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Chapter 2 Emperors and Madmen

n August 19, .. 14, only a few years after Jesus ofNazareth was born, the great Augustus, master of thecivilized world, died.

At Augustus’ death, the Roman Empire over whichhe had ruled included the entire Mediterranean world, from theAtlantic Ocean to the Caucasus Mountains, from the deserts ofMorocco to the valleys of the Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe.

Augustus had inherited the empire from his uncle, JuliusCaesar. For centuries, the Roman state had been a republic. It wasruled by a body of prominent men, called the Senate, and admin-istered by various officials. As the republic spread east, west, andsouth across the Mediterranean world, its form of governmentgrew incapable of keeping peace. Civil war between factions con-tinually troubled Rome.

Finally, Julius Caesar, a brilliant general and the hero of thecommon people of Rome, seized power. The Senate namedCaesar dictator—sole ruler—for life. He did not enjoy his power for long,however. His enemies, fearing Caesar would make himself king and so for-ever bury the republic, assassinated him.

The PrincipateAfter Julius Caesar’s death, Augustus, then called Octavian (Gaius JuliusCaesar Octavianus), defeated his uncle’s enemies. He divided the rule ofthe empire with two other men, Marcus Lepidus and Marc Antony, in

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the principate: the neworganization of govern-ment begun byAugustus, giving realpower to the emperoror princeps ( “first citizen”)

The First Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesarwas the full nameof Julius Caesar.As with other

Roman names, the secondname, Julius, was the name ofthe clan or greater family towhich he belonged whileCaesar was the name of hisbranch of the Julian family.Gaius was his personal name.

what was called the Second Triumvirate (rule of three men). Lepidus,accused of attempting rebellion and exiled, soon died. Octavian andAntony then struggled for power in a fight that Octavian won. As sole rulerof the empire, Octavian set up a government to preserve the Roman statefrom further civil war.

The Senate gave Octavian the title “Augustus” (meaning “majestic,”“ven-erable”) in token of his remaking of the Roman system of government intowhat was called the principate. The new government was an organizationgoverning the Mediterranean world, directed by officials and defended by apaid army. Both the officials and the army answered to one man, Augustushimself, who was called the princeps, or “first citizen”—the emperor.Though the emperor needed the Senate’s approval and support, the sena-tors basically did his bidding. Before Augustus came to power, the Senate

48 LIGHT TO THE NATIONS: Christendom, from the Birth of Our Lord to the Eighteenth Century

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emperor: “commanderin chief,” “supremecommander”; title of acommander of severallegions, given by theSenate first to Augustusand then held by all hissuccessors

largely ruled the empire. Under Augustus, how-ever, the Senate lost most of its power.

The principate lasted almost unchanged forabout 270 more years after Augustus’ death. TheMediterranean world prospered under the PaxRomana, the Roman Peace, that Augustus’ rulebrought to it. Augustus and his successorssteadily extended citizenship to all the leadingfamilies of the empire outside Italy. Theempire’s law courts and administrators com-bined local customs and Roman principles oflaw into a universally respected system of law.Trade and manufacturing united all the cornersof the empire.

The poet Virgil’s lines in the Aeneid,addressed to Aeneas, expressed well the Romanideal of government:

Remember, Roman, by your strength to rule

Earth’s peoples—for your arts are to be these:

To pacify, to impose the rule of law,

to spare the conquered, battle down the proud.

(Aeneid VI. 851–53)

However, the power and wealth in the handsof Augustus’ successors corrupted them. Army commanderslearned that they could become emperors by using theirlegions as a threat. When good men held the principate,they resisted the pull of crime and thought about the goodof the empire. But being emperor offered too many oppor-tunities for self-indulgence—something weak, greedy, andsensual men found difficult to resist.

Many terrible and shocking stories are told about emper-ors who followed Augustus, but the imperial system sur-vived in spite of bad emperors. Lifelong bureaucrats, whomade the real decisions of daily government, maintainedthe principate. And since these men did more real work ofgovernment than the emperors, the empire sought out onlythe best and most qualified men to serve as bureaucrats.

Chapter 2 Emperors and Madmen 49

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 B.C.–44 B.C.), RomanGeneral and statesman, crossing the Rubicon in 49 B.C. Undated illustration.

Pax Romana: the “Roman Peace,” a long period of relative peace in theMediterranean world, lasting from 27 .. to .. 180legion: the name of a division of theRoman army, numbering about fivethousand soldiers. Several legions wouldbe combined into an army commandedby an imperator or “general.”bureaucrat: a government official,appointed by a ruler, who takes care ofthe day-to-day workings of government.A government run by bureaucrats iscalled a bureaucracy.

