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See also:PERIOD I .: THE PRINCIPATE, 27 B.C.-A.D. 284—(a) The Constitution of the Principate.—The conqueror of See also:Antonius at See also:Actium, the See also:great-See also:nephew and See also:heir of the See also:dictator See also:Caesar, was now summoned, by the See also:general consent of a See also:world wearied out with twenty years of See also:war and anarchy,' to the task of establishing a See also:government which should as far as possible respect the forms and traditions of the See also:Republic, without sacrificing that centralization of authority which experience had shown to be necessary for the integrity and stability of the See also:Empire. It was a task for which Octavian was admirably fitted. To great administrative capacity and a quiet tenacity of purpose he See also:united deliberate caution and unfailing tact; while his See also:bourgeois See also:birth' and genuinely See also:Italian sympathies enabled him to win the confidence of the See also:Roman community to an extent impossible for Caesar, with his dazzling pre-See also:eminence of patrician descent, his daring disregard of forms and his See also:cosmopolitan tastes. The new See also:system which was formally inaugurated by Octavian in 28-27 B.C.4 assumed the shape of a restoration of the republic The under the leadership of a princeps.' Octavian volun-`4ugustan tarily resigned the extraordinary See also:powers which he had system, held since 43, and, to quote his own words, " handed 28-27= over the republic to the See also:control of the See also:senate and 726-27. See also:people of See also:Rome."" The old constitutional machinery was once more set in See also:motion; the senate, See also:assembly and magistrates resumed their functions;7 and Octavian himself was hailed as the " restorer of the See also:commonwealth and the See also:champion of freedom."8 It was not so easy to determine what relation he himself, the actual See also:master of the Roman world, should occupy towards this revived republic. His See also:abdication, in any real sense of the word, would have simply thrown everything back into confusion. The interests of See also:peace and See also:order required that he should retain at least the substantial See also:part of his authority;' and this See also:object was in fact accomplished, and the See also:rule of the emperors founded, in a manner which has no parallel in See also:history. Any revival of the kingly See also:title was out of the question, and Octavian himself expressly refused the dictatorship." Nor was any new See also:office created or any new See also:official title invented for his benefit. But by senate and people he was invested according to the old constitutional forms with certain powers, as many citizens had been before him, and so took his See also:place by the See also:side of the lawfully appointed magistrates of the republic; —only, to See also:mark his pre-eminent dignity, as the first of them all, the senate decreed that he should take as an additional cognomen that of "See also:Augustus,"" while in See also:common parlance he was hence-forth styled princeps, a See also:simple title of See also:courtesy, See also:familiar to re-publican usage, and conveying no other See also:idea than that of a 1 He celebrated his See also:triumph on the 13th, 14th and 15th of See also:August; Dio li. 21; See also:Livy, Epit. exxxiii. For the closing of the See also:temple of See also:Janus, see Livy i. 19; Vell. ii. 38; See also:Suet. Aug. 22. 2 Tac. See also:Ann. i. 2, " cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit." 3 Suet. Aug. i. His grandfather was a See also:citizen of Velitrae; " municipalibus magisteriis contentus." See also:Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 745 ff.; Mon. Ancyranum (ed. Mommsen, See also:Berlin, 1883), vi. 13–23, pp. 144–53; See also:Herzog, Gesch. u. System d. rom. Verfassung, ii. p. 126 sqq. ' Tac. Ann. iii. 28, " sexto demum consulatu ... quae Illviratu jusserat abolevit, deditque See also:jura quis See also:pace et principe uteremur " Ibid. i. 9, " non regno neque dictatura sed principis nomine constitutam rempublicam." 6 Mon. Anc. vi. 13. 7 See also:Veil. ii. 89, " prisca et antiqua reipublicae forma revocata." 6 See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, i. 589. On a See also:coin of See also:Asia See also:Minor Augustus is styled " libertatis P. R. vindex." The 13th of See also:January, 27 B.C., was marked in the See also:calendar as the See also:day on which the republic was restored (C.I.L. i. p. 384). 9 Dio See also:Cassius describes Augustus as seriously contemplating abdication (lii. 1 ; H. 1–1 1) ; cf. Suet. Aug. 28. 10 Suet. Aug. 52; Mon. Anc. i. 31.
" Mon. Anc. vi. 16, 21–23.recognized primacy and See also:precedence over his See also:fellow-citizens." The ideal sketched by See also:Cicero in his De Republica, of a constitutional See also:president of a See also:free republic, was apparently realized; but it was only in See also:appearance. For in fact the See also:special prerogatives conferred upon Octavian gave him back in substance the autocratic authority he had resigned, and as between the restored republic and its new princeps the See also:balance of See also:power was overwhelmingly on the side of the latter.
Octavian had held the imperium since 43; in 33, it 711, 721.
is true, the powers of the triumvirate had legally The
See also:settle-
expired, but he had continued to wield his authority, See also:meat of
as he himself puts it,13 " by universal consent." In 27 27=727.
he received a formal See also: In 23 an important, See also:change was made in the formal basis of Augustus's authority. In that See also:year he laid down the consul-See also:ship which he had held each year since 31, and could The therefore only exert his imperium See also:pro consule, like re-settlethe See also:ordinary See also:governor of a See also:province. He lost his meat of authority as chief magistrate in Rome and his 23°731. precedence over the governors of senatorial pro- 723. winces. To remedy these defects a See also:series of extraordinary offices were pressed upon his See also:acceptance; but he refused them all,'° and caused a number of enactments to be passed which determined the See also:character of the principate for the next three centuries.'? Firstly, he was exempted from the See also:disability attaching to the See also:tenure of the imperium by one who was not an actual magistrate, and permitted to retain and exercise it in Rome. Secondly, his imperium was declared to be equal with that of the consuls, and therefore See also:superior to that of all other holders of that power. Thirdly, he was granted equal rights with the consuls of convening the senate and introducing business, of nominating candidates at elections,18 and of issuing edicts." Lastly, he was placed on a level with the consuls in outward See also:rank. Twelve See also:lictors were assigned to him and an official seat between those of the consuls themselves (Dio liv. Io). Thus the proconsular authority 20 was for the first See also:time admitted within the walls of Rome; but Augustus was too cautious a statesman to proclaim openly the fact that Tribunthe power which he wielded in the See also:city was the same See also:Ida as that exercised in camps and provinces by a Roman potestas. military commander. Hence he sought for a title which should disguise the nature of his authority, and found it in the 12 The explanation of princeps as an abbreviated See also:form of princeps senatus is quite untenable. For its real significance, see Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 774; See also:Pelham, Journ. of Phil. vol. viii. It•is not an official title. 13 Mon. Anc. 6, 14, " per consensum universorum." 14 Dio liii. 12 ; Suet. Aug. 47. " Dio, i.e. 16 He was offered the dictatorship, a See also:life-consulship, a " cura legum et morum." It is stated by Suetonius (Aug. 53) and Dio (liv. to) that he accepted the last named; but this is disproved by his own See also:language in the Mon. Anc. (i. 31); cf. Pelham, Journ. of Philol. xvii. 47. 17 Dio liii. 32. Part of the law by which the rights essential to the principate were conferred upon See also:Vespasian is extant; see Rushforth, Latin See also:Historical See also:Inscriptions, No. 70 (the Lex de imperio Vespasiani). 16 Tac. Ann. i. 81. 19 Lex de imperio, 11. 17–21. 2° The term proconsulare imperium, which we find used, e.g., by See also:Tacitus, was not employed in republican times, and Augustus himself speaks of his consulate imperium (Mon. Anc. 2, 5, 8). " tribunician power," which had been conferred upon him for life 718 in 36, and was well suited, from its See also:urban and demo- cratic traditions, to serve in Rome as " a term to ex-731. See also:press his supreme position." From 23 onwards the tribunicia potestas appears after his name in official inscriptions, together with the number indicating the period during which it 731 had been held (also reckoned from 23); it was in virtue of this power that Augustus introduced the social re-forms which the times demanded; 2 and, though far inferior to the imperium in actual importance, it ranked with or even above it as a distinctive See also:prerogative of the See also:emperor or his chosen colleague.3 The imperium and the tribunicia potestas were the two pillars upon which the authority of Augustus rested, and the 73J. other offices and privileges conferred upon him were 749, 752. of secondary importance. After 23 he never held the consulship See also:save in 5 and 2 B.C., when he became the colleague of his grandsons on their introduction to public life. He permitted the triumvir See also:Lepidus to retain the chief pontificate until his See also:death, when Augustus naturally became See also:pontifex 742 See also:maximus (12 B.C.).4 He proceeded with the like caution in reorganizing the chief departments of the public service in Rome and See also:Italy. The cura annonae, i.e. the supervision of the See also:corn See also:supply of Rome, was entrusted to him in 732 22 B.C.,6 and this important See also:branch of See also:administration thus came under his personal control; but the other boards (curae), created during his reign to take See also:charge of the roads, the See also:water-supply, the regulation of the See also:Tiber and the public buildings, were composed of senators of high rank, and regarded in theory as deriving their authority from the senate.6 Such was the ingenious See also:compromise by which See also:room was found for the master of the legions within the narrow limits of the old Roman constitution. Augustus could say with truth that he had accepted no office which was " contrary to the usage of our ancestors," and that it was only in dignity that he took precedence of his colleagues. Nevertheless, as every thinking See also:man must have realized, the compromise was unreal, and its significance was ambiguous. It was an arrangement avowedly of an exceptional and temporary character, yet no one could suppose that it would in effect be otherwise than permanent. The powers voted to Augustus were (like those conferred upon
