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| Model of Imperial Rome |
In the year 155, Publius Aelius Aristides (117 or 118 - ca. 180), a wealthy landowner from Anatolia whose family had received Roman citizenship 30 years prior, visited the imperial court in Rome, where, in the presence of Emperor Antoninus, he delivered a panegyric on the glories of the Pax Romana. Aristides speech provides a picturesque description of the city of Rome at the height of the Imperial period.
Here is an excerpt reproduced in Toynbee's A Study of History:
'There is no salvation in the exercise of a dominion divorced from power. To find oneself under the dominion of one's superiors is a "second best" alternative; but this "second best" proved to be the best of all in our present experience of the roman Empire. This happy experience has moved the whole World to cleave to Rome with might and main. The World would no more think of seceding Rome than a ship's crew would think of parting company with the pilot. You must have seen bats in a cave clinging tight to one another and to the rocks; and this is an apt image of the whole World's dependence on Rome. In every heart today the focus of anxiety is the fear of becoming detached from the cluster. The thought of being abandoned by Rome is so appalling that it precludes any thought of wantonly abandoning her.
'There is an end of those disputes over sovereignty and prestige which were the causes of the outbreak of all the wars of the past; and, while some of the nations, like noiselessly flowing water, are delightfully quiet—rejoicing in their release from toil and trouble, and aware at last that all their old struggles were to no purpose—there are other nations which do not even know of remember whether they once sat in the seat of power. In fact we are witnessing a new version of the Pamphylian's myth (or is it Plato's own?). At a moment when the states of the World were already laid out on the funeral pyre as the victims of their own fratricidal strife and turmoil, they were all at once presented with the [Roman] dominion and straightway came to life again. How they arrived at this condition they are unable to say. They know nothing about it, and can only marvel at their present wellbeing. They are like sleepers awakened who have come to themselves and now dismiss from their thoughts the dreams that obsessed them only a moment ago. They no longer find it credible that there were ever such things as wars....The entire Inhabited World now keeps perpetual holiday....so that the only people who still need pity for the good things that they are missing are those outside your empire—if there are any such people left....'
And here is a more complete version of the text (from here):
[Note: this translation will have to do until a better, or at least more complete one is found.]
It is an age-old tradition that travelers who journey forth on land or water offer a prayer whereby they pledge to fulfill some vow - something they have on their mind - on reaching their destination safely.... The vow I took as I journeyed here was not the usual stupid and irrelevant sort, nor was it one unrelated to the art I profess. I simply vowed that, if I arrived safely, I would salute your city with a public address....
[Note: this translation will have to do until a better, or at least more complete one is found.]
It is an age-old tradition that travelers who journey forth on land or water offer a prayer whereby they pledge to fulfill some vow - something they have on their mind - on reaching their destination safely.... The vow I took as I journeyed here was not the usual stupid and irrelevant sort, nor was it one unrelated to the art I profess. I simply vowed that, if I arrived safely, I would salute your city with a public address....
Some writer referring to Asia asserted that one man ruled as much territory
as the sun passed over, but his statement was false, because he placed
all of Africa and Europe outside of the area where the sun rises in the
east and sets in the west. [This had been written of the King of Kings
of Persia. The clear implication is that the Roman Empire is vaster than
that of ancient Persia]. Now, however, it has become fact. The land you
possess equals what the sun can pass over, and the sun does encompass your
land.... You do not reign within fixed boundaries, and another state does
not dictate the limits of the land you control; rather, the sea [Mediterranean
Sea] extends like a belt, situated in the middle of the civilized world
and in the middle of the land over which you rule. Around that sea lie
the great continents [Africa, Asia, and Europe] massively sloping down
to it, forever offering you in full measure what they possess.... Whatever
each culture grows and manufactures cannot fail to be here at all times
and in great profusion. Her merchant vessels arrive carrying these many
commodities from every region in every season and even at every equinox
[in other words, without any break whatsoever, despite the time of year],
so that the city takes on the apperance of a sort of common market for
the world. One can see cargoes from India and even, if you will, from southern
Arabia in such numbers that one must conclude that the trees in those lands
have been stripped bare, and if the inhabitants of those lands
need anything, they must come here to beg for a share of what they have
produced.... Your farmlands are Egypt, Sicily, and all of cultivated Africa
[North Africa, which was much more fertile in Roman times than it
is today, was a major producer of grain and other agricultural products.]
