The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Essay Sample

Ancient Rome is the single most documented and well researched empire in history. The rise and subsequent fall of Rome has been covered by thousands of professors and historians alike. Parallels have been drawn from Rome to about every current nation, predicting why they were successful to begin with and how they may eventually fall. Rome's history in between these two events on the other hand, are commonly overlooked and under researched, in favor of the more interesting and easier to find information on the latter. Michael Kulikowski’s book, The Triumph of Empire, is one of the rare studies that cover that forgotten period. Despite taking place 1500-2000 years in the past, the parallels with The United States and Rome dont just start and stop as its rise and fall, but with its many emperors and their decisions financially and socially.

Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, or as he is most commonly known Hadrian, was the Roman emperor from 117 CE - 138 CE, ruling for around 20 years. His bout as emperor directly followed the death of Trajan who died of illness in 117 CE. Hadrian started off being hated by most of the senate, even expelling four senators directly after taking power. His reputation only worsened as he proceeded to abandon Trajan’s expansionist mindset and instead focused on securing borders and unifying the empires scattered villages and towns. During his time as emperor, he traveled to almost every corner of the empire, sometimes more than once. During his travels he spent time and money rebuilding many ancient sites from Greece’s long history and even new projects. This included finishing the Temple of Zeus and the wall of hadrian(bearing his own name). 

Hadrian's reign as emperor resembles the United States 26th president Theadore Roosavelts terms in office. Roosavelt received the office when President Mckinly was shot, leaving the president seat free without election. Upon his first claim to presidency, he was faced with opposition from McKinley’s supporters, which was only worsened by his dinner with Booker T. Washington. Into his first term, he prosecuted corruption in multiple branches of the government without hesitation. Purhapes what he is most known for was his construction of the national parks system and starting the panama canal. He was known to travel all over the country and world showing off military might and American strength. He even had a bit of Hadrian's pride when he memorialized himself among the greats on Mount Rushmore.

Jumping ahead over a century, emperor Aurelian ruled for only a brief period of time from 270 CE - 275 CE. He was not supposed to be emperor though, for when the previous emperor Claudius died, his brother Quintillus claimed his seat. Quintiluus only served for less than a year. Since the nation was war torn during this time, the strongest imperial army(the Balkan Legions) refused to answer to Quintiluus and he was soon replaced by Marcus Aurelius Aurelianus(Aurelian). While in office and just before the Roman Empire was under attack by many forces. These threats included the newly titled Goths, Zenobia(who had invaded Arabia and Egypt, even minting their own coins without the face of the emperor), the Vandals(who were most likely migrants from east germany), and the Iuthungi. The Goths were defeated before he even took office fully, the Iuthungi were next to go, but not before suffering a major defeat. The Vandals fell next, Aurelion hoping to strengthen the empire and reunite its seperatist regions under the control of others. During his time as emperor he was not all war though, in fact he started both a religious reform and coinage overhaul. Aurelion tried to replace most of the currency in Rome with his new currency, a signal to all of Rome that he had restored unity. This sadly backfired, leading to the value of the fineness dropping from 40 per cent to 5 per cent. Overall Aurelian will forever be remembered as a militaristic war emperor. This is due to the fact he was assassinated not long after he finished his conquests.

Comparing this term to a modern president is most aligned with not one but two separate presidents. The union of a broken nation and war waged to reunite the country shows parallels to Aberham Lilcoln and the civil war. The succesfull assassination attempt that shortaned what couldve been a long succsfull run as president. The other parallel is to Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States. Although he was not the active president during the war, his campaigns and duty as a military leader during the war lead to his subsequent election. While president he even took steps to revert the changes to coin during the civil war, that being printing money that wasn't backed by gold or silver.

Having been acquainted with the modern applications, this thread of parallels runs deeper than just a few presidents ruling in a way that is similar. Its success can be boiled down to two main factors, military prowess and a set governmental body that was unchanging even when emperors were. The military they had was much more advanced than most other nations, more positions and tiers to the hierarchy, much like the modern day marine core. When going to war with Rome, you are not facing farmers with swords or a small militia, you are facing a militaristic regime where military service is in high frequency. On top of that, its expansion led to dozens of city states where if they enlisted they could acquire roman citizenship, meaning the new blood was encouraged to enlist and fight. On the governmental side, it is framed alot like the United States systems, or rather the United States framed theirs after rome. Although the emperor was ever changing and some were militaristic and others more political, there was always the senate. The senate acted as a seperate group, filled with life long politicians and the odd friend of the current emperor. This meant that through the hundreds of years of the empire, there was always a consistent government to keep the emperor in check and the normal processes of government running smoothly.

Michael Kilokwosky spends almost a third of the book talking about one period of time, that being Constantine and his empire. He seems at times to put down Diocletian's time as emperor and focus mainly on Constantine. There was a small but growing source of christianity before Constantine's reign that he hardly touches in favor of bolstering his achievements to almost legendary status. The book is still highly readable and a fantastic read that is gripping up until this falter and continues to be after, but it cannot be left unsaid. 

Not all the traits were positive though, and many of these persist in modern society. The inflation mentioned earlier, caused accidentally by Aurellian, is something that plagues almost every single major nation in the modern world. In the United States, you can see this start during the civil war and drastically worsen over the course of the world wars and great depression. Coinage in ancient Rome was made of pure metals, something that many countries replicate, the issue with this is that if the senate does not limit the amount of coins minted, then the value will inevitably deflate as more and more coins are made. This is a problem exacerbated by the fact that almost every single roman emperor wanted coins in their visage, meaning that every free year new coins were getting made. Scarcity and need are something that is applied to all resources but especially coin or currency. Yet another fatal flaw you see rising during the roman empire is its size, and it's ever growing borders. Even though its manpower was a plus, it was a double edged sword. Eventually you get to a point where one cannot police the entire reagan alone, so they must appoint advisors or generals to look over areas with their legions. Although this certainly helped, it also made way for those legions to revolt or split off, getting angry or fed up of being ruled by a force so far away. The pure size for the time is put into perspective by the travels of emperor Hadrian. The man traveled for the majority of his time as emperor and it took him years and years to see everything. He essentially spent 90% of his time traveling and rebuilding because the kingdom was so large. This issue is lessened in the modern day due to the technological advancements we have made since, but even The United States uses its namesake states to help spread the burden of governance on more than a handful of people.

Although the rise and fall of the Roman Empire is what is most documented and cited in modern works, it is still important to look at what lies in between. Michael Kulikowski, The Triumph of Empire, is a fascinating read on one of the least documented sectors of Roman history. He has obviously favored Constantine’s era and there may be some bias in that portion of the book, but he still has one of the most comprehensive and complete looks at this period on the market.