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Augustus
Adopted by Caesar, Augustus (c.62 BC – 14 AD / Reigned 31 BC – 14 AD) had to fight for his
throne. His long rule saw a huge expansion in the Roman Empire and the beginnings of a
dynasty that, over the next century, would transform Rome, for better and worse.
Having gained power by force in a bitterly fought civil war, Augustus was aware that he could
easily lose it again. He was prepared to use any tool at his disposal to strengthen his claim to the
imperial throne and thereby make it harder for his enemies to overthrow him. He reorganized
the military to make it more efficient and created the praetorian guard to protect the emperor
and palace.
An important part of this strategy involved religion. He made the most of a rare appearance by
Halley's Comet to claim that Caesar was sitting among the gods. As Caesar's heir, this made
Augustus the son of a god - a fact he was not shy of reminding his people.
Now regarded as part-god, Augustus encouraged stories of his frugal habits. He let people know
that he lived in a modest house, slept on a low bed and, when he wasn’t fasting, ate only very
plain food, like coarse bread and cheese. In a letter, he boasted to his stepson, Tiberius, of how
he had not eaten all day.
One writer commented: ‘He renewed many traditions which were fading in our age and
restored 82 temples of the gods neglecting none that required repair at the time.’ As ruler of
Rome, Augustus had to lead by example. He re-established traditional social rules and religious
rituals, sacrificing animals to Rome’s gods. In 12 AD he made himself Pontifex Maximus, the
chief priest of Rome and head of the Collegium Pontificum, the highest priests in the land.
In truth, Augustus did believe in restoring Rome to its former glories. He was a conservative,
both politically and morally. This caused some problems. His pronouncements in favor
of marriage and against adultery clashed with the very public promiscuity of his daughter, Julia.
Determined to maintain his control, he banished her.
It was not all political plotting and spin. Augustus was a highly successful ruler. Abroad, he
expanded the empire, adding Egypt, northern Spain and much of central Europe. By his death,
the empire was an enormous marketplace in which millions could trade and travel under Rome's
protection.
At home, he ruled over 40 years of peace and prosperity - no mean feat for a man who had
seized power by force. At his death, he was declared a god: just rewards for a man who
transformed Rome from a wounded republic into a global power.
He had won over the Senate and founded a dynasty. But this would feature as many villains as
heroes, and would take Rome on a roller-coaster ride into assassination, insanity and terror.
TIBERIUS
Never the preferred heir, Tiberius (42 BC – 37 AD / reigned 14 – 37 AD) soon showed why
Augustus had wanted someone else.
His political inability, poor judgment and jealousy led Rome into a dark age of political purges,
murder and terror.
Tiberius had waited a long time to be emperor and had made many sacrifices. In 11 BC,
Augustus had forced him to divorce his much-loved wife and marry Julia, the emperor’s
daughter. The two despised each other and the marriage was tumultuous from the start.
Even so, Tiberius only became heir after the death of Julia’s two sons. He knew he was not the
preferred successor but, with Augustus dead, it was time for him to step up and claim power.
This was tricky, because the Senate didn’t trust him. Tiberius tried to mimic Augustus and
feigned reluctance. This was a disaster. He didn’t have the same political skills as Augustus and
gave out mixed signals. This only caused further resentment and, although he did become
emperor, his position was weak. Tiberius knew this himself, saying that governing Rome was like
“holding a wolf by the ears”.
He was soon to face his first test. Fed up with life in cold, northern Europe, two armies were
mutinying and threatened to march on Rome. With an empire built on force, this was any
emperor’s worst nightmare. Tiberius sent his young, charismatic nephew, Germanicus, to sort
the situation out.
Sure enough, Germanicus hit the spot, rallying the troops before leading them to victory against
the Germanic tribes. Having turned a highly dangerous situation into a great victory, Germanicus
was a hero. Still insecure, the last thing Tiberius wanted back in Rome was a war hero with a
claim to the throne. He appointed Germanicus to be governor of the remote eastern provinces.
Once more, Germanicus was annoyingly successful, loved by Romans and locals alike.
This success brought Germanicus new enemies and he died in mysterious circumstances in 19
AD. Many thought he had been poisoned and blamed Tiberius. He denied it, but the whispers
refused to go away.
Although Tiberius was now more secure, he was not happy. He despised his plotting, toadying
courtiers, saying they were “fit to be slaves”. In turn, his mood swings set the Senate against
him.
Tiberius turned to Sejanus, his trusted advisor, to help him govern. Sejanus convinced Tiberius
to try to eliminate any potential rivals. False treason trials were orchestrated and many were
executed. This included Germanicus’ remaining family, except for the youngest son Caligula.