See also:Pompey in 67 B.c.) voted only to him, and (save the 727. tribunicia potestas) voted only for a limited time; in 27 he
received the imperium for ten years, and it was afterwards renewed for successive periods of five, five, ten and ten years.' In this way the powers of the principate were made coextensive in time with the life of Augustus, but there was absolutely no See also:provision for hereditary or any other form of See also:succession, and various expedients were devised in order to indicate the destined successor of the princeps and to See also:bridge the See also:gap created by his death. Ultimately Augustus associated his stepson Tiberius with himself as co-See also:regent. The imperium and the tribunicia potestas were conferred upon him, and he was thus marked out as the See also:person upon whom the remaining powers of the principate would naturally be bestowed after the death of his stepfather. But succeeding emperors did not always indicate their successors so clearly, and, in See also:direct contrast to the See also:maxim that " the See also: Graec. 3, 19. Tac. Ann. i. 3 (of Tiberius), "collega imperii, consors tribuniciae potestatis "; cf. Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 116o. Suet. Aug. 31. 6 Mon. Anc. 1, 32; Dio liv. 1. 6 See Hirschfeld, Verwaltungsgesch. i. 173. Dio liii. 13, 16. 3 Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 1143.See also:division of authority between the republic and its chief magistrate became increasingly unequal. Over the provinces the princeps from the first ruled autocratically; and this See also:autocracy reacted upon his position in Rome, so that it became every year more difficult for a ruler so See also:absolute abroad to maintain even the fiction of republican government at home. The republican institutions, with the partial exception of the senate, lose all semblance of authority outside Rome, and even as the municipal institutions of the chief city of the empire they retain but little actual power. The real government even of Rome passes gradually into the hands of imperial prefects and commissioners, and the old magistracies become merely decorations which the emperor bestows at his See also:pleasure. At the same time the rule of the princeps assumes an increasingly personal character, and the whole See also:work of government is silently concentrated in his hands and in those of his own subordinates. Closely connected with this change is the different aspect presented by the history of the empire in Rome and Italy on the one See also:hand and in the provinces on the other. Rome and Italy See also:share in the decline of the republic. See also:Political See also:independence and activity See also:die out ; their old pre-eminence and exclusive privileges gradually disappear; and at the same time the See also:weight of the overwhelming power of the princeps, and the abuses of their power by individual principes, press most heavily upon them. On the other hand, in the provinces and on the frontiers, where the imperial system was most needed, and where from the first it had full See also:play, it is seen at its best as developing or protectingt, an orderly See also:civilization and maintaining the peace of the world. The decay of the republican institutions had commenced before the revolutionary crisis of 49. It was accelerated by the virtual suspension of See also:regular government between Decay 49 and 28; and not even the See also:diplomatic deference towards See also:ancient forms which Augustus displayed ~hltu- instttu- availed to conceal the unreality of his work of dons. restoration. The See also:comitia received back from him 705, 726. " their ancient rights " (Suet. Aug. 40), and during his lifetime they continued to pass See also:laws and to elect The magistrates. But after the end of the reign of Tiberius See also:comma. we have only two instances of legislation by the assembly in the ordinary way,9 and the law-making of the empire is performed either by decrees of the senate or by imperial edicts and constitutions. Their prerogative of electing magistrates was, even under Augustus, robbed of most of its importance by the control which the See also:prince ps exercised over their choice by means of his rights of nomination and See also:commendation, which effectually secured the See also:election of his own nominees." By Tiberius this restricted prerogative was still further curtailed. The candidates for all magistracies except the consulship were thenceforward nominated and voted for in the senate-See also:house and by the senators," and only the formal return of the result (renuntiatio) took place in the assembly (Dio lviii. 20). And, though the election of consuls was never thus transferred to the senate, the See also:process of voting seems to have been silently abandoned. In the time of the younger See also:Pliny we hear only of the nomination of the candidates and of their formal renuntiatio in the Campus See also:Martius.12 The princeps. himself as See also:long as the Principate lasted, continued to receive the tribunicia potestas by a See also:vote of the assembly, and was thus held to derive his authority from the people." - 9 The See also:plebiscite of See also:Claudius, Tac. Ann. xi. 13, 14, and the lex agraria of See also:Nerva; See also:Digest, xlvii. 21, 3; Dio lxviii. 2; Plin. Epp. vii. 31. 10 On these rights, the latter of which was not exercised in the case of the consulship until the See also:close of See also:Nero's reign, see Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 916–28; Tac. Ann. i. 14, 15, 81; Suet. Aug. 56; Dio Iviii. 20. 11 Tac. Ann. i. 15, " comitia e campo ad patres translata sunt "; compare Ann. xiv. 28. The magistracy directly referred to is the praetorship, but that the change affected the See also:lower magistracies also is certain; see, e.g., Pliny's Letters, passim, especially iii. 20, vi. 19. 12 Plin. Paneg. 92. 13 See also:Gaius i. 5, " cum ipse imperator per legem imperium accipiat " This almost See also:complete effacement of the comitia was largely due to the fact that they had ceased to represent anything but The the populace of Rome, and the comparatively greater niagls- vitality shown by the old magistracies is mainly trades. attributable to the value they continued to possess in the eyes of the Roman upper class. But, though they were eagerly sought (Plin. Epp. ii. 9, vi. 6), and conferred on their holders considerable social distinction, the magistrates ceased, except in name, to be the popularly chosen executive See also:officers of the Roman state. In the administration of the empire at large they had no share, if we except the subordinate duties still assigned to the See also:quaestor in a province. In Rome, to which their See also:sphere of work was limited, they were over-shadowed by the dominant authority of the princeps, while their range of duties was increasingly circumscribed by the See also:gradual transference of administrative authority, even within the city, to the emperor and his subordinate officials. And their dependence on the princeps was confirmed by the control he exercised over their See also:appointment. For all candidates the approval, if not the commendation, of the princeps became the indispensable See also:condition of success, and the princeps on his side treated these ancient offices as pieces of preferment with which to See also:reward his adherents or gratify the ambition of Roman nobles. The dignity of the office, too, was impaired by the practice, begun by Caesar and continued by Augustus and his consul- successors, of granting the insignia to men who had not ship. held the actual magistracy itself.' The consulship was still the highest See also:post open to the private citizen, and consular rank a necessary qualification for high office in the provinces; 2 but the actual consuls have scarcely any other duties than those of presiding in the senate and occasionally executing its decrees, while their term of office dwindles from a year to six and finally to two months? In the See also:age of Tacitus and the younger Pliny, the contrast is striking between the high estimate set on the dignity of the office and the frankness with which its limited See also:Praetor- powers and its dependence on the emperor are ship. acknowledged .5 The praetors continued to exercise their old See also:jurisdiction with little formal change down at least to the latter See also:half of the second century, but only as aeatle- subordinate to the higher judicial authority of the ship. emperor.5 The aediles retained only such See also:petty See also:police duties as did not pass to one or another of the imperial Trihu- prefects and commissioners. The tribunate fared nate. still worse, for, by the side of the tribunicia potestas wielded by the princeps, it sank into insignificance.6 The quaestorship suffered less change than any other of the old Qnaes:or- offices. It kept its place as the first step on the See also:ladder ship. of promotion, and there was still a quaestor attached to each governor of a senatorial province, to the consuls in Rome, and to the princeps himself' The senate alone among republican institutions retained some importance and See also:influence, and it thus came to be regarded The as sharing the government of the Empire with the senate. princeps himself. It nominally controlled the administration of Italy and of the " public provinces," whose governors On the permission to use the ornamenta consularia, praetoria, &c., see Mommsen, Staatsr. i. 455 sqq.; Suet. Jul. 76; Claud. V. 24; Tac. Ann. xii. 21, xv. 72 ; Dio See also:Cass. Ix. 8. Cf. also Friedlander, 1. 