Classics in its context

·        Why do we stop studying the Classical World at about 120 AD?  

·        What happens next?

·        How do we move from Rome to the middle ages?

You should know:

·        The “Five Good Emperors” 

F     Nerva (96-98)

F     Trajan (98-117)

F     Hadrian (117-138)

F     Antoninus Pius (138-161)

F     Marcus Aurelius (161-180)

Life in 2^nd century Rome

F     According to Gibbon, the happiest time in human history.  
(That may depend on your wealth and status – but certainly a stable time.)

F     Germanic invasions begin under Marcus Aurelius.

F     Flight to otium; growth in the irrational and histrionic; science dwindles; speculation ran far beyond the testable, and became metaphysics; technology changed little; development was unnecessary because of slavery. 

·        Commodus (180-192);   followed by civil wars.

·        Septimius Severus  (193-211)

F     Severan dynasty lasts till 235; after that, military leaders become Emperors

·        Caracalla (198 co-emperor, 211-217 emperor)

Life in 3^rd century Rome

F     “Ordered continuity of life within the empire”

F     Soldiers have been allowed to marry and settle with small farms; 
henceforth legions cannot really be moved quickly around the empire.

F     250 Gothic and Germanic invasions;  287 Britain revolts

·        Diocletian (284-306)  establishes the Tetrarchy (2 Augusti, 2 Caesares)

·        Constantine (312 battle of Milvian Bridge; 306/314/323 - 337) splits the empire.

Life in 4^th century Rome

F     A new mobile army was established alongside the settled army

F     The empire becomes rigid and bureaucratic, under martial law.

F     Split of the empire – half the taxes and all Egyptian corn go to Constantinople instead of toRome. 

F     Taxes are raised;  taxes needed for useless bureaucracy and army.

F     Prices fixed;  work becomes unprofitable; people flee the cities.

F     Work in trades compulsory;  severe penalties for leaving a farm.

F     To avoid taxation, the small farmer gives his land to the local magnate. 

F     Serfdom develops;  must belong to guild, marry within guild, son enters guild.

F     Society becomes stratified as patron and client, lord and serf;  feudalism

F     Milan becomes the base for the mobile army, and so the new capital.  Impoverishment and depopulation throughout Italy.  Rome is a backwater.

·        Julian 361-362

F     Dwindling revenues, increasing need for taxes – “the West was doomed”.

F     Invasion is constant;  borderlands therefore become de-populated