Ten Caesars

Title: Ten Caesars – Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine

Author: Barry Strauss

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2019 (First)

ISBN: 9781451668834

Pages: 410

History is punctuated with ambitious leaders of men who aspired to conquer the world. Alexander the Great was the first ruler who could successfully carry his banner to three continents. However, his empire began to crumble at the very moment he breathed his last at the very young age of thirty-two. It was the Roman Empire that deserved the epithet of a lasting superpower from contemporary historians. It grew out of the ancient city of Rome, spread quickly around the Mediterranean littoral, challenged the highly cultured kingdoms of Persia and conquered the barbarians of northern Europe and Britain. Rather than falling back on the talent and resources of the city to administer the far-flung empire, it permitted first the elites in the provinces and then the reformed barbarians to enter its services and finally to reign as monarchs. The empire then turned into a true universal state by having emperors who had never visited Rome and the capital itself was shifted many times before finally settling on the distant eastern city of Constantinople. The Roman emperors were also colourful figures who lighted up the imagination of others and still continue to be celebrities in the true sense of the word. Epics, poems, plays and movies have all appeared that featured their deeds and fascinated the masses. This book features ten Caesars – the legendary title of Roman kings – from Augustus who assumed power in 27 BCE to Constantine who demitted the throne in 337 CE. Julius Caesar is kept out of the narrative as he is thought to be a politician of the Republican period of Rome. Barry Strauss is a professor of history and classics at Cornell University and has already authored seven books on ancient history.

Rome’s fabulous capacity to integrate people from diverse regions and races deserve unstinted respect. Strauss provides enough hints to reach this conclusion. The army was the most powerful Roman institution and even that was laid open to people from outside Italy. Legionaries were Roman citizens, but they rarely came from Rome or even Italy. Increasingly, Italians lost interest in military service as a direct corollary to the long periods of uninterrupted calm realised by the Pax Romana. They turned into successful farmers enjoying peace and prosperity. Recruits came from other areas such as southern France, Spain and the outer provinces. In 212 CE, Emperor Caracalla extended Roman citizenship to all free people in the empire. To ensure a mix of the populace, later emperors after Marcus Aurelius prohibited a person from becoming the governor of his own native province. Rome’s greatness lay in its readiness to offer even the throne to people from outside the inner circle of power. Vespasian was the first ruler to ascend the throne who came from outside the nobility. Being the son of a tax collector, he was the first commoner on the Palatine Hill. Trajan was the first man from the provinces to become emperor. One of the empire’s strengths was its ability to co-opt the wealthy elite of the provinces. First, it offered them citizenship, then a seat in the Senate, and finally made them emperor.

Europe’s destiny undoubtedly changed its course when the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity which was made the state religion about eight decades later. The author describes the interaction between Christianity and paganism which was the majority religion in the empire. Here, Strauss deviates from a fundamental aspect of analysing ancient religions. Paganism is not a religion per se; it is simply the absence of one or more organised religions. It could easily accommodate an additional Christian god, but not vice versa. Semitic religions denied any legroom for other gods and religions. Pagans were not against Christians preaching or practising their religion but only demanded that they acknowledge and show respect to some pagan rituals which were recognized as part of their urban etiquette. Strauss acknowledges the strain of toleration running through the Roman society. However, simply adoring their own god was only a necessary condition for monotheism. Negating the existence of other divinities was the sufficient condition. Romans considered their own religion time-honoured, state-sponsored and carried out in public. It was the very foundation of civilization as far as they were concerned. Christians not only did not worship the gods but also did not offer sacrifices for the emperor. This was taken as a threat to the very fabric of society. Moreover, Christianity was relatively new and Rome was suspicious of novelty. Judaism was also considered superstitious, but it was tolerated because of its antiquity. Early Christians were tortured with macabre games of death. According to Christian tradition, two of the apostles or early missionaries of the church, saints Peter and Paul, were among the victims of Nero in the purge that followed the Great Fire. However, this is not proven.

The interaction between the Roman Empire and Christianity was not a one way street. Readers are amazed at the level of fluidity displayed by the supposedly rock-solid religious system of Christianity in assimilating the rituals and customs of the nation which they inhabited. This creeped in even into the most fundamental structure of Christian worship. The Roman father was a priest as well as the head of his household. He was responsible for the family maintaining a proper relationship with the gods. This structure was then extrapolated to political leaders as well. As chief priest, or Pontifex Maximus, the emperor did the same for all of Rome. We find the Christian clergy and Pope or Patriarch as its homologues in Christian ecclesiastical hierarchy. Even the nomenclature is borrowed from Roman administration. Emperor Diocletian grouped the provinces into regions called dioceses, each with its own administrator. This is now the jurisdictional area of a Christian bishop. The term ‘Holy City’ began to be used for Rome in the early 200s during the reign of Septimius Severus.  This was on account of the presence of some of the holiest shrines of paganism. Catholicism swallowed this as a whole. Till the time of Constantine, the first emperor who converted to Christianity, Christ was portrayed as an ordinary person or a simple shepherd. After Constantine, Jesus began to be depicted as sitting on a throne in a fine toga, like the emperor himself, surrounded by disciples who look like senators.

This book faithfully portrays the shifting focus of the empire away from Rome. Constantine established a second seat in Constantinople in the East, but Rome could not hold on to the seat of power for long. With increasing influence of naturalised military men from the Balkans and also due to the need for intercepting the onslaught of barbarians from Germany, the capital was shifted a number of times to Trier, Ravenna and other towns in Gaul. The home ground of the Roman Empire had one consolation amidst all these travails. Italy was exempt from taxes and was subsidized by revenue from elsewhere. Diocletian put an end to this practice and treated the peninsula like any other province. City of Rome and senators also had had to pay taxes thereafter.

Strauss does not expect a scholarly audience for this book. He treats Rome’s adoption of Christianity as the best thing that could come out of Rome and a most natural phenomenon like the blooming of a flower from its bud. He characterizes Constantine’s conversion as the noble act which ‘gave us Christ as our Lord’ (p.287). Edward Gibbon, in his magnum opus ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ had pointed out that Christianity played a big role in the fall of Rome because it sapped the fighting spirit of its people. This so enrages our author that he calls this hypothesis ‘nonsense’ (p.317). You can criticize an argument, but ridiculing it is foolhardy, especially such a celebrated scholar as Gibbon. Strauss then discloses his owns reasons for the empire’s downfall as bad leadership, poorly deployed military resources, internal division, strong enemies, unfavourable geography and a decline of resources.

This book discusses about ten Roman emperors – Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. However, he also narrates the story of the other emperors who ruled in between, so that the thread of continuity is not broken. This book reproduces several famous quotes such as ‘Rome is where the emperor is’, ‘make haste slowly’, ‘too many Caesars is not a good thing’ or ‘money has no smell’ in their proper context. It is also a pleasure to read as it is written for a typical Sunday school-going American with average intellect.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star