The Roman Empire

By Bennett Sherry

By the time it got an emperor, Rome was already an empire. Its conquests
connected new parts of the world, but cultural exchange, new trade
networks, and luxury shopping habits also changed Rome.

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Bennett Sherry

Background
Historians generally divide the history of the Roman state into three large periods. The city of Rome itself was built
at a favorable location: one of the few places people could cross the River Tiber, surrounded by hills that could be
defended, and with nearby farmland. Early in its history, it was dominated by nearby states, but maybe around 753
BCE it became an independent kingdom, Rome’s first period. We don’t know when this happened for sure, because
a lot of Rome’s early records were destroyed and most of what we know comes from oral tradition. Rome had kings
for around two and a half centuries. Then, around 509 BCE, it became a republic, with some democratic features,
Rome’s second period. The republic lasted for almost 500 years.

In 27 BCE, Rome entered its third period. Caesar Augustus became Rome’s first emperor, and the Roman Republic
was replaced by the Roman Empire. Or at least that’s the story. In reality, Rome had an empire long before it
became an empire. The Roman Republic controlled a multitude of cultures and peoples all around the Mediterranean
Sea for centuries before Augustus became the first actual emperor.

A map showing Roman conquests during the Republican period. Rome had an empire
well before Julius Caesar was even born. Public domain.

Formation
Though he took the title princeps, meaning “first” or “foremost,” there’s no doubt that Augustus, and only Augustus,
ruled the Roman Empire. He enacted a set of reforms that changed Roman politics and launched a golden age of
peace and stability within the empire. This period, from 27 BCE to 180 CE is known as the Pax Romana (Roman
Peace). Beginning with Augustus, the Roman emperors seized more power over the political life of the empire and its
military. They kept many of the titles and traditions of the Republic, but in practice they ruled as dictators. The figure
of the emperor became central to Roman political life. His image was minted on coins, and he was linked to the gods.

Augustus only ever claimed to be the son of a god (very humble). But after his death the Senate declared him a full
god. Several later emperors were also honored in this way.
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You know you’ve made it big when your face is on money. This Roman coin carries the image of Augustus,
and the inscription, “DIVVS IVLIVS” means “Divine Julius.” By Classical Numismatic Group, CC BY-SA 2.5.

Administration – Human Resources

The Roman Empire expanded during the first century after Augustus, reaching its height in 117 CE. These wars
of expansion shaped life in the empire. They made military service an important way for men to gain political
power and wealth. And Rome’s wars of conquest ensured a steady supply of enslaved people. These people, unlike
citizens, could not be drafted into the Roman army, so they were a more reliable labor source for the wealthy people
who enslaved them. By 1 CE, as much as one-third of the people living on the Italian peninsula were enslaved.
These people were forced to work on plantations owned by wealthy Romans who turned from subsistence farming
toward more lucrative crops like olives. Enslaved people could be freed or purchase their own freedom. People
freed in this way gained limited rights, and their children were born Roman citizens.

The Roman Empire under Augustus ruled about 45 million people. Only 4 million of these were citizens. At its peak,
Rome was the largest city in the world, with a population of 1 million or so. The empire controlled 2 million square
miles of territory. This many people and this much land required sophisticated administration and technology.
Hundreds of miles of Roman roads connected the empire, linking its cities, allowing its armies to march, and
facilitating trade. Aqueducts linked major cities to the essential resource of fresh water.

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A Roman aqueduct in southern France that carried water to the city of Nîmes. By Benh Lieu Song, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Religion and Culture – Beliefs that Travel

The Romans generally avoided forcing their
religion on the people they conquered. As long as
people paid their taxes to Rome and followed
Roman rules, they were allowed to practice their
own religion. This tolerance changed Roman
culture. Early Romans adopted Greek gods and
religious practices, with some alterations to suit
a Roman context. But as the empire expanded,
cross-cultural encounters reshaped Roman
approaches to religion. Roman soldiers and
officials who had journeyed to the edges of the
empire returned home with new beliefs from
abroad. For example, the cult of Mithras—
inspired by Mithra from Persian Zoroastrianism—
spread across the Roman world. Similarly, other A relief of Mithras killing a bull. The Cult of Mithras was popular among
foreign gods like Isis from Egypt and Baal from soldiers, which is part of why it spread so quickly through the empire. By
Mesopotamia were refashioned and incorporated Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0.
in the Roman pantheon (group of gods).

Early Christians faced persecution for refusing to

honor the emperor. Unlike Roman religion, Christianity was a missionary religion—their goal was to convert the citizens
and subjects of Rome. It worked, because, by 313 CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine had legally recognized Christianity,
and by 380, Christianity was the empire’s state religion.

Trade Networks – Silk and More Silk

As the Roman Empire expanded and got richer, people in Rome wanted to use their new wealth to buy luxuries from
far away. Luxury shopping may sound unimportant, however, the vast trade networks that were extended to meet this
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Bennett Sherry

demand were anything but. Merchants linked Rome to the Chinese Han Empire, trading fancy silks and other luxuries.
By the time they reached Rome, these luxuries traveled across thousands of miles of desert, mountains, and sea.

There is some debate as to how far these networks extended. It’s unlikely that the two empires ever directly interacted.
Goods moved more like a relay race than a marathon. Networks of merchants in the Parthian and Kushan empires and
around the Indian Ocean carried spices and silk west and Roman metals and glass east. Most silk that made its way to
Rome came through India, where archaeologists have found many Roman coins. Spices from the Indian Ocean were
somewhat common in Rome. In the earliest Roman cookbook, titled Apicius, some recipes call for pepper, nutmeg,
cloves, and cumin, all of which came from the Indian Ocean. But it wasn’t all spice and silk–uninvited germs allowed
several devastating plagues to spread along these routes of exchange.

