The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (57 page)

Tensions between Christian communities, which spread all over the Empire by the second century, and local governors and populations increased. Christians openly refused to recognize and participate in state rituals and sacrifices. To the others, they were unpatriotic and irreligious in an age when the Empire was stressed, under siege, and in need of cohesion. Their exclusivity and detachment threatened local order and was a direct rejection of what it meant to be Roman.

The Emperor Antonius Pius attempted to quell religious intolerance, but during the reign of Marcus Aurelius major attacks against Christians by angry mobs erupted around the Empire. Christians, charged with impiety and atheism, were tortured and killed in Lugdunum (Lyons), Smyrna (Izmir), Vindobona (Vienna), Rome, and other cities. The heroic manner in which many Christians faced their deaths won more converts in some cases. Still, Christianity had many friends in high places in the Empire. Traditionally it was Marcia, the Christian concubine of Commodus (she also helped plot his assassination), who secured the release of Christians condemned to the mines during the reign of Commodus's father Marcus Aurelius.

In the chaos after Commodus, there weren't systematic persecutions again until the Illyrian emperors advanced imperial religion, with the emperor at the center, as a unifying element to the Empire. Aurelian promoted himself as the divine representative of the Invincible Sun God and Diocletian expanded upon this by making the figure of the emperor one of veneration and worship. He intended to establish a strong religious cult and figure at the center of the Empire and at the head of the military. When Christians in the civil service and the military refused to go along with the program, Diocletian issued edicts in 299 against them, and in 303 against their churches.

Civil unrest, arson, and riots broke out, first at the imperial residence in Nicomedia, then around the Empire. Diocletian and the tetrarchs then issued edicts that all who would not perform state sacrifices should be put to death or sent to the mines. These persecutions lasted between 303 and 311 and were carried out to various degrees by the different tetrarchs in their respective areas—mainly in the cities. By 311, it was clear that the persecutions were a failure, and even Galienus, the most ardent persecutor, became convinced that it was better to have everyone—anyone—praying for his soul (see Chapter 17, “Divide and [Re]Conquer: Diocletian to Constantine”). His
Edict of Toleration
put an official end to the Roman State's persecution of Christians.

 
Roamin' the Romans
Sites commemorating lives and deaths of Christian writers, saints, and martyrs cover the lands of the Roman Empire. In Rome, you can visit St. Peter's and St. Paul's resting places in Rome: the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. Paul's Without the Walls (meaning outside the walls of Rome). In Greece, you can visit the Island of Patmos, where St. John, in exile, wrote
Revelation.
Even though the Byzantines didn't accept
Revelation
as gospel, they took John seriously and founded a monastery there.

By the time Constantine the Great fought under the banner of the Invincible Christ instead of the Invincible Sun God, Christians were already beginning to engage in persecuting each other in the mob riots caused by the Donatist controversy (see Chapter 17). As Emperor, Constantine attempted to bring unity to the Empire through unity of religion. Despite the council at Nicea in 325, differences in Christian doctrine (especially Arianism and Monphysitism) and concerning scripture continued to keep Christians occupied with the faithful for centuries to come. Except for the pagan hiccup of Julian the Apostate, however, no later emperor (Orthodox or otherwise) conceived of Rome as anything but a Christian empire. Rome had found the match of state and religion that could claim both absolute sovereignty and exclusive truth without getting in each other's way. If Diocletian had listened to his Christian wife, he might have unified the Empire 30 years before Constantine.

From this point on, persecutions were by Christians against other Christians, pagans, or Jews. With the removal of the altar of victory from Rome in 381 and the edicts of Theodosius, paganism's historical and practical legitimacy was rejected and outlawed. When Justinian closed the philosophical schools in Athens in 529, its independent intellectual history was subjugated as well. From now on, Greek philosophy would live as the clever slave of a Christian master.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
There's never been agreement among Christians as to what constitutes “scripture.” Additional gospels, such as the
Gospel of Thomas,
epistles (letters) of Peter, Paul's
Epistle to the Laodicians,
the
Acts of Peter
, and the popular
Shepherd of Hermas
were elements of an elastic scriptural tradition. Early Christians viewed
Revelation
and
Hebrews
(eventually accepted into the canon) with great suspicion. In the west, the works of the New Testament remained open until the Council of Trent in 1546, when they were closed by a less than a ringing endorsement (24 votes for, 14 against, with 16 abstentions). Protestants further restricted the canon to match their own approach to scripture. In the east, Greek, Russian, and Ethiopian orthodox churches developed a different approach to scripture and have different scriptural canons.

• Pagan Rome was generally tolerant of other religions and beliefs.
  
• Rome persecuted Druids, Jews, and Christians for opposition to the state.
  
• Christian persecutions were periodic and localized.
  
• The Christian Roman Empire persecuted Jews, pagans, and heretical sects.
  

Chapter 21
 
Cogito Ergo Sum:
The Life of the Mind

• The Silver Age of Latin literature
  
• Christian and pagan writers of the Empire
  
• The end of Latin literature in the western Empire
  

With the close of the Augustan Age, Latin literature and culture was at its high point and poised for the wild roller-coaster ride to the end of the western Empire. In this chapter, we'll follow that ride through the twists and turns to the time of Marcus Aurelius, including the beginnings of Christian scripture and literature. Then we'll climb the giant loop in which pagan thought infuses Latin Christendom before plunging into the dark tunnel of the Middle Ages. In each section, we'll pick out a couple of writers that exemplify a kind of literature or a trend in the Empire's life of the mind.

