Eastern Rome and the West

The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) was the post-Republican period
of the ancient Roman civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of
government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in
Europe, Africa, and Asia. The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it,
had been destabilized through a series of civil wars. Several events marked the
transition from Republic 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
and prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). It reached its greatest
expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD). In the 3rd century, the Empire
underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified and stabilized
under the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian. Christians rose to power in the 4th
century, 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
known as the Byzantine Empire.

Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and
culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of
language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the
territory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European
expansionism throughout the modern world.

Rome had begun annexing provinces in the 3rd century BC, four centuries before
reaching its greatest territorial extent, and in that sense was an "empire" while
still governed as a republic. Republican provinces were administered by former
consuls and praetors, who had been elected to one-year terms and held
imperium, "right of command". The amassing of disproportionate wealth and
military power by a few men through their provincial commands was a major
factor in the transition from republic to imperial autocracy. Later, the position of
power held by the emperor was expressed as imperium. The Latin word is the
origin of English "empire," a meaning it began to acquire only later in Rome's
history.

As the first emperor, Augustus took the official position that he had saved the
Republic, and carefully framed his powers within republican constitutional
principles. He rejected titles that Romans associated with monarchy, and instead
referred to himself as the princeps, "leading citizen". Consuls continued to be
elected, tribunes of the people continued to put forth legislation, and senators
still 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
foundation for the three centuries of the Empire known as the Principate (27 BC–
284 AD), the first 200 years of which is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana.
During this period, the cohesion of the Empire was furthered by participation in
civic life, economic ties, and shared cultural, legal and religious norms. Uprisings
in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when
they occurred, as in Britain and Gaul. The sixty years of Jewish–Roman wars in the
second half of the first century and the first half of the 2nd century were
exceptional in their duration and violence.

The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was

limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: the Julio-Claudian
dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—
before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which
Vespasian emerged as victor.

Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the
Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva,
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius.
In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the
accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a
kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"—a famous comment which has led some
historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of
the decline of the Roman Empire.

In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all
freeborn inhabitants of the Empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the
Severan dynasty was tumultuous—an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his
murder or execution—and following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed
by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic
depression, and plague. In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes
viewed as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. The
emaciated illusion of the old Republic was sacrificed for the sake of imposing
order: Diocletian (reigned 284–305) brought the Empire back from the brink, but
declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed
regularly as domine, "master" or "lord". Diocletian's reign also brought the
Empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the
"Great Persecution".The state of autocratic absolutism that began with Diocletius
as the Dominate 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
revealed by Diocletian's division of authority among four "co-emperors", the
Tetrarchy. Order was shaken again soon after, but was restored by Constantine,
who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established
Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of
the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an
east-west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. The reign of
Julian, who attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only
briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last
emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity
the official state religion.

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
coordinated defence. Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman
empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic
warlord Odoacer. The empire in the East—known today as the Byzantine Empire,
but referred to in its time as the "Roman Empire" or by various other names—
ended in 1453 with the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to
the Ottoman Turks.

Several states claimed to be the Roman Empire's successors after the fall of the
Western Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire, an attempt to resurrect the
Empire in the West, was established in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Frankish
King Charlemagne as Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, though the empire and
the imperial office did not become formalized for some decades. After the fall of
Constantinople, the Russian Tsardom, as inheritor of the Byzantine Empire's
Orthodox Christian tradition, counted itself the Third Rome (Constantinople
having been the second). These concepts are known as Translatio imperii.

When the Ottomans, who based their state on the Byzantine model, took
Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II established his capital there and claimed to sit
on the throne of the Roman Empire. He even went so far as to launch an invasion
of Italy with the purpose of re-uniting the Empire and invited European artists to
his capital, including Gentile Bellini.

In the medieval West, "Roman" came to mean the church and the Pope of Rome.
The Greek form Romaioi remained attached to the Greek-speaking Christian
population of the Eastern Roman Empire, and is still used by Greeks in addition to
their common appellation.

The Roman Empire's territorial legacy of controlling the Italian peninsula would
serve as an influence to Italian nationalism and the unification of Italy
(Risorgimento) in 1861.

In the United States, the founders were educated in the classical tradition, and
used classical models for landmarks and buildings in Washington, D.C., to avoid
the feudal and religious connotations of European architecture such as castles
and cathedrals. In forming their theory of the mixed constitution, the founders
looked to Athenian democracy and Roman republicanism for models, but
regarded the Roman emperor as a figure of tyranny. They nonetheless adopted
Roman Imperial forms such as the dome, as represented by the US Capitol and
numerous state capitol buildings, to express classical ideals through architecture.
Thomas Jefferson saw the Empire as a negative political lesson, but was a chief
proponent of its architectural models. Jefferson's design for the Virginia State
Capitol, for instance, is modelled directly from the Maison Carrée, a Gallo-Roman
temple built under Augustus. The renovations of the National Mall at the
beginning of the 20th century have been viewed as expressing a more overt
imperialist kinship with Rome.

