The Appian Way

 

The Appian Way is one of the earliest ancient Roman roads, stretching for more than 700 km from Rome to Brindisi on the south-east coast of Italy.

It was the brainchild of Appius Claudius, a Roman censor, who was blind but had a very acute mind. He realised that goods, travellers, carts and, most important of all, the army could move more quickly over paved roads than unpaved tracks. After his idea was accepted, work began in 312 BC on what would become the most important Roman road.

Appius Claudius personally supervised the workmen and stone-masons and tested the levelness of the blocks that comprise the road with his own bare feet. These blocks, made from volcanic basalt, were arranged in the manner of a mosaic and fitted together so perfectly that they have not been dislodged by traffic or the passage of time. Where the original surface can still be seen, it is possible to see the care with which the road was constructed more than two thousand years ago.

The Romans called this road Regina Viarum, the Queen of Roads. It ran firstly to Capua before being extended to Brindisi, although Emperor Trajan, several centuries later, would build a branch road to reach Brindisi by an easier route.

Many difficulties had to be overcome in creating the Appian Way. These included marshes, broken ground, and masses of rock that had to be levelled. The engineering skills needed to build this road were highly sophisticated.

In ancient times the road was lined by temples and villas, tombs and monuments. Many historical events are associated with the Appian Way, including the suicide of the great philosopher Seneca, who died at a villa on the Appian Way having slit his wrists on the orders of Emperor Nero. The slave result of Spartacus was put down with great slaughter by the Romans, who crucified 6,000 rebels along the Appian Way in 71 BC.

Although much of the original route has been lost in more recent years, a great deal of the Appian Way has been preserved. This includes a stretch that is the longest straight road in Europe, a distance of 62 km.

© John Welford

 

Ancient Rome's Castra Praetoria

The Castra Praetoria was the fortified military camp of the Praetorian Guard, who were the elite force charged with protecting the Emperor of Rome. The Castra stood for nearly 300 years as the physical manifestation of the Guard’s strength.

It originated in 23 CE during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, who was persuaded by Sejanus, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, that the Guard’s cohorts should have a central base from which to respond rapidly to any sudden emergency.

The Castra was situated on high ground just outside the city walls. It had the pattern of a regular military camp but was permanent, being composed of pink and red brickwork. Later enhancements included improvements to the living quarters and heightening of the external walls.

Notable events that took place at the Castra Praetoria included:

·        In 41 CE, after the assassination of Emperor Caligula, his uncle Claudius spent several days there while the Guard debated his fate and finally agreed to make him the next Emperor.

·        In 54 CE, Claudius was poisoned by his wife Agrippina, with the possible assistance of Burrus, the Prefect of the Guard. This was done so that her son Nero could became Emperor, in preference to Britannicus, who was Claudius’s son by a previous marriage. Burrus was able to prove his loyalty to Agrippina by taking Nero to the Castra and gaining the approval of the Guard.

·        In 69 CE Emperor Galba was assassinated and his head was carried around the Castra on a spear while the next Emperor, Otho, was declared his successor.

However, Otho’s reign was a short one and he was killed in battle against the forces of Vitellius. The Praetorian Guard were split between those loyal to Otho and to Vitellius. A siege of the Castra took place and much of it was destroyed.

·        In 193, after the murder of Pertinax, an extraordinary event took place when rival candidates for the imperial throne held what was virtually an auction for the job. The Praetorian Guard, which had become lazy and self-indulgent under Pertinax’s predecessor, Commodus, made it clear that their approval would go to the man who promised them the highest pay. The candidates, Sulpicianus and Didius Julianus, both went to the Castra and stood either side of the external wall. They then shouted their bids across the wall until Sulpicianus was forced to concede to the wealthier man.

This charade so annoyed the citizens of Rome that they laid siege to the Castra, the walls of which proved to be too strong. Hundreds died in the fighting that followed.

When a second siege failed, the citizens cut off the Castra’s water supply, after which the Praetorians charged out of the Castra and created mayhem in the city with a great deal of burning and looting, leaving much of the metropolis in ruin and chaos.

The Castra Praetoria survived until 312, after Constantine’s victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. He marched on Rome, rode to the Castra and decreed its destruction. The walls were torn down brick by brick, with hardly anything left for later archaeologists to explore.

© John Welford

Carthage: Challenger to Rome

There was a time when it was a toss-up as to which burgeoning empire would dominate the shores of the Mediterranean – that of Rome or Carthage. The latter had a head start, being the one of the largest and most long-lived ancient empires before Rome really got going.

Carthage, a port on the coast of what is now Tunisia in North Africa, had the advantage of two excellent harbours and superb shipbuilding and sailing skills that gave the city-state dominance over the whole African coast from Morocco to the border with Egypt, plus most of the islands of the western Mediterranean.

This dominance began in the 6th century BC and was aided by victories over the Greek empire during conflicts that lasted for around 200 years. However, the struggles with Rome turned out to be more difficult from Carthage’s point of view. The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage happened in three phases between 264 and 146 BC, the final date marking the eventual triumph of Rome.

When Carthage fell, the population was sold into slavery and the city razed to the ground. Carthage therefore ceased to exist.

However, in the first century AD Emperor Augustus founded the city of Colonia Julia Carthago on the ruins of ancient Carthage, and the new city became extremely prosperous and wealthy, just as the old one had done.

The new Carthage fell victim firstly to the Vandals in 439 and then the Arabs in 637, after which it was once again destroyed. It is the ruins of this second city that can be seen today.

There would never be a third Carthage and no need for one after the emergence of the city of Tunis not far away.

The site of ancient Carthage, where ruins including those of the Antonine Baths can be seen, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

© John Welford

Theodosius II, Emperor of Rome

Theodosius II, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire, did so for 42 years, which made him the longest ruling emperor throughout the Empire’s history.

