FOUR TETRARCHS STATUE
CARVED GEM
EMPEROR HADRIAN
HEAD OF CONSTANTINE
The ruling threesome, Mark Antony, Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian, Caesar’s adopted heir, fought among themselves, with Octavian the winner after defeating Antony in a naval battle at Actium. His victory' was commemorated on the car’ed gem above, shown in a plaster impression. Octavian held supreme power as the first emperor, with the title of Augustus. Four of his relatives succeeded him as emperor, among them Claudius, who invaded Britain in AD 43. Twenw-one years later fire ravaged Rome. The emperor Nero, who then reigned, ordered the Christians persecuted. In 66 the Jews of Judea revolted against the harsh Roman rule. Two years later the Spanish legate Galba rebelled against Nero, who committed suicide. Galba declared himself emperor.
Rome was plunged into civil war as army commanders vied to replace Galba as emperor. Galba was murdered by Otho, who was vanquished in turn by Vitellus. Then Vespasian came back from the war in Judea, defeated Vitellus, and seized imperial power. In 70 his son Titus captured Jerusalem. Titus took over from his father, followed by his brother Domitian. The rulers who succeeded him—Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonine and Severan emperors—governed during a period of unprecedented peace and prosperin’, as the empire reached its fullest extent. The marble statue of Hadrian above was found in a temple of Apollo in North Africa, where the Romans built many remarkable structures. Construction in Rome itself included the Badis of Tims, the Colosseum, Trajan’s Forum, the Pantheon, and the Baths of Caracalla.
Rome was threatened by cor-mption at home and militaiy' setbacks abroad. In AD 268 the Goths sacked Athens, Corinth, and Sparta. In the absence of a strong ruler, some 20 army leaders, in rapid succession, were named emperor by their troops and then deposed. Christians once again endured harsh persecutions. In time, the emperor Diocletian introduced a series of brilliant reforms that halted the disarray. With the empire besieged from many directions, he saw the value of having two strong leaders: He di’ided the empire into east and west and appointed an army officer, Maximian, to rule the western part as co-emperor, naming dual successors as well. The ancient stame above, of four tetrarchs, shows Diocletian (second from the Jight), exhibiting the collegial spirit that the times required.
Constantine the Great defeated his rivals to become sole emperor. He converted to Christianin' and established Constantinople as the new capital of the empire. A huge head of Constantine (above), part of a stame, was installed in Rome. After his death, dual emperorships recurred. In AD 363 the Persians seized Mesopotamia. Roman forces battled to hold back the barbarian onslaught from northern Europe. The Goths, led by Alaric, looted Rome in 410. Vandals invaded Gaul and Spain, set up a kingdom at Carthage, and sacked Rome in 455. The Huns under Attila threatened Gaul and Italy but withdrew to the Danube area. Romulus Augustus, the last western emperor, was deposed in 476, and the Ostrogoth king Theodoric took Italy. In the east, the empire flourished until 1453.
World History
