How Did the Roman Empire Maintain Its Power free essay sample

Julius Caesar’s ascension to power marked the time from where the Romans steadily expanded their territory and by the time the Roman Republic dissolved and the Roman Empire emerged, the Empire had become so big that the Romans had then to face the problem of maintaining their empire. The Roman Empire maintained its power by romanizing everyone and everything they conquered, through good governance, client kings and their skilled military. The first thing the Romans did after conquering a land was romanizing everyone and everything in it. The Romans defined themselves, their political and cultural concepts and everything they did by the term â€Å"Romanitas† which means Roman-ness. Instead of enslaving all the people from the conquered lands, the Roman Empire gave them the chance to become Roman citizens. The newly Romanized citizens would have all the rights and privileges offered to all the other citizens who were Romans by birth. This law was passed under the Edict of Caracalla (212 A. D). The Romans were all educated. Girls were taught household skills like cooking, sewing, etc while the boys were sent to â€Å"school† to be taught subjects like literature. For example, the Patrician boys were taught poetry, literature, history, geography, mythology, Greek, public speaking and law. The Romans imposed their language and currency in every place they conquered. The Romans believed that one of the keys to successfully maintaining an empire was by having one language and one currency throughout the empire. The Roman language was Latin and their currency consisted of gold, silver, brass and copper coins. Unlike the other empires that forced their religion on the people of the conquered lands, the Roman Empire adapted and adopted religious beliefs. The naturalized Romans could follow their religion but they also had to respect the polytheistic religion of the empire. This worked quite well until 3 A. D when Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire also made sure that its citizens were happy and comfortable by building roads, bath-houses, temples, theatres. For example, the Baths of Caracalla built by the emperor Caracalla were the second largest public baths in Rome; Emperor Hadrian constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma, etc. The Roman Empire improved their relationship with their surrounding states by building roads. Better roads lead to better communication and transportation which will facilitate trade which in turn brings wealth and power to the Empire and this means the standard of living will be high for the Roman citizens. The Roman emperors were not a band of crazed, power-hungry rulers. They co-operated with the local rulers and even granted them a limited amount of power. This cooperation was maintained through the appointment of client kings in conquered lands that were a bit far away from Rome. The client kings were non-Roman rulers of specific lands who enjoyed Roman patronage. The client kings were granted local autonomy. These kings could control their own economies (the coins they minted bore their image along with the emperor’s); they had the right to raise and retain an army, and pursue independent foreign policies that did not interfere with the Roman Empire’s interests. The client kings also had to make sure that the taxes reached Rome smoothly and that the Roman citizens they were looking after were happy (basically, make sure they did not revolt). Despite all this, the client kings were not treated as equals to the emperor. The client kings could not be assured of permanent power. The rapidly expanding Roman Empire would mean that the small semi-autonomous states would soon be non-existent as Romans would not have to worry about revolts if everything was under their control. If the Roman Empire decided to conquer the client kingdoms completely, the latter would not stand a chance. An example of a client king was Herod the great of Judea. Herod is well known for being a murderous madman who had â€Å"colossal building projects† in Jerusalem. Through client kings, the Roman Empire created a balance in which they maintained their multilateral relationships with the client kingdoms but they also made sure that their authority was felt by the client kings by granting them limited and fickle power. The powerful and well known Roman army was another key factor in maintaining the empire. The Roman army was large, well equipped, well trained, disciplined and skilled military force that was stationed throughout the empire to prevent uprisings and crush rebellion. Military training was a very important and arduous affair in the Roman Empire. It was essential for each soldier to achieve a high level of skill in fighting and using their weapons. They also had to march 30 kilometers 3 times a month wearing 20kg armor, do drills twice a day, learn to build camps, swim, mount and ride a horse and fight mock battles. The Roman army was quite ruthless when it came to crushing rebellion. They did not hesitate to hurt or even slaughter the people who went against the Roman rule. They also enslaved the rebels and confiscated their property. The indifferent cruelty shown by the Roman army did not leave much room for rebellion and even if there were revolts, the expert Roman army would not really face any big problems in pulverizing the enemy. One famous rebellion against the Roman rule was led by Queen Boudicca of Great Britain. Boudicca was the queen of the Iceni tribe and she posed as a threat to the Roman rulers of Britain in 60 A. D when she rebelled against the Romans because the Romans looted the territories left by Boudicca’s late husband to their daughters. Boudicca also claimed that the Romans had flogged her and raped her daughters. When Boudicca’s army first started attacking the Romans, they were able to defeat the Roman army even though they were disorganized because the Romans were concentrating their efforts somewhere else. The Boudiccan army went around massacring entire villages and Roman soldiers until the Roman historian Suetonius returned with his previously defeated 9th Legion. This time, Boudicca’s army was facing the â€Å"classic† tactful and disciplined Roman army so they were easily defeated. The number of both Roman and British deaths is disputable but according to Tacitus, a Roman writer, 80 000 Britons died and 400 Romans lost their lives. This was a major victory for the Romans. For any empire to maintain its power, it needs good and effective governance. The Romans had strong leaders such as Augustus, Constantine the Great, Caracalla, Hadrian, etc. It was Roman policy to respect the Roman laws in order to maintain social stability. Examples of Roman laws were the â€Å"Lex Papia Poppaea† introduced in 9 A. D to encourage and strengthen marriage and the â€Å"Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis† introduced in 18 B. C that stated that any â€Å"conjugal unfaithfulness† to the public or any private offense could be punishable by banishment or even death. The Roman emperors’ power was also transmitted through arts and literature and the Empire convinced people of the divinity of the emperor. The emperors’ presence was felt everywhere; they were represented as the â€Å"agents of God on earth, charged with crushing paganism and heresy† (imperial cult). The Romans told the Roman citizens very descriptive and explicit stories of battles fought by the Roman army and Rome was represented as a peaceful and law- abiding city while the â€Å"enemy cities† were seen as â€Å"barbaric, lawless and dangerous†. Fear of the Roman Empire was instilled in the conquered lands through stories of battles and the cruel treatment of Christians in the amphitheaters. The Christians in the Roman Empire refused to follow the polytheistic religion of the empire along with Christianity so they were killed in the most brutal ways. In the amphitheaters, the Romans watched the Gladiators (men trained to fight with weapons against other men or wild animals in an arena) stand in triumph or die in a flash and the Christians were torn on racks, fried in iron chairs, tossed by bulls and torn limb from limb by hungry lions. The Roman Empire successfully managed to maintain their power by giving all the inhabitants of the conquered areas a sense of belonging by giving them the chance to become Roman citizens and providing them with facilities and services like roads and education, better trade opportunities, etc. The Roman Empire also took up the system of client kings to ensure smooth running of the empire. But they also made sure no conflict would break out through a good but â€Å"controlling† governance and their military prowess. The Roman Empire truly demonstrated its maintenance and leadership qualities through a combination of tact and authority and it is quite remarkable how they were able to maintain such a large empire for as long as they did.