Life in the Golden Age

1
Life in the Golden Age

• Under the 5 Good Emperors, was the empire
  decadent? Was Rome? Is it the same question?

2
Life in Rome

• Romes pop 500-750,000, no modern conveniences
• Fire (despite fire dept.) and crime (despite
  police)
• Sanitation rules (refuse and copses) enforced,
  Rome was healthy

3
Life in Rome (Cont.)

• Could not begin to feed itself
• Free grain, oil and wine prevented riots
• Empirical control of grain prevented market
  tampering

4
Life in Rome, (Cont.)

• Circuses gladiatorial (criminals, slaves,
  volunteers, women), chariot races (like pro teams
  w/colors, 2 4-horse)
• Epitaphs, p.180

5
Life in the Provinces

• Prosperous, peaceful, secure
• Migration across Europe common
• Agriculture flourished in tenant farmer hands as
  slavery diminished
• Encouraged by emperors, even loans
• Army led to security, soldiers retired and
  settled where they served and practiced trades
  learned in businesses they set up with retirement
  pay

6
Life in the Provinces (Cont.)

• Navy frees the seas of pirates, so marine trade
  flourishes. Trade revenues in distant ports
  converted to public works (I.e., amphitheaters,
  temples, baths, etc.)
• Trade in British grain/wool, Spanish African
  olive oils, French Italian wines, Egyptian
  grain, etc ensured that the empire was economic
  as well as politically stable.

7
Life in the Provinces (Cont.)

• Manufacturing of glass, pottery, brass and bronze
  took off in Northern Europe, devastating old
  producers in Italy/Mediterranean
• Birth of European technology

8
Rome and the East

• Contact with Iran, China, India for first time
• Long-term armed conflict with Iran
• Chinese expansion west met Roman expansion east
• See map, p. 182

9
Marcus Aurelius, 121-180

• Last of the "Five Good Emperors"
• Governed 96-180
• Wars vs. Parthians, Germanic tribes , a revolt in
  the East
• Stoic philosopher
• Meditations, literary monument to a government of
  service and duty, "exquisite accent and its
  infinite tenderness."

10
Aurelius, Cont.

• We live for an instant, only to be swallowed in
  complete forgetfulness and the void of infinite
  time on this side of us.
• Think how many ere now, after passing their life
  in implacable enmity, suspicion, hatred... are
  now dead and burnt to ashes.
• Of the life of man the duration is but a point,
  its substance streaming away, its perception dim,
  the fabric of the entire body prone to decay, and
  the soul a vortex, and fortune incalculable, and
  fame uncertain. In a word all things of the body
  are as a river, and the things of the soul as a
  dream and a vapour and life is a warfare and a
  pilgrim's sojourn, and fame after death is only
  forgetfulness.

11
Aurelius, Cont.

• Everything existing "is already disintegrating
  and changing... everything is by nature made but
  to die.
• The length of one's life is irrelevant, for look
  at the yawning gulf of time behind thee and
  before thee at another infinity to come. In this
  eternity the life of a baby of three days and the
  life of a nestor of three centuries are as one.
• To desire is to be permanently disappointed and
  disturbed, since everything we desire in this
  world is empty and corrupt and paltry.
• As an emperor, he persecuted Christians and went
  frequently on military campaigns. He justified
  his deeds by pointing at the insignificance of
  worldly affairs.

12
Civil Wars and Invasions in the 3rd Century

• 5 Good Emperors (Aureliusgt murdered, inept son,
  Commodus) gt chaos and stress due to civil wars
  and barbarian invasions
• By the time peace gets restored, the economy was
  shattered, cities diminished, agriculture
  manorial
• By 193 (211), Severus reestablishes order, but on
  his death, civil war returns

13
Chaos, Cont.

• 22 (Barracks) emperors between 235-284!
• Blatently military monarchy
• Some good some bad
• Many others tried to become emperor.
• Concurrent with Romes chaos, barbarians on the
  move, dont know why except pressed from east
• History of the Goths, Jordanes,
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_and_History_o
  f_the_Goths

14
Barbarians

• On Rhine Danube frontiers, huge gaps in Roman
  defenses, for instance
• In 249, General Decius revolted, left post on
  Danube to invade Italy, Goths followed him
• Goths to Greece, Asia Minor, Franks in France and
  Spain, others to Milan
• Barrack emperors fought barbarians when not
  fighting each other

15
Farm Village Life

• How did folks adjust? Some became bandits, some
  complained, some found barbarians less corrupt
  than Roman soldiers and officials
• Corruption a real problem
• Officials squeezed too

16
Diocletian Constantine, 284-337

• Restoration of the empire
• DiocletianEmperor as absolute autocrat, the
  elect of God
• ConstantineJesus first 12 disciples
• Emulated Persian monarchs
• Diocletian divides empire into East West, takes
  control of East, then each half, divided in half,
  a Tetrarchy, see p. 184

17
Diocletian/Constantine, Cont.

• Great administrator, divided and organized empire
  into manageable bits, Governors deprived of
  military power
• Tetrarchy failed, but East/West stuck
• West will fall, but East becomes the Byzantine
  Empire
• Needed , but chaos made that difficult

18
Inflation Taxes

• Barrack Emps trashed currencygtinflation
• Ore/mines washed up
• Cities hard up, markets disturbed, travel
  dangerous, mass migrations to safer places
• Response was harsh, loss of ind. freedoms
• Price wage fixing failed
• Tax collecting became a family bus/burdon, taxes
  payable in kind, huge demand on trans

19
Decline of Small Farms

• Due to looting/instability, farmers fled
• Large tracts deserted, great landLORDs take
  overgtmanors/villas produce surpluses to trade,
  become stable
• Increasing pressure on small farmers, turn to
  villas for protection, increase power of
  landlords. Free men become serfs.

20
Acceptance of Christianity

• Christians not as martyred as they make out
• Isolated persecution, i.e., Nero
• Pagans Christians generally okay
• Pagans, polytheists, generally tolerant
• Christians, notgttroubles
• Christians frequently misunderstood, (Lords
  supper was cannibalism!) perceived as worst of
  the mystery cults

21
Christianity, Cont.

• Romans very tolerant of other religions, but
  religion was part of the state, must be followed,
  Christians would not sacrifice
• Gradually, hostility decreased, Trajan forbid
  persecution, though he thought Christians an
  abomination
• Constantine legalizes Christianity and Theodosius
  made if official religion of state, Christians
  start persecuting pagans

22
Constantanople

• Constantine builds a new Eastern capital on site
  of an old Greek city on Bosporus
• East well sited for defense and ongoing
  prosperity
• Becomes a Christian center

23
Transformation

• 1776, Gibbon finishes History of the Decline and
  Fall of the Roman Empire
• Very complex situation, was Gibbon right?
• Gibbon blames Christianity. Wrong. Too few
  Christians in West, lots in East
• Lots of flawed reasoning about causes evolution
  of government, mongrelization, lead poisoning,
  Marxists, economics, etc.

24
Transformation, Cont.

• Political is most likely succession as a problem
• Economic solutions were abyssmal
• Was there a decline and fall?
• Much that was Roman was adopted by Pope and
  barbarian law, art, politics, infrastructure,
  Latin, literature, thought, etc.