Nevertheless, in the years after Augustus, a shocking gulf widenedbetween rich and poor. The ruling classes lost a sense of duty towards thegovernment they served, while the hearts of the lower classes were turnedto anger and despair. Widespread distrust, and even hatred, betweenclasses and individuals threatened to destroy civilization. Where couldpeople turn for help in a crumbling world? The old Roman gods offeredno comfort or hope, and the human wisdom found in philosophy coulddo nothing against the temptations of greed and power A great emptinessseemed to settle on the heart of the world. Civilization lost its way.

Into this world of despair and sadness came a new message, the GoodNews of Jesus the Messiah. The Christian message spread across theRoman world in only a few decades. The new Christian faith and its mes-sage of forgiveness, love, and hope was the answer long awaited by a civi-lized yet empty world.

Within only 50 years after the death of Jesus in about .. 30, theChristian Church grew from a few loyal Jewish disciples to an interna-tional and non-Jewish church, with assemblies and houses of prayer allover the Mediterranean world. The new faith had its order of worship andits recognized ministry of leaders, who were successors of the first apostles.Moreover, the new faith reformed individual lives through acceptance ofJesus as Lord and Savior.


Imperial Patron of the Arts

Augustus worked to reform the Roman gov-ernment, but he was interested in renew-ing the arts as well. His friends supportedVirgil, Horace, and Ovid—poets who made

Latin poetry the equal of Greek poetry and wrote worksthat influenced European literature for all ages to come.

Virgil spent his last years creating an epic poemabout the legendary founder of Rome, Aeneas. Thisepic, called The Aeneid, tells of Aeneas’ travels fromTroy after the Trojan War and his coming to Italy andfighting for a new home for his people. From that newhome, called Latium, would come the city and repub-lic of Rome.

Horace wrote lyrical poems, songs, and odes. Inthem he praised famous people and places and cele-brated the simple but joyful country life of old Rome.

The third great Roman poet, Ovid, is rememberedfor his long poem called The Metamorphoses. A bookof tales from the Greek myths about mortals andgods, The Metamorphoses became the textbook forschoolchildren to read when learning Latin in Europeduring the Middle Ages and early modern times. Butbecause of Ovid’s scandalous life, Augustus sent himinto exile in the last years of his life. Ovid died on theshores of the Black Sea, still writing letters to Augustusasking to be pardoned.

But the Roman world was not ready to accept this message of love soeasily. Those who declared themselves Christian seemed to their neighborsto be traitors to the empire or blasphemers of the old gods. Local officialstried to discourage further growth of the Church by ordering the death ortorture of professed Christians. Mobs took out their anger and discontenton these “different” people in their midst. But the imperial governmenttook no overt action against the new faith. Officially, Roman law recog-nized the Christians as another sect among the Jews, who were alreadyofficially recognized as a religious group and tolerated in the empire. Butthat too would change, and the harshest attacks on the faith would comefrom the imperial offices.

The Reign of the JuliansBecause he outlived all his children, Augustus was plagued by the problemof who would succeed him as emperor. Like Julius Caesar, who hadadopted him as his heir, Augustus adopted his grandsons; but they haddied while still young men. In .. 4, Augustus adopted Tiberius ClaudiusNero, his wife Livia’s son by a previous marriage. Tiberius was already agrown man, acknowledged as a brilliant general of the northern legions inGermany, and an experienced administrator. He was an obvious successorto the principate.

Because Augustus was the adopted heir of Julius Caesar, all the heirs ofAugustus are called the Julians. The Julians held the principate beginningwith Tiberius in 14 .. and lasting until the death of Nero, Augustus’ greatgrandson, in .. 68. The family would give Rome two great rulers,Tiberius and Claudius, and two moral criminals, Caligula and Nero.


sect: a division or smallgroup of believerswithin a larger religiousgroup.

Augustus Poisoned?

The Roman historian Suetonius claimed that Augustus’ wife Livia poi-soned him to ensure that her son Tiberius should become emperor;she was afraid the old emperor would change his mind and appointanother successor. To escape the many attempts on his life by pro-

fessional assassins, Augustus himself picked his favorite fruit and cooked it byhis own hand. Rumor reported that Livia poisoned the pears of his garden whilehe slept.

Bust of Tiberius

Though the Julian line ended with Nero, the magic of the Julian namecontinued to enchant the Romans for centuries afterward. Eachemperor added the name Julius Caesar Augustus to his name, like a sortof royal title.

