Ten most important events in Roman History

Hi my name is Michael George. I have been learning and teaching history my whole life. This is my version of the top 10. I hope you find it some combination of entertaining, informative and thought provoking. This is the beginning a regular series. Next will be "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" of Roman Emperors. Enjoy.

Produced by Leo Kahans. Recorded at Songlands Studios.

Transcript

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Hi everyone, my name is Michael George, and this is my first podcast on history, and today we are doing the rather ambitious task of the top ten events in Roman history. Look, you've always got to remember with this sort of task that the most important thing is if it's your starting point with Roman history, well it's a good place to start. I'm certainly gonna give my take on these ten events and either way hopefully you'll find something that's either new or interesting or better still both. Now there's a few things clearly that didn't make the top ten. One of the things that I just can't resist talking about that's technically not in the top ten is the fact that the Emperor Caligula decided to make his horse in Cartius the first council. Now the first council was effectively second in charge of the Roman Empire at that point in time. And really he did this as a way of showing the Roman Senate that he basically had the power to do what he liked and it was just in a way just a flex of his power. Now also the horse itself he built a marble stable for it and of course fed it hay with gold flakes. There's just a little snippet for you. Alright, let's get into the top ten. Number one, it is chronological, I just can't help myself, that's how I think about these things. Number one is the founding of Rome as a city and as a kingdom in seven fifty three BC, so probably earlier than you'd think. Number two, the establishment and achievements of the Roman Republic five oh nine BC. So at some point in time and I'll obviously come back to all of these in more detail, but at some point they did say king and became a republic. Number three, the Punic Wars two sixty four to one hundred forty six BC. This is the conflict between Rome and the other leading civilization of the time, well in the Mediterranean anyway, and how that all played out. Number four, Julius Caesar's rise and assassination and he was assassinated in forty four BC and the end of the Republic so I've kind of combined those together just so I could have an extra one number five The Pax Romana twenty seven BC to one hundred eighty AD that in Latin basically translates into the Roman peace. Now I'll explain how this came about and I think it's gotta come with the caveat of relative peace and peace accord on the terms of the Romans. Now of course I then looked up how many wars they fought during this period and the list is quite considerable, but I'll come back to that and I'll go and the first thing that popped into my head was well peace for who exactly? Um number six, the Great Fire of Rome in sixty four AD. Um probably a reasonably well known event where Emperor Nero allegedly fiddled while Romeburned. Um now like so many things in history it's a little bit more complicated than that and the gap between you know fact and myth um is large. Seven we have the Edict of Milan. Okay, that was in three hundred and thirteen AD. Now that was effectively the decision to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and certainly signaled the end of any organized persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, which had been quite a thing for quite a long time up to that point. Number eight, in three ninety five AD the split of the Roman Empire into the Western half and the eastern half and I'll obviously again come back into more detail, but essentially that happened because they found it was becoming increasingly unmanageable, and to be honest, the eastern side well what was to become the eastern part of the empire largely started viewing the western half as a bit of a um burden, okay? So the so that's why that happened. Um number nine, the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD. Um and I'll go through, you know, the factors that led to that happening. And then number ten, um I'll go through and look at the achievements of the Eastern Empire um and it survived, believe it or not, until fourteen fifty three AD. Okay, so that's another really roughly another thousand years. Um so uh yeah I would say that people might be surprised, you know, that the Roman Empire itself survived in one form or another for quite a lot longer than people realise. Number one, the founding of Rome seven fifty three BC. Now the origin story is all about the legend of Romulus and Remus. Um so their mother was Rhea Sylvia, a vestal virgin and daughter of Numitor, the king of the then king of Rome. And the their father was none other than Mars God of war. Okay, so we're talking immaculate conception here vessel virgin and a god, okay? So um you know this is in many ways, you know, an important I guess underpinning of what Romans thought was important and where they thought their origins came from. Um now Amulus um Rhea Sylvia's uncle overthrew Numentaur and ordered that the twins Romulus and Remus be drowned in a nearby Tiber River, like so many of these Miss Sea stories are often quite brutal. However, good news for the babies that they were saved by a she wolf, okay? And raised and she and there's a very famous image of them suckling on the she wolf and she initially looked after them until they were discovered by of course a shepherd whose name was Faustulus and he brought them up as his own. Now at some point he revealed to them that he was not in fact their actual father, and they discovered that they were the grandsons of Numitor, the deposed king of Rome, and they returned and led an uprising against the their uncle and then restored Numitor as king. Um so uh then they went on to establish uh the actual city of Rome. Now of course as brothers do, they had a dispute. Romulus wanted to build it on the Palantine Hill, Remus wanted to build it on the nearby Avateen Hill, now Romulus prevailed. Now one day while they were building Rome Remus mocked uh Romulus' walls and I guess in the ancient tradition of brother killing going all the way back to Cain and Abel Romulus killed Remus in a fit of rage. Okay, now after overcoming his guilt, um he finished building Rome and then promptly named it after himself. Romulus called Rome Rome. Okay, so that's the origin of the name. Um and the area was inhabited by tribes including Latins, Sabines and Etruscans. Um it was in a strategic an important strategic location. And once I were able to combine all of those tribes, it grew relatively quickly. Um and as I said, this whole story is symbolic of how the Romans then saw themselves and also as time went past what they valued as a society and and I guess two important themes that come out of it is this idea of bravery and standing up for what they believed was the right thing to do, and of course conflict which you know plays an ongoing role throughout the whole Roman Empire