My fascination for ancient Rome quickened in high school when four years of Latin added the literature through which we know so much of its history. Rome, more or less and in one shape or another, survived as a continual entity for over two millenia. The author has chosen to write about the ten most important emperors at the height of the empire's majesty. It is the era after conquest and expansion when the great accomplishments and construction took place, when the Rome that we can still physically see was built and the foundations of European civilization were laid.
Julius Caesar appointed as his successor and posthumously adopted Octavian, his young 19 year old great nephew. Facing the powerful Marc Antony, Octavian defeated Antony in battle and then invited him to join in a sharing of power. When Antony left and collaborated with Cleopatra, the forces of Octavian prevailed in 32 BC, making him the most powerful person in the world. He ended decades of civil war and ushered in an era of peace and tranquility as Augustus. He ruled for another 45 years. Trade flourished and the Mediterranean world prospered during the Pax Romana. He spread power away from the city of Rome and around the empire. He 'globalized' the empire and took its culture to Britain and Iraq. He converted Rome from a city of bricks to one of marble. Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Livy became famous under his rule. In his last decade, he adopted his wife Livia's son from her first marriage, Tiberius. He died peacefully in bed in the year 14.
Tiberius was a soldier handed a difficult political job and succeeding a newly proclaimed god. He maintained the monarchy he inherited, yet did so with a tyrannical touch. His most important contribution was to officially end the centuries of expansion. He had fought in central Europe for decades and knew there was no reward for crossing either the Rhine or the Danube. Nor did he wish to expand the army beyond the three hundred thousand men it took to defend the far flung borders. Instead of expanding the empire, he managed it. He failed in selecting his successor as the infamous Caligula followed him to the throne in 37.
We turn next to Nero, who was on the throne when the Great Fire destroyed most of the city in 64. He used the fire as an opportunity to dramatically rebuild the city, but is remembered as a sort of mad autocrat who was insecure, vain and a madman who ordered his own mother's death. He was a populist who provided the people with the finest entertainment and games in the long history of the empire but callously executed anyone who annoyed him. His debauched life and managerial incompetence led to a revolt against his rule. His suicide meant the end of rule by the noble house of Caesar.
Vespasian "was the equal of the great generals of old in everything but his greed." Upon Nero's death, there was fighting on the borders and even within the empire. There was a scramble for power which Vespasian won as he founded a new dynasty. The spring board for success was his suppression of the revolt in Judea. It was commemorated by construction in Rome, the most magnificent of which was the Colosseum. He democratized the ruling of the empire by creating a true meritocracy not reliant on the blue bloods of the senatorial class. After Nero's extravagances, he restored the empire's finances. He was a soldier-statesman who succeeded as emperor. He died in 69.
Trajan was neither royal nor Italian, but a shrewdly political general who became emperor in 98. He spent half of his time as emperor in the field with the army fighting and defending the borders. His greatest successes were in Dacia, modern Romania. It took a third of the army, 100,000 men, to succeed in the rough terrain, and the campaign captured 360,000 pounds of gold and three times as much silver. He was the only emperor to expand boundaries and he used the booty to entertain the people and the senate and to build in the center of Rome. Peace and prosperity followed for decades. Some scholars believe that the 2nd century achieved a GDP that was not matched until the 17th century in the Netherlands.The climate was perfect and it is believed the population peaked somewhere between 50 and 70 million. The empire stretched from London to Beirut. Trajan died while campaigning in the middle east. He was the first emperor to die outside of Rome and did so without naming an heir.
He was succeeded by his cousin Hadrian, known as the Greek and to history as the most travelled emperor ever. From Britain to Syria and everywhere in between, he went on horseback or by ship. He was charming, brilliant, a successful campaigner, and a firm believer in consolidating the empire, building up its finances and avoiding war. He focused on the east where he believed the future of the empire rested. He established and often built up a fixed defensive border. Although flawed, he left "the empire peaceful, prosperous and more open" and at its historical peak.
Marcus Aurelius is known as the philosopher and his book, 'Meditations', is still widely read. To the extent western culture idealizes the philosopher-king, it is Aurelius who epitomized its ideals. He was committed to justice and goodness, steered clear of cruelty and sought compromise. "He made duty his lodestar." His strength of character was a necessity as the empire was attacked on all sides and suffered a major epidemic.
Septimius Severus assumed the throne in 197, after a four year civil war. He was from Africa and founded a dynasty based in the middle east. "The House of Severus was the Roman army, and the army was the house of Severus." Like those before him, he succeeded at war and built temples and arches at home. He died campaigning against the Scots, and his son, Caracalla, followed him. Caracalla campaigned far and wide and is known for adopting a law in 212 that extended Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire. He was assassinated in 217. Severus Alexander continued the dynasty as an emperor-soldier to 235, when he was assassinated. "Violence began to spiral out of control in Severan Rome."
I have long been troubled by the perpetual violence that haunted regime change in Rome that now became constant war, thus making the political failures overwhelmingly more the story than the glory of Rome. Diocletian, a career soldier and the only emperor to abdicate, grew up an impoverished resident of the Balkans. He ruled for twenty-one years, ending the crisis of the third century wherein twenty men ruled in the fifty years preceding his ascension and the empire was attacked on all fronts. Rome had almost collapsed. Diocletian established the foundation for the future of the empire. "He reorganized the Roman Empire and, in a real sense saved it." He was proclaimed emperor in 284 by fellow soldiers on an eastern campaign. He added a co-emperor in the west, while he stayed in the more prosperous east. Each man was seconded by a Caesar and all four, all poor soldiers from the Balkans, ruled the empire in harmony. After their battles were won and they turned to the management of the empire, they decided to punish non-Roman religions, turning against the Manicheans and the Christians, who were particularly persecuted for a decade. He retired in 305 to his homeland in present day Croatia. He had had more impact on the empire than anyone since Augustus. The east-west division was established and Rome was no longer the center of the universe. "In retrospect, the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine amounted to one common enterprise to reform and thus save Rome."
Constantine's conversion to Christianity "changed the world." "He was a soldier, a statesman, a builder, ruthless, single-minded, ambitious, power hungry, brilliant, subtle, spiritual, violent, an administrator, a public relations genius, and a visionary. Constantine was one of history's great success stories." He prevailed in the west, but only after years of fighting. After his victory at the Milvian Bridge outside of Rome in 312, he announced he was a Christian and began the slow process of converting the empire as well. It took another decade for him to defeat his eastern counterpart and reign supreme. He closed pagan temples, confiscated their wealth and built churches. He elevated the status of bishops, made divorce more difficult, abolished crucifixion and made Sunday the sabbath. He concluded that the empire required an eastern capital and built Constantinople on the site of Byzantium. He died in 337. By the end of the century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The success of Rome, particularly the acknowledgement here that it probably took 1500 years to equal the quality of life in the second century, has always fascinated me. When you combine that, with the longevity of at least the name Rome for over two thousand years as a political entity, you have one of our great histories, and one worth returning to.
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