The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa, and Asia.[5] HP Pavilion DV6-6B75CA Battery
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The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been destabilized through a series of civil wars. Several events marked the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC); HP Pavilion DV6-6B83CA Battery
the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC); and the granting of the honorific Augustus to Octavian by the Roman Senate (16 January 27 BC). HP Pavilion DV6-6C40CA Battery
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The first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace").[6] It reached its greatest expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD).
HP Pavilion DV6-6188CA Battery In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified and stabilized under the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian. Christians rose to power in the 4th century, during which time a system of dual rule was developed in the Latin West and Greek East. HP Pavilion DV6-6C50CA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6184CA Battery After the collapse of central government in the West in the 5th century, the eastern half continued as what would later be known as the Byzantine Empire.
Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy,
HP Pavilion DV6-6178CA Batterylaw, and forms of government in the territory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European expansionism throughout the modern world.
Rome had begun annexing provinces in the 3rd century BC, four centuries before reaching its greatest territorial extent, and in that sense was an "empire" while still governed as a republic.[7] Republican provinces were administered by former consuls and praetors, who had been elected to one-year terms and held imperium, "right of command".[HP Pavilion DV6-6C51CA Battery
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HP Pavilion DV6-6175CA Battery8] The amassing of disproportionate wealth and military power by a few men through their provincial commands was a major factor in the transition from republic to imperial autocracy.[9]
HP Pavilion DV6-6155CA Battery Later, the position of power held by the emperor was expressed as imperium.[10] The Latin word is the origin of English "empire," a meaning it began to acquire only later in Rome's history.[11]
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The Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
As the first emperor, Augustus took the official position that he had saved the Republic, and carefully framed his powers within republican constitutional principles. He rejected titles that Romans associated with monarchy, HP Pavilion DV6-6040CA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6148CA Battery and instead referred to himself as the princeps, "leading citizen". Consuls continued to be elected, tribunes of the people continued to put forth legislation, and senators still debated in the curia. It was Augustus, however, who established the precedent that the emperor controlled the final decisions, backed up by military force. HP Pavilion DV6-6070CA Battery
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The reign of Augustus, lasting more than 40 years, was portrayed in Augustan literature and art as a new "Golden Age." Augustus laid out an enduring ideological foundation for the three centuries of the Empire known as the Principate (27 BC–284 AD), HP Pavilion DV6-6104CA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6144CA Batterythe first 200 years of which is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana. During this period, the cohesion of the Empire was furthered by participation in civic life, economic ties, and shared cultural, legal and religious norms. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred,[ HP Pavilion DV6-6124CA Battery
12] as in Britain and Gaul. The sixty years of Jewish–Roman wars in the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence.[13]
The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: HP Pavilion DV6-6130CA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6135CA Battery the Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. HP Pavilion dv7-4008ca Battery
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Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, HP Pavilion dv7-4038ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-6188ca Batterythe accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"[14]—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.
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In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous—an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution—and following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, HP Pavilion dv7-4054ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-6070ca Batterya period of invasions, civil strife, economic depression, and plague.[15] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewed as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. The emaciated illusion of the old Republic was sacrificed for the sake of imposing order:
HP Pavilion dv7-5070ca BatteryDiocletian (reigned 284–305) brought the Empire back from the brink, but declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly as dominus, "master" or "lord".[1HP Pavilion dv7-4063ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4288ca Battery6] Diocletian's reign also brought the Empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great Persecution".The state of autocratic absolutism that began with Diocletius as the Dominate endured till the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. HP Pavilion dv7-4073ca Battery
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The unity of the Roman Empire was from this point a fiction, as graphically revealed by Diocletian's division of authority among four "co-emperors", the Tetrarchy.[17] Order was shaken again soon after, but was restored by Constantine, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity,
HP Pavilion dv7-4260ca Battery and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an east-west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. HP Pavilion dv7-4078ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4248ca BatteryThe reign of Julian, who attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official state religion.[18]
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The Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the late 4th century as invasions overwhelmed the capacity of the Empire to govern and mount a coordinated defense. Most chronologies place the end of the Western empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[1HP Pavilion dv7-4104ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4198ca Battery9] The empire in the East—known today as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in its time as the "Roman Empire" or by various other names—ended in 1453 with the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.[20] HP Pavilion dv7-4127ca Battery
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Geography[edit]
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.[21][22] The Latin phrase imperium sine fine ("empire without end"[23]) expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire. In Vergil's epic poem the Aeneid,
HP Pavilion dv7-4167ca Battery limitless empire is said to be granted to the Romans by their supreme deity Jupiter.[24] This claim of universal dominion was renewed and perpetuated when the Empire came under Christian rule in the 4th century.[25]
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In reality, Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century AD, when Roman control in Europe, Africa and Asia was strengthened. During the reign of Augustus, HP Pavilion dv7-4148ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4154ca Battery a "global map of the known world" was displayed for the first time in public at Rome, coinciding with the composition of the most comprehensive work on political geography that survives from antiquity, the Geography of the Pontic Greek writer Strabo.[26] When Augustus died, the commemorative account of his achievements (Res Gestae) HP Pavilion dm4-1050ca Battery
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prominently featured the geographical cataloging of peoples and places within the Empire.[27] Geography, the census, and the meticulous keeping of written records were central concerns of Roman Imperial administration.[28]
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A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
The Empire reached its largest expanse under Trajan (reigned 98–117),[29] encompassing an area of 5 million square kilometres that as of 2009 was divided among forty different modern countries.[30]
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The traditional population estimate of 55–60 million inhabitants[31] accounted for between one-sixth and one-fourth of the world's total population[32] and made it the largest population of any unified political entity in the West until the mid-19th century.[33] HP Pavilion dm4-1273ca Battery
