Roman Italy

Last updated

Italy
Italia (Latin)
264 BC–476
Italia (Romia Imperio).svg
Roman Empire at its greatest extent c. 117 AD, with Italy in red and provinces in pink
Capital Rome: full-fledged until Diocletianic times, from then on mostly only de jure. Mediolanum and Ravenna: Imperial residences; de facto capital in the Late Empire (of the whole Empire or only the Western part)
Common languages Latin
Religion
Roman polytheism, followed by Nicene- Chalcedonian Christianity
Government Mixed constitution
Legislature Senate and People of Rome
Historical era Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity
• Established
264 BC
• Disestablished
476
Population
• AD 1
Estimates vary from 4 to 10 million (c.1 million in Rome) [1] [2]
ISO 3166 code IT
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Blank.png Archaic Italy
Kingdom of Italy under Odoacer Blank.png

Italia (in both the Latin and Italian languages), also referred to as Roman Italy, was the homeland of the ancient Romans. [3] [4] [5] [6] According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to Aeneas of Troy and his descendants, Romulus and Remus, who were the founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italic city-state that changed its form of government from Kingdom to Republic and then grew within the context of a peninsula dominated by the Gauls, Ligures, Veneti, Camunni and Histri in the North, the Etruscans, Latins, Falisci, Picentes and Umbri tribes (such as the Sabines) in the Centre, and the Iapygian tribes (such as the Messapians), the Oscan tribes (such as the Samnites), and Greek colonies in the South.

Contents

The consolidation of Italy into a single entity occurred during the Roman expansion in the peninsula, when Rome formed a permanent association with most of the local tribes and cities. [7] The strength of the Italian confederacy was a crucial factor in the rise of Rome, starting with the Punic and Macedonian wars between the 3rd and 2nd century BC. As Roman provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Italy maintained a special status with political, religious and financial privileges. [8] [9] [10] In Italy, Roman magistrates exercised the imperium domi (police power) as an alternative to the imperium militiae (military power). Italy's inhabitants included Roman citizens, communities with Latin Rights, and socii.

The period between the end of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC was turbulent, beginning with the Servile Wars, continuing with the opposition of aristocratic élite to populist reformers and leading to a Social War in the middle of Italy. However, Roman citizenship was recognized to the rest of the Italians by the end of the conflict and then extended to Cisalpine Gaul when Julius Caesar became Roman dictator. In the context of the transition from Republic to Principate, Italy swore allegiance to Octavian Augustus and was then organized in eleven regions from the Alps to the Ionian Sea with more than two centuries of stability afterward. Several emperors made notable accomplishments in this period: Claudius incorporated Britain into the Roman Empire, Vespasian subjugated the Great Revolt of Judea and reformed the financial system, Trajan conquered Dacia and defeated Parthia, and Marcus Aurelius epitomized the ideal of the philosopher king. During these centuries of imperial stability, Italy was referred to as rectrix mundi ("governor of the world") [11] [12] and omnium terrarum parens ("parent of all lands"). [13] [14]

The Crisis of the Third Century hit Italy particularly hard, but the Roman empire managed to survive and reconquer breakaway regions. In 286 AD, the Emperor Diocletian moved the imperial residence associated with the western provinces (the later Western Roman Empire) from Rome to Mediolanum. [15] Meanwhile, the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta were added to Italy by Diocletian in 292 AD, and Italian cities such as Mediolanum and Ravenna continued to serve as de facto capitals for the West. Although, in late antiquity, Italy was also sub-divided into provinces, it remained the centre of the Western Roman Empire and had a status that gave her the name of domina provinciarum ("ruler of the provinces") by glossators of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. The Bishop of Rome had gained importance gradually from the reign of Constantine, and was given religious primacy with the Edict of Thessalonica under Theodosius I. Italy was invaded several times by the wandering Germanic peoples and fell under the control of Odoacer, when Romulus Augustus was deposed in 476 AD. Since then, no single authority was established in Italy as a whole except for a brief Period when the Byzantine Empire reconquered Italy. Even the modern Republic of Italy only consists of most of Italian region, excluding Corsica and some other areas.

