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| − | {{Infobox_Nation |
| + | This nation has been deleted, but the puppet of [[The Glorious Empire]] remains. |
| − | flag=http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/the_imperial_race.jpg |
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| − | region=[[Pink Floyd]] or [[Greater Nova York]] |
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| − | motto=''Death Before Dishonor '' |
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| − | map= |
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| − | language=[[Latin]] |
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| − | capital=Rome|
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| − | population=610,000,000 |
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| − | currency=Denarius |
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| − | leader= Emperor Ceasar Augustus I
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| − | }}
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| − | | + | This nation will always remain in the memory of the Holy Church of Floyd... Though some memories are bad and others are good, he will always have a spot in the Great Gig in the Sky with the rest of us... |
| − | == The Imperial Race ==
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| − | The Imperial race is a nation reformed. It used to be a nation ruled by the Corrino family but they lost all power when They made peace with pink floyf. it was then ruled by the House of Ceasar after a breif period as a republic but it was overthrown by Juluius Ceasar.
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| − | == History ==
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| − | The legendary founding of Rome — 753 BC
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| − | The Roman monarchy was often seen as the time when Rome rose from its founding on the Tiber to becoming one of the foremost cities in all of Italy. The twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars himself, are said to have been the legendary founders of Rome, set as April 21, 753 BC Through a period of 243 years, the Roman state grew in population with the annexations of the Sabines and the Alba Longans, founded by Aeneas's son Iulus, by military aggression. The last three kings of Rome were of Etruscan origin, whose influence could greatly be seen on Roman architecture and art. The expulsion of the last king in 510 BC set up the Roman Republic, with the Roman leaders Brutus and Collatinus as the republic's first consuls.
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| − | The Establishment of the Republic — 509 BC
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| − | A map of Republican Rome.Livy's version of the establishment of the Republic states that the last of the Kings of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquin the proud") had a thoroughly unpleasant son, Sextus Tarquinius, who raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia. Lucretia compelled her family to take action by gathering her kinsmen, telling them what happened, and then killing herself. They were compelled to avenge her, and led an uprising that expelled the royal house, the Tarquins, out of Rome into refuge in Etruria.
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| − | Lucretia's husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus and Lucius Junius Brutus were elected as the first two consuls, the chief officers of the new Republic. (The Marcus Junius Brutus who later assassinated Julius Caesar claimed descent from this first Brutus).
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| − | The early consuls took over the roles of the king with the exception of his high priesthood in the worship of Jupiter Optimus Maximus at the sacred temple on the Capitoline Hill. For that duty the Romans elected a Rex sacrorum or "king of holy things." Until the end of the Republic, the accusation that a powerful man wanted to make himself king remained a career-shaking charge. ( Julius Caesar's assassins claimed that they were preserving Rome from the re-establishment of a monarchy.)
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| − | Patricians and plebeians
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| − | The people of Rome were divided into patricians and plebeians. These two classes were ancestral and inherited. Though patricians had in the early Republic monopolized all political offices and probably most of the wealth, there are signs of wealthy plebeians in historical records. Many patrician families lost both wealth and any political influence because of the later Republic. By the 2nd century BC the classifications had meaning predominantly in religious functions, where many priesthoods remained restricted to patricians only.
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| − | The relationship between the plebeians and the patricians sometimes came under such a strain that the plebeians would secede from the city — they literally left the city, took their families and movable possessions, and set up camp on a hill outside the walls. Their refusal to co-operate any longer with the patricians led to social changes. In 494 BC, only about 15 years after the establishment of the Republic, the plebeians for the first time elected two leaders to whom they gave the title Tribunes. The "plebs" took an oath that they would hold their leaders 'sacrosanct' or inviolate during their terms of office, and that the united plebs would kill anyone who harmed a tribune. The second secession led to further legal definition of their rights and duties and increased the number of tribunes to 10. The final secession gave the vote of the Concilium Plebis or "Council of the Plebeians" the force of law. It is important to note that this force of law was binding for both patricians and plebians, and in fact made the Council of the Plebians the leading body for approving Roman laws.
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| − | The Building of the Republic
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| − | The growth of Roman political power in Asia MinorThroughout the 4th century B.C. the Romans fought a series of wars with their neighbors, most notably the Sabines and the Samnites, who became their principal enemies in the Italian mainland. Eventually they became the major power of the Latin League, a coalition of city-states in the area of Latium, the region of which Rome is now the heart. Serious set-backs did occur to Rome during this time. In 390 BC the Gauls from the Po Valley defeated the Roman legions and sacked the city and burned it to the ground, requiring a huge ransom from the Romans to avoid completely destroying it ( the phrase "Woe to the vanquished" arises from these times as a Roman senator protested to the Gallic chief Brennus that the weights used to measure the ransom of gold were inaccurate, at which point Brennus threw his sword onto the weights and uttered the famous words ). What really distinguished the Romans from their neighbours was despite all defeats they would ( usually ) simply regroup and continue to fight, never accepting defeat.
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| − | In 283 BC Pyrrhus of Epirus arrived to help the Greek colony of Tarentum against the Romans. Pyrrhus was widely considered the greatest military mind since Alexander the Great, but even after winning three battles was unable to defeat the Roman Republic, taking irreplaceable losses as he did so. The term "Pyrrhic victory" comes from these battles when Pyrrhus was supposed to have uttered the phrase "Another such victory and we are lost." When Pyrrhus withdrew to fight wars in Sicily and Greece, the Romans won an important international victory and started to gain the attention of the Hellenistic superpowers in the East.
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| − | By 268 BC the Romans were dominant in Italy through a network of allies, conquered city-states, colonies, and strategic garrisons. The allies and the conquered city-states were always kept carefully divided by granting them diferent rights and duties ( divide and conquer ). At that time Rome started to look outwards from Italy and towards the islands of the Mediterranean.
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| − | The end of Republican Rule — 133 BC–31 BC
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| − | Beginning of the End
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| − | Rome's military and diplomatic successes around the Mediterranean resulted in new and unaccustomed pressures on the structures of the old city-state. While factional strife had become a traditional part of Roman life, the stakes were now far higher; a corrupt provincial governor could enrich himself far beyond anything his ancestors imagined possible, and a successful military commander needed only the support of his legions in order to rule vast territories.
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| − | Starting with the Punic Wars, the Roman economy started to shift in a direction that was eventually self-destructive. Powerful families in Rome seized lands that once were held by Italian cities that had defected to Hannibal during the war. This began a process that would eventually undo the Republic itself.