HP Pavilion dm4-2058ca Battery Recent demographic studies have argued for a population peak ranging from 70 million to more than 100 million.[34] Each of the three largest cities in the Empire—Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch— was almost twice the size of any European city at the beginning of the 17th century.[35] HP Pavilion dm4-1275ca Battery
As the historian Christopher Kelly has described it:
Then the empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in drizzle-soaked northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates in Syria; from the great Rhine-Danube river system, which snaked across the fertile, HP Pavilion dm4-2053ca Battery
HP Pavilion dm4-2055ca Batteryflat lands of Europe from the Low Countries to the Black Sea, to the rich plains of the North African coast and the luxuriant gash of the Nile Valley in Egypt. The empire completely circled the Mediterranean ... referred to by its conquerors as mare nostrum—'our sea'.[31] Sony SVS13AA11L Battery
Trajan's successor Hadrian adopted a policy of maintaining rather than expanding the empire. Borders (fines) were marked, and the frontiers (limes) patrolled.[36] The most heavily fortified borders were the most unstable.[ Sony SVS131A11L Battery
Sony PCG-41414L Battery37] Hadrian's Wall, which separated the Roman world from what was perceived as an ever-present barbarian threat, is the primary surviving monument of this effort.[38]
Languages[edit]
Main articles: History of Latin and History of Greek
The language of the Romans was Latin, which Vergil emphasises as a source of Roman unity and tradition.[39Sony SVS151A11L Battery
] Until the time of Alexander Severus (reigned 222–235), the birth certificates and wills of Roman citizens had to be written in Latin.[40] Latin was the language of the law courts in the West and of the military throughout the Empire,[ Sony SVS151B11L Battery
Sony PCG-41413L Battery41] but was not imposed officially on peoples brought under Roman rule.[42] St. Augustine observed that Romans preferred for Latin to be adopted per pacem societatis, through a social pact.[4Sony SVS151G1GL Battery
Sony PCG-41412L Battery3] This policy contrasts with that of Alexander the Great, who aimed to impose Greek throughout his empire as the official language.[44] As a consequence of Alexander’s conquests, koine Greek had become the shared language around the eastern Mediterranean and into Asia Minor.[45Sony PCG-4121DL Battery
] The "linguistic frontier" dividing the Latin West and the Greek East passed through the Balkan peninsula, creating a bilateral monolingualism in the Roman Empire.[46]
A 5th-century papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by Cicero[47]
Romans who received an elite education studied Greek as a literary language, and most men of the governing classes could speak Greek.[48] Sony PCG-4121EL Battery
Sony PCG-41411L BatteryThe Julio-Claudian emperors encouraged high standards of correct Latin (Latinitas), a linguistic movement identified in modern terms as Classical Latin, and favored Latin for conducting official business. Sony PCG-4121GL Battery
Sony PCG-41218L Battery [49] Claudius tried to limit the use of Greek, and on occasion revoked the citizenship of those who lacked Latin, but even in the Senate he drew on his own bilingualism in communicating with Greek-speaking ambassadors.[4Sony PCG-41211L Battery
Sony PCG-41217L Battery9] Suetonius quotes him as referring to "our two languages,"[50] and the employment of two imperial secretaries, one for Greek and one Latin, dates to his reign.[51]
In the Eastern empire, laws and official documents were regularly translated into Greek from Latin.[52] The everyday interpenetration of the two languages is indicated by bilingual inscriptions, which sometimes even switch back and forth between Greek and Latin. Sony PCG-41212L Battery
Sony PCG-41216L BatteryThe epitaph of a Greek-speaking soldier, for instance, might be written primarily in Greek, with his rank and unit in the Roman army expressed in Latin.[53] After all freeborn inhabitants of the empire were universally enfranchised in 212 AD, Sony PCG-41213L Battery
Sony PCG-41215L Battery a great number of Roman citizens would have lacked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least a token knowledge, and Latin remained a marker of "Romanness."[54]
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Among other reforms, the emperor Diocletian (reigned 284–305) sought to renew the authority of Latin, and the Greek expression ἡ κρατοῦσα διάλεκτος (hē kratousa dialektos) attests to the continuing status of Latin as "the language of power."[55] The scholar Libanius (4th century) regarded Latin as causing a decline in the quality of Greek rhetoric.[5Sony SVS13AA11L Battery
Sony PCG-41413L Battery6] In the early 6th century, the emperor Justinian engaged in a quixotic effort to reassert the status of Latin as the language of law, even though in his time Latin no longer held any currency as a living language in the East.[57] Sony SVS131A11L Battery
Local languages[edit]
Bilingual Latin-Punic inscription at the theatre in Leptis Magna, Roman Africa (present-day Libya)
References to interpreters indicate the continuing use of local languages other than Greek and Latin, particularly in Egypt, Sony SVS131B11L Battery
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Sony PCG-41412L Batterywhere Coptic predominated, and in military settings along the Rhine and Danube. Roman jurists also show a concern for local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct understanding and application of laws and oaths.[58] In the province of Africa, Sony SVS151B11L Battery
Sony PCG-41411L BatteryPunic was used for legends on coins during the time of Tiberius (1st century AD), and Punic inscriptions appear on public buildings into the 2nd century, some bilingual with Latin.[59]
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In the West, the importance of Latin in gaining access to the ruling power structure caused the rapid extinction of inscriptions in scripts that had been used to represent local languages on the Iberian peninsula (Roman Spain) and in Gaul. Among other aspects of a distinctive Gallo-Roman culture was the creation of Gallo-Latin text,[60Sony SVS151G1GL Battery
Sony PCG-4121DL Battery] and Mediterranean Gaul had become trilingual (Greek, Latin, Gaulish) by the mid-1st century BC.[61] In Italy, the written use of Latin had replaced Etruscan and Oscan by the end of the 1st century AD.[62] The dominance of Latin among the literate elite may obscure the continuity of spoken languages, since all cultures within the Roman Empire were predominantly oral.[63] Sony PCG-4121EL Battery
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The Babatha Archive is a suggestive example of multilingualism in the Empire. These papyri, named for a Jewish woman in the province of Arabia and dating from 93 to 132 AD, mostly employ Aramaic, the local language, written in Greek characters with Semitic and Latin influences; a petition to the Roman governor, however, was written in Greek.[64]
Linguistic legacy[edit] Sony PCG-4121FL Battery
In the Western Empire, Latin, referred to in its spoken form as Vulgar Latin, gradually replaced Celtic and Italic languages that were related to it by a shared Indo-European origin. Commonalities in syntax and vocabulary facilitated the adoption of Latin.[65] Basque, not an Indo-European language,
Sony PCG-41216L Battery survived in the region of the Pyrenees.[66] After the decentralization of political power in late antiquity, Latin developed locally into branches that became the Romance languages, such as Spanish, Sony PCG-4121GL Battery
Sony PCG-41215L BatteryPortuguese, French, Italian and Romanian. As an international language of learning and literature, Latin itself continued as an active medium of expression for diplomacy and for intellectual developments identified with Renaissance humanism up to the 17th century, and for law and the Roman Catholic Church to the present.[67] Sony PCG-41211L Battery
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Although Greek continued as the language of the Byzantine Empire, linguistic distribution in the East was more complex. A Greek-speaking majority lived in the Greek peninsula and islands, western Anatolia, major cities, Sony PCG-41213L Battery
Sony PCG-41214L Battery and some coastal areas.[68] Like Greek and Latin, the Thracian language was of Indo-European origin, as were several now-extinct languages in Anatolia such as Galatian, Phrygian, Pisidian, and Cappadocian, attested by Imperial-era inscriptions.[ Sony SVS131C1DL Battery
Sony PCG-91311L Battery69] Various Afroasiatic languages—primarily Coptic in Egypt, and Aramaic in Syria and Mesopotamia—were never replaced by Greek. Palmyrene soldiers even used their dialect of Aramaic for inscriptions, in a striking exception to the rule that Latin was the language of the military.[ Sony SVS131C24L Battery
Sony PCG-91211L Battery70] The international use of Greek, however, was one factor enabling the spread of Christianity, as indicated for example by the use of Greek for the Epistles of Paul.[71]
Society[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Ancient Roman society.