Theodosius was born in April 401, the son of Emperor Arcadius and his formidable wife Aelia Eudoxia, who had been the real power behind the throne and had even had herself declared Augusta.

However, Eudoxia died from a miscarriage when Theodosius was aged only three and his father died in 408, meaning that parentless Theodosius became emperor at the age of seven. This might have been thought a recipe for chaos but that was not to be, thanks to efforts of Anthemius, the Praetorian Prefect, who proved to be an extremely able administrator.

One of Anthemius’s lasting contributions was to strengthen the defences of Constantinople by building a substantial wall across the peninsula on which the city was built. This wall served to protect Constantinople from invasion for the next 800 years and portions of it have survived to the present day.

Theodosius had an older sister, Aelia Pulcheria, who was proclaimed regent in 414, despite being only 15 years old, and she promptly had Anthemius replaced due to her personal dislike of him.

Pulcheria refused to marry but became intensely religious. It was due to her that the Church adopted the cult of the Virgin Mary, but she was also responsible for anti-semitic acts such as the burning of synagogues. Her influence on her brother meant that the empire and the Church became inextricably linked.

Theodosius married Aelia Eudocia in 421, she being Pulcheria’s choice for his bride, but the two strong-willed women soon became rivals. The palace intrigues were encouraged by the ambitious eunuch and chamberlain Chrysaphius Zstommas, with the result that Pulcheria was forced to retire from public life, leaving Eudocia as the main influence on Theodosius.

However, Zstommas’s attention then turned towards Eudocia, who was eventually forced into exile in 441 after a charge of adultery was brought against her. She ended her days in Jerusalem. Zstommas was now the most powerful adviser at court.

But what of Theodosius himself, who seems to have taken a back seat in the affairs of state? The truth is that he much prefered to deal with matters of the intellect, such as founding a university in Constantinople and codifying the laws. The latter effort led to the Codex Theodosianus, completed in 438, comprising 16 books of decrees and enactments that preserved the nature of Roman law.

Theodosius did have to deal with foreign affairs eventually, for example by negotiating a peace treaty with the Persian Empire that stayed in effect for more than a century. He was less successful when keeping the Huns at bay, with the initial policy – promoted by Zstommas – being to buy them off with huge subsidies that nearly bankrupted the treasury. Towards the end of Theodosius’s reign much of the Danube region was ravaged by barbarians, led by the formidable Attila.

Relations between the two halves of the empire improved with the placing of Valentinian III (son of Honorius) on the western throne in 425. Theodosius travelled to Ravenna to crown Valentinian and in 437 he gave his daughter Licinia Eudoxia to Valentinian as his wife.

Zstommas`s failed policy of buying off the Huns at vast expense led to a revolt by the army generals, who overthrew him early in 450, with Pulcheria returning to a position of power.

Theodosius died in July 450 after falling from his horse. He had already stated that a general named Marcian was his preferred heir and, in order to retain her position, Pulcheria promptly married him while still maintaining her vow of chastity. 

© John Welford

Romulus and Remus: mythical founders of Rome

Nobody knows how Rome was founded, but that does not mean that later Romans were unable to come up with a good story. The myth of Romulus and Remus was the result.

Coming up with a good myth

The first Roman historians had very little to go on when delving back into the earliest times to come up with a credible account of how Rome began. There were no written records, and even folk memories, passed down through the generations, did not go back far enough. Instead, a myth had to be invented that would ally Rome’s origins with the Gods. A great city had to have a miraculous birth.

Various legends grew up over time, but the story that was later accepted as the “true” myth is along these lines:

The story of Romulus and Remus

Numitor and Amulius were the sons of the king of Alba Longa, in central Italy, who traced their lineage from Aeneas of Troy. Amulius usurped the throne from his elder brother, killed Numitor’s son and made his daughter, Silvia, a vestal virgin. However, Silvia was violated by the god Mars and gave birth to twin sons, whom Amulius caused to be set adrift in a cradle on the River Tiber. This part of the legend therefore bears a distinct resemblance to that of Moses in the Hebrew story.

As with Moses, the baby twins did not drown but were rescued, not by a king’s daughter but a she-wolf who carried the boys back to her den and suckled them. They were found by a shepherd who took them to his home on the Palatine Hill, where they grew up to be strong young men, named Romulus and Remus.

The shepherds quarrelled with the cattle herdsmen who belonged to Numitor, whose herds grazed the nearby Aventine Hill. Remus was captured, and when Romulus went to rescue him they discovered that Numitor was their grandfather. They killed Amulius and put Numitor on the throne of Alba Longa.

Romulus and Remus decided to found a new city in the area where they had grown up, but they quarrelled as to where it should be, Romulus wanting it to be on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aventine. The decision was to be made by augury, in other words according to signs from the gods. As is often the case in these matters, they disagreed as to what the signs meant, and the shepherds made the decision on their behalf, giving the preference to Romulus.

Romulus started to build his city wall, but Remus, who still resented the fact that the new city would be “Roma” instead of, presumably, “Rema”, jumped over the wall before it was finished and was killed by his brother.

The myth of the Sabine women

Romulus’s new city needed more people, so he built a sanctuary on the nearby Capitoline Hill for criminals and runaway slaves, who promptly flocked there. The problem now was that there were plenty of men but hardly any women. Romulus tried peaceful means at first to persuade neighbouring cities to allow some of their women to join the new Rome, but to no avail. He therefore invited the local Latins and Sabines to a festival and, when they arrived, the Romans seized all the young women and carried them off.

