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Emperors of Rome PDF

225 Pages·2007·1.077 MB·English
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Emperors of Rome Part I Professor Garrett G. Fagan THE TEACHING COMPANY ® Garrett G. Fagan, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History The Pennsylvania State University Garrett G. Fagan is Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History at Penn State University. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He received his Ph.D. from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and has held teaching positions at McMaster University, York University (Canada), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Davidson College, and Penn State University. In all these institutions, students have rated Professor Fagan’s courses on the classical world very highly. He has also given numerous public lectures to audiences of all ages. He has appeared on the PBS series NOVA and recorded interviews for The History Channel, National Public Radio, and Sirius Satellite Radio. Professor Fagan has an extensive research record in Roman history and has held a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship at the University of Cologne, Germany. He has published numerous articles in international journals, and his first monograph, Bathing in Public in the Roman World (1999), was published by the University of Michigan Press. An edited volume, Archaeological Fantasies, on the phenomenon of pseudoarchaeology (also known as “alternative” archaeology), appeared in 2006 with Routledge of London (U.K.). Professor Fagan is currently completing a book on spectatorship at the Roman arena and an edited volume on ancient warfare. ©2007 The Teaching Company i Table of Contents Emperors of Rome Part I Professor Biography...........................................................................................i Course Scope......................................................................................................1 Lecture One The Shape of Roman Imperial History.....................3 Lecture Two The Roman Republic................................................7 Lecture Three Caesar and the Suicide of the Republic ..................10 Lecture Four The First Emperor—Augustus................................14 Lecture Five The Powers of Augustus.........................................18 Lecture Six Succession Woes.....................................................22 Lecture Seven Livia Drusilla, Empress of Rome............................27 Lecture Eight The Early Years of Tiberius....................................31 Lecture Nine The Would-Be Emperor—Sejanus.........................35 Lecture Ten The Mad Emperor? Caligula...................................39 Lecture Eleven Killing Caligula, Finding Claudius.........................43 Lecture Twelve The Odd Couple—Claudius and Messalina............48 Timeline............................................................................................................52 Glossary............................................................................................................60 Biographical Notes.....................................................................................Part II Bibliography..............................................................................................Part III The Julio-Claudian Dynasty...........................................................................73 The Flavian Dynasty..................................................................................Part II The "Good Emperors"..............................................................................Part II The Severan Dynasty................................................................................Part III The Tetrarchy...........................................................................................Part III ii ©2007 The Teaching Company Emperors of Rome Scope: It has been claimed that the Roman emperors were the most powerful people who ever lived. At their height, they presided over a realm with footholds on three continents and a population of some 60 million souls. They had at their fingertips the wealth and resources of some of the richest lands on Earth. This course examines these emperors in all their fascinating diversity, from the enlightened and conscientious to the feckless and deranged. The course is essentially a series of biographic portraits, from Augustus, Julius Caesar’s grandnephew, to Constantine, who, in my view, was the last Roman emperor and the first medieval monarch. Along the way we will see what sort of men these emperors were. What background and training, if any, prepared them for their awesome responsibilities? What achievements can they claim? What depravities did they display? As the course progresses, we will also come to see the strengths and weaknesses of the available historical sources—how reliable they are and how skeptical we must be of many of them. We proceed chronologically and examine emperors by successive dynasty. When dynasties fail, we