Roman Empire

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Not to be confused with Latin Empire or Holy Roman Empire.
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Roman Empire
Imperium Romanum (Latin)
Senatus populusque Romanus (SPQR)
Senate and People of Rome?[n 1]
?as??e?a ??a??? (Ancient Greek)
Basilea Rhomaon
? Consul et lictores.png
27?BC??476?AD (Western)
3301453 (Eastern) Constantine multiple CdM Beistegui 233.jpg ?
Aureus of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.
The Roman Empire in 117 AD, at its greatest extent.[1]
Capital
27?BC??293?AD: Rome
293330: Rome (nominal)
Western Empire (330476)
Mediolanum / Ravenna
Eastern Empire (3301453)
Constantinople[2]
Languages
Latin Greek
Regional / local languages
Religion
Before AD 380: Imperial cult-driven polytheism
From AD 380: Christianity
Government Autocracy
Emperor
- 27?BC??AD?14 Augustus (first)
- 98117 Trajan
- 284305 Diocletian
- 306337 Constantine I
- 379395 Theodosius I
- 475476 Romulus Augustusa
- 527565 Justinian I
- 14491453 Constantine XI?b
Legislature Senate
Historical era Classical to late antiquity
- Final War of the
Roman Republic 3230 BC
- Empire established 302 BC
- Empire at its
greatest extent AD 117
- Partition (Tetrarchy) 293
- Constantinople
becomes capital 330
- Final EastWest divide 395
- Romulus Augustus deposed 476
- Fall of Constantinople 29 May 1453
Area
- 25 BC[3][4] 2,750,000 km (1,061,781 sq mi)
- 117[3] 6,500,000 km (2,509,664 sq mi)
- 390[3] 4,400,000 km (1,698,849 sq mi)
Population
- 25 BC[3][4] est. 56,800,000
Density 20.7 /km (53.5 /sq mi)
- 117[3] est. 88,000,000
Density 13.5 /km (35.1 /sq mi)
Currency Sestertiusc
a Usually considered the final emperor of the Western empire.
b Last emperor of the Eastern (Byzantine) empire.
c Abbreviated "HS". Prices and values are usually expressed in sesterces; see be
low for currency denominations by period.
The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) was the post-Republican period of the
ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government a
nd large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Africa, an
d Asia. The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been destabilize
d through a series of civil wars. Several events marked the transition from Repu
blic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44
BC); the Battle of Actium (31 BC); and the granting of the honorific Augustus to
Octavian by the Roman Senate (27 BC).
The first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability a
nd prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). It reached its greatest e
xpanse during the reign of Trajan (98117 AD). In the 3rd century, the Empire unde
rwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified and stabilized u
nder the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian. Christians rose to power in the 4th c
entury, during which time a system of dual rule was developed in the Latin West
and Greek East. After the collapse of central government in the West in the 5th
century, the eastern half of the Roman Empire continued as what would later be k
nown as the Byzantine Empire.
Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and cul
ture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language
, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territ
ory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European expansionism thro
ughout the modern world.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Geography and demography
3 Languages
3.1 Local languages and linguistic legacy
4 Society
4.1 Legal status
4.1.1 Women as legal entities
4.1.2 Slaves and the law
4.1.3 Freedmen
4.2 Census rank
4.2.1 Unequal justice
5 Government and military
5.1 Central government
5.2 Military
5.3 Provincial government
5.4 Roman law
5.5 Taxation
6 Economy
6.1 Currency and banking
6.2 Mining and metallurgy
6.3 Transportation and communication
6.4 Trade and commodities
6.5 Labor and occupations
6.6 GDP and income distribution
7 Architecture and engineering
8 Daily life
8.1 City and country
8.2 Food and dining
8.3 Recreation and spectacles
8.3.1 Personal training and play
8.4 Clothing
9 The arts
9.1 Portraiture
9.2 Sculpture
9.2.1 Sarcophagi
9.3 Painting
9.4 Mosaic
9.5 Decorative arts
9.6 Performing arts
10 Literacy, books, and education
10.1 Primary education
10.2 Secondary and higher education
10.3 Educated women
10.4 Decline of literacy
11 Literature
12 Religion
13 Political legacy
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
17 Sources
18 Further reading
19 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of the Roman Empire
See also: Campaign history of the Roman military
Rome had begun annexing provinces in the 3rd century BC, four centuries before r
eaching its greatest territorial extent, and in that sense was an "empire" while
still governed as a republic.[5] Republican provinces were administered by form
er consuls and praetors, who had been elected to one-year terms and held imperiu
m, "right of command".[6] The amassing of disproportionate wealth and military p
ower by a few men through their provincial commands was a major factor in the tr
ansition from republic to imperial autocracy.[7] Later, the position of power he
ld by the emperor was expressed as imperium.[8] The Latin word is the origin of
English "empire," a meaning it began to acquire only later in Rome's history.[9]
The Augustus of Prima Porta
(early 1st century AD)
As the first emperor, Augustus took the official position that he had saved the
Republic, and carefully framed his powers within republican constitutional princ
iples. He rejected titles that Romans associated with monarchy, and instead refe
rred to himself as the princeps, "leading citizen". Consuls continued to be elec
ted, tribunes of the people continued to put forth legislation, and senators sti
ll debated in the curia. It was Augustus, however, who established the precedent
that the emperor controlled the final decisions, backed up by military force.
