Download The Pax Romana (31 B.C.-A.D. 450)

CHAPTER 6
The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
After reading and studying this chapter, students should be able to discuss Roman strategies for
governing their empire, as well as the spread of Roman influence into northern Europe. They should be
able to assess the fruits of the Pax Romana. They should also be able to explain the appeal of
Christianity and describe its impact on the Roman world. Finally, they should be able to discuss the
Roman response to the challenges of barbarian invasion and economic decline.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
Augustus’s Settlement (31 B.C.–A.D. 14)
A. The Principate and the Restored Republic
1. Octavian used the guise of restoring the republic.
2. In reality, Octavian created a constitutional monarchy.
3. He called himself princeps civitatis (“first citizen of the state”).
4. Octavian assumed most of the important civil and religious offices of Rome.
5. Much of his power resided in his role as commander of the army.
B. Augustus’s Administration of the Provinces
1. Augustus encouraged local self-government and respect for local customs.
2. He also fostered the cult of Roma, goddess of Rome, and deified himself (in the East).
This served as cultural “glue” for the Empire.
C. Roman Expansion into Northern and Western Europe
1. Rome expanded into northwest Europe (Spain, Gaul, Britain, western Germany).
2. Rome also expanded north from the Mediterranean to the Danube.
3. Roads and military settlements brought Roman culture to newly conquered provinces.
4. Local peoples adopted Roman culture because it was “flexible and convenient” and
because it was necessary for upward mobility in the empire.
5. The city of Lyon exemplified a Roman provincial city, with its amphitheater and other
Roman buildings.
D. Literary Flowering and Social Changes
1. This period is generally referred to as the Golden Age of Roman Literature.
2. This age produced well-known writers such as Horace, Virgil, Livy, and Ovid.
3. Roman writers of the Empire celebrated the dignity of humanity and the peace and
stability of the Pax Romana.
4. Augustus promoted traditional Roman virtues and morality through legislation.
5. Augustus encouraged the presentation of his own family as a paragon of Roman
tradition.
6. Same-sex relations were denounced as part of the immorality of the late Republic.
7. The assumption of imperial power by Tiberius confirmed that had Augustus succeeded
in creating a dynasty.
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Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
II.
The Coming of Christianity
A. Unrest in Judaea
1. The first century witnessed the rise and spread of Christianity.
2. Christianity originated in Judaea under Roman occupation. The background to Christ’s
life was frequent and sometimes bloody clashes between Jews and the Roman
occupiers.
3. There were two primary responses to Roman domination among the Jews.
a) The Zealots aimed to expel the Romans from Judaea by violence and refused to
pay taxes to the Romans.
b) Other Jews awaited a Messiah who would destroy the Roman Empire and save
the Jews.
4. Paganism at the time of Jesus’ birth can be broadly divided into three spheres.
a) The official state religion of Rome
b) The traditional Roman cults of the hearth and the countryside
c) The new mystery religions of the Hellenistic East
B. The Life and Teachings of Jesus
1. Jesus was raised in Galilee, a stronghold of the Zealots.
2. The search for the historical Jesus has produced a wide variety of results.
3. The principle evidence for the life and deeds of Jesus is the four Gospels of the New
Testament.
4. The four gospels were not the only records of Jesus’ teachings.
5. The often-contradictory accounts in the various gospels demonstrate that early
Christians had diverse views about Jesus’ nature and purpose.
C. The Spread of Christianity
1. Paul of Tarsus, a Hellenized Jew, asserted that Christianity was universalfor
Gentiles (non-Jews) as well as Jews.
2. Paul’s vision proved bold and successful.
3. Many early Christian converts were women.
4. Because Christianity reached Rome, capital of the known world, early, it spread
rapidly throughout much of the Empire.
D. The Appeal of Christianity
1. Christianity appealed to common people and the poor with its sense of belonging (the
Lord’s Supper), its offer of salvation in the afterlife, and its insistence on the
importance of every human being in the divine plan.
2. Christianity gave its devotees a sense of community.
III. Augustus’s Successors
A. The Julio-Claudians and the Flavians
1. For fifty years after Augustus’s death, members of the Julian and Claudian clans ruled
Rome.
2. Claudius created an efficient bureaucracy of professional administrators.
3. The army and the Praetorian Guard assumed greater power in political affairs and set a
negative precedent in the Roman state.
4. Nero's inept rule led to military rebellion and his death in 68 A.D.
5. Vespasian brutally suppressed rebellion in Judaea (68–70 A.D.)
6. The Flavians carried on Augustus’s work on the frontier.
B. The Age of the “Five Good Emperors” (A.D. 96–180)
1. The Antonine’s were monarchs in both fact and theory.
2. The five good emperors were benevolent and exercised their power intelligently.
3. Hadrian further bureaucratized the government and separated civil from military
service.