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| − | The Roman army at the time was based upon land ownership - therefore, only men who could provide their own arms and prove they owned land could serve in the military. The idea was that men who owned farms had more to lose on the battlefield, and therefore would fight harder and longer than mercenaries or conscripts. As long as Rome had a large, stable population of landed, young males, this system worked, provided that the soldiers could return to work their farms when not on campaign. The nearly endless series of wars that came after the Punic Wars, however, made it impossible for the army to disband after only a few months - wars were becoming frequent, far away, and more importantly, time consuming to the point where farmers returned home only once every few years. As a result, their fields went unworked and fallow. This forced their families left behind to take out loans to buy food. These loans snowballed into such heavy debts that many farmers, while out fighting for Rome, ended up losing their lands to debtors, who consolidated them into latifundia.
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| − | By 133 BC the problem was too acute to ignore any longer. But many members of the Senate, especially the patricians and old families, now had a serious vested interest in preserving the status quo - to give up any land meant the end of their vast incomes, and the luxuries they were becoming increasingly notorious for indulging in. Moreover, money meant power - money bought votes, money bought immunity from prosecution, could, in effect, buy anything in Republican Rome, and without it, a senator did not last long. It was not merely a threat to the Senate's private incomes that was at stake - to many, it was the ability to run for office or move up the power ladder.
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| − | Enter the brothers Gracchus. Tiberius Gracchus began, in 133 BC, to reform the system to allow soldiers returning from the near-constant wars or garrison duties on the ever-expanding Imperial Republic's borders to receive parcels of land, dolled out from the territory owned, technically, by the Senate and People of Rome, or, in other words, the state itself. However, much of this land was de facto being used by the Senators to enrich themselves, and any move to take it away was met with violent opposition by the Senate. Tiberius, in order to enact his reforms, had to work outside the constitution of the Republic, and took actions that were, technically, at best loopholes and at worst downright illegal. The Senate responded by slaughtering Gracchus and 300 of his followers in the streets of Rome.
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| − | His younger brother Gaius Gracchus continued the reform efforts almost ten years later, he promoted the extension of Roman citizenship to all the cities of Italy, and established the equites as a new force in Roman politics. Gaius, however, once more seriously threatened the Senate's land holdings, and eventually the Senate moved against him with armed force, hiring Cretan mercenaries to massacre him and his followers as they retreated to the sacred Capitoline Hill and barricaded themselves inside.
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| − | Gaius Marius and the Dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
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| − | A conservative reaction brought power back to the Senate, but they prosecuted the Jugurthine War of 112 BC-105 BC poorly, on top of a slave war in Sicily, and suffered several military defeats at the hands of invading Germanic tribes like the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC. These tribes menaced to invade Italy itself, but Rome was saved in the person of Gaius Marius, an immensely rich man who had no ancestors whatsoever worth speaking of. Marius defeated Jugurtha in Africa in 105 BC, winning and ending the Jugurthine War. While on campaign, however, he learned that he’d been elected consul in abstentia so he could combat the Germanic menace, and returned home to Rome to rebuild the mangled Roman army. He did so by allowing, for the first time, unlanded and poor members of Roman society into the legions. These troops he took to victory and destroyed the Germanic invaders. Marius, after the war, managed to procure settlements for his veterans as a reward for their service, but only over violent Senatorial opposition. It was a sign of the changing times – Roman troops were now to be made up almost entirely of landless, poor, and otherwise unemployed men who looked on their commanders as their benefactors.
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| − | After the crisis, the Senate again proved itself unequal to its role, and failed to deal with the growing discontent of the allies in Italy. After the reformer Livius Drusus was assassinated in 91 BC, the great majority of the Italian allies of Rome rebelled and the Social War ( allies = Socii ) began. The Romans were only able to end the war in 88 BC by granting Roman citizenship to all Italians living south of the Po River.
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| − | At the same time, Mithridates VI of Pontus overran Bithynia, the latest of several provocations which forced Rome to act. Lucius Cornelius Sulla emerged after the Social War as the new strongman of the conservative faction in the Senate, having served under Marius in both the Jugurthine War and in the military campaigns against the invading Germanic tribes, and was now the only man within Rome who could challenge Marius himself. Sulla was determined to gain the command of this new war against Mithridates and finally to step out of Marius' shadow.
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| − | Marius, however, old man though he was, also wanted the generalship. In the end, Sulla won it and went to war against Mithridates in Greece, where he proved himself an able leader and excellent soldier, pushing Mithridates out of Greece, back into Asia, and into a new peace treaty favourable to Rome. While gone, however, Marius took an unprecedented step - he seized control of Rome itself by arming slaves and ex-veterans, using force to get himself elected a seventh consulship. He engaged in widespread butchery of his opponents, but his regime did not last long - only a few days after his election, he died of a massive brain haemorrhage, at the very height of his power.
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| − | Sulla returned to Rome in 83 BC to face down Marius' successor, Carbo, who'd only recently taken command from Cinna, Marius' hand-picked successor and former co-consul. The troops under Carbo did not put up a very strong fight, and Carbo was quickly dispatched as Sulla took control of Rome with his own army - not, be it noted, like Marius, who had used a volunteer force. Armies were now pawns in the political power game - a general with loyal troops could - and did - break laws, ignore the Senate, and plunder whatever they wanted from their provinces. Moreover, if the Senate attempted to prosecute these generals for any of their transgressions, they could simply take their troops to Rome and smash up the opposing faction in the city, and point to Sulla's precedent.
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| − | Sulla quickly made himself dictator of Rome. Though the office was technically only six months long, Sulla held on for two years, using his army to hold power. Sulla set about setting back the clock to the days before Gaius Gracchus. He curbed the power of the popular assemblies, reduced the ability of populist leaders using the current system to work outside the Senate, and drastically entrenched the power of the Senate in both the courts and passing of laws. Sulla, however, proved himself to be a tyrant, and installed the new procedure of proscription, wherein a person's property would be seized by the state and the protection of the law removed from them. In other words, it was now legal to kill a person outside the law - and Sulla set up an office for posting bounties on particularly troublesome opponents. He used the confiscated funds to refill the Roman treasury, badly depleted from the wars in Greece and the civil conflict in Italy. He proscribed wealthy Romans who spoke against him, and even some who were simply in his way or had particularly juicy estates. Thousands of noble Romans were killed in the proscriptions, and it took two years, before Sulla finally laid down his powers as dictator in 79 BC and retired to private life, dying not even a year afterwards in 78 BC.
