His adoptive father, Caesar, suppressed the turmoil, and in 27 BC his adopted son, Octavianus, took full control of Rome. When Octavianus was given the title of Augustus by the Senate and became the de facto emperor, a peaceful era of about 200 years came as imperial Rome.
"Kaiser", which means "emperor" in German, remains as a word derived from "Caesar", and the birth month of Caesar is changed from "Julius" to "July" and from "Augustus" to "August". Continues to influence.
This time, I will summarize the prosperity and crisis of the Roman Empire.
Prosperity of the Roman Empire
The Age of the Five Good Emperors
Between 1996 and 180 in the Roman Empire, it brought unprecedented prosperity and peace in its long history. Between 96 and 180 years
- Nerva (reigning 96 ~ 98)
- Trajan (reigning 98 ~ 117)
- Hadrian (reigning 117 ~ 138)
- Antoninus Pius (reigning 138 ~ 161)
- Marcus Aurelius-Antoninus (reigned 161-180)
This is the period during which the emperor called the Five Good Emperors was in office. Above all, Trajan Acquired the largest territory of the Roman Empire during this period. It means that a Roman-style city was built up to the border with roads and water services, so you can see how amazing the national power is.
All roads lead to Rome
As the words say, the Roman Empire possesses highly practical civil engineering techniques such as road maintenance. In addition, since arch technology is used to cross long-distance bridges, the construction technology has developed by applying it, and it has become possible to build high-rise buildings.
Water services are famous as a Roman technique. I am surprised that this water supply facility was built about 2000 years ago.
London , which later became a modern city And Paris , Vienna Etc. will be the cities built during this Roman Empire. They control the provinces through the city, and the influential people in the city contribute to imperial rule instead of gaining Roman citizenship.
Assimilation policy
Since ancient times, Rome has tended to increase the number of people with citizenship when it increases its territory and stabilizes. During the royal era, he accepted people from neighboring countries, and after the Social War in 90 BC, he gave Roman citizenship to all the citizens of the Italian Peninsula.
Even after becoming Roman Empire, the expansion of Roman citizenship was thorough, but in the era of Caracalla (reigning 198-217) in 212, Roman citizenship was finally given to all free people of the empire. It has a policy similar to the total settlement of the assimilation policy of giving (it is also said to aim to increase tax revenue). As a result, the Roman Empire literally became a world empire.
Due to the prosperity of commercial activities, we have also traded with distant lands such as China, India and Southeast Asia, and now have silk and spices.
Crisis of the 3rd Century
A city like Rome with well-equipped infrastructure costs a lot of money, so you will have to collect heavy taxes from the provinces. Among them, the lower class people seemed to suffer from heavy taxes, and the number of cases of rebellion increased. The Roman Empire gradually loses its centripetal force.
Marcus Aurelius-Antoninus Around the end of the reign (161-180), financial stalemate and economic stagnation began to appear on the surface.
The era of the military emperor
From 235 to 284, the influential people of each province set up their own emperors and began to fight with the Senate. In a short period of time, many emperors appeared and were killed, and the original authority of the emperor was lost. It's almost the same as a civil war.
Because of the crisis of this great empire, all the neighboring peoples are aiming for Rome. Germanic people from the north and foreigners such as the Sassanid dynasty invade the border from the east.
Social changes
In response to the abnormal situation of the Roman Empire, the structure of society begins to change. Cities are subject to heavy taxes to increase their military power, which accelerates the economic downturn. Above all, the decline of the cities in the west was remarkable.
In order to avoid the heavy tax, some of the upper urban people are leaving the city, and some of them are landowners in rural areas.
Agricultural changes [from Latifundia to his colonate]
Punic Wars Since then, agriculture based on large-scale slavery ( Latifundia ) However, as the country became more stable as the times progressed, it became difficult to obtain cheap, disposable slaves.
Therefore, the landowners noticed the fallen farmers. Those who abandoned their farmland after the farmland was devastated by the war. It's the side where the big landowners in the bread and circuse were given food and entertainment by the influential people.
Metropolitan landowners call them peasants ( Colonus ) Will be used as a causative policy. Also, the elevated slaves will be released from that position Colonus . There was also a pattern that became.
Since the Colonus had already obtained Roman citizenship, they will be able to leave their property to their children with the freedom of property. They can be expected to work voluntarily to leave property to their children and grandchildren without trying to force them to work. They took the rent and increased their profits. This agriculture is colonate Is called.
This colonate in the late imperial era Became full-fledged and was also a pioneering method of serfdom, which was mainly practiced in medieval Europe.
When Colonate becomes mainstream, there will be a lot of job offers in rural areas (as it is now). As the number of urban residents suffering from heavy taxes abandoned the city and went to rural areas increased, the hollowing out of the urban area further reduced the national power of Rome.