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June 6 - June 20, 2022
At the very end of the first century AD the Roman historian Tacitus has a Caledonian war leader tell his men that the Romans ‘create a desolation and call it peace’.1
Rome began in the eighth century BC, roughly around 753 BC when later tradition held that the City was founded.
No Roman began to write narrative history until around 200 BC. The Greeks began much earlier, but we should not forget that Herodotus did not write until after the defeat of Persia in 479 BC.
It is safe to say that in the early centuries Rome was ruled by kings. The expulsion of the last king in 509 BC and the foundation of the Republic does seem to have been based on reliable records, even if the stories surrounding it included considerable romantic embellishment.
Citizenship brought legal and political rights and also obligations to the wider community.
Yet removing troublesome warriors and resettling them on better territory far from their homes was a technique that the Romans had used before and would use again, always with success.
Security for any state rested on its military strength, and especially others’ perception of this.
Rome was one of many aggressive, imperialistic states and kingdoms, unusual not because it was uniquely bellicose but because it proved so successful. Much of this rested on its capacity to absorb other peoples and tie them permanently to the Republic as loyal, if clearly subordinate, allies.
The Romans proved capable of learning from mistakes and adapting the way they fought, but most striking was the refusal to accept that they had lost a conflict and the willingness to pour resources into the struggle until they prevailed.
In that sense continued Roman control depended on defending Rome’s friends and their interests
Massilia (modern Marseilles) was founded by Greeks from Asia Minor in the sixth century BC and soon developed extensive trade links with the tribes on its borders.
The Phoenicians were the great sailors of the ancient world, and early in the last millennium BC their ships often visited Spain – the Tarshish of the Old Testament – and even went to south-west Britain for tin, which was highly prized because it permitted the making of bronze.
Glory was important, not least because a belief in Rome’s strength and power was the best way to deter attackers.
The man joked with his friends that surely everyone must ‘acknowledge that the man who controls thirty legions is the most learned of all’.
More images of Augustus survive from the ancient world than of any other Roman emperor, or indeed any other human.
Under the Principate the key to this was the attitude of the emperor, and his willingness to pour resources into regaining lost territory. Germany was not reconquered, but provinces in the heartland of the empire were a different matter, and it was unlikely that
their loss would ever be accepted. It might take time, until the manpower and logistic support were available, but there was simply no prospect of giving up a lost province.
Varus, as legate of Syria, intervened in Judaea twice in 4 BC, and one of his successors in the post did the same in AD 6. This latter disturbance was provoked by anger at the imposition of the Roman census.
In AD 66 many members of the Jerusalem aristocracy centred around the high priestly families chose to join the rebels – the young Josephus among them.
From AD 115 to AD 117, the Jewish populations of Egypt, Cyrenaica and Cyprus rebelled in a war marked by atrocities and allegations of cannibalism.
The mix of populations within a province was one of the main reasons why even the major rebellions struggled to unite the entire population of a single province against the imperial power.
Pontius Pilate – prefect from AD 26–c.36/7
Nero had declared Christianity to be illegal at the time he made Christians scapegoats for the great fire in Rome in AD 64.
Some cities employed professional policemen/watchmen, but these forces were not allowed to grow too big for the same reason that fire brigades were banned, so the only counter to a mob was all too often another mob.
The Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus depicting Pilate as reluctant to refuse demands made by the crowd reflect a reality faced by many Roman governors, who knew that the force backing them relied as much on bluff as on actual strength.33
Close analysis of more recent periods of history tends to suggest far more predatory robbers preying on the peasants, fear being the main reason why they are ‘helped and supported’.
Pliny’s letters and Trajan’s replies depict the government of the empire as benevolent and respectful of local law and tradition, wishing to ensure not only stable rule and peace, but also the welfare of the provincial population. The tone is mirrored in the actions and words of other emperors and their representatives and clearly presents the official view.
There was a widespread and deeply rooted expectation that rulers, whether kings or emperors, should be willing to listen and should also be the source of generous benefaction.
Some new cities were colonies of discharged veterans given farms as a reward.
These communities were meant to offer their inhabitants, and especially the aristocracy, greater comfort and opportunities to compete for prestige in the form of magistracies and priesthoods, and to settle their disputes in the courts rather than by raiding each other.
In order that a population scattered and uncivilised, and proportionately ready for war, might be habituated by comfort to peace and quiet, he would exhort individuals, assist communities, to erect temples, market-places, houses: he praised the energetic, rebuked the indolent, and the rivalry for his compliments took the place of coercion. Moreover he began to train the sons of chieftains in a liberal education . . . As a result, the nation which used to reject the Latin language began to aspire to rhetoric: further, the wearing of our dress became a distinction, and the toga was seen
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Examination of samples from the polar ice caps showed that pollution caused by industry was high in the Roman period, and especially in the first and second centuries AD, on a scale unmatched until the Industrial Revolution.
Until the development of effective cannon, being overlooked by hills outside of bowshot was not a significant disadvantage – something too often forgotten by archaeologists, whether discussing Roman military bases or Iron Age hillforts.15
