The Roman Achievement

If the Greek contribution to civilization was essentially mental and spiritual,that of Rome was
structural and practical;its essence was the empire itself.Much of its history,like its nomenclature,was only to evolve gradually and in an unplanned way;as under the working republic, institutions and ideas changed gradually and sometimes unnoticed in the short term.It was a long time before imperator meant the man at the top of the empire. The gap between the establishment of Rome's first province outside mainland Italy (Sicily in 241 BC) and Roman control of the entire Mediterranean is little more than two centuries. With the annexation of Egypt in 30 BC, the Mediterranean becomes for the first time one political unit - a large lake within a single empire. Throughout Rome's mighty empire, science was applied for utilitarian ends, from underfloor heating to watermills, aqueducts and an impressive road network. Rome bequeathed to posterity its efficient administration, codified laws, widespread literacy and a universally understood language. It also adopted and spread Christianity, for which it provided the institutional base.This situation lasts for four centuries, until Germanic tribes move round the western Mediterranean in the 5th century AD. This most historic of seas will continue to play a central role in human history, but never again under unified control. Tribal pressure from the north has been gradually building up throughout the heyday of Rome.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE

Though no man is an empire, not even the great Alexander,its nature and government were nonetheless,to an astonishing degree the creation of one man of outstanding ability,Julius Caesars great-nephew and adopted heir, Octavian.Although Caesar has conquered the romantic imagination of later ages,his grandnephew had far the greater effect on Roman history. The changes in name of this truly astounding figure signalize the steps in his career: born C.Octavius,he was from 43 BC, called C.Julius Caesar Octavianus(or Octavian) the son of the godCaesar;and after 27 BC.was known as Imperator Caesar Augustus,the first of the Roman emperors.Despite his sickly nature Augustus lived on to AD. 14. During his 59 years of active political life after Caesars murder,Octavian-Augsutus first gained sole mastery over overwhelming ods,and the brought an end to the whirlwind of revolution which had beset Rome for a century. Immediately,mens sense of relief and joy hepled to spur the most remarkable outburst of arts and letters in Roman civilization,in the longer run a new system of government gave lasting peace to the Mediterranean world.An age has been named after him;his name gave an adjective to posterity.Sometimes one has the feeling that he invented almost everything that charcaterized imperial Rome,from the new Praetorian Gurad,which was the first military force stationed permanently in the capital;to the taxation of bachelors.One reason for this impression(though only one)is that he was the master of public relations; significantly,more representations of him than any other Roman emperor have come down to us. To distinguish the scarcely veiled autocracy of the new system from the republican structure we call the period from 27 BC ownward the Roman Empire.The Early Empire,in which the Augustan pattern was outwardly dominant,extended down to AD.284,at which point a very considerable change produced the Later Empire.In this chapter we shall consider the restoration of order under Augustus; thereafter we can watch the unfolding of the long-range effects in culture and society.Besides the earthly savior Augustus there was,to be sure,another Saviour in these years,but the rise of Christianity needs its own special attention.