as we will see, both within and without. The creation of the Roman Republic five oh nine BC now as you often see in history and this is across many different civilizations and many different ages, that monarchies are about as good as the last king or queen you had. And what you will see um and history across a whole range of different areas, if any given monarchy has a run of bad or yeah, bad kings or queens, that monarchy is in serious trouble. And that's exactly what happened to Rome as a monarchy as well. Their last king was known as the man uh Tarkin the Proud. Now the clue's probably in the title. He was highly unpopular, and a guy called Junius Brutus led a re successful revolt against Tarkin and he was deposed. Um now out of that they decided that they would become a republic. Um that is a system of government that operates without um you know total power being passed down by birth um into something that I guess at that point in time you know, resembled some version of representation and I think frankly democracy's a bit of a stretch. But um so and these ideas were largely Greek in origin. Now uh people I'm not gonna go into a deep dive on this, but people argue that th the Athenians invented democracy and look, I don't want to upset anyone, but I will say this I think that's a semi reasonable claim if we're just looking at, you know, Western Europe. However, uh uh even a cursory glance around, you know, tribal societies and how they made decisions uh would suggest that I think it's difficult to sustain the argument that the Greeks invented democracy. However, I'll move on. Um so the structure of the Republic was it had two consuls. One was effectively operated as a CEO, and the other one was a military commander. Then we had a Senate which was a council of elders, so this is more an advisory body, and they were in charge of financial and foreign policy, and then uh it had a popular assembly. Um and it's worth noting, and this you gotta remember this with ancient history. You can fly through the years so quickly, but this system lasted for five hundred years, which is by any measure a long time. So it tells you that it was successful. Um and like all things it had a stay and was in turn replaced by something else. But we'll get to that. Um and like many republics, it had checks and balances that were largely designed to ensure that no none of those groups became too powerful. Um and there was also in 450 BC a codification of laws, which was that they actually write them down and organized them now. This is not always the sexy bit of history. However, often it's this process that allows these kind of governments or structures to actually function. And when you think about it, you know, as as a citizen or someone who you now understand, regardless of the rights and wrong to the of these laws, however at least you they're written down and you know what they are and they're not at the whim of someone whose dad was king, okay? We got laws and you you're entitled to expect that the law will be upheld. And that is always a big step forward for any group of humans. So under the Republic of course and this many people have argued that the lifeblood of the Roman Empire was its almost endless desire to expand. Okay, it was fueled by expansion. Um and really um, you know, the start of the Republic saw this continue, that initially, you know, the Kingdom of Rome was created by um the subjugation of tribes on a tribal level, and then during the Republic it went upper level. So they're at the point where they could start projecting outside of the Italian peninsula and start basically grabbing more territory. So we had the following conquests took place. Um and the two main ones um were the was the Samnite Wars from 343 to 290 BC. And again, that's you know, three hundred forty three to two hundred ninety, okay? That's fifty years of war. Um so that's the thing sometimes in Roman history you gotta pay attention to. This was no overnight event. It took a long time for them to you know uh some of these wars, okay and that I'm not gonna talk to every single event of the Samnite um wars because that would basically it's probably you could do a series of ten podcasts on that in its own right. And then of course a way more high profile conflict which was the Punic Wars, um which was between Rome and Carthage, and of course the name Hannibal looms large in that um conflict. But I'll come back to that 'cause that is in the top ten. And what underlay or underpinned you know its initial successes was the fact that they reformed their military, they went from being a tribal army to being a fully professional army. They had an army that was available all year round. So um how tribal groups fought was essentially they'd have a fighting season and they'd all agree once everyone had done the harvest and all the other things, they'd say, all right, here's our window of opportunity, we'll fight and then basically at some point in the autumn they more or less said, Well, that's enough. Winter is coming, we all need to get organized. We'll see you next year. Um and so in a way it was often a Form of conflict which wasn't really intended to eradicate other tribes or wipe them off the face of the earth. As we see, under under the Roman Empire, things sort of went in a different direction. Also, it wasn't all about war, to be fair. Um there were cultural achievements, um, literature and philosophy, with people like Cicero, of course, architecture and engineering, and we all know that I'm gonna mention roads, aqueducts and monuments. And really, these seem to be the big three of Roman civilization and everywhere they went. Roads because they connected it all and allowed them to trade, communicate, shift their troops around, um and their network of roads was massive, and you can still go look at a Roman road today, you can still go walk down a Roman road if you go to Europe. Um aqueducts, perhaps again, maybe not a super ex that well, they look good. Also, they provide clean water, okay? Now clean water, a reliable source of clean water basically results in a fairly rapid expansion in the population of a town and allows towns to go into cities. Um and monuments. Um there you go why why would they have to build monuments everywhere? Well, it's all about the projection of power um wherever they go. Uh they will it's sending a pretty clear message we're in charge, we are here and we're not going away. And the other thing monuments did too was it was a way of recognizing people's achievements. Um under the Republic uh there was the development of trade networks across the Mediterranean, and essentially that's what fueled the Punic Wars with Carthage. It was essentially all about trade and controlling trade in the Mediterranean. Um then there was agricultural development, there was um a refinement of agriculture which led to an increase in productivity, which in turn leads to increased wealth uh for the inhabitants of Rome. And also one of the benefits is shared, they shared with um the brand new subjects of Rome. They'd say, well, okay, if you're prepared to accept that we're here, um the good news is that one day you too might become a citizen of Rome