 |
| Early Roman Raiding Party |
This article was originally published on the old website and is reposted here for continuity with future parts of the series.
The
History of Rome (http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/) is a 190-episode series of podcasts tracing Roman history from its
mythological beginnings to one of the several points at which it may
be said to have ended (more on that later). A hearty thanks to
JumpnJive for recommending this to me – it is informative,
well-made, and offers many of lessons to the attentive listener. The
excellent Ancient World Podcast is also used as a reference in this
article.
My
goal in this series is to draw out several lessons from Roman history
– some of them useful to us as individual men, some providing
insight to the world around us, and some that are just plain
historically interesting.
This
article draws on the period of time starting with the early history
of Rome and ending with the first emperor, Caesar Augustus. This is
covered by podcast episodes 1 through 53.
The Early Years of Rome
The
dawn of Rome is largely mythical for two reasons: the destruction of
records by fire or the passage or time, and the backfilling of
history by people developing a story for themselves.
Interestingly,
the Aeneid
(https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=aeneid)
was composed by a Roman poet (Virgil) to tie Rome's origin to the
history of Greece, a brotherhood of cultures which the Romans admired
with a heavy hand.
According
to its own myths, Rome started as a city-state composed of exiles and
criminals from the Latins, the people-group native to that larger
region of Italy. It was ruled by a series of seven kings, starting
with Romulus, succeeded by Numa Pompulius, and terminated by Tarquinus
Superbus.
Romulus
you know as one half of the mythical twins. Numa established the
deeply religious character of Rome's life in an attempt to manage the
rough Romans, and Tarquinus was such a horrific leader that monarchy
was forever outlawed.
With
Tarquinus' ouster, the Romans tried a new form of government – the
republic. For the history of republican theory and the events that
created it, leading up to its adoption by Rome, please listen to The
Ancient World Podcast Episode 33
(http://ancientworldpodcast.blogspot.com/2013/08/episode-33-democracy-and-republic-part-1.html),
34
(http://ancientworldpodcast.blogspot.com/2013/09/episode-34-democracy-and-republic-part-2.html),
and 35
(http://ancientworldpodcast.blogspot.com/2013/09/episode-35-on-verge.html).
The Republic and the Empire
The
Roman republic was a tumultuous thing, and the conflict between
classes continued and grew. The senate was staffed entirely by “old
money” and the average man had no real power or prospects.
Internal and external crises were leveraged to redistribute power and
the republic staggered from one failed solution to the next with no
real prospects of long-term solutions or stability.
Not
all was bad. The secret laws were replaced by laws carved in stone
for everyone to read. Heroic leaders rose to prominence in times of
danger. The most notable of these, Cincinnatus, was given absolute
power to protect the Romans and then resigned it as soon as it was
unneeded. The Society of the Cincinnati was formed after America's
Revolutionary War by veterans in honor of George Washington's refusal
to pursue an American Monarchy. They gave the American city of
Cincinnati its name.
The
patron-client model was an interesting and pervasive social mechanism
whereby the wealthy old families purchased and maintained voter
networks among their lessers. Money was distributed at regular
intervals from patrons to clients, who often had their own clients to
secure. This structure purchased loyalty for the patron both at the
ballot box and in the brawls that frequently erupted in the political
arena, guaranteed economic opportunities for tradesmen in the middle,
and and provided bare subsistence for the poor at the bottom.
And
there were many, many poor. As the Romans conquered their Latin
relatives across Italy, more territory opened up for farming.
Military service was restricted to landowners who were forced to
leave their farms for years at a time, resulting in unserviced debt
that saw land being gathered into large estates owned by the upper
class. Former landowners worked as serfs on the massive farms until
they were displaced by streams of slaves won by oversees conquests.
The landless, jobless poor migrated to Rome and became a source of
endless trouble.
It
is easy to believe that the Roman Empire began with the Roman
emperors, but the empire preceded the emperors by centuries and in
fact planted the seeds of crises that led to the emperors.
After
conquering Italy and neighboring islands, the Romans had two massive
conflicts with the Carthaginians that ended with the destruction of
Carthage, the acquisition of vast territories in Spain, and control
over the western Mediterranean.
The Breakdown
The
Roman Republic became increasingly fragile as classes clashed for
power and rivals took advantage of the resulting tensions. Ancient
laws and traditions were set aside /just once/, establishing
dangerous precedents that continued and grew.
Julius
Caesar viewed himself as a reformer who would set things right. He
established the first triumvirate with two other men in order to turn
the machines of power to their own ends. When their private
power-sharing agreement fell apart they ended up warring with each
other. Caesar won and returned to Rome to wrap things up.
Fearing
that the powerful and popular Julius Caesar had ambitions of monarchy
(and disliking the loss of their power), senators murdered Julius in
the Senate. Everything seemed like it was going back to normal,
whatever that meant.
Caesar
posthumously adopted his relative Octavius, who eventually formed
one-third of the second triumvirate. These things do not end well
and Octavius defeated the others and returned to Rome with all the
power in the Mediterranean world, the first of many Roman emperors.
Lessons
People
need stories to explain themselves, establish their place in the
world, and justify their actions. These stories are written
afterwards and are maintained for utility, not truth.
Traditions
and habits have great power over a people, but once broken they are
never truly repaired. The Roman republic in the centuries before
Caesar was dysfunctional but limped along as long as certain
boundaries were not violated. The success of imperial conquests
changed the social and economic landscape of Rome, introducing
pressures it was not set up to handle gracefully. When the republic
violated its laws and cultural norms its vulnerability to strongmen
became inevitable. Read The Storm Before the Storm, written by the
producer of The History of Rome Podcast, to learn more.
You
can devise all the trappings and traditions you like but they will
not change the fundamental nature that dictates human actions. Act
in accordance with the facts.
While
we know Augustus as the first Roman emperor, the term is applied in
retrospect by historians. Augustus himself used the term princeps,
meaning “first citizen.” We will see this backwards
standardization in other aspects of Rome's future.
Concentrations
of power lead to instability that can be managed only for a time.
Comments
Post a Comment