Pax Romana

Last updated

The Pax Romana (Latin for "Roman peace") is a roughly 200-year-long period of Roman history which is identified as a golden age of increased and sustained Roman imperialism, relative peace and order, prosperous stability, hegemonic power, and regional expansion. This is despite several revolts and wars, and continuing competition with Parthia. It is traditionally dated as commencing with the accession of Augustus, founder of the Roman principate, in 27 BC and concluding in AD 180 with the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the "Five Good Emperors". [1]

Contents

During this period of about two centuries, [2] the Roman Empire achieved its greatest territorial extent in AD 117 (Emperor Trajan), and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people, which was around 33% of the world's population. [3] According to Cassius Dio, the dictatorial reign of Commodus, later followed by the Year of the Five Emperors and the Crisis of the Third Century, marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust". [4]

Overview

Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, while green represents gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas represent client states. Impero romano sotto Ottaviano Augusto 30aC - 6dC.jpg
Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, while green represents gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas represent client states.

The Pax Romana, spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD, stands as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the annals of civilization. However, Walter Goffart wrote: "The volume of the Cambridge Ancient History for the years AD 70–192 is called 'The Imperial Peace', but peace is not what one finds in its pages". [5] Arthur M. Eckstein writes that the period must be seen in contrast to the much more frequent warfare in the Roman Republic in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Eckstein also notes that the incipient Pax Romana appeared during the Republic, and that its temporal span varied with geographical region as well: "Although the standard textbook dates for the Pax Romana, the famous 'Roman Peace' in the Mediterranean, are 31 BC to AD 250, the fact is that the Roman Peace was emerging in large regions of the Mediterranean at a much earlier date: Sicily after 210 [BC], the Italian Peninsula after 200 [BC]; the Po Valley after 190 [BC]; most of the Iberian Peninsula after 133 [BC]; North Africa after 100 [BC]; and for ever longer stretches of time in the Greek East." [6]

The first known record of the term Pax Romana appears in a writing by Seneca the Younger in AD 55. [7] The concept was highly influential, and the subject of theories and attempts to copy it in subsequent ages. Arnaldo Momigliano noted that "Pax Romana is a simple formula for propaganda, but a difficult subject for research." [8]

The Pax Romana began when Octavian (Augustus) defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC and became Roman emperor. [1] [9] [3] He became princeps, or first citizen. Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a junta of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of civil war. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in Hispania and in the Alps. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the Gates of Janus (a ceremony indicating that Rome was at peace) three times, [10] first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but Inez Scott Ryberg (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the commissioning of the Ara Pacis. [11] [12] [13] At the time of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BC the Concept of Peace was publicized, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and Agrippa jointly returned from pacifying the provinces. The order to construct the Ara Pacis was no doubt part of this announcement.[ citation needed ]

AR Antoninianus of Gordian III, struck at Antioch 243-244 AD with Pax Augusta on the reverse Romeinse keizers Gordianus III antoninianus Antiochie 243-244.jpg
AR Antoninianus of Gordian III, struck at Antioch 243–244 AD with Pax Augusta on the reverse

Augustus faced a problem making peace an acceptable mode of life for the Romans, who had been at war with one power or another continuously for 200 years. [12] [ page needed ] Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but as a rare situation which existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist. [8] Augustus' challenge was to persuade Romans that the prosperity they could achieve in the absence of warfare was better for the Empire than the potential wealth and honor acquired when fighting a risky war. Augustus succeeded by means of skillful propaganda. Subsequent emperors followed his lead, sometimes producing lavish ceremonies to close the Gates of Janus, issuing coins with Pax on the reverse, and patronizing literature extolling the benefits of the Pax Romana. [12]

After Augustus' death in AD 14, most of his successors as Roman emperors continued his politics. The last five emperors of the Pax Romana are known as the "Five Good Emperors". [3]

