From Republic to Empire: The Rise and Fall of ROME

The very notion of Rome brings forth the images of a mighty empire in our mindset with an abundance of wealth, knowledge and some of the greatest man-made architectural wonders like Colosseum, Pantheon, Aqueducts and Via Appia. The Roman numeric system, Julian calendar and rich cultural and religious legacies are some of the other significant contributions to the modern civilization (Bunson, 2002). The fascinating chronicles of the good old Romans also influenced numerous writers (i.e.  Asimov’s Foundation series) and filmmakers (i.e. George Lucas’s Star Wars film series). Apart from these mind-blowing features, it’s the uniqueness of the Roman political system that made the key difference from the other ancient civilizations. The Roman political system, under which Rome was known as “Roman Republic”, is marked as one of the earliest democracies of the ancient world (Millar, 2002). The Roman Republic went through dynamic evolution throughout the courses of time and eventually turned to the mighty “Roman Empire”. Though the first two centuries of the Empire was known as ‘Pax Romana’ (Roman Peace) with unswerving peace and prosperity, the latter days of the empire sustained numerous obstacles (Wells, 1995).

It all started in 509 BC when the people of Rome overthrown their Etruscan king and founded the famous Republic – a democratic system with distinguished characteristics. The foundation of the republic was an unwritten yet highly comprehensive constitution that included the principles and guidelines determining the approaches of the state. During the period, the Roman society was divided into two factions – the patricians or the aristocrats with voting powers and the plebeians or the lower class citizens who didn’t have voting power (Warrior and Livy, 2006). The patricians selected 300 senators (the number increased to 600 later) who formed the Roman senate – the institutional body that ran the republic. The senators appointed two consuls for one year who acted as the head of the government. Though the Plebeians were prohibited from taking an active part in the Senate at first, they were eventually accepted for more active roles. However, the plebeians were denied the same level of power like the patricians and that was one of the biggest weaknesses of the republic. Another flaw was the slave dependent Roman economy where slaves were deprived of all sorts of citizen rights. So, slave revolts were common phenomena that faded the republic’s strength significantly (Crawford, 1993).

The Republic, however, continued its expansion and covered a vast area from East to West, including the entire Mediterranean territories, the Iberian Peninsula, Greece and France. But as the territories expanded, some of the Roman leaders became more and more ambitious. One of such men was Julius Caesar, who became too much popular by his unparalleled victory in enemy territories (i.e. Gaul). Using that popularity, Caesar marched to Rome and conquered it in 49 BC. Though Senate was still the governing body of the Roman republic, Caesar gained tyrannical power and this fact made him the biggest enemy to the old school politicians who sworn to maintain the traditional democratic (read republic) system. So, he was murdered in 44 BC by fellow senators (among his murderers was his friend, Brutus) in a last effort to save the republic (Millar, 2002).

The murderous effort failed as Rome was led to a series of civil wars and finally, in 31 BC, Augustus Caesar (Gaius Octavius Thurinus by born, Julius Caesar’s nephew and heir) ascended to the throne of Rome, taking the title of Emperor. With him, the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the era of the Roman Empire began. Though Julius Caesar led the way of an Empire by confiscating the power and taking the title “Dictator”, it was Augustus Caesar who took the title “Emperor” for the first time and credited as the first Roman Emperor (Wells, 1995). The Roman Empire is famous for not only its overwhelming vastness but also the chronicles of its glories and subsequent decline in the coming years.

During the reign of Trajan (53 AD-117 AD), Roman Empire reached to its maximum extent, stretching from Mesopotamia to Britannia. As the Empire reached its vastness, it became increasingly harder to maintain administrative and military control over the territory. The empire faced numerous civil wars in later centuries and eventually divided into three separate regions. However, it was reunited under the rule of Diocletian (284 AD-305AD) who also divided it in half (in 285 AD) to maintain effective administrative control. These two halves were known as the Western and Eastern Roman Empire (Mackay, 2004). In 330 AD, Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

This measure saved the Eastern Roman Empire for thousand more years (dissolved in 1453 AD) where the Western Roman Empire was dissolved by 476 AD (Bunson, 2002). The key reasons that led the fall of the Western Roman Empire included multi-front invasion by barbarian forces (Goths, Visigoth, Vandals etc.), slave dependent economy, widespread corruption, the shift of power to Eastern Roman Empire and the gradual weakening of their military forces (Roman legions). On the other hand, the Eastern Roman Empire fell under the might of Ottomans in 1453 AD and the glorious journey of once mighty Roman Empire came to the absolute conclusion (Zoch, 1998).

In the sense of democratic right of people, the turning of Rome from a republic to empire was essentially a negative move. However, Rome became too vast and a central controlling body was direly required. The Roman Senate was not efficient enough to play this role. So, the situation called for an Emperor and during the reign of great Roman emperors, Rome continued to flourish. In fact, the Pax Romana era indicated the effectiveness of an Empire over the old republican system. So, despite the fact of confiscating people’s power to one single hand, the turning to an empire from a once great republic was a smart move for Rome and this move was justified by the ineffectiveness of Roman senate.

References

Bunson, M. (2002). Encyclopedia of the Roman empire. New York: Facts On File.

Crawford, M. (1993). The Roman republic. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Mackay, C. (2004). Ancient Rome. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Millar, F. (2002). The Roman Republic in political thought. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Warrior, V. and Livy, (2006). The History of Rome, Books 1-5. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co.

Wells, C. (1995). The Roman Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Zoch, P. (1998). Ancient Rome. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Disclaimer: This article was written for Project EduGaming. It’s republished here as the project website is not accessible these days.