691. 2 For a consular senatorial province and for the more important of the imperial legateships. Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 82 sqq. Six months was the usual term down to the death of Nero; we have then four or two months; in the 3rd century two is the rule. The consuls who entered on office on the 1st of January were styled consules ordinarii, and gave their name to the year, whilst the others were distinguished as consules suffecti or minores; Dio Cass. xlviii. 35. Plin. Paneg. 92; The. Hist. i. 1, Agric. 44. 6 Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 225. Plin. Epp. i. 23, " inanem umbram et sine honore nomen." There See also:area few instances of the exercise by the tribunes of their power of interference within the senate; Tac. Ann. i. 77, vi. 47, xvi. 26; Plin. Epp. ix. 13. ' Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 567-69. Pliny was himself " quaestor Caesaris," Epp. vii. 16.it appointed. It is to the senate, in theory, that the supreme power reverts in the See also:absence of a princeps. It is by See also:decree of the senate that the new princeps immediately receives his powers and privileges,8 though he is still supposed to derive them ultimately from the people. After the cessation of all legislation by the comitia, the only law-making authority, other than that of the princeps by his edicts, was that of the senate by its decrees .9 Its judicial authority was co-See also:ordinate with that of the emperor, and at the close of the 1st century we find the senators claiming, as the emperor's " peers," to be exempt from his jurisdiction " But in spite of the outward dignity of its position, and of the deference with which it was frequently treated, the senate became gradually almost as powerless in reality as the comitia and the magistracies. The senators continued indeed to be taken as a. rule from the ranks of the wealthy, and a high See also:property qualification was established by Augustus as a condition of membership; but this merely enabled the emperors to secure their own ascendancy by subsidizing those whose property See also:fell See also:short of the required See also:standard, and who thus became simply the paid creatures of their imperial patrons." See also:Admission to the senate was possible only by favour of the emperor, both as controlling the elections to the magistracies, which still gave entrance to the See also:curia, and as invested with the power of directly creating senators by adlectio, a power which from the time of Vespasian onwards was freely used." As the result, the See also:composition of the senate rapidly altered. Under Augustus and Tiberius it still contained many representatives of the old republican families, whose See also:prestige and ancestral traditions were some See also:guarantee for their independence. But this See also:element soon disappeared. The ranks of the old See also:nobility were thinned by natural decay and by the jealous fears of the last three Claudian emperors. Vespasian" flooded the senate with new men from the municipal towns of Italy and the Latinized provinces of the See also:West. See also:Trajan and See also:Hadrian, both provincials themselves, carried on the same policy, and by the close of the 2nd century even the See also:Greek provinces of the See also:East had their representatives in the senate. Some, no doubt, of these provincials, who constituted the great See also:majority of the senate in the 3rd century, were men of See also:wealth and mark, but many more were of See also:low birth, on some rested the stain of a servile descent, and all owed alike their See also:present position and their chances of further promotion to the emperor." The See also:procedure of the senate was as completely at the See also:mercy of the prince ps as its composition. He was himself a senator and the first of senators;" he possessed the magisterial prerogatives of convening the senate, of laying business before it, and of carrying senatus consulta;16 above all, his tribunician power enabled him to interfere at any See also:stage, and to modify or See also:reverse its decisions. The share of the senate in the government was in fact determined by the amount of administrative activity which each princeps saw See also:fit to allow it to exercise, and this share became steadily smaller. The jurisdiction assigned it by Augustus and Tiberius was in the 3rd century limited to the See also:hearing of such cases as the emperor thought fit to send for trial, and these became steadily fewer in number. Its-control of the state See also:treasury, as distinct from the imperial fiscus, was in fact little more than nominal, and became increasingly unimportant as the great bulk of the See also:revenue passed Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 842; Tac. Ann. xii. 69, Hist. i. 47. In the 3rd century the honours, titles and powers were conferred en bloc by a single decree; Vit. Sev. Alex. 1. ' Gaius i. 4; See also:Ulpian, Dig. i. 3, 9. ° Under See also:Domitian; Dio Cass. lxvii. 2. Even Septimius See also:Severus caused a decree to be passed " ne liceret imperatori inconsulto senatu occidere senatorem " ; Vita Severi, 7. " Suet. Nero, 10, Vesp. 17. 12 Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 939 sqq. The power was derived from the censorial authority. Domitian was See also:censor for life; Suet. Dom. 8. After Nerva it was exercised as falling within the general authority vested in the princeps; Dio 'iii. 17. " Suet. Vesp. 90; Tac. Ann. iii. 55. " See on this point Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, i. 237 sqq. is Mon. Ancyr. Gr. iv. 3, 7rpo,rov a 1c /.6aros rbirov. is Lex de See also:imp. Vesp., C.I.L. vi. 930: " Senatum habere, relationem facere, remittere; Seta. per relationem discessionemoue facere,"
On the See also:accession of Augustus, there could be little doubt as to the nature of the work that was necessary, if peace and prosperity were to be secured for the Roman world. He was called upon to justify his position by rectifying the frontiers and strengthening their defences, by reforming the system of provincial government, and by reorganizing the See also:finance; and his success in dealing with these three difficult problems is sufficiently proved by the prosperous condition of the empire for a century and a half after his death. To secure peace it was necessary to establish on all sides of the empire really defensible
into the hands of the emperor. Even in Rome and Italy its control of the administration was gradually transferred to the See also:prefect of the city, and after the reign of Hadrian to imperial officers (juridici) charged with the See also:civil administration.' The part still played by its decrees in the modification of Roman law has been dealt with elsewhere ',see SENATE), but it is clear that these decrees did little else than See also:register the expressed wishes of the emperor and his personal advisers.
The process by which all authority became centralized in the hands of the princeps and in practice exercised by an See also:organ-Central- ized bureaucracy2 was of See also:necessity gradual; but it ization of had its beginnings under Augustus, who formed the
author-
the equestrian order (admission to which was henceforth imperial granted only by him) into an imperial service, partly
service. civil and partly military, whose members, being immediately dependent on the emperor, could be employed on tasks which it would have been impossible to assign to senators (see See also:EQUITES). From this order were See also:drawn the armies of " procurators "—the term was derived from the practice of the great business houses of Rome—who ad-ministered the imperial revenues and properties in all parts of the empire. Merit was rewarded by See also:independent governor-See also:ships such as those of See also:Raetia and See also:Noricum, or the command of the See also:naval squadrons at See also:Misenum and See also:Ravenna; and the prizes of the See also:knight's career were the prefectures of the praetorian guard, the corn-supply and the city police, and the governorship of See also:Egypt. The See also:household offices and imperial secretaryships were held by freedmen, almost always of Greek origin, whose influence became all-powerful under such emperors as Claudius.' The See also:financial secretary (a rationibus) and those who dealt with the emperor's See also:correspondence (ab epistulis) and with petitions (a libellis) were the most important of these.
