A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 21

when the Parthian king Chosroes drove out the Armenian ruler, who had received his crown from Trajan's hands, and set his own son Parthamasiris in his stead. Trajan at once repaired to the East and concentrated an army for the invasion of Armenia. Parthamasiris offered to acknowledge the Roman suzerainty over Armenia, but Trajan determined to effect a definite settlement of the eastern frontier by the permanent occupation of Armenia and, for strategic reasons, of Mesopotamia also. In 114 he effected an easy conquest of Armenia, and in the next year annexed Upper Mesopotamia.

He now resolved to complete his success by the overthrow of the Parthian kingdom. Accordingly, in 116 A. D., he overran a.s.syria and made it a province, and then pressed on to the Persian gulf, capturing Seleucia, Babylon and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon on his way. From dreams of further conquests Trajan was recalled by a serious revolt in Mesopotamia which was only subdued with great effort, and in 117 A. D. Chosroes was able to reoccupy his capital. At the same time the eastern provinces were disturbed by a rising of the Jews, which began in Cyrene in 115 A. D. and spread to Cyprus, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Horrible ma.s.sacres were perpetrated both by the Jews and their enemies, and large numbers of troops had to be employed before order was restored.

News of revolts in Africa and Britain, and of troubles on the Danubian border, led Trajan to set out for Rome. On the way he fell ill and died at Selinus in Cilicia on 8 August, 117 A. D.

II. HADRIAN, 117138 A. D.

*Hadrian princeps.* Trajan left no male heir and had a.s.sociated no one with himself in the _imperium_ or tribunician power. However, on his deathbed he adopted his cousin and one-time ward, Publius Aelius Hadria.n.u.s, also a native of Italica. Hadrian was married to Sabina, a grand-daughter of Trajan's sister Marciana. He had had a distinguished military career and in 117 A. D. was commander of the army in Syria. At the news of his adoption his troops saluted him as Imperator and his nomination was confirmed by the Senate. The only opposition came from some of the ablest of Trajan's officers, notably Lusius Quietus, who soon plotted against his life. But their conspiracy was detected and the Senate condemned to death the four leaders in the plot.

*h.e.l.lenism.* Hadrian was a man of restless energy and extraordinary versatility. He had a keen appreciation of all forms of art and literature, and a great admiration for h.e.l.lenism; an admiration which probably arose from a realization of the fact that the culture of the Roman empire was in its foundations h.e.l.lenic, but which caused him to be scornfully dubbed a "Greekling" by the Roman aristocracy.

*General character of Hadrian's government.* In public life he displayed the greatest devotion to duty, in the belief that "the ruler exists for the state, not the state for the ruler," and there was no branch of the public administration that was not affected by his zeal. Two extended tours, one in 121126 and the other in 129132 A. D., made him acquainted with conditions in the provinces and enabled him to take measures to promote their welfare. The Senate he treated with all outward marks of respect, taking the oath to respect the lives of its members, but at the same time he regarded it as a negligible factor in the government.

*Military policy.* Realizing that Trajan's policy of imperial expansion had overtaxed the economic resources of the empire, he began his rule by abandoning the new provinces of Mesopotamia and a.s.syria, and reverting to the previous Roman policy in Armenia, where a Parthian prince acknowledged his overlords.h.i.+p. He devoted his energies to strengthening the system of frontier defences and raising the standards of discipline and efficiency among the soldiers. Aside from the suppression of the revolts which had broken out in the last years of Trajan's rule, his most serious military undertaking was the quelling of a new rising of the Jews in Palestine, which followed the foundation of a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem.

Only after a two years' struggle (132134 A. D.) was the rebellion crushed.

*Judicial and administrative reforms.* To aid him in the administration of justice, Hadrian formed a permanent council of eminent jurists. He, too, was responsible for codifying and editing in a final form the praetor's edict, upon which was based the procedure of the Roman civil law. This task was carried out by the jurist Salvius Julia.n.u.s. With the object of relieving the city courts of an excessive burden of judicial business, Hadrian divided Italy into four districts, and appointed an official of consular rank to administer justice in each. This was a further step in removing Italy from the control of the Senate and approximating its status to that of a province. Hadrian's administrative reforms were the result of the steady increase in the sphere of public business carried on by the officers of the princeps, and furthered the development of a centralized bureaucracy. By creating new offices-among them the post of advocate of the fiscus (_advocatus fisci_) as an alternative for the subaltern military offices-he greatly increased the importance of the equestrian career and the influence of the _equites_ in the government. In the three departments of the military, civil and judicial administration the princ.i.p.ate of Hadrian marks a distinct epoch.