Influence on trade

Roman trade in the Mediterranean increased during the Pax Romana. Romans sailed East to acquire silks, gems, onyx and spices. Romans benefited from large profits, and incomes in the Roman empire were raised due to trade in the Mediterranean. [14] [15]

As the Pax Romana of the western world by Rome was largely contemporaneous to the Pax Sinica of the eastern world by Han China, [16] [17] long-distance travel and trade in Eurasian history was significantly stimulated during these eras. [17]

Pax imperia: analogous peaces

The prominence of the concept of the Pax Romana led to historians coining variants of the term to describe other systems of relative peace that have been established, attempted, or argued to have existed. Some variants include: [1]

More generically, the concept has been referred to as pax imperia [18] [19] (sometimes spelled as pax imperium [20] ), meaning imperial peace, [21] [22] or—less literally—hegemonic peace. [22] [23] Raymond Aron notes that imperial peace—peace achieved through hegemony can—sometimes, but not always— become civil peace. As an example, the German Empire's imperial peace of 1871 (over its internal components like Saxony) slowly evolved into the later German state. As a counter-example, the imperial peace of Alexander the Great's empire dissolved because the Greek city states maintained their political identity. Aron notes that during the Pax Romana, the First Jewish–Roman War was a reminder that the overlapping of the imperial institutions over the local ones did not erase them and the overlap was a source of tension and flare-ups. Aron summarizes that, "In other words, imperial peace becomes civil peace insofar as the memory of the previously independent political units are effaced, insofar as individuals within a pacified zone feel themselves less united to the traditional or local community and more to the conquering state." [21]

The concept of Pax Romana was highly influential, and there were attempts to imitate it in the Byzantine Empire, and in the Christian West, where it morphed into the Peace and Truce of God (pax Dei and treuga Dei). [22] A theoretician of the imperial peace during the Middle Ages was Dante Aligheri. Dante's works on the topic were analyzed at the beginning of the 20th century by William Mitchell Ramsay in the book The Imperial Peace: An Ideal in European History (1913). [24] [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustus</span> First Roman emperor from 27 BC to AD 14

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire. He reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult, as well as an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

The 0s BC is the period between 9 BC and 1 BC, the last nine years of the before Christ era. It is one of two "0-to-9" decade-like timespans that contain nine years, along with the 0s.

Pax Americana is a term applied to the concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later in the world after the end of World War II in 1945, when the United States became the world's dominant economic, cultural, and military power.

Year 9 BC was either a common year starting on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday or a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the Proleptic Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Drusus and Crispinus. The denomination 9 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hegemony</span> Political, economic or military predominance of one state over other states

Hegemony is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states, either regional or global.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ara Pacis</span> Ancient Roman religious monument in Rome, Italy

The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar in Rome dedicated to the Pax Romana. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honour the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul and consecrated on January 30, 9 BC. Originally located on the northern outskirts of Rome, a Roman mile from the boundary of the pomerium on the west side of the Via Flaminia, the Ara Pacis stood in the northeastern corner of the Campus Martius, the former flood plain of the Tiber River and gradually became buried under 4 metres (13 ft) of silt deposits. It was reassembled in its current location, now the Museum of the Ara Pacis, in 1938, turned 90° counterclockwise from its original orientation so that the original western side now faces south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus Martius</span> Public space in ancient Rome

The Campus Martius was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about 2 square kilometres in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers a smaller section of the original area, bears the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Rome</span> Roman civilisation from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD

In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.

