THE MIDDLE EMPIRE
Antonine Emperors
Nerva (96-98)
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Elderly senator, adopts ...
Trajan (98-117)
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Campaigns in Dacia (= Rumania)
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Empire at greatest extent
Hadrian (117-138)
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"The Restless Emperor"
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Philhellenic attitude
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Tours provinces
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Hadrian's Wall in N. Britain
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Architecture: Pantheon, Villa at Tivoli
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
Antoninus Pius (138-161)
Marcus Aurelius (161-180)
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Stoic Philosophy: Meditations
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German campaigns
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Passes empire to son Commodus (180-192)
Major Trends
Centrality of Emperor
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Control of army key to throne (68 on): emperor as general;
generals as emperors
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Emperor as administrator: Embassies, petitions
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Republican institutions remain, but senate increasingly sidelined
Growing Bureacratization
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Palace staff & freedmen
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Imperial couriers, spies
Center (Rome) vs. Periphery (Provinces)
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Extension of citizenship (complete by 212)
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Increasing role of provincial elites
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Senatorial status for provincial aristocrats (cf. speech
of Claudius)
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Provincial emperors: Trajan, Hadrian
After the Antonines
Assassination of Commodus (192) -> period of turmoil
Severan Dynasty (193-235)
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Septimius Severus (< N. Africa) & family
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Emperor as undisguised dictator
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Citizenship extended to whole empire
"Third Century Crisis" (235-284)
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Succession of "Barracks Emperors" (+/- 15)
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Currency crisis (adulterated coinage)
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Plagues
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External pressures (Germans, Persians)
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New religious developments
Reforms of Diocletian (284-305)