The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1
All Roads Lead to Rome

Chapter 1  
Dead Culture, Dead Language, Dead Emperors: Why Bother?

Chapter 2  
Rome FAQ: Hot Topics in Brief

Chapter 3  
How Do We Know? Discovering the Romans

Chapter 4  
Club Mediterrania: Rome in the Context of Other Civilizations

Chapter 5  
Seven Hills and One Big Sewer: Rome Becomes a City

Part 2
Rome Wasn't Built in a Day: The Roman Republic (509–27
B.C.E.
)

Chapter 6  
On Golden Pond: Rome Conquers Italy and the Mediterranean

Chapter 7  
Let's Conquer . . . Ourselves! The Roman Revolution and the End of the Republic

Chapter 8  
Rome, Rome on the Range: Romans at Home

Chapter 9  
The Romans Among Themselves

Chapter 10  
The Romans at Large

Chapter 11  
Literature and Culture of the Republic

Chapter 12  
If They Build It: Roman Engineering

Part 3
Empire Without End: Roman Imperial History

Chapter 13  
Easing into Empire

Chapter 14  
All in the Family: The Julio-Claudian Emperors

Chapter 15  
The (Mostly) Good Emperors: The Flavians to Marcus Aurelius

Chapter 16  
The (Mostly) Not-So-Good Emperors: Commodus to Aurelian

Chapter 17  
Divide and (Re)Conquer: Diocletian to Constantine

Chapter 18  
Barbarians at the Gates: The Fall of the Western Empire

Part 4
Roman Imperial Life and Culture

Chapter 19  
Roman Mass Culture of the Imperial Period

Chapter 20  
(Un)Protected Sects: Religions, Tolerance, and Persecutions

Chapter 21  
Cogito Ergo Sum:
The Life of the Mind

Chapter 22  
That's Entertainment! Public Spectacles

Part 5
Where Did the Romans Go?

Chapter 23  
And the East Goes On

Chapter 24  
Nothing Quiet on the Western Front

Appendix A
Timeline

Appendix B  
Finding the Romans on Earth and in Cyberspace

Appendix C  
Lights, Camera,
Actio!
A Short List of Rome and Romans in Film

Appendix D  
Glossary

Index

Those familiar with Latin literature of the second century
C
.
E
. will of course know the
Attic Nights
written by Aulus Gellius. It was during the wintry nights in Attica (hence the title) that Aulus contemplated the writing of this multivolume collection of notes he culled from the host of books he read, all of which were designed to entertain and educate his children.

Few people, however, know of his brother, Marcus Gellius, or his book titled
Spartan Afternoons
, in which he catalogued the foolish behavior and idiotic sayings of contemporary Romans at home and abroad. Although the book was ultimately condemned on moral grounds by the emperor Marcus Aurelius and all copies of the work were burned in the Roman Forum (together with the unfortunate Gellius), a few quotations from the work survive to give us an idea about its content that will help explain why
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire
is essential reading.

By the second century
C
.
E
., the Romans had their own classics: Plautus, Ennius, Cicero, Caesar, Catullus, Virgil, Ovid,
et cetera
. A Roman simply was not considered educated unless he knew not only Roman literature, but also Roman history, rhetoric, religion, and law,
inter alia
. It was for this reason that Marcus Gellius focused on the stories of famous
illiterati
and their utterly useless lives.

One such person featured in his book was Quintus Gluteus Maximus. His ignorance of Roman culture and resulting inability to string together a coherent thought were so profound and so complete that he once uttered the following infamous statement in a meeting of the senate:
Caesar quidem, si hodie viveret, in sepulchro versaretur
(“If Caesar were alive today he would be spinning in his grave”). Because of this statement, plus other fatuous observations and unmistakable evidences of stupidity, he quickly became the butt of many jokes. His own parents were said to have remarked, “Quintus is the biggest ass we have ever known. Why did he have to be
our
son?”

Then, as today, ignorance of Roman culture was a serious social liability. Now, thanks to Professor Eric Nelson of Pacific Lutheran University, there is hope! Here, in one valuable tome, the culturally disadvantaged will find in 24 chapters, numerous sidebars, and 4 appendixes enough information about the Romans—their cities, customs, literature, history, architecture, legal structure, and more—to fend off any and all accusations of idiocy. Gone are the days when the historically inept fear to appear in public lest a question regarding the ancient Romans comes up in conversation. Once you read this book, no one will ever call you a Gluteus Maximus!

