The Roman Empire

 

Questions:

  1. How was Augustus able to establish a monarchy that worked?
  2. What factors contributed to the decline of the empire after 180?
  3. Briefly identify terms in bold.

 


 

After the assassination of Caesar, Rome again plunged into the chaos of civil war. Octavian Caesar, grand nephew to Julius and his adopted son and heir, allied himself with Marc Antony, a leading general and friend of Julius Caesar.  Together they defeated the armies of the Senate and divided the Empire between them, each ruling half.     Octavian Caesar became suspicious of Marc Antony's alliance with Cleopatra, the powerful Queen of Egypt, and in 31 BC, at the battle of Actium, Octavian defeated his enemies.  Marc Antony and Cleopatra both committed suicide, leaving Octavian Caesar as sole ruler of Rome.

 

The formal end of the Republic can be dated to the year 27 BC, when Octavian accepts the title Augustus (the majestic one), truly a title fit for a king.  Octavian adopts this title as his name.  He is careful to insist he is not a king: he calls himself princeps: "first citizen" of the Republic.  It is interesting that this word is the basis for the word "prince," because whatever Augustus might say, the Republic is dead and the Roman monarchy or Roman Empire has begun.

 

After 27 BC, Augustus was the unchallenged ruler of Rome. His long reign, from 27 BC to AD 14 marked an end to the era of civil war, a continuation of reforms begun under Julius Caesar, and the beginning of a remarkable era of peace, order, and prosperity: the era known as the Pax Romana.

 

Augustus

 

The Pax Romana (27 BC to AD 180) was a time when revolts were few, government was effective, and economic prosperity was wide-spread.  Stretching from Britain to Mesopotamia, the Empire united nearly 100 million diverse peoples. One law bound together Britain, Italians, Greeks, and a host of others.  While some areas resisted this process of   Romanization (uprisings of Jews in Judea and Gauls in present-day  France are examples), most people viewed themselves as Romans, even though they had never set foot in Italy.

 

Roman conquest of Jerusalem, AD 81.

 

Political Disorder

 

The good times begin to come to an end after 180.  Rome had never worked out a reliable method for choosing a new emperor, and after 180, a series of powerful generals competed for power, often plunging Rome, once again, into civil war. Numbers tell the story.  In the second century, only five men sat on the imperial throne, while in the third century, several dozen emperors rise briefly to power for brief, chaotic reigns—most removed from power through violence.

 

Germanic invaders taking Roman prisoners.

 

 

Military Breakdown

 

 Beginning in the third century, the borders of the Roman Empire were tested by invaders.  Germanic tribes from northern Europe (such as the Visigoths, Vandals, Franks, and others) broke through Roman defenses to raid and, later, occupy Roman lands.  In the fourth and fifth centuries, fierce Asiatic invaders—principally the Huns—moved slowly westward, entering and disrupting the empire.

 

Text Box:   Key Milestones in the Military Collapse of Rome: 378:   An army of Visigoths defeated the Romans at the battle of Adrianople 410:   The “sack of Rome”--the Visigoths invaded and plundered the city of Rome 450s:  The Huns under Attila invade Italy 476:   The traditional date for the fall of the empire in the West: the last Roman Emperor (Romulus Augustulus) is dethroned by the German general Odoacer.    

 

 

Economic Decline

 

Fierce fighting in the third century along with outbreaks of epidemic diseases (possibly the Black Death) reduced the population dramatically, contributing to the economic decline. Heavy taxation to pay for the Roman soldiers and government bureaucrats drained resources. Taxes became harder and harder to collect, roads were left to decay, the infrastructure deteriorated, merchants found it harder to transport goods, trade withered, and wealth declined. Many townspeople fled to the relative safety of the country and sought refuge on the latifundias—great estates of wealthy lords. There, they accepted a serf-like status in exchange for a place to live—trading personal freedom for security. Historians trace the origins of the feudal system of the Middle Ages to this process.     

 

Two powerful emperors, Diocletian (d. 305) and Constantine (d. 337) tried to halt the decline (partly by dividing the empire into eastern and western halves), but their efforts were not successful.     The traditional date for the "end of the end" is the year AD 476, when the Germanic chief Odoacer overthrew the last the Roman emperors of the Western half of the Empire: Emperor Romulus Augustulus.The Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, from its capital city of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) continued to hold on for nearly 1,000 years, but the Roman Empire in the West was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diocletian divided the Empire