The following is an excerpt (pages 226-232) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent. Use the link at the bottom of post to read the previous/following pages. Use the Search box above to find specific topics or browse using the Resources tab above.
PART FIVE: ROME AS A MONARCHY
Caesar was the master of Rome. No king ever exerted more power over his realm than the conqueror of Pharsalus did over the city on the Tiber and throughout the vast extent of its empire. He was the first of a long line of absolute rulers.
The general character of the period which now begins is the cessation of conquests and the working out of an admirable system of internal administration. The inhabitants of the provinces, so far oppressed and exploited by officials and tax farmers, became the special object of the new government’s care. The grand PAX ROMANA, “the Roman Peace,” settled upon the lands of the Mediterranean and remained undisturbed for centuries.
CHAPTER XXIII
FIRM ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY
CAESAR’S RULE
296. Conciliation. — Among Caesar’s followers there were not wanting those who had expected that something like the massacres of Marius or the proscriptions of Sulla (§§ 278, 280) would give them a chance to enrich themselves at the expense of the aristocrats. There was no such thing. Caesar accepted for office any Roman of ability, and made no distinction between his friends and former foes. He gave to the city and the empire a rule of strict law and order. With the exception of some extremists all really became reconciled to his government.
297. The new monarchy retained the republican forms. Caesar simply united in his own person the various offices, into which the once royal power had been divided. He had conferred on himself for life the tribunician power, by which he could veto laws or decrees of the Senate and annul verdicts of the courts, if he saw fit; the power of censor, by which he could degrade and appoint senators and knights, and could transfer citizens from tribe to tribe. He had himself declared dictator, so that under this republican title he could control the state in every regard. He received the title imperator, a designation before this given to victorious generals. In later times imperator became the special title of the new rulers. From this word we derive our word “emperor.”
298. CAESAR’S REFORM MEASURES are in reality his greatest deeds. Here he showed his excellent statesmanship. Our admiration rises if we remember that he had only a few years to plan and introduce such a number of beneficial enactments.
A. Economic Reforms: (1) A bankrupt law released all debtors from further claims, if they relinquished all their property to their creditors.
(2) He began anew the distribution of public lands, somewhat according to the methods proposed by Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.
(3) Landlords were required to employ at least one free laborer for every two slaves.
(4) He resumed vigorously the establishment of colonies in the provinces.
By these various means he reduced the number of poor citizens who received free grain from 320,000 to 150,000.
B. Political Reforms: (1) He introduced rigid economy into
all branches of the government.
(2) He equalized taxation in Italy and based it on a census of the people and their property. (He could not carry this out for the provinces.)
(3) The governors of the provinces became strictly responsible to the central authorities at Rome. He checked their power by the presence of other officials in the provinces who depended on Caesar himself. The governors thus were forced to look after the welfare of the provinces instead of plundering them.
(4) He gave the rights of citizenship to many cities and districts in the provinces.
(5) He reformed and standardized the coinage of money.
(6) He introduced the Julian Calendar, which, with a slight change made in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, is still in use. It provides for common years of 365 days, every fourth year to be a leap year of 366 days. (H. T. F., “Calendar.”)
299. Further Works and Plans. — Caesar besides showed an incredible activity in erecting buildings, chiefly of a practical character, in Rome, and all over the empire. His mind was busy with such great projects as that of putting the provinces upon the same level with Italy. His idea was that the government existed for the benefit of all the governed; that the provinces did not exist merely to be plundered by the Roman politicians, but had a claim to care and protection. He had already admitted provincials, even Gauls, to the Senate, which he wished to make a grand state council representative of all the parts of the empire, though he reserved all real power to himself. Nothing greater could have happened to the Roman state than that this wonderful legislative activity should go on undisturbed and uninterrupted. But this was not to be.
300. Caesar’s Death. — There had remained an insignificant number of incorrigible republicans, and an equally small number of disappointed democrats and anarchists. These men combined for Caesar’s destruction. They could not fight him openly in politics. But they could use the assassin’s knife. This they did. On the Ides of March (March 15), 44 B.C., they crowded around him in the Senate house and attacked him with their daggers. Bleeding from three and twenty wounds he sank dead at the foot of the statue of Pompey.
301. Caesar’s Character. — Personally Caesar was a most amiable character. His enemies dreaded his personal interviews, lest they might be won over to his side by his gracious courtesy and unrivaled charms. Before he crossed the Rubicon he had used the same cold-blooded means as other Romans to amass riches. His Gallic wars in particular are strongly tinged with barbaric cruelty. But all this changed later on.
