Roman Empire

Imperium Romanum
Roman Empire

National Motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus (Latin: The Senate and the People of Rome)
Official languages	Latin, later Greek
Capitals	Rome; later also Constantinople
Government	Monarchy in Republican forms, later Autocracy
Head of state	Emperor; after the division there was a Western Roman Emperor and an Eastern Roman Emperor
Deliberative Body	Roman Senate
Area  - Total - % water	1st before collapse approx. 3.5 million square miles at its height  ?%
Population  - Total	1st before collapse Estimated at 50-120 million
Establishment	September 2 31 BC
Dissolution	Division between the Western Roman Empire which fell on 4 September, 476, and the Eastern Roman Empire (also called Byzantine Empire) which fell on 29 May, 1453.
First emperor	Augustus (27 BC-14 AD)
Last Emperor	Theodosius I (347-395) last ruler over the whole empire, subsequent final division. Last Emperor of the West: Romulus Augustus (475-476) or Julius Nepos claiming the Empire until his death in 480. Last Emperor of the East: Constantine XI (1449-1453).
Preceding state	Roman Republic
Succeeding states	Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire (also called Byzantine Empire), Frankish Empire, Holy Roman Empire
Currency	Solidus, Aureus, Denarius, Sestertius, As
See also
edit

For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation).

The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Augustus in late 1st century BC. After Constantinople had been made capital and the Western parts were lost, the Eastern part continued its existence, in what is currently known as Byzantine Empire.

Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word imperium is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world under Roman rule. The expansion of this Roman territory beyond the borders of the initial city-state of Rome had started long before the state organization turned into an Empire. In its territorial peak after the conquest of Dacia by Trajan, the Roman Empire controlled approximately 5,900,000 sq.km. (2,300,000 sq.mi.) of land surface, thereby being the largest of all empires during the classical antiquity period of European history.

In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome (Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic) had already accumulated most of its territory beyond the Italian Peninsula, including former Mediterranean competitors Syracuse and Carthage. In the late Republic, Augustus definitively added Egypt to the Imperium Romanum.

Augustus' reforms turning the Roman state into an empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. This was due to the near-collapse of the empire during the period of invasion, civil war, and economic chaos known as the military anarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire.

The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set as 4th September 476, when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer forced the abdication of the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustus and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth Odoacer ruled nominally as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks.

From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire, Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. The legacy of the Roman empires on the culture, law, language, religion, government, military, and architecture of Western civilization remains in the present.

Roman titles of power were adopted by most of the successor states and later entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the Bulgarian Empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.

Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome

Because the empire of Rome lasted for such a long period of time (31 BC– 1453 AD), there are certain alternative names used by historians to distinguish between various semantic periods or eras. Such names include Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire which are used interchangeably throughout this article to mean the same as Roman Empire (or the Western or Eastern part thereof).

Traditionally, historians make a distinction between the Principate, the period following Augustus until the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Dominate, the period from Diocletian until the end of the Empire in the West. According to this theory, during the Principate (from the Latin word princeps, meaning "first citizen") the realities of dictatorship were carefully concealed behind Republican forms; while during the Dominate (from the word dominus, meaning "Lord") imperial power showed its uncovered face, with golden crowns and ornate imperial ritual. More recently historians established that the situation was far more nuanced: certain historical forms continued until the Byzantine period, more than one thousand years after they were created, and displays of imperial majesty were common from the earliest days of the Empire.

Age of Augustus (31 BC – AD 14)

Political developments

The territorial extent of the Roman Republic before the conquests of Octavian

As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is said to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been slowly undermined and set aside over the preceding century and Rome had been in continuous political crisis with periods of dictatorial rule since Sulla. The Augustan settlement proclaimed the "Republic restored" and retained the old republican institutions. However, the Emperor controlled all the armed forces and many provinces and in the city his word was considered of supreme authority. The increasingly thorough and visible power of the Emperor gradually developed into autocratic rule, while the republican institutions eroded into political meaninglessness.