This increase of power was accompanied by a corresponding See also:elevation of the prince ps himself above the level of all other outward citizens. The comparatively modest household and
sp/en- simple life of Augustus were replaced by a more than
dour. See also:regal splendour, and under Nero we find all the out-See also: The See also:males See also:bear the cognomen of Caesar, and are in-vested, as youths, with high office; their names and even those of the See also:females are included in the yearly prayers for the safety of the prince ps;4 their birthdays are kept as festivals; the praetorian guards take the See also:oath to them as well as to the princeps himself. The logical conclusion was reached in the practice of Caesar-See also:worship,' which was in origin the natural expression of a wide-spread sentiment of See also:homage, which varied in form in different parts of the empire and in different classes of society, but was turned to See also:account by the statecraft of Augustus to develop something like an imperial patriotism. The official worship of the deified Caesar, starting from that of the " divine See also:Julius," gave a certain sanctity and continuity to the regular succession of the emperors, but it was of less importance politically than the worship of " Rome and Augustus," first instituted in Asia Minor in 29 B.C., and gradually diffused throughout the provinces, as a See also:symbol of imperial unity. It must be observed that living emperors were not officially worshipped by Roman citizens; yet we find that even in Italy an unauthorized worship of Augustus sprang up during his lifetime in the See also:country towns.' ' Vit. Hadr. 22; " Juridici " were appointed by See also:Marcus Aurelius, Vit. See also:Ant. i i ; See also:Marquardt i. 224. 2 On the growth of the imperial bureaucracy see Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten bis au Diocletian (1905). For the position of the imperial freedmen under Claudius, see Friedlander i. 88 sqq.; Tac. Ann. xii. 6o, xiv. 39, Hist. ii. 57, 95. Acta Fr. Arval. (ed. Henzen), 33, 98, 99. For Caesar-worship, see Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 755 sqq. ; Wissowa, See also:Religion and Kultus der Romer, p. 283 sqq., and Kornemann in Beitrage zur See also:alien Geschichte, i. See Rushforth, Roman Historical Inscriptions, Nos. 38 sqq. and notes.frontiers; and this became possible now that for the The
frontiers.
first time the direction of the See also:foreign policy of the state
and of its military forces was concentrated in the hands of a single magistrate. To the See also:south and west the generals of the re-public, and Caesar himself, had extended the authority of Rome to the natural boundaries formed by the See also:African deserts and the See also:Atlantic Ocean, and in these two directions Augustus's task was in the See also:main confined to the organization of a settled Roman government within these limits. In See also:Africa the client state of Egypt was ruled by Augustus as the successor of the See also:Ptolemies, and administered by his deputies (praefecti), and the See also:kingdom of See also:Numidia (25 B.C.) was incorporated with the old province of Africa. In See also:Spain the See also: Quintilius Varus (A.D. 9) the forward policy was abandoned. Tiberius recalled Germanicus as soon as Varus had been avenged; and after the peace with Maroboduus, the chief of the See also:Marcomanni on the upper Danube, in the next year (A.D. 17), the defensive policy recommended by Augustus was adopted along the whole of the See also:northern frontier. The line of the great See also:rivers was held by an imposing mass of troops. Along the Rhine See also:lay the armies of Upper and Lower See also:Germany, consisting of four legions each; eight more guarded the Danube and the frontiers of Pannonia and Moesia. At frequent intervals along the frontier were the military colonies, the permanent camps and the smaller intervening castella. Flotillas of galleys cruised up and down the rivers, and Roman roads opened communication both along the frontiers and with the seat of government in Italy.
In the East, Rome was confronted with a well-organized and powerful state whose claims to empire were second only to her own. The victory of Carrhae (53 B.C.) had encouraged
among the Parthians the idea of an invasion of See also:Syria and The
Bast.
Asia Minor, while it had awakened in Rome a genuine
fear of the formidable power which had so suddenly arisen in the East. Caesar was at the moment of his death preparing to avenge the death of See also:Crassus by an invasion of See also:Parthia, and Antony's schemes of See also:founding an Eastern empire which should See also:rival that of See also: Augustus, however, adhered to the policy which he recommended to his successors of " keeping the empire within its See also:bounds "; and the Parthians, weakened by See also:internal feuds and dynastic quarrels, were in no See also:mood for vigorous See also:action. Roman See also:pride was satisfied by the restoration of the See also:standards taken at Carrhae. Four legions guarded the line of the Euphrates, and, beyond the frontiers of See also:Pontus and T Marquardt i. 257; Mommsen, Provinces, i. 64. $ Marquardt i. 264; Mommsen, Provinces, i. 84 seq. ' See especially Mommsen, Provinces, i. caps. 4 and 6. See also:Cappadocia, See also:Armenia was established as a friendly and independent ally."' Next in importance to the rectification and defence of the frontiers was the See also:reformation of the administration, and the Adminis- restoration of prosperity to the distracted and exhausted trative provinces. The most serious defect of the republican reforms system had been the absence of any effective control in the over the Roman officials outside Italy. This was pro- vinces. now supplied by the general proconsular authority vested in the emperor. The provinces were for the first time treated as departments of a single state, while their governors, from being independent and virtually irresponsible rulers, became the subordinate officials of a higher authority? Over the legati of the imperial provinces the control of the emperor was as complete as that of the republican proconsul over his See also:staff in his own province. They were appointed by him, held office at his See also:good pleasure, and were directly responsible to him for their conduct. The proconsuls of the senatorial provinces were in law magistrates equally with the princeps, though inferior to him in rank; it was to the senate that they were as of old responsible; they were still selected by See also:lot from among the senators of consular and praetorian rank. But the distinction did not seriously interfere with the See also:paramount authority of the emperor. The provinces left nominally to the senate were the more peaceful and settled districts in the See also:heart of the empire, where only the routine work of civil administration was needed, and where the See also:local municipal governments were as yet comparatively vigorous. The senatorial proconsuls themselves were indirectly nominated by the emperor through his control of the praetorship and consulship. They wielded no military and only a strictly subordinate financial authority, and, though Augustus and Tiberius, at any See also:rate, encouraged the fiction of the responsibility of the senatorial governors to the senate, it was in reality to the emperor that they looked for direction and See also:advice, and to him that they were held accountable. Moreover, in the case of all governors this accountability became under the empire a reality. Prosecutions for See also:extortion (de pecuniis repetundis), which were now transferred to the hearing of the senate, are tolerably frequent during the first century of the empire; but a more effective check on maladministration lay in the See also:appeal to Caesar from the decisions of any governor, which was open to every provincial, and in the right of See also:petition. Finally, the authority both of the See also:legate and the proconsul was weakened by the presence of the imperial See also:procurator, to whom was entrusted the administration of the fiscal revenues; while both legate and proconsul were deprived of that right of requisitioning'supplies which, in spite of a long series of restrictive laws, had been the most powerful See also:instrument of oppression in the hands of republican governors. The financial reforms of Augustus3 are marked by Financial the same See also:desire to establish an equitable, orderly reforms. and economical system, and by the same centralization of authority in the emperor's hands. The institution of an imperial See also:census, or valuation of all See also:land throughout the empire, and the See also:assessment upon this basis of a See also:uniform land tax, in place of the heterogeneous and irregular payments made, under the republic, were the work of Augustus, though the system was See also:developed and perfected by the emperors of the 2nd century and by Diocletian. The land tax itself was directly collected, either by imperial officials or by local authorities responsible to them, and the old wasteful See also:plan of selling the See also:privilege of collection to See also:publicani was henceforward applied only to such indirect taxes as the customs duties. The rate of the land tax was fixed by the emperor, and with him rested the power of remission even in senatorial provinces.¢ The effect of these reforms is clearly visible in the improved financial condition of Mommsen, Provinces, cap. 9. Armenia, however, long continued to be a debatable ground between Rome and Parthia—passing alternately under the influence of one or the other. 