Pax Romana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana
Please do not use the term ÒPax AmericanaÓ when describing the abuses of our military
overseas. It is a Roman term, and the Romans held their military in the highest
respect. The Romans built up every region they conquered, Romanized them all
with social order, commerce, law, health, communication, and so forth. This in
turn brought peace, hence the term.
We use our military to destroy entire regions, and for building nothing
but narcotics transport stations. Then we abuse the vets upon their return
home. Roman soldiers were salaried and their vets got paid in land. These morons in DC use our military as
disposable pawns in a game that serves them and weakens America. Be mindful
that when several of the Emperors got É stupid with power and threatened Rome,
the Praetorian Guard took care of business. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/08/19/press-tv-china-to-take-over-strategic-us-military-base-in-djibouti/
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Augustus Caesar and the Pax
Romana On
the morning of March 15, 44 B.C., JULIUS CAESAR was
assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate. This was just one
month after he had declared himself dictator of the Roman world. In the wake
of his death, three men moved forward to form a new triumvirate
which would punish Caesar's assassins and then divide up the Roman
world. The members of this triumvirate consisted of Marc
Antony (consul), Lepidus (high official), and Octavian (the grand
nephew of Caesar). Up to the year 37 B.C., there was relative peace in the
Roman world. Brutus and Cassius were defeated in the Battle of Philippi (42
B.C.) and Cicero, perhaps the greatest thinker in the Roman world, had his
hands and head cut off and placed in public display in the Forum. These three
men headed a republican faction against Caesar for the simple reason that
Caesar had claimed absolute power for himself. But in 37 B.C., stability appeared
to disintegrate. Antony had married Octavian's sister but had also formed
some sort of marriage contract with Cleopatra.
In 31 B.C., Antony and Cleopatra's navy was beaten by
Octavian's forces at Actium. Antony fled to Alexandria where Octavian
eventually followed. Antony committed suicide while Cleopatra took the asp. In
the wake of this decisive battle, the Battle of Actium, Octavian emerged as the
sole master of the Roman world and would rule the Roman Empire for 45 years,
until his death in A.D.14. Although his rise to power was always suspect, he
succeeded in overhauling and reforming almost every Roman institution. He also
helped to establish the Roman Empire on a much more rational basis. His
reforms carried the Roman Empire for almost 200 years, and this, the most
creative period of the Roman Empire, is often called the Age of Augustus. On January 13, 27 B.C., Octavian
appeared before the Roman Senate and laid down his supreme powers. It was at
this time that Octavian took the name of Augustus Caesar (Imperator Caesar
Divi Filius Augustus).
The Senate had been purged of its dubious members and reduced from about 1000
members to 800. The majority of these men were solid supporters of Augustus
(indeed, they were handpicked by Augustus). Augustus proclaimed that he had
restored the Republic. The Senate voted to allow Augustus to govern in for
ten years which he gladly accepted. Despite all the
pomp and circumstance which accompanied this, the
plain fact was that he was now left with total control of the armed forces of
the Roman State. The Senate took an oath of allegiance to Augustus as emperor
(imperator). In 23 B.C., Augustus was granted the authority of tribune
(tribunicia potestas)
for life. This enabled him to have ultimate veto power and also to deal
directly with the people. The reforms of Augustus as well as
his long life contributed to the idea that he was something more than human
-- he was certainly a hero, the Romans thought, perhaps even a god. His
reforms of the system of Roman government were important. He compromised
between inherited traditions and a changed economic, political and social
reality. In other words, he effectively mixed both
the old and the new, a typically Roman idea. His system of reforms save the
Empire, but in the long run spelled the death of representative institutions.