Spices and diseases aside, we can’t underestimate the importance of silk. These trade networks grew because
Romans craved this soft and beautiful fabric that only the Chinese knew how to make. There was so much silk being
imported that the Roman Senate restricted the trade. They worried that too much Roman wealth was leaving the
empire in exchange for silk, and the trade imbalance would ruin the Roman economy. However, silk was so popular
that attempts to ban it ultimately failed.

Women in Society
Silk tells us quite a bit about the place of women in
Roman society. For example, we know that part of the
reason the Roman Senate tried to ban silk was because
they believed the fabric was too revealing and
undermined good Roman morality. They worried that too
much silk corrupted Rome’s masculine virtues. Wealthy
women might have been able to afford the luxuries of
distant lands, but much of their public life was dictated
by men in Rome’s patriarchal society.

The early years of the Roman empire saw many such

attempts to regulate women. Augustus passed new
laws that gave advantages to women who married and
had children and punished those who did not. Augustus
hoped to impose an image of the moral Roman family on
the empire. In addition to regulations on women’s bodies
and sexuality, women in the Roman Empire lacked full
legal rights. They were technically citizens, but could
not vote or hold political office. Women were required
to have a male relative represent them in financial and
legal matters.

Still, many women in the empire worked within these

constraints to exercise political power. There are
instances of women who ran the estates of dead
husbands. Women could divorce their husbands, though
the husband retained custody of their children. Women A fresco from Pompeii depicting a maenad in silk dress. Maenads
of lower classes entered public life through work, while were mythical figures who went to parties thrown by Bacchus,
wealthy women often acted as influential advisors to the god specializing in excess and debauchery. Public domain.
their sons and husbands.
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Decline and Fall – Sort of

In 476 CE, Germanic tribes invaded, and the Roman Empire fell. All done. Finished. Next empire, please.

Or at least, that’s the story. It’s true that the Western Roman Empire was crippled by a poor economy and Germanic
invasions, but the Roman Empire didn’t really fall in 476. In fact, it lasted another 1,000 years.

After 180 CE, things got tough in the Roman Empire. As it expanded, it relied more on non-Romans to fill the ranks
of its army. Invasions by Germanic tribes in the north and the Sassanid Persians in the east combined with internal
disagreements to weaken the empire. In 284 CE, the emperor Diocletian divided the empire into two administrative
halves: east and west. In 324 CE, Emperor Constantine founded a new capital city in his name, Constantinople
(modern Istanbul). The city was a better location than Rome, since it was closer to Rome’s wealthiest provinces.
At first, the split between east and west was purely an administrative change to help the empire run better. The
Roman Empire was still a single entity. But increasingly, the two halves were ruled independently. So, by the time
the Germanic general Odoacer overthrew the last Western Roman emperor in 476, the western and eastern halves
of the empire were governed as two separate empires.

But did the Roman Empire fall in 476? Not really. There was division in the west, as Germanic tribes seized territory
and the empire crumbled from within. But in the east, there was consolidation and even expansion. The Roman
Empire remained a power in the eastern Mediterranean for another 1,000 years, even reconquering the Italian
Peninsula in the sixth century. Though historians have rebranded it the “Byzantine Empire,” the people living there
thought of themselves as Romans. For centuries after the so-called “fall of Rome,” these Romans continued to be
the most powerful state in the Mediterranean world.

A map of the Eastern Roman Empire after Justinian reconquered Italy and other lands in the west. By Tatatryn, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Sources
Ball, Warwick. Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Bentley, Jerry. Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993.
Harris, W.V. Roman Power: A Thousand Years of Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Liu, Xinru. The Silk Road in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. A Concise History of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Bennett Sherry
Bennett Sherry holds a PhD in History from the University of Pittsburgh and has undergraduate teaching experience in world
history, human rights, and the Middle East at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maine at Augusta. Additionally,
he is a Research Associate at Pitt’s World History Center. Bennett writes about refugees and international organizations in the
twentieth century.

Image credits
Cover: Augustus of Prima Porta - Portrait of the emperor Augustus Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus) (63
BC-14 AD) - Marble sculpture, 20 AD, from the Villa of Livia (Livia Drusilla also known as Julia Augusta, 58 BC-29 AD) at Prima
Porta, near Rome - Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums, Rome © Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images
A map showing Roman conquests during the Republican period. Rome had an empire well before Julius Caesar was even
born. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Expansion_of_Rome,_2nd_century_BC.gif
You know you’ve made it big when your face is on money. This Roman coin carries the image of Augustus, and the inscription,
“DIVVS IVLIVS” means “Divine Julius.” By Classical Numismatic Group, CC BY-SA 2.5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Augustus,_denarius,_19-18_BC,_RIC_I_37a.jpg
A Roman aqueduct in southern France that carried water to the city of Nîmes. By Benh Lieu Song, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pont_du_Gard_BLS.jpg
A relief of Mithras killing a bull. The Cult of Mithras was popular among soldiers, which is part of why it spread so quickly
through the empire. By Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Large_polychrome_
tauroctony_relief,_from_the_mithraeum_of_S._Stefano_Rotondo,_end_of_the_3rd_century_AD,_Baths_of_Diocletian_
Museum,_Rome_(22168758335).jpg
A fresco from Pompeii depicting a maenad in silk dress. Maenads were mythical figures who went to parties thrown by
Bacchus, the god specializing in excess and debauchery. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenad#/media/
File:Ménade_danzante,_Casa_del_Naviglio,_Pompeya.jpg
A map of the Eastern Roman Empire after Justinian reconquered Italy and other lands in the west. By Tatatryn, CC BY-SA 3.0.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justinian555AD.png

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