look at the main players in the civil wars fought to sort out who would found the next dynasty. Aside from such issues as these, four other matters will command our attention in varying degrees as we proceed. First, what was the role of imperial women at court? From what source did they draw their power? How did they exercise that power? Second, what was the relationship of the emperor to different groups in Roman society: to the city of Rome, the provinces, the Senate, the people, and the army? How was the empire run, and what was the role of the emperor in that system? Third, linked to the second, what was the shape of the political and social system that gave the emperor his position of dominance? Finally, any serious student of history requires, at the very least, notification of where the main scholarly debates lie in a given field of study. I draw attention to some of these debates as we go along. Our first two lectures set the stage, initially with a review of the primary sources on which such a course depends—literary sources, inscriptions, coins, and archaeological finds—followed by an examination of the political character of the Roman Republic, the soil from which the emperors sprang. The next 14 lectures address the best documented imperial dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, which started with Augustus in 31 B.C., and ended in A.D. 68 with Nero, who had so thoroughly rid himself of rivals that his death not only brought about the end of his dynasty but left a political vacuum as well. In A.D. 69, four emperors reigned, with Vespasian finally coming to power and establishing the Flavian Dynasty, which takes us through Lecture Nineteen. The Senate’s selection of Nerva in A.D. 96 set in motion another succession of ©2007 The Teaching Company 1 rulers, covered in Lectures Twenty through Twenty-Four, including, among others, Antoninus Pius (one of the handful of emperors to die peacefully in his bed) and the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. Lecture Twenty-Five marks a transition from one era of imperial history to another, with civil war and the establishment of the Severan Dynasty in 193; Lecture Twenty-Six covers the tumultuous years that followed and the dynasty’s collapse with the death of Severus Alexander in 235. In the next five lectures, we break from the biographic and chronological path and take a thematic route, looking closely at the emperors’ relationships over the decades to different entities in Roman society: the city of Rome itself, the provinces of the empire, the elite, the people, and the army. My hope is to address some issues that my focus on the lives and deeds of the individual rulers might otherwise have obscured. We resume our chronological path with Lecture Thirty-Two, aptly named “Chaos.” To illustrate how completely and quickly the situation deteriorated after the collapse of the Severan Dynasty, we need only note that in the 265 years between the rise of Augustus and the death of Severus Alexander, there were 24 legitimate emperors and 15 claimants; in the 50 years between the death of Severus Alexander in 235 and the accession of Diocletian, there were 21 legitimate emperors, 38 claimants, and 11 secessionist rulers. This lecture outlines the problems that generated this instability, then studies the reigns of four legitimate emperors as exemplars for how these problems played out during this difficult time. Lecture Thirty-Three covers the founding of Diocletian’s Tetrarchy and the reestablishment of order between 285 and 305. Lectures Thirty-Four and Thirty- Five examine the rise and reign of Constantine, whose conversion to Christianity and founding of Constantinople were to change the face of history. In my final lecture, I share some thoughts on this imperial roster and its fascinating parade of characters, examining in particular why the popular perception of “good” and “bad” emperors should be viewed with a skeptical eye and proposing that we use a different and far more accurate lens to assess the emperors of Rome. 2 ©2007 The Teaching Company Lecture One The Shape of Roman Imperial History Scope: The republican era of Rome dates from 509 to 31 B.C., and the most momentous and violent political upheavals in Roman history took place toward the end of that period. This course focuses on what came next, the rule of the emperors from Augustus to Constantine. These lectures are, essentially, a series of biographic portraits, sometimes encompassing towering achievement and progress and other times taking us into some of the darkest recesses of the human condition. After discussing an overview of the course and defining the term Roman imperial history, we will survey the ancient sources available for a study of Rome’s emperors: literary works, official inscriptions, physical remains of structures erected by emperors, and coins stamped with official messages of the emperors. While each source has its strengths and weaknesses, each of them also sheds light, in its own way, on this most intriguing and significant time in human history. Outline I. This course focuses on the rule of the Roman emperors, concentrating on the personalities and actions of the rulers from Augustus to Constantine. A. In addition to looking at what sort of men these emperors were, we will look at their awesome responsibilities, their achievements, and on occasion, their depravities. B. Four other matters will also command our attention. 