The Unwilling Emperor

Tiberius (reigned .. 14–37) never wanted the principate.His mother’s ambition pushed him into it, and he acceptedit only because all other candidates from the Julian familyhad already died or been eliminated. He had made a namefor himself as a general in a campaign against the Germantribes along the Rhine, and he had governed Gaul for someyears with success and acclaim. Augustus left him the prob-lems of ruling the empire without any advice or encourage-ment.

Though an unwilling emperor, Tiberius was an able one.As soon as possible, however, he retired to his villa atop theIsle of Capri. From there he governed through ministers andmessengers, who carried his will to the Senate and the gov-ernors of provinces.

During Tiberius’ principate, Jesus was crucified as a rebelagainst Rome, and St. Paul began his missionary travels tothe far corners of the eastern Mediterranean. The emperorknew nothing of all this, because he had turned over the rule

of the provinces to governors, such as Pontius Pilate in Judea. WhenTiberius died, the churches Paul founded in the cities of Asia Minor andGreece were thriving. The new faith was already firmly implanted in theailing imperial civilization.

“Little Boots”

Since Tiberius had no living son, he passed his wealth and power to hisnephew, Gaius. The son of Tiberius’ brother, the general Germanicus,Gaius grew up in military camps. The soldiers gave the boy the nicknameCaligula because of his habit of wearing soldier boots (called caligae inLatin.)

After becoming emperor in .. 37 at the age of 25, Caligula soonproved he was unfit for the task of ruling. He was self-indulgent, cruel, andpossibly mad, which made him feared and hated. The Senate plotted to kill


Claudius

him; the army looked for someone to succeed him as emperor. It wasCaligula’s palace guards, called the Praetorian Guard, who assassinatedhim after a brief four-year reign.

The Able Fool

After assassinating Caligula, the palace guards tookto robbing the imperial palace. Searching for loot,the soldiers found the elderly historian, Claudius,hiding fearfully under the stairs. Claudius was amember of the Julian family; but his uncle,Tiberius, had overlooked him as his successorbecause Claudius stammered and had a lame legthat made him limp ridiculously. His familythought him a fool, and Claudius encouraged thisopinion because he did not want to be emperor.

The Praetorians, too, thought Claudius weakand foolish—just weak and foolish enough to bean emperor they could control. The Senate agreedbecause they, too, thought they could controlClaudius.

Claudius surprised both the Praetorians and theSenate. He proved to be a very capable ruler, restor-ing the prestige and good name of his family andruling the principate wisely. He added Britain tothe empire and made peace with the Parthians in the East. He ruled for 13 years, from .. 41 to 54, and left the empire a better place than he hadfound it. But, like his predecessors, he had no son; and so the empire wentto his stepson and grandnephew, Nero.

The Last of the Julians

Under the guidance of his tutor, Seneca, Nero at first earned the goodwillof the Roman people and the Senate. During the first five years of Nero’sreign, the imperial government protected people in the provinces fromoppression and lowered taxes.

Nero had a deep interest in the arts and learning and thought himself agreat artist. He tried to revive the golden age of Augustus’ poets andthinkers by encouraging the best writers and statesmen of his time tomove to Rome and give their works to the empire. The greatest of the


The Great Fire of Rome

Roman historians—Livy, a friend ofClaudius–completed his work duringNero’s reign. The satirist and Stoicphilosopher Petronius was Nero’s friendand received from the emperor the offi-cial title Arbiter Elegantiae, “Judge ofFashion.”

Nero, however, soon began to show adark side to his character. In .. 58, hehad his mother, Agrippina, murdered.Under the influence of Poppaea Sabina,a woman he loved, Nero became moreself-indulgent. He divorced his wife,Octavia, and then had her murdered. Hemarried Poppaea and under her influ-ence became more and more brutal.

In ..60, a revolt of the Celtic tribes in Britain almost lost the islandfor Rome. Queen Boadicea led the British tribes to a brief independencebut was ultimately defeated by the Romans. Boadicea took poison anddied. This was a triumph for Nero, but it was quickly countered by a dis-aster that almost brought down his government.

The Great Fire and Persecution

In .. 64, a terrible fire broke out in the crowded tenements of Rome,sweeping through the mansions of the wealthy as well as the hovels of thepoor. The imperial palace itself was destroyed. Though some blamed Nerohimself for the fire, he worked hard to help those whose possessions thefire had destroyed and to rebuild housing for the poor. At the same time,however, he built a large and glorious palace, called the “golden house,” forhimself atop the Palatine hill. The splendor of the palace angered the suf-fering and struggling citizens.