Caligula lived in seclusion with Tiberius on the island of Capri, eventually gaining his support
over Sejanus. Tiberius had Sejanus strangled by the senate and thrown in the Tiber River.
Still in Capri, Tiberius continued to rule, with Caligula now his heir. When he died in 37 AD,
Rome welcomed the news. Little did they know what was yet to come.
CALIGULA
Seen as a welcome breath of fresh air when he took the throne, Caligula’s (12 – 41 AD /
Reigned 37 – 41 AD) eccentricities soon became terrifying and he was murdered after just five
years in power.
After the unhappy years of purges and treason trials, Rome welcomed its new emperor. The
youngest son of the war hero, Germanicus, Gaius Caesar had grown up around soldiers and his
nickname, Caligula, meaning "little boots," had stuck.
As a child, Caligula had suffered enormously. His mother had been exiled and his two elder
brothers executed on flimsy treason charges. As the grown mascot of Rome's army and the only
surviving son of a charismatic father, many hoped Caligula would breathe new life into Rome. At
first, Caligula lived up to expectations. He brought back many people exiled by Tiberius and
ceremoniously burned the records of the treason trials held by Sejanus.
Seven months after taking power, however, Caligula fell ill. Although he recovered, he began to
act very strangely. Was he mad or just pretending? Some believe that he suffered from epilepsy,
but historians are divided. Dressed in silk robes and covered in jewels, Caligula pretended he
was a god. He forced senators to grovel and kiss his feet and seduced their wives at dinner
parties.
Then his eccentricities became more murderous. He restored the hated treason trials of his
predecessor, executing both rivals and close allies, including the head of the Praetorian Guard,
his personal protection squad.
At other times, his cruelty was more random. In one instance, he was about to sacrifice an
animal as a sacred offering to the gods. He raised his mallet to kill the animal and brought it
down hard. At the last moment, however, he turned and struck a priest standing nearby, who
died instantly.
All this time, Caligula was spending vast quantities of money. His extravagance soon emptied
Rome’s treasury, which Tiberius had greatly increased. Still spending, but now short of cash, he
began blackmailing leading Roman families and confiscating their estates.
In 40 AD, he led an army north into Gaul, robbing its inhabitants before marching to the shore to
invade Britain. Just as the army was about to launch its attack, he ordered them to stop and
gather seashells. He called these the spoils of the conquered ocean.
Meanwhile, Caligula still wanted to become a god. The same year, he ordered his statue to be
erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This would have been highly controversial in a region
already prone to revolt with many people devoted to monotheism.
His behavior was making Caligula seriously unpopular among Rome’s elite. Plots against his life
soon became commonplace. In 41 AD, four months after he returned from Gaul, he was
murdered by his closest advisors, including members of his Praetorian Guard. To prevent
reprisals, they also killed his wife and daughter. Dead but certainly not mourned, Caligula was
succeeded by his uncle, Claudius, the most unlikely of emperors.
CLAUDIUS
Disfigured, awkward and clumsy, Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD / Reigned 41 – 54 AD) was the black
sheep of his family and an unlikely emperor. Once in place, he was fairly successful, but his
poor taste in women would prove his undoing.
Nobody expected Claudius to become emperor. Although he was the only surviving heir of
Augustus and was the brother of the war hero, Germanicus, Claudius was a figure of fun. Left
disfigured by a serious illness when he was very young, Claudius was also clumsy and rude, and
was the butt of his family’s jokes. When he dozed after dinner, guests pelted him with food and
put slippers on his hands so that he’d rub his eyes with his shoes when he woke up.
Caligula’s murder in 41 AD changed everything for Claudius. Unexpectedly, the family fool had
become emperor. Discovered trembling in the palace by one of his own soldiers, he was clearly
reluctant and afraid. He had good reason: like his predecessors, Claudius could never be too
sure of his position. Supported mainly by soldiers and courtiers, he had a rocky relationship with
the Senate. Many senators supported a failed rebellion in 42 AD and plotted against his life.
Despite these dangers, Claudius worked hard at his job, starting work just after midnight every
day. It began to pay off: he made major improvements to Rome’s judicial system, passed laws
protecting sick slaves, extended citizenship and increased women's privileges.
He also treated his people with unusual respect, apologizing to visiting pensioners when there
were not enough chairs. Hardly surprising, then, that Suetonius wrote how this sort of behavior
endeared him to the people.
Claudius had some real successes. Britain had resisted Roman rule for over a century, but was
conquered by Claudius, who created client kingdoms to protect the frontier. He had succeeded
where Julius Caesar had failed. This was the most important addition to the empire since the
time of Augustus.
