governance in

the post- Sulla and post-Caesar era.

The answer to the question of government was the Principate, which emerged in the two

'settlements' of 27 and 23 BCE. Until 27, there was an annual consulship, which Octavian

always occupied. On January 13 of that year, He publicly resigned all of his provinces and

powers in front of the Senate, to which he restored these prerogatives. The senators

protested, whereupon Octavian agreed to undertake the government of the large

provinces--the Gauls, Iberia and Syria. The remaining regions would be administered by

a Senatorial proconsul. At the same time, the Senate continued to nominate Octavian as

consul, and voted that he be given a new name--Augustus. An epithet of the gods, it

means 'increase', or 'fiver of increase'. Legally, his title was 'Princeps'--the first citizen,

and the Principate was the rule of the first citizen. Key to remember is that Octavian-

Augustus stage-managed this process through the large numbers of senators who were

his allies and owed their status to him.

The second 'settlement' came in 23. Augustus began by relinquishing his annual,

repeating consulship, an office that was somewhat offensive to the traditional senatorial

aristocracy. More importantly, though, the Senate changed the nature of Augustus'

imperium. Usually, a proconsul's imperium lapsed when he crossed the Pomerium into

the core Roman lands, which were to be directly administered by the Senate. Now,

Augustus was allowed to keep his imperium wherever he was. In addition, his imperium

was augmented to maius imperium, superceding that of all others in the state. Part of this

involved his receipt of tribunicia potestas, the power of a tribune to introduce legislation

into the Senate, as well as to veto administrative legislation and certain categories of

senatorial actions. Thus, while the form of republican life was restored and guaranteed by

Augustus, his individual steering power was unassailable.

With these powers Augustus undertook to reorganize the civil and military

administration. Along with cutting down the size of the Senate, processes of admittance

were regulated to require certain financial worth, a military career, as well as attestations

to a candidate's good character. The class of equites was also reorganized. Though

previously excluded from government service, this was now changed. Under Augustus,

when an equestrian finished his military service, he could now enter government as a

procurator, which was a financial agent of the Princeps, present in all Augustinian

provinces, as well in the senatorial regions containing Augustus' financial interests. Those

equites who distinguished themselves would retain the position for years, providing a

career civil service. The best equites- procurators could rise higher, either to govern key

provinces such as Egypt or Judaea, or to the prefecture (command) of the fleet, the watch,

the corn supply, or the prestigious Palace Guard known as the Praetorian Guard. While

this was beneficial for equites as a group, there was a second benefit: as the ex- military

financial elites of Italian towns often with economic interests in Rome, their earlier

support for Octavian now paid off. They could aspire to long-term administrative careers,

and some were appointed to the senatorial order by the Princeps, even attaining the

consulship. In this period the Senate began to be drawn from a wider socio-political

circle, and the distinction between Rome and other Italian towns began to recede. There

were similar opportunities for senators, from among whom the Princeps obtained his

legates, some of whom led legions, and the best of whom would govern Augustus' own

provinces. All theses administrative changes provided the manpower for an expanded

bureaucracy and civil service. Mentioned above, Augustus created boards, or

administrative departments. Agrippa had always had an interest in water, and had begun

building aqueducts with his slave force in Rome. When he died in 12 BCE, his 240

hydraulic engineer slaves were formed into the water department under an equestrian

prefect. Also, Augustus established a board to prevent the Tiber from flooding. A highway

board was instituted in 20 BCE, controlled nominally by the Senate, which funded it

along with the towns connected into the system. Later, a grain board in 6 CE was

instituted to assure regular supplies to the capital, just as a fire department with six

cohorts of 1000 slaves each was set up according to fire districts under equestrian

prefects, known as vigilum. Continuing the administrative expansion, a Roman postal

service emerged in Italy at least through which the towns maintained relays of horses and

messengers to ensure speedy communication.

As regards the military, Augustus' major reform involved creating a standing army, as

opposed to earlier forces which were supposedly disbanded at the end of campaigns and

could become politically unstable. Augustus set up twenty-eight legions, each with 5,500

men. These legions were organized into ten cohorts, each one further subdivided into six

units under centurions. Furthermore, the legions became permanent formations, with

names, numbers, regimental banners, and fixed bases; a real esprit de corps and fighting

tradition emerged. All the regular soldiers had to be Roman citizens, and served for

twenty years, for 225 denarii a year. On retirement, they received money or land

equivalent to 3,000 denarii. Most senior centurions would retire to the equestrian order.

Augustus also created a retirement fund for the forces, based upon sales taxes and death

duties. This broke the financial connection between (retired) soldiers and roman

generals. Now, the forces depended financially upon the Princeps. The army also

acquired a new elite--the Praetorian Guard. Their primary responsibility was to guard the

person and property of the Princeps himself, and to engage in campaigns to which he

would direct them. There were nine praetorian cohorts, each containing 1,000 men. They

served for sixteen years, were paid 730 denarii a year, and were commanded by

equestrian prefects. 3,000 of these camped just outside Rome. Thus, all the regular

standing Roman forces amounted to 500,000 men. In addition there were the auxiliaries,

recruits from the less civilized parts of the Empire. Not born as Romans, they camped

adjacent to the Legions, were commanded by their own nobles, and on retirement, a

portion obtained Roman citizenship. These auxiliaries provided a large proportion of

imperial forces, and were well integrated into the professional army. Still, Augustus'

measures did not increase the size of the military. In reality, a de-militarization of the

ancient world took place, as there had been sixty Octavian legions before 30 BCE.

Finally, Augustus continued his role as a super proconsul through concern with the

provinces and frontiers. He (and Agrippa) toured the provinces repeatedly, examining

them, conducting censuses, and reorganizing their tribute to Rome. It was now

standardized into 1) a land tax and 2) a head tax on non-agricultural wealth. He also built

roads and founded Roman towns in these areas. On the level of foreign affairs, relations

with Parthia were concerning. In 22 BCE they thought a Roman attack was imminent;

instead, he went west and founded new towns, after which he repeated the process on

Greece and Asia Minor. Impressed, the Parthians then sent negotiators to Augustus. The

emerging settlement determined that the Euphrates was the boundary between the two

states, and that Armenia would be a Roman client state. Returning the Rome in 19 BCE,

Augustus also worried about the northern provinces and the Barbarians beyond their

borders. In 17-16, Agrippa had conquered the Canteberrians, then moved on to organize

northern Gaul into three provinces, including a new road system. In 16, Augustus toured

the area and applied the same divisions to Iberia. From 25-9 BCE, Roman arms were

used in the Alpine-Danube area as well. Between 25- 17, Roman generals conquered the

northern and Western Alpine passes, previously harassed by Etruscan tribes. In 15,

Augustus' stepsons Tiberius and Drusus took their forces from Gaul to the Alpine-

Danubian region, taking all lands west of the Danube by 13. In 13, Agrippa was active in

Pannonia--eastern Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Austria. When the latter died in 12 BCE,

Tiberius took over the campaigns, carrying all by 9, at which point the frontier of Rome

reached the Danube River. This led over time to the Romanization of the Balkans. In

Germany, there was a serious effort to push the frontier beyond the Rhine to the Elbe, to

correct the defensive difficulties of the Danube-Rhine angle. Drusus began in 12 BCE, but

in spite of successful sweeps, the lack of towns and rulers to capture made all

accomplishments ephemeral. Drusus died in 9 BCE, and Tiberius assumed

responsibilities here too by 4 CE. Around this time the Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni

arrived in the region under the chief Marobaduus. In 5 CE, Tiberius led armies as far east

as the Elbe River, and his fleet explored Jutland. In 6, he planned to conquer the

Marcomanni by bringing converging legions from bohemia and the Danube. Things

bogged down in Bohemia, though, as The recently subdued Pannonian and Dalmatian

tribes revolted, requiring Tiberius to fight his way to the staging point at Sermium, along

the way exhausting his tactical reserve. The revolt was only put down in 9 CE. The

Germans between the Rhine and Elbe had observed this, and though they had not

become restive at the outset, a leader named Cherusi, who had served as a Roman

auxiliary, was planning to revolt as well. Augustus' legate in the region was Quinctillius

Varrus. He had been a succesful legate in Syria, but did not understand the local tribal

and political dynamics in the German borderlands. In the fall of 6 CE he took three

legions to the Rhine. While in the Teutoburgian forest, the Germans ambushed him,

nearly decimating his forces. Varrus committed suicide, and a large portion of Rhineland

and Elbe-area Germany was lost to the Empire. It was the one military disaster for

Augustus, and he gave up the idea of taking the German woods. Though he sent Tiberius

back tot he Rhine area to show that Rome was not cowed, this river became the limit of

the Roman frontier. The area was divided into two provinces, each receiving four legions,

and auxiliary arrangements with Germans on or near the border began to emerge.

Though an energetic administrator and leader, Augustus suffered from nearly chronic ill-

health. Thus, succession remained a worry that never left him. Out-and-out familial

succession would shatter the political balance of the Principate, so he wanted to show-

manage it. His original hope had been for his comrade and colleague Agrippa to succeed

him as Princeps, and then the latter's children would succeed to the position. When

Agrippa died at the age of fifty- one in 12 BCE at the height of his power, though, plans

had to be reconsidered. Augustus then had to turn to Livia's sons. Livia was his wife, and

had been given to him by her first husband T. Claudius Nero. Augustus had gone on to

adopt her sons, Tiberius Drusus, as his own. Tiberius was an able general and good

administrator, but totally without popular charisma. Drusus was also able, and had

panache, yet he died in 9 BCE. Tiberius had been married to Agrippa's widow Julia, so

that he could attain Agrippa's position. This did not work; the two did not get along, and

Tiberius preferred his first wife Vispania, the daughter of Agrippa. Another problem was

that Augustus' longevity allowed a third generation to emerge--the grandsons Gaius and

Lucullus. Augustus began to groom these two for succession to the Principate, and

Tiberius reacted by a self-imposed exile on Rhodes for seven years at the turn of the

Common Era. In 2 and 4, though, Gaius and Lucullus died prematurely, so that Augustus

returned his favor to Tiberius. The former formally adopted the latter as son just before

the Pannonian revolt, where Tiberius saved the day for the Romans. In 13 CE, Augustus

engineered the Senate's accordance to Tiberius of maius imperium, so that in 14 CE when

Augustus died, Tiberius was able to ascend to the Principate through a senatorial

ceremony, where he received al of his adoptive father's powers.

Fifty-five years old at the time of his ascent, Tiberius was quite experienced as a general,

politician, and administrator. After years of military campaigns to expand the frontiers,

he was not interested in further war, and there were no big expeditions during his reign

(14-37 CE). Provincial government was increasingly professional and regular, and the

army was well maintained. Tiberius was hobbled, however, by a poor public personality.

