Military commands. Henceforth, a candidate had his choice of careers: the military or administration. Such a development had great impact on imperial government, as the split between bureaucracy and legions created, in time, a tremendous influence for both.
Meanwhile, another figure was emerging. The PREFECT OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARD had long been amassing posts as part of the policy of AMICI PRINCIPIS. Septimius Severus elevated by prefecture even further by granting to the holders of the office broad legal authority: PAPINIAN and ULPIAN served both as prefects and as jurists. They were unable to overcome, however, the difficult palace politics, and both were murdered by their own guardsmen.
With barbarian invasions and internal strife, the Civil Service fell into a state of decline and disarray. Diocletian came to the throne in 284 and immediately established a new system. A strong centralization characterized this age. New offices of secretary, adviser and chief legal administrator assisted the head of the civil services, the MAGISTER OFFICIORUM. Other notables in the imperial court were the COMITES, or counts, a civil nobility of sorts. The prefects continued to be important, and after Constantine terminated the last military tasks of the prefecture, they served as the great conduit of imperial control over the numerous provinces.
With the establishment of separate Eastern and Western empires, the bureaucracies were answerable to the rulers in the two great territories. The governors of the provinces exercised great power on behalf of the government and were often tyrannical figures. Centralization brought domination, and the constant desire to bring all of the regions into line with imperial policy.
The empire was divided into prefectures, including Britain (Britannia), Gaul (Gallia), Spain (Hispania), Vien-nensis, Italy, Pannonia, Moesia, Thrace, Pontus, Asiana (Asia), Africa, and Oriens. Prefects conducted the affairs of their districts with the help of deputies, or VICARII. Governors were in control of local administration, and the cities, once semi-independent, were regulated even down to the councils. Finances were placed under the control of the agents of the emperor.
Late imperial Civil Service was authoritarian, efficient, and professional. It grew distant from the army and people, however, and this separation of the military and the one-time leaders of the legions from the state ensured the rise of the generals, the MAGISTER MILITUM, who intimidated and conspired against the imperial households in the East and in the West.
Civil War, First Triumvirate Military and political contest (49-45 b. c.e.) that struck a mortal blow to the Republic and made Julius caesar master of the Roman world. The Civil War commenced on January 11, 49 B. C.E. With the words, “The die is cast,” Caesar crossed the Rubicon from his province in northern Italy in direct disobedience to the orders of the SENATE. Caesar possessed eight legions and auxiliaries totaling 60,000 men, one of the finest fighting forces in history. Against him, pompey THE GREAT and the Senate had two legions in Italy and seven in Spain, with about eight more being recruited. More troops would be available in the provinces, but isolated and separated from each other as the senatorial forces were, quick marches by the Caesareans could negate any numerical advantages.
Caesar dealt with Italy first. He marched on Rome, forcing Pompey and the Senate to flee to Epirus, and then consolidated his hold on the capital. With his choice of theaters, Caesar marched to Spain claiming, “I am off to meet an army without a leader, and when I come back I shall meet a leader without an army.” Caesar sent Gaius TREBONIUS to besiege the Pompeian city of massilia (Marseilles), and by September, Pompey’s general there, domi-TIUS AHENOBARBUS, was defeated and the city fell.
The legions of Caesar, 37,000 strong, forced their way into Spain across the Pyrenees. They faced AFRANIUS and PETREIUS, hounded them and finally trapped their army in ilerda. On July 2, Ilerda surrendered, and with it, Spain. Shortly after this victory, Curio lost Africa to the Pompeians under Attius varus and King JUBA of numidia. The loss of Africa did not seriously affect Caesar’s position in Italy, however, and he was declared dictator in October. With the provinces of the West firmly in his grasp, he turned to Pompey in Greece. Allies and recruitments had swelled Pompey’s ranks to a number exceeding 100,000. His army, though, lacked the discipline and experience of Caesar’s.