Even this success, however, was not enough to protect him from political danger. Here, his
worst enemies would turn out to be his own wives. Claudius had simply awful taste in women.
Although he adored his wife, Messalina, she was extravagant and promiscuous, with a particular
weakness for the servants. Claudius tried to turn a blind eye to her many affairs, but in 48 AD
Messalina took a new lover, Gaius Silius, a nobleman. Their relationship was widely thought to
be cover for a plot and Claudius was urged to take action: “Act fast or her new man controls
Rome!"
Silius was killed and Messalina fled to a friend's villa to decide how to get herself out of trouble.
It was too late. The emperor was hosting a dinner party when he heard that his wife had died.
Without asking how, he called for more wine.
The next year, Claudius decided to marry again, surprising Rome by choosing his own niece,
Agrippina. This was a bad mistake. Determined to make the most of her luck and happy to use
any means necessary, Agrippina was about the only woman who could make Messalina seem a
good catch.
Agrippina began her quest for power by persuading Claudius to bring back Seneca from exile so
that he could become tutor to her own son, Nero, the boy she planned to make an emperor.
Gradually Agrippina removed all her rivals and convinced Claudius to disinherit his own son,
Britannicus. With Nero now heir, the only remaining obstacle was Claudius himself. Agrippina
took drastic action: as Tacitus reports, her weapon of choice was poisoned mushrooms,
delivered by a faithful servant.
Claudius appeared on the brink of death, but began to recover. Horrified, Agrippina signed up
the emperor's own doctor to her cause. While pretending to help Claudius vomit his food, the
doctor put a feather dipped in poison down his throat. As Tacitus said, "Dangerous crimes bring
ample reward."
Claudius was dead and Nero was Emperor...
NERO
Sensitive and handsome, Nero (37 – 68 AD / reigned 54 – 68 AD) started out well as emperor.
But his early promise gave way to wild extravagance and murder. His rule ended as violently
as it had begun.
When he became emperor, Nero was a young man who enjoyed the theater, music and horse
racing. His dominating mother, Agrippina, had already murdered Claudius to see her son on the
throne. She quickly poisoned Nero’s main rival, Claudius’ son, Britannicus.
But Nero didn’t want to be controlled by his mother. Encouraged by his former tutor, the writer
and philosopher Seneca, he began to make his own decisions. Relations with his mother became
frosty and in 56 AD she was forced into retirement.
Nero started well. He ended secret trials and gave the Senate more independence. He banned
capital punishment, reduced taxes and allowed slaves to sue unjust owners. He provided
assistance to cities that had suffered disasters, gave aid to the Jews and established open
competitions in poetry, drama and athletics.
However, like Caligula before him, Nero had a dark side. His impulses began as simple
extravagance. Before long, however, stories were circulating that he seduced married women
and young boys, and that he had castrated and "married" a male slave. He also liked to wander
the streets, murdering innocent people at random.
Both Seneca and Agrippina tried hard to control Nero. Seneca tried to be subtle, but his mother
was not. Relations between mother and son grew worse and Nero decided to kill her. He invited
her to travel by boat to meet him at the seaside resort where he was staying. When their
reunion was over, Agrippina left for home. She was never meant to get there, but the murder
attempt failed and Agrippina swam to safety.
Annoyed that his plot had failed, Nero abandoned subtlety and sent some soldiers to complete
the job. He claimed that his mother had been plotting against him, but fooled nobody. Rome
was appalled. Matricide – the murder of one’s own mother – was among the worst possible
crimes.
Tolerance of Nero’s depravity faded away and Rome faced a series of bad omens. Tacitus wrote,
“Unlucky birds settled on the Capitol, houses fell in numerous earthquakes and the weak were
trampled by the fleeing crowd." Worse was yet to come. The Great Fire of Rome lasted for six
days and seven nights. It destroyed or damaged 10 of Rome’s 14 districts and many homes,
shops and temples.
Nero offered to house the homeless and pay for the new housing with his own money, and
attempted to blame one of his favorite scapegoats, the Christians, but it was too late. A rumor
had spread of Nero’s behavior during the fire: although he hadn’t fiddled while Rome burned,
he had been singing.
With Nero’s mother dead and his tutor retired, the emperor was beyond anyone’s control.
Rome was now victim to the arbitrary desires of a mad tyrant: there was only one solution.
In 65 AD, one plotter, a freed slave named Epicharis, found a dissatisfied officer who had access
to the emperor. She secretly asked him to kill Nero. Instead, the officer betrayed Epicharis and
she was captured. Rather than give up the names of her fellow plotters, she killed herself. Not
knowing who was involved, Nero redoubled his guard and unleashed terror on Rome. Huge
numbers of people, including Seneca, were executed or forced to kill themselves.