and you will enjoy the benefits of peace and prosperity. You just might have to give up your own culture, your own language, and possibly your own religion. You choose. Um another feature of um the republic was there was also so it wasn't all plain sailing. There was always conflict within Roman society, and this was between the patricians who were largely the aristocratic families um who had influence, largely through positions of birth. So that never disappeared, and how that operates within what's meant to be a republic is kinda interesting because you would have thought well, okay, let's this was not and never was a class or society. And so there was conflict between the Patricians and the Pobians, which is the common folk. Okay, so there was always an ongoing tension between these two groups. Um and so there were always bouts of instability caused by that. Number three, the Punic Wars two sixty four to one hundred forty six BC. The reason for including the Punic Wars in the top ten is that the three different wars that were fought established Rome as the heavyweight champion of the Mediterranean. Second, it required them to build a navy and learn how to use it. Third, the ruthless demonstration of power that followed the final defeat of Carthage. The city was literally erased, and the fields were ploughed with salt, so nothing would ever grow. The message was clear to all Carthage would never rise again. Also I should mention that the inhabitants of the city of Carthage too, after it successfully besieged, but I'll come back to that, all sold into slavery or killed. So what we see is and I've probably gone to the endpoint too quickly, but this is no longer a tribal skirmish or something that's about we'll fight you in fighting season. This is one civilization versus another. This is a battle for donation, and this is being played all the way through to the end game. And it's not about peaceful coexistence, it is literally them wiping the civilization of Carthage off the map, which is exactly what they did. At some point I went, why the Punic Wars? And it derives from the term Punicus which means the Phoenicians, the ethnic group that founded Carthage. So the first Punic War, round one if you will, two hundred sixty four to two forty one BC. Again, I'll labour this point. That's a long war, by the way. The first war was triggered by competition over trade and the desire of both civilizations to control Sicily. The key battles were as follows The Battle of Lilibaum two hundred forty one. This was a naval battle. Now, initially the Carthaginians held the advantage. They had a better navy and they were way better at using it than the Romans. However, as we'll see time and time again, I mean one of the strengths of Roman civilization is if we don't have something, we'll build it, and if we don't know how to use this technology, we'll learn it. And that's exactly what they did. So the Battle of Lilibaum, they built up their navy. It was a naval battle. Rome's navy was initially inferior, however, they developed their own tactics using the Corvus, which allowed hand to hand combat. So the Corvus was effectively like a gangplank or a bridging device which allowed the Roman naval ships to use what they had was which was an advantage over the Carthage, was their actual fighting troops which were man for man superior to the Carthaginians. So what the Romans wanted to do was get in there and board the Carthaginian ships and overwhelm them with hand-to-hand combat. So, you know, f that is essentially the first and most important rule. Read the Art of War by Sun Tzu, which is fight where you are strong. And that's what you play to your strengths. So that's exactly what the Romans did, and it worked. And then the next one was the Battle of Mile in 260 BC, which again was um you know a consequence of their continuing improvements in their navy, and then the final stage was the siege siege of the city of Lilibaum. And again, the Romans they got good at sieging. Now, besieging is about encircling a town or a city and ensuring that nothing and no one gets in and out. Um that's the first step. And that you sit down and you can just starve them out if you want to. Now, if you're looking for a more quick resolution, then you can look at things like battering rams, um towers, um artillery. Uh yes, they did have artillery in um in ancient civilization. They were basically huge stone throwers, um which they could use to throw boulders over the walls um and squash people or knock down the walls. Um so it was often a combination of patience and just hammering away at certain points of the defenses day in, day out. So um and so it often boiled down to an act of will which was who would crack first, whether the besieged would surrender out of you know, starvation, or the the people besieging the town basically grew weary or suddenly out you know they got attacked by someone else and they'd have to pack up and go home. Um now in this particular case the Romans were successfully able to capture the city of Lilibaum and there was a treaty of Lilibaum which meant that the Romans got control of Sicily, they had to pay mu the Carthaginians had to pay money to the Romans for essentially as war reparations and there were limits imposed to the size of the Carthaginian army and navy. Okay. However, round one goes to the Romans, but the Carthaginians weren't done yet. They're like, alright, we'll be back. And sure enough, the Second Punic War, round two, and that went from 218 to 201 BC. And this is where uh the figure Hannibal emerges. Now it's a name uh that probably most people have heard, and not just through the the lambs, Clarice Silence of the Lambs, but the actual original Hannibal Hannibal. It was sparked by Carthaginian expansion in Spain and clearly the start of clearly the start of the show was Hannibal Barker. His ability to fe and his ability to defeat the Roman army. And in many ways, unfortunately for Hannibal, he really had no peer as a general at this point in time, and he was able to defeat the Roman army on numerous occasions. However, unfortunately for him, it was also a case of win the battle, lose the war. Um because the Romans' capacity, if they lost an army, they just build another one. If they lost a legion, they just build another one. So in many ways they just outlasted Hannibal. Um and there's a few features of this Second War that really made his reputation. Um so he was in Spain and so he was contemplating an invasion of the Italian peninsula and the Romans always expected if this was to occur that he would turn up somewhere on ships. However, what he decided to do instead was to march from Spain through the bottom half of France, go over the Alps and into the north of Italy, and that's exactly what he did. Now, he had elephants. Elephants on the Alps. Now didn't really work out particularly well, I'm sorry to say, uh for the elephants. He lost most of them on the way, and he lost quite a lot of troops along the way as well. I mean the Alps are quite high and cult. However, the upside was uh he emerged and appeared from a direction the Romans were completely unprepared for, and that was in 2018. And from there he