Book Of

BATTLES CONQUESTS LEADERS BETRAYALS LEGACY

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Book of

The legacy of the vast empire of ancient Rome is present everywhere

around us in the modern world today. The Romans left us poetry, ideas,
laws, and vocabulary, but the practical heritage the Roman Empire
passed down is most evident in the fields of engineering and
architecture, from the vastness of the Colosseum to the elegance of the
forums in Rome. All of this is monument to the glory of the rule of
ancient Rome and its military might. The Roman’s continued fear of
outsiders drove them to relentlessly conquer land after land. This book
takes an in-depth look at the ruthless army, the many battles, great deeds
and rulers – heroes and villains, kind men and cruel – that combined to
create the greatest empire of the ancient world.

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Book Of

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All About History Book of Ancient Rome © 2014 Imagine Publishing Ltd

ISBN 978-1909758988

Part of the

bookazine series

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CONTENTS
114

14

8 Introduction 70 Chapter 5
Caesar, Master of
14 Chapter 1 Rome, 48–44 BCE
From Myth to Caesar became dictator of Rome but how did his
Empire celebrated victories end in treachery and death?

Discover Rome’s mythical beginning,

and the three Punic Wars that cemented 80 Chapter 6
the Roman’s destiny
The Second Civil War,
30 Chapter 2 44–31 BCE
The aftermath of Caesar’s assassination, The
Ruling Rome Second Triumvirate, and the affair of Antony
Find out how Rome developed from and Cleopatra
Kingdom, to Republic and finally, Empire

40 Chapter 3 90 Chapter 7
Caesar and the Augustus, the First
Conquest of Gaul Emperor, 27 BCE–14 CE
The magnificent feat of statesmanship by the
The politics, The First Triumvirate and divine Emperor Augustus
the Gallic Wars that initiated Caesar’s
incredible rise to power
98 Chapter 8
60 Chapter 4 The Roman Way
Civil War of Life
Find out how Caesar forced Pompey out Learn about the domestic lives of the rich
of Rome, settled unrest in Egypt and and poor, from luxurious baths and villas to the
won the civil war chaotic city streets

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70

132

114 Chapter 9
80 144 The Underworld
of Ancient Rome
From escaped slaves to treacherous
aristocrats, discover the extent of Roman
crime and punishment

122 Chapter 10
An Empire Built
on Slavery
Ruthlessly exploited slaves and their labour
played a vital part in the economy of
ancient Rome

132 Chapter 11
The Mighty Legions
Discover how the Roman army rose to a
virtually unbeatable fighting machine

144 Chapter 12
The Legacy of Rome
The great buildings, monuments and roads,
the laws and language, and the advanced
technologies are still present today

154 Maps and Timeline

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Introduction

In the Beginning
Above: An imaginative view of
Ancient Rome drawn in pen and
ink by Cockerell (1788–1863).

F
rom the beginning of their history, the Romans determined to control their destiny. It was a destiny
had to prove themselves more ruthless than driven both by their fear and contempt of outsiders
their neighbours, the Etruscans and the and strangers; any non-citizens of Rome were inferior.
Volsci. Rome had to be more cunning, more It was this that drove them to relentlessly conquer
capable and, if necessary, crueller, for if the land and tribe to create an empire. While they held
city did not defend itself, it would become a victim. down their expanding frontiers they felt secure.
The settlement was spread over seven hills, which
provided the defensive position for the city as its
power grew. The Longest Empire
From 753 BCE when the mythical Romulus The Romans’ worst fears were confirmed with the
founded the city as a kingdom, the Romans were arrival of the Goths at their gates over a 1,000 years

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later in 410 CE. The city was taken and from that
moment the empire crumbled until there remained
“ The Roman Empire was born in fear
only fragmentary outposts of a once highly civilized
life. It is true, however, that there remain aspects
and it perished in fear”
John Balsdon, Rome: The Story of An Empire
of the Roman Empire that affect our lives today.
But what was it that allowed this empire to flower
and grow in influence and power for so long? What nearly twice the age of that roaring warrior he felt
was the difference between the Roman and the he had achieved nothing. Alexander had already
Persian Empire? Or the empire created by Alexander conquered the known world by the age of twenty-four.
the Great who had reached out and taken Egypt,
Syria, Greece, the whole Persian Empire, Palestine “What have I done?” Julius Caesar asked. “Look what
and Afghanistan? Alexander was the leader whose he did even as a young man.”
exploits Julius Caesar wanted to emulate. Caesar was
discovered one day looking at a bust of Alexander Maybe the single most important lesson Caesar
and weeping. He explained that although he was learned from Alexander was that his power lay in the

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“The Appian Way leads directly loyalty and respect of the men he led. Caesar,
an ambitious man, felt that time was slipping
into the city and still exists 2,000 through his fingers. His opportunity came

years after its construction” when he returned in triumph from his wars in
Gaul. The Roman Republic began to implode as a
result of political chaos in the city.

Expansion and Threat

of Danger
For 700 years Rome expanded and the city became
the great focus for all ambitious men. This may have
contributed to its decline for by drawing in the best
men from the edges of its empire, Rome diluted the
strengths of its component parts.
What is left of the physical evidence of the empire
inside the modern city of Rome? The skeletons of
some of the empire’s great buildings still exist, and
they give us an idea of its important legacy. Consider
three of the surviving monuments: the Appian Way,
the Forum and the Colosseum. The Appian Way
leads directly into the city and still exists 2,000 years
after its construction. It was constructed to link with
military roads in the east and west of the empire
and join Spain, Macedonia and Asia. It provides a
reminder of the power of the Roman Army that
marched along its length to provide frontier security.
The Roman Forum, with its elegant columns and
spaces, was copied in every major city in the empire
as a place in which debate, ideas and the creation of
the rule of law provided the focus for the city. It was
in the Forum that Romans discussed the issues of
the day and from here decisions were transmitted to
distant parts of the empire. The Forum was a place
where only the rich and the influential were heard,
the voice of the ordinary man was not often heard
in debate. It was on the steps of the Forum that the
ambitions of one man to become dictator of the
city ended under the assassin’s knife. On 15 July, 44
BCE Julius Caesar met his death here. The columns
and stones are a reminder that Romans believed in
political discussion and the rule of law. When those
began to weaken the empire began to crumble.
The Colosseum is the most powerful symbol
of late Rome, the empire, its freeborn citizens and
the power of the mob. In this vast amphitheatre,
the sand was soaked in the blood of innocents,
prisoners of war, criminals, slaves and gladiators.
Left: A model of an Etruscan
soldier of the fourth century BCE. Here ritualized slaughter was carried out, beloved of

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the mob and also of many of the later emperors and and why did it fall? Who were the main players in the Above: The Appian Way, near
Rome, clearly shows the grooves
their acolytes. Ruinously expensive mock games, story of Rome? What aspects of the Roman Empire made by the chariot wheels.
battles and individual gladiatorial contests all had do we value even now?
one end – death. The Colosseum was a place of It is not just the villas, the public buildings,
horror. It was a place where violence, lack of honour aqueducts, theatres, road, temples and bridges that
and cruel disinterest in their fellow men became the demonstrate the empire that was Rome. It was so
watchword of the Romans. It was here that the moral much more. In time these buildings will vanish as
feebleness of the rulers and the mob they feared Roman cities have already been covered by desert
was made public and was approved. It is possible sands in North Africa, Persia, Jordan and Syria. The
to conclude that in the sand of the Colosseum the answer does not lie in the might of the Roman
mighty empire truly fell. Army, although that was considerable. There have
Yet before it fell, the Roman Empire displayed been other armies before and since with the same
some strengths that were never lost. Why did it grow ruthlessness and the same powerful leadership. It

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is not even the study of men such as Julius Caesar,
Augustus, Pliny, Cicero, Virgil, Nero, Claudius or even
Spartacus that really touches the core of the question,
although they are important to our understanding of
the history of Rome.
Beyond buildings, leaders and roads there rests
the powerful matter of connections across frontiers
and communication between cities. The language
of Rome became the lingua franca of Europe for
1,000 years after the empire fell, and the code of laws
that the ancient Romans introduced have been the
bedrock of the legal systems over much of the world
ever since. It is to the continuity of ideas of justice
and the law, which held together the Roman Empire,
that we still owe so much.
The Roman Empire was defined by the city and
the citizens – practical, cool and determined people
whose leaders believed that those beyond their
borders were savages or outsiders who were certainly
unworthy of Roman citizenship. This changed as
the empire expanded. From Mesopotamia to the
northern borders of Britain, from Spain to the dark
forests of Germany, from North Africa to Macedonia,
into Asia and through Palestine and the edge of the
Arabian sands. Into Egypt, along the Euphrates, along
the wall Hadrian built in the north of England. This
was the Empire.

Rome’s Fate
Rome’s prosperity appeared to be unending. It was
not. As the Greek-Alexandrian poet Constantine
Cavafy (1863–1933) wrote:

The Barbarians will arrive today.

When the Barbarians come they’ll
make the laws…

Some people have arrived from the Frontier;

They said there are no Barbarians any more.
What will become of us without Barbarians?

The barbarians eventually arrived at the gates of

Rome. It was the end of glory. But first came great
men and great deeds – heroes and villains, kind men
and cruel, and here lies the fear at the end of it all.
Here is Rome.

Right: A view over the Roman Forum also showing the Temple of
Vesta, the Arch of Titus and the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

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Chapter 1

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From
Myth to
Empire
E
very major city has its physical foundations
buried in time and there are almost always
myths concerning its historical foundations
buried too. Rome is not unusual in this respect.
One of the myths concerns the naming of the
city. The other, a more literary retelling of the city’s
origins, connects the foundation of Rome with one
of the heroes of the siege of Troy. This story is the
core of The Aeneid, an epic poem, which was written
by the Latin poet Virgil (70–19 BCE) for Augustus (27
BCE–14 CE), the first emperor of Rome. The intent
was to create a connection between Augustus and
Romulus, the mythical founder of the city, and
in doing so make a connection between the first
emperor and the gods. Along with many other myths,
The Aeneid provides a vivid picture of the heroes who
created the city of Rome.

Opposite: The twins Romulus and Remus,

legendary founders of Rome, with the
she-wolf who saved them. An Etruscan
bronze from the fourth century BCE.

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The Myth – Aeneas, The Sabines entered Rome through the treachery of
Tarpeia, daughter of the Roman commander, who
Opposite: Aeneas, before escaping
from the burning city of Troy with
his lame father, Anchises, and his

Romulus and the said that she would allow the Sabines in to the city
son, Ascanius. His wife, Creusa,
offers him the figures of the
household gods.

Beginning of Rome if they would give her all that they wore on their
left hands. However, the Sabines were honourable
The Aeneid takes as its hero Aeneas, a Trojan prince men and furious that such an act of betrayal had led
and the son of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. At to their victory. Instead of giving Tarpeia the gold
the end of the ten-year siege of Troy, Aeneas’s wife, rings and bracelets that they wore on their left arms,
Creusa, a daughter of King Priam of Troy, urged him they threw their heavy shields on her, crushing her
to leave the city, which was being sacked by the to death. From this moment the Romans and the
Greeks. Creusa told her husband that his destiny Sabines lived in peace together. Another version of
was to found a great city. Although he loved her he the same myth ends with the Sabine women telling
knew he had to obey his fate. Creusa remained in the their fathers that they were content to be the wives
burning city while Aeneas fled, accompanied by his of Roman warriors. Romulus extended his immediate
father, Anchises, and son, Ascanius. territory and ensured the safety of his city, which
Aeneas wandered for many years until he came he ruled for nearly 40 years. Upon his death, he was Below: The remains of the Roman
port of Ostia situated a few
to the coast of Latium. Eventually, he married taken to heaven by his father, Mars. kilometres along the River Tiber.
Lavinia, the daughter of the local king, Latinus, and
established himself in the city of Lavinium. Upon
Aeneas’s death, Ascanius founded the city of Alba.
The descendants of Aeneas had ruled this region for
300 years when Numitor was overthrown by his
cruel and over-ambitious brother Amulius. Numitor’s
sons were murdered and his daughter, Rhea, forced to
remain a virgin. However, she gave birth to twin sons,
Romulus and Remus, having been visited by Mars,
the god of war.
A furious Amulius had the twins thrown into the
River Tiber, but the boys survived, suckled by a wolf
and then reared by a shepherd. Eventually the twins
learned their secret, killed Amulius and restored
the throne of Alba to their grandfather. The twins
decided to found a city of their own nearby. Romulus
won the honour of naming it, having witnessed a
good omen when he saw 12 vultures circling Mount
Palatine – Remus only saw six. Jealous at his brother’s
good fortune, Remus jumped over the city walls that
Romulus was building, mocking their height. This
infuriated Romulus so much that he picked up his
sword and killed his twin. So Rome – in myth at least
– was founded in 753 BCE.

The Rape of the

Sabine Women
Romulus had an army of men to populate his city,
but he had no women for them. To provide wives for
his warriors, he invited his neighbours, the Sabines,
to a festival and promptly carried off their daughters.
As a result the Romans and the Sabines went to war.

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from about 600 BCE. The legendary monarchs of the
A City at War city, among them the last king, Tarquinius Superbus
Defence and trade were the keys to the geographical (534–510 BCE), were probably Etruscan (see pages
position of Rome. Both had a bearing on the growth 31 and 33). In 510 BCE, the Romans expelled this
and future of the empire of which Rome was the hub. foreign king and with him the idea of “kingship”.
The city was built on the south bank of the River Fundamental to the growth of the city, and its
Tiber on a group of seven easily defended hilltops. emerging empire, was the refusal of its inhabitants to
The small port of Ostia, which was downstream from accept that one man should rule over them.
the fortified city, soon came under the control of
Rome and became the focus for all trading activity in
the immediate area. The Expansion
Once it was united as one settlement, the city was
a perfect base from which to wage war on local tribes
of Rome,
and to control the surrounding lands. It may be that 509–204 BCE
the incursion by the Sabines was enough to cause Following the overthrow of the monarchy, Rome
concern about the security of the Roman frontier, for became a republic (see pages 33–4), which meant that
it became the perpetual fear of successive rulers. its citizens had a part to play in the city’s government
From 753 to 509 BCE Rome was at war with its and its expanding territories.
other neighbours, as it struggled to consolidate its The Etruscans continued to hold land to the north
position. It is likely that the mysterious Etruscans of the city. The Greeks, who had colonized various
(see panel), who ruled an area that stretched from city states along the southern coast of Italy and the
the River Po to Campania, were in control of Rome island of Sicily, for example, Syracuse, were confident
that they would remain independent of this emergent
power. However, other tribes threatened the security
The Etruscans of Rome.
The Etruscans, who were centred in Erturia (modern Tuscany), were not Latin by race and The Roman Republic relied on the citizens’ army
it is believed that they came into northern Italy from Asia Minor. They left few signs of their
in which every man was expected to give service to
civilization apart from some dramatic pottery figurines and equally strong wall paintings.
Perhaps their greatest contribution to Rome was architectural. They created buildings using the state if called on. Its officers came from the ruling
both the arch and the vault. They also gave the Romans the idea of gladiatorial combat class – the patricians – whose sons were trained from
for entertainment and the belief that it was possible to divine the wishes of the gods from
childhood to lead the military against any threat to
studying animals.
the city. However, some of Rome’s adversaries put
better-trained and bigger armies into the field.
In 463 BCE the warlike tribes of the Volsci and
the Aequi came within 3 miles (five km) of the gates
of Rome. At the same time Rome lost control of the
colonies of citizens it had placed in the towns that it
had conquered during the previous generation (see
panel, page 19). However, by 418 BCE Rome had taken
back all the territory seized by the Aequi to the east
thus securing communication with its allies. At the
same time Roman troops were also consolidating
their positions in the south, undertaking a rapid and
bold advance through Volscian-held land to the town
of Tarracina, which the Romans took and plundered.
Rome took back colonies it had lost to the south
and east and forged new alliances to hold the plain
of Labium and the strongholds that dominated the
surrounding hill country. Former allies of Rome that
Above: An Etruscan fresco showing a lively banquet scene. It is a tomb painting from the first half
of the fifth century BCE. had rebelled were forced to sue for peace – some were
destroyed by a vengeful Roman army.

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While the Romans were consolidating their
position in the south and east, the Etruscans, their Roman Colonies
most dangerous enemy at this point, were under The settlement of Roman families in captured territory was a common policy of the Romans
threat from the Gauls in the north and the Greeks to ensure that each city had within it a garrison that was entirely controlled from Rome. It
meant, for example, that the city states captured along the coast would always be available
in the south. The immense power of the Etruscans
to Roman vessels and would provide secure headquarters for further military expansion.
was sapped by these pressures. It was time for Rome Colonies like these grew throughout the Roman Empire as it expanded.
to try to secure her northern borders, which were
under the control of the Etruscans. A newly confident
Rome took the opportunity to defeat the southern of this, Roman soldiers were paid for the first time,
Etruscan cities. The primary Etruscan settlement in as they were no longer just an army of citizens
the region was Veii, its vast riches made it worthy brought together during the summer fighting season.
of capture, and it was only about 12 miles (19 km) As Veii fell in 396 BCE, the Gauls broke through
north-west of Rome. The main ally of Veii was a into Etruscan lands in the north. The Etruscans
Latin town, Fidenae, which was situated on the no longer posed an imminent threat to Rome.
south bank of the Tiber just five miles (eight km) However, there was now a much more dangerous
from Rome. The Romans captured Fidenae in 428 adversary to contend with. The Gauls of the north,
BCE and totally destroyed it. Under Marcus Furius who populated a region running north of the Po to
Below: A sixteenth-century
Camillus, Roman forces besieged Veii. For Camillus the Alps that was known as Cisalpine Gaul, were engraved map of the city of Rome.
to keep the siege of Veii in place, his army had to regarded as barbarians. These men were powerful and The Tiber runs through the city.
Note the long defensive wall which
remain under arms for months. As a consequence well-organized warriors. When the Romans turned leads into the foothills.

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to confront the Gauls at the Battle of Allia in 390 to time, were pushed back across the River Po. In
BCE, their army was routed by their much better 358 BCE the Romans re-established their links with
organized and more experienced adversaries. This their Latin allies. Now Rome was in a position to
left Rome open for the taking. The Gauls needed no take on the remaining threats to its security, but
invitation. They stormed into the city and pillaged it first it built new alliances with the tribes living
before withdrawing with their loot. on the coastal plain of the Adriatic Sea. These
Rome now appeared to be at the mercy of all tough warriors were willing to fight alongside the
those it had defeated over the years. The army Roman army against the Samnites – a common
fell in to disarray and was now attacked by the enemy and a warlike tribe that ranged throughout
Volsci, the Aequi, the Etruscans and even by some the Apennines, the range of mountains looming
of its Latin allies. The city survived this disaster over Campania. The Romans captured Gavius
because its position was still strongly fortified Pontus, a Samnite leader whom they executed.
and because of the leadership skills of Camillus. In 293 BCE the Samnites finally capitulated,
He took the battered and dispirited army, rebuilt although they never abandoned their hatred for
its confidence and destroyed the Volsci and the Rome. In a last push for security on the mainland
Aequi in the 380s. Then, turning rapidly north he of Italy, Rome confronted Greek city states such as
took back all that the Etruscans had secured. Tarentum (modern Taranto), a rich city that owed its
Below: Rome takes the island
Rome began to perceive itself as capable of forcing wealth to its harbour and its traders.
of Sicily during the Punic Wars all her Italian enemies into submission. Even the When Tarentum attacked one of Rome’s allies, the
against Carthage. An oil painting
by Jacopo Ripanda. powerful Gauls, who continued to invade from time Thurii, and also took and sold into slavery the crews

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Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, was a warlike leader and fight a pitched battle and harried the
whose experience was garnered as a commander opposing army on its flanks, its front and
in major wars after the death of his cousin its rear. Pyrrhus won a battle at Ausculum in
Alexander the Great. He had great confidence in 279 BCE but again lost many men. This time he
his ability to defeat the Roman upstarts. In 280 managed to arrange an armistice.
BCE Pyrrhus landed at Tarentum in command of The military adventurer in Pyrrhus led him to
an army of professional soldiers. He had 20,000 turn aside from the battle against Rome and to
infantry and 5,000 cavalry, including 20 war attack the Carthaginians in Sicily. But in 275 BCE
elephants. Despite having some semblance of a he returned to attack the Romans at Beneventum
professional army, Rome was still heavily reliant where his army was so heavily defeated that he
on amateur militia and, all other things being abandoned the campaign and his allies. He died
equal, no such army can defeat professionals. in Argos three years later in a street battle.
Pyrrhus was victorious in battle at Heraclea, It is said that as he left Italy Pyrrhus prophesied
but lost 4,000 men. In 281 BCE he sent a “How fair a battlefield I am leaving in Sicily for the
diplomat, Cineas, to Rome to sue for peace. Romans and the Carthaginians.”
Cineas was told bluntly by the blind senator
Above: The battle of Heraclea (280 BCE) when
Appius Claudius to leave the city, as Rome would King Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated the Romans.
never negotiate with Pyrrhus while he stayed on Note the war elephants which caused havoc
Italian soil. amongst the Roman army. Engraving c.1630.
The Roman army used hit-and-run tactics Right: A bust of Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, who
against Pyrrhus’s troops. They refused to stand led the forces of Tarentum against the Romans.

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of a Roman squadron of ten ships, war was inevitable. seeking of the ruling clique would cause the
Rome laid waste the area around the city and the downfall of the wealth and influence of Carthage.
Democrat government of Tarentum called on Pyrrhus Corruption, greed and the lust for power meant
of Epirus (319–272 BCE) for help (see panel on the that the military was never allowed to expand
previous page). beyond the control of the city’s oligarchy. They
feared their own generals would turn on them
and so they refused them enough funds or the
The Punic Wars freedom to capitalize on their military successes.
Carthage, a city state that centred on modern Tunis, Rome had to defeat the Carthaginian Empire if it
was always a threat to Roman ambition and already was to take its position as a dominant power in the
had an empire that stretched along the North African known world. The interests of the cities were too
coastline, through the southern Mediterranean and closely connected for their empires to coexist and
up into Spain. It was a city with a long history and a three wars, known as the Punic Wars, were fought
powerful past. Carthage controlled overland trade in between the two powers for supremacy in the
North Africa and sea trade from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean. The First Punic War lasted from 264
western Mediterranean. to 241 BCE; the Second Punic War began in 218 BCE
Carthage was ruled by a “Committee of 100” and ended in 201 BCE; and the Third Punic War ran
Below: Depiction of Hannibal and whose influence was supreme. The city seemed from 149 to 146 BCE.
his army crossing the Alps during
the Second Punic War. to be invulnerable. Yet the self-interest and self- When the two states came into conflict it was,
inevitably, over the ownership of the islands off
southern Italy, among them Sicily and Corsica,
which were under the heel of Carthage. The Romans
invaded Messana (modern Messina) in Sicily. Then,
in 263 BCE the Carthaginians concentrated a force
in the area of Agrigentum. The Romans besieged
their enemy with 100,000 men. Both sides suffered
from the plague and hunger, and after seven months
the Carthaginians cut their way out of the city and
abandoned it to the Romans who had lost as many as
30,000 men. In 259 BCE Carthage ceded Corsica to
Rome. Roman forces attempted to take the war to the
African mainland, but were beaten back.
Carthaginian quinqueremes (galleys) held
the power at sea. The Romans, who were not
experienced in naval conflict, built a navy to take
the war beyond Italy, which would mean taking on
the powerful Carthaginian fleet. In order to gain an
advantage at sea the Romans invented the corvus,
an ingenious 36-foot (12-metre) gangway the width
of two men with a sharp spike on its underside that
was slung from the mast of a ship. When two ships
engaged, the Romans lowered the corvus and locked
ships together while their soldiers poured across the
gangway into the enemy vessel.
Under Marcus Atilius Regulus, the Romans won
a decisive sea battle and destroyed 36 Carthaginian
ships. The way to Africa was now open. There they
were successful at first and won battle after battle
on the open plains. The Romans took 20,000 slaves
during this campaign.

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Rome proposed impossible demands for a peace its natural end with both Carthage and Rome having Above: A Roman sea battle against
the Carthaginian navy in which
settlement, which left the Carthaginians in such suffered grievous losses. They had fought themselves the Romans used their invention,
the corvus.
despair that they imported Xanthippus, a Spartan to a standstill and from 241 to 218 BCE the two cities
soldier of fortune who had fought in the armies stood down in what seemed to be an armed truce.
of Alexander the Great. He turned the fortunes of
the Carthaginians at Clupea on the coast, where
the Romans were trampled under fearsome war The Mighty Hannibal
elephants and Regulus was captured. The Romans The Second Punic War was a long-drawn-out
had ceased to be a danger to Carthage on African soil campaign. The battles were fought in Spain and
by 255 BCE. through the Alps and down into Italy. For much of
Fortunes swung back and forth at sea, but in 249 the time the Romans experienced the bitterness
BCE, towards the end of the period of naval battles, of defeat after defeat at the hands of the mighty
the Carthaginian fleet trapped the Romans between Hannibal (247–182 BCE).
the shore and their vast and experienced fleet. The Hannibal had come into his own and the
Romans lost all but 30 of their 210 ships; 20,000 centralized power in Rome was not able to respond
prisoners were taken, and then a second force was to the speed and ingenuity of this remarkable
swept away in a storm. The First Punic War came to Carthaginian general. He was beginning a career

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that would confirm him as the greatest and most
innovative opponent the Roman army had yet
“In fighting against Hannibal the
confronted. In fighting against him the Romans Romans learned lessons that enabled
learned lessons that enabled them to forge an
invincible army in the future.
them to forge an invincible army”
Hannibal made Cartagena the centre of
Carthaginian power in Spain. This was a break was determined to attack and gain the credit Opposite: The Romans under
Flaminius and the Carthaginian
for independence from his political masters in for defeating Hannibal. Confronting Hannibal at army led by Hannibal fighting at
Lake Trasimene (Spring 216 BCE).
Carthage. He began to push north as Rome tried to Trebia, Sempronius could not have realized how
Below: A bust of the great
use proxies such as the Saguntine tribe to harass eager Hannibal was for them to attack him. Carthaginian general Hannibal
him. A messenger was sent to Hannibal to demand On a bleak December morning the Romans (247–182 BCE).

reparation for the damage done so far. The Roman attacked what Sempronius believed was a weakened
was told there was no chance of that. It was either Carthaginian army. They came through the mists,
war or peace. crossed the icy stream and instead of a battle-weary
It was war. Hannibal made his first move very and demoralized force they confronted a well-fed and
quickly indeed. The Romans sent their most rested Carthaginian force perfectly deployed for the
powerful general, Publius Cornelius Scipio (236–183 battle. Hannibal wanted to fight. The Romans were
BCE) to intercept him, but Hannibal had already yet again defeated.
crossed the Pyrenees and was preparing to cross At this moment the Romans chose yet again to
the River Rhone. It is a truth that a good soldier replace their commander. Gaius Flaminius was
learns most from a sound defeat. The Romans were a man whose policy had always been to get the
about to experience it. The battles in Italy that led enemy on the run and keep him on the run. This
to the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE were lessons in was all very well if the enemy was a horde of unruly
quick-thinking, swift movement and brilliant tactics, barbarians, but in Hannibal he was facing one of
which no Roman general would ever forget. By the the greatest tacticians of all time. Hannibal already
time Hannibal emerged from the Pyrenees he had knew from his intelligence sources that his
lost 40,000 infantrymen and 3,000 cavalry. It was opponent was given to rashness.
September and snow was falling when Hannibal Hannibal moved into Etruria and Flaminius,
began to cross the Alps. Avalanches and hostile tribes over-eager, did not see the trap that was being
were a constant danger but Hannibal marched on. prepared for him. It was sprung in 216 BCE by
In the ice and cold the cavalry suffered badly and Lake Trasimene. Hemmed in by mountains, on
the infantry did not have an easy time. He lost many the small plain close to the lake, the Carthaginian
more men and horses by the time he vdescended army was drawn up on a slight rise. Hannibal
from the mountains. secretly sent his cavalry to the end of the pass with
Hannibal always moved like lightning and this orders to close it as soon as Flaminius had led his
time was no different. He gave his men a few days’ army towards the plain and the lake.
rest and then went into battle. At the Battle of Ticinus The Romans came out of a light mist
in 218 BCE Scipio thought his troops could easily and found the Carthaginian main
beat an army that had just fought its way through army on rising ground ahead of
avalanches and attacks by local tribesmen. Scipio was them. Its flanks were exposed
wrong. His army was defeated, he was wounded and to the enemy hidden in the
had to fall back on the River Po where he destroyed mountains. As soon as the
the bridges and retreated to Trebia. last cohort passed the
Scipio was now joined by Publius Sempronius, entrance to the pass,
who had been sent with reinforcements. It they were attacked from
was a decision driven by politics rather than the rear by Carthaginian
prudent strategy. Sempronius had no experience cavalry. The Romans were
of command in battle. Scipio understood war annihilated. The cavalry
and insisted that their position, defended by sent as reinforcements were also
the River Trebia, was secure. But Sempronius surprised and slaughtered.

