The Development of the Roman Empire

Transcription

1 The Development of the Roman Empire Unit 2, Lesson 8 Essential Questions What events took place during the early history of Rome, particularly in the case of the Etruscans and the Roman Republic ( B.C.E.)? What tensions were held between the plebeian and patrician classes? What was the political structure of the Roman Republic? How did Rome expand from 270 to 146 B.C.E.? What were the origins and outcomes of the Punic Wars? How did Rome expand from 214 to 169 B.C.E.? What were the reasons for the collapse of the Roman Republic? What were the major events of the Roman Empire (including the rule of Caesar Augustus) and what were the general trends of emperors during the first two and a half centuries C.E.? What was the territorial expanse of the Roman Empire? Keywords Augustus caesar consul dictator equites latifundia patron-client relationship Principate Roman Republic Senate tribune

2 Unit 2, Lesson 8 2 Set the Stage If you ve been to one of the world s great cities, such as New York, London, Milan, or Paris, you know the excitement and thrill that comes from being in a big urban center: the rush of traffic, the variety of merchandise, and the crush of a crowd. Particularly for people of the ancient world, a trip to the city would have been seen as an exciting opportunity to experience diversity, meet new people, and come into contact with other cultures. So, how did people come up with the idea of the city in the first place? Some of the earliest forerunners of today s modern cities developed in the heart of the ancient world, where traders and politicians began to work together in common areas that had convenient locations and scope for development. One of the first of these great cities developed in the heart of Europe: Rome. Early Rome The great city of Rome is one of the most ancient urban centers in the world, with origins extending back to 2000 B.C.E. Depending on whom you ask, those origins have both traditional and historic components. Tradition places the founding of Rome within the boundaries of Roman epics, specifically within Virgil s The Aeneid. In The Aeneid, hero Aeneas escapes the fall of Troy by heading to Italy. He is the ancestor of two twins, Romulus and Remus, who, legend has it, grew up in the family of a female wolf after they were sent as babies to almost certain death on the Tiber River (an event which has interesting parallels to the story of Moses). Romulus went on to create the city of Rome, which is named after him, in 753 B.C.E. According to legend, Romulus (founder of Rome) and his brother Remus were raised by a she-wolf.

3 Unit 2, Lesson 8 3 However, historic fact shows that European individuals began living in the regions of today s Italy as early as 2000 B.C.E., and they had certainly come to Romulus s area by 1000 B.C.E. These people who lived off the land prospered slowly and steadily. They brought their small farms together sometime around 600 B.C.E. Rome as we think of it today started out as a small region governed by a single monarch, much like the poleis of Greece, and its people were known as Etruscans. The Etruscans, who rose to power around 800 B.C.E., lived throughout northern Italy and in Rome (the south of Italy was occupied by people of Greek descent) and were a relatively sophisticated people with interests in urban centers, trade, and arts. The Etruscans themselves probably originated from the Asian continent prior to their arrival in Europe, although their origin is not firmly established. More is known about the kind of society they formed than where they came from. The Etruscan people venerated their upper classes and privileged the elites over the commoners. However, people from all walks of life in Etruscan society could enjoy arts and leisure. The Etruscans generally seem to have had a particularly strong work ethic. Overall, the Etruscans did not spend as much time pursuing scholarship or investigating intellectual thought; instead, they built, created, and focused on the material objects that surrounded them in everyday life. Many of the Etruscans traits and customs were then passed down to the Romans who replaced them, including their style of writing (a pattern of letters that had originally come from Greece), their clothing fashions (the draped robes called togas), their architecture, and their entertainment (including battles between gladiators). The Etruscan way of life did not disappear so much as it became dissolved into the Roman way. The Etruscans grip on power was slipping in the 700s. Enemies from the outside, such as the Gauls (people of Celtic origins from France), removed them from power, and in their place arose a Roman-Etruscan ruler. Kings governed the Etruscan-influenced Romans for 200 years, and during this time the Romans made further advances in architecture and city living, crafting houses of worship around an area known as Capitoline Hill, and also building other structures that served large groups of civilians, such as the Forum. At that point, Rome started to become an international destination for commerce, in part because it was conveniently located among all the other regions interested in exchanging goods. Rome was easily accessible from a variety of locations both by foot and by boat. People from widely separated regions could meet in the middle they could meet in Rome. Rome was ideally situated to become an important region: it could be defended easily because it faced a large body of water and a mountainous range, it had a strong food supply and many natural resources, and its climate was very temperate. In such a region, people valued property and used it to measure others positions in society. While the Romans bowed to the rule of kings, male members of the upper class also contributed to the government as senators. The upper-class senators obeyed seven Roman-Etruscan kings in succession, from Romulus to Tarquinius Superbus (also known as Tarquin the Proud). Despite these advances, Rome s people disliked the government; by the 500s B.C.E., the people had rebelled against the status quo and successfully created a change. Influential senator Brutus is to be credited for activating and encouraging