they fought the Battle of Trebea and Tresime in 2021 BC and the Peace de Resistance the Battle of Canai in 2016. Now this in many ways has been studied by every single military student ever since, okay, as the perfect battle. So what happened was and the reason that it's considered I guess the textbook way to run any battle was the double envelopment. Okay? That is you're attacking the enemy enemy simultaneously on both flanks. So what Hannibal did was he made his battle line deliberately a little soft in the middle, drew the Romans in and then hit them hard on both flanks with these better troops. Now so what the Romans felt they initially thought they were winning, they were pushing forward, and then next thing they know they look left and right and there's Carthaginians everywhere and it was an overwhelming win for the Carthaginians. The Romans respond by avoiding direct battle and cutting off his supply lines. So Hannibal's winning these battles in the Italian peninsula, however, he's not really getting anywhere. The Romans aren't quitting, the Romans aren't surrendering, um and the further he goes into Rome the longer his supply lines get. Um so what and then of course um the Romans eventually decide that they under the general Scipio Africanus they fight the final showdown, the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, and this time the Romans win. And we end up with the Treaty of Zama. Um it was harsh, the Carthaginians lost Spain, and there was a reduction again to the size of their army. However, it still wasn't the knockout war. There was more to come, and the third and final round was the Third Punic War from 149 to 146 BC. There was a fear and probably a reasonable fear within Rome that Carthage still might rise again. So as a Roman senator called Cato the Elder said Carthageo Dolenda Est means Carthage must die in Latin. Everything sounds impressive when you say it in Latin. There was a three year siege of Carthage which eventually which resulted in the Romans successfully taking the city of Carthage and it resulted in the complete destruction of the city, inhabitants were killed or sold into slavery and as I said earlier, the fields around it were literally ploughed with salt so nothing would grow. Um Carthage as a city cease to exist. Alright, number four, the rise and death of Julius Caesar and the end of the Republic. Like I said, I kinda crammed these two together so I could get an extra one in the top ten. How did this womanizing, self-promoting spendthrift nearly become the first emperor of Rome? Well, you don't have to think probably very hard, um, in this current time to think of some we can ask that question of a few people really, um, or how they did end up in charge of things. Anyway, let's stick to the Romans for today. Um He was born in a hundred P BC to a patrician family. Uh having said that, not necessarily one of them not a leading patrician family, but prominent enough. And his early military career was in Spain, and he really made his name in the Gallic Wars. Um now uh the Gauls were the inhabitants of France at the time, although something I certainly grew up on was the Asterix comics, um which depicted one small village of the Gauls continuing to deny um the Romans through their magic potions that gave them um super strength, um highly entertaining, and if you've never seen it, have a look. Um however, not actually historical. Um there were two key battles in his battles against the gules and the first one was in fifty-eight BC Bibract and Elisha in two in fifty two BC. Now the second one's the one I really want to concentrate on because it's quite interesting. He was besieging the city of Elisha. Uh so they had made a ring around the city and they had the Gauls cooped up. However, the Gauls had been in contact and another Gallic army came up and then in turn surrounded the Roman army. So we got Gauls in the city, then the Romans, and then another Gallic army around the outside of the Romans. So it was a bit like a donut with the Romans in the middle. They were the jam, so to speak. Now uh somehow out of all of that, Julius Caesar was able to emerge as the winner, and that's probably a podcast in its own right. Um he defeated Ven Singerix, the Gallic chief, and that more or less ended Gallic resistance in Gaul. Um and again the Romans were ruthless. Um thousands, you know, tens of thousands of golds were sold off into slavery. Some people have even described the aftermath as some version of ethnic cleansing and that even the Romans themselves back in Rome were to some extent there was some level of horror at some of the things that had happened in Gaul Now this he also rather cleverly and perhaps sensibly you could argue um documented this entire campaign in what was the commentri de Bello Gallico, which was in part history and in part propaganda. This was Julius Caesar who was in who oversaw all of this, his version of events and went on and still is one of the more famous uh Roman documents. And look, regardless of the validity of his record of things, I mean it's a direct commentary from someone who was there. So of course he made himself sound good, but you know, it's an incredibly valuable document and certainly worth reading in its own right. He then became counsel in fifty nine BC and like any good uh rising leader, one of his first areas of attention was land reform, uh which benefit the veterans that he'd fought with, okay, which secured his ongoing support within the army and veterans, so uh people who had fought in the army, so both extremely handy, and also allowed poorer people to access land, often for the first time. Now, if you look at any kind of revolutionary event um or change or you know, the pursuit of power, um and you can see this in, you know, the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution or the Chinese Revolution. If you want to get into power and if you want people to support regime change, then explain to them how they're clearly gonna benefit. And one of people's first, you know, in this time and still, um is how about we make it easier for you to own property? Now, invariably we'll see that people will support this. They go, hmm new regime where I become better off. I think I'll support that. I mean why wouldn't you? You think well it's worth taking the risk. And people invariably do. And he also reformed the calendar and included another month which he promptly named after himself and surprise, surprise, lo and behold, that would be July, Julius Caesar. There you go. Now he reaches a critical point. Now one of the understandings of the Republic is that you can't actually march on Rome with your army. Now in forty nine BC he gets to a critical point where he has his his prominence is rising and he gets to the point where he goes do I want to take over Rome? And he gets to the point which is called crossing the Rubicon. Now this is enter the English language as an important decision point and once he crossed the River Rubicon, basically he was signaling that he was there to fight um and it was an act that was hostile to the Senate. Now and if you want to read something genuinely interesting on why history matters, R. G. Collingwood