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THE PRINCIPATE (EMPIRE)
31 B.C. - 410 A.D.
In 27 B.C., Octavian laid down his formal powers over the Roman state and
staged a theoretical restoration of the Republic, with himself merely the first
citizen (princeps). In fact, he and his successors continued to exercise full
control of affairs. He assumed the name Augustus and the eighth month of
the year (formerly known as Sextilis) was named after him.
Tiberius’s reign (14 to 37 A.D.) covered most of the lifetime of Jesus Christ,
who was crucified around 31 A.D. Although he was a competent administrator,
he was unpopular among the senatorial elite for the encouragement of a
system of informers and for action against real or imagined opponents..
Caligula (`little boots’), emperor from 37 to 41 A.D., was initially popular but
became insane and committed acts of great cruelty until his murder by the
praretorian guards. His real name was Gaius but he is better known by the
nickname given him by his father’s troops because as a child he used to
appear among them in a miniature military uniform
The reign of Claudius ( 41–54) saw the annexation of Britain as a province, a step mainly
intended to strengthen Claudius’s own position after he had been placed on the throne by
troops who had murdered the emperor Caligula. Claudius was a scholarly and cautious
ruler, but he had a cruel streak and even had his wife, Messalina, executed. At the same
time, his reign was marked by stability and good government in the provinces, and
successful management of tributary kingdoms.
Nero, emperor from 54-68, was rumoured to have played a musical instrument while
much of Rome was destroyed by a great fire in 64. Many believed that he was himself
responsible for the disaster, which enabled him to create an enormous new palace on a
site cleared by the blaze. He himself blamed the Christians and launched the first largescale persecution of the new sect. The phrase `fiddling while Rome burns’ is now used of
anyone who wastes time on trivial matters whilst a disaster unfolds.
Faced with revolts and desertion by his friends, Nero committed suicide in 68. His
successor Galba was himself killed in 69 (`The Year of the Four Emperors’ ). Civil
war ensued with Otho and then Vitellius in power for a few months and Vespasian
emerging as victor in December to establish the Flavian dynasty.
Titus, who had completed the suppression of the Jewish revolt after Vespasian
was declared emperor and had captured Jerusalem in 70, succeeded his father
in 79 A.D. He inaugurated the Flavian Amphitheatre (later known as the
Colosseum) in 80 but died the following year.
In 79 A.D., shortly after Titus’s accession, Vesuvius, the long-dormant volcano
overlooking the Bay of Naples, erupted, overwhelming the cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum but preserving their ruins to be excavated from the 18th century onwards.
As the bodies of those who died decayed, they left hollows within the cooling lava which
archaeologists have filled with plaster to produce a perfect replica of the shape they
assumed when killed instantaneously by the intense heat.
Titus was succeeded in 81by his brother Domitian, the last
of the Flavian emperors. He constructed the famous
triumphal arch in memory of Titus but alienated the Roman
elite and was assassinated in a court conspiracy in 96.
Nerva, a senator in his mid-sixties, who was probably unaware of the
plot against Domitian, was selected by his fellow senators immediately
after the assassination. Though well-intentioned and known as the first
of the `Five Good Emperors’, he faced a revolt by the Praetorian Guard
and had to adopt the popular general Trajan as his heir and virtual coruler. Nerva died of natural causes in 98, after only 15 months on the
throne.
Trajan, who had previously commanded the armies on the German frontier,
extended the empire northwards and eastwards, bringing it to its maximum size
by his death in 117. Trajan’s Column in Rome commemorates his conquest of
Dacia, roughly corresponding to modern Romania
Hadrian, emperor from 117 to 138, abandoned much of the territory conquered
by Trajan and concentrated on strengthening the frontiers, including the
construction of `Hadrian’s Wall’ in Britain. He had also to put down a major
uprising in Palestine after his decision to build a temple of Jupiter on the site of
Jerusalem where the Jewish temple had once stood.
The reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161), adopted son of Hadrian, was the most
peaceful of any emperor. His own adopted son, Marcus Aurelius, emperor from 161
to 180, was involved in wars with Parthia in the east and Germanic tribes to the north
but is also remembered for his book of philosophical musings, known as the
Meditations. One of these two emperors was the安敦 (`Anton’) mentioned in Chinese
records as sending the embassy from 大秦 (Rome) that reached southern China in 166.
Marcus Aurelius was the last of the `Five Good Emperors’, the reign of his son and
successor Commodus initiating a period of great instability.
Diocletian, emperor from 284 till his abdication in 305, stabilised the empire after the
crises of the 3rd century, establishing the `tetrarchy’, with two co-emperors known as
`Augusti’ and two junior assistants (and probable successors) styled `Caesars’. He
increased taxation, attempted to control inflation and also in 303 instituted the last, and
the most severe attempt by the Roman government to wipe out Christianity .
Constantine, emperor from 306 to 337, is best known for proclaiming official toleration of
Christianity and finally accepting baptism himself shortly before his death. He was
proclaimed `Augustus’ (i.e. co-emperor) by his own troops at Eboracum (York) in Britain
when his father, who had held that position, died there in 306. This statue outside York
Minster commemorates the event. Constantine expanded the city of Byzantium (later
known as Constantinople), making it the capital of the eastern half of the empire.
By the end of the 4th century the Roman heartland was under pressure from Germanic
tribes, who were themselves fleeing the onslaught of the Huns from central Asia. The
`eternal city’ was captured by the Visigoths in 410 A.D., the same year that the last
Roman troops were withdrawn from Britain. The eastern half of the Empire, however,
administered from Constantinople (Istanbul), survived for another thousand years, finally
to fall to the Turks in 1453.