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“ The two Roman
commanders agreed
to hold power on
alternate days!”
The next day the Romans were forced to surrender
after Flaminius died on the battlefield. It was a
disaster for the Roman army. The Battle at Cannae
came too soon for those lessons to be absorbed.
Despite his victories, Hannibal knew that he had
been weakened by these battles. He also realized
that his lines of communication were over-stretched
and that he was not powerful enough to take Rome
by direct assault. But he was happy to harry and to
destroy the defensive confederacy that the Romans
had built around their city. He was also one of
the first propagandists in war. He kept his Roman
prisoners under harsh conditions, but sent home
those Italian prisoners who lived without the benefit
of Roman citizenship.
Hannibal headed into Apulia and was now a very
potent threat to Rome. The army the Romans now
put together to confront Hannibal was made up of
40,000 men in all. Again command of the Roman
army was divided, this time between Gaius Terentius
Varro, who had no experience of battle, and Aemillius
Paullus, a man of experience who was unpopular.
The two Roman commanders compounded the
problems of a split command by agreeing to hold
power on alternate days!
The Battle of Cannae was fought on an open plain
that favoured those on horseback and as Hannibal
had 10,000 cavalrymen he had the advantage there.
On the other hand, his infantry was half that of the
Romans. Cavalry was the key and any experienced
general would have made suitable changes in the
disposition of his men if faced by such a superior
force of horsemen. Varro did not have the experience
and determined to fight on an open front line.
The cavalry of both sides was drawn up on the
wings in the traditional formation with the heavy
infantry in the centre and the faster and more lightly
armed infantry to the front. Hannibal’s instructions
were to draw the Roman troops deep into the centre
– a dangerous manoeuvre, as Hannibal relied on his
troops retreating slowly but still holding the Romans.

Opposite: Hannibal and his army with ox-drawn baggage carts are
led through a mountain pass during the Second Punic War.

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The Carthaginian troops retreated to an agreed determined. They would learn the lessons Hannibal Above: The end of Carthage. The
city is burned to the ground and
point and the Romans believed they had victory in taught them. its whole population enslaved or
slaughtered. Copper engraving by
their hands. Then the Gauls and the Spanish, fighting It would take 29 years for the Romans to dislodge Matthaus Merian (1593–1650).
for Carthage, peeled off to the flanks and revealed a Hannibal and drive him back through Spain and to Opposite: The Battle of Cannae
new centre line of Numidian forces. Carthage. It would take another five years to pursue (August 216 BCE) from an
illuminated manuscript by Jean
While the Romans tried to deal with this new him from Carthage, whose rulers abandoned him. Fouquet (c. 1415/20–1477/81).
force, the Gauls and the Spanish regrouped and then When he took refuge with Prusias, King of Bithynia,
fell onto the Roman flanks. These were vulnerable he was 64 years old. He inspired such fear that the
because a close formation like a Roman column is Romans demanded he be surrendered to them.
only truly effective if it can break the ranks of the Hannibal knew it was the end. He also knew that
enemy. Hannibal had made them believe they were he might expect a degrading death and he poisoned
about to do just that. The Romans were surrounded himself in 182 BCE. So died the greatest tactician the
as Hannibal turned his cavalry loose on the Roman Romans ever confronted.
rear. The defeat became a massacre. It is said that The Third Punic War ended with Carthage reduced
50,000 died and 10,000 were taken prisoner. No to rubble. Its people were sent into slavery and Rome
more than 10,000 men escaped the killing field at was triumphant; Carthage was no longer a threat.
Cannae. One of them was Varro. From this moment the Romans were in charge of their
In other circumstances and against another enemy own destiny. Rome controlled the long peninsular
this would have destroyed the Roman Empire. But from the Po in the north to Sicily in the south. But
the Romans were proud, unbowed, ambitious and how was this emerging empire to be ruled?

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Chapter 2

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Ruling
Rome
T
here were three phases in the government
of ancient Rome:
The Kingdom: 753 -509 BCE
The Republic: 509 – 31 BCE
The Empire: 27 BCE– 476 CE
For the first 38 years from its foundation,
the mythical kingdom of Rome was ruled by
Romulus (see page 17). As founder, designer and
builder of the city he exercised total control over
its government. When Romulus died he was
succeeded by Pompilius, who was said to have
given the Romans their law and their religion. His
successors consolidated the security of the city.
It was usual for the king to take advice from a
council of elders, which limited his power. The
king’s position was not hereditary, instead he was
elected by a committee of 300 members of the
ruling patrician class – the original Senate. The
members of this class were representatives of
the various families and clans within the city. In
matters of state, the king referred to the Senate and
no change in law was valid without its consent.
In addition to the Senate there was what
might be termed a Supreme Court. The men of
this court had to agree with the king’s election,
and were able to exercise the right of pardon if
the king allowed a prisoner to appeal against
sentence of death. As they directly represented
the ten tribes who made up the citizens of Rome,
they voted in blocks and not as individuals.

Opposite: A marble bas-relief of

a gathering of Roman senators.

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The plebeian class had no power and had to accept Roman lady named Lucretia was violated by the Above: A procession of senators
(and their wives) from a marble
what was handed down by the patricians, who had son of Tarquinius. She took the ultimate revenge, altar frieze of the ninth century
BCE, which commemorates the
the ear of the king. This began to change when gathering her relatives around her and stabbing return of Augustus from the
Spanish Campaigns.
Servius Tullius, the legendary sixth king of Rome, herself. Her family were forced to avenge her. The
came to the throne in about 578 BCE. Tullius was people of Rome rose against the king and his family,
born into the plebeian class but married the daughter who had so abused their power, and they were forced
of the fourth king, Tarquinius Priscius. He was to flee from Rome. It was the end of the monarchy.
determined that the representation of the people
should be based on property and not on accident
of birth and he founded the Comitia Centuriata, Family
an assembly of Roman citizens that included the Other institutions had also been growing in
plebeians. The changes he instigated precipitated a importance during the period of Roman kings. Family
revolt by the patrician families, who felt that their and the bonds of blood relationships were always
power was threatened. powerful influences on the development of law and,
Tullius was eventually murdered. The conduct of in particular, of Roman life. In public matters a son
the remaining kings of Rome led to the monarchy’s might be a magistrate and have power over his father
fall. Tarquinius Superbus, the last king, ruled as a in this domain, but this was never the case within the
tyrant. His pride and cruelty, and that of his sons, family itself. The head of a family had absolute power
caused his downfall. According to legend, a virtuous over the private conduct of all members of his clan.

“ The plebeian class had no power and had

to accept what was handed down by the Opposite: The virtuous Roman
lady, Lucretia, dies honourably

patricians, who had the ear of the king” by her own hand. A sixteenth-
century oil painting by Sodema.

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“Brutus sentenced
his own two sons to
death. It was his duty
as a citizen of Rome”
But there was always a sense of loyalty to the
state, something that can be exemplified by the
actions of a magistrate called Brutus. He had
to pronounce sentence on several patricians,
including two of his own sons, who were accused
of conspiring to bring back the tyrannical
Tarquinius. The charge was treason and the
sentence was laid down by law. Brutus sentenced
his own two sons to death. It was his duty as a
citizen of Rome. His paternal feelings had to be
set aside for the good and honour of the state.
The legendary kingdom of Rome lasted for
244 years. The city now faced a period of great
institutional and constitutional change.

The Republic,
509–31 BCE
A key development at the start of the Republic was
that some of the regal power was passed to two
annually elected officials called consuls. At first the
only block to a consul’s power was that wielded by
the other consul who could act as a check on any
excessive demands or laws suggested by the other.
Consuls were exclusively chosen from the ranks of
the patricians, although this changed.
In about 494 BCE the patricians agreed to the
creation of a plebeian magistracy. At first this
collegium of magistrates consisted of two men, called
tribunes, but this was later expanded to five. They
had great power, as they could veto the decisions of
other magistrates and were themselves untouchable.
Their defence of the interests of the plebeian classes
were almost sacred and they were a powerful force
throughout the period of the Republic.
The patricians attempted to keep control of
the power in the state but the plebeians became
organized and determined that the right to power
as a result solely of land ownership and wealth was
not conducive to equity before the law. The plebeians

Opposite: A marble bas-relief of senators

from the arch of Trajan, Benevento.

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were determined to acquire the right to be elected as distribution of land to war veterans. This unrest
consuls despite the opposition of the patricians. The resulted in armed skirmishes that bordered on civil
plebeians got what they demanded only by resorting war, short-lived dictatorships and temporary truces.
to threats to secede from the state. As a result of Rome’s military and diplomatic expansion of power
their final threat in 287 BCE they created a council of around the Mediterranean also changed the balance
plebeians, which could make decisions with the force of power. Outside the city, corruption was rife and
of law. It is from this institution that we have the military commanders needed only the support of the
word “plebiscite”. army to take whatever they wanted from the areas
The power struggle between the plebeians and they controlled. Commanding an army in one of the
the patricians continued. In 133 BCE there was provinces amounted to permission to print money.
severe disruption as a result of the reforms proposed Gracchus had made a genuine attempt to solve
by Gracchus (see panel) who requested the fair the problems of poverty in rural areas and massive

Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus was born to a noble family in 154 BCE. He was present at the siege of Carthage in 134 BCE and was appointed to carry out the agrarian reforms
of his brother, Tiberius. He became a quaestor (government officer) in 126 BCE and tribune two years later. In 123 BCE he was re-elected as a tribune and he
continued his reformist policies. He attacked the Senate’s privileges, and provided for the distribution of wheat at cheap prices. He also created the structure
for the foundation of Roman colonies at Tarentum and Carthage. Gracchus also limited military service, and initiated public works to occupy the unemployed.
He ensured that the equestrian class could set and collect taxes in the newly acquired provinces in Asia where they also had control of criminal juries. He
wanted all Italians to have Roman citizenship, but this provoked the Senate to outlaw him. He fled but was captured and killed with 3,000 of his supporters.

Above: The great political leader Gaius Sempronius Gracchus addresses the people.

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unemployment in the city, but his solutions did
nothing but increase the anger of the people, which
was whipped up by interested parties among the
patrician landowners.
The Senatorial Party (also known as the Optimate
Party) was apparently in control of the government.
Most members of this group were ex-magistrates.
Sulla (see panel, below) was a powerful member
of this group. The equestrian order, also known as
the knights, was next in the pecking order. These
wealthy men were not involved in government, but
used their money to bring them the influence they
desired. Cicero, the orator, was a powerful voice
within this class.
The Democrat Party took its strength from the
mob. Julius Caesar (see page 43) was its main
supporter for a time. He disliked and mistrusted
the power wielded by the Senate and wanted to
extend Roman privileges to new classes of citizens
of the empire. There was also the ultra-conservative
Cataline party whose interests lay in preserving the
old Roman order.
The continually expanding empire was now ruled
from the centre by a group of men who were unable
to control the threat posed by victorious regional
commanders with potentially dangerous armies at
their disposal. In 71 BCE, an army of slaves rebelled,
led by Spartacus (see page 127). The fact that it was
not quickly crushed by the Senate was seen as a
sign of the inherent weakness of these legislators.
The Republic came to an end with the Civil
Wars. Like all such conflicts, the Roman Civil Wars Above: A marble portrait bust of
Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE),
(see chapters four and six) were divisive, cruel and Roman statesman and general.
very bitterly fought. They resulted in the return of Below: Lucius Sulla (138–78 BCE),
rule by one man, initially Julius Caesar. Whatever its the Roman consul and general. A
ruthless leader and dictator of Rome.

Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born in 138 BCE, the son of a with his army and put Marius to flight. Sulla returned to
poor patrician family. He became quaestor to the senator, the east and eventually crushed the King of Pontus and
Marius, in 107 BCE, praetor in 93 BCE and governor of returned to Rome where Marius was again in power.
the province of Cilicia. Aged 50 he was made a consul Sulla crushed his party and became sole master of Rome.
after taking charge of the war against Mithridates in He threw out all of Marius’s reforms of the Senate, took
Persia. This appointment was opposed by the Democrat the power away from popular public institutions and
Party, led by Marius, who was threatened by the political massacred many of his opponents. He resigned in 79
ambitions of his former protégé. Sulla marched on Rome BCE and died peacefully in Puteoli a year later.

“Sulla returned to Rome … crushed Marius’s

party and became the sole master of Rome”

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divisions the Republic had left
a system of lawgiving that was
much more egalitarian than it had
been at the end of the Kingdom.
The consuls were obliged to take heed
of their own experience and also to abide
by the decisions of committees of wise men
and of experienced legislators.

The Empire
The Roman Empire began after the Second Civil
War had ended (see page 96). Octavian became the
Emperor Augustus and it was on his skill, cunning,
strength and control of the army and of the divided
people of Rome that lay the only chance for their
future as an empire.
Rule by one man was the pragmatic answer
to the pressing need for sustained control of the
centre, of the provinces and of the frontiers. Once
tasted, such complete power is impossible to give
up without a struggle. The emperors who followed
Augustus gradually lost their grip on all except their
own pleasures and their own personal ambitions.
There was no room for loyalty in a court where cruel
intrigue and ruthless ambition was the watchword.
In this situation lay the danger for Rome. By
removing all need for loyalty, by crushing all dissent,
by presiding over the erosion of a moral basis for

“It was 200 years before the

Roman Empire ceased its
expansion and began to fade”
the succession and finally by relying on the army
the emperors slowly lost the people and once that
happened, the empire was finally lost.
It was 200 years before the Roman Empire ceased
its expansion and began, as all empires eventually
must, to decline and to fade. Carthage had once
seemed invincible and yet it lay under the sand and
no life stirred there. The miracle of Rome is that it
grew and survived for so many years. The period
of empire that began with Augustus, survived as
long as it did because, despite power being held by a
single individual, it was built on the bedrock of civil,
military and political systems that had evolved from Right: Marble bust
of Augustus, the first
the Kingdom through to the Republic. Emperor c. 20 CE.

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The Offices of Rome

Patricians
The patricians were a small group of wealthy families with political influence
and an enhanced social position. They dominated the Senate and initially
ensured that the plebeians were kept out. They maintained their power by
gathering around them individuals who relied on their influence to protect
and advance them. The patricians grew in influence and power as their
wealth increased, mostly through cattle rearing. They held all the priestly
offices, which meant that they controlled the magistracy and the consulship
as they controlled the reading of the auspices that gave advice from the
gods. Eventually the distinction between the patrician and plebeian (see
below) classes became blurred.

Plebeians
These were not high-ranking men and were kept out of public office by
the patricians (see above). This exclusion ceased when the plebeians
demanded and achieved their own collegium in which their tribunes became
extraordinarily powerful. In 287 BCE, as a result of wielding the power of
Above: Representation of a sitting of the Roman senate: Cicero attacks Catiline, from a their numbers, they gained social and political rights that were equal to those
19th-century fresco in Palazzo Madama, Rome, house of the Italian Senate. of the patricians. They achieved power by wielding their undoubted strength
in the streets with leaders who were not afraid to rabble rouse if necessary.
Aediles Praetor
Aediles took on the duties of police magistrates and the maintenance of all
A Praetor was the head of the judicial business of Rome. As this business
the public works in Rome. This, in time, led to them having to pay the costs
increased a second praetor was appointed whose main area of work was to
of the city’s games. It was an arduous duty and men in this position were
guide disputes between foreigners and Roman citizens. He might well be
open to bribery and corruption as the financial demands on the position
specialized in a particular area of law. In the period of the Roman Empire they
grew greater.
were replaced by praetorian prefects who were in effect ministers in control
of the emperor’s council. A man had to be aged 40 before he could become
Consul a praetor.
A consul was the highest form of magistrate during the period of the Roman
Republic. Two consuls with equal power were elected annually. A consul
could be opposed by his fellow consul or by the tribunes (see below). Initially
Quaestor
The appointment as quaestor was the beginning of a Roman official’s career.
both consuls were patricians, but this changed in 367 BCE when it was
Initially it had been an office dating from the kingdom to deal with matters of
decided that one should also be plebeian. After Augustus came to power, the
law. In the period of the republic a quaestor was a magistrate who specialized
consuls lost a great deal of their influence.
in financial matters and answered only to the consuls. To be appointed as
quaestor a man had to be 28 years old. It was an important rite of passage
Equestrians/Knights for any ambitious Roman man.
During the period of the Roman monarchy, the equestrians were men
capable of bringing horses to the battlefield. After the reforms begun by the
Senate
Gracchus brothers, they became a political party formed from a commercial
Originally the members of the Senate were exclusively patricians (see above).
and trading class. They were free to create banks, public works departments
During the period of the Roman Republic and until the plebeians gained
and trading houses. During the period of the emperors, knights were the
the franchise they were the real focus of power. When Augustus became
high administrators in the civil service.
emperor the Senate was allowed to feel that it had parallel power with the
Emperor. But in fact he kept the real power to himself while allowing the
Freemen Senate a token of its past strength. The power of the Senate was eroded by
This was a class of men and women that grew as the slave population grew successive emperors.
in numbers and in power. At first they were merely those slaves set free by While many of its members were against democracy, which was initially
humane or kindly masters. Often this freedom was given as payment for advocated by men such as Brutus and Cicero, the Senate was also opposed
loyalty, or in the case of a female slave, because the owner had children to the return of the monarchy. Members of the Senate were rich, well placed
by her and wanted to marry her and legitimize their children. At first they and influential and while domestic political power eventually swung to the
could only exercise the vote inside the city but in 312 BCE they were given equestrian class (see above) the Senate did produce the men capable of
the same rights as other citizens. As these freemen were often working realizing Rome’s aspirations to expansion.
successfully in business in the city it gave them considerable power.
Tribune
Optimates These were magistrates with many duties both political and military. They
In the early days of the republic the affairs of state were determined by were appointed by the Comitia Tributa, which was an assembly elected by
debate in the Senate. Inevitably it was a small number of conservative the plebeians. Only those who had been adopted or born plebeians could
influential families who carried through the laws and controlled elections. become tribunes of the people. Tribunes had the power of veto against
This group was known as the Optimates. These traditionalist political power magistrates. They could arrest and fine people and they organized and
brokers came under threat from the more radical and younger members of controlled public meetings. The civil power of the tribunes was wide ranging
their own class, the Populares. and their military power lay with levying troops for the Roman army.

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Caesar
and the
Conquest
of Gaul
G
aius Julius Caesar was born into a patrician
family in Rome on 13 July, 100 BCE. A quick-
witted and intelligent boy, he was brought up
with many advantages. Yet his family was not
rich by the fabulously wealthy standards of many
at that time. Lack of money could prove to be a handicap
to any ambitions that the young Caesar might have for a
life at the forefront of Roman society.
Caesar proudly claimed to be descended from Venus
(Aphrodite) and Anchises, father of Aeneas and ancestor
of Romulus, the founder of Rome. His mother, Aurelia,
was from a powerful family, although they had plebeian
roots. The Caesars lived in modest circumstances in an
unremarkable area of the city where Julius received the
usual schooling for a boy of his background. It seems he
had a facility with languages. The usual military training
of a patrician youth would have been part of his normal
routine – mastery of sword and spear were expected and
he appears to have been a particularly good horseman.
At around the age of 14 Caesar was engaged to
marry Cossutia who was, according to the Greek writer
Plutarch, from a family of the equestrian caste. Despite
being lower on the social scale, her family was rich,
which had to be a consideration for Caesar’s parents
when they chose her as a wife for their son. A year later,
Caesar’s father died.

Opposite: Julius Caesar lands on the

English coast in 55 BCE. From an
illuminated manuscript c. 1454–60.

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However impeccable his aristocratic background and patrician power brokers. In the hotbed of political Opposite: A marble bust of the
young Gaius Julius Caesar made
however much Julius proved to have a fine and able infighting, Sulla began a campaign to destroy the during the first century BCE.

intelligence, lack of money was a constant problem. ambitious young man through intimidation and
Nevertheless, the family did have some influential threat. It was a true baptism of fire.
connections. Caesar’s favourite aunt, Julia, had Sulla stripped Caesar of his inheritance and ordered
married Gaius Marius in 113 BCE (see panel). Marius him to divorce Cornelia, but the young man refused
was an influential politician, who did not tolerate and was forced into hiding. Sulla used his secret
fools and vigorously opposed the arrogance of the agents to try to find him, so Caesar had to move
patricians in the Senate. every night to avoid the assassination squads. It was
He was a fine if impetuous general and helped only because of the intervention of his family and
to reform the Roman army. He was also a leading friends that he was not killed during Sulla’s killings.
democrat, intent on confronting the conservative Sulla pardoned him reluctantly and according to
wing of the Senate. He had clawed his way to political Suetonius said to the relatives: “Very well, take him
prominence despite being born outside Rome to a
family that did not even have the right to vote.
Because of his contentious nature, the Gaius Marius
influence Gaius Marius could wield for Caesar Gaius Marius was born in about 157 BCE to an equestrian family at Arpinum, which was also
the home of the great orator Cicero. Marius was an ambitious and determined man and saw a
was something of a double-edged sword. The
way out of the poverty of peasant farming by joining the army. He was voted a tribune of the
ambitious young man had to make some moves people in 119 BCE and served in Spain as praetor (law official), which gave him experience in
for himself. Caesar decided to abandon Cossutia government. He then served in Numidia (North-West Africa) in campaigns against the region’s
king, Jugurtha. In 107 BCE Marius was elected to the position
and instead married Cornelia, the daughter of
of consul, although he continued to command armies
Lucius Cornelius Cinna (130–84 BCE), a politician during the Teuton and Cimbri invasions of Italy.
of note who had been elected consul since 87 BCE. Marius was an important figure in the fight against
the power of the patricians, who controlled the
The young Caesar may have decided this union
Senate. They resisted him because of his low birth,
was an astute move into the political arena. but he still managed to implement reforms in the
The conflict between Marius and Sulla (see army. He believed these changes, which affected
the system of enlistment, armaments and the
page 37) provided the backdrop and the political organization of the legions, were essential if the
experience that helped young Caesar’s gradual rise Roman army was to avoid unnecessary defeats.
to power. Sulla became a consul in 88 BCE and The changes made by Marius made the army a
profession that was open to all free-born citizens,
was subsequently sent by the Senate to confront rather than just the aristocratic classes. A legion was
King Mithridates of Persia. Taking advantage of his now to be 6,000 men and was given its own eagle
absence, Marius pushed through reforms of the standard. The cohort was to consist of 600 men,
each armed with a pilum. One drawback of his
Senate, cutting back its power and influence. changes meant that each legion had to
When Sulla learned about this, he returned at the depend on a particular commander
head of his army, crushed Marius and his supporters and because the appointment
of generals was in the
and declared himself sole ruler – dictator – of Rome. hands of the Senate, it
It was the first time that a Roman general had ever opened the way for
used his military command against the city. Sulla the appointment of
men who were not
restored the privileges of the Senate, reformed and always suitable for
weakened the public institutions, and had a number command.
of his opponents killed. He was a ruthless political
operator and to stand in his way was to invite danger.
Caesar was a man on the rise and Sulla considered
him a potential enemy. Through his family ties to
Marius, who died in 86 BCE, he was connected to the
Democrat Party, and through his marriage he was
connected to Cinna, an outspoken enemy of Sulla.
Right: A marble bust of
Despite his youth, Caesar was proving to be a good Gaius Marius (157–86 BCE),
a reforming politician and
public orator. His speeches were greeted with delight tribune of the people.
by those who were opposed to the conservative

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“Caesar was awarded a crown of oak life. Caesar was coming to the notice of the right
people and above all was gaining a reputation among
leaves for his bravery in battle and for his men for concern for the safety of the soldiers he

saving a fellow soldier’s life” commanded. It was a reputation he carried with him
to later commands and to more important battles.
In 79 BCE Sulla retired to his home outside Rome
but do not forget that the man you want me to spare and died a year later. Caesar was serving in Cilicia
will one day be the ruin of the party we have long under Servilius when he heard the news and he
defended. There are many Mariuses in this Caesar.” returned to Rome in 78 BCE. With Sulla dead, the
most dangerous threat to his political future had been
removed, Caesar was determined that the reforms
Caesar Joins the instigated by the dictator should be repealed and that
power should be taken back from the magistrates and
Roman Army the Senate and given to the tribunes of the people.
Julius Caesar had already wisely decided that Rome Caesar was offered advancement by the consul
might become too dangerous for him and he left the Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who headed the political
city. He was deeply in debt and needed to escape his revolt after Sulla’s retirement. He wisely turned down
creditors. Joining the army might give him a chance the offer, as he was not confident that Lepidus had
to win some prize money and so settle his debts. the mettle for the political battles ahead. He was
He served under Marcus Themus in Asia and right. The revolt was put down.
then under the command of Lucius Lucullus, during In 76 BCE Caesar decided to go to Greece to study
which time he was awarded a crown of oak leaves for at the training school for rhetoric under the best
his bravery in battle and for saving a fellow soldier’s living practitioner, Apollonius Molo. On his way to the
eastern Mediterranean he was captured by pirates off
the island of Pharmacussa, near Rhodes (see panel).
Caesar and the Pirates
Rhodes lay in an area of the Mediterranean that was dominated by pirates who specialized
in kidnap, extortion and blackmail. The families of victims knew that if they didn’t pay the
ransom demanded the victim would never return. After his capture, Caesar was taken to their
Caesar’s Political
stronghold, where it seems that they took him for a wealthy Roman. They had no idea that
they had captured one of the most distinguished and brave soldiers in the Roman army who
Career Begins
had very little money. He was, after all, a very young man. When the pirate leader told him In 68 BCE Cornelia died while giving birth to a
that he had asked as much as 20 talents in ransom Caesar appeared to be offended – “Ask 50 stillborn son (the couple already had a daughter
at least,” he demanded.
named Julia). Caesar was broken-hearted. In the same
The pirates sent Caesar’s travelling companions back to Rome with the ransom demand.
They were told they had only 40 days to collect the money or their friend would die. It year his Aunt Julia also died. He used the funerals
appears that the pirate chief and Caesar got on well. They joked, played games, talked and to make his first openly political move, giving
ate together like good friends. Julius told his captor that if he regained his freedom he would
orations in honour of the two women while ensuring
come back and take not only the ransom but the lives of the entire pirate gang too. The
pirate laughed at the very idea. that the funeral mask of Marius was paraded as a
As the deadline for the ransom loomed, even the pirate chief seemed to be concerned that direct signal of his opposition to Sulla’s changes in
the money should arrive and he would be able to let his victim go free with honour. After 38
the constitution. He also remarried, taking Sulla’s
days, the money was paid. Caesar was free. He reminded his captors of his promise, telling
them that they would have done better to kill him, as he was going to return and kill them. granddaughter, Pompeia, as his bride.
They laughed in his face, they didn’t believe that Caesar would dare to return. They had The same year Caesar was elected to the position
completely misread this man as other, better men did in the future.
of quaestor in southern Spain and Portugal. While
The moment he reached safety, Caesar organized a fleet. He led it back to the pirates’ base
and the gang was defeated, as Caesar had promised. He was asked what was to be done there he attacked independent tribes and made
with the men among whom he had lived for nearly two months. They may have hoped for enough money to settle his debts. He returned to
freedom, for they had not harmed him and they had let him go free. These were men he
Rome and was elected as aedile (magistrate) in 65
admired for their skills and their courage, and they hoped he might show them mercy.
But Caesar reminded them that he too kept his word. He had scaffolds constructed and BCE. Caesar was climbing the political ladder at the
ordered that they all be crucified. To make their deaths a little easier, and because he same time as ensuring his connections with people
respected them as warriors, he ordered that their throats be cut before they were nailed
of influence. The great general Pompey (Magnus
to the crosses. Julius Caesar had proved that he was already a ruthless and a merciless
opponent. He was still just 24 years old. Pompeius) wanted to continue the war in the east,
a plan that was supported by Caesar, who gained

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Left: Pompey the Great, Roman
politician and general, and, at first,
a supporter of Julius Caesar.

himself a powerful ally in doing so. At about the the most magnificent games he could not afford. It
same time he made a friend of Marcus Licinius was a triumph. Caesar owed hundreds of gold talents
Crassus (c. 115–53 BCE), a fabulously wealthy Roman, at the end of it, although Crassus paid off the debt.
who provided much financial support for this In his book The Twelve Caesars Suetonius
politician on the rise. describes Caesar as a man given to plots and plotting.
Caesar needed to ensure that he had a source of In 63 BCE a conspiracy to overthrow the magistrates
funds if he was to make his next ambitious move. and seize the consulship was revealed by the senior
The populace were always volatile which made them consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero. The leader of the
difficult to keep calm. His position as aedile meant conspiracy was said to be Lucius Catalina (Cataline)
that he had the responsibility for the daily running of the patrician party. Cicero’s revelation was enough
of the growing city and also had to organize and for five important Roman men to be sentenced
fund the Roman games. Caesar could not afford to to death. Caesar was vehemently opposed to this
get things wrong. The moment of maximum risk and judicial murder but he had against him a consistent
of maximum potential gain had arrived and Caesar and long-time personal enemy, Marcus Porcius Cato,
made a spectacular decision. He risked all on creating the leader of the patrician Optimate party.

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Left: Marcus Licinius
Crassus (c. 115–53 BCE), a “In 59 BCE Caesar was
wealthy supporter of the
ambitious young Caesar. elected to the highest
Roman office when
One of the first Triumvirate
with Pompey and Caesar.

he became consul”
The two men met in public and debated their
arguments, Caesar lost the discussion and the five
men were promptly executed. Caesar was left with
bad blood between himself and Cato and Cicero.
Caesar very much wanted a command in
Egypt, where the pharaoh Ptolemy XIII had been
deposed. As Ptolemy was a client of Rome, Caesar
felt it was right that his rule be re-established. It
would be an opportunity to build up his funds
as Ptolemy was offering a large inducement to
whoever would help him. The ruling patricians
vetoed his request. But Caesar had his revenge. He
used his position as aedile to arrange an exhibition
of all the public monuments commemorating the
victories of Marius, who stood for everything the
patricians despised. He also prosecuted the men
who had made money by bringing in Roman
citizens outlawed during Sulla’s massacres.

