Chapter 12 : Rome: The Age of the Caesars - Pre-Christian Rome Part Two: The Rise of the Emperors
As recounted in part 1 of this section, Rome had been founded on a racial amalgamation of Old Europeans and Latini Indo-Europeans. Out of this potent mix came the great Roman Republic, which, after defeating the Carthaginians, quickly became the dominant power in the Mediterranean. THE LATE REPUBLIC (133 - 30 BC ) In 133 BC, the ruler of an independent state in central Asia Minor (Turkey), one Pergamum, died. When his will was read, he had left his country to Rome. This somewhat bizarre wish - which was duly carried out - served as a springboard for the later Roman occupation of the rest of Asia Minor and the Near East. The period from 133 BC to 30 BC is known as the late Republic, during which Rome itself was to experience civil strife not seen since the days of the Latini insurrection against the Etruscans. In addition to this, Rome also engaged in a number of foreign wars. SLAVES - THE SEEDS OF ROME'S DECLINE From the very earliest times the Romans had also been importing slaves into their homeland - a policy which was to grow into a major commercial activity in Rome itself - but also ultimately to lead to Rome being filled with all manner of people who bore no resemblance to the Romans themselves. Slaves from the Far East, Africa and the Semitic speaking world filled the slave houses of Rome in their hundreds of thousands. Eventually such large numbers created the possibility of open rebellion, with the most famous being the slave rising led by Spartacus in 73 BC, which had to be suppressed by force of arms with a full Roman army. CIVIL WAR - STRIFE BETWEEN PATRICIANS AND PLEBIANS Internally, Rome had become increasingly divided between the patricians and the plebeians, especially with regard to land distribution. Some patricians realized the need for reform, the most famous being Tiberius Gracchus, who was elected to the post of tribune (a modern equivalent would be a prime minister) in 133 BC. The reforms Gracchus implemented earned him the hatred of the wealthy classes, and in 134 BC, he was assassinated.
His work was however taken up by his brother, Gaius Gracchus, who was elected tribune in 123 BC. Again initiating far reaching social reforms, Gaius succeeded only in establishing a form of social welfare system which did not work properly and virtually bankrupted the state, serving only to stir up the hatred of the upper classes in a manner not seen even against Tiberius Gracchus. In 121 BC, after a particularly severe outbreak of civil violence in which several thousand of his supporters were killed, Gaius Gracchus committed suicide. The deaths of the Gracchus brothers was to herald all out civil war in Rome. By the year 100 BC, a number of able Roman generals had risen to prominence, emerging from the virtually constant need to subdue and to hold on to the numerous Roman colonies scattered around the Mediterranean coast. Each of these generals was in command of their own army, and although they theoretically were supposed to serve the Roman state, in reality they operated as virtual private armies working in the interests of their generals. SULLA - DE FACTO RULER OF ROME After physically clashing with some of the other armies, General Cornelius Sulla emerged as the strongest leader and became the de facto ruler of Rome. Remarkably enough, after introducing a number of reforms (including extending the powers of the senate) Sulla resigned voluntarily from the affairs of state.
POMPEY AND CAESAR CLASH By this time however, two other generals had also emerged, each with their own armies: Pompey and Julius Caesar. Pompey had led Roman legions far and wide, in Italy, Africa, Spain, Asia Minor and even as far as the Euphrates River valley. He had also been instrumental in helping to suppress the famous slave uprising led by Spartacus in 73 BC. Julius Caesar had conquered Gaul (France) and some of the Germanic tribes (descendants of the original Celts and far off cousins of the original Latini) as far as the Rhine River. He had even landed an invasion force in Britain between the years 58 - 51 BC. As Caesar's name, fame and influence spread, Pompey and others in Rome realized the threat and ordered him to disband his powerful army and return to Rome. Caesar refused to do so, and instead marched on Rome itself from his base in France. Caesar crossed the Rubicon river in 49 BC, irrevocably committing himself to war with Pompey (the Rubicon marked the official boundary of Rome, and hence once crossed, the declaration of war was taken for granted). Within a short while, Caesar crushed all opposition and formally established himself as ruler. CAESAR'S EXPLOITS Although the most famous of the Romans, Caesar in fact only ruled for five years, from 49 BC to 44 BC. He was an outstanding writer and orator, and instituted far reaching reforms, from altering the make-up of the senate to the institution of a public works program. He also introduced the solar calendar (based on Egyptian knowledge - which in Rome became known as the Julian calendar) which, with minor alterations, is the same one the Western world uses to this day. Caesar took as his mistress the Macedonian Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, in what was most likely a strategic alliance on both their parts. In 44 BC, Caesar was however assassinated on the steps of the senate in Rome by a group opposed to his almost royal control of the affairs of state. Caesar did indeed consider his powers to be hereditary, and left a will in which he named his 18 year old nephew, Octavian, as his heir.