As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the central

government in Rome could not effectively rule the distant provinces.
Communications and transportation were especially problematic given the vast
extent of the Empire. News of invasion, revolt, natural disasters, or epidemic
outbreak was carried by ship or mounted postal service, often requiring much
time to reach Rome and for Rome's orders to be realized in the province of origin.
For this reason, provincial governors had de facto rule in the name of the Roman
Republic.
Prior to the establishment of the Empire, the territories of the Roman
Republic had been divided in 43 BC among the members of the Second
Triumvirate: Mark Antony, Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Antony
received the provinces in the East: Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus (roughly
modern Greece, Albania and the coast
of Croatia), Bithynia, Pontusand Asia (roughly modern Turkey), Syria, Cyprus,
and Cyrenaica. These lands had previously been conquered by Alexander the
Great; thus, much of the aristocracy was of Greek origin. The whole region,
especially the major cities, had been largely assimilated into Greek
culture, Greek often serving as the lingua franca.
Octavian obtained the Roman provinces of the
West: Italia (modern Italy), Gaul(modern France), Gallia Belgica (parts of
modern Belgium, the Netherlandsand Luxembourg),
and Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal). These lands also included Greek and
Carthaginian colonies in the coastal areas, though Celtic tribes such
as Gauls and Celtiberians were culturally dominant. Lepidus received the minor
province of Africa (roughly modern Tunisia). Octavian soon took Africa from
Lepidus, while adding Sicilia (modern Sicily) to his holdings.
Upon the defeat of Mark Antony, a victorious Octavian controlled a united Roman
Empire. While the Roman Empire featured many distinct cultures, all were often
said to experience gradual Romanization. While the predominantly Greek culture
of the East and the predominantly Latin culture of the West functioned effectively
as an integrated whole, political and military developments would ultimately
realign the Empire along those cultural and linguistic lines.
Rebellions, uprisings, and political developments
Minor rebellions and uprisings were fairly common events throughout the
Empire. Conquered tribes or cities would revolt, and the legions would be
detached to crush the rebellion. While this process was simple in peacetime, it
could be considerably more complicated in wartime, as for example in the Great
Jewish Revolt.
In a full-blown military campaign, the legions, under generals such as Vespasian,
were far more numerous. To ensure a commander's loyalty, a pragmatic emperor
might hold some members of the general's family hostage. To this
end, Neroeffectively held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis, governor
of Ostia, who were respectively the younger son and brother-in-law of Vespasian.
The rule of Nero ended only with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard, who had
been bribed in the name of Galba. The Praetorian Guard, a figurative "sword
of Damocles", were often perceived as being of dubious loyalty. Following their
example, the legions at the borders increased participation in the civil wars.
The main enemy in the West was arguably the Germanic tribes behind the
rivers Rhine and Danube. Augustus had tried to conquer them but ultimately
pulled back after the Teutoburg reversal.

The Parthian Empire, in the East, on the other hand, was too remote and
powerful to be conquered. Any Parthian invasion was confronted and usually
defeated; similarly, Parthians repelled some attempts of Roman invasion,
however, even after successful wars of conquest — such as those implemented
by Trajan and Septimius Severus — those distant territories were forsaken to
prevent unrest and also to ensure a more healthy and lasting peace with the
Persians. The Parthians were followed by the Sasanian Empire, which continued
hostilities with the Roman Empire.
Controlling the western border of Rome was reasonably easy because it was
relatively close and also because of the disunity between the Germanic foes,
however, controlling both frontiers altogether during wartime was difficult. If the
emperor was near the border in the East, chances were high that an ambitious
general would rebel in the West and vice versa. This wartime opportunism
plagued many ruling emperors and indeed paved the road to power for several
future emperors.
Economic stagnation in the West
Rome and the Italian peninsula began to experience an economic slowdown as
industries and money began to move outward. By the beginning of the 2nd
century AD, the economic stagnation of Italia was seen in the provincial-
bornEmperors, such as Trajan and Hadrian. Economic problems increased in
strength and frequency.
Crisis of the 3rd century
Starting on 18 March 235, with the assassination of the Emperor Alexander
Severus, the Roman Empire sank into a 50-year civil war, known today as
the Crisis of the Third Century. The rise of the bellicose Sassanid
dynasty in Parthia posed a major threat to Rome in the east. Demonstrating the
increased danger, Emperor Valerian was captured by Shapur I in 259. His eldest
son and heir-apparent, Gallienus, succeeded and took up the fight on the eastern
frontier. Gallienus' son, Saloninus, and the Praetorian Prefect Silvanus were
residing in Colonia Agrippina (modern Cologne) to solidify the loyalty of the local
legions. Nevertheless, Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus - the local governor of
the German provinces — rebelled; his assault on Colonia Agrippina resulted in the
deaths of Saloninus and the prefect. In the confusion that followed, an
independent state known as the Gallic Empire emerged.
Its capital was Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier), and it quickly expanded its
control over the German and Gaulish provinces and over all
of Hispania and Britannia. It had its own senate, and a partial list of its consuls still
survives. It maintained Roman religion, language, and culture, and was far more
concerned with fighting the Germanic tribes than other Romans. However, in the
reign of Claudius Gothicus (268 to 270), large expanses of the Gallic Empire were
restored to Roman rule. At roughly the same time, several eastern provinces
seceded under the Palmyrene Empire, under the rule of Queen Zenobia.
In 272, Emperor Aurelian finally managed to reclaim Palmyra and its territory for
the empire. With the East secure, his attention was turned to the West, taking the
Gallic Empire a year later. Because of a secret deal between Aurelian and Gallic
Emperor Tetricus I and his son Tetricus II, the Gallic army was swiftly defeated. In
exchange, Aurelian spared their lives and gave the two former rebels important
positions in Italy.
Tetrarchy

