Fik Meijer - Emperors Don’t Die in Bed

The history of the Roman Empire officially starts in 27 BC, but the history of Rome begins much earlier, in 753 BC. In that year, according to tradition, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus established a small settlement on the left bank of the Tiber. In seven centuries Rome grew from a city-state in central Italy to the dazzling centre of an immense empire. This growth began shortly after the city was founded. In the Regal Period (753509 BC) the small community on the Tiber developed into a real city, which would become the political, economic and cultural centre of the region. The long rule of the Etruscan kings unquestionably stimulated the urbanisation of Rome. It was they who drained and paved the low-lying, centrally located plain between the Capitol in the west, the Palatine in the south and the Quirinal in the north, thus creating the Forum Romanum, the political heart of Rome.

In 509 BC the last king, the Etruscan Tarquinius Superbus, was deposed by the Roman aristocrats, an event that marked the start of the Republic, a form of government that would endure for almost five centuries. The leadership was in the hands of the Senate, a governing body on which three to six hundred members of the most prominent families served. They made policy, which was then enforced by magistrates from their own ranks, with two annually elected consuls as the highest public officials. All citizens could cast their votes in two popular assemblies: the comitia tributa and the comitia centuriata. The democratic character of the two assemblies differed significantly. In the first, voting was done by district. The vote of every citizen, rich or poor, counted equally. It was here that the lower magistrates were elected: the aediles (responsible for public works) and the quaestors (supervisors of the states finances). However this assembly was not entirely independent, since peoples voting habits were regularly influenced by patronage ties to the elite and senatorial intimidation. In the comitia centuriata the population was divided into five classes based on wealth. The wealthier citizens were in the first class and furnished the majority of votes. In such a system the election of praetors (responsible for the administration of justice and authorised to lead armies) and consuls (entrusted with general civil and military authority) was a matter for well-to-do citizens. The poor inhabitants of Rome, who formed the overwhelming majority, played no role in this assembly.

During the Republic, the Romans steadily expanded their power. In the fifth and fourth centuries they had their hands full conquering Italy, a process that was completed around 270 BC. They then turned their attention to the Mediterranean world and conquered the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea one by one. The Carthaginians and the potentates of the Greek-Hellenistic world in the east soon realised that the Romans could not be stopped. At the end of the first century BC, the Mediterranean Sea could justifiably be called mare nostrum (our sea). The Romans, however, were not satisfied with that and went to war with the Germanic tribes in central and western Europe as well. They too were made to learn that in the long run the Roman legions were invincible.

These great conquests led to a change in mentality among the elite. As a result senatorial solidarity, which had made Rome great, gave way to individualism. Increasingly consuls who had achieved stunning military successes began to act on the basis of self-interest, keen as they were on acquiring great personal power. The repercussions of this are not hard to guess. Internal rivalries began to emerge, leading to a power struggle that was fought out during the first century BC. Sulla and Marius, Pompey and Caesar, Antony and Octavian: these are the leading players in the civil wars of the dying Republic. After Caesar had paved the way for sole sovereignty as dictator for life, it was ultimately Octavian who dealt the Republic its death blow, by solemnly declaring himself princeps, first citizen of the state, in 27 BC. His reign was the beginning of the Principate, generally referred to as the Imperial Period.

In the history of the world there have been few rulers who had greater power and ruled over a vaster area than the Roman emperors. In the first two centuries of the Common Era they reigned from Britain in the west to the Euphrates in the east and from the Sahara in the south to the Rhine and the Danube in the north. They levied taxes and made life and death decisions. Most emperors had a solid power base: they were enormously wealthy, ensured of the support of the armies and constantly surrounded by large groups of flatterers who could read their every wish. Influential people who dared to plot against them or contradict them were putting their lives at risk. The people no longer played any significant role. The popular assemblies no longer met, and the only way the crowds could make their voice heard was by cheering for or booing the emperor during the circuses or gladiatorial matches.