He was cold and aloof, as were Claudians in general. As well his sharp intellect and

cryptic speech alienated many. Additionally, he was fiscally conservative, so there were

fewer shows, spectacles, or manifestations of imperial generosity--the Rome mob liked

him les than they had Augustus. As had been for the latter, Tiberius' major concern was

the succession, as he was already relatively advanced in age. He had a grown son--

Drusus, as well as a younger option, Germanicus. Germanicus was a rising general, and

was sent into the German woods yearly between 14-17 for flashy though unsubstantial

campaigns, to bolster the Roman reputation in the region. In 17 he was recalled to Rome,

as Tiberius did not want further conquest in the region. Germanicus received a triumph

and maius imperium in all the East, hinting at his position as heir apparent. War loomed

with Parthia, but through negotiation, Germanicus averted the crisis and gained new

lands for Rome. At this point, brashness led to his downfall. On his return from the

Euphrates, Germanicus visited the Principate province of Egypt without permission,

where he got into an argument with the Syrian commissioner Piso. Germanicus ordered

the latter to leave the area, but the former died shortly thereafter. His wife Agrippina

brought the family to Rome and had a large funeral, which Tiberius did not attend,

leading some to believe him responsible for Germanicus' death. Piso was soon convicted,

and committed suicide. This whole episode left disquiet and resentment within the

imperial family. Worse, it deprived Tiberius of a capable heir, and when his favorite

Drusus died in 23, no direct male heir remained.

Distraught at Drusus and Germanicus' death, and tired of a career going back to the 20s

BCE, Tiberius semi-retired to Capri in 27. He did this on the advice of Sejanus, an

administrator upon whom the Princeps had come to rely closely, and whom he made

Praetorian Prefect in the mid-20s. During this period, it was increasingly difficult to

maintain the illusion of the Princeps as solely first citizen of the Republic, as the Senate

was reduced to awaiting the mail from Capri before it could make any major decisions. At

the same time, Sejanus used Tiberius' absence to aggrandize his own position,

eliminating several opponents through treason trials. In 31, Tiberius' sister-in-law

Antonia informed the semi-retired ruler of Sejanus' depredations and usurpations, and

later in the year, a Tiberian letter to the Senate denounced Sejanus as a traitor. The latter

was tried and convicted by the Senate. He was then executed, his name further blackened

by his widow's assertion that he had seduced Drusus' wife and planned his death.

Tiberius became increasingly autocratic, eliminating perceived threats to his position

through treason trials and executions, targeting mostly Sejanus' allies. Tiberius died in

37, at the age of 78.

Commentary

As alluded to above, in 29 BCE, the big question was two-fold: 1) Could Octavian restore a

normalcy that had been lacking at least from the 80s BCE? while his enemies were dead,

so was the republic, and the roman government had not worked properly since the time

of the Gracchi. Thus 2) Could a bloody ex-triumvir sovle an insoluble constitutional

problem, so that the sense of restored stability would not prove ephemeral? The chief

problem facing Octavian was how and whether to rule. The government had not worked

since Marius. Powerful proconsuls had routinely turned their armies on Rome, just as

had Octavian. The latter had two models: Sulla, who had tried to rewrite the constitution,

and Caesar, who had become a perpetual dictator. Niether approach had worked. The

roman aristocracy had no original political ideas--for them the solution was the republic

which had been failing for over half a century. In essence, the Roman republican

government was inadequate to the needs of an empire. It was amateurish and nothing

more than an expanded city government. Provincial administration in particular was

outrageously limited and shoddy, with the need for dangerous proconsuls built into the

provincial system. Still, this was the only approach the Senate could suggest, and their

new-found confidence after 30 BCE was misplaced.

Miraculously, the ancient world got a break, and peace was sustained. Octavian, soon to

be Augustus, was indeed good at politics, and created the Principate, an entirely new

approach to government. It was somewhat disorienting to Romans, and was designed to

be so, and to gradually confuse them away from older notions of rule. It was a truly sui

generus institution for its era--the Principate was like nothing else, not admitting of

comparative terms in its description. Adding to its intrisically confusing nature was its

gradual imposition-- it was created over time, with many of the most significant aspects

of it either done behind closed doors or in such a manner permitting a creeping role

expansion of the Princeps into Emperor.

Of course, one could have argued at the time that the republic had simply been re-

established more strongly than ever before. In theory, Augustus was no more than a

powerful magistrate, among consuls and proconsuls. He himself was consul each year--

along with titularly equal colleagues--and had a large province to administer. After the

second settlement of 23 BCE his maius imperium, and tribunicia potestas were the bases

of his legal authority, and they had republican precedents of sorts, only now they were

pushed farther, to contribute to an Augustan Auctoritas that was as sui generus as was

the Principate, and that made him the most powerful Roman alive, with the greatest

personal authority and legitimacy. The republic was seemingly reestablished: annual

elections for the consulship were seriously contested, while Augustus' power was

magisterial, deriving from the masses in good republican tradition, and he consulted with

the Senate. There was no sign of tyranny, and it appeared that he let the Principate run

without interfering.

Some have seen his rule as a diarchy, whereby he divided power between himself and the

Senate. Was this the case? Examples of this idea would be that there were two treasuries-

-the aerarium, for the Senate, and the fiscus, for Augustus. Similarly, there were two

mints, one for the Senate, and one for Augustus, at Luqdunum (Lyons). More

fundamentally, though, it was not a diarchy: Augustus divided up the work, but not the

real power. For example, while the senatorial mint made copper and bronze coins, only

Augustus' mint crafted gold coins, so essential to the Empire's fiscal system. Also, while

the aerarium received most provincial moneys, the fiscus at times was able to come to its

aid. Indeed, diarchy did not characterize the division of provinces. The senate did control

Africa, Illyria, and Macedonia, but in addition to his private provinces such as Africa,

Gaul, etc., Augustus controlled twenty legions, as opposed to senatorial eight at most.

Indeed, like Caesar, Pompei, and Sulla, Augustus' power was based on control of the

army. Monopolizing it, he made it impossible for a rival proconsul to emerge. And it was

these who had caused all the provincial troubles in the past

Formally, Augustus' power was exercised through employing and restricting magistrates.

As it turned out, however, he did not have to exercise his legal powers actively--most

senators were his friends, just as Augustus arranged politics and all the important

decisions. It is likely that all proconsuls, the army commanders, were ones vetted or

suggested by him, and given his Auctoritas, the Roman aristocracy was disinclined to

provoke him. Increasing their disinclination was the fact that the Princeps maintained

the republican offices, so that the senatorial aristocracy could keep their political careers.

Indeed, rather than driving them out of politics, Augustus made it a game reserve for

Roman elites.

There was one more side to the Principate. It was also different from the republican

methods in essence, in that Roman politics and administration became more organized.

The senatorial order for one became increasingly regulated. In the past it had been based

on inheritance. Now, candidates required a certain amount of military service, one

million cisterces, and 'good character'. As well, all political careers were arranged into a

regular sequence with age specifications and service requirements. This was done for

equities as well: they required free birth, 400,000 cisterces, military service, and 'good

character'. Equestrian regulation was done in an effort to widen the opportunities of

peasants and centurions for socio-political mobility.

Caligula and Claudius (37-54): The Pitfalls and Regularization

of Personal Rule

Summary

Tiberius was left with no male heir in the years directly before his death. He therefore

took Germanicus' son Gaius into his palace and cultivated the youth. Upon Tiberius'

death in 37, the Praetorian Prefect Macro, an acquaintance and ally of Gaius, proclaimed

the latter as Princeps, and the Senate ratified the choice. Gaius was better known as

Caligula, meaning 'little boots'. He had been taken by his father Germanicus on his

several German campaigns, and had been equipped with miniature roman centurion's

uniform, complete with little boots. Hence the nickname, which stuck. His rule begins the

Julio-Claudian dynasty, all of whose members were descended by blood from Augustus

(related himself to Julius Caesar), or to the latter's third wife Livia (previously married to

T. Claudius Nero). Caligula began his rule well: he stopped the rash of treason trials,

recalled political exiles, gave shows for the Roman populace, and brought his uncle

Claudia, despised son of Antonia, into the political arena. In October of 37, though,

Caligula became nearly fatally ill, and when he recovered, became a pathological monster.

In order for the Principate to function well, cooperation with the Senate was necessary.

Caligula was not interested. He beat one consul over the head with a chair, and

threatened to install as senator Incitatus--his horse. Offending the Rome aristocracy even

more, he dressed as the gods in public, and even engaged in the games himself, as

charioteer, gladiator, and singer. He proceeded to build a temple to his own divinity and

engage in incest with his sister Drusilla. In 39, there was a conspiracy against him in the

Rhine area legions. He killed the conspirators and then led the army into battle over the

Rhine. Though the campaigns were marginally successful, those 'captured' Germans

present at his triumph were in actuality Romans in disguise. Caligula then spent the

winter in Gaul, readying his forces to cross over to Britain for a conquest. When they

arrived to the channel in the summer, however, the legions were ordered simply to collect

seashells.

This insanity was topped off by his most self-destructive craziness. Judaea had been a

client kingdom since Pompei. Herod had been the last important king there. A Hellenized

Jewish convert from Transjordan, Herod had been a friend of the Romans, and built

great structures all over the kingdom. He had died in 4 BCE, dividing up the realm among

his three sons, giving the core Judaean lands to his son Archilaus. Archilaus' rule was so

poor and impious that the Jews petitioned Augustus to annex the area. In 6 CE Judaea

was thus made a Roman province, ruled by an imperial procurature from Caesaria, a non-

Jewish town. Back in Caesar's time, the Jews of Alexandria had supported him, so the

dictator had accorded them certain privileges: they had religious freedom and could keep

the Sabbath; they were not liable for military service; the taxes that went to the Temple in

Jerusalem would not be diverted to the state fisc; and in Judaea itself, Roman coins

would not contain the Emperor's likeness, out of respect to the Jewish ban on graven

images. In the same vein, Jews were not required to participate in the imperial cult

(deification). Here, Caligula erred. Alexandrian Greeks had resented the Jews'

exemptions, and demanded that Caligula's statue be emplaced in the Jews' Temple in

Jerusalem. Riots broke out in support of this in Alexandria, and Caligula, who was

engaged in propagating his own divinity in any event, took over the notion, and

commanded that his likeness--tantamount to an idol--be put in the Temple. Herod

Agrippa, one of Herod's descendants, told him he was crazy, but Caligula commanded the

Syrian governor to comply. The latter stalled, upon which Caligula threatened to kill him.

In the event, the stature never arrived, because in 41 Caligula was assassinated by an

officer of the Praetorian Guard whom the emperor had offended.