Characteristics

Shepherd-c-026-027.jpg
Shepherd-c-030-031.jpg
Northern and southern section of Italia under Augustus and successors

Following the end of the Social War in 87 BC, Rome had allowed its fellow Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted Roman citizenship to all fellow Italic peoples. [16] After having been for centuries the heart of the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century the government and the cultural center began to move eastward: first the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD, extended Roman citizenship to all free men within the Imperial boundaries. Christianity then began to establish itself as the dominant religion from Constantine's reign (306–337), raising the power of Eastern metropolises, later grouped into Pentarchy.

Although not founded as a capital city in 330, Constantinople grew in importance. It finally gained the rank of eastern capital when given an praefectus urbi in 359 and the senators who were clari became senators of the lowest rank as clarissimi . As a result, Italy began to decline in favour of the provinces, which resulted in the division of the Empire into two administrative units in 395: the Western Roman Empire, with its capital at Mediolanum (now Milan), and the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). In 402, the Imperial residence was moved to Ravenna from Milan, confirming the decline of the city of Rome (which was sacked in 410 for the first time in almost eight centuries).

History

The name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. According to Strabo's Geographica , before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto (corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria); later the term was extended by Romans to include the Italian Peninsula up to the Rubicon, a river located between Northern and Central Italy.

In 49 BC, with the Lex Roscia , Julius Caesar gave Roman citizenship to the people of the Cisalpine Gaul; [17] while in 42 BC the hitherto existing province was abolished, thus extending Italy to the north up to the southern foot of the Alps. [18] [19] Under Augustus, the peoples of today's Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated (so the western border of Roman Italy was moved to the Varus river), and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. [19] Lastly, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to also include the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, as well as Raetia and part of Pannonia. [20] The city of Emona (modern Ljubljana, Slovenia) was the easternmost town of Italy.

Augustan organization

At the beginning of the Roman Imperial era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia , had some independence from Rome, while others, the coloniae , were founded by the Romans themselves. Around 7 BC, Augustus divided Italy into eleven regiones, as reported by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia :

Roman Italia (in green) as organized by Augustus Roman Italy.gif
Roman Italia (in green) as organized by Augustus
The Tropaeum Alpium The Victory Monument of the Alps, La Turbie, France, marked the Augustan border between Italy and Gaul La Turbie BW 1.JPG
The Tropaeum Alpium The Victory Monument of the Alps, La Turbie, France, marked the Augustan border between Italy and Gaul

Italy was privileged by Augustus and his heirs, with the construction, among other public structures, of a dense network of Roman roads. The Italian economy flourished: agriculture, handicraft and industry had noticeable growth, allowing the export of goods to the provinces. [21] The Italian population may have grown as well: three censuses were ordered by Augustus, in his role as Roman censor, in order to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC, 4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD 14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris . [22] Estimates for the population of mainland Italy, including Cisalpine Gaul, at the beginning of the 1st century range from 6,000,000 according to Karl Julius Beloch in 1886, to 14,000,000 according to Elio Lo Cascio in 2009. [23]

Diocletianic and Constantinian reorganizations

During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire was on the verge of disintegration under the combined pressures of invasions, military anarchy, civil wars, and hyperinflation. In 284, Emperor Diocletian restored political stability. He carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by two senior emperors called Augusti and two junior vice-emperors called Caesars. He decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses (Latin: diocesis) and put them under the supervision of the Imperial vicarius (vice, deputy), who was the head of the diocese. During the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because the city was far from the troubled frontiers. Diocletian and his colleagues usually resided in four Imperial seats. The Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, who were responsible for the East and West respectively, established themselves at Nicomedia, in north-western Anatolia (closer to the Persian frontier in the east) and Milan, in northern Italy (closer to the European frontiers) respectively. The seats of the Caesars were Augusta Treverorum (on the River Rhine frontier) for Constantius Chlorus and Sirmium (on the River Danube frontier) for Galerius, who also resided at Thessaloniki.

