Download Slides: From Cicero to Empire File

Ancient Rome
753-509
7 Kings
509 – c. 44 BCE
Republic
Civil wars
31 BCE – c. 476 CE/AD?
Roman Empire
- 1453 Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
Gaius Julius Caesar
60 1st Triumvirate
(w/ Pompey & Crassus)
59 consul
50s proconsul in Gaul
Caesar
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50s conquered Gaul
49
crossed the Rubicon: “the die is cast”
Civil Wars
dictator, dictator for 10 years, dictator perpetuo 
• Is this about legality? Or power?
March 15, 44 BCE
Forum of Caesar with Temple of Venus Genetrix
Caesar & After:
move to quasi-divine monarchy
• Caesar played up his family’s descent from Venus.
• A comet appeared at Caesar’s funeral games in July, 44 BCE.
• The Senate voted that Caesar was a god! He is worshipped.
• A temple of Iulius Caesar is built, 42 BCE.
( “imperial cult”).
• Octavian (later Augustus), adopted in Caesar’s will, is “son of the deified Iulius.”
The move from Republic to Empire
• Civil Wars
• Republicans (tyrannicides) vs. Caesarians (Antony, Octavian)
• Octavian = Caius Iulius Caesar Octavianu
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42 Brutus & Cassius defeated
2nd Triumvirate: Octavian & Antony share power
31 Octavian defeats Antony & Cleopatra  THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Octavian receives honorary name AUGUSTUS
AUGUSTUS,
31 BCE – CE/AD 14
“I revived the
Republic”,
“restored power to
Senate and people”
(SPQR)
Augustus, son of Divus Iulius – son of a god
Augustus’ position
• princeps
• pater patriae
• tribunus plebis
• Augustus’ auctoritas
Augustus’ Marriage Laws
(Julian law, 18 BCE; another, 9 CE/AD)
• To encourage children (the following sentence is ridiculous, but there it is for historical silliness)
• “If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since
nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, [we
must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.”
• --Augustus to the Senate!?!# (17 BCE)
• Lex Iulia
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Senators can’t marry freedwomen.
Privileges for parents of three children. E.g. women freed of guardians and can thus inherit property.
Higher taxes for unmarried people.
Exile for adultery.
Exiled his own daughter Julia and then her daughter Julia. (“I, Claudius,” 1970, episode 3)
• Augustus also exiled the poet Ovid for “crimen et error” (8 CE/AD) 
Roman Empire
“Principate” 31 BCE – 235 CE/AD
• Augustus claimed to revive the Republic.
• First centuries called the Principate, from princeps.
Propaganda
Euphemism
• Assemblies
• Passed laws in the Republic
• Revived under Augustus but soon became obsolete in the 1st century AD/CE
• As annual tribune, the Emperor is supposed to be looking after the people
Princeps … or Monarch?
• "Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no
choice but to vote for this bill.”
• Who said this? Steve Bannon, top presidential advisor, to House Freedom
Caucus (formerly called the Tea Party), week of 3/20/17. Speaking
obviously for the big boss.
Augustus’ auctoritas.
The Senate continues, but …
Tiberius, 14-37
CE/AD
Tacitus, Annals, writes the history of the early
Empire as the loss of freedom
“the first crime of the new regime …”
more autocratic: e.g.:
edict vs. Kissing & gifts at New Year’s
expelled astrologers, Jews, & Egyyptian cults
Tiberius: increasing interference of emperor.
Dominates the Senate
 the Senate is afraid of the Emperor
 Tiberius hears some cases or transfers them to the Senate which had less strict rules than
the courts and is presided over by the Emperor which has to kiss his Roman a-s
 Tiberius’ Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus, conducts a reign of terror
 “Good emperors” won’t execute Senators but …
 Tacitus, Annals, writes the history of the early Empire as the loss of freedom. Thomas
Jefferson called this the greatest book ever in the world, “without exception’
Tiberius:
Emperor use the army
 The praetorian guard gets a permanent camp in Rome
 The praetorian prefect wields power as a top minister
 Tiberius’ Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus, conducts a reign of terror.