Professor Nelson carefully and thoroughly leads even the most hapless reader through a chronological reconstruction of the culture of one of the most influential peoples of all times. The vast amount of material covered is well organized and easily grasped and, better yet, his clear and engaging account of ancient Rome will keep you reading into the wee hours of the morning, whether you live or sojourn in Athens, Sparta, or Poughkeepsie.

 

—James J. Clauss

James J. Clauss, Professor of Classics at the University of Washington, is the author of
The Best of the Argonauts
(University of California Press, 1993), co-editor of
Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art
(Princeton University Press, 1997), and author of numerous articles and reviews on Greek and Latin literature and history.

In our fast-forward world, you'd think that the ancient past would be too obscure, too remote, and too foreign to be of relevance. Nowadays the
present
seems obsolete. And yet, ancient civilizations captivate us. Why?

Well, in part, we are drawn by similarities and differences between these cultures and our own. It's really interesting to see how other people lived, worked, fought, and loved. Ancient civilizations often confront us with differences so stark that they shock, delight, and appall us. As remote as some aspects of these civilizations are, isn't it engaging that they were still
people?
Both similarities and differences speak to the human condition, and what it means to live as a member of the human race.

In addition, we sometimes look to ancient civilizations for models. We like patterns, and in a complicated world, it would be helpful to find models for solving (or avoiding) some of our own problems and to predict what might happen next. Humans have been at the work of being humans for a long time. Perhaps someone already figured out one of our problems, or tried similar solutions to them.

Finally, we sometimes look back to better understand how things got the way they are. Sometimes we just don't know; other times it becomes clear that our understanding has been blunted by stereotypes, generalizations, and inaccurate ideas. As we look closer, generalizations begin to yield to a more complicated picture than the one we began with. Sometimes that original picture changes a lot, and sometimes it stays pretty much the same, but inquiry always produces a more accurate, insightful, and satisfying understanding.

You may hear people object, what can the past offer us anyway? History is written by the conquerors; the same people have been in charge of the same things since the Bronze Age. Such stereotypes and generalizations deserve to go in the trash bin of history along with the many others that elicited such remarks in the first place. Fortunately for all of us, it's much more complicated, much more interesting, and much more important than that.

Whether we like it or not, what we have
now
, what we know
now
, and who we are
now
all have pasts, and those pasts
matter
. That's largely why I wrote this book, and I hope that this perspective shows. Institutions, ideas, and ways of looking at the world have just as much of a genealogy as people do. But unlike our physical characteristics, which we can see, we are often unaware that we have also inherited broad assumptions about time, purpose, organization, cultural habits, and ourselves. As long as we see things from one perspective, it's no wonder that some things seem obvious and some things so strange.

Hopefully, the process of education (that's from the Latin
educare,
“to raise up”) takes us out of our own perspective, not necessarily to change it but to mature it. In the best case, education shows us where our perspectives come from and how they relate and interrelate with others. In any case, we can understand a great deal about where we are and where we're going from appreciating where we've been and how we got here. If you're interested in where you are and how you got here, a good part of the answer would inevitably involve the Romans.

I'm not saying that we are bound by history. We all know the saying that goes (usually in a droning monotone) something like this: “Those who do not understand the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.” You might be surprised to discover that I don't
precisely
agree. Our problems are very much our own. The past does not provide us with ready answers to them, at
least if you think of the past as a list of quick answers in the back of the “Current Problems” textbook.

Nevertheless, when you study the past in depth you come to the realization that, although the specifics change, people have been coping with the same kinds of problems for a very long time. Family tensions, political and social problems, environmental issues, economic policy, moral dilemmas—if we're wondering about or laughing about or struggling with something now, it's a fair bet that others have been in the same boat in the past. Now, that boat may have had
oars
and no Global Positioning System, but the question of “Where in the heck are we and where are we going?” has remained the same.

Ancient cultures fascinate and entertain us for many reasons, and understanding them benefits us in many ways. When we see how past peoples met common challenges and where their past connects with our present, ancient civilizations become both fascinating and relevant. I'll do my best in this book to give you an accurate picture of the Romans, and make learning about this influential ancient people both worthwhile and entertaining.