The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus was essential in establishing this "restored Republic". Whereas his uncle Julius Caesar had established the undisguised rule of one man and was subsequently assassinated, Augustus retained republican forms and tried to de-emphasize his power while firmly retaining control. Augustus' reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:

• Creation of a position of supreme authority, controlling all military power and holding special political privileges. We refer to this position as Emperor of Rome;
• Fixation of the pay scale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one;
• Creation of the Praetorian Guard to protect the Emperor. The Emperors also used it to eliminate (real or perceived) threats, and the Praetorians frequently made and unmade Emperor before losing their preeminence in the 3rd century;
• Expansion to the easily defended natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus' death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years;
• Development of trade links with regions as far away as India and China;
• Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority;
• Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy;
• Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine I.

One significant failure of Augustus was his inability to pacify and Romanize the German frontier. The fact that Julius Caesar had done this to Gaul has been credited by historians for the ultimate extension of the life of the empire by at least a century. Eventually, the Germanic barbarians would sack Rome and destroy the empire. In the Battle of Teutoburg Forest during Octavian's rule, three Roman legions were wiped out by the Germanic tribes, partly due to poor planning by the general Publius Quintilius Varus. This failure resulted in the establishment of the rivers Rhine and Danube as the natural northern border of the Empire. In the following centuries Germanic tribes would cross this border - vast and difficult to guard - to make incursions into the Empire.

Cultural developments

Main article: Roman culture

The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.

Sources

The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus' reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:

• Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus' highly partisan autobiography,
• Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
• Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder.

Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions.

Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus' Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus' reign.

Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs

Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".

Tiberius (14–37)

The early years of Tiberius' reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched its treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.

Caligula (37–41)

At the time of Tiberius' death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus' son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was probably insane. He appointed his beloved horse to the Roman Senate. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain to fight the Sea God Neptune, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. He would have people secretly killed, and call for them to his palace. When they didn't appear, he would jokingly remark that they must have committed suicide. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was his own uncle, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus.

Claudius (41–54)

Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. He ordered the construction of a winter port for Rome, at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather.

In his own family life, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably poisoned him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius Nero.

Nero (54–69)

Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power and paranoia increased and he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of major riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britannia, Armenia, Parthia, and Iudaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered by the rumour that he played the lyre and sang during the Great Fire of Rome in 64, and hence "fiddled while Rome burned" (though the fiddle had yet to be invented). Nero is also remembered for his immense rebuilding of Rome following the fires. Nero began one of the first wholesale persecutions of Christians. The mark of the beast amongst Christians, 666, is believed to have originated based on Nero. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 was a year of civil war and is known as the Year of the Four Emperors, with Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling as Emperors in quick and violent succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.

Rebellions, uprisings and political consequences

It was relatively easy to rule the Roman Empire, from the central capital of Rome, during peacetime. An eventual rebellion was expected and would happen from time to time: a general or a governor would gain the loyalty of his officers through a mixture of personal charisma, promises and simple bribes. This would be a bad, but not catastrophic, event. The legions were spread around the borders and the rebel leader would, in normal circumstances, have only one or two legions under his command. Loyal legions would be detached from other points of the empire and would eventually drown the rebellion in blood. This happened even more easily in case of a local native uprising as the rebels would normally have no great military experience. Unless the emperor was weak, incompetent and/or universally despised and hated, these rebellions would be a local and isolated event.

During "real wartime," however, which could develop from a rebellion or a uprising, like the massive Jewish rebellion, this was totally and dangerously different. In a full-blown military campaign the legions under the command of the generals like Vespasian, were of a much greater number. A paranoid or wise emperor would hold some members of the general´s family as hostages, to make certain of the latter's loyalty. In effect, Nero held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis the governor of Ostia, who were, respectively, the younger son and the brother-in-law of Vespasian. This would be in normal circumstances quite enough. In fact, the rule of Nero ended with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard, who had been bribed in the name of Galba. It became all too obvious that the Praetorian Guard was a sword of Damocles, whose loyalty was all too often bought and who became increasingly greedy. Following their example, the legions at the borders would also increasingly participate in the civil wars. This was a dangerous development as this would weaken the whole Roman Army.