um historian and philosopher wrote a really interesting piece on this. He says there's nothing specifically noteworthy about the Rubicon itself. And the only reason that this relatively minor river stream even, you know, is immortalized in history is the consequences of what occurred afterwards. Now and his point is this that um we need, you know, things that are remembered or recognized as significant in history at the at that point in time no one knew. So it probably wasn't that big a deal to well it was, but I guess its overall significance was hard to determine at that point in time. It's only later on when the whole narrative plays out that it's seen as a critical turning point. Now, if he had been defeated, uh I doubt that we have this whole crossing the Rubicon thing as a significant event. And that's really Collingwood's point. Now probably a far better and more detailed discuss read Collingwood and he'll probably expla he does explain it in considerably more detail. Um after he crossed the Rubicon, he defeated his main rival for power, Pompey, and entered Rome in forty six BC. Um and was declared dictator for life in forty-four BC. Um and so, you know, there he is. He's achieved f full control over the Roman Republic. Now, uh these events, you know, some version of these events are covered in Shakespeare's uh Julius Caesar, and um, you know, and there are some parts of that play that are historically accurate and including the scene where um they he wants to tell out the whole idea of him counting himself as a king or an emperor, so sort of what's meant to be maybe a joke, one of his friends he organizes for them to put a count or a um on his head and see how everyone responds to this. So he sort of tests the water. Um anyway, um the Roman Senate become increasingly alarmed at what they see rightly as his desire to take over and crown himself as something, um and he is assassinated in forty four BC in the odds of March, March the fifteenth, um and two of the key conspirators are Brutus and Cassius, and um you know Brutus had been a supporter of um Julius Caesar and and there is the gate saying A tu Brutti which means annubrutus um and it's estimated that he was stabbed thirty to forty times, so it it was truly brutal, um maybe suggesting also the origins of the word brutal as well, perhaps. Um and ultimately died and he and in the chaos that ensued uh he nearly became the first emperor of Rome. Which brings us to the next event which was the end of the Roman Republic which I've sort of again jammed in there with the end of Julius Caesar. Now the Roman Republic, remembering that it had lasted for five hundred years, ended really now this these are five fairly solid reasons, but also remember that this is all up for debate and certainly you can look into it and that people might well disagree with my reasons, but these are certainly some of the more commonly acceptable explanations. First of all, there was a considerable level of political corruption and conflict, and the ongoing conflict between patricians and plebeians had never really um solved or resolved. Um there were civil wars eighty eight to eighty two BC Marius vs. Sulla and Caesar V Pompey forty nine to forty five BC. Three the concentration of power and the increasing loyalty between generals and their troops not to the Republic but to their actual generals. So it becomes personal. Um the assassination of Julius Caesar in forty four BC creates well he had been made consul for life by the state, so it creates a political vacuum and even a most cursory glimpse at, I guess, political history that any political void has to be filled with something new, and this is certainly a good example of that. Five, he had a nephew, Julius Caesar that is, called Octavian, and he rose to prominence. He defeated Mark Antony at the Ancleopatra in Egypt in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, which led to Antony and Cleopatra both killing themselves and again dramatized by the work of Shakespeare. Of course, it is a work of fiction, but certainly again has elements of fact in it. So after five hundred years we see ended the Roman Republic and that Octavius is crowned as empress the first emperor of Rome and becomes Augustus. Number five, the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. Now one of the this is one of the hallmarks of um life with Rome as an empire was this concept that the shift into an em into an empire led to peace and prosperity. Now, this is highly debatable. And you could argue this is um well, let's just say I suppose to be fair. It's a period of relative peace, but well, I think we let's just dig a little bit deeper as to what that actually means. Um now it the Paxramana um was a time, like I said, of relative peace and stability that lasted approximately 200 years. From twenty seven BC to 180 AD. That is from the first emperor Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. Now, Marcus Aurelius also makes a bit of an appearance in the first bit of the movie Gladiator, um and also seen as the father of the whole philosophical school of Stoicism, or certainly a leading proponent of the idea of Stoicism, and author of a writing called Meditations, where he and in many ways was an emperor philosopher and um was seen as a highly capable and wise leader and and you know two hundred years where it saw um growth of the Roman Empire, growth of trade and growth of cultural exchange. Um number one, stability and prosperity, number two, cultural flourishing, arts, literature and philosophy, Virgil and Horace, um famous Roman poets came in this period, Livy and Tactius historians, number three, infrastructure development once again the big three roads, aqueducts, monuments, amphitheaters, colosseums. Um these were constructed all over the Roman Empire and were a way of marking where Rome was and what it meant to be Roman and what were some of the benefits of becoming a Roman citizen. Because and it is important to note after some of the more hardline policies of the Republic that the Romans did make a shift into if you surrender, we will make you a citizen, which is we will protect you and that you will enjoy the benefits of being a Roman citizen. Now, it turns out there were a few different types of citizens. Um of course my name Please don't take this the wrong way because we see this throughout history. Um women and slaves were not citizens. Now uh look that happened all the way through um even in the American Revolution in the seventeen hundred late seventeen hundreds um when they talked about American citizens under the new constitution, of course it it mur guess who got left out? Women, slaves, American Indians um not mentioned in the uh constitution. So I suppose what we see um that is a pattern that goes on and is repeated on and on throughout history. Where are these groups? They're just not included. Um again, number four, legal reforms, further legal reforms and for the reasons I discussed earlier, um, you know, key instruments of social stability. That is, these are the laws, this is what you can expect, and if you feel you've been harshly cheated, this is what you can do about it. These are things that