The external borders were mostly stable for the remainder of the Crisis of the
Third Century, although, between the death of Aurelian in 275 and the accession
of Diocletian ten years later, at least eight emperors or would-be emperors were
killed, many assassinated by their own troops.
Under Diocletian, the political division of the Roman Empire began. In 285, he
promoted Maximian to the rank of Augustus (Emperor) and gave him control of
the Western regions of the Empire. In 293, Galerius and Constantius Chloruswere
appointed as their subordinates (Caesars), creating the First Tetrarchy. This
system effectively divided the Empire into four major regions and created
separate capitals besides Rome as a way to avoid the civil unrest that had marked
the 3rd century. In the West, the capitals were
Maximian's Mediolanum (now Milan) and Constantius' Trier. In the East, the
capitals were Sirmium and Nicomedia. On 1 May 305, the two senior Augusti
stepped down, and their respective Caesars were promoted to Augusti and
appointed two new Caesars, thus creating the Second Tetrarchy.
The West, less urbanized with a spread-out populace, may have experienced an
economic decline throughout the Late Empire in some provinces. Southern Italy,
northern Gaul (except for large towns and cities) to some extent Spain and the
Danubian areas may have suffered. The East was not so destitute, especially as
Emperors like Constantine the Great and Constantius II had invested heavily in the
eastern economy. As a result, the Eastern Empire could afford large numbers of
professional soldiers and augment them with mercenaries, while the Western
Roman Empire could not afford this to the same extent. Even in major defeats,
the East could, certainly not without difficulties, buy off its enemies with a
ransom.
The political, economic and military control of the Eastern Empire's resources
remained safe in Constantinople, which was well fortified and located at the
crossroads of several major trade and military routes. In contrast, the Western
Empire was more fragmented. Its capital was transferred to Ravenna in 402
largely for defensive reasons, and it had easy access to the imperial fleet of the
Eastern Empire but was isolated in other aspects as it was surrounded by swamps
and marshes. The economic power remained focused on Rome and its hyper-rich
senatorial aristocracy which dominated much of Italy and Africa in particular.
After Gallienus banned senators from army commands in the mid-3rd century,
the senatorial elite lost all experience of—and interest in—military life. In the
early 5th century the wealthy landowning elite of the Roman Senate largely
barred its tenants from military service, but it also refused to approve sufficient
funding for maintaining a sufficiently powerful mercenary army to defend the
entire Western Empire. The West's most important military area had been
northern Gaul and the Rhine frontier in the 4th century, when Trier frequently
served as the capital of the Empire and many leading Western generals
were Barbarians. After the civil war in 394 between Theodosius I and Eugenius,
the new Western government installed by Theodosius I increasingly had to divert
military resources from Britain and the Rhine to protect Italy. This, in turn, led to
further rebellions and civil wars because the Western imperial government was
not providing the military protection the northern provinces expected and
needed against the barbarians.
The Western Empire's resources were much limited, and the lack of available
manpower forced the government to rely ever more on confederate barbarian
troops operating under their own commanders, where the Western Empire would
often have difficulties paying. In certain cases deals were struck with the leaders
of barbaric mercenaries rewarding them with land, which led to the Empire's
decline as less land meant there would be less tax revenue to support the
military.
As the central power weakened, the State gradually lost control of its borders and
provinces, as well as control over the Mediterranean Sea. Roman Emperors tried
to maintain control of the sea, but, once the Vandals conquered North Africa,
imperial authorities had to cover too much ground with too few resources. The
loss of the African provinces might have been the worse reversal on the West's
fortunes, since they were among its wealthiest territories and supplied the
essential grain imports to Italy. In many places, the Roman institutions collapsed
along with the economic stability. In some regions, such as Gaul and Italy, the
settlement of barbarians on former Roman lands seems to have caused relatively
little disruption.
Remaining as emperor after the death of Stilicho in 408, Honorius reigned until his
