Roman Empire 50 CE - 476 CE
- Historians
- Oct 7, 2018
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2018
The Rise of Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was founded by Romulus, the son of Rhea Silvia ("Romulus", n.d.). It was a remarkable progress for the Roman Empire to emerge as one of the powerful empires as the Roman Republic was constantly dealing with internal conflicts and attacks from enemies. There are various reasons to explain how the Roman Empire managed to emerge as one of the powerful empires in the world.
The Samnite Wars
The First Samnite War lasted from 343 BCE to 341 BCE and it was between the Romans and the Samnites. Some people might think that the first Samnite War broke out due to a conflict between the Romans and the Samnites, but little did they know that the ‘real’ culprit was the Campanians. It all began when the Samnites invaded Sidicini, a tribe living north of Campania (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.). The Sidicini seeked help from the Campanians which turned out to be futile as they were defeated by the Samnites. Hence, the Campanians proposed an alliance to the Romans by offering their wealth and their help to subdue the Volsci, an enemy of Rome (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.). Initially, the Romans rejected their proposal for alliance as they did not want to ruin the relationship with the Samnites. However, the Campanians were determined to defeat the Samnites that they “surrendered the people of Campania and the city of Capua unconditionally to Rome” (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.). The Romans were touched by Campanians’ determination that they agreed to it even though it might worsen their relationship with the Samnites. In consideration of their relationship with the Samnites, the Romans sent envoys to the Samnites to warn them to give up the possession of “the city of Capua and the territories of Campania” (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.). Therefore, the Romans decided to wage war with the Samnites when they refused the Romans’ demands. As a result, the Romans and the Samnites went to war and thus started the First Samnite War. In the end, the victory was awarded to the Romans as the Samnites requested to end the war due to the outbreak of the Latin War. The Romans demanded that the Samnites provide “an indemnity equivalent to one years pay for the army” (Rickard, 2016)
The Third Samnite War broke out in 298 BCE and this time, enemies of Rome formed an alliance to reverse Roman expansion. Enemies included the Samnites, Etruscans and Gauls which attempted to attack Rome from the south and the north simultaneously (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.). Thus far, the Romans were able to fend off enemies individually and were expanding their territories. The Samnites felt that it was necessary to contain Rome’s power even though they were recovering from the previous Samnite War which broke out in 295 BCE. The Romans were able to break through the Samnites’ defend in the South and thus focused on attacking the Etruscans and Gauls in the north afterwards. The Third Samnite War was a prominent victory to Rome as it led to the defeat of the Samnium, one of the major Italian threat to Rome. As a result, Rome became unstoppable in expanding its territories and thus gaining attention of “regional powers in Greece” (“Samnite Wars”, n.d.).
Reign of Hadrian
Hadrian was a Roman emperor from 117 BCE to 138 BCE and had various contributions to the rise of the Roman Empire. Even though Hadrian was often described as a cultivated man, he was not fond of establishing public relations with neighbouring empires. One example would be that Hadrian managed to suppress the Bar Kokhba revolt, which caused “580,000 Jews to perish in the war ("Hadrian", n.d.). There were tensions between the Roman Republic and the Jews as there was a large establishment of Romans’ presence in Judea where majority of the people were Jews. Afterwards, Hadrian banished “the remaining Jews in the region and renamed it Syria” (Mark, 2009). Moreover, Hadrian executed the Jewish scholars and banned the practice of Judaism. This shows that Hadrian was determined to exterminate the Jews and was ambitious in conquering territories. Besides going to wars, Hadrian had his own plans for Rome as well. One of the major contributions from Hadrian was the Hadrian’s Wall, an 80-mile wall that “spans the entire latitudinal width of Britain from sea to sea” (Mark, 2009). As the Romans were constantly facing threats from the Celtic people of Britain, the wall served its purpose by keeping the Celts off Roman territory. Apart from building the Hadrian’s wall, Hadrian commissioned many other projects such as building aqueducts to provide fresh water for his people and building amphitheatres. Hence, Hadrian is one of the prominent emperor that had contributed to the rise of the Roman Empire.
