1. Administration
   1. Roman imperial administration was traditionally minimal in terms of numbers. Governors generally employed a staff which consisted of friends (legati­­men of upper class and delegated "authorized"to act for governor) and their own domestic servants (whose duties were largely secretarial and fiscal). Prominent, Romanized locals also played an important role in advising the governor and managing local affairs. In both cases, the members of the elite, imperial and local, justified (or "legitimized") their wealth and status by public service. How can this be?
   2. In the Principate, development of a non­military, salaried bureaucracy involved new roles for senators, equestrians and freedmen. These were at first fiscal (tax collection, managing state and imperial property) and administrative / secretarial (correspondence, appointments, etc.) in character. See below §IV.
2. The traditional government (SPQR) ­­Remember: the Principate was a disguised military monarchy.
   1. Assemblies ceased to meet. That is "laws"/ consulta were now passed by the Senate. More important however was the role of the imperial edicts edicta.
   2. nonetheless, the Senate and the traditional magistracies could not be dispensed with.
      1. party members expected to be rewarded with the traditional titles and honors.
      2. respectable and educated opinion (the local "gentry") throughout Italy and the provinces demanded the formal (if not de facto) recognition of Senate's role.
      3. Augustus and his successors needed a body of educated and competent administerators to govern empire.
      4. only through traditional organs (the Senate) could the "prince" be legitimized.
   3. Senate, the collective body of administrative experience, takes on new functions of "high court", judging primarily its own members (trials for maladministration, treason, etc.).
   4. Cabinet or "consilium" created.
3. Finance: essentially a "household matter; there was a distinction between the state treasury, the "aerarium" and the privy purse, the "fiscus", but these tended to coalesce.
4. Secretariat = civil service (a ratio of 1:100,000 at Rome; 1:4000 in China)
   1. Origin in household of the republican elite
   2. By the Flavian period (ca. A.D 85) there was a dramatic change. The freedmen of Claudius and Nero were despised, their power too great; their status too low. The new regime turns to members of the equestrian order ("landed gentry" would be very loose translation) and they now assume offices and handle "petitions", "correspondence" and "accounts".
5. Role of the local elites: Recall the two documents written by Tacitus and cited at the beginning of the lectures on Romanization. The value of peace, inclusion and urbanization.
   1. Local autonomy: RC II 63-5
   2. Local elites and benefaction. RC II 66 - 76 (pages 241-79)
6. EVENTS 70­180
   1. Gibbon's critique.
      1. the "happiness" dependent on a single individual,
      2. senate and laws could display virtue of emperor, but not correct his vices,
      3. danger from army; army gave emperor absolute power but there was no direct control short of revolt and civil war.
   2. Military and Frontiers
      1. Extension of frontier of empire to maximum limits,
      2. construction of limes, frontier wall system, permanent camps and structures and another.
      3. Rise of danger on Danube (against the Marcomanni) and in east (the Parthians).
   3. The Emperors
   4. Note stability of governing class and especially of the party in. All the emperors in this period were related to a small group of senators who came to prominence with Vespasian in AD 69-70.
   5. Emperors and senators were increasing provincial in origin (last lecture)
   6. Survey ­­briefly. Note that from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, the emperors failed to have a legitimate son, meeting thereby one of the requirements of the Stoic opposition.
      1. Vespasian (69­79): restores order and does so without increasing the pay of army. Fall of Jerusalem. Restores finances and begins reform of bureaucracy.
      2. Titus (79­81): The elder son of Vespasian and immensely popular.
      3. Domitian (81­96): The younger son of Vespasian. An effective ruler, good advisors, but increasingly paranoid behavior. Assassinated.
      4. Nerva (96­98): In aftermath of death of Domitian, Nerva an aged and non­threatening figure comes to the throne. Army forces him to adopt Trajan.
      5. Trajan (98­117): reconciliation (so it was hoped) of senate and army. optimus princeps: a fond hope of senate, in reality, what the emperor was ready to give, not what the senate could demand. A warrior king, he added Dacia and Mesopotamia to empire.
      6. Hadrian (117­138): respected but not loved by senate; an excellent administrator. Traveled throughout empire and completed bureaucratic reforms introduced by Vespasian. Mesopotamia abandoned; temple destroyed. Sabina.
      7. Antoninus Pius (138­161): consolidation and peace.
      8. Marcus Aurelius (161­180): reign marred by a major plague and by continuous wars on the Danube frontier. Consolation of Stoic philosophy.
7. General Developments -- Summary / Significance.
   1. The power of the emperor increased enormously in the period because these men were "good" emperors and found it easier to establish precedents. Specifically, the emperor became the source of all law.
   2. The senate flourishes (in symbolic way) because it was willing to cooperate with emperor (not difficult to do in this period as the emperor was willing to act in accordance with law and tradition--). More and more provincials join its numbers; increasingly representative of the whole empire.
   3. Equestrians: by the reign of Hadrian, they have gained control of bureaucracy.
   4. Plebs and lower classes: benefit from peace, the increasingly humane nature of legislation (a later lecture) and general level of civic philanthropy.
8. The nostalgia:
   1. The acqua felice another view and today
   2. Recamier
   3. Jupiter
   4. portico

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