Not surprisingly, this led to war, with the Romans defeating the forces of the three Latin towns, but the Sabines proved to be a sterner test. As the battle reached stalemate, thirty Sabine women rushed between the two armies and urged them to stop fighting. The two peoples agreed to form one nation, with Romulus continuing to rule on the Palatine Hill and the Sabine king on the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills. The two kings and their senates met on the plain between the hills to discuss matters as they arose.

However, when the Sabine king was killed in a quarrel that did not involve Romulus, the latter took over as sole ruler, being undisputed king for the next 37 years, after which he was carried off by Mars in a fiery chariot. Or so the story goes!

So there we have it!

Legends are very good at explaining how things started, and later Roman storytellers used the myth of Romulus to give ancient justification to, for example, the organisation of the Roman army into legions. Romulus is said to have divided the people into three tribes, each divided into ten curiae. These thirty divisions were named after the thirty Sabine women who brought peace to the community. Each curia contained ten gentes, each of 100 men who fought on foot. This all added up to 3000 soldiers, or one legion.

Likewise, the institution of the Senate was attributed to Romulus’s choice of 100 elders to help him in governing the city, this number being raised to 200 when the Sabines were incorporated.

There is of course absolutely no proof that Romulus and Remus ever existed, with the first mentions in writing dating from hundreds of years after they were supposed to have lived. The traditional foundation date of 753 BC is also pure invention. There were other foundation stories at various times, such as one involving a character called Romus who was the son of Aeneas. There is archaeological evidence that suggests that Rome was first settled by the Etruscans rather than as a colony from Alba Longa.

It is therefore difficult to ascribe the beginnings of Roman civilization to Romulus and Remus. However, the legend, such as it is, and with elements that have distinct resemblances to myths from other civilizations, particularly ancient Greece, is romantic enough to stand the test of time. The image of the she-wolf suckling the twins has proved to be a lasting one, being reproduced in many works of art down the centuries.

© John Welford

Philip the Arab, Emperor of Rome

Philip the Arab is so named because his family came from Syria. However, this background does not appear to have affected his behavior in office to any extent – there was nothing noticeably “un-Roman” in how he treated the role of Emperor.

Marcus Julius Philippus was born in around 204 at Shahba in Syria (now in Jordan), a city that he later spent large sums of money on improving and beautifying, and which was renamed Philippopolis as a result.

He became co-prefect alongside his brother Julius Priscus in the year 243. This was an important role, because the Emperor, Gordian III, was aged 18 and had only been in titular charge of the empire since unexpectedly becoming emperor at the age of 13 in 238. The prefects were the people who made most of the decisions.

A military defeat in Syria in February 244 led to Gordian being assassinated, and Philip may have been part of the conspiracy that carried this out. The defeat led to an ignominious peace settlement with Persia that involved the payment of half a million denarii.

Financial problems

As Emperor, Philip was perfectly happy to rule from Rome and do the things that emperors traditionally did, like spending huge sums of money on building projects, particularly in his home city as noted above.

Another huge drain on resources was the lavish celebration in 248 of the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Rome, which was believed to be in 753 BC.

Philip had to take measures to restore the coffers. One of these was to widen the tax base by including more people in each community who were to be held personally liable for any shortfall in the overall annual tax payments. Another was to cut the loyalty-buying subsidies paid to tribes north of the Danube. This latter move was undoubtedly less than wise.

Decentralization

Philip realized that running a huge empire from Rome created many strains and pressures on the administration, and it was not possible for one man to be able to make all the major decisions. He therefore appointed men who were – in effect – deputy emperors in the regions. The first of these deputies were family members, including his brother Julius Priscus in the eastern empire.

The empire had had joint emperors in the past, but this was really the first experiment in regional devolution. Later emperors would take this process even further, leading eventually to the split of the Roman Empire into virtually independent eastern and western empires.

Threats, both external and internal

Although Philip had bought off the Persians for time being, trouble from external enemies was never far away. The Alemanni made an incursion across the Rhine, and the Carpi and Goths were constantly making life difficult in the Danube region, especially after Philip’s subsidy cuts mentioned above.

Philip also faced challenges from a whole string of would-be emperors who gained support in various parts of the Empire. These all had to be dealt with in turn.

Philip’s undoing came from one such challenger, Gaius Messius Quintus Decius, who had been sent to deal with the trouble on the Danube. After successfully doing so, Decius was persuaded by his troops to declare himself emperor and march on Rome.

Battle was joined near Verona in September 249 when Philip was killed and Decius took over.

Suggestions were made in later centuries that Philip was the first Christian emperor, although if that was the case he did little to advertise the fact. However, the later actions of Decius to reinforce the worship of pagan gods may just possibly have been a response to what he saw as a dangerous tendency by Philip to tolerate a new religion.

© John Welford

Alexander Severus, Emperor of Rome

Alexander Severus (who is also referred to as Severus Alexander) became Rome’s emperor when possibly aged only 11. To begin with he was only a figurehead for his dominating mother, and even in adulthood he found it impossible to assert his own authority.

It is not known exactly when Alexander was born – sources differ between 211 and 209 – but his birthplace was Arca Caesarea in Judea. Little is known about his father, Gessius Marcianus, but his mother was to play a much more important role in his life and that of the Empire.

Julia Mamaea was the sister of Julia Soaemias, who was the mother of Emperor Elagabalus, and the two Julias were the daughters of Julia Maesa, who was the sister-in-law of Emperor Septimius Severus and the aunt of Emperor Caracalla. The three Julias were determined to preserve the power of the Severan clan for as long as they could, although they had their own ideas about how this should be done.

Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea used their sons as levers to gain power for themselves, but this led to a sibling rivalry that took a violent turn when the bizarre behaviour of Elagabalus made many Romans think that Alexander, despite his youth, would have been a better holder of the office. Elagabalus, backed by his mother, tried to engineer the murder of Alexander but the plan backfired when he was the one who ended up as the murder victim, together with his mother.