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| − | Sulla was, in effect, the death of the Republic - even with Marius' capture of Rome, it was only Sulla who used a professional army to impose his own will. Though the Republic officially had another fifty years to go, Sulla had ended true freedom in Rome by bringing the army into the political process. No longer could consuls be elected without the approval of the generals in the field - and the only way to counterbalance a potentially dangerous legionary commander was with another of similar skill and army size. The civilians in Rome were now there for show - military men had the last say when they wanted. Yet even with the lessons of Sulla and Marius, the Senate in Rome acted very much as though it still had the true power in the Republic - and so long as the troops were willing to let them get away with their game, the fiction could be maintained. Without any real ability to defend itself, the Senate became more arrogant, more factionalized, more corrupt and unreasonable - and, in effect, sealed its own fate.
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| − | The Seventies and the Sixties
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| − | Sulla died the year following his resignation, in 78 BC. Throughout the decade of the 70s politics was dominated by the optimates; nevertheless, the Sullan constitutional settlement started to fall apart almost immediately, little by little.
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| − | From 73 BC to 71 BC the Roman Republic would be rocked by a slave revolt led by Spartacus. Spartacus was a deserter from the Roman legions who had been sold into slavery as a gladiator. In 73 BC he and some of his fellow gladiators rebelled at Capua and set up a military camp on Mt. Vesuvius. Slaves across all the Italian peninsula flocked to him, and their numbers soon swelled to about 70,000. Initially, they had great success against the Roman legions sent against them, and wreacked havoc across the Italian peninsula. In 71 BC, however, Marcus Licinius Crassus was given military command and crushed the rebels. About 6,000 were crucified; the 10,000 who escaped were intercepted by Pompey, then returning with his army from Spain. Although Crassus did most of the fighting, Pompey also claimed credit for the victory, and this created tension between the two men.
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| − | Crassus and Pompey both ran for consul for the year 70 BC and were elected. The two spent most of the year trying to outdo each other in the lavishness of their public expenditures. Despite the two consuls' uncooperative natures, there was still the passage of two laws that chipped away at the Sullan settlement; first, the tribune was restored to its former power; secondly, the senatorial monopoly of juries was ended, and membership was divided equally between senators, equestrians, and a group known as "tribunes of the treasury" .
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| − | Meanwhile, the optimate general L. Licinius Lucullus was attempting to finally defeat Mithridates in the east. He had a bit of success against Mithridates and his ally, the King of Armenia, Tigranes, but while he maintained military superiority, was unable to occupy the territories he conquered completely. At the same time, M. Antonius ( father of Mark Antony ) and Q. Caecilius Metellus were attempting to stamp out the plague of piracy afflicting the Mediterranean, with reportedly grotesque inefficiency.
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| − | Due to these lack of successes, in 66 BC, Pompey was given an extraordinary military command. He stamped out piracy within forty-nine days and then began pursuing Mithridates. Pompey annihilated his army, and Mithridates remained a fugitive for the last three years of his life. Pompey followed up these successes by conquering the entirety of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean ending the Syrian Seleucid dynasty. The captured wealth of the conquests more than doubled the income of the Roman state, and Pompey now surpassed Crassus as the wealthiest man in Rome.
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| − | The economic situation in Rome itself, however, was still problematic. Debt was the intractable problem and many, both noble and not, found themselves burdened with incredible debts. Their mantle was taken up by L. Sergius Catilina, who ran for consul in 64 BC for the year 63 BC on the platform of a wholesale debt cancellation – essentially a redistribution of wealth. Despite his noble birth, his policies scared the optimates, who instead supported the novus homo M. Tullius Cicero. Cicero was duly elected; Catilina finished third and out of office. Catilina ran again the following year, but this time was defeated even more heavily. He then, along with several dissolute senators, began planning a coup d’etat that would include arson throughout Rome, the arming of slaves, and the accession of Catilina as dictator. Cicero found out and informed the Senate in a series of brilliant speeches, and was given absolute power by the senate consultum ultimum. He executed the conspirators in the city without trial; and his fellow consul, G. Antonius Hybrida, then defeated the army of Catilina near Pistoria. None of Catilina’s soldiers were taken alive.
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| − | The First Triumvirate
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| − | In 62 BC Pompey returned from the east. Many senators, especially among the optimates, feared that Pompey would follow in the footsteps of Sulla and establish himself as dictator. Instead, Pompey disbanded his army upon arriving in Italy. Nevertheless, the Senate maintained its opposition to land grants for Pompey’s veterans and the ratification of Pompey’s eastern settlement. In addition, the Senate was also stonewalling Pompey’s old enemy, Crassus, in his attempts to gain some measure of relief for his allies the tax farmers. Now arriving onto the scene was a young politician who had a heretofore successful, but not brilliant, career – Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar took advantage of the two enemy’s dissatisfaction to bring them into an informal alliance known as the First Triumvirate. In addition, he reinforced his alliance by marrying his daughter, Julia to Pompey. The three would be able to dominate Roman politics due to their collective influence; the first step was Caesar’s election to the consulship for 59 BC.
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| − | In attempting to pass the laws which would benefit both Pompey and Crassus, Caesar ran into heavy opposition from his consular colleague, the very conservative M. Bibulus, who used all manner of parliamentary tactics to stall the legislation. Caesar resorted to the unconstitutional tactic of violence; Bibulus ended up under house arrest for most of the year, and Caesar was able to pass almost all of his legislation. He was then appointed Governor of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a five year period. When the Governor of Transalpine Gaul died suddenly, the Senate assigned that province to him as well.
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| − | Caesar took up his governorship´s in 58 BC. He immediately launched a series of wars across all of Gaul, and in 55 BC and 54 BC even invaded Britannia. For a nine year period he attempted to crush all opposition to his rule. These wars were, technically, illegal, as Caesar had exceeded his authority in launching the invasions. They also caused massive death and destruction (one out of three male Gauls was killed; another one out of three was sold into slavery). In 52 BC an uprising, led by the charismatic Gallic leader, Vercingetorix, nearly succeeded in toppling the Roman presence in Gaul; but Caesar, with his usual speed and brilliant grasp of military strategy, was able to defeat Vercingetorix at the siege of Alesia. By 50 BC all gallic resistance had been stamped out and Ceasar had a veteran and loyal army to further his ambitions.