*Building activity.* Everywhere throughout the empire Hadrian built and repaired with the greatest zeal; but particularly in Rome and Athens. In Rome, among other structures, he built the great double temple of Venus and Roma and his own mausoleum, the present Castel Sant' Angelo. At Athens he completed the great temple of Olympian Zeus, begun by Pisistratus in the sixth century B. C., and added a new quarter to the city.

*The choice of a successor.* In 136 A. D., Hadrian fell seriously ill and, having no children, adopted Lucius Ceionius Commodus under the name of Lucius Aelius Caesar, and clothed him with the tribunician authority.

Hadrian himself withdrew from Rome to his splendid villa at Tibur.

However, Aelius died at the beginning of 138 A. D., and thereupon the princeps adopted an elderly senator named t.i.tus Aurelius Antoninus, who in turn adopted the son of the deceased Aelius and his own nephew, Marcus Annius Verus. Antoninus received the _imperium_ and tribunician power and became the partner of Hadrian in the princ.i.p.ate. After a long and painful illness the latter died in July, 138 A. D. His later years were clouded by ill health which rendered him moody and suspicious, and probably led to the execution of his brother-in-law and the latter's grandson on a charge of conspiracy. He had never been popular with the Senate and this step widened the breach between them. Only the energetic action of his successor prevented the execration of his memory and secured his deification.

III. THE ANTONINES, 138192 A. D.

*Antoninus Pius, 138161 A. D.* Antoninus, who received the name of Pius in the first year of his rule, was the personification of ancient Roman piety, i. e. the dutiful performance of obligations in public and private life. His mildness and uprightness enabled him to act in perfect harmony with the senators, and as a concession to them he removed the four _consulares juridici_ whom Hadrian had appointed in Italy.

*His public policy.* Antoninus adhered to Hadrian's peaceful foreign policy, but had to wage several border wars and suppress some insurrections in the provinces. In Britain a line of fortifications was constructed from the Firth of Forth to the Clyde. Antoninus laid great emphasis upon an upright administration of justice. At this time, too, the Roman law was greatly enriched through the introduction of principles of equity and began to receive at the hands of the jurists the systematic form by which it was later characterized. In 147 A. D. he conferred the t.i.tle of Caesar upon the elder of his adopted sons, Marcus Aurelius, whom he had previously married to his daughter, and took him as an a.s.sociate in the government. Upon the death of Antoninus in March, 161 A. D., Aurelius succeeded to the princ.i.p.ate.

*The dual princ.i.p.ate-Marcus Aurelius, 161180 A. D., and Lucius Verus, 161169.* Marcus Aurelius at once took as a.s.sociate in the princ.i.p.ate his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus, and for the first time two Augusti shared the _imperium_. But the real power rested in the hands of Aurelius, for Verus was a weak character, indolent and sensual. Although he did not take the oath not to put a senator to death, and restored the _consulares iuridici_ removed by Antoninus, the elder Augustus respected the Senate and remained on good terms with it. Marcus Aurelius was by nature a student and philosopher, a devoted follower of the Stoic rule of life; his _Meditations_ bear testimony to the true n.o.bility of his character. Such was the princeps who was fated to spend his remaining years in an unceasing struggle against the enemies of the state and, true to his principles, he obeyed the call of duty and devoted himself unsparingly to the public service.