A multigenerational banquet depicted on a wall painting from Pompeii (1st century AD)
The Roman Empire was remarkably multicultural, with "a rather astonishing cohesive capacity" to create a sense of shared identity while encompassing diverse peoples within its political system over a long span of time.[72] Sony SVS131E1DL Battery
Sony PCG-71913L BatteryThe Roman attention to creating public monuments and communal spaces open to all—such as forums, amphitheaters, racetracks and baths—helped foster a sense of "Romanness".[73]
Roman society had multiple, overlapping social hierarchies that modern concepts of "class" in English may not represent accurately.[74] The two decades of civil war from which Augustus rose to sole power left traditional society in Rome in a state of confusion and upheaval,[75] Sony SVS151C1GL Battery
but did not effect an immediate redistribution of wealth and social power. From the perspective of the lower classes, a peak was merely added to the social pyramid.[76] Personal relationships—patronage, friendship (amicitia), family, marriage—continued to influence the workings of politics and government, as they had in the Republic.[77] Sony SVS151C2DL Battery
Sony PCG-71911L BatteryBy the time of Nero, however, it was not unusual to find a former slave who was richer than a freeborn citizen, or an equestrian who exercised greater power than a senator.[78] Sony PCG-61A11L Battery
The blurring or diffusion of the Republic's more rigid hierarchies led to increased social mobility under the Empire,[79] both upward and downward, to an extent that exceeded that of all other well-documented ancient societies.[8Sony PCG-61A13L Battery
Sony PCG-71713L Battery0] Women, freedmen, and slaves had opportunities to profit and exercise influence in ways previously less available to them.[81] Sony PCG-61A14L Battery
Sony PCG-71614L Battery Social life in the Empire, particularly for those whose personal resources were limited, was further fostered by a proliferation of voluntary associations and confraternities (collegia and sodalitates) formed for various purposes: professional and trade guilds, veterans' groups, religious sodalities, drinking and dining clubs,[82] performing arts troupes,[83] and burial societies.[84]
Citizen of Roman Egypt (Fayum mummy portrait)
Legal status[edit]
Main articles: Status in Roman legal system and Roman citizenship
According to the jurist Gaius, the essential distinction in the Roman "law of persons" was that all human beings were either free (liberi) or slaves (servi).[85Sony PCG-71C12L Battery
Sony PCG-61911L Battery] The legal status of free persons might be further defined by their citizenship. In the early Empire, only a relatively limited number of men held full rights of Roman citizenship that allowed them to vote, run for office, and enter state priesthoods. Most citizens held limited rights (such as the ius Latinum, Sony PCG-61714L Battery
Sony PCG-61813L Battery "Latin right"), but were entitled to legal protections and privileges not enjoyed by those who lacked citizenship. Free people not considered citizens, but living within the Roman world, held status as peregrini, non-Romans.[86Sony SVE141C11L Battery
] In 212 AD, by means of the edict known as the Constitutio Antoniniana, the emperor Caracalla extended citizenship to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire. This legal egalitarianism would have required a far-reaching revision of existing laws that had distinguished between citizens and non-citizens.[87] Sony SVE141L11L Battery
Women as legal entities[edit]
Main article: Women in ancient Rome
Freeborn Roman women were considered citizens throughout the Republic and Empire, but did not vote, hold political office, or serve in the military. A mother's citizen status determined that of her children, as indicated by the phrase ex duobus civibus Romanis natos Sony SVE151E11L Battery
Sony PCG-61317L Battery ("children born of two Roman citizens").[88] A Roman woman kept her own family name (nomen) for life. Children most often took the father's name, but in the Imperial period sometimes made their mother's name part of theirs, or even used it instead.[89]
Bronze statuette (1st century AD) of a young woman reading
The archaic form of manus marriage in which the woman had been subject to her husband's authority was largely abandoned by the Imperial era, and a married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Technically she remained under her father's legal authority, even though she moved into her husband's home, Sony SVE151G13L Battery
but when her father died she became legally emancipated.[90] This arrangement was one of the factors in the degree of independence Roman women enjoyed relative to those of many other ancient cultures and up to the modern period:[91Sony SVE171C11L Battery
Sony PCG-61316L Battery] although she had to answer to her father in legal matters, she was free of his direct scrutiny in her daily life,[92] and her husband had no legal power over her.[93] Although it was a point of pride to be a "one-man woman" (univira) who had married only once, there was little stigma attached to divorce, nor to speedy remarriage after the loss of a husband through death or divorce.[94] Sony SVE171E12L Battery
Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will.[95] A Roman mother's right to own property and to dispose of it as she saw fit, including setting the terms of her own will, gave her enormous influence over her sons even when they were adults.[96] Sony PCG-61713L Battery
As part of the Augustan programme to restore traditional morality and social order, moral legislation attempted to regulate the conduct of women as a means of promoting "family values". Adultery, which had been a private family matter under the Republic, Sony PCG-91112L Battery
Sony PCG-61311L Batterywas criminalized,[97] and defined broadly as an illicit sex act (stuprum) that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband.[ Sony PCG-71311L Battery
Sony PCG-61215L Battery8] Childbearing was encouraged by the state: a woman who had given birth to three children was granted symbolic honors and greater legal freedom (the ius trium liberorum).
Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business,[99] including shipping, manufacturing, and lending money. Inscriptions throughout the Empire honor women as benefactors in funding public works, Sony PCG-71218L Battery
Sony PCG-61211L Battery an indication they could acquire and dispose of considerable fortunes; for instance, the Arch of the Sergii was funded by Salvia Postuma, a female member of the family honored, and the largest building in the forum at Pompeii was funded by Eumachia, a priestess of Venus.[100] Sony PCG-71217L Battery
Slaves and the law[edit]
Main article: Slavery in ancient Rome
At the time of Augustus, as many as 35 percent of the people in Italy were slaves,[101] making Rome one of five historical "slave societies" in which slaves constituted at least a fifth of the population and played a major role in the economy.[102Sony PCG-71313L Battery
Sony PCG-71215L Battery] Slavery was a complex institution that supported traditional Roman social structures as well as contributing economic utility.[103] Sony PCG-71316L Battery
Sony PCG-71211L Battery In urban settings, slaves might be professionals such as teachers, physicians, chefs, and accountants, in addition to the majority of slaves who provided trained or unskilled labor in households or workplaces. Agriculture and industry, such as milling and mining, Sony PCG-71315L Battery
Sony PCG-71212L Batteryelied on the exploitation of slaves. Outside Italy, slaves made up on average an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the population, sparse in Roman Egypt but more concentrated in some Greek areas. Expanding Roman ownership of arable land and industries would have affected preexisting practices of slavery in the provinces.[104] Sony PCG-71317L Battery
Slave holding writing tablets for his master (relief from a 4th-century sarcophagus)
Laws pertaining to slavery were "extremely intricate".[105] Under Roman law, slaves were considered property and had no legal personhood. They could be subjected to forms of corporal punishment not normally exercised on citizens, Sony PCG-61A11L Battery
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sexual exploitation, torture, and summary execution. A slave could not as a matter of law be raped, since rape could be committed only against people who were free; a slave's rapist had to be prosecuted by the owner for property damage under the Aquilian Law.[106] Slaves had no right to the form of legal marriage called conubium, Sony PCG-61A13L Battery
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Sony SVE171E12L Battery but their unions were sometimes recognized, and if both were freed they could marry.[107] Following the Servile Wars of the Republic, legislation under Augustus and his successors shows a driving concern for controlling the threat of rebellions through limiting the size of work groups, and for hunting down fugitive slaves.[108Sony PCG-71C11L Battery
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Technically, a slave could not own property,[109] but a slave who conducted business might be given access to an individual account or fund (peculium) that he could use as if it were his own. The terms of this account varied depending on the degree of trust and cooperation between owner and slave:
Sony SVE171C11L Battery a slave with an aptitude for business could be given considerable leeway to generate profit, and might be allowed to bequeath the peculium he managed to other slaves of his household.[110] Within a household or workplace, a hierarchy of slaves might exist, with one slave in effect acting as the master of other slaves.[111] Sony PCG-61714L Battery
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Over time slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters. A bill of sale might contain a clause stipulating that the slave could not be employed for prostitution, as prostitutes in ancient Rome were often slaves.[11Sony PCG-61813L Battery
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Sony SVE151G13L Battery2] The burgeoning trade in eunuch slaves in the late 1st century AD prompted legislation that prohibited the castration of a slave against his will "for lust or gain."[113]
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Roman slavery was not based on "race" in the modern sense.[114] During the period of Republican expansionism when slavery had become pervasive, war captives were a main source of slaves. The range of ethnicities among slaves to some extent reflected that of the armies Rome defeated in war,
Sony SVE151E11L Battery and the conquest of Greece brought a number of highly skilled and educated slaves into Rome. Slaves were also traded in markets, and sometimes sold by pirates. Infant abandonment and self-enslavement among the poor were other sources.[115] Vernae, by contrast, were "homegrown"
Sony SVE141L11L Battery slaves born to female slaves within the urban household or on a country estate or farm. Although they had no special legal status, an owner who mistreated or failed to care for his vernae faced social disapproval, Sony PCG-61913L Battery
Sony SVE141D11L Battery as they were considered part of his familia, the family household, and in some cases might actually be the children of free males in the family.[116] Sony PCG-71614L Battery
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Highly skilled or educated slaves might accumulate a large enough peculium to justify their freedom, or be manumitted for services rendered. Manumission had become frequent enough that in 2 BC a law (Lex Fufia Caninia) limited the number of slaves an owner was allowed to free in his will.[117]
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Freedmen[edit]
Cinerary urn for the freedman Tiberius Claudius Chryseros and two women, probably his wife and daughter
Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become citizens. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed not only passive freedom from ownership, but active political freedom (libertas), Sony PCG-71713L Battery
Sony PCG-91211L Battery including the right to vote.[118] A slave who had acquired libertas was a libertus ("freed person," feminine liberta) in relation to his former master, who then became his patron (patronus):
Sony PCG-71914L Batterythe two parties continued to have customary and legal obligations to each other. As a social class generally, freed slaves were libertini, though later writers used the terms libertus and libertinus interchangeably.[119] Sony PCG-71811L Battery
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A libertinus was not entitled to hold public office or the highest state priesthoods, but he could play a priestly role in the cult of the emperor. He could not marry a woman from a family of senatorial rank, nor achieve legitimate senatorial rank himself, Sony PCG-71911L Battery
Sony PCG-71912L Batterybut during the early Empire, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, so much so that Hadrian limited their participation by law.[120] Any future children of a freedman would be born free, with full rights of citizenship. Sony PCG-61713L Battery
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The rise of successful freedmen—through either political influence in imperial service, or wealth—is a characteristic of early Imperial society. The prosperity of a high-achieving group of freedmen is attested by inscriptions throughout the Empire, and by their ownership of some of the most lavish houses at Pompeii, Sony PCG-91111L Battery
Sony PCG-61316L Batterysuch as the House of the Vettii. The excesses of nouveau riche freedmen were satirized in the character of Trimalchio in the Satyricon by Petronius, who wrote in the time of Nero. Such individuals, while exceptional, are indicative of the upward social mobility possible in the Empire. Sony PCG-91112L Battery
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Census rank[edit]
See also: Senate of the Roman Empire, Equestrian order, and Decurion (administrative)
The Latin word ordo (plural ordines) refers to a social distinction that is translated variously into English as "class, order, rank," Sony PCG-71311L Battery
none of which is exact. One purpose of the Roman census was to determine the ordo to which an individual belonged. The two highest ordines in Rome were the senatorial and equestrian. Outside Rome, the decurions, also known as curiales (Greek bouleutai), were the top governing ordo of an individual city.