The First Triumvirate

In 62 BCE Pompey returned to Rome from his wars
in the east, where he had achieved great triumphs.
He had defeated Mithridates in Persia, added Syria
and Judaea to the list of Roman territories and made
vast amounts of money. There was a natural fear that
he would do as Sulla had done and arrive with his
army and become dictator. He disbanded his troops
to whom he had promised grants of land from the
Senate as reward for their service.
Cato led the Senate in refusing to give Pompey
any of the things he had promised his soldiers. The
city was in turmoil as Crassus prepared his forces in
case Pompey made a move on the city. Crassus did
not trust Pompey as they had their differences when
they had served as consuls.
However, in 60 BCE Caesar brokered a peace
between the two men and the trio formed a secret
alliance, swearing to oppose any legislation of
which any of them disapproved. In 59 BCE Caesar
was elected to the highest Roman office when he
became consul, and that year he married his third
wife, Calpurnia, having divorced Pompeia. Using a

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series of questionable tactics, the Triumvirate came
to dominate the Senate. They made the position
of Caesar’s fellow consul impossible; they bribed a
man to testify that members of the Senate had tried
to make him assassinate Pompey and they forced
another senator, Lucullus, to his knees to beg Caesar’s
pardon for opposing his policies. The Triumvirate was
flexing its muscles.
This alliance between Pompey, Crassus and
Caesar was cemented when Caesar’s daughter Julia
married Pompey. In order to do this, Caesar broke
her previous engagement to a fellow Roman who
had given him much support in the recent struggles
against the Senate.
Caesar was now in a position to ensure that he
got exactly what he wanted. He had risked all the
money he had on political deals and bribery, and he
needed to rebuild his funds. He wanted to be given
a large province to control or an undefeated country
to engage in battle. Initially, the Senate gave him
Cisalpine Gaul to govern, but Caesar wanted more, so
he was given Transalpine Gaul as well.
With his affairs in Rome in the hands of Pompey
and Crassus, Caesar now looked to the rest of Gaul.
Once he had conquered Gaul, he could return to
Rome a wealthy man and implement the greatest and
most ambitious of his plans. Caesar saw no limit to
what he could achieve. The Gallic campaigns would
make him wealthy enough to buy and blackmail, to
extort and to cajole the Romans into doing what he
wanted. If they refused he would have a loyal, tried
and tested army under his control. Pompey would
perhaps stand in his way, but Caesar had no fear of
him. Sulla had shown him that the path to victory lay
in creating loyal legions. To do that all he had to do
was lead them to victory.

The Gallic Wars,

58–51 BCE
Caesar spent seven years in the conquest of Gaul, an There were those in the Senate already at work Above: Cicero (106–43 BCE): orator,
politician and writer. A marble
area that included all of modern France, Switzerland trying to separate Pompey from his fellows in the portrait bust of Caesar’s enemy.

and northern Germany (see panel on page 48). Triumvirate. Crassus was anxious to go to war in
Plutarch claims that 800 towns were destroyed and Syria and Pompey had misgivings about the way
a million lives were lost on the side of the Gauls. in which Caesar had consolidated his hold on the
The Senate might have had great misgivings about institutions of law and order in Rome. For the
allowing this clever and ambitious man free reign in moment Pompey held his peace, but as Caesar later
Gaul, but they may well also have hoped that at 40, realized matters, were not entirely under control in
he might fail, be disgraced and ruined. the city.

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The Gallic Wars

58 BCE Caesar defeats the Helvetii Campaign
against German invaders of Gaul

57 BCE Campaign against Belgae

56 BCE Campaign in Brittany against Veneti

Campaign against Aquitani in SW France

Campaign in northern Gaul

55 BCE Invades Britain

54 BCE Winter quarters on Rhine

53 BCE Campaign on Rhine and then forced

march into Holland to fight Menapii

Caesar crosses Alps to winter in Italy.

52 BCE Rising in southern Gaul and Averni

(Auvergne)

Defeat and capture of Vercingetorix.

51–50 BCE Consolidation of Roman conquest of Gaul.

Right: A map of Gaul and the southern coast of England from

Ptolemy’s Cosmography.

Cisalpine Gaul was the corridor along both banks of At the Rhine, Caesar gained the confidence of the
the River Po, which had been settled by Celtic tribes Triboci nobles. He may have bribed them, but they
from Gaul. The Romans controlled a corridor along agreed to act as border guards to keep their own
the Mediterranean that allowed them to move freely countrymen behind the line of the river.
across the Rhone down into their Spanish colonies. After a winter in camp among friendly tribes,
As a result of pleas by some Gallic settlements, the legions turned against the Belgae who had
Caesar attacked the Helvetii, 400,000 of whom had formed a confederacy. At the River Axona (Aisne)
moved from their homes on the west of Switzerland the confederacy fell apart and Caesar mopped up
to invade Gaul. Caesar harried them north along the each tribe separately. It was an easy campaign,
Arar (the Saône) and totally defeated them at Bibracte except when the Nervii surprised his legions as they
(Autun). Then he dealt with the German tribes, made camp. Caesar had to pull the men together
20,000 of which had moved into Gaul under their by stepping into the ranks himself and fighting
leader Ariovistus. Caesar demanded that Ariovistus alongside his legionaries. The Nervii were almost
remove his troops from Gaul. The German chief annihilated as a result.
refused. Caesar had to work hard on the morale of Caesar imbued his commanders the confidence
his army to persuade them to confront the terrifying that they could take on any enemy in any place. In
German warriors. Being the natural leader he was, the north and west the Veniti were as at home on
Caesar’s confidence spread to his men. the sea as any Bretons. He sent a lieutenant to take
Caesar’s troops occupied a fortress at Vesontio them on, who had ships built and raided the enemy
(Besançon) and drove the Germans back across the fortresses along the coast until the Veniti surrendered.
Rhine after destroying their army in the south of Meanwhile in the south-west the Aquitani were
Alsace. One of the key aspects of his campaigns was defeated by Publius Crassus, another of Caesar’s
Opposite: A triumphal arch
at Carpentras showing Gallic
the speed at which Caesar moved his troops. They young officers and the son of his wealthy ally. At
prisoners-of-war in chains with thought nothing of a three-day forced march before the same time Caesar marched north against the
their weapons beside them. First
century CE. going straight into battle. tribes near the Channel coasts and wintered there.

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There were attacks on three fronts and each
resulted in victory for Caesar. It was a masterly
campaign. He determined to invade Britain where,
according to Suetonius, he believed a conquest
“was most likely to enrich him and furnish suitable
material for triumphs. They say he invaded Britain
in the hope of getting pearls that he could weigh in
his own hand. He was always a most enthusiastic
collector of gems, carvings and pictures and also of
slaves of exceptional figure and training. He paid so
much for these slaves that he forbade the entry into
his accounts.”
However, the first attempt on Britain in 55 BCE
gained little and the second very little more. Dio
Cassius wrote in Roman History: “From Britain he
had won nothing for himself or the state except the
glory of having conducted an expedition against
its inhabitants. Romans at home magnified his
achievement to a remarkable degree.”
Which was exactly what he wanted. Caesar needed
the mob behind him and the best way to achieve
that was to make sure they had historic victories to
celebrate. His victories. As Plutarch noted in Caesar,
he had the courage to push the boundaries of the
empire beyond the known world. In this he had
achieved the sort of fame and adulation that he knew
would serve him well when he returned to Rome.
Caesar had achieved the two things he set out
to do. He had subdued the Gauls from taking vast
amounts of loot as a result. He had continually sent
news to Rome of his progress and of his many gains
and the citizens of the city were eager for him to
return in triumph.
Most importantly for him he had forged a bond
between himself and his soldiers that would serve
him well in the future. Plutarch again sums up this
achievement by retelling a story, which puts Caesar in
a good light.

He was so much master of the good-will

and willing service of his soldiers that
ordinary men were changed under his
command and displayed a courage past
defeating. They would go into any danger
where Caesar’s glory was concerned … In
Britain, when some of the senior officers had
got into a bog where they were assaulted

Left: A crossing of the Rhine showing the hills and forests beyond
the river and the German border.

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willingly expose himself, no labour from
which he pleaded an exemption.

Plutarch’s story may or may not be true, but is no

doubt how the legions saw their leader under whose
command they gained loot, fame, honour and victory.
Caesar continued to consolidate his victories over
the various tribes in Gaul. Some agreed to give him
hostages, others conceded victory and gave him gold,
others promised to join him. Caesar even created
a legion from Gauls who wanted to fight under his
command. But there were those who still refused to
bend the knee and others who were ready for revolt if
a suitably charismatic leader appeared.
In 52 BCE the Arverni from southern Gaul, found
such a leader in a warrior called Vercingetorix. He
had decided that confronting the Roman army
head-on was a foolish tactic and began to use a
scorched-earth policy to deny the Roman legions
food or shelter wherever they moved. Caesar and
his legions harried him through the Loire valley,
crossed the Cevennes in the dead of winter and took
Bourges, which the inhabitants had refused to burn
as Vercingetorix had demanded. Former allies of
Above: Vercingetorix Throws by the enemy, a common soldier, whilst Rome joined Vercingetorix in a general revolt. It was
Down His Arms at the Feet of
Julius Caesar, 1899, by Lionel Caesar stood and looked on, threw himself essential for Caesar to destroy this warrior chief. He
Noel Royer.
in the middle of them, and bravely rescued turned south and Vercingetorix attacked the Romans
Opposite: Vercingetorix, the the officers and beat off the barbarians.
leader of the Gauls who fought
and was forced to retreat to an utterly impregnable
against Caesar from 52 BCE until In the end this brave soldier swam and fortress near Dijon called Alesia.
his own surrender at Alesia
seven years later. waded out of the bog. In the clinging mud he Here Caesar demonstrated his formidable
lost his shield. Caesar and his officers saw his military talents and here the battle for Gaul
bravery and met him with delight. But the was won and lost. After it was over Caesar took
soldier, ashamed and in tears, threw himself reprisals of a savage nature on those tribes who
down at Caesar’s feet and begged his pardon had betrayed him, took hostages from all the
for having let go his shield. tribes and also took tribute in slaves and jewels,
This love of honour and passion for in corn and horses, in gold and land. Gaul would
distinction were inspired in them by Caesar not revolt or threaten Rome in his lifetime. Caesar
who by his unsparing distribution of money turned and crossed the Alps into Cisalpine Gaul
and honours, showed them that he did not and headed towards the River Rubicon, the
heap up wealth from the wars for gratifying boundary that stood between him and Rome.
his private pleasures. That he looked upon In Rome they saw Caesar’s ambition and were
all he gave to deserving soldiers as so much afraid. Pompey and the Senate forbade Caesar to
increase to his own riches. advance into Italy from Gaul. Caesar knew that the
… Added to this also, there was Senate was not going to make him an officer of state
no danger to which Caesar did not for a further term. He also knew that if he abandoned
his army to return to Rome he would not survive.
“After the battle for Gaul Caesar took Even Pompey had turned against him since his wife

reprisals of a savage nature on tribes Julia, Caesar’s daughter, had died. Camped on the
other side of the River Rubicon with the XIII Legion,
who had betrayed him” Caesar had to make up his mind.

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Main: The Romans

fighting against British
warriors during Caesar’s
invasion 55–54 BCE.

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The Battle of Alesia

The final battle between Vercingetorix and Caesar cavalry, was now forced to fight from a fixed point.
and his legions is an epic example of the skill and He fortified the town of Alesia, which was already
leadership of the Romans and the courage of those well protected. The settlement stood on a hill,
they had to defeat to secure their territories. Caesar protected on two sides by rivers and surrounded by
was constantly aware of the activities of the leader a wall against which the Gauls piled stone walls six
of the Arverni and in 53–52 BCE Vercingetorix led a feet high.
massive revolt of Gallic tribes against the Romans. The Romans protected their positions below the
Vercingetorix persuaded these tribes to unite in city with a trench that was 11 miles (18 km) long.
an alliance against Rome. His warriors used the They built towers along a wall behind the trench and
tactic of attacking and then retreating into prepared set guards. The scene is described in Gallic Wars.
fortifications. Vercingetorix also razed the ground
behind him if he was forced to retreat. He destroyed The enemy sent out the remains of their
all villages and farms and any sources of supplies cavalry to charge Caesar’s men. Caesar sent
and food for the enemy. This was a serious threat to the German auxiliaries to support his men
the Roman army, which was accustomed to living off and the enemy fled back to the narrow city
the land. gate. The German cavalry slaughtered them
According to Gallic Wars, which he wrote after the in their hundreds as they tried to cram into
events, Caesar called his men together and told them the gates. Some of the enemy even left their
that their objective was to destroy these warriors, to horses and tried to climb the walls to safety.
capture their baggage trains and scatter their cavalry.
He wrote that when he described his vision of how Caesar ordered the legions he had drawn up in front
this campaign would be fought, his cavalry shouted of the ramparts to advance a little.
out: “we shall swear by the most sacred oath that any
one of us who has not ridden through the enemy’s This caused the Gauls to panic. Vercingetorix
army twice shall be cast out, shall have no access to ordered the gates to be closed and the
his children, his parents or his wife…” slaughter went on. Vercingetorix, that night,
The Romans confronted the Gauls, routed them decided that the cavalry he had left were of
and took some of their leaders, but they failed to little use and, to save them and their horses,
capture or kill Vercingetorix. He, having lost his he smuggled them out of the town at nine in

Opposite: The siege of Alesia

showing the fortifications. Oil on
wood by Feselen (d. 1538).

Left: A detailed model of

Caesar’s lines of defence at the
siege of Alesia. Ditches, stakes
and hidden ditches. French,
nineteenth century.

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Caesar commandeered supplies of corn and timber
from the nearby farms. He designed ways to make
his fortifications defensible by a small number of
men. More trenches were dug with sharp stakes in
the bottom interlaced with other stakes to impale any
charging attackers.
In front of them shallower trenches had more
sharpened and fire-hardened stakes projecting a
few inches above the ground. These were secured
with tamped clay and then the whole covered with
brushwood and twigs to hide them. Eight rows of
these were dug. The soldiers called this “the lily”
because it looked like the flower. In front of these,
stakes a foot long with iron hooks were entirely sunk
into the ground. These all faced the encircled enemy
in the city.
Now he turned and made exactly the same
fortification behind him. He had created a secure
place that could be defended by a few soldiers if his
men were called away for any reason. Vercingetorix
was walled inside his defences.
Caesar now ordered every man to provide himself
with forage and corn for 30 days. He heard from spies
that debates were held inside the enemy camp. Some
wanted to confront the enemy as a matter of honour.
Others counselled caution. The first argument won.
Bringing out ladders and hurdles to cross the ditches
Above: A Gaulish bronze the dark of night. They escaped through the the Arverni advanced from their fortress to the
helmet with cheek guards from
the battlefield of Alesia. First last gap in the Roman siege line. Roman army waiting for them.
century BCE.
Vercingetorix ordered all the corn in the The Gauls grew overconfident when they killed
camp to be brought to him under pain of some Romans. Caesar ordered the German cavalry
death and doled out a ration man to man. to show themselves and the Gauls panicked. The
He did the same with the cattle, which were Romans attacked ruthlessly as the German cavalry
within his camp. So prepared, he waited for surrounded the Gallic archers and slaughtered
the reinforcements he had sent for. them where they stood. The Gauls retreated. The
Arverni returned to the attack at midnight and
Caesar heard this from deserters and resolved to were thrown back from the Roman fortifications
take the war to the enemy. First he dug a line of by slings, arrows and stones and because of the
trenches 20 feet (6 metres) deep with steep sides. He stakes that defended the ramparts. The Roman
then made the rest of his fortification 400 feet (120 field commanders sent in reinforcements and,
metres) back from the ditch out of range of enemy in the dark, the Gauls impaled themselves on
javelins or arrows. the stakes and “lilies” in front of the ditches.
He dug two trenches 15 feet (4.5 metres) wide and Later Vercingetorix attacked yet again with scaling
15 feet (4.5 metres) deep. The innermost being on low ladders, hooks, and movable siege towers and for a
and level ground he filled with water drawn from the time it seemed as if victory would be his. But Caesar
river. Behind it he raised a rampart and wall 12 feet was watching it all from a hilltop and sent fresh men
(3.6 metres) high with battlements and parapets and to reinforce the most threatened places.
pointed stakes projecting from it to stop the enemy
climbing the wall. He surrounded the entire work The Gauls cannot penetrate the Roman front
with turrets 80 feet (25 metres) from each other. line. The Romans advanced into their enemy

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in the almost impregnable formation known

as the “testudo”. The Gauls give way. But now
the Romans in the front line are exhausted.
Caesar sends Labienus with six cohorts to
relieve these men. Caesar shows himself to
them… “The thin faced, purple clad warrior.”
Still the Gauls come on and with huge
numbers of missiles and, fighting from the
siege towers they have brought with them,
they fill in the ditches with clay and hurdles,
and tear down the ramparts with hooks.
The Romans stand steady as ordered. They
are fighting hand to hand now using their
swords and knives and as they do so Caesar
sends in more cavalry to the rear of the Gauls.
They turn to run and are trapped between
the foot soldiers and the cavalry and a great
slaughter ensues.

It was a timely tactical move. Now comes perhaps the

noblest moment recorded by Caesar and it does not
concern him but his enemy, Vercingetorix.

As his men fled from the slaughter through the streets of Rome and in the procession Above: Vercingetorix, an
honourable man, surrenders
Vercingetorix called together his council and behind him followed the booty from his campaigns, himself to Julius Caesar to stop the
slaughter of the Gauls in Alesia.
spoke to them, the battle standards his men had won, the prisoners
Top left: The savagery of warfare
“I undertook this war, not for myself but for and slaves they had captured, the horses, chariots, during Caesar’s Gallic Campaign at
the cause of our freedom. Since we have not and the riches he had gained were displayed as the Alesia. Stone relief carving.

had victory on our side I offer myself to you. legions marched with him. Among this booty was
You must use me as you feel is best. Either the greatest commander the Gauls had ever had.
offer me alive to the Romans so that I may Vercingetorix was still a young man. He was
atone to them for what we have done under dressed in his armour on that day. His helmet was
my leadership. Or kill me and give them my placed on his head but his hands and ankles were
body…Either way you may not suffer for what chained. And when Caesar had soaked up the roars
we have tried to do together.” of adulation from the crowd the Gaul’s great chieftain
was taken to the prison that had been his home for
Seven years after Vercingetorix surrendered at Alesia, seven years and was duly strangled. Mercy to a brave
Caesar was granted a Triumph by the Senate. He rode enemy was not in Caesar’s character.

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Chapter 4

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Civil War
W
hile Caesar had been conquering Gaul,
Rome had not been quiet. As the
empire’s borders had spread, the city
itself had become a hotbed of social and
political intrigue and of ill-disguised
anger in the streets. The struggle between the
various political interests caused great tension.
Landowners wanted no change in their tenure
to help the citizens without land; the Optimates
(patricians) wished to retain control of the military
to ensure their continued power; slave owners
were at war with rebel slaves; and the privileged
Roman citizens did not wish their advantages to
be extended to other inhabitants of the empire.
The mob pursued their interests using violence,
the patricians procured favours with bribes of money,
food or the promise of advancement. The skilful
way in which small concessions were granted meant
that a full-blown revolution did not break out.

Whoever takes his way into a tyrant’s court

Becomes his slave, although he went there
a free man
Sophocles, Greek dramatist

Opposite: Julius Caesar, Marcus Crassus and Magnus

Pompeius. Assembled by Caesar to become the First
Triumvirate, by 50 BCE, struggles between Caesar and
Pompey came to a head as Civil War broke out.

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The pressure on the Optimates came from young the mob. In 58 BCE, in a quest for popular support,
patricians who were often tribunes of the people Clodius demanded that corn distribution to the poor
working for their own interests. They wanted to should be free. More dangerously, Clodius also made
weaken the Senate and tried to push through laws moves to rid the city of Cato and Cicero, the twin
while ignoring the patrician interests. The patrician dangers to the First Triumvirate.
conservatives were also opposed by the commercial In a thinly disguised banishment, the Senate
interests of the equestrians, who had business and sent Cato to annex Cyprus. Cicero, who had
trading links across Rome’s colonies. This last group condemned the Cataline conspirators to death,
contained many military commanders. was confronted with a charge that he had violated
The power of the First Triumvirate lay in the a law that stated that no one could be executed
combination of Pompey, a relatively popular soldier without the vote of the people. Knowing that
and politician; Crassus, who understood business; and he was in danger, Cicero left Rome for Greece
Opposite: The flight of Pompey
after the Battle of Pharsalus. Caesar whose interests, even from distant Gaul, were without disputing the charge. His house was
Below: A Roman bronze sesterce
served initially by a tribune named Publius Clodius. burned by a violent mob organized by Clodius.
showing the Roman general Julius Clodius has been referred to as “the perfect master The Senate was appalled by these actions and
Caesar. His name is inscribed on
the coin. of disorder”. As the tool of Caesar he was a leader of called on all voters to come into the city to vote
against this tribune’s activities. The vote was
eventually passed in 56 BCE, but Clodius was still
a danger to ultra-conservative patricians although
he backed off when Pompey asked Cicero to
return to Rome. When he came back to the
city in 57 BCE Cicero was careful not to
attack the First Triumvirate or its power
bases. However, there was a growing
feeling that Caesar, Crassus and
Pompey were no longer close.
With the Triumvirate
apparently crumbling, Caesar
left his army in Gaul and came
to meet Pompey and Crassus
at Lucca in northern Italy in
an attempt to renew their
alliance. Between them
they carved up the power.
Pompey and Crassus were
to rule as consuls in 55
BCE and were to govern the
provinces of Spain and Syria
for five years, while Caesar
was allowed to keep his Gallic
command for the same period.
However, by 54 BCE Rome
was descending into near anarchy.
Titus Annius Milo, a rabble-rouser for

“Clodius has been

referred to as ‘the perfect
master of disorder’”
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“A consul put forward that Caesar guilty by packing the court with soldiers loyal to
him. Pompey then made an agreement with the
should be declared a public enemy Senate that would end the Triumvirate. His family

unless he agreed to surrender” ties to Caesar were loosened with the death of his
wife, Julia. Pompey, while not an adept politician,
saw which way the wind was blowing and switched
the Optimate faction of the Senate confronted those his support to patrician interests. When Crassus
who supported Caesar’s ally Clodius. In 52 BCE both died in 53 BCE in a disastrous campaign against
Milo and Clodius stood for the position of consul. the Parthians at Carrhae the power of the First
Before the elections were held street brawls broke out Triumvirate was at an end (see panel, page 75).
between the rival factions. Milo’s supporters trapped
Clodius on the Appian Way and murdered him. Fury
broke out in Rome for the murdered man had been The Road to Civil War
a tribune of the people. Clodius’s body was brought In 50 BCE the struggle began between Caesar and
into the city and cremated in the Senate, which was the ultra-conservative patrician families in the Senate.
burned to the ground at the same time. The patricians, as ever, wanted no changes that might
Pompey took over as sole consul and attempted erode their power. Caesar, with his rhetorical gifts,
Below: A painting by Cassone
on wood depicting the Battle of to restore order in Rome. When Milo stood trial for military skills and a huge number of supporters, was
Pharsalus in which Pompey was
defeated by Caesar. murder, Pompey ensured that he was found not an obvious threat to their position. Although still in
Gaul, Caesar was well aware of the dangers he faced
in Rome. He bought the services of one Scribonius
Curio, a young patrician tribune who was deeply
in debt as a result of his debauchery. Curio, a very
clever man, posed as an independent politician. He
proposed to the Senate that both Caesar and Pompey
should be obliged to give up their commands.
Pompey refused to abandon his interests in Spain, as
Curio knew he would, This allowed Caesar to refuse
to give up his military command.
Pompey forbade Caesar to stand as consul in
49 BCE without giving up his military command
and also refused to let him stand in absentia. He
demanded that Caesar return to Rome, leaving
his armies in place in Gaul. Caesar knew that if he
returned to the city alone the Senate would charge
Battle Of Pharsalus him with irregularities during his command in Gaul.
Caesar marched at great speed from his campaigns in Spain, crossed the Adriatic and found Pompey had clearly abandoned his old friend and
the legions under the command of Pompey, his former son-in-law and friend, at Pharsalus in father-in-law. Then a consul named Marcellus put
Thessaly in August 48 BCE.
Caesar’s small army was outnumbered by Pompey’s force whose infantry were more than forward a motion that Caesar should be declared a
double in number and whose squadrons of cavalry were seven times larger. Pompey decided public enemy unless he agreed to surrender. When
he could turn Caesar’s right wing and then fall onto its rear. Caesar had guessed this would it was suggested that Caesar give up his command,
be Pompey’s plan and so he had strengthened his cavalry force by placing among it some of
his best infantry men. Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) and Quintus Longius
This mixture of infantry and cavalry was a tactic he had confronted in his battles in Gaul. Cassius supported their old friend and vetoed the
It is a measure of Caesar’s skill as a general that he was willing to use alien tactics if he saw motion that was put forward. The Senate overthrew
merit in them. Caesar kept six cohorts in reserve. Pompey’s cavalry charged into the right
of Caesar’s position and found themselves baulked by the infantry on that flank. Pompey’s the veto. In doing this they had violated the sacred
cavalry were not prepared and turned and raced in panic from the field. The panic spread constitution and Caesar now had a semblance of
and Pompey was left without an army. He too, fled. legality on his side. Antony and Cassius fled Rome
Caesar had foreign prisoners put to death but Roman citizens were pardoned. Two of
those he pardoned were Marcus Brutus and Gaius Longinus Cassius who four years later and joined Caesar. In open defiance of the Senate,
plotted against Caesar and assassinated him. Caesar and his army crossed the Rubicon and headed
for Rome.

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Caesar advanced down the east coast of Italy while

War Breaks Out
Above: The frontispiece of
Pharsalia, an account of the civil
Antony occupied the western approach to Rome. war between Caesar and Pompey,
written by Lucan (39–65 CE). An
Rome became a city in turmoil with the news Panic ensued. The Senate left Rome in the hand of eighteenth-century engraving.
that Caesar had crossed the frontier with his the magistrates. Pompey, too slow to act, was driven
soldiers. Caesar’s force was small – he had only south and sailed from Brundisium on March 17.
one legion available – and his men were lightly Caesar moved into Rome, where, much to their
protected. But he knew he had support and that surprise, he treated his opponents mercifully. His first
the army he had left behind in Gaul would join duty was to ensure stability in the city and to that
him if necessary. He had used some of the fortune end he arranged that Rome was fed. His lieutenants
he had amassed during the Gallic War to bribe took control of Sicily and Sardinia, two islands that
men of ability and influence in Rome. Caesar was acted as granaries for Rome. He then turned to Spain,
certain that he could remove Pompey, overcome where he had to deal with Pompey’s army. In a rapid
the objections of the old patrician politicians and and triumphant campaign he achieved this. Soldiers
take sole power in the city. He split his forces. deserted to his side in vast numbers.

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Right: A silver sistophorus
showing Mark Antony, c. 40
BCE. It was made at Ephesus
to celebrate the temporary
pact between Mark Antony
and Octavian.

Throughout the year Caesar tried to pin Pompey His army scattered, Pompey fled to Egypt to restore
down to fight. However, Pompey refused a pitched his shattered hopes. Caesar followed him there, where
battle because he did not think his troops could he discovered that Pompey had become a player
defeat Caesar’s smaller but more experienced army. in the war between King Ptolemy and his wife and
Pompey moved the remnants of his force to Thessaly sister Cleopatra, who were involved in a struggle
with the aim of extending Caesar’s supply lines. for the throne of Egypt. Yet again, Pompey showed
Pompey had a problem with his aristocratic and how inept he was as a politician. He offered to throw
precipitate lieutenants who were anxious to get back in his lot with Ptolemy and was murdered on an
to Rome and to divide the spoils when Caesar was Egyptian beach (see panel, page 69).
defeated. They were certain that he was about to
be crushed. While Pompey wanted to keep Caesar
at arm’s length he knew he could not retain the Caesar in Egypt
support of these lieutenants if they did not have Caesar stayed in Egypt, and became involved in
Opposite: A detail of the Triumph the opportunity to take on Caesar’s army. Pompey the nation’s political affairs. His forces were nearly
of Caesar in which captured
treasures and prisoners of war
brought the arguments to an end by eventually defeated in Alexandria, the city founded by his
would be shown to the Roman confronting Caesar on the plain of Pharsalus (see hero, Alexander the Great. However, he called in
people. Made by Mantegna
(1413–1506). panel, page 64). reinforcements and destroyed Ptolemy’s army,

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Caesar and Cleopatra

Cleopatra was born in 69 BCE. She inherited Pompey, were also planning to kill him. Caesar
the throne of Egypt in 51 BCE, which she was had Pothinus killed and went to war against
to share with her ten-year-old brother, Ptolemy Achillas. In 47 BCE he defeated Achillas and
XIII. They were to reign as husband and wife. Ptolemy who vanished in the battle.
However, in 48 BCE Ptolemy and his advisers had In 30 BCE Cleopatra proved as beguiling
her removed from power. There are many stories as ever when Mark Antony led the Roman
about the way she first met Caesar, who was army to Egypt (see page 88). They
to restore her to her throne. It was difficult and became lovers and planned to remove
dangerous for her to meet him openly. Caesar Octavian (Augustus) and rule the Roman
was regarded as an enemy by Ptolemy’s advisers Empire together. When Augustus invaded
and they did not want him to meet the powerful Egypt, she attempted to work her charm
and intelligent Cleopatra. on him but failed and poisoned herself
Petrach claims that she came to him at the with a deadly snake.
palace in Alexandria, hidden in a rug. Caesar tried
to arrange for reconciliation between her and Above: Caesar giving Cleopatra the Throne of
her brother but at the banquet to celebrate this, Egypt, by Pietro da Cortona, c. 1637.
Caesar’s barber heard that the Egyptian General Right: A sculpted bust of the seductive
Achillas and the eunuch Pothinus,who had killed Cleopatra VII.