But Rome had had enough. A revolt in the northern territories quickly spread and the Senate
declared Nero a public enemy. This meant that anyone could kill him without punishment.
Terrified, Nero fled to the country with his few remaining slaves. Unable to convince them to
commit suicide first, Nero killed himself. Without any heirs, the Roman Empire now had no
leader. With the ultimate prize up for grabs, rival generals began moving their troops towards
Rome and civil war.
VESPASIAN
Vespasian (9 – 79 AD / ruled 69 – 79 AD) worked hard to restore law, order and self-respect to
Rome after the civil war. He established the new, Flavian dynasty.
Born to a Roman knight and tax-collector, Vespasian was a man of relatively humble origins and
played on these roots to great political advantage. Vespasian’s early career was spent mainly in
military service. After distinguishing himself during the invasion of England in 43 AD, he was
given his first military command. Further success led to more honors and, in 51 AD, he became
consul in Britain. In 63 AD, Vespasian was appointed proconsul in Africa. Here, he controlled the
budget so tightly that, on one occasion, the locals pelted him with turnips.
Four years later, in 67 AD, Nero appointed Vespasian to put down the Jewish rebellion in
Judaea. His success here, where others had failed, meant that, by 68 AD, Vespasian was one of
Rome’s most successful generals. His humble origins had led Nero to believe that he was no
threat. While Nero was alive, this was true.
But then Nero died and following a violent civil war Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the
Senate. Vespasian was honest about the source of his power – military strength. Using his new
position to grant himself more powers, he wasted no time establishing his dynasty, insisting that
his two sons – Titus and Domitian – would succeed him.
Next on the agenda was the need to restore war-torn Rome to something approaching its
former glory. One of the first jobs was to raise money: Nero’s extravagance and the civil war had
almost ruined Rome. By raising taxes and reclaiming public land, Vespasian was able to fill the
city’s vaults with cold, hard, cash. He used some of this money on a massive building program,
which included temples, a theater and early work on what would become the Colosseum. He
also focused on restoring discipline to the legions and further expansions into Britain.
All the time, Vespasian was changing the traditional image of the emperor. He approached his
work with an earthy humor and common sense unusual in someone of his rank. More
importantly, he provided the first real stability since Claudius, 20 years earlier. Although he had
gained his position through violence and was still a military dictator, he legitimized himself and
his dynasty by offering Rome a stable, peaceful future. But by declaring, "My sons will succeed
me, or no one will”, Vespasian had ignored history and his own experience. Unfortunately his
sons would prove to be less than desirable, sometimes tyrannical leaders, paving the way for
another type of leader to repair the empire.
TRAJAN
Following the Flavian Dynasty, the rules for choosing an emperor began to change. Trajan
(ruled 98 – 117 AD) was not born to rule, but was chosen for the job. The result was
remarkably successful.
Following many years of chaos and weak leadership, Roman generals debated who should be
the next emperor. They chose Trajan, a former army commander, senator and governor of
Upper Germany.
The first emperor to have been born outside Italy, Trajan came from southern Spain. His
nomination by the generals was a bold and important move, signaling that educated and
wealthy men from all over the empire were eligible for the highest office.
It was also very successful. As emperor, Trajan expanded the Roman Empire to become larger
than ever before. He conquered Dacia (now part of Romania), which provided land for Roman
settlers and rich pickings from gold and salt mines. He also attacked the Parthians in the east,
expanding beyond Asia Minor.
The Roman Empire now stretched across Europe and the Middle East, from the borders of
Scotland to southern Spain. It included North Africa, western and central Europe, and what is
now Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and parts of Iran and Iraq. It would never be bigger.
Back home, Trajan was just as busy. He treated the Senate with respect and tried to find
competent and honest officials to rule the provinces. With the army, Trajan was fair but strict,
ordering the execution of the Praetorian Guard who had plotted against those before him. With
the Christians, he ignored those who wanted them persecuted and, instead, treated them like
other citizens, punishing them only when they deserved it.
He was generous to Rome’s population, giving out cash and increasing the number of poor
citizens who could receive free grain. Trajan also began a massive program of public works,
building bridges, harbors and aqueducts. Finally, he reduced taxes and started a new welfare
program for poor children. This work brought him acclaim from many, including the statesman
and author, Pliny the Younger.
Trajan held onto power until 117 AD. His civilized rule set the tone for future generations; his
expansion of the Roman Empire made it a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic melting pot that is still
relevant today, 2,000 years later.
Courtesy: PBS.ORG