The First Punic War
The First Punic War broke out in 264 BCE and consisted of two major battles, the Battle of Cape Ecnomus and the Battle of Aegates (“First Punic War”, n.d.). The Roman Republic and the Ancient Carthage were major powers of the Western Mediterranean and thus were fighting for supremacy. The war primarily took place at the “Mediterranean island of Sicily and also in North Africa” (“First Punic War”, n.d.). Firstly, the Battle of Cape Ecnomus was a naval battle and was considered to be one of the largest naval battle in history. As the supremacy of Carthage was a threat to the Roman Republic, the Romans decided to build a fleet and wage a war against them. Even though the Carthage had more strength than the Roman Republic, the Carthage suffered more in damages as compared to the Roman Republic. The casualties of the Carthage was double of the casualties of the Roman Republic (“Battle of Cape Ecnomus”, n.d.). Hence, the Carthage admitted defeat and escaped the battle to avoid further losses. This was a notable victory as the Romans gained an upper hand against the Carthage by repairing their fleet at Sicily. As the Carthage’s fleet heavily damaged, it was unable to stop the invasion of North Africa by the Romans. Hence, the Roman Republic was able to acquire the Mediterranean island of Sicily and parts of Africa (“Battle of Cape Ecnomus”, n.d.).
Secondly, the Battle of Aegates was the last battle fought before the end of the First Punic War. At that time, the Romans had an advantage over the Carthage because their vessels were only carrying the necessities while the Carthage were “burdened with men, equipment and provisions” (“Battle of Aegates”, n.d.). As a result, the Romans enjoyed greater mobility and were able to ram against the enemy vessels. The Carthage suffered major damages as compared to the Romans, thus fleeing from the Romans. The Romans gained another decisive victory over the Carthage after the Battle of Cape Ecnomus. The Romans ordered the Carthage to “sign a treaty with the Romans” (“Battle of Aegates”, n.d.). Despite the unfavourable terms that were aimed towards the Carthage, they still signed and thus ending the First Punic War. Even though there were Second and Third Punic Wars afterwards, I believe that the victory of the First Punic War was crucial as it laid the foundation for the Romans to prepare themselves for the next Punic War. The Romans acquired the Island of Sicily which was a strategic location for them to repair their fleets, thus decreasing their risk of losing the battle against the Carthage.
The Fall of Roman Empire
The fall of the Roman Empire was inevitable as there were factors such as the rise of Christianity and the Battle of Adrianople that might had contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Rise of a new religion, Christianity
Before the introduction of Christianity by Constantine I in 313 CE, the Romans believed in the Greek gods from Mount Olympus, especially Jupiter. Constantine I declared the Edict of Milan which states that the Romans had to treat Christians kindly within the Roman Empire. (“Fall of Western Roman Empire”, n.d.). Many have argued that the initiation of Christianity has led to the downfall of the Roman Empire as Christianity has made many Romans into pacifists, making it harder to defend against the barbarian attacks.
The Battle of Adrianople
In 378 CE, the Gothic rebels were preparing to attack the Eastern Roman army by ambushing themselves in the woods. The Roman army arrived in Adrianople “dehydrated and tired” after marching for seven hours over difficult terrains (“Battle of Adrianople”, n.d.). The Roman army began to attack despite that there were no orders given to do so and thought it would be an easy victory for them. However, the Roman army underestimated the capabilities of the Gothic Rebels and they were catched off guard. Even the Emperor himself was abandoned by his guards and was also perished in the flames when the the Gothic Rebels set the cottage on fire, which Valen the emperor was hiding in (“Battle of Adrianople”, n.d.). The Battle of Adrianople was a tremendous defeat for the Roman Empire as the number of casualties and losses were staggering that caused the military capability of the Roman Empire to be temporarily crippled.
Chains of rulers
Claudius → Nero → Galba → Titus →Domitian → Nerva → Trajan → Hadrian → Antoninus Pius → Marcus Aurelius → Commodus → Septimius → Pertinax → Didius Julianus → Geta → Caracalla → Elagabalus → Alexander → Maximinus Thrax → Gordian I → Gordian II → Gordian III → Gallienus → Aurelian → Constantinople I
References:
[Cover Image] Image by Yoai Desurmont. License used CC0 / Public Domain License. Image retrieved from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/italy/rome/side-of-the-roman-colosseum.jpg.php
[video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJtItq0cpg&t=2s
[video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJz15Y6hKMM&t=5s
Romulus. (2018, October 24). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus
Roman Empire. (2018, October 24). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire
Samnite Wars. (2018, October 17). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samnite_Wars
Hadrian. (2018, October 26). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
Punic Wars. (2018, October 15). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_Wars
Fall of the Western Roman Empire. (2018, October 22). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire
Rickard, J (16 November 2009), First Samnite War, 343-341 BC , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_first_samnite.html
Mark, J. J. (2009, September 02). Hadrian. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/hadrian/
Battle of Adrianople. (2018, November 3). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adrianople
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