make people feel happy, or that they've been treated fairly or that they at least ha have the opportunity to put their case. Um now and number five, well, despite the you know the Roman peace, let's be real here, there was also a considerable expansion of the Roman Empire. Um starting off with the Canterbarian Wars from twenty nine uh twenty-nine to the nineteenth BC in northern Spain. Then we have the Dalmatian Wars from six to nine AD. Now this was not actually a war against spotty dogs, but in fact an area of what is now Croatia. Um the Germanic wars in nine AD where uh the Romans were expanding into Germany and against the Germanic tribes and that all ground to a halt after three legions were destroyed in the Battle of Tettenberg Forest and at that point the Romans decided to stop. Um perhaps I'll talk another day about exactly what a legion was, but um it's a significant number of soldiers lost. Um The Jewish wars from sixty six to seventy three AD, which included the first Jewish war, which was a revolt, and then the later Ba Kokba. The Ba Kokba revolt from one hundred two AD to one hundred thirty five, which was the second major Jewish revolt against Roman rule. This rebellion was crushed leading to significant loss of life and further suppression of Jewish identity in the region. Number five, the Parthian Wars. From fifty four AD to one hundred seventeen AD, several conflicts occurred between Rome and the Parthian Empire over the control of Armenia and influence in the Near East. And incidentally, a series of what could only be described as military disasters against the Parthians. The Parthians on their homeground at Parthia in Parthia were extremely hard to be. And also on whose terms was peace achieved, which was really cooperate or we'll invade you and we'll fight you. And really there will be peace when you surrender and uh are prepared to to some extent um give up, you know, or be assimilated into our culture. You will lose some of your culture, you will lose some of your own language, you will lose possibly your own religion, all under the guise of Rome bringing peace and stability. It's all a little bit like Star Wars, you know, with the Emperor, um, which is we will bring peace to the universe, um to the galaxy. Um but you know, peace at what cost? Um so I think you can argue that the Pax Romana is certainly had a very strong element of uh propaganda to it, which was you know, it was something that was promoted as Romans uh by the Romans as a way of trying to encourage ongoing cooperation. However, as you can as you just heard, I mean there were ongoing conflicts throughout this Roman peace. Uh so it's just worth thinking about Okay, number six the Great Fire of Rome, which occurred in sixty four AD. This by any measure was a catastrophic event that devastated large parts of Rome and had significant political, social and cultural ramifications. Now the fire took place in the reign of Emperor Nero, um and incidentally I was thinking for our future podcast would be ten most famous Roman Empire Emperors and Nero certainly gets in, but we we're not gonna necessarily focus too much on him today. It's all about the fire. Um Nero is a ruler that often had be would or is associated with extravagance and his own ambitions as an artiste. He quite fancied himself as an actor and as a musician and took great pride in winning both acting and um musical competitions. Now uh would you let the Roman Empire Emperor win if you're in a contest? Of course you would, and that's exactly how it played out. Rome was a densely populated city and at this point in time largely made out of wooden structures. Now, as we know, wood burns quite nicely, making it particularly vulnerable to fire. So the start of the fire was July 18, 64 AD, and it started in shops containing flammable goods near the Circus Maximus, a large chariot racing stadium. And the fire raged for six days and seven nights, spreading rapidly due to the narrow streets and wooden buildings, and it consumed vast sections of the city. Um and it's estimated that it destroyed two-thirds of Rome, including commercial districts, temples and residential areas. Now, because it was ancient times, casualties aren't exactly known, but but the general uh consensus is that we're talking thousands of people dying and many were left homeless. Now, as is always the case, um why does this get in the top ten? Well, Nero was away from Rome when the fire began and upon his return he organized relief efforts providing shelter and food for the displaced population. So turn out that this idea of him standing on some balcony playing his violin was not actually what occurred at all. To deflect blame for the fire, rumors circulated that Nero himself had instigated it to Clearland for his grandiose architectural projects, including the construction of a new palace. Also, um again, you know, an ongoing thread throughout history. Blame someone. In this particular case, blame the Christians. Okay. Christian Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire at this point in time, and Nero targeted Christians, blaming them for the fire. And this led to brutal persecutions, including executions and public spectacles, including as was, you know, one of the major forms of um execution in Roman homes, crucifixion on a mass scale. The historical accounts, Tacticus, a Roman historian, recorded that Christians were tortured and killed in gruesome ways such as being burned alive or fed to wild animals. But I mean there have been other great fires in the past, and I suppose often this leads to a rejuvenation of civilizations and an opportunity to rebuild, and this is certainly what this presented as well. Nero initiated a massive rebuilding program which included wider streets, improved building materials and public space, and the introduction of building coats to ensure or to attempt to ensure that future fires would not occur. I guess another part of the historical impact was how the Romans themselves actually saw Nero. The Great Fire certainly affected his reputation while he initially gained some favor for his relief efforts and the subsequent persecution of the Christians. Also there were cultural shifts as a result of the fire. Um it influenced Roman architecture and urban planning. And in many ways, um you know Rome was a city that had grown to some extent spontaneously, um and it led to, you know, large parts of Rome actually being able to be rebuilt in a planned way. So all in all, it was a devastating event, but it reshaped the city and had, I suppose, in some ways, um some benefits in terms of what was rebuilt. Um it certainly saw a significant escalation in the persecution of Christians and also um you know certainly damaged the reputation of the Emperor Nero. Number seven, the Edict of Milan issued in three hundred and thirteen AD by the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Lithinius Linicus was a landmark decree that granted religious tolerance towards throughout the Roman Empire, particularly towards Christianity. Its significance is profound and I guess has a range of consequences. It signaled the end of the traditional Roman religion, which was based around Greek