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| − | Meanwhile, the Triumvirate at home needed a boosting. In 56 BC, the three men who dominated the republic met at Luca, just inside Caesar’s province ( as a man in control of an army, he was not allowed to cross into Italy ). The three triumvirs reached a new settlement which would allow the Triumvirate to continue. Crassus and Pompey would once again be elected consuls for the year 55 BC; Pompey would then be given command of the Roman legions in Spain ( which he would rule in absentia ), and Crassus, desiring military glory so he could be on the same level as Pompey and Caesar, would be given a military command in the east. Caesar’s governorship of Gaul was extended for another five years.
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| − | In 53 BC, Crassus launched an invasion of the Parthian Empire ( successor of the Persians ). He marched his army deep into the desert; but here the Roman legions were not used to the fighting conditions, whereas the Parthian cavalry was adept at it. His army was cut off deep in enemy territory, sorounded and routed at the Battle of Carrhae. Crassus himself was captured and later executed, by having molten gold poured down his throat.
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| − | The death of Crassus removed some of the balance in the Triumvirate; consequently, Caesar and Pompey began to move apart. In 52 BC, Julia died, widening the gap emerging between the two. Pompey, who previously had been the senior member of the Triumvirate and, indeed, of the republic, was beginning to see his authority threatened by his junior partner, Caesar, whose campaigns in Gaul were vastly increasing his prestige and power. Consequently, Pompey began to align increasingly with the optimates, who themselves were very much opposed to Caesar and his "party" the populares. By the year 50 BC, with Caesar’s governorship drawing to a close, the two were hard-pressed to find any common ground, and a crisis was growing which would be the final nail in the coffin of the Republic.
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| − | The Civil War and Caesar's Dictatorship
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| − | The key issue was whether or not Caesar would be able to stand for the consulship of 48 BCin absentia. Caesar’s governorship would expire at the end of 49 BC, at which point his immunity from trial would also expire. He was sure to be charged with violations of the constitution stemming from his consulship of 59 BC, which could result in his political, or perhaps even physical, death. If he was allowed to run in absentia, he could immediately assume the consulship, and then following that immediately assume a new governorship, and his immunity would be maintained. The optimates were heavily opposed to Caesar’s standing in absentia, and on January 1, 49 BC, passed a law declaring Caesar a public enemy and demanding his return to Rome to stand trial. Pompey was given absolute authority to defend the Roman republic. The word reached Caesar probably on January 10, and on January 11, he crossed the Rubicon River with his army – the boundary between his province and Italy. Civil war had begun.
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| − | Caesar leading a veteran army quickly swept down the Italian peninsula, and encountered meager resistance from freshly recruited legions. The one exception was at Corfinium, where Gn. Domitius Ahenobarbus was defeated. Caesar pardoned him, under his notable policy of clemency – he wanted to let everyone know that he would not be the next Sulla. He took Rome without opposition, and then marched south to try and stop Pompey, who was trying to withdraw from Brundisium ( at the heel of Italy ) across the Adriatic Sea to Greece. Caesar came close, but Pompey and his armies were able to escape at the last minute.
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| − | Pompey controlled the seas, and his armies heavily outnumbered Caesar’s but the legions of Ceasar were solid veterans, after ten years of unrellenting campaigns. Caesar, for his lack of a navy, attempted to try and solidify his control over the western Mediterranean, notably at Massilia and in Spain. The two armies first faced each other at the Battle of Dyrrachium, on July 10, 48 BC, where Pompey won a major victory. Nevertheless, Pompey failed to follow up on his victory, and Caesar was able to regroup and win a decisive victory at the Battle of Pharsalus on August 9. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he hoped to find assistance.
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| − | Caesar arrived in Alexandria, capital of Egypt, to find the breadbasket of the Mediterranean in a state of civil war. Agents of the young king, Ptolemy XIII, had Pompey killed and his head presented to Caesar, believing it would please him and that he would support Ptolemy against his sister, Cleopatra. It had the opposite effect. Caesar began an affair with Cleopatra, and Ptolemy attempted to destroy Caesar in the city of Alexandria. A long, drawn-out city battle resulted, one of the most dangerous of Caesar’s career, but he triumphed and placed Cleopatra on the throne along with another brother, Ptolemy XIV. Cleopatra later claimed to have given birth to Caesar’s son, Ptolemy Caesar ( known as Caesarion ); and it is most likely true. Caesar, hearing of an uprising in Asia Minor led by the son of the old Roman enemy Mithridates, advanced there in 47 BC, and won a quick victory at the Battle of Zela after of which he said: "Veni, Vidi, Vici" ( "I came, I saw, I conquered" ).
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| − | In 46 BC Caesar went to North Africa to deal with the regrouping remnants of the pro-Pompeian forces under Cato the Younger and Lepidus. He defeated them at the Battle of Utica. Much to Caesar’s chagrin, Cato committed suicide. Caesar had wanted to pardon Cato, his most intractable foe, in order to gain popularity through further clemency. In 45 BC, he went to Spain, and won the final victory over the pro-Pompeian forces in the terrifying Battle of Munda. He said that before, he always had fought for victory, but in Munda he had fought for his live. He then returned to Rome; he had less then a year to live.
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| − | In that final year Caesar launched a wholesale attempt at reform. He tightly regulated the distribution of free grain to the citizenry, keeping those who could afford private grain from having access to the grain dole. He reformed the calendar, changing from a Lunar to a Solar calendar and giving his name to the 7th month ( July ) with the minor change made by Pope Gregory in 1582 AD, it has survived. He also reformed the debt problem. At the same time, he continued to accept enormous honors from the Senate. He was named Pater Patriae ( Father of his Country ), and began wearing the clothing of the old Roman kings. This deepened the rift between Caesar and the aristocrats, many of whom he had pardoned during the civil war.
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| − | In 45 BC he had been named dictator for ten years. This was followed up in 44 BC with his appointment of dictator for life. A two-fold problem was created; firstly, all political power would be concentrated in the hands of Caesar for the foreseeable future, in effect subordinating the Senate to his whims; and secondly, only Caesar’s death would end this. As such, a group of about 60 senators, led by Cassius and Brutus, conspired to assassinate Caesar. They carried out their deed on March 15, 44 BC, the Ides of March, three days before Caesar was sceduled to go east to defeat the Parthians.
