1-Acest articol este copiat !
2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1!
“Roman, remember your strength to rule the earth’s peoples!”
When the Roman Republic transitioned into the Roman Empire shortly before the First Century AD, it was welcomed by a war weary populace. Despite their aversion to power resting in the hands of unelected tyrants, and their proud history of overthrowing the kings to establish a republic (allegedly a year before the Athenians created their democracy), Octavian – the great nephew of the Dictator Julius Caesar, and his posthumously adopted son – had gradually eased himself into position as monarch. There was no sudden coup or power grab, rather the gradual build-up of powers over years, the assuming of increasingly more responsibilities, until he towered over the Senate. For Octavian would not call himself Emperor, rather the Princeps, the First Among Equals. He would go by numerous titles, including Imperator (from where the modern word “Emperor” derives), a title given by jubilant soldiers to their triumphant commander, the First Man in Rome, the August one – as most historians refer to him today, Augustus.
Augustus’ Principate is usually marked as beginning in 27 BC, when his victory at the Battle of Actium left him as sole master of Rome. It ended constant warfare of a tumultuous time, which had seen barbarian invasions being ended by the ascendancy of Gaius Marius, before Italy erupted into the Social War, which was ended by Marius’ former adjutant Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Mithridates the Great attacked Rome’s Asia possessions and invaded Greece, launching a genocide against Italians, and was driven out in a period that saw the factions of Marius and Sulla, the Populares and Optimates respectively, become locked in a bitter civil war with each other. Sulla’s triumph paved the way for the ascension of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, who soon formed the First Triumvirate with Marcus Crassus and Caesar. After the death of Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae, Rome’s disastrous invasion of Parthia, tensions betwixt Caesar and Pompey resulted in a fresh civil war, Caesar ultimately triumphing over Pompey and his Optimate supporters, only to thus be assassinated. Into the fold stepped a Second Triumvirate of Lepidus, Octavian and Mark Antony allied against the Optimates, succeeding in crushing them at the Battle of Philippi. Just as with their predecessors, they then became locked in their own civil war which saw Lepidus exiled and Octavian and his trusted deputy Agrippa destroying the navy, and assuming command of the legions, of Antony in Greece, before besieging him and Cleopatra in Alexandria. The fall of Alexander not only led to the fall of the Roman Republic, but also the end of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty, the last of the pharaohs, and the last of Alexander the Great’s successor Diadochi kingdoms.
Ushering in the Pax Romana, Augustus was thus welcomed as the bringer of peace. Creating a system where he was essentially the head of every province and legion, with the Senate nominally controlling only those regions which were insignificant and had no military presence, he used the title Imperator in the field – by 13 AD, he boasted no fewer than 21 occasions where his troops had proclaimed him as such. Despite being at peace from civil war, he was a firm advocate of Roman supremacy and the need for expansion, declaring: “Roman, remember your strength to rule the earth’s peoples!” His contemporary and friend Virgil, writing the Aeneid to detail the foundation of Rome, declared that Jupiter (the lead god) destined Rome to have “sovereignty without end”.
While demobilising around half of Rome’s legions – a huge logistical task, with the legionaries requiring back pay and land – Augustus also established a standing army. It seems strange to think Rome still relied on a system of legions behind raised ad hoc, as for over a century those mobilised legions had remained active in the field for years at a time. The civil wars had left Rome with around half a million active legionaries, far more than was necessary or viable, and Augustus sought to halve that number.
Much of the military expansion in his time was to formalise Roman control over areas which had previously been vassals, or where Roman attention had not been fixed. Galatia (central Turkey) was adopted into a province without violent resistance in 25 BC. Hispania, which had been host to Roman legions since the Punic Wars with Carthage two centuries earlier, was finally fully conquered all the way to the Atlantic by 19 BC. The Alpine regions of Raetia and Noricum (Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia) were annexed in 16 BC, a crucial victory which allowed Rome to control the Alpine passes while having a buffer state betwixt themselves and the German barbarians. The borders of Africa province were expanded to the east and south, while Judea was incorporated into the province of Syria and Herod Archelaus, successor to Herod the Great, was deposed. Provinces such as Syria and Egypt were the personal possessions of Augustus, ruled by an Equestrian (knight) legate (general) rather than a Patrician (upper class) Senator, and such Senators needed the express permission of Augustus to go to the province.
Augustus envisaged Roman expansion being to the north east, incorporating Germania and pushing the boundary from the Rhine to the Elbe. Augustus’ stepson Tiberius marched the legions against the tribes of Pannonia and Illyricum in 12 BC, cementing Roman rule in the Balkans. His younger brother Drusus annexed Germania to the Elbe by 9 BC, though shortly after fell from his horse and died. In the east, a Roman army was stationed in Syria to deter Parthian aggression, and Tiberius enjoyed further success in restoring Tigranes V as a pro-Roman ruler of Armenia, a vital buffer state betwixt the two great powers. Arguable Augustus’ greatest success was diplomatic rather than military, when he negotiated with Phraates IV for the return for the legionary standards that Crassus had lost at the Battle of Carrhae – a huge morale boost for Rome, though a disappointment for those seeking further military action in Mespotamia. Temples to Mars were built in Rome to house the standards. Augustus’ diplomatic and trade links saw temples to him built as far afield as India.
Further campaigning took place along the Danube, trying to secure the frontier while providing a springboard for expansion into Dalmatia. Victory in battle could be fleeting, and tribes were in an almost constant state of rebellion against their haughty Roman overlords. His military expansion was not without hitch though, and in 9 AD the German Cherusci chief Arminius, who had been taken as a child to be raised Roman before returning to lead auxiliary troops, secretly organised a revolt. Tricking the governor Varus into leading his three legions on a narrow road through thick forest, Arminius led a German coalition to attack them at the Battle of Teutoburg, annihilating the Roman legions and causing the Empire’s frontiers to retreat from the Elbe to the Rhine. Augustus was so shaken by the loss he would awake at night, screaming “Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!” Augustus would state in his will that Rome should not again look to occupy the lands east of the Rhine, leading to his successors to turn their gaze north across The Channel, to Britannia. While Augustus’ military endeavours were largely successful, as he reached old age, he soon faced the difficult decision as to who to appoint his successor. For while Fortuna smiled on his reign as Emperor, she played a wicked hand against his heirs.
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