The Roman Empire

This is Unit Seven of Western Civilization One, part one of two: the Roman Empire, from Octavian's new system to the frontiers of Trajan and the end of the Severans in two thirty-five. Unit six closed on Octavian, thirty-three years old, holding everything. Carry one idea through this part. He kept every republican institution and emptied it. Consuls, Senate, assemblies and tribunes all survived, and one man held imperium for life through tribunician power and command of the army provinces, with the soldiers sworn to him. That is the Principate, rule by the First Citizen, and the exam's fifth sample question tests it: imperial government that retained republican features. The emperor's relation to law was never defined, so the machine depended on the man, and this part walks the men, from Tiberius to Severus Alexander, with the source problem in view, since every surviving biography of the early emperors was written by senators who detested them. By the end you will be able to define the Principate and answer the sample question. To say what the Pax Romana was and who paid. To read the sources and tell the Julio-Claudians. To state Vespasian's lesson and tell the dynasties to two thirty-five. And to say what a limes was for and why Rome never beat Parthia.

Two entries on the Principate: the words Rome used for one-man rule, and how Augustus made a monarchy inside a republic.

First Citizen, Caesar, emperor.

WC1 0601 Principate, Caesar, Emperor: Rome's Words for Rule

Octavian replaced the Republic with one sovereign ruler while paying lip service to it. The system is the Principate, rule by the First Citizen, princeps civitatis. Caesar went from family name to title, imperator became emperor, and tsar and kaiser descend from Caesar as prince descends from princeps. The exam's word is Principate; the anchor and the course say emperor.

Every institution kept, and emptied.

WC1 0602 Augustus: A Republic in Form, a Monarchy in Fact

Augustus kept every republican institution and emptied them. His legal bases were tribunician power for life by twenty-three B.C.E. and imperium maius over the army provinces; soldiers swore to him personally, and the Senate became a facade that ratified his choices. The exam's fifth sample question asks for imperial government retaining republican features. The anchor's consul for life is doubtful, since he resigned the consulship in twenty-three.

Two entries on peace and who paid: the Pax Romana's roads and its oppression, and the civil service and frontier Augustus left behind.

Roads and a common language, paid for by the conquered.

WC1 0603 The Pax Romana and Who Paid for It

The Pax Romana, about one to two hundred C.E., meant roads, a common language and protection from banditry from Spain to Mesopotamia, with moral laws for the elite easing the transition. The anchor adds who paid: slaves, the poor and the conquered, for whom peace meant oppression. The emperor's relation to law was never defined, and force decided when law failed.

Three legions lost, and a frontier fixed.

WC1 0604 Augustus's Reforms and the Teutoburg Limit, 9 CE

Augustus made Senate and equestrians a civil service and replaced tax farming with salaried officials. In nine C.E. three legions, the anchor's twenty thousand, died in Germany at the Teutoburg Forest, a witness name the anchor omits, fixing the frontier at the Rhine and Danube. He was deified at death, and most Romans were content after the civil wars.

Three entries on the Julio-Claudians: the hostile senators who wrote their lives, Tiberius through Claudius, and Nero's fire and persecution.

Biographers who were the offended elite.

WC1 0605 Reading Tacitus and Suetonius: The Julio-Claudian Source Problem

Every surviving biography of the Julio-Claudians was written decades to a century later by senatorial authors who detested them. Tacitus and Suetonius supply the scandals, and the anchor rates Tacitus the more reliable and the scandals as possibly true. The anchor's Julian dynasty is the course's Julio-Claudian. The bad emperors offended Romanitas, and their biographers were the offended elite; read accordingly.

Expansion ends, a horse is named consul, Britain is taken.

WC1 0606 Tiberius Ends Expansion; Caligula and Claudius

Tiberius, fourteen to thirty-seven, was competent for a decade and ended sustained expansion, a shift in priorities rather than a policy; historians have rehabilitated him, the anchor says. Caligula, thirty-seven to forty-one, ruled by cruelty, supposedly made his horse Incitatus consul, and was murdered. Claudius, forty-one to fifty-four, conquered Britain, built a true bureaucracy, and was poisoned by his wife. The murders stand.

Fire, extortion, and Christians in the arena.

WC1 0607 Nero: Fire, Maiestas, and the First Persecution

Nero, fifty-four to sixty-eight, killed his mother and used the maiestas law to extort the elite. After the fire of sixty-four he rebuilt Rome in concrete, built the Golden House, and blamed Christians, killing them in the arena. The fiddle legend is false, the anchor says. Where the anchor's tenth chapter dates the fire sixty-eight, it was sixty-four.

