Roman Success Systems
ability to construct evolving systems of govt
(hierarchy, infrastructure, organization)
2. willingness
to incorporate outsiders gradually and by degrees
Domi nobiles
Italians, Latins, Samnites
Etruscans fall of Bronze Age (1000 BC); Virgils Aenead, L. Tarquinius Superbus, expelled
from Rome in 510 BC
Gauls sacked Rome in 390 BC Cisalpine
Gaul; Transalpine Gaul
Carthage founded in 814 BC Phoenicians; Punic Wars,
265-241, (Hannibalic War) 218-201 BC; Plautus
(220-180 BC), Pseudolus;
Greeks Syracuse founded by Corinth in 735 BC; Magna
Graecia
Rome founded by Romulus and Remus 753 BC, King
king - commander in chief in war; chief priest
Senate - patres
Assembly of warriors
hoplite phalanx
Servius Tullius, Servian census reforms 550 BC
510 27 BC -- L. Tarquinius
Superbus, Tarquin the Proud, last king of Rome,
expelled in 510 BC
patricians =-- ESTABLISHED REPUBLIC IN 510 BC
Plebeians status
inferiors yet citizens
SPQR - Republican system of
government, annually elected magistrates enter senate for life an elected
oligarchy, need to seek reelection to higher ranking offices (cursus honorum) offered some degree of accountability to the
voting public. Oligarchy monitored by elected popular officials as well.
Balanced governance
2 CONSULS -- IMPERIUM - POWER TO COMMAND
ARMIES; THE POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH; FASCES; RELIGIOUS POWER TO TAKE THE
AUSPICES
fasces - bundles of rods, lictors
plebeian assembly 10 PLEBEIAN OR POPULAR TRIBUNES
SACROSANCTITAS, VETO
POWER, INTERCESSIO, AUXILIUM
sacrosanctitas -- inviolability
DUAL POLITY -- 2
GOVTS EXISTING AT THE SAME TIME IN THE SAME PLACE
MILITARY OR CENTURIATE
ASSEMBLY
190 CENTURIES OF TROOPS
18 CENTURIES OF THE
KNIGHTS
80 CENTURIES OF THE
FIRST CLASS
40 SECOND CLASS
ETC
TRIBAL
OR POPULAR OR PLEBIAN
ASSEMBLY
PLEBEIANS -- ORDINARY
ROMAN CITIZENS
DUAL POLITY -- 2 GOVTS.
OPERATING AT THE SAME TIME AT THE SAME PLACE
DICTATOR -- TEMPORARY
RESTORATION OF ROYAL POWER, 6 MOS. Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator
Verrucosus
Roman nomenclature tria nomina GENS, CLAN OR
EXTENDED FAMILY CLAIMING DESCENT FROMA COMMON ANCESTOR, USUALLY SOMEONE
DESCENDED FROM THE GODS
C. Julius C.f. C.n Caesar
Q. Fabius
Maximus Verrucossus Cunctator
Q. Mucius
Scaevola
P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus
Quintus, Sextius, Octavius,
1. Wars for survival and local supremacy within Italy:
Wars against
the Expelled Kings and neighboring Etruscans, 510-410 BC
Wars against
the Gauls and neighboring Italians 390-380
Revolt of the
Latin League 340-338
3 Samnite Wars
342-290
2. Wars of Defensive Imperialism
War with King
Pyrrhus of Epirus, 281-275
First Punic
War, 364-241 (Rome gains its first overseas provinces, Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica)
Hannibalic War 218-201
(2 provinces of Spain)
(numerous frontier campaigns in Cisalpine Gaul)
3. Wars of Conquest
War with King
Philip V of Macedonia, 200-197
War with King
Antiochus III of Syria, 191-189
War with King
Perseus of Macedonia, 172-167 (reorganization of Greece into a form of
protectorate)
148-146 Reduction of
Macedonia, Achaia, and Carthage (destruction of Carthage and Corinth, province
of Macedonia)
(numerous native rebellions and frontier conflicts in
Transalpine Gaul, Spain, Lusitania, Sardinia, Illyria, and Thrace)
Wars of
the Late Republic
133-129, War
with Aristonicus (province of Asia)
Sicilian
Slave Rebellion 136-130 BC
Conquest of
Gallia Narbonensis 126-105
War with King
Jugurtha of Numidia 109-105 (Numidia)
War with
Invading German Tribes, Cimbri and Teutones, 105-101
Second Slave
Rebellion 105-100
War against
the Cilician Pirates, 102-67 (Cilicia, Crete)
Social War
against Italian Allies 90-82
Mithradatic Wars (4),
88-63 (Bithynia and Pontus, Syria)
Civil War
between Marius and Sulla, 88-82
War with Q.
