Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World

Summary

Pax Romana asks what the famous Roman peace actually was, how it was created, and how it was kept. Adrian Goldsworthy's answer begins with conquest. The Roman peace of the first and second centuries AD, he argues, was real and long-lasting across much of the empire, but it was the product of centuries of hard and often brutal warfare, and Romans themselves regarded it as the fruit of victory rather than of compromise. The book is in two parts. Part One, on the Republic, explains how Rome grew from one Italian city among many into the master of the Mediterranean. Goldsworthy describes the Roman way of war and diplomacy, the networks of allies and friendly kings, the Italian traders and settlers who often went ahead of the legions, and the workings of provincial government under annually changing governors, with its opportunities for profit and abuse. The wars with Carthage, the destruction of Corinth and Carthage in 146 BC, the campaigns in Spain and Gaul and Julius Caesar's conquests serve as central examples. Part Two turns to the Principate, the empire under emperors from Augustus onward. Goldsworthy examines how emperors and governors ruled, how often and why provinces rebelled, and how the authorities handled resistance, urban riots and banditry. Rebellions, he argues, tended to come in the first generations after conquest, before local elites had been drawn into Roman life; after that they became rare. He treats famous risings such as those in Pannonia, Germany, Britain under Boudica and Judaea, as well as the less dramatic everyday work of government, illustrated by evidence such as Pliny's letters to Trajan from Bithynia. Chapters on life under Roman rule look at law, taxation, citizenship, cities and the spread of Roman habits among provincial elites. The final chapters consider the army and the frontiers: the location of garrisons, the purpose of works like Hadrian's Wall, the problem of raids, and relations with peoples and powers beyond the empire, above all Parthia. Throughout, Goldsworthy stresses that Rome's reputation for overwhelming retaliation did much of the work of keeping peace, so that diplomacy and the threat of force were often enough. The conclusion, Peace and War, weighs the costs of conquest against the benefits of the order that followed, while warning against both romanticizing Rome and judging it solely by later standards. The book closes with a glossary and a chronology running to AD 476. It was published in 2016 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in Britain and Yale University Press in the United States.

Plot or Argument

• Preface: the problem of the Roman peace

  Goldsworthy notes how rare lasting peace was in the ancient world and sets out to explain both the wars of conquest and the stability that followed them, beginning with the Romans as conquerors.

• Part One, chapters I-III: Rise, war, friends and rivals

  The growth of Roman power in Italy and the Mediterranean, the character of Roman warfare and its ruthlessness, and the use of alliances, client kings and diplomacy among rival states.

• Part One, chapters IV-VI: Traders, government and provincials

  Italian merchants and settlers abroad, the development of provincial government under the Republic, and the kings and communities who dealt with Roman governors.

• Part Two, chapters VII-IX: Emperors, rebellion and resistance

  The emperor's role in war and peace, the major provincial revolts and their timing, and the lesser forms of disorder such as rioting and banditry.

• Part Two, chapters X-XI: Governors and life under Roman rule

  How imperial governors worked, with examples from letters and inscriptions, and the experience of law, taxation, citizenship and city life in the provinces.

• Part Two, chapters XII-XIV: Army, frontiers and beyond

  The deployment of the legions and auxiliaries, frontier works, raiding and its prevention, and relations with peoples and empires outside Roman rule.

• Conclusion: Peace and war

  A balance sheet of the Roman peace, acknowledging the cost of conquest and the reality of the order and prosperity that followed in much of the empire.

Characters

• Julius Caesar, general and dictator

  Conqueror of Gaul, a central example of Republican expansion.

• Augustus, first emperor

  Founder of the Principate who presented his rule as the bringing of peace after victory.

• Boudica, queen of the Iceni

  Leader of the great British revolt of AD 60-61.

• Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia and Pontus

  His letters to Trajan show the routine problems of provincial administration.

• Trajan, emperor

  Answers Pliny's questions and extends the empire by conquest in Dacia and the East.

• Hadrian, emperor

  Associated with the consolidation of frontiers, including the wall in Britain.