In early December, Caesar sailed from Brundisium to Greece with seven legions equaling between 25,000 and 30,000 men. He was joined by the trusted Marc Antony, with another 20,000. Pompey, allowing Caesar to seize the initiative, did not force battle and even endured a siege by Caesar’s numerically inferior legions at DYRRHACHIUM and later drove off the enemy By June 48, Caesar was on the move again, and this time Pompey, outnumbering him by nearly two to one, sought an open battle. At the battle of pharsalus, on August 9, Caesar lost several hundred men while Pompey fled the field, leaving 15,000 dead and 25,000 prisoners.
Caesar had little time to savor his triumph, however, as Pompey sailed to Egypt. In August, he moved in pursuit of Pompey, catching up with his body in Alexandria. With only 4,000 legionaries on hand, Caesar found himself fighting an immediate war with ptolemy xiii. For nearly four months a vicious siege raged, and the Romans could not gain the upper hand until January 47, when MITHRIDATES of Pergamum arrived with aid. The battle of the NILE in February gave Caesar complete control of Egypt. After remaining some time with Queen Cleopatra, Caesar marched to Asia Minor to avenge the defeat of CALVINUS at the hands of pharnaces, the king of pon-
TUS. His claim “veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) expressed his easy win at zela in May Mithri-dates received Pharnaces’s realm and the East was reorganized.
In early February 46, the battle of thapsus decided the allegiance of the region. metellus scipio and Juba lost some 10,000 men, but many fled to Spain, where Gnaeus and Sextus pompey were rallying their father’s broken armies. Caesar moved quickly against them in December of 46, with 40,000 soldiers against the Pompeian 60,000. By March 45, he had cornered the enemy, and on the seventeenth fought the most closely contested and harshest battle of the civil war at munda. Victorious at last, Caesar returned to Rome to assume his position of power.
Civil War, Second Triumvirate The conflict resulting from the assassination of Julius caesar in 44 b. c.e. and lasting until 31 b. c.e. Into the political vacuum caused by Caesar’s death stepped Octavian (Augustus), Marc ANTONY and the ringleaders of the murder plot: Gaius CASSIUS and Marcus brutus. Each jockeyed for power, and Octavian, trying to eliminate Antony, allied himself with brutus albinus, the Republican in Gallia Cisalpina, as the fighting broke out.
Antony chose to attack Brutus at mutina, besieging him from December 44 to April 43 b. c.e. When reinforcements under hirtius and pansa arrived, Antony defeated and killed Pansa but was routed by Hirtius at the battle of FORUM gallorum on April 14. On April 21, Antony again faced defeat and retreated to Gaul. Octavian marched to Rome, where he became consul in August. He realized that an alliance with Antony was more useful than facing the Republican generals, so, in November of 43 B. C.E., the triumvirate of Octavian, Antony, and Marcus LEPIDUS was born—and turned on the assassins of Julius Caesar.
Brutus and Cassius had fled to Greece and, after pillaging the provinces of Syria, Greece, and Asia Minor, raised armies for the inevitable conflict. In September 42, Antony and Octavian moved from Brundisium to Epirus, mirroring Caesar’s campaign against Pompey in 49. The two armies, both numbering around 80,000 infantry, collided at PHILIPPI in Macedonia, about 10 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. Cassius and Brutus killed themselves when they saw defeat.
Antony and Octavian immediately began to differ. The PERUSINE war between Octavian and Antony’s wife, fulvia and her brother Lucius, only aggravated the situation. Fulvia’s death eased the tension, and in 40, the two triumvirs signed the treaty of brundisium, reaffirming it in 37 with the Treaty of tarentum. Peace between the two rivals lasted for four years, while Antony grew obsessed with the East and launched his disastrous Parthian invasion. Octavian solidified his position in the West, using Marcus agrippa in Gaul and on the Rhine to quell revolts. Agrippa also battled against Sextus pompey, the son of pompey the great, who had become a sea pirate and menaced supply-lines.
By 33 B. C.E., Antony divorced octavia, the sister of Octavian, and was living openly with Queen cleopatra of Egypt. Lepidus’s power as a triumvir had waned, and civil war erupted again for supremacy over the Roman world. The struggle ended on September 2, 31 b. c.e., at the battle of actium, with Octavian victorious. He entered triumphantly into Rome in 29 b. c.e. to become Augustus, ushering in the imperial period.
World History
