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Eburacum

Eburacum (York) Town in the north of Britain (Britannia); originally belonging to the brigantes but conquered by the Roman General agricola in 78 c. e. He made Eburacum into a powerful fort, stationing a legion there and launching his campaigns into the far north from that new post. Subsequent Roman conquests stabilized the region, and Eburacum achieved the status of colonia and eventually became a municipium as well. It was the leading city in Roman Britain next to londinium (London), and it was the most important military post in the isles. When the numerous breakthroughs on the frontier by the Caledonians threatened the city’s survival in the second and third centuries c. e., the counterattacks of Septimius severus were based in Eburacum. In the late third century, constantius chose the site as his personal residence, and on July 25, 306, he died there, as had Septimius Severus a century before. Constantius’s son, Constantine, was hailed as emperor by the legions of Eburacum shortly afterward.

Eburones People of German origin, who crossed into Gallia Belgica to settle there sometime in the second or first centuries b. c.e. They were a leading party in the revolt against Julius Caesar in Gaul in 54 b. c.e. Under their King ambiorix, the Eburones successfully lured out and destroyed Caesar’s legate, Q. Titurius Sabinus, at aduatuca. The Eburones participated in the unsuccessful general uprising following Aduatuca but were isolated by caesar’s deliberate policy of reducing the mutinous tribes one by one in the spring of 53 b. c.e. The Eburones were the last, and during that year the Roman legions marched into Gallia Belgica. Ambiorix fled over the Rhine, and his people ceased to be a vital entity

Ecbatana Now called Hamadan (in northwestern Iran), an ancient city situated in Media (Persia) and supposedly founded by the first king of the Medes, Deioces, around 700 b. c.e. Its beauty and location made the capital prominent in Media, and it was used by the Persians and Parthians as the summer residence of kings while CTESIPHON housed the court during the winter.

Eclectus (fl. late second century c. e.) Court chamberlain serving emperors Commodus and Pertinax Eclectus came from Egypt and entered into the service of Emperor Lucius verus as a freedman, staying until the emperor’s death in 169 c. e. Eclectus then became a chamberlain to commodus, originally working under the formidable Cleander. When Cleander was put to death in 189, Eclectus filled the power vacuum and earned the trust of the young emperor. As Commodus grew increasingly unstable, Eclectus joined the Praetorian prefect Aemilius laetus and the emperor’s mistress, marcia (who also was Eclectus’s wife or lover), in a conspiracy— after Marcia read a tablet listing their names as the next courtiers to be executed. The plotters hurriedly set about murdering Commodus in 192. Eclectus then urged the prefect of the city, Pertinax, to assume the throne. The chamberlain held power in the new regime but was killed in 193 when the praetorian guard revolted against Pertinax and massacred most of the palace staff.

Economy See amphora, china, clothing, coinage,

FINANCE, FOOD AND DRINK, FURNISHINGS, INDIA, INDUSTRY, NUMBERS, SHIPS, TRADE, TRANSPORTATION, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, and under individual provinces.

For Suggested Readings, please see under trade and

COMMERCE.

Edessa City near the upper reaches of the Euphrates River; from 137 b. c.e. to 216 C. E., the territorial seat of the small and often disputed client state of the osroene. In 260 C. E. the disastrous battle of Edessa was fought nearby between Emperor valerian and Persian King sha-PUR I. (Sources vary as to the details of the struggle and it is possible that there was no battle at all.) In 260, Shapur had conquered Roman holdings in Mesopotamia. Valerian, whose legions had been decimated by a plague, attempted to counter by assuming a defensive posture near Edessa. Naturally Shapur offered a fight, but the deplorable condition of Valerian’s troops forced the emperor to negotiate a pact. He may then have been captured by the enemy or faced a mutiny in his own ranks. He died horribly, and the Roman army received a blow from which it could not easily recover.

Education The two primary influences for the development of the Roman education system were the Greeks and the Etruscans. The Romans especially utilized Greek educational methods, perfected them for their own uses, and then added several areas of special concerns of their own—rhetoric and law The Middle Ages subsequently inherited from Rome both the quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music) and trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic), termed the Seven Liberal Arts by Martianus Capella.