The reign of Augustus, from 27 BC to 14 AD, was portrayed in Augustan literature
and art as a new "Golden Age." Augustus laid out an enduring ideological founda
tion for the three centuries of the Empire known as the Principate (27 BC284 AD),
the first 200 years of which is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana. Durin
g this period, the cohesion of the Empire was furthered by participation in civi
c life, economic ties, and shared cultural, legal and religious norms. Uprisings
in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when t
hey occurred,[10] as in Britain and Gaul. The sixty years of JewishRoman wars in
the second half of the first century and the first half of the 2nd century were
exceptional in their duration and violence.[11]
The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was li
mited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: the Julio-Claudian
dynasty lasted for four more emperorsTiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nerobefore
it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasi
an emerged as victor.
Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the
NervaAntonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Ha
drian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the v
iew of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession o
f the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to o
ne of rust and iron"[12]a famous comment which has led some historians, notably E
dward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Rom
an Empire.
In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all free
born inhabitants of the Empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Se
veran dynasty was tumultuousan emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder
or executionand following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Cris
is of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic depressio
n, and plague.[13] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewe
d as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. The emac
iated illusion of the old Republic was sacrificed for the sake of imposing order
: Diocletian (reigned 284305) brought the Empire back from the brink, but decline
d the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly as
domine, "master" or "lord".[14] Diocletian's reign also brought the Empire's mo
st concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great Per
secution".The state of autocratic absolutism that began with Diocletius as the D
ominate endured until the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.
The unity of the Roman Empire was from this point a fiction, as graphically reve
aled by Diocletian's division of authority among four "co-emperors", the Tetrarc
hy.[15] Order was shaken again soon after, but was restored by Constantine, who
became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constan
tinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Cons
tantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an east-west a
xis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. The reign of Julian, wh
o attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly in
terrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor t
o rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the off
icial state religion.[16]
The Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the late 4th and early 5th century as
invasions overwhelmed the capacity of the Empire to govern and mount a coordinat
ed defense. Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman empire in 476,
when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[
17] The empire in the Eastknown today as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in
its time as the "Roman Empire" or by various other namesended in 1453 with the d
eath of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.[18]
Geography and demography[edit]
Further information: Classical demography
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories
throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.[19][19] The Latin phrase i
mperium sine fine ("empire without end"[20]) expressed the ideology that neither
time nor space limited the Empire. In Vergil's epic poem the Aeneid, limitless
empire is said to be granted to the Romans by their supreme deity Jupiter.[21] T
his claim of universal dominion was renewed and perpetuated when the Empire came
under Christian rule in the 4th century.[22]
In reality, Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though p
arts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century AD, when Roman control
in Europe, Africa and Asia was strengthened. During the reign of Augustus, a "g
lobal map of the known world" was displayed for the first time in public at Rome
, coinciding with the composition of the most comprehensive work on political ge
ography that survives from antiquity, the Geography of the Pontic Greek writer S
trabo.[23] When Augustus died, the commemorative account of his achievements (Re
s Gestae) prominently featured the geographical cataloging of peoples and places
within the Empire.[24] Geography, the census, and the meticulous keeping of wri
tten records were central concerns of Roman Imperial administration.[25]
A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
The Empire reached its largest expanse under Trajan (reigned 98117),[26] encompas
sing an area of 5 million square kilometres that as of 2009 was divided among fo
rty different modern countries.[27] The traditional population estimate of 5560 m
illion inhabitants[28] accounted for between one-sixth and one-fourth of the wor
ld's total population[29] and made it the largest population of any unified poli
tical entity in the West until the mid-19th century.[30] Recent demographic stud
ies have argued for a population peak ranging from 70 million to more than 100 m
illion.[31] Each of the three largest cities in the EmpireRome, Alexandria, and A
ntioch was almost twice the size of any European city at the beginning of the 17t
h century.[32]
As the historian Christopher Kelly has described it:
Then the empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in drizzle-soaked northern England
to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates in Syria; from the great RhineDanube riv
er system, which snaked across the fertile, flat lands of Europe from the Low Co
untries to the Black Sea, to the rich plains of the North African coast and the
luxuriant gash of the Nile Valley in Egypt. The empire completely circled the Me
diterranean ... referred to by its conquerors as mare nostrum'our sea'.[28]
Trajan's successor Hadrian adopted a policy of maintaining rather than expanding
the empire. Borders (fines) were marked, and the frontiers (limites) patrolled.
