11d: The Twelve Caesars

Augustus had successfully brought peace to the Roman world. He had successfully retooled the Roman Republic into the Principate - military tyranny wrapped within a democratic facade. His sole failure was to assure a workable means of succession. This failure would not jeopardize the Pax Romana for any great length of time, but it gave the so called Julio-Claudian dynasty, which lasted until 68 AD, the air of a soap opera. We don't have time to cover the Julio-Claudians in any great depth. But for the seedy details, you can always read Suetonius's tabloid-like history, The Twelve Caesars... or better yet, take LLT 326, Roman Civilization. Augustus's stepson and successor, Tiberius Claudius Nero (hence the "Claudian" in Julio-Claudian) ruled from 14-37 AD. A successful general and capable administrator, Tiberius left the Roman Empire in good shape financially and militarily. But his lack of charisma made him very unpopular. Disgusted with living in Augustus's shadow, Tiberius retired from public view, and left the Empire's day-to-day running to his Praetorian Prefect Sejanus. As commander of the Emperor's personal bodyguard (and the only troops who could carry weapons in Rome), the Praetorian Prefect was in effect the second most powerful man in the capital. Eventually Tiberius got to the Praetorian Prefect Sejanus before Sejanus got to him, but Sejanus's replacement as Praetorian Prefect, Macro, murdered Tiberius. The Praetorian Guard and its Prefects would remain an ominous presence in Roman government for centuries.

Tiberius's successor Gaius (AD 37-41) was the great-grandson of both Augustus and Mark Antony. Like many future emperors, Caligula (as he is better known) began his reign pledging to model himself on Augustus, but descended into madness. Among other things, he declared himself to be Jupiter in the flesh, appointed his horse Incitatus to the Senate, and celebrated a triumph over the sea god Neptune. Since there was no precedent for deposing an incompetent Princeps, Caligula was murdered by one of his guards at the command of - you guessed it - his Praetorian Prefect. The Praetorian Guard then replaced him with his goofy old uncle Claudius (41-54 AD). Claudius's goofiness was mostly a act intended to boost his life expectancy under his wingnut nephew Caligula. Claudius did, however, attempt to add three letters to the Roman alphabet and published his famous decree on farts and belches. He was actually a learned and competent Princeps who added Britain to the Empire and wrote a 20 volume history of the Etruscans. More than any of the other Julio-Claudians, Claudius attempted to maintain good relations with the Senate. He may evan have entertained ideas of giving the Roman state back to the Senate. Marrying his much younger niece Agrippina, however, was not too smart. Not only did she cheat on him, she poisoned him to bring her teenaged son Nero (54-68 AD) to power.

Nero started out in 54 AD with the usual promise to rule like another Augustus. He had studied philosophy with Rome's greatest Stoic, Seneca the Younger. Himself of Spanish descent, Seneca tried to train Nero in the mos maiorum, encouraging him to put Rome first and his personal life second. But soon Nero found himself immersed in his personal hobbies: playing the lyre, persecuting Christians, and utterly ignoring developments in the Empire. Nero's offenses against the mos maiorum alienated the Senatorial class at Rome. Many senators moved into outright opposition - including his old teacher Seneca. He didn't play the fiddle while Rome burned in 64, but he did build himself a huge new palace  - the Golden House - on the scene of the fire. Even the masses, who enjoyed Nero's eccentricities at first, got disgusted with him. After Nero returned from his concert tour of Greece in 67 AD, the general Vindex, commanding in France, was named imperator by his troops - a recurrence of the old Republican client army - but his revolt failed. Next the governor of Spain, Galba, was named imperator. Nero deposed himself by committing suicide, but the army in Germany declared its general, Vitellius, as imperator. Galba freaked out, offended both the Senate and the Praetorian Guard, and was assassinated in the Forum. Unimpressed with Vitellius, the Senate named one of their own, a former lover of Nero's named Otho, as imperator.  Vitellius killed Otho, but then Titus Flavius Vespasianus, governor of Judea and Ancient Egypt, was declared imperator by his troops. Vespasian defeated Vitellius and held on to the Empire, rounding off the Year of the Four Emperors. Fortunately, you will not be expected to barf back any of this on a test. Just be glad you didn't live then. What I want you to remember is that the Principate was so stable that it survived a year with four emperors, and came back stronger than ever.

You should also remember both the bad and the good things about Vespasian's victory. The bad news was that the Principate clearly depended strictly on control of the military. The client army, loyal only to its imperator, had reappeared on the Roman military scene. Yet, as Vespasian and his sons demonstrated, a strong military man could perform responsibly as Princeps. A middle-class Italian (that is, not born in Rome proper), Vespasian ruled with an iron fist from 69 AD to 79 AD. He passed a law setting out his powers as Princeps; the Principate was inherited first by his older son Titus (79-81 AD) and then by his younger son Domitian (81-96 AD). The three emperors of the so-called "Flavian Dynasty" ruled responsibly, balancing military, financial and social concerns as best they could. For example, Vespasian knocked down Nero's Golden House, built on the site of the fire of 64 AD, and replaced it with a stadium called the Flavian Amphitheater. You might know it better as the Coliseum. Domitian ultimately descended into open tyranny and was put out of Rome's misery by a conspiracy including - you guessed it - his Praetorian Prefect. With the death of Domitian in 96 AD, the ball was once more in the Roman Senate's court.  The line of twelve Caesars had died out and restoration of the Republic was a distinct possibility. But could the massive Roman empire be ruled by annually elected magistrates answering to the Roman assemblies. The Senate was forced to admit that it could not. Rome would need another Princeps.