Ancient Rome lasted nearly Twenty-one Centuries

Tom Kando 

We recently re-watched two magnificent TV miniseries: 

1. The 2005-7 HBO series “ROME,” (Rome).

2. The 1976 series “I, Claudius,”  based on Robert Graves’ 1934 book I, Claudius. 

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb both give these two series extremely high marks, rightly so. 

The 2005-7 series covers the era lasting from 52 BC to about 30 BC: In 52 BC, Caesar completed Rome’s conquest of Gaul. In 30 BC, Emperor Augustus (Octavian) completed his takeover of absolute power over the entire empire. The series is about Rome’s transition from a republic to an empire. This is the best-known and most frequently described period of Roman history. It lasted from the middle of the first century BC to the beginning of the first century AD. In other words, from Julius Caesar through Octavian Augustus. 

The 1976 series covers the life of Emperor Claudius, from his birth in 24 BC to his death in 54 AD. Therefore, it picks up roughly when Augustus has been in power for about six years, and covers the remainder of that emperor’s reign plus the reigns of his three successors - Emperors Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius. 

Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC. He was elected to Rome’s highest office - Consul - in 59 BC. He spent much of the following decade (from 58 BC to 49 BC) waging war against the Gauls, and conquering much of the territory that is now France. He won his most important victory at the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, where he defeated the joint Gallic forces led by Vercingetorix. In 49 BC, Caesar and his thirteenth legion crossed the Rubicon river, which constituted the border between Rome and its provinces. By doing so, Caesar invaded Rome and started a civil war which eventually gave him control of the Roman government. 

Before becoming sole ruler of Rome, Caesar had to wage war and defeat Pompey, who was his former ally. From 60 BC to 53 BC, Rome was ruled by the First Triumvirate, an alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. Pompey had long been one of Rome’s most successful generals. Crassus was Rome’s richest man. In 71 BC, he had defeated Spartacus and his army of slaves, crucifying all six thousand slaves who survived the battle. While a member of the first triumvirate, he waged war against the Parthians/Persians, who captured and killed him in 53 BC (see Plutarch). It is said that the Parthians poured molten gold into Crassus’ mouth (posthumously). The show Game of Thrones uses a similar fate suffered by an imaginary sovereign, which goes to show that reality often beats fantasy. 

Pompey was consul in 52 BC, after which his alliance with Caesar came to an end, and civil war between the two men and their respective supporters erupted. Caesar defeated Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus on August 9, 48 BC. This was a town in Central Greece, about hundred and seventy miles Northwest from Athens. 

Caesar’s rule over Rome lasted fewer than five years. Much of it occurred in abstentia, Caesar spending much of his time chasing down the remaining Pompeian forces and buttressing Egyptian queen Cleopatra’s regime. In 47 BC . Caesar and Cleopatra had a son named Caesarion. The boy was executed by Octavian/Augustus in 30 BC, shortly after his mother Cleopatra committed suicide. 

On the Ides of March (March 15), 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by Brutus, Cassius and several other Roman senators. The alliance behind this act consisted of the remnants of the Pompeian forces, plus Romans who deplored the fact that Rome was quickly changing from a relatively democratic republic into a dictatorial regime, in addition to a corrupt and privileged Patrician class in control of the plutocratic Roman senate. 

The regime that followed immediately upon Caesar’s death was the Second Triumvirate: It consisted of Mark Anthony, (83 BC - 30 BC). Lepidus and Octavian (63 BC - 14 AD). Marc Anthony was a general who had long been a loyal supporter of Caesar. Lepidus was a general who also supported Caesar. Octavian was Caesar’s grandnephew. He was born in 63 BC, thirty-seven years younger than Caesar, who adopted him as his son and heir to his immense fortune. 

The Second Triumvirate was in effect for eleven years, until 32 BC. It waged war against Caesar’s assassins Brutus, Cassius and other senators such as Cicero, and against remaining Pompeians and “Republicans.” This alliance’s primary goal was the repeal of Caesar’s dictatorship and the restoration of the Roman Republic as well as the Senate’s former power and privileges. 

The Triumvirate’s final defeat of the Republicans occurred in the dual Battle of Philippi on December 3 and December 23, 42 BC. Philippi is located about one hundred miles East of Thessalonika, in northern Greece. The battle involved two hundred thousand men, making it one of the largest ones in antiquity. One of the two major engagements was between the forces of Octavian and Brutus. It was essentially a draw. The other major battle opposed the forces lead by Mark Anthony and those of Cassius. Mark Anthony won a decisive victory. 

The final defeat of the Republicans by the Second Triumvirate was followed by a division of the Roman Empire into three spheres, each to be controlled and administered by one of the three triumvirs: 

Octavian became the chief administrator of Italy, including Rome. Mark Anthony assumed charge of Asia, much of the rest of the East, including Egypt, plus Gaul. Lepidus became governor of Africa. This tripartite division was inequitable, but it worked well for at least nine years. The allocation of “Africa” to Lepidus was inconsequential. The major emerging rivalry was between Octavian and Mark Anthony. 