Seaborne arrivals and departures are ceaseless, to the point that the wonder
is, not so much that the harbor has insufficient space for all these merchant
vessels, but that the sea has enought space (if it really does). Just as
... there is a common channel where all waters of the Ocean [Ancient Greek
and Roman geographers believed that the three continents were surrounded
by a single great ocean.] have a single source and destination, so that
there is a common channel to Rome and all meet here: trade, shipping, agriculture,
metallurgy - all the arts and crafts that are or ever were and all things
that are produced or spring from the earth. What one does not see here
does not exist. So it is not easy to decide which is the greater: the superiority
of this city relative to cities that presently exist, or the superiority
of this empire relative to all empires that ever existed ....
As vast and comprehensive as its size is, your empire is much greater
for its perfection than for the area its borders encircle.... The entire
civilized world prays with one voice that this empire endure forever....
For of all who have ever gained an empire, you alone rule over free men....
You, who conduct public business throughout the whole civilized world exactly
as if it were one city-state, appoint governors, as if it were by election,
to protect and care for the governed, not to act as slave masters over
them.... One could say that the people of today are ruled by governors
sent out to them only to the degree that they wish to be ruled....
You have divided into two parts all men throughout your empire... everywhere
giving citizenship to all those who are more accomplished, noble, and powerful,
even as they retain their native-born identities, [Aristides, for example,
retained his citizenship in the Anatolian city of Smyrna while simultaneously
possessing Roman citizenship] while the rest you have made subjects and
the governed. Neither the sea nor the great expanse of intervening land
keeps one from being a citizen, and there is no distinction between Europe
and Asia.... No one is a foreigner who deserves to hold an office or is
worthy of trust. Rather, there is here a common "world democracy"
under the rule of one man, the best ruler and director .... You have divided
humanity into Romans and non-Romans, ... and because you have divided people
in this manner, in every city throughout the empire there are many who
share citizenship with you, no less than they share citizenship with their
fellow natives. And some of these Roman citizens have not even seen this
city [Rome]! There is no need for troops to garrison the strategic high
opints of these cities, because the most important and powerful people
in each region guard their native lands for you.... Yet there is not a
residue of resentment among those excluded [from Roman citizenship and
a share in the governance of the provinces]. Because your government is
both universal and like that of a single city-state, its governors rightly
rule not as foreigners but, as it were, their own people....Additionally,
all of the masses of subjects under this government have protection against
the more powerful of their native countrymen, by virtue of your anger and
vengeance, which would fall upon the more powerful wihtout delay should
they dare to break the law. Thus, the present government serves rich and
poor alike, and your constitution has developed a single, harmonious, all-embracing
union. What in former days seemed impossible has in your time come to pass: You
control a vast empire with a rule that is firm but not unkind....
As on a holiday, the entire civilized world lays down the weapons that
were its ancient burden and has turned to adornment and all glad thoughts,
with the power to realize them.... Cities glisten with radiance and charm,
and the entire earth has been made beautiful like a garden.... Like a perpetual
sacred flame, the celebration is unending.... You, better than anyone else,
have proved the truth of the proverb: The earth is everyone's mother
and our common fatherland. It is now possible for Hellene and non-Hellene
[by this time the term Hellene did not refer simply to an ethnic
Greek. It meant anyone who was a Roman citizen and who shared in the Greco-Roman
high culture of the empire. Thus, Aristides, a native of Asia Minor, was
a Hellene. A non-Hellene, or barbarian, was either someone from outside
the empire or one of the empire's uneducated masses], with or without property,
to travel with ease wherever he wishes, as though passing from homeland
to homeland.... As far as security is concerned, it suffices to be a Roman
citizen, or rather one of those people united under your rule....
Let us pray that all the gods and their children grant that this empire
and this city flourish forever and never cease until stones float on water
and trees cease to put forth shoots in spring, and that the Great Governor
[the emperor] and his sons be preserved and obtain blessings for all.
