Imperial Rome

5 Pages 1175 Words

The study of Roman imperial history--which in practical terms began from the 60s BCE--presents the modern reader with certain paradigmatic issues relevant to governments and societies today. In broadest terms, the persistent dilemma was how to modify government structures and ethos as state and society expanded geographically and demographically. The republican ideal of Rome had somewhat made sense in a time when the state was little more than the preeminent city in a Mediterranean peninsular area, and needed to ensure its own survival and domination of surrounding locales. By the middle of the final century BCE, however, Rome had become the center of a multi-continent empire stretching from Spain to Iraq. Thus, one can present the continuing civil unrest from 80 to 30 BCE as the inability of an expanded city government to cope with the needs of an empire's administration.

Part of these needs consisted of large armies far from home. In such cases, powerful generals could emerge, and after Marius' military reforms of the 90s BCE, the soldiers in these legions became dependent upon generals for material survival. In turn, soldiers and veterans strengthened military leaders' political power as a pay-off. As the ensuing half-century showed, the Senate could not thwart a powerful general with charisma and a mass base of political support. Also lacking in a city government weighted down with imperial responsibilities was an efficient Empire-wide civil service and economic administration. Roman fiscal exactions and provincial administration often were, or at least appeared, erratic or irrational. A common pattern of Roman governance involved Rome responding ineffectually at first to a local disturbance, which grew to such extents that Rome had to invest large human and material assets to bring a resolution to a crisis that better administration would have prevented. Of course, Roman statesmen had long thought about reforms in their state a...