The statesman in him appeared more and more. He felt the strong and able man’s delight in ruling well. Let the student compare his laws with the activity of the prominent men before him. He is their equal in all things that are really good. He towers high above such brutal reactionaries as Sulla. The daggers of his cowardly assassins cut short a life most useful to the Roman world and indirectly to all mankind. The lines marked out by him were later on followed by some of his successors though less grandly, less boldly, and less consistently.
A REPUBLICAN INTERRUPTION
302. Cassius and Brutus, the leaders of Caesar’s murderers, imagined that the people would acclaim them as deliverers. But to their dismay all classes shrank from them. At Caesar’s funeral his lieutenant and friend, Mark Anthony (Marcus Antonius), roused the populace to fury against the assassins. The conspirators fled to the East, where Caesar had given governorships to some of them, and where the fame of Pompey was still a strength to the aristocrats.
303. THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. — Anthony remained for a time the ruler of Rome. But soon he found himself successfully rivaled by a young boy of eighteen, a grandnephew and adopted son of Caesar. Hostilities between the two were prevented by the proposal of the young Octavius to form an alliance, into which they admitted also Lepidus, governor of Gaul and Spain. This alliance is called the Second Triumvirate, which, however, was officially recognized by the Senate. It gave to the three participants the power of dictators. To get money for further enterprises and to destroy their opponents, they resorted to the method of Sulla (§ 280) by inaugurating a horrible proscription. It is to the shame of the triumvirs that more than three thousand prominent men were killed and their property confiscated. Among the victims was the great orator, Cicero, the same who had once saved the city from the nefarious schemes of Catiline (§ 289).
304. Defeat of the “Republicans.” — Meantime Cassius and Brutus had gathered an army in the East from the friends of Pompey. Octavius and Anthony marched out against them and met their medley troops near Philippi in Macedonia in 42 B.C. The two armies again represented the East and the West, and the West was victorious. No serious attempt was ever made again to restore the Roman republic.
305. Octavius Becomes Sole Ruler. — Anthony and Octavius set aside Lepidus, who had never been of much account, and divided the empire between themselves. Octavius received the West, Anthony the East. Anthony soon became so infatuated with Cleopatra at Alexandria (§ 295), that he gave away Roman provinces to her and her children; repudiated his wife, Octavia, the virtuous sister of Octavius; married the Egyptian queen; and while leading a luxurious life in Egypt, utterly neglected the interests of the empire. At last the Senate declared war. In 31 B.C. the decisive battle took place at Actium, off the coast of Greece. Anthony and Cleopatra were completely defeated and fled back to Egypt, where both died by suicide. It was again a victory for the West. Octavius was the sole master of the Roman world. He set things right in the Orient, annexed Egypt fully to the empire, and returned to Rome in triumph. He solemnly closed the gates of the temple of Janus (§ 196) in token that the world was at peace.
THE RULE OF AUGUSTUS
306. Octavius Augustus possessed a shrewd, calculating mind. He probably did not have the originality of ideas that Caesar had, but he had learned from him. Like Caesar he forgave his enemies and received them to favor and service if they were willing. Like Caesar, too, he ruled under the disguise of republican can forms, and was more anxious than Caesar to avoid anything of the pomp of royalty. The bodyguard which he formed of picked troops, the “praetorians,” was only in small part stationed in Rome. He lived more simply than many a noble. The Senate, however, gave him the title Augustus, Venerable, which before had been used only of the gods. It is by this name that he is chiefly known in history. The title he liked best was that of ‘princeps, which was popularly conferred on him, and which signifies “the first citizen” of the republic. Meanwhile the elections, passage of laws, decisions of the Senate, went on as before, though through disguised channels everything was controlled by the Imperator Augustus.
307. The Augustan Age. — Augustus ruled a long time, from 41 B.C. to 14 A.D. This time was a period of peace, with very few exceptions. Augustus was not bent on conquests. The Roman world was large enough for him. He gave his whole attention to internal administration. For the city he organized, or reorganized, a police department, a fire department, a department for the distribution of grain, each under its proper head. He pushed with great vigor the founding of colonies in the provinces, and thereby greatly increased the number of citizens. Everywhere in the vast Roman domain there reigned peace and security. Marshes were drained, roads built. A census of the whole empire was taken. To expedite the government business, a postal service for official communications was established. Latin literature developed to a wonderful perfection. Almost endless is the catalogue of the public buildings which were erected at Rome and in the provinces. Of Rome he said proudly, “I found it brick, and I have left it marble.” (See § 340.)
308. The Worship of the Dead Augustus. — After his death in 14 A.D. the Senate decreed him divine honors. Temples were erected to him, and a special priesthood established. This practice was adopted for the successors of Augustus also. The worship of the dead emperors became the most widespread religious rite in the Roman world.