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| − | The Second Triumvirate and Octavian's Triumph
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| − | After Caesar’s assassination, his friend and chief lieutenant, Marcus Antonius, took control of the last will and testament of Ceasar and using it in a brilliant speech against the conspirators, took control of the city of Rome. The conspirators fled to Greece. In Caesar’s will, his grand-nephew, Octavian, was named as his heir. Octavian quickly returned from Greece ( where he and his friend Agrippa had been helping in the gathering of the Macedonian Legions for the planned invasion of Parthia ) and raised a small army from among Caesar’s veterans. After some initial disagreements, Octavian and Antony came into collaboration. They, along with M. Aemilius Lepidus, created the Second Triumvirate, their combined strength gave the triumvirs absolute power. In 42 BC, they pursued the conspirators into Greece, and mostly due to the generalship of Antony, defeated them at the Battle of Philippi on October 23.
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| − | In 40 BC, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus negotiated the Pact of Brundisium. Antony received the richer provinces of the Roman empire in the east, namely Greece, Macedon, Asia Minor and Syria and he was very close to Egypt, the then richest state of all. Octavian on the other hand received Italy, Gaul and Hispania in the west, these territories were poorer but traditionaly the "better" recruting grounds; and Lepidus was given the minor province of Africa ( modern day Tunisia ) to govern. Henceforth, the contest for supreme power would be between Antony and Octavian.
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| − | Sextus Pompeius denarius, minted for his victory over Caesar Augustus fleet. On this coin Sextus claims to have been appointed by the Roman Senate of the command of the Italian coasts.In the west, Octavian and Lepidus had first to deal with Sextus Pompeius, the surviving son of Pompey, who had taken control of parts of Spain and Sicily and was running pirate operations in the whole of the Mediterranean, endangering the flow of the crucial egyptian grain to Rome. In 36 BC, Lepidus, while besieging Sextus in Spain, ignored Octavian’s orders that no surrender would be allowed. Octavian then bribed the legions of Lepidus , and they deserted to him. This had the effect of stripping Lepidus of all his remaining military and political power.
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| − | Antony, in the east, was waging war against the Parthians. His campaign was not as successful as he would have hoped, though far more successful than Crassus. He took up an amorous relationship with Cleopatra, who gave birth to three children by him. In 34 BC, at the Donations of Alexandria, Antony “gave away” much of the eastern half of the empire to his children by Cleopatra. In Rome, this and the siezed testament of Mark Anthony ( in which he famously asked, to be buried in his beloved Alexandria )was used by Octavian the to accuse Antony of "going native", of being completely in the thrall of Cleopatra and of deserting the cause of Rome. He made sure not to attack Antony directly, for Antony was still quite popular in Rome; instead, the entire blame was placed on Cleopatra.
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| − | In 31 BC war finally broke out. Approximately 200 senators, one-third of the Senate, abandoned Octavian to support Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian’s chief advisor and extraordinary military leader, Agrippa, captured Methone on Greece. The final major confrontation of the Roman Republic occurred on September 2, 31 BC, at the naval Battle of Actium where the fleet of Octavian under the command of Agrippa routed the larger fleet of Antony and Cleopatra; the two lovers fled to Egypt. Due to Octavian's victory and his skillfull use of propaganda and negotiation many legions in Greece and Cyrenaica went over to his side.
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| − | Octavian continued on his march around the Mediterranean towards Egypt, receiving the submission of local kings and Roman governors along the way. He finally reached Egypt in 30 BC, but before Octavian could capture his main enemy, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra did the same within a few days, in August.
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| − | The period of civil wars were finally over. Thereafter, there was no one left in the Roman Republic who could - or wanted - to stand against Octavian, as the grand-nephew of Caesar moved to take absolute control. He first made himself governor of the half dozen provinces where the majority of the legions were situated, thus, at a stroke, giving him command of enough legions to ensure that no governor could try to overthrow him. He also reorganized the Senate, purged it of unreliable or dangerous members, and expanded it by filling it up with his supporters from the provinces and outside the Roman aristocracy, men who could be counted on to follow his lead. However, he left the majority of Republican institutions apparently intact, albeit feeble. Consuls continued to be elected under his watchful eye - tribunes of the plebians continued to offer legislation - and debate still resounded through the Roman Curia. However it was Octavian who controlled the final decisions - and had the legions to back it up, if necessary.
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| − | The Senate and the roman citizens, tired of the never-ending civil wars and unrest, were willing to toss aside the unreliable, incompetent and unstable rule of the Senate and the popular assemblies in exchange for the iron will of one man who might set Rome back in order. By 27 BC the transition, though subtle and disgused, was complete - in that year, Octavian offered back all his extraordinary powers to the Senate, and in a carefully staged way, the Senate refused and in fact voted Octavian 'Augustus', or 'the revered one.' He was always careful to avoid the title of 'rex' ( "king" ), and instead took on the titles of "Princeps" ( "first citizen" ) and 'Imperator', a title given by Roman troops to their victorious commanders. It is from 'Imperator' that the modern title 'Emperor' is derived. The Roman Empire was born.
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| − | == Roman Empire of the Imperial Race ==
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| − | Age of Augustus (31 BC - AD 14)
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| − | Political developments
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| − | The extent of the Roman Empire in 133 BC (red), 44 BC (orange), AD 14 (yellow) and AD 117 (green).As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been effectively under one-man rule since the time of Sulla.
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| − | The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome - the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic - now placidly accepted one man rule.
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| − | Augustus's reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:
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| − | Creation of a hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
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| − | Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
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| − | Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
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| − | Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus's death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
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| − | Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
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| − | Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
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| − | Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
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| − | Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.
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| − | Cultural developments
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| − | Main article: Roman culture
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| − | The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were directly controlled.
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| − | Sources
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| − | The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus's reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:
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| − | Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus's highly partisan autobiography,
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| − | Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
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| − | Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder.
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| − | Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions.
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| − | Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus's Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus's reign.
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| − | Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus's heirs
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| − | Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".
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| − | Tiberius (AD 14-37)
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| − | The early years of Tiberius's reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched her treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In AD19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In AD 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in AD 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in AD 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued apace until Tiberius's death in AD 37.
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| − | Caligula (AD 37 - 41)
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| − | At the time of Tiberius's death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius's own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus's son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was more probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius's, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.
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| − | Claudius (AD 41 - 54)
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| − | Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather.
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| − | On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.
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| − | Nero (AD 54 - 69)
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| − | Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia, and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered for playing his fiddle while the city of Rome burned, though this story is apocryphal, as the fiddle had yet to be invented. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.