OCTAVIAN AUGUSTUS - CAESAR'S HEIR After suppressing and exterminating much of the opposition (including the renowned orator and senator, Cicero) Octavian and one of Caesar's colleagues, Mark Anthony, ruled with complete autocratic powers for a decade. Mark Anthony however married Cleopatra, Caesar's former mistress, giving her Roman territories as wedding gifts. Octavian took this act as an opportunity to incite Rome against Mark Anthony and the long standing partnership between Mark Anthony and Octavian degenerated into civil war. Both Octavian and Mark Anthony had large fleets at their disposal, and they finally met in battle in 31 BC, at Actium in Greece. Mark Anthony was defeated and committed suicide, as did his wife the following year when the city of Alexandria was captured by Roman forces. PAX ROMANA 30 BC - 235 AD At the end of a century of civil strife (133 BC - 30 BC), Rome was finally united under one ruler. Thereafter ensued what became known as the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, which lasted for well on 200 years, from 30 BC to 235 AD. This time was also to mark the racial undoing of the Empire, caused by the long term effects of the inclusion of foreign lands and peoples under the aegis of the Roman Empire, and significantly by the bypassing of a law set down by the first Romans prohibiting mixed marriages outside of the Roman circle of citizenship.
Upon Octavian's victorious return to Rome in 29 BC, the senate conferred upon him the title of honorable or August (Augustus), a name by which he became known thereafter. Octavian Augustus held no official government position in Rome after 23 BC, but still was almost absolute ruler of Rome until his death in 14 AD, through the Roman army, of which he remained supreme leader, or imperator (from which the word emperor came). The Pax Romana is also known as the Principate - as political power was divided between the senate and the "principes", the leading person of society (the "first amongst equals", as Octavian described his own position.) During his long reign (44 years in all), Octavian Augustus established a stable and efficient public service, an equitable taxation policy and consolidated the Roman Empire's borders. Under his command the borders of the Empire moved up the Danube River and into Germania as far as the Rhine - but he suffered a dramatic reverse when the Germans inflicted a massive defeat upon the Roman armies in 9 AD at the Battle of Detmold. In the Near East, Sulla's army had campaigned against the (by now racially mixed) Parthian empire as early as 92 BC, but it was only the Emperor Trajan who managed to finally subdue the Parthians - although he quickly handed their lands back to them in what was claimed to be an act of conciliation. THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTY Upon Octavian Augustus' death, he was followed by four descendants of his family, called the Julio-Claudian family. The first two, Tiberius and Claudius, were just and efficient, and it was during Claudius' reign that the occupation of Britain, began by Julius Caesar some 100 years earlier, was completed (in 43 AD).
The third Julio-Claudian emperor was the famous Caligula, who is reputed to have gone insane, once allegedly making a favorite horse into an ambassador. The fourth Julio-Claudian emperor was the equally famous Nero, best known for his persecution of the Christians by throwing them to the lions. The Christians were at that stage still a tiny cult, one amongst many flourishing under the Pax Romana. The Julio-Claudian line came to an end in 68 AD with Nero's suicide, with Rome itself suffering severe damage in a big fire in 64 AD. THE FLAVIAN DYNASTY A brief power struggle erupted on Nero's death, and Flavius Vespasianus (also known as Vespian) assumed power in 69 AD. He restarted orderly government and founded the Flavian dynasty, which lasted until 96 AD. The still standing Coliseum in Rome was built by the order of Vespian. Titus was Vespian's son, who ruled from 79 AD to 81 AD. Titus is best remembered for his military exploit of capturing Jerusalem in AD 70, nine years before he became emperor. By the time of the last Flavian emperor, most Romans had accepted that the Imperator, or Emperor, was the real ruler of Rome. NERVA AND NON-WHITES IN THE SENATE
Following the Flavian line came the Antonines - or the "five good emperors", who ruled from 96 AD to 180 AD. The first of these was the Emperor Nerva, who ruled from 96 AD to 98 AD. Nerva is of importance because he established the rules of secession - before he died he adopted a promising individual (who would thereafter be called a Caesar). This individual was trained to take over the position of Emperor when the time came. This system set the standard for many years to come. Nerva was also the first emperor to allow members of the Roman senate to be chosen from all over the Empire - which at that stage was still vast, extending into territories which many centuries earlier had last seen a White majority population. Nerva's rule marks the first appearance of non-Romans - non-Whites - in the senate, and hence the government, of Imperial Rome. From then on increasing numbers of non-Romans began to feature in the senate, until by the end of the Second Century AD, senators of pure