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restoring Cleopatra, who became his mistress, to
the throne. Before he left Egypt, with the Egyptian The Death of Pompey
queen, he fathered a son, Caesarion, with Cleopatra. Plutarch described Pompey’s death as being ordered by Ptolemy on the advice of a eunuch, a
teacher of rhetoric and an Egyptian who were afraid that the Roman general might be coming

Caesar Returns to the to save Cleopatra:

Roman City It was some distance from the trireme to the land and Pompey, seeing that none
of the company addressed a single friendly word to him, turned his eyes towards
On his return to Rome Caesar restored order. Some of Septimus and said, “Surely I am not mistaken, you and I have been comrades
in arms together”. Septimus barely nodded and gave no sign of friendly feeling.
his legions had been causing trouble so Caesar had Pompey took out a small book in which he had written down the speech he would
them paraded in front of him and addressed them make to Ptolemy. He began reading it to himself. On the trireme they watched
merely as “citizens” and not as “soldiers”. In doing the small boat and Cornelia his wife was apprehensive when she saw the army of
Ptolemy lining the shore.
this he was signalling their dismissal from the army, At this moment the small craft reached the shore. A soldier took Pompey’s hand
which shocked them deeply. They begged him to as if to steady him and Septimus ran him through from behind. Then the others
readmit them and he eventually agreed. They had took their daggers and stabbed him. Pompey drew his toga over his face, said
nothing, groaned a little and died in his sixtieth year.
learned their lesson. They cut off his head and threw his naked body into the shallow sea and left it
In the city he was equally decisive, as there was for all to see. Pompey’s former slave, Philip, washed the body when they had all left
no one left who dared to oppose him openly. This the beach. He wrapped it in cloth and began to search the beach for material with
which to burn it. All he could find were the broken planks of an old and decaying
was the start of what has been described as “the fishing boat. It was enough to build a pyre.
hidden face of the new monarchy”. Caesar’s tough, An old man who had served as a youngster with Pompey came and asked
radical and fair actions pulled Rome out of chaos. what Philip was doing and the freeman told him. The old man begged him then,
“Please… don’t keep this honour for yourself but let me help for I shan’t regret
He dealt with problems caused by unfair taxation a lifetime spent in foreign places if I find the happiness at last to touch with my
and appointed magistrates to oversee tax collection. hands and wrap and prepare the body of the greatest commander Rome has ever
He ensured the poor were fed and that the city seen for burial.”
So Pompey came to his end.
and its institutions were in harmony. He knew that
to ensure a lasting balance through the empire he
had to confront those senators who had supported
Pompey. Some had gone to North Africa where they
were regrouping. In 46 BCE Caesar followed with
his legions and moved to destroy the resurrected
republican army at Thapsus. His army slaughtered
as many as 50,000 men in a ruthless and merciless
act. Among Caesar’s opponents was Cato, who
committed suicide because he had no hope left that
the Roman Republic would return.
Caesar returned to Rome in triumph, the victor
over Gaul, Egypt, Syria and Numidia. However,
danger threatened in Spain where the rump of the
Pompeian army had escaped from Africa. This army
was even willing to take slaves into its ranks in its
desperation to provide a force powerful enough to
win the battle they knew was inevitable.
Caesar advanced into Spain in 45 BCE and the
final throw of the dice for the Pompeian party ended
Above: An idealized image of a funeral procession made in stone. At this funeral singers and mourners
in a savage and bloody struggle at Munda where no and priests make a stark contrast to the lonely funeral of Pompey.
quarter was asked or given. It was a terrible battle in
which no prisoners were taken.
Caesar’s phase of civil war was finished, but the “Caesar returned to Rome in
second phase was to come very soon and it would
be crueler than the first. For now Caesar turned his
triumph, the victor over Gaul, Egypt,
attention to the governance of Rome. Syria and Numicia”
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Caesar,
Master of
Rome, 48–
44 BCE
B
etween 48–44 BCE Caesar’s ambitious plans
began to bear fruit. During his Gallic campaign he
had achieved many victories and through astute
management of his interests in the city he had kept
men of influence on his side. He was not trusted by
the traditional patrician elements in the Senate, but even
they could not dispute his consummate skill in creating a
myth about himself and his wars on the frontiers of the
empire. Through victory after victory and conquest after
conquest this man was beloved of his soldiers and had
managed to keep senatorial interference in his campaigns
to a minimum. Caesar offered the people of Rome a
possibility of stability and peace.
Caesar began the period of the First Civil War as a
proconsul. He remained under threat from the Senate for
his alleged illegal activities in Gaul, although in reality
it was because they feared his ambition. Caesar would
confront anyone who stood against him. When he crossed
the Rubicon he had been courting danger, but within
five years he obtained far more personal power than any
Roman leader before him. He was showered with honours,
given titles, decorations and adulation and regarded as a
living god. He treated the Senate with disdain. What he was
not given in the way of power he took.
But, how had all of this happened in such a short period
of time?

Opposite: Caesar Crosses the

Rubicon painted on vellum by Jean
Fouquet in the fifteenth century.

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While his feats in battlefields from Gaul to Egypt, In 46 BCE, Rome held a Triumph in honour of
Spain to Greece and Numidia to Germany were Caesar’s victories. He marched into the city at the
sensational, how had Caesar managed to grasp so head of the chariots and carts laden with the spoils
much political power in the city? During the time he of his victories – his soldiers called out mockingly
spent on the campaigns to destroy the last vestiges that he had made himself the king. Members of
of Pompey’s armies, Caesar had left Rome under the Senate may not have liked this, but there was
the rule of his proxies. In a city that was becoming nothing they could do except heap more honours
almost ungovernable this could have created more on Caesar. The same year he was elected dictator
problems than it solved. for life. A statue was placed in the Capitol and with
Lepidus (see panel) was master of the few troops it his “divinity” was recognized. He was given sole
in the city and Mark Antony was too weak to prevent command of the Roman army for life.
disorder breaking out. It would take a wise, subtle Caesar delegated power to his own officials,
man or a strong, ruthless one to bring the city back bypassing the elected magistrates. With his savage
to heel. For a time Caesar played wise and subtle, victory over the last of Pompey’s supporters at
appearing to abide by the old Republican systems. Munda, the Senate became almost servile to him.
Caesar was powerful enough though to ride But was this supine display of submission actually a
roughshod over the constitution and with Pompey means of making Caesar unpopular with the people?
defeated and Crassus dead, he could dictate his The centralization of power into his hands signalled
terms. Some in the Senate suspected that Caesar had the end of the Republic. He was even offered the
huge ambitions, but he was now too well placed to crown by Mark Antony, although he refused the offer,
be stopped. From 49 BCE, the Senate allowed him as he realized that the position of king was repugnant
to be elected consul for five years in succession. He to most Romans. But the offer was noted by those in
was given control of issues of war and peace, and the Senate who were implacably opposed to the idea
Below: A bust of Marcus Lepidus
had the ability to nominate all officers of state except of a dictatorship or one-man rule. Caesar misjudged
(89–13 BCE), one of Julius Caesar’s the plebeian positions. In short he was in virtually the political climate when it became clear that he no
supporters. He suggested Caesar
be made dictator. complete control of Roman political activity. longer deferred to the Senate in any way. Soon voices
were whispering that the only solution to the threat
Caesar posed was the assassin’s dagger.

Lepidus
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was born
into a patrician family in 89 BCE.
Caesar’s Reforms
He was made praetor in 49 BCE Rome was going through a period of financial
and consul in 46 BCE. Lepidus was problems and moneylenders were squeezing the
one of Caesar’s most enthusiastic
people dry. Romans were being charged outrageous
supporters and proposed his
dictatorship. While Caesar fought sums of interest on debts and trouble-makers
Pompey’s supporters in Spain, used this rapacity of the wealthy moneylenders to
Lepidus held control in Rome. After
Caesar’s assassination, he supported create trouble. Caesar decided to act with vigour
Mark Antony in a joint bid for power. and legislated against the money-lenders who were
He joined the Second Triumvirate (see
imposing cruel debts on their victims. Interest rates
page 86) and after surviving Octavian’s
victory he was made governor of Africa. were lowered and controlled by law.
In 36 BCE he made a move to take Caesar forbade the hoarding of money and anyone
power in Sicily, but Octavian stripped
him of all his offices and sent him into with more than 15,000 denarii was likely to lose it if
exile where he died peacefully in 13 BCE. it was discovered. Caesar also ordered that creditors
should be bound to take the property of debtors at its
value before the Civil War. Later he lowered the rent
of tenements by a quarter and required that money
be invested in land.
In the past he had used the disorders in Rome
to his advantage but now he cracked down hard
on rioters and on the mob. Caesar was determined

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that law and order should Left: A stone statue of Julius
Caesar triumphantly addressing
return to the city. He cut the people.

down the numbers of

people flooding into the
city for free corn. Those who
wished to take advantage of
this now had to provide officers
with proof of their poverty and
the ration was cut so that the
number of recipients was halved
from 300,000 to 150,000. He made
land available to his war veterans, settling
them in existing communities so that they
integrated with the people and did not prove a
focus for discontent.
Caesar was determined to initiate great public
building schemes. The Pontine Marshes close to the
city were drained to reclaim what were once malarial
areas and provide fertile land for farmers. Road
systems were enlarged and improved, with the work
being done not only by slaves but also by freemen.

“Soon voices were whispering

that the only solution to the
threat Caesar posed was
the assassin’s dagger”
The infrastructure of local government changed so
that towns and municipalities became independent
of Roman magistrates. These were popular decisions
amongst the plebeian supporters and had far-
reaching effects on finance and controls of labour
and taxes beyond Rome.
There was more to citizenship than being able
to claim to be Roman. Caesar wanted Italy and the
citizens beyond to be equal and he was determined
that the franchise should be extended to any
country, city or area that was ready. He controlled the
depredations of provincial governors by cutting short
their period in power and he also ensured that all
their powers came under central control. They were
not going to be allowed to amass power or money
and thus become a threat to the state as he had been.
The borders of the empire were to be pushed
forward in order to occupy the army. Caesar knew
the dangers of allowing soldiers to sit in barracks idly
waiting for action. They could become eager listeners
to anyone trying to make trouble. By pushing out the

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Below: A group of Senators frontiers he not only protected the provinces from police. He understood how the politics worked by
together with the young son of
a Senator. Marble relief from a the threat of barbarian invasions, but he also ensured watching the way his uncle Marius was ignored by
sarcophagus found near Ostia,
c. 270 CE. that Rome was protected from the threat within. the power-brokers in the Senate. No one was going
These policies were guaranteed to make enemies to stand in his way now. He had taken the power
of the people who already distrusted him. They were and he intended to use it. Who could stop him? He
afraid that he would take over their power bases and had neutralized the Senate and had no intention
marginalize them and it is true to say that they had of returning Rome to its previous system. Caesar
good reason to believe it. was not necessarily eager to be made king, as some
Here was a man who had clawed his way to his claimed, but he was an autocrat and determined that
present position from a difficult beginning. He the Roman world would be ruled in his way. It was
knew how ruthless men needed to be as a result against this background that a group of conspirators
of his early confrontation with Sulla and his secret was formed.

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It was October 45 BCE and Caesar intended to
leave on a campaign to avenge the death of Crassus Crassus At Carrhae
who had died in battle in Asia (see panel). Crassus had taken command of the Roman army in the province of Syria. From 54 to 53
BCE Crassus added to his immense wealth by plundering the nation. Then he crossed the
Euphrates with a large army and began to make mistakes. The enemy, the Parthians, were
The Ides of March a formidable force and any mistakes would be severely punished. Crassus was offered an
alliance by the Armenian king who would have provided very mobile lightly armed troops to
Caesar determined to take revenge for his old strengthen his forces. Crassus refused the offer. He then made a basic error by abandoning
accomplice early in the next year and was already his defensive base line on the Euphrates and heading into the desert. He trusted his Arab
guide who led him into an ambush at Carrhae. The Parthians, using light and fast cavalry
making preparations when fate began to catch up surrounded the Romans.
with him. There were omens of bad fortune – a comet Crassus formed the troops in close order rather than deploying them. It is a difficult
passed through the sky, the sun faded and was faint problem to protect infantry in open ground against very mobile soldiers. Carrhae was a
terrible defeat. The Romans were overrun and the ageing Crassus went to a meeting with the
at midday and an augur at the temple had warned enemy where he was murdered. It was a young quaestor who led the remnants of the troops
him to “beware the Ides of March”. back to what would become the permanent Roman frontier on the Euphrates.
Men with messages called at Caesar’s home on the
morning before he set out for the Forum, but he did
not have the time to read the warnings they brought.
His powerful friend, Mark Antony, was detained
outside the Senate House by Decimus Junius
Albinius and so prevented from taking his usual
place guarding Caesar. The conspirators’ planning
was meticulous, as it needed to be.
The plotters had diverse reasons for their actions.
Some, such as Cicero, felt the loss of the power of
the Senate, which, for them, was the repository of all
that was good about Republican Rome. They knew
that the government was not perfect, that some of its
members were corrupt, and that some indeed were
too wedded to the old ways to be allowed to stand
in the way of progress, but the Republican ideal was
a bulwark against the monarchy that many men like
Cicero despised.
Others, like Decimus Junius Brutus, who had been
such an avid supporter of Caesar, were part of the
plot from which they felt they could personally gain.
On the other hand there were men such as Marcus
Junius Brutus, who may have been Caesar’s son by
his mistress Servilia, who mourned the loss of the
Republican ideal.
These were the men who walked with Caesar as
he came into the Senate House and went towards
his chair. He was surrounded by men asking
questions, calling and waving papers. Another of the
conspirators, Tillius Cimber, was brother to a man
Caesar had exiled and wanted him to be allowed to
return to Rome. He was sure that if Caesar was killed
his brother would be free to come home. Caesar
brushed the request aside as others pressed around
him more urgently.
Above: This portrait bust of the late Roman Republic, found in Copenhagen, probably represents
Tillius pulled his toga down at the neck. This was Marcus Licinius Crassus.
the signal to attack. Cassius stabbed Caesar in the

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Opposite: Caesar leaves his neck and wounded him. Then the others closed in
distraught wife Calpurnia to walk
to the Senate on the fateful Ides on him like animals in a pack. Whichever way he
of March. This is a nineteenth-
century painting by Abel de Pujol. turned he took the blows of the blades and saw the
Below: Marcus Junius Brutus, who
steel aimed at his face and eyes. Driven this way and
may have been Julius Caesar’s son, that like a rat in a trap the blows slashed and stabbed
by Michelangelo. Marcus Junius
Brutus acted against Caesar for the down. Each of the conspirators had sworn to blood
noblest motives.
their knives in Caesar’s body.
He fought them off as best he could, reeling from
one to another until he saw Marcus Junius Brutus,
whom he had loved and trusted. Brutus came in
close with his bare blade and Caesar said “Et tu
Brute” (“And you too Brutus”). Caesar then drew his
toga over his head as he would when sacrificing at
an altar and took Brutus’s blade
in his groin. In all he took
23 wounds and died as
Senators turned and ran,
leaving the conspirators
reeking of Caesar
Caesar’s blood.
The mangled body lay
at the foot of the statue
of Pompey. It was 15
March, 44 BCE. Julius
Caesar was dead and
civil war would return
to Rome.

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Main: The Death of Julius Caesar
shows the assassination of the
great Roman emperor in 44 BCE.
An oil painting by Guillaume
Lethiere (1760–1832).

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Chapter 6

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The
Second
Civil War,
44–31 BCE
O
ur tyrant deserved to die. Here was a man who
wanted to be king of the Roman people and
master of the whole world. Those who agree
with ambition like this must also accept the
destruction of existing laws and freedoms. It is
not right or fair to want to be king in a state that
used to be free and ought to be free today.

Cicero on the assassination of Julius Caesar.

The view expressed by Gaius Matius, a friend of Caesar’s,

is different, but equally Roman:

People blame me for mourning the death of my

friend. They say my country should be preferred
to my friends, as if they had proved that killing
him was good for the state. I did not abandon
him as a friend, however much I disapproved of
what he was doing…

Here then are two views of the death of Julius Caesar.

One is from Matius, a genuine and heartfelt affirmation
of what friendship means. The other is from Cicero, a
judgement by someone who had known Caesar as a
political enemy for 24 years.
Caesar was 56 years old when he died and, as Plutarch
wrote, “the supreme power which he had pursued all his
life and which he achieved left him but an empty name
and a glory that made him envied by his fellow citizens.
As for his murderers fate hounded them down and
avenged his murder…”

Opposite: The battle of Actium and the defeat

of Antony and Cleopatra by the Roman navy
under Agrippa (2 September, 31 BCE).

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“Known in the past for his riotous
living Antony was, even his
enemies agreed, a brave man”
Cicero, an experienced and angry politician,
described the actions of the assassins as bungled.
He believed that if they were going to root out
corruption in government then they should have
killed Mark Antony as well, although others, such
as Marcus Junius Brutus, felt this was unnecessary.
Known in the past for his riotous living Antony
was, even his enemies agreed, a brave man. However,
Cicero believed that Antony was a weak man who
did not realize his weakness yet thought he was as
capable of ruling as Caesar. Cicero believed that men
like Antony were the cause of great disasters, as they
are given to compromise and are cruel and divisive
in their actions. He believed that Antony was a man
who was successful only when he was threatened.
But there was an unknown factor in the struggle
to fill the power vacuum caused by Caesar’s
death – Octavian. Aged just 19, Octavian was
studying Greek in Apollonia when Caesar
was murdered. The young man had come
to the attention of the former dictator
when he delivered a funeral oration in
honour of his grandmother Julia, who
had been Caesar’s sister. At 16 he joined
the army and when Caesar went to fight
Pompey’s sons in Spain in 45 BCE, Octavian
followed. He travelled with a small escort
along enemy-infested roads, was shipwrecked
and sick but pressed on to join Caesar. It was
an act that pleased the dictator, who adopted
Octavian as his heir in his will, having no
legitimately born son of his own. With the death
of his adoptive father, Octavian decided to return
to Rome in order to claim his inheritance and take
revenge against the assassins.
the people of Rome were incensed and took to the
streets where one innocent man who was suspected
The Aftermath of of being involved in the murder was torn limb from
limb. The conspirators had not believed that the
the Assassination people would be against them and hid. The day after
For the moment it was Mark Antony who was in the the assassination they came down from hiding and
ascendant. But before we consider his actions, let us Brutus made a speech to which the people listened
Right: A marble bust by Canova of look at the immediate actions of the conspirators. in silence. Antony had arranged that a decree of
the young Octavian, who was the
Emperor Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE). They had expected public acclamation. Instead, amnesty for the killing would be passed by the

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“Antony was fool enough to believe that

Above: A relief on Trajan’s column
showing ships of the type that
fought at Actium (31 BCE), see

everything was his for the taking” panel, page 89.

Senate in an effort to reconcile all parties. He ensured The conspirators went to ground and even Antony
that his fellow consul, Dolabella, and also Lepidus, realized that the transition of power would not be
who controlled the only troops in Rome, should as smooth as he would like, despite the fact that
be persuaded to side with the conspirators. Cicero immediately after Caesar’s death his deputy had
believed that the Republic would return as the result gained the support of the masses and the army.
of the dictator’s death, but the Senate proclaimed Antony was entrusted with Caesar’s papers and
that he was to be worshipped as a god. In attempting treasures by Calpurnia, his widow. He treated the
to temper the situation and bring all sides together conspirators with respect and passed measures to
Antony believed that everything would be resolved abolish dictatorship forever.
without more bloodshed and he would emerge as the Street riots were severely put down and one of
natural successor to Caesar. the ringleaders of the civil disorder, Amatius, was
Five days after the assassination, the people of executed on Antony’s orders. Antony was fool enough
Rome heard the terms of Caesar’s will. He left half to believe that everything was his for the taking. He
of what he had to be divided between each Roman spent Caesar’s wealth – Octavian’s inheritance – in a
citizen. When the masses saw the mutilated body of wanton display of debauchery. But Antony reckoned
their former leader being carried through the Forum, without the will of Octavian. The young man
they tore down railings and benches and tables and demanded to know where the fortune Caesar had left
made a pyre and burned the body. Then the angry him was and what Antony intended to do to make
people lit torches, went looking for the assassins and reparation for the money he had squandered. Antony
burned their houses. refused to welcome Octavian.

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“ The Senate voted
that Antony should
be given the
province of Gaul”
Antony and many others believed that the boy
could be easily outmanoeuvred in the political power
struggles that were imminent. On the other hand, the
patrician Optimate Party, which was already afraid of
Antony’s ambitions, welcomed Octavian into the fold.
Cicero and the Optimates believed that all they had
to do with one so young was humour him until he
could be dispensed with, but Octavian was not only
ambitious, he also had great natural skills as a leader
and a politician. Cicero and those ranged against
him would find this truth to their cost. Octavian was
not a man who was going to compromise when it
came to the fate of Caesar’s murderers. He wanted
them to be tried and to receive justice – and if no one
would apply the law then he would. Octavian had a
pedigree that would daunt greater men than Antony
or Cicero.
There was a story told of the young man lunching
in a copse by the Appian Way. He was close to the
fourth milestone and as he was eating an eagle
swooped at him, snatched the crust from his hand
and carried it high into the sky. Then, to his great
surprise, the eagle glided gently down and restored
what it had taken. Rome, the eagle, would be
subservient to Octavian – he was clearly marked by
the gods to be a great leader.
Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius fled Italy for
the east, leaving Antony in complete charge of the
provinces. The Senate voted that Antony should be
given the province of Gaul and the use of four of
Caesar’s legions. However, Decimus Brutus, another
of the conspirators had been promised Gaul by
Caesar, so he set about raising his own troops to take
on Antony. Civil War was imminent and the battle
lines began to be drawn.
Octavian understood that he had to move. He took
command of Caesar’s veterans in Campania. Two
legions, the Martian and the IV, deserted Antony
when they heard that Caesar’s own son was raising
troops, such was the power of Caesar’s name.

Right: The Death of Brutus, who died on his own sword after the
Battle of Philippi (42 BCE). Oil painting by Guerin.

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Opposite: The meeting of
Anthony and Cleopatra in 41 BCE. The Beginning of the The Second
Second Civil War Triumvirate Forms
Fresco by Tiepolo (c. 1747–50).

Below: A marble bust of Agrippa,

Roman general and military
adviser to Emperor Augustus. In January 43 BCE the Second Civil War began when In November, Antony, Octavian and Lepidus met
the Senate gave Octavian the title of senator and and put aside their enmity to form the Second
praetor, which made him the head of legal matters in Triumvirate. Between them, they controlled
Rome. Octavian, astutely, had already paid out of his 43 legions and agreed to carve up the Roman
personal fortune the legacies Caesar had promised to world. They came into power on a wave of terror,
the people. reminiscent of Sulla’s rise to power. Senators and
By now the war of words waged by Cicero against knights were killed on the mere suspicion of
Mark Antony was in full flow. Cicero was a brave supporting the assassins of Caesar, opposing the
man – he had stood for certain political principals Triumvirate or, often, because the Triumvirs wanted
all his life and he refused to abandon them. He was to take money. In December Antony insisted that
able to persuade the Senate to name Mark Antony a his old enemy Cicero be slaughtered – the outspoken
public enemy. republican died bravely.
Antony, knowing his troops could not be relied The Triumvirate looked east and marched on
upon in any confrontation with Octavian, turned on Brutus and Cassius. In 42 BCE, the Caesarians and
Decimus Brutus in Cisalpine Gaul and crushed him. Republicans faced each other at the Battle of Philippi
Then, in April 43 BCE Octavian’s army met Antony in Macedonia. The Republicans were defeated and
and defeated him. Antony moved to Transalpine both Cassius and Brutus died on their own swords.
Gaul where Decimus Brutus pursued him. Decimus Mark Antony and Octavian divided their areas of
hoped for help from Lepidus but he did not receive interest. Antony took the eastern dominions, while
it. Octavian left them to fight in a masterly stroke of Octavian was to have the most difficult assignment.
inaction. At the same time, the Senate He had to gain control of the Mediterranean islands
decided that Octavian was too great and southern Italy and to ensure that he kept the
a threat to their power and they Roman veterans happy while controlling the western
withdrew their support. reaches of the empire.
Meanwhile Cassius had The question of who would finally rule Rome
taken command in Syria while would dog their promises and treaties. Antony was
Marcus Brutus took Macedonia. a lucky general and soldiers like a lucky leader. He
They wanted to unite to was powerful, in his prime and experienced, while
destroy Octavian and Antony. It at only 21 Octavian was small and in delicate health.
was a vain hope. Octavian was But Octavian had as his friend and adviser a low-
consolidating his popularity. born but powerful soldier, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
Agrippa was Octavian’s right-hand man for the rest of
their lives. People began to remark on the diplomatic
skills and ruthlessness of Octavian. He ensured that
everything he did was part of an overall scheme.
Nothing Octavian did was ever by chance.
In 40 BCE, Octavian’s elder sister, Octavia, married
Antony. For a time she protected Antony from his
own excess. Octavian consolidated his power in
Rome, a city that “he found [in] brick and left [in]
marble”. He distributed land among the veteran
soldiers and organized work on the restoration and
refurbishment of public buildings. He repressed all
banditry in Italy and set up a police force in Rome to
keep the citizens secure but also repressed.

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followed with his army. Antony and Cleopatra made
Below: The meal of Cleopatra
and Mark Antony. From the
Louvre Museum.
Antony and Cleopatra a desperate throw for power by pointing out that
Antony first met the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, in 41 Caesarion was Caesar’s real offspring and not simply
BCE. He followed her to Egypt for a time, although an adopted son like Octavian.
his interests in Italy and the influence of Octavia kept It made no difference. Octavian and his legions
him from her. From 39 BCE he lived in Athens with defeated Antony, who killed himself. Cleopatra failed
his wife, but in 37 BCE, he met up with Cleopatra and to charm Octavian and, refusing to become a slave in
the two became lovers once more. Antony gave away a Triumph in Rome, also committed suicide.
Roman provinces in the east to her relatives like an Antony, a man of 50, had abandoned ambition, wife
oriental despot. He attacked Parthia in 36 BCE and and Rome for the Egyptian Queen. Rome now had
invaded Armenia in 34 BCE. By now, his relationship one undisputed ruler who knew that to retain power
with Octavian was in tatters. he had to find ways to assure Roman people of his
After divorcing Octavia in 32 BCE, Octavian cleverly Republican sentiments. Octavian knew that it was
declared war on Cleopatra rather than on Antony, only when he had achieved this that he could act
which would have been divisive in Rome and for the as he wished and impose his rule over the Roman
Senate. Octavian persuaded the Romans that he was empire. The imposition of that power had to be
fighting for their religion, family life, honour and the subtle and discreet. What his great-uncle had wanted
survival of Rome against a whoring Egyptian queen. to achieve by force of arms, Octavian achieved by
On 2 September, 31 BCE a Roman fleet commanded cunning and diplomatic skill. In 27 BCE, Octavian
by Agrippa trapped Antony and Cleopatra’s navy was honoured with the name “Augustus”, which
off Actium and destroyed it (see panel). Antony and meant divine. Augustus would rule Rome and the
Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where in 30 BCE Octavian world for more than 40 years.

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The Battle of Actium

Suetonius reported a story about Octavian prior to the Battle of Actium: “Before the
battle he was about to board his ship when he met a peasant driving an ass. [Octavian]
asked him his name and the peasant told him it was ‘Eutychus’, which means ‘prosper’
and the name of his ass was ‘Nicon’ which means ‘victory’.” Above: A
tapestry showing
Antony had wintered with his fleet in the vast bay called the Ambracian Gulf, which the defeat of
is almost shut off from the sea by the headland known as Actium. He had his army of Mark Antony’s
100,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry as well as thousands of eastern auxiliaries there. navy at Actium.
When he discovered that Agrippa’s fleet had moored across the mouth of the bay, he Created by
Leefdael and
attempted to escape the bottleneck. It would be necessary to fight his way out when Strecken.
the time came. Antony was confident of success as he had huge superiority. He had
500 galleys – some of ten banks of oars – while Octavian’s navy had half that number Right: Bust
of much smaller boats and an army of about 80,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry. It of the Roman
General and
was the skill and genius of Agrippa that made Octavian’s victory possible. Consul Mark
Antony sailed out of the gulf and faced the line of Octavian’s ships. Agrippa sailed Antony.
a host of fireships into Antony’s lines, which instantly caused panic. Cleopatra’s ships
broke out of the bay and sailed for Egypt followed by Antony and what was left of his
fleet. His army in the countryside around the bay surrendered to Octavian and Agrippa
less than seven days later. Suetonius reported that “To commemorate the victory
Octavian set up bronze statues of the peasant and his ass … called Nicon and created a
sacred enclosure for them.”