The tripartite arrangement seemed to give the advantage to Octavian. After all, Italy and Rome itself, the imperial capital, were his. However, Mark Anthony ruled over Egypt and Alexandria. These were the empire’s breadbasket. Rome and the rest of Italy depended on the grain shipments from the fertile Nile Delta. Mark Anthony also governed the wealthy province of Gaul. 

Mark Anthony spent the next decade (42 BC to 32 BC) ruling the East, residing in such cities as Athens (Greece), Ephesus (Turkey) and Alexandria (Egypt), and also waging war against the Persian Parthian Empire. 

For most of this decade, the triumvirs cooperated in their join rule of the Roman Empire. However, by 33 BC, Octavian and Marc Anthony became enemies. By then, Anthony had settled in Alexandria with Queen Cleopatra. The two triumvirs declared war against each other. In the battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian defeated Mark Anthony. Actium is a Greek coastal town on the west coast of the Ionian Sea, two hundred miles West of Athens. Credit for the victory belongs to Marcus Agrippa, Octavian’s first military commander and head of the Roman navy. 

Octavian was now the sole ruler of the entire Roman nation. For the first time in over half a century, Rome was no longer at war against foreign foes such as the Gauls and the Parthians (Persians), nor was it embroiled in civil war, as it had been on and off for nineteen years. Octavian was now in a position to bring about peace and prosperity and the people of Rome welcomed this. There were few qualms about abandoning the Republican form of government. To complete the transition to an authoritarian one-man rule - Empire - Octavian used Caesar’s playbook. He gradually muscled the Senate to grant him a growing number of extraordinary powers and titles: He assumed the title “imperator” (commander) and in 27 BC he was granted the honorific name “Augustus” (the exalted one), the name by which he remains best known. All the while, the Senate continued to function in an advisory role. Octavian/Augustus became Rome’s first emperor, a position he kept for forty-five years, until his death in 14 AD. 

The near half century of peace, prosperity and expansion under Augustus’ reign was only the beginning of a much longer highly successful period, the age of the Pax Romana. This era can be said to have lasted over two centuries, from 31 BC (the Battle of Actium) to 180 AD (the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius). 

Beginning with Augustus’ reign, the Roman Empire expanded to its maximum size, which it maintained during the first and second centuries: The size of the empire was about two million square miles. The territories surrounded the entire Mediterranean Sea. The Romans called it “Mare Nostrum” (our Sea), not out of hubris or megalomania, but a reflection of the self-confident knowledge of being in charge. 

The empire’s population fluctuated between sixty and seventy million people, one fourth of the world. Periodic mass deaths were more often the result of plagues than wars or mismanagement. 

Here is a list of the emperors who followed Augustus and ruled for significant numbers of years:  

Tiberius 14 - 37 AD 23 years SO SO 

Caligula 37-41 4 BAD 

Claudius 41 - 54 13 SO SO 

Nero 54-68 14 BAD 

Vespasian 69-79 10 GOOD 

Domitian 81-96 15 BAD 

Nerva 96-98 1 GOOD 

Trajan 96-117 21 GOOD 

Hadrian 117-138 21 GOOD 

Antoninus Pius 138-161 23 GOOD 

Marcus Aurelius 161-180 19 GOOD 

Some of the emperors on this list are remembered as incompetent and/or as cruel monsters (Caligula, Nero, Domitian). Others among them were mediocre (Tiberius, Claudius). However, at least half a dozen of the emperors listed above did an effective and humane job of running the empire. 

This is not to say that the imperial government was a harmonious affair. Palace intrigue and assassinations were more the rule than the exception. This is why Roman history is such a rich source for novels and for Hollywood. 

Dynastic competition made sure that all heirs, potential heirs and occupants of the imperial throne were at risk of dying violently, a fate which befell many of them. 

Just in the list above, nearly half of those emperors were murdered: Caligula was stabbed to death by members of his Praetorian Guard. Claudius was poisoned by his wife Agrippina the Younger. Nero was forced to commit assisted suicide as he was attempting to flee. Domitian was assassinated by court officials. Marcus Aurelius died either from illness or from poisoning, And after the end of the golden age, just looking at the three centuries up to the final fall of the WEST Roman empire in 476 AD, things are just as bad: Of the nearly one hundred emperors up to that year, about one third , more than thirty, were assassinated. 

Equally subject to palatial violence were the members of the imperial families, especially those most likely to inherit the throne. Women were feverishly active in plotting against and murdering such relatives. Parents killed their children, nephews and siblings, children killed their parents and their siblings, spouses killed each other, etc. 

Consider a few examples just from the early part of the empire covered by the two television series under discussion: 

Augustus, the first emperor, was married to Livia Drusilla. One of Livia’s children was Tiberius, whom she desperately wished to become Emperor after Augustus’ death. However, Tiberius was the son of a previous husband, not a son of Augustus. A grandson of Augustus and his previous wife was Agrippa Postumus. Early on, Augustus had adopted him, making him a prime rival to Tiberius as heir to the throne. Agrippa Postumus died suspiciously, and some sources (Tacitus, for one) suggest that Livia Drusilla was implicated. The I, Claudius miniseries based on Robert Graves’ book goes so far as to suggest that Livia Drusilla also poisoned her husband, Augustus. There is no evidence of this, and Livia Drusilla has enjoyed some rehabilitation in recent years. Even so, there were many suspicious deaths among relatives and other people at or close to the imperial court during the reign of Augustus and his wife Livia Drusilla. Another suspicious death was that of Germanicus, a very popular general, married to Agrippina the elder (see (below), and a potential successor to Augustus. 

