Chapter 6 - The Roman Empire

Chapter 6.1 - The Age of Augustus (31 B.C.E.–14 C.E.)

• In the new constitutional order that Augustus created, the basic governmental structure consisted of the princeps and an aristocratic senate.

• Augustus retained the senate as the chief deliberative body of the Roman state.

• Augustus held the office of consul, which gave him imperium, or the right to command.

• When Augustus gave up the consulship in 23 B.

• Although officials continued to be elected, Augustus’s authority ensured that his candidates for office usually won.

• Augustus proved highly popular. ’’

• The ending of the civil wars had greatly bolstered Augustus’s popularity.

• At the same time, his continuing control of the army, while making possible the Roman peace, was a crucial source of his power.

• The shift to a professional army was completed when early emperors created a bureaucracy that could train and administer such an army.

• The peace of the Roman Empire depended on the army, and so did the security of the princeps.

• Though primarily responsible for guarding the frontiers of the empire, the army was also used to maintain domestic order within the provinces.

• Moreover, the army played an important social role.

  The Significance of Augustus’s age

• The Augustan Age was a lengthy one.

• Augustus died in 14 C.E. after dominating the Roman world for forty-five years.

• Indeed, as the Roman historian Tacitus pointed out, ‘‘Actium had been won before the younger men were born.

• Political equality was a thing of the past; all eyes watched for imperial commands.’’

• The Republic was now only a memory and, given its last century of warfare, an unpleasant one at that.

Chapter 6.2 - The Roman Conquest of the Mediterranean (264–133 B.C.E.)

• There was no serious opposition to Augustus’s choice of successor, his stepson Tiberius.

• The Julio-Claudians - The Julio-Claudian rulers varied greatly inability.

• Tiberius was a competent general and an able administrator who tried initially to involve the Senate in government.

• Caligula was a grandnephew of Tiberius and the great-grandson of Augustus.

• Claudius had been mistreated by his family because of a physical disability due to partial paralysis, but he was intelligent, well educated, and competent.

• Caligula, who became mentally unbalanced, wanted to be hailed as a god and neglected affairs of state while indulging his passions.

• Caligula proved so unpredictable that the officers of the praetorian guard hatched a plot and assassinated him before he had ruled for four complete years.

• Afterward, they chose Claudius, uncle of Caligula, as the next emperor and forced the senate to confirm their act, thereby demonstrating the power of the military units stationed around Rome.

  Prosperity in Early Empire

• The Early Empire was a period of considerable prosperity.

• Merchants from all over the empire came to the chief Italian ports of Puteoli on the Bay of Naples and Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber.

• The importation of large quantities of grain to feed the populace of Rome and an incredible quantity of luxury items for the wealthy upper classes in the west led to a steady drain of gold and silver coins from Italy and the west to the eastern part of the empire.

• Long-distance trade beyond the Roman frontiers also flourished during the Early Empire.

Chapter 6.3 - Roman Culture and Society in the Early Empire

• The shift from Republic to empire not only transformed the Roman political world but also affected its cultural and social life.

• Intellectuals found ways to accommodate the autocratic rule of emperors while Roman architects created massive buildings befitting an empire.

• Gladiatorial games and slavery increased dramatically in the Early Empire, while upper-class women acquired greater independence.

• The Silver Age of Latin Literature In the history of Latin literature, the century and a half after Augustus has often labeled the ‘‘silver age’’ to indicate that the literary efforts of the period, while good, were not equal to the high standards of the Augustan ‘‘golden age.

• A good example of this trend can be found in the works of Seneca.

• SENECA Educated in Rome, Seneca became strongly attached to the philosophy of Stoicism.

• After serving as a tutor to Nero, he helped run the government during the first five years of Nero’s reign.

• Seneca began to withdraw from politics after Nero took a more active role in government.

• In 65, he was charged with involvement in a conspiracy against Nero and committed suicide at Nero’s command. ’’

• As a member of the senatorial class, Tacitus was disgusted with the abuses of power perpetrated by the emperors and was determined that the ‘‘evil deeds’’ of wicked men would not be forgotten.

• JUVENAL The best poet of the silver age was Juvenal, who wrote five books of satires in which he pilloried the manners and vices of his generation.

• He attacked the affectations of Roman women, the abuse of slaves, the excesses of emperors, the eastern and Greek immigrants, his own poverty, and the inequities of Roman society.

• Art in the Early Empire The Romans contributed little that was original to painting and sculpture.

• Much work was done by Greek artists and craftspeople who adhered to the Roman desire for realism and attention to detail.

• In architecture, the Romans continued to imitate Greek styles and made use of colonnades, rectangular structures, and post-and-lintel construction.

• But the Romans were innovative in their own way.