By custom, Roman children received rudimentary education under their mother’s instruction, in a practice termed gremio matris. At around the age of seven, a boy was permitted to begin learning at his father’s side, accompanying him on his duties, especially if a father was serving as a magistrate, praetor, or other public official. This familial apprenticeship entailed a boy’s joining his father at meetings with clients, public speaking, and dinner engagements. Once the boy assumed the toga vir-ilis at maturity, he began an internship, a period called the tirocinium fori. After gaining political experience, the youth began the tirocinium militiae, military training. This method of education opened the way for future advancement in the cursus honorum.

This less standardized method of education endured even into the empire. It was replaced gradually, however, by schools, tutors, and schoolmasters. Cicero noted that there was no fixed system of education, and Rome never developed any kind of imperial education system. Nevertheless, there were schools, based on the Greek system of primary and secondary schools. It is quite notable that within Roman education, both girls and boys were granted access to learning. The quality of education depended upon the talents and the methods of the schoolmasters or individual tutors. The level of learning thus varied from person to person, even among the patrician class. In the later empire, at the urging of emperors and provincial governors, enough standard qualities had been introduced that it was common for most Roman children to have received at the very least an elementary ability to read and write and perform basic mathematical computations.

A teacher or schoolmaster (a litterator or ludi magis-ter) was poorly paid, earning during the late Republic around 15 denarii a month or 180 denarii a year. In comparison, the typical soldier earned around 225 denarii a year, with his equipment, food, and clothing all provided by the military. Private tutors were normally Greek slaves who had been bought because of their abilities to read, write, and do mathematics.

A Roman youth of the imperial age would be handed over at an early age to a teacher, embarking upon a long and arduous period of study. The chief concern was training in Latin and, when possible, Greek. It was considered desirable to be trained in Greek, as that was the language of culture. The writer Quintilian, in fact, preferred that children begin with Greek, as Latin would be acquired in daily life. He thus urged, as did Tacitus, that the child’s nurse or slaves be trained in proper Latin grammar, as they would be the primary linguistic influence on children. Children spent more time with nurses and slaves than with their own parents.

From about the age of 12, a child passed from the instruction of the litterator to that of the grammaticus. The two principal subjects of instruction now were grammar and literature, with ancillary subjects. The day was spent in the delivery of a praelectio, an introductory explanation by the teacher, followed by a lectio, the reading aloud of passages; the enarratio, a word-by-word explanation of the passage in question and other concerns such as grammar; and iudicium, the final judgment of the passage and student. All other subjects, such as music and mathematics, were also taught by the grammaticus, although it was possible for a student to advance toward a specialization in rhetoric, music, or mathematics. Legal experts were trained in specific schools. Originally, legal training was started during the tirocinium fori, but the development of law in the late Republic required the presence of experts in jurisprudence. Such iurisprudentes accepted students and thus established a line of training that received formal recognition during the second century c. E.

One of the most notable characteristics of the Roman school system was its brutality. Aristotle observed that “all learning is painful,” and a Roman litterator was quite willing to use corporal punishment on students who failed to grasp lessons or misbehaved. Caning and floggings were used, as observed by Quintilian in the first century C. E. He claimed that he had no use for flogging, as it only hardened the student, much like a recalcitrant slave.

See also rhetoric.

Egypt Eventually a Roman province, Egypt attracted the attention of Rome for many reasons. The entire country was immensely fertile, producing most of the wheat and agricultural goods for the world. The Nile offered a magnificent system of transportation far inland, and included Alexandria, the great port of the Nile Delta, on the Mediterranean Sea. Alexandria’s position both in Africa and near Palestine, made it accessible to virtually every known trade route. To the historically minded Romans, Egypt represented a past glory, fabled riches and the most illuminated and stunning culture in the ancient world. When the opportunity for conquest presented itself, the legions were dispatched by Emperor Augustus.

Alexander the Great occupied Egypt in the fourth century B. C.E., leaving behind the foundations of Alexandria. Later, his General Ptolemy returned and established his own dynasty of essentially Greek design. Although the Ptolemies would come to own larger territories in Africa and elsewhere, the base of Egypt was both pleasing and disappointing to them.

