Читать книгу Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day… - Rem Word - Страница 13

…Several decades before the beginning of our era. Two ambitious generals, Octavian Augustus and Mark Antony, divide Rome into Eastern and Western empires.

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD), adopted son of Caesar, successor who won the Civil War. The first real Roman emperor.

Mark falls under the spell of the heiress of the Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies, Cleopatra, who is not averse to becoming the queen of Rome itself. The emperor gets involved in a war with the Roman Senate and former friend Octavian Augustus. Alternating feasts with military preparations, he misses the blows of the metropolis one after the other and, in the end, ends his colorful life with a blow of the sword. The enchantment of thirty-nine-year-old Cleopatra no longer works on the winner. The heiress of the pharaohs follows the example of Anthony. After her, four children remain. Seventeen-year-old Caesarion, son of Caius Caesar, is killed by order of Augustus. Two twins from Anthony are raised by the sister of the new emperor. We do not know anything about the fate of the fourth.

Emperor Tiberius, stepson and heir to Augustus, was allegedly strangled during an illness by his own grand-nephew and adopted son Caligula.

Guy Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula), 12 -41 y. AD, the second Roman emperor, according to Seneca’s definition «boundless depravity combined with boundless power.» Eight months after the ascent, initially peaceful Caligula falls ill with encephalitis. Having recovered, he becomes an insane dictator. Favorite expression – «Let them hate, if only they were afraid» – (Oderint dum mitvant). In 41 A.D. conspirators surround the emperor in one of the underground passages from the theater to the baths. The last thing that Caligula hears – the formula used in the sacrifice «Do it» (ok aje) – after which he is struck with a sword. Together with Caesar, the Praetorians kill his wife and two-year-old daughter

Having ascended to the pinnacle of power, Caligula builds bridges from ships, floating palaces, cracks down on senators – and he is loved by the people for the fact that life in the Empire is at least somewhat different. This emperor, however, was stabbed to death by his own bodyguards. The new ruler, a distant relative of Caligula, Claudius, is remembered by mankind according to Messalina, who has become a household name for an unfaithful and insidious wife. The next wife of Claudius Agrippina, the middle sister of Caligula, already has her son Nero. Her plot succeeds. Native blood, Nero becomes the emperor of Rome. But the mother’s reign over time ceases to appeal. The parent is going to bring to power her own son Claudius and Messalina, the beloved Britannica of the masses. Nero feeds his opponent with poisoned mushrooms in time. The ungrateful son also tries to poison Agrippina, but she in time accepts the invention of the eastern king, Mithridates Eupator, an effective antidote. Unable to drown his mother during a staged shipwreck (in the past, the empress’s hobby is diving for pearls), Nero explicitly orders a naval officer to stab her.

This is the story offered to us by the victorious ill-wishers of the emperor.

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 37—68, Roman emperor, the last of the Julian-Claudian dynasty, persecutor of Christians, nicknamed «Antichrist».

The tax-cutting policy brings the monarch nationwide popularity. But, after the death of Agrippina, the emperor loses his former administrative acumen. The rebuilding of Rome after a fire, the construction of the Golden Palace with an area of one and a half kilometers, gladiatorial fights comparable in scope to full-size battles, digging a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth and constant large-scale orgies drain the treasury. Legions rise in depleted and impatient provinces. One not at all fine morning, Nero does not find any of his guards in his palace. The emperor flees to a country house. Realizing that the sweet life is over, he takes it into account.

After the son of Agrippina, the brutal but sane emperors Titus and his son Vespasian rule. They are inherited by Vespasian’s younger brother, Domitian, (killed by his own servant for the execution of Nero’s assistant in suicide).

After the average Emperor Galba comes the golden autumn of the Empire. Five worthy rulers come to power in a row – Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. At the end of the time of this galaxy, the era of soldier emperors elected by the Praetorian Guard begins.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121—180). Since the departure of the last emperor of the era of the «Golden Autumn of the Empire», Marcus Aurelius, the era of legendary Antiquity ends. Rome is waiting for the extinction of the previous institutions of power, a series of defeats, the loss of the meaning of the existence of a superpower and a change of religion.

