THE SEARCH FOR A JUST SOCIETY
JOHN HUDDLESTON
GEORGE RONALD 1989
PART VIII
Chapter 8: Pax Romana
The thousand-and-more-year history of Rome has had an impact on western civilization equal only to that of Greece and Christianity. In the evolution of the idea of the just society several aspects of this history are of significance: the experience of participatory government (especially during the early and middle years of the Republic), the great revolts against slavery, and the practical example of a near-universal state: the Pax Romana offering widespread citizenship, tolerance of different cultures and eventually a consolidated body of law. There is also a repetition of the lessons of what happens to society when it forgets morality and yields to greed and luxury, and when it fails to establish an orderly system of succession in government.
- Tradition has it that the monarchy was overthrown in 509 BC and replaced by a republic headed by two magistrates (later to be called consuls).
- Rome prospered under the consuls; over the centuries it gradually expanded and became an empire, a development which resulted in a growing gap between rich and poor and a consequent undermining of the basic institutions.
- Peasants became even more impoverished by long military service and the devastation caused by the invasion of Hannibal (218-201 BC).
- The nearest the reform movement came to success was in the years before 100 BC when the Graccus brothers became tribunes.
- They proposed land reforms to reduce extremes of wealth and poverty, greater limits on the power of the Senate (which represented the interests of the powerful), and an extension of citizenship to all other Italians and Latin peoples of the Republic.
- The brothers were driven from office. Roman society became even more corrupt, riddled with gangsterism and ruled by a series of harsh military dictators – Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar.
- Slavery grew to such an extent that by the end of the Republic it is estimated that half the population were slaves.
- The practice of having slave gladiators fight each other to the death in the circus led to the third and most significant slave revolt (73-71 BC).
- Its leader was Spartacus who was able to defeat two Roman armies sent against them.
- As an example to all other slaves, the road from Rome to Appia was lined with 6000 crosses on which were nailed the survivors of the last battle.
The oppressors had won, but in the long run it was clear that as a result of this gallant rising the consciousness of mankind would never be the same again: sooner or later it would have to be recognized that no stable or just society could exist with such an institution. The cry of freedom has echoed down the centuries and in our own time the importance of that event was symbolized when the left wing of the German Social Democratic party at the end of World War I adopted the name ‘Spartacist’.
- The Roman Empire paid lip service at first to many of the representative institutions of the Republic, but as time went on their power became less and less.
- The Empire contributed to the story of the development of the just society through many of its most well-known features: An army of 28 legions (about 300,000 men); A competent bureaucracy; A navy; and a good system of roads were the basis of the Pax Romana.
- It was an era of peace and law in the Mediterranean basin and its surrounding areas during a period of some 600 years, including 400 years under the Empire.
- So long as the peoples of the Empire wee law-abiding and paid their taxes, the government was tolerant of differing cultures.
- The rights pertaining to citizenship which implied a degree of equality were gradually extended until in AD 212 they were given to all free subjects of the Empire.
- The rule of law was taken seriously despite the turmoil at times of succession to the rank of Emperor, strengthening the concept of law in Western civilization and a step forward in the direction of a just society.
There were, of course, deep flaws in the system. The initial tradition of public service, the strong social ethic, and the sense of equality had long since died; society became more and more hollow, and willing to let barbarians do all the more unpleasant work. Rome itself became like a cancer on the Empire sucking in vast supplies, imposing heavy taxes for its support and giving very little in return. Agriculture, the economic base of society, declined; so did the army because of increasing neglect of the employment conditions of soldiers. Though the Empire was to linger on in name into the Middle Ages, the real end was symbolized by the sacking of Rome by Alaric the Goth in AD 410 (the first time this had happened since the attacks of the Gauls in 387 BC) and again by the Vandals in AD 455 when destruction was undertaken for its own sake.