Its agriculture and natural wealth were obvious, but the inability of the Hellenic civilization to alter in any serious fashion the area beyond Alexandria and the few Greek-oriented cities, prevented the Ptolemies from validating their claim to the rule of the land. Every effort to Hellenize Egypt met with failure, because the nation was steeped in a culture that was centuries old. Furthermore, the Egyptians at the court began to influence and alter the Greeks soon after the dynasty was started.

Greek culture established only a thin veneer, as the Ptolemaic kings proved inept and unstable over the centuries. By the middle of the second century B. C.E., and with the death of Ptolemy VI Philometor in 145 B. C.E., the rulers of this royal clan had lost not only a position of supremacy in the Mediterranean but also were forced to bribe the local population in order to maintain the throne.

Rome, recently a victor over the Carthaginians, looked upon Egypt as a great prize, even though the Republic, as a rule, declined such overseas expansionism and allowed the Ptolemies to rule unmolested. When Marcus Licinius Crassus became jealous of the conquests of Pompey in the East, he proposed to oust the reigning Ptolemy XII Auletes and to seize the formidable treasury and granaries for Rome in 64 b. c.e. Cicero’s oratory and senatorial opposition halted Crassus’s plans (De Rege Alexandrine). Clearly, however, the domestic trouble besetting Egypt, coupled with Roman ambition, made annexation inevitable.

The deterioration of internal Ptolemaic organizations climaxed with the death of Ptolemy XII in 51 b. c.e. He left as his heir his daughter Cleopatra and his son Ptolemy. His will contained a codicil that placed Egypt in the hands of the People of Rome, perhaps to safeguard it from the heirs or from outside influence. Cleopatra and Ptolemy warred upon one another, and she was exiled from the palace. She prepared an army and marched back to do battle just as the Roman Civil War (see civil war, FIRST triumvirate) was decided at pharsalus in 48 b. c.e.

Pompey fled to Egypt, only to be cruelly murdered on September 28 on the order of Ptolemy Julius caesar, unknowing, pursued Pompey by sea, arriving in Alexandria in early october.

After a brief and bitter war with Ptolemy, Cleopatra was installed upon Egypt’s throne. Through her, Egypt’s Greek rulers made one last effort at restoring the moribund greatness. At the battle of actium in 31 b. c.e., Octa-vian (Augustus) proved Roman invincibility, and marched on Egypt in 30. He laid claim to the region and was greeted by the populace as a mighty king.

Augustus recognized the special nature of Egypt from the start. He gave the territory to the Roman People, as was customary, but then he took pains to see to it that he had personal mastery over the land. The status of Egypt was unique in the Roman Empire. Instead of being classified as an imperial or senatorial domain, the region became the personal estate of Augustus. Ostensibly the land belonged to Rome, but it remained always the province of the emperors. Corn and foodstuffs were so abundant, and the treasury of the nation was so vast, that no regular system of administration was practical. Instead of a legate, proconsul, or procurator, Augustus appointed as his reliable representative a prefect, chosen from the ranks of the Equestrian Class (see EGYPT, prefect of and EQUITES). The prefectship of Egypt was one of the highest offices attainable by the knights.

To ensure the sanctity of Egypt from meddlesome senators and Equestrians, Augustus further decreed that no members of either class could enter the land without permission of the emperor. In 19 C. E., Germanicus traveled to Egypt and then up the Nile. Tiberius censured him for violating the rule of Augustus. Tacitus added that the cause for such a rebuke was grounded in the reality of Egypt’s strategic importance to the sea routes of the Mediterranean and the land-based traffic from Africa to Asia. He later wrote that Vespasian seized Egypt in his campaign of 69 C. E. because Aegyptus claustra annenae (Egypt held the key to the granary).

The prefect of Egypt sat in Alexandria. His tasks were to ensure the flow of corn, protect the frontiers of the south against Ethiopia, dispense justice to the populace and maintain domestic harmony—while Romanization continued. At the disposal of the prefect were three legions, a very large force. In Tiberius’s reign (14-37 c. E.) the command was reduced to two legions; ultimately only one stood ready, although the territory demanded the use of many cohorts and auxiliary units.