2 For the provincial reforms of Augustus, see Marquardt, Steatsverw., i. 544 sqq. ' Marquardt, ii. 204 sqq.; Hirschfeld, Verwaltungsbeamten, 55 sqq. ° Tac. Ann. ii. 47. the empire. Under the republic the treasury had been nearly always in difficulties, and the provinces exhausted and impoverished. Under the emperors, at least throughout the 1st century, in spite of a largely increased See also:expenditure on the army, ma public See also:works, on shows and largesses, and on the machinery of government itself, the better emperors, such as Tiberius and Vespasian, were able to accumulate large sums, while the provinces show but few signs of See also:distress. Moreover, while the republic had almost entirely neglected to Liberal develop the internal resources of the provinces, policy Augustus set the example of a liberal expenditure towards on public works, in the construction of harbours, the pro-roads and See also:bridges, the reclamation of See also:waste lands, winces. and the erection of public buildings.5 The crippling restrictions which the republic had placed on freedom of inter-course and See also:trade, even between the See also:separate districts of a single province, disappeared under the empire. In the eyes of the republican statesmen the provinces were merely the Italy and estates of the Roman people, but from the reign of the pro-Augustus See also:dates the gradual disappearance of the old winces pre-eminence of Rome and Italy. It was from the under the provinces that the legions were increasingly recruited; empire. provincials See also:rose to high rank as soldiers, statesmen and men of letters;s and the methods of administration, formerly distinctive of the provinces, were adopted even in Rome and Italy. From Augustus himself, jealous as he was of the traditions and privileges of the ruling Roman people, date the rule of an imperial prefect' in the city of Rome, the division of Italy into regiones in the provincial See also:fashion, and the permanent quartering there of armed troops.9 Augustus founded a See also:dynasty which occupied the See also:throne for more than half a century after his death. The first and by. far the ablest of its members was Tiberius (A.D. 14–37). TheJulio. He was undoubtedly a capable and vigorous ruler, ciaudian who enforced See also:justice in the government of the pro- line' vinces, maintained the integrity of the frontiers and husbanded the finances of the empire, but he became intensely unpopular in Roman society, and was painted as a cruel and odious See also:tyrant. His successor, Gaius (A.D. 37–41), generally known as Caligula, was the slave of his See also:wild caprices and uncontrolled passions, which issued in See also:manifest See also:insanity. He was followed by his See also:uncle, Claudius (A.D. 41–54), whose personal uncouthness made him an object of derision to his contemporaries, but who was by no means devoid of statesmanlike faculties. His reign left an abiding mark on the history of the empire, for he carried forward its development on the lines intended by Augustus. Client-states were absorbed, See also:southern See also:Britain was conquered, the Romanization of the West received a powerful impulse, public works were executed in Rome and Italy, and the organization of the imperial bureaucracy made rapid strides. Nero (A.D. 54–68), the last of the Julio-Claudian line, has been handed down to posterity as the incarnation of monstrous See also:vice and fantastic luxury. But his wild excesses scarcely affected the prosperity of the empire at large; the provinces were well governed, and the war with Parthia led to a compromise in the., See also:matter of Armenia which secured peace for half a century .9 Suet. Aug. 18, 47. 8 See also:Jung, Die romanischen Landschaften (See also:Innsbruck, 1881) ; Budinsky, Die Ausbreitung d. lateinischen Sprache (Berlin, 1881). 7 The praefectus urbi, unlike the other imperial prefects, was always a senator. He commanded the three cohortes urbanae, which pre-served order in the city, and possessed a power of jurisdiction which tended to increase in importance. The office, which was only temporary under Augustus, became a permanent one under his successor. 8 Besides the cohortes urbanae mentioned above, the nine regiments of the imperial guard (cohortes praetorianae) were quartered in Rome. The guards were not at first concentrated but billeted in Rome and the neighbouring towns; the praetorian See also:barracks on the Esquiline were built under Tiberius (Tac. Ann. iv. 2). Augustus also formed the quasi-military police force of the vigiles (in seven cohorts), which performed the duties of a See also:fire See also:brigade and See also:night See also:watch. Police duties in those parts of Italy which were subject to See also:brigandage were performed by stationes militum (Suet. Aug. 32). 9 For an estimate of the Julio-Claudian Caesars, based on the results of See also:recent See also:research, see Pelham in Quarterly See also:Review (See also:April The fall of Nero and the extinction of the " progeny of the Caesars " was followed by a war of succession which revealed the military basis of the Principate and the weakness of the tie connecting the emperor with Rome. See also:Galba, See also:Otho, See also:Vitellius and Vespasian represented in turn the legions of Spain, the household troops, the army of the Rhine, and a See also:coalition of the armies of the Danube and the Euphrates; and all except Otho were already de facto emperors when they entered Rome. The final survivor in the struggle, Vespasian (A.D. 69-79), was a man of comparatively humble origin, and as the Principate ceased to possess the prestige of high descent it became imperatively The necessary to remove, as far as possible, the anomalies See also:Flavian of the office and to give it a legitimate and permanent and form. Thus we find an elaborate and formal system Antonine of titles substituted for the personal names of the emperors. Julio-Claudian emperors, an increasing tendency to insist on the inherent prerogatives of the Principate (such as the censorial power), and an See also:attempt to invest Caesarism with an hereditary character, either by natural descent or by See also:adoption, while the worship of the Divi, or deified Caesars, was made the symbol of its continuity and See also:legitimacy. The dynasty of Vespasian and his sons (See also:Titus, A. D. 79-81, Domitian, A.D. 81-96) became See also:extinct on the See also:murder of the last named, whose high-handed treatment of the senate earned him the name of a tyrant; his successor, Nerva (A.D. 96-98), opened the series of " adoptive " emperors (Trajan, A.D. 98-117, Hadrian, 117-38, See also:Antoninus See also:Pius, 138-61, Marcus Aurelius, 161-8o) under whose rule the empire enjoyed a period of internal tranquillity and good government. Its boundaries were extended by the subjugation of northern Britain (by See also: It is now generally admitted that Tacitus's picture is over-drawn. ' On the limes imperii, see Pelham, " A Problem of Roman Frontier Policy " (Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1906), and Kornemann, " Die neueste Limesforschung " (Klio, 1907, pp. 73 ff.). The limes connecting the Rhine with the Danube has been systematically excavated in recent years; for the results see Der obergermanisch-ratische Limes (See also:Heidelberg, 1894– ), and Der remische Limes in Osterreich (See also:Vienna, 1900– ).in the form of the local constitutions, framed and granted as they all were by imperial See also:edict.' Throughout the See also:Extension empire again the extension of the Roman See also:franchise of the was preparing the way for the final See also:act by which Roman See also:Caracalla assimilated the legal status of all free-See also:born franchise. inhabitants of the empire,' and in the west and north this was preceded and accompanied by the complete Romanizing of the people in language and civilization. Yet, in spite of the internal tranquillity and the good government which have made the age of the Antonines famous, we can detect signs of weakness. It was in this period that the centralization of authority in the hands of the princeps was completed; the " dual control " established by Augustus, which had been unreal enough in the 1st century, was now, though not formally abolished, systematically ignored in practice. The senate ceased to be an instrument of government, and became an imperial See also:peerage, largely composed of men not qualified by election to the quaestorship but directly ennobled by the emperor.' The restricted sphere of administration left by Augustus to the old magistracies was still further narrowed; their jurisdiction, for example, tended to pass into the hands of the Greek officers appointed by Caesar—the prefect of the city and the prefect of the guards. The complete organization of Caesar's own administrative service, and its recognition as a state bureaucracy, was chiefly the work of Hadrian, who took the secretaryships out of the hands of freedmen and entrusted them to procurators of equestrian rank.' All these changes, inevitable, and in some degree beneficial, as they were, brought with them the attendant evils of excessive centralization. Though these were hardly See also:felt while the central authority was wielded by vigorous rulers, yet even under Trajan, Hadrian and the Antonines we See also:notice a failure of strength in the empire as a whole, and a corresponding increase of pressure on the imperial government itself. The reforms of Augustus had given free play to powers still fresh and vigorous. The ceaseless labours of Hadrian were directed mainly to the careful husbanding of such strength as still remained, or to attempts at reviving it by the sheer force