1. What was the role of imperial women at court, and how did they exercise their power? 2. What was the relationship of the emperor to different groups in Roman society—the city of Rome, the provinces, the Senate, the people, and the army? 3. What was the shape of the political and social system that gave the emperor his position of dominance? 4. What are the main scholarly debates that still exist in the study of Roman imperial history? II. The public thinks of history as a story about great and significant figures, usually men, who are believed to shape events. A. Professional scholars, in contrast, tend to see history more as a matter of impersonal forces working themselves out: B. This course takes the position that a mixture of the two shaped Roman history. ©2007 The Teaching Company 3 III. Now, let’s turn to an overview of the course. A. Between Augustus, who established the Principate in 31 B.C., and Severus Alexander, who was murdered by his own troops in A.D. 235, there were 24 legitimate emperors. The length of their reigns ranged from Augustus’s 45 years to the 66-day rule of Didius Julianus. B. The 50-year period following Severus Alexander was one of great instability: It saw some 21 legitimate emperors and 38 usurpers; all of the latter perished violently as did all but three of the legitimate rulers. C. After Diocletian reestablished order between 285 and 305, matters settled down some but not entirely, as we will see. IV. The broad shape of Roman imperial history alternates between relatively stable dynasties and periods of civil war or, in the mid-3rd century, sustained chaos. A. Note that the term Roman imperial history refers to the period of rule by the emperors, beginning with Augustus in 31 B.C. B. Therefore, Roman imperial history refers not to the period of Rome’s territorial supremacy, which was established under the republic, but to governance by the emperors that supplanted the republican oligarchy. C. We proceed chronologically and examine emperors by successive dynasty. We pause occasionally to examine particularly powerful women at court, relevant scholarly debates, and in later lectures, the emperor’s relationship to different groups in Roman society. V. Before proceeding, it is vital to appreciate the strengths and limitations of the source material available for the study of the Roman emperors. A. As with all ancient history, the primary sources are literary works, official inscriptions, physical remains of structures erected by emperors, and coins stamped with official messages of the emperors. B. Ideally, all these classes of material can be deployed in unison, but rarely does such a fortuitous convergence. 1. For Augustus and the Julio-Claudian Dynasty that followed him (down to A.D. 68), we have relatively full written accounts, supplemented by coins and inscriptions. This richness begins to thin out with the Flavians (A.D. 69–96) and runs out entirely for Trajan and much of the 2nd century. For that era, we must rely on Byzantine summaries of lost earlier works and on coins and inscriptions. 2. With Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and the Severan Dynasty that followed (roughly A.D. 160–235), literary evidence again becomes more plentiful, supplemented by coins and inscriptions. Darkness descends again for much of the 3rd century, until Diocletian and Constantine. 4 ©2007 The Teaching Company VI. The literary sources for the Roman emperors are those polished, essentially artificial works of literature composed by ancient Romans and preserved by a process of copying through the centuries. A. Ancient literature stems from the upper classes and was composed by men, most of whom lived in Rome. It is, thus, bounded by class, gender, and geography. B. The most directly pertinent literary sources imaginable for Roman emperors would be imperial memoirs published by the men themselves. 1. We know that several emperors wrote such memoirs, notably Augustus, Claudius, and Septimius Severus, but none of their works has survived. 2. Only two emperors have left us works by their own hands: Augustus and Marcus Aurelius. C. The most directly pertinent literary sources for the emperors are the ancient historians. 1. Of these, the greatest is Cornelius Tacitus (c. A.D. 56–120), who wrote the Histories and the Annals. 2. As a secretary to Hadrian, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. A.D. 70–130) wrote biographical portraits known today as The Twelve Caesars, stretching from Julius Caesar to Domitian. 3. Lucius Cassius Dio (c. A.D. 164–230) composed a global history of Rome in 80 books. 4. For many of the 3rd-century emperors down to Diocletian, we encounter what is perhaps the strangest source in all of ancient history: the Historia Augusta. D. In addition to writers of history, there are contemporary authors who provide insight into the rule of the emperors. 1. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 B.C.–A.D. 65) was deeply embedded in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. His literary output was impressive, including letters, tragedies, speeches, and philosophical treatises. 2. The major literary contribution of Pliny the Younger (c. A. D. 61– 112) is a collection of stylized letters published in 10 books, which are excellent documents for the Roman senatorial lifestyle and sensibilities of his day. VII. Ancient Mediterranean cultures inscribed important documents on stone. A. Inscriptions relevant to the study of emperors include epitaphs of dead emperors and members of the imperial house, senatorial decrees, imperial rescripts or edicts, decrees of local authorities, and sometimes, copies of correspondence between local communities and emperors. B. Particularly noteworthy are lists of consuls, termed fasti, with notations of historical events appended as they occurred. These were erected in Rome and other cities. ©2007 The Teaching Company 5 C. Another useful source is the so-called Acts of the Arval Brethren, whose minutes, carved on stone, survive in fragments and record such events as imperial births and deaths, conspiracies uncovered, and so on. VIII. Roman imperial coins were minted under state contracts and paid primarily to soldiers. A. On the obverse side of the coin is usually found the head of the emperor in profile. On the reverse is found the “message” of the coin: symbolic images, usually accompanied by text. B. A series of coins can confirm and corroborate the accounts in the literary sources, but such neat convergences are the exception. IX. Finally, we turn to archaeological evidence, that is, the remains of buildings erected by and for the emperors. A. These are mostly found at Rome itself, the chief beneficiary of the resident emperor’s largesse. B. We will survey the various emperors’ building activities in Rome as we proceed and assess the value and implications of such material in adding to our understanding. X. As we will see, each source has its strengths and weaknesses, and we will return to these issues as we proceed through the course. Essential Reading: Crawford, Sources for Ancient History. Supplementary Reading: Biers, Art, Artefacts and Chronology. Bodel, Epigraphic Evidence. Finley, Evidence and Models. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (for information about individual ancient authors). Questions to Consider: 1. Which class of evidence is, to your mind, the most essential for studying the Roman emperors? 2. What peculiar pressures does the nature of the evidence for Roman history put on the modern student? 6 ©2007 The Teaching Company Lecture Two The Roman Republic Scope: Before there were emperors, there was the Roman Republic. The republic had been founded in 509 B.C. in reaction to monarchy and had retained as a core element in its political ideology a strong aversion to imposed one-man rule. In this lecture, we investigate the political character of the republic—rule by the Senate, people, and magistrates—especially in light of a recent and heated debate about whether or not the system was more or less “democratic” or “oligarchic.” The most important characteristics of the republic for understanding the events that follow are that it had no written constitution, that it was dominated by leading families who expected to pass prestige and political prominence down the dynastic tree, and that its institutions existed on the scale of a city-state. However, as the 2nd century B.C. drew to a close, these institutions were expected to regulate a Mediterranean-wide empire. Outline I. The Roman Republic was founded in 509 B.C., when the last of Rome’s kings, Tarquin the Arrogant, was expelled. A. The king’s former duties were distributed among several magistracies and priesthoods, staffed by Rome’s leading families, who adopted a corporate identity in the form of the Senate, or Council of Elders. B. Attached to the Senate was a corps of executive officers, the magistrates. The most important of the magistrates were those imbued with the quality of imperium, or the power of command. C. Every year, two consuls were elected who presided over the Senate, put proposals to it, and raised and commanded the armies of Rome. D. The praetors were assistant consuls who held lesser imperium than the consuls, but whose main duties lay in the judicial sphere. E. Every fifth year, a special election was held to chose two censors from among the ex-consuls. The censors carried out the census of Roman citizens, let contracts for public works, and reviewed the rolls of the Senate for deadbeats and the morally offensive, whom they could expel. F. The extraordinary office of the dictatorship was empowered only in emergencies. II. The Senate had no legislative power; laws were enacted by a vote of the people convened into one of four voting assemblies. ©2007 The Teaching Company 7

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