Roman Italy

Coordinates: 42°00′00″N 12°30′00″E / 42.0000°N 12.5000°E / 42.0000; 12.5000
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Italy (Ancient Rome)
)

Italy
Italia (
Latin)
Roman Empire at its greatest extent c. 117 AD, with Italy in red and provinces in pink
Roman Empire at its greatest extent c. 117 AD, with Italy in red and provinces in pink
CapitalRome: full-fledged until Diocletianic times, from then on mostly only de jure.
Late Antiquity
Population
• AD 1
Estimates vary from 4 to 10 million (c.1 million in Rome)[1][2]
ISO 3166 codeIT
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Archaic Italy
Kingdom of Italy under Odoacer
Part of a series on the
History of Italy
Old map of Italian peninsula
Early
Ancient Rome
Romano-Barbarian Kingdoms
Odoacer's 476–493
Ostrogothic 493–553
Vandal 435–534
Lombard (independence) 565–774
Lombard (under the Frankish rule) 774–885
Frankish (as part of the Carolingian Empire) 885–961
Germanic (as part of the Holy Roman Empire) 961–1801
Medieval
Early modern
Modern
By topic

Timeline

flag Italy portal

Italia (in both the

Umbri tribes (such as the Sabines) in the Centre, and the Iapygian tribes (such as the Messapians), the Oscan tribes (such as the Samnites) and Greek colonies in the South
.

The consolidation of Italy into a single entity occurred during the

Latin Rights
as well as religious and financial privileges.

The period between the end of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC was

Great Revolt of Judea and reformed the financial system, Trajan conquered Dacia and defeated Parthia, and Marcus Aurelius epitomized the ideal of the philosopher king
.

The

Republic of Italy only consists of most of Italian region
, excluding Corsica and some other areas.

Characteristics

Northern and southern section of Italia under Augustus and successors

Following the end of the Social War in 87 BC, Rome had allowed its fellow Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted Roman citizenship to all fellow Italic peoples.[16] After having been for centuries the heart of the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century the government and the cultural center began to move eastward: first the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD, extended Roman citizenship to all free men within the Imperial boundaries. Christianity then began to establish itself as the dominant religion from Constantine's reign (306–337), raising the power of Eastern metropolises, later grouped into Pentarchy.

Although not founded as a capital city in 330,

Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). In 402, the Imperial residence was moved to Ravenna from Milan, confirming the decline of the city of Rome (which was sacked
in 410 for the first time in almost eight centuries).

History

The name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. According to Strabo's Geographica, before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto (corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria); later the term was extended by Romans to include the Italian Peninsula up to the Rubicon, a river located between Northern and Central Italy.

In 49 BC, with the

Corsica and Sardinia, as well as Raetia and part of Pannonia.[20] The city of Emona (modern Ljubljana
, Slovenia) was the easternmost town of Italy.

Augustan organization

At the beginning of the Roman Imperial era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called

Naturalis Historia
:

Roman Italia (in green) as organized by Augustus
The Tropaeum Alpium The Victory Monument of the Alps, La Turbie, France, marked the Augustan border between Italy and Gaul

Italy was privileged by Augustus and his heirs, with the construction, among other public structures, of a dense network of Roman roads. The Italian economy flourished: agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, allowing the export of goods to the provinces.[21] The Italian population may have grown as well: three census were ordered by Augustus, also assuming role of Roman censor, in order to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC, 4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD 14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris.[22] Estimates for the population of mainland Italy, including Cisalpine Gaul, at the beginning of the 1st century range from 6,000,000 according to Karl Julius Beloch in 1886, to 14,000,000 according to Elio Lo Cascio in 2009.[23]

Diocletianic and Constantinian re-organizations

During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire was on the verge of disintegration under the combined pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars, and hyperinflation. In 284, Emperor Diocletian restored political stability. He carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by two senior emperors called Augusti and two junior vice-emperors called Caesars. He decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses (Latin: diocesis) and put them under the supervision of the Imperial vicarius (vice, deputy), who was the head of the diocese. During the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because the city was far from the troubled frontiers. Diocletian and his colleagues usually resided in four Imperial seats. The Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, who were responsible for the East and West respectively, established themselves at Nicomedia, in north-western Anatolia (closer to the Persian frontier in the east) and Milan, in northern Italy (closer to the European frontiers) respectively. The seats of the Caesars were Augusta Treverorum (on the River Rhine frontier) for Constantius Chlorus and Sirmium (on the River Danube frontier) for Galerius who also resided at Thessaloniki.