Soon, the public was looking for someone to blame the fire on. Nerofound a scapegoat in the new sect of Christians and the Jewish residents ofthe city. With great cruelty, officials carried out this first imperial persecu-tion of Christians amid lavish theatrical displays and public distributionsof wine and bread. Christians were burned alive in the public gardens andtorn apart by beasts in the arenas. Pity for these obviously innocent vic-tims, however, eventually turned the people against Nero and gave fuel tohis enemies’ plots.


satirist: a writer ofsatire, a literary formthat cleverly ridiculeshuman vices and folly

Palatine hill: one ofthe seven hills onwhich ancient Romewas built

Nero’s fear of the people and of his opponents in the Senate made himsuspicious even of his former friends. The emperor’s suspicions forced hisold tutor, Seneca, to commit suicide. The poet Lucan went into exile.Petronius Arbiter killed himself before Nero could arrest him. Theemperor was left without friends and advisors, and his own guards fearedhim. A revolt of the legions, beginning first in the province of Gaul, spreadto the rest of the empire. Finally, in .. 68, Nero committed suicide whilefleeing from his own Praetorian Guards.

Year of the Four Emperors

After Nero’s death, the empire was left to become the spoils of powerful gen-erals. Within one year, four different men claimed the title of Caesar. Nerobrought the Julian family to an unlamented end and left a legacy of violenceand political intrigue that threatened the empire again with civil war.

The period from .. 68 to 69, called the “Year of the Four Emperors,”showed that emperors could be made by the will and might of the legions.The legions in Hispania (Spain) proclaimed their general, Galba, emperor.But when he marched on Rome, the Praetorians proclaimed their com-mander, Otho, to be emperor. Otho was deposed by Vitellius, who wassupported by the legions of Germany. Vitellius was quickly replaced byFlavius Vespasian, commander of the legions stationed along the Danube.

The FlaviansFlavius Vespasian (reigned .. 70–79) was the most successful and highlyregarded general of his time. He won not only Rome, but the support ofthe Senate. He was a strong and wise ruler who brought the empire a longperiod of stability. A man of the army who came of humble origins,Vespasian restored the finances of the government that had been squan-dered by Nero and the civil war. He reorganized the army to reward meritand created a new aristocracy of provincial leaders. These new aristocratsand the emperor himself tried to restore the old Roman virtues of frugal-ity, self-control, and simplicity. Vespasian undertook great public works, ofwhich the Colosseum at Rome is the most striking example.

Vespasian and his son Titus ruled an empire on the verge of breakingapart. One of the major rebellions they faced was a revolt of the Jews inJudea. The Romans subdued this revolt, known as the First Jewish War,only after a three-year siege of Jerusalem. The siege ended with the


aristocracy: an upperclass of personsthought to be the “best”or most able to govern

destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in .. 71. The Arch of Titus thatgreets visitors to the now-ruined forum in Rome shows scenes of that siegeand the Roman triumph.

Vespasian’s son Titus succeeded his father but died soon after, leavingthe empire to his brother, Domitian. Domitian at first worked for the goodof the empire and encouraged the arts and sciences. He too wanted torevive the spirit of Augustus and the old Roman virtues.

Domitian restored the ancient Roman religious cults that had droppedout of favor and suppressed religious cults that had crept into Rome fromthe empire’s eastern provinces. The cults of Isis, from Egypt; of Helios theSun God, from Syria; and Mithras, from Persia had become the fashion-able worship of the bored and spiritually starved upper classes. The cult ofMithras had taken hold in the army and had become the religion of mostof the legions, east and west.

Domitian’s character changed for the worse, however, when the legionsin Germany revolted against him. The rebellion was crushed, butDomitian began to mistrust everyone around him and condemned manyto death. In the end he suffered death by being stabbed while in his ownbedroom.


Pompeii, the Buried City: A.D. 79

An eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79was a major tragedy of Vespasian’s reign.The volcano buried the resort towns ofPompeii and Herculaneum near Naples

under a layer of volcanic ash that perfectly preservedthe cities’ houses and made plaster-cast forms ofmany of the cities’ fleeing inhabitants. The Roman sci-entist Pliny the Elder met his death on the slopes ofthe “quiet” volcano, where he had climbed to observethe beginnings of the eruption he thought would be aminor one.

In the 19th century, archeologists unearthed theruins of Pompeii and remains of its inhabitants. Theyrevealed a sad but intriguing look at daily life inRoman times.

Bust of Trajan

The “Good Emperors”After the death of Domitian, the Senate saw to it that one of its own heldthe imperial office. Marcus Cocceius Nerva (reigned .. 96–98) was anold man of simple habits, wise and restrained. He spared Domitian’s mur-derers and elevated Domitian’s military supporters to high office. At hisdeath, the Senate followed his advice and acclaimed as emperor hisadopted son, Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (Trajan), a prominent army com-mander of the legions in Germany.

