The Roman Eastern Frontier - Essay Example

The Roman Eastern Frontier Introduction The Roman Empire was considered one of the biggest in history, with bordering territories throughout Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.1 It was famously called “empire without end” because of its ideology that neither space nor time could limited its growth.2 This argument of universal supremacy was perpetuated when the Christian rule became dominant in the Empire in the 4th century.3 However, the expansion of the Roman Empire was accomplished mostly under the Republic, even though some parts of northern Europe were known to be conquered in A.D., in the first century when Roman control in Asia, Africa and Europe was reinforced. The Empire was considered among powerful cultural, economic and military forces in the entire world during its period. It was the largest empire in the antiquity classical era, and one of the biggest empires in the history of the entire world. The empire at its height covered 5 million square kilometers under Trajan rule and had an estimated population of over 60 million inhabitants that accounted to about one-fourth of the total world population, making it the biggest population of any united political democracy in the West.4 The endurance and enormous extent of the Roman Empire guaranteed lasting influence of Greek and Latin culture, religion, inventions, language, philosophy, architecture, and law of government on the descendants of the Empire. However, it is vital to note that the development of the Roman Empire, especially Rome’s Eastern Frontier was significantly influenced by geographical factors. In this paper, we will examine the influence of geography on the development of Rome’s Eastern Frontier, and how Rome exercised its political and cultural control over the cities and regions on its Eastern Frontier from Trajan to Julian. In addition, we will look at how the Sasanian Dynasty was able to create change in the Roman Eastern Policy from 226 to 330 A.D. Geographical Influence on the Development of Rome’s Eastern Frontier The introduction highlighted the Roman Empire as one of the largest empires in the world during its time. It is easy to ascribe the success of Rome’s expansion to its economic might or military power. However, the geography of the Empire created favorable conditions that enabled military and trade expansion. Thus, it is important to examine the influence of geography that includes high ground, rich farmland, and easy accessible road transportation on the development of Rome’s Eastern Frontier. High ground The first settlers built the Rome city on top of hills.5 This strategy of building the city on high ground forced attacking army to find a way uphill, giving the forces defending the city a huge advantage.6 Also, the high ground provided excellent visibility over the steppe to the south, giving the city the benefit of seeing their enemies before they even attack them. The Romans had a better understanding of this high ground benefit and built fortresses on top of hills. This idea has been supported by David and Derrick, where they suggest that the real strength of the fortress cities that provided an in-depth defense was the locating of the Roman city on a high ground.7 The monuments found in Syria illustrate that high ground was used by the Rome Crusaders at the Eastern Frontier sites for fortification.8 This protected Rome from Invasions by forcing attackers to slowly move through passes that were narrow, providing the Romans with ample time to respond. This feature made it possible for the city to grow rapidly and dominate its surrounding neighbors. Rich farmland Apart from high ground strategic placement of military to fend off attacking armies, Rome was also strategically positioned for agriculture. There was a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast that offered agricultural land at the Rome’s desert frontier.9 The water at the cost of the Mediterranean had rich soil that helped in the growing of grain and olives in surplus. This production of reliable food allowed the growth of population and made the trade in olive oil and olives assist the Roman economy expand at the Eastern Frontier at rapid rate. To support this idea of the influence of farmland in the growth of the Roman Empire, in Syria, there are remnants of detached villa houses that were used by farmers in the duration of farming at the Eastern Frontier.10 It is during this time that a transformation of land came about where high and centralized capitalized agriculture villa system was introduced.11 This demand of farmland went on to meet the demands of taxation in the Eastern Frontier that helped to provide its ever growing populations with basic necessities, such as food and modern building. Accessible road transportation The geography and topology of Rome forced the Romans to heavily rely on land transport more than other empires. This is because the Roman Empire lacked ports and major rivers that were more secure to their routes. For instance, in order for Roman armies to go to Antioch to the eastern frontier cities, they had to take ride to Zeugma to reach Euphrates, taking a long detour to avoid roads that were less secure.12 Due to this reason, the Romans had to build secure road networks to the Eastern Frontier. The road