Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 A.D.) I. Preparation for the Church
4. Roman Preparation: Political Environment
I
Preparation for the Church
4. ROMAN PREPARATION: POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
A. Political Survey
(1) GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Predominance of politics. In things of the mind Hellenistic civilization was paramount,
and its influence was still alive when the Church was founded. But in political affairs the
environment had changed. The Greek state was gone, incorporated into the Roman Empire.
Adequate understanding of the Christian environment, therefore, demands examination of
another secular culture, the Roman. "The Roman world is not so much theoretical or
philosophical as practical. More specifically it is by nature political and finds its expression in the
Roman State; in fact, one might say it is the Roman State. The Roman world is the world of the
state, of administration, of politics. It is also the world of self-assurance and esteem for positive
law and consequently possesses a strong sense of order and obedience to law. It possesses
likewise a great appreciation for broad and comprehensive unity and for colonization."
(2) THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
Military expansion. The Italian tribes who invaded the Italian peninsula some thousand years
before Christ were of the same race as the Hellenes. But Italy, in contrast to Greece, offered
good prospects for agriculture, and but mediocre facilities for commerce. Early Italians became
farmers, sober and conservative. Among them, the Roman city-state rose to leadership. Unlike
Greek city-states, Rome gained willing subjects by bestowing on them in varying degrees the
chief privileges of her citizenship. Then, provoked by the Carthaginian contention that the
Mediterranean was a closed sea, Rome overthrew this power in a century of war to become
mistress of the West. Shortly thereafter, as already outlined, circumstances invited intervention in
the East. By 133 B.C. Rome had become the chief Mediterranean power.
Social crises. But this constant acquisition of provinces overtaxed the digestive powers
of republican government. The senatorial aristocracy and equestrian plutocracy, hitherto publicspirited,
now exploited Roman dominions for their own advantage. A senatorial clique farmed out
provinces and public lands to financeers and exploiters of the equestrian order, while their own
large-scale Italian farms were worked by slaves taken in war. Thereby was created a class of
landless and impoverished citizens who degenerated into city mobs to be cajoled by "bread and
circuses." Further extension of Roman citizenship ceased, and subjects were governed for
Rome's benefit. The Gracchi, indeed, tried to effect social reforms on behalf of the common
people by resuming colonization. But their effort to convert the tribunate into a prime ministership
provoked senatorial hostility: the privileged classes succeeded in blinding the fickle and selfish
masses into repudiating their champions. Yet the cleavage between a wealthy oligarchy and an
impotent democracy continued. Constitutional reform having failed, the stage was set for
generals and demagogues to essay redress through dictatorship. For a half century or more,
Marius, Sulla, and Pompey plunged Rome into civil war in reaching for power. Though
unsuccessful, they prepared for the Empire founded by Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus.

(3) FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE
First triumvirate. About 60 B.C., three political bosses formed an unofficial entente.
Pompey belonged to the senatorial aristocracy but was temporarily at odds with it in his search
for pensions for his troops for the civil wars were producing mercenaries. Crassus, a Roman
Croesus, sought profitable contracts for himself and the equestrian order. Julius Caesar,
impoverished aristocrat but persuasive demagogue, aspired to a military career. By pooling their
resources this trio elected Caesar consul for 59. In office he paid his political debts and secured
for himself the Gallic proconsulship. His genius used this for the conquest of all of Gaul, a feat
that won him prestige and willing clients. Crassus, on the other hand, met death in a Parthian
campaign in 53, thereby dissolving the triumvirate.
Caesar's rise. The Senate, more in fear of Caesar than of Pompey, made overtures to
the latter to protect the status quo. Consul in Caesar's absence, he circumvented the latter's
aspirations to a second consulship in 48 by revoking a previous exemption permitting him to
campaign while still in office. If Caesar could be reduced to private life during his campaign it
would be easy to indict him or assassinate him. Caesar proposed mutual renunciation of armies
and office by Pompey and himself. When this offer was rejected, Caesar was not minded to avert
civil war at the sacrifice of his career and life. To lead troops over the Rubicon from Gaul into Italy
was tantamount to rebellion. Caesar argued with some plausibility that a senatorial clique was
unconstitutionally thwarting the popular will; in any event, on the night of January 11, 49 B.C., he
exclaimed: Alea jacta est, and crossed the Rubicon at the head of a legion. Brilliant, whirlwind
campaigns culminated in a decisive victory over Pompey at Pharsalia, Greece, August, 48,
though,'mopping up" operations required three more years.