Pax Sinica is a historiographical term referring to periods of peace and stability in East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia led by China. A study on the Sinocentric world system reveals that the multiple periods of Pax Sinica, when taken together, amounted to a length of approximately two thousand years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pax (goddess)</span> Roman goddess of peace

Pax, more commonly known in English as Peace, was the Roman goddess of peace derived and adopted from the ancient Greek equivalent Eirene. Pax was seen as the daughter of the Roman king god Jupiter and the goddess Justice. Worship of Peace was organized and made popular during the rule of the emperor Augustus who used her imagery to help stabilise the empire after the years of turmoil and civil war of the late republic. Augustus commissioned an altar of peace in her honour on the Campus Martius called Ara Pacis, and the emperor Vespasian built a temple for her on called the Templum Pacis. Pax had a festival held for her on January 30. In art she is commonly depicted holding out olive branches as a peace offering, as well as a caduceus, cornucopia, corn and a sceptre. Pax is also often associated with spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greece in the Roman era</span>

Greece in the Roman era describes the Roman conquest of ancient Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. It covers the periods when Greece was dominated first by the Roman Republic and then by the Roman Empire.

Sextus Appuleius is the name of four figures during the 1st century BC and 1st century AD. The first Sextus Appuleius was married to Octavia Major, the elder half-sister of Augustus. The three subsequent figures named Sextus Appuleius are respectively the son, grandson and great-grandson of Sextus Appuleius (I) and Octavia Major.

Octavia the Elder was the daughter of the Roman governor and senator Gaius Octavius by his first wife, Ancharia. She was the elder half-sister to Octavia the Younger and Roman Emperor Augustus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Janus (Roman Forum)</span> Roman temple from classical period

The Temple of Janus stood in the Roman Forum near the Basilica Aemilia, along the Argiletum. It was a small temple with a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries and beginnings inside. Its doors were known as the "Gates of Janus", which were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war. There are many theories about its original purpose; some say that it was a bridge over the Velabrum, and some say it functioned as a gate to the Capitoline.

Vipsania Polla was an ancient Roman woman of the late Republic, she was the sister of emperor Augustus' right hand man Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. She is best known today for the construction of the Porticus Vipsania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solarium Augusti</span> Roman solar marker in the Campus Martius

The Solarium Augusti or Horologium Augusti was a monument in the Campus Martius of ancient Rome constructed in 10 BCE under the Roman emperor Augustus. It included an Egyptian obelisk that had first been erected under the pharaoh Psamtik II used in some fashion as a gnomon. Once believed to have been a massive sundial, it is now more commonly understood to have been used with a meridian line used to track the solar year. It served as a monument of Augustus having brought Egypt under Roman rule and was also connected with the Altar of Augustan Peace commemorating the Pax Romana established by his ending the numerous civil wars that ended the Roman Republic. The Solarium was destroyed at some point during the Middle Ages. Its recovered obelisk is now known as the Obelisk of Montecitorio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obelisk of Montecitorio</span> Ancient Egyptian obelisk, a landmark of Rome, Italy

The Obelisk of Montecitorio, also known as Solare, is an ancient Egyptian, red granite obelisk of Psamtik II from Heliopolis. Brought to Rome with the Flaminio Obelisk in 10 BC by the Roman Emperor Augustus to be used as the gnomon of the Solarium Augusti, it is now in the Piazza Montecitorio. It is 21.79 metres (71 ft) high, and 33.97 metres (111 ft) including the base and the globe.

<i>Augustus</i> (title) Ancient Roman title

Augustus was the main title of the Roman emperors during Antiquity. It was given as both name and title to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in 27 BC, marking his accession as Rome's first emperor. On his death, it became an official title of his successor, and was so used by all emperors thereafter. The feminine form Augusta was used for Roman empresses and other female members of the imperial family. The masculine and feminine forms originated in the time of the Roman Republic, in connection with things considered divine or sacred in traditional Roman religion. Their use as titles for major and minor Roman deities of the Empire associated the imperial system and family with traditional Roman virtues and the divine will and may be considered a feature of the Roman imperial cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynamis (queen)</span> Queen regnant of the Bosporan Kingdom