own death in 423. His reign was filled with usurpations and invasions. In 410,
Rome was sacked by Alaric's forces. This event made a great impression on
contemporaries, as this was the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th
century BC that the city had fallen to a foreign enemy. Under Alaric's successors,
the Goths then settled in Gaul (412–418), from where they operated as Roman
allies against the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi in Spain, and against the
usurper Jovinus (413). Meanwhile, another usurper, Constantine(406–411), had
stripped Roman Britain of its defenses when he crossed over to Gaul in 407,
leaving the Romanized population subject to invasions, first by the Picts and then
by the Saxons, Angli, and the Jutes who began to settle permanently from about
440 onwards.
Honorius' death in 423 was followed by turmoil until the Eastern Roman
government with the force of arms installed Valentinian III as Western Emperor in
Ravenna, with Galla Placidia acting as regent during her son's minority. After a
violent struggle with several rivals, and against Placidia's wish, Aetius rose to the
rank of magister militum. Aetius was able to stabilize the Western Empire's
military situation somewhat, relying heavily on his Hunnic allies. With their help,
he defeated the Burgundians, who had occupied part of southern Gaul after 407,
and settled them in Savoy as Roman allies (433). Later that century, as Roman
power faded away, the Burgundians extended their rule to the Rhone valley.
Meanwhile, pressure from the Visigoths and a rebellion by Bonifacius, the
governor of Africa, induced the Vandals under their king Gaiseric to cross over
from Spain in 429. They temporarily halted in Numidia (435) before moving
eastward and capturing Carthage, from where they established an independent
state with a powerful navy (439). The Vandal fleet became a constant danger to
Roman sea trade and the coasts and islands of the western and central
Mediterranean.
In 444, the Huns, who had been employed as Roman allies by Aetius, were united
under their ambitious king Attila. Turning against their former ally, the Huns
became a formidable threat to the Empire. Attila then received a plea for help
and the ring of Honoria, the Emperor's sister. Threatening war, he claimed half of
the Western Empire's territory as his dowry.
Faced with refusal, he invaded Gaul and was only stopped in the battle of the
Catalaunian Plains by a combined Roman-Germanic army led by Aetius. The next
year, Attila invaded Italy and proceeded to march upon Rome, but an outbreak of
disease in his army, Pope Leo's plea for peace, and reports of a campaign
of Marcianus directed at his headquarters in Pannonia induced him to halt this
campaign. Attila unexpectedly died a year later (453).
Aetius was slain in 454 by Valentinian, who was then himself murdered by the
dead general's supporters a year later. With the end of the Theodosian dynasty, a
new period of dynastic struggle ensued. The Vandals took advantage of the unrest
and sailed up to Rome, which they plundered in 455.
The instability caused by usurpers throughout the Western Empire helped these
tribes in their conquests, and by the 450s the Germanic tribes had become
usurpers themselves. During the next twenty years, several Western Emperors
were installed by Constantinople, but their authority relied upon barbarian
commanders (Ricimer (456–472), Gundobad (473–475)). Majorian was the last
emperor to campaign in Gaul and Spain in 458-460 before being deposed and
murdered by Ricimer. From the 460s onwards, imperial control was effectively
restricted to Italy and southern Gaul as the remaining Western provinces refused
to accept Ricimer's appointment of Libius Severus in 461.
In 475, Orestes, a former secretary of Attila, drove Emperor Julius Nepos out
of Ravenna and proclaimed his own son Romulus Augustus as emperor. In 476,
Orestes refused to grant Odoacer and the Heruli federated status, prompting an
invasion. Orestes was killed and Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, installed
himself as ruler over Italy and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople.
Although isolated pockets of Roman rule continued even after 476, the city of
Rome itself was under the rule of the barbarians, and the control of Rome over
the West had effectively ended.
Three rump states continued under Roman rule in some form or another after
476: Julius Nepos controlled Dalmatia until his murder in 480. Syagrius ruled
the Domain of Soissons until his murder in 487. Lastly, a Roman-Moor
realm survived in north Africa, resisting Vandal incursions, and becoming a part of
the Eastern Roman Empire c.533 when Belisarius defeated the Vandals.