Roman descent were in the minority in the senate. DISSOLUTION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE The next emperor was Trajan, who ruled from 98 AD to 117 AD. Under Trajan, the empire reached its peak in terms of territorial expansion, but by this time huge numbers of racially foreign peoples had begun to fill not only virtually all of the non continental European Roman colonies, but had started to appear in significant numbers in Rome itself. The next emperor, Hadrian (117 - 138 AD), built the famous Hadrian's wall of stone across the north of England to keep the remnants of the Scottish Celts out of Roman England. This was part of an attempt by Hadrian to reduce the size of the empire - possibly he saw the process of disintegration at work, and he ordered many territories in the eastern parts of the empire to be given up. Under his rule, large slices of the eastern territories, except for Dracia (modern Rumania) were effectively abandoned by the Roman Empire. If this was an attempt to stem the flood of foreigners pouring into the southern parts of the empire, it was a futile one. ATTEMPTS TO INCREASE THE WHITE ROMAN POPULATION FAILED
An overt attempt to preserve the Roman bloodline had in fact been made by Octavian Augustus. He issued several decrees prescribing heavy penalties for celibacy or for marriage with slaves or the descendants of slaves. Another Octavian law was that all Romans between the ages of 25 and 60 must be married - and hopefully produce children. Finally in the year 9 AD, Octavian announced tax concessions for Roman families with three or more children. Unmarried persons were barred from public games and could not receive inheritances, while childless married people could only receive half of any inheritance due to them. All these measures failed during Octavian's own lifetime. As early as 131 BC, the Roman censor, Melletus, had called for a law compelling Roman citizens to marry - Caesar, Augustus, Nero and Trajan all offered prizes for Roman citizens having more than four children. ROMAN IMPERIAL POLICY ENCOURAGED THE GROWTH OF NON-ROMAN PEOPLES In continental Europe, the Pax Romana saw the benefits of Roman society bear fruit. The population increased and the Roman penchant for organization was swiftly taken up by the European peasantry in their regions. This process was enhanced by the Roman system of government, which relied on a few Roman administrators arriving in a region, and then getting locals to help with the administration and running of the territory, in return for offices of state. In this way the Romans "Romanized" many of the subject territories: while this did not affect the racial balance in Gaul and other parts of western and eastern Europe (central Europe or Germania remained forever out of Rome's reach), it had dramatic effects in the regions to the east and south which were majority occupied by non-White peoples. This policy was also applied in the other reaches of the Roman Empire - with disastrous consequences for Rome in the Mediterranean territories of North Africa, Egypt and the Near and Middle East. In these latter territories huge numbers of the by then racially mixed populations (consisting of White, Semitic, Arabic and Mongol mixtures) drew the benefits of Roman civilization for as long as the Romans themselves existed. This meant a dramatic increase in the population due to increased living standards, and so the Romans helped to engineer the non-White racial flood that would eventually overwhelm them from the south. It is interesting to note that the original Indo-European descended Romans viewed anyone who was dark with suspicion. The Roman proverb "hic niger es, hunc tu, Romane, caveato" (He is black, beware of him, Roman) is recorded by Horace as being a common saying amongst Romans of the time. (Sat., i. 4, 85). This is not to say that the Romans of the Late Republic or of the Pax Romana resisted the physical integration process. On the contrary, they seemed to have welcomed it as an essential part of Empire building and as a means to keep subdued populations under control. It is unlikely though that they could have foreseen the long term consequences it would create - when the last of the true Romans were bred out in the vast reaches of the Empire, so did the original spark which had created the Empire in the first place. Hence there are today only Roman ruins in Africa, the Near and Middle East, and indeed even in Rome today - silent monuments to a people long gone. GERMAN RESISTANCE That the Romans never managed to penetrate into central Europe past the Rhine river (they were halted by Germanic tribes by the year 9 AD) created a physical division in the White peoples of north western Europe. At the time, one section (Gaul and Britain) fell completely under the sway of Rome - and the other (the German tribes) remained Rome's implacable enemies, fighting the Empire off at every opportunity which arose. Ironically, these Germanic tribes (or barbarians as the Romans liked to call them) were originally far off Celtic cousins of the Latini - and it was these barbarians who were to finally overrun Rome itself when that city had managed to breed its true Romans down to an insignificant minority, causing the great Imperial flame to flicker and die at last.
