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 His rule was characterized by increasingly withdrawn and autocratic power.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