*Parthian war: 16165 A. D.* Even before the death of Antoninus, Vologases III of Parthia had begun hostilities and had overrun Armenia. The Roman legate of Cappadocia was defeated and the Parthians broke into Syria, where they won another victory. The situation was critical. Aurelius sent his colleague Verus to the scene, and although the latter displayed neither energy nor capacity, his able generals restored the fortunes of the Roman arms. In 163 Statius Priscus reestablished Roman authority over Armenia and placed a Roman va.s.sal on the throne. In 16465, Avidius Ca.s.sius invaded Mesopotamia and took the Parthian capitals Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Yet, on the march back, he suffered considerable losses from hunger and disease, and a peace was made with Parthia which gave the Romans territory in upper Mesopotamia to the east of the Euphrates (166 A. D.). But the returning troops brought with them a plague which ravaged the whole empire and caused widespread depopulation.

*Wars with the Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges: 167175 A. D.* In the meantime a dangerous situation had arisen on the Danubian frontier, where, probably in consequence of the pressure of migratory peoples, the Marcomanni, Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges united in an attempt to force their way into the Roman provinces. The army of the Danube had been weakened to reinforce the Syrian troops in the Parthian war and this enabled the barbarians to penetrate the frontier defences and ravage Noric.u.m and Pannonia as far as Aquileia at the head of the Adriatic. The two Augusti proceeded to the scene of war, and after a protracted struggle in which Dacia suffered from a hostile invasion, the enemy were forced to make peace. The Marcomanni submitted in 172, and the Quadi and Sarmatians in 175 A. D. They were forced to surrender the prisoners carried off from the Roman provinces, over 160,000 in number, and to furnish military aid to Rome, while large numbers of them were settled on waste lands south of the Danube under the obligation of tilling the soil and rendering military service. The Roman victory was commemorated by the erection of a column at Rome with sculptures picturing incidents of the war, in imitation of Trajan's memorial. In addition to the prosecution of this war, the strength of the empire had been taxed by serious outbreaks in Mauretania, Gaul and Egypt.

*Revolt of Avidius Ca.s.sius, 175 A. D.* The complete subjugation of the northern foe was hindered by the revolt of Avidius Ca.s.sius, the general who had distinguished himself in the Parthian war and had suppressed the revolt in Egypt. Verus, the colleague of Aurelius, had died in 169, and at a rumor of the death of Aurelius himself in 175 A. D., Ca.s.sius proclaimed himself Imperator in Syria. Thereupon Aurelius hastened to conclude peace with the Sarmatians and proceeded to the East. Upon his arrival he found that Ca.s.sius had been killed by his own soldiers. Soon afterwards Commodus, the son of Aurelius, received the t.i.tle Augustus and became co-ruler with his father (177 A. D.).

*Second war with the Marcomanni and Quadi, 177180 A. D.* In 177 A. D. war broke out anew with the Quadi and Marcomanni. Aurelius again took command on the Danube and after two years' fighting had won so complete a victory that he contemplated the annexation of the region occupied by these peoples. But for a second time he was robbed of the fruits of his toil, on this occasion by the hand of death, 17 March, 180 A. D. The princ.i.p.ate pa.s.sed to his son and colleague, Commodus.

*Lucius Aurelius Commodus, **sole princeps**, 180192 A. D.* Lucius Aurelius Commodus, the ign.o.ble son of a n.o.ble father, is one of the few in the long line of Roman rulers of whom nothing good can be said. Cowardly, cruel and sensual, he gave himself up to a life of pleasure and left the conduct of the government in the hands of a succession of favorites, who used their power to further their own interests. He abandoned the war with the Marcomanni and Quadi without carrying out his father's plans and granted them peace on lenient terms so that he might return to the enjoyments of the capital. His chief ambition was to win fame as a gladiator. He frequently appeared in the arena, and finally determined to a.s.sume the consulate on 1 January, 193 A. D. in a gladiator's costume.

However, on the preceding night he was a.s.sa.s.sinated at the instigation of the pretorian prefect, Quintus Aemilius Laetus.

IV. THE SECOND WAR OF THE LEGIONS, 193197 A. D.

*Pertinax: JanuaryMarch, 193 A. D.* The new princeps (Publius Helvius Pertinax, a senator of low birth but proved military capacity) was the nominee of Laetus. However, his strictness in enforcing discipline among the troops and his economies, necessitated by the exhausted condition of the public finances, soon alienated the goodwill of the praetorians and Laetus himself. After less than three months' rule he was killed in a mutiny of the pretorian guard (March, 193 A. D.).

