Most people exposed to Roman history have heard EdwardGibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire mentioned. This workhas long been considered essential reading for those interested in the RomanEmpire, but I never got around to it for some reason. Maybe I thought it wouldbe too big to tackle – six volumes – or maybe I thought I knew why Rome fell. Itis the purpose of this blog, however, to educate and enlighten so we need toinclude the contribution of Gibbon.
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Edward Gibbon’s dates were 1737-1794. Born in Surrey, hereceived a rigorous formal education and served in the English militia duringthe Seven Years War. After discharge in 1762, Gibbon embarked on a grand tourof Europe, which included a stay in Rome. Seeing the ruins of the Forumcaptured his imagination and from that moment on he dedicated himself towriting the history of the fall of the Roman Empire. Back in England Gibbon spenttime managing his father’s estate and serving in parliament while writing hishistory. The first volume was published in 1776, volumes three and four by 1781,and the final two volumes appeared in 1787. Interesting to note the coincidencewith important American dates. The Decline was immensely popular in its daywith the first two volumes selling out three editions.
The first impression made on the reader is a prose stylewhich is stylish and easy to read, unlike most history. Example:
“The principalconquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, forthe most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had beenacquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulations of the consuls, andthe martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filledwith a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquishthe ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit ofmoderation into the public councils.”
Gibbon’s writing style was praised by contemporary writersincluding the philosopher David Hume, Adam Smith, and Horace Walpole. His scholarshipis very thorough, setting a standard for the time. Gibbon utilized all theavailable resources available to him and incorporated extensive footnotes andreferences into his volumes. There are mistakes, of course: some because of hislack of information or assumptions he made. There are also some biases,particularly with respect to religion, but these blemishes do not detract fromthe overall quality of this important work.
Gibbon begins volume one with a summary of the period fromAugustus to Domitian, gets down to detail with Trajan, and moves forward throughthe life of the Caesars until the empire is no more. Here and in future posts Iwill identify and discuss the factors he cites as the causes of the collapse ofthe empire.
The first of these appears in volume one chapter 5 where he writes:
“The Praetorian bands,whose licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of theRoman empire, scarcely amounted to nine or ten thousand. They derived theirinstitution from Augustus. That crafty tyrant, sensible that laws mightcolor, but that arms alone could maintain his usurped dominion, had graduallyformed this powerful body of guards, in constant readiness to protect his person,to awe the senate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions ofrebellion.”
The Praetorian Guard was the unique personal army of theCaesar designed to protect his person against threats from any quarter.Originally named because they were used to protect military praetors duringwar, the name was co-opted by Augustus to apply to a new kind of personalbodyguard. Augustus’ original contingent of nine cohorts of 500 men was soonraised to cohorts of 1000, carefully rotated to keep them separated and less dangerous.Nevertheless, danger would become a reality thirty three years later when Sejanus,praetorian prefect of Tiberius, attempted to overthrow his master, before hewas exposed and executed.
The guard acted a kingmakers for the first time when they foundClaudius hiding behind a curtain after the assassination of Caligula, and proclaimedhim Caesar. I mentioned in previous posts the guard’s sinister role in the yearof four emperors and the auctioning of the Empire. Gibbon comments specificallyon the danger of a private army:
Such formidableservants are always necessary, but often fatal to the throne ofdespotism. By thus introducing the Praetorian guards as it were into thepalace and the senate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength,and the weakness of the civil government; to view the vices of their masterswith familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverential awe, which distanceonly, and mystery, can preserve towards an imaginary power. In the luxuriousidleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the sense of theirirresistible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them, that the personof the sovereign, the authority of the senate, the public treasure, and theseat of empire, were all in their hands. To divert the Praetorian bandsfrom these dangerous reflections, the firmest and best established princes wereobliged to mix blandishments with commands, rewards with punishments, toflatter their pride, indulge their pleasures, connive at their irregularities,and to purchase their precariousfaith by a liberal donative; which, since the elevation of Claudius, wasenacted as a legal claim, on the accession of every new emperor.
In the previous post I described what must be considered theworst excess of the guard – the auctioning of the empire -- but there are otherabuses to add to the list of infamous acts:
Emperor Caraculla murdered in a plot by the PraetorianPrefect in 218 A.D.
Emperor Elagabalus murdered by the guard in 222 A.D.
Emperor Balbinus murdered by the guard in 238 A.D.
Emperor Pupienus murdered by the guard in 238 A.D.
Emperor Gordian III murdered by the Praetorian Prefect in244 A.D.
By 284 A.D. Diocletian had removed the Praetorians from thepalace and substituted his own version of a protection force. Finally, in 312,Constantine defeated a guard force supporting the usurper Maxentius, disbandedthe guard, and demolished its camp in Rome.
So we have described the first of the causes of the fall ofthe Roman Empire according to Edward Gibbon. We’ve seen that when you create aprivate army to protect yourself from the public army, you lose the separation thatmaintains the mystique of the supreme leader. When the private army is able toobserve the leader’s humanness close up, they may decide he’s no better thanthem.
