The distinctive character of the East of the empire

The East of the empire was Greek. The Greek language held a special position among the empire’s many other languages, for instance, the Celtic languages of the West. Rome was aware of this fact: ever since the emperor Claudius, there was a Latin and a Greek chancellery. Of course, Rome did not simply adopt everything from the Greek world. In every acculturation process, influences move in every direction, and in the East, too, there were changes because of the Roman presence. There were, for example, organizational measures that enabled the Eastern territories to function within the imperial administration. In other fields, Roman culture was likewise enthusiastically embraced. Compared to what happened in the West of the empire, however, these changes were limited in extent and character. It may even be maintained that Rome continued the Hellenization of the East and promoted it by founding Greekpoleis and supporting the Greek (and not the Roman) way of life.

The East was of great importance for the empire. At the beginning of the imperial period, the Roman territories between the Danube and the Euphrates were a patchwork of provinces and client states. Between the reigns of Augustus and Domitian, this region underwent a halting process of “provincialization.” After all the client states had become provinces, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus made attempts to incorporate territories east of the Euphrates; Rome also tried to move the southern frontier in the direction of the Arab Peninsula. In this way, it would seem, Rome attempted to create a buffer zone to protect the Eastern provinces, because these—and North Africa, which belonged to the Latin-speaking part of the empire—were clearly the center of the empire. These territories were more urbanized (or would become so during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD) and more densely populated than the provinces in the north and west of the empire, and had a stronger economy. With the rise of the dangerous empire of the

Map 20 The Roman Empire, 4th c. AD

Sassanids, the defense of the Euphrates frontier would be more important to Rome than the defense of the Rhine.