4 Unit 2, Lesson 8 4 this rebellion. Nearly overnight, the Roman government transformed from a monarchy to one of the world s first republics, the Roman Republic. Such a governing system would remain in power until 31 B.C.E., or for nearly 500 years. During this time, the Roman army would become much stronger and its fighters more disciplined. They outpaced their Greek counterparts by approaching international relations from a militaristic and diplomatic standpoint. Plebeians, Patricians, and Politics The Roman Republic strongly influenced and altered the shape of Rome. First, the Republic determined the very architecture of their city. All business was built radiating around an important structure called the Roman Forum. The Forum mixed business and religion together; it became an important center for government, religious worship, and social interaction. Second, the Roman Republic governed by a strange mixture of popular vote and social superiority. The Republic had two governing bodies that dated back to Etruscan times: the Assembly and the Senate. The Assembly represented the popular vote, but only men received permission to participate in its exchanges, and richer men had more of a voice within it. The Senate was more like a cabinet or group of special advisors, and it primarily included the wealthy and privileged. The Assembly had more members, while the Senate had more power. Apart from the Assembly and the Senate, two men known as consuls held authority over daily life and the military. The consuls did not achieve their positions automatically by position or inheritance, but had to be voted in to their positions by members of the upper class. Just as the Roman Republic had two governing bodies, its citizens quickly separated into two types of people. The patricians were the members of the higher class who had achieved their positions either by inheriting them or by amassing a great deal of money. The patricians filled up the Senate, and they also spilled over into the Assembly. The upper classes therefore had a stronger voice in the government. The plebeians were the poorer, common masses that the patricians governed. Roman society did not originally allow much social mobility: the patricians and the plebeians accepted their lots in life based on the classes into which they had been born. It is tempting to think of the plebeians as the poor and downtrodden individuals who had to obey the great and domineering patricians, but that does not universally describe Roman society. Particularly in the last years of the Roman Republic, the gap between some plebeians and patricians began to narrow. While the people still retained their original class standing, some of the patricians no longer possessed any wealth, while some of the luckier, hard-working plebeians began to catch up to the patricians in terms of influence and cachet. Perhaps because of the great disparity between their ranks, the plebeians and the patricians did not get along. Over time their relationship worsened, and at one point in the 400s B.C.E., the plebeians nearly revolted. They went on strike and some of them even departed or threatened to depart the city. To smooth things over, in 450 B.C.E. the patricians agreed to abide by a set of legal restrictions made public throughout the city. The patricians also gave the plebeians a more expanded voice in the Republic s government. The plebeians got to vote on their own delegates to Roman Republic the government and state of Rome from the 500s to 31 B.C.E.; not a monarchy but a governmental system that favored rule by the rich and aristocratic Senate governing body in Rome made up of upper-class individuals elected to their positions consul one of the two leaders of the Roman government, elected to the position by an elite group 1 Self-check Which government official encouraged the rebellion that led to the formation of the Roman Republic?

