Imagine a group of friends sitting in the late afternoon in the square of a little town in northern Italy. A retired soldier, perhaps. A few successful traders-builders. metal workers, maybe a small-scale farmer or two. In the shade of some cypress trees they nibble at bread and olives, sip the deep red wine of the region, and discuss the latest news. But this is not modern Italy: this is a town like Bolonia1 or Mutina2 in the Age of the Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. And the news they discuss is simple. The profound peace that has settled over the whole world from the northern shores of Gaul to the deserts of Syria.
Augustus’ political settlement has ended the long decades of war and instability that tore the old Roman Republic to pieces. It’s one man rule now, and no elections are truly contested. But the legions are fully paid up and back on the frontiers. Behind them, a network roads links towns like this to an almost uncountable number of similar ones. There is increasing uniformity of architecture, arts , language as Latin and Greek spread even into the forests of Germany. Above all the seas are open again, with a single Roman fleet dominating the whole Mediterranean basin. There is a universal system of laws and money, all well enforced. No wonder trade is picking up and everything seems to be getting better year by year. It’s unlikely anyone in our group were literate. But maybe one or two of their sons will go on to study law or engineering in one of the cities like Rome or Mediolanum3. In which case they may well encounter the works of writers Livy, Ovid and Horace, or architects like Vitruvius, all active in this time. Compared to previous generations, this group has a lot to be thankful for.
There were deficiencies of course: the facade of a golden age always hides them. The position of women and slaves was not to be envied. Even non-Roman provincials were very much second class. All power was, in the last resort, concentrated in the person of one man, which made i things potentially very unstable. And, though they could not have known it, the empire was living through a very favourable era called the Roman Climatic Optimum (200 BC-200AD). Its breakdown would produce some very uncomfortable consequences for Augustus’ distant successors. But that is to anticipate. Augustus was a first rate political genius, whose settlement brought over two hundred years of peace and prosperity, with a single brief exception. To have been there, at the beginning, must have made it a very good time to live indeed.
1 Bologna 2 Modena 3 Milano
#roman empire #augustus #peace #ovid #pax romana
Learning, Science and Society 