The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (7 page)

Just as people want to know why and how Rome became a great empire, they want to know the end of the story. When one empire conquers another, it's easy to identify why one succeeds and the other fails, but when a great empire drifts into anarchy and a dark
age, one wants to know what happened. Were there fatal flaws in the Roman Empire? Was there something from within the system, or were the Romans conquered by outside forces they couldn't defeat? Did the culture that thought it could manipulate the future make the wrong choices and fail the possibilities of their divine mandate, or did their empire simply run a natural course of growth, maturity, decline, and fall?

The simple answer is “Yes.” But let's rephrase things a bit. It would probably be more instructive to ask why and how things lasted as long as they did. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it didn't fall in a day, either. In fact, the application of the word “fall” to any particular date in Roman history is arbitrary. No Roman of the time would have recognized 476 as the date when Rome “fell.” But let's go on with some of the main popular theories.

 
Veto!
The Romans themselves identified moral decay as a cause of the collapse of their empire, but it's best that we don't. Romans started saying this from at least the second century
B
.
C
.
E
. (That's 600 years of “When I was a boy, Rome was
Rome!
”) Rome's last centuries contained, besides decadence, moral and ethical advancements over earlier periods. Interestingly, many Romans blamed their decline on the fact that traditions and values had been corrupted by the conversion of the empire to Christianity.

The use of lead in water pipes and other utensils is often cited as a reason for Rome's decline. According to the lead pipe theory, the Roman aristocracy was poisoned by its own affluence because it was able to afford lead plumbing and cooking utensils. Lead leaching into the water resulted in a kind of Roman “brain (down the) drain.” This theory, which has the advantage of a certain ironic justice, isn't supported by chemical analysis of the skeletal evidence, comparative analysis with other cultures, or common sense.

Many economic factors contributed to the weakening of the Empire. The western half was larger, harder and more costly to defend, and yet produced little revenue from commerce or conquest. This put a terrible tax burden on the agrarian base and further
depressed its economy. The eastern half of the Empire was wealthier, more compact, and more vital, but it did not have the wealth or vitality to keep the vast dominions of the West afloat. Cultural traditions that stifled innovation, shortages of manual labor, and a system that encouraged waste and corruption also contributed to Rome's decline.

Global climate changes, ecological effects brought on by resource management, and a degrading of soil productivity have sometimes been identified as underlying causes of Rome's fall. While there is evidence for all these things taking place, evidence that any of them individually or in combination contributed significantly to Rome's decline has yet to be shown.

Overwhelming invasions by barbarians and Rome's use of unreliable barbarian armies and mercenaries to defend against them have been cited as decisive in Rome's fall. This, too, is an oversimplification. Rome had successfully (well, mostly successfully) defended the western borders for centuries and continued to do so in the east. Moreover, the barbarian armies, like all armies, were effective in defending the frontiers when they had good leadership. The reasons Rome came to depend upon foreign armies, and why Germanic kings gained enough power to overthrow the western emperors, have underlying causes that lie in the Roman Empire, not with invading or migrating barbarians.

I hope that this chapter
hasn't
answered all your questions—only whetted your appetite and interest for more. And there is more—the Romans left a vast amount of information about themselves (at least in comparison with other ancient cultures). But where does what we know about the Romans come from? That's what the Chapter 3, “How Do We Know? Discovering the Romans,” covers.

• The Romans used a combination of military organization, practical politics, and ruthless terrorizing in their conquests.
  
• Roman public spectacles were often gruesome executions on a grand scale.
  
• The office of emperor was individually determined; therefore emperors and their reigns have to be studied individually.
  
• Not only isn't there a simple answer to Rome's decline, but there wasn't really a “fall.”
  

Chapter 3
 
How Do We Know? Discovering the Romans

• Evidence for Roman civilization and culture
  
• Where the important archeological evidence comes from
  
• Where the important textual evidence comes from
  

When reading what someone tells you about an ancient culture, especially about what the people were like and what they thought, it's always a good idea to ask the question, “How do we know?” Information comes from a variety of sources: the physical remains of what that culture left behind, evidence of how that culture influenced subsequent or surrounding cultures, and written texts from or about that culture. Added to this mix comes a hearty dose of (hopefully educated) imagination and careful analysis.