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Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
4.
5.
37
Under the Flavian emperors, the frontiers became firmly fixed.
By Hadrian’s day, the Roman army had become a garrison force and many common
soldiers were “barbarians,” not Romans.
IV. Life in the “Golden Age”
A. Imperial Rome
1. Rome had a population of between 500,000 and 750,000.
2. Supplying the city with cheap grain was a constant preoccupation of the imperial
government.
3. The emperor provided entertainment to the city in the form of gladiatorial contests and
chariot racing.
B. Rome and the Provinces
1. Latin was used throughout the empire for legal and religious purposes.
2. A new culture emerged out of the interactions of the communities that made up the
Roman Empire.
3. Cities were centers of interaction between Romans and the people they ruled.
V. Rome in Disarray and Recovery (A.D. 177–450)
A. Civil Wars and Foreign Invasions in the Third Century
1. After the last of the Five Good Emperors, misrule by their successors led a long period
of turmoil and fighting.
2. Over twenty different emperors ascended the throne between 235 and 284.
3. Civil war in Rome coincided with massive migrations of barbarian peoples on their
frontiers.
4. Migrating peoples took advantage of weakened Roman defenses.
B. Turmoil in Farm and Village Life
1. Imperial officials squeezed peasants hard for taxes.
2. By the end of the third century, the empire was on the verge of ruin.
C. Reconstruction Under Diocletian and Constantine (A.D. 284–337)
1. Diocletian reorganized the administration and fixed prices and wages.
2. He divided the empire into a western and an eastern half.
3. The most serious immediate problems facing Diocletian and Constantine were
economic, social, and religious.
D. Inflation and Taxes
1. Diocletion tried to deal with inflation by fixing prices and wages.
2. Constantine made tax-collecting positions into a hereditary class.
3. Roman emperors attempted to solve economic and fiscal problems by enforcing greater
social rigidity.
E. The Decline of Small Farms
1. Small farms declined as wealthy landlords reclaimed abandoned land and created great
estates farmed by dependent clients (serfs).
F. The Acceptance of Christianity
1. Constantine recognized Christianity as a legitimate religion.
2. Pagan hostility to Christianity was local and sporadic.
3. There were initial misunderstandings of Christianity, but over time hostility decreased.
4. In 380 Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.
G. The Construction of Constantinople
1. Constantine built a new capital for the empire, Constantinople.
2. The eastern part of the empire fared better than the western part under the pressure of
outside invaders.
H. From the Classical World to Late Antiquity
1. The fourth century was period of both continuity and dramatic change.
2. Much of Roman culture survived.
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Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
3.
4.
5.
Government evolved into Christian monarchy.
The western and eastern portions of the empire took different paths.
Christianity became the dominant cultural force.
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1.
“How Did Augustus Do It?” Augustus restored peace and order and set Rome on a positive course
for the next two hundred years. How did he do it? What institutions did he create or revive that
allowed him to accomplish his mission? Did he learn from his great-uncle Julius? Sources: R.
Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (1985); D. A. West and A. J. Woodman, Poetry and Politics in
the Age of Augustus (1984); J. B. Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army (1984).
2.
“Christianity and Its Competitors.” How did Christianity win out over the mystery religions of the
East and over the traditional Roman religion? What about Christianity appealed first to the
downtrodden and poor and later also to the nobility? Sources: K. Wengst, Pax Romana and the
Peace of Jesus Christ (English translation, 1987); A. Chester, The Social Context of Early
Christianity (1989); S. Benko, Pagan Rome and Early Christians (1985).
3.
“Games Romans Played and Watched.” What did the citizens of Rome do for entertainment?
What entertainments did the state provide? Did Roman sports reflect Roman society? Sources:
R. Auguet, Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games (English translation, 1972); H. A. Harris,
Sport in Greece and Rome (1972).
4.
“The Jesus Movement and the Jewish War.” A lecture on the Jewish War of A.D. 66–70 and its
aftermath in Judaea as the context for the composition of the New Testament gospels. Sources:
Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (1993); Elaine Pagels,
The Origin of Satan (1992).
USING PRIMARY SOURCES
Reread the funerary inscription of Encolpus in the textbook. What does his personal philosophy tell you
about his view of an afterlife? How does this view compare with other Romans of the middle to late
imperial period? How does this view compare with the followers of Christ or some of the other Eastern
mystery cults?
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
I.
II.
Classroom Discussion Suggestions
A. How did the traditional method of imperial succession become a problem for the Roman
Empire?
B. How did Christianity spread throughout the empire?
C. What features characterized Roman games?
D. What was the life of a Roman aristocratic woman like during the Pax Romana?
E. Why did Constantine accept Christianity as a legitimate religion?
F. Could the problems faced by the Roman Empire have been solved, thus extending Rome’s
period of rule?