Lessons

• Peace made by victory

  Goldsworthy shows that Romans understood peace as the condition that followed defeating an enemy and receiving his submission. The long calm of the second century rested on earlier conquest and on the memory of what Rome could do to those who resisted.

  • How did Romans define peace, according to Goldsworthy?
  • Why did Rome's reputation for retaliation make actual fighting less often necessary?
  • Can a peace founded on conquest become a just and lasting order?

• Why rebellions faded

  Revolts, the book argues, were most likely in the first generation or two after conquest and became rare once local leaders gained a stake in Roman rule through citizenship, office and wealth. The pattern helps explain both the risings of Boudica and the Batavians and the long quiet that followed.

  • What conditions made a province likely to rebel?
  • How did Rome draw provincial elites into its system?
  • Why was Judaea an exception to the general pattern?

• Ordinary government matters

  Beyond battles, Goldsworthy attends to tax collection, courts, roads, city councils and the letters between governors and emperors. The everyday administration of the provinces was as important to the Roman peace as the legions.

  • What kinds of problems does Pliny bring to Trajan?
  • How could a bad governor be called to account?
  • Which features of Roman rule would a provincial farmer have noticed most?

Context

The phrase pax Romana was popularized in modern times for the period from Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) to Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180), when the Mediterranean world was largely free of major wars between states. Debate over the nature of Roman rule has long engaged historians, from Gibbon's admiring picture of the Antonine age to twentieth-century studies of Roman imperialism and of provincial life based on archaeology and inscriptions.

Composition

Goldsworthy wrote the book after a series of biographies and military histories, including Caesar and Augustus. It draws on literary sources such as Polybius, Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus, Josephus and Pliny, and on archaeological and documentary evidence such as the Vindolanda writing tablets and frontier excavations. It was published in 2016 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London) and Yale University Press (New Haven), with a paperback in 2017.

Reception

Reviewers described it as a clear, wide-ranging synthesis written for general readers with some background in Roman history, praising its balance of narrative and analysis; some noted that it is long and assumes familiarity with the period. It is widely read as an accessible introduction to scholarly debates about Roman imperialism and the provinces.

Comparisons

• the-agricola-and-the-germania

  Tacitus's speech for the Caledonian leader Calgacus, with its charge that Romans make a desolation and call it peace, is the most famous ancient criticism of the Roman peace and a touchstone in Goldsworthy's discussion.

• tacitus-the-histories

  The Batavian revolt and Cerialis's speech at Trier in Histories IV give an ancient version of Goldsworthy's argument that Roman rule meant troops, pay and taxes in return for peace among the tribes.

• polybius-histories-book-vi

  Polybius, a Greek hostage who watched Rome conquer the Mediterranean, explains Roman success by its constitution and army, a primary source for Goldsworthy's Republican chapters.

• the-jewish-war

  Josephus's account of the revolt of 66-74 is the fullest ancient narrative of a provincial rebellion and of Roman methods of suppressing it, the major exception to the pattern of fading resistance.

• woolf-rome-an-empires-story

  Greg Woolf's history of Rome as an empire treats the same long story with more attention to economics, ecology and cultural change, a useful contrast to Goldsworthy's military and political emphasis.

• harper-the-fate-of-rome

  Kyle Harper explains the end of the Roman peace through climate and pandemic disease, giving a different set of causes from the military and political ones Goldsworthy stresses.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The preface's insistence on starting with the Romans as conquerors before considering them as rulers.
• The division between Part One (the Republic) and Part Two (the Principate), and how the problem of peace changes once there is an emperor.
• The argument about when provinces rebelled and why resistance usually faded after a generation or two.
• The role of reputation and deterrence in Goldsworthy's account of the frontiers.
• The balance sheet in the conclusion, Peace and War, and how Goldsworthy weighs the costs and benefits of Roman rule.

Key terms and names

Pax Romana

The Roman peace, a modern label for the relative calm of the Mediterranean world from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, which the book examines and qualifies.

Principate

The system of rule by emperors begun by Augustus, in which the emperor was formally the first citizen; the subject of Part Two.