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Chapter 7

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Augustus,
the First
Emperor,
27 BCE–
14 CE
A
t the age of 36 Augustus was experienced
enough to know that he had to disguise the
extent of his true power. Having defeated
Antony, Lepidus, Sextus Pompeius, the son
of Pompey, and Decimus Brutus in battle and
taken revenge on those who had murdered Caesar,
he was in a position in which no single institution
of state nor any individual could stand against him.
His acceptance of the name Augustus suggests that
he was touched with a divine mission. The people of
Rome had rejected monarchy over 200 years earlier. It
would require subtlety and political skill to make the
changes he was determined to make.
Augustus wrote that immediately after the Second
Civil War “he transferred the State from his own
authority to the control of the Senate and people
of Rome”. He sent this claim to the corners of the
empire, although it was far from true. He wanted the
people to believe that he was merely the first citizen
among all citizens and that the offices he held had
always been held by past leaders. The hidden nature
of the control he wielded would gradually be stripped
away by future emperors, but at the beginning of the
age of the Roman Empire it was possible to maintain
the illusion.

Opposite: Augustus talking to Cornelius Cinna Magnus, a

supporter of Mark Antony and grandson of Pompey, after
the emperor has uncovered a conspiracy against him.
Augustus chose to pardon Cinna.

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“Augustus appeared to have
increased the powers of the Senate,
but in fact he had balanced them”
Augustus held all the offices he took for life, while
other officers of the state held them for limited
periods. He agreed to govern all the frontier
provinces, and by doing this, he took command of
the entire Roman army and so could keep them loyal
under the watch of officers of his own choosing.
Augustus determined that this, the ultimate weapon
of control, should be thoroughly professional –
soldiers should have proper pay and conditions.
In theory Augustus and the Senate ruled in
parallel – the Senate could make laws, Augustus
could issue edicts; the Senate controlled the Roman
treasury, Augustus managed the finances of the
provinces; the Senate was the high court; Augustus
could try important cases if he wished to. Augustus
appeared to have increased the powers of the Senate,
but in fact he had balanced them by increasing in his
own powers. He had made the Senate subservient to
the emperor.
Augustus controlled the membership of the Senate
because he controlled the selection of candidates.
He reduced its numbers and removed any low-born
or foreign members. While the people also seemed
to be governed as they had been before, Augustus
controlled their elections too and legislation by the
people’s committees became rarer. Augustus realized
that it was only essential to provide the people with
entertainment and cheap corn to keep them quiet.
He improved the position of the equestrian class,
making them officers in the provinces, suppliers
for the armies, prefects in charge of corn supplies
and managers of vast estates. He also passed to
them the duty of controlling the police in the city,
which connected them directly to him and reduced
the influence of the Senate. Augustus insisted that
provincial magistrates improved the great network
of roads and also decreed that the slave population
should live in comfortable conditions.
The period of relative stability that followed the
Second Civil War enabled Augustus to oversee the
distribution of land to his veterans. He was anxious
Above: The Emperor Augustus
to keep the army on his side. The armies on the
with his staff of office and a German frontiers, which were commanded by
thunderbolt signifying divinity.
Stone, first century CE. Tiberius Claudius Nero and Nero Claudius Drusus,

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the sons of Augustus’s wife Livia, became dissatisfied. of the unrest. These men were sentenced to death Above: A frieze from the Arc of
Peace, which was consecrated
They felt that being forced to serve for 20 years with for fomenting mutiny and were slaughtered. in 9 BCE, marking the return of
Augustus from campaigns in Gaul
the colours was too long. They wanted a 16-year Augustus also began to rebuild the physical and Spain.
commitment, pensions and land, as they had been infrastructure of the empire. Roads and forts were
promised in the past. repaired and renewed and temples that had fallen
Augustus sent a senior officer to investigate into a ruinous state as a result of the decline of
the reasons for this unprecedented revolt. Roman religious observance were rebuilt. Those
Some wanted to kill their superiors. When the who wanted to gain favour with the emperor knew
investigating officer came into the camps old that all they had to do was to pay for the restoration
soldiers grabbed his hands and made him feel of a temple. Augustus decreed that the institutions
their toothless gums and look at their wounds and that had been built up during the Roman Republic
their tattered clothes. They stripped their shirts should remain in place, but he also instigated
off and showed him the bloody wounds on their many changes that were essential to the smooth
backs that had been caused not by the enemy but functioning of the empire. Augustus knew that
by the whips and canes of their own officers. the administration of such a vast domain could
The investigating officer promised to bring not remain in the hands of a self-electing and
their complaints to Augustus himself on the centralized group of Roman citizens. The Senate
understanding that they would give up the leaders might have achieved greatness for the city, but

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Above: The three-tiered Pont du controlling and legislating a territory that extended Macedonia should be able to expect the same from
Gard crossing the River Gard as it
takes water from Uzes to Nîmes from modern Belgium to the Pyrenees, from the court as a man or woman in Gaul. While the
in France.
Germany to Greece, from the Alps to North Africa detail of systems might change as the emperors
and from Spain to Judaea needed local checks and came and went, it was under Augustus that such
balances that could be provided only by a properly methods of enforcing imperial control were laid
organized civil service. Through this network he down. Augustus created a climate in which political
kept in close touch with all parts of the empire. change was appropriate to all. It was a magnificent
This new order determined that the control and balancing act and he managed to sustain it until the
governance of the entire empire would be fair and end of his reign.
egalitarian. The law in Rome should have the same Augustus knew that the patricians in powerful
characteristics as the law in Gaul or Judaea. Justice political and social positions felt that their wealth,
should be administered in Rhodes in the same way ambition, power and the framework by which they
as in Spain. Men or women accused of a crime in lived had to be protected. He knew that they would

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resist any attempt to take away what they regarded as He was a man of simple tastes, but was also a man of Below: A marble statue of the
Empress Livia Drusilla, wife
their rightful place in the hierarchy. They were right great personal vanity. Suetonius wrote: of Augustus.
to be suspicious of his motives but there was little or
nothing they could do to oppose them. Augustus liked to believe that his eyes shone with
Augustus appeared to be a man who was in touch a sort of divine radiance and it gave him deep
with all levels of the Roman community. Farmers, pleasure if anyone at whom he glanced should
statesmen, freemen and members of the far empire drop their eyes as though dazzled by looking
all believed he heard their grievances and, indeed, into the sun. By old age he had only partial
through his civil servants, he very often did. If he vision in one eye, his teeth were small and
felt it was to his advantage, he would act on what he few and decayed, ears of moderate size and
heard. He had an air that charmed many who met hair yellowish and curly. He was short but
him. He concealed his power behind a ready smile beautifully proportioned…
and used simple and direct language when he spoke
or addressed meetings. Augustus suffered from ill health and was
Lucius Sulla’s determination to impose his will rather superstitious, he often talked
on the city many years earlier had destroyed the about his dreams with soothsayers
resistance of the people. Augustus built on this and philosophers whom he invited
by presenting a much more sympathetic image. to meet him from time to time.
For nearly half a century, Augustus guarded his
power jealously. He prepared for the succession and
ensured that the role of emperor was hereditary. A Golden Age
He was determined that the rulers of Rome The reign of Augustus was
would no longer be created by the Senate. an age when ideas, books,
architecture, poetry and drama
flourished. Horace, Virgil, Ovid,
Family Life Seneca, and Propertius were
Augustus married Antony’s stepdaughter, Claudia, contemporary writers and
who was just of marriageable age, to cement his brief stunning buildings like the Pont
alliance with Antony but divorced her soon after. du Gard, the Arch of Augustus
Then he married Scribonia who had been married and the Theatre of Marcellus were
twice before to consuls. She bore Augustus his only built during this period.
legitimate child, Julia. According to Suetonius he Augustus encouraged writers
divorced Scribonia in 39 BCE “because [he] could by attending their plays and
not bear the way she nagged [him]”. He took Livia hearing them read their poems
Drusilla from her husband, despite the fact that and books. It is said that two
she was pregnant at the time, and they remained years after commissioning
together until he died. In 2 BCE, he banished his Virgil to write a poem about
daughter Julia to a remote island for immorality. He the fall of Troy and the
had a puritanical zeal when it came to the behaviour founding of Rome he asked
of members of his family, despite the fact that he the poet to show him what
took his own pleasures where he wanted. he had written. A fearful Virgil
Augustus was not greedy and even his homes were admitted reluctantly that there
not ostentatious by the standards of the time. was nothing to show.

“Augustus ensured that the role of

emperor was hereditary. He was
determined that the rulers of Rome
would not be created by the Senate”
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Augustus was not angry and Virgil enjoyed
Augustus’s generosity until the time when Virgil
could read the first books of The Aeneid to him.

Lasting Power
Caesar had not bothered to conceal his contempt
for the Senate. Augustus and his successor, Tiberius,
knew that the pretence that the Senate had power
was necessary to ensure that power truly continued
to reside in one man. Augustus wanted the power to
last beyond his time and he set about ensuring this.
To base an empire on the lie that the people still
held the reins was dangerous, but when Augustus
died he passed on an empire that was secure at
home and on its frontiers. Augustus used the age-old
tactic of divide and rule – he flattered tribal leaders
with gifts of Roman citizenship; he included the
most bellicose tribes into the Roman army as paid
auxiliaries and built roads and bridges that benefited
both Romans and the conquered tribes.
Augustus advised Tiberius not to extend the
empire further into Germany. Germany might be a
province nominally, but the legions wintered on the
Gallic side of the Rhine. It was not until 4 CE that
Tiberius first dared to winter on the German bank
of the Rhine for the tribes were fiercely warlike and
made uneasy neighbours.
Augustus claimed to be running a nation based
on the old values of Roman life – the family, codes
of morality and religion, and the traditional values
of law, peace and order. He continually made it clear
that his decisions had a firm legal base. He claimed
there was continuity between the ancient systems
of Roman society and the system he advocated. The
balance he kept between the illusion and the reality
was a magnificent feat of statesmanship.
In 14 CE, Augustus died. On his deathbed he did
not linger: “Goodbye Livia, never forget our marriage”,
were his last words. Shortly afterwards he was
declared “divine”, and a cult developed around him.
After his death, the frontiers of the Roman Empire
remained virtually static, apart from the conquest of
Britain, which was completed by Claudius in 43 CE. It
is true that between 101–117 CE Trajan acquired vast
new territory, but it all reverted to its previous status
after he died.

Opposite: Virgil reading his epic The Aeneid to Augustus,

Augustus’s wife Livia and his sister Octavia. Nineteenth-century oil
painting by Ingres.

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Chapter 8

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The
Roman
Way of
Life
I
n many ways life in ancient Rome was the
forerunner of the best and the worst of modern
society. At the time of Julius Caesar the city was
a jumble of apartment blocks known as insulae
that consisted of three or four rickety floors. These
buildings were interconnected by a chaos of narrow
alleys and streets that made Rome a dangerous city,
particularly at night. The villas of the rich were set
apart or were sometimes built in the ground floor of
such blocks.

The Streets
The poet Juvenal (c. 55–130 CE) complained that
“walking down a street meant walking through filth”.
The streets of Rome were incredibly dirty underfoot
and usually just wide enough for two people to pass.
During his reign, Julius Caesar banned all carts and
wagons from the streets from dawn to dusk – if he
hadn’t it would have been impossible for the citizens
of the city to go about their business. But this meant
that the nights were packed with the grinding of
wagon wheels and the cries of the drivers as they
supplied the markets for morning. According to
Juvenal sleep was impossible; he reported that “the
crossing of wagons in the narrow winding streets, the
swearing of drovers in traffic jams would snatch sleep
from a sea cow or the emperor himself”.

Opposite: A relief from a

marble sarcophagus showing
scenes from a child’s life.

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Above: A long street in By dawn the streets were packed with pedestrians tables set up against walls were loaded with herbs
Pompeii indented with the
grooves caused by the passing pushing through the crowd. Men carrying scaffolding and spices from all over the empire: saffron; pepper;
of chariots and carts.
poles and beams for never-ending building works huge lumps of dried salt from the sea or the salt lakes
were a menace, but the city was expanding and in Greece, Cyprus or Africa; paprika; marjoram; garlic;
building had to go on. A wine merchant carrying a fish paste, harissa and fragrant grasses all added their
wine cask might drop it, curse and watch the wine scents to the morning air.
drain away into the filth at his feet. Nothing stopped Shops spilled into the streets, regardless of
in this hustling city. imperial orders. Cooking pots and pans, lamps,
Rome grew by the day with cheap houses being piles of fruit and vegetables lay everywhere. Men
built for the flood of workers being thrown off the from Syria, Egypt, or Spain called and beckoned
land, new temples, baths, drainage systems, the to show what they had for sale. Soldiers from the
footings for new aqueducts and marble and mosaic legions and auxiliaries from distant lands watched.
floors to furnish the villas of the rich. It was a Slaves crowded around market stalls to buy meat,
remarkable expansion. vegetables, fresh fish and fruit for their masters.
The streets near the markets were filled to bursting Gold was hammered into bracelets and earrings.
Opposite: Stone relief of
with produce. A metalworker in a dark workshop Meat and fish were cooked over fires and black
a stallholder offering fruit might suddenly plunge iron into a fire and sparks wine was poured into wine skins from huge barrels
and vegetables for sale in
an open-air market. would fly from the room into the daylight. Small brought in from the countryside. Beggars demanded

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Aqueducts
Inevitably rivers such as the Tiber were polluted. The Romans knew that The Romans realized that water had to flow at a slow and steady pace and
adequate supplies of fresh, clean water were a protection against outbreaks conduits were built on shallow slopes. They even solved the problem of
of illness. According to some accounts, fresh water arrived in ancient Rome making water run uphill – forcing water into the narrow end of a stone funnel
via eight aqueducts, which fed the public conduits, basins and fountains puts it under pressure and allows it to travel up a slight incline.
used by the city’s inhabitants. The water was used for drinking, washing By 97 CE the aqueducts that fed in to Rome were designed by Sextus
and cleaning the public lavatories. This technology spread across the empire Julius Frontinus. His system fed around 1,000 million litres a day to the city.
making fresh, clean water available to most citizens. Only the wealthy had Frontinus wrote: “compare this with the idle pyramids and the useless, if
private water supplies. famous, buildings of Greece.”
The water transported by aqueducts came across great distances
from fresh water springs along stone-built causeways and drains. These Above: The aqueduct at Segovia, Spain, bringing water from the distant snow-capped
magnificent feats of engineering provided water wherever it was needed. mountains into the city.

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Fire
Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the richest men in
Rome, built his fortune chasing fires. If a fire broke out
he rushed to the site to offer the owner sympathy,
before offering to buy the smouldering ruins and
the land, all too often for a pitiful price. The owner
was usually only too pleased to be rid of it. Crassus
meanwhile brought in a team of builders to build a
new block, which he then rented out at a good profit.

alms or showed rotting stumps and told of heroic

deeds as soldiers. And there was always the press of
men pushing into the market to barter, to trade, to
buy and to sell. Storytellers from Asia sat in the shade
of umbrellas, awaiting a listener for their tales. This
was Rome in the daytime. It was an exciting and
almost a magical place. At night it was different.
Little moonlight could edge into the narrow,
stinking streets. Neither light nor sign marked the
way. If a man went to dinner with friends he would,
if he was sensible, take a house slave for protection
or pay the neighbourhood watchmen to escort him.
Juvenal, half mockingly, wrote that anyone who
walked alone in the streets without making a will
was a careless man.
Eventually the city settled into silence with
windows shut, gates barred and the citizens asleep.
Then the carts and wagons of the farmers rolled in
and it began again. The rumble of carts, the clatter
of hooves, the murmur of beasts going to their
slaughter, men wrapped against the fog, mist and the
cold already making bargains in the shadows. And
women looking for clients. Cities don’t change so
much even after 2,000 years.
Rome’s poor lived in the overcrowded, insanitary Those with no trade could find irregular work Above: A shoemaker sits astride
his bench mending a shoe on a
apartment blocks that had few of the benefits of this on building sites or in the markets. Some carried wooden last. Relief from a stone
sepulchre.
emerging civilization. These blocks were unhygienic, drinking water in huge jars or skins to sell where
unlit and the corridors were congested with people they could, while others ran errands, carried
and their belongings. Water was transported by messages and generally ducked and dived to scrape
aqueducts (see panel, page 102) and supplied public a living.
taps, public baths and washhouses. The working day was short, usually finishing
at about midday. This left the afternoons and the
nights free for entertainment. It has been calculated
The Plebeians that there were over 100 days a year set aside for
Life for the poor was not easy. Some found work public holidays, anniversaries, religious festivals,
as casual labourers while others were craftsmen or official games and such like. Idle people needed to be
tradesmen. Cobblers, butchers, dressmakers, leather entertained or trouble might erupt.
workers and other tradesmen lived above their shops. Rome was a magnet for the people in the
Their wives often worked alongside them while countryside. These incomers added to the city’s vast,
looking after their children. expanding population and put pressure on those in

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charge to provide work and housing. Families and
The Roman Villa servants, workers and apprentices lived cheek by
The villa was a single-storey building built around a pillared central hall called an atrium. A jowl. Verminous rooms were a permanent source of
covered corridor resembling a medieval cloister connected the roofed rooms that opened into disease. Disease was feared, but most feared of all
this passageway. In the centre of the house there was often a secluded and shady garden. was fire.
Rooms off the atrium and the garden were decorated with plaster on which an artist might
have painted a formal picture. If a fire took hold in one of these wood, plaster and
If the villa was owned by a very wealthy family a mosaic maker was sometimes employed stone tenements a whole district would be in danger.
to create a design that represented a story from Greek or Roman myth. Often these were Rome had its own fire brigade, but no warnings or
built into pools so that the colours of the stones remained bright. Mosaics were made by
drawing a design into a cement base and then inlaying thousands of pieces of carefully cut rules could prevent fire breaking out from time to
stones. Each stone had a flat, coloured surface. It was expensive and very skilled work. time. Some Romans, like Caesar’s friend Crassus,
Furniture was simple and functional with reclining couches, stools and low tables in the made money out of fire (see panel, page 103).
living areas. Beds were sprung on leather straps and were also simple. Water was often
fed into villas by a system of lead or clay pipes and was used for washing and drinking. It The best housing was for those who could afford
could also be transported through an underfloor heating system known as a hypocaust (see separate villas, which were often magnificent (see
opposite). It was the duty of domestic slaves to keep the system clean and to make sure that panel, left).
the water was heated when it was needed.
Villas needed large numbers of slaves to clean, cook and provide security. Often the master
of the house provided quarters for a clerk and even a schoolmaster both of whom might be
educated men from Greece or Alexandria but slaves nonetheless. Domestic life
Rome woke at dawn and the daily routine was
austere. The master of the house would rise and dress
in a short tunic and a large linen square called a toga,
which he wore around his body and draped over one
shoulder. Togas had a coloured border that denoted
the wearer’s social position. The master of the house
then took his breakfast – one of three or four regular
meals a day – while giving instructions about the
household to his major-domo. This most trusted of
slaves had his master’s complete confidence and
might even gain his freedom as a mark of respect
and gratitude from the family on his owner’s death.
Slaves cleaned the rooms while the gardener
watered and tended the plants in the inner garden.
The cook, a most important slave, checked the
quality of the meat and fish that had been bought
from the market.
It was time for the master’s work to begin. In the
street a barber cut his hair and shaved him, which
was hazardous and often resulted in cuts and nicks.
The best remedy to stop bleeding was said to be a
spider’s web soaked in oil and vinegar.
Meanwhile, back in the house, the lady of the
house ate a pleasant breakfast and, with the help
of her own personal slave, she dressed her hair,
applied any such make-up as she wanted and
dressed. Women would wear the stola, a long
linen tunic with gold stitching round the hem,
tied with a belt and accompanied by a square
cloak, which was often of a bright colour. As
the empire expanded, a rich woman’s clothes
Above: Hadrian’s villa was a traditional Roman country house built at Tivoli, 117–138 CE. also became more luxurious and silk and cotton
might well take the place of wool and linen.

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Roman Baths
The baths became a part of everyday life in the Roman Empire. Spas with furnaces and then led through a system of channels and pipes known as
natural hot springs became a focus for large complexes of buildings and if hypocausts into the baths.
spas were not available huge public bathhouses were built around the cities The baths in Rome used over 400 miles (640 km) of aqueducts. In the
of the empire and were fed with water from the aqueducts. late third century CE the baths of the Emperor Diocletian (240–313 CE) were
The buildings were an elegant focus for the inhabitants of cities such as the size of a modern football pitch and contained mosaics, massive marble
Rome, Pompeii, Bath, Alexandria or Nîmes. Taking a bath was no simple columns and even statues of gods and emperors.
matter; in the city of Bath there were three separate baths. A building of this In Bath the hot springs provided a million litres of hot water every day at a
complexity would have required fine engineering. First the building itself had temperature of around 48°F. Some Romans felt that such springs were sacred
to be attractive. Pillars lined an elegant cloister into which a large communal and threw in valuable objects to please the gods.
bath was sunk. The system applied to using a public bath was the same throughout the
Water was piped into this bath through many lead pipes, which were often empire. For a small fee a customer stripped and handed his clothes to an
decorated with my thic figures. It was heated in a tank by wood-burning attendant. He then moved to an exercise ground to work out and build
up a sweat. Then he moved to the bathing area. The first bath taken was
called the frigidairium and was cold. After this the customer could take some
more exercise and having worked up a further sweat he would recline in the
tepidarium – a warm bath. After time there he would finally move into the
hot bath, the caldarium, which acted very much like a modern sauna. The
baths provided a social focus as well as a means of keeping clean.
In baths like those in Pompeii there was a gymnasium. There were also
masseurs in attendance to pound and pummel the customers. Having
rubbed olive oil into a customer’s skin they would then scrape it off with an
instrument called a strigli. The masseur would then smooth sweet-smelling
oils into the skin.

In 50 CE, the playwright Seneca wrote:

I live over a public bath-house. Can you imagine every sort of

annoying noise? The fat gentleman does his exercise with lead
Above: A collection of toilet and writing utensils. Ivory combs and scrapers, pens and
weights; when he is working out, or pretending to, I can hear him
a mirror stand. First century CE. grunt. When he breaths out I can hear him panting in a squeaking
Top: The elegant thermal baths at Bath, Somerset, England, with central pool and
voice. Or some lazy fellow is happy with a cheap rub down and I
traditional colonnade. hear the sound of the masseur’s hand slapping his flesh.

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Main: Men about to settle down to a
banquet as a servant brings a finger bowl
and another takes off one of the diner’s
shoes. Second century BCE.

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The Forum
The Forum was the focus of public and private business in any Roman city, to conduct all public and private business. In 107 CE Emperor Trajan (53–117
and initially it was also a cattle market and place to shop. Porticos, pillars CE) began to construct the final magnificent site of the Forum. It was 300
and a covered area provided shelter and shade for those who did daily feet (100 metres) long and 240 feet (80 metres) wide. The building had a
business there. For a long time the Forum was where funeral games and huge portico that was supported by colonnades of pillars. Along the sides of
contests were staged and religious ceremonies were performed. Temples the building were many small rooms, often with signs outside, that formed
were often established close to the Forum to accommodate religious rites. the headquarters of the associations or guilds of skilled workers from around
Naturally, as Rome grew and habits changed, so did the Forum. the Roman Empire.
By 179 BCE many of the older characteristics of the Forum had moved
to other sites. The religious aspects did remain, although public worship was Below: A wall painting from Pompeii which was a sign showing where to find the
observed less often. By the time of Julius Caesar, the Forum was too small association of skilled woodworkers.

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“Young men were
expected to attend
military training in
the afternoons”
The mistress of the house made sure that the
slave girls had taken the clothes and linen from
the bedroom and that it was being washed, she
instructed the cook as to whether there were guests
for dinner in the evening or whether a simple meal
was all that was needed.
The mistress might speak to the slave-tutor
about the progress her son was making with his
lessons. Then she and the major-domo would
meet to discuss anything that needed attention.
He was as much a key member of the household
for her as for her husband. It is recorded that
some slaves, who were often well-educated and
cultured Greek or Egyptian prisoners of war,
became the lovers of their owners’ wives.
The mistress of a rich household had little more
to do than to walk, attended by a slave girl, to visit a
jeweller’s shop or to sit spinning with her daughters,
perhaps to discuss their betrothals, as they were often
engaged at the age of 12. Later a rich woman might
visit friends and go with them to the reserved part of
the public baths (see panel, page 105) to gossip and
to take a massage. Then, before dusk she would be
escorted home to wait on her husband’s return.
The richest men were the lawyers and the Senators
who ruled the city or the knights of the equestrian
class, whose interests lay in administration and
trading. They were the bureaucrats, the wealthy gambled recklessly: “Is it not mad to lose a fortune Above: Sale of bread at a
market stall. Roman fresco from
landowners, the state officials and civil servants. and not even have a shirt to give to a naked slave?” the Praedia of Julia Felix in
Pompeii. Museo Archeologico
Their world revolved around the Senate and the he asked. Nazionale (Naples).
Forum (see panel, page 108). Young men were expected to attend military
training in the afternoons, rather than waste their
time and energy on gambling and women. It was at
A Gentleman’s this time of day that public games would begin.

Afternoon Plans
Work having finished, another brief meal, often The Evening Meal
of bread and fruit and cheese, was taken and the At nightfall, public entertainment ended. If the
wealthy men of Rome were at leisure. They might master of the house was at home and had no guests,
take walks together, play games, meet friends or dinner was very simple and took little time to eat
gossip just as their female counterparts did. Gambling or to prepare. For both the rich and the less well off
was forbidden by the Senate, but it eventually became a normal dinner did not include much meat. The
a terrible vice in the city. Juvenal wrote that men Romans used vegetables, herbs and spices, which

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“In the families of the poor the Education
children helped with the grinding In the families of the wealthy, boys were educated

work of the small-holding” and girls learned how to become good wives. In the
families of the poor the children helped with the
grinding work of the small-holding or learned the
were often accompanied by wheat flour porridge. If, skills of their father, for example as a cobbler, butcher,
on the other hand, a rich man was serving a banquet a farrier or a weapon maker.
anything exotic that could be found in the market In poor families baby girls were sometimes left on
would be brought to the table. the town rubbish tips to die. Parents of such children
Couches surrounded the low table and guests knew they would never be able to afford a dowry and
reclined on them to eat. Slaves entered with iced and that she would just be a financial drain on the family.
perfumed water to wash the guests’ hands before A boy would be educated at home if the family
they ate. Then the food was served from huge bowls kept a well-educated slave to serve as a teacher.
and platters. Wine was passed around in prodigiously Whether the education was at home or in the back
large amounts. room of a local shop, the regime was harsh and
The Romans were fond of spiced food and rich and punishment was cruel and unending. Beatings were
spicy sauces. The domestic servants would prepare routine, whether for late attendance, for making a
the sauces from vinegar and honey, pepper, and mistake while reciting a poem or conjugating verbs.
even old fish waste. These sauces would be added to Boys were even held down across a chair to make a
chicken, duck, pigeon, ostrich, swan, crocodile, larks’ punishment more savage. Tears were not expected.
tongues, boars’ heads, peacocks, sturgeon, salmon Roman boys grew up to be able to take harsh
and whatever else the market offered. punishment without a murmur. Everything was
A favourite recipe consisted of dormice stuffed with learned by heart and no questions were expected. If a
minced pork, or the meat of another dormouse with teacher declared that a thing was so then it was so …
chopped nuts, herbs and pine nuts. It was cooked in to ask why or how was to invite another beating.
a small oven and then dipped in honey and poppy Up to the age of 12, boys learned how to read and
Below: A stone relief panel of
seeds. These banquets might last as long as four or write and to do basic maths. They used an abacus for
a school in which the teacher, five hours and the guests, all men, would eat and maths and a wax tablet and a stylus to write. If the
probably a Greek slave, is
instructing three boys. drink until they could eat and drink no more. father was liberal he might allow his daughter to join

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The Public Games

After the unrest of the civil wars and an influx of citizens into wooden seats for the spectators were erected along the sides. Chariots
the already overloaded city, the threat to good order was clear. were released simultaneously onto the track from starting stalls. A low wall
The poor and unemployed had to be kept docile. Bread and circuses became protected spectators as the chariots hurtled around the track seven times.
the order of the day. By 50 BCE there were approximately 130 days of The noise and spectacle and the sight of their rulers sharing their excitement
holiday each year. was enough to keep the people happy.
The games were not yet the full-blown orgy of death and killing that were These races grew into other spectacles as time went by. The circus was
frequently seen at the Colosseum at the time of Nero and Caligula. Initially, adapted to accommodate other spectacles too. There were hunts in which
entertainment was mainly provided by horse and chariot racing, in which tigers, lions and other wild beasts were killed by armed men. Ditches around
various teams competed against each in reckless races. The people were the circus were filled with water to prevent the wild animals escaping into
entertained and free bread ensured that they were fed. the crowd.
The games were given in the name of various gods and sacrifices Augustus was forced to make the games more and more exotic. The mob
were made before they began. During the era of the Kingdom a became more and more eager for blood. The people demanded that their
horse race would take place to celebrate the return of the army from ruler was as involved as they were. For example, when Julius Caesar came
its spring campaign. The winning horse was sacrificed to purify the to the games and was clearly too bored to watch they were not pleased. By
city by shedding its blood and its skeleton was preserved to protect showing his boredom he divorced himself from the people he ruled.
the city. In a similar way the autumn races saw the winning horse The racing and the spectacle provided a safety valve against revolution.
beheaded, its blood collected and some offered as a libation on the The people were bought off by the games and increasingly fantastic sums of
altar of Regia. “Blood poured on the ground to calm the god of death in money were spent on them by the emperor and by those looking for political
heaven,” said Ausonius. It was a dark portent of what was to come. advancement.
The people came in thousands to the amphitheatre known as the Vallis
Murcia, which later became the circus. It was 2000 feet (610 metres) long Above: Horse racing and chariot racing at the Circus Maximus. Stone relief from the
and 625 feet (190 metres) wide. There was a spine down the centre and First century CE.

