Pax Romana #1: Real or Not?

Pax Romana. Literally, it means “Roman peace”, a period of around 200 years from 27 BC to 180 AD with relative peace and order. In the modern day, when empires are “not fashionable”, it is easy for many to be dismissive of such a thing, writes Adrian Goldsworthy in Pax Romana:

“For many, anything associated with empires and imperialism must be a bad thing.”

To know if, and to what extent, Pax Romana worked, one needs to set aside one’s ideology on the matter.

“Dislike of empire leads to encourage scepticism over its achievements.”

 

Others point out that the Roman empire was created via violence and war. Savagery was needed to then maintain Rome’s dominance. In the midst of all this, could Pax Romana even have existed?

 

Yet more point out that rebellions persisted, in some areas for long periods, in others it erupted multiple times. Banditry and piracy existed for long periods in various parts of the empire. Where’s the Pax Romana?

 

Peace, Goldsworthy reminds us, is a relative term. Most of us believe that the world has been largely peaceful after World War II. Yet, during that period, we’ve had plenty of long wars – Vietnam, Afghanistan (first USSR, then the US), Iran-Iraq, Iraq again, Syria, Ukraine… to name just a few. And yes, in many countries even today gang violence is a daily phenomenon.

“What matters is understanding its (fighting and warfare’s) scale and frequency, and understanding how far it impinged on the lives of the wider population.”

It is in that sense that Pax Romana was real, says Goldsworthy.

 

Besides, the purpose of the Roman empire was to make (and keep) Rome rich.

“Peace promoted prosperity, which meant the yield of tax and other revenue could be higher.”

Peace then was in Rome’s selfish self-interest.

 

And lastly, just look at what followed Rome:

“When Rome collapsed, Europe sank into the Dark Ages… there was warfare and violence of every sort where once there had been peace.”

 

For all these reasons, argues Goldsworthy, Pax Romana was very real.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Student of the Year

Image
As a toddler, my daughter loved Alia Bhatt’s songs, esp. the ones from Student of the Year . (That movie did have many good songs and well-choreographed dances). Fast forward to present day, when she is 12 yo. She rarely watches Hindi movies now, but one of the few ones she likes of late, Raja aur Rani ki Prem Kahani has, yes, Alia Bhatt.   If I had any hopes that there was anything to be read in the name of her toddler-time favorite ( Student of the Year ), they have been dashed. Our conversations come exam time are perfectly captured by this photo and its caption: In fact, the pic below captures how she and I look at her answer sheets – me intently, she with an expression of “It’s over, so why are you even looking at it?”   Of late, we pull her leg and tell her that she isn’t showing any signs of academic prowess, she’d better find a rich guy to marry. Some time later, she showed us this meme on the Internet: “Me No Study, Me No Care Me Go Marry Millionaire If He Die
Read more

On Two Wars, and Another Possible One

When the Ukraine war started, the West was sure that their economic countermeasures against Russia would cripple it and force an early end to the war. The EU would stop buying oil and natural gas. Western companies would shut shop in Russia, from Visa and Mastercard to McDonald’s. Russia would be kicked out of the international financial system. Sanctions imposed.   Did things work out as expected? Nope, the Ukraine war continues, and Russia has had positive economic growth despite all Western efforts.   On the other hand, there is the Israel war in Gaza that has been going on for several months, with no end in sight. Despite no sanctions, and in fact, complete support from the West (well ok, America really; and what America says, the West follows), Israel’s economy shrank by 5.2% on a quarter-by-quarter comparison . “The sharp drop was caused in part by the call-up of 300,000 reservists, who had to leave behind their workplaces and businesses to embark on months of army se
Read more

The Retort of the "Luxury Person"

Image
Coming up with biting and witty retorts. It’s something we dream of, but rarely manage to pull off. Worse, the more we stew over the offending remark, the more likely we are to come up with that dream retort, as Calvin ruefully points out: During our last holiday at the Taj Resort, seeing my wife carrying towels to our poolside chairs, one of the kids there mistook her for a member of the staff and asked for a towel. When my wife narrated this to us, I did not imagine that my 8 yo daughter would come up with her own retort. But a day later, my daughter recapped the incident, an incident that didn’t even involve her in the first place , and said, “You know what I’d have told that kid who asked for the towel?”. And without waiting for an answer, she told us anyway: “I don’t work here. I too am a luxury person who is living at this resort. Go get your own towel.” We were highly amused by the phrase she had coined: “luxury person”. It certainly captures the kind of holid
Read more