Under Diocletian Italy became the Dioecesis Italiciana. It included Raetia. It was subdivided the following provinces:

Italia annonaria and Italia suburbicaria dioceses

Constantine subdivided the Empire into four praetorian prefectures. The Diocesis Italiciana became the Praetorian prefecture of Italy (praefectura praetoria Italiae), and was subdivided into two dioceses. It still included Raetia. The two dioceses and their provinces were:

Diocesis Italia annonaria (Italy of the

annona - its inhabitants had the obligation to provide the court, the administration and the troops, first allocated in Milan and then in Ravenna, supplies, wine and timber)[24]

Diocesis Italia suburbicaria (Italy "under the government of the urbs", i.e. Rome)

Late Antiquity

In 330,

Genseric.

The Praetorian prefecture of Italy
(in yellow) stretched from the Danube river to North Africa

According to

comes rei militaris. The regions of Italy were governed at the end of the fourth century by eight consulares (Venetiae et Histriae, Aemiliae, Liguriae, Flaminiae et Piceni annonarii, Tusciae et Umbriae, Piceni suburbicarii, Campaniae, and Siciliae), two correctores (Apuliae et Calabriae and Lucaniae et Bruttiorum) and seven praesides
(Alpium Cottiarum, Rhaetia Prima and Secunda, Samnii, Valeriae, Sardiniae, and Corsicae). In the fifth century, with the Emperors controlled by their barbarian generals, the Western Imperial government maintained weak control over Italy itself, whose coasts were periodically under attack.

In 476, with the abdication of

Gothic War
. As a result of the Lombard invasion in 568, the Byzantines lost most of Italy, except the territories of the Exarchate of Ravenna – a corridor from Venice to Lazio via Perugia – and footholds in the south Naples and the toe and heel of the peninsula.

References

  1. ^ Journal of Roman Archaeology, Volume 18, Part 1
  2. ISBN 978-9004171183
    .
  3. ISBN 9781400854899
    .
  4. ^ Hannibal's war, by J. F. Lazenby
  5. ISBN 9780241003909
    .
  6. ^ Rogers, Lester Burton; Adams, Fay; Brown, Walker (1956). "Story of Nations".
  7. History of Rome
    , Book II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy    . Leipzig: Reimer & Hirsel.
  8. ^ A. Fear; P. Liddel, eds. (2010). "The Glory of Italy and Rome's Universal Destiny in Strabo's Geographika". Historiae Mundi. Studies in Universal History. London: Duckworth. pp. 87–101. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  9. ISBN 9780709931218
    . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  10. ISBN 9788896543092
    . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  11. ISBN 9780241003909
    . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  12. ISBN 9781472519801
    . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  13. ISBN 9781472519801
    . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  14. ^ "Antico appellativo dell'Italia romana: Italia Omnium Terrarum Parens" (in Italian). Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  15. ^ Video of Roman Milan (in Italian)
  16. ISBN 9781904675372
    .
  17. ^ Cassius, Dio. Historia Romana. Vol. 41. 36.
  18. ^ Laffi, Umberto (1992). "La provincia della Gallia Cisalpina". Athenaeum (in Italian) (80). Firenze: 5–23.
  19. ^ a b Aurigemma, Salvatore. "Gallia Cisalpina". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  20. ^ "Italy (ancient Roman territory)". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  21. ^ Rostovtzeff, Michael (1957). The social and economic history of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1 (2 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 73–74.
  22. ^ Hin, Saskia (2007). Counting Romans (PDF). Leiden: Princeton/Stanford Working Papers.
  23. ISBN 9780199562596
    .
  24. ISBN 9788873953609
    .

Further reading

External links

42°00′00″N 12°30′00″E / 42.0000°N 12.5000°E / 42.0000; 12.5000

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