5 Unit 2, Lesson 8 5 the patrician-dominated government. These delegates became known as tribunes. Soon after the tribunes introduction, the plebeians were granted permission to bring ten tribunes into the government at a time. The tribunes served as a means of checking the existing bodies of government, and they aimed to keep the patricians from taking advantage of the plebeians too much. The concession of the tribunes fixed problems on the surface; however, it did not reconcile relations between the plebeians and the patricians. Even though the plebeians had more power, the patricians seemed to be holding on tenaciously to their own authority. Over the next several hundred years, the plebeians pressed for and gradually received more agency within their own government. The plebeians even became eligible to stand for consul. On rare occasions, the system of consuls, senators, and tribunes did not suffice to protect the city of Rome or govern it when turmoil arose. At that time, a temporary leader called a dictator would receive total power over the city and its government. After half a year, the dictator would step back and the traditional republican system of government would begin operating again. Overall, the problems between classes continued. Within the classes, Romans separated themselves into individual family units. Each unit turned to the man of the greatest age, known as the paterfamilias, for guidance and instruction. Outside of these family units, some of the plebeians and patricians came together in a system called the patron-client relationship. This relationship benefited the patron (a patrician) and the client (a plebeian). Each man offered something to the other and received something in return; for example, the clients would fight in wars along with the patrons, and the patrons would give the clients financial assistance when necessary. Often, a patron would have not just one client, but several; in fact, the more clients a patron had, the more important he seemed. The Growth of Rome While Roman politics developed and changed, the Romans increasingly dominated their neighbors. Early on, in the 400s B.C.E., it seemed as though Rome might not expand, since the city had to fight foes from at least two different parties, including the recently departed Etruscans and the ever-persistent Gauls. Had either foreign force succeeded in its aims, the Roman Empire might very well have ended up as the Etruscan Empire, or the Gallic Region. Yet the Romans pulled themselves together, focused their military, and within the next two hundred years pushed all the invaders out. In addition, the Romans became more interested in taking over neighboring regions. The Romans first set their sights on nearby parts of today s Italy, including land held by the Etruscans. With each victory in Italy, Rome became more powerful. The Romans treated their conquered foes with dignity for the most part. The people in conquered lands became assimilated into the Roman state, while retaining a good measure of autonomy (having a say over their own affairs and finances). The conquered did not automatically move to the lowest status position in Roman society as they might have been forced to do by other conquerors. In some cases, the people might have actually been better off under Roman rule. The conquered tribune official with a plebeian background elected to the Senate dictator temporary military and political leader of Rome, brought into power for half a year at a time patron-client relationship bond between a patrician and plebeian in which each gave the other something (i.e. military support, finances)

6 Unit 2, Lesson 8 6 peoples armed forces also became subsumed into Rome s thus, the more territory Rome won, the better prepared it became to target even more territory. In these conquered territories, the Romans developed different strategies for government. At first, they tried to preserve the individuality of the people and govern from a distance. The Romans let the locals gather their own taxes and judge their own issues. The Romans did send out governors to each district on a rotating basis. The governors had significant power in their respective regions both politically and militarily. However, this system did not seem to work on a long-term basis. It became difficult to enforce proper behavior from a distance, and the rapid changes between governors resulted in a lack of consistency across the regions. The Romans were able to take over new lands because they had developed such a strong military, based on a draft of men with property who were well-trained in strategies on the battlefield. The Roman military quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the ancient world. This military first deployed against other neighboring regions in Italy, successfully taking over farmland in the region of the Apennines, followed by the fertile grounds of Campania, which extended to modern-day Naples. 2 Self-check Which two enemies did the Romans fight in the 400s B.C.E.? The Punic Wars By 270 B.C.E. nearly all of Italy bowed to Rome, but over the centuries leading up to that date the Romans continued to expand their empire throughout the Mediterranean and in several directions: east, north, and south. Historians are not in complete consensus regarding the reasons for this Roman interest in stretching the boundaries of its empire. Nevertheless, that interest is clearly proven in the actions Romans took, over and over again, to do precisely that. However, Rome s winning streak of expansion outside of Italy first faltered during the 400s and 300s, when the Romans targeted a region called Carthage, today known as Tunis. The people of Carthage, originally from Lebanon, could trace their origins to Phoenicia. Carthage had many similarities to Rome, which made it a formidable competitor. Like Rome, Carthage was a trade destination that was centrally located, easily accessible, and handily defensible. Carthage had financial and political strength, too, and had even begun to make inroads into the south of Italy, specifically in Sicily. Eventually, the disagreements between Rome and Carthage led to full-scale conflict. Starting in 264 B.C.E. and continuing for more than 100 years, Rome and Carthage battled in what became known as the Punic Wars, so-called after the Romans term for their opponents, the Punici, rather than today s historic term of Carthaginians. Both sides saw Sicily as the key to expanding their empire and defeating their opponent. Unfortunately, it took three separate wars which collectively made up the Punic Wars to decisively end the problem. Things did not end peacefully, and they certainly did not end well for the people of Carthage. In order to stamp out their competition to the south definitively, the people of Rome attacked and razed Carthage. In addition to Carthage, Rome absorbed Sicily and two other important areas: Spain and Sardinia. While the Romans had been kind to the people they had conquered in Italy, the Romans took a different tack with the conquered people of Carthage, enslaving as many as 50,000 of them. The Romans also burned Carthage