• The Romans were the first people in antiquity to use concrete on a massive scale.

• These large buildings were made possible by Roman engineering skills.

  The Upper-Class Roman Family

• The foundations of the authority of the paterfamilias over his family, which had already begun to weaken in the late Republic, were further undermined.

• In the Early Empire, the idea of male guardianship continued to weaken significantly, and by the late second century, it had become a mere formality.

• Upper-class Roman women in the Early Empire had considerable freedom and independence.

• Upper-class women could attend races, the theater, and events in the amphitheater, although in the latter two places they were forced to sit in separate female sections.

• Some women-operated businesses, such as shipping firms.

• At the end of the first century and the beginning of the second, there was a noticeable decline in the number of children among the upper classes, a trend that had already begun in the late Republic.

• Despite imperial laws aimed at increasing the number of children, the low birthrate persisted.

• Not only did infanticide continue to be practiced, but upper-class Romans also used contraception and abortion to limit their families.

• Though highly touted, amulets, magical formulas, and potions to induce temporary sterility proved ineffective, as did the rhythm method, since Roman medical writers believed that a woman was most fertile just when menstruation was ending.

• Although exact numbers are not available, we do know that many upper-class women between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five died in childbirth.

• Prominent women who died in childbirth or soon after due to complications include Cicero’s daughter Tullia and Caesar’s daughter Julia.

Chapter 6.4 - Transformation of the Roman World: Crises in the Third Century

• Unlike the first four good emperors, who chose capable successors by adopting competent men as their sons, Marcus Aurelius allowed his own son, Commodus, to become emperor.
• On his deathbed, Septimius Severus advised his sons, ‘‘Live in harmony, make the soldiers rich, and don’t give a damn for anything else.
• The Severan rulers began to create a military monarchy.
• The army was expanded, soldiers’ pay was increased, and military officers were appointed to important government positions.
• New stability seemed at hand, but the increased power of the military-led new military leaders to aspire to become emperor, and the military monarchy of the Severan rulers degenerated into military anarchy.
• For the next fifty years, the empire was mired in the chaos of continual civil war.
• Contenders for the imperial throne found that bribing soldiers was an effective way to become emperor.
• At the same time, the empire was beset by a series of invasions, no doubt encouraged by the internal turmoil.
• A fitting symbol of Rome’s crisis was the capture of the Roman emperor himself, Valerian, by the Persians and his death in captivity, an event unprecedented in Roman history. ’’
• As civil wars and invasions wore down the central government, provinces began to break away from the empire.
• A military commander named Posthumous seized control of Gaul and then gained the support of Britain and Spain.
• He defended his ‘‘Gallic empire’’ until he was killed by his own soldiers in 269.

Chapter 6.5 - Transformation of the Roman World: The Rise of Christianity

• Augustus had taken a number of steps to revive the Roman state religion, which had declined during the turmoil of the late Republic.
• The official state religion focused on the worship of a pantheon of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses, including Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and Mars.
• Observance of proper ritual by state priests theoretically brought the Romans into proper relationship with the gods and guaranteed security, peace, and prosperity.
• The polytheistic Romans were extremely tolerant of other religions.
• The Romans allowed the worship of native gods and goddesses throughout their provinces and even adopted some of the local gods.
• In addition, the imperial cult of Roma and Augustus was developed to bolster support for the emperors.
• After Augustus, deceased emperors deified by the Roman senate were included in the official imperial cult.
• The desire for a more emotional spiritual experience led many people to the mystery religions of the Hellenistic east, which flooded into the western Roman world during the Early Empire.
• Many mystery cults were vying for the attention of the Roman world.
• The cult of Isis, an Egyptian mother goddess, had become especially widespread throughout the empire by the first century C. Initiation into the cult of Isis came with a promise of immortality after death.
• Perhaps the most important mystery cult was Mithraism.
• It was a religion for men only and featured an initiation ceremony in which devotees were baptized in the blood of a sacrificed bull.
• The Jewish Background Christianity emerged out of Judaism, and so it is to the Jewish political-religious world that we must turn to find the beginnings of Christianity.
• In Hellenistic times, the Jewish people had enjoyed considerable independence under their Seleucid rulers.
• Roman involvement with the Jews began in 63 B. , Judaea had been made a province and placed under the direction of a Roman procurator.
• The Pharisees adhered strictly to Jewish ritual and, although they wanted Judaea to be free from Roman control, did not advocate violent means to achieve this goal.
• The Essenes were a Jewish sect that lived in a religious community near the Dead Sea.
• A fourth group, the Zealots, were militant extremists who advocated the violent overthrow of Roman rule. was crushed by the Romans four years later.
• The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and Roman power once more stood supreme in Judaea.

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