Under Diocletian Italy became the Dioecesis Italiciana. It included Raetia. It was subdivided into the following provinces:

Italia annonaria and Italia suburbicaria dioceses Italia Dioceses in 400 AD.png
Italia annonaria and Italia suburbicaria dioceses

Constantine subdivided the Empire into four praetorian prefectures. The Diocesis Italiciana became the Praetorian prefecture of Italy (praefectura praetoria Italiae), and was subdivided into two dioceses. It still included Raetia. The two dioceses and their provinces were:

Diocesis Italia annonaria (Italy of the annona - its inhabitants had the obligation to provide the court, the administration and the troops, first allocated in Milan and then in Ravenna, supplies, wine and timber) [24]

Diocesis Italia suburbicaria (Italy "under the government of the urbs ", i.e. Rome)

Late Antiquity

In 330, Constantine completed the rebuilding of Byzantium as Constantinople. He established the Imperial court, a Senate, financial and judicial administrations, as well as the military structures. The new city, however, did not receive an urban prefect until 359 which raised it to the status of eastern capital. After the death of Theodosius in 395 and the subsequent division of the Empire, Italy was home base of the Western Roman Empire. As a result of Alaric's invasion in 402 the western seat was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna. Alaric, king of Visigoths, sacked Rome itself in 410; something that had not happened for eight centuries. Northern Italy was attacked by Attila's Huns in 452. Rome was sacked in 455 again by the Vandals under the command of Genseric.

The Praetorian prefecture of Italy (in yellow) stretched from the Danube river to North Africa Praetorian Prefectures of the Roman Empire 395 AD.png
The Praetorian prefecture of Italy (in yellow) stretched from the Danube river to North Africa

According to Notitia Dignitatum , one of the very few surviving documents of Roman government updated to the 420s, Roman Italy was governed by a praetorian prefect, Prefectus praetorio Italiae (who also governed the Diocese of Africa and the Diocese of Pannonia), one vicarius , and one comes rei militaris . The regions of Italy were governed at the end of the fourth century by eight consulares (Venetiae et Histriae, Aemiliae, Liguriae, Flaminiae et Piceni annonarii, Tusciae et Umbriae, Piceni suburbicarii, Campaniae, and Siciliae), two correctores (Apuliae et Calabriae and Lucaniae et Bruttiorum) and seven praesides (Alpium Cottiarum, Rhaetia Prima and Secunda, Samnii, Valeriae, Sardiniae, and Corsicae). In the fifth century, with the Emperors controlled by their barbarian generals, the Western Imperial government maintained weak control over Italy itself, whose coasts were periodically under attack.

In 476, with the abdication of Romulus Augustulus, the Western Roman Empire had formally fallen unless one considers Julius Nepos, the legitimate emperor recognized by Constantinople as the last. He was assassinated in 480 and may have been recognized by Odoacer. Italy remained under Odoacer and his Kingdom of Italy, and then under the Ostrogothic Kingdom. The Germanic successor states under Odoacer and Theodoric the Great continued to use the Roman administrative apparatus, as well as being nominal subjects of the Eastern emperor at Constantinople. In 535 Roman Emperor Justinian invaded Italy which suffered twenty years of disastrous war. In August 554, Justinian issued a Pragmatic sanction which maintained most of the organization of Diocletian. The "Prefecture of Italy" thus survived, and was reestablished under Roman control in the course of Justinian's Gothic War. As a result of the Lombard invasion in 568, the Byzantines lost most of Italy, except the territories of the Exarchate of Ravenna – a corridor from Venice to Lazio via Perugia – and footholds in the south Naples and the toe and heel of the peninsula.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romulus Augustulus</span> Last Western Roman emperor from 475 to 476

Romulus Augustus, nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne while still a minor by his father Orestes, the magister militum, for whom he served as little more than a figurehead. After a rule of ten months, the barbarian general Odoacer defeated and killed Orestes and deposed Romulus. As Odoacer did not proclaim any successor, Romulus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor, his deposition marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus is also sometimes used by historians to mark the transition from antiquity to the medieval period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Nepos</span> Formally the Last Western Roman Emperor from 474 to 480

Julius Nepos, or simply Nepos, ruled as Roman emperor of the West from 24 June 474 to 28 August 475. After losing power in Italy, Nepos retreated to his home province of Dalmatia, from which he continued to claim the western imperial title, with recognition from the Eastern Roman Empire, until he was murdered in 480. Though Nepos' successor in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, is traditionally deemed the last western Roman emperor, Nepos is regarded by some historians as the true last emperor of the west, being the last widely recognised claimant to the position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of ancient Rome</span> Overview of and topical guide to ancient Rome