The rise of Augustus

Octavians career began at the age of eighteen.His visible assets were his youth and his claim to be Caesars adopted son; from Julius he inherited at the age of eighteen artistocratic connections, great wealth and military support.His hidden qualities included a puritinical spirit which reflected his birth and early training in a Latin hill-town,an utterly ruthless ambition,a determination to avenge Caesar,and a cold intelligence of rare degree.Withal he was able to win some lasting friends and aides,chiefly of equestrian origin.One,M.Vipsanius Agrippa(c.63-12 BC.),was to be his admiral and general;another C.Maecenas(d.8 BC.),his diplomat,patron of letters,and minister of the interior.By neccessity and inclination Octavian looked beyond the senatorial aristocracy for his followers,and the opportunity which his rise gave to these new elements helps to explain his succes.Yet in the end one must always come back to Octavians own qualities. After using and throwing over the Senate in his first year,Octavian had become triumvir with Mark Anthony, one of Caesars henchmen,and Lepidus in November 43.Once scores had been settled in a fericious series of proscritions to destroy the party which had murdered the great dictator,Antony and Octavian marched east to put down Brutus and Cassius,who had gained command of the groaning eastern provinces.In 42 the opposing forces met at Philippi in macedonia.The sickly Octavian remained in his tent during the two battles except,fortunately at the point when it was sacked by the enemy.Antony,however,won the day,and both Cassius and Brutus commited suicide. Thereafter,the victors divided the empire.Lepidus,the makeweight finally received Africa; Antony took over the east,and Gaul to extort money and to face the Parthians;Octavian was given Spain,Sardinia,and the difficult commision of settling 100.000 veternas in Italy.To do so he had to take away land from its owners over much of the peninsula,including that of a fledging poet called Virgil;the upshot was a sullen rebellino in 41-40,led by Antonys ex-wife Fulvia and his brother Lucius Antonius,consul of 41.Octavian was ruthless in putting down this rebellion at its last stronghold, Perusia(Perugia). For a time he cooperated with in.Mark Anthonys departure to win victories in the east, failure to do so and injudicious marriage to Cleopatra, Julius Caesars sometimes mistress,gave Octavian further opportunities.He fought in the name of the republic against a threat that Anthony might make a proconsular return,bringing oriental monarchy in his baggage-train. The victory of Actium (31 Bc.)was followed by the legendary suicides of Antony and Cleopatra;the kingdom of Ptolemies came to an end and Egypt too was annexed as province of Rome. This was the end of civil war.In form,the republic was still there,but Caesars changes in the direction of centralized power were left intact.Problems could not be solved by putting the polical clock back.Octavian returned,being,formally speaking,only imperator-a title meaning he commanded soldiers in the field-but he went on being elected consul,the most important of the republics executive offices year after year. He had every card in his hand and judiciously refrained from playing them,leaving it to his opponents to recognize his strength.His power grew as more and more offices and honours were given to him,though he never ceased to insist that this was all behind a faade of republican piety. In 27 BC he carried out what he called a republican restoration with the support of a Senate whose republican membership,purged and weakened by civil war and proscription,he reconciled to his real primacy by his careful preservation of forms.He was imperator only by virtue of his command of the troops of the frontier of the provinces-but that was where the bulk of the legions were. In realllity though,Augustus increasingly relied on the power given him by his grip in the army(he organized the first regiment specially raised to serve in the capital itself,the Praetorian Guard)and on the bureaucracy of paid civil servants. As old soldiers of his and his great-uncles armies returned to retirement,they were duly settled on smallhodings and were appropiately grateful.His consulship was prolonged from year to year

and in 27 BC.he was given the honorific title of Augustus,the name by which he is remebered.At Rome,though,he was formally and usually called by his familiy name,or was identified as princeps,first citizen.As the years passed Augustuss power still grew.The Senate accorded him a right of interference in those provinces which it formally rulled(that is,those were there was no need to keep a garrison army).he was voted the tribunician power.His special status was enhanced and formalized by a new recognition of his state or dignitas,as the Romans called it;he sat between the two consuls after his resignation from that office in 23 BC. and his business was given precedence in the agenda of the State.Finally,in 12 BC.he became pontifex maximus,the head of the official cult,as his great-uncle had been.The forms of the republic with their popular elections were maintained,but Augustus,said who should be elected. The political reality masked by this supreamcy was the rise to domination within the ruling class of men who owed their position to the Caesars.But the new elites were not allowed to behave like the old.The Augustan benevolent despotism regularized the provincial administration and army by putting them into obedient and salaried hands.The conscious resuscitation of republican tradition and festivals had a part to play in this too.Augustan government was heavily tinged wuith concern for moral revival;the virtues of ancient Rome seemed to some to live again.Ovid,a poet of pleasure and love,was packed off to exile in the Black Sea when a sexual scandal at the edge of the imperial family provided an excuse.When to this official austerity is added the peace which marked most of the reign and the great visible monuments of the Roman architects and engineers,the reputation of the Augustan age is hardly surprising.After his death in AD 14 Augustus was deified as Julius Caesar had been.