of imperial authority. Among the symptoms of incipient decline were the growing depopulation, especially of the central districts of the empire, the See also:constant financial difficulties, the deterioration in character of the local governments in the provincial communities,' and the increasing reluctance exhibited by all classes to undertake the now onerous See also:burden of municipal office. It is to such facts as these that we must look in passing a final See also:judgment on the imperial government, which is admittedly seen in its best and most perfect form in the Antonine period. In our review of the conditions which brought about the fall of the Roman Republic, we saw that the collapse of the city-state made Caesarism inevitable, since the extension of federal and representative institutions to a world-empire lay beyond the See also:horizon of ancient thought. The benefits which Caesarism conferred upon mankind are See also:plain. In the first place, the Roman world, which had hitherto not been governed in the true sense of the word, but exploited in the interests of a dominant clique, now received an orderly and efficient government, under which the frightful ravages of See also:misrule and civil strife were repaired. The financial resources of the empire were husbanded by skilled and, above all, trained administrators, to whom the imperial service offered a See also:carriere ouverte aux talents; many of these were Greeks, or half-Greek Orientals, whose business capacity formed an invaluable asset hitherto 2 Marquardt, i. 132 ff.; cf. especially the leges Salpensanae et Malacitanae; Bruns, Fontes See also:Juris Romani (ed. 6, p. 142). Dio lxxvii. 9 (A.D. 2I2). ' For the use of adlect<io see Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. 877. Vit. Hadr. 21. Besides Hirschfeld's Verwaltungsbeamten reference may be made to Liebenam, Die Laufbahn der Procuratoren (See also:Jena, 1886), and See also:Schurz, De mutationibus in imperio Romano ordinando ab imperatore Hadriano factis (See also:Bonn, 1883). ' This led to the appointment of the curatores and correctores in the 2nd century. The younger Pliny was one of these imperial commissioners, and his correspondence with Trajan throws much See also:light on the condition of the provinces. neglected. Augustus caused an official survey of the empire to be made, and a scientific census of its resources was gradually tarried out and from time to time revised; thus the balance of revenue and expenditure could be accurately estimated and adjusted, and financial stability was established. The system of tax-farming was gradually abolished and direct collection substituted; See also:commerce was freed from vexatious restrictions, and large customs-districts were formed, on whose See also:borders duties were levied for revenue only. The government took even more direct See also:measures for the encouragement of See also:industry and especially of See also:agriculture. The most remarkable of these were the " alimentary " institutions, originally due to Nerva and developed by succeeding emperors. See also:Capital was advanced at moderate rates of See also:interest to Italian landowners on the security of their estates, and the profits of this system of land-See also:banks were devoted to the See also:maintenance and See also:education of poor See also:children. The See also:foundation of colonies for time-expired soldiers, who received grants of land on their See also:discharge, contributed something to the formation of a well-to-do agricultural class; and although the system was not successful in lower Italy, where economic decline could not be arrested, there can be no doubt that central and northern Italy, where the See also:vine and See also:olive were largely cultivated, and manufacturing See also:industries sprang up, enjoyed a considerable measure of prosperity. The extension of the Roman municipal system to the provinces, and the watchful care exercised by the imperial government over the communities, together with the profuse liberality of the emperors, which was imitated by the wealthier citizens of the towns, led to the creation of a flourishing municipal life still evidenced by the remains which in districts such as Asia Minor or See also:Tunis stand in significant contrast with the desolation brought about by centuries of barbaric rule. Mommsen' has, indeed, expressed the See also:opinion that " if an See also:angel of the See also:Lord were to strike the balance whether the domain ruled by Severus Antoninus were governed with the greater intelligence and the greater humanity at that time or in the present day, whether civilization and See also:national prosperity generally had since that time advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful whether the decision would prove in favour of the present." But there is another side to the picture. The empire brought into being a new society and a new See also:nationality, due to the See also:fusion of Roman ideas with Hellenic culture, beside which other elements, saving only, as we shall see, those contributed by the See also:Oriental religions, were insignificant. This new nationality See also:grew in See also:definition through the gradual disappearance of distinctions of language and See also:manners, the assimilating influence of commercial and social intercourse, and the extinction of national jealousies and aspirations. But the cosmopolitan society thus formed was compacted of so many disparate elements that a common patriotism was hard to See also:foster, and doubly hard when the autocratic system of government pre-vented men from aspiring to that true political distinction which is attainable only in a self-governing community. It is true that there was much good work to be done, and that much good work was done, in the service of the emperors; true, also, that the carriere ouverte aux talents was in large measure realized. Distinctions of See also:race were slowly but steadily effaced by the grant of citizen rights to provincials and by the manumission of slaves; and the career open to the Romanized provincial or the liberated slave might culminate in the highest distinctions which the emperor could bestow. In the See also:hierarchy of social orders—senate, equites and See also:plebs—ascent was easy and regular from the lower grade to the higher; and the more enlightened of the emperors—especially Hadrian—made a genuine endeavour to give a due share in the work of government to the various subject races. But nothing could compensate for the lack of self-determination, and although during the first century and a half of imperial rule a flourishing local patriotism in some degree filled the place of the wider sentiment, this gradually sank into decay and became a pretext under See also:cover of which the lower classes in the several communities 1 Provinces, i. p..5.took See also:toll of their wealthier fellow-citizens in the shape of public works, largesses, amusements, &c., until the resources at the disposal of the See also:rich ran dry, the communities themselves in many cases became insolvent, and the inexorable claims of the central government were satisfied only by the surrender of financial control to an imperial See also:commissioner. Then the See also:organs of civic life became atrophied, political interest died out, and the whole burden of administration, as well as that of defence, fell upon the shoulders of the bureaucracy, which proved unequal to the task. In a world thus governed the individual was thrown more and more upon his own resources—the pursuit of wealth2 and pleasure, or the See also:satisfaction of intellectual interests. Under the rule of the Caesars much was done for education. Julius Caesar bestowed Roman citizenship on " teachers of the liberal arts "; Vespasian endowed professorships of Greek and Latin See also:oratory at Rome;3 and later emperors, especially Antoninus Pius, extended the same benefits to the provinces. Local enterprise and munificence were also devoted to the cause of education; we learn from the correspondence of the younger Pliny that public See also:schools were founded in the towns of northern Italy. But though there was a wide See also:diffusion of knowledge under the empire, there was no true intellectual progress. Augustus, it is true, gathered about him the most brilliant writers of his time, and the debut of the new monarchy coincided with the See also:Golden Age of Roman literature; but this was of brief duration, and the beginning of the See also:Christian era saw the triumph of classicism and the first steps in the decline which awaits all See also:literary movements which look to the past rather than the future. Political oratory could not exist under an absolute ruler; public life furnished no inspiring theme to poet or historian; and literature became didactic or imitative, while See also:rhetoric degenerated into declamation. It is true that for some time both literature and See also:philosophy maintained an See also:alliance with the old republican See also:aristocracy and voiced the undercurrent of opposition to the empire; but both had ceased to be irreconcilable before the time of Hadrian. Under his rule classicism gave way to the archaism of which See also:Fronto and See also:Apuleius furnish the most notable examples, and which preferred See also:Cato and See also:Ennius to Cicero and See also:Virgil. But this return to the past was not followed by any renewed creative See also:energy. It was a See also:confession of weakness and little more; and the widely diffused culture of the Antonine period, though outwardly brilliant, had no progressive energy and presented but a feeble resistance to the dissolving forces of barbarism.
