Tag: Julius Caesar

Empire

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, an empire is “a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority”. It comes from the Latin word imperium, meaning «“authority over family members and slaves exercised by the head of a household, supreme administrative authority, dominion, power exercised by a Roman emperor”, from imperāre “to give orders, exercise authority, hold political power” + -ium, deverbal suffix of function or state».

The Roman Empire was the second empire to exist in the world (the first was the Akkadian Empire), but it was one of the most effective. Starting as a Republic (from the Latin res publica, literally meaning “the thing of the people”), Rome was an independent city-state founded on top of a hill.

Battles with the neighbours were frequent. Julius Caesar, with his immeasurable ambition, became a member of the senate and an army commander, conquering many lands for the Republic. One day, he returned to Rome, but decided to take a legion with him, which was forbidden. The Rubicon River bounded the Italian domains within the Empire. Those who crossed it commanding an army were considered traitors and were sentenced to death. Julius Caesar knew this and he knew he could not go back on his decision after crossing the river. And so, the expression “crossing the Rubicon” (meaning “passing the point of no return”) was born. Julius Caesar crossed the river and civil war began. He took power and became a dictator. He was a dictator only for a few days… until he was murdered.

After some turbulent times, Gaius Octavius, the adoptive son of Julius Caesar, took the power and became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He named himself as Augustus, the Latin word for “majestic” or “great”. He also adopted his father’s name, Caesar. From then on, although it was not written as law, it became tradition for sons to succeed their fathers and be named as Caesar, like the “founder”. This denomination stuck and evolved to “czar” in Russia.

However, this was not the only legacy they left us. Buildings, roads, bridges are still there to be admired or used throughout Europe, Middle East, and North Africa. Many languages evolved from Latin, like French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, and there are still Latin expressions in use (like status quo, alter ego, de jure, per capita, and vice versa, among many others). And speaking about Latin expressions, the law is full of them, partly because the current juridical system was based on the Roman one. Of course, we must not forget that the official names of plants and animals are also in Latin.

The Roman Empire, as such, ended in the 4th century. Since then, many other empires were born and died. Together with tales of grandeur, there are tales of atrocities and attempts to annihilate other cultures. For better or worse, empires change the territories they govern, but their end is certain.
 

Keywords: ROMAN EMPIRE | “I, Claudius”, by Robert Graves

Robert Graves was a poet and a writer. He also translated classic works and was a professor at the University of Oxford. His book “I, Claudius” was his most successful novel. It was written as it was Claudius himself writing it and it tells the story of the Roman Empire through his eyes, from his childhood to when he took office as Caesar. The events described were real, but the way they happened is fictional and myths and rumours were taken as real events. Assassinations, murders disguised as accidents, betrayals, conspiracies, and dubious and complicated family connections were hallmarks of the Roman Empire. You can find them all in this book, abundantly. When reading it, you feel like you are actually living in those times.

Claudius was a Roman Emperor, who was not supposed to have been one. He had a limp (thus the verb “claudicar” in some Latin languages) and a fragile health. He also stammered. Members of his own family, the Caesar family, despised him and kept him away from public gatherings. He watched 3 rulers come and go before he was called for duty when he was about 50 years old. The previous Emperor, Caligula, had murdered all male descendants of the first emperor, Augustus, but he spared Claudius for an unknown reason. Although there was not a written rule that a descendant would take the “throne” after the death of the Emperor, that was usually the case and, when Caligula was murdered, Claudius was the obvious choice.

The story begins with Augustus ruling. Born as Gaius Octavius, he was the successor of Julius Caesar and the first official Roman Emperor. He had a long reign, supported by his powerful wife Livia, who would literally do anything to keep her power. Claudius extensively talks about this couple because they kind of set the tone for subsequent rulers. In fact, all rulers up to Claudius, including him, were raised by them. As he tells his life story, how and why he became a historian and a writer, he also tells the story of Tiberius and Caligula, the two emperors before Claudius, from when they were kids to when they were murdered (and why and how they were murdered).

“Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina” is the second book of this short series and it tells the story of Claudius’ life as emperor.