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| − | Flavian Dynasty
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| − | The Flavians, although a relatively short lived dynasty, helped restore stability in an empire on its knees. Although there are criticism of all three, especially based on their more centralized style of rule, it was through the reforms and good rule of the three that helped create a stable empire that would last well into the 3rd Century. However, their backgrounds as a military dynasty led to further irrelevancy of the senate, and the move from princeps, or first citizen, to imperator, or emperor, was finalized during their reign.
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| − | Vespasian (AD 69 - 79)
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| − | Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate. At the age of 60 and battle hardened he was hardly a charismatic emperor, but he turned out to be an excellent ruler none the less.
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| − | Although Vespasian was considered quite the autocrat by the senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body that had been going since the reign of Tiberius. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. Another example was his assumption of the censorship in 73, giving him power over who exactly made up the senate. He used that power to expel dissident senators. At the same time, he increased the number of senators from 200, at that low level due to the actions of Nero and the year of crisis that followed, to 1000, most of the new senators coming not from Rome but from Italy and the urban centers within the western provinces.
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| − | Vespasian was able to liberate Rome from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. To do this, he not only increased taxes, but created new forms of taxation. Also, through his power as censor he was able to carefully examine the fiscal status of every city and province, many paying taxes based upon information and structures more than a century old. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum; he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace. In addition, he alloted sizable subsidies to the arts, creating a chair of rhetoric at Rome.
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| − | Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces in his decades of office, having posts all across the empire, both east and west. In the west he gave considerable favoritism to Spain in which he granted Latin rights to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanization throughout the western (i.e. formerly barbarian) provinces. Through the additions he made to the Senate he allowed greater influence of the provinces in the Senate, helping to promote unity in the empire. He also extended the borders of the empire on every front, most of which was done to help strengthen the frontier defenses, one of Vespasian's main goals. The crisis of 69 had wrought havoc on the army. One of the most marked problems had been the support lent by provincial legions to men who supposedly represented the best will of their province. This was mostly caused by the placement of native auxiliary units in the areas they were recruited in, a practice Vespasian stopped. He mixed auxiliary units with men from other areas of the empire or moved the units away from where they were recruited to help stop this. Also, to further reduce the chances of another military coup he broke up the legions, and instead of placing them in singular concentrations broke them up along the border. Perhaps the most important military reform he undertook was the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Italy to Gaul and Spain, in line with the Romanization of those areas.
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| − | Titus (AD 79 - 81)
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| − | Titus, the eldest son of Vespasian, had been groomed to rule. He had served as an effective general under his father, helping to secure the east and eventually taking over the command of Roman armies in Syria and Palestine, quelling the significant Jewish revolt going on at the time. Throughout his father's reign he had been tailored for rule, sharing the consul for several years with his father and receiving the best tutelage. Although there was some trepidation when he took office due to his known dealings with some of the less respectable elements of Roman society, he quickly proved his merit, even recalling many exiled by his father as a show of good faith. However, his short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, and in 80, a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. Titus died in 81, at the age of 41; it was rumored that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor, although these claims have little merit. Whatever the case, he was greatly mourned and missed.
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| − | Domitian (AD 81 - 96)
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| − | The Flavians all had rather poor relations with the senate due to their more autocratic style, however Domitian was the only one who truly created significant problems. His continuous control as consul and censor throughout his rule, the former his father sharing in much the same way of his Julio-Claudian forerunners, the latter having difficulty even obtaining, were unheard of. In addition, he often appeared in full military regalia as an imperator, an affront to the idea of what the Principate-era emperor's power was based upon, the emperor as the princeps. His reputation in the Senate aside, he kept the people of Rome happy through various measures, including donations to every resident of Rome, wild spectacles in the newly finished Colosseum, and continuing the public works projects of his father and brother. He also apparently had the good fiscal sense of his father, because although he spent lavishly his successors came to power with a well endowed treasury.
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| − | However, during the end of his reign Domitian became extremely paranoid which probably had its initial roots in the treatment he received by his father. Although given significant responsibility, he was never trusted with anything important without supervision. This flowered into the severe and perhaps pathological following the short lived rebellion in 89 of Antonius Saturninus, a governor and commander in Germany. This paranoia led to a large number of arrests, executions, and seizure of property (which might help explain his ability to spend so lavishly). Eventually it got to the point where even his closest advisors and family members lived in fear, leading them to his murder in 96.
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| − | The Adoptive Emperors
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| − | "Five Good Emperors" (AD 96 - 180)
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| − | Roman empire at its maximal extent (AD 117)The next century came to be known as the period of the "Five Good Emperors", in which the succession was peaceful though not dynastic and the Empire was prosperous. The emperors of the period were Nerva (AD 96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180), each being adopted by his predecessor as his successor during the latter's lifetime. While their respective choices of successor were based upon the merits of the individual men they selected, many argue the real reason for the lasting success of the adoptive scheme of succession lay more with the fact that none of them had a natural heir.
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| − | Under Trajan, the Empire's borders briefly achieved their maximum extension with provinces created in Mesopotamia in 117 AD. From 166 AD, Roman embassies to China, first sent under the reign of Antonius Pius and probably traveling on the southern sea route, are recorded in Chinese historical sources such as the Later Han History.
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| − | Commodus (AD 180 - 192)
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| − | Ptolemy's 150 AD world map, indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Trapobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (South-East Asian peninsula).The period of the "five good emperors" was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus from 180 to 192. Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had turned out so well. He was co-emperor with his father from 177. When he became sole emperor upon the death of his father in 180, it was at first seen as a hopeful sign by the people of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, as generous and magnanimous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite.
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| − | Commodus is often thought to have been insane, and he was certainly given to excess. He began his reign by making an unfavorable peace treaty with the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius. Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. In 190, a part of the city of Rome burned, and Commodus took the opportunity to "re-found" the city of Rome in his own honor, as Colonia Commodiana. The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army. Commodus was strangled in his sleep in 192, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as a consul. Upon his death, the Senate passed damnatio memoriae on him and restored the proper name to the city of Rome and its institutions. The popular movies The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and Gladiator (2000) were loosely based on the career of the emperor Commodus, although they should not be taken as an accurate historical depictions of his life.
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| − | Why Commodus?