Sertorius, rebellious general in Spain, 80-72
Slave
Rebellion of Spartacus, 73-71
War with Cataline, internal Roman conspiracy and rebellion, 63
Caesar's
Conquest of Gaul 58-52
War against
Parthia, 54-53
Civil War
between Pompey and Caesar, 49-46 (Mauretania)
Civil War
between Antony/Octavian and Brutus and Cassius 43-41
War with Sex.
Pompey, 42-36
War between
Octavian and Antony/Cleopatra, 32-31 (Egypt)
(End of the
Republic 27 BC)
5 reasons for Roman military success
1. Aristocratic Ethos -- the intense competition for office and the
winnowing effect of the cursus honorum meant
that all Roman generals enjoyed minimum competency in command.
2. Professional training of the troops.
A the Republic paid its troops under arms, enabling it to
dispatch forces over extended periods of time. Although a draft army, the Roman
army became a professional army, with all citizens liable for 16 years of
compulsory military service. B. A Roman army began as a hoplite phalanx; during
the course of the 4th century BC it adapted to a more
maneuverable formation known as the Manipular Legion
of 5400 men. The tasks of the duty roster focused on the construction and
maintenance of the Roman legionary camp.
3. Increasing
Manpower from Allies and Expanding Roman Towns. According to Roman census figures, as
a result of colonization there were 292,000 adult male Roman citizens
eligible for the draft in 264 BC. By 225 BC it is
estimated that the Italian allies were contributing 375,000 regular troops.
Estimates of total available manpower eligible for the
draft during the Hannibalic War (218-201 BC) are 1
million Romans and 2 million Italians.
4. Rome Displayed a
Willingness to incorporate outsiders into its Republican political system
gradually and by degrees.
Roman citizens; Latin
Allies, Italian Allies, Friends and Clients, Provincials after 241 BC
5. Rome never surrendered, nor negotiated from a
position of weakness.
Fall of the Republic (133-27 BC)
Internal turmoil provoked
in 133 BC by economic stagnation in the city of Rome, slave revolts without,
and dissension in the military precipitated a period of unrelenting political
upheaval known as the Roman Revolution, the Late Roman Republic, or the Fall of the Republic, 133-27 BC. In essence, the republic
system of government underwent a painful and violent transition from
irresponsible oligarchy to a more accountable autocratic form of government.
I. FOUR
STEPS TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC 133-27 BC
1. THE
RISE OF POPULAR TRIBUNES, 133-121
BC, two brothers, Ti. And C.
Sempronius Gracchus exploited the power of the
plebeian tribuneship to seize power in Rome. They
essentially used their sacrosanctitas
to veto all other public activity in the city in order to force the senate and
the magistrates to focus on their own political agendas. They tried to restore
order to the military by reclaiming public land and putting landless poor
citizens back on land. C. Gracchus also attempted to grant Italian allies Roman
citizen status. Both men were killed with their
political followings through urban mob violence fomented by the aristocracy.
2.
THE RISE OF PRIVATE ARMIES. When the
oligarchy failed to resolve the military problem, Roman generals, specifically C. Marius (consul 106, 104-100 BC) and L. Cornelius Sulla (consul 88, dictator 82-79 BC),
recruited private armies more loyal to themselves than to the state. In
addition to the draft, they recruited landless poor citizens by offering them
bounties and land upon discharge. The soldier's status as Roman or allied
mattered little to these generals either, both of whom made extensive grants of
citizenship to allied forces. Ultimately, the two men came to blows in 88 BC in
the midst of the Social War and the Asian rebellion induced by Mithradates. So violent were popular feelings that Sulla
was able to persuade his field army in southern Italy to march on the city of
Rome to expel Marius and his followers. So began the first Civil War and the
gradual transference of soldiers loyalties from the laws of the state to the
persons of their commanding officers. Sulla ultimately prevailed against both Mithradates and the Marian element in Italy (Marius having
died in 86 BC), and attempted to impose a reactionary political reform on Rome
as dictator (Dictator rei publicae
constituendae causa = Dictator for the purpose of restoring the Republic).
