Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

RISE OF ROMAN EMPIRE

Rise of Military Commanders: Marius, Sulla and Client armies Civil Wars (44 BCE Julius Caesar’s assassination to the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE)Golden Age or Augustan Age under Octavian, named Emperor Augustus, who ruled 27 BCE-14 CE. Writers Virgil and Horace, historian Livy.

Pax Romana (27 BCE-180 CE)

Maximum extent of Empire and best Latin literature Tacitus’s Critique of Rome.

Roman Hegemony on the Mediterranean coasts; 12 emperors discussed by Suetonius and then Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Monarchial form of government: Augustus could veto or initiate legislation in Senate. Augustus declared Julius Caesar a god, emperors worshipped. Assemblies ceased after 98 CE. Senate usurped functions. By end of Pax Romana, Senate weak before Emperor and simply approved Emperor’s decrees.

Height of Roman Culture: Pantheon, Colosseum, city of Pompeii, Trajan’s Column, Arch of Titus, Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, Juvenal, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian, Tacitus, Seneca

WHAT ARE THE KEY DATES IN THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE?

Cato the Elder (234-146 BCE) criticized Republican Rome for abandonment of Republican values.

Juvenal and Tacitus during the Pax Romana were very critical of Roman corruption. Greatest Extent of Empire under Trajan, 117Diocletian Split empire, assigning West to Maximian 284-6Emperor Constantine established capital in Constantinople, and in 313 decreed toleration of

religion. First emperor to become a ChristianEmperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion, forbidding paganism, 383Visigoths sacked Rome 410, and then Augustine wrote City of GodAtilla the Hun invaded western empire, 451Vandals sacked Rome 455Visigothic leader Odoacer seized power in Rome, 476—end of Roman Emperorship in the

WestEastern Emperorship continued as under Justinian (ruled 527-565) and long into Byzantine

civilization (until 1453 when Constantinople conquered by the Turks.

Historical Interpretations Gibbon’s Religious and Moral Explanation brought on a debateGibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776:“As the Happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear, without surprise or scandal, that the introduction, or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”“But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitible effect of immoderate greatness.” (Greek “hubris” as in Thucydides’ explanation of defeat of Athens by Sparta)Twentieth Century Debate on:Did Rome Decline or was it transformed?What caused the changes?

Socio-Economic CausesLoss of self-sufficiencyWallbank: Slavery and underdeveloped technology, restricted internal market on account of split between patricians and plebs and slavesWestermann: Lack of free economy, landed estates imitating Persian serfdomRostovtzeff: Antagonism of city and country, soldier peasant against bourgeoisieBaynes: Peasants fear armyKing: Economic decline of the cities, state became a machine to support the army

Political-Military Causes

Unsuccessful attempt of Diocletian (2 emperors & 2 caesars, 293) and other emperors to reconstitute the empire. (Hunt et. al. emphasize ineffectiveness of political rearrangement, despite increasing autocracy in term "Dominate" replacing "Principate" established by Augustus)

Many military takeovers of the emperorshipJones: Internal weaknesses common to East and West, but only the West fell. West was more exposed to attack from German tribesGreer: No principle of political successionBaynes: State’s over taxation hurt agricultureGibbon: Imperial conquests had already corrupted Roman Republic, weakening self-disciplineBury: Rome needed to recruit German tribesmen to Fight Rome’s wars. Transformation of army into camps along borders.Heitland: Rome never developed representative institutions that could give continuous reform

Intellectual-Religious Causes

Augustine’s Christian Otherworldliness, seeing the city of Rome as unimportant compared to the city of God and advising spiritual withdrawal when Rome was sacked.Clergy undermined civic virtue, preaching pacifism. Others did preach just war theoryMachiavelli and Nietzsche would later call for restoration of pagan manly virture

Margaret King: “Then, in the third century, the tide turned. A deep and persistent crisis took hold. Prosperity faded; poetry and philosophy languished. The borders could be held only by enormous efforts that required the reorganization of the army, the economy, and the machinery of the state. Thenceforth, until the final collapse of authority in the Western Empire in the late 400s, although Rome survived, it bled” (Margaret King, Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History, Brief edition, 2001, p. 119).