gods. So Jupiter had been taken from Zeus, um, his wife and then his wife Juno, Neptune, who was the god of the sea, who is the equivalent to the Greek Poseidon, Mars representing the god of war, Venus was the goddess of love and beauty, um, who'd been borrowed from the Greek Aphrodite and so on. So really the traditional Roman religion had basically been borrowed from Greek religion, and this was still tolerated, however, Christianity became increasingly popular, uh, most of which had been adopted from Greek gods. So prior to the edict, Christians faced significant persecution within the Roman Empire, particularly under emperors such as Nero and Diocletian, the edict aimed to put an end to these widespread persecutions. Also significantly, Constantine had become a Christian himself, and his conversion to Christianity clearly played a you know a crucial role in the in the edict. The key provisions of the edict were religious freedom which allowed for the free practice of Christianity and other religions throughout the empire, effectively granting legal recognition to the Christian faith. Now I suppose that Christianity becomes a new official religion of the Roman Empire. The return of property it mandated the return of confiscated Christian property, including churches and sacred texts. End of persecution and the conversion of the Empire. Following the edict, many pagans converted to Christianity, leading to its establishment as the dominant religion in the Roman Empire by the end of the fourth century. Also, it led to a centralization of power. The edict allowed Constantine to consolidate power by unifying the empire under a common religion, fostering loyalty amongst Christian subjects and strengthening his rule. Also, in Roman culture it has a significant impact and Christianity begins to influence art, literature and philosophy. Also, we have the Council of Nicosia. The tolerance established by the edict paved the way for the Council of Nicosia in three twenty five AD which sought to address doctrinal disputes and further unify Christianity. So there was also a mechanism where any disputes about the direction of Christianity could be debated in a relatively civilized way and I guess clarified. And importantly the longer term effects, the principles of religious tolerance and the recognition of diverse faiths established by the edict have had a lasting impact on, I guess, Western civilization moving forward where I guess it establishes the beginning anyway, and of course an totally imperfect tradition of religious freedom. So the Edict of Milan could be described as a genuinely transformative document that I guess fundamentally changed how people could practice religion or choose religion and how they expressed religion. Number eight. The split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD. The Roman Empire split into two parts, commonly referred to as the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire. And it was a complex process, as you would imagine. We're talking about this massive entity entity. And I I'm just gonna talk about why this happened and I guess to some extent how this happened. Now, first and foremost is there is the size of the Empire itself and that in a way you could argue that Rome was a victim of its own success. That it just grew into something that was becoming unmanageable. So by the late third century AD, um they came to the conclusion that trying to govern it all through Rome was becoming increasingly difficult. So by dividing it into two, we the idea was it b bec would be run more efficiently and that it would b be easier to maintain, you know, the two parts of the Roman Empire and maintain stability and order. Also that there was a leadership crisis um in that and we'll get into this perhaps another day and it's worth uh or look it up, but if you go to the list of emperors, you know, who reigned across the whole Roman Empire, what you add the first thing that might strike you is that some of these people lasted like literally days. Um and there were periods in Roman history where, you know, they'd have I think the there's a year where they had five separate emperors. So um, you know, the stability of the Roman Empire um and you know emperors themselves had fluctuated wildly over the course of time. So the idea was to perhaps restore, you know, a degree of stability. Um so in 293 Emperor Diocletian established a Tetrarchy, dividing the empire into four regions, each co-ruled by a co emperor. This system aimed to improve governance but further led to led to further fragmentation. There was also military pressures. There was barbarian invasions, particularly from Germanic tribes and other barbarian groups, and the Western Empire was more vulnerable due to its geographic location. Splitting the Empire also allowed for more focused military strategies, with the Eastern Empire able to concentrate on threats from Persia and the Western Empire focusing on invasions from tribes like the Visigoths and the Vandals. And if you ever wondered where the term Vandal comes from, well there you go. It turned out it was a tribe. And we'll get into that a little later on because you'll see what they did. Um there are also economic factors. Frankly, what was to become the eastern part, um it was rapidly becoming way more wealthy and more successful than the western half. And there was definitely a feeling that as far as they were concerned, the western half of the empire was becoming a bit of a dead weight and that the eastern part of the empire would function better without it. And hence it was centered around Constantinople, of course, named after the Empire Constantine, um which was formerly known as Byzantium. Um also again, as always, it's about trade. The Eastern Empire controlled critical trade routes, which contributed to its economic strength, and um and as I said earlier, it was basically economically outperforming the Western half. Also, um such a vast area, um, you know, it encompassed such a huge variety of cultures and languages that um splitting it into two main halves, the Western and the Eastern allowed this to be vacated for. Also um so Constantine's foundation of Constantinople. In three hundred and thirty AD, Emperor Constantine I established Constantinople as the new capital for the Eastern Roman Empire. This act symbolized a shift in power and focus from Rome to the East. The formal division occurred in three hundred five AD. After the death of Emperor Theodosius I in three ninety five AD, the empire was permanently divided among his two sons, with Arcadius ruling the east and Onerius ruling the west. This formal division solidified the separation that had been developing over previous centuries. So as you can see, hopefully, that this was not an overnight transformation that's something that occurred over quite a long period of time. Now, just a few things to point out. The split of the Roman Empire into two parts was a gradual process, um as I just said, and I guess the part that really endured was the Byzantine Empire, which could endure for nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in four seventy six AD. Number nine, the fall of the Western Roman