The first two centuries of the Empire are called the Silver Age of Latin literature. Latin forms and style developed and perfected what the Augustans had established; although it produced a great
quantity
of literature, it doesn't match the vitality and
quality
of the end of the Augustan Age. But that's rather like saying silver serving pieces aren't quite up to gold. It's true that gold is more valuable, but it's all sterling (so to speak), and depending on the use—some people prefer silver.

Virgil's
Aeneid
was the high point of Latin epic, but his work inspired others to write in this style. Two particular poets who found worthy subjects and wrote epics worth knowing about are Lucan and Statius.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39–65) was born at Cordoba in Spain. Lucan was the nephew of Seneca (Nero's tutor). He wrote, among other works, an epic called
Pharsalia
about the war between Pompey and Caesar. His popularity brought on Nero's jealousy. Lucan was implicated in the same conspiracy in which both Seneca and Petronius lost their lives and was forced to commit suicide. Lucan's work was highly admired in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Publius Papinius Statius (ca 45–96) was from Naples. He wrote two epics, the
Thebaid
(about Oedipus's sons' fight for the throne of Thebes) and
Achilleid
(about the Greek hero Achilles). Only parts of these works survive.

Livy's history of Rome ended with Augustus and featured the heroes of the Republic he idealized. In the principate, the emperors became the central heroes and villains of the new Rome. Two particular writers known for chronicling the early history of the principate and the transition from Republic to principate to dominate are Tacitus and Suetonius.

 
Veto!
Seneca ridiculed Claudius to glorify Nero; the senatorial Tacitus looked darkly on the authoritarian underbelly of the principate. Suetonius loved juicy scandal and naughty bits. I'm just saying, don't take everything—especially reported rumors or suggested interpretations of motives—in these histories as unbiased reporting.

Cornelius Tacitus (ca 55–115) served under the emperors from Vespasian to Trajan. He married the daughter of Cornelius Junius Agricola, the governor of Britain. Tacitus wrote several important works. He wrote a dialogue concerning orators (or how bad Roman education had become), the
Dialogus de Oratoribus;
the earliest ethnography of the Germans, the
Germania;
and a famous biography of his father-in-law, the
Agricola,
which also contains important information on early Britain and the Celts.

Tacitus's major works, however, were his histories. The
Annales,
which covers the reigns of Tiberius through Nero, survives in portions; the
Histories
covers the years 69 to 96. Parts of these works survive. Tacitus's dark and suggestive histories are primarily responsible for the suspicious and grim image we have of the workings of the early principate.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (70–140) was a friend of Pliny the Younger in Rome. Pliny secured favor with Trajan, and Suetonius became an imperial secretary.

This gave Suetonius access to the imperial archives. He published numerous works (parts of which are lost), but he is most famous for his
De Vita Caesarum
(Lives of the Caesars), which covers the period from Julius Caesar to Domitian. There isn't much depth, but you'll find a host of personal anecdotes, rumormongering, and juicy tidbits about the emperors.

Tacitus's history had a sharp note of bitterness and cynicism, and this edge is also felt in writers of fictions and satire who commented upon the foibles of their times. Even though times were pretty good for all classes, optimists are always disappointed, moralists are constantly chagrined, and life seems to have lost its grounding in the international swirl of Roman affairs.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter (ca 20–65) was a member of Nero's circle and was looked to by Nero as his judge of good taste. Petronius's novel, the
Satiricon,
concerns the adventures of two young rogues on the loose in the southern Italy of Nero's day. Only fragments of this work remain, the episode of the
Cena Trimalchionis
(Trimalchio's Dinner) the most famous. Petronius lost his life with Lucan and Seneca in the conspiracy of Piso against Nero in 65.

Marcus Velerius Martialis (40–104) was born in Spain. Martial is best known as a master of epigram: short pithy poems on personal topics done in a biting, ironic, and satirical manner. Many famous English epigrams are really translations of Martial.

Decius Junius Juvenalis (ca 50–127) was probably born in the Italian city of Aquinum. When you think of satire, you're thinking of the form of the invective perfected by Juvenal. Sixteen satires rake Romans, foreigners, writers, wives, and Rome itself over the coals. Juvenal was indiscriminate in his attacks: He hated
everybody.

Lucius Apuleius (ca 123–180) is famous for the
Metamorphoses,
or alternatively,
The Golden Ass.
This tale concerns a young Greek who accidentally becomes transformed into an ass, and passes through the hands of a series of owners (each with his or her own virtues and vices) before being transformed back into himself by the benevolence of Isis. The mysteries and worship of Isis are lovingly portrayed at the end, but the most famous part of the story are the Greek fairy tale of
Cupid and Psyche.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
Apuleius's tale of
Cupid and Psyche
is one of the best-known Western fables, and has been translated, painted, and adapted by writers and artists throughout history, including C. S. Lewis in
Till We Have Faces.