network provided a reliable transportation system that made the city a vital hub for the Mediterranean area for many centuries. This issue of influence of secure road transport network is illustrated by David and Derrick through looking at the population of northern Mesopotamia and Syria’s population at the desert frontier.13 They explain that these places were densely populated and water was an important necessity which could be found in few places like an oasis that had Roman forts. Since the Roman forts were located far from one another, reliable road transportation system became extremely important. The reliable road transportation system ensured water supply sources at the oasis at the Rome’s desert frontier were connected to take care of the Roman armies as they went on conquering more territories. Thus, the topology that led to building of reliable road transport system went on to influence the growth of the Roman Empire Eastern Frontier. Even though Rome had profound geographical influence on the development of Rome’s Eastern Frontier, political and cultural control needed to be exercised over the regions and cities on its Eastern Frontier, especially Syria and Mesopotamia from Trajan to Julian. Rome’s Political and Cultural Control over Eastern Frontier Regions and Cities The rapid growing Roman Eastern Frontier region and cities, such as Syria and Mesopotamia from Trajan to Julian needed political and cultural control. With political control, military resources and taxes were used at the frontier to exercise control. In Mesopotamia, the military capabilities were improved with Diocletian’s administration in the third century.14 Diocletian proved that being an inventive and competent ruler ensured that control was exercised over the eastern frontier regions and cities. For example, in his administration, he promoted Maximian to a higher status of Caesar to increase his base support. To further strengthen his stability for the empire, Maximian appointed two Caesar to assist him to rule the far reaches of empire. For example, Diocletian used Antioch in Syria to keep an eye on the Persian frontier, in addition to stabilizing the eastern frontier through fortresses, such as Euphrates Cercusium fortresses.15 In promoting Maximian and Antioch, he managed to control the Eastern Persian Frontier in Syria. Political control was not the only way to exercise control on the eastern frontier regions and cities. Culture was also used intelligently in exercising control. The culture of religion, especially the Christian religion had a significant role in exercising control in the eastern frontier in the Roman Empire. Once the Roman Empire became a Christian Empire, Mesopotamia became tolerant of many other cultural religions like Islam.16 This meant that the citizens of Mesopotamia were following the teachings of the Bible, in particular the teachings of Jesus Christ. Thus, the people in power had to abide by a system of fairness, where all citizens were given the right to fair justice and civil rights. This had the effect of allowing Shapur, a Muslim leader to go to northern Syria to capture the third largest city of the Roman Empire.17 Rome through the leadership of Diocletian in his use of military was able to take Syria’s Persian frontier back under its control. It is evident that political and cultural control are vital in the control of eastern frontier regions and cities. This means that military being used by capable leaders can exercise control over Mesopotamia and Syria. Culture of Christianity as the main religion ensured that Mesopotamia became tolerant of many other cultural religions like Islam which went on to impose Christian teachings as a way to control the population through fairness and justice. Although military and religion was used to exercise control over Syria and Mesopotamia, it is the Sasanian Dynasty that managed to influence change in the Roman Eastern Policy. The Sasanian Dynasty and the Change in the Roman Eastern Policy Comparable to the late Roman Empire, the Sasanian Dynasty was a state that was relatively centralized and hierarchal organized. The heart of the empire was Mesopotamia, which had rich lands for agriculture and numerous wealthy cities.18 Sasanian society was divided administratively into provinces and kingdoms, which in turn were divided further into smaller units with their own administration.19Socially and politically, Sasanian society had its social order comparable to the traditional Roman Empire. With politics, the Sasanian state had warfare as one of its main activities, with the Persian king recruiting manpower from the military for the purpose of the empire’s survival and success.20 The Roman Empire had comparable military way of ensuring survival and success. The Macedonians and Greeks had their confrontations and interactions with the Persians in the 4th centuries.21 Hence, a superpower dwelling on its eastern frontier was thus not a new thing for the Roman Empire. The relationship between the Roman Empire and Sasanian society went through several phases.22 In the first phase there was an aggression of attitude by the Sasanian towards Rome mainly by the hostilities started from both sides. The other phase saw a few conflicts that were characterized by cooperation and coexistence. The final phase was characterized by