 Over time the praetorian prefect becomes the ”top cop” in Italy (& urban praetor, Rome + 100 miles)
 “Good emperors” won’t execute Senators but …
 Tacitus, Annals, writes the history of the early Empire as the loss of freedom. Thomas Jefferson
called this the greatest book ever in the world, “without exception’
Treason
maiestas laesa, modern Lèse majesté
random example
• “Lèse majesté in Thailand, based on Thai Criminal Code section 112,
making it illegal to defame, insult, or threaten the king, queen, heir-apparent,
or regent, has been on the statute books since 1908. The punishment is three
to fifteen years of imprisonment per count.”
Tiberius: Treason-trials
maiestas (maiestas laesa, hence Lèse majesté today)
 Heard by Emperor or Senate (with emperor or coss. presiding). Tiberius moved
cases to the Senate which had less strict rules than the courts and feared the
Emperor.
 Death penalty. Property goes to imperial treasury. (even if you commit suicide)
 Damnatio memoriae – “damnation of memory”
 Informer (delator) gets ¼ of property or more. An incentive to charge someone.
 Tacitus: delatores were “invented for the destruction of the state” (Tac. Ann.
4.30)
Trial of Libo, 16 CE/AD
First treason-trial under Tiberius. Read Tacitus, Annals, 2.27-32.
• Libo accused of plotting revolution (res novae), of associating with astrologers &
magicians & necromancy
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Tiberius “conceals his malevolence” and makes Libo a praetor
Informer named Trio goes to consuls, demands inquiry by Senate
“preposterous”, stupid, faked documents by 3 informers
Slaves can’t testify against master in a capital case so Tiberius orders Libo’s slaves to
be sold individually to the public treasury.
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 This is Tiberius’ res nova (we can say)!
• Libo’s suicide but the prosecution continued!
Death of Germanicus,
Tiberius’ nephew, in Syria, 19 CE/AD
Trial of Piso, 20 CE/AD
known from Tacitus and an SC
• Tiberius appointed Germanicus with imperium maius in the Near East. He then
appoints Cnaius Calpurnius Piso as governor of Syria. Rumor: to watch over
Germanicus. They clash.
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Germanicus dies suddenly and mysteriously, 19 CE/AD
Piso and his wife Plancina are accused of treason & poisoning Germanicus
Tiberius refers to Senate for trial w/ Tiberius presiding
A witch is brought to Rome to testify but dies
READ all about it!
Trial of Piso, 20 CE/AD
• We have 2 accounts:
• (i) Tacitus’ Annals – a Roman senator writing n late 1st century;
• (ii) the decree of the Senate (SC) about Piso (found recently in Spain)
• and a video: Episode 5 of “I, Claudius” (20th-cent. historical fiction)
Trial of historian Cremutius Cordus
• Tac. Ann. 4.28-36
• Brought to trial (25 CE) for praising Brutus and Cassius in his history
• Senate ordered the burning of his books
• Tacitus: this is “tyrannical”.
• Can authority destroy history and memories?
• Editorial aside: Value a free press today!
Emperor’s word becomes law.
Various ways emperor (princeps) makes his will known as law:
• rescripts (written replies), responsa: most common
• Replies, either by letter or just subscriptions (notes added at the bottom)
• mandates (instructions to officials)
• edicts
(advised by his consilium and jurists)
• decreta (decisions): emperor’s judicial decisions
• INCREASE IN: legal experts, often on emperor’s staff
• Praetor’s edicts still exist.
How and why was Jesus tried and executed?
c. 29 CE/AD (?)
Jesus before Pontius Pilate
Jesus: dates
two sources of authority: Jewish and Roman
Jewish law and/or Roman Law
• Dates? Before 4 BCE [death of Herod] – c. 29 CE
• The Sanhedrin – the Jewish council of priests led by the High Priest, Caiaphas
- has local authority but only Romans can execute a death penalty.