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these lessons. After the age of 12 boys learned about
Marriage
Below: A Roman marriage by the
joining of hands. The goddess
Vesta is embracing the couple. the writings of the philosophers and ideas of Roman
Second century CE.
authors. They also learned the art of public speaking, Because the family was so important to the Romans,
which for a patrician boy was essential in adult marriage was a very serious act. A girl might be as
public life. In the later years of the Roman Empire a young as 12 and the groom only two years older.
young man might make a tour of its various regions, Their responsibility was the honourable continuation
travelling to Greece, Asia Minor or Rhodes to study at of the family name. Marriage was a situation that
the feet of teachers there. could not be left to the fancies of love, but was a
Girls, on the other hand, had no further education matter for the head of the family. Choice was dictated
unless they were fortunate in their father. They by political and financial interests. A betrothal was
learned sewing, cooking and maybe how to play formal, sacrifice was made and rings were exchanged
a musical instrument. A girl was the chattel of her if the soothsayer’s reading was favourable.
father and he could do as he wished with her. Her All their friends were expected to witness the
best hope was an arranged marriage that was happy. betrothal, the exchange of rings, and the signing of
the contract declaring the amount of dowry the girl
would bring. It also regulated other aspects like the
period of betrothal. If the man had not married her
within an agreed time she was free to marry
another; if either broke the vows the girl was
regarded as an adulteress and the boy risked
a large fine as well as being considered a
bigamist if he was betrothed again.
On the evening before the marriage
the girl gave her dolls to the house gods
of her father’s house. Childhood was
over; she put on a white tunic tied at the
waist, she was veiled and sometimes
wore flowers in her hair. The ceremony
was a simple joining of hands by an
elderly woman of proven virtue at the
bride’s house. At a banquet provided by
her father they waited for the evening
star to appear and the girl was taken in
procession to her groom’s house.
Friends and relations attended,
musicians played and the songs became
more bawdy while the groom threw
packets of money or nuts to the
children for luck and fertility. The bride
garlanded the door of the house with
flowers and smeared the lintel with
oil and was then carried into the
house by two of the groom’s friends.
And so to the bed and to the
consummation of the marriage.
A bride was owned by her
husband. However, under
Augustus the position of women
changed. They were allowed
to run a business and own

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property, and women, particularly of the patrician the helpers, of the sacrifices and of the upkeep of a Above: A magnificent bull is
brought for sacrifice to Mars, the
classes, began to gain their freedom. It was not long temple and would also take part in the conduct of the god of war. Libations are poured
at the altar.
before it became impossible for a father to demand rituals. Often temples were built at great expense by
that a daughter marry a man and shift into a family wealthy public figures or by the emperor. Painted and
of his choosing if she was unwilling. gilded interiors, tall columns and images of the god to
whom the temple was dedicated filled the building.
Men or women known as augurs were often
Religion attached to the temples. They could predict the
Worship in Rome was centred on the gods who held future from studying the entrails of a sacrificed
particular responsibility for the seasons or the sun, animal. Such predictions were taken very seriously
the sky, war, the home, love or healing. The practice by most Romans, but public worship became, as time
of religion was simple and animals were sacrificed went on, of less importance than the worship of the
in the temple to a particular deity. Mercury, Neptune, household gods.
Mars, Venus, Vesta and Janus all had dedicated
temples around the city and across the empire. At
home the senior male in the house acted as priest Life in the Future
for the family. At the entrance to each home was a After decades of fighting, civil war and political
cupboard containing a small shrine. Inside were the unrest the city emerged as a stable and peaceful
silver statuettes and symbols of household gods. Men place to inhabit. The history of Rome began with
or women leaving or returning to the house might fear: fear of hunger, fear of neighbouring tribes, fear
pray to one of the household gods for a successful of non-Romans and fear, above all, of the barbarians
outcome of a journey or as thanks for a good day. on the distant frontiers. Some also feared the mighty
Priests were appointed by the Senate. As fathers Roman legions who spread across the known world
could be the family priest so men like Julius Caesar and held back those frontiers. While they did that
could be designated as a priest on a wider scale. Rome was safe. Once the army lost confidence in its
He would be expected to help with the costs of rulers, all would fly out of control.

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Chapter 9 Adulterers Subversives
Upper-class Romans, particularly those in politically
High-class couples having illicit affairs weakened
powerful professions, were forbidden from close
the hereditary power structure of the Roman elite.
contact with the army without proper authorisation
There were times when this was a capital offence.
in case they overthrew the government.

Counterfeiters and fraudsters

Escaped slaves and gladiators Criminals from the middle classes sold stolen or
Runaways from Rome’s slave system could be counterfeit goods, or faked weights and measures.
executed on the spot, or later, in more painful They could be fined or banished if caught.
and creative ways, if they were caught.

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Traitors

The
One of the worst crimes in ancient Rome’s upper
classes was treachery or political subversion.
Offenders could be banished or even killed.

Underworld
of Ancient
Rome
F
rom the Senate to the streets, crime was rife in ancient Rome.
From escaped slaves to treacherous aristocrats, discover the
extent of Roman villainy throughout the empire, including the
array of punishments.
Ancient Rome had a problem with crime. Robberies were
common, so was violence and rioting. Merchants cheated their
customers; desperate slaves escaped regularly and joined other
outlaws in their hiding places beneath the city. At the top level of
society, the wealthy and aristocratic were often embroiled in secret
or subversive plots. From the top to the bottom the city was riddled
with criminal activity.
Beneath the streets of ancient Rome lurked some of the city’s
most dangerous criminals. The Catacombs that form a warren of
tunnels and caves underneath the city were home to escaped slaves
and outlawed religions that used the underground labyrinth as a
hiding place.

Cult members Thieves and muggers

If a mugger was caught in the act at night, he
Followers of non-Roman or illegal religions
could be killed on the spot. Otherwise, thieves
were considered highly dangerous. They
were tried in court. Punishment depended on
often hid from the Roman police force in
whether they were citizens of Rome or not.
the Catacombs beneath the city.

Opposite: An artist’s
impression of the various forms
of criminals in ancient Rome.

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Dark, often damp, riddled with vermin, It was the religious cults that tended to stay in
claustrophobically small in places and stacked with the underworld of the Catacombs. Romans were
the corpses of previous inhabitants, the Catacombs usually quite open-minded about gods who weren’t
were not a place where people would want to stay. their own, but some religions – Judaism, Christianity
Escaped slaves would want to move on from there as and Bacchanalia – followed dangerous ideologies.
soon as they could, and not just because of the grim Bacchanalia was a Greek religion that the Romans
conditions. In 71 BCE Rome crucified an escaped had adopted. Its followers celebrated their god
Below: Catacombs are a network gladiator called Spartacus who was widely believed Bacchus with drunken orgies, and it was rumoured
of tunnels and passageways, dug
into the soft volcanic rock beneath to be the ringleader of a group of escapees. He and that they would murder those who refused to
Rome, which were created as his group had caused the Third Servile War, which participate. In 186 BCE a law was passed against
underground cemeteries by
Hebrews and early Christians raged for two years and resulted in Rome passing Bacchanalia, forcing participants to the Catacombs.
between the 2nd and 5th
centuries. Commonly, a stairway even harsher sentences against escaped slaves. Not Jews and Christians, meanwhile, were criminalised
would lead 10-15 metres (33-50
feet) below the surface. At this wanting to be caught, slaves used the Catacombs in ancient Rome because they believed that there
point numerous galleries would only as a temporary hiding place on their way out of was only one god. During the Roman Republic,
diverge, wide enough for two
people carrying a bier to walk. the city. with its pantheon of gods, this was frowned upon,
but by the time Rome became an Empire it was an
active threat to national security. Rome’s last dictator,
Julius Caesar, was deified when he died, his heir
Augustus inherited the title ‘Divi Filius’ or ‘son of a
god’. Judaism and Christianity threatened this idea of
divine emperor, and their followers fled underground.
There remains evidence in the Catacombs of the
life that these people lived. Often they would carve
or paint their religious symbols onto the walls. Jews
often painted images of themselves performing
their rites, or of the menorah – the seven-branched
candlestick that is often used to represent their faith.
Christians were different. Knowing that they were the
most-hated religious criminals and that Rome’s riot
police would sometimes pursue them even as far as
the Catacombs, the Christians used a range of cryptic
signs such as stylised fish, Chi Ro symbols and ‘sator
squares’ – coded word games that secretly spelled
out a prayer – rather than the obvious cross/crucifix.
These obscure symbols helped other criminals
navigate the Catacombs, showing them which path
to follow in the dark, vile labyrinth. The only reason
they stayed so near to the city was that they believed
they should spread their faith and that they would be
rewarded for their sufferings in the afterlife.

“Not wanting to be
caught, slaves used
the Catacombs only
as a temporary hiding
place on their way
out of the city”
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pick-pocketing easy – a thief could grab or cut a

Safety on the Streets
Above: Dying gladiator by Fedor
Bronnikov, 1856. The drama of the
purse from their victim’s belt and be off into the Colosseum still appeals to artists
and movie-makers today.
Crime wasn’t limited to the literal underworld crowd before they had even been noticed. Several
though. Roman street crime would be familiar to servants or guards, in the hope of deterring would-
anyone who watches today’s news. Popular articles be muggers, would often accompany higher-class
about graffiti, theft, disorder and violent crime were Romans into the lower-class areas. This caused its
as common in ancient Rome as news reports about own problems for ordinary city dwellers, who would
antisocial behaviour in deprived inner-city areas frequently complain about being barged out of the
today. Roman sources like the poet Juvenal describe way and knocked over. The streets were littered with
everything from nuisance noise, rowdy crowds and rotting produce and human sewage, which ordinary
littering to mugging and burglary. householders would dispose of from their upstairs
Walking down an ordinary street in Rome meant windows. Being knocked sprawling into the street
walking among a gamut of muggers and thieves. was also an open invitation for thieves to attack,
The public roads were noisy and crowded, making under the guise of helping the victim to their feet.

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Low-class Criminality to be accosted by a drunken lout as he is about
being robbed. Public drunkenness was often the
The city’s poorer inhabitants – members of the root cause of the mobs and rioting that periodically
‘plebeian’ underclass – made up the criminals of plagued ancient Rome – setting fires, looting goods
the lower-class streets. They were typically poor and produce and damaging property. For this reason
and underfed – vinegar and beans was their dinner the Emperor Augustus set up two police forces in
– so their motivation for criminality wasn’t greed, the later years of his reign. The ‘vigiles urbani’ were
but need. Ordinary working Romans had been the City Watch – a security service that doubled as
complaining of poverty and dejection and contrasting the city’s fire service – while the ‘cohortes urbanae’
their bitter lot with the better lives of the higher functioned as the riot police.
classes from the very beginning of the Empire. With Every so often the police forces would be ordered
such a level of poverty and social disaffection, it’s no to clear the lower-class criminals out of a particular
wonder that many of the lower classes of the city area in the city or the countryside and villages
turned to crime just to survive. Even a few coins immediately around it. Low-level criminality was so
stolen from one of their peers would buy some better ensconced in plebeian Roman society that often the
food, or some cheap wine to help them momentarily only effect this had was to move the problem around
forget their poverty. from area to area, mostly in the poor districts. But the
Drinking led to another set of problems however: middle classes had their own criminal element – they
drunken violence. Juvenal, discussing his own just committed different, more considered and more
mugging in his third Satire, seems just as offended lucrative crimes.

Right: A Roman criminal is

punished by being thrown to the
lions in the gladiatorial arena. This
mosaic is from Roman Tunisia and
dates from the third century CE.

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Crime and Punishment in Rome’s Class System

The Free The Non-citizen Underclass
Roman Citizen A member of the Roman underclasses – a poor, non-citizen ‘plebeian’ – could
A free citizen of Rome, if caught expect stricter penalties and punishments than a free citizen. If caught in the act
stealing or cheating, was sued of mugging someone at night, he could face execution, sometimes on the spot.
in court and made to pay a fine However if he was arrested after the crime, or for anything apart from night-
of twice to four times the value robbery or murder, he could argue his case in court. His legal protector in court
of what he had taken. If he’d could be ‘anyone who cared’.
committed a particularly serious
crime, such as adultery, bribery or
counterfeiting money or documents,
he could be banished from society
for the rest of his life. He would
only be sentenced to death for very
serious kinds of murder or treason,
and could be offered a private
execution instead of a public one.
His legal protector in court had to
be someone else of the same rank.

“He could
be banished
from society
for life”

Upper-class Crime Rather than acting on impulse, they carefully

planned both their crimes and how they would deal
Above Left: A statue depicting a
free Roman citizen in a toga.

and Debauchery with getting caught. It was common for middle-class

Above Right: Non-citizens were
given stricter punishment if
found guilty.
Cheating, swindling and counterfeiting went Roman traders to organise themselves into groups
on in ancient Rome’s more pleasant streets and like trade unions, known as ‘collegia’.
markets on a regular basis. Ancient Rome had its While many of these were composed of law-
own versions of our modern day cheap designer abiding citizens, the odd criminal collegium did exist.
fakes, payday loan scams and food scares. The collegia’s collective funds and organised legal
Counterfeit coins and jewellery were a common status meant that they had power and resources
problem in the city. Some merchants would bulk that could be employed to get their members out
out their grain with gravel or top up wine with of trouble if necessary. Criminal collegia were the
seawater. Others leant money out at illegally high nearest thing that ancient Rome had to the Mafia and
rates and took their debtors for everything they they operated on much the same principle – keep
owned. Depending on their social standing, these together, stay quiet, and make money. Thanks to
cheating merchants and moneylenders could the organisation of these guilds, even if a criminal
be sentenced to a range of punishments, from a collegium member was caught, he could expect to be
public lashing to the payment of compensation. able to employ a decent lawyer and get away with a
The merchants were better educated and more fine, or possibly banishment. If the worst happened
organised than the lower-class street criminals. and the fine he had to pay reduced him to complete

“Ancient Rome had its own versions of

our cheap designer fakes, payday loan
scams and food scares”
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Lawyering-up in Ancient Rome

Like all career criminals, Roman offenders took their legal representation seriously. Rome
is sometimes said to have had the first lawyers in the world and they were available to free
citizens and to any non-citizen of the underclass who hadn’t committed a capital crime.
During a court case, in front of the local praetor (judge), a lawyer could represent his client
and argue on his behalf. Their main function was to either prove his client not guilty or to
reduce the penalty or punishment for the crime. However, Roman lawyers were not created
equal. Some served the wealthy patrician families and were rich and high-class themselves –
“It’s the stylish clothes that sell the lawyer,” wrote Juvenal. Average citizens and non-citizens
had no access to these high-powered lawyers, although members of a collegium could pool
resources and influence to employ a more expensive lawyer for one of their members.
Lawyers for poorer clients, however, sometimes ended up being paid not with money but
with farm goods or food. The underclass were able to mount a trained legal defence in court
but their lawyers were generally almost as poor and hungry as those they were defending.

Right: Rome’s first emperor, bankruptcy though, he could be forced into slavery to
Augustus, enacted many laws
against the criminal underworld of
pay off his debt.
ancient Rome. This first century CE Crime didn’t stop when it reached the upper
statue is in the Vatican Museum.
echelons of the city either – in fact, the high-class
villas of the elite were a hotbed of a different type
of criminal activity. Romans of the patrician class
had no need to steal or swindle. They were born
into the world of inherited wealth that the lower-
class longed for and the middle classes aspired to.
Their lives and their crimes were very different from
the general population. This was especially true
during the transition from the Roman Republic to
the Roman Empire, when treason became one of
the worst offences any Roman could commit. The
crimes that are most familiar to us today among the
Roman upper classes are of course the plots and
assassinations that characterised much of the later
Empire. We often think of the Roman upper classes
as a hotbed of sedition and plotting, and indeed
many did commit treachery. Treachery, however, upper-class Roman crimes included paying bribes to
wasn’t simply limited to plotting or assassination; it the army and patricide. Patricide meant killing your
was anything that threatened Rome as a whole – the father or the ‘paterfamilias’ of your family. While this
idea of the ‘Eternal City’ was perhaps more important was a shocking crime in all strata of Roman society,
than the people who lived in it. it was worst in the patrician class. The head of the
Upper-class Romans were just as much at risk household symbolised a kind of mini-Emperor, a
of being beguiled by the treacherous new religion symbol of rulership, inheritance and the established
of Christianity as the plebeians. Among the male order. To violate that was to violate the principles of
elite there was always the danger that some bright the Roman Empire. Adultery also became a crime
young general or politician might think he could do a among the ruling elite, because it threatened the
better job of ruling the city and its attendant Empire family system of inheritance.
than the current establishment. Some of the worst Crime was a significant problem for the population
of ancient Rome from all walks of life. And while
“Adultery also became a crime among the crimes – and their punishments – all varied in

the ruling elite, because it threatened severity, execution and motivation, when it came
down to it they all revolved around the same needs
the family system of inheritance” and wants: more money, more control, more power.

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Crucifixion
The criminal was tied or
nailed to a cross and left to Roman
Punishments
die from suffocation due to
his lungs collapsing. Used
for slaves, pirates, Christians
and other non-citizens.

A fine Culeus
For low-level and non-violent This inventive punishment for patricide saw the
crimes, the most common criminal sewn into a sack and thrown into the river
punishment for a Roman citizen was or sea. In later variants a live dog and chicken were
a fine up to four times the value. included, and some tales even mention a monkey
and a snake being added in too.

Banishment
Upper-class Roman criminals were generally
banished, apart from in the very worst cases.
Banishments could last from a few years to life and
deprived the criminal of their assets and power.

Corporal punishment
Non-citizens could expect more severe punishments
for low-level crimes, such as a public beating, usually
with a whip.

Enslavement
Fraudsters or thieves who
couldn’t pay some or all of their
victim’s compensation could be
enslaved by the victim.

Damnatio
The arena
Slaves could be sentenced ad bestias
to the arena to serve as Some of the worst
gladiators – warriors who criminals were put into
fought to the death purely the public arena with
for the entertainment of a group of lions, to be
the Roman public. killed and eaten by them.

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Chapter 10

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An
Empire
Built on
Slavery
S
laves and their labour played a vital part in
the economy of most regions in the ancient
world, but of all the societies who used slaves,
the Romans demonstrated a disregard for their
treatment that was so callous that only the
Etruscans emulated it. From the earliest history of the
city to the end of the Roman Republic, slaves could
expect little mercy and almost no consideration for
their human needs. They were ruthlessly exploited
by their owners and worked into early graves. Some
historians estimate that the average age of a slave at
death was just twenty-two.
At one time as many as a quarter of the men
and women of the Roman Empire had no rights
whatsoever. They did not even own themselves. They
could be bought and sold at a whim; punished by
being whipped, starved or beaten; or even crucified
or killed in some other appalling manner if the
owner wished. Slaves had no recourse to law as they
were beyond the legal process. They laboured at the
bidding of a master or mistress. In most cases there
was no concern for their feelings for, in the eyes of
their owners, these simply did not exist.

Opposite: A slave woman combing

a young girl’s hair while others
wait their turn. A fresco from
Herculaneum, first century CE.

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Main: The sale of a

frightened slave girl in
Rome. One of thousands of
the slaves sent to Rome from
the expanding empire.

Fortunata
We know of Fortunata because the British Museum holds a wax copy of the A pretty young boy would be treated in the same way. He would also fetch a
record of her sale in Londinium (London). Because of her lowly position we high price, as did young Fortunata.
know very little more about Fortunata than that she was a slave. We have no Fortunata was not more than 18 when she was sold. According to the
record of her parents or of the person who bought her or of what she did for tablet on which her sale was recorded she was purchased in around 80–120
her owner. CE for 600 denarii, which was much more than a legionary soldier was paid
How did a girl like Fortunata come to stand naked on the slave block in for a year’s service. Why was her price so high? It may be that she had a
a market place in Londinium waiting for someone to look her over, check particular talent. If she was a skilled cook she might rise to a position of trust
her for defects, look at her teeth as if she were a horse, check her arms and and power in a patrician household. Maybe she was a hairdresser. Maybe she
legs, her breasts and hair? She was probably a prisoner of war, perhaps from could spin and weave. Or maybe she was beautiful and caught the eye of the
Gaul. A soldier may have taken her as part of his loot, or perhaps a general man who paid for her – she may have been his concubine until he grew bored
was asked to supply a slave dealer when he next defeated a Gallic tribe. and tired of her only to sell her again at the same slave market. Apart from
Prospective buyers would have been allowed to touch her flesh, make her her brief appearance on a receipt, Fortunata’s fate is unknown. We can only
turn this way and that, and treat her as if she were no more than an animal. hope she was lucky and went to work in a decent household.

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Slaves flooded into the empire as a result of Roman by becoming the slave of the person to whom they Below: A sixth-century bronze
of a farmer from Arezzo
conquests in other lands. As Rome colonized the owed money. ploughing with oxen.

Greek city states of southern Italy and the lands The offspring of impoverished families were also
owned by Carthage, the number of available slaves vulnerable to slavery. The baby daughters of poor
grew dramatically. From about 300 BCE slaves families were sometimes abandoned, as they would
poured into Rome, sent by victorious generals to be prove to be a financial burden. If anyone took in
sold in their name on the city’s slave-blocks. Fortunes such a foundling, she automatically became that
were made as a result of the slave trade. The numbers person’s slave and was owned for life. It was also
of individuals involved are astonishing: 30,000 were not uncommon for the father of a poor family to sell
enslaved at Tarentum in 272 BCE and 75,000 slaves off his older sons to raise money. If they had been
came onto the market as a result of the First Punic trained as carpenters, brick-makers, shepherds or
War (see page 22) alone. In 167 BCE 150,000 slaves ploughmen they could command a high price for
came from Epirus and in 101 BCE the same number their skills. They were also young enough to provide
were transported from Germany, while Caesar’s wars work for a number of years and so they were seen as
in Gaul supplied as many as 500,000 serfs to Rome a good investment. In some countries that became
and other markets around the Mediterranean. part of the empire, kings and tribal chiefs sold off
Apart from being captured as a prisoner of war, their most troublesome subjects to Roman generals.
there were other ways that an individual could be In this way they made a profit and might be relieved
forced into slavery. Men, women and children could of a domestic problem.
be enslaved by law. Debt was a major contributor to Regular huge increases in the availability of slave
the masses of slaves that populated both the cities labour were caused by unemployment among the
and rural areas. The first table of Roman laws – the peasant farmers whose land was taken over by
Twelve Tables – were written in about 449 BCE and wealthy city dwellers and property owners. These
stated that the punishment for debt was slavery. dispossessed farmers had no other skills and
The result of this statute meant that, in some cases, gravitated to the cities where they inevitably became
debtors were condemned to pay off what they owed an impoverished underclass.

“Debt was a major

contributor to the masses
of slaves that populated
both cities and rural areas”
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Above: Inside a Roman kitchen On the vast farms owned by absentee landlords made it clear that his interest was only in making a
where slaves are preparing food.
This is a relief from the country who inhabited the cities of the Roman Empire the profit. He treated his animals better than the slaves
outside the city, c. 250 BCE.
work was almost always undertaken by slaves. There because animals didn’t know how to look after
was a ready supply of human labour and it was not themselves. In his view slaves should be chained in
unusual for oxen to be better fed and housed than dungeons when not working. But the slaves’ overseer
the humans who worked in the fields. The absentee should not be vindictive. Cato wrote: “When at home
landlords revelled in the vast profits to be made a slave has to be either at work or asleep.”
from their huge properties. Grain for the city, fruit, Cato liked the sleepy ones the best, as they were
vegetables and meat were all produced by the labour ready for more work after rest. The matter of sex
of men and women who were kept in slave barracks was resolved by allowing his male slaves to use the
and worked under the lash until they dropped. little money they may have been given by guests
In about 160 BCE, Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 or for doing good work to buy the use of a female
BCE) wrote a book called On Agriculture in which he slave from time to time. If any slave showed a skill

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Spartacus the Gladiator

Spartacus was part of a legion of the damned whose life was spent in cells under the stadium
or the circus. He would have been taught to work with a net and trident, a short sword and
round shield, a spear and a dagger – all of which were used for close combat work. If he was
to fight the wild lions from Africa, tigers from Asia, elephants, bulls and buffalo that were
provided for the games, he might have only a long lance as a weapon and a thick leather belt
as protection.
It was possible that if the crowd liked him they would allow him to live, even if his opponent
had beaten him. They would demand “thumbs up” from the emperor or whoever was
chairman of the games. These great and popular gladiators were well fed in comparison to
other slaves and tended by doctors and masseurs. In the later days of the Roman Empire
these men were the stars of the games and were showered with gifts and money that they
had little opportunity to spend. The only way out of the arena was death.
As the spectacles grew larger and more exotic, men like Spartacus were adored by women
– some of whom might bestow favours – and respected by men. But crowds were fickle and
these fighters knew that one slip, one mistake and collective thumbs might turn down and
they would be merely blood on the sand.

Above: Roman gladiators confronting each other. One with a net and shield and the other armed
only with a short sword. Terracotta, second century CE.

for training younger slaves, Cato lent him money have been he would still abandon any slave that
to teach them and then kept the newly trained could no longer work and often that meant that the
slave for himself while crediting the slave trainer by slave starved to death. But treating a vast number
commanding the best price available for him. of slaves so harshly had a terrible down side. These
Apart from the mine-workers and the farm slaves, multitudes of men and women had no hope but had
those who were worst placed worked for public every reason to hate. If they rose in rebellion they
institutions as road cleaners, sewer workers, road had nothing to lose but their miserable lives and the
menders, builders, security patrolmen, or dock- consequences for both slaves and masters could be
workers. These slaves kept the cities clean and disastrous. Writing about a slave revolt on Sicily in
functioning but had few opportunities to earn gifts or 135 BCE, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote:
money to buy their freedom.
A slave owner wanted to get his money’s worth out Never had there been such an uprising of
of his human possessions. However kind he might slaves. Men, women and children suffered

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“ The penalty for a
runaway slave was
certain death”
and the whole island was near falling into
the hands of the rebel slaves. It seems that
the hatred of the slaves for their masters
is increased as the richer, more luxurious
and arrogant those masters become. And
for this reason the masters are crueller, had
their slaves branded, overworked, beaten
and maltreated until they would stand it no
longer. Their leader was a kind of magician
and priest from Syria who boasted that the
Syrian goddess appeared to him and told
him he would be king.

Spartacus and the

Slaves’ Revolt
The most famous slave revolt is that of Spartacus,
a Thracian soldier, who was probably captured on
a battlefield. He was then sold to a master who
provided gladiators (see panel, page 127) for the
games. In his training for this sport he would have
built on his military skills. Spartacus was a man of
great courage and organizational ability as well as
being a real leader of men. Between 73–71 BCE he led
a revolt of gladiators from a training school at Capua.
This rebellion was soon joined by other discontented
serfs and his army numbered nearly 100,000 men.
Spartacus had as little to lose as the household slaves
who joined him in his rebellion, as he knew that as
a gladiator he would eventually face certain death in
the ring.
The penalty for a runaway slave was certain death
and owners gathered together to hunt them down
from time to time. Spartacus was too proud to die
in such a manner. His vast army terrorized southern
Italy and won several battles against Roman forces.
It then began to march north, perhaps hoping to
escape to Gaul – home for many of them. However,
the conflict took the slave army south again. It took
ten legions, which were commanded by Crassus,

Opposite: An idealized picture of Spartacus fighting to the end

when the slaves’ revolt led by him was ruthlessly crushed in 71 BCE.

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reasonably wealthy man in Rome would have slaves
to work in his villa or farm in the country. Well-born
families needed at least 10 slaves in order to run
the town villa alone. Men boasted of the numbers
of slaves they owned. The historian Gaius Plinius
Secundus (23–79 CE), better known as Pliny the Elder,
wrote of one Gaius Isidorus, whose will claimed
that he had left over 4,000 slaves to dispose of.
Other well-placed Romans owned as many as 400.