Doing History
A. Give students an outline map of the Mediterranean world and have them locate the places
where St. Paul preached and wrote letters.
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Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
39
B.
Have students read selections from the sources listed below and write a paper defending one
explanation (or any combination of reasons) for the fall of Rome. Sources: E. Gibbon, The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3 vols. (1914); A. Ferrill, The Fall of
the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation (1986); F. W. Walbank, The Awful Revolution
(1969); R. MacMullan, Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest, and Alienation in the
Empire (1966).
III. Cooperative Learning Activities
A. Historiography: Why Did Rome Fall?
Have students investigate the reasons for the demise of Rome. Organize students into teams
of six each. Assign each team the task of becoming experts on a particular school of thought
on Rome’s decline and fall: 1) Edward Gibbon, 2) Arnold Toynbee, 3) Oswald Spengler, 4)
a Marxist interpretation, 5) the view expressed in A. Ferrill, The Fall of Rome (1985). After
the teams have completed their research, have them present their findings in class. After a
class discussion, have the class write a paper summarizing the major interpretations for
Rome’s fall.
B.
Historical Parallels: The Roman and American Empires
Does modern America share a set of problems in common with the Roman Empire? What
are these problems? How did Rome attempt to solve them? How can America avoid the
decline that Rome experienced? Organize the class into teams of six each. Charge each team
with the task of learning about what similarities there are between the problems faced by the
later Roman Empire and by the United States in the late twentieth century. The teams should
investigate the following areas: 1) economy, 2) government, 3) military, 4) social problems,
5) science and technology, 6) religion. After the teams have completed their research, use
their findings as the basis for a classroom discussion. Then, have the students write papers
on why the historical parallel is valid and useful, or why not.
MAP ACTIVITY
1.
Have students prepare an itinerary of a two-week tour of cities of the Roman Empire. Organize
the class into four teams. Each team is to be responsible for one of the four Roman prefectures.
The team then decides on which cities of the old prefecture would be most interesting and
informative to visit. When the teams have completed their work, the whole class then has to
decide how to work the tour into the two-week time limit. The teams should ultimately decide on
a workable two-week tour, explaining why they want to visit the places chosen.
2.
Using Map 6.1 (Roman Expansion Under the Empire) as a reference, answer the following
questions.
a.
Who gained the most from Roman expansion? Who paid the biggest price?
b.
How did the size of the Roman Empire complicate Roman government?
c.
At what point did the costs of empire out way the benefits? What contributed the most to the
economic decline of the empire in the third century?
AUDIOVISUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Thine Is the Kingdom. (52 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)
2.
The Robe. (135 min. Color. Films, Inc.)
3.
Life in Ancient Rome. (Videodisc. Color. Britannica Videos.)
4.
Claudius: Boy of Ancient Rome. (Videodisc. Color. Britannica Videos.)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
40
Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
5.
The Romans on the Rhine and the Danube. (Videodisc. Color. Britannica Videos.)
6.
The Roman Empire: Growth and Development. (Videodisc. Color. Britannica. Videos.)
7.
The Detroit Institute of Art: Rome (www.dia.org/collections/ancient/rome/rome.html)
8.
Map: Roman Empire Expansion (darkwing.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/interactive/map26.html)
9.
Roman Italy: Urbanization and Road Building
(darkwing.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/interactive/map27.html)
10. The British Museum: Rome
(http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/explore/world_cultures/europe/ancient_rome.aspx.aspx)
11. Rome: Map of the Empire (www.dalton.org/groups/Rome/RMap.html)
INTERNET RESOURCES
1.
Exploring Ancient World Cultures: Ancient Rome (eawc.evansville.edu/ropage.htm)
2.
Life in Roman Times: Marriage and Family
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/family.html)
3.
Life in Roman Times: Home and Hearth (http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/home.html)
4.
Life in Roman Times: Religious Practices
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/religion.html)
5.
The Roman Empire: The Age of Augustus (http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/age.html)
6.
The Roman Empire: Years of Trial (http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/trial.html)
7.
The Roman Empire: Empire Reborn (http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/reborn.html)
8.
The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe
(www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firsteuro/invas.html)
SUGGESTED READING
Some good general treatments of the empire include J. Wacher, ed., The Roman World, 2 vols. (1987),
which attempts a comprehensive survey of the Roman Empire, and M. Goodman, The Roman World 44
B.C.–A.D. 180 (1997). R. MacMullen, a leading scholar in the field, analyzes how Augustus Romanized
the empire in his Romanization in the Time of Augustus (2000). Especially welcome is P. S. Wells, The
Barbarians Speak (1999), which shows that indigenous peoples also helped shape the face of the
Roman Empire. D. Noy, Foreigners at Rome (2000), studies the minglings of visitors and natives in the
city and how tourists and locals affected each others lives. Through all of these developments stood the
Roman aristocracy, the subject of R. Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (1985), which studies the new
order that Augustus created to help him administer the empire. Rather than study the Augustan poets
individually, see D. A. West and A. J. Woodman, Poetry and Politics in the Age of Augustus (1984).