With no obvious successor, a political vacuum emerged. In chaotic circumstances, the

Senate met to decide the fate of the Empire. There was talk of return to a dual consul

republic, and some thought to choose the Princeps. In the meantime, Praetorian Guard

members had discovered Claudius, Germanicus' younger brother, cowering behind a

curtain in the palace. Taking him to the Praetorian camp, the Guard recognized him as

emperor, with financial inducement. Though the Senate balked at first, Herod Agrippa

interceded and negotiated senatorial recognition of the new Princeps.

Claudia was at first glance an unlikely choice, and was not viewed as suitable by the

Roman elites. He was already fifty, had no administrative or military career, and suffered

from physical defects such as weak legs and a lolling head. His mother had hated him and

the rest of his family had not considered him Princeps material. Still, he was not without

merits. Augustus had seen he was smart, and had spent late nights talking to him over

drinks. Claudius was also an historian. He had written about Carthage, and he had also

produced a forty- one-volume history of Augustus. Thus, he knew all about the Empire,

its history, and how to administrate it. He was interested in governmental efficiency.

Given this inclination and his deformities, it was no wonder that the Senate disliked him.

Though he was not hostile to it as a body, he did revive the sensor to eliminate bad

senators from the ranks, and abolished a number of senatorial offices duplicating

imperial ones. He also installed larger numbers of equestrian procurators in senatorial

provinces, reducing financial powers of senatorial quaestors. At times he interfered with

proconsular appointments, and wrested control of the aerarium, the main Roman

treasury. Thus, while all of this contributed to a greater administrative and policy

efficiency, it incurred aristocratic ire as it dimmed the Senate's power.

Claudius proceeded to create a thoroughgoing Roman bureaucracy. While Augustus had

been responsible for administrative changes, his rule had been exceedingly personal. The

Princeps had himself to manage all matters, yet by the 40s and 50s, the amount of

administrative matters was becoming too much for one person to handle. Claudius thus

founded secretariats with Roman freedmen as their staff: 1) Narcissus handled imperial

correspondence; 2) Palas oversaw finances; 3) Callistus handled petitions and judicial

matters, while 4) Polybius' duties are unclear to us. Each of these was a quasi-minister

with miniature ministries, and the secretaries themselves became rich and powerful,

wielding influence over the Princeps himself. At the same time, the secretariats' existence

aggravated Claudius-Senate relations. An additional role Claudius undertook regarded

public works. A new harbor at Ostia was built, just as was constructed a Roman road from

the Adriatic to the Danube. He also cared for the provinces, using the imperial

procurators to monitor the (senatorial) quaestors.

On the domestic front, Claudius exhibited a liberal citizenship policy, expanding trends

begun under Augustus. 1) He gave Latin citizenship to whole tribes in the Alps and Gaul.

2) He accorded Roman citizenship to growing numbers of native chiefs. Some chiefs in

Gaul already had gained Roman citizenship, and now proposed to run for the office of

quaestor, a senatorial- level position of usually financial investigative powers. This was

legal given their newly acquired citizen status, but bound to incur senatorial ire. During

an address to the Senate, however, Claudius indicated that the greatness of Rome lay in

its acceptance of foreign elements. This forced the Senate to open the way to Gallic chief

candidacy for quaestor and the senatorial position that would follow it, and Claudius used

his control over the censors to assure their election.

In foreign policy, Claudius reverted to Augustus' policy of military expansion. He was

served well by highly competent generals, such as Corbulo, Vespasianus, Plautinus, and

Paulinus. He began with Mauretania in North Africa. Caligula had invited the native king

to Rome, and when he arrived, ordered him to commit suicide. When the king did so,

Mauretania revolted, and Claudius inherited the disturbance. In 41-42, Paulinus was sent

there. Crossing the Sahara, he repressed the revolt, and Claudius annexed the region as

an imperial province. Britain was next. It was a Celtic land, ruled by kings, one being

Cunobelinus. He had a large kingdom in the west with his capital at Camuldunom. The

region was not totally Barbarian, as it had a coin- based economy and trade relations with

Gaul. Still, Claudius wanted it, and so sent Plautinus to ready the troops on the coast in

43. In 44, Roman troops crossed into Britain, defeating the two sons and heirs of

Cunobelinus. Plautinus then waited at the Thames until Claudoius arrived, at which point

Roman arms captured the capital. Claudius received a triumph, renamed the area

Britannia, and named his son Britannicus. Plautinus then proceeded to reduce southern,

central, and eastern England to submission.

Claudius' demise was unfortunate. His final two wives were the reason. He had Messelina

killed after she publicly married her lover, who probably had plans to kill him in

preparation for a joint usurpation. Pallas then suggested he marry Agrippina the

Younger, daughter of Germanicus. He did this, and proceeded to adopt her ambitious son

Nero. She then proceeded to kill several relatives that could prevent Nero's (and her)

assent to power. Finally in 54 CE, Claudius sat down to a meal of mushrooms prepared by

his new wife, and was dead the next day. Murder is quite likely. Upon this, the Praetorian

Prefect named Nero as Princeps, and the Senate agreed.

Commentary

Augustus was probably the most important figure in Rome's history from 30 BCE to 100

CE. In essence he solved the problem of how to govern Rome, and the Principate gave the

Empire a lasting place in history. As well, the army was professionalized, and the solid

beginnings of a professional civil service emerged by the 20s CE. Militarily, though the

Teutoburgian Forest Massacre had been a disaster and Augustus forsook the notion of

conquest to the Elbe, it is difficult to fault him for shortsightedness or strategic mistakes.

There appeared in Roman terms nothing to be gained from conquest there. Also, the

German lands were so politically and socially disorganized as well as backwards that they

did not yet threaten Gaul. Police actions seemed to suffice in this regard, whereas full-

scale conquest was quite difficult. Pushing back the frontier to the Danube, though, gave

the urban civilization of the Mediterranean basin--the core of the Empire--a new security,

while cultural changes began in the older tribal areas along the two rivers--the Balkans at

least were to become Latinized, in some areas thoroughly. Finally, Augustus is attractive

because he got better as he went along, and progressed from a bloody triumvir to a

responsible governor, becoming the pater patria--father of the country.

Still, succession proved problematic, in that while Augustus could maintain in his person

an ad hoc collection of supreme powers based on his Auctoritas, no one who followed

him would possess his social power and esteem--he was peerless. In theory, though,

Tiberius' accession could have been flawless. He was an able general and administrator,

with years of experience of seeing Augustus make the Principate work. He was also not

without reputation. From the start though, problems emerged. Perhaps he was less than

gracious in his relations with the Senate, etc. due to his advanced age. Augustus lived so

long that Tiberius waited in the wings for decades, at one time passed over as favored

heir. Most importantly, though, there was simply no way to live up to Augustus' image.

He developed a terrible reputation in Senate histories, mostly related to his use of

murder. In comparison to later rulers though, he was undistinguished in this regard.

Something that his Principate did begin to demonstrate, however, was the degree that the

Senate and administration as a whole was in thrall to the Emperor. Still considering their

state a republic, senators grew to resent the domination of the polity exercised by

Tiberius in a way less subtle than his predecessor. As well, the vicissitudes of Tiberius'

rule and reputation show that a problem with the new system was that Emperors stayed

in power until they died, unlike traditional consuls, or even Sulla-style dictators.

Caligula manifests the latent difficulties of the Principate clearly. Indeed, as a whole,

while the Julio-Claudians have been criticized by both contemporary as well as modern

historians, they are pedagogically useful in that they make a simple point: the Principate

was an advance to be sure, and Rome was politically stable with unchallenged external

power. Still, a problem persisted in that the Princeps was too powerful and unchecked.

Any change was therefore to be violent, and/or costly. There are no convincing reasons

for Caligula's descent into depravity, cruelty, and lust. Perhaps it was because his life had

been miserable until his ascent to power. His father may have been killed by Tiberius, and

his older brothers were assassinated for political reasons, just as was his mother. In any

event, he took Tiberius' cool attitude to the Senate to its logical conclusion, completely

alienating them. And whereas the Principate possessed a collection of powers elevating

the Emperor beyond the level of primus inter pares, at this stage, the state could not

function effectively without good Emperor-Senate relations. Finally, Caligula's demise

illustrates three key points. 1) Just as the Emperor now controlled the entire army in one

person, without army support, the Princeps was nothing, and would fall precipitously; 2)

A Roman-Greek cultural animosity continued. Just as Rome was coopting aspects of

Greek Hellenistic civilization, a strident assertion of superiority over the erstwhile

Mediterranean power made it perilous for a high roman official to be to devoted to a

Hellenistic renaissance; 3) The Praetorian Guard had been established as a small, elite

personal guard for the Princeps. However, Caligula's fall and Claudius' rise indicates that

it, especially in the person of the Praetorian Prefect, could become a political player in its

own right. As a sort of king maker, the Praetorian Guard would expand and abuse this

role in the future, leading to it's disbanding in the late third century.

As regards Claudius, his negative representation in roman histories demonstrates two

points: 1) The continuing penchant of Roman elites to privilege material and cosmetic

concerns in social evaluation. To a great extent, Claudius' physical infirmities hobbled

him from the start in his relations with senators; 2) Though pursuing the same policies of

Augustus and developing continuations of his predecessor rather than innovations, his

lesser glamour combined with his decreased care for the appearance of collegiality with

the Senate mean that from Claudius, the term Imperator--Emperor--becomes truly

appropriate to describe the status of Rome's ruler. Three further matters mark the

Claudian era of rule: a) the Roman conquest of Britain, a relatively major

territorial/political gain; b) his liberal granting of citizen rights and advocacy for Gaulic

socio-political inclusion in Roman society, and c) his poor choice of marriage partners in

Agrippina the Younger. In sum then, Claudius expanded the Empire and improved its

administrative and fiscal effectiveness, just as he opened the door to its ethnic evolution.

Also, he undermined the Senate, though not by intent, and he altered the nature of the

Princeps.

Nero and the 'Year of the Four Emperors' (54-69)

Summary

Nero's rule began well in 54. He was a Julio-Claudian descended from Mark Antony and

Octavian, and was tutored by the Praetorian Prefert Burrus and the literateur Seneca.

These two helped him initially to make good on his promises of good government, and

the years 55-61 were later called quinquennium Neronis, Nero's five good years. His

ministers evolved an odd, yet successful Parthian policy. In the last days of Claudius, the

Parthian king Voloqesus made his brother Tiridates the king of Armenia. This presented

the dilemma to Rome of Parthia and Armenia becoming uncomfortably close. In 55,

Nero's administration sent general Corbulo to the East to retrain the Syrian legions. In

58-59, he was able to chase Tiridates out of Armenia, yet war with Parthia in 62

presented setbacks. During the winter a whole army surrendered to the Persians, yet in

the spring of 63, Corbulo drove the entire Parthian host out of Asia Minor. Peace terms

dictated that Tiridates could be king, but that he and his successors would have to come

to Rome to get his crown. This was an odd policy, but worked for the next 200 years.