Ethiopia’s incursions into southern Egypt began in 25 B. C.E., during the absence of Prefect Aelius Gallus, and this made the weaknesses of the borders evident. Gaius Petronius reconquered all of the lost districts, including Philae and the Elephantine, and henceforth a close watch was maintained on Ethiopia. Borders wars, while inconvenient, were only part of the problems facing Rome on the Nile.

Provincial rule of Egypt was based on centuries of traditions. Many titles applied during earlier periods were retained, including those of diocetes, idiologus, and epistrategus. The new Roman occupation, however, demanded a more centralized form of government. Old positions of authority in Egypt were therefore stripped of all military duties, which were given to the legions. Equestrians replaced many Egyptians and Greeks in posts, thereby streamlining provincial bureaucracy.

Three districts were created in Egypt: the Delta, including Alexandria, Nicopolis, Canopus; the Faiyum, with Arsinoe and the ancient nomes or territories; and Upper Egypt, including Philae and Elephantine.

The prefect journeyed to each district to carry out his legal duties in the local courts. Hearing cases and accepting petitions not only helped create the illusion of local participation in the government but also brought the prefect into contact with lower administrative officials. A magistrate in each community, called epistrategus for the nomes, gymnasiarch or ethnarch, held sway, especially with their own associates or local inhabitants. They collected taxes just as their counterparts did throughout the empire (see CURIALIS and DECURIONES). Egypt’s incomparable organization in terms of village and city registration for the CENSUS made taxation easier and hence more burdensome for the people.

From the start the Egyptians recognized the fact that Rome had singled them out for special treatment, not out of affection but in the hopes of draining every ounce of natural wealth and human industry possible. In turn, the special status brought few benefits. Augustus ordered irrigation improvements to increase harvests, and Alexandria profited handsomely from its continued operation as one of the empire’s leading ports. But throughout the first three centuries of Roman occupation, the historically impressive vitality of the land was stripped and exported virtually out of existence. Taxes grew heavier and, as was the case elsewhere, the middle class forming most of the various regions was forced to pay any deficiencies between what was expected and what was delivered. This middle class soon collapsed under the weight of its burdens.

Tiberius Julius Alexander, prefect in the late first century C. E., initiated a number of reforms to maintain prosperity, but in the second century strife injured Egyptian economic life. The Jewish revolt caused terrible damage to Alexandria, and other uprisings took place in 153 and 173 C. E., with resulting depopulation.

To stem the inevitable decline of Egypt, Septimius Severus (ruled 193-211 c. e.) made several changes. A new finance minister, a rationalis, was appointed, and the Prefect Subatianus Aquila tightened his grip even further. The emperor also granted to Alexandria and many other communities their own senates. Such new councils, unfortunately, could not stem the tide or do anything to help the gradual poverty, which destroyed entire provinces.

Like their Ptolemaic Greek predecessors, the Romans struggled perpetually to imprint themselves upon Egypt and discovered it was easier to revive the Hellenic styles of earlier eras. Several emperors established cities along Greek architectural lines. Hadrian, for example, founded Antinopolis, joining other metropolises such as Naucratis and Ptolemais. Greek literature and culture were openly favored. In Alexandria this program met with some success, but in the countryside, as in Britain, life was untouched and unchanged. Latin failed as anything but the enforced language of government. Tensions increased. The Greeks, Jews, and Egyptians fought continually in the streets of Alexandria, agreeing only that the true enemy was Rome. Christianity grew in popularity in the Greek cities, but the tempestuous manner of living so characteristic of Alexandria produced such controversial church figures as Arius and Athanasius, and a truly remarkable Christian, St. Anthony.

As part of the reorganization of the imperial system, Diocletian (c. 295 c. E.) broke apart the large provinces of Egypt and created three smaller ones: Aegyptus lovia, Thebais, and Aegyptus Herculia. All were under the control of the dioceses of Oriens. For the next two centuries imperial mastery remained in some form, but never again would Egypt serve as the jewel of the Roman Empire.