7 Unit 2, Lesson 8 7 for at least a week and a half and possibly as long as two and a half weeks. During that time, the Romans made sure that all the elements of Carthaginian architectural identity including the sides of the city itself, the internal structures, and the surrounding port had become ruined and unusable. In addition, according to some versions of the events at Carthage, the Romans even filled all the fields around Carthage with salt so that no nourishment could survive there. It is possible that this last element of the Carthaginians punishment is based in legend rather than in historic fact. However, the spoils from the wars were great, and Rome profited significantly when it overthrew Carthage. On a grander scale, Rome s triumph over Carthage became a key step in the city s quest for empire since it brought even more of the western section of Eurasia under Roman control. Rome also had to contend with the remainder of Alexander the Great s Empire. Alexander s region, the Hellenic, had split into three parts, each with its own military and desire for land. The Hellenes, too, had enough finances to support considerable skirmishes. However, the Hellenes had also become distracted by internal conflicts, which left the door open to Roman intervention. While in Carthage the Romans fought three wars; in the Hellenic Mediterranean they fought five. These wars began in 215 B.C.E. and ended at approximately the same time the Punic Wars did, in the 140s B.C.E. When the Hellenic Wars concluded, Rome became victorious again. The Romans did not enslave the Hellenes outright, however, and seem to have treated the Hellenes better than the Carthaginians overall. At first, the Romans tried to share the rule of those regions with agents from other countries, but this plan failed. The Romans had to send in their own representatives to govern the foreigners. One shining example is the deployment of a man named Julius Caesar to take control of Gaul. Caesar made huge advances in Gaul in the eight years following 59 B.C.E., and would later make moves toward Rome itself. After Caesar s advances in Gaul, Rome continued to incorporate more and more of Europe into its burgeoning empire. Cracks in the Roman Republic Not everything went so smoothly for Rome, however, particularly on the domestic side. The more people an empire comprises, the more strained that empire s resources become. No matter how skilled the empire s bureaucracy, its representatives cannot be everywhere at once. Gradually, cracks in the system begin to show, and Rome s history is an optimal example of this process. During Rome s imperial expansion, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, especially in the years after the Punic Wars. The rich members of the upper classes seized the opportunity to increase their own finances when presented with the chance to take over some property conquered in Rome s successful wars. This type of property seizure marked a substantial difference in the ways Romans treated their conquered enemies, compared to their attitudes in the 500s B.C.E. Before, the Romans let their former enemies live in relative peace. Now, many of those enemies found themselves as indentured servants at best and slaves at worst, working for their conquerors in menial tasks and often being forced to do so on the very lands they had once inhabited as free men. Extremely rich Romans selected caesar a title given to Roman emperors

8 Unit 2, Lesson 8 8 conquered pieces of earth and made them into their own elaborate compounds or latifundia. The latifundia owners not only profited from using slaves; they also were able to cut down on competition with less wealthy Romans, who could not keep up with the production and low costs of the latifundia. To make matters worse, the poorer people often had to serve in the army for extended periods, which meant they did not remain at home to keep an eye on their own lands. Members of the upper classes, many of whom were unscrupulous, often seized those areas and added them to their latifundia. This change not only affected the divide between the classes within Rome; it also changed the way Romans generated food for their own people. Before the rise of the latifundia, Romans had primarily attended to grain-based crops, which meant people hardly hungered for bread. However, the people of the latifundia became more interested in making money from their lands, and to do so they focused on other products such as meat and wine. Rome had to bring in wheat from elsewhere, which did not become an issue for those rich enough to afford it, but it certainly became a problem for the plebeians. To complicate matters further, the slaves who worked at the latifundia made the indigenous farmers in Rome obsolete. It became much more affordable to use slaves than to employ plebeians. In many cases, the lower class, free people of Rome, had nowhere to live and nowhere to work. Naturally, their unhappiness increased. These unhappy people acted out against the government, rioting and causing damage to property and persons. They also abused their voting privileges to try to raise some desperately needed funds. The long-held tensions between the patricians and the plebeians eventually led to a tremendous battle within Rome by the early 100s B.C.E. In addition to building from the class tension long-established in Rome, this battle arose due to the actions of two men named Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus. The two brothers wanted to shorten the gap between the extremely rich landowners and the rather poor commoners, and they sought to do so by advocating for new laws. The Gracchi brothers, as they were known, wanted to limit the size of the latifundia so that the very rich would stop accelerating their own wealth and give other poorer people a chance to benefit from Rome s imperial expansion. The very rich saw their efforts as a threat and disagreed with the Gracchis plan. Soon enough, both of the Gracchis were murdered within about a decade of one another. By 121 B.C.E., neither of the brothers posed a threat to the upper classes. After the episode with the Gracchi brothers, it seemed clear that Rome could no longer continue as the patrician Republic its upper classes so desired it to be. The small group of elite individuals who held sway over the large group of citizens did not pay enough attention to the needs of those citizens, and the government weakened. It became ripe for a takeover, and several military men became eager to attempt it. These military men included two experienced fighters: Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius. Sulla wanted to preserve the old ways, while Marius wanted to usher in change. Each of these military men and several others developed his own small but potent set of armed forces. When these armed forces clashed, the battle within Rome began. latifundia elaborate compounds in foreign lands owned by the Roman elite and staffed by conquered slaves