• Pontius Pilate is prefect of Judaea, 26-36 (under the governor of Syria)
• A cognitio (hearing): case brought to magistrate who hears and judges. Has
sole authority. Concerned with keeping the peace
Sources for the Trial (and life) of Jesus
• 4 gospels, all written decades after his death, perhaps all in 70-100+ CE
• 3 synoptic gospels:
• Mark  Matthew & Luke
• Q
 Matthew & Luke
• John (not from the same sources as the other 3)
(Quelle, “source”)
Caligula
37-41
(son of
Germanicus)
"I wish the Roman
people had but a
single neck"
“So much for the Emperor; the rest of this history must deal with
the monster.” – Suetonius, Life of Gaius (Caligula) 22
A horse is co-consul?
Claudius 41-54
• brother of Germanicus. Made emperor by the praetorian guard
• An historian
• Conquered Britain
• Note on ius fetiale (fetial law) used to justify Roman conquests:
• Romans had to think they only fought just wars
• They demanded restitution; it was refused; they attack
• The procedure looked legal, but “it was closely akin to blackmail”; the
Romans made “non-negotiable demands … set at an unacceptable
level”
Claudius 41-54
• Speech on admitting Gauls
to citizenship: in Tacitus and
found on this inscription
(text of the speech here fyi)
Paul’s travels spreading Christianity, 40s-50s-60s
Nero & Agrippina
• Momma’s boy?
• Calling Dr. Freud ….
Julio-Claudians =
st
1
5 emperors
(Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero)
• Nero, 54-68
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stepson of Claudius, who was poisoned by his wife Agrippina
killed his mother Agrippina
Fire in Rome, 64
Executed Christians (Tacitus explains why)
Plots of intellectuals, forced to commit suicide: Seneca, Petronius
Great fire of 64
• “Nero fiddled while …”? Source:
“enraptured by what he called ‘the beauty of the flames,’ Nero
put on his tragedian’s costume and sang The Sack of Ilium [Troy].” Suet. 38
Piso’s Conspiracy (et al.), 65
• Senators and Praetorians
• Discovered  treason trials & suicides
• Deaths of:
• Seneca
• The writer Lucan (Seneca’s nephew)
• Petronius, the “master of elegance,” author of Satyricon, the oldest surviving Latin novel (
an art film by Fellini)
• These are important in “Silver Age” Latin lit.
Vespasian: emperor, 69-79
Lex de imperio Vespasiani
• appointed by Nero to handle Jewish rebellion
(66-)
• Proclaimed in East on July 1
• Senate confirmed him
• Codified officially the position of emperor by
law (as opposed to Augustus’s auctoritas )
• He gets what Augustus had
Law on the Imperium of Vespasian
• it shall be lawful for him to make a treaty with whom he wishes, just as it was lawful for the deified
Augustus, for Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, and for Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus;
• And that it shall be lawful for him to hold a session of the Senate, to make a motion in it, to refer a
matter to it, to propose decrees of the Senate … just as it was lawful for the deified Augustus, for
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, for Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; …
• And that whatsoever persons seeking a magistracy, power, imperium, or charge of anything he
commends to the Roman Senate and people and to whomsoever he gives or promises his electoral
support special consideration of them shall be taken in every election …
One more …
• And that whatever he considers to be in accordance with the public
advantage and the dignity of divine and human and public and private
interests he shall have the right and the power to do and to execute,
just as had the deified Augustus and Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus
and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; …
Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)
Begun by Vespasian, dedicated by Titus in 80, completed by Domitian
“the 5 good emperors”, 96-180
• Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius
• “If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the
condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would,
without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the
accession of Commodus.”
• Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-)
Trajan (98-117)
• M. Ulpius Traianus
• From a Roman colony in S. Spain
• Later emperors prayed to be as good as
Trajan
• Chosen on merit but adopted for dynastic
legitimacy: have it both ways
TRAJAN’S NEW PROVINCES:
DACIA, MESOPOTAMIA
The agent of god’s providence on earth
• One world, one emperor, one law.
• “The emperor is not above the law, the law is above the emperor.”
• Panegyrics (by Pliny & others) promote ideology of emperor
• Pliny in Bithynia, legate,111 CE/AD: trials of Christians
• Pliny’s letter to Trajan: why did he execute Christians?