To strike the balance of loss and gain in the See also: The denunciations of the satirists, especially of See also:Juvenal, might See also:lead us to believe that an appalling state of depravity existed in the society of the See also:early empire; but satirists notoriously paint in glaring See also:colours for literary effect, and whatever may be said of the morality of Rome—which was probably no better and no worse than that of any cosmopolitan capital—there were See also:sound and healthy elements in plenty amongst the See also:population of Italy and the provinces. Doubtless the craving for amusement--especially for the shows of the See also:amphitheatre and the See also:chariot-races of the See also:circus—infected the idle masses of the populace in Rome and the larger towns, and was fostered by the policy of despotism, which always aims at securing cheap popularity with the See also:proletariat; but the tendency of the time, not only in the higher ranks, but also amongst humbler folk, was towards a broader humanity and a more serious view of life and its problems. Greek philosophy, especially the Stoic system, in order to appeal to the See also:practical Roman intelligence, found itself obliged to elaborate a rule of conduct, and in many 2 Immense fortunes were accumulated under the early empire, especially by imperial freedmen, such as See also:Pallas, who is said to have possessed the See also:equivalent of 3,000,000 See also:sterling; and there were instances of extravagant luxury, which was encouraged by Nero. But we are told that there was a return to simpler habits of life under the Flavian dynasty. See also:Quintilian occupied the See also:chair of Latin rhetoric, and received the ornamenta consularia. the Sassanidae (see See also:PERSIA), whose rulers laid claim to all the See also:Asiatic possessions of Rome and in 26o captured See also:Antioch and made the emperor, See also:Valerian, a prisoner. During the reign of See also:Gallienus, the son of Valerian (26o-68), the evil reached its height. The central authority was See also:para- Reign of lysed; the Romanized districts beyond the Rhine Gallienus, were irrevocably lost; the Persians were threatening 260-268' to. overrun the Eastern provinces; the Goths had :formed a See also:fleet of Sod See also:sail which harried Asia Minor and even See also:Greece itself, where See also:Athens, See also:Corinth, See also:Sparta and See also:Argos were sacked; and the legions on the frontiers were left to repel the enemies of Rome as best they could. A provincial empire was established by M. Cassianius Latinius Postumus in Gaul and maintained by his successors, M. Piavonius See also:Victorinus and C. Pius Esuvius Tetricus.t Their authority was acknowledged, not only in Gaul and by the troops on the Rhine, but by the legions of Britain and Spain; and under Postumus at any rate (259-60 the existence of the Gallic Empire was justified by the repulse of the barbarians and by the restoration of peace and security to the provinces of Gaul. On the Danube, in Greece and in Asia Minor none of the " pretenders " enjoyed more than a passing success. In the Far East, the Syrian See also:Odaenathus, prince of Palmyra5 (q.v.), though officially only the governor of the East (See also:dux Orientis) under Gallienus, odaenadrove the Persians out of Asia Minor and Syria, thus and recovered Mesopotamia, and ruled Syria, Arabia, See also:Zenobia Armenia, Cappadocia and See also:Cilicia with all the inde- at pendence of a See also:sovereign. Odaenathus was murdered See also:Palmyra. in 266. His See also:young son Vaballathus (Wahab-allath) succeeded him in his titles, but the real power was vested in his widow Zenobia, under whom not only the greater part of Asia Minor but even the province of Egypt was forcibly added to the dominions governed by the Palmyrene prince, who ceased households the philosopher, generally a Greek, played the part of a director of consciences. The influence of these doctrines is shown in the humane provisions of the civil law as elaborated in the Antonine period, which did much to mitigate the lot of the slave and to smooth the process by which freedom might be attained.' Above all, a religious See also:movement which See also:drew its See also:motive power not from Greek philosophy, but from Oriental See also:mysticism, carried the human race far from its old moorings, and culminated in the triumph of See also:Christianity. All the Eastern cults—whether of See also:Cybele, of See also:Isis, of the Syrian Baalim or of the See also:Persian See also:Mithras—had this in common, that they promised to their adherents redemption from the curse of the flesh and a glorious See also:immortality after death; and this fact gave them an irresistible attraction for the disillusioned and overburdened subjects of the emperors. The religion of Mithras, whose doctrines were specially suited to the military temperament, made its way wherever the armies of the empire were stationed, and seemed likely at one moment to become universal; but it was forced to yield to Christianity, which refused to tolerate any rival, faced the empire with a claim to absolute dominion in the spiritual sphere, and at length made that claim good (see ROMAN RELIGION; MITHRAS; GREAT See also:MOTHER OF THE Goias). Marcus Aurelius died in 18o, and the reign of his worthless son, See also:Commodus (A.D. 180-93), was followed by a century of war The and disorder, during which nothing but the stern rule empire of soldier emperors saved the empire from See also:dissolution. from The first and ablest of these was Septimius Severus 180-284. (193-211), whose claims were disputed by See also:Clodius See also:Albinus in the West, and by Pescennius See also:Niger in the East; in these struggles rival Roman forces, for the first time since the accession of Vespasian, exhausted each other in civil war .2 Severus emphasized strongly the military character of the Principate; he abstained from seeking See also:confirmation for his authority from the senate, and deprived that See also:body of most of the share in the government which it still retained; he assumed the title of proconsul in Rome itself, made the prefect of the guard the vicegerent of his authority, and heaped privileges upon the army, which, although they secured its entire devotion to his family, impaired its efficiency as a fighting force and thus weakened Rome in See also:face of the barbarian invader? He succeeded in founding a short-lived dynasty, which ended with the attempt of the virtuous but weak Alexander (222-35) to restore the independence of the senate. This led to a military reaction, and the elevation of the brutal Maximinus, a Thracian See also:peasant, to the throne. The disintegration of the empire was the natural result; for the various provincial armies put forward their commanders as claimants to the See also:purple. A See also:hundred ties See also:bound them closely to the districts in which they were stationed; their permanent camps had grown into towns, they had families and farms; the unarmed provincials looked to them as their natural protectors, and were attached to them by bonds of intermarriage and by long intercourse. Now that they found themselves left to repel by their own efforts the invaders from without, they reasonably enough claimed the right to ignore the central authority which was powerless to aid them, and to choose for themselves imperatores whom they knew and trusted. These " tyrants, " as they were called when unsuccessful, sprang up in ever-increasing See also:numbers, and weakened Rome's power of resistance to the new enemies who were threatening her frontiers—the See also:Alamanni and See also:Franks, who See also:broke through the See also:German limes in 236; the Goths, who crossed the Danube in 247, raided the See also:Balkan provinces, and defeated and slew the emperor, See also:Decius, in 251, and the restored Persian kingdom of The See also:massacre of the slaves of Pedanius See also:Secundus, who had been murdered by some person unknown (Tac. Ann. xiv. 42), was, it is true. decreed by the senate; but it was a highly unpopular act, and is chiefly significant as showing that the senatorial aristocracy was out of See also:harmony with the spirit of the time. 2 See also:Gibbon (ed. See also:Bury), i. See also:chap. v.; See also:Schiller, Gesch. d. Kaiserzeit, i. (2) 66o. The common soldier was now permitted to marry, and ceased to live in See also:camp (Herodian iii. 8. 