9 Unit 2, Lesson 8 9 Marius had a great deal of public backing since he reached out to people of the lower classes and encouraged them to join him in the fight for Rome. Since Marius promised these men rights they could not obtain under the current system, they quickly became loyal to him. Marius s popularity is evidenced by the fact that he became consul of Rome not once but six times. Thus, when Marius struck Rome first in 87 B.C.E., he seemed very successful, at least initially. He took over Rome completely. Unfortunately for Marius, this triumph only lasted a year; he died in 86 B.C.E. His death was bad news for his followers and those who had advocated for change in Rome s government. Marius death also left the door open for another army, led by Sulla, to come back into Rome. Just four years after Marius took Rome, Sulla had a tremendous victory there. Sulla, crueler than Marius, wasted no time in removing as many of his opponents as he could, in most cases permanently. Sulla ruled over Rome until 78 B.C.E., when he passed away. By that time, thousands of Romans had died, the class division between rich and poor had begun to widen again, and the latifundia continued. The Rise of Caesar Rome remained full of unrest, and the Republic itself had entered its last days. The Roman political stage became set for the entrance of a powerful individual like Julius Caesar, who, after his time in Gaul, would turn his masterful attention to Rome itself. Caesar already had close ties to the Roman government through his military background and his familial relationship with the recently deceased general Marius when he began to rise to power in the 60s B.C.E. Although Sulla s forces had tried to eradicate Marius s close connections when Sulla came to power, Caesar evaded their notice, and increased his popularity in Rome after Sulla passed away. Caesar understood the importance of having the common people on his side and maintained a very visible public presence in Rome. Caesar designed great, violent entertainments and also claimed to be interested in helping the poorer people of Rome recover some of their financial and civic dignity. On the side, he began developing his own cadre of loyal, well-trained soldiers. During the 50s B.C.E., Caesar took his soldiers to Gaul and triumphed there on behalf of Rome. Then his ambition increased and he wanted to rule Rome. He attacked Rome in 49 B.C.E. It took a few years, but by 45 B.C.E., Caesar had gained supreme control over Rome. Caesar ignored the other elements of the Republic s government, taking up the position of dictator and overall ruler. While in the past dictators had ruled for half a year at a time, Caesar declared he had no intention of ever abandoning the office. Once installed as dictator, Caesar kept his promises to the lower classes. In some ways, Caesar did the people of Rome a great deal of good. He increased the equality between the different Although Julius Caesar ruled Rome as its dictator only briefly, he made tremendous changes to the Republic s government, which would not outlast him for very long.