Fragment of a sarcophagus depicting Gordian III and senators (3rd century)
"Senator" was not itself an elected office in ancient Rome; an individual gained admission to the Senate after he had been elected to and served at least one term as an executive magistrate. A senator also had to meet a minimum property requirement of 1 million sestertii, as determined by the census.[1Sony PCG-71217L Battery
Sony PCG-61315L Battery21] Nero made large gifts of money to a number of senators from old families who had become too impoverished to qualify. Not all men who qualified for the ordo senatorius chose to take a Senate seat, which required legal domicile at Rome. Emperors often filled vacancies in the 600-member body by appointment.[12Sony PCG-71313L Battery
Sony PCG-61312L Battery2] A senator's son belonged to the ordo senatorius, but he had to qualify on his own merits for admission to the Senate itself. A senator could be removed for violating moral standards: he was prohibited, for instance, from marrying a freedwoman or fighting in the arena.[123] Sony PCG-71315L Battery
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In the time of Nero, senators were still primarily from Rome and other parts of Italy, with some from the Iberian peninsula and southern France; men from the Greek-speaking provinces of the East began to be added under Vespasian.[1Sony PCG-71316L Battery
Sony PCG-61215L Battery24] The first senator from the most eastern province, Cappadocia, was admitted under Marcus Aurelius.[125] During the 3rd century, domicile at Rome became impractical, and inscriptions attest to senators who were active in politics and munificence in their homeland (patria).[123]
Senators had an aura of prestige and were the traditional governing class who rose through the cursus honorum, the political career track, but equestrians of the Empire often possessed greater wealth and political power. Sony PCG-71317L Battery
Sony PCG-71216L Battery Membership in the equestrian order was based on property; in Rome's early days, equites or knights had been distinguished by their ability to serve as mounted warriors (the "public horse"),Sony PCG-71318L Battery
Sony PCG-71215L Battery but cavalry service was a separate function in the Empire.[126] A census valuation of 400,000 sesterces and three generations of free birth qualified a man as an equestrian.[127] The census of 28 BC uncovered large numbers of men who qualified, and in 14 AD, a thousand equestrians were registered at Cadiz and Padua alone.[12Sony PCG-71211L Battery
Sony PCG-71212L Battery8] Equestrians rose through a military career track (tres militiae) to become highly placed prefects and procurators within the Imperial administration.[129] Sony PCG-3B1L Battery
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The rise of provincial men to the senatorial and equestrian orders is an aspect of social mobility in the first three centuries of the Empire.[130] Roman aristocracy was based on competition, and unlike later European nobility, a Roman family could not maintain its position merely through hereditary succession or having title to lands.[131] Sony PCG-3B3L Battery
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Admission to the higher ordines brought distinction and privileges, but also a number of responsibilities. In antiquity, a city depended on its leading citizens to fund public works, events, and services (munera), Sony PCG-3C2L Battery
Sony PCG-3H3L Battery rather than on tax revenues, which primarily supported the military. Maintaining one's rank required massive personal expenditures.[132] Decurions were so vital for the functioning of cities that in the later Empire, as the ranks of the town councils became Sony PCG-3C3L Battery
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Sony PCG-3H2L Batterydepleted, those who had risen to the Senate were encouraged by the central government to give up their seats and return to their hometowns, in an effort to sustain civic life.[133] Sony PCG-3D4L Battery
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In the later Empire, the dignitas ("worth, esteem") that attended on senatorial or equestrian rank was refined further with titles such as vir illustris, "illustrious man".[134] The appellation clarissimus (Greek lamprotatos) was used to designate the dignitas of certain senators and their immediate family, including women.[13
Sony PCG-3H1L Battery5] "Grades" of equestrian status proliferated. Those in Imperial service were ranked by pay grade (sexagenarius, 60,000 sesterces per annum; centenarius, 100,000; ducenarius, 200,000). The title eminentissimus, Sony PCG-3F1L Battery
Sony PCG-3G5L Battery "most eminent" (Greek exochôtatos) was reserved for equestrians who had been Praetorian prefects. The higher equestrian officials in general were perfectissimi, "most distinguished" (Greek diasêmotatoi), the lower merely egregii, "outstanding" (Greek kratistos).[136]
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Unequal justice[edit]
Condemned man attacked by a leopard in the arena (3rd-century mosaic from Tunisia)
As the republican principle of citizens' equality under the law faded, the symbolic and social privileges of the upper classes led to an informal division of Roman society into those who had acquired greater honors (honestiores) Sony PCG-3F2L Battery
Sony PCG-3B1L Batteryand those who were humbler folk (humiliores). In general, honestiores were the members of the three higher "orders," along with certain military officers.[137] The granting of universal citizenship in 212 seems to have increased the competitive urge among the upper classes to have their superiority over other citizens affirmed, Sony PCG-3F3L Battery
Sony PCG-3F4L Battery particularly within the justice system.[138] Sentencing depended on the judgment of the presiding official as to the relative "worth" (dignitas) of the defendant: an honestior could pay a fine when convicted of a crime for which an humilior might receive a scourging.[139] Sony PCG-7142L Battery
Execution, which had been an infrequent legal penalty for free men under the Republic even in a capital case,[140] could be quick and relatively painless for the Imperial citizen considered "more honorable," while those deemed inferior might suffer the kinds of torture and prolonged death previously reserved for slaves, such as crucifixion and condemnation to the beasts as a spectacle in the arena.[1Sony PCG-7151L Battery
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1] In the early Empire, those who converted to Christianity could lose their standing as honestiores, especially if they declined to fulfill the religious aspects of their civic responsibilities, and thus became subject to punishments that created the conditions of martyrdom.[142]
Government and military[edit] Sony PCG-7153L Battery
Sony PCG-8151L Battery4
Main article: Constitution of the Roman Empire
Forum of Gerasa (Jerash in present-day Jordan), with columns marking a covered walkway (stoa) for vendor stalls, and a semicircular space for public speaking
The three major elements of the Imperial Roman state were the central government, the military, and provincial government.[143] Sony PCG-7154L Battery
Sony PCG-7161L Battery
Sony PCG-8141L BatteryThe military established control of a territory through war, but after a city or people was brought under treaty, the military mission turned to policing: protecting Roman citizens (after 212 AD, all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire), the agricultural fields that fed them, and religious sites.[14Sony PCG-7162L Battery
4] Without modern instruments of either mass communication or mass destruction, the Romans lacked sufficient manpower or resources to impose their rule through force alone. Cooperation with local power elites was necessary to maintain order, collect information, Sony PCG-7171L Battery
Sony PCG-813L Battery and extract revenue. The Romans often exploited internal political divisions by supporting one faction over another: in the view of Plutarch, "it was discord between factions within cities that led to the loss of self-governance".[145] Sony PCG-7172L Battery