Nero had ascended to the Principate at the age of sixteen, and his mother Agrippina had

assumed that she would rule through him. She had several of her relatives killed in her

aspirations and paranoia, and aroused the severe dislike of Seneca and Burrus. Their

efforts to get rid of her were increasingly confused, and Claudius' son Britannicus was

eventually killed in the jockeying for position. While Seneca and Burrus controlled Nero

to a degree, he feared his mother, and decided to have her done in. First, she was driven

from the palace. Later, in 59, the Princeps had her over to dinner, and sent her home in a

collapsing boat; rather than drowning, she swam to shore on the boat's collapse. On

shore, she was finally beaten to death by sailors on Nero's orders. The Senate accepted

Seneca and Burrus' cover-up.

In 59 CE, the real Nero stepped forward. Henceforth he totally neglected military and

provincial matters; he wanted to be known only as a showman, a star in the ancient

Hellenistic fashion, writing poetry and playing the harp. He brought the Greek games to

Rome and actually competed in them. Rome was scandalized by the public nature of his

acts. When Burrus died, he appointed as Praetorian prefects sinister characters such as

Ofonius Tigellinus who were prepared to pander to his most base impulses. At this point,

Seneca retired from public life. Also in 62 he engineered the death of his wife Octavia,

daughter of Claudius. Nero had a close friend named Otho, whom he sent to Lusitania as

propraetor, and whose wife Poppaea Sabina he took as a mistress. She convinced Nero to

divorce Octavia for sterility and adultery. After removal to Campania and a second

conviction for adultery, Octavia was killed. By the mid-60s, Nero was totally out of

control. He killed Poppaea--who had encouraged Agrippina's murder in the first place--

by kicking her during a pregnancy. Then, on July 18, 64, Rome burned. Three of its

fourteen neighborhoods were totally razed, while seven more sustained serious damage.

Nero was away when the fire began, yet returned and energetically tried to salvage the

city, providing relief to the newly homeless survivors. He also insisted on better fire

codes. Yet his comment that the blaze provided an excellent opportunity for urban

renewal, and the general popular hatred of him, gave rise to the suspicion that he either

started the fire, or stood by while it consumed Rome. To deflect such criticisms, he

focused urban dislike on the Christians of Rome. Both they and the Jews were frequently

mistrusted; Poppaea's sympathy for the latter spared them. City-wide persecutions of

Christians commenced. These were the first recorded Roman persecutions of Christians,

and are supposedly the ones in which Peter and Paul died. Under the direction of the city

Prefect, Christians were smeared with lye and set afire in the Vatican arena; others were

used as animal bait in the Circus.

Matters began an unrecoverable downward spiral in 65, the year of a senatorial plot

against Nero. After the Rome fire, Nero had spent lavishly in restoring palaces and

building himself new ones. Hew then needed more funds, and began murdering those

with wealth. The Roman nobility began to fear for their existence. As well, they

increasingly resented Nero's reliance on Near Eastern freedmen as army officers and

senators. In 65, a relatively broad-based conspiracy emerged. Including the consul

designate as well as co-Praetorian Prefect Rufus, it also embraced several senators, who

planned to seat C. Calpurnius Piso as the new emperor. Hence the term Piso's

Conspiracy. The night before the plot's implementation, imperial agents detected it, and

in the ensuing terror of vengeance, nineteen major Rome personalities were executed--

including Seneca. After this Tigellinus was given free reign to conduct a purge. It became

increasingly widespread, with Tiberian-era treason trials returning en masse. He then

took his Hellenic addictions to new levels. When Tiridates arrived for his crown in 66, he

was made to worship Nero as a god. Next, the Princeps elected to go to Greece and

compete in the games there. In the aftermath of a second coup attempt planned by

Vinicianus, he assumed the latter's father-in-law Corbulo was its leading figure.

Summoning him to Rome, Nero ordered him to commit suicide. Nero proceeded to do

this with several generals from the upper and lower Rhine region. Nero thus alienated the

army as a whole. Rather than patronizing it, as did previous Princeps, he avoided military

camps, and even appointed his oriental freedmen as generals. The army was no longer a

pillar of the Principate.

At this point, in 66, Judaea re-emerged as a trouble spot. It had never stopped simmering

since Caligula's blunders. There were socio-economic tensions as well as religious

problems. While several members of the Jewish upper classes had undergone a willing

process of cultural Hellenization, those of the lower classes had remained strictly

orthodox in religion as well as cultural outlook. As well, there were radical Jewish groups-

-the Essenes and Dead Sea sect, who secluded themselves from society into messianic

communes, as well as more militant anti-Hellenist/Roman groups such as the Sicarii, or

'daggers' in Greek. These intra-Jewish tensions were matched by growing conflict

between Jews and pagans, including civil disturbances. Originally, Judaea had come into

the Empire peacefully under Pompei, becoming an imperial province under Augustus. It

had never felt the weight of conquest. Its administrator was the procurator in Caesaria,

with only 3,000 troops. In 66, however, the anti-Hellenistic component of the masses and

priesthood revolted, hoping to restore a kingdom along the lines of the Hasmonean

dynasty. After riots in Jerusalem and Caesaria, Temple sacrifice in the name of the

Emperor ceased. This was the sign of open revolt. At the beginning the procurator

Gessius Florus called upon the governor of Syria for aid, but the latter withdrew his

forces, whereupon the revolt spread throughout Judaea and the Galilee. Jerusalem was

fortified against Roman entry. Nero was still in Greece at this time, and sent the general

Vespasianus to Syria in 67. All of Judaea was in arms at this point, so Vespasianus began

by reducing the rural areas. By 68, he had isolated Jerusalem, and then everything slowed

down.

Early in 68 Nero had made off to Naples. In the spring the southern Gaul (Gallia

Luqduniensus) governor C. Julius Vindex revolted, claiming he was acting in defense of

the Senate. He was a Romanized Gaulic whose forebears had taken Claudius at his word.

He was also a second-generation senator. He wrote letters to other Rhine generals

suggesting that they unite against Nero. This was too civil a manner of revolt for Roman

generals. The Iberian (Hispania Terracomnius) governor S. Sulpicius Galba revolted, also

declaring for the Senate. A member of an ancient senatorial family, he proclaimed himself

Princeps. He was supported by other Spanish governors, as well as by some African

propraetors. While the two raised armies, L. Virgilius Rufus from Upper Germany

responded to Vindex's letters by defeating him. Hailed by his troops as Caesar, he

declared no interest in rule. At this point Galba went to Rome. No one stopped him. The

Praetorian Guard as well as the Senate accepted him, and he proclaimed himself Caesar.

In early 69, Nero saw he no longer had any support, and committed suicide. Thus ended

the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Nero's death ushered in the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba was weak as an emperor

for two reasons: 1) he had no funds in the fiscus with which to keep his troops in line and

bribe the Praetorian guard; and 2) he was Emperor just because of his troops and only his

troops. The Rhine legions were ill disposed towards him, so declared Aullus Vitellus

emperor in 69 as well. He took several Rhine legions to Italy to fight Galba. In the

interim, however, M. Salvius Otho--one of Galba's first supporters--went to the

Praetorian camp and bribed the forces into recognizing him as emperor, after which the

Guard caught and killed Galba.

An earlier protege of Nero, Otho was degenerate and ineffective. Still, he won the support

of the Danube and Thrace area legions, and was somewhat popular in Rome. Still, all his

military support was much farther away than was his opponent Vitellus. Early in 69, Otho

led the Praetorian Guard through Cisalpine Gaul to Cremona where he met Vitellus in

battle. The Praetorian forces were outnumbered five to one, and Otho was eliminated at a

battle remembered as Bedricum I. Vitellus then went south to Rome and the Senate

recognized him as Princeps. At this point the simmering enmity between the legions of

the Rhine and those of Syria came into play. In the summer of 69 the latter proclaimed

Vespasianus Emperor. He left his son Titus in Judaea to deal with the Jewish Revolt and

made for Rome. He never actually met Vitellus in battle. M. Antonius Primus, a Danube

region general, gave Vespasianus support and military muscle. He sent legions to Italy

and also began revolts against Vitellus in the Italian towns. Vitellus reacted by

dispatching an army to northern Italy, which met Primus at Cremona. The majority of

Vitellus' officers went over to Primus, while his soldiers refused to defect, probably still

hoping for financial reward. At what became known as Bedricum II, Primus was

victorious and his forces plundered for four days. Vitellus had fled to Rome by now, and

Primus followed him in force. His opponent's remaining legions fought for Rome in a

street-by-street manner, yet Primus ultimately won. Rome was plundered by legionnaires

on 22 December 69, and Vespasianus was installed as Princeps by the beginning of 70

CE. The best, most balanced man had won.

For the most part, the Roman frontiers had remained stable throughout 69, even while

denuded of legions engaged in civil war. A good general and a savvy politician,

Vespasianus was therefore a good political general. He faced two immediate problems:

the Jewish Revolt in Judaea, and continuing revolt of the Batavians on the lower Rhine.

The latter had begun their uprising due to Primus' instigation so as to detain Vitellus

Rhine area troops. They were led by Civilus, yet would not desist when told to do so by

Antonius. Batavians under Civilus terrorized the Rhineland, and he convinced the Roman

auxiliaries, as well as up to three legions and several Gaulic tribesmen to join him. Thus,

by the middle of 70, all the Rhineland and eastern Gaul was in arms. Only with sustained

efforts by fresh legions were the disturbances put down. As regards Judaea, Vespasianus

had left his sonTitus there. He conquered all of Jerusalem after a grueling 139-day siege.

His forces then went out of control--they tore down and burned the Temple, and then the

city, murdering much of the high priesthood and carrying others off into slavery. Much

booty was then taken to Rome. The revolt lingered on for another three years, in

strongholds such as Masada and Gamla. Ultimately, a legion was stationed in the region

under the legate Gessius Florus, and Judaea became a second-rate military province.

Still, the Jews were allowed to retain most of their privileges related to religious practice,

with the Temple tax now going to Rome.

Commentary

That Neros' demise would emerge from the army is not surprising, given the close

military-Princeps relationship. His key mistakes therefore were first to ignore the army

and then to begin killing its generals. The remaining Generals were forced into revolt

either by a sense of Roman honor, or for self-preservation. What was truly shocking,

though, was that Augustus' professional army had gone totally out of control, even

turning against itself and arrogating to itself the prerogative of proclaiming emperors

from within its ranks. A sequel to this will be seen in the third century. At the same time,

the army demonstrated its combination of neglect and contempt for the Senate and

civilian population of Rome. Thus, the greatest weakness of the Principate was that when

the Princeps lost army support, mayhem ensued.