• They got off if they made offerings to statue of emperor & derided Christ
• Trajan’s response: “… in keeping with the spirit of our age”
Hadrian, 117-138
• Adopted by Trajan (a relative) and
acclaimed by army
• Also a Roman from S. Spain
• Travelled and firmed up frontiers
Aureus (gold coin) of Hadrian
Hadrian’s wall
(northern Britain)
Classical period of Roman Law
• c. 31 BCE – 235 or 250 CE, i.e. the High Roman Empire
• the Principate: the emperor is princeps, first citizen
• Senate is main source of law: under emperor & instructs magistrates
• Various ways emperors make their will known: NEXT SLIDE
• Jurists: rise of legal experts, often on emperor’s staff
Emperor’s word becomes law.
Various ways emperor (princeps) makes his will known as law:
• edicts (advised by his consilium and jurists)
• mandates (instructions to officials)
• rescripts (written replies), responsa: most common (letters or just
subscriptions)
• decreta (decisions): emperor’s judicial decisions
• INCREASE IN: legal experts, often on emperor’s staff
• cognitio (hearing): case brought to a magistrate who hears and judges
• after this Classical period, changes appear in 3rd Century: emperor more autocratic
INCREASE IN:
• jurists: legal experts, often on emperor’s staff. Advised emperors and judges
• Wrote books of interpretation
• 2 schools of jurists: strict and pragmatic
• cognitio (hearing): case brought to a magistrate who hears and judges
• Ulpian, jurist, c. 200 CE: the emperor’s word is law
• after the Classical period, changes appear in 3rd Century: emperor more autocratic
Apuleius
• Author of the Latin novel, Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass
• On trial in North Africa for magic, 158-9 AD/CE; a capital charge
• judge is the governor (proconsul) Claudius Maximus, a Stoic philosopher
• he had married a rich widow, Pudentilla; her son died
• she accused him in a letter of using love-charms
• he had knowledge of magic; a statue of Mercury; a boy collapsed
• 15 slaves testified
• Published his Apology
Marcus Aurelius (161-180)
• Hadrian when adopting Antoninus Pius
had him adopt at the same time this
young man (age 16) and someone else
• Co-ruler with adopted brother Lucius
Verus: 2 Augusti
• Best known as a philosopher
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
(his private diary of Stoic thoughts, written in Greek)
(after the 5 Good Emperors:) Commodus (180-192), the first
emperor “born in the purple”. Commodus depicted as Hercules:
Commodus (today)
• Gladiator
“Antonine
Constitution”
• 212 AD/CE, by Caracalla:
all free persons in R.E.
are Roman citizens
• Citizenship is a legal status.
Far removed from Classical
Greek citizenship
(participation in running a
polis, city-state)
DECIUS, 249-251
• Acclaimed by troops
• Persecution of Christians
• Killed fighting Goths
Libellus from Egypt, 250 CE/AD
• To those in charge of the sacrifices of the village Theadelphia, from Aurelia Bellias,
daughter of Peteres, and her daughter, Kapinis. We have always been constant in
sacrificing to the gods, and now too, in your presence, in accordance with
the regulations, I have poured libations and sacrificed and tasted the
offerings, and I ask you to certify this for us below. May you continue to
prosper.
• (2nd hand) We, Aurelius Serenus and Aurelius Hermas, saw you sacrificing.
• (3rd hand) I, Hermas, certify.
• (1st hand) The 1st year of the Emperor Caesar Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus
Decius Pius Felix Augustus, Pauni 27.
PS on history of Romans & Christianity
• Great Persecutions, end of 3
• Constantine, 313 CE:
rd
Century CE
Edict of Milan ends the persecutions of Christians
• Did Constantine convert?
• His syncretism. ¾ of his coins show the Invincible Sun
Justinian (525-565)
codified Roman law
the Digest (law code): 533 AD/CE
Two major systems of law in the world today
• Common Law tradition: especially Britain and U.S. Based on judicial precedent
(previous cases).
• Gives more discretion to judges in deciding (based on using precedents of previous cases, and
reasoning).
Vs.
• Civil Law tradition: based on a code of laws, derived from the Roman tradition of the
ius civile (civil law), especially from Justinian’s Code (Corpus Iuris Civilis).
• More authoritarian than the common law systems; tries to spell out everything.
Civil Law and
Common Law systems today