3.
THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, 59-53 BC.
Three men, Cn. Pompeius
Magnus, M. Licinius Crassus, and C. Julius Caesar, combined their influence to seize power in Rome.
Pompey was an extremely popular general who defeated numerous enemies of the
oligarchy, including a rebellion in Spain led by the renegade Roman general Q.
Sertorius, a Mediterranean wide rebellion by the Cilician pirates, and the
final defeat of King Mithradates VI of Pontus. Pompey
had a loyal private army, but proved politically incapable of delivering on his
promises of land and bounties. As an officer of Sulla during the Civil War,
Crassus had made himself the wealthiest man in Rome by profiting from Sulla's proscriptions, that
is, the outlawing of Roman citizens by putting their names on lists and putting
a price on their heads, wanted dead or alive. All proscribed citizens saw their
civil rights nullified and their property confiscated and auctioned off by the
state. Crassus exploited the proscriptions to acquire perhaps as much as 20% of
the property in the city of Rome and countless estates throughout Italy. He
used his wealth to buy influence in the Senate and throughout the urban
populace and emerged as a powerful, but surreptitious influence on the roman
state. Caesar began his career in a seemingly hopeless situation as the nephew
of C. Marius confronted by the dictatorship of Sulla. As a young aristocrat he excelled at manipulation of the symbols of
Marian reform and public generosity and became the darling of the masses by the
late 60s BC. By offering his political abilities to aid Pompey and Crassus with
their political agendas, he rose to the consulship in 59 BC
basically to work as a tool for his two more powerful partners. He
delivered necessary legislation in the face of senatorial opposition and
received for his effort a 10-year extraordinary command in Gaul. Intense
rivalry existed between these three dynasts, but so long as they maintained
their illegal political association, the senatorial aristocracy was powerless
to thwart them. Ultimately, Crassus was killed while
fighting the Parthians in Mesopotamia in 53 BC and Pompey distanced himself
from Caesar. He hoped to use the aristocracy to reduce Caesar's influence with
the army in Gaul, just as the aristocracy hoped to use him for the same purpose
if only to discard him once Caesar was destroyed.
However, Caesar's army proved superior during the Second Civil War (49-46 BC).
Pompey was defeated at Pharsalus and killed in Egypt, and the rest of the
oligarchs opposing Caesar were mopped up across the
Mediterranean.
4.
CAESAR'S DICTATORSHIP (46-44 BC). Having defeated all his
enemies, Caesar was granted a 10-year dictatorship for
purposes of restoring the republic. His solution was to reconstitute himself as
a Roman form of Hellenistic divine king or ruler. Since 510 BC however, the
Romans had prided themselves with having obtained their freedom by expelling
their Etruscan King. The very word king, REX, was anathema to the Republic mentality. Roman
citizens had a civic duty to suppress any attempt at tyranny though political
assassination and could do so with impunity. Although carefully avoiding the
title "rex", Caesar attempted to collect for himself all facets of
constitutional authority, serving at the same time as dictator, as consul, as
Pontifex Maximus, and as Plebeian Tribune for life. In early 44 BC he declared himself DICTATOR
IN PERPETUO (actually
inscribed on his coins). He was
murdered by a conspiracy of some 60 odd senators a few weeks later. At
this point the precedent of rule by one man had been
established at Rome. The only question remained which of his supporters would
most likely succeed him to this position. This turned out to be his great grand nephew, C. Julius C. F. Caesar Octavianus,
or Octavian.