The death of Elagabalus in 222 brought Alexander Severus to the throne, with the real power being wielded by the two surviving Julias, mother and daughter. When the elder Julia died in 223 or 224, this left Julia Mamaea in effective sole charge of the Empire. She gave herself some very exalted titles, including “Mother of the Whole Human Race”.

Nobody was left in any doubt as to who was in charge. A marriage was arranged for Alexander, his bride being a high-born Roman girl named Sallustia Barbia Orbiana. However, Julia soon came to see her as a threat to her own position, and her reaction took the form of insults directed at Orbiana’s father, Lucius Seius Sallustius. He took refuge in the camp of the Praetorian Guard, but that smacked of treason to Julia. She promptly had Sallustius executed and Orbiana banished.

However, despite her murderous jealousy and utter domination of her son, Julia Mamaea did not do a bad job as far as running the machinery of government was concerned. She was tolerant in matters of religion, encouraged building projects that improved the city’s facilities, and promoted cultural activities throughout the Empire.

Things were not so rosy on the eastern borders. In 225 a new threat arose in the shape of Ardashir, a ruthless warrior prince who overthrew the king of Parthia (in what is roughly modern Iran) and founded a new regime that is generally known as the Sassanid dynasty. Ardashir sought to restore the might of ancient Persia, which meant conquering Rome’s possessions in the region. 

It was some time before the threat was recognized for what it was, but eventually (in 230) Alexander and his mother headed east at the head of an army. They had first to deal with a mutiny in Egypt, but were then able to launch an assault on Sassanid positions in Mesopotamia. The campaign was far from decisive, due largely to poor tactics, but at least it led to Ardashir’s temporary withdrawal and enabled Alexander to return to Rome and celebrate a triumph of sorts.

The next challenge came from Germany. Alexander and Julia Mamaea set off in 234 and based themselves at Mainz, from where they hoped to advance across the Rhine to counter the troublesome German tribes on the other side. However, Alexander then decided to buy the Germans off rather than fight them. 

This did not go down well with the troops, who were generally unhappy about the weak leadership being shown by their mummy’s-boy emperor. Instead they chose a new candidate for emperor, this being a rough-hewn former shepherd from Thrace (northern Greece) named Maximinus.  

When it became clear to Alexander that this mutiny would succeed he threw a teenage tantrum (despite now being 26 years old), condemned Maximinus for his disloyalty and blamed his mother for getting him into this mess. It did him no good – as soon as Maximinus’s men arrived at his camp they murdered both Alexander and Julia Mamaea. This happened in March 235 and marked the end of the Severan dynasty.

However, the reign of Maximinus has been seen by some historians as the beginning of fifty years of crisis and chaos.

© John Welford

Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome

Not many Roman Emperors are mentioned in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but one who does is an early 3^rd century Emperor who crops up in the patter song of Major-General Stanley in “The Pirates of Penzance” when he boasts that he can “quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus”. The name is more usually given as Elagabalus, but even so it is unlikely that many hearers of the song would know to whom the Major-General was referring. So who was Elagabalus and just how criminal was he?

Comparisons can be made between Elagabalus and some other Roman Emperors, such as Caligula and Commodus, in that they had short and disreputable reigns that ended by being murdered when their activities could no longer be endured. Elagabalus shared with Caligula the distinction of being known to history by a nickname rather than the name he was given at birth.

Elagabalus started life in around the year 203 as Varius Avitus Bassianus, his birthplace being Emesa in Syria. His father was Sextus Varius Marcellus, a politician based in the Roman province of Syria, and his mother was Julia Soemias Bassiana, a member of the powerful Severan clan that had already produced the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, the latter being Julia’s cousin.

As a young man, Varius Avitus became the chief priest of a religious cult dedicated to the Syrian sun-god Elagabal. However, Julia and her mother (Julia Maesa) saw the boy as their way to regain power for the Severan clan, which had been sidelined by the accession as Emperor in 217 of an outsider, Macrinus, who may have been responsible for the murder of Caracalla. They therefore started a rumour to the effect that Varius Avitus was the illegitimate son of Caracalla, to whom he did bear a passing resemblance.

They persuaded the local legion to accept Varius as Emperor, at the age of 14, which naturally led to Macrinus declaring war on him. The Severans won the ensuing battle and Macrinus was captured and executed, leaving Varius as Emperor with the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

The new Emperor, together with his mother and grandmother, spent a year at Nicomedia (in what is now northern Turkey) then proceeded to make their way to Rome, but they also took with them a large conical black stone that had been the centrepiece of the Elagabal cult at Emesa. Convinced that this Semitic former mountain god was the supreme deity, young Marcus was determined to convert Rome to this view and he intended to do so by moving the large black stone, and hence the the worship of Elagabal, to Rome. That is why he is known to history as Elagabalus.

Once in Rome, Elagabalus enlarged a temple on the Palatine Hill (formerly dedicated to Jupiter) in lieu of building one dedicated solely to Elagabal. The new supreme god clearly needed a partner, so he moved the image of Vesta from her temple in the Forum. The Emperor followed suit by marrying a Vestal Virgin, but this marriage ended in divorce. Elagabal therefore also had to take a new wife, this being the sky god Urania.

Eventually the purpose-built temple of Elagabal was completed on the Capitoline Hill and an elaborate ceremony took place in which the sun god appeared to drive a chariot to his new home, with the Emperor walking backwards in front of it.

Despite Elagabalus’s obsession with religion, the government of the Empire was not neglected, because his mother and grandmother made sure that things ran smoothly. They were clearly the real rulers of Rome, and they were the only two women in the history of the Empire ever to attend meetings of the Senate.