Caesar's achievement. From 49 to 44 B.C., Caesar ruled Rome by a variety of titles:
dictator, consul, pontifex maximus, tribune, etc. But his real power lay in the fact that he was
imperator: commander-in-chief of the legions. Popular intuition penetrated to the fact of the
military dictatorship, and thus imperator or emperor became the distinctive title of the rulers of the
new regime. Julius Caesar was in name and fact the first emperor: he sketched the constitution
which his heir Augustus put into effect. The Republican magistrates continued to exist, but as
subordinate and eventually honorary officials. The Senate, "packed" with leading provincials,
remained an imperial council to advise but not to consent. The urban mob was reduced by
colonization; unfortunately this course was not continued by Caesar's successors. Discharged
veterans were also settled in the provinces, and citizenship increased from one to four millions.
The Lex Julia Municipalis prepared the basis for a healthy local community life. Provincial
governors were all named by the emperor and held to strict accountability. Tax farming was
abolished and a census of imperial resources planned: Rome would henceforth consider the
good of her provinces as well as her own. Mercenaries became an imperial standing army, well
remunerated. Caesar's calendar would endure fifteen centuries. As pontifex maximus, Caesar
united religious to secular authority; by sanctioning the statue of Venus Genetrix (Caesaris) he
hinted 'that he aspired to divinity, But his "five year plan' was too rapid, too openly scornful of
cherished traditions. Stubborn but narrow-minded reactionaries like Brutus and Cato slew him on
the Ides of March, 44 B.C.
(4) CONSOLIDATION OF THE EMPIRE
Second triumvirate. Caesar's assassination did not bring back the Republic, but led to a
second triumvirate of Caesar's heir, Octavius; his deputy, Mark Antony, and an opportune ally,
Governor Lepidus. These avenged Caesar's murder by drastic executions. As the second-rate
Lepidus was pushed into the background, friction loomed between the sober, calculating Octavius
and the brilliant but unstable Antony. Octavius publicized the contest as one between West and
East, between old Roman virtues and foreign innovations, represented by Antony's ally Cleopatra.
Actium (31 B.C. favored the West, and Octavius, voted the cognomen Augustus in 27, regained
his uncle's supreme and sole rule.
Augustus now mellowed into a benevolent despot. During his long reign (31 B.c.-14 A.D.
he put most of Caesar's ideas into execution, but profited by the Ides of March in that he cloaked
dictatorship with constitutional forms. Instead of the title of rex to which Caesar had reputedly
aspired, Augustus styled himself princeps: first citizen. The upper classes were given showy
offices but an imperial bureaucracy run by freedmen grew in importance. With an army of
150,000 Augustus advanced and strengthened the frontiers. In this he met with but one check: in
9 A.D. Hermann annihilated the Roman general Varus at Teutoberg and thereby permanently
withdrew the German lands from Roman conquest and culture. Administration, taxation,
colonization, and extension of citizenship followed Caesar's plans, but more slowly. Augustus
permitted divine honors to himself, thus deifying patriotism and making religious dissent high
treason. In 9 B.C. this Princeps Augustus dedicated the Ara Pacis at Rome to symbolize
restoration of public order; soon he would unwittingly command the register at Bethlehem of the
heavenly Princeps Pacis.
The Julio-Claudians, inferior scions of Julius and Augustus, held the throne from 14 to 68,
at least proving the imperial regime solid enough to survive bad rulers. Tiberius (14-37) was at
first able and just, but degenerated into a suspicious, disillusioned misanthrope. Pontius Pilate
preferred to deliver an innocent Victim to death rather than risk denunciation to such a master.
Gaius Caligula (37-41) was a megalomaniac who threatened the Jews for sacrificing "for" rather
than "to" him. Claudius (41-54) succeeded on Caligula's assassination. His mediocre reign yet
saw bureaucratic advance and the conquest of Britain. in 49 he exiled Jews from Rome for rioting
about a certain "Chrestus." Nero (54-68) ruled well for seven years under Seneca's guidance, but
then became a brutal tyrant who yet courted popularity. To divert blame for the burning of Rome
he made Christians, among them Sts. Peter and Paul, the scapegoats. Yet this did not save him
from revolts during which he committed suicide.
The Flavians restored order after a year of anarchy. Vespasian (69-79) reorganized
administration and finances. He had begun the siege of Jerusalem (68-70) which his son Titus
(79-81) completed. The latter's brother Domitian (81-96), at first up to Flavian standards of ability,
developed morbid suspicions to which some Christians, including a cousin, Clemens, were
sacrificed. Vigilance did not save him from assassination.
The Antonines who succeeded in 96 gave the Empire a century of excellent rule, far
beyond the period of Christian foundations. Here it suffices to note that the second Antonine,
Trajan (98-117), seems to have been the first emperor to adopt a fixed policy of repression toward
Christianity.
