The Impact of Civil Rights on the Roman Empire Hanson Wen, Year 9, Peel The Roman Empire lasted from 27 BC to 1453 AD (1480 years) and conquered almost half of Europe and parts of Africa. It had an area of 4.4 million km² at its maximum. That’s about 20 UK’s.
But how could such a massive empire disappear? Personally, I think that the civil rights of Romans had a significant effect on the empire’s collapse. The Nerva-Antonine Dynasty marked the beginning of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. Everything was peaceful and pleasant until the last emperor of the dynasty, Marcus Aurelius, gave his inheritance to his natural son, Commodus. Past emperors had been chosen from Romans within the whole kingdom to be taken as the current emperor’s adopted children, and are trained to acquire the necessary skills. But Marcus Aurelius didn’t do that. He was a wise emperor and philosopher, but he had lost his first two sons, so he wanted to give his third son something - his inheritance. It meant that unlike the other heirs, Commodus did not pass any sort of test of experience, which made him ill-suited for his role as emperor. He caused chaos in the empire and was killed by his Praetorian Guard (an emperor’s bodyguard). From then on, army leaders started to fight for the place of the emperor. The last emperor to seize power in the second century was Septimius Severus. Because he had experience in fighting for control, he knew the need for a capable army, so he disassembled the original Praetorian Guard and formed a group mostly made up of powerful northern barbarians. But before his rule, only Romans and Italians could join the Praetorian Guard. Other than the power of the army, Severus also knew the need for loyalty, so he started giving the soldiers six to eight times the money that Caesar and Augustus gave. Additionally, he gave the army power. Some of them even started to have law courts outside of the Roman system, which greatly affected the prestige of the empire. The Impact of Civil Rights on the Roman Empire
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