Dynamis, nicknamed Philoromaios, was a Roman client queen of the Bosporan Kingdom during the Late Roman Republic and part of the reign of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. Dynamis is an ancient Greek name which means the “powerful one”. She was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry. She was the daughter of King Pharnaces II of Pontus and his Sarmatian wife. She had an older brother called Darius and a younger brother called Arsaces. Her paternal grandparents had been the monarchs of the Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI of Pontus and his first wife Laodice, who was also his sister. Dynamis married three times. Her husbands were Asander, a certain Scribonius and Polemon I of Pontus. According to Rostovtzeff, she also had a fourth husband, Aspurgos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparative studies of the Roman and Han empires</span>

Comparative studies of the Roman and Han empires is a historical comparative research involving the roughly contemporaneous Roman Empire and the Han dynasty of early imperial China. At their peaks, both states controlled up to a half of the world population and produced political and cultural legacies that endure to the modern era; comparative studies largely focus on their similar scale at their pinnacles and on synchronism in their rise and decline.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Pax Romana". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 23 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Head, Tom (2017-10-03). World History 101: From Ancient Mesopotamia and the Viking Conquests to NATO and WikiLeaks, an Essential Primer on World History. Simon and Schuster. p. 85. ISBN   978-1-5072-0454-2.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Pax Romana". www.ushistory.org. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  4. ↑ Dio Cassius 72.36.4, Loeb edition translated E. Cary
  5. ↑ Walter Goffart (1989). Rome's Fall and After. Hambledon Press. p. 111. ISBN   978-1-85285-001-2.
  6. ↑ Arthur M. Eckstein (2011) [2006]. "Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction". In Nathan Rosenstein; Robert Morstein-Marx (eds.). A Companion to the Roman Republic. John Wiley & Sons. p. 574. ISBN   978-1-4443-5720-2.
  7. ↑ Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN   978-1-134-00704-2.
  8. 1 2 Momigliano, Arnaldo (1942). "The Peace of the Ara Pacis" (PDF). Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 5: 228–231. doi:10.2307/750454. JSTOR   750454. S2CID   195009430.
  9. ↑ Davis, Paul K. (1999). 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-5760-7075-8.
  10. ↑ Augustus states in Res Gestae 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See Gates of Janus).
  11. ↑ Scott Ryberg, Inez (1949). "The Procession of the Ara Pacis". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 19: 77, 79–101. doi:10.2307/4238621. JSTOR   4238621.
  12. 1 2 3 Stern, Gaius (2010) [2006]. Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BCE. ISBN   978-0-549-83411-3.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ Sir Ronald Syme had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).
  14. ↑ Temin, Peter (2013). The Roman market economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN   9780691147680. OCLC   784708336.
  15. ↑ Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith (2016). Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 392. ISBN   9780300178821. OCLC   941874968.
  16. ↑ Plott, John C. (1989). Global History of Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 57. ISBN   9788120804562.
  17. 1 2 Krech III, Shepard; Merchant, Carolyn; McNeill, John Robert, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. Vol. 3: O–Z, Index. Routledge. pp. 135–. ISBN   978-0-415-93735-1.
  18. ↑ Tatah Mentan (2010). The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent. African Books Collectiv e. p. 153. ISBN   978-9956-616-12-1.
  19. ↑ Hyo-Dong Lee (2013). Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation. Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN   978-0-8232-5501-6.
  20. ↑ Stephen Ross (2004). Conrad and Empire . University of Missouri Press. p.  76. ISBN   978-0-8262-1518-5.
  21. 1 2 Raymond Aron (2003). Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations. Transaction Publishers. pp. 151–152. ISBN   978-0-7658-0504-1.
  22. 1 2 3 David Gress (1985). Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security. Hoover Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN   978-0-8179-8093-1.
  23. ↑ Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN   978-1-134-00704-2.
  24. ↑ James Brown Scott (2002) [1939]. Law, the State, and the International Community. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 223–224. ISBN   978-1-58477-178-4.
  25. ↑ The imperial peace: an ideal in European history. Oxford, The Clarendon Press. 1913 – via Internet Archive.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.