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Communities with demonstrated loyalty to Rome retained their own laws, could collect their own taxes locally, and in exceptional cases were exempt from Roman taxation. Legal privileges and relative independence were an incentive to remain in good standing with Rome.[14Sony PCG-7174L Battery
Sony PCG-7184L Battery6] Roman government was thus limited, but efficient in its use of the resources available to it.[147]
Central government[edit]
See also: Roman emperor and Senate of the Roman Empire
The dominance of the emperor was based on the consolidation of certain powers from several republican offices, including the inviolability of the tribunes of the people and the authority of the censors to manipulate the hierarchy of Roman society.[148] Sony PCG-7181L Battery
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Sony PCG-7183L Battery The emperor also made himself the central religious authority as Pontifex Maximus, and centralized the right to declare war, ratify treaties, and negotiate with foreign leaders.[149] Sony PCG-71111L Battery
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While these functions were clearly defined during the Principate, the emperor's powers over time became less constitutional and more monarchical, culminating in the Dominate.[150]
Antoninus Pius (reigned 138–161), wearing a toga (Hermitage Museum)
The emperor was the ultimate authority in policy- and decision-making, but in the early Principate he was expected to be accessible to individuals from all walks of life, and to deal personally with official business and petitions. A bureaucracy formed around him only gradually.[151]
Sony PCG-81313L BatteryThe Julio-Claudian emperors relied on an informal body of advisors that included not only senators and equestrians, but trusted slaves and freedmen.[152] After Nero, the unofficial influence of the latter was regarded with suspicion, Sony PCG-81111L Battery
Sony PCG-81312L Batteryand the emperor's council (consilium) became subject to official appointment for the sake of greater transparency.[153] Though the senate took a lead in policy discussions until the end of the Antonine dynasty, equestrians played an increasingly important role in the consilium.[154]
Sony PCG-81311L BatteryThe women of the emperor's family often intervened directly in his decisions. Plotina exercised influence on both her husband Trajan and his successor Hadrian. Her influence was advertised by having her letters on official matters published, Sony PCG-81112L Battery
Sony PCG-81214L Battery as a sign that the emperor was reasonable in his exercise of authority and listened to his people.[155]
Access to the emperor by others might be gained at the daily reception (salutatio), a development of the traditional homage a client paid to his patron; public banquets hosted at the palace; and religious ceremonies. Sony PCG-81113L Battery
Sony PCG-81114L BatteryThe common people who lacked this access could manifest their general approval or displeasure as a group at the games held in large venues.[156] By the 4th century, as urban centers decayed, the Christian emperors became remote figureheads who issued general rulings, no longer responding to individual petitions.[157] Sony PCG-71111L Battery
Although the senate could do little short of assassination and open rebellion to contravene the will of the emperor, it survived the Augustan restoration and the turbulent Year of Four Emperors to retain its symbolic political centrality during the Principate.[ Sony PCG-81111L Battery
Sony PCG-81314L Battery158] The senate legitimated the emperor's rule, and the emperor needed the experience of senators as legates (legati) to serve as generals, diplomats, and administrators.[159] A successful career required competence as an administrator and remaining in favor with the emperor, or over time perhaps multiple emperors.[160] Sony PCG-81112L Battery
The practical source of an emperor's power and authority was the military. The legionaries were paid by the Imperial treasury, and swore an annual military oath of loyalty to the emperor (sacramentum).[161] The death of an emperor led to a crucial period of uncertainty and crisis. Most emperors indicated their choice of successor, Sony PCG-81113L Battery
Sony PCG-81312L Batteryusually a close family member or adopted heir. The new emperor had to seek a swift acknowledgement of his status and authority in order to stabilize the political landscape. No emperor could hope to survive, Sony PCG-81114L Battery
Sony PCG-81311L Battery much less to reign, without the allegiance and loyalty of the Praetorian Guard and of the legions. To secure their loyalty, several emperors paid the donativum, a monetary reward. In theory, the Senate was entitled to choose the new emperor, but did so mindful of acclamation by the army or Praetorians.[162] Dell XPS 14 Battery
Military[edit]
The Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117–138) showing the location of the Roman legions deployed in AD 125
Main articles: Imperial Roman army and Structural history of the Roman military
The soldiers of the Imperial Roman army were professionals who volunteered for a 25-year tour of duty. The transition to a professional military had begun during the late Republic,
Dell XPS L701X Batteryand was one of the many profound shifts away from republicanism, under which an army of conscripts had exercised their responsibilities as citizens in defending the homeland in a campaign against a specific threat. For Imperial Rome, the military was a full-time career in itself.[163] Dell XPS 14D-L401X Battery
The primary mission of the Roman military of the early empire was to preserve the Pax Romana.[164] The three major divisions of the military were:
the garrison at Rome, which includes both the Praetorians and the vigiles who functioned as police and firefighters; Dell XPS 15 Battery
the provincial army, comprising the Roman legions and the auxiliaries provided by the provinces (auxilia);
the navy.
The pervasiveness of military garrisons throughout the Empire was a major influence in the process of cultural exchange and assimilation known as "Romanization," particularly in regard to politics, the economy, and religion.[16Dell XPS 15D Battery
Dell XPS L501X Battery5] Knowledge of the Roman military comes from a wide range of sources: Greek and Roman literary texts; coins with military themes; papyri preserving military documents; monuments such as Trajan's Column and triumphal arches, Dell XPS 15-L501X Battery
Dell XPS 17-L702X Battery which feature artistic depictions of both fighting men and military machines; the archaeology of military burials, battle sites, and camps; and inscriptions, including military diplomas, epitaphs, and dedications.[166] Dell XPS 15-L502X Battery
Through his military reforms, which included consolidating or disbanding units of questionable loyalty, Augustus changed and regularized the legion, down to the hobnail pattern on the soles of army boots.[1
Dell XPS L702X Battery67] A legion was organized into ten cohorts, each of which comprised six centuries, with a century further made up of ten squads (contubernia); the exact size of the Imperial legion, which is most likely to have been determined by logistics, has been estimated to range from 4,800 to 5,280.[168] Dell XPS 15Z Battery
In AD 9, Germanic tribes wiped out three full legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This disastrous event reduced the number of the legions to 25. The total of the legions would later be increased again and for the next 300 years always be a little above or below 30.[ Dell Inspiron 14V Battery
169] The army had about 300,000 soldiers in the 1st century, and under 400,000 in the 2nd, "significantly smaller" than the collective armed forces of the territories it conquered. No more than 2 percent of adult males living in the Empire served in the Imperial army.[170]
Praetorian guards (1st century AD relief)
Augustus also created the Praetorian Guard: nine cohorts, ostensibly to maintain the public peace, which were garrisoned in Italy. Better paid than the legionaries, the Praetorians served only sixteen years.[171] Dell Inspiron N4030 Battery