Augustus never did away with these institutions, he
merely united them under one person -- himself. He was consul, tribune, chief
priest of the civic religion and the public censor. He ruled by personal
prestige: he was princeps (first citizen
among equals) and pater patriae (father of the country). He was the supreme
ruler, the king, the emperor and his authority (auctoritas)
was absolute. He immediately faced four distinct
problems. (1) He had to secure the northern frontiers against attack. Civil
wars had involved the army and had led to a weakening of the frontiers of the
border. (2) The army had grown too large and unmanageable: the army formed a
state within a state. (3) The urban population and small farmers had to be
helped. (4) His new government had to promote confidence among the senatorial
class which was necessary for efficient rule. His reform of the administration of
the provinces hit all these problems at once. First, the frontiers were
consolidated. His policy was to extend the northern frontier (the Rhine and
Danube Rivers) no further and to bolster what remained. Augustus reduced the
size of the army and the remainder were stationed in
the provinces. He provided a cash payment to those
soldiers who had served for more than twenty years, thus securing their
loyalty to the Roman state and not to their generals. The army was removed
from Rome where they were tempted to a meddle in
civic affairs. He also created the Praetorian Guard, an elite corps of 9000
men charged with defending him. Stationed at Rome, the members of the Guard
were from Italy only, and received higher pay than soldiers in the Roman
legions. The Guard served as the personal bodyguard to Augustus but a few
decades after the death of Augustus, they often played a decisive role in the
"selection" of new emperors. In the home provinces near Rome,
Augustus entrusted the senatorial class. He made the senatorial aristocracy
feel as if they still had power. They were, of course, losing it quickly. The
reforms of Augustus stabilized the economy and made the Mediterranean basin
nearly self-sufficient. But there were flaws
which soon became apparent. Economically, the system was based on a
network of mutually interdependent areas. If one fell, it could hurt the
whole Empire. The system of slave labor was also showing signs of
deterioration. Slaves had no desire to work. Furthermore, the number of
slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won their freedom by manumission.
As a result, manpower was drained off the farms. In general, the Augustan system
worked fairly well, in fact, it lasted more than 200 years. It provided a
material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the Greeks
under Pericles. This is the age of the Pax
Romana, the Roman Peace. But the Augustan reforms
were not limited to political, economic and social issues alone. They also
envisioned a fundamental change in Roman culture itself. Augustus tried to
turn Rome into a world capital and taught the Romans to identify their
destiny with the destiny of all mankind. They were the chosen people who
would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing world. A Digression: Of Greeks and Romans
With their tunnel
vision in place, the Greeks had thought of the world of the city-state. The
Romans came to think of the entire world as a city in which everyman might
enjoy privileges of citizenship. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans never thought
that the good life was possible only within the life of the
polis. For Rome, one's virtue could be cultivated anywhere and
at anytime. In other words, the Romans did not see their public and private
roles as necessarily conflicting with one another. The height of one's wisdom
was to know one's duty and then to do it, and not to pursue self-interest. In
other words, the Romans were natural Stoics. It has been said that Roman culture
was only a translation of Greek cultural values in terms of the needs of the
Roman Empire. Such a statement denies the genius of Rome and also accepts the
greatness of Greek cultural values. This leaves us with a question: "how
was it that the Romans succeeded in envisioning a world civilization?"
True, the Romans did find much in Greek culture that fit their own
preconceived notions of the world process. But Greek culture was obsessed
with the problem of individual self-cultivation. The Greeks did not really
describe anything which went beyond the polis.
Roman civilization on the other hand was based on man's ability to provide
the good life for himself and others. The Romans
looked forward to a world composed of the most diverse elements and people.
The Empire would be synonymous with the world. In general, the Romans were
optimistic about life whereas the Greeks were not. The Greeks saw chaos in
the world. The Romans experienced that same chaos but held out for the
possibility of bringing order out of that chaos. Roman culture was based on
optimism and faith in man's ability to cope with the existence of chaos. This
is a very positive and optimistic idea. It exudes the confidence and courage
to face the unknown. The Romans managed to translate their thought into
actions. The proof is, quite simply, the Roman Empire itself. The Greeks were
perhaps too intellectual. They were more concerned with extolling the virtues
of the citizens of the polis. They were perhaps narrow
minded since they did not see their world as a totality, as did the
Romans. I suppose we could say that the Romans had a heightened awareness of
human history whereas the Greeks only conceived of a Greek history. [N.B. -- what follows are brief
accounts of the emperors who followed Augustus down to about A.D. 200. For
detailed information, please consult the individual essays of The
Imperial Index.] After Augustus
When Augustus
died in A.D.14, a crisis of leadership of the Empire developed. This crisis
arose basically because the senatorial class were
unsure of their political power. Indeed, they could control administration of
the State, but true power lay in the hands of Augustus alone. After the death
of Augustus, Tiberius (42 B.C.-A.D. 37; emperor, A.D.