The coming to power in 323 of Constantine the Great marks the transition of the state to Christianity. Forty years later, Emperor Julian (the Apostate) is trying to revive paganism. He encourages the priests of Jupiter to be as godly as Christians. These efforts are in vain. Nobody seriously believes in Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mithra, Hera and some guides to the afterlife, nums. The last emperor, the young Romulus Augustulus, was sent into exile by the rebellious barbarian commander Odoacer. Little is known about the further fate of Romulus, except that perhaps this boy became a Christian monk. Although Odoacer ruled over the remnants of Western Rome by formal permission from the monarch of the Eastern Empire, AD 476 historians are officially considered the last milestone of Antiquity.

…In the youth of Rome, (5th-2nd century BC), slaves are quite rare. As a rule, they have the status of family members. The second-first centuries BC and the beginning of the new era are marked by a significant increase in the number of prisoners of war. Over time, the ratio of the number of free people to slaves in Italy reaches 2.5: 1, in the provinces 10: 1. The situation of the slaves deteriorates sharply. Nevertheless, they cherish not an illusory hope of raising their status, free literacy, the generic name of the master in addition, and unlimited promotion up the social ladder. At least two emperors of Rome were originally slaves.

The price of a slave in the first century BC is 4—400 denarii, depending on the degree of success of the last war. The daily salary of a legionnaire is 1 denarius, (4 sestertius or 16 aces), including bonuses. For this amount, you can buy 20 loaves of bread of your choice, 4 liters of regular or a liter of fine Falernian wine. If we count in terms of gold, the price of which remains unchanged as an opportunity to acquire basic material goods, a soldier earns 40 thousand rubles a month.

Gladiator games last until the reign of the last ruler of the Empire – Flavius Theodosius (370—395). The institution of slavery comes to naught with a general softening of morals, as well as at the behest of lawyers, who usually take the side of the oppressed. Serfdom is taking over the baton of this phenomenon. Emperor Diocletian (284—305) issues a law attaching peasants – both tenants and owners of land, as well as artisans to their place of residence, or to a profession inherited by inheritance.

Roman legion in battle formation

…The Roman legion (legionis – military collection) consists of 5—7 thousand, later 4.5 thousand infantry and auxiliary units. Heavy cavalry (equits) – 300 people. Archers – 200 people. The latter act from the flanks, firing arrows along the line of raised shields. Velites – «Swift» – irregular infantry, recruited from local allied tribes or young legionnaires. Armament – a round shield with a diameter of 90 cm, a helmet, several darts «gasta velitaris», 120 cm long and a short, 50 cm. Roman sword – «gladius». In a free formation, dodging projectiles by jumping, the velites throw spears at the enemy and retreat behind the ranks of the heavily armed infantry.

The first line of the legion lined up for battle is the ghastats (spearmen), warriors 20—25 years old, who really need combat experience. Armament – chain mail, or, in the era of the Empire – plate armor, rectangular shield scutum, gladius and two one and a half meter darts – pilum.

The second line is the principles («First»). These are warriors in their prime, 25—35 years old. They give the young men experience, let the hastats pass between the maniples and continue the fight.

On the third line are the triarii («Third») warriors 40—45 years old, veterans, the reserve of the legion. Among other things, they are armed with long shock spears.

The army is ruled by six tribunes (people’s representatives) and a representative of the clan aristocracy – a legate.

In the era of the Republic, the legion consists of 30 maniples («handful» or «hand»), two centuria («hundred») in each. The centuria has 60 to 120 fighters. The manipulators are united in ten cohorts («enclosure») of 360 legionnaires. One of the cohorts (First) is considered elite and has a doubled membership.

Roman legionaries. Historical reconstruction

In the days of the Empire, the maniple disappears as a tactical unit. There remains a cohort consisting of 6 centuries.

The legion deployed from the marching column follows to the place of battle with maniples or centuria, located in a checkerboard pattern. This makes it easier to move around rough terrain. Then the squares made up of fighters are rearranged into three solid lines. «Brothers» hurl pilums, sometimes putting the enemy to flight with this one volley, close shields and draw swords.