*Didius Julia.n.u.s.* Their choice for a successor was an old and wealthy senator, Didius Julia.n.u.s, who purchased his nomination by the promise of a high donative. But his rule was destined to be short for, as in 68 A. D., the armies on the frontiers a.s.serted their claim to appoint the princeps.

*The **rivals**: Severus, Niger and Albinus.* Almost simultaneously three commanders were saluted as Imperator by their soldiers. These were Pescennius Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Upper Pannonia. With their nominations a second war of the legions began. Severus had the advantage of position and immediately marched on Rome as the avenger of Pertinax. He also was able to arrange a truce with Albinus by promising to recognize him as his successor with the t.i.tle of Caesar. The praetorians offered no resistance to the Danubian army; Julia.n.u.s was deposed by the Senate and put to death (June, 193 A. D.); and the Senate ratified the nomination of Severus.

*Defeat of Niger and Albinus.* But the position of Severus was not yet secure, for Niger had been recognized in the eastern provinces and also had a strong following in Rome. He was preparing to march upon Italy and had already occupied Byzantium. Severus at once set out to antic.i.p.ate his attack. After investing Byzantium he crossed over to Asia Minor and defeated the forces of his rival near Cyzicus and Nicaea, forcing them to withdraw south of the Taurus mountains. The Cilician Gates were forced and Niger decisively beaten in a battle at Issus (194 A. D.). He tried to escape into Parthia but was overtaken and killed. Severus advanced across the Euphrates to punish the Parthian king for his support of Niger. He occupied northern Mesopotamia, and made Nisibis a Roman colony and frontier fortress (196 A. D.). In the same year Byzantium was taken, its fortifications destroyed, and its inhabitants deprived of the right of munic.i.p.al organization. Severus had brought his Parthian campaign to a hasty conclusion, for in the West Clodius Albinus, feeling his position insecure, had a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Augustus and occupied Gaul. Severus now elevated his eldest son Ba.s.sia.n.u.s, better known as Caracalla, to the position of Caesar with the additional t.i.tle of _imperator designatus_, and set out to meet the usurper. In a great battle at Lugdunum, in which 150,000 men are said to have fought on either side, the army of Severus was victorious and Albinus fell by his own hand (197 A. D.). Many of his adherents, including numerous senators, were put to death.

V. THE DYNASTY OF THE SEVERI, 197235 A. D.

*The Parthian war of 197199 A. D.* Severus was now unchallenged ruler of the empire. Shortly after the defeat of Albinus, he returned to the East and resumed hostilities against the Parthians, whose king, Vologases IV, had taken advantage of his absence to invade Armenia and Mesopotamia and was besieging Nisibis. Severus relieved the beleaguered town and pressed on into the enemy's territory, where he sacked the two Parthian capitals, Seleucia and Ctesiphon, in 198 A. D. By a peace arranged in the next year northern Mesopotamia was ceded to Rome and was organized as a province under a governor of equestrian rank.

*A **military monarchy**.* Septimius Severus was a native of Leptis in Africa. He came from an equestrian family and had begun his official career as an advocate of the _fiscus_. To secure the prestige of n.o.ble lineage he caused himself to be proclaimed as the adopted son of Marcus Aurelius, and took the latter's family name of Antoninus for himself and his house. His rule was frankly autocratic in character and he made no attempt to disguise the fact that his authority rested upon the support of the soldiery. Light is thrown upon Severus' policy in general by the significant fact that under him Rome, which he adorned with magnificent structures, received the t.i.tle _sacra_ (sacred), a term regularly used to designate things under the control of the princeps. The activity of the Senate was limited to registering its approval of his measures, and equestrians were appointed to military posts. .h.i.therto filled only by senators. The special privileges which Italy and the Italians had continued to enjoy were equally disregarded. The t.i.tle proconsul, which Trajan and his successors had used in the provinces, was now employed by Severus in Italy. In 193 he disbanded the old praetorian guard, which had been recruited from Italy and the more thoroughly latinized provinces, and organized a new corps of picked troops drawn from the legions in general, but especially those of the Danubian army. Severus enrolled three new legions for the Parthian war and placed them under the command of equestrian prefects instead of senatorial legates. Two of these legions were stationed in Mesopotamia, but the third was quartered at the Alban Mount in Latium. This step had the effect of reducing Italy to the status of a garrisoned province, but it was probably taken with the view of providing a larger reserve force to supplement the frontier garrisons.

