Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - How the Roman Republic Became the Roman Empire

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Roman Republic existed for almost 500 years. The Roman Empire then existed for almost another 500 years. The two institutions had a great deal in common, but they radically differed in how Rome was administered. The Republic was set up to explicitly prevent the rule of a single individual. And yet, during the empire, that is exactly what happened. Learn more about how the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

Starting point is 00:00:50 It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. In a previous episode, I discussed the differences between the Roman kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar is largely considered by historians to have been the last. leader of the Roman Republic, and his posthumously adopted son Octavian, later called Augustus, is considered to be the first Roman emperor. However, this change didn't happen overnight. When we think of an empire, we think of a single state that controls a large amount of land

Starting point is 00:01:32 and has conquered other nations. However, the Roman Republic had already been doing that. Using that definition, the Roman Republic was, in fact, an empire. What made the Roman Empire an empire was the existence of an emperor. Strangely enough, there was never an official legal position in Rome called an emperor. The English word emperor comes from the Latin word imperator. An imperator was someone who held imperium, which meant legal authority. A general had imperium over his troops. A magistrate had imperium over a particular region or a particular jurisdiction. One person's Imperium could be greater than another person's imperium. If having Imperium made someone an emperor, then many people in Roman history would have been

Starting point is 00:02:17 emperors because they had imperium. So to understand how the empire came about and how the position of what we call an emperor developed, we have to go back to the unique circumstances at the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar was an extremely talented general and an extremely ambitious politician. His ambition sparked a civil war, which he won, and resulted in him. being declared a dictator for life. The idea of a dictator for life didn't sit well with the senatorial class, so they conspired and assassinated Caesar in 44 BC. After Caesar was dead, the conspirators didn't receive the hero's welcome that they thought they would receive. The

Starting point is 00:02:55 Paublee and Romans actually like Caesar, and the end result was yet another civil war. In his will, Caesar, the wealthiest person in Rome by this point, posthumously adopted his great-nephew Octavian as his son, and also bequeathed him two-thirds of his fortune. Octavian immediately began using the same name as his now adopted father, Gaius Julius Caesar. Historians will usually use Caesar to refer to Julius Caesar. However, Octavian now began to call himself Caesar, which he did for the rest of his life. This was done to give himself what the Romans called Dignitas.

Starting point is 00:03:32 When Caesar was later declared a god in 42 BC, it was so Octavian could say that he was the son of a god, further increasing his dignitas. The years after Caesar's assassination were tumultuous. Octavian fought Caesar's right-hand man Mark Anthony, and then they later reconciled and fought the Senate, one, formed a new triumvirate, turned against each other, began a new civil war in which Octavian came out on top. In 30 BC, Octavian was now the last man standing and the most powerful man in Rome. However, this did not make him an emperor. Octavian wasn't the military commander that Julius Caesar was. However, he was a much more shrewd politician and statesman. Caesar's mistake was in accepting the position of dictator for life. By doing so, he positioned himself

Starting point is 00:04:21 as a tyrant and earned the enmity of the Senate. Octavian knew the key was to have power, but not to look like he had power. On January 13th, 27 BC, Octavian famously gave up control of the provinces that he governed and all the armies that he controlled. This abandonment of power was mostly for show. He still controlled a vast fortune, and most soldiers felt a personal loyalty to him, as they did to Julius Caesar. He was also still, legally, a consul, the highest authority in Rome. Moreover, no one wanted to see a return to civil war, which they felt was a risk if Octavian

Starting point is 00:05:03 just walked away from power. Octavian was a stabilizing force in Roman society, regardless of what you thought of him. The Senate didn't want Octavian to give up power, so they granted him a 10-year extension on the control over his provinces. Octavian feigned reluctance, but again, it was for show because he ultimately accepted. He didn't want to make the same mistake Caesar did by appearing too ambitious and too greedy for power. Whatever power he had appeared to have been constitutionally given to him by the Senate through legal channels. Also, just three days after Octavian threatened to give up power, the Senate bestowed upon him the title of Augustus, which roughly translates to illustrious one. This is usually the point where most historians mark the beginning of the Roman Empire.