So what were the “crimes of Heliogabalus”? The main one, in the eyes of the people of Rome, was his upsetting of the religious status quo, coupled with the terrible offence of marrying a Vestal Virgin. He also appears to have indulged in a particularly lascivious lifestyle, carrying on with many women apart from his various wives (he may have been married as many as five times during his short reign) and indulging in orgiastic ceremonies, same-sex relationships and transvestisim. However, it is always possible that some of the stories grew in the telling, especially if related by his enemies.

Elagabalus’s failure to produce an heir was almost certainly not the result of any failings on the part of his various wives, but it was clearly a problem. There was also a serious rift between the two women who were the real power behind the throne. His grandmother, Julia Maesa, could sense that the Roman Senate and people could not tolerate the Emperor’s eccentricities for ever and that a violent end to his reign was possible if not probable. She therefore persuaded him that he should adopt as his successor his cousin Alexander Severus who, at the time of this move, was probably around ten years old. The older Julia would thus cement her own position should events turn out as she feared, in that one grandson might die but another become emperor in his place.

Her daughter, Julia Soemias, did not see things in the same light. Naming Alexander as successor to her son would, in her view, only increase the threat to Elagabalus, given that the former did not share his cousin’s extreme views on religion and would clearly be seen as a more acceptable alternative. The younger Julia therefore had a perfect motive for getting Alexander out of the way.

In March 222, Elagabalus and Julia Soemias went to the camp of the Praetorian Guard and ordered them to murder Alexander Severus. However, things took a very different course because the guards promptly murdered the young Emperor (still aged only about 19) and his mother and threw their bodies in the River Tiber. It is always possible that Julia Maesa had foreseen such an event and bribed the guards to do precisely what they did.

The net result was that Alexander Severus became Emperor and the cult of Elagabal was sent packing back to Emesa.

© John Welford

The spread of culture in the Hellenistic Period

The word “Hellenistic” means “of or pertaining to things Greek”, and particularly to Greek culture.

The Hellenistic period is generally taken to be from the death of Alexander the Great (in 323 BC) to the first century BC, when the whole of the Greek world had been subsumed within the Roman Empire. It is therefore a relatively short interim period between classical Greece and the might of Rome. However, that connection was of vital importance in the development of European culture.

The ancient Greeks of the mainland and islands were very cultured in many ways, and were highly advanced in the fields of poetry, drama, art, music, architecture, education, politics, philosophy and religion. However, Greek culture was largely based on the city state, and the Greek people were not naturally outward looking, either in terms of trade or conquest. This all changed when Alexander the Great got going.

Alexander was not a native Greek but a Macedonian, but he received an education that was very much in the Greek model, being tutored by Aristotle at one stage. In cultural terms he was a virtual Greek. His conquests of Persia and Egypt therefore took Greek influences with him, and the cities he founded (usually called “Alexandria”) were Greek colonies in all but name.

However, there is no evidence that Alexander had a conscious wish to export Greek culture eastwards. The Hellenization of the east was more accidental than deliberate, and occurred mainly because Alexander’s empire allowed trade routes to flourish throughout the region.

The most famous Alexandria was undoubtedly that on the coast of Egypt, and this became, in the Hellenistic period, a major centre of Greek culture. Apart from its architecture, including the lighthouse that was one of the “Seven Wonders”, its library became the largest in the world until its final destruction in the 7^th century AD. It was reportedly founded by another of Aristotle’s pupils.

However, the main reason why Greek culture spread far beyond its own borders was the expansion of the Roman Empire. Whereas the Greeks were masters of culture but reluctant conquerors, the Romans were the opposite. Having no notable cultural background of their own, they were more than happy to absorb and adapt the culture of the people they took into their Empire.

Rome’s first encounter with the Greek world would have been via its colonies, such as Syracuse which was conquered in 212 BC. However, in this case the import of culture got off to a bad start, in that one of the victims of the taking of Syracuse was Archimedes, the mathematician.

Mainland Greece started to come under Roman control from 146 BC onwards, that being the date of the Battle of Corinth, although the total destruction of that city was hardly a highlight of cultural enrichment.

Later conquests were conducted less violently, so that cultural life in Greece was able to continue under Roman rule. Many Greeks also travelled to Rome and other parts of the Empire, taking their language and culture with them.

That high-born Romans were greatly impressed by what they found is evident from the cultural conquest referred to by the Roman poet Horace, when he wrote: “Captive Greece took her fierce conqueror captive, and introduced the arts to rustic Latium”. This was especially so in the realm of education, in that the somewhat haphazard methods of instruction used by Romans were brought face to face with organised Greek schools. Greek teachers came to Rome and the Romans willingly sat at their feet.

Indeed, so popular were the Greek teachers, who taught in their own language, that many upper-class Romans came to regard Greek as a superior language to Latin, which was relegated to being the language of the common people. It took the efforts of poets such as Horace, Virgil and Ovid to rescue Latin as a literary language, although it is notable that Virgil’s “Aeneid”, his greatest work, took Greek myth as its subject matter, extending the story of the Trojan War to tell how Rome was founded by one of its heroes. Virgil was also the master of the “eclogue”, a form of pastoral poetry first developed in Hellenistic Greece.

The Roman theatre was heavily influenced by that of Greece. Indeed, many plays performed on Roman stages were direct translations of Greek plays. Roman theatre design copied that of the Greeks, based on the semi-circular arena, and the Roman circus, for chariot racing, developed from the Greek hippodrome.

Greek music was also extensively copied and imitated, even down to the notation method used for writing and playing.

In philosophy, the two schools of thought that had most influence on Romans were both Greek in origin, namely Stoicism and Epicureanism. The former, with its emphasis on virtue as its own reward, an afterlife of sorts, and resolution in the face of adversity, spoke to the Roman mind, and continued to be developed well into the 2^nd century AD.

