The History of The Roman Empire

[Jimoh Eyitayo]

The Roman Empire was the state ruled by the Romans following Octavian’s assumption of sole rule under the Principate in 27 BC, the post-Republican state of ancient Rome.

It included territories in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia and was ruled by emperors. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

 

By 100 BC, Rome had expanded its rule to most of the Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilized by civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt.

In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching power (imperium) and the new title of Augustus, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor of a monarchy with Rome as its sole capital. The vast Roman territories were organized into senatorial provinces, governed by proconsuls who were appointed by lot annually, and imperial provinces, which belonged to the emperor but were governed by legates.

Fall in the West and Survival in the East
The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century. The Romans were successful in fighting off all invaders, most famously Attila, but the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that the empire started to dismember itself. Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer. Odoacer ended the Western Empire by declaring Zeno the sole emperor and placing himself as Zeno’s nominal subordinate. In reality, Italy was ruled by Odoacer alone. The Eastern Roman Empire, called the Byzantine Empire by later historians, continued until the reign of Constantine XI Palaiologos.

The last Roman emperor died in battle in 1453 against Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces during the siege of Constantinople.

Mehmed II adopted the title of Caesar in an attempt to claim a connection to the Empire.

Geography and demography
The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The Latin phrase imperium sine fine (“empire without end”) expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire. In Virgil’s Aeneid, the limitless empire is said to have been granted to the Romans by Jupiter. This claim of universal dominion was renewed when the Empire came under Christian rule in the 4th century.

In addition to annexing large regions, the Romans directly altered their geography, for example cutting down entire forests. The Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century when Roman control in Europe, Africa, and Asia was strengthened.

 

Under Augustus, a “global map of the known world” was displayed for the first time in public in Rome, coinciding with the creation of the most comprehensive political geography that survives from antiquity, the Geography of Strabo.

When Augustus died, the account of his achievements (Res Gestae) was prominently featured in the geographical cataloging of the Empire. Geography alongside meticulous written records was a central concern of Roman Imperial administration.

 

Language
Latin and Greek were the main languages of the Empire, but the Empire was deliberately multilingual. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill says “The main desire of the Roman government was to make itself understood”. At the start of the Empire, knowledge of Greek was useful to pass as educated nobility, and knowledge of Latin was useful for a career in the military, government, or law.

 

Bilingual inscriptions indicate the everyday interpenetration of the two languages. Latin and Greek’s mutual linguistic and cultural influence is a complex topic. Latin words incorporated into Greek were very common by the early imperial era, especially for military, administration, and trade and commerce matters. Greek grammar, literature, poetry, and philosophy shaped the Latin language and culture.

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