History Online - Roman Empire
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Roman Empire
Many religions and philosophies were shared and melded as the Roman Empire grew. The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hebrews and the Athenian philosophies of Epicurianism and Stoicism all contributed to the Roman pantheon and their ever changing religious views. The Romans preserved and embellished many of the great traditions of Greece passing them on to Europe and the Renaissance.
The name "Patrician" comes from the Latin word patres, or "fathers," and the Patricians were a privileged group of families that dominated the political, religious, and military leadership of the Empire. The majority were wealthy landowners from old Roman families, although the Emperor could raise anyone he chose to Patrician status.
The Senate in Imperial Rome consisted of 600 men, who were either sons of senators, or Roman citizens over the age of 25 with both military and administrative experience, who were elected to the quaestorship - a low-ranking magistracy position. These potential candidates were nominated by the Emperor, and the elections were merely a formality. Once elected, a Senator's career path through various magistracies - including the quaestorship, the aedileship, the praetorship, and the consulship - determined his Senatorial rank.
Women living in the Roman Empire were treated quite differently than the men were. However, that doesn't mean they didn't have an interesting and active life. They were valued for their role in society. In fact, the women in Rome were treated much better than they were in many other societies, such as the Greeks.
Marriage in Roman times was not often a romantic affair, but a personal agreement between families. As sons reached their mid-twenties, and daughters their early teens, spouses were chosen by their parents - in consultation with friends - with an eye towards improving the family's financial position or class.
Though slavery was a prevailing feature of all Mediterranean countries in antiquity, the Romans had more slaves and depended more on them than any other people.
There is no main difference between the ancient Roman armies and today's armies, except that the names and weapons are different.
The Gladiators were professional fighters who fought until death in the amphitheaters of Ancient Rome.
The Roman Empire, successor of the Roman Republic, controlled the Mediterranean world and much of Northern Europe after 31 B.C. The last Roman emperor in the western half of the empire was deposed in 476. The eastern part of the empire continued without interruption, but with gradually shrinking territory, until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks (See Byzantine Empire). Successor states in the west (the Frankish kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire) and the east (the Russian czars) used titles adopted from Roman practices well into the modern period.
The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, architecture, and many other aspects of life remains inescapable.
Julius Caesar's Military Success and Murder
When Augustus was just four years old, his father suddenly died; without a male mentor, the boy's future looked bleak. But in 49 BC, when he was thirteen, Augustus' fortunes took a dramatic turn for the better when his great uncle, Julius Caesar, gained the upper hand on the battlefield.
Caesar openly defied the Senate as well as his former political ally, the formidable military leader Pompey. Together, Caesar, Pompey and Crassus had formed the First Triumvirate, a political union that dealt a deathblow to Rome's Republican system of government. Pompey's and Caesar's armies would duel for control of the Roman Empire. As Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River toward Rome, Pompey fled to Greece to prepare for war. Caesar declared himself master of Rome, and ruler of an empire still aspiring to greatness.
Emperors
Social standing in the Roman Empire was based in part on heredity, property and wealth, Roman citizenship, and freedom. The specific class designations included Senators, Patricians, Equestrians, Plebeians, Slaves, Freedmen, and non-Roman citizens - all of which were ruled by the Emperor. The boundaries between these classes were legally enforced, although it was possible to move up the social ladder as one's financial circumstances improved. During the Empire, entry into the higher classes could be gained upon acquisition of property and wealth, or at the pleasure of the Emperor - in one famous incident, Caligula even raised a horse to Senatorial rank.
Patricians
Patrician status was required for ascent to the throne, but otherwise the class had few privileges other than reduced military obligations, and the ability to serve in certain priesthoods.
The education of a Patrician son would center on literature, poetry, mythology, history, geography, Greek, and, most importantly, public speaking. Older youth would continue on to study law, in preparation for a political or administrative career.
Senators
Women
According to Roman law, all women had to have a male custodian. In childhood, boys and girls were both under the guardianship of the eldest man in the family, just as children today are taken care of by their parents. This man had the power of life and death over those in his family. Even after the women were married, sometimes this guardianship was not passed to the husband. The law eventually changed and they no longer had to have a male guardian.
When a girl reached the age of twelve, she was allowed to marry. The young girl's father would generally arrange the marriage. He would choose the husband based upon how much help his family would be politically. The bride could refuse only if she could prove that the man was morally unfit to be her husband. There were three different types of marriages in Rome. One, which resembled the selling of the bride, was called coemptio. With this, the bride was required to adopt the religion of her new family and she was no longer considered part of her father's family. Another kind of marriage was more informal. The bride still considered herself part of her father's family. She was allowed to keep her religion and her father's family kept legal custodianship. The third kind of marriage was called uses. It was caused simply by the man and woman living together.