The Spanish Emperor

Trajan, a Spaniard by birth, was the first emperorto come from the provinces outside of Italy.Because he made a practice of consulting with theSenate and taking their advice, he reestablishedmutual respect between Senate and emperor.

Trajan revived the morale of the legions sta-tioned in Syria and Mesopotamia on the Parthianborder by building new fortifications and grant-ing lands to retiring legionaries. The Senate gavehim the title Optimus, “the Best,” recognizingwhat his troops already called him.

Trajan conquered the plains of Dacia (thesouthern end of the valley of the Danube River)and made it a military colony, strong enough todefend the empire from European barbarians.Veterans who retired from the legions receivedland in Dacia along the Danube River to set upfarms and villages with their families and formmilitary units able to defend themselves and holdthe border. Modern Romania gets its name and itslanguage from these Roman soldiers.

In .. 116, while Trajan was engaged in campaigns in Mesopotamiaagainst the Parthian kings, Jewish communities all over the empire brokeout in revolt. Joining the revolt were the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus andthe cities of Egypt and North Africa, all home to large Jewish communi-ties. Much of the eastern Mediterranean was in arms. But before Trajancould leave his Parthian campaign and move against the rebels, he diedsuddenly in Babylon.


Law Reformer, Patron of the Arts, Warrior

After Trajan’s death, the Senate and the army recognized as his successorPublius Aelius Hadrianus, Trajan’s nearest male relative and the governorof Syria. Hadrian was a wise ruler, a patron of architecture and the arts.He wanted to assure justice throughout the empire and so institutedhumane laws, including one forbidding masters to put their slaves todeath and another that punished a master who treated his slaves poorly.Though he angered some powerful men by doing so, Hadrian abandonedthe territories conquered by Trajan east of the Euphrates River—Assyria,Mesopotamia, and Armenia.

Hadrian, however, forbade Jews in the empire to practice their religion.The emperor forbade circumcision, reading the Law, and observance ofthe Sabbath. In 132, Jews in Palestine under the leadership of Bar Kochbarose in revolt. The Romans crushed the revolt and, in 135, Hadrian for-bade Jews from entering Jerusalem.

To prevent further civil wars, Hadrian brought the imperial armies ofthe East and West under his one command. Independent generals weredismissed. Hadrian decided against expansion of the empire’s territory bywar and sought instead to preserve peace within well-defended frontiers.His empire became a fortress against the uncivilized world. Where therewere no natural border defenses, such as mountains and rivers, he set upstrong fortifications. And to ensure that all his governors and generalswere loyal, he frequently visited all the provinces of the empire. In Britainhe built a wall across the island to keep out the wild Picts of Scotland. InGermany he erected a wall of forts and earthworks to join the Rhine Riverforts to the Danube’s banks.

In about the year 130, Hadrian ordered the rebuilding of Jerusalem,which had been destroyed in .. 71. But the rebuilt Jerusalem was not to bea Jewish city; it would be a Roman colony, called Aelia Capitolina. Furiousat this desecration of the sacred city, one Judah Bar Kochbar led the Jews inanother revolt against the Romans. After three years (132–135), Hadriancrushed the revolt. The emperor ordered mass executions that reduced thepopulation of Jerusalem to that of a small town. It was to be repopulated notwith Jews, but with Gentile legionary veterans.

Hadrian expected his death for many years before it came. On the banksof the Tiber he built for himself a massive round tomb, visible from all overthe city. His tomb was so large and well-constructed that it became a fortressin the Middle Ages, the private castle of the popes. Today it is known asCastel Sant’Angelo.


Castel Sant’Angelo

Like Augustus, Hadrian had no son of hisown and searched throughout his reign for asuccessor. Finally he chose Titus AureliusAntoninus, a 51-year-old senator. Antoninuswas not related to Hadrian in any way, but hewas respected for his upright life. To furtherensure the stability of the empire, Hadrianmade Antoninus adopt two youths to succeedhim in turn as emperor—Marcus Aurelius, 16years old, and Lucius Verus, who was only 7.

The Pious Emperor

One of Antoninus’ first acts after becoming emperor was to persuade theSenate to proclaim Hadrian a god. The Senate had done so for previousemperors from the days of Augustus, but not for Hadrian. For this act,done out of respect for his predecessor, Antoninus received the title Pius,meaning “affectionately dutiful.”

Antoninus Pius’ reign was a time of prosperity and peace. UnlikeHadrian, he traveled little. Coins with the words Tranquillitas (peace) andConcordia (harmony) were the marks of his rule. His armies pushed thefrontier further into Germany and Dacia, and he built a new wall in Britainto the north of Hadrian’s, thus bringing the lowlands of Scotland intoRoman territory.