[33] The most heavily fortified borders were the most unstable.[34] Hadrian's Wa
ll, which separated the Roman world from what was perceived as an ever-present b
arbarian threat, is the primary surviving monument of this effort.[35]
Languages[edit]
Main article: Languages of the Roman Empire
The language of the Romans was Latin, which Virgil emphasizes as a source of Rom
an unity and tradition.[36] Until the time of Alexander Severus (reigned 222235),
the birth certificates and wills of Roman citizens had to be written in Latin.[
37] Latin was the language of the law courts in the West and of the military thr
oughout the Empire,[38] but was not imposed officially on peoples brought under
Roman rule.[39] This policy contrasts with that of Alexander the Great, who aime
d to impose Greek throughout his empire as the official language.[40] As a conse
quence of Alexander's conquests, koine Greek had become the shared language arou
nd the eastern Mediterranean and into Asia Minor.[41] The "linguistic frontier"
dividing the Latin West and the Greek East passed through the Balkan peninsula.[
42]
A 5th-century papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by Cicero[
43]
Romans who received an elite education studied Greek as a literary language, and
most men of the governing classes could speak Greek.[44] The Julio-Claudian emp
erors encouraged high standards of correct Latin (Latinitas), a linguistic movem
ent identified in modern terms as Classical Latin, and favored Latin for conduct
ing official business.[45] Claudius tried to limit the use of Greek, and on occa
sion revoked the citizenship of those who lacked Latin, but even in the Senate h
e drew on his own bilingualism in communicating with Greek-speaking ambassadors.
[45] Suetonius quotes him as referring to "our two languages".[46]
In the Eastern empire, laws and official documents were regularly translated int
o Greek from Latin.[47] The everyday interpenetration of the two languages is in
dicated by bilingual inscriptions, which sometimes even switch back and forth be
tween Greek and Latin.[48] After all freeborn inhabitants of the empire were uni
versally enfranchised in 212 AD, a great number of Roman citizens would have lac
ked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least a token knowledge, and
Latin remained a marker of "Romanness."[49]
Among other reforms, the emperor Diocletian (reigned 284305) sought to renew the
authority of Latin, and the Greek expression he kratousa dialektos attests to th
e continuing status of Latin as "the language of power."[50] In the early 6th ce
ntury, the emperor Justinian engaged in a quixotic effort to reassert the status
of Latin as the language of law, even though in his time Latin no longer held a
ny currency as a living language in the East.[51]
Local languages and linguistic legacy[edit]
Bilingual Latin-Punic inscription at the theatre in Leptis Magna, Roman Africa (
present-day Libya)
References to interpreters indicate the continuing use of local languages other
than Greek and Latin, particularly in Egypt, where Coptic predominated, and in m
ilitary settings along the Rhine and Danube. Roman jurists also show a concern f
or local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct u
nderstanding and application of laws and oaths.[52] In the province of Africa, P
unic was used for legends on coins during the time of Tiberius (1st century AD),
and Punic inscriptions appear on public buildings into the 2nd century, some bi
lingual with Latin.[53] In Syria, Palmyrene soldiers even used their dialect of
Aramaic for inscriptions, in a striking exception to the rule that Latin was the
language of the military.[54]
The Babatha Archive is a suggestive example of multilingualism in the Empire. Th
ese papyri, named for a Jewish woman in the province of Arabia and dating from 9
3 to 132 AD, mostly employ Aramaic, the local language, written in Greek charact
ers with Semitic and Latin influences; a petition to the Roman governor, however
, was written in Greek.[55]
The dominance of Latin among the literate elite may obscure the continuity of sp
oken languages, since all cultures within the Roman Empire were predominantly or
al.[56] In the West, Latin, referred to in its spoken form as Vulgar Latin, grad
ually replaced Celtic and Italic languages that were related to it by a shared I
ndo-European origin. Commonalities in syntax and vocabulary facilitated the adop
tion of Latin.[57] Basque, not an Indo-European language, survived in the region
of the Pyrenees.[58]
After the decentralization of political power in late antiquity, Latin developed
locally into branches that became the Romance languages, such as Spanish, Portu
guese, French, Italian and Romanian. As an international language of learning an
d literature, Latin itself continued as an active medium of expression for diplo
macy and for intellectual developments identified with Renaissance humanism up t
o the 17th century, and for law and the Roman Catholic Church to the present.[59
]
Although Greek continued as the language of the Byzantine Empire, linguistic dis
tribution in the East was more complex. A Greek-speaking majority lived in the G
reek peninsula and islands, western Anatolia, major cities, and some coastal are
as.[60] Like Greek and Latin, the Thracian language was of Indo-European origin,
as were several now-extinct languages in Anatolia attested by Imperial-era insc
riptions.[61] Various Afroasiatic languagesprimarily Coptic in Egypt, and Aramaic
in Syria and Mesopotamiawere never replaced by Greek. The international use of G
reek, however, was one factor enabling the spread of Christianity, as indicated
for example by the use of Greek for the Epistles of Paul.[62]