During the early days of Rome, men could only divorce a woman for certain reasons. If the woman slept with other men while married, poisoned her husband's children, or counterfeited his keys, the husband was granted a divorce. This did change as time went on. Later, childlessness of the couple as well as political and personal reasons were added to the list of reasons for divorce. If a divorce did occur, the children always lived with their father.
The daily life of Roman women depended on their level of income. Numerous male and female slaves often attended wealthy women. This freed them up from many daily household tasks. They spent their time visiting, shopping, attending festivals and recitals, and supervising the education of their children. The lower class women, with less money and social standing, had to work for a living, often in the fields and around the house.
Wedding Customs
The betrothal was formal ceremony between the two families where gifts were exchanged, the dowry was agreed upon, an agreement was signed, and the deal sealed with a kiss. The actual wedding date was chosen carefully. Although June was the preferred month, weddings took place throughout the year.
On the wedding day, the groom would lead a procession to his bride's family home. Bridesmaids would escort the bride to meet her groom. She would be wearing a tunica recta - a white woven tunic - belted with an elaborate "Knot of Hercules," elaborately arranged hair, an orange wedding veil, and orange shoes. Following the signing of the marriage contract, there was a great marriage feast. The day ended with a noisy procession to the couple's new home, where the bride was carried over threshold so she wouldn't trip - an especially bad omen.
Slavery
It is impossible, however, to put an accurate figure on the number of slaves owned by the Romans at any given period: for the early Empire with which we are concerned conditions varied from time to time and from place to place. Yet, some estimates for Rome, Italy, and the Empire are worth attempting. The largest numbers were of course in Italy and especially in the capital itself. In Rome there were great numbers in the imperial household and in the civil service - the normal staff on the aqueducts alone numbered 700 (Frontin. Aq. 116-7). Certain rich private individuals too had large numbers - as much for ostentation as for work (Sen. Ep.110.17). Pedanius Secundus, City Prefect in AD 61, kept 400 slaves (Tac. Ann. 14.43.4), Gaius Caecilius Isidorus, freedman of Gaius Caecilius, left 4116 in his will in 8 BC, while some owners had so many that a nomenclator had to be used to identify them (Pliny HN 33.135; 33.26). However, there is evidence to suggest that these cases were not typical - even for great houses. Sepulchral inscriptions for the rich noble gens the Statilii list a total of approximately 428 slaves and freedpersons from 40 BC to AD 65. When these figures are analysed, the number of slaves and freedpersons definitely owned by individual members of the gens is small, e.g. Statilius Taurus Sisenna (consul of AD 16) and his son had six, Statilius Taurus Corvinus (consul ordinarius of AD 45) had eight, and Statilia Messalina, wife of Nero, four or five. Seneca, a man of extraordinary wealth, believed he was travelling frugally when he had with him one cartload of slaves (most likely four or five) (Ep 87.2). References in Juvenal and the Scriptores Historiae Augustae suggest that many non-plebeian Romans had either no slave or merely one or two (Sat. 3.286; 9.64-67,142-7; S.H.A. Hadr.17.6). From evidence such as this Westermann, Hopkins and others are understandably cautious when attempting to come to a total figure for slaves in the city of Rome in the 1st century AD. Hopkins' estimate of 300,000-350,000 out of a population of about 900,000-950,000 at the time of Augustus seems plausible.
The same kind of caution needs to be exercised in attempting to arrive at a figure for slaves in Italy for the same period. Passages in the Satyricon (e.g. 37;47;53) would suggest that some households had vast numbers. But that work is of course fiction - though the references to slave numbers there can only have point if certain private individuals did own a lot of slaves. Overall, a figure of around two million slaves out of a population of about six million at the time of Augustus would perhaps seem right (again we follow Hopkins). If so, approximately one in every three persons in Rome and Italy was a slave.
And what of the Empire as a whole for this period? It is impossible to give any kind of accurate figure. We have neither statistics for the total area nor for the provinces separately. And of course the number of slaves in each province depended on the particular circumstances prevailing there. Some provincial locations had a high number of slaves: Pergamum in the 2nd century AD (we deduce this from Galen De Propr. Anim. 9) had 40,000 adult slaves and these formed (as at Rome) one third of the adult population. At Oea (Tripoli) in Africa also in the 2nd century AD the wife of Apuleius owned a familia of slaves well in excess of four hundred (Apol. 77.93; cf.102). However, other areas in the Empire had comparatively few slaves. The evidence from papyri suggests that in all likelihood slaves in Egypt never rose much above 10% of the population and in poorer areas there dropped to as low as 2%. And in other regions, particularly perhaps in the more backward provinces of the West, slaves may never have comprised a significant segment of the work force at all. What then might we assume as an approximate number of slaves in the entire empire in this period? The attractive hypothesis of Harris is ten million, i.e. 16.6%-20% of the estimated entire population of the Empire in the first century AD, i.e. one in every five or six persons would have been a slave. This of course is not a computation, merely a conjecture.
