The Enemies of Rome: From Hannibal to Attila the Hun by Matyszak Philip

Author:Matyszak, Philip [Matyszak, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2009-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

ARMINIUS

BOUDICCA

JOSEPHUS

DECEBALUS

Pax Romana

With the victory of Augustus at Actium, Rome’s government entered a new phase. Democratic elections for Rome’s top magistracies continued, but the results were largely irrelevant. Augustus had gained so much power and prestige that he was able to influence the government of Rome in almost any way he wanted. Nevertheless, Rome’s first emperor was mindful of the fate of his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, who had been assassinated after he lost the support of the senate. In consequence he trod carefully in his relations with that august body. At one point Augustus offered to give up all his powers and become a private citizen. The senators, well aware of the dangers of accepting this offer if it was not sincerely meant, pleaded with Augustus to change his mind. For even without constitutional authority, Augustus possessed boundless auctoritas, the power that comes with respect and prestige, and this could not be stripped away by any constitutional declaration. Such dominance had existed briefly at other periods in Roman history, and the senators who had achieved it were called principes – the first among the equals of the senate. Augustus formalized this position, and from this we get the word for the early period of imperial rule – the ‘principate’.

Though a consummate politician, Augustus was less skilled as a general and preferred to command his armies by proxy. Augustus adopted the name by which soldiers hailed a successful general (imperator, from whence we get the name ‘emperor’), and he was jealous of those who attained military glory in the tradition of the Republic. When the general Crassus won a stupendous victory in Macedonia, Augustus blocked some of the honours Crassus was entitled to and pushed him out of public life. Another general made too much of a military success in Egypt and so great was the force of Augustus’ displeasure that the unfortunate commander was forced to commit suicide. The message to Rome’s generals was clear. Succeed, and the credit went to the emperor. Fail, and the blame was all theirs.

The first to fail was Varus, kinsman to Augustus by marriage, and governor of that part of Germany which the Romans had brought under their control. Varus believed his province to be peaceful, and he totally failed to notice seething German resentment at their loss of freedom. The Roman attempt to conquer Germany had two motives – firstly, even the primitive maps of ancient geographers showed that the Roman frontier would be considerably shortened if it ran along the river Elbe rather than the Rhine. Secondly, whilst the peoples of Germany remained outside the Empire they threatened not only the newly conquered provinces of Gaul, but also Italy itself.

The initial phases of the Roman conquest went well enough to lull the Romans into a false sense of security. Varus believed that he had the support of a young German nobleman called Arminius (Chapter 10) who had once served in the Roman army. In fact, Arminius’ experience as a soldier of Rome was probably the catalyst which turned him into an ardent advocate of German liberty.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.