Suggested Readings: Bagnall, Roger S. Egypt in Late Antiquity. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1993; Bowman, Alan K. Egypt after the Pharaohs 332 B. C.-A. D. 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986; Chau-veau, Michel. Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society under the Ptolemies. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000; Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies. Brooklyn, N. Y.: Brooklyn Museum, 1988; Lewis, Naphtali. Life in Egypt under Roman Rule. Oxford, U. K.: Clarendon Press, 1983; Lindsay, Jack. Daily Life in Roman Egypt. London: F. Muller, 1963; The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; Rowlandson, Jane, ed. Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Egypt, prefect of The title used by the governor of the unique and important province of EGYPT. Emperor Augustus recognized the need for the imperial office to maintain control over the ports and trading centers of Egypt and so decreed that a special office would be created to serve as the head of all administrative duties. A prefect was chosen, a member of the Equestrian Class, and the prefectship of Egypt, along with that of the Praetorian Guard, was considered the highest political achievement open to a Roman knight.

Elagabalus (Varius Avitus Bassianus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) (204-222 c. e.) Emperor from 218 to 222 Born to the Syrian Varius Marcellus and to JULIA SOAEMIAS, the niece of Emperor Caracalla’s formidable mother, JULIA domna, Elagabalus grew up in the imperial family but was dominated by the Syrian environment of his hometown of emesa and by his ambitious and scheming female relatives. In Emesa he became, at a young age, the chief priest of the Emesian cult of the sun-god, Elah-Gabal—principally because of his mother’s connections and his own good looks.

In 217, the assassination of Caracalla set off a series of events that changed his life dramatically. Caracalla’s successor, MACRINUS, ordered Julia Domna’s sister and Elaga-balus’s grandmother, JULIA maesa, to leave Rome and to retire to Emesa. Vowing revenge, Julia Maesa bought or stirred up the legions in Syria to revolt and put an end to her enemy. When Macrinus fell, these same legions elected Elagabalus, who wrote to the Senate and was accepted as the son of Caracalla and given the throne. Macrinus died a short time later, and the young emperor, with his entourage of courtiers, set off for Rome.

Throughout Asia and bithynia, Elagabalus outraged the traditionalists with his behavior and stunned Rome with his religious ceremonies, his lifestyle and his loathsome companions. He occupied the imperial palace in late 219 but left the imperial government in the hands of Julia Maesa and the Praetorian Prefect Comazon, preferring to indulge himself in his cult and in his strange sexual habits. The great sun-god, physically identified with a large black stone, was brought to Rome from Emesa, and Elagabalus supervised the building of the deity’s temple. There he held lavish rites, forcing all senators and persons of prominence to attend the divinity He is rumored to have displayed as well sexual excess, transvestism, and self-mutilation.

In 221, Julia Maesa persuaded Elagabalus to name as Caesar her cousin, severus Alexander, on the grounds that he could devote more time to his cult if he had such a trusted aide. At first he agreed, but later, as his cousin grew in popularity, he tried to have Severus removed. The Praetorian Guard revolted in March 222, forcing the emperor to the Praetorians’ Castra Praetoria, with his mother and Severus. That night he rather foolishly made threats against his enemies, and on the next day, March 12, he was slain. The bodies of Elagabalus and his mother were mutilated, and both corpses were thrown into the public sewer. Severus Alexander was proclaimed emperor.

Three women were married to Emperor Elagabalus during his reign: Julia Paula, Aquilia Severa, and Annia Faustina. He was married first to Julia Paula but divorced her to pursue Aquilia Severa, a Vestal Virgin whom Elaga-balus raped and then married in 220—to unite, as he explained it, the Elagabalus of the East with the Minerva of the West. He divorced her in 221 and was married to Annia Faustina, who tried unsuccessfully to stabilize the regime and was divorced in 222, when Elagabalus returned to Aquilia Severa. It is possible that he had other wives as well.

Elegira A city in the north of Armenia, situated on the farthest edges of the Euphrates. In 162 c. e., following the death of the emperor Antoninus pius, a Parthian host invaded Armenia to place its own candidate on the throne of that country The governor of cappadocia marched to Elegira to halt the Parthian advance but was defeated and slain, setting off a series of wars that would rage for the next four years.

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Eburacum