The Roman Empire was the period of ancient Roman civilisation that followed the Roman Republic. During this period, power rested with an emperor. Most historians date its start to 27 BC. In 27 BC, the Senate gave Octavian the titles of Augustus ("venerated") and Princeps ("foremost"), thus beginning the Principate, the first epoch of Roman imperial history. At its height the empire controlled the whole Mediterranean basin and large parts of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. Western imperial rule ended in 476 CE, while the eastern Roman Empire continued as Byzantium. Rome's law, its Latin language, its architecture and its adoption of Christianity shaped European and Mediterranean history for many centuries.
Origins and the Principate
Rome began as a small city-state. Under the Republic it conquered most of the Mediterranean, but civil wars tore the Republic apart in the 1st century BC. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, his adopted heir Octavian fought his rivals for control. The pivotal Battle of Actium in 31 BC saw Antony's defeat, leading to Octavian's ascent to power. As Augustus, he presented his rule as a restoration of the Republic. Behind that image he held the real power himself: he controlled the army, the richest provinces and the main magistracies. Augustus' name was inherited by his successors, as well as his title of Imperator ("commander"), from which the term "emperor" is derived.
Augustus's reign began the Pax Romana, an era of imperial peace when the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. It lasted roughly until the death of Marcus Aurelius in AD 180. Four dynasties followed one another in this period: the Julio-Claudians, the Flavians and the Nerva–Antonines, and after a civil war, the Severans.
Extent and population
Trajan ruled from AD 98 to 117, and under him the empire reached its greatest size. At its greatest extent under Trajan in 117 CE, Rome ruled territory from Britain to Egypt and from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia. It covered about 5 million km². The newest conquests included Dacia and parts of Mesopotamia. His successor Hadrian gave up most of the eastern gains within months. Population figures are uncertain. Estimates range from 45 million to 120 million with 59–76 million as the most accepted range, and the population likely peaked just before the Antonine Plague.
Government, law and the army
The emperor ruled through governors appointed to some 45 to 50 provinces. He also relied on a growing imperial bureaucracy and on local city elites, who collected taxes and kept order. The Senate kept its prestige but steadily lost real power. Roman citizenship spread outward from Italy. Under Caracalla's Constitutio Antoniniana of AD 212, nearly all free people in the empire became citizens. Roman jurists built up a detailed body of civil law. In the 6th century the eastern emperor Justinian I had it compiled into the Corpus Juris Civilis, which later became the basis of civil-law systems across continental Europe.
The professional army of legions and auxiliary troops guarded long frontiers. These were often fortified, as with Hadrian's Wall in Britain or the Rhine–Danube limes. A network of Roman roads linked the provinces and moved both soldiers and goods.
Economy and society
The empire's economy rested on agriculture, but Mediterranean trade in grain, wine, olive oil and manufactured goods was extensive. Egyptian grain fed the city of Rome. Imperial coinage, including the gold aureus and the silver denarius, circulated everywhere in the empire. The economy also depended heavily on slavery. Luxury goods arrived along the Silk Road and Indian Ocean routes. Chinese records of the Han dynasty describe a distant land called Daqin, which is usually identified with the Roman world.
Culture and technology
The western provinces adopted Latin. The East remained largely Greek-speaking, and Roman elite culture drew heavily on Greek literature, philosophy and art. Writers such as Virgil, Ovid, Seneca and Tacitus produced works that became classics. Roman engineers made wide use of concrete, the arch and the dome. Their work included aqueducts, baths, amphitheatres such as the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. The empire also absorbed the scientific traditions of Hellenistic Alexandria, including the work of Hero of Alexandria and Ptolemy. Texts were written on papyrus, and later more and more on parchment in book form (the codex).
Traditional religion was polytheistic, and it was combined with an imperial cult that honoured emperors. Christianity spread in spite of periodic persecution. Constantine's Edict of Milan legalised it in 313. Nicene Christianity became the official religion in 380, under Theodosius I.
Crisis and reform
During the Crisis of the Third Century (c. 235–284), the empire suffered short-lived emperors, civil wars, invasions, plague and currency debasement that led to severe inflation. For a time, breakaway states controlled Gaul and the East. Diocletian came to power in 284. He set up the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by four emperors, and reformed taxation, the army and the provinces. Constantine the Great brought back sole rule and introduced the gold solidus. In 330 he founded Constantinople as a new capital.
Division and the fall of the West
After the death of Theodosius I in 395, the empire was permanently divided into western and eastern halves. In the 5th century the West came under heavy pressure from Germanic peoples and the Huns. Britain was lost around 410; Spain and northern Africa by 430. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, and the Vandals sacked it again in 455. In September 476, a Germanic prince named Odovacar won control of the Roman army in Italy. After deposing the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, Odovacar's troops proclaimed him king of Italy. Historians still debate why the West fell. Proposed causes include military pressure, fiscal strain, political instability, epidemics and changes in climate. Many scholars now describe the period as a gradual transformation rather than a sudden collapse.
The Eastern Empire and legacy
The eastern half, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, kept calling itself Roman. The eastern half carried on from Constantinople for almost another thousand years until 1453, when the Ottomans captured the city. Later states also claimed Rome's inheritance, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Muscovite Russia. The Latin alphabet, the Romance languages, Roman law, the Christian church organisation that grew up within the empire, and classical models revived during the Renaissance are all part of Rome's lasting legacy. It also served as a political model for later ideas of the state and empire.
References
- History of the Roman Empireen.wikipedia.org
- Roman Empire Timeline: From Augustus to the Fall of Romestoriesofhistory.co
- The Roman Empire (27 BCdigitalmapsoftheancientworld.com
- Outline of Augustusen.wikipedia.org
- Roman Empire Map: Greatest Extent in 117 AD and Countries Todaymappr.co
- Classical demographyen.wikipedia.org
- Roman Empireen.wikipedia.org
- Ancient Rome: Facts, Location, Timeline & Fallhistory.com
- The Roman Empire Map and Timeline Showing Its Rise, Expansion, and Fallthecampusreview.com