In addition to founding a new dynasty, the eventual victor of 69, Vespasianus, was a

different sort of Emperor. He was a provincial from the Sabine region, whose social

origins were equestrian. His father had been an equestrian, following a publicani career

under Augustus. Vespasian had received an excellent education, even learning Greek,

which was somewhat rare for that era. He had commanded a legion in Britain, had

ascended to the level of consul, and invaded Africa. During Nero's time, he was one of

Rome's most influential commanders and received command of the legions subduing the

Jewish Revolt. In 70 CE, he was a sixty-one-year old, known for his parsimoniousness

and good humor tempered by shrewdness.

With the exception of the Jewish Revolt and the Batavian confrontation, Vespasian's

reign was peaceful, and the Emperor was able to devote time to its organization. A

fundamental change was effected along the borders. The Rhine revolt had shown the

drawbacks of using auxiliaries in the regions from which they were recruited. This was

now ended, and along with their deployment away from home, they were now

commanded by Roman officers. Change continued in other areas, but not in formal

terms. The Principate survived, and in theory, no added powers accrued to Vespasian

than to his predecessors, and the Senate's prerogatives were at least titularly still intact.

Bu the Senate was nothing like a partner to Vespasian. He expected them to obey his

directives and they proved quite malleable. The Emperor was able to enforce his

insistence that he be allowed to choose the proconsuls for provincial commands, ending

any illusion of a diarchy. Though Vespasianus was an autocrat and the illusions of the

Augustus period were gone, the Princeps was a respectable, respectful autocrat. As well,

he saved the Empire from chaos, providing it instead with stability.

Furthermore, the Flavians represented the administrative class of equestrians from which

they emerged, and this group began to monopolize government. A new aristocracy of

Italian town origins was established, and from 65-96 CE, 50% of the old senatorial

families disappear, to be replaced by Italian town equestrians. Like Vespasian, they were

sober, industrious, and boring, but effective. Officials such as Trajanus and Agricola

believed in public service, honesty, and moderation, thus endowing Roman government

with increased propriety, efficiency, and professionalism. The imperial court of Rome was

made more solemn, and the provincial administration was cleaned up, providing the

second-century basis of civil administration associated with Rome's golden age.

Vespasian also tried to improve finances, increasing provincial tribute, there were even

small advances on the German frontier, and Vespasian was even able to entirely arrange

an amicable succession prior to his death. It is also important to remember that while

Domitian was somewhat vicious and not nearly as respectful as Vespasian or Titus, the

same basic policies were continued, with government efficiency and fiscal soundness

growing.

The Short-Lived Flavian Dynasty: 69-96 CE

Summary

Vespasianus had become Emperor after the chaos of the post-61 Nero years and the 'Year

of the Four Emperors'. A successful general who treated the Senate with respect (if not

deference), he restored stability to the throne and order to the Empire's workings. He also

ensured that the succession worked smoothly. His son Titus was well prepared and

passed through the proper cursus honorum, including consulships and military

commands. In 79 he became Emperor. He gave gifts and military donatives upon his

accession, and treated the Senate well. He also administered disaster relief, a key example

being in the aftermath of Mt. Vesuvius' eruption in 79-90. In 80, Rome burned again,

necessitating more disaster relief, which was distributed loyally. In 81 CE Titus died.

His younger brother Domitian (r. 81-96) succeeded him. The succession went off without

a hitch, and the army was loyal throughout. He was, though, clearly different from the

other Flavians (the dynasty name is take from one of Vespasianus' names). He had been

kept in the background by his father, and did not gain Titus' education or experience, and

thus did not acquire the latter's political savvy, especially as regards his attitude towards

the Senate. Domitian was good at administration and retained the favor of the army, but

he was abrasive. He increased the heavy reliance on the equites in imperial

administration. Equestrians replaced freedmen as Principate secretaries, gradually even

moving into governor slots in senatorial provinces, at times even leading legions. Both of

the latter two were usually prerogatives of senators. Equestrians were also added to the

Emperor's council--a sort of law court in which senators could even find themselves

judged by the (assumedly) lower social status equites. Thus, while at first Domitian-

Senate relations were characterized by irritation, the Emperor eventually gave up on

them and ruled without even the appearance of consulting them.

Senate historians blackened Domitian's name and devoted little attention to his period.

Thus, we know little of his actions. He was an autocrat, and had some grandiose

eccentricities, such as trying to name a month after him. He did, however, accomplish

some reasonable things. First, he attempted to bolster the frontier. He took the Agri

Decumantes along the Danube, which shortened the line of the frontier. Second,

Domitian was active near the Danube. The northern bank was increasingly congested

with Barbarians. There were three main groups. On the middle and upper Danube were

the Marcomanni and Quadi, while downstream were the Sarmatians, hedged by the

Roxolani of the western Ukraine. Wedged between these groups were the Dacians, of

Transylvania. They were the most advanced of the Barbarians, with a kingdom ruled by

Decebalus. A strong warrior, he was able to lead large forces by example. In 85, he

invaded Moesia (Bulgaria), on the Roman side of the Danube, plundering heavily.

Domitian collected his legions and went to war from 86-88. While the Romans did drive

out the Dacians, the campaigns were not very satisfactory, and Domitian elected to make

a treaty in 88-89, whereby he recognized Decebalus as a client king, and undertook to

send subsidies--yearly protection money. Decebalus in turn promised peace. Domitian's

measure, while popularly accepted an acceptable tactic in the eastern reaches of Roman

lands, was seen by Romans as a defeat when employed on the Danube. Around the same

time, L.A. Saturninus, an imperial legate from the upper Rhine area, revolted. He had

allied with the Barbarian Chatti across the Rhine, but as the river thawed early that

spring, they were unable to cross to assist him. The revolt turned out to be a short- lived

fiasco. Yet despite its meagerness, the revolt convinced Domitian he could no longer trust

the senatorial aristocracy, which had provided several legates. Further, after a time lag, a

new Tiberius-style terror commenced, in 93. Fearing conspiracies, the Emperor used

treason charges to judicially murder his enemies. He was able to destroy a healthy chunk

of the old senatorial aristocratic clans through exile, execution, and expropriation of their

material basis. Around this time, writers began to refer to him as psychologically

unbalanced--Tacitus called him a paranoid monster. If this is true at all, it only began

after 93. Indeed, perhaps he was justified in his paranoia: in 96 he was assassinated by

his wife, the praetorian prefect, and a palace visitor. Domitians death marked the end of

the Flavians, and the Roman mob rioted at the prospect of a new power vacuum.

Commentary

As events during Domitian's rule suggest, around this time the German Barbarians were

becoming an unavoidable element in the Rhine-Danube areas. Caesar first observed them

in 51 BCE. German tribes were clan-based, with blood-loyalty the basis for all bonds.

Living intermittently in settled forest clearings called hamlets, they engaged in mixed

subsistence cultivation of crops and animals. Cultivation was rudimentary given the hard

clay soil and use of implements more suited to Mediterranean areas. There were no

surpluses, so population remained small, around one million. Without much

occupational specialization, they were an iron-age culture emphasizing war.

For the first century CE, they were not a real danger to Rome: 1)Poverty ensured poor

armor and weapons, and 2) they had limited tactics, consisting of ambushes and a mass

charge. 3) Divisions into numerous small tribes meant a lack of political cooperation. 4)

There was no real, continual government beyond the clan. In peacetime, tribal assemblies

made up of all free men and warriors decided issues of peace and war. They would elect

temporary war chiefs, whose legitimacy ended after hostilities.

Tacitus described the Germans again about 100 CE. After Caesar had taken Gaul up to the

Rhine, expansion space was curtailed for the nomadic tribes, causing demographic

pressure on the borders. Some Germans began to come into contact with Roman

civilization at border garrisons. They greatly admired the material aspects of Roman

culture, such as arms, domestic wares, etc. Small numbers were accepted for service with

Roman legions, and small scale German-Roman trade relations emerged involving cattle

and slaves developed.

Gradual, changes occurred in the next 250 years: A) Though kinship remained the

primary bond, a new kind of political formation evolved: the Comitatus. Older, successful

warrior chieftains took in younger aspirants, who then raided and shared the booty with

each other. A kind of professional, more lethal warrior group came about, where bonds

were now between man and lord, the latter signaling the beginning of a small aristocracy.

B) At the same time, tribes began electing fewer, longer serving war-chiefs, as inter-tribe

conflict increased, spurred by the desire to partake of Roman material culture. C) Eastern

German tribes, Goths and Vandals, gradually migrated from North Poland to the

Ukraine, pressuring the Danube frontier and settling north of the Black Sea, to the West

of the Huns. D) Around 200, small tribes began to coalesce into supra-tribal groups.

Southern Germans came together into the Alamanni, while middle Rhine groups

incorporated into the Franks, as the North Germans coalesced as Saxons. By the 300s

there was a continual belt of barbarian tribes all along the Roman borders from the North

Sea to the Black Sea. E) Increasing numbers of Germans began to serve as Roman

auxiliary forces just beyond the Roman borders, learning new tactics, acquiring better

materials, coming to admire Roman society even more. Some even underwent a process

of partial Romanization.

It was the gradual, at times explosive migration of Germanic Barbarians into Roman

territory that would end the placidity of the early part of Marcus Aurelius' reign (r. 161-

180). The migrations have come to be known as the volkerwanderung, 'wanderings of the

peoples.' What set off this very unfortunate demographic avalanche was not Barbarian

anti-Roman animosity. To a certain extent, it was predetermined: a defining aspect of

ancient and Medieval history was the inability of settled, sedentary peoples to avoid

encroachment by neighboring nomadic, transhuman groups. Beyond that, the sheer

demographic pressure of the piling up of different Barbarian tribes served to encourage

expansion: unsettled, roving societies traditionally do not tolerate population pressure.

Thus, in the fundamental division of antiquity between an urbanized, agrarian-based,

Latin civilization whose core was the Mediterranean basin, and a rural, pastoral,

nomadic, non-literate Barbarian world emerging from the steppe lands, these tribes

represented the citadel of Barbarism ready to move.

Rome's Halcyon Days: 96-161 CE

Summary

Domitian was disliked by all the elites, yet he had protected Rome's internal

administration and the state's external posture. The Empire faced no existential threats,

and was well equipped to deal with any challenges. His murderers and the Senate

arranged the succession, which fell to M. Coceius Nerva, an eminent and admired

senator, who nonetheless held the throne as a rather weak place-holder. Nerva was

advanced in age--66--and had no son, making him unable to start a dynasty of his own. In

addition, he was unrelated to any previous ruling dynasty and had no support group in

the legions. In this respect his situation was analogous to that of Galba in 68-69. Indeed,

when he assumed the purple, some Syrian and Danubian legions moved towards revolt,

but were kept in line by a Roman elite desirous of stability. The new Emperor understood

his status, though, and was intelligent. He began by giving the legionnaires a pay raise,

and then proceeded to bring back the previously exiled senators and cooperated with the

Senate as a whole. He also began to blacken Domitian's name.