The Romans left behind practically everything, and in practically every possible form. Thousands of archeological remains litter the Mediterranean landscape from the Middle East to Scotland, from North Africa to the Danube. Pompeii and Herculaneum have been preserved as time capsules of the first century
C
.
E
. Rome's presence, customs, and language made a profound and discernable impact upon surrounding and conquered peoples. Finally, we have hundreds of thousands of public and private texts from over a thousand years.

The Romans were famous builders and engineers, and the remains that they left us show that, when possible, they built to last. Many of these remains (such as roads, buildings, bridges, and aqueducts) are still in use today, or were up to recent times. Many of these constructions were either preserved during the Middle Ages through conversion to other uses or lost because their building stone was used for other projects. Other remote locations remain remarkably preserved.

 
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People have an urge to romanticize ancient cultures as utopian (that is, an ideal and perfected society) in direct proportion to the scarcity of texts we possess by them. This has happened at different times with the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Minoans of Bronze Age Crete. Without textual evidence, keep a big salt shaker at hand when reading about the character, religion, or ethics of ancient cultures, and always ask, “How do we know?”

As you can imagine, you can't walk anywhere in Rome without stepping on several layers of Roman archeological remains. It's often frustrating for the people who actually live there: They can't do anything above or below ground without having to stop and carefully consider what is being lost and found. A prime example of this is the ongoing construction of Rome's subway system, which seems to be as eternal as the city itself.

What is so remarkable about Rome is being able to see Roman history represented from beginning to present in its archeological remains. The Romans were conscious, even in early times and especially in the case of the Forum, of preserving their legacy, and other Roman buildings were preserved by being converted into other uses. The result is a visible record of history, quite literally, in the making.

This dramatic mixture of ancient to modern interconnection swirls around you wherever you look. When you go down to the Tiber you can see the still functional
Cloaca Maxima
(big sewer) that the Etruscan kings built in the sixth century
B
.
C
.
E
. to create
the Forum. Head out of the train station and you enter the magnificent Baths of Diocletian, which were transformed into a Church by Michelangelo in the sixteenth century as a fitting last word to this persecutor of Christians. Take a walk past the remains of the Theater of Marcellus, upon whose clear foundations grow modern apartments and offices in the curved shape of the seating area. It's not seamless history, but the stitching, as in a quilt, brings an added appreciation.

There are, of course, Roman ruins throughout Italy. If you have a car, you can follow the ancient Roman roads through the countryside. Most of the time modern roads have been paved over or been put alongside the ancient ones, but there are some places where people continue to use the ancient stone roadways for local access! Depending on your driving skills and adrenaline addiction, traveling by car makes for a thrilling—or chilling—way to explore the geography of the past.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
Public baths were one of the most important of public spaces and included bathing facilities, libraries, eating spaces, and both indoor and outdoor exercise and leisure areas. The great public baths built in Rome by the Emperor Caracula (
C
.
E
. 211–217) have been transformed in recent years into a splendid venue for opera and musical performances by such entertainers as “The Three Tenors.”

 
Roamin' the Romans
The Museo Civico in Gubbio preserves 7 of 14 bronze tablets discovered in
C
.
E
. 1444. These tablets, the largest of which is about 3 by 2 feet, were written at different times between 400 and 90
B
.
C
.
E
. in the Osco-Umbrian dialect of the area. They contain religious associations, customs, and rituals and provide a wonderful illustration of how culturally and linguistically diverse Roman Italy remained even in areas often thought of as completely “Romanized.”

When you explore Italy, however, remember that what you're seeing is often not Roman in the sense of the city of Rome. Italy has (and had) its own distinct cultures and subcultures, and people were proud of regional differences even as they became
part of the Roman world. So as you drive into Tuscany, you'll see Roman ruins with a distinctly Etruscan flair as well as the pre-Roman Etruscan remains at Cerveteri; as you drive into Umbria, you'll see the “Roman” ruins change with the landscape and the people. Visit Gubbio and see tablets written in the native dialect of rugged ancient people of this area. Drive south from Rome to Naples and into Magna Graecia and Campania, where the ancient ruins of Paestum remind you of the Greek foundations upon which cities like Naples, Tarento, and Syracuse rest.

