“There is, to be sure, no evil without something good.”
When we left off from our lightspeed recap of the history of Rome, Octavian had just defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra and became the sole ruler of the ancient world under the new name Augustus. Augustus learned from the mistakes of his adoptive father Julius Caesar and publicly refused power. During his reign, Augustus always claimed that he restored the republic and assured the people and the senate of Rome that he was simply Rome’s “first citizen.” Over the forty years, the senate continuously voted to give pro-consular powers (powers above that of the consul) to Augustus. Once Augustus’s term would end, he would relinquish whatever title was bestowed upon him and then keep whatever power was bestowed upon him. The success of Augustus was aided by his longevity, as he held power from his ascension in 27 BC to his death in 14 AD.
Over the course of Augustus’s life, there were a number of scares that Augustus was on his death bed and the search for an heir to his power continuously fell short. According to legend, Augustus’s wife Livia may have orchestrated the deaths of the other heirs of Augustus, namely his grandchildren Gaius and Lucius Caesar, in order to give her son Tiberius a clear path to power. While this may just be a story, Tiberius rose to power with his stepfather’s death.
Augustus and Tiberius were the first two of the five Julio-Claudian emperors. They are so named because all five of emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius (Caligula), Claudius, and Nero, were from the Julian and Claudian families and were in some way related to one another. It is interesting to note, however, that none of these emperors passed power to their biological children. Additionally, I must note that the emperors later in the dynasty were notoriously more corrupt than their predecessors. This was a view that was very popular with both Roman historians such as Suetonius in his twelve Caesars and today.
With the death of Nero, the question of succession was a very pressing and unanswered question. The year 69 AD saw Galba, Otho, and Vitellius rise to emperor before meeting their respective ends. Only Vespasian, the last of the men in power during the year of four emperors, was the only one to survive the year. Vespasian began the Flavian Dynasty when he passed power to his son Titus who in turn passed it to his brother and Vespasian’s other son, Domitian. The Flavian Dynasty was responsible for the building of the Flavian Amphitheater (now known as the Colosseum) and the brutal quelling of an uprising in Judea. Also, Titus was the only son to succeed his father as emperor in the first 200 years of the position.
Next came a time of peace that has been referred to as the “Five Good Emperors”: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. All of these men were given power by adoption by the previous emperor, and under their collective reigns, the empire was at its largest, safest, and arguably most stable. When Marcus Aurelius passed power on to his megalomanic son Commodus, it was obvious that the time of the “good emperors” was complete. Commodus was delusional, often entering into gladiatorial competitions (and winning because no man would risk infringing upon the good graces of the emperor). If you have seen the movie The Gladiator, the emperor in that movie is Commodus, and while The Gladiator is very historically inaccurate, Commodus’s insanity in that film was relatively true to life. It is important to note that Trajan and Hadrian were that they were both of Spanish extraction. Hadrian was born in Italy but was of Spanish roots, whereas Trajan was actually born in Spain. This was significant because it showed the increasing power of the colonies in the empire. This trend would continue until the fall.
In the resulting power vacuum, a number of men rose and fell before the power fell to Septimus Severus, the first of the Severan Dynasty. Most of his family was from Lybia, although his wife was Syrian. At this point in the empire, the eastern provinces were beginning to increase in their influence on Rome. Severus rose to power through the might of his armies, something that would happen many more times as the position of most powerful man in the world was up for grabs.
After the Severans, there were many other emperors who gained power through the might of their men and their average collective lifespans were relatively short. Given the time, I could talk about the different emperors who rose and fell (including the six men of 238 AD), but the important thing to note is that their lives were generally short and unhappy.
The next emperor of note is Diocletian, who decided that the empire was too large for one man to rule and therefore formed a tetrarchy (rule by four men). consisting of two senior and two junior emperors. He also famously split the empire into eastern and western halves with one senior emperor and one junior emperor each side. This arrangement worked out surprisingly well for some time.
Roughly 40 years later, one man would ascend back to power over the entire empire when Constantine would go to war against the eastern emperor Licinius. According to legend, Constantine had a vision just before the battle of Milvian Bridge, which was Constantine’s decisive victory over Licinius. Constantine reportedly saw a cross in the sky and heard the words “in hoc signo vinces,” meaning “in this sign you will conquer.” According to legend. Constantine had artisans place that sign on the shields of his men that very night. It was under Constantine that Christianity began to gain acceptance, with Constantine himself converting to Christianity on his deathbed. Every future emperor besides Julian would be a Christian. Constantine also founded Constantinople, which would serve as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for nearly 1000 years after the fall of the west.
Finally, in the late fifth century BC, the Roman empire fell and the last emperor Romulus Augustlus was deposed. There are many theories for why the empire finally met its tragic demise. Some historians argue that the Roman army had incorporated too many “barbarians” who were more loyal to their commanders than the Roman state, which left the control of the empire not to the most apt administrator, but to the man who temporarily controlled the greatest army. In the late empire, most of the emperors were generals whose rule was entirely upheld by his legions. In a similar vein, some historians have argued that the empire of Rome was an unstable corruption of the Roman republic that was just waiting to fall.
Other historians have cited economic reasons for why the empire may have fallen. The Roman economy did not have very robust controls on the spending of its government and it spent quite a bit on the maintenance of its large military force. These historians argue that the Roman empire was reliant upon the spoils of taken nations to fund these large endeavors and that the empire began to slowly go broke after wholesale expansion declined.
Still some others believe that factors such as disease and lead poisoning lead to the decline of the empire, as both of those things seemed present during the late imperial period. In reality, the fall of Rome was probably caused by a combination of these factors.
Regardless of the reason for its fall, it is inarguable that Rome has left a substantial impact on the history, philosophy, and culture of the western world.