The main enemy, in the West, were arguably in the barbarian tribes behind the Rhine and the Danube. Octavian had tried to conquer them, but ultimately failed, and these barbarians were greatly feared. But by the large, they were left in peace, in order to fight amongst themselves, and were simply too divided to pose a greater threat.

The Parthian Empire, in the East, on the other hand, was simply too far away to be conquered. Any Parthian invasion was confronted and usually defeated, but the threat itself was ultimately impossible to destroy.

In the case of a Roman civil war these two enemies would seize the opportunity to invade Roman territory in order to raid and plunder. The two respective military frontiers became a matter of major political importance due to the number of the legions stationed there. All too often their generals would rebel, starting a new civil war. Indeed, many emperors would follow this path to power. To control the western border from Rome was relatively easy as it was relatively close. To control both frontiers, at the same time, during wartime, was hard. It was no longer enough to be a good administrator, emperors were increasingly near the troops in order to control them and no single emperor could be at the two frontiers at the same time. This problem would plague the ruling emperors time and time again and many future emperors would follow this path to power.

Flavian Dynasty

The Flavians, although a relatively short lived dynasty, helped restore stability to an empire on its knees. Although there are criticisms of all three, especially based on their more centralized style of rule, it was the reforms and good rule of the three that helped create a stable empire that would last well into the 3rd Century. However, their background as a military dynasty led to further irrelevancy of the senate, and the move from princeps, or first citizen, to imperator, or emperor, was finalized during their reign.

Vespasian (69–79)

Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate. At the age of 60 and battle hardened he was hardly a charismatic emperor, but he turned out to be an excellent ruler none the less.

Although Vespasian was considered quite the autocrat by the senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body that had been going since the reign of Tiberius. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. Another example was his assumption of the censorship in 73, giving him power over who made up the senate. He used that power to expel dissident senators. At the same time, he increased the number of senators from 200, at that low level due to the actions of Nero and the year of crisis that followed, to 1000, most of the new senators coming not from Rome but from Italy and the urban centers within the western provinces.

Vespasian was able to liberate Rome from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. To do this, he not only increased taxes, but created new forms of taxation. Also, through his power as censor he was able to carefully examine the fiscal status of every city and province, many paying taxes based upon information and structures more than a century old. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater); he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace. In addition, he alloted sizable subsidies to the arts, creating a chair of rhetoric at Rome.

Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces in his decades of office, having posts all across the empire, both east and west. In the west he gave considerable favoritism to Spain in which he granted Latin rights to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanization throughout the western (i.e. formerly barbarian) provinces. Through the additions he made to the Senate he allowed greater influence of the provinces in the Senate, helping to promote unity in the empire. He also extended the borders of the empire on every front, most of which was done to help strengthen the frontier defenses, one of Vespasian's main goals. The crisis of 69 had wrought havoc on the army. One of the most marked problems had been the support lent by provincial legions to men who supposedly represented the best will of their province. This was mostly caused by the placement of native auxiliary units in the areas they were recruited in, a practice Vespasian stopped. He mixed auxiliary units with men from other areas of the empire or moved the units away from where they were recruited to help stop this. Also, to further reduce the chances of another military coup he broke up the legions, and instead of placing them in singular concentrations broke them up along the border. Perhaps the most important military reform he undertook was the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Italy to Gaul and Spain, in line with the Romanization of those areas.

Titus (79–81)

Titus, the eldest son of Vespasian, had been groomed to rule. He had served as an effective general under his father, helping to secure the east and eventually taking over the command of Roman armies in Syria and Iudaea, quelling the significant Jewish revolt going on at the time. He shared the consul for several years with his father and received the best tutelage. Although there was some trepidation when he took office due to his known dealings with some of the less respectable elements of Roman society, he quickly proved his merit, even recalling many exiled by his father as a show of good faith. However, his short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, and in 80, a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. Titus died in 81, at the age of 41 of what is presumed to be illness; it was rumored that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor, although these claims have little merit. Whatever the case, he was greatly mourned and missed.