14-37), the stepson of Augustus, became the leader of the state. A rather
dark, vengeful, complex man and a soldier by training, Tiberius was
suspicious of the Senate who were equally befuddled by his behavior. The
reign of Tiberius eventually became a tyranny -- in the wake of his paranoia,
dozens of members of the Senate and equestrians were denounced and killed.
The reign of Tiberius ended the illusion that the Republic had been restored
and revealed some of the future of the Principiate. Imperial power fell to the
megalomaniac, Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
(12-41; emperor, 37-41) the third child of Augustus' adopted grandson, Germanicus, and Augustus' granddaughter, Agrippina. Gaius
accompanied his parents on military campaigns and was shown to the troops
wearing a miniature soldier's outfit, including a sandal called caliga, hence the nickname, Caligula.
According to the will of Tiberius, Caligula and his cousin Tiberius Gemellus were joint heirs. Caligula ordered Gemellus killed and with the support of the Praetorian
Prefect, he declared Tiberius will void on the
grounds of insanity. Caligula than accepted the powers of the Principiate. His popularity was great but within four
years he was assassinated by discontented members of his
bodyguard. Ancient and modern sources would
agree -- Caligula was insane. The stories of Caligula's insanity are well
known: his excessive cruelty, incestuous relationships with his sisters (he
deified Drusilla), laughable military campaigns (picking up sea shells as the
"spoils of war") and the plan to make his horse a consul. Of
course, we could easily argue that Caligula was merely pushing the limits of
the imperial cult, something already established by Augustus. Following the murder of Caligula, Claudius
(10 BC-A.D. 54; emperor, 41-54) emerged as ruler. According to one story, the
Preatorian Guard found Claudius hiding behind a
curtain after Caligula's brutal murder. They picked him up and declared him
their emperor. He was the son of Drusus Claudius Nero, the son of Augustus's
wife Livia, and Antonia, the daughter of Marc
Antony. Claudius was plagued from the start because of his many defects: he
drooled, stuttered, limped and was constantly ill. The historian Seutonius wrote in his Twelve Caesars, that
"Claudius' mother, Antonia, often called him 'a monster: a man whom
nature had not finished but had merely begun'." Claudius was secluded
from public view throughout his childhood and youth. At the death of Caligula there was
talk among the Senate of restoring the Republic. Of course, various Senators
proposed that they be chosen as princeps. In
the end, it was the Praetorian Guard who had made the decision and Claudius,
the army's choice, became Rome's fourth emperor. This is important since it
shows how the Romans had not established a line of succession. Caligula had
been murdered by his body guard and Claudius became princeps only through the support of the army. Claudius' ambitious wife, Agrippina,
seeing that the time was ripe to dispose of Claudius, had him poisoned with a
treated mushroom. Claudius was dying but needed to be poisoned again. With
Claudius finally out of the way, the princeps
fell to his adopted son, Lucius Domitus
Ahenobarbus, known as Nero Claudius Caesar, or Nero
(37-68; emperor, 54-68). Since Nero was an adolescent, the early part of his
reign was characterized by direction from Agrippina and the Roman philosopher
and statesman Seneca (the Younger). Nero eventually married Poppaea in 62. In the same year Nero passed a series of
treason laws directed at anyone he perceived to be a threat. In 64, a great
fire destroyed much of Rome -- the legend is that Nero had to destroy Rome in
order to rebuild it. Nero had many enemies and there was
more than one assassination plot against him. A number of the conspirators
were forced to commit suicide, including Lucan, Petronious
and Seneca. Continued unrest within the Senate and the provinces gave his
enemies the chance to depose him but in early June 68, Nero committed
suicide. He was the last of the Julio-Claudians. Control of the Roman Empire between
Augustus and Nero was based on military tyranny. In 68, Rome had four
emperors, three who died early, leaving the title of princeps
to Titus Flavius Vespasianus or Vespasian
(9-79; emperor, 69-79). Vespasian restored the peace and brought stability to
the Empire following the rule of Nero. He also established the Flavian dynasty as the legitimate successor to the
throne. As an emperor Vespasian was sound in his financial dealings and