Severus also was the author of many reforms which improved the conditions or increased the rewards of military service. The pay of the troops was raised, the legionaries were allowed to contract a legal marriage when in service, and the equestrian career was opened to veteran centurians.

However, there seems to be no proof that Severus deliberately fostered the barbarization of the army by the exclusion of Italian centurians, or that he ruined the discipline of the soldiers by permitting the married legionaries to reside outside of barracks. To rescue the government from the state of insolvency into which it had been brought by his predecessors, Severus stood in need of a large sum of money. This he secured by confiscating the estates of the adherents of Niger and Albinus.

Of signal importance was the increase in the power of the praetorian prefecture at this time. This office was for a number of years held by a single prefect, Publius Fulvius Plautia.n.u.s, whose daughter was married to the eldest son of Severus. However, his great power proved his undoing, and in 205 A. D. he was executed on a charge of treason made by his own son-in-law. At his death two prefects were again appointed, one of whom was Papinian, the greatest of all Roman jurists. His appointment seems to indicate a division between the military and the civil functions of the prefecture. For from this time the prefect exercised supreme jurisdiction over criminal cases in Italy beyond the hundredth milestone from the city, and in the matter of appeals from the judgments of provincial governors.

In the absence of the princeps he also presided over the imperial judicial council. Following Papinian other eminent jurists filled this office.

Furthermore, the supervision of the transportation of grain to Rome was transferred from the prefect of the grain supply to the praetorian prefect, and the former officer merely supervised its distribution within the city.

*War in Britain, 208211 A. D.* Like Hadrian, Severus paid great attention to strengthening the frontier defences of the empire, particularly the fortifications which linked the Rhine and the Danube. In 208 A. D. when Britain was invaded by the Caledonians, he took the field, accompanied by his two sons. He reinforced Hadrian's earthen wall between the Tyne and the Solway by a wall of stone, and carried on guerilla warfare against the tribes of the northern part of the island. However, they had not been completely pacified when he died at York in February, 211 A. D., leaving the princ.i.p.ate to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, both of whom had previously received the t.i.tle of Augustus.

*Caracalla, 211217 A. D.* The bitter enmity which had long existed between the two brothers continued during a year of joint rule, and divided the empire into rival factions. Then Caracalla, who had previously sought to make himself sole ruler, succeeded in having Geta a.s.sa.s.sinated.

Many of the latter's friends, among them the prefect Papinian, were executed. Caracalla was cruel and vicious, and displayed no capacity for governing. He relied solely upon the goodwill of the soldiery and courted their support by increased pay and lavish donatives. In 212 A. D., by the famous Antonian Const.i.tution (_const.i.tutio Antoniniana_) he extended Roman citizens.h.i.+p to all the provincials of the empire, except those who were in a condition of va.s.salage, such as some of the barbarian peoples who had been settled on waste lands within the Roman borders, and not citizens of organized munic.i.p.alities (_dediticii_). This act was the logical culmination of the policy of his predecessors who had granted citizens.h.i.+p to many provincial munic.i.p.alities and had sanctioned its automatic extension to soldiers of the legions and auxiliary corps. Perhaps Caracalla's chief motive was to supply a fresh source of income for the treasury, which was sadly depleted by his extravagances, for he greatly increased the number of those liable to the five per cent inheritance tax which fell only upon Roman citizens. A second motive may well have been the desire to secure a uniformity of legal status and of munic.i.p.al organization throughout the empire.

*Germanic and Parthian wars.* In 213 A. D. an attack of a confederacy of German tribes, the Alamanni, upon the Raetian frontier was successfully repelled, and in the next year Caracalla set out for the East, where he planned to conduct a Parthian war in imitation of the conquests of his idol, Alexander the Great. In 215, the Parthian king, Vologases V, came to terms, but when he was dethroned by his brother, Artabanos V, who refused Caracalla's request for the hand of his daughter, Caracalla prepared to invade Parthian territory. But before he embarked on his venture he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by the order of the praetorian prefect Marcus Opellius Macrinus, April, 217 A. D.