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ancient Rome:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romagna</span> Italian historical region

Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman province</span> Major Roman administrative territorial entity outside of Italy

The Roman provinces were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediolanum</span> Ancient Roman city in present day Milan, Italy

Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in Northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Roman Empire</span> Western half of the Roman Empire

In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from AD 395 to 476, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Justinian's Gothic War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exarchate of Ravenna</span> Eastern Roman administrative division (584–751)

The Exarchate of Ravenna, also known as the Exarchate of Italy, was an administrative district of the Byzantine Empire comprising, between the 6th and 8th centuries, the territories under the jurisdiction of the exarch of Italy resident in Ravenna. The term is used in historiography in a double sense: "exarchate" in the strict sense denotes the territory under the direct jurisdiction of the exarch, i.e. the area of the capital Ravenna, but the term is mainly used to designate all the Byzantine territories in continental and peninsular Italy. According to the legal sources of the time, these territories constituted the so-called Provincia Italiae, on the basis of the fact that they too, until at least the end of the 7th century, fell under the jurisdiction of the exarch and were governed by duces or magistri militum under him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucania</span> Historical region of Southern Italy

Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy, corresponding to the modern-day region of Basilicata. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttium in the south-west, and was at the tip of the peninsula which is now called Calabria. It comprised almost all the modern region of Basilicata, the southern part of the Province of Salerno, the western part of Province of Taranto and a northern portion of the Province of Cosenza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italia suburbicaria</span> Vicariate of the Roman Empire

Italia suburbicaria was a vicariate of the late Roman Empire established by Constantine I (306–337).

Consularis is a Latin adjective indicating something pertaining to the position or rank of consul. In Ancient Rome it was also used as a noun to designate those senators who had held the office of consul or attained consular rank as a special honour. In Late Antiquity, the title became also a gubernatorial rank for provincial governors.

Laeti, the plural form of laetus, was a term used in the late Roman Empire to denote communities of barbari ("barbarians"), i.e. foreigners, or people from outside the Empire, permitted to settle on, and granted land in, imperial territory on condition that they provide recruits for the Roman military. The term laetus is of uncertain origin. It means "lucky" or "happy" in Latin, but may derive from a non-Latin word. It may derive from a Germanic word meaning "serf" or "half-free colonist". Other authorities suggest the term was of Celtic or Iranian origin.

A Roman colonia was originally a settlement of Roman citizens, establishing a Roman outpost in federated or conquered territory, for the purpose of securing it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city. It is also the origin of the modern term "colony".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalmatia (Roman province)</span> Roman province

Dalmatia was a Roman province. Its name is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, which lived in the central area of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It encompassed the northern part of present-day Albania, much of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro,and Serbia, thus covering an area significantly larger than the current Croatian and Montenegrin region of Dalmatia. Originally this region was called Illyria or Illyricum.

<i>Ager Gallicus</i>

The Ager Gallicus was the territory in northern Picenum that had been occupied by the Senone Gauls and was conquered by Rome in 284 BC or 283 BC, either after the Battle of Arretium or the Battle of Lake Vadimon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Roman Empire</span> Occurrences and people in the Roman Empire

The history of the Roman Empire covers the history of ancient Rome from the traditional end of the Roman Republic in 27 BC until the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in AD 476 in the West, and the Fall of Constantinople in the East in 1453. Ancient Rome became a territorial empire while still a republic, but was then ruled by emperors beginning with Octavian Augustus, the final victor of the republican civil wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Name of Italy</span> Overview of the name of Italy

The etymology of the name of Italy has been the subject of reconstructions by linguists and historians. Considerations extraneous to the specifically linguistic reconstruction of the name have formed a rich corpus of solutions that are either associated with legend or in any case strongly problematic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhaetian people</span> Historic ethnic confederation of Alpine tribes

The Raeti were a confederation of Alpine tribes, whose language and culture were related to those of the Etruscans. Before the Roman conquest, they inhabited present-day Tyrol in Austria, eastern Switzerland and the Alpine regions of northeastern Italy. After the Roman conquest, the province of Raetia was formed, which included parts of present-day Germany south of the Danube.