But continued barbarian raids and skirmishes along the Danube weresigns of trouble to come. The Germanic peoples of the European plainsand forests, stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic, pressed on theempire’s borders. A Germanic tribe from Scandinavia, the Goths, movedsouth to the shores of the Black Sea and united various tribes into a greatconfederacy. The Gothic king, Kniva, proved to be a talented diplomat andstatesman. He applied force against opponents when needed and used per-suasion and rewards whenever possible. Germanic poems and legendsrecalled the glories of the Gothic “empire” long after the Goths themselveswere forgotten.

The Philosopher Emperor

Antoninus’ successor as emperor, the young Marcus Aurelius was raised tobe a soldier and spent his youth among the legions defending the Danubeborder.


Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius is remembered today more forhis Stoic philosophy and his beautifully writtenMeditations than for being emperor, though his rulewas impressive and colorful. Marcus began his reignby making Antoninus’ other heir, Lucius Verus, co-emperor with him, though Verus was too young andof weak character. Marcus took command of theDanube legions himself and sent young Verus toMesopotamia. Verus’ generals gave him great victo-ries, taking the army all the way to Ctesiphon, thecapital of Parthia.

Last of the Good Emperors

The exhausted Marcus Aurelius died at Vindabona(Vienna) in 180. Since Verus had died in 169 andMarcus had not named an heir, his lieutenantsappointed his 19-year-old son, Commodus, to beemperor. Commodus was conceited, changeable,spoiled with luxury, and totally unprepared for theoffice he was to fill.

The young emperor devoted himself to sensualpleasure and to the production of gladiatorial games in the Roman arenas,the cost of which exhausted the Roman treasury. After an attempt hadbeen made on his life, Commodus became a tyrant, putting to death manyprominent Romans. Finally, on the last day of the year 192, he himself wasassassinated. Commodus’ bad rule and death brought the line of the goodemperors to a disgraceful end.


Claudius Ptolemy, the Astronomer

The reigns of the Good Emperors saw little literary achievement. Butmuch important work was accomplished in the sciences and historyby men who wrote in Greek and lived in the eastern Mediterraneanworld. In about A.D. 150, the astronomer Claudius Ptolemy produced

his mathematical description of the heavens, the Almagest, and hisGeographical Outline. The Almagest was to remain the authority on astronomyuntil the 16th century.

Stoic philosophy: orstoicism, a philosophythat teaches that happi-ness can only be foundby one who practicesself-control and followsthe natural law

The Fifty Years of the FiftyEmperors: 218–268After the Good Emperors, the empire endured a centuryof military emperors. Some were better administratorsthan others, but all were more concerned with their ownenrichment and the rewards they gave to their soldier sup-porters than with the good of the empire as a whole.Under the family of the Severii, Septimius Severus and hissons (who reigned from 211 to 235), the empire continuedto prosper and the legions held the borders againstinvaders. After the Severii, the third century .. saw thesteady decline of the prosperous empire left by Augustusto his heirs. Military commanders seized the imperialoffice by force and threats.

Between 218 and 268, fifty different men claimed thetitle of emperor, either at Rome or in other parts of theempire. Out of the 27 legitimate emperors, 17 were killedby their own troops and 2 were forced to commit suicide.The armies were more loyal to their own commandersthan to the empire, and a change of emperors meant thattheir commanders were obliged to give the armies lavish gifts.

The Sassanids of Persia Defeat a Roman Emperor

The rebellions and civil wars that rocked the empire came at a timewhen it could least afford them. The Germanic tribes of the northjoined in a confederacy organized by the chieftains of the Goths. In theeast, the Parthian kingdom, Rome’s old enemy, came under the controlof a new ruling family, called the Sassanids. These new rulers of Iran, orPersia, claimed the right to all the Roman Empire’s eastern territoriesonce ruled by their Persian ancestors. The new Persian army was themost up-to-date attacking force of the age, heavily armored andmounted on horseback. Re-arming and recruiting new legions for theEast now became an urgent necessity for the emperors, but it was hugelyexpensive and not very effective.

In 260 the Persians captured the Emperor Valerian near Edessa inMesopotamia. Valerian remained a prisoner of the Persians for the rest ofhis life. His son Gallienus did not succeed in rescuing him or did not try.


Bust of EmperorSeptimius Severus

Only the Persian kings’ savage treatment of the Roman provinces theyconquered saved the territories for Rome. The Persians made the empire’scitizens more afraid of the Persians than of the Romans.