The border areas of the Roman Empire were not only areas of great conflict and Roman defensive works, but areas of intensive cultural and economic exchange. Ruins from these areas contain both Roman military forts (which housed troops stationed along the border) and fortifications (the defensive walls and towers protecting borders, towns, and forts), as well as a vibrant array of towns and settlements that thrived along the borders during different periods.

The most famous of these frontier archeological sites is Hadrian's Wall, which roughly divides England from Scotland. The 73-mile wall not only featured Roman garrisons and guard stations, but military and civilian settlements along its path. You can also find spectacular remains in other far-flung areas such as Volubilis (in Morocco), Leptis Magna (in Libya), Zeugma (in Syria), and Aquincum (in Hungary).

In
C
.
E
. 79, Vesuvius, a rumbling volcanic mountain just south of Naples, roared to life and blew half of its contents onto the countryside. In the sudden eruption, two towns and many of their inhabitants were covered and preserved for later discovery. Initially looted for treasures and art, Pompeii has become a well-trod tourist destination and the focus of such popular media as
The Last Days of Pompeii.
But the eruption of Vesuvius was a real-life drama and disaster film of its own.

The eruption of Vesuvius occasioned the first recorded eyewitness account of a volcanic eruption, given by Pliny the Younger. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, died after sailing to rescue some friends who lived closer to the mountain. At least 3,600 people died in the eruption, which began at about noon on the 24th of August,
C
.
E
. 79. The volcano spewed four to five feet of ash and pumice onto Pompeii in the first several hours of the eruption. The ash did not kill the inhabitants. In fact, many were walking around on top of the ash when they were killed and covered by surges of volcanic gasses and debris shortly after the same surges had destroyed Herculaneum. A heavy ash fall covered the town and its inhabitants.

In Herculaneum, many residents had already left when the material from the volcanic eruption began cascading down the slopes toward the town, reaching it in about four minutes. It's not clear whether remaining residents saw the surge coming or were already taking cover, but several hundred people were under the piers along the water when they were killed instantly as the volcanic gasses and mud flows boiled over and poured into the town. The flow hit with the force of an atomic weapon and carried parts of the town for several miles, but subsequent flows buried Herculaneum until almost no part of the town showed above the surface.

In Pompeii, the ash fall preserved far more of the buildings, leaving even signs and interior painting intact. In Herculaneum, the mud and volcanic debris collapsed buildings and destroyed more of the architecture but sealed and preserved artifacts inside the buildings. This has enabled the recovery of important organic items, like papyrus rolls containing personal and literary works of the time.

People and animals were also covered. As bodies decayed, they left empty impressions in the hardened rock. These forms, when filled in with plaster (like bronze poured into a mold), yield fascinating and terrifying sculptures. A man clutches his money purse. A pregnant woman clutches her stomach. A dog writhes in the agony of asphyxiation. Hordes of hopeful fugitives remain trapped under a pier.

Notwithstanding the initial looting, Pompeii and Herculaneum have provided an incredible treasure-trove of artifacts and information and give us a remarkably comprehensive look into Roman life in the first century
C
.
E
. Besides the archeological finds, the towns have been used as a touchstone for dating and studying artistic styles, architecture, urban planning, social and civic organization, economics, and private life.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
I live in Washington state. We got a first-hand view of a modern Vesuvius when Mt. St. Helens blew its top in May of 1981. The force of the blast leveled thousands of acres of forest and covered several states with ash. The mud flow obliterated the Spirit Lake Lodge (including a modern Pliny, the obstinate innkeeper Harry Truman, who refused to leave) and washed a good portion of the mountain down the Cowlitz river looking like a cataclysmic milk shake.

 
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Pompeii has often been depicted as a typical Roman town (a kind of Roman Mayberry), but it was a great deal more complicated that that. Both Pompeii and Herculaneum had their own cultures, styles, and traditions. Pompeii offers us a precious glimpse into the past, but it was typically Roman only in the way that Seattle would be typically American if it were covered by the eruption of Mt. Rainier.