Even though Augustus himself still remains an enigma, F. Millar and E. Segal, eds., Caesar Augustus:
Seven Aspects (1984), is an interesting volume of essays that attempts not always successfully, to
penetrate the official facade of the emperor. D. Shotter, Augustus Caesar (2005), is weighed heavily to
the social and cultural aspects of the emperor’s work. Several books examine the reigns of some
supposedly unpopular emperors. D. Shotter, Tiberius Caesar (1993), presents the most recent
biography of this controversial emperor. Shotter continues his work on the emperors in Nero (1997). A.
Ferrill does the same for his subject in Caligula, Emperor of Rome (1992). B. W. Jones, The Emperor
Domitian (1992), is an attempt to understand this often hated emperor.
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Chapter 6: The Pax Romana (31 B.C.–A.D. 450)
41
Work on the Roman army remains vibrant. A. Goldsworthy, Roman Warfare (2000), provides a concise
treatment of warfare from republican to imperial times. D. J. Breeze and B. Dobson, Roman Officers
and Frontiers (1993), analyzes the careers of officers and how they defended the frontiers.
The commercial life of the empire is the subject of K. Greene, The Archaeology of the Roman Economy
(1986), which offers an intriguing way to picture the Roman economy through physical remains. The
classical treatment, which ranges across the empire, M. Rostovtzeff, The Economic and Social History
of the Roman Empire (1957). J. Rich, The City in Late Antiquity (1992), traces the influence of late
Roman cities on their medieval successors.
Social aspects of the empire are the subject of R. MacMullen, Roman Social Relations, 50 B.C. to A.D.
284 (1981). Two newer studies shed further light on social history: B. J. Brooten, Love Between Women
(1996), examines early Christian attitudes toward love between women; J. M. C. Toynbee, Death and
Burial in the Roman World (1996), comprehensively examines all aspects of Roman religious practices
and beliefs in an afterlife. D. G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (1998), deals in grim detail
with the ritualized violence of the gladiatorial games. K. R. Bradley, Slaves and Masters in the Roman
Empire (1988), discusses the social controls in a slaveholding society. B. Cunliffe, Greeks, Romans,
and Barbarians (1988), uses archaeological and literary evidence to discuss the introduction of GrecoRoman culture into western Europe, while N. Pollard, Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria
(2000), gives a good case study of a part of the Eastern world.
A veritable explosion has taken place in the related topics of the identity of Jesus, the history of
Christianity, the meaning of the early gospels, and the roles that contemporary Judaism and paganism
played in the evolution of the new religion. J. Meier, A Marginal Jew (1992), studies images of Jesus in
the New Testament. B. D. Ehrman, in two related books, judiciously examines the earliest Christian
writings in Lost Scriptures (2003), a translation of uncanonical works, and Lost Christians (2003),
which concentrates on the impact of these writings on early Christians. R. Kasser et al, The Gospel of
Judas (2006), studies the newest and one of the most controversial additions to the field. M. A.
Chancey, Graeco-Roman Culture in the Galilee of Jesus (2006), also discusses the impact of Hellenism
on the world of Jesus. P. F. Esler, The Early Christian World (2004), covers the first Christian centuries
until the fall of paganism. R. Kraemer, Women and Christian Origins (1999) includes many important
articles, as does E. A. Clark, Ascetic Piety and Women’s Faith: Essays on Late Ancient Christianity
(1986). G. Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles (1993) and R. Kraemer, Her
Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions Among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman
World (1992) make direct comparisons. B. W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth (2001), treats Paul’s
missionary work in the Roman world. Two new studies examine the world of the catacombs: I. D.
Portella, Subterranean Rome (1999), deals with a host of underground monuments; L. V. Rutgers,
Subterranean Rome (2000), serves as a guide to the catacombs.
Several solid works examine the late Roman period, including T.S. Burn, Rome and the Barbarians,
100 B.C.–A.D. 400 (2003). Two other books that cover developments in greater detail are D.S. Potter,
The Roman Empire at Bay, A.D. 180–395 (2004), which treats the turmoil faced by the Romans in these
difficult years; and A. Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity A.D. 395–600 (1993),
discusses the years of recovery and change. C.M. Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire (2004),
studies the emperor’s unique impact on Late Antiquity. Lastly, G.W. Bowersock et al., Late Antiquity
(1999), gives a general view of the era.
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