Greek religion also found a ready audience among the Romans, who adopted not only some Greek religious practices, such as divination, but also some of their gods and heroes, including Apollo and Heracles (renamed Hercules). Other Roman gods were identified with Greek equivalents, such as Jupiter/Zeus, Neptune/Poseidon and Minerva/Athena. The Greeks had a whole host of stories about their gods, which the Romans did not. Greek mythology therefore became the foundation for Roman mythology.

In the realm of architecture, Greek ideas were also exported to the world via the Romans. In particular, examples of the three Greek orders of architecture, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, are found in countless buildings throughout the Empire, although later architects refined and adapted Greek ideas to suit their own needs.

The Greeks were great town planners, and their ideas of creating substantial public buildings and open spaces found their way into Roman thinking. For example, the “agora” of the Greek city became the “forum” in Roman hands, where the populace could gather in one place to exercise democracy or, in the Roman world, be harangued by orators.

In virtually every aspect of Greek culture, the Hellenistic period saw its wholesale exportation to the civilized world via the Romans. Because the Roman Empire was so extensive, Greek influence therefore spread throughout western Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. After the fall of Rome, the influence continued in the succeeding Byzantine Empire, and in many of the languages of Europe.

Today, we can still see many signs of Greek culture in our cultural life, such as the words we use for theatrical concepts, including “scene”, “orchestra” and, indeed, “theatre”, and even in names of American honour societies that comprise (usually) three Greek letters.

It can therefore be seen that the Hellenistic Period, despite not contributing much that was culturally original in its own time, was crucially important in the spread of Greek culture throughout the civilised world.

© John Welford

The priests of Diana at Nemi

Some job offers require candidates to undergo the most extraordinary tests and trials before the right person is selected. Anyone who has tried to become a NASA astronaut will attest to just how difficult that is. However, gaining the job of “Priest of Diana” in ancient times had one particular requirement that might have held one back from applying!

Priests of Diana

Anyone who sought to become the priest of Diana at her sacred grove at Nemi, near Rome, could only do so by killing the incumbent, and they would then know that the next candidate waiting in the wings had their death in mind. There are many reasons why somebody might commit a murder, but to do so in the certain knowledge that one had signed one’s own death warrant by so doing does sound a bit extreme.

The story of the priest of Diana, who carried the title of “King of Nemi” was told by Sir James Frazer in his famous book “The Golden Bough”, and he used the legend as his starting point for a very long investigation into the development of religion, especially as it concerned the recurrent themes of death and rebirth across many civilisations.

The cult of Diana in ancient Italy (it lasted until the first century of the Imperial era) seems to have been imported from Greece, and it originally involved the human sacrifice of any stranger who approached too close to the shrine of the goddess.

However, the cult at Nemi was not quite so bloodthirsty, in that only one death was required from time to time. Within the sacred grove was a tree from which only a runaway slave was allowed to break off a branch. If he did so, he was then allowed to challenge the priest in single combat and, should he succeed in killing the priest, take over his role.

That might explain the reason why someone might seek the job. The life of a runaway slave would be very unpleasant should he be caught – he would probably be branded or even executed or forced to fight for his life as a gladiator – so becoming the “King of Nemi” was an alternative to putting off the inevitable. At least he would be fighting someone just like himself as opposed to a trained gladiator.

Even so, would you have taken this choice, or just kept running?

© John Welford

Gratian, Emperor of Rome

During the later history of the Roman Empire the top job became too much for one man to handle, with the result that the Empire was governed at various times by two or more Emperors. Gratian, who reigned from 375 to 383, was one of many such joint Emperors.

Flavius Gratianus was born on 18^th April 359 at Sirmium in Pannonia (a Roman province that covered parts of modern Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and several former Yugoslav republics). His father was Emperor Valentinian I and his mother Marina Severa, who was later divorced by Valentinian, probably in 370.

On his elevation to Emperor, Valentinian had requested that his brother Valens should rule jointly with him, the latter taking control of the eastern part of the Empire while Valentinian ruled in the west. This arrangement, which had also been made by Diocletian in the previous century, was to become a familiar pattern until the eventual collapse of the Western Empire in the 5^th century.

Gratian’s early years

Gratian’s first public office was that of consul in 366. Two (sometimes more) consuls were appointed for one-year terms, this being an office that had its origins in Republican Rome but had long been merely an honorary position. As Gratian was aged seven at the time this was simply an acknowledgment of his high status as the Emperor’s son. 

He accompanied his father on campaign in Gaul in 367, and it was on this campaign that Valentinian fell seriously ill and there was concern among his courtiers about who would succeed him if he died. Discussions were held without either Valentinian or his brother being consulted, which many Emperors would have regarded as treasonable behaviour. However, when Valentinian recovered, his only action was to appoint his son Gratian as “Augustus” (i.e. Emperor-in-waiting), thus indicating who his successor would be.

Despite the boldness of this move, there were many people who doubted whether this was the best thing to do. Had the young Gratian shown signs of being suited for high office, possibly to be attained within only a few years, the senior officials might have had their fears assuaged, but this was not the case. Gratian appeared to have little interest in military matters and his father had great difficultly in persuading the army that his son had the qualities of a potential Emperor. He took steps to educate Gratian for his future role by appointing the poet and rhetorician Ausonius as his tutor, although this seems a strange choice given that a military-style education would have been more appropriate. Gratian clearly found Ausonius to be a tutor he could get on with, as he appointed the poet to the consulship when he became Emperor.

Gratian married in 374, his wife Constantia being the daughter of a former Emperor (Constantius II). She died in 383, shortly before Gratian himself.