· PRINCEPS
· TRIBUNICIAN POTESTAS
· PROCONSULAR IMPERIUM
· AUGUSTUS
C. Julius Caesar Augustus
The Roman people awarded him the title of Princeps, or First citizen of Rome. This was
purely an honorific title with no legally constituted authority; however, it
set him apart in Roman society as the leading citizen of his times. And who other than Rome's most distinguished citizen could
the body politic count on to run the affairs of state? As a
result of his elevated position in society he received 10 year grants of
consular imperium over all provinces (more than 15) where Roman armies
were garrisoned, as well as 5-year grants of tribunician
power. As proconsul in charge of the military provinces of the empire, he
maintained his control over the roman legions, and assumed responsibility for
their recruitment, maintenance in the field, and discharge with bounties at the
end of service. As one of the 10 tribunes he could use
his veto power to block political activity he opposed as well as to pass
legislation and to offer his auxilium to Roman
citizens on appeal.
Octavian learned early on to do more with less: the
authority vested in these two appointments essentially gave him all the
authority he needed to run the city and the provinces. Consequently, he avoided
the consulship, in order to enable aristocrats to rise through the cursus honorum as before and to make themselves eligible to
serve as commanders of his provincial armies (his provincial appointments,
called imperial legates, required consular rank in the Senate). He also
accepted the title "Augustus", meaning "well augured", or
that when the sacrifices for his rule had been taken, the omens were "auspicious"
or positive for the future. Henceforth, he became known
as the Princeps, Caesar Augustus; in none of
these terms could the odious implications of Dictator, Imperator, or Rex be
discerned. Augustus carefully covered his tracks with the appearances of power
sharing with the Roman Senate and People. The more cynical aristocrats could
refuse to recognize the character of his authority, seek office, hold commands
in non-military provinces and continue to participate as independent senators
in the Senate. But if an aristocrat wished to enjoy a
customary career and to command Roman legions, he had to become an
"organizational man" and work within the system of rewards and
promotions constructed by Augustus.
Imperator Julius Divi filius Caesar
The Pax
Romana: Life in the Roman
Empire
SIDEBAR: EARLY ROMAN
DYNASTIES
Julio-Claudian
Dynasty 27 BC - 68 AD
Augustus 27 BC - 14 AD
Tiberius 14 AD - 37 AD
Caligula 37-41
Claudius 41-54
Nero 54-68
Year of Four Emperors 69-70 AD
Flavian Dynasty 70-96 AD
Vespasian 70-79
Titus 79-81
Domitian 81-96
The Antonines 96-180
AD
(the Five Good Emperors)
Nerva 96-98
Trajan 98-117
Hadrian 117-138
Antoninus Pius 138-161
Marcus Aurelius 161-180
Augustan Settlement
pros and cons
Pax Romana; stabilized the
military on the borders LIMES; CONS: inadequate
means of succession; Caligula;
Prosperity material
record; homogeneity of Greco-Roman culture across Mediterranean; elites buying
into the system; rise in status for women Plancia Magna of Perge
oikumene
Limitations
agricultural society, limited technology, increasing pressure on frontiers by
barbarians led to break down in system and rise in size of military
establishment beyond sustainable levels. By 180 AD, the system began to fall
apart. The Era of the Barracks Emperors 235-284 AD 24 emperors in 50 years.
Diocletian (284-305 AD) imposed a military hierarchy to regain control;
Constantine (312-336 AD) moved the capital closer to the barbarian threats
(Byzantium => Constantinople). This sustained the empire for another century
but ultimately collapsed 476 AD
FOUR REASONS FOR THE FALL OF ROMAN EMPIRE:
1. Inadequate Means of Succession.
2 The second cause was the Accelerating Pattern of Civil Wars that
erupted at moments of imperial succession.
3 The third reason often
raised by historians for the fall of Rome was the Mounting Pressure of Barbarian Populations on the frontiers.
4 The need for greater
military vigilance led to the fourth generally accepted argument, namely, that the Inordinate Cost of Maintaining So Large
a Military Establishment proved too costly for what was essentially and
agricultural society to bear.
Why Simultaneous Collapse in
India and China (ca. 200 AD, though both civilizations like Rome were able to
restore order at times)? Did globalism put these 3
populations on synchronous trajectories of growth 1-2 centuries AD?