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| − | Many wonder why Marcus Aurelius decided to break the successful scheme of adoptive succession. The real reasoning can be found in that line of succession before him. The other emperors did not have direct successors available, so had to adopt their successors. However, they attempted to keep it in the family as it were. Trajan was chosen by Nerva more likely to appease the Senate than anything else. Hadrian was a relative of Trajan, and although Antonius Pius was not related to Hadrian, the conditions of his being made heir included the adoption of Hadrian's young nephew Marcus Aurelius as heir to Pius. So, in fact, Aurelius' choice to make his son his successor was hardly out of place, and it's likely that had any of the previous emperors had available a suitable son as heir they would have taken the same course of action. It is then merely misfortune more than anything else that placed such a ill-suited man on the throne.
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| − | Severan dynasty (AD 193 - 235)
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| − | The Severan dynasty includes the increasingly troubled reigns of Septimius Severus (193-211), Caracalla (211-217), Macrinus (217-218), Elagabalus (218-222), and Alexander Severus (222-235). The founder of the dynasty, Lucius Septimius Severus, belonged to a leading native family of Leptis Magna in Africa who allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. Their provincial background and cosmopolitan alliance, eventually giving rise to imperial rulers of Syrian background, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, testifies to the broad political franchise and economic development of the Roman empire that had been achieved under the Antonines. A generally successful ruler, Septimius Severus cultivated the army's support with substantial remuneration in return for total loyalty to the emperor and substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. In this way, he successfully broadened the power base of the imperial administration throughout the empire. Abolishing the regular standing jury courts of Republican times, Septimius Severus was likewise able to transfer additional power to the executive branch of the government, of which he was decidedly the chief representative.
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| − | Septimius Severus' son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - nicknamed Caracalla - removed all legal and political distinction between Italians and provincials, enacting the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 which extended full Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla was also responsible for erecting the famous Baths of Caracalla in Rome, their design serving as an architectural model for many subsequent monumental public buildings. Increasingly unstable and autocratic, Caracalla was assassinated by the praetorian prefect Macrinus in 217, who succeeded him briefly as the first emperor not of senatorial rank. The imperial court, however, was dominated by formidable women who arranged the succession of Elagabalus in 218, and Alexander Severus, the last of the dynasty, in 222. In the last phase of the Severan principate, the power of the Senate was somewhat revived and a number of fiscal reforms were enacted. Despite early successes against the Sassanian Empire in the East, Alexander Severus' increasing inability to control the army led eventually to its mutiny and his assassination in 235. The death of Alexander Severus ushered in a subsequent period of soldier-emperors and almost a half-century of civil war and strife.
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| − | Crisis of the 3rd Century (AD 235 - 284)
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| − | The Crisis of the 3rd Century is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284. During this period, Rome was ruled by more than 35 individuals, most of them prominent generals who assumed Imperial power over all or part of the empire, only to lose it by defeat in battle, murder, or death. After nearly 50 years of external invasion, internal civil wars and economic collapse, the Empire was on the verge of ending. A series of tough soldier-emperors saved it, but in the process fundamentally changed the Roman Empire. The transitions of this period mark the beginnings of Late Antiquity and the end of Classical Antiquity
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| − | == Imperial Law ==
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| − | .Ius civile, ius gentium, ius naturale
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| − | Ius civile, in Roman state, refered to the law that applied only to roman citizens, while ius gentium refered to the juridical traffic with foreigners, because foreigners could not understand the strict formalism of ius civile. At the end of 300 BC, for juridical traffic with foreigners (besides praetor urbanus), a new juridical magistrate was introduced (praetor peregrius) and a new informal judicial proceeding. Along ius civile and ius gentium, in classical law, a new term is introduced - ius naturale. This was natural law (common law for all beings), that was influenced by christianity of the time.
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| − | 2.Ius scriptum, ius non scriptum
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| − | Ius scriptum means written law and ius non scriptum means unwritten law, but they differ from each other by the means of creation and not whether they are put on paper or not. Ius scriptum is the law made by legislature. Roman lawyers included in ius scriptum laws (leges and plebiscita), magistrat's edicts (magistratuum edicta), the conclusions of senat (senatus consulta), responses and thoughts of lawyers (responsa prudentium) and principum placita. Ius non scriptum is customary law, common practice, that becomes binding during time.
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| − | 3.Ius publicum, ius privatum
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| − | Ius publicum means public law and ius privatum means private law, where public law is to keep interests of Roman state while private law should protect individuals. In roman law ius privatum included: personal, property, civil and criminal law, judicial proceeding was private process (iudicium privatum), and delicts were private (except the most severe ones that were prosecuted by state). Public law will only at the end of Roman state include in its self some areas of private law.
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| − | 4.Ius publicum
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| − | Ius publicum was also used to describe obligatory legal regulations (today called ius cogens). These are regulations that cannot be changed or excluded by party agreement. Those regulations that can be changed are called today ius dispositivum, and they are used when party shares something and are not in opposition.
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| − | 5.Ius commune, ius singulare
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| − | Ius singulare (singular law) is special law for certain groups of people, things, or legal relations (because of which it is exception from general principles of legal sistem), unlike general, ordinary, law (ius commune).
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| − | == Imperial Army ==
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| − | History and evolution
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| − | "Roman Army" is the name given to the sophisticated collection of soldiers and other military forces which served the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. The Army dominated much of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including the province of Britannia and Asia Minor at the Empire's height. Beginning as a citizen army, the Roman Army evolved into a professional army following the reforms of Gaius Marius around 100 BC.
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| − | Pre-Republican military evolution
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| − | Rome's first army was naught but a primitive and unorganized band of militia. They fought with whatever weapons they found most comfortable, and only the wealthiest would have worn armor or used weapons that didn't double as civilian implements (swords and spears have no purpose when not fighting). This force was unable to resist the Etruscan invasion of the late 7th century BC.
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| − | The Etruscans, having conquered Rome, expected her to contribute soldiers to their armies, and therefore imposed their method of military organization on the fledgling city. Under the Etruscan system, Rome's army was organized on the basis of social and economic standing. The upper half of men would form as hoplites in a phalanx, the combat formation traditionally used by Greek infantry. The class section directly below them would organize into a contingent of medium spearmen approximately 1/4 the size of the phalanx. The level below them served as light spearmen of similar size; below them, men fought as javelin-throwing skirmishers or slingers.
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| − | Rome continued to use this organizational system even after she overthrew Etruscan rule in 510 BC, though by 340 BC, Livy describes the army as drastically different.