Changing Fortunes
As the empire grew, attitudes towards slaves began
to change. Some slaves proved they had more to
offer than the work of their hands. While there is no
doubt that many of the slaves lived brutalized lives
there was a slow but growing movement to protect
them from the cruel and arbitrary punishments
meted out by sadistic owners. Old and sick slaves
could no longer just be thrown onto the street nor
could they be offered as victims to the men who
organized the games. Much of the pressure for this
came as a result of masters realizing that the men
and women who were working in their households
were sometimes highly educated prisoners from
Greece or Egypt.
It was not unusual for such men to become tutors
in the households of the wealthy. Better-educated
slaves took on more complex and responsible work.
Doctors and teachers were often Greek by birth
and training and any household that had one or both

“ The Romans regarded slavery as a of these individuals was fortunate indeed. Some

natural outcome of the fate the gods slaves even had the ear of the master, becoming the
household’s most trusted servant. Such an individual
handed down to inferior people” would be his master’s eyes and ears inside the
house. He might become a clerk or even be allowed
to defeat Spartacus at Luciana. Spartacus died in to run the master’s business matters. Cicero wrote
the battle. On the orders of Crassus 6,000 of the on the death of a slave who had been his clerk that
survivors were crucified along the Appian Way “[he was] more upset about it than anyone would
between Capua and Rome to set an example to any suppose [he] should be about a slave’s death”.
other slaves with a mind for rebellion. There were no The great philosopher and playwright Seneca (3
more slave revolts on such a huge scale. BCE– 65 CE) had a personal slave who became a
The Romans regarded slavery as a natural outcome close and reliable friend. He reasoned that owners
of the fate the gods handed down to inferior people. should treat slaves well as a slave was more likely to
Worse than the life of the farm slaves was that work hard and remain loyal to a kind master than
endured by the slaves sent to the mines or chained one who continually beat, starved and branded his
to their oars in Roman galleys. Their only hope was workers. Seneca believed also that masters and their
Above: Slaves were used as
oarsmen for the Roman galleys
a rapid death. However, Rome could not afford to families who expected their slaves to watch them eat
where they sat chained to the oars let them all die. Slaves were an essential prop of the well at a banquet and then only let them have scraps
and rowed to the merciless beat
of a drum. Roman economy and the mark of a man’s worth. Any to live on, stored up trouble for the future:

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The result is that slaves don’t talk openly

to the master; they talk about him behind
his back. The cruel treatment doled out to
so many slaves makes some people say that
“you’ve got as many enemies as you have
slaves.” They are not our enemies when we
get them; we make them so.

Some of the female slaves had children by their

owners and in some cases were lucky enough to be
freed in order to marry their masters. If a slave could
save the cost of his purchase, he could offer it to his
or her owner and buy back his freedom. This route
was normally open only to the slaves who worked
in the households of the wealthy where friends and
relatives of the owners might offer such household
servants gifts from time to time. As one of the few
Above: A Greek slave, who was a
ways a slave might escape the situation such small
trained doctor, helps with a birth. A earnings were guarded with great care. Freed men
Roman ivory relief carving, second
century CE. and women might continue working for their old
Right: Senaca, philosopher and master, either in positions of trust in the household
playwright (3–65 CE 3–65), who was
surprised to find that he mourned the
or in an enterprise set up by him. A loyal slave might
death of a particular slave. also be freed on his owner’s death.

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The
Mighty
Legions
W
hat did Sulla, Marius, Pompey, Caesar
and Tiberius have in common apart
from being Romans? What did Octavian,
Agrippa and Mark Antony have in
common apart from being soldiers?
Between 101 BCE and 117 CE they each led a Roman
army to victory. From Gaul to Spain and from Egypt
to Germany, from Greece to North Africa they
commanded some of the best-prepared and most
experienced troops the world has ever known.
From the moment the Romans determined that
battle was the best means of defending their city
they honed their army into a mobile and formidable
fighting machine. From the expulsion of the
Etruscans in 509 BCE to the withdrawal of Roman
troops to Hadrian’s Wall in 208 CE, the Roman army
was almost unbeatable. In the early years of the
city’s history, Roman armies lost battles, but they
always seemed to be willing and able to return to the
battlefield unbowed. Slowly the Romans pushed back
their enemies and occupied their land.
If armies are to succeed their fighting men must
have a common objective, initially this was the
defence of Rome. The young sons of well-to-do
Romans faced 10 years of military service, by which
time they should have learned how to lead men
in battle. The commanders and their men were all
Romans and self-interest spurred them on to defeat
the tribes they confronted. Senators and other political
figures were not exempt from command in the field
and the men appointed as consuls expected it.

Opposite: A defensive battle line formed with

shields by Romans whose enemy cannot break
through. Note the auxiliary archers on the
flank. A relief from Trajan’s column.

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the broader umbrella of the whole Roman army and
competed against other legions for battle honours.
An individual legion treasured its standard very
much as armies honour their regimental banners
today. Every Roman soldier’s sacred oath was to fight
any enemy under command and not to abandon
the standard. The penalty for abandoning this oath
was death. Many died to protect the standard of
their legion. Each legion was given a number and/
or a name. If a legion was defeated its survivors
were often sent into other legions and the number
or name of the defeated legion was removed from
official records as if it had never existed (see panel,
page 135).
Imbued with love for their legion and pride in
their Roman birth the fighting men suffered rigorous
training to bring them to perfection. The training was
tough for veterans, but it was even tougher for new
recruits. In battle new recruits were always placed in
the front rank of the century and behind them were
more experienced men. There were very practical
reasons for this, as it allowed the new soldiers to feel
that they could have confidence in experienced men
who had been blooded in previous conflicts and
prevented any of the new recruits from running away
if they lost their nerve. If they did run there were
Above: Roman legion in full It was all part of the service Roman men gave only two directions in which they could go – onto
armour advancing through a
forest. Note that each of the faces their nation. Soldiers were not paid in the days when the swords of the enemy in front or onto the swords
seems to be a portrait. From
Trajan’s column.
Rome’s battles were relatively local, but this changed of the men behind them. Perhaps the most cruelly
as the empire expanded. pragmatic reason for putting the least experienced
Ambitious patricians knew that it was to their men in the front rank was that the most dangerous
advantage to prove their courage and skill to the killing time was in the initial contact of the battle – if
soldiers they led. And these men were well trained the battle-hardened and experienced men were at the
and battle-hardened. The army was their profession. rear they were less likely to be killed. As no army can
afford to lose experienced men it was good military
practice for the least experienced to confront the first
The Structure of the wave of an attack. The loss of these men was not
something to worry about and if a new recruit came
Roman Army through that first battle he knew what he had to face
By the time of Sulla and Pompey the army was next time. He also had the pride of knowing he had
composed of small commands under the leadership survived his first battle with honour.
of a centurion. He commanded a century of between
80 to 100 men. They were part of a group of 500 to
600 soldiers called a cohort. This in itself was part The Need for Change
of a unit called a legion. Each legion had between By 146 BCE the Roman army had destroyed
5,000 and 6,000 soldiers. The legion was the most Carthage; in 102 BCE Marius defeated the Teutones
important fighting unit of the Roman army and at Aix-en Provence; in 86 BCE Sulla captured Athens;
could act independently and with great speed and by 58 BCE Caesar was pushing German tribes back
effectiveness whether attacking or under attack. Each and conquering Gaul; by 55 BCE Pompey had pushed
legion was a proud and independent element within into Spain and Caesar into Germany; and by 53 BCE

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Caesar had subjugated Gaul. The Roman Empire was
extending its frontiers further and further. Lost Legions
As the Roman soldiers were taken further from In 9 CE Tiberius (42BCE–37 CE), the heir
their home city, the army began to use auxiliaries. of Emperor Augustus, led his legions on a
These men were not Roman citizens, but knew successful campaign in Germany, after which
he and his legions wintered along the banks of
that through loyal service they could achieve the the Rhine. There was one tribe that the Romans
advantages that citizenship brought. Soldiers from still had to defeat – the Marcomanni who lived
Crete proved to be fine archers, slingers came in the mountains of Bohemia. Tiberius was
planning to attack them the following spring,
from other Greek islands, while Gaul and Germany using a pincer movement, which would trap
provided fine cavalrymen. Julius Caesar particularly the tribe between Roman troops on the Rhine
understood that it was not possible to keep up the and along the Danube. However, at a crucial
moment Tiberius was called away to deal with a
numbers of men in military service just by recruiting revolt that threatened Italy. He was succeeded
Romans. He wanted to widen membership of the by a nominee of the Senate, Publius Quinctilius
standing army. There were two ways he could do Varus, who was a lawyer not a soldier.
The Germans realized his weakness instantly.
this – by extending Roman citizenship beyond Italy Varus refused to listen to any advice and
and into the provinces or by increasing the numbers found himself surrounded by hordes of
of the auxiliaries by offering citizenship to those who enemy troops. He lost control of his
men, who were dispirited by his lack
completed 25 years’ service and were honourably of leadership. Three legions were
discharged. Indeed, as locally recruited auxiliaries destroyed in a single blow and Varus
proved their worth it was not unusual for most of committed suicide. The numbers of
the devastated legions – the XVII, XVIII
a legion to consist of local recruits with only their and XIX – were wiped from the record
commander a Roman citizen. and never used again as the defeat was a
This meant shifting ever further away from the matter of great shame. Roman prestige was
dealt a terrible blow.
idea of a citizens’ army, but despite this some of
the Roman army’s established traditions remained
essential. Pride – in the unit and in Rome itself – was leadership that could be used to his advantage while Above: Portrait bust of the
Emperor Tiberius. This
an essential aspect of the military code that applied governing his country as a member of the Senate. marble bust was found in the
amphitheatre of Arsinoe in Egypt.
whatever a soldier’s origins. Men with ambition but lacking in money could aspire
to the highest reaches of political power if they had
had completed successful commands in the field.
Officers Julius Caesar was one such example.
In the days of the kingdom and the early days of the
Republic, military service formed part of a young
patrician man’s education. Throughout his youth he The Regular Soldier
was expected to train in military skills and to know The advantages of a spell in the army were clear
how to handle a sword, dagger, and shield. Because for well-placed patrician men. For a regular Roman
they were brought up in a tradition that honoured soldier there were also rewards. From the time of
their unit’s past glories most young patrician men Augustus, Roman citizens signed on in the army for
were proud to enter the army for a period of service. a period of between 15 and 20 years. They were paid
They would often lead men with as much as 20 and fed regularly and they had the promise of a one-
years’ experience – happy was the officer who off payment of 12,000 sesterces, a piece of land and
listened to the advice of the veterans under his a small pension at the end of a lifetime of service,
command. By the time his period with the colours during which they could be sent to any part of the
was over a young patrician had learned skills of empire. However, it was a matter of fact that often

“ The legion was the most important fighting

unit of the Roman army and could act
independently and with great speed”
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“Every soldier went
into battle with
three weapons”
the veterans had to threaten mutiny to get what they
had been promised. There was an absolute ban on
formal marriage for the regular soldier, although if he
chose to marry on his discharge, his wife was given
citizenship in her own right.

Tactics and Weaponry

The tactics of the Roman army were initially very
simple and involved confronting the enemy head-on
along a common front. Usually the Romans faced an
enemy whose tactics were basic enough to allow this
full frontal approach to succeed. A disciplined cohort
steadily advancing across a battlefield must have
been a terrifying sight.
As the men picked up speed they let go of a
mass of flying steel shafts, which was often enough
to cause the enemy to turn and run. The Roman
soldiers would continue to advance and kill in waves.
Men on horseback would then swoop in for the kill.
If there was a need to turn the enemy flanks, more
cavalry support was ready for action. The German
tribes provided great auxiliary soldiers for such
cavalry work.
Every soldier went into open battle with three
weapons, each with a distinct function, depending on These spears could hit the front lines of the Above: The determined
legionnaire was a ruthless killer
the phase of the battle. The pilum was a short spear, opposing forces with astonishing power. They in the chaos of battle where the
Roman short stabbing sword
which was used to cause chaos during the initial travelled swiftly and accurately, causing terrible made terrible slaughter.
phase of a battle. Legionaries charged at the enemy slaughter in the ranks they hit. They had metal heads
lines, hurling these killing spears as they ran. The and wooden shafts. The shaft of a pilum broke on
pilum had a range of about 25 metres, although some impact leaving its head stuck in a shield (or body)
soldiers could throw it double that distance. In The and rendering it too unwieldy to use. The Gauls were
Iliad Homer described the savage brutality of fighting often forced to abandon their shields as a result of
with such spears: such an attack, leaving them unprotected.
Relying on the chaos caused by this tactic a Roman
…in the middle of the melee of men legion did not stop or regroup. The spear throwers
and arms and swords and flying spears next engaged in hand-to-hand combat. If repulsed
Diomedes found his enemy … He cast his they would retreat through the gaps deliberately left
hissing spear and took the Trojan archer behind them and a second rank would then take
Pandarus on the nose beside his eye. over the fighting.
The spear passed through his teeth, The curved Roman shield protected both the front
Opposite: Two soldiers moving
cut off his tongue and came out and the vulnerable sides of the advancing soldier. It into the attack covered by their
under his chin. His burnished armour was about half the height of a man. It was usually shields. One with spear and the
other with a broad-bladed sword.
crashed as he fell from his chariot…. made of two wooden planks glued together with a Provincial sculpture.

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again and moving steadily over the dead, a Roman
attack moved on like the well-oiled, well-drilled
killing machine it was.

Machines of War
Inevitably the Roman army sometimes found itself
with the problem of an enemy taking defensive
positions behind stone walls, earthworks or
sophisticated forts. To break through such defences
the Romans copied the tactics that had been
employed by Greek generals such as Alexander the
Great who thought nothing of besieging a city for
a year or more if necessary. The siege engines the
Greek engineers created were so well designed that
the Romans could do no better than copy them.
Siege towers were built of wood and covered by
hides, which protected the attackers from weapons
Above: A bronze helmet found in metal boss at the centre to deflect spears or arrows. fired from the ramparts they were trying to breach.
Hertfordshire. Mid-first century
Roman British. In attack, the unit moved forward with the front and Once a tower was in place it acted as a bridge into
side ranks holding their shields locked together and the enemy position. Battering rams were also used.
those in the middle raising their shields overhead These were initially long tree trunks that were swung
to protect the men from arrows and spears raining by teams of soldiers and were an easy target for the
down from above. This impregnable formation was defenders of a city’s walls. Arrows, boulders and
called the tortoise. The soldiers used their short boiling pitch could be rained down on the soldiers
swords to terrible effect as they moved steadily below. The Romans provided protection with a frame
forward into the enemy ranks. of hides that covered the soldiers. They also used
To defend a retreating group of soldiers a third rank a more permanent wheeled structure, which was
knelt behind their shields with spears pointing at a rolled right to the gate of the building under attack.
slant towards the enemy. They held the butts of their The ram was then slung from a beam, making it
spears in the ground, forming an impregnable wall easier to batter down the door or the ramparts. At
known as the hedgehog. Behind this the units that the same time this cover protected the miners who
had retreated through the temporarily open ranks used pickaxes to destroy the foundations of the walls.
could regroup. Despite these tactics if was inevitable that many
Should the second rank also be beaten back soldiers died during attacks on such targets.
then the third closed ranks and made a steady It was sometimes necessary to work at long range
counterattack. Disciplined, steady and vicious they from a fortified position. The Romans adapted
moved in using hand-to-hand combat while the other weapons that the Greeks had devised to beat towns
ranks regrouped and prepared to attack along the into submission by hurling missiles at the walls
flanks. In this way the Romans kept a battle fluid and and into the towns from a distance. The Roman
ever changing. weapons fired stones, bolts, barrels of flaming tar,
Like the Gurkhas today the Roman soldier’s an inflammable mixture called “Greek fire” or other
personal weapon was a razor-sharp, short, broad- missiles into defended positions.
bladed sword known as the gladius. This heavy steel A complex and very powerful catapult called a
blade caused terrible wounds. If the battle was so manuballista was deadly when used by trained
close that there was no room to swing or slash with a and skilled soldiers. It was essentially a hand-
sword, a third weapon was introduced to battle. The cranked catapult that was powerful enough to
Opposite: Helmet, breastplates,
pugio was a small stabbing weapon used to fight at hurl an iron-tipped bolt with terrifying force
leg guards and other trappings very close quarters. It was deadly in the hands of the and deadly accuracy into a breach in the walls,
of Roman soldiers discovered
near Naples. Roman legionaries. Killing, stepping forward, killing causing many defenders to be wounded or killed.

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“ The Romans copied the tactics
that had been employed by Greek
generals such as Alexander the Great”

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It was also used to hurl huge boulders, tar or even
diseased bodies into an enemy stronghold.
The onager worked like a slingshot. A lever was
wound back using a windlass, then the tension was
suddenly released and the lever sprung upright
firing metal bolts or flame carriers. This could rain
devastation on a besieged city and cause chaos and
terror among its population.
After such weapons had breached a defensive
position, the legions followed with deadly effect.

The Legion
The key man in the training of the Roman soldier
was the centurion. Like a sergeant major today
he knew his men, realized their strengths and
weaknesses and appreciated their likes and their
dislikes. A centurion could be a soldier’s best friend
or his most vicious enemy. On his shoulders rested
the prowess of the unit he commanded, if his century
was disgraced in battle then he knew that a price
would be paid.
The Roman army made pride and honour its
greatest disciplinary weapon. Defeat or a foolish
action by a cohort, legion or single soldier meant
punishment. It might be loss of pay and privileges.
It might be a loss of loot. At worst it might be
a “decimation”. For this, the most arbitrary of
punishments, each man stood in line on the parade
ground and called his number. Every tenth man
took a step forward and was executed on the spot.
A disgraced unit would be watched by other units.
It was a cruel but effective means of ensuring that
every man did his best.
When soldiers were on the move they lived off the
land. They took whatever they needed and no one
dared oppose them. If the people they left behind
starved it was of no concern to them. If they lived
in more permanent camps the nearby countryside
would be denuded of cattle, grain or any food. Fodder
for the horses was requisitioned from local people. No
one dared complain.
Much of the time in camp was spent training,
recovering from the latest skirmish, gambling, eating
and drinking. Life was nasty, brutish and pretty short.
The men kept fit because their lives depended on it.
They moved across country like lightning. It is said
that when Boudicca revolted in south-east England, a
Roman force travelled from north Wales to London in
less than a week to take her on.

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Main: Roman siege
machines: catapult,
battering ram, testudo
and, in the centre,
a tortoise phalanx
advancing. Nineteenth-
century aquatint.

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Below: A model of an armoured On the frontiers from Syria to Germany, from bring them victory and enough loot then the army
Roman legionary of the end of
the Republic. He carries his spear north Britain to Egypt, Gaul and Spain there was the would be their instrument in any adventure they
(pilum) and shield and wears the
short broad-bladed sword. constant threat of an attack by the natives they were chose. Caesar’s determination in Gaul and the first
holding back. Even within the empire when states battles in Britain made the army he commanded his
rose in revolution, it had to be put down. The legions personal fiefdom.
did it – and they did it fast and ruthlessly. Rome’s priorities were a safe frontier and safe
If the soldiers were lucky enough to be garrisoned trade with those it defeated. The priorities for the
in a city or a town, matters were different. Permanent members of the army were loot, safety, survival and
barracks were built for the soldiers and they even the possibility of a decent pension. That required
had some measure of comfort. a general who would deliver all he promised. Even
the best of generals needs a measure of luck and a
willingness to switch tactics. Alexander the Great
The Strength of the could do it. Hannibal did it and Caesar could do it too.
Caesar brought a dogged, unrelenting patience to the
Roman Army battlefield that others may have lacked.
Professional generals were able to learn from Above all, Roman commanders were able to trust
battles of the past. Defeats and victories provided their men to respond swiftly to new situations. They
lessons for new soldiers and for experienced old were willing and able to create victory out of disaster.
hands and their patrician commanders. It is the capacity to improvise, allied with attention to
When Julius Caesar chose to campaign in detail that made the Roman army the mighty power
Gaul between 58–52 BCE he was not doing it it became. Julius Caesar was probably the most skilful
only to serve the interests of Rome. He used the general to command the Romans. He was a master of
army as an instrument of his own ruthless improvisation and a commander with great foresight.
ambition. Suetonius wrote that Caesar: “… Because he was victorious he was loved by his men.
chose Gaul as the place most likely to Between the citizens’ army that confronted
enrich him and to give him enough Hannibal and the professional army that confronted
spoils and great victories to ensure that Vercingetorix it is clear how much the military
he would be voted a triumph on his machine at the core of the empire had evolved.
return to Rome.” Suetonius was Between 219 BCE and 52 BCE that Roman army had
writing with the benefit become a formidable force. The vileness armies bring
of hindsight in 110 CE, to those they defeat is perhaps best summed up by
but he was right in his Homer in The Iliad:
assessment of Caesar’s
motives. He intended to Andromache wailed a wild ululation of pity,
defeat Gaul and to push shame, anger and the horror of knowing her
on to the next frontier dead husband would not be properly washed
if that would be to his and prepared and prayed over.
personal advantage. She unpinned her hair, letting it fall about
Once it knew its her face as she knelt on the ground. She lifted
objective the Roman the earth and poured it over her raven head.
army would not back She raked her face with her long fingernails,
away. It was trained to streak her cheeks in blood and took up
to achieve its target or more earth and poured it again to mix with
to die in the attempt. It the blood and cried out. “Your children have
was a proud army and no father and I no protector…” And the sun
even the auxiliaries were fell dark beyond the mourning city…
as motivated as their
Roman counterparts by The grief inflicted on Andromache at Troy was
the determination of their an emotion inflicted by Roman legions across their
officers. If their leaders could entire empire.

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A Roman Camp
The safety of his men should be the primary concern of a good general. on the east to west axis. Alongside them the legions set up tents in two rows
The men respond by giving their commander their loyalty. Julius Caesar facing the track. Allies would be placed nearest the walls, which made them
understood this above all and it served him well. more vulnerable than the legionaries in case of surprise attack.
The military camp was designed to provide security and the main work Once the camp was marked out the units arrived and the men immediately
was designed to ensure that an army at rest should be able to eat, sleep began to dig the walls, creating a ditch at the same time. The wall would have
and dress their wounds. Even when the unit was moving out the morning a walkway and probably a wooden palisade on the top. An open space was
after arrival the men built fortified earthworks, which can still be seen in left from the walls to the tents to make sure the tents were out of range of
some places today. On the march, towards the end of an afternoon a tribune enemy fire. Trenches were dug to serve as lavatories.
with some experienced centurions would make a reconnaissance and find Such a simple, tented camp was the model for all Roman military forts. The
a suitable position to make camp. Ideally it would be on a hillside without more sophisticated camps, such as those along Hadrian’s Wall, would have
any obstructions that could give cover to an enemy. It was essential to have stone walls, watch-towers, exercise grounds, baths and formal meeting areas
running water nearby. in the centre of the camp where a general could review his men. There could
Having found a position and marked its centre, a square was marked out even be a temple or at least an altar in an auspicious place. Store rooms for
and tracks running north to south and east to west were also marked. The grain, oil and wine and areas for the sick and the wounded would be built
ends of each track would be the gates in the wall that was to be built. Each too. Good roads were built to ensure the fast movement of troops across
unit already knew its place within the fortification. The officers were placed country or to reinforce allies or other legions at such permanent forts.

Above: Soldiers busy constructing a fortified camp with high walls and wooden palisades. Note the walk ways along the ramparts on which the soldiers can stand.

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The
Legacy
of Rome
L
ooking across the land that slopes away from
Hadrian’s Wall in the northern reaches of the
Roman Empire we are made aware of the
distance the Romans pushed their boundaries.
Beyond the line of stone walls, fortifications,
small watch-towers and deep ditches lay the
mysterious land of barbarians. From time to time
sorties were made to keep these tribes in their place.
Once a proud Roman legion marched behind their
standard into the mysterious land beyond the wall.
The legion was never seen again – they were totally
swallowed by the barbarian maw. The Romans had
come far enough. The troops manning this northern
frontier of the mighty empire were, as often as not, a
mixture of auxiliary forces from Gaul, Germany and
Spain with only a sprinkling of true-born Romans
among them as commanders. It was both a bleak and
forbidding land they observed.
When Julius Caesar came to power in 49 BCE, the
Roman Empire was continuing to consolidate its
frontiers. It was a time when the city was unsettled
and tension between the rulers and those they ruled
within it was acute. This tension inevitably spread to
the further provinces. Caesar understood that this had
to be prevented or the cities and countries ruled by
Rome would explode in revolution. The danger was
close and it was essential for someone to take direct
and draconian action. Caesar was the right man in the
right place at the right moment for he dared to think
the unthinkable. He imposed an undemocratic system
of government by one man over the entire empire.

Opposite: The line of Hadrian’s Wall

sweeping across Northumberland at
Cawfield Crags which marks the northern
edge of the Roman Empire (c. 117–138 CE).

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Opposite: One of the three Having opened up the possibility of such rule, Caesar The Romans were a people interested in practical
great temples at Sbeitla, the
ancient Roman city, in Tunisia, was followed by Augustus who was an even more solutions to problems. Unlike the Greeks they
North Africa.
subtle and ambitious man. Augustus disguised his were not innovative in literature, theatre, painting
autocracy by apparently acknowledging institutions or any of the plastic arts. The artistic artefacts
that had held power during the Republic while in fact that have survived were often the creations
only paying them lip service. For some, according of foreign artisans and artists working in their
to the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (57–120 home states while under the control of Rome.
CE), Augustus left a legacy of chaos because his Mosaics in Roman houses were as likely to be
named successor, Tiberius, was a volatile, cruel and designed and made by men from Greece as from
arrogant man. For others, again according to Tacitus, Rome. The same is true of pottery, murals, and
Augustus left a legacy of stability when he died. In marble work, such as carvings and sculptures.
the provinces Rome had provided a structure that the The practical heritage that the Roman Empire
conquered people came to accept, because as long as passed down is most evident in the fields of
they did so, peace, law and order followed. engineering and architecture. From the vastness
of the Colosseum to the elegance of the forums in
Rome, Salamis or at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania, the
The Eternal Empire empire’s engineers and architects have left behind a
In Rome and beyond from Persia to Egypt and record of practical and beautiful designs. Inevitably
Spain to Petra, from what is now Iraq to south-west much of what has been left for us is martial in intent.
France magnificent buildings continued to be built, Great triumphal arches such as the Arch of Titus
each more spectacular than the last. The great or the Arch of Constantine span Rome’s modern
villas in England, France, Spain and North Africa byways. As far away as Morocco the Arch of Caracalla
were constructed around magnificent mosaics, fine still stands a few kilometres outside Meknes. There
porticos, hypocausts and tumbling fountains. Villas are columns that commemorate great men, among
in the towns throughout the empire were similar to them the column of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius
those built in Rome. The villas in more rural areas (121–180 CE); great marble bas reliefs glorifying war
were clearly the result of great wealth and a feeling and the feats of the emperors; baths and bath houses
that peace was going to continue forever. They were from Pompeii to the aptly named Bath and arenas
not built as defensive installations or fortresses but in Arles and Nîmes, which still stand. All these are
were structures to luxuriate in. The men and women monuments to the glory of the rule of Rome and its
who inhabited these villas believed that Rome was military might.
immortal and they were building for the future. Then there are the paintings that bedeck the walls
The temples in Asia, northern France, Tripoli of Pompeii and the House of Livia in Rome. There are
and Sardinia were an affirmation of this belief the beautiful mosaics – a multitude of images in tiny
in the immortality of Rome’s rule. Augustus pieces of cut stone that can still be seen in Paphos,
began it by encouraging his stepsons to pacify Cyprus; in Eauze, France; Cirencester, England and in
the Germanic tribes and while they dealt with Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Iraq, Iran – all over the lands
the borders of the empire, he consolidated his where this empire once ruled. These mosaics reveal
rule in the centre. He began a campaign of images that display a rich profusion of harvest, home,
building that glorified his rule, and in doing so he temple, myth and legend. There are marble carvings
indicated to his subjects that the power of Rome that give us bullock carts, harvest and battle scenes,
was eternal. In some respects he was right, as markets, bakers, water carriers, cobblers and butchers,
Rome’s influence is evident even in the present. cut into tombs, public buildings and temples to
provide a wonderful and lively record of life as it was

“ The practical heritage that the lived in the Roman Empire.

Rome effectively stopped its policy of expansion
Roman Empire passed down is most after the conquest of Britain by the Emperor

evident in the fields of engineering Claudius (10 BCE–54 CE). Rome’s victories as a result
of the ensuing peace were even more remarkable.
and architecture” The civilization she typified spread over Gaul to

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the Danube, into Spain and North Africa, and the to prevent these roads from being as straight as
commonality of Spain, France, Portugal and Italy possible. Roads like the Fosse Way in England
could be seen as the most permanent inheritance ran straight and true for kilometre after kilometre.
the empire left us. The Roman Empire was regarded It is said that the news of the death of Augustus
with awe even by the northern barbarians who reached Spain within four days and that Caesar
eventually conquered it and took its systems of law once travelled nearly 1,000 kilometres in a week
and government. over the Roman road system.
Roman roads were a practical example of the The Romans built for comfort and convenience
Above: The vast arena at Arles
way the Romans made use of local materials and and they were never ashamed to steal an idea
in Provence. Built in the second created solutions to problems at one and the same from another part of their vast empire and to
century CE and restored in the
fourth, the stadium holds 20,000 time. It was essential that the Roman armies could improve on it. Irrigation projects using the screw
spectators on its raked rows of
stone seats. move to any part of the empire swiftly. The system method of raising water were in use on the Nile
Right right: A stone bust of the
of roads built by armies of slaves and prisoners of for thousands of years before the Romans came.
Emperor Claudius (10BCE–CE war provided the straightest of routes for any legion All they did was to introduce the idea to those
54) whose reign saw the end of
expansion for the Empire. to march on. No natural obstruction was allowed parts of their empire where it was useful. The

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philosopher; the poetry of Horace, Ovid and Virgil
and the plays of Plautus. The Romans also developed
a system of taxation; they created the three-course
meal; they even gave us the calendar and the names
of some of the months we use today.
Rome left us a vocabulary that was the common
language of law, religion and learning until the end
of the Middle Ages. Using this language, ideas were
disseminated from one centre of learning to another
across the length and breadth of the empire even
after Latin ceased to be spoken by the people. Monks,
lawyers, clerks, traders and other men and women
recorded daily life, mystical ideas, poetry, diaries, legal
judgments, methods of trade and the daily grind of
life in Latin. This language, in which so much of our
history is recorded, is perhaps the greatest legacy of
the Romans.

