Text 5. The Early Empire

Read the text and do the tasks that follow.

Caesar had seized control of the government of the Roman world in 49 B.C., making himself dictator for life. As dictator, Caesar seemed to have little respect for the constitution. According to the constitution, a Roman leader was supposed to share power with the senators. But many senators thought Caesar acted as if he were above the law. They thought he treated them as servants. They saw his behavior as haughty and insulting. Many began to think of him as both a personal enemy and an enemy of the Roman Republic.

Senators and other Roman citizens whispered among themselves that Caesar intended to make himself king. If he did so, he could establish a dynasty. His family line would rule the Roman world even after his death, and the Senate would then have no role in choosing the next leader. Outraged, more than 60 senators met secretly. They planned how they would assassinate Caesar – murder him for political reasons. One leader of the group was Brutus, the so-called friend of Caesar.

When Brutus and his men killed Caesar on the ides of March, they thought had saved the Republic. But by the end of that day, the assassins had to hide from angry mobs of Romans citizens. Many were outraged by Caesar’s murder. Caesar was well liked because he made many reforms that improved people’s lives. For example, he reorganized the government and lowered taxes. He founded new colonies and gave people land to farm. He hired people to build temples and public buildings. He made citizens of many people in the colonies.

A power struggle followed Caesar’s death. Caesar’s adopted son Octavian was the leader of one group that was fighting to control Rome. He defeated his rivals in 32 B.C. and led Rome into a new era.

Octavian brought peace to the Roman Empire and became a popular leader. In 27 B.C., the Senate voted to give him the title Augustus, meaning “respected one.” He ruled the empire until A.D. 14.

Augustus learned from his father’s mistakes. He continued many of the reforms that had been started by Caesar. He knew that the people wanted a republic.

But Augustus held the real power. He controlled almost all of the military troops. He appointed the most important officials of the government – those who governed the provinces. He carefully avoided using the title of king. Instead, he called himself “first citizen” to show that he was one of the people.

Augustus ruled an empire. He is considered to be the first Roman emperor. The people welcomed him. They desperately wanted peace and order after the time of turmoil that followed Caesar’s death.

During the 41 years of his rule, Augustus built or restored 82 temples. Most of them were dressed in the smooth marble from the quarries that were just opening north of Rome.

Augustus also worked to improve life in the city of Rome. With a population of nearly one million people, Rome had no city services. Augustus created a police force and fire brigade. He set up a department to supply food to the city’s citizens.

The Roman Empire beyond Italy was divided into about 40 provinces, or territories. Each province had a governor, who was appointed by the emperor or named by the Senate. The governors’ work included keeping order and collecting taxes.

Augustus and the emperors who followed him expanded the empire by conquering new territories. At its peak in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire had a population of about 60 million. This was more than one-fifth of the total population of the world at that time.

Augustus’s reign marked the beginning of a remarkable period in Rome’s history. For more than 200 years, the vast Roman Empire was united and, for the most part, peaceful. This period from 27 B.C. to A.D. 180 is called the Pax Romana, or “Peace of Rome.”

Augustus established a new way of choosing emperors. Each emperor chose his successor from his family or adopted someone he thought would make a good emperor.

During the 200 years after Augustus’s death, four family lines, or dynasties, ruled the Roman Empire. Some emperors in each dynasty ruled wisely. Others were cruel or foolish. Each of the four dynasties ended with the violent overthrow of an unpopular or unfit emperor.

Despite resistance to Roman rule in some provinces, the empire remained unified during the PAX ROMANA. However, maintaining unity was a large task. Over the centuries, the Romans conquered vast areas and diverse peoples. These millions of people spoke many different customs, and worshiped different customs, and worshiped different gods. The Roman emperors, though, managed to unify them.

They did so in several ways. They encouraged the conquered people to build cities. They made these people Roman citizens. And they involved them in the government of Rome.

These new cities that the people in the provinces built followed the model of Rome. The city center surrounded a main square called the forum, like the one in Rome. The new cities also had temples for Roman gods, as amphitheater for games, and public baths. These and other public buildings were patterned after the ones in the city of Rome. The ideas of the Romans, their customs, and their Latin language gradually spread from the cities into the surrounding areas.

As a second way of unifying the empire, Rome gradually granted citizenship to people in the provinces. In A.D. 212, Emperor Caracalla granted citizenship to the entire free population of the empire. As citizens, the people gained some important new rights. For example, citizens were protected by Roman law. They could do business and own property in Rome. They could also pass their property and citizenship on to their children.

As a third means of unifying the empire, Rome allowed officials in the provinces to govern their own cities. They collected taxes and kept order on Rome’s behalf.

Rome allowed some of these officials from the provinces to participate in the central government in Rome. By A.D. 200, more than half of the 600 senators came from the provinces. Some of these senators even became emperors. Emperor Trajan, for example, came from Spain. Septimius Severus, who ruled from A.D. 193 to 211, came from North Africa.

These policies of Rome made the people who lived in the provinces feel that they were a part of the empire. Therefore, most of them did not have any reason to rebel.

One of Roman’s greatest poets described the purpose of the empire in this way:

Remember, Roman, that it is for you to rule the nations. This shall be your task: to impose the ways of peace, to spare the vanquished and to tame the proud by war.

Virgil, Aeneid, c. 19 B.C.

For 200 years, Rome did just that. That Pax Romana is remembered as the period during which Rome reached the peak of its political and cultural achievement.