B. Economic Conditions
(1) AGRICULTURE
Agrarian predominance. The Empire remained basically agrarian. Gradually, however,
the independent farmers of Italy were forced out again by the great estates, the latifundia worked
by slaves. The more enterprising freemen emigrated to the provinces where, along with native
provincials, they survived as a hardy peasantry for two more centuries. Then, however, the
latifundia, together with an oppressive rural regimentation and taxation, extended their economy
throughout the Empire. When this occurred in the fourth and following centuries, medieval
serfdom was at hand. Less energetic displaced persons continued to reinforce the city mob, fed
at public expense. Sicily was Rome's public granary; when the capital was subsequently moved
to Constantinople, Egypt took over this role. Egypt, administered on Ptolemaic lines, prepared
the way for the Byzantine servile state.
(2) INDUSTRY
Manufacturing in the etymological sense was still the general rule. Most artisans worked
in small shops, though there were some brick and pottery factories run by slaves. The
abundance of slave labor and the lack of machinery prevented modern industrial mass production
of specialized articles. The artisans had their guilds or collegia, but more for convivial and social
purposes than to defend their rights. By organizing externally similar collegia, Christians could
gain quasi-legal status which afforded them partial concealment and assured them decent burial.
Skilled artisans organized, indeed, for purposes of monopoly, but in the declining days of the
Empire their guilds were forced into a rigid, heavily taxed caste system.
(3) COMMERCE
The Pax Romana made roads and sea lanes secure. The Mediterranean hummed with
traffic, though this avoided Rome itself. Puteoli, near Naples, where St. Paul landed, was Rome's
chief port. Romans had now entered trade, though it was chiefly administered through freedmen
or slaves. Italian ports were less favored by merchants since they did not provide return cargoes
for the luxuries imported from the East, Money was thus drained to the Orient, Parthia and Persia
serving as middlemen between Rome and India and China. This unfavorable balance of trade
may in part account for subsequent Roman debasement of coinage and partial substitution of
barter.
(4) FINANCE
Partnership with personal and unlimited liability was the standard business unit. Capital
was necessarily limited, for corporations or joint stock companies were allowed only for public
works. There were no large banking concerns, but banks discounted notes, paid interest, made
loans to provinces and foreign states. Their chief concern would be with real estate, for the
Roman invested any surplus capital in land; even merchants who became wealthy aspired to
retire to a country villa.
C. Social and Moral Condition
(1) DOMESTIC LIFE
Marital laxity. Marriage had fallen from the strict ancient Roman connubium to a mockery.
"Lack of sympathy," like modern "incompatibility," sufficed to terminate almost any marriage by
divorce. Roman matrimony had been based on patriarchal institutions, not on religious
conviction. When the old conventions deteriorated no curb to license remained. Adultery,
concubinage, and unnatural crimes for which St. Paul took the Romans to task were rampant.
Birth prevention and infanticide were alarmingly prevalent, and few wealthy families survived
beyond three generations. What children there were, were entrusted to slaves for education. But
slave morality, subject to a master's lust, was likely to be depraved, so that perversion in
childhood might follow. In vain Augustus legislated against immorality and offered privileges to
families of three children; he had to banish his own daughter and granddaughter for violation of
his edicts.
(2) PUBLIC LIFE
Pleasure-seeking. A welter of obscenity was the rule in baths, theaters, stadia, and
imperial and noble courts. "A prodigious contest in wickedness goes on; the greater the daily
avidity of sinning, the less shame. Respect for better and more reasonable things cast aside,
wherever one looks Just vaunts itself. Crimes are no longer furtive, but obvious, and evil is so
much in public and so prevails in all hearts, that innocence is not rare, but nil." This pessimistic
view of Seneca may have been but slightly exaggerated for the upper classes, though it is
unlikely that the poor either could or would be guilty in equal measure.
Slavery. The admitted grandeur of Rome rested on foundations of slavery. Slaves had
no legal place in society: they were but chattels, things. Their souls and bodies, talents and
chastity were at a master's disposal. Public authority need not be invoked to beat or slay them at
home, or expose them for gladiatorial combat, or crucify them, And these slaves were
undifferentiated from their masters by culture; in fact, they were often of superior education.
Small wonder that the despair of the slave and the boredom of the freeman alike often terminated
in suicide. In a moral sense, the whole Roman world seemed to be rushing to suicide in 42 A.D.
when an unknown, lowly traveler trudged into the capital. It was Simon Peter of Bethsaida in
Palestine, arrived to take possession of Rome as Christ's Vicar.