Whence came these slaves? Some have presupposed that because two of the more important sources of slaves in the Republic - war and piracy - had become significantly restricted in the Empire there was a gradual diminution in the number of slaves during the first three centuries AD. However, there is no statistical proof of this, and for that reason Harris rejects it, preferring to think that there was no serious drop in the number of slaves or in the demand for them - at least until AD 150. And since there is no evidence either that the cost of slaves spiralled upwards during this period, it seems sensible to infer that the supply of slaves needed annually to replenish the normal depletion of their numbers was more or less available without too much difficulty.
The Roman Army
In the Roman army, the commanding officer of a legion was called the Legate. He was assisted by a deputy called the Camp Prefect, and a staff of six senior administrative officers called Tribunes. The original function of the Tribunes was to spread the call to arms and to ensure that the citizens rallied to the Eagles in time to march and fight. Later, the Tribunate became more of a political tenure, a training ground for young noblemen waiting to go into the consular or civil services. Whenever a Tribune chose to distinguish himself militarily rather than serve his time administratively and get out, his success was almost preordained.
There were normally 28 legions in commission at any given time, and each legion was divided into 10 cohorts. By the end of the third century, the first two cohorts of each legion had been expanded to Millarian status, which meant that each held 1,00 men and was the approximate equivalent of the modern battalion. Prior to that time, only the First Cohort had been Millarian. To the First and Second Cohorts fell the honor of holding the right of the legion's line of battle, and they were made up of the finest and strongest battle-hardened veterans. Cohorts Three through Ten were standard cohorts of 500 to 600 men.
Each Millarian cohort was composed of ten maniples, and a maniple was made up of ten squads of 10 to 12 men each.
The bulk of the legion's command was provided by the Centuriate, from the ranks of which came the centurions, all the middle-and lower-ranking commissioned officers of the legion. There were six centurions to each cohort from Three to Ten, making 48, and five senior centurions called primi ordines, in each of the two Millarian Cohorts. Each legion had a primus pilus, the senior centurion, a kind of super- charged Regimental Sergeant Major. The primus pilus headed the First Cohort, the Second Cohort was headed by the princeps secundus, and Cohorts Three through Ten were each commanded by a pilus prior.
The Roman centurion was distinguished by his uniform: his armor was silvered, he wore his sword on his left side rather than his right, and the crest of his helmet was turned so that it went sideways across his helmet like a halo.
Each centurion had the right, or the option, to appoint a second-in-command for himself, and these men, the equivalents of non-commissioned officers, were known for that reason as optios. Other junior officers were the standard bearers, one of whom, the aquilifer bore the Eagle of the legion. There was also a signifier for each century, who bore the unit's identity crest and acted as its banker. Each legion also had a full complement of physicians and surgeons, veterinarians, quartermasters and clerks, trumpeters, guard commanders, intelligence officers, torturers and executioners.
Gladiators
The gladiatorial fights originated in central Italy, probably as a funeral sacrifice. The first gladiatorial games in Rome were held in 264 BC, when three pairs of gladiators fought as part of a funeral celebration. By 174 BC, 37 pairs participated at a 3-day event. The Roman Senate limited the number of contestants after Julius Caesar held an event with 300 pairs of gladiators. The emperor Domitian in AD 90 presented combats between women and dwarfs.
The emperor Trajan held the largest contest of gladiators in the year 107 AD to celebrate a victorious battle. This fight included 5000 pairs of fighters.
The gladiators were male slaves, condemned criminals, prisoners of war, and sometimes Christians. They were forced to become swordsmen in training schools called ludi, and special measures were taken to discipline them and prevent them from committing suicide.
A successful gladiator received great acclaim; he was praised by poets, his portrait appeared on gems and vases, and patrician ladies pampered him. A gladiator who survived many combats might be relieved from further obligation. Occasionally, freedmen and Roman citizens entered the arena, as did the insane Emperor Commodus.
According to the weapons they used and their methods of fighting, gladiators were divided into various classes. There were heavily and lightly armed gladiators, and they fought against each other. For example, the retiarius (net man), who wore a short tunic, attempted to capture his fully armed opponent, the secutor (pursuer), with a net and then to kill him with a dagger. Other classes fought using different weapons, or from horseback or chariots. According to tradition, when a gladiator had overpowered his opponent, the spectators decided the fate of the weaker man. If they wished to let the defeated man live, they would wave their handkerchiefs. If they wanted the man to die, they would turn their thumbs downwards.
Constantine the Great banned gladiatorial contests in AD 325, but they continued to be held until about 500AD.