5).to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. Gallienus was murdered at See also:Milan in 268, and after the brief reign of Claudius II. (A.D. 268-70), who checked the advance of the Goths, See also:Aurelian (270-75) restored unity to Restorathe distracted empire. Palmyra was destroyed and tion of Zenobia led a prisoner to Rome (in 273) and in the next unity by year the Gallic empire came to an end by the surrender 27~' Aurelian, of Tetricus. Aurelian, it is true, abandoned the pro- vince of Dacia, but the defences of the Danube were strengthened, and in 276 See also:Probus repulsed the Franks and Alamanni, who had been pressing on the Rhine frontier for some See also:forty years. Finally, See also:Carus (282) recovered Armenia and Mesopotamia from the Persians and restored the frontier fixed by Septimius Severus. Although any serious loss of territory had been avoided, the storms of the 3rd century had told with fatal effect upon the general condition of the empire. The " Roman state peace " had vanished; not only the frontier terri- of the tories, but the central districts of Greece, Asia Minor, empireclose at fhe and even Italy itself, had suffered from the ravages of the 3rd of war, and the fortification of Rome by Aurelian century. was a significant testimony to the altered condition of affairs. War, See also:plague and See also:famine had thinned the population and crippled the resources of the provinces. On all sides land was running waste, cities and towns were decaying, and commerce was paralysed. Only with the greatest difficulty were sufficient funds squeezed from the exhausted taxpayers to meet the increasing cost of the defence of the frontiers. The old established culture and civilization of the Mediterranean world rapidly declined, and the mixture of barbaric rudeness with Oriental pomp and luxury which marked the court, even of the better emperors, such as Aurelian, was typical of the general deterioration, which was accelerated by the growing practice of settling barbarians on lands within the empire, and of admitting them freely to service in the Roman army. Gibbon, i. chap. x.; Mommsen, Provinces, i. 164; Schiller, i.. (2) 827. ' Gibbon, i. chap. x.; Mommsen, Provinces, ii. 103;, C(., PALMYRA.., stantine. appears at first sight, was in reality the natural and inevitable outcome of the history of the previous century.' Its object was twofold, to give increased stability to the imperial authority itself, and to organize an efficient administrative machinery throughout the empire. In the second year of his reign Diocletian associated Maximian with him-self as colleague, and six years later (293) the hands of the two " See also:Augusti " were further strengthened by the See also:proclamation of See also:Constantius and See also:Galerius as " Caesares." Precedents for such an arrangement were to be found in the earlier history of the Principate 2; and it divided the burdens and responsibilities of government, without sacrificing the unity of the empire; for, although to each of the Augusti and Caesars a separate sphere was assigned, the Caesars were subordinate to the higher authority of the Augusti, and over all his three colleagues Diocletian claimed to exercise a paramount control. It also reduced the See also:risk of a disputed succession by establishing in the two Caesars the natural successors to the Augusti, and it satisfied the jealous pride of the rival armies by giving them imperalores of their own. The See also:distribution of power between Diocletian and his colleagues followed those lines of division which the feuds of the previous century had marked out. The armies of the Rhine, the Danube and of Syria fell to the lot respectively of Constantius, Galerius and Diocletian, the central districts of Italy and Africa to Maximian? In the new system the imperial authority was finally emancipated from all constitutional See also:limitation and control and the last traces of its republican origin disappeared. The emperors from Diocletian onwards were autocrats in theory as well as in practice. This avowed despotism Diocletian, following in the steps of Aurelian, hedged See also:round with all the pomp and See also:majesty of Oriental monarchy. The final adoption of the title See also:dominus, the diadem on the See also:head, the See also:robes of See also:silk and See also:gold, the replace- ment of the republican salutation of a fellow-citizen by the adoring prostration even of the highest in rank before their lord and master, were all significant marks of the new regime.° In Levelling the hands of this absolute ruler was placed the entire policy of control of an elaborate administrative machinery. Diode- Most of the old local and national distinctions, privi- att°' leges and liberties which had once flourished within the empire had already disappeared under the levelling influence of imperial rule, and the process was now completed. Roman citizenship had, since the edict of Caracalla, ceased to be the privilege of a minority. Diocletian finally reduced Italy and Rome to the level of the provinces: the provincial land-tax and provincial government were introduced into Italy,' while Rome ceased to ' See Gibbon (ed. Bury), ii. chap. xvii. 158 ff.; Marquardt, Staatsverw. i. pp. 81, 336, 337, ii. 217 seq,; See also:Madvig, Verf. d. Rom. Reichs, i. 585; Rocking, Notitia dignitatum (Bonn, 1853); See also:Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (ed. 2), bk. i. chap. xii.; Preuss, Diocletian (See also:Leipzig, 1869) ; Seeck, Untergang der antiken Welt, vols. i., ii. (1897–1902). 2 Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 1168 seq. Verus was associated with Marcus Aurelius as Augustus; Severus gave the title to his two sons. The bestowal of the title " Caesar " on the destined successor dates from Hadrian. Mommsen, op. cit. 1139. The division was as follows:—(1) Diocletian—See also:Thrace, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor; (2) Maximian—Italy and Africa; (3) Galerius—Illyricum and the Danube; (4) Constantius—Britain, Gaul, Spain. See Gibbon, i. 354; Aurelius See also:Victor, c. 39. Aurel. Victor, 39; Eutrop. ix. 26. Marquardt, Staatsverw. i. 233 if. Italy, together with See also:Sicily, See also:Sardinia and See also:Corsica, was divided into 17 provinciae. Each had its own governor; the governors were subject to the two vicarii (vic. urbis, vii. Italiae), and they in turn to the prefect of Italy, whose prefecture, however, included as well Africa and Western Illyricum.be even in name the seat of imperial authority.° Throughout the whole area of the empire a uniform system of The new administration was established, the control of which adminiswas centred in the imperial palace? Between the civil trative and military departments the separation was corn- system. plete. At the head of the former were the praetorian prefects,° next below them the vicarii, who had charge of the dioceses; below these again the governors of the separate provinces (praesides, correctores, consulares),° under each cf whom was a See also:host of minor officials. Parallel with this civil hierarchy was the series of military officers, from the magistri militum, the duces, and comites downwards.10 In both there is the utmost possible subordination and division of authority. The subdivision of provinces, begun by the emperors of the 2nd century, was systematically carried out by Diocletian, and each official, civil or military, was placed directly under the orders of a superior; thus a continuous chain of authority connected the emperor with the meanest official in his service. Finally, the various grades in these two imperial services were carefully marked by the See also:appropriation to each of distinctive titles, the highest being that of illustris, which was confined to the prefects and to the military magistri and comites, and to the chief ministers." There can be little doubt that on the whole these reforms prolonged the existence of the empire, by creating a machinery which enabled the stronger emperors to utilize effect- Effects ively all its available resources, and which even to some of these extent made good the deficiencies of weaker rulers. reforms. But in many points they failed to attain their object. Diocletian's division of the imperial authority among colleagues, subject to the general control of the See also:senior Augustus, was effectually discredited by the twenty years of almost constant conflict which followed his own abdication (305-23). See also:Constantine's See also:partition of the empire among his three sons was not more successful in ensuring tranquillity, and in the final division of the East and West between See also:Valens and Valentinian (364) the essential principle of Diocletian's See also:scheme, the maintenance of a single central authority, was abandoned. The " tyrants," the curse of the 3rd century, were far from unknown in the 4th. The system, moreover, while it failed altogether to remove some of the existing evils, aggravated others. The already over-burdened financial resources of the empire were strained still further by the increased expenditure necessitated by the substitution of four imperial courts for one, and by the multiplication in every direction of paid officials. The gigantic bureaucracy of the 4th century proved, in spite of its undoubted services, an intolerable weight upon the energies of the empire. Diocletian and Maximian formally abdicated their high office in 305. Nineteen years later Constantine I., the Great, the See also:sole survivor of six "rival emperors, united the whole Conatan• empire under his own rule. His reign of fourteen tine the years was marked by two events of first-rate import- Great. ance,—the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the ° The seats of government for Diocletian and his three colleagues were See also:Mediolanum, See also:Augusta Trevirorum, Sirmium, See also:Nicomedia. 7 For these last, see Gibbon, ii. chap. xvii. p. 188; cf. also Notitia Dignitalum and Rocking's notes. ° At first the number of these varied and there was no fixed division of provinces between them ; but by the close of the 4th century there were four prefectures, viz. Oriens, Illyricum, Italia, Gallia, to which must be added the prefectures of Rome and See also:Constantinople. See Mommsen in See also:Hermes, See also:xxxvi. 204 if. 9 There were 12 dioceses and 'of provinces; cf., in addition to the authorities mentioned above, Bethmann-Hollweg, Civil-Prozess, iii. ; See also:Kuhn, Die stadtische and biirgerliche Verfassung See also:des romischen Reichs (1877). 10 The army was completely remodelled, and the old frontier garrisons (now called Limitanei) were supplemented by a field force attached to the persons of the Augusti and Caesares, and hence called Comitatenses. The change was accompanied by the subdivision of the old legions into See also:units of about 2000 men. For these reforms see Seeck, Untergang der antiken Welt, bk. iii. chap. v.; Mommsen in Hermes, See also:xxiv. 225 if. 11 The grades were as follows: See also:illustres, spectabiles, clarissimi, perfectissimi, egregii. For the other insignia, see Madvig, ii. 590, and the Notitia Dignitalum. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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