Funding of Rome
The entire world uses Latin letters. Half of the world speaks Latin-based languages. Their art inspired the Renaissance. Most of their scientific discoveries either lived too long or are still used as axioms.
During the Roman Empire, most of the civilized world was included within their borders. Pax Romana (the Roman world) was the first example of globalization.
The period of the Kings (753 BC-509 BC)
Before Rome was the capital of Italy and half of the civilized world, it was a small tribe village near the river Tiber. The tribe was surrounded by Etruscan up north, whose letters Rome adopted, and by Greek colonies in the South.
Did you guess where I am going? Etruscans and Greeks traded, so did it happen that Rome was in the middle between them? Thus, Rome was founded on trading paths.
Originally, Rome was open to all kinds of people, and most of all, the policy of Rome allowed Immigrants to become citizens with full rights.
This offer was time limited. However, it let Rome become one of the largest cities in ancient times.
There is a beautiful legend about the brothers Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a wolf, and then one brother killed the other and founded Rome. Romantic. Oh, Romans also thought that they were the refugees from Troy. Let’s remember the name Romulus for a long punchline, though.
Romulus was the first King. Yes, Rome was not a Republic from the beginning. Overall, based on legend, there were seven kings. They ruled long and gave the Romans something extraordinary:
- calendar
- aqueducts
- sewage
- A bunch of temples
And Guess what? Just like the language that we all pay credit for to the Romans, all of those awesome things they are famous for – Rome stole from the Etruscans.
On the other hand, there were no patents back then, so…
Also, very possible that most of their kings were Etruscans.
Why did the Kings stop ruling Rome? Because one of them could not keep his stuff in his pants. Literally. The son of the last King, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was in the middle of a sex scandal when he harassed a girl named Lucrecia. He and the King’s family were banished from Rome.
Republican Rome (510-31 BC)
After that nonsense, the Romans decided to limit the amount of power in one’s hands. Since then, two consuls were selected to rule Rome just for one year.
The consuls were controlled by the senate (300 fathers). Fathers could only come to form suitable families. If you are not from the right family, you are plebs, and plebs have no play in the government organization.
Plebs have been fighting for their rights for 200 years, and they were dangerous people. Why? Because plebs were 99% of the army. Eventually, Plebs got the rights in the senate. Also, the first laws were published on paper. Dura lex. Sed Lex (The law is harsh, but it is a law).
During the Republic phase, Rome also started the expansion. But started it because Rome was destroyed. In BC 390, the Gauls invaded Rome unexpectedly. The guard dogs did not feel the danger, and Gauls came through to the Capitolium. There, the geese woke up the last guards, and Rome was saved. Partially. The dogs, due to their failure, were crucified every year.
Rome decided to learn from its mistakes and reformed the army. The legion was divided into maniples, which made the army more mobile.
After the reformation, the army spent hundreds of years on the battlefields absorbing all territories around them, uniting Italy. Instead of unbearably taxing the neighbors they absorbed, Rome made union pacts in order to keep the country together and yet get sources for their army, money, and recruits.
After uniting Italy, the Roman army met a serious opponent in the form of Carthage. The punic Wars took over a hundred years to win.
At the same time as the Punic wars, Rome expanded to the East, and Greece became a part of the Roman Empire, bringing philosophy, language, and art to the table.
At this point, with so many territories joined to the Roman Empire, the limited offer ended. The only people with rights on this land are the Romans from Rome.
However, remembering the statement above, the lands are a great source of recruits. Recruits make the army. The army is powerful. In time, all the territories would get the same rights as Rome. And this is the foundation of the Empire.
After Rome was united, the Roman Empire experienced the disadvantages of globalization:
- small “businesses” (farms) are suffering
- the exploitation of the cheap labor market (enslaved people)
- Cities are overcrowded
- the difference between poor and rich increases drastically
- increasing resources consumption
Any pro-social movements were immediately punished by the senate, and people rose against the government – a civil war on its basis.
The generals offered their recruits land after several years of serving. Thus, the army became loyal to a general, not Rome or the senate.
Plenty of great warriors expanded Rome even further east and north; however, on their return to Rome, they would march to their triumph or ovation and then let their army go.
Julius Cesar decided not to listen to the senate. He fought other Roman legions and won.
