Pax romana

Altar of the Augustan Peace : its grand opening in 13 BC e. was intended to mark the beginning of an era of universal peace.

The Roman Empire during its greatest expansion in the reign of Trajan .

Pax Romana ([Pax Romana], from lat. - “The Roman world”) or “ Augustus the world ” - a long period of peace and relative stability within the Roman Empire, the era of Principate . Translated from Latin, the term means "Roman world." The origin of this name is due to the fact that the tightly centralized administration and Roman law "pacified" the regions that had previously experienced endless armed conflicts (for example, the permanent wars of the Greek policies between themselves).

Most often, this period is determined by the time frame of 27 BC. e. - 180 year n. e. The period is opened by the emperor Octavian Augustus , who tried to minimize the number of conflicts in his empire ; in 180, the last of the “ five good emperors ”, Marcus Aurelius , died. French historian believes that this period lasted from 70 to 253 year BC. e.

This was a period of relative calm, during which there were no serious civil wars that shook Europe in the 1st century BC. e., no major conflicts with foreign powers (such as the Punic Wars of the III — II centuries BC). Augustus twice, in 29 and 25 years BC. e., closed the doors of the temple of Janus , symbolically proclaiming thereby ending the civil war in the state. The state of the world applied only to territories within the borders of the empire, while military operations with the Germans , Parthians , Dacians and other peoples continued on the periphery.

In the period under review, the Roman Empire subjugated the entire Mediterranean and part of Northern Europe. Initially, it was a period of equilibrium (calm, in general - harmony). The absolute power of the emperors was limited by the Senate and the magistracy (reasonably carried out). Road safety has facilitated trade. Economic prosperity was observed in cities that were decorated and renovated to the detriment of agriculture as centers of Latinization (Romanization) and culture.

In reality, Pax Romana was an “armed” world because emperors supported the borders of the empire by force of arms. Border conflicts did not stop under any emperor, which undermined the economy of the empire and kept the entire state machine in a certain tension. Two centuries of peace were replaced by a crisis of the III century , marked, in particular, by the invasion of Germanic tribes (from the north) and Persians (from the east) within the empire.