Starting point is 00:05:50 He was also given the title of Princeps Senatus, which simply means the first senator. The Princep Senatus was not an official position. It was simply the person listed first on the member roles of the Senate and was usually the most esteemed member of the Senate. and was usually the most esteemed member of the Senate. It was from this title that the terms Princeps and Principate were derived. Augustus would often call himself Princeps, and it implied he was simply the first among equals,

Starting point is 00:06:15 and it was much more humble-sounding than dictator. By 23 BC, after having served his consul for eight consecutive years from the year 30 BC, Augustus realized that he needed to change his approach. There were two consuls appointed every year, and it was the ultimate honor in Roman society. and he was hogging one of the spots. So he stepped down from being consul. As he was no longer officially a consul,

Starting point is 00:06:39 the Senate instead granted him the powers of the Tribune of the Plebs for life, but not the title. This made his person sacrosanct. Anything done against him personally would be considered treason. He also had the power to convene the Senate, veto any laws, submit bills before the Senate and People's Assembly, speak first at any assembly,

Starting point is 00:06:59 and oversee elections. He was also given the right to supervise public morals, a right normally given justice censors. If this sounds like wide-ranging power, it was. However, it wasn't absolute. All of his powers existed in other constitutional offices that already existed. The Senate and the rest of the positions on the cursus honorum all still were there. The Senate offered him the power to make his word law, and he turned it down.

Starting point is 00:07:27 The reason was having that power basically made him a dictator, and it wasn't a good look. Furthermore, it wasn't necessary, as he basically had all the power he needed. In 19 BC, he was also given consular authority and imperium within the city of Rome that superseded the imperium of everyone else, including the consuls. When the military was successful in one of the provinces he controlled, he was given credit. When they were successful in a seditorial province, he was still given credit because he was the prince. Senex, Senatus. The end result is that nobody was allowed to have a triumph in Rome other than him. In 12 BC, his former Triumvir Lepidus died, who also had held the position of Pontifex Maximus, the highest religious figure in the Roman religion. That was a lifetime position, which was then

Starting point is 00:08:14 given to Augustus. In 2 BC, he was given the title, Pacher Patriotrii, or the father of the country. There was one other thing that Augustus did that helped establish the power of the emperor. He lived a really long time. When Julius Caesar died, Octavian was only 18 years old, and he was thrust into power at a very young age. He was only 36 when he was proclaimed Augustus, and he managed to live to the age of 75. By the time he died, and given the lifespan of the average Roman, almost nobody could remember the days of the Republic. The powers given to Augustus had become the norm. Augustus was also smart in that he accumulated powers without actually having to hold office, and he did so gradually over a period of decades. He was willing to forego powers given to him when he felt that they were too much.

Starting point is 00:09:07 He achieved everything Julius Caesar wanted to, but without making the same mistakes. However, there was a problem. All of these honors were given to him as a person. There wasn't an office that held all these powers that someone else could fill. When Augustus died in the year 14, there was a question. question as to what would happen. Augustus, after having many other close relatives die unexpectedly, ended up selecting his stepson Tiberius as his successor. Before he died, he extended many of his powers to Tiberius, including his tribunate and proconsular powers. In his will, much of his wealth

Starting point is 00:09:45 was given to Tiberius, and he also legally adopted Tiberius as his son. Just a few weeks after the death of Augustus, the Senate bestowed upon Tiberius the title of Pinceps, Augustus, and he was also elected Pontifex Maximus. As the adopted son of Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar, he too was now able to use the name Caesar. Most importantly, the Roman system by this time had become accustomed to being run by a single individual. The system of collected powers and titles became known as the principate. The powers and honors bestowed upon the preencept expanded over time. One of the few documents we have that outlines the power of the preencept was the Lex de Imperio Vespasiani, a document created after the ascension of Emperor Vespasian in the year 69.

Starting point is 00:10:31 The Lexday Imperial Vespasiani is only the second part of a two-page document, but it provides a partial list of the powers of the emperor. In it, it gives the emperor the powers to endorse candidates for office and expand the boundaries of the city, as well as the power to do anything, quote, he believes in the interest of the state that he should do. The powers clearly had expanded by this time, but they were still, at least in theory, given by the Senate to keep up the illusion of the Republic. Vespasian wasn't related to previous emperors, but still used Caesar as a title, which is something that all subsequent emperors did. The Principate lasted from 27 BC until the year 284, and the rise of the Emperor Domitian. Domitian changed the nature of the role of Emperor and began a period known as the Dominate.

Starting point is 00:11:19 The Dominate comes from the word Dominus, which means Lord. The Dominate differed from the Principate in that the Empire became much closer to a monarchy. Domitian split up the Empire into halves, each of which was to be ruled by a senior Augustus and a junior Caesar. The Caesar was to be groomed to take over for the Augustus. For all practical purposes, the Emperor was an autocrat whose word was law. However, throughout the Roman Empire, the Senate did at least rubber stamp every new emperor. The official list of emperors, as opposed to those who claim to be emperor, is actually determined by those who were approved by the Senate. The reason why the imperial system was created, and the reason why there is something we now call a Roman emperor,

Starting point is 00:12:03 was due to the slow accumulation of power over a period of decades by Augustus. Those powers and titles that he accumulated were then passed down in a bundle approved by the Roman Senate to the men that we think of today as Roman emperors. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiever. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise,

Starting point is 00:12:38 Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified to future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - How the Roman Republic Became the Roman Empire

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.