Roman Empire

I

Introduction

Roman Empire, territory controlled by ancient Rome. The Romans built up their empire through conquest or annexation between the 3rd century bc and the 3rd century ad. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from north-western Europe to the Near East and encompassed all the lands of the Mediterranean.

The control of an empire of this scale depended on a tightly controlled system of administration, a strong and disciplined army, and excellent communications. Provinces of the empire were controlled by Roman governors appointed by the emperor. The Roman army and a number of strategically placed forts ensured that the empire was defended against hostile local peoples, and an efficient network of roads was built both to allow troops to move swiftly within the empire and to facilitate trade. Taxes levied and valuable commodities such as grain, minerals, and slaves enriched Rome and financed its army. The many diverse peoples and cultures whose countries became part of the Roman Empire were, to varying degrees, united by Roman culture and Roman ideals of government and citizenship.

The formation of the Roman Empire began under the Roman Republic, but was formed mostly by the early Roman emperors, and is often thought of as belonging particularly to the imperial dynasties who held power in Rome after the collapse of the old Republican constitution. By the end of the 1st century ad, the Roman Empire was already the greatest empire of the ancient world. However, at the end of the 5th century ad, various economic factors and ceaseless pressure from barbarian peoples on the frontiers of the empire led to its eventual collapse in western Europe. An eastern Empire, based on Constantinople (now İstanbul), continued for far longer.

II

The Beginnings of Empire

The early history of the city of Rome saw its gradual domination, first under the Kings of Rome and then under the Roman Republic, of the Italian peninsula. The emergence of this small but powerful city-state inevitably brought it into conflict with other Mediterranean powers, particularly with some of the states of Greece and with Carthage. The protracted series of wars which Rome fought in order to establish itself as the major Mediterranean power led to the conquest and annexation of territories belonging to its rivals: in this way Rome acquired Sicily (241 bc); the twin province of Sardinia and Corsica (238 bc); most of Spain (197 bc); Macedonia and parts of northern Africa (146 bc); and the lands of Pergamum in Asia Minor (133 bc). Further territory was added as a result of the campaigns of Julius Caesar (leading to the conquest of the rest of Spain and of northern Gaul) and during the Civil Wars of the later 1st century bc (including, most importantly, the Provinces of Africa and of Egypt). By 27 bc, when Octavianus, having emerged from the chaos of the Civil Wars without significant rival to his powers, adopted the title “Augustus” and so became the first Roman emperor, the foundations of the empire were already laid, and Rome was already the leading power, in the western world.

In the early years of the Roman Empire, each province was given its own constitution, agreed and loosely supervised by the Senate in Rome. For each province a governor was appointed; although, in theory, the tenure of governors lasted one year, in practice, their terms of office were often extended. By the time of Augustus, a hierarchy of provinces had developed: some, considered “public provinces”, were administered by proconsular governors, appointed by the Senate, with no responsibility for the command of troops. The remainder were imperial provinces, effectively governed by appointees of the emperor. For the more peaceful and stable imperial provinces, in which no more than a single legion of troops was based, the governor was a former praetor (magistrate); the more heavily garrisoned provinces were ruled by governors drawn from the ranks of former consuls (chief magistrates). There were also some provinces in which the governor was of equestrian rank (drawn from the lower echelons of the Roman nobility): Judaea, annexed in 6 bc after the collapse of the client kingdom of Herod, was an equestrian province, as was Egypt (which long had a special status on account of its great wealth and strategic importance). In times of crisis, a serving consul might be sent out to govern a province: this happened in Sicily after a serious slave revolt in 134 bc. Aided by a procurator, who was charged with financial affairs, the governor was responsible for the running of the province, day-to-day matters being settled by a series of local and town councils. The provincial constitution would deal with, among other matters, the status of free towns and ports within the province; with the rights of the inhabitants (whether or not Roman citizens); and with the types and levels of taxation which were to be paid by the provincials.

Each province was usually made up of civitates, local communities that were to some extent self-administering, and often roughly equivalent to the national or tribal groupings existing before annexation of the territory by Rome. At this early period the great majority of provincials were peregrini, citizens of a Roman province albeit without the rights of Roman citizens: many exceptions could, however, be found, in settlements such as the coloniae (legally regarded as virtual extensions of Rome itself) and in municipia to which citizen status had been granted. Until at least the late 1st century ad, however, it is true to say that the provinces of the empire were entirely subordinate to the Italian homeland.

From the beginning, the economic benefits of empire made themselves felt in Rome, and the city soon grew to depend upon the influx of provincial wealth. Taxes in kind, especially of grain, were enough to upset the balance of Italian agriculture, while the wealth of Spanish mines, of exotic goods, of slaves, and of custom dues from far-off caravan routes allowed huge programmes of public works in Rome and allowed its inhabitants relief from their own taxes. Increasingly, however, much of this wealth was required to sustain the ever-larger army needed to garrison and maintain the empire.