Decline and Fall

Edward Gibbon, the author of The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88)
wrote: “It seems that all empires reach an apogee
from which the decline is steady and often almost
unnoticed by the people at the centre of the fall.”
That was certainly the case for Rome. It was
inevitable that the vast empire the Romans had once
controlled would change and shift.
This arrogance and lack of doubt in
Rome’s right to regard itself as the only
proper ruler of the world was in itself
a canker at its heart that led to its
collapse. In leaving behind a system
where succession was by right of
birth, Augustus left a legacy that was
true genius of Rome lay in refining open to the political machinations
existing technologies. Their practical of cunning men and women. Vicious
solutions still have applications for us gossip, the manipulation of the hierarchy
today. When we consider saunas, flush at the core of the empire and unrest
lavatories, aqueducts, baths, irrigation, among the legions slowly sapped the
vast stadia, defensive walls, high-rise strength from Rome and allowed the rot
housing, water-driven flour mills, roads of the most powerful influences. It meant
or public water fountains we are considering that the rulers and the ruled were out of kilter
things that the Romans adapted and passed on. with each other and that outside forces could
What else remains with us from the Roman also begin to change the power bases on which
Empire? There are the poems and writings Rome had been built. Once power was eroded as
of many Roman poets and thinkers – who a result of plots and machinations of politicians
themselves owe a great deal to the Greeks and military commanders or as a result of a weak
before them. There are the sayings of Marcus emperor not controlling the activities of conniving
Aurelius, who was both emperor and great stoic families, interested political radicals or of the military,

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Main: The Altar of Peace in Rome

on which carvings celebrate the city
and the way of life during the relative
stability of Rome under Augustus.

Great Buildings and Monuments of Rome

The Altar of Peace is a magnificent monument constructed by Agrippa in about 20 BCE. The
to Rome and Augustine order. The frieze shows Emperor Trajan (53–117 CE) was responsible for
a procession led by the emperor and his family, the Library of Celcius Polemaenus at Ephesus. In
followed by magistrates, priests and Senators, Djemila, North Africa, is the Temple of the Gens
all of whom are going to make sacrifices to the Septimia, which was dedicated in 229 CE. It was
gods. Each face is carved from life. This is not built by Emperor Alexander Severus (208–35 CE)
just a religious monument, but it is also a joyous and used as part of a new Forum.
affirmation of life and the benefits of Roman law This growth of magnificent buildings went on all
and order. over the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus
The House of Livia may well have been until the building of the Arch of Constantine in
Augustus’s own house. One wall within it was 315 CE. The list of baths, monuments, arches,
painted in a style made famous by the painters of theatres, temples, amphitheatres, columns,
Pompeii. A stylized garden gave inhabitants of the harbours and forums is a constant reminder of
house the feeling that the calm and peace of the this once-great empire. Others include: the Pont
countryside was not far away. The stability at the du Gard, France, 19 CE; the Colosseum, 81 CE; the
centre suggests all the empire is calm too. Theatre of Marcellus; Trajan’s Harbour at Ostia,
In Nîmes, France, is the Maison Carrée, a 103 CE; Trajan’s Forum, 111–114 CE; the Column
magnificent temple raised on stone to look down of Marcus Aurelius, 172–175 CE; and the baths of Above: The Celcius Library built at Ephesus, Turkey,
on the Forum. It is believed by many to have been Diocletian, 302 CE. by Julius Aquila in 135 CE, after restoration.

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the days of the empire were The excesses of Nero (37–68 Left: The Emperor Nero in whose
reign Rome burned in 64 CE. The
numbered. But until then Rome CE) are well documented, portrait is on a coin of the period
found in Jerusalem.
itself grew and prospered. and the seeds of the end
Below: A portrait bust of Caligula
Between the death of the empire were now made between 37–41 CE which
of Augustus and the firmly rooted. Nero captures the sensual and cruel
nature of this decadent Emperor.
accession of Claudius began his reign by
a power struggle pretending to look
developed. Tiberius favourably on the
became emperor when Senate, but, as time
Augustus died in 14 CE. went by and power
Thirteen years later he ran to his head, he
withdrew from Rome to disregarded their
live in Capri and handed advice and assumed the
the running of Rome to an reins of power completely.
adviser, Lucius Aelius Sejanus. He had Claudius’s son
He was a malign influence and Britannicus, a potential rival,
had already arranged the murder of assassinated and also ordered the
several members of the emperor’s family. Sejanus murder of his own mother Agrippina in 59 CE.
waged a war of terror in the city until Tiberius After the fire that devastated Rome in 64 CE, and
ordered his execution in 31 CE. Tiberius himself died which Nero is said to have started, one of the first
in 37 CE. He was probably murdered. His successor things he rebuilt was the wooden amphitheatre
was Caligula (12–41 CE), who was a psychopath. where the games took place. These games were
Caligula ruled as emperor under the savage influence particularly important as a means of keeping the
of his mother Agrippina. He was in power for a short rabble satisfied with a diet of unutterable violence.
time before his assassination, but in that time, “Little Thousands of gladiators, Christians, criminals,
Boots”, as the soldiers called him had demanded he slaves and political prisoners died the most
be worshipped as a god. His sexual extravagances, terrible deaths in front of the many
wild parties and lethal abuse of power meant that that flocked to enjoy the spectacle.
he was little mourned on his death. There was a This moral decline contributed
problem yet again with the accession. to the downfall of the empire
Claudius (10 BCE–54 CE) was the next emperor, after the death of Nero.
a choice that was made by the Praetorian Guard Nero ordered the
who defended the city. He was badly crippled, had repression of a large number
problems with public speaking and seemed to have of patrician Senators and
preferred a quiet life. It was not thought that he could had them slaughtered
cope with the work or the responsibility. Yet when mercilessly; yet he had no
Claudius took power he acted decisively. He built a answer to the revolts in Gaul,
powerful civil service, ordered and completed the in Spain and in Lusitania and
occupation of Britain and ensured that the processes as a result the Senate declared
of law and order were overhauled. Yet again, however, that the throne was no longer his.
Rome and the empire were put at risk as a result Nero killed himself in 68 CE and
of the personal ambitions of Claudius’s fourth wife, left the succession in doubt. After
Agrippina, who poisoned her husband so that her much bloodletting, Vespasian (9–79
son, Nero, was guaranteed the succession. CE), who had been a very successful

“ The excesses of Nero are well

documented, and the seeds of the end
of the empire were now firmly rooted”
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“One enemy,
Christianity, already
had a hold of the
Roman Empire”
commander all over the empire, was hailed as
emperor. He came to Rome from Alexandria and
began to establish order in the city. He was not a man
of patrician birth and dispossessed the Senate of its
privileges to promote his sons Titus and Domitian.
As soon as peace was restored Vespasian ordered the
building of a huge stone stadium, which would be
known as the Colosseum.
The size of the building is an indication of the
importance the emperors now placed on keeping
the people sated and acquiescent. Three emperors,
Vespasian, Titus (39–81 CE) and Domitian (51–96
CE), were involved in building the Colosseum. This
magnificent building was 188 metres (620 feet)
long by 156 metres (500 feet) wide. Its walls were
50 metres (165 feet) high. The corridors, arches,
Corinthian, Doric and Ionic columns, shaded areas,
galleries and seats of the Colosseum were a vast
architectural achievement. The arena itself measured
80 metres (265 feet) by 54 metres (178 feet), with a
wall and a deep gap between it and the seats to stop
wild animals getting into the crowd. In this arena
men and women were sacrificed to the blood lust of
the rabble in sword fights, net and spear fights, hunts,
crucifixions, sea battles and women fighting dwarves.
Such bloody rape and slaughter was the apogee and
the nadir of Roman Empire.
By 271 CE the provinces were steadily beginning
to spiral out of control. It would take less than 250
years for the whole edifice to fall and for the fear
of the early Romans to be realized. Their frontiers
were breached on all sides by two new and more
dangerous enemies than any that Rome had ever
faced. One enemy, Christianity, already had a hold
across the Roman Empire. But the second enemy
preached the sword. The Goths were breaching the
frontiers on all sides by 276 CE. And they would
come with fire and steel. The enemy was at the gates
of the empire and worse – much worse – it was also
within. It was the end of the glory of Rome.

Opposite: Alaric, chieftain of the Visigoths, enters Rome at the head

of his conquering army on 24 August, 410. A coloured woodcut from
a drawing by Knackfuss, c. 1890.

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Rome: Foundation to the birth

of Julius Caesar (753–100 BCE)
753 BCE Romulus
founds Rome, Rome and her neighbouring states
according to
myth and reigns
until 717 BCE.
ALPS
509 BCE Rome expels
Etruscans. King is replaced CISALPINE
by magistrates elected 6b`h`—
annually. Traditional date —@XW\b_Tah` @TfXe— —4dh\_X\T
of the founding of the IXeVX__TX— IXebaT—
Roman Republic. E\iXeCb —CTgTi\h`
—@TaghT
496 BCE Temple
of Castor and
GAUL Cb_T—
Pollux built on site —@hg\aT
of the forum.
E\iXeEhU\Vba
485 BCE Coriolanus ?hVT— —C\fgbe\T
—9_beXag\T —4e\`\ah`
defeats the Volsci. E\iXe4eab —4aVbaT
Ib_TgXeeT— —4eeXg\h`
ETRURIA UMBRIA

A
471 BCE The people —4ff\f\h`

D
R
elect tribunes.

IA
CORSICA SABINI

T
IC
450 BCE According to E\iXeG\UXe
tradition, the Law of the —Fh_`b

SE
Twelve Tables was drawn Eb`X— MARSI

A
up by 10 men. The people of
Rome wanted the law written Bfg\T— LATIUM SAMINITES
down because the legal —4ec\ah`
system was essentially oral @\agheaTX—
and decisions were up to the —6TchT
individual discretion of the
magistrate who was always a CAMPANIA
SARDINIA AXTcb_\f—
patrician, which led to abuses.
By 440 BCE plebeians and
patricians were equal in the IX_\T—
eyes of the law.
5ehaW\f\h`—

—G[he\\

390 BCE Rome is

MEDITERRANEAN SEA
sacked by the Gauls.

343 BCE War against tribes

moving south. Rome begins
to expand borders.
ATh_bV[hf—
SICILY
306 BCE Treaty —;XaaT
between Rome and
Carthage. Rome to
control Italy while
Carthage is to control
Sicily.

282 BCE Rome holds

most of Italy. 264–241 BCE 260 BCE Battle 241 BCE Rome 238 BCE Uprising
First Punic of Mylae against occupies Sicily and in Cisalpine Gaul;
War against Carthage in Sicily. builds a road from Carthage loses Corsica
Carthaginians. Rome to Pisa. and Sardinia.

Above right: Rome had to defeat 270–265 BCE Rome controls Italy apart from Cisalpine Gaul, which lay along both banks of the River Po. The Gauls had been there since
all of her neighbours before she the sixth century BCE Transalpine Gaul was an area populated by Ligurians, Celts and Greek settlers in the south. Taking the south of
could expand her empire into Transalpine Gaul in between Aix 122 BCE and Narbonne in 118 BCE provided the expanding Roman Empire a land route to Spain. The
Gaul, Spain and Africa. Etruscans and the Volsci are defeated. There is considerable contact between the Romans and Greek civilization.

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 Maps and timeline
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100 BCE Birth of

Julius Caesar.
102 BCE Victory
8kgXagbYJXfgXeaEb`Ta8`c\eX at Aix.

104 BCE Marius the consul

given the leadership of
the campaign against the
Teutones and the Cimbri.

105 BCE Roman

armies defeated
by the Cimbri at
Firth of Forth Orange.
F. of Clyde
Solway F.
—CebVb_\g\T 106 BCE Birth of Pompey
5beVbi\V\h`— and birth of Cicero.
River Tyne
BRITANNIA 107 BCE Marius
River Trent
River Severn River Elbe elected consul.
ICENI
J[XTg[T`cfgXTW— GERMANIA 106–102 BCE Marius
—?baW\a\h` defeats Jugurtha who killed
7hUeTX— River Rhine two men under Roman
6b_ba\T4Ze\cc\aT— protection in Numidia.
TREVERI Marius takes him to his
Triumph and he is executed.
River Seine @bZhag\TVh`—
River Neckar
River Danube
CbafFTeTi\— 118 BCE Colony of
E[X\amTUXe\— Narbonne under
—4_Xf\T Roman rule.
GAUL NORICUM
HELVETII
RAETIA
?Xmbhk— —?hZWhah` 113 BCE Province of Asia
under Roman rule.
I\XaaT—
River Rhone
122 BCE Province
:eThYXfXadhX— NARBONENSIS of Aix en Provence
HISPANIA —4eThf\b under Roman rule.
TARRACONENSIS CALLIA —4eX_TgX
ATeUb— —4dhTXFXkg\TX
River Ebro
124 BCE The Knights, not
—FXZbi\T necessarily the highest born,
gain right to become part
River Togus of the ruling elite.
—4_VTagTeT
LUSITANIA
—I\cTfVT 125 BCE Roman
6beWhUT— troops invade
AN SEA Transalpine Gaul.
ERRANE
BAETICA
—@haWT MEDIT Hg\VT— —6Teg[TZX
—:TWXf 134–132 BCE Slave
—6\egT —FT_ghf5heha\gTahf revolt in Sicily.
?T`UTXf\f— G[hZZT— —G[Tcfhf 144 BCE
MAURETANIA Construction of
NUMIDIA —G[XiXfgX the aqueduct
Aqua Marcia.
AFRICA

149–146 BCE Third Punic

230 BCE Pirate raids 212 BCE First play 200–196 BCE Roman Onwards. Great 147 BCE Corinth War. The destruction
in the Adriatic by Plautus. wars of expansion in expansion of destroyed. of Carthage by Scipio.
threatening Macedonia. urban planning
Macedonia a province.
Roman trade. in Rome.

203 BCE Hannibal

215–205 BCE War leaves Italy to 192–188 BCE War in Above left: The Roman Empire in
between Rome defend Carthage Syria against King 168 BCE the West. From Hadrian’s Wall, near
and Philip of against the Roman Antiochos. Rome The Third the River Tyne, in northern England
Macedonia. General, Scipio. occupies Asia Minor. Macedonian War. to Carthage in North Africa.

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Julius Caesar to the invasion

bY5e\gT\a!$##568²'&68
100 BCE Expeditions 88–85 BCE 88 BCE Sulla 86 BCE Sulla 83–82 BCE Sertorius, 73 BCE 70 BCE 67 BCE
against Mediterranean War against becomes captures of Marius Party, urges Spartacus Virgil is Pompey
pirates. Roman Mithridates. a consul. Athens. Spain to oppose Sulla leads the born. destroys
citizenship refused to and his political reforms slaves against Mediterranean
Italians. against the Gracchi. Rome. pirates.

89 BCE Massacres by Mithridates,

Persian King of Pontus, of Italians in 87 BCE Marius’s 82 BCE Sulla returns to 71 BCE Pompey
Delos and Asia Minor. Greek revolt popular party Rome with his army and defeats
against Rome. All Italians who ask will triumph in Rome. crushes the popular party. Spartacus who is 65 BCE Birth of Horace
be given Roman citizenship. Catullus born. He becomes dictator. assassinated. the poet. Poetry by
Catullus appears.

64 BCE Birth

Italy surrounded on three sides by the sea 63 BCE Pompey ends

of Livy.

war with Mithridates

and campaigns in Syria,
Judea, Petra and into
the Caucasus. Octavius
is born. Cataline
conspiracy crushed. 60 BCE The first triumvirate.
Pompey, Caesar and Crassus.

59 BCE Caesar
a consul.
58 BCE Caesar begins
conquest of Gaul.

56 BCE Meeting of
triumvirs at Lucca.

55 BCE Caesar in Germany

and Britain. Pompey in Spain.
Crassus in Syria. Pompey’s
theatre is the first stone-built
theatre in Rome.
53 BCE Revolt of
Vercingetorix in Gaul.
Crassus a disaster in Syria
and his death at battle of
Carrhae. His head is sent
—EB@8 back to Rome with his
mouth filled with molten
gold "as he loved money
and gold so much".
51 BCE Caesar writes
his Gallic Wars

50 BCE End of Gallic Wars.

Gaul as far as the Rhine
is a Roman province.

49 BCE Caesar crosses

the Rubicon, the frontier
between Rome and the
north. The power struggle
and civil wars begin
between him and Pompey.
48 BCE Pompey defeated
in Egypt and he is
murdered there. Caesar
with Cleopatra. The library
at Alexandria is destroyed.

45 BCE
Above: A modern map of Italy, showing Rome close to the coast.
46 BCE The last
Caesar Pompeian
Opposite: Modern Rome, showing the sites of the Forum, the Colosseum,
defeats defeat at
Circus Maximus, the Arc of Constantine, the Pantheon and the Appian Way.
Pompeians Munda
at Thapsus. in Spain.

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Modern Rome

44 BCE Caesar 42 BCE Brutus 32 BCE Agrippa, 27 BCE Octavian takes 16 BCE Tiberius 12 BCE 9 BCE Drusus 43 CE
assassinated on and Cassius Augustus’s adviser the name Augustus and and Drusus Agrippa reaches the Conquest
15 March – the defeated and general, plans establishes his position as (stepsons of dies. Elbe. Varus loses of Britain.
Ides of March. at Philippi. Port Julius. emperor. Cyprus becomes Augustus) three legions in
a Roman province. campaign into Germany.
Germany.

43 BCE Second triumvirate – 30 BCE Battle of Actium. 10 BCE Claudius 41 CE Claudius

Octavian, Antony and Lepidus. Octavian and Agrippa crush 14 BCE Death born in Lyons, son of voted in as
Brutus and Cassius, the leaders of Antony who flees to Egypt and of Augustus; Drusus. Ruled out of the emperor by
the plot to kill Caesar, move to the Cleopatra. They both die and 19 BCE Tiberius succession as he the Praetorian
east to set up resistance. Octavian returns to Rome. Virgil dies. now emperor. was crippled at birth. Guard.

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CREDITS
The publishers would like to thank the following sources for their kind (d.1538) / Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany, Lauros / Giraudon; 57:
permission to reproduce the pictures in the book. Bridgeman Art Library /Model of Caesar’s defences at Alesia (mixed
media), French School, (19th century) / Musee des Antiquites Nationales,
(t = Top, b= Bottom, m= Middle, r= Right and l= Left) St-Germain-en-Laye, France, Lauros / Giraudon; 58: Bridgeman Art
Library /Helmet with cheek guards, from Alesia, Tene III (bronze), Gaulish
3: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com; 6: (1st century BC) / Musee des Antiquites Nationales, St-Germain-en-Laye,
Bridgeman Art Library / Map of Rome, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum by France, Lauros / Giraudon; 59t: Topfoto.co.uk; 59b: Corbis / Bettmann; 62:
Georg Braun (1541–1622) and Frans Hogenberg (1535–90), c.1572 (coloured AKG Images; 64: Bridgeman Art Library /Cassone, with painted side panel
engraving), Hoefnagel, Joris (1542–1600) (after) / Private Collection, Credit: depicting the Battle of Pharsalia from the History of Pompey and Caesar,
The Stapleton Collection; 6/7b: Bridgeman Art Library / The Defeat of Florentine School, 15th century (wood, gilded and painted in tempera)
Mark Anthony at Actium in 31 BC (tapestry), Leefdael, Jan van and (see also 71848), Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Institute of Art
Strecken, Gerard van der (studio of) / Musee de la Revolution Francaise, Gallery; 65: Bridgeman Art Library / Frontispiece to Pharsalia or The Civil
Vizille, France, Credit: Visual Arts Library / Musee de la Revolution; 7tl: War Between Caesar and Pompey by Marcus Annaeus Lucan (AD 39–65)
Bridgeman Art Library / Reconstruction of a Roman legionary from the engraved by J. Cole, 1719 (engraving), English School, (18th century),
end of the Republic, 1st century BC (photo) / Private Collection, Alinari; Private Collection; 66: Topfoto.co.uk / The British Museum / HIP; 67:
7tr: Bridgeman Art Library / Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) on his way to the Bridgeman Art Library /Triumph of Caesar Fresco - detail 1 (b/w engraving
Senate on the Ides of March (oil on canvas) (study), Pujol, Abel de (1787– of fresco), Mantegna, Andrea (1431–1506) / British Library, London, UK; 68:
1861) / Musee des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France, Lauros / Giraudon; Corbis / Sandro Vannini; 69: Bridgeman Art Library /Relief depicting a
7m: Bridgeman Art Library / Roman Soldiers Besieging a Town, plate 23B, funeral scene (stone), Roman, (1st century AD) / Museo della Civilta
class 5 from Part I of The History of the Nations, engraved by A. Nani Romana, Rome, Italy, Giraudon; 70/71: Bridgeman Art Library /Julius
(aquatint), Italian School, (19th century) / Private Collection, Credit: The Caesar (100–44 BC) Crossing the Rubicon c.1470 (vellum) (detail), Fouquet,
Stapleton Collection; 7b: Topfoto.co.uk / Charles Walker; 8/9: Bridgeman Jean (c.1420–80) / Louvre, Paris, France, Giraudon; 72: Alinari Picture
Art Library /The Reconstruction of Ancient Rome at the Time of the Library; 73: Corbis /Bettmann; 74: AKG Images / Pirozzi; 76: Corbis / Arte
Antonines, c.1819 (pen & ink and w/c on paper), Cockerell, Charles Robert & Immagini srl; 76/77: Bridgeman Art Library / Julius Caesar (100–44 BC)
(1788-1863) / Private Collection, Credit: Charles Plante Fine Arts; 9: Alinari on his way to the Senate on the Ides of March (oil on canvas) (study), Pujol,
Picture Library; 11: Topfoto.co.uk; 12/13: Sonia Halliday Photographs; 16: Abel de (1787–1861) / Musee des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France, Lauros /
AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 18: AKG Images; 19: Bridgeman Art Library / Giraudon; 78/79: Bridgeman Art Library / The Death of Caesar (100–44 BC)
Map of Rome, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun (1541–1622) (oil on paper), Lethiere, Guillaume (1760–1832) / Private Collection; 80/81:
and Frans Hogenberg (1535–90), c.1572 (coloured engraving), Hoefnagel, Bridgeman Art Library / The Battle of Actium, 2nd September 31 BC, 1600
Joris (1542–1600) (after) / Private Collection, Credit: The Stapleton (mural), Vassilacchi, Antonio (1556–1629) / Villa Barbarigo, Noventa
Collection; 20: Corbis / Gianni Dagli Orti; 21t: AKG Images; 21m: The Art Vicentina, Italy, Giraudon; 82: Bridgeman Art Library / The Young
Archive / Dagli Orti; 23: AKG Images / Peter Connolly; 24: Getty Images / Octavian Bust of the Emperor Augustus (63BC–14AD), c.1800 (marble),
Mansell / Time Life Pictures; 25: Alinari Picture Library; 26/27: Canova, Antonio (1757–1822) (after) / Private Collection, Credit: Philip
Bridgeman Art Library / The Taking of Thelesia by Hannibal and His Mould, Historical Portraits Ltd, London, UK; 83: Topfoto.co.uk; 84/85:
Army, 1860 (oil on canvas), Masson, Benedict (1819–93) / Private Collection, Bridgeman Art Library / The Death of Brutus, 1793 (oil on canvas), Guerin,
Credit: Archives Charmet; 28: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 29: AKG Baron Pierre-Narcisse (1774–1833) / Musee de la Revolution Francaise,
Images; 30/31: Getty Images / Three Lions; 33: AKG Images / Rabatti- Vizille, France, Credit: Visual Arts Library / Musee de la Revolution; 86:
Domingie; 34/35: Bridgeman Art Library /Reception in the Senate, detail Topfoto.co.uk; 87: Bridgeman Art Library / The Meeting of Anthony (c.82–
from the Arch of Trajan (marble), Benevento, Campania, Italy, Credit: 30 BC) and Cleopatra (51–30 BC) 1747–50 (fresco), Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista
INDEX; 36: Getty Images / Hulton Archive; 37t: AKG Images; 38: Topfoto. (Giambattista) (1696–1770) / Palazzo Labia, Venice, Italy, Alinari; 89:
co.uk; 40/41: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 42: Corbis / Archivo Icongrafico, Bridgeman Art Library / The Defeat of Mark Anthony at Actium in 31 BC
S.A.; 43: AKG Images; 45: AKG Images; 46: Alinari Picture Library; 47: AKG (tapestry), Leefdael, Jan van and Strecken, Gerard van der (studio
Images / Rabatti-Domingie; 48: Alinari Picture Library; 49: AKG Images / of) / Musee de la Revolution Francaise, Vizille, France, Credit: Visual Arts
Erich Lessing; 50/51: Corbis / Patrick Ward; 53: Getty Images / Hulton Library / Musee de la Revolution; 92: Bridgeman Art Library / Emperor
Archive; 54/55: Corbis / Bettmann; 56: Bridgeman Art Library / Alesia Augustus holding a sceptre and thunderbolt, from Herculaneum (stone)
Besieged by Julius Caesar (101–44 BC) (oil on panel), Feselen, Melchior (b/w photo), Roman, (1st century AD) / Museo Archeologico Nazionale,

158 WorldMags.net
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Main: The Death of Julius
Caesar by Vincenzo
Camuccini, 1804-1805.

Naples, Italy / Alinari; 93: Alinari Picture Library; 94: Corbis / Free Agents Italy; 125: Bridgeman Art Library / The Ploughman of Arezzo, from
Limited; 95: Sonia Halliday Photographs; 96/97: Bridgeman Art Library / Cerveteri / Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy, Alinari; 126/127:
Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Livia, Octavia and Augustus, c.1812 (oil on AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 127: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 128/129:
canvas), Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780–1867) / Musee des Corbis / Bettmann; 130: AKG Images / Nimatallah; 131t: AKG Images /
Augustins, Toulouse, France; 98/99: Bridgeman Art Library / Erich Lessing; 131b: Corbis / Bettmann; 132/133: AKG Images; 134: AKG
Sarcophagus of Cornelius Statius depicting scenes from the life of a child Images; 135: AKG Images; 136: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 137: AKG
(marble), Roman, (2nd century AD) / Louvre, Paris, France; 100: Sonia Images / Erich Lessing; 138: Topfoto.co.uk / The British Museum / HIP;
Halliday Photographs; 101: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 102: Sonia 139: Alinari Picture Library; 140/141: Bridgeman Art Library / Roman
Halliday Photographs / F.H.C. Birch; 103: Bridgeman Art Library / Soldiers Besieging a Town, plate 23B, class 5 from Part I of The History of
Shoemaker at work, relief from a Roman sepulchre (stone) (b/w photo), the Nations, engraved by A. Nani (aquatint), Italian School, (19th
Roman / Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims, France / Alinari; 104: AKG century) / Private Collection, Credit: The Stapleton Collection; 142:
Images / Pirozzi; 105t: Sonia Halliday Photographs; 105b: Bridgeman Art Bridgeman Art Library / Reconstruction of a Roman legionary from the
Library / Group of toilet and writing utensils (ivory), Roman, (1st century end of the Republic, 1st century BC (photo) / Private Collection, Alinari;
AD) / Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK; 106/107: Corbis / 143: Bridgeman Art Library / The Construction of a Roman Camp, detail
Archivo Icongrafico, S.A.; 108: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 110: from Trajan’s Column, 2nd century (carved stone), Rome, Italy, Credit:
Bridgeman Art Library / School scene, from Neumagen, Roman relief INDEX; 144/145: Sonia Halliday Photographs; 147: Topfoto.co.uk / Charles
panel, 2nd century AD (stone), / Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier, Walker; 148/149: Bridgeman Art Library / Aerial view of the
Germany, Credit: Bildarchiv Steffens; 111: Bridgeman Art Library / A Chat amphitheatre (photo), Roman, (2nd century AD) / Arles, France, Giraudon;
round the Brasero, Phillip, John (1817–67) / Guildhall Art Gallery, 150t: AKG Images / Hillbich; 150b: Sonia Halliday Photographs; 151t: AKG
Corporation of London, UK; 112: Topfoto.co.uk / Ancient Art & Architecture Images / Erich Lessing; 152/153: AKG Images.
Collection; 113: AKG Images / Erich Lessing; 114/115: Sandra Doyle/The
Art Agency; 116: Look and Learn; 119b: Ashmolean Museum; 120: Every effort has been made to acknowledge correctly and contact the
Topfoto.co.uk; 121: Sandra Doyle/The Art Agency; 122/123: Bridgeman source and/or copyright holder of each picture, and Imagine Publishing
Art Library / Slave Combing a Girl’s Hair, Herculaneum, Third Style apologises for any unintentional errors or omissions which will be
(fresco), Roman, (1st century AD) / Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, corrected in future editions of this book.

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