The auxilia were recruited from among the non-citizens. Organized in smaller units of roughly cohort strength, they were paid less than the legionaries, and after 25 years of service were rewarded with Roman citizenship, also extended to their sons. Dell Inspiron N7010D Battery
Dell Inspiron N7010R Batteryccording to Tacitus[172] there were roughly as many auxiliaries as there were legionaries. The auxilia thus amounted to around 125,000 men, implying approximately 250 auxiliary regiments.[17Dell Inspiron N5110 Battery
3] The Roman cavalry of the earliest Empire were primarily from Celtic and Germanic areas, or Roman Spain. Several aspects of training and equipment, such as the four-horned saddle, derived from the Celts, as noted by Arrian and indicated by archaeology.[174]
The Roman navy (Latin: classis, "fleet") not only aided in the supply and transport of the legions, but also helped in the protection of the frontiers along the rivers Rhine and Danube. Another of its duties was the protection of the crucial maritime trade routes against the threat of pirates. Dell Inspiron N3010R Battery
Dell Inspiron N5010 BatteryIt patrolled the whole of the Mediterranean, parts of the North Atlantic coasts, and the Black Sea. Nevertheless the army was considered the senior and more prestigious branch.[175]
Provincial government[edit]
Main article: Roman province
[show] v t e
Roman provinces 117 AD
The Pula Arena in Croatia is one of the largest and most intact of the remaining Roman amphitheatres
An annexed territory became a province in a three-step process: making a register of cities, taking a census of the population, and surveying the land.[176Dell Inspiron N3010 Battery
Dell Inspiron N5010D Battery] Further government recordkeeping included births and deaths, real estate transactions, taxes, and juridical proceedings.[177] In the 1st and 2nd centuries, the central government sent out around 160 officials each year to govern outside Italy.[ Dell Inspiron N4010 Battery
Dell Inspiron 15R Battery178] Among these officials were the "Roman governors", as they are called in English: either magistrates elected at Rome who in the name of the Roman people governed senatorial provinces; or governors, usually of equestrian rank, who held their imperium on behalf of the emperor in provinces excluded from senatorial control, most notably Roman Egypt.[17
Dell Inspiron 17R Battery9] A governor had to make himself accessible to the people he governed, but he could delegate various duties.[180] His staff, however, was minimal: his official attendants (apparitores), including lictors, heralds, Dell Inspiron N4010D Battery
messengers, scribes, and bodyguards; legates, both civil and military, usually of equestrian rank; and friends, ranging in age and experience, who accompanied him unofficially.[180]
Other officials were appointed as supervisors of government finances.[178] Dell Inspiron N4010R Battery
Dell Inspiron N7010 Battery Separating fiscal responsibility from justice and administration was a reform of the Imperial era. Under the Republic, provincial governors and tax farmers could exploit local populations for personal gain more freely.[181] Dell Latitude E4200 Battery
Equestrian procurators, whose authority was originally "extra-judicial and extra-constitutional," managed both state-owned property and the vast personal property of the emperor (res privata).[18
Dell Latitude E6520N Battery0] Because Roman government officials were few in number, a provincial who needed help with a legal dispute or criminal case might seek out any Roman perceived to have some official capacity, such as a procurator or a military officer, including centurions down to the lowly stationarii or military police.[182] Dell Latitude E4300 Battery
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Roman law[edit]
Main article: Roman law
Roman courts held original jurisdiction over cases involving Roman citizens throughout the empire, but there were too few judicial functionaries to impose Roman law uniformly in the provinces. Most parts of the Eastern empire already had well-established law codes and juridical procedures.[183] In general, Dell Latitude E4310 Battery
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it was Roman policy to respect the mos regionis ("regional tradition" or "law of the land") and to regard local laws as a source of legal precedent and social stability.[184] The compatibility of Roman and local law was thought to reflect an underlying ius gentium, the "law of nations" or international law regarded as common and customary among all human communities.[1
Dell Latitude E6430 Battery85] If the particulars of provincial law conflicted with Roman law or custom, Roman courts heard appeals, and the emperor held final authority to render a decision.[186]
In the West, law had been administered on a highly localized or tribal basis, and private property rights may have been a novelty of the Roman era, Dell Latitude E5400 Battery
Dell Latitude E5530 Batteryparticularly among Celtic peoples. Roman law facilitated the acquisition of wealth by a pro-Roman elite who found their new privileges as citizens to be advantageous.[187] The extension of universal citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire in 212 required the uniform application of Roman law, replacing the local law codes that had applied to non-citizens.
Dell Latitude E5430 BatteryDiocletian's efforts to stabilize the Empire after the Crisis of the Third Century included two major compilations of law in four years, the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus, to guide provincial administrators in setting consistent legal standards.[188] Dell Latitude E5420 Battery
The pervasive exercise of Roman law throughout Western Europe led to its enormous influence on the Western legal tradition, reflected by the continued use of Latin legal terminology in modern law. Dell Latitude E5500 Battery
Taxation[edit]
Taxation under the Empire amounted to about 5 percent of gross product.[30] The typical tax rate paid by individuals ranged from 2 to 5 percent.[18Dell Latitude E6220 Battery
Dell Latitude E5520 Battery9] The tax code was "bewildering" in its complicated system of direct and indirect taxes, some paid in cash and some in kind. Taxes might be specific to a province, or kinds of properties such as fisheries or salt evaporation ponds; they might be in effect for a limited time.[190] Dell Latitude E6320 Battery
Dell Latitude E6330 BatteryTax collection was justified by the need to maintain the military,[191] and taxpayers sometimes got a refund if the army captured a surplus of booty.[192] In-kind taxes were accepted from less-monetized areas, particularly those who could supply grain or goods to army camps.[193] Dell Latitude E6400 Battery
Personification of the River Nile and his children, from the Temple of Serapis and Isis in Rome (1st century AD)
The primary source of direct tax revenue was individuals, who paid a poll tax and a tax on their land, construed as a tax on its produce or productive capacity.[18Dell Latitude E6410 Battery
Dell Latitude E6210 Battery9] Supplemental forms could be filed by those eligible for certain exemptions; for example, Egyptian farmers could register fields as fallow and tax-exempt depending on flood patterns of the Nile.[19Dell Latitude E6420 Battery
Dell Latitude E6410 ATG Battery4] Tax obligations were determined by the census, which required each head of household to appear before the presiding official and provide a head count of his household, as well as an accounting of property he owned that was suitable for agriculture or habitation.[194]
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A major source of indirect-tax revenue was the portoria, customs and tolls on imports and exports, including among provinces.[189] Special taxes were levied on the slave trade. Toward the end of his reign, Augustus instituted a 4 percent tax on the sale of slaves,[195Dell Latitude E6420 ATG Battery
Dell Latitude E6400 ATG Battery] which Nero shifted from the purchaser to the dealers, who responded by raising their prices.[196] An owner who manumitted a slave paid a "freedom tax", calculated at 5 percent of value.[197] Dell Latitude E6500 Battery