restored the city and government of Rome following a series of civil wars
early in his reign. Unlike the four previous emperors, Vespasian died
peacefully in his sleep. His administration of the Roman Empire anticipated
the period of the "Five Good Emperors." Despite the general fear that he
would become the next Nero, it was Titus Flavius Vespasianus,
or Titus
(30-81; emperor, 79-81), the eldest son of Vespasian and brother of Domitian,
who became emperor. Titus played an important role in the assault of
Jerusalem (70), an assault which showed him to be a
capable, but not an innovative military leader. Tales of Titus' violence as a
praetorian prefect and his sexual debauchery preceded his office. Despite his
reputation, Titus was a capable ruler. Huge amounts of money poured into Rome
to finance an extensive building program. The Flavian
Amphitheater, or Coliseum, was built during his reign. In A.D. 79, Vesuvius
erupted, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum, and killing almost 4000. Titus
spent huge sums of money to relieve the hardships of the people affected.
Known for his generosity, Titus died in 81, after only twenty-six months in
office. Titus was succeeded by his younger brother, Titus Flavius Domitianus, or Domitian (51-96; emperor, 81-96). Titus and Domitian were not close (they were separated in age by 21 years) and so while Titus was dying, Domitian left for the praetorian camp where he was hailed as emperor. As emperor, Domitian produced a financially sound administration. After a series of catastrophes in Rome (the great fires of 64 and 80, and the civil wars of 68-69), Domitian erected, restored or completed more than fifty public buildings. In 85, Domitian made himself censor perpetuus, censor for life, and thus took charge of the conduct and morals of Rome. He was not much of a military figure and his campaigns were minor at best. It was instead his domestic policies that earned him some respects in the early years of his rule. It is odd that while Domitian was severe in his attempt to curb moral and political corruption, should turn out to be a murderer himself. The catalog of his crimes is long and he inflicted death on young and old alike. He called himself "Lord God" and spoke of himself as divine. There were numerous conspirators and in 96 he was murdered in a palace coup. The people did not mourn the loss of Domitian. That same day Domitian was succeeded by Nerva.A philosopher as well as emperor and general, Aurelius
wrote the MEDITATIONS, a work
which reveals the loneliness of his soul. However, as a Stoic thinker
of the highest caliber, he also shows us that he did not allow himself to be
saddened by his experience of life. His death was a national calamity and he
became almost an object of worship to the citizens of the empire -- it is
said that after his death Aurelius appeared in dreams
as did the saints of the Christian era. Aurelius twice persecuted the
Christians -- he undoubtedly believed Christian fanaticism and superstition
were dangerous to philosophy, society and the empire. Under the Five Good Emperors the frontiers of the Empire
were consolidated to the north and to the east. The bureaucracy was opened up
to all social classes, trade and agriculture flourished, and there was much
public building. Although things did seem to be getting better, there were
problems on the horizon. Barbarian pressures were mounting. There was a
considerable decline in the slave population and the army was no longer large
enough to maintain the frontier. As a result, Marcus Aurelius, the last of
the Five Great Emperors, spent most of his time defending the frontier and as
a result, spent very little time in Rome. Following his death in 180, the
imperial office passed to his nineteen year old son and another madman,
Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (161-192,
emperor, 180-192). Commodus represented a throwback to Nero and
Caligula. He began to dress like the god Hercules, wearing lion skins and
carrying a club. He took part in gladiatorial contests and also fought wild
beasts in the amphitheater. He also declared that his own age be henceforth
called the "Golden Age." Commodus was finally
strangled in his bath by Narcissus, an athlete, thus bringing an end to the Antonine dynasty. It was Publius
Helvius Pertinax (126-193; emperor, 192-193),
whose brief reign of only three months, followed that of Commodus. He was a
well-educated man and taught grammar for awhile
before he entered a military career. The Praetorian Guard planned a coup but Pertinax learned of the plot and stopped it. Military