Gratian as Emperor

When Valentinian died on 17^th November 375, Gratian was declared Emperor as his father had decreed, but this did not please everyone, and particularly not the army commanders in the Balkan region. They sought a leader, albeit only a nominal one, who would allow them to be the real force in the part of the empire that they controlled, namely the eastern part of the Western Empire. Within five days of Valentinian’s death, his son (by his second wife Justina), also called Valentinian, was declared Emperor by the army of that region.

Gratian was therefore left as one of three Emperors, having jurisdiction over

Gaul, Spain and Britain. The provinces in Italy, Africa and Illyricum were nominally governed by Emperor Valentinian II, although he was not yet five years old at the time of his accession. The Eastern Empire continued to be ruled by Valens, who was fully occupied in repelling invasions by the Goths.

Despite the fact that the decision to appoint his half-brother as co-Emperor was taken without his consent, Gratian appears to have accepted it without too much fuss, and even took steps to help the young Emperor with his education.

Gratian had problems of his own to contend with, namely incursions by the Alamanni tribe into what is now southern Germany. Although the situation was peaceful at the time of his accession, the Alamanni needed to be watched, which presented a problem when a request came from Valens in 376 for help to repel the Goths in the east. Gratian was willing to help, but his chief general, Merobaudes (who had also been mainly responsible for the appointment of Valentinian II), disobeyed Gratian’s orders and held some of the legions back in order to guard the border against the Alamanni. The fact that Merobaudes could get away with this shows that Gratian was not strong-willed enough for the job of Emperor, although the actions of Merobaudes were probably correct under the circumstances.

In late 377 Gratian prepared to set off east to help his uncle against the Goths, but this was the signal the Alamanni had been waiting for. They invaded in February 378 but the legions left in place by Merobaudes were able to deal with the threat, with some 30,000 Alamanni being killed in battle at Argentovaria (near Colmar, France).

With his own borders secure, Gratian could now provide the assistance that Valens had asked for, but the latter seems to have changed his mind and decided to take on the Goths without waiting for his young nephew (still only 19 in 378) to arrive. The result was a devastating defeat at Adrianople at which two-thirds of the Roman army, and Valens himself, were killed.

Gratian was now left as the senior Emperor in the whole of the Roman Empire. However, he clearly needed help and he called on a Spanish general, Theodosius, to assist him. This was an interesting choice, because Theodosius’s father, also called Theodosius, had fallen foul of Merobaudes during the reign of Valentinian I and had been executed following a trumped-up charge of treason. The appointment may have been partly a move by Gratian to assert himself against Merobaudes.

Theodosius allowed himself to be declared Eastern Emperor by his troops, and Gratian did not oppose this move. It at least allowed him to carry on with the more peaceful life of being Western Emperor.

Gratian, who like all the Emperors since Constantine was nominally Christian, now interested himself in Church affairs.  In 381 he moved his capital from Trier (in Gaul) to Milan, where Ambrose had earlier been appointed bishop with the Emperor’s help. Gratian involved himself in the debate between orthodox Christians and the “heretics” who followed the teachings of Arius. He was persuaded by Ambrose to call a council of bishops to debate the matter, and this convened at Aquileia (in northern Italy) in September 381. Ambrose made sure that the decision that was made favoured his position and had the Emperor’s backing.

Gratian continued to support Theodosius in the east, by sending troops when needed, but the support was not reciprocated. In 383 the commander of the British garrison, Magnus Maximus, revolted against Gratian and invaded Gaul, where he was supported by Merobaudes. Theodosius indicated that he would not oppose the revolt, and Gratian was subsequently defeated and forced to flee. His pursuers caught up with him at Lyons and he was killed on 25^th August 383, aged 24.

Gratian’s career as Emperor was not a particularly distinguished one as he simply did not have the qualities needed to be a strong Emperor. In his defence it could be pointed out that, during the turbulent times of the later Roman Empire, there were very few men who did.

© John Welford

Valens, Emperor of Rome

Flavius Julius Valens was born in 328 at Cibalae, which is now Vinkovci in eastern Croatia. He was the second son of Gratian the Elder (so called to distinguish him from his grandson who became Emperor Gratian) and the younger brother of Valentinian by about seven years.

His early life

Although Valentinian held important military commands under Emperors Julian and Jovian, Valens stayed mainly on the family estate although he did accompany his brother on Julian’s ill-fated foray into Persia in 363-4.

Valens only came to public notice when his brother was unexpectedly elected Emperor by the troops after the sudden death of Jovian. Valentinian, quite wisely, decided that the job was too big for one man to do and asked that Valens should share it with him. Valens therefore became Emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire on 28^th March 364. Based in Constantinople he had jurisdiction over the provinces bordering the eastern Mediterranean and extending towards Persia. The eastern Balkans, as far north as the Danube River, were also part of the Eastern Empire.

The two halves of the Empire were run as separate units to all intents and purposes, with very little contact between the governments in Rome (or wherever the Emperor and his officials chose to base themselves) and Constantinople. When Valentinian fell dangerously ill in 367, the discussions over a possible successor did not involve Valens, and when Valentinian died in 375 and his son Gratian succeeded him, the subsequent proclamation of his much younger brother as co-Emperor was carried out without Valens being asked to agree to it.

Dealing with the Goths

The main issue to face Valens during his reign was the threat of an invasion from Goths who lived north of the Danube but who were threatening to cross over into the Empire. After a number of battles against the Gothic tribes a truce was concluded in 369 according to which the Goths agreed to stay north of the Danube, but they then came under severe pressure from the Huns and sought refuge within the Empire.

The Gothic tribes in question were the Tervingi and the Greuthingi. Many of the Tervingi had abandoned their lands and sought refuge among the Greuthingi. When the Greuthingi also sought to escape from the Huns by moving across the Danube, their numbers were therefore greatly swelled by the neighbouring Tervingi who were incorporated with them.