Once Julius Cesar entered Rome, he consolidated all the possible power in his hands, and this made many people nervous. The rumor went – he wanted to become a King. The Senate decided – only over his dead body and made his body dead.
Guy Octavian August became his heir, and he was able to win against Mark Octavian.
Imperial Rome (31 BC-AD 476)
Guy Octavian August became an emperor for 43 years. Technically, the Republic still existed. However, he made sure that all possible titles belonged to him, making his power absolute. However, humbly, he named himself Princeps – first senator. Technicality.
Finally, Rome is at peace. for a long 200 years – Pax Romana (Roman peace)
Peacetime is the time economy grows, art and science are at their golden age, but people are still unhappy. Are they ever?
After August, the power started to be passed based on family connections, not the vote of the senate:
→August→Tiberius (killed people because they “do not respect him enough”)→Caligula (wanted to make his horse a senator)→Claudius(did not care for anything but food and feasts)→Nero(psychopathic poet)
Now, the particular unit, the emperor’s guards, decided who would rule and how the country would function. No more public speeches and debates.
During the rule of mentally unstable emperors, the Roman Empire was growing into the lands of Britain, North Africa, and Jerusalem.
The following century was named the century of the Five Good Emperors after the Flavian dynasty, which was a dynasty of good people. Who performed genocide in Jerusalem and made sure all people paid taxes for the fact that they existed, but were good people.
During the first good emperor, the Roman Empire was at its largest. Rome had over a million people in it. Also, during his reign, the Roman Empire was connected by the roads that are still being used in most of Europe.
The last of the Good emperors, Marcus Aurelius, spent most of his time in battles, and in his free time, he wrote the manifesto of Stoic philosophy – Meditations.
After Marcus’ death, Pax Romana ended. Why, because his son, Lucius, decided to be a Gladiator while being an emperor. In other words, he never cared for the Empire and its administration. During one of the fights, Rome was swollen by chaos.
In the next 100 years, the emperors were put on the throne by the army and also quickly removed by it—random people, from felons to formerly enslaved people.
In the third century, Rome was in a crisis at the level of catastrophe. The whole province separated from Rome, and Empire did not have the resources and an army to prevent it.
Diocletian, who came from a low-status family, made his way up from being a soldier. He became emperor in 284 and divided the Empire into four parts with four capitals and assigned a ruler to each of them. Rome lost its importance. The Senate became a city council. Now, the country was ruled by bureaucrats who reported to the emperor.
This was the end of the ancient world. The free citizen rights were no longer supported, and the relationships became more of the owner → slave. Emperor, from Princeps, became a dominus, citizen became a subject, the warrior became a soldier, and the farmer became a serf. This marked the beginning of the medieval feudal period.
After Diocletian renounced his power, the rulers from 4 different parts of the Empire started fighting for it. Constantine won that battle and adopted Christianity (another romantic legend about how he saw a cross, but more likely he did so because of the logic “One god – one king”). He founded the new capital of the Roman Empire – Constantinople. Theodosius I made Christianity official less than a hundred years later. He was the last emperor of the United Roman Empire.
After him, the East and West Roman Empires were co-ruled. The Byzantine Empire will survive for another 1000 years. West Empire was a victim of the Migration Period.
Rome, funded by immigrants, would be destroyed because of the new wave of immigration. And now promised punchline. The last emperor of the Western Roman Empire was Romulus.
Conclusion
Now, you will ask me. You do not do any political/social research on the Roman Empire. You focus on Slavs and their surroundings. Why start now?
When Ioan III, Moscow Prince, was ruling young Russia, Constantinople had fallen. Russia was the most robust Orthodox Christian government and, due to that, absorbed the idea that Russia was a Successor of the Byzantine Empire.
Philotheus of Pskov (hegumen) formulated the following prophecy during that time: Moscow, third Rome. The Forth shall never come.
Thus, I think it is important to understand teh predecessors in order to understand their descendants and what has historically driven their culture and social life.
References:
Prof. Smorchkov. Arzamas history podcast. 2017
A. Goldsworthy. “How the Rome fell.” 2009
Nigel Rodgers. “The history and conquests of Ancient Rome.” 2011
Golubinski E. “History of the Russian church.” 1900
World History encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Rome/
C. Nicolet. Space, geography, and politics in the early Roman Empire. 1991
Phoenix Safe Place 