discipline continued to break down. Pertinax
confronted his troops and was killed. The reign of Commodus had been anything but settled so
the Roman Empire was fortunate that the imperial office fell to Lucius Septimius Severus
(145-211; emperor, 193-211). Although he held a positive reputation, his
control of the empire was joined by bloodshed. He rejected the Senate and
based his power on the army alone. Henceforth, soldiers' pay was increased,
they could marry while in service and they had greater opportunities for
promotion. His first act was to disband the Praetorian Guard -- he then
selected a larger Praetorian Guard drawn from the provinces. He bought off the
people with grain doles and circuses in the Coliseum. At his death in 211,
Severus had created a larger and more expensive army, something that
foreshadowed the highly bureaucratic government of the later Empire. The rest of the 3rd century could be written off as the
history of a political mess. No good leader could be found to fill the Roman
office of emperor. Between 211 and 300, there were more than seventy emperors
who vied for control of the Imperial office. Meanwhile, the frontiers
disintegrated, the barbarian tribes began to move into the territory of the
Empire itself, cities were sacked or declared their independence from Rome,
slaves rebelled on the greatest states, and civic responsibility disappeared.
Order was eventually restored but this order was not consistent with the
ideas of the Republic nor was a consistent with the aims of Augustus Caesar.
The Pax Romana
was clearly at an end. The reforms of Diocletian
(c.236-305; emperor, 284-305), who brought to an end the period of
"Military Anarchy" (235-284) and Constantine
the Great (c.272-337; emperor, 324-337), who made Christianity the
favored religion of the empire, completed the process of transformation that
the 3rd century made necessary to sustain the Empire. What began as an
attempt to bring peace and prosperity ended as a program to insure the very
survival of the Roman Empire. Diocletian tried to
bring some kind of emperor-worship to Rome but by this time the Empire could
see the end. The citizens were now called upon to sacrifice everything --
wealth, property, lives -- for the preservation of the Roman State. And
Diocletian demanded that he be called Dominus noster
(Lord and Master), rather than princeps or imperator.
More and more barbarian tribes settled in the Empire and were invited to do
so as long as they paid taxes and supplied soldiers to the army. By 300, more
than seventy-five percent of the army was composed of German soldiers. The
army itself was barbarized and turned into an instrument of sheer oppression.
In such a situation it soon became apparent that the Germans distrusted the
Romans and the Romans hated the Germans in acts of blatant racism. The Roman Empire became divided geographically and
socially between East and West. Those Romans that did not join with the
barbarians, showed their alienation from Rome by adopting a world-view
opposed to everything that was Roman: Christianity. By the year 300, Christianity
had become the largest single religion in the Roman world. It was openly
hostile to Greek humanism as much as it was to Roman institutions. It was therefore a master stroke,
on the part of Constantine the Great to make Christianity the favored
religion within the Roman world in the 330s. Christianity taught that the
principal virtue was charity and service to the religious community. It also
made the quest for salvation a communal quest, and therefore excluded no one.
Furthermore, Christianity offered its benefits to all -- it could appeal to
everyone. And of course, Christianity possessed a well-organized
administrative body, the clergy. It was the clergy who carried out democratic
elections and represented a chain of authority from priest to bishop. Christianity
could have been a state within a state but it did not aspire to political
power. What Constantine did was to weld the exceptionally stable religious
community onto the Roman state and then use it to develop a new conception of
imperial office. But this was no mere exploitation of the clergy or
Christianity. Constantine's adoption of Christianity signaled the bankruptcy
of classical humanism as a political creed, that secular characteristic of
the Roman Republic and the Augustan Age. Christianity, therefore, signaled
the abandonment of the religion of culture for what I would like to
suggest became a new culture of religion. | The
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