Valerian’s defeated legions straggled back into Syria. With them theycarried the beginnings of the bubonic plague—an epidemic that racedacross the empire, reducing the population of major cities by horrificnumbers of deaths.

Before marching out to battle the Persians, Valerian had divided theempire. No one man, he realized, could command the troops of both theGerman and eastern frontiers at once. He took the east for himself andplaced his son Gallienus in charge of the west. Gallienus succumbed to theplague, after winning the bloodiest battle of the empire’s history, the defeatof the Goths at Nis on the Balkan Peninsula. Fifty thousand Gothic war-riors died, and Roman deaths exceeded the numbers of a whole legion(about five thousand men).

But such military victories came at an enormous price. War and plaguereduced the population in the cities of the empire to dangerously low lev-els. The imperial currency of gold and silver had so lost its value that sil-ver coins hardly contained any recognizable silver at all, and gold merelycovered a base metal core. People no longer accepted the official moneybut bought and sold with private currency. Prices in many parts of theempire rose by nearly 1,000 percent. Epidemics, war, high prices, and taxesbecame an unendurable burden for the common people to bear.

The Reform of DiocletianIn 284, Roman troops in the eastern provinces of the empire proclaimedtheir general, Diocletian, emperor. Soon the entire empire recognized him.The new emperor began a reorganization of the empire that buried foreverthe principate of Augustus.

Diocletian divided the empire into eastern and western sections. Eachsection was ruled by an “Augustus” who had a “Caesar” to assist him.Diocletian, as Augustus of the East, remained the supreme ruler of theempire.

As Augustus of the East, Diocletian commanded the easternMediterranean—Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. His Caesar,Galerius, commanded Greece, the Danube frontier and Balkans, and theBlack Sea. Diocletian made his friend and fellow commander, Maximian,Augustus of the West. Maximian commanded the Rhine valley border and


the coasts of Hispania and North Africa. His Caesarwas Constantius, who commanded Gaul and Britain.

Diocletian built himself a new capital at Nicomediaon the Asian side of the Bosporus straits in order toprotect the approaches to the Black Sea grain supply.Galerius imitated him by building a military fortress-palace at Thessalonica in Macedonia. In Italy,Maximian established his capital at Milan. In Gaul,Constantius headquartered at Trier to be near theRhine and Britain.

Diocletian then split each of the 50 provinces of theempire in two, thus making 100 new provinces, eachtoo small to support a rebel general or make serioustrouble for the emperor. The total military strength ofthe empire was now more than half a million men inarms. Paying them, feeding them, and keeping themin armor and weapons as well as transporting themput a tremendous strain on the empire.

The Failure of Economic Reform

In an effort to help the poor, Diocletian set a limitabove which prices and the wages of workers couldnot rise. However, he and his co-rulers could not enforce this limit. Goodsdisappeared from the market, and prices soared again. To make collectingtaxes easier, the government told workers they could not change jobs, norcould they move from one city or region to another unless the local taxcollector allowed them to.

Diocletian’s taxes angered ordinary people. Diocletian and the lateremperors tried all sorts of propaganda to persuade the people that the gov-ernment was in fact doing things for the general good and saving theempire from invaders and plagues.

The New Face of the Empire

With Diocletian’s removal of the Roman capital to the east, Rome, the“City of the West,” would no longer rule over the Mediterranean world.Instead, it would become a backwater town, known only for its Christianbishop and its faded glories. But the Christian religion, not the emperors,would become the chief force directing the movement of history, both of


Bust of EmperorDiocletian

the east and west. The Church would unite the traditions of Mesopotamiaand Egypt, of Israel and European Greece and Rome, and create a new civ-ilization called Christendom. How that change came about is the subjectof the history of the early Church, a history of martyrs and teachers.

Chapter Review

Summary• When Caesar Augustus died in .. 14, he left the principate, which

survived to rule the empire for five centuries.• Augustus’ successors were both good and bad as rulers of an empire.

Four families commanded the empire in the first two centuries afterChrist—Augustus’ own Julian family, the Flavians, the family of theGood Emperors, and the Severii.

• Tiberius, the second of the Julians, reigned during the last years ofJesus’ life. His heir, Caligula, was assassinated by his own guards.Claudius, his nephew, proved a wise and successful ruler. But Claudius’adoptive grandson Nero carried the empire to civil war and orderedthe first official persecution of Christians in Rome.

• The Flavian emperors Vespasian and Titus worked to restore the gloryof Augustus’ empire. They besieged and destroyed Jerusalem in .. 70–71.

• The so-called Good Emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, AntoninusPius, and Marcus Aurelius.

