"Finis", Roman Empire, Challenge Completed!

The years of the Late Republic were violent and traumatic. Wealth and prestige brought home from campaigns abroad created a level of inequality that made the power-sharing ideals of the Republic unsustainable, and its vast size made it ungovernable by constantly rotating politicians. Inequality, the replacement of the urban poor's jobs with slave labour and the hoarding of land and wealth by the rich resulted in class war. Then, the clashes of overly ambitious generals led to cycles of violence, creating a political climate where civil war was customary and a trajectory that concentrated more and more power in the hands of whoever emerged out of the wars on top.

Furthermore, the Senate, the most important institution in the Roman Republic, took absolutely no interest in the problems facing the common people. Instead, they responded with deadly force to any attempt to redistribute the fruits of the empire. After men like the Gracchi were killed by the Senatorial faction, the spirit of reform and the ideals of the populares began to be taken over by powerful generals - elite demagogues like Pompey, Caesar and Augustus who promised the people relief, but never intended to share power. The result was the capture of the state by Octavian's faction, the end of any semblance of popular rule or power sharing, and the birth of an autocracy.

Augustus did not just bring about the end of the Republic through military victory, but also through his political reforms. By curtailing the power of the Senate, limiting the honours that successful generals could receive, and centralising the rule of the empire, he aimed to make it harder for elite rivalries to spiral out of control and into civil war. The deal with the Roman people was simple: concentrate power in one untouchable personality and forgo the political freedoms of the Republic. In return, class conflict will be smoothed out with concessions to the people, and the conflicting ambitions of politicians would be prevented from metastasising into civil war.

Augustus ruled for 45 years, and during that time, Rome was at peace (as long as you ignore the campaigns against foreigners). However, after his death, the cracks begin to show immediately: Tiberius’ lack of diligence allows for Sejanus’ reign of terror, resulting in massacres and executions, and then when Sejanus’ is deposed, Tiberius initiates his reprisals. The reigns of all the Julio-Claudian emperors henceforth are marred by brutal crackdowns on opposition. Roman still sheds the blood of fellow Roman.

Then, Caligula was the first emperor to be assassinated. This started what was essentially a Roman tradition; of the 69 emperors that ruled from Augustus to the empire’s last ruler, Romulus Augustus, 25 were assassinated. Hardly a model for a peaceful, stable political settlement. Caligula was also the first emperor to succumb to tyrannical madness, but he was by no means the last. Later emperors like Elgabalus, Domitian, and Commodus will do their best to outdo Caligula in vicious cruelty, arbitrary sadism and unpredictability.

Now Nero is dead, and, with no codified means of deciding who will become the next emperor, civil war is back in fashion. The year 68 CE will see four different emperors, each climbing to the position over the bodies of dead countrymen. All four of the new emperors are generals, and the vastness of the empire means that it is unavoidable that commanders in the provinces with their huge, loyal armies will always pose a threat to Roman peace. And when disorder or intrigue in the capital coincides with overweening ambition in the provinces, Rome is plunged back into civil war.

Our main literary sources for the Julio-Claudians (Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio) were written many decades (sometimes centuries) after the events by men of the senatorial order who were nostalgic for the Republic, but generally in favour of the imperial system. They therefore tend to stress how instability in the empire was caused by unsuitable personalities becoming Emperor. But, just as the acute systemic contradictions of the Republic (class struggle, overly-powerful generals, a vast, multicultural empire governed by an institution designed for a city-state) caused the system to collapse, the very nature of the imperial system, with its almost constant assassinations, its hypocrisy and corruption, the shaky dependency of the emperor on his Praetorian guard, the undue influence of favourites and family members, and the absence of a clear line of succession (especially now that the line of Augustus has ended) led to a system that was possibly just as prone to civil violence as the Republic that came before.

I sincerely hope you've enjoyed this journey. My aim with this content has been to provide a basic overview of the road the Romans took from republic to autocracy. To provide the reader with a clear understanding of how the Republic fell and what replaced it, and to tell the story of this fascinating period in Rome's history.

But the world of Roman history is vast, and there is so much to discover. All I can do as I bid you adieu is to encourage you to read on, dig deeper and explore more about the enthralling, appalling, tragic and compelling culture that was ancient Rome.

And so, I wish you good luck on your travels and on further conquering, and leave you with a few lines from the poet Propertius to spur you on:

May the breeze bear your sails gently over the sea,

and may the waters lie calm beneath your oars.

Let no fierce storm trouble your clear skies,

and may stars guide your course in peace.