An inheritance tax of 5 percent was assessed when Roman citizens above a certain net worth left property to anyone but members of their immediate family. Revenues from the estate tax and from a 1 percent sales tax on auctions went toward the veterans' pension fund (aerarium militare).[189] Dell Latitude E6510 Battery
Low taxes helped the Roman aristocracy increase their wealth, which equaled or exceeded the revenues of the central government. An emperor sometimes replenished his treasury by confiscating the estates of the "super-rich", but in the later period, the resistance of the wealthy to paying taxes was one of the factors contributing to the collapse of the Empire.[32] Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery
Economy[edit]
Main article: Roman economy
Roman banker in a transaction
Moses Finley was the chief proponent of the primitivist view that the Roman economy was "underdeveloped and underachieving," characterized by subsistence agriculture; urban centers that consumed more than they produced in terms of trade and industry; Sony VGP-BPS13/Q battery
Sony VGP-BPS21A battery low-status artisans; slowly developing technology; and a "lack of economic rationality."[198] Current views are more complex. Territorial conquests permitted a large-scale reorganization of land use that resulted in agricultural surplus and specialization, particularly in north Africa.[19Sony VGP-BPS13/S battery
Sony VGP-BPS21 battery9] Some cities were known for particular industries or commercial activities, and the scale of building in urban areas indicates a significant construction industry.[199] Papyri preserve complex accounting methods that suggest elements of economic rationalism,[200] and the Empire was highly monetized. Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery
Sony VGP-BPL21 battery [201] Although the means of communication and transport were limited in antiquity, transportation in the 1st and 2nd centuries expanded greatly, and trade routes connected regional economies.[202Sony VGP-BPS13B/S battery
Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery] The supply contracts for the army, which pervaded every part of the Empire, drew on local suppliers near the base (castrum), throughout the province, and across provincial borders.[20Sony VGP-BPS13A battery
Sony VGP-BPS13B battery3] The Empire is perhaps best thought of as a network of regional economies, based on a form of "political capitalism" in which the state monitored and regulated commerce in order to assure its own revenues.[20Sony VGP-BPS13A/S battery
Sony VGP-BPS13AB battery4] Economic growth, though not comparable to modern economies, was greater than that of most other societies prior to industrialization.[200] Sony VGP-BPS13AS battery
Socially, economic dynamism opened up one of the avenues of social mobility in the Roman Empire. Social advancement was thus not dependent solely on birth, patronage, good luck, or even extraordinary ability. Sony VGP-BPS13S battery
Sony VGP-BPS13A/R batteryAlthough aristocratic values permeated traditional elite society, a strong tendency toward plutocracy is indicated by the wealth requirements for census rank. Prestige could be obtained through investing one's wealth in ways that advertised it appropriately: grand country estates or townhouses, Sony VGP-BPL10 Battery
durable luxury items such as jewels and silverware, public entertainments, funerary monuments for family members or coworkers, and religious dedications such as altars. Guilds (collegia) and corporations (corpora) provided support for individuals to succeed through networking, sharing sound business practices, and a willingness to work.[205] Sony VGP-BPL11 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS21/S BatteryThe early Empire was monetized to a near-universal extent, in the sense of using money as a way to express prices and debts.[206] The sestertius (plural sestertii, English "sesterces", symbolized as HS) was the basic unit of reckoning value into the 4th century,[207] though the silver denarius, worth four sesterces, was used also for accounting beginning in the Severan dynasty.[20Sony VGP-BPL13 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery8] The smallest coin commonly circulated was the bronze as (plural asses), one-fourth sestertius.[209] Bullion and ingots seem not to have counted as pecunia, "money," and were used only on the frontiers for transacting business or buying property. Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries counted coins, Sony VGP-BPL14 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery rather than weighing them—an indication that the coin was valued on its face, not for its metal content. This tendency toward fiat money led eventually to the debasement of Roman coinage, with consequences in the later Empire.[21Sony VGP-BPL14B Battery
Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery0] The standardization of money throughout the Empire promoted trade and market integration.[211] The high amount of metal coinage in circulation increased the money supply for trading or saving.[212]
Rome had no central bank, and regulation of the banking system was minimal. Banks of classical antiquity practiced fractional reserve banking. Sony VGP-BPL14/S Battery
Sony VGP-BPS15/S BatteryA typical bank had fairly limited capital, and often only one principal, though a bank might have as many as six to fifteen principals. Seneca assumes that anyone involved in commerce needs access to credit.[213]
A Roman aureus struck under Augustus (c. 13–14 AD); the reverse shows Tiberius in a quadriga, celebrating the fifteenth renewal of his tribunal power
A professional deposit banker (argentarius, coactor argentarius, or later nummularius) received and held deposits for a fixed or indefinite term, and lent money to third parties.[214Sony VGP-BPL21 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS15/B Battery] The senatorial elite were involved heavily in private lending, both as creditors and borrowers, making loans from their personal fortunes on the basis of social connections.[215] The holder of a debt could use it a means of payment by transferring it to another party, without cash changing hands. Sony VGP-BPS8 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS15 Battery Although it has sometimes been thought that ancient Rome lacked "paper" or documentary transactions, the system of banks throughout the Empire also permitted the exchange of very large sums without the physical transfer of coins, Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS14/S Battery in part because of the risks of moving large amounts of cash, particularly by sea. Only one serious credit shortage is known to have occurred in the early Empire, a credit crisis in 33 AD that put a number of senators at risk; the central government rescued the market through a loan of 100 million HS made by the emperor Tiberius to the banks (mensae).[2Sony VGP-BPS10 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS14B Battery16] Generally, available capital exceeded the amount needed by borrowers.[217] The central government itself did not borrow money, and without public debt had to fund deficits from cash reserves.[218Sony VGP-BPS11 Battery
]
Emperors of the Antonine and Severan dynasties overall debased the currency, particularly the denarius, under the pressures of meeting military payrolls.[219] Sudden inflation during the reign of Commodus damaged the credit market.[2Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery
Sony VGP-BPS14/B Battery17] In the mid-200s, the supply of specie contracted sharply.[220] Conditions during the Crisis of the Third Century—such as reductions in long-distance trade, disruption of mining operations, and the physical transfer of gold coinage outside the empire by invading enemies—greatly diminished the money supply and the banking sector by the year 300.[2Sony VGP-BPS13A Battery
Sony VGP-BPS14 Battery21] Although Roman coinage had long been fiat money or fiduciary currency, general economic anxieties came to a head under Aurelian, and bankers lost confidence in coins legitimately issued by the central government. Despite Diocletian's introduction of the gold solidus and monetary reforms, the credit market of the Empire never recovered its former robustness.[217]
Mining and metallurgy[edit]
Main article: Roman metallurgy
See also: Mining in Roman Britain