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| − | The Republican Army
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| − | At any rate, Polybius gives us a clear picture of the republican army at what is arguably its height in 160 BC. Serving in the army was part of civic duty in Rome. To serve in the infantry, one had to meet a property requirement. Recruits were divided into three groups, the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, organized by age. The younger Hastati served in the front line, and were generally the least armored. The Hastati and principes were by this time armed with a gladius (a Roman adaptation of a Spanish sword) and two javelins (pilum). The triarii were armed with spears, and traditionally formed the third line of the legion. They only fought in emergencies. As men aged (and thus gained experience) they were moved into the other ranks. Each infantryman was part of a century of 80 men, two of which formed a maniple, the common unit of maneuver, 25-30 of which made up a legion. Those of the lowest classes at the time of recruitment were in lightly armed skirmisher units and known as velites, or else served in the navy. The very rich of Rome formed the cavalry, although at this time the army made very little use of horsemen. The Roman elite served as the army's leaders, as legates and tribunes. All of these groups together formed a legion.
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| − | The overall command of legions in the early Republic was given to the two annually-elected consuls, which often led to mismanagement. Sometimes this even lead to them commanding the Roman forces on alternate days so neither would gain power over the other, resulting in more than one defeat. In the later republic, the relatively small number of legions commanded by the consuls (2-4) resulted in their power being overshadowed by the proconsuls, the provincial governors. They would often have more loyalty (eee Marian Reforms) from their troops than their consular counterparts, and the same time have the ability to raise vast numbers of troops. While the provincial armies were technically supposed to stay within the province their governor controlled, this was ignored by the middle of the 1st Century BC. By the end of the Republic, the various men involved in the civil wars had raised the number of legions throughout the Republic's provinces to more than fifty, many at the command of a single man.
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| − | Marian Reforms
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| − | By the end of the 2nd century BC the Republican army was experiencing a severe manpower shortage. In addition to this shortage, Roman armies were now having to serve for longer periods to fight wars further away from their home. The Grachhi had attempted to resolve the former problem by redistributing public land to the lower classes, and thereby increase the number of men eligible for military service, but were killed before they could achieve this. Thus, the extremely popular Gaius Marius at the end of the 2nd century used his power to reorganize the Republican army. Firstly, while still technically illegal, he recruited men from the lower classes who did not meet the official property requirement. He also reorganized the legions into the cohort system, doing away with the manipular system. The new legions were made up of 10 cohorts, each with 6 centuries of 80 men. The first cohort carried the new legionary standard, a silver or gold eagle called the aquilia. This cohort had only 5 centuries, but each century had double the men of normal centuries. All together, each legion had approximately 4,800 men. The Marian reforms had great political fallout as well. Although the officer corps was still largely composed of Roman aristocrats, the rank-and-file troops were all lower-class men - serving in the legions became less and less of every citizen's traditional civic duty to Rome and more exclusively a means to win glory for your family as an officer. It also meant that legions were now (more or less) permanent formations, not just temporary armies deployed according to need (the latin word 'legio' is actually their word for 'levy'). As enduring units, they were able to become more effective fighting forces; more importantly, they could now form lasting loyalties to their commanders, as the typical 1-year consul system began to break down and generals served for greater durations. This is what made the civil wars possible, and it is why scholars often cite the Marian Reforms as the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic.
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| − | The Imperial Army
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| − | During the reign of Augustus the army became a professional one. Its core of legionaires was composed of Roman citizens who served for a minimum of twenty five years. Augustus in his reign tried to eliminate the loyalty of the legions to the generals who commanded them, forcing them to take an oath of allegiance directly to him. While the legions remained relatively loyal to Augustus during his reign, under others, especially the more corrupt emperors or those who unwisely treated the military poorly, the legions often took power into their own hands. Legions continued to move farther and farther to the outskirts of society, especially in the later periods of the empire as the majority of legionaires no longer came from Italy, and were instead born in the provinces. The loyalty the legions felt to their emperor only degraded more with time, and lead in the 2nd Century and 3rd Century to a large number of military usurpers and civil wars. By the time of the military officer emperors that characterized the period following the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman army was just as likely to be attacking itself as an outside invader.
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| − | Both the pre- and post-Marian armies were greatly assisted by auxiliary troops. A typical Roman legion was accompanied by a matching auxiliary legion. In the pre-Marian army these auxiliary troops were Italians, and often Latins, from cities near Rome. The post-Marian army incorporated these Italian soldiers into its standard legions (as all Italians were Roman citizens after the Social War). Its auxiliary troops were made up of foreigners from provinces distant to Rome, who gained Roman citizenship after completing their twenty five years of service. This system of foreign auxiliaries allowed the post-Marian army to strengthen traditional weak points of the Roman system, such as light missile troops and cavalry, with foreign specialists, especially as the richer classes took less and less part of military affairs and the Roman army lost much of its domestic cavalry.
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| − | At the beginning of the Imperial period the number of legions was 60, which Augustus more than halved to 28, numbering at approximately 160,000 men. As more territory was conquered throughout the Imperial period, this fluctuated into the mid-thirties. At the same time, at the beginning of the Imperial period the foreign auxiliaries made up a rather small portion of the military, but continued to rise, so that by the end of the period of the Five Good Emperors they probably equalled the legionaires in number, giving a combined total of between 300,000 and 400,000 men in the Army.
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| − | The last major reform of the Imperial Army came under the reign of Diocletian in the late 3rd Century. During the instability that had marked most of that century, the army had fallen in number and lost much of its ability to effectively police and defend the empire. He quickly recruited a large number of men, increasing the number of legionaires from between 150,000-200,000 to 350,000-400,000, effectively doubling the number in a case of quantity over quality.
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| − | Weapons and equipment
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| − | Lorica segmentata
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| − | Lorica Hamata
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| − | Siege engine
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| − | Gladius
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| − | Onager
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| − | Pilum
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| − | Spatha
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| − | Ballista
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| − | == World fact Book ==
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| − | Name- The Imperial race
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| − | Long Name- the Roman Empire of the Imperial race
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| − | population- 654 million
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| − | Military size- 200,000 legions
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| − | Allies- [[serinistad]], [[Neferamity]]
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| − | Rivials- [[Socialist Freemen]], [[Tetris L-shaped block]]
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This nation will always remain in the memory of the Holy Church of Floyd... Though some memories are bad and others are good, he will always have a spot in the Great Gig in the Sky with the rest of us...