Domitian (81–96)

All of the Flavians had rather poor relations with the Senate, due to their autocratic rule, however Domitian was the only one who encountered significant problems. His continuous control as consul and censor throughout his rule, the former his father sharing in much the same way of his Julio-Claudian forerunners, the latter having difficulty even obtaining, were unheard of. In addition, he often appeared in full military regalia as an imperator, an affront to the idea of what the Principate-era emperor's power was based upon, the emperor as the princeps. His reputation in the Senate aside, he kept the people of Rome happy through various measures, including donations to every resident of Rome, wild spectacles in the newly finished Colosseum, and continuing the public works projects of his father and brother. He also apparently had the good fiscal sense of his father, because although he spent lavishly his successors came to power with a well endowed treasury.

However, during the end of his reign Domitian became extremely paranoid which probably had its initial roots in the treatment he received by his father: although given significant responsibility, he was never trusted with anything important without supervision. This flowered into the severe and perhaps pathological repercussions following the short lived rebellion in 89 of Antonius Saturninus, a governor and commander in Germany. Domitian's paranoia led to a large number of arrests, executions, and seizure of property (which might help explain his ability to spend so lavishly). Eventually it got to the point where even his closest advisers and family members lived in fear, leading them to his murder in 96 orchestrated by his enemies in the Senate, Stephanus (the steward of the deceased Julia Flavia), members of the Praetorian Guard and empress Domitia Longina.

The Antonine Dynasty (96 – 180)

The next century came to be known as the period of the "Five Good Emperors", in which the succession was peaceful though not dynastic and the Empire was prosperous. The emperors of this period were Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180), each being adopted by his predecessor as his successor during the latter's lifetime. While their respective choices of successor were based upon the merits of the individual men they selected, it has been argued that the real reason for the lasting success of the adoptive scheme of succession lay more with the fact that none of them had a natural heir.

Under Trajan, the Empire's borders briefly achieved their maximum extension with provinces created in Mesopotamia in 117. From 166, Roman embassies to China, first sent under the reign of Antonius Pius and probably traveling on the southern sea route, are recorded in Chinese historical sources such as the Later Han History.

Commodus (180–192)

The period of the "five good emperors" was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus. Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had turned out so well. He was co-emperor with his father from 177. When he became sole emperor upon the death of his father in 180, it was at first seen as a hopeful sign by the people of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, as generous and magnanimous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite.

Commodus is often thought to have been insane, and he was certainly given to excess. He began his reign by making an unfavorable peace treaty with the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius. Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. In 190, a part of the city of Rome burned, and Commodus took the opportunity to "re-found" the city of Rome in his own honor, as Colonia Commodiana. The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army. Commodus was strangled in his sleep in 192, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as a consul. Upon his death, the Senate passed damnatio memoriae on him and restored the proper name to the city of Rome and its institutions. The popular movies The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and Gladiator (2000) were loosely based on the career of the emperor Commodus, although they should not be taken as accurate historical depictions of his life.

Severan dynasty (193–235)

The Severan dynasty includes the increasingly troubled reigns of Septimius Severus (193–211), Caracalla (211–217), Macrinus (217–218), Elagabalus (218–222), and Alexander Severus (222–235). The founder of the dynasty, Lucius Septimius Severus, belonged to a leading native family of Leptis Magna in Africa who allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. Their provincial background and cosmopolitan alliance, eventually giving rise to imperial rulers of Syrian background, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, testifies to the broad political franchise and economic development of the Roman empire that had been achieved under the Antonines. A generally successful ruler, Septimius Severus cultivated the army's support with substantial remuneration in return for total loyalty to the emperor and substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. In this way, he successfully broadened the power base of the imperial administration throughout the empire, also by abolishing the regular standing jury courts of Republican times.

Caracalla