10 Unit 2, Lesson 8 10 peoples conquered by the Romans, and made several innovations in Rome that awarded greater freedom to the plebeians and kept the patricians from increasing their wealth too quickly. Caesar, who extended the reach of Rome s Republic by setting up colonies in the areas his armies had conquered, helped set up poorer plebeians in those areas and enabled them to make better lives for themselves outside of Rome. Caesar also helped diminish the amount of people working as slaves and enabled more people in the lands Rome had conquered to become free citizens of the region with according rights. The dictator also claimed more rights for himself as both the leader of the state and the leader of the armed forces. He also changed the way people kept track of days, months, and years by establishing a new calendar. This calendar, called the Julian calendar in his honor, has been used to keep track of time for thousands of years and is still utilized in twenty-first century society. However, the patricians intensely disliked the way their wealth and power was declining under Caesar s rule, and sought to overthrow him. In 44 B.C.E., the patricians had Caesar killed. Unfortunately for the patricians, getting rid of Caesar did not get rid of his ideas or innovations, which had weakened the structure of the Republic and had suggested a government headed by an absolute, permanent ruler. After Caesar, the military men who followed him, such as Mark Antony and Octavian, would bring further conflicts to their beloved city s government until the republic itself dissolved in 31 B.C.E. 3 Self-check Which military man took power in Rome first: Marius or Sulla? Et tu, Brute?: William Shakespeare s Interpretation of Julius Caesar When most people think of Julius Caesar, they probably imagine scenes from William Shakespeare s play featuring the main events of Caesar s life, Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare s version of events, when the senators fatally stab Caesar, Caesar dramatically calls out, Et tu, Brute? before perishing. Et tu, Brute? is Latin for And you, Brutus? and may be one of the more well-known Shakespearean quotes. However, Shakespeare s version of Caesar s death doesn t exactly follow historic fact. One of the most reputable sources, a history scholar and Roman named Suetonius (who lived in the early years of the Common Era), explains clearly that Caesar s first language wasn t Latin: instead, Caesar relied on Greek. Caesar simply would not have used Latin to utter his final words; he would have used Greek. Suetonius does claim that Caesar s last words were spoken to Brutus, but that Caesar used Greek, saying kai su, teknon, which roughly translates to you, too, child. Just as in Shakespeare s version of events, precisely what Caesar meant is open to speculation. While it is possible that Caesar was simply horrified and stunned to find that his close friend Brutus had conspired in the murder, it is also possible that Caesar was trying to make a prediction that Brutus s own time of betrayal would come. Either way, in Shakespeare s case, he not only changed the Greek to Latin, but he made Caesar s final words a question rather than a statement. By doing so, Shakespeare (slightly) rewrote history. While historians do not know exactly what Caesar meant when he said kai su, teknon, they can surmise that anything Caesar would have uttered while dying would probably not have been in Latin, but in Greek.

11 Unit 2, Lesson 8 11 Caesar Augustus and the Emperors of Rome For over a decade after Caesar s death, Rome endured conflict, and no new leader emerged to guide the empire. But in 31 B.C.E., Mark Antony and Octavian, who had been fighting to seize control of the empire, met in a decisive and final conflict. Although Mark Antony had a powerful ally in Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Octavian (who happened to be closely related to Caesar) triumphed and took over Rome. Just four years later, in 27 B.C.E., Octavian received complete control of and acceptance from the Senate, and he became known as Augustus from that point forward. Octavian received this name because it indicated how noble and virtuous he was. While noble and virtuous he may have been, Augustus, sometimes known as Caesar Augustus, used his skills to cement his position in Rome and shape the government that followed his rule. Ostensibly, Augustus took control of what was still a republic; actually, he had become a ruler with religious and royal powers. Augustus would end his days as the functioning emperor of all Rome s lands. However, it would take nearly fifty years before that time came, and in the meantime Augustus used his near halfcentury in power to shape and mold the Roman Empire for future generations. Augustus did not ease into his position in power; on the contrary, during his first days in control of Rome he had to solve four separate, potentially ruinous issues. First, Augustus had to turn his attention to the north of his realm, which had been left partially unprotected due to internal problems within the army. These army problems had developed because of the larger battles for control of Rome by various generals during the past decade. Thus, in order to take care of the northern border, Augustus had to get the military back in shape and under control. The army was taking on a life of its own, and Augustus had to establish his power over that institution. In addition, Augustus had to convince the current standing members of the government to support him and trust him, or the entire bureaucracy could have collapsed. Finally, Augustus had to pay attention to the other citizens of his empire, including those who lived in rural and urban areas. Augustus had to bring everyone together and under his control. Undaunted, Augustus met these challenges, turning his initial attention to the pressing matter of the border at the north. Augustus supplemented the military support at that border and backed off from any further expansion for the time being; instead, he concentrated on strengthening his grasp on what he already had. Next, Augustus trimmed the size of his military forces, retaining the 9,000 most well-trained for his own elite personal force, called the Praetorian Guard. In later years, the Praetorians would come to wield significant power and influence over the success of future emperors. Augustus disposed of the rest of the soldiers, either removing them from the army altogether or sending them to rural areas, where the soldiers could do little harm and could not get together in large groups to plan rebellion. To ease this transition, Augustus instituted a pension plan for individuals who had spent over two decades in the army. Finally, Augustus treated the patricians with deference and gave them limited responsibility close to home. While Augustus used some of the same tactics proposed by his close relation Caesar, he also refused to alienate the upper classes that had such a monopoly on influence and wealth. Augustus Augustus emperor of Rome from 27 B.C.E. to 14 C.E.