Empire four seventy six AD Now as you can imagine the fall of half of the Empire was a somewhat multifaceted event that unfolded really probably over, depending on who you are, several centuries, um all of which culminated in an official collapse in 476. Um and this decline was influenced by a combination of both internal weaknesses and external pressures. So let's have a look at those. First of all, there was a leadership crisis. The Western Roman Empire had experienced frequent changes in leadership and a succession of weak and ineffective emperors. Now, like I said before about monarchies, same with empires. If you get a whole string of ineffective emperors, well your empire is in trouble. Many were overthrown and assassinated, leading to, I guess, ongoing instability. There was an increase in civil wars, there was heavy taxation to fund military campaigns and maintain infrastructure, and also all of this brought about significant disruption to trade, which then leads to, you know, loss of funds to keep the whole thing going together. Um the increasing reliance on slavery which in the end, you could argue, led to a gradual decline in technological advancement and innovation because you the simple solution was, hey, let's just get more slaves to do it. Um the gap between rich and poor widened, leaving leading to social unrest and a decline in civic pride. Um I mean one of the things that the Roman Empire had been able to foster relatively successfully, regardless of actual reality, was the belief that that anyone can make it. So in many ways, the original American dream was the Roman dream, which is anyone from any walk of life can be a success as long as you work hard enough. And also there was military weakness, this was caused by overextension of the empire itself, and then the ongoing task of defending its huge borders against external threats. Um there was an overall decline in the quality of the Roman army due to a increasing reliance on mercenaries and non Roman soldiers who did not have the same level of loyalty to the Roman Empire. And this was further exacerbated by using barbarians to fight in the Roman army, which again led to issues of loyalty and discipline. The external factors were various tribes including the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths began to push in to Roman territory, culminating in the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in four ten AD, which, as you can imagine, was a significant blow to Roman prestige. Then the Huns under Attila, the pressure from the Huns in the East pushed other tribes onto Roman lands, leading to further invasions and destabilizations. The separation of the East and the West, the division of the Roman Empire into the Eastern and Western halves weakened the Western Empire as the wealthier Eastern Empire could focus on its own defense and prosperity. And the Western Empire began to gradually lose more and more of its territory to barbarian invasions. So I guess the key some of the key events that led to the final fall was the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths led by Elric, the Vandal conquest in 455 AD, the Vandals sacked Rome again, exacerbating the Empire's decline and demonstrating its vulnerability. So all in all, the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a combination of the external weak internal weaknesses and external pressures. The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean following the division of the Empire in the late fourth century. It lasted for nearly a thousand years after the fall of Western Rome, the Western Roman Empire in four seventy six. The Byzantine Empire achieved significant milestones in various fields, contributing to its enduring legacy. So there were cultural and artistic achievements, the construction of iconic structures such as the Hajjia Sophia in Constantinople, a building I've been fortunate enough to actually stand inside, and it is, believe me, if you ever get the chance to go to Istanbul, it's well worth your while. It is truly an amazing, I guess, living um representation of just waves and different phases of history as you walk through the streets. The development of mosaics and iconography and the use of golden vibrant colours in mosaics became a hallmark of Byzantine artistry. So I guess what the Byzantine Empire was able to do was develop its own style and head off in an entirely different um direction. And again, I mean one of the ongoing teams, um the corpus juriscivilist body of civil law. Again, we see, you know, each I guess phase of different Roman governments being developed being underpinned by um, you know, clear and transparent laws. And um the Corpus Juris Civilis was commissioned by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century and it was a compilation of Roman law codified and organized. Um centralized administration. The Byzantine Empire developed a sophisticated bureaucratic system that enabled effective governance over vast territories and also the division into the theme system, which were military districts, which allowed for better defense and again local governments. The Byzantines also weren't afraid to make a deal. The Byzantines were skilled diplomats, often using marriage alliances and strategic treaties to maintain stability. They also developed a range of military innovations, notably the development of Greek fire and a powerful and sending weapon used by Byzantine forces, particularly in naval battles. They had a professional army which resembled the earlier Roman army, which again gave them an advantage over often their tribal opponents, and given its superb location, um Istanbul or um Constantinople, you know, is in you know links Europe with Asia. So it was the center of trade and facilitated both the exchange of goods, ideas and cultures and gave them control over key trade routes such as the Silk Road, which led all the way to China. Also, it was underpinned by the introduction of the solidist gold coin, which became a standard currency ensuring economic stability, and a key part of it also was Christianity as a state religion and played a critical role in the spread of Orthodox Christianity. Also, there was considerable scholarly work done. The Byzantine Empire preserved and copied ancient Greek and Roman texts, ensuring a survival of classical knowledge through the Middle Ages. The Byzantine Empire also had an impact on Slavic nations and also the development of the Cyrillic alphabet. So all in all, you can say the Byzantine Empire it lasted, well first and foremost, it lasted thousand years until it was finally conquered and it saw, I guess, ongoing and significant developments in the areas of art, law, military strategy, and religion. And as I said earlier, if you I mean the best way to understand this, if you're lucky enough to ever get the opportunity to go to Istanbul, um I highly recommend. Um that brings us to the end of number ten, and I hope you've enjoyed this and you found this informative, and I'll be back and I'm thinking for the next one. Um we might have a look at the top ten Roman Empire Empress and thanks for listening. 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