III

1st-Century Consolidation and Expansion

Rome's future as an imperial power was affirmed by Augustus, who set out to stabilize and formalize the rather haphazard and vaguely defined boundaries of Roman possessions. This objective was approached in two ways, according to circumstance: either by direct military conquest or, more subtly, by encouraging client kingdoms in strategic buffer zones, where the services of friendly local rulers could be bought or otherwise gained, and would offer a measure of security along the borders. This policy was used particularly to ally Rome to some of the sophisticated dynasties of the east, buying protection against the Scythian and Parthian peoples who threatened Asia Minor. Further east, however, legions were stationed in Syria to make a permanent frontier of the Euphrates and the edge of the Arabian Desert.

In Europe, the land of Gaul, which had been conquered by Julius Caesar, was organized into four provinces, and the older possessions in Spain into three. Attempts to find tenable frontiers for the Rhine and Danube provinces, however, were less straightforward, and attempts to push beyond the Rhine, and so to remove the threat posed by the Germanic peoples, led to one of Rome's most humiliating defeats when an army under Publius Quinctilius Varus was virtually wiped out in the Teutoberg Forest (the clades Variani; literally, “the catastrophe of Vares”). The eventual Roman withdrawal to the natural frontier suggested by the great rivers left the provinces of Upper and Lower Germany with a total of eight legions, with a further seven in the Danube provinces—an indication of Roman concern about the security of this border. Augustus, however, had been so shattered by the humiliation of the loss of Germany that he instructed his successor, Tiberius, not to increase further Rome's territories.

The machinery of empire consolidated by Augustus was inherited by his successors. Tiberius (ruled ad 14-37) annexed the client kingdom of Cappadocia (annexation being a policy commonly applied when clientage arrangements for any reason broke down). The next significant territorial expansion, however, was the invasion of Britain, in ad 43, under Claudius. Partly justified in commercial terms and partly as a move to prevent British support of potentially rebellious Gauls, this adventure was probably largely a quest for personal prestige by the emperor, who played an active personal part in the conquest and consolidation. Although some difficulty was experienced in establishing a safe northern boundary (eventually to be established by the building of Hadrian's Wall, which became the ultimate northern boundary of the empire), Britain rapidly became drawn into the Roman provincial modes of life, with several flourishing cities, including Camulodunum (now Colchester), the original provincial capital, and many minor towns. Claudius took a close interest in the provinces of the empire and did much to extend Roman citizenship by founding coloniae and municipiae, especially in Gaul. He also introduced measures to draw provincials into the higher ranks of Roman administration, particularly into the Senate: this did much to underline the increasing parity of the provinces with the Italian homeland, to which they were previously completely subordinate.

The Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end with the murder of Claudius's deranged successor, Nero, in ad 68. The following year of dynastic struggle has been graphically named “the year of the four Emperors”. From the turmoil emerged the able Vespasian, first of the Flavian Emperors. He and his sons Titus and Domitian ruled successively until 96, and maintained the empire. New territory was added in Germany, east of the Rhine, and the eastern frontiers were greatly improved and strengthened. The empire was not, however, to grow for much longer: forces were at work, both internally and externally, which were to bring about the protracted end of the Roman Empire.

IV

2nd-Century Retrenchment

For a while, however, the provinces flourished. The dynasty of the Antonines began in 96 with the murder of Domitian and his succession by Nerva: when, two years later, the Imperial purple passed to the Spanish-born Trajan (ruled 98-117), the Roman world had for the first time a ruler who was himself a provincial. From this time, it is possible to see the empire develop as a genuinely cosmopolitan community. Though, ultimately, it was Italy and Rome which mattered and which were subsidized by provincial revenues, there was at the same time a considerable amount of shared interest, as well as common culture and institutions.

Trajan tried to increase the extent of the empire and, indeed, it was under his reign that it briefly reached what was to be its greatest size. His armies pushed as far as the shores of the Persian Gulf and two new provinces—Mesopotamia and Assyria—were created. These new possessions could not be consolidated, however, and were soon relinquished by Hadrian (ruled 117-138), who was far more concerned with safeguarding the existing provinces than with acquiring new ones.

Hadrian took a close, personal interest in the empire, and travelled extensively through every part of Rome's dominions. He was an able and just administrator with an interest in philosophy. His long reign was, by and large, a period of peace, stability, and prosperity. Perhaps his most lasting gift to the empire was the system of formal, defended frontiers which he established in Britain and along the Rhine and Danube. He was succeeded by Antoninus Pius (ruled 138-161), a Gaul married to a Spanish wife: Antoninus Pius continued the imperial policies of Hadrian, and the strongly garrisoned frontiers remained intact.

Crisis was to come in the following reign, that of the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180). The expansion of Barbarians outside the empire was producing ever more pressure on available territory, and the productive lands of the Roman provinces were irresistibly attractive not only to casual raiders and looters but, more importantly, to expanding or dispossessed peoples looking for land on which to settle. For a while the whole of the empire in the west was threatened when a host of Germanic peoples, the most powerful of whom were the Marcomanni, smashed through the Danube frontier, overran the adjacent provinces, and pushed as far as northern Italy, where they lay siege to Apuleia. After a long and grimly fought war, they were pushed back, but the pattern of barbarian pressure and incursion was to continue.