Concerns and conflicts during the time of the Roman Empire
Arnian historian Marcelino occupies with the figure of him the second half of the fourth century D. C., since he lived approximately between the years 332 and 398, at which time the progressive decline of the Roman Empire occurs, caused among other factors by the demographic, productive decline and by the large expenses that both the army and the bureaucratic apparatus of the State demanded and that favored their consequent weakening.
However, Amian Marcelino is not impartial. In his work, we find concern about the political, social and religious conflicts that surrounded him during the time of the Bajo Roman Empire. More specifically, he focuses on the attitude that the Roman people maintained before this decline. Trying to raise awareness of the evils of their time while looking with nostalgia to the past (the times of the Republic and the Principality), where it was characterized by its marked martial character and territorial expansionism. In short, the splendorous and monumental Rome that had conquered most of the known world.
The Emperors Antoninos and their successors had carried out numerous attempts to clean up the coffers of the empire, even the economy was nationalized, due to the huge expenses of the army and the official. As a result, the discontent of the different sectors of society (senatorial, imperial family, military, plebe) and greater indiscipline of the army arrived.
Although his allusions to the economic situation at this time are not very abundant or explicit, the social aspect of the crisis appears, however, clearly described in this writing. That is why he presents us with the different social classes of the way he does, since, on the one hand, we find a minor lives, which often triggered civil and street riots and street riots.
The lowest class needed to find a way to entertain and forget about what really affected them in their daily lives, and mass shows began to fill the void of their lives, and ended up being used as political instruments.
From this moment, they become a mass phenomenon, despised by the social and intellectual elites that crossed out as something vulgar away from the image they had from Rome in previous times. Despite this and due to the large number of followers, these shows will become a phenomenon that will not stop growing in importance to the point that some emperors would finance these games with state money to gain popularity and power among the masses.
This situation led to the shows becoming the empire in a political and social phenomenon of the first magnitude, and the fact that the State and the magistrates organize them for free (or charging an entry at a ridiculous price) for the most disadvantaged made it Citizens will soon consider them as another right, that the authorities tried to satisfy, thus avoiding the possible revolts. You have to entertain an audience that, for the most part, is uncultured, who does not know the past, fears and feels very far from the powerful of the present, and does not worry much about the future
The cost of gladiator games eventually represents a third of the total income of the Roman Empire until it became the social and political heart of its time. Consequently, the economic conditions of large layers of population worsened.
The visible or manifest signs of the low-imperial "crisis" can be summarized at the following points:
– Diocletian reforms. The figure of the emperor goes from being a "primus inter pairs" to that of a despot in the eastern style. This distance to the government of the Senate, and in turn, of the people. Imperial Power, every most absolutist day, rehearsed the search for new broad religious and ideological support, but Diocletian’s reforms only subsisted under his regime.
When abdicating, the collapse tetrarchical government system, since it was an inherently prone to the conflict system by proposing four candidates to the imperial throne that did not last in front of it for a long time. It was created to normalize the functioning of the Executive Power, avoiding the disintegration of the empire and military pronouncements and usurpation in the preceding time. This is a period of instability because none was going to settle for governing a quarter of the empire instead of the complete empire.
Despite this situation, cars races, and especially those associated with the Sacred Official Festivities, in addition to those suffered by the magistrates in a personal capacity, would continue to be regularly.
- Loss of population martial values. The need for troops to cover the extensive borders of the Empire makes many emperors recruit barbarous as mercenaries, with the consequent mix of cultures, diluting Roman values, which led, among other things, to an increase in tax pressure and a minor identification with Rome itself and what it represented.
- Christianity. The adoption of this religion during the reign of Constantine and the Great to the detriment of the Roman pantheon, which preaches values completely opposed to the Romans (martiality, love of the country) makes the military career much less attractive. This point is reinforced by the author, a great friend of Emperor Julian II El Apostata, who was also an emperor-soldier and denied of Christianity.
- Mix of cultures. It has been commented that the barbarous mercenaries in the Roman army diluted the Roman values with the mixture of cultures; But this did not happen alone in the army.
The extensive borders of the empire were increasingly difficult to defend, and one of the solutions was to settle the barbarous inside the borders, including them in Roman civil life. During the period of Illy Emperors, the barbaric forces, especially Goths, Alamans and Vandalos completely rejected, first by Emperor Claudio Gothic and then because of him Successor of him Aureliano. But with the passage of time and the galloping decline, what was achieved by these welded emperors was gradually losing himself until he reached the culmination during the reign of Emperor Valente.
This emperor tried. When not supplying food and letting them die, the war breaks up, reaching the end point in the battle of Adrianopolis in 378, where the emperor himself was dead, triggering a series of events that lead to the separation of the empire during the reign of Theodosius I the big one.
After the crisis of the third century and the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, the Empire of the West could survive two more centuries, until the second half of the 5th century. However, ideology, society and culture were remarkably different and were characterized by new elements that were going to originate the European and Mediterranean world of the Middle Ages, and that were going to survive in the later times of feudalism.
A city made by and for war and in which it also introduces its personal memories and opinions.
In conclusion, the Society of the Bajo Roman Empire was immersed in a period of decomposition that was manifested in several categories such as religious (Christians, pagans; Romans, barbarians); political (power, privilege) and socioeconomic (productive and fiscal).
The common denominator of all of them was the fight against the established power, it will already be the Church, the State or the local authorities. Actually, these movements expressed the contradictions of late society, in which the climate of discontent and social injustice joined the general confusion in the identification of the new centers of power.
A speech allowed the historian to portray the character who pronounced him, change the rhythm of the narrative, introduce topics and figures of persuasion evoking the past, inflaming or calming down feelings of the listeners. Let’s not forget that they usually pronounce in key moments (before a battle, in the deathbed, in a trial, in the appointment of an emperor), so that the historian must concentrate on them all his literary genius. This is what Amiano Marcelino does, the last great representative of Latin historiography, a historian who knew how to recover in his work and in his style the tone, objective and quality of the great historians of the past, but also enriching all that tradition with the color and the oversight of the literature of his time.
In conclusion, if rhetoric played a fundamental role in Greece and Rome when writing, it is normal for speeches, with all the literary possibilities they offer, were used by historians who tried to tell what happened, but also entertain and entertain To the public with a literary work.
The concern for the future of the Empire is the main reason why our author, presents the behavior of the Romans so clearly and even. Recall that Marcelino was in military campaigns, and since thousands he was aware of the border situation of the empire, either in Gaul or in Persia. That is why he presents the Roman social groups in the way he does, since a small group of men carries the protection of the empire on their shoulders, while the Romans turn to fun, luxury and the flat.
These criticisms are added to the concentration of the land and the lack of concern for public affairs. A departure from the ancestors who did not care about the ostentation, but it was the value, the virtue that made the aristocracy deserving of this title and not the ostentation of luxuries as Amiano criticism
Bibliography
- This article is based on: Panen et Circenses. A story of Rome through the circus. —David Álvarez Jiménez (Editorial Alliance)
- Everyday life in Greece and Rome. —Ian Jenkings (Akal Editions)
- The Roman circus. —Friedlaender, Ludwig (Culture Fund)
- The fall of the Roman Empire and the Genesis of Europe: five new visions
- Written by Gonzalo Bravo Castañeda, Maria del Mar Marcos Sanchez
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