12 Unit 2, Lesson 8 12 A Piece of HiSTory The Annals of Ancient Rome A passage from the famed historian Tacitus s text, The Annals of Ancient Rome, reveals a fairly harsh interpretation of the rule of Augustus. In describing the events of the pax romana, which was a call for peace that took place within Augustus s time, Tacitus points out the ways that Augustus began as a kindly and thoughtful ruler, only to end up deviously implementing a system in which he held absolute control: [Augustus] seduced the army with bonuses, and his cheap food policy was successful bait for civilians. Indeed, he attracted everybody s goodwill by the enjoyable gift of peace. Then he gradually pushed ahead and absorbed the functions of the senate, the officials, and even the law. Opposition did not exist. War or judicial murder had disposed all men of spirit. Upper-class survivors found that slavish obedience was the way to succeed, both politically and financially. They had profited from the revolution [the replacement of the republic by an imperial form of government], and so now they like the security of the existing arrangement better than the dangerous uncertainties of the old regime. While he claimed to be far different from the previous rulers of Rome, like the tyrannical Sulla or the would-be dictator Caesar, Augustus s actions show that he ended up achieving something that both Sulla and Caesar would have envied: absolute power. Augustus presented himself as a kind and just leader, but Tacitus believed that Augustus had a sinister underbelly, and that his pretension of kindness only made him more despicable. In this passage, Tacitus claims that Augustus employed dirty tricks to get the people of Rome to side with and support him, and that Augustus s good word could not be trusted. Tacitus criticizes the people of Rome for not standing up to Augustus or working to regain more of the freedoms they gave up to him in exchange for his guidance over the country. Tacitus also held a relatively contemporaneous view of these events in Roman history, since he lived and wrote at the end of the first century C.E. By then, Augustus had only been dead for a few decades, and yet the aftereffects of the changes he had made to the Roman government must have seemed at the time permanently entrenched in the empire.

13 Unit 2, Lesson 8 13 managed to keep the upper classes happy while slowly transferring more and more of their governmental power to himself. Augustus justified his rule by presenting himself as a dictator and taking the title of princeps, which stood for a man being the first among a group of equal citizens. By calling himself princeps, Augustus perpetuated the illusion that he and the people he governed were the same, and he stood out among them as their leader. In honor of this term, the era that began with Augustus s grasp of power is usually known as the Principate. At times, Augustus was also known by the title pater patriae, which means the father of the land. Augustus further perpetuated this idea of equality in his titles by encouraging the rise of a middle class, called the equites. The equites did not have as much money or property as the patricians, although most of them had financial stability, which they had acquired by pursuing commerce and other trades. The loyalty of the equites helped the Roman Principate prosper. The region s finances strengthened and its people benefited. However, the situation did not remain perfect. All of the regions within the empire had to remain financially strong in order for the empire as a whole to do so too. The individual regions faced the challenge of a decrease in slave labor, a practice that had been initiated in Caesar s time, when he freed many slaves, and which was followed by many other former slave-owners. By the time Augustus died, the position of leader that he had held, later considered the title of emperor, held near-absolute power in Rome. The emperor led the government and the military; the emperor had even more power than the kind of permanent dictatorship sought by Caesar. In addition, because Augustus had held power for so long, Romans had become accustomed to being ruled by someone like him rather than by elected officials as they were during the era of the Republic. After Augustus s death, several of his relations also became emperors. However, eventually the position transferred out of his genetic line to other individuals. The Romans gave their emperors absolute power, but the emperors themselves did not assure their descendants an automatic rise to the throne of Rome. After 100 C.E., the emperors enacted a new policy: each ruler would select a worthy protégé and take that protégé under his wing. When the emperor died, his position would be passed to the protégé. For at least two centuries after his death, the empire that Augustus had created blossomed. People referred to it as the era of Roman peace, or the pax romana, and the era s political stability enabled progress in science, philosophy, and technology. However, the emperors who succeeded each other grew progressively greedier and less tolerant of their own people s civil rights. This generated unrest at home and expansion abroad. Already, the Roman Empire had pulled Egypt under its wing (including areas by the Nile and in Kush), Mesopotamia, other regions of Africa, and substantial portions of Asia and Anatolia. These countries joined the parts of the world that had been under Roman control before Augustus even rose to power: Syria, Gaul, Greece, and parts of Africa not to mention the rest of Italy. Now, the Romans not only held Spain and still more parts of Africa; their armies reached as far north as England. Principate era in Rome begun under Augustus s rule, which continued for centuries equites Roman middleclass individuals who prospered under Augustus 4 Self-check With whom did Mark Antony form an alliance?