In principle, Valens was not against allowing the Goths to cross the Danube, as he saw them as a potential source of recruits for the Roman army. However, he hoped to regulate their numbers by only allowing the Greuthingi to settle in the Empire, which might have worked had it been possible to control the situation by assigning enough troops to separate the two tribes and monitor their entry.

As it was, most of Valens’s troops were stationed on the eastern borders where the Persians were a constant threat, so it was impossible to prevent far more people crossing the Danube than had been intended. The situation was made worse by the food supply network being totally inadequate to cope with a sudden influx of so many hungry Goths.

Relations between the Romans and the immigrants broke down completely. Instead of the expected 30,000 to 40,000 people, around double that number were now swarming across into a relatively small area south of the Danube. If the Goths could not be contained, they would have to be countered on the battlefield.

Valens sought in vain for help from his western colleagues. Merobaudes, the military commander in the western Balkans region that was nominally ruled by Valentinian II, was more interested in securing his own borders against any incursions by the Goths. Gratian, Valens’s nephew, might have been willing to send troops east but had problems of his own in the form of an insurrection on the lower Rhine.

  

It was not until 378 that Gratian was able to help, but by the time he could advance eastwards Valens had taken action on his own behalf, with disastrous consequences.

The Battle of Adrianople

By August 378 the Goths had advanced into Roman territory as far as Thrace (modern Turkey-in-Europe). An army of some 30,000 men encamped at Adrianople, which is where Valens’s force of 30,000 to 40,000 men met them on 9^th August after an eight mile march from their camp. The Roman left advanced and was routed by the Gothic cavalry, which then encircled and destroyed the Roman centre. The defeat was total, with up to two-thirds of the Roman army being killed.

Valens died along with his troops, although his body was never found. There was a story that he was wounded and taken to a farmhouse which was later set on fire, thus cremating his remains. Whatever the truth of this story, the Battle of Adrianople was certainly one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a Roman army.

The Arian Emperor

Valens is also notable for having been a proponent of Arian Christianity, as opposed to the Trinitarian Catholicism that had been sanctioned by the Council of Nicaea in 325. In this he had differed from his brother Valentinian, but unlike his brother had been less tolerant of opposing views. There was therefore a degree of persecution of Catholic bishops in the Eastern Empire during Valens’s reign. However, Theodosius, his successor in the east, was a Catholic, so Arianism in the Eastern Empire died with Valens.

© John Welford

Valerian, Emperor of Rome

Valerian is one of the lesser known Roman Emperors but he has a special claim to fame in that he was the only one who was captured by a foreign enemy and died in exile as a result. This puts him quite high on the list of failed Emperors, of which the later Roman Empire, in particular, had a large number.

Publius Licinius Valerianus was born in around the year 200 (possibly a few years earlier). Little is known about his early life except that he was a consul at some time in the 230s and a high-ranking member of the Senate who held the position of “princeps senatus” in 238, a year of civil war during which seven men claimed office as Emperor at various times.

It is known that Valerian was married to Egnatia Maririana, by whom he had two sons.

He was a trusted ally of both Emperors Decius and Trebonianus Gallus. The latter had been declared Emperor in 251 when Decius was killed by the Goths at the Battle of Abrittus (in modern Bulgaria).

Two years later Gallus was in turn threatened by a usurper, Aemilianus, and he called upon Valerian, who was commanding the legions on the Rhine, to come to his aid. However, Valerian was too late and Gallus had been overthrown and killed (possibly by his own troops) before he arrived.

The reign of Aemilianus was even briefer than that of Gallus, and his fate was similar in that his army mutinied and killed him before battle could be joined with the approaching army headed by Valerian, who was then acknowledged as Emperor. He was probably aged about 55 at the time (September 253).

One of Valerian’s first acts as Emperor was to elevate his son Gallienus to the rank of Augustus which signified his status as co-Emperor.

As Emperor, Valerian showed himself to be a deeply committed traditionalist, in that he was content to make the same mistakes that his predecessors had done in refusing to adapt to changing times. This meant that the borders of the Empire were to be defended at all costs and no concessions were to be made to the cultural diversity of the peoples who lived within those borders.

This thinking was behind Valerian’s edict in 257 that sanctioned persecution of Christians throughout the Empire. This included seizure of property and the execution of Christians who would not recant their beliefs.

On the military side, Roman armies failed to learn from their defeats against enemies such as the Goths and the Persians, in that Roman battle strategies were ineffective against the hit-and-run tactics of their opponents. The aim of these invaders was not so much to conquer territory as to raid and pillage and then retreat before the Romans could muster an army to confront them.

In 259 a new invasion threatened the Empire from the east. This was launched by Shapur, the leader of the Sassanid Empire that covered the whole of modern Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and reached as far as India. Valerian headed an army to confront Shapur but his troops were in no shape to put up much of a fight due to disease and incipient mutiny.

Valerian offered to sue for peace and a meeting was arranged between the two rulers. However, this was a trick and Valerian fell into the trap. He was captured by Shapur and taken back to Persia in chains, never to be heard from again.

Various stories have arisen about what happened to Valerian, many of them put about by later writers who had a reason for denigrating the former Emperor. One story was that Shapur used Valerian as a footstool when mounting his horse, and another was that, when he died, his body was stuffed with straw and exhibited in a Persian temple. All that can be known for certain is that Valerian died in captivity, leaving his son Gallienus to rule as sole Emperor.

Shapur was clearly proud of his triumphs against the might of Rome, having the events preserved in the form of reliefs carved at Naqsh-i-Rustam, near Persepolis. However, it should be noted that, although in a submissive posture, the figure of Valerian is not shown as being on his knees. That dishonour is reserved for another former Emperor, namely Philip, who had been defeated in a previous battle.

© John Welford