Conclusion

Augustus created the principate and the Pax Romana by constructing a disguised monarchy while insisting that he was restoring the republic. He succeeded by ensuring the loyalty of both the army and the people to him by becoming their patron. He bought off the upper class by letting them keep their traditional offices and status. The imperial cult provided a focus for building and displaying loyalty to the emperor.

The emperors provided food to the poor, built baths and arenas for public entertainment, paid their troops well, and gave privileges to the elite. By the second century, peace and prosperity created a Golden Age. Long-term financial difficulties set in, however, because the army, now concentrating on defense, no longer brought in money from conquests. Severe inflation made the situation desperate. Ruined by the demand for more tax revenues, provincial elites lost their public-spiritedness and avoided their communal responsibilities.

The emergence of Christianity generated tension because Romans doubted Christians’ loyalty. The new religion had evolved from Jewish apocalypticism to a hierarchical organization. Its believers argued with one another and with the authorities. Martyrs such as Vibia Perpetua worried the government by placing their beliefs ahead of loyalty to the state.

When financial ruin, natural disasters, and civil war combined to create a political crisis in the mid-third century C.E., the emperors lacked the money and the popular support to solve it. Not even their persecution of Christians had convinced the gods to restore Rome’s good fortunes. Threatened with the loss of peace, prosperity, and territory, the empire needed a political transformation to survive. That process began under the emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305 C.E.). Under his successor, Constantine (r. 306–337 C.E.), the Roman Empire also began the slow process of becoming officially Christian.