The District of Albona was one of many Districts which were named in Istria County, Croatia. A District is one of the lowest Administrative Division that, in some countries and at various historic times, was managed by the local government, and such was Albona. District in Italian "Distretto" is also called by other names; Quartiere (Neighborhood), Circondario (District), Provincia (Province), Circonscrizione, Regione (Region), Rione (District), Dipartimento (Department), it is a division of something greater.

References

  1. ↑ Journal of Roman Archaeology, Volume 18, Part 1
  2. ↑ Ligt, Luuk de; Northwood, S. J. (2008). People, Land, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy 300 BC-AD 14. ISBN   978-9004171183.
  3. ↑ Dyson, Stephen L. (14 July 2014). The Creation of the Roman Frontier. ISBN   9781400854899.
  4. ↑ Hannibal's war, by J. F. Lazenby
  5. ↑ Bleicken, Jochen (15 October 2015). Augustus: The Biography. ISBN   9780241003909.
  6. ↑ Rogers, Lester Burton; Adams, Fay; Brown, Walker (1956). "Story of Nations".
  7. ↑ Mommsen, Theodor (1855). History of Rome, Book II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy. Leipzig: Reimer & Hirsel.
  8. ↑ A. Fear; P. Liddel, eds. (2010). "The Glory of Italy and Rome's Universal Destiny in Strabo's Geographika". Historiae Mundi. Studies in Universal History. London: Duckworth. pp. 87–101. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  9. ↑ Keaveney, Arthur (January 1987). Arthur Keaveney: Rome and the Unification of Italy. ISBN   9780709931218 . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  10. ↑ Billanovich, Giuseppe (2008). Libreria Universitaria Hoepli, Lezioni di filologia, Giuseppe Billanovich e Roberto Pesce: Corpus Iuris Civilis, Italia non erat provincia, sed domina provinciarum, Feltrinelli, p.363 (in Italian). ISBN   9788896543092 . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  11. ↑ Bleicken, Jochen (15 October 2015). Italy: the absolute center of the Republic and the Roman Empire. ISBN   9780241003909 . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  12. ↑ Morcillo, Martha García (2010). "The Roman Italy: Rectrix Mundi and Omnium Terrarum Parens". In A. Fear; P. Liddel (eds.). Historiae Mundi. Studies in Universal History. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN   9781472519801 . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  13. ↑ Altri nomi e appellativi relazionati allo status dell'Italia in epoca romana (in Italian). Bloomsbury. 20 November 2013. ISBN   9781472519801 . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  14. ↑ "Antico appellativo dell'Italia romana: Italia Omnium Terrarum Parens" (in Italian). Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  15. ↑ Video of Roman Milan (in Italian)
  16. ↑ Keaveney, Arthur (1987). Rome and the Unification of Italy. London: Croom Helm. ISBN   9781904675372.
  17. ↑ Cassius, Dio. Historia Romana. Vol. 41. 36.
  18. ↑ Laffi, Umberto (1992). "La provincia della Gallia Cisalpina". Athenaeum (in Italian) (80). Firenze: 5–23.
  19. 1 2 Aurigemma, Salvatore. "Gallia Cisalpina". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "Italy (ancient Roman territory)". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  21. ↑ Rostovtzeff, Michael (1957). The social and economic history of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1 (2 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 73–74.
  22. ↑ Hin, Saskia (2007). Counting Romans (PDF). Leiden: Princeton/Stanford Working Papers.
  23. ↑ Lo Cascio, Elio (2009). Urbanization as a Proxy of Demographic and Economic Growth. Oxford: Scholarship Online. ISBN   9780199562596.
  24. ↑ Salvatore Cosentino (2008). Storia dell'Italia bizantina (VI-XI secolo): da Giustiniano ai Normanni (in Italian). Bononia University Press. p. 19. ISBN   9788873953609.

Further reading

42°00′00″N12°30′00″E / 42.0000°N 12.5000°E / 42.0000; 12.5000

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.