And then you have the Agrippinas: Agrippina the Elder (14 BC - AD 33) was Augustus’ grand-daughter. She was a fiercely competitive participant in palace politics. She was strongly opposed to the succession of Tiberius, Livia Drusilla’ favorite candidate. While Livia Drusilla won this competition (Tiberius did succeed Augustus), Agrippina the Elder won the next round, as her son Caligula succeeded Tiberius. 

Agrippina the Younger (AD 15-59) was Agrippina the Elder’s daughter, emperor Claudius’ fourth wife and emperor Nero’s mother. Desperate to see her son Nero accede to the emperorship, she poisoned possible rival pretenders. They included Britannicus, the son of her husband Emperor Claudius and his prior wife Messalina. 

After he became Emperor, thanks to Agrippina’s machinations, Nero showed little gratitude to his mother: He murdered her in AD 59. According to Suetonius and Tacitus, Nero also killed his wife Poppaea, who was pregnant at the time (AD 65). 

The literature about emperor Claudius has become kind to him. He suffered from cerebral palsy, a shortcoming for which he was teased and humiliated throughout his youth. Later, he is described as a gentle and wise emperor. He is said to have been a Republican, i.e. wanting to make Rome a Republic again and abolish empire. However, he was no pussycat, considering that he executed his third wife Messalina for adultery. 

* * * * * * * 

Although palace intrigues and dynastic competition were often murderous, the empire as a whole functioned smoothly and the population enjoyed peace and prosperity for several centuries. In some ways, Roman society was more enlightened than subsequent civilizations. For example, the ruling elite was assisted by highly educated slaves all the way to the highest levels. Manumission was frequent. Many slaves were able to buy their freedom. There was upward mobility. 

The historian Edward Gibbon wrote famously: If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which lapsed from the death of Domitian (96 AD) to the accession of Commodus (180 AD).  (A History of the Romans, Frank C. Bourne, p.436). 

Indeed, the first two centuries AD have been called Rome’s Golden Age. The rulers of Rome during the second century (from Emperor Nerva in the year 96 AD to Marcus Aurelius’ death in 180 AD) have been called the five good emperors (See list above). One interesting political trick which increased at least the chance of competent government was that a Roman Emperor could legally adopt and name a promising young man as his son and his successor. This legal fiction had begun when Caesar adopted Octavian. Succession thus was not necessarily based on blood, as it would be during much of the subsequent history of Europe, with dire consequences. Also, there was a gradual increase in the number of emperors who came from outside of Italy, for example Gaul, Spain, Africa and Asia. 

There has been a vast amount of talk about the decline and fall of Rome. Sometimes one reads that this began in 180 AD, when Marcus Aurelius died and his son Commodus (a would-be gladiator) inherited the throne. It is true that Commodus was a bad Emperor. Then too, conditions in the empire deteriorated due to the spread of plague at this time. However, it is a mistake to see a direct downward line starting in 180 AD and continuing to the final collapse of the empire. 

Furthermore, there are two views as to when the Roman Empire expired: The conventional “Eurocentric” view is that the empire’s official death occurred in 476, when the last Western/Italian Emperor, Augustulus, was deposed by a Germanic general and retired. 

However, this was only the end of the WESTERN Roman Empire. A second view is that the ultimate death of the Roman Empire occurred in 1453: The EASTERN Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire headquartered in Byzantium (later called Constantinople and today’s Istanbul) survived for another nine hundred and seventy-seven years until 1453, when the last Roman emperor died in battle against Sultan Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces at the fall of Constantinople. 

Thus, the West Roman Empire lasted nearly three additional centuries after the end of the Golden Age in 180 AD. While there was slow, long-term decline in the quality of life, there were many ups and downs. For example, Emperor Diocletian’s twenty-year long reign (284-305) was successful (although marked by a resumption of severe persecution of Christians). 

Whether one pegs the fall of Rome at the year 476 AD or nearly ten centuries later, in 1453 AD, the empire’s longevity and resilience are unsurpassed. 

The foundation of Rome: Romans themselves subscribed to the myth that the “eternal city” was founded in 753 BC by the wolf-fed twins Romulus and Remus. Archeology has determined that in reality, the city was founded in 625 BC. Thus the West Roman nation, based in Italy, lasted over eleven centuries, as it fell in 476 AD. After that, the East Roman empire based in Constantinople/ Byzantium lasted until 1453 AD, giving the Roman nation a total longevity of 2,078 years - nearly twenty-one centuries! This may be, with the possible exception of China, the longest continuous regime in the history of the world. Had Rome survived beyond the fifteenth century, the world might be far ahead of where it is today. leave comment here