• Pressure from the growing Germanic tribes on the north and therenewed threat of the Persian Empire on the east forced the RomanEmpire to increase the size of its armies. Taxation, to pay for the hugearmies that were needed, began to impoverish the common peoplewho paid these taxes.

• Military commanders declared themselves emperors. Fifty emperors in50 years brought chaos to the empire.

• In .. 260, the emperor Valerian led an army to defend the easternempire against the kings of Persia. He was captured by the Persians andheld for ransom.

• Diocletian, a general of the Danube legions, took command of theempire in 290 and reorganized it under four commanders.

• Diocletian moved his capital to Nicomedia in Asia Minor for the east-ern empire, and Maximian moved his capital to Milan in Italy for thewestern empire. Old Rome became only the symbolic capital.


• Diocletian’s attempts at reforming the tax system only made the finan-cial life of the empire worse. Common workers were forbidden to leavetheir trade or place of birth.

Key ConceptsSenate: the body of elected aristocrats or patricians that governed Rome.After Augustus, the Senate lost its powers to the emperors.principate: the new organization of government begun by Augustus, giv-ing real power to the emperor or princeps ( “first citizen”)emperor: “commander in chief,” “supreme commander”; title of a com-mander of several legions, given by the Senate first to Augustus and thenheld by all his successorsAugustus: title given by the Roman Senate to Octavian, nephew of JuliusCaesar and founder of the principatelegion: the name of a division of the Roman army, numbering about fivethousand soldiers. Several legions would be combined into an army com-manded by an imperator or “general.”Caesar: family name of Gaius Julius Caesar. The name was taken as atitle by all succeeding emperors.

Dates to RememberA.D. 14: the death of Augustus27 B.C.–A.D. 68: the years of the Julian emperorsA.D. 64: burning of Rome under Nero and the first imperial persecutionof Christians284–305: Diocletian’s rule

Central CharactersAugustus Caesar (63 B.C.–A.D. 14): Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus,nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, given the title emperor by theSenate in 29 .. He established the principate, the imperial system ofgovernment.Tiberius Caesar (42 B.C.–A.D. 37): Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, bornto Augustus’ wife, Livia, and her previous husband. Tiberius was emperorwhen Jesus was crucified.Nero (A.D. 37–68): Nero Claudius Caesar, adopted by the EmperorClaudius. Nero was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina,later the wife of Claudius. Nero was the first Roman emperor to order apersecution of the Christians.


Trajan (A.D. 53–117): Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, emperor, .. 98–117.He was born in Hispania, was adopted by Nerva, and was a respectedgeneral.Hadrian (A.D. 76–138): Publius Aelius Hadrianus, emperor .. 117–138.He was adopted by Trajan and became reformer and advocate of justtreatment of the poor.Antoninus Pius (A.D. 86–161): Titus Aurelius Fulvus BoioniusAntoninus, emperor .. 137–161. He was counselor to Hadrian,adopted by Hadrian as his successor.Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121–180): Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar,adopted by Antoninus Pius, emperor .. 161–180. Marcus Aurelius wasa scholar and author of the Meditations, a collection of Stoic wisdom.Diocletian (A.D. 245–316): Gaius Valerius Diocletianus, general of theDanube legions, was emperor from .. 284 to 305. He reorganized theimperial principate, dividing the empire into eastern and western territo-ries in 293.

Questions for Review1. What is a “triumvirate”? Who made up the Second Triumvirate?2. What was the principate? Who was the head of government in the

principate?3. What was the Senate of Rome? How did its role in governing the

Roman state change after Augustus?4. Who were the good emperors and who were the bad? Why are they

now thought of as “good or bad”?5. What were some of the signs that the Roman Empire was breaking

apart?6. How did Diocletian change the government of the empire?7. Why was Diocletian unsuccessful in reforming the empire?

Ideas in Action1. Discuss what might have been some difficulties of ruling an empire

like Rome. Why was the job too big for one man?2. Research these questions: Why was assassination a fear for emperors

after Augustus? Which emperors were in fact assassinated?3. Compile a class time-line display of the emperors and their dates. Find

any portraits of the emperors that may exist.


Highways and Byways

The Death of Augustus Caesar: A.D. 14He gathered his closest friends, all old men by now; Livia, his wife of manyyears; and his stepson and heir, Tiberius, to be with him in his lastmoments. The old emperor Augustus ordered his servants to dress his hairand tie up his sagging cheeks with a silken bandage. He jokingly asked hisfriends whether he had played his role in life’s comedy well enough. Thenhe recited the last verse of a Roman play:

Since I have made you laugh, clap your paws;And cheer me from the stage with loud applause.

He dismissed everyone except his wife from the room and passed awaypeacefully.


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