During his two-year rule, Nerva undertook three popular measures: 1) He created the

Alimenta, a small agriculturalists' loan. Small farmers were allowed to borrow funds from

the imperial fisc up to 1/12 the value of their landholdings in order to improve their crops

or implements. The interest was a low 5%, and the pay-off from the loans went to the

local towns and villages. These funds in turn were used to support poorer families and

orphans. It was a quite successful measure. 2) In 98, one of the Praetorian Prefects began

complaining ominously that no one had prosecuted Domitian's killers. Nerva then calmed

the Prefect by doing just that. 3) Most importantly, Nerva took out an insurance policy of

sorts, by adopting a son with a strong military reputation. This was Trajan, a legion

commander in upper Germany. The adoption was a brilliant move in that it calmed down

Rome and removed anxiety about the future. As well, it solved the problem of succession

in an extremely popular manner. Nerva's adoption of Trajan was so popular, in fact, it set

a trend: several subsequent emperors adopted their successors as son shortly before their

deaths. Though the Julio-Claudians had adopted heirs on a few occasions, the practice of

adopting powerful men as successors became common practice throughout the second

century.

Nerva died in 98. Trajan was on the Rhine and returned to Rome in a leisurely manner.

He made a good impression on the capital city elites by entering Rome on foot. He was a

significant departure, in that his family was neither from Rome nor Italy. He was from

Iberia, and this trend of non-Roman born emperors would expand in the future,

indicating a more cosmopolitan era in Roman elite- formation. Trajan was the most

famous Emperor in Roman historical memory after Augustus. From a traditionally

equestrian lineage, his family only moved into senatorial ranks under Vespasian. The new

Emperor had followed the normal elite cursus honorum, but had a penchant for long-

term military service, and spent ten years as a military tribune. By the beginning of his

rule he was already a rather eminent general. He expressed his military side of himself

early on in his Principate: he conquered Dacia for Rome. Supposedly the campaigns

against Dacia were undertaken as an effort to restore Roman honor after Domitian's

failures, but it is also clear that Trajan wanted a conquest- based military reputation, and

wanted the booty that would come from control of this relatively wealthy region. The

campaigns may also have been a preventative strike, as the Barbarians of the region had

become more popular in the second century CE. To conquer Dacia, it was necessary to

cross the Danube and then traverse open country in a forced march. Dacia proper was a

fortress surrounded by mountains. In 102 CE, Trajan took an army across the Danube

and fought his way into Dacia. Decebalus gave up and became a client king, but the

settlement did not last, as the Dacians were not entirely conquered. In 105, Decebalus

massacred a Roman garrison in the region and began raiding Moesia again. Thus, in 106

Trajan took thirteen legions into Dacia, ransacked Transylvania, and stormed the Dacian

capital. Decbaulus committed suicide, after which the entire area was annexed directly to

the Empire. The conquest was extremely profitable in terms of slaves and gold, and the

Emperor opened the region up to settlement. Thousands of Latin-speaking peasants

settled there, beginning the full-fledged process of Latinization of the region, completed

over the next 150 years. It was from this point that the Roman people and aristocracy

came to view themselves as world-conquerors par excellence. At the same time, Romans

under Trajan received good government. Trajan's methods were as autocratic as

Domitian's, but the former sought the advice of the Senate, reported back to it, and

socialized with senators. Though he did not at all need senatorial support, this smoothed

elite relations in Rome, and the aristocracy quieted down, beginning a trend that was to

last for some time, and exempting Emperors from the fear of a senatorial conspiracy. In

the process, government became increasingly smooth--imperial legates were

professional, the Alimenta was expanded, and Trajan cared for the bankrupt cities which

had overspent on public building programs. Imperial curatores were sent to these areas

to take over financial responsibility, and to reestablish fiscal soundness. This was a good

idea in that the curatores were efficient, but over time, it would cause growing local

resentment towards an increasingly obnoxious imperial bureaucracy.

The next decade reinforced the conviction of Roman grandeur, particularly in the East.

Since the 50s BCE Rome had been attracted to eastward expansion at Parthia's expense.

In the early 100s CE, the Parthian king Chosroes had acted without tact, installing his

nephew as king of Armenia and ignoring the arrangement going back to Nero.

Furthermore, he had communicated with Decebalus during the Roman-Dacian war. In

113, Trajan slowly moved east, remaining noncommittal in response to Chosroes' peace

envoys. In Syria, Trajan retrained the legions, after which he annexed Armenia in 114. 115

saw Roman troops east of the Euphrates, and Trajan took Edessa and marched 150 miles

more to Nisibis, annexing mesopotamia in the North and Assyria to the South. In the

winter of 115-116, Roman legions built barges and wagons, which they used in the spring

to float down the Tigris. The Parthian capital Ctesiphon was then captured and sacked,

with Chosroes fleeing and Trajan annexing the area. The Emperor then proceeded to the

Persian Gulf. During 116, however, difficulties emerged. The northern Mesopotamian

cities began to revolt, and a Parthian army appeared in the South. Trajan was equal to the

challenge, however, and maintained realistic advances. By promising the province of

Parthia to Chosroes' son Parthamaspates, the Emperor won him over. Parthamaspates

fought for Trajan, and won back for him a fair portion of those areas that had rebelled

against Rome. Still, persistent difficulties in 116-117 weakened Trajan in terms of

manpower and some prestige. Northern Mesopotamia was never fully restored, and a

new revolt broke out, this time among the Jewish communities of Cyprus and Egypt.

Jewish groups in these areas had expected Trajan not to return West from Parthia, and

broke out in opposition to the Hellenistic communities surrounding them. Jewish-

Hellenistic animosity had simmered for the past century-and-a-half. In 116, the Jews

massacred their Hellenistic neighbors in several areas; in Cyprus in particular they were

able to get control of the island and killed up to 250,000 people. In Cyrene, Egypt, the

Praetorian Prefect was put under siege. While turning to deal with this in 117, Trajan

suddenly had a stroke and died.

At this point, the Praetorian Prefect Plotina stepped forward to attest that Trajan had

adopted Hadrian as successor. He was from the same town as Trajan and was of the

appropriate aristocratic background. He had completed the proper cursus honorum, had

done military service, and had governed two provinces. In 117 he was in Syria, but feeling

himself insecure, Hadrain gave a double donative, or accension gift, to his legions. He

went back on Trajan's policies in the realm of military expansion: 1) instead of making

war on the Sarmatian tribes in the Danube area, he negotiated with them. 2) He opposed

the eastern expansion too, and withdrew Roman troops from northern Mesopotamia,

returning to Parthian rule the lands east of the Euphrates. This was a reasonable move in

that Rome had never been able to convincingly maintain its power there. 3) Hadrian also

wanted out of Dacia, but since it had begun the process of Romanization, he was

convinced to desist from further withdrawal here. A conspiracy of two generals against

him early in his reign illustrated the mounting elite dissatisfaction with such policies.

Hadrian was now at peace with his neighbors, so the question was what to do with his

time and the Empire's wealth? He went on a tour, paying particular attention to Greek

culture. From 120-123 he visited the western and central provinces, while from 123-125

he looked at the East. In 127 he toured Italy, and then went East again, visiting its great

Hellenistic cities, temples, historical markers. He also visited the army camps and would

climb mountains just to see the sun rise. He went without a large retinue, however, with

little fuss, and impressed the provincials, who had been accustomed to not seeing

emperors unless they were passing through on their way to war.

Hadrian still worked hard as an administrator. He spent much time and money on the

army, inspecting it, training, it, even maneuvering with the soldiers and eating rations

with them. He was also responsible for the Roman wall in Britain. It consisted of a big

ditch, eleven feet deep, behind which was a stone and cement wall fifteen feet high.

Sprinkled along this were observation and signal towers, as well as sixteen major forts.

Hadrian's Wall was seventy- three miles long, near Scotland, and was the greatest

military building project of the era. It stopped Barbarian raiding parties, and broke up

Barbarian communications, yet it was not designed as the type of wall to be held for an

indefinite period against a determined enemy. Near approximations of the wall were built

along sections of the German border. In the Danube region, he founded new towns, and

this was to be one of his longest-lasting legacies. In the eastern Greek cities, Hadrian

initiated a civic building project, improving aqueducts, roads, and basilicae. As well, he

took lots of time receiving petitions from the provinces, evincing his cosmopolitan view of

the Roman Empire--development of the provinces would weld the Empire together

better. While up until Hadrian senators had come mostly from Italy, the coast of Gaul,

and Iberia, several Greeks were now appointed to the Senate. All this was accompanied

by an increase in the size of the civil service and equestrian order. Furthermore, in order

to delegate administrative responsibility and relieve Italian townspeople from the need of

traveling to Rome for court cases, Hadrian divided peninsular Italy into four judicial

circuits. This was highly unpopular though, as it derogated from senators' prerogatives,

and suggested that Hadrian might have wanted to demote Italy's status to something just

above that of a province.

The only major disturbance during Hadrian's reign was again related to the Jews. When

the emperor visited Judaea in 130, he found Jerusalem in desolated ruins. His idea was to

rebuild it, making it a new Jerusalem--Aelia Capitolina-- without Jews. As well, a new

temple to Jupiter was to be built on the site of the old Jewish Temple in Jerusalem,

destroyed in 70 CE. These plans elicited an organized revolt under the Jewish leader Bar

Kokhba, which was supported by several in the rabbinical class who viewed the uprising

in messianic terms. A Roman legion was soon destroyed, and a guerrilla war ensued. The

British general Severus was brought in, and Hadrian went to Antioch with six supporting

legions. By 135, the revolt was over, with Aelia Capitolina being built and no Jews allowed

in Judaea, though the prohibition was impossible to enforce fully. Hadrian then died in

138. He had executed his two successor candidates, fearing conspiracies. Hadrian was

hated by the Roman elite at his demise, given the lack of conquests during his reign, the

increasingly intrusive civil service, and suggestions of Italy's diminution within the

Empire. His successor Antoninus Pius almost refused Senatorial investment when the

latter would not deify Hadrian, thus forcing the aristocracy to relent. Antoninus was, by

contrast, quite well liked, being of the increasingly predominant country gentry of

southern Gaul. He also agreed to abolish Hadrian's four-way administrative division of

Italy. During his twenty-three-year rule (138-161), virtually nothing of note appeared to

occur within Rome or on its borders. There was peace, good government, financial

savings, and the promise of a great successor, in the person of Marcus Aurelias. If peace

be the measure, it was the hey-day of Rome.

