Roman Empire

History

Augustus (31 b.C. - a.D. 14)

Caesar's assassination brought anarchy, out of which the Second Triumvirate emerged with the rule of Octavian (later Augustus), Antony, and Lepidus. Octavian was Caesar's nephew, ward, and heir, and his true successor. At Actium (31 b.C.) he defeated Antony and Cleopatra and made the empire one. No change was made in the government, but Octavian received from the senate the title Augustus and from the people life tribuneship; this, with the governorship of all the provinces conferred by the senate, made him the real ruler. He was called imperator [commander] and princeps [leader] and is considered the first Roman emperor. His rule began a long period (200 years) of peace, called the Pax Romana. During this time the Roman Empire boundaries included Armenia, middle Mesopotamia, the Arabian desert, the Red Sea, Nubia, the Sahara, the Moroccan mountain mass, the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea, Scotland, the North Sea, the Rhine, the Danube, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus.

Claudian dynasty (14 - 68)

Augustus died a.D. 14 and was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, named by him and approved by the senate: in this way, the Julio-Claudian dynasty began. Caligula, who followed, was a cruel tyrant (a.D. 37 - a.D. 41). In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea and he was succeeded by Claudius (a.D. 41-a.D. 54): during his rule half of Britain was conquered (a.D. 43) and in Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia. In his time Thrace, Lydia, and Judaea were made Roman provinces. His stepson Nero (a.D. 54-a.D. 68) was an unparalleled tyrant. In his reign occurred the great fire of Rome (a.D. 64).

At that time an entirely new element, Christianity, made itself felt in Rome. On Nero's orders a barbarous persecution took place in which many Christians died, among them St. Peter and St. Paul.

Flavian Dynasty (69 - 96)

With Nero the Julio-Claudian line ended. There was a brief struggle before Vespasian (a.D. 69-a.D. 79), of the Flavian Dynasty, became emperor. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum; he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace. He was also an effective emperor for the provinces. In Spain he granted Latin rights to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanization. He undertook also a military reform with the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Italy to Gaul and Spain, in line with the Romanization of those areas.

Under him his son Titus served as a general, helping to secure the east taking over the command of Roman armies in Syria and Palestine, quelling a significant Jewish revolt; in a.D. 70 he destroyed Jerusalem. Titus then briefly succeeded his father (79-81). During his short reign, in 79 Vesuvius erupted destroying Pompeii and in 80 a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding made him very popular and he held the opening ceremonies of the amphitheater begun by his father.

After his mild, rather benign rule, his brother Domitian (a.D. 81-a.D. 96), a despot and persecutor of Christians, gained the empire. In Domitian's reign Agricola conquered Britain almost entirely. Domitian was unsuccessful in his dealings with the Daci and finally bought them off.

Nervan-Antonian dynasty (96 - 192)

The following emperor, Nerva (a.D. 96-a.D. 98), was elected by the senate and started the series of the Five Good Emperors.

After Nerva came Trajan (a.D. 98-a.D. 117), one of the greatest of emperors. Trajan was adopted by Nerva as successor during his reigns, to educate him to rule the Empire, starting the line of the Adoptive Emperors. Trajan undertook great public works, defeated the Daci and established Roman colonies there (in what is now modern Romania), and pushed the eastern borders past Armenia and Mesopotamia.

Rome in 117 a.D.

Trajan's successor, Hadrian (117-138), withdrew Roman rule to the Euphrates and in Britain built his wall (Hadrian's Wall) to hold back the barbarians who constantly threatened that fast-developing province. Italy was sinking into a purely provincial state, although many emperors made attempts to make it a special country. Hadrian and his successors Antoninus Pius (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180) are commonly named the Philosopher Emperors, due to the emphasis they gave to the Greek culture. The period of the five good emperors was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus (180 - 192), son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors. With his reign, the decline of the empire is usually said to have begun.

Severan dynasty (AD 193 - 235)

The age of the Praetorians was then at hand, when the rise and fall of emperors was determined by this elite corps of soldiers. Septimius Severus (193-211) was unusually able for his period; he campaigned with success against the Parthians and against the Picts of N Britain. His son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - nicknamed Caracalla (211-217) is noteworthy for extending Roman citizenship to all free men of the empire (Constitutio Antoniniana in 212). Emperors succeeded one another rapidly in the III century: Macrinus (217-218), Elagabalus (218-222), and Alexander Severus (222-235), who ended the Severan line.

Crisis of the 3rd Century (AD 235 - 284)

The death of Alexander Severus ushered in a subsequent period of soldier-emperors and almost a half-century of civil war and strife.

Aurelian walls In 260 the emperor Valerian was captured by the Persians, and the empire fell into anarchy. The provinces suffered from increasingly bad government and under Gallienus (260-268) the Dacia passed under the control of the Goths. Claudius II (268-70) revived Roman fortunes somewhat, while Aurelian (270-75) started building new walls to protect Rome by the increasing danger constituted by the "Barbarians", pressing the Rhine-Danube boundaries.

Tetrarchy (AD 285 - 324)

The transition from a single united empire to the later divided Western and Eastern empires was a gradual transformation. In 284, Diocletian was made emperor by the army. He was a reformer of government and of the social order. In fact, the Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor, so he split the Empire in half along a north-west axis just east of Italy, and created two equal Empire ruled by two Augustus: Diocletian was Augustus of the eastern half, with capital in Milan, and gave his long time friend Maximian the title of Augustus in the western half, with capital in Nicomedia.

In 293 authority was further divided as each Augustus took a Caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession; Galerius became the Caesar of Diocletian, with capital in Treviri, and Constantius Chlorus the Caesar of Maximian, with capital in Sirmio, constituting what was called in Latin a quadrumvirate and in Greek a Tetrarchy: the leadership of four. On May 1, 305 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in favor of their Caesars. Galerius named the two new Caesars: his nephew Maximinus for himself and Flavius Valerius Severus for Constantius.

Tetrarchy in 293

The succession didn't work, so new fight took place among Augustus and Caesars, till 313 when Constantine I defeated his opponents in the Western Empire, and ruled with Licinius in the Eastern part. In 324 Constantine defeated Licinius becoming the first Byzantine Emperor.

In 330 Constantine moved the capital to Byzantium, renamed Constantinople. By the Edict of Milan (313) Constantine granted universal religious tolerance thus placing Christianity on the same footing as the other religions.

Among the Constantine's successor, only Julian the Apostate (361-363) and Theodosius I (379-395) were worth of mention. In 380 at Tessalonica Theodosius elected the Christianity the sole religion of the Empire.

After the death of Theodosius the empire was permanently divided into Eastern part, with Arcadius (395-408) as Augustus and Constantinople as capital, and Western one, with Honorius (395-423) as Augustus and Milan at the beginning and Ravenna in the following as capital, to be far from the border and more safe from the Germanic attacks: Rome rapidly lost its political importance.

The West, reduced to the sole Italy, sank into anarchy, and the country was ravaged by invaders. The Visigoths under Alaric I took Rome in 410, and the Vandals under Gaiseric conquered it in 455. Huns under Attila were kept from sacking it in 452, supposedly through the efforts of the pope, Leo I (St. Leo the Great). In this general disintegration the popes, originally the bishops of Rome, greatly increased their power and prestige.

In 476 the last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Goths under Odoacer, who named himself king under rule of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno, to avoid further revolts.

This date is commonly accepted as the end of the West Roman Empire, or Western Empire and the beginning of the so-called Dark Ages.