Client king

A ruler allied to Rome who kept his throne in return for loyalty, part of the network of friends and allies discussed in Part One.

Province

A territory under a Roman governor; the book studies how provinces were taxed, judged and defended.

Auxiliaries

Non-citizen soldiers recruited from the provinces who served alongside the legions and often garrisoned the frontiers.

Limes

The Roman frontier zone with its roads, forts and works such as Hadrian's Wall, discussed in the final chapters.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Goldsworthy explain Rome's rise from an Italian city to master of the Mediterranean in Part One?
2. Comprehension According to the book, at what stage after conquest were provinces most likely to rebel, and why?
3. Comprehension What purposes did frontier garrisons and works like Hadrian's Wall serve, according to the final chapters?
4. Interpretation Why does Goldsworthy insist on beginning with the Romans as conquerors? How would the book change if it began with the prosperity of the second century?
5. Interpretation How does Goldsworthy use the ancient criticism of Roman peace in Tacitus's speech of Calgacus, and does he accept or qualify it?
6. Interpretation What part did local elites play in making Roman rule last, according to the chapters on governors and life under Rome?
7. Big Question Early Christians saw the Roman peace as part of God's preparation for the spread of the gospel. How can the same peace be both the fruit of conquest and an instrument of providence?
8. Big Question Is order without justice a real peace? What would Augustine say about an empire built by war?

Faith Connections

• Luke 2:1-14 (Scripture)

  Christ is born in the reign of Augustus, during a census of the Roman world, and the angels proclaim peace on earth; the passage sets the gospel's peace beside the peace Augustus claimed to have brought.

• Acts 22:25-29 (Scripture)

  Paul appeals to his Roman citizenship to avoid flogging, an example of the legal protections of Roman rule that Goldsworthy discusses in his chapters on life in the provinces.

• Origen, Against Celsus, Book II, ch. 30 (Church Fathers)

  Origen argues that God prepared the nations for the gospel by uniting them under one Roman kingdom in the time of Augustus, so that the apostles could travel freely; a Christian reading of the pax Romana.

• Augustine, City of God, Book IV, ch. 4 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine asks what kingdoms are without justice but great robberies; his question sharpens Goldsworthy's discussion of whether a peace won by conquest is a true peace.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Romans understood peace as the result of victory; they conquered relentlessly and punished resistance severely, so that their reputation deterred further revolts and attacks; once provincial elites were drawn into Roman life, rebellion became rare; therefore the pax Romana was real, but it was the product of conquest, deterrence and integration rather than of Roman restraint.

Rhetorical device: Antithesis (peace and war). The book's subtitle, War, Peace and Conquest, and its concluding chapter, Peace and War, frame the whole argument as the pairing of two opposites that Goldsworthy shows to be bound together.

Debate: Resolved: The benefits of the pax Romana for the provinces outweighed the costs of the conquests that created it.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Write an essay explaining Goldsworthy's view of why most Roman provinces stopped rebelling, using at least two examples from the book.

Comparison with The Agricola and the Germania: Compare Calgacus's speech in Tacitus's Agricola with Goldsworthy's account of the Roman peace. Which aspects of Calgacus's charge does the modern historian accept, and which does he dispute?

Creative Prompts

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation in AD 120 between a Romanized town councillor in Britain and his grandfather, who remembers Boudica's revolt, about whether the Roman peace was worth its price.

• Essay

  Using Goldsworthy's argument about the timing of rebellions, explain why Boudica's revolt came when it did and why Britain was quieter a century later.

• Classroom

  Read a selection of Pliny's letters to Trajan and list the problems of provincial government they reveal, then compare with Goldsworthy's chapter on governors.

• Fiction

  Tell a day at a Roman fort on the frontier from the viewpoint of an auxiliary soldier recruited from a recently conquered people.

Further Reading

• The Agricola and the Germania, Tacitus

• Letters (Book X, correspondence with Trajan), Pliny the Younger

• Augustus: First Emperor of Rome, Adrian Goldsworthy

• Rome: An Empire's Story, Greg Woolf

• SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Mary Beard