Commentary

Though extremely important for a grasp of this era's history as a whole, Roman social and

economic history is rather difficult to target, given the antiquity of it all, the disinterest in

economics and sociology by that period's historians, and the lack of recovered statistics.

Still, the outlines are helpful. The ancient world was composed of naturally occurring

substances, such as wood, stone, plant and animal fibers. This was the result of a paucity

of ideas on how to alter matter. Crafting consisted of metalworking, but metal supplies

were restricted due to its high cost. Additionally, there was the dying, of clothing, pottery,

and glass. The common brick was not innovated until the time of Tiberius, and liquids

presented challenges of transport and storage. The barrel was still in the future, and the

large jugs called amphora were unwieldy--too large to be used for two-way

transportation, they also lacked stoppers, which, in addition to preventing the aging of

wine, also hindered other liquids' preservation. In short, the ancient world was generally

of low-technology. The main draft animal was the oxen or donkey. The horse was not

used as a draft animal, but was ridden without a collar. Lacking the stirrup as well, it was

somewhat ineffective in this role, seeing military service as light cavalry. Thus, land

transport was rather slow. On the water, though wooden ships sailed the Mediterranean,

they were small, slow, had a primitive sail complement, and were without compasses.

Mediterranean sailors stayed within sight of the coast, and would pull up on beaches

during the night. They also preferred the shortest crossings of open water, and were

always in fear of getting lost. As well, sailing in winter was almost unheard of, and what

emerged was a seasonal tempo to both commerce and warfare, with months elapsing

before the arrival of news from the eastern Mediterranean and Parthia.

The ancient world was also restricted geographically. Indeed, it was a small place,

consisting mostly of a narrow coastal plain surrounding the Mediterranean. Thus,

Antiquity existed between the sea and the mountains. Most lived on the coastal plain

until the time of Caesar and Augustus. The economic basis of life here was agrarian, but

good soil was not common, and proved fragile, easily eroded. The hills were

comparatively naked, with a rainy season inhibiting planting and further eroding the soil.

Ancient agriculture had been invented in the Near East and transported west. The crops

thus worked for the area, being cereals such as wheat and barley, with no oats yet. While

olive cultivation provided a source of fat and illumination, the Mediterranean basin was

mostly a dark world. The main drink aside from water was wine, with only the Barbarians

drinking beer. Such an agricultural system was based mostly on hand labor. The simple

scratch plough was good for gardens, and Romans also used it for light soil.

We are not sure of the effectiveness of these agricultural methods, but they were

successful enough to generate a surplus leading to the emergence of cities, which

developed naturally, except for in Egypt. The ancient city was a natural unit of two

components joined organically: the urban center, and the agricultural hinterland. The

people in the towns were comparatively wealthy, and owned estates--latifundia--in the

hinterland. There were large number of free and semi-free peasants, and estates were also

worked by tenants. Significantly, even at the height of the latifundia, free peasants

persevered. These cities literally needed the estates and hinterlands for food, as the

transport of foodstuffs was considered too expensive--wheat double in price every 300

miles. Thus, the cities nevcer outgrew the productivity of the estates, unless they were by

the sea, and impinged upon the trade lanes. The standard size of a large town was 7,000-

20,000 people. Some urban areas were larger, such as Carthage, Alexandria, and Rome.

Urban areas with mineral supplies in the hinterland could also grow larger. Macedonia

was highly urbanized, and possessed silver mines. Military expansion also aided city

growth. Rome may have contained one million inhabitants. If this was the case, it was ten

times as large as its biggest competitor. To get so large and support so many hungry

mouths, Rome squeezed other regions of the Empire in the form of tribute and taxes;

hence the use of expansion. On the whole, the ancient world's population was small,

perhaps only amounting to 50 million.

To the ancients, the city was not the amount of people, but the quality of life. Cities had 4

roles: 1) it was the center of effective government and law; 2) urban areas were

cultural/cultic centers, with temples and deities; 3) it was the place where the better sort

of people lived, be they senators, equestrians, or veteran centurions; 4) cities were also

the place to purchase the consumer goods appropriate to these elites. By and large, elites

consisted of latifundia owners and owners of medium-sized estates, in addition to

traditional societal leaders whose sustenance was not from land. In Rome, elites

consisted of patricians and senatorial families, with equities becoming increasingly

prominent. Thus, the economic basis of cities was the income rural landlords could bring

into the city from their estates, as well as taxes accruing to government systems. This was

indeed somewhat parasitic and exploitative both vis-a-vis the agricultural hinterlands,

but also towards the provinces as a whole. In short, Rome was under-productive, and

enjoyed peace and economic growth--this is not the same as development--at the expense

of the surrounding areas. There was no self-sustaining motor economically speaking, and

Roman leaders often did not think in economic terms. Cities were not centers of

economic production, but only of consumption.

Great cities like Rome were atypical also in that they had a modest amount of artisanal

activity. There were only small shops, employing only family members. Also, artisans

were without social status, and were ill regarded by the elites. There were a few

exceptions, and a few instances of guild activity. One example was Aretium. Around 30

BCE, the potter artisans of this city discovered terra sigillata, a red glazed tableware. It

became popular immediately, and was exported all over the ancient world. Shops with up

to fifty-eight slaves emerged, and guilds were organized. Samianware was the commercial

name of the product, yet within fifty years the technology had diffused to other regions,

and by the Flavian era Aretium had lost its prominence.

In contrast, trade was extensive. The western provinces exported raw materials and

imported manufactured goods from the East. Spain exported wine, olive oil, minerals,

and hides. Italy imported and exported handicrafts and some luxury items to the lesser

developed regions and Barbarian elites. What emerged was a Mediterranean trade

complex extending to Egypt, and connected to India from Octavian's time. Thus ancient

cities became nodes in the trade system. Whereas urban merchants could be wealthy,

they occupied an anomalous social position. Actually, they were often outside society as

understood by its pillars, and consisted f foreigners such as Greeks and Easterners, in

addition to freedmen. As in the medieval era, Roman elites looked down on the

mercantile classes. This attitude, and the paucity of technology and manufacturing,

sustained the underdevelopment of the Roman economy.

Study Questions

1. Describe the measures Augustus took to reestablish political stability and explain how

he changed the government and the army. Why was he successful?.

Answer for Study Question #1

After the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, Octavian had quite a task in front of him. Not only

was he seen as a bloody ex-triumvir, but he now led an empire that had been at war for

about 50 years, and had not the system of government to prevent future conflict. First,

Octavian needed to restore the confidence of the people and aristocracy in him and

Rome. Second, he had to do away with the Republican form of government, which could

not suit an empire, and whose proconsuls had armies loyal to them alone. Lastly, he had

to ensure a smooth succession. All the while, he had to avoid offending the aristocracy.

In order to restore roman confidence, Octavian remained at home in 28, the first time a

Roman consul had done so in twenty years. Also, he took a census, the first in 70 years,

and, by reducing the number of legions from 60-28 he reduced the risk of war for a

people tired of it. Confidence was restored, so much so that interest rates went up. Still,

Octavian's largest task lay ahead. He needed to change the government in a way that

could guarantee army loyalty and create a system to professionally govern the empire.

His idea was the Principate, a sui generus, gradual process whereby the Princeps, or first

citizen, gained more power over time without offending the sensibilities of the republican

minded senators. On January 27 Octavian went before the Senate and gave up all his

extraordinary and possessions. Because of his auctoritas, the senators asked him to take

control of Iberia, the Gauls, and Syria. Also the Senate continued to vote him consulships,

along with naming him Augustus, a near deistic appellation showing their gratitude.

2. Claudius had been kept in the dark for decades, yet was a decent Princeps. Explain his

rise to power and his accomplishments. What was his undoing?

Answer for Study Question #2

After Caligula had insulted his empire and in particular an officer of the Praetorian

Guard, he was murdered by the Guard, and while they searched the palace, they found

Claudius hiding behind a curtain. At 50, he was weakened by physical disabilities, but by

offering each member of the Guard 15,00 denarii, he got their support. The Senate, which

was debating the return to republic, accepted Claudius with Herod Agrippa's

intervention, in 41 CE. Militarily, his accomplishments included conquering Britain in 44

with the help of Plautinus, the annexation of Mauretania by Paulinus, and the annexation

of Thrace. He also attracted other good generals, such as Corbulo and Vespasianus.

On the administrative side, he both made the civil service more powerful and efficient,

and alienated the Senate due to his methods. He set up secretariats; Narcissus was in

charge of correspondence, Pallas was in charge of finances, and Callistus dealt with legal

matters. Further, he put equestrian prefects in senatorial provinces to monitor the

financial situation there. This increased efficiency, but offended the senatorial class

because 1) he revived the censor to eliminate bad senators, 2) deactivated magistracies

duplicating imperial offices, 3) allowed some Gaulics to become quaestor, and 4) as he

withdrew behind his secretariats, he changed the nature of the Principate, making it more

autocratic. Also, his secretaries died quite rich, having started as freedmen. This further

snubbed the Senate.

His undoing was his second wife Agrippina, who he married on Pallus' advice. The

daughter of Germanicus, she was quite ambitious and wanted her son Nero to be adopted

by Claudius, so that he could be emperor, allowing her to rule through him. Agrippina

actually caused Claudius to ruin many a career, and finally murdered him in 54 CE.

3. By 150 CE, what was the status of Germanic society and what kind of threat did it

present to Rome?

Answer for Study Question #3

German tribes were clan-based, with blood-loyalty the basis for all bonds. Living

intermittently in settled forest clearings called hamlets, they engaged in mixed

subsistence cultivation of crops and animals. Cultivation was rudimentary given the hard

clay soil and use of implements more suited to Mediterranean areas. There were no

surpluses, so population remained small, around one million. Without much

occupational specialization, they were an iron-age culture emphasizing war.

For the first century CE, they were not a real danger to Rome: 1) Poverty ensured poor

armor and weapons, and 2) they had limited tactics, consisting of ambushes and a mass

charge. 3) Divisions into numerous small tribes meant a lack of political cooperation. 4)

There was no real, continual government beyond the clan. In peacetime, tribal assemblies

made up of all free men and warriors decided issues of peace and war. They would elect

temporary war chiefs, whose legitimacy ended after hostilities.

After Caesar had taken Gaul up to the Rhine, expansion space was curtailed for the

nomadic tribes, causing demographic pressure on the borders. Some Germans began to

come into contact with Roman civilization at border garrisons. They greatly admired the

material aspects of Roman culture, such as arms, domestic wares, etc. Small numbers

were accepted for service with Roman legions, and small scale German-Roman trade

relations emerged involving cattle and slaves developed.

Gradual changes occurred in the next 250 years: A) Though kinship remained the

primary bond, a new kind of political formation evolved: the Comitatus. Older, successful

warrior chieftains took in younger aspirants, who then raided and shared the booty with

each other. A kind of professional, more lethal warrior group came about, where bonds

were now between man and lord, the latter signaling the beginning of a small aristocracy.