14 Unit 2, Lesson 8 14 Just as Augustus had envisioned, Rome became the central axis of an international, sprawling empire. Each of the outposts in this empire gradually took on more and more Roman characteristics, including the language (Latin); the growth of particular crops, such as the olives and grapes celebrated by the people of Rome; and the creation of new urban centers, which in many respects sought to mimic or imitate the structure of the mother city, Rome. Pathways that led in and out of Rome could take people to distant shores and faraway lands, including newly developing urban centers such as London and Paris. However, by the 200s C.E., Rome had become too big for one government to handle, and after just another century, the Roman Empire split in two in the 300s. Part of the former empire remained the Roman Empire, while the removed half reinvented itself as the Byzantine Empire. A hundred years after dividing into two separate empires, the Roman half remained plagued by foreigners from Asia and Germany. As of 476 C.E., the Roman Empire toppled. Summary Rome, one of the great ancient cities, was founded by Romulus in 753 B.C.E. after citizens of the area rose up against foreign invaders such as the Etruscans and Gauls. Rome had all the makings of a great city, and while it began as a monarchy, it became a republic in the 500s B.C.E. The Republic, governed by two consuls, the Senate, and the Assembly, favored the upper-class patricians over the lower-class plebeians. Free men could vote the city became possibly the most important center for In the years after Augustus came to power in Rome, for the Roman government, but the richer men had a finance and trade in the world, and the center to which many roads led. The Via Appia Antica, or the Appian Way, bigger voice in it. Over time, the plebeians gained more is a great example of one of these ancient Roman roads: it rights and privileges. The Romans began to expand their stretches out from the heart of Rome into the surrounding empire, first taking over more of Italy and then more surrounding regions. In the 200s B.C.E. the Romans battled countryside and into what used to be the Roman Empire. with Carthage in the Punic Wars and the Hellenes in other wars. Rome emerged with more lands, riches, and citizens. The Republic became unstable and by the 60s B.C.E., the dictator Julius Caesar took power. After Caesar, his relative Octavian took power and turned Rome into an empire, leading it as Augustus. Augustus ruled for nearly 50 years, and was followed by several other emperors. Under their rule, Rome s empire continued to expand until it fell in 476 C.E. Looking Ahead The richness and complexity of Rome s rise was echoed in the complexity of its fall, the demise of a great empire that drastically changed the shape of the ancient world. The Roman Empire changed much of Europe, Africa, and Asia, influencing

15 Unit 2, Lesson 8 15 people s traditions and cultures throughout portions of those continents. The early success of the Roman Empire also whetted other countries appetites for power and expansion, and when the Roman government lost hold on some conquered regions, other governments would step forward to take its place. 1. Senator Brutus was the government official who encouraged the rebellion that led to the formation of the Roman Republic. 2. In the 400s B.C.E., the Romans fought two enemies: the Etruscans and the Gauls. Self-Check Answers 3. Marius took power in Rome before his fellow military man Sulla did. 4. Mark Antony formed an alliance with the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra.

16 Unit 2, Lesson 8 All images K12 Inc. unless otherwise noted. 1 Bust of Julius Caesar. seawhisper/ Shutterstock Images. 2 Statue of she-wolf with Romulus and Remus. Javarman Javarman/123RF. 9 Bust of Julius Caesar. seawhisper/shutterstock Images. 12 Tacitus. The Annals of Imperial Rome. rev. ed., trans. Michael Grant (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977), Appian Way. Paolo Cipriani/123RF.