PAX ROMANA "Roman peace": 1-2cd centuries
OCTAVIAN AUGUSTUS 31 BC - 14 AD:
takes new title of "princeps"
(first citizen)
DYARCHY (rule of two) : princeps plus Senate
agrees to rule together with Senate
stress on beneficial results of military
conquest
effort to enforce Roman morality,
encourage marriage
ROMAN LAW
administration of justice by uniform laws,
both civil law (private disputes) & criminal law
Law and government as Roman specialties
Virgil’s Aeneid Bk 6.851-853
Speech of Anchises to Aeneas in the underworld:
“Remember, Roman, to rule the peoples with your power –
these shall be your skills – to combine peace with morality,
to spare the conquered and to subdue the proud.”
1st C Imperial
Julio-Claudian dynasty
hereditary descent from Caesar & Augustus
Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero: all are problems
69 AD Year of the Four Emperors
military takeover by Nero’s palace guard
Flavian dynasty: military commanders
Vespasian (Colosseum), Titus, Domitian
TACITUS (circa 56 – 117 AD)
member of Senatorial elite,
father-in-law Agricola: governor of Roman Britain
administrative career: serves as Consul
governor of province in
lived under Emperor Domitian, enemy of Senate
experience of Imperial tyranny
TACITUS ANNALS (only
some sections survive)
history of 1st C. Empire from Augustus to Domitian
criticizes decline of republican values, role of Senate
rise of imperial decadence, corruption
republic: values of liberty, political freedom,
military discipline, sexual virtue
Tacitus
German tribal structure
Economics:
hunting, grazing, not settled agriculture
Politics:
COMITATUS = war band,
followers of warlord king; personal loyalty
to (elected) king/chieftan as strongest bond
(contrast with Roman state: more abstract bond)
2cd C ADOPTIVE or “GOOD EMPERORS”
chosen by predecessor, not sons
Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius
Good government, building projects
Assimilation of populations into Empire:
by 3rd C. 50% of Roman Senate is non-Italian in origin
See textbook maps on expansion & decline of
DECLINE OF
military pressures:
in East, Persian Sassanid Empire
in NW, Germanic tribes (Goths, Franks, Alemanni);
250 AD first raids
symbol & response
building of Aurelian wall around Rome, 271 AD
result:
military revolution, Germanization of army,
increase in taxation to support army
DIOCLETIAN’S REORGANIZATION OF EMPIRE:
Motive: military defense of frontiers
orderly succession
TETRARCHY 284-305 AD “rule of four”
Four rulers:
two Augusti (Diocletian as Senior Augustus)
two Caesars (adopted successors)
Four Prefectures and four capitals: none at
WHERE IS
Four Prefectures and their capitals:
GAUL
Capitals:
| | |
(near
near