EXTENT OF EMPIRE PROVES ITS UNDOING At its height the Roman Empire stretched from England to the Rhine, from Spain to Asia Minor, and from North Africa to the Tigris/Euphrates rivers. The vast numbers of peoples and races drawn into the Empire's influence does not need to be exaggerated. Roman coins found in India and Scandinavia indicate the extent to which Romans traveled, as traders or soldiers. The Romans may have believed that the integration of foreigners into the Roman system of government and into Rome itself was the way to create an empire. The reality is however that non-homogeneous societies are the least cohesive, while homogeneous societies are the most cohesive. So it was that the ever increasing number of foreigners within the empire made it all the more difficult to hold together. Internal dissension, political problems and social ills were often compounded by brutal or incompetent emperors. Finally, by 192 AD, the throne was actually auctioned by the Emperor's own private guard (the Praetorian Guard, founded by Octavian Augustus) after a particularly ineffectual emperor had been murdered after just three months in the office. The lucky winner of the auction did not last very long himself - he was in turn deposed by an emperor effectively chosen by the largest part of the army: one Septimus Servus. ROME'S FATE SEALED - CARACALLA AND THE EDICT OF 212 AD Servus himself was unremarkable, but his son, Caracalla, who ruled from 211 AD to 217 AD, was the Roman emperor who finally opened the racial floodgates on the Roman Empire and sealed its fate. In 212 AD, in an apparent attempt to broaden the Roman tax base, Caracalla passed an edict giving all free males within the Empire citizenship of Rome. This proclamation, which effectively turned centuries of Roman law on its head (previously Roman law had always sought to prevent Roman citizenship passing to those outside of Rome), had effects far greater than just broadening the tax base. Early Roman law had made provisions for the maintenance of racial homogeneity amongst its citizens, by stipulating that persons could only be citizens of Rome if both their parents were Roman citizens themselves. Roman citizens who married non-Roman citizens could not claim Roman citizenship for their children. This was a direct way of biologically excluding all foreign nationals from Roman citizenship. As the Roman Empire expanded, so the definition of citizenship became broader and broader, till finally with Caracalla's edict, all free men, no matter what their racial or national origin, qualified for Roman citizenship. The last hold preventing the dilution of Roman blood had been abandoned.
UNIVERSALITY LINKED TO THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
While the early Romans placed great emphasis on maintaining their racial homogeneity, by the first century AD, the idea of universality had become an undercurrent: it was to become the main train of thought by the second century AD, and is directly linked to the rise of Christianity, which has the world-view of the universality of man as its underlying creed. By the time of Caracalla's edict, the sheer size of the empire and the fact that it had already included so many racially alien elements within its borders, had made a large amount of racial mixing inevitable - Caracalla's edict gave legal support to this process. Interracial marriages and mixed race children became more and more common after this, and slowly but surely, Rome and the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean lost its majority White leadership core. Thus the fate which had befallen all the other great civilizations, namely the disappearance of the people who created those civilizations through physical integration, crept up on Rome itself. Although this change in racial demographics was not as marked in Rome itself as in the easternmost outreaches of the Empire, it was however dramatic enough to change the very nature of the civilization. Foreigners from all over the already mixed race Middle East poured into Rome, attracted by its wealth and status. Being granted citizenship, these foreigners were steadily absorbed into the Roman population, to the point where today only a very few Italians can still today claim pure Roman descent. Huge swathes of the southern part of Italy and Sicily are today clearly non-White, being mainly a mixture of Arabic and White, while in scattered places there are flashes of the original population, light skins, light eyes or light hair - as there are right across the Mediterranean and as far afield as Iran or India. ROMAN FALL MIRRORS THAT OF SUMERIA, EGYPT The path followed by Rome mirrored that followed by Sumeria, the Near East, Egypt and Greece. All these civilizations remained intact as long as the society which created them remained homogeneous. As soon as these societies lost their homogeneity and became multiracial, the very nature of the societies changed and the original civilizations disappeared. Rome would prove to be no exception to this rule. Chapter 12: Part One: The Origins of Rome and the Punic Wars All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