Five entries on the dynasties after Nero: the year that taught Rome who made emperors, Titus and Domitian, adoption by childlessness, Trajan and Hadrian, and the son who ended the adoptive century.

Armies, not families.

WC1 0608 Vespasian's Lesson: Armies Make Emperors

Sixty-nine brought civil war among four generals, and Vespasian won. The lesson: armies, not old families, made emperors, and the Senate ratified. He restored finances, repaired elite relations, held open audiences and began the Colosseum, the Flavian Amphitheater, as the dynasty's monument. The Year of the Four Emperors is the witness's phrase; learn sixty-nine.

Vesuvius, then lord and god.

WC1 0609 Titus, Domitian, and Dominus et Deus

Titus, seventy-nine to eighty-one, faced Vesuvius, which buried Pompeii in seventy-nine on the witness's date, a fire and an epidemic, and died of fever. Domitian, eighty-one to ninety-six, demanded to be called lord and god, terrorized the elite, built and administered well, and was assassinated. Good administration and terror coexisted in one reign, and the exam may ask either.

Adoption, because there were no sons.

WC1 0610 The Five Good Emperors and Succession by Adoption

From ninety-six to one eighty five emperors chose successors by adopting the most competent, since none but the last had a surviving son. Gibbon coined the phrase Five Good Emperors, and the anchor calls the result relatively meritocratic, with Trajan's philosopher-king model putting Romanitas over self-glorification. Adoption worked because of childlessness. It was not a constitutional rule.

Greatest extent, then a wall.

WC1 0611 Trajan's Greatest Extent, 117; Hadrian's Wall and Rescripts

Under Trajan, ninety-eight to one seventeen, the empire reached its greatest extent. He answered petitions personally, issuing rescripts with the force of law from anywhere, and funded food for poor children with cheap farm loans, the alimenta by convention. Hadrian gave up Mesopotamia, toured the provinces and built his wall. Hadrian's Wall is witnessed; the alimenta's name is not. Learn both.

A surviving son ends the adoptive century.

WC1 0612 Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and the Severans to 235

Marcus Aurelius, one sixty-one to one eighty, a Stoic, fought Germanic wars he had no taste for and named his son Commodus co-emperor; a surviving son ended the adoptive century. Commodus neglected everything and was assassinated. The Severans, from one ninety-three by convention where the anchor says one ninety-two, faced Germans and Sasanians until two thirty-five.

Two entries on the frontiers: what a limes was for and the two worlds beyond it, and the Parthians who killed Crassus at Carrhae and never lost conclusively.

A controlled zone, not a sealed wall.

WC1 0613 The Limes: What a Frontier Was For

By one seventeen the empire ran from Britain to Romania and from North Africa to Persia's border. Hadrian's fortifications became the limes by the third century, with river and sea fleets. Beyond lay two worlds in Roman eyes, barbarians north and Persia east, and only Persia counted as a civilization to Rome. A limes was a controlled zone, not a sealed wall.

Lancers and horse archers who refused to close.

WC1 0614 Parthia: Carrhae and the Enemy Rome Could Not Beat

Parthia inherited Achaemenid and Seleucid forms, King of Kings and Ctesiphon, and controlled Silk Road routes. Its armored lancers and horse archers refused hand-to-hand combat, and at Carrhae in fifty-three B.C.E. the anchor's twenty thousand Romans died, Crassus with them. The Euphrates was the border and Armenia the buffer; the Sasanians replaced Parthia from two twenty-four. Neither side ever won conclusively, and Trajan's Mesopotamia was abandoned.

Look at what you can now do. You can define the Principate as rule by the First Citizen, state Augustus's bases in tribunician power and imperium maius, and answer the sample question: imperial government that kept republican features. You can say that the Pax Romana meant roads and a common language paid for by slaves, the poor and the conquered, and that Augustus built a civil service and lost three legions at Teutoburg, fixing the Rhine and Danube. You can read Tacitus and Suetonius as the offended elite, and tell Tiberius ending expansion, Caligula, Claudius taking Britain, and Nero's fire of sixty-four. You can state that sixty-nine taught Rome that armies make emperors, and tell the Flavians, adoption by childlessness from ninety-six to one eighty, Trajan's extent and Hadrian's wall, and the Severans to two thirty-five. And you can say that a limes was a controlled zone and that Rome never beat Parthia. Part two opens on what moved across those frontiers, silk and gold, and on the machine of army, law and stone that made provinces Roman.