increase mutual warfare and suspicion, with episodes of cooperation and understanding. These phases saw Ardashir undertaking campaigns into the territory of Roman Empire and capturing the important cities of Hatra, Carrhae, and Nisibis.23 Finally, with the defeat of Gordian in 253 A.D in the Roman Empire, Shapur went to northern Syria and penetrated the Roman territory capturing the third largest city of the Roman Empire.24 This bought a lot of confrontation from the Roman Empire. However, the Romans did not take this with kindness, after the death of Shapur, Sasanian Empire suffered greatly from a temporary weakness in which Romans took advantage of. It was under emperor Diocletian discussed above between 284 and 305 A.D. that the defenses at the eastern frontier were strengthened and reorganized. Due to this hostility towards the Romans and Sasanians, a Roman Eastern Policy was created to ensure diplomacy for permanent peace. The policy covered many things among them tensions between Sasanian and the Roman Empire. These tensions were due to internal politics of leadership in Rome, because of the vulnerability of Syria, with River Euphrates not being a very strong barrier.25 However, the Christian religion under the policy became a culture that was hard to accept because the Sasanians, especially Shapur II, who went on to persecute Christians because of the influence it was having on the Roman Empire. This resulted in the Roman Empire accepting Islam as part of its culture, making the Roman Empire a multicultural empire. Thus, it is significant to note that the change in the Roman Eastern Policy was significant in ensuring that multi-religion was introduced in the Roman Empire after Christianity was introduced as the Roman Empire religion. Hence, multi-religion introduced Islam that went on to threaten Roman Empire leadership because Syria was adopting Islam inside the eastern frontier Roman Empire. Reflection on the Roman Eastern Frontier In the discussion, the Roman Empire is seen to be one of the biggest empires in history, with bordering territories throughout Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. These bordering territories, especially Mediterranean and Syria in Middle East have been the subject of discussion that has shown the influence of geography on the development of the Rome’s Eastern Frontier. High ground, rich farmland, and easy accessible road transportation have been essential in the development of Rome’s Eastern Frontier. With high ground, the Roman Empire being built on top of a hill has shown the benefit of defending a fortress with ease because the attackers who are downhill get to be seen by the Roman armies who are uphill. With rich farmland, the narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast that offered agricultural land at the Rome’s desert frontier. The agricultural land getting water from the Mediterranean encouraged the growing of olive oil, which went on to help with the growth of the population from the better performing economy from selling the olive oil. With geography being bad, the Romans had to build an easy access to road network. Since the roads were important for the Roman Empire in their conquest of other territories, the Roman Empire grew rapidly leaving behind developed regions and cities in Mesopotamia and Syria. Political and cultural control over eastern frontier regions by the Roman Empire showed that an Empire like the Roman could be controlled easily if certain things are done correctly. For instance, in the discussion, we see that Rome provided political positions that exercised power on the Roman population through the collection of taxes and military resources to ensure the eastern frontier regions and cities were always stabilized. In Mesopotamia, the capabilities of the military started to improve for the Roman Empire with Diocletian’s administrative and economic reforms of the 3rd century. The Sasanian Dynasty, which has been described as being similar to the Roman Empire, has been shown to have had problems with the Roman Empire throughout the Roman rule. However, the important thing to note is that Sasanian society played an important role in the introduction of Islam in the Roman Empire after the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as their cultural religion. Conclusion The Roman Empire illustrates an important lesson of what it takes for a new empire to grow to such magnitude. The revelation is that building an empire using geography benefits is essential to having a strong empire that is impenetrable from external forces. Also, military force and well established political administration have been essential in conquering a number of territories that make an empire easy to grow rapidly despite conflicts. Bibliography Alcock, Susan E. The Early Roman Empire In The East. Oxford, England: Oxbow Books, 1997. Árnason, Jóhann Páll, and Kurt A Raaflaub. The Roman Empire in Context. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Ball, Warwick. Rome in the East. London: Routledge, 2000. Burns, Ross. Monuments of Syria. Bradford: I.B .Tauris, 2009. Butcher, Kevin. Roman Syria And The Near East. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003. Campbell, J. B. Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. 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