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Politics and Events is a category dedicated to the key processes, decisions, and events that shaped the history of ancient Rome. Here, you’ll find articles on the formation of the Republic and Empire, political struggles, reforms, conspiracies, and key historical events that shaped the fate of the Roman Empire. The articles explore both high-level politics and pivotal moments in Roman history, placing them within their broader social and historical context.
In 451, one of the bloodiest battles of antiquity took place. The Huns, Romans, and Visigoths clashed on the Catalaunian Plains. A year after this battle, the fearless Attila invaded Italy but retreated across the Danube, where he soon died, allowing Rome to breathe a sigh of relief. To whom does the Empire owe its salvation? General Aetius? Emperor Marcian? Or perhaps Pope Leo? Who truly stopped Attila?
Two of the most well-known and often repeated aspects of Caesar’s assassination are the number of conspirators involved in the conspiracy and the number of wounds he received. Most of the ancient sources agree that there were sixty or so conspirators involved and that Caesar ended up with twenty-three stab wounds. As such, it is not uncommon to hear it said that a group of Senators killed Caesar, or that he was killed after being stabbed twenty-three times. Usually, the ancient sources and modern writers group all of the assassins, referring to the murder of Caesar as one collective action, his death the result of his many stab wounds. However, the reality may be different.
The history of the world is full of meetings – and sometimes even clashes – between completely different civilizations. The most famous examples of such interactions are the colonization and conquest of the so-called New World, i.e. both Americas by Europeans, starting from the very end of the 15th century, invasions of nomadic Mongols from the 13th century, reaching as far as Central Europe and the Balkans, or the long expeditions of the Vikings approximately 1000 CE, which took them as far as North America, where they encountered natives – skraelings.
During the Second Punic War, a new kind of religious belief began to develop among the Romans. One of the types of these beliefs became the cult of living heroes, which were undoubtedly the great Roman commanders. This type of belief was different from the cult of legendary ancestors such as Aeneas or Romulus.
The civil war of 193-197 was an extremely important event in the history of ancient Rome. After the death of Commodus, several candidates competed for the imperial purple. The ultimate winner of this conflict was to be Septimius Severus. In achieving political and military success, he was undoubtedly helped by a well-thought-out and effective propaganda program.
When delegations from Western Europe arrived in Constantinople in 476, Emperor Zeno was fresh from the civil war that had left him in power for more than a year. The deputies represented two conflicting sides, one demanded the support of Julius Nepos, the overthrown emperor of the west, and the other asked for recognition of Odoacer’s power and granting him the title of patrician. Solomon’s decision of Zeno determined the fate of Europe, so it is worth looking at the geopolitical and dynastic conditions that the emperor had to consider.
In the 3rd century CE, a new syncretic religion – Manichaeism – penetrated the areas of the Roman Empire from the Persian State. Its founder was the prophet Mani, and the doctrine itself combined elements of other religions: Gnosticism, Christianity, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Conquest of Gaul by Caesar in 58-51 BCE was the basis of his military prestige and wealth and facilitated his struggle with Pompey. The newly conquered territories played a key role in the civil war between the two chieftains. The new province (Gallia Commata), exposed to Germanic attacks from across the Rhine, usually had its own garrison, the command of which provided political importance to the Roman generals.
In the second half of the second century BCE, a crisis was growing in Roman society, caused by rapid changes after the conquests. The incredible territorial development of the Roman state allowed high social groups to increase their wealth at the expense of the poorer strata.