*Macrinus, 217218 A. D.* Macrinus was recognized without opposition as Caracalla's successor, and bestowed upon his young son Diadumenia.n.u.s the t.i.tle of Caesar. He was the first princeps who had not attained senatorial rank. As a ruler he displayed moderation and good sense, but was lacking in force. He purchased peace from the Parthians, abolished oppressive taxes, and sought to lessen the military burden by cancelling the increases of pay which Caracalla had granted to the troops. This latter step cost him the support of the soldiery, and part of the Syrian army declared its allegiance to the fourteen-year-old Ba.s.sia.n.u.s, a great-nephew of Julia Domna, the Syrian wife of Septimius Severus. Ba.s.sia.n.u.s could claim to be a representative of the house of Severus, and consequently was hailed as Imperator under the name of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. However, he is better known as Elagabalus, for he was by hereditary right the priest of the Sun G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped under that name at Emesa.

Macrinus tried to suppress the revolt, but he was defeated near Antioch, and he and his son were captured and killed (June, 218 A. D.).

*Elagabalus, 218222 A. D.* Thereupon Elagabalus was universally recognized as princeps and entered Rome in the following year. There he introduced the wors.h.i.+p of the sun as the supreme deity of the Roman world, and added to the imperial t.i.tle that of "most exalted priest of the Unconquered Sun G.o.d Elagabalus." His rule was a riot of debauch, in which his a.s.sociates were worthless favorites, whom he appointed to the highest offices. His grandmother, Julia Maesa, really conducted the government and, realizing his unfitness to rule, forced him to adopt his cousin Severus Alexander with the t.i.tle of Caesar in 221 A. D. When Elagabalus sought to rid himself of his relative the praetorians forced him to make Alexander his colleague, and finally murdered him (March, 222 A. D.).

*Severus Alexander, 222235 A. D.* Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander was now sole ruler. However, since he was a mere youth, his mother, Julia Mamaea, daughter of Julia Maesa, exercised the powers of a regent. As he grew up Alexander showed himself well-meaning and conscientious, but lacking in self-reliance, and he never emanc.i.p.ated himself from his mother's tutelage. During his rule the Senate enjoyed a temporary revival of influence. Two councils of senators, one of sixteen and one of seventy members, acted as an imperial cabinet and an advisory legislative council, respectively. At this time, too, the praetorian prefecture became a senatorial office in that it conferred senatorial rank upon its holder. An attempt was made to remedy public abuses, in particular to restore discipline among the troops, and to reduce the military expenditure. But the army had gotten out of hand, especially the praetorians, from whose anger Alexander was unable to protect the noted jurist Paul, who held the praetorian prefecture.

*The new Persian empire.* The widespread military insubordination was all the more dangerous since new and more aggressive foes began to threaten the integrity of the empire. In 227 A. D. the Parthian dynasty of the Arsacids was overthrown by the Persian Ardaschir (Artaxerxes) who founded the dynasty of the Sa.s.sanids. The establishment of this new Persian kingdom was accompanied by a revival of the national Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, and of the Persian claims to the eastern Roman provinces.

In 231 the Persians drove the Roman troops out of Mesopotamia and penetrated Cappadocia and Syria. Alexander himself then went to the East, where he took the offensive in the following year. The details of his campaign are uncertain, but at any rate Mesopotamia was recovered and Alexander celebrated a triumph over the Persians in Rome (233 A. D.).

*The Germanic campaign and death of Severus Alexander.* But the northern frontier was threatened by the attacks of Germanic tribes, and in 234 Alexander a.s.sumed the conduct of operations on the Rhine, with his headquarters at Mainz. The barbarians were induced to make peace, but only by the payment of subsidies, and this cost Alexander the respect of the army, who were disgruntled at his policy of retrenchment and his subservience to his mother. A mutiny broke out, led by Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus, a Thracian of peasant origin who had risen from the ranks to high command. Alexander and Julia Mamaea were put to death, and Maximinus was proclaimed Augustus (March, 235 A. D.). With his accession began a half century of confusion and anarchy.

VI. THE DISSOLUTION AND RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE: 235285 A. D.