B) At the same time, tribes began electing fewer, longer serving war-chiefs, as inter-tribe

conflict increased, spurred by the desire to partake of Roman material culture. C) Eastern

German tribes, Goths and Vandals, gradually migrated from North Poland to the

Ukraine, pressuring the Danube frontier and settling north of the Black Sea, to the West

of the Huns. D) Increasing numbers of Germans began to serve as Roman auxiliary forces

just beyond the Roman borders, learning new tactics, acquiring better materials, coming

to admire Roman society even more. Some even underwent a process of partial

Romanization.

4. Describe the Principate, in terms of its origins, stages of creation, and inner nature.

How did the Princeps evolve into an Emperor?

5. What were some of the major problems eliciting the formation of the Principate?

6. How would you characterize the Roman economy? What were the foundations of

society and economy in Roman antiquity?

7. What were Mark Antony and Octavian's comparative strengths and weaknesses? How

did each go about trying to secure victory in their struggle?

8. Who were the rising social classes of the period 30 BCE-100 CE and how did they get

where they were going?

9. What was the Year of the Four Emperors? What caused it, and how did it play out?

10. What explains the recurrent disturbances among the Jews in Palestine, Egypt and the

Aegean from the 40s-120s CE? What were the components of the problem, and what was

its resolution by the time of Hadrian?

Review Test The chief threat to Rome's eastern borders in the 160s were the

(A) Marcomanni

(B) Parthians

(C) Goths

(D) Sassanids In the time of Marcus Aurelius, the method of imperial succession was

(A) Hereditary

(B) Senatorial acclamation

(C) Adoption

(D) Legion decision Who were the first Germanic Barbarians to invade Roman lands and when?

(A) Franks, 57 BCE

(B) Marcomanni, 100 CE

(C) Quadi, Marcomanni, Sarmatians, 160s-80s, CE

(D) Angles and Saxons, 120s CE Who was Caligula's successor, and how did he become Emperor?

(A) Trajan, adoption

(B) Septimius Severus, adoption

(C) Claudius, Senatorial election

(D) Claudius, Praetorian selection The Flavian emperors were of what background?

(A) Balkan, commercial

(B) Iberian, military

(C) Italian provincial equestrian

(D) Gaulic, tribal Augustus' reforms did not include

(A) boards

(B) military reorganization

(C) religious freedom

(D) new coinage

Pax Romana refers to

(A) Strong Roman administration, order, and general lack of warfare ion imperial territory

(B) treaties between Roman co-emperors in East and West

(C) Roman-Barbarian agreements for settlement in return fo military service

(D) The Church's corporate status ion Rome Latifundia began as

(A) Emperor's estates administered by decurions

(B) provincial notables' large agricultural estates worked by landless peasants

(C) regions settled by Barbarians, from which they received share of agricultural surplus

(D) North African Grain Reserves The Parthians were

(A) Eastern Danubian tribes of slavic origin

(B) Dacian troops pushing far west

(C) a pacifist Persian dynasty overthrowing the Sassanids

(D) Rome's chief Eastern enemy The Triumvirate was

(A) Tiberius' sharing of power with his adopted half brothers

(B) Pompei's sharing of power with Augustus and Caesar

(C) Vespasian's bequest of power to four families

(D) Temporary cooperation among Marcus Antonius, Octavian, and Lepidus When as the Jewish revolt?

(A) 68-71 CE

(B) 41-43 CE

(C) 116 CE

(D) 62 BCE Christianity's status under Nero was

(A) the new imperial cult

(B) tolerated but illegal

(C) the official state religion

(D) persecuted In the eyes of Roman society, craftsmen were

(A) equal in status to equites

(B) to swear they used proper coinage

(C) seen as a lower social class

(D) sons of the Church Praetorian Prefect was

(A) Chief of staff of all Roman forces

(B) Latin generals serving as Imperial aides

(C) commander of elite palace guard

(D) The crown prince Which of the following is not a reason Germanic tribes presented little danger to Rome prior to 200 CE?

(A) They were impoverished

(B) rulership was excessively centralized

(C) internal fighting was rampant

(D) The Roman garrisons kept them at bay Comitatus was

(A) the council in which imperial decisions were taken

(B) Large German armies under tight German king control from 200

(C) Church conventions from 325 in Nicaea

(D) Small, tightly organized Germanic raiding groups from the 200s Who brought Rome's borders to the German lands?

(A) Pompei

(B) Varrus

(C) Germanicus

(D) Caesar Why was Agrippina murdered?

(A) Sterility

(B) She conspired against Nero

(C) Nero feared her and was influenced by his advisers

(D) She disliked Mark Antony What was Cleopatra's role at Actium?

(A) Naval deployment

(B) desertion

(C) treason

(D) mediator

What was the Barbarian attitude to Rome?

(A) Awe and resentment

(B) attraction and unquestioning loyalty

(C) material attraction, and possibly as a safe haven

(D) Rome was barbarous Who conquered Dacia?

(A) Camuldunom

(B) Decebalus

(C) Trajan

(D) Domitian When was the second Jewish revolt?

(A) under Caligula

(B) under Nero

(C) Under Hadrian

(D) Under Vespasian What were the auxiliaries?

(A) non-Italian Roman citizens

(B) barbarians settled outside Roman borders, selling goods to state merchants

(C) Barbarians settled within Roman lands from the 50s, required to provide military service

(D) From beyond Roman boprders, coopted into service under legionary commanders and tribal lords. Sejanus was

(A) Augustus' comrade

(B) Caligula's tutor

(C) Boon companion of Tiberius, took advantage of position

(D) last consul Alimenta was begun under

(A) Trajan

(B) Hadrian

(C) Claudius

(D) Nerva When was the first recorded persecution of Christians by Rome?

(A) 33 CE

(B) 68 CE

(C) 65-67 CE

(D) 118 CE The Principate began to emerge in

(A) 29 BCE

(B) 23 BCE

(C) 27 BCE

(D) 14 BCE Equites were

(A) Emperor's cavalry

(B) Gaulic clients

(C) Knights-turned businessmen from Italian towns.

(D) Armenian sovereigns Bedricum II was in

(A) 69 CE

(B) 7 CE

(C) 30 BCE

(D) 44 BCE Agrippa was

(A) Mark Antony's lieutenant

(B) Octavian's chief companion, supporter

(C) Germanicus' wife

(D) Nerva's adopted heir Munda

(A) Began the Antony-Octavian conflict

(B) Last Caesar-Pompei era battle

(C) The Princeps mint

(D) Aeretium's glassware Britain was conquered in

(A) Caligula's reign

(B) Domitian's reign

(C) Claudius' reign

(D) Caesar's consulship

Who was not one of the Four Emperors?

(A) Galba

(B) Otho

(C) Primus

(D) Vespasian When did Caesar die?

(A) 15 March 47 BCE

(B) 1 March 44 BCE

(C) 15 March 44 BCE

(D) 33 BCE The core of Roman society was

(A) Asia Minor and Italy

(B) Italy

(C) The Mediterranean Basin

(D) Italy, Gaul, and Iberia Who put down the Jewish Revolt?

(A) Vespasian

(B) Florus

(C) Hadrian

(D) Titus Who killed Claudius?

(A) Agrippina

(B) Poppaea

(C) Sejanus

(D) Antoninus Pius What was the importance to Rome of North Africa?

(A) Preventing a Carthaginian resurgence

(B) Money tribute supporting the Roman economy

(C) grain and other foodstuffs

(D) gold and slaves Marcus Aurelius

(A) gave Roman citizenship to all in the empire

(B) was Balkan in origin

(C) was the son of Italians who settled in Iberia

(D) died from the plague Until 7 CE Augustus' goal in Germany was

(A) Annexation to Oder

(B) withdrawal

(C) the border on the Elbe

(D) Veterans' colonies The foundation of Roman law was

(A) avoidance of blood-feuds

(B) impersonal, to be applied to all

(C) based on place of origin

(D) heavily Christian by 450 By 96, the Senate

(A) was almost entirely Barbarian

(B) Mostly Patrician

(C) a king-maker

(D) mostly equestrian When did Rome burn?

(A) 69 CE

(B) 29 BCE

(C) 98 CE

(D) 64 CE Marcomanni were

(A) Dacian refugees

(B) Parthian horsemen

(C) Germanic tribals along Danube-Rhine

(D) Italian peasants Germans learned of Rome

(A) through conquest

(B) as slaves

(C) through trade and auxiliary service

(D) as new citizens

How were Caesar and Augustus related?

(A) nephew, and later adopted heir

(B) cousins

(C) father and son

(D) servant and master Hellenism attracted

(A) Caligula

(B) Nero

(C) Caligula and Nero

(D) Burrus and Seneca

(E) Aspirantion The Praetorian Guard was

(A) a group of papal officers provided by Constantine

(B) an elite corps of palace guards from Praetus

(C) Palace guards all of Italian birth who ended up making and unmaking emperors, eliminated by 200 Claudius was disliked

(A) because he was too Hellenistic

(B) because he was of non-Italian birth

(C) because he allowed the Jews to rebuild their Temple

(D) because he was infirm and ignored the Senate Who was the most favorite emperor after Augustus?

(A) Vespasian

(B) Trajan

(C) Antoninus Pius

(D) Hadrian Who innovated a standing army?

(A) Marius

(B) Agrippa

(C) Augustus

(D) Caesar Otho became emperor through

(A) battle

(B) bribery

(C) birth

(D) acclamation What was not one of Augustus' reforms?

(A) army

(B) Rome administration

(C) calendar

(D) career paths of senators

Further Reading Cary, M. & H.H. Scullard. A History of Rome Down to the Reign of Constantine. Third

ed. London: Macmillan Education, Ltd., 1979.

Salmon, E.T. A History of the Roman World: 30 BC to AD 138. London: Routledge, 1989.

Jones, A.H.M. Augustus. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1970.

Goodman, Norman. The Roman World: 44 BC--AD 180. London: Routledge, 1997.

Scarre, Chris. The Penguin Atlas of Ancient Rome. New York: Penguin, 1995.

Syme, R. The Roman Revolution. London: Oxford University Press, 1939.

Syme, R. The Augustan Aristocracy. London: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Lintott, A.W. Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration. London: Routledge,

1993.

Millar, F.G.B. The Emperor in the Roman world (31 BC--AD 337). Ithaca: Cornell

University Press, 1992

Brunt, P.A. Roman Imperial Themes. London: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Webster, G. The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD. Norman:

University of Oklahoma, 1998.

Keppie L.J.F. The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire. Norman:

University of Oklahoma, 1998.

Duncan-Jones, R. Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy. Cambridge; New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Smith. R.E. The Failure of the Roman Republic. New York: Arno Press, 1975.