Empires: Rome - Pandora's Box Part Four

When Mithridates crossed into the province of Asia, he found it protected weakly. The Greek cities were eager to see him as a saviour and rallied to his side. Within a small matter of weeks Roman power in the province had disappeared. Normally, the King of Pontus would not be thought of as someone the Greeks would see as a hero and follow so vigorously. However, Greek hatred of the publicani was so overwhelming that they were more than happy to pledge allegiance to a matricidal maniac who saw a lot of himself in Alexander the Great, and even used intentional Alexandrian style images of him on things such as coinage. If there was any time to throw off the hated Roman yoke it was now. In the summer of 88 BC, after Roman oppression had already been broken, the Greeks would show just how bad they had come to hate the publicani and everything Roman. With the goal of uniting the Greek cities to him for good, Mithridates wrote to them-ordering the slaughter of every Roman and Italian left in Asia. In total secrecy and with perfect coordination the Greeks adhered to his instructions with a brutal and savage efficiency. The victims of this massacre were rounded up by hired assassins, many hacked to pieces. Some of the victims were killed as they attempted to escape by way of the sea. It is estimated that eighty-thousand men, women and children were killed on that horrific night of revenge.

The effect on the Roman economy from the night of revenge was tremendous. However, the humbling of Rome in the eyes of the world wasn't over yet. Always a genius in the use of propaganda, Mithridates not only used the Sibyl's prophecies, but made some of his own; this in order to make himself as a great 'king of the East' that had been predicted. A king who would humble the greedy superpower, so filled with hubris and arrogance. The mass slaughter of the Roman businessmen and their families was only one way Mithridates set out to show the world that he could take on Rome. Another statement was made with the execution of Manius Aquillius, the Roman who had prodded Mithridates into war in the first place. Aquillius had become sick at the most unfortunate time, for himself anyway, this allowed him to be captured. The soldiers of Mithridates brought him back to Pergamum. Aquillius was tied to an ass and paraded through jeering crowds. After this, Mithridates ordered some gold to be melted down. When this had been done, Aquillius's head was jerked back, his mouth forced open and the molten metal poured down his throat. Manius Aquillius died choking on gold. "Warmongers against every nation, people and king under the sun, the Romans share only one abiding motive-greed, deep seated, for empire and riches." This was the prounouncement Mithridates had made against the Republic. In Manius Aquillius, the Republic's legate in Asia, he had exacted symbolic revenge.

Rome's trouble's in the East were not the only ones that vexed her during this time. Late in 91 BC, the Samnites, a rustic mountain people had also started to fight Roman oppression. There was a history between the Samnites and the Romans. In 321 BC the Samnites had humiliated a Roman army, and this had been a fatal misunderstanding of the Roman enemy. Peace was not understood by Romans unless they were the ones dictating the terms of it. Despite the peace treaty between Rome and Samnium, the Romans found a way to break it and returned to attack and conquer Samnium. The Romans also never forgot that the Samnites were the last people to challenge them for control of the Italian peninsula. This rebellion was taking place in extreme proximity to Campania, the jewel of Italy. Campania was literally the playground of Rome's wealthy and influential citizens. Also in close range of the rebellion were the spendidly luxurious cities of Naples, Capua and Nola.

The Romans had been caught completely off guard by the fury about to be unleashed and had only the slightest military presence in the area. The biggest prize of all was Nola, due to the city's strategic location. After a very brief siege, the commander of the garrison was invited to join the rebel forces. The invitation was refused and those inside the garrison were starved to death. The city was strengthened and provisioned and soon Nola became a mighty bulwark of the rebel cause against Rome. The cause was not isolated to the Samnites alone. The forces that had delivered Nola into the Rebels hands, also gave them Pompeii, a city only a few miles from Naples and along the slope of Vesuvius (the same Pompeii made famous in later history when Vesuvius erupted). In many other towns and villages in Italy, people and tribes were taking up arms against Rome. The last time these same peoples had warred against Roman was so far in the past that it seemed like a hazy legend. The main focus of the rebellion was along the Appenines. This mountainous territory was poverty stricken and its peoples, like the Samnites, were considered backwards and barbaric by the Romans. There was a level of viciousness in the attacks by the rebels that was attributed to living under brutal poverty.

However, the hatreds of the peasant would not have amounted to anything if they had not had the blessing of the oligarchies that ruled over the different Italian states. These wealthy rulers had their own reasons for going against Rome. For centuries it had been Roman policy to flatter and bribe the ruling classes of her allies. This policy had been extremely successful in the past, and it was this policy more than any other that ensured Italians' loyalty to the Republic. However, with the passage of time those who had the power to influence their cities had started to find themselves at odds with Rome. Their problems with the Republic came in many forms. They had an inferior position in regard to Roman law. A higher proportion of their men had to fight in wars Rome started. The largest grudge against Rome came from the fact that the Italians had not only helped to build Rome's empire, but they had lent their whole-hearted support into exploiting its wealth also. In the provinces the Italian allies had rights and privileges almost indistinguishable from full Roman citizens. Now they were wanting these full rights of citizenship and self-determination at home. However, the leaders of this revolt had no wish to turn back the clock to the small divided city-states of the Italian peninsula ages before. They wanted to produce a new, powerful centralized state of their own.
I hope to have the next post in this series here very soon. I have been working hard to get to the point to discuss not only interesting events and people in Roman history -but others as well. It may still take some time as I feel Rome is so important in so many categories of imperial histories. I will definitely keep trying to work on posts of different subjects. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome - Pandora's Box Part Three

It would also be wrong to say that every ideal of the Republic was dead. Some administrators were so shocked and disgusted by what was happening that they tried to take a stand against it. This could be very dangerous if the business consortiums found their interests seriously undermined, they weren't shy about taking aim at the whistleblower. Rutilius Rufus was the most prominent of the victims of the publicani. He was a provincial administrator known for his honesty. Rufus had wanted to defend his subjects against the voracity of the tax collectors. In 92 BC he was brought to trial on trumped-up charges before a jury packed with supporters of the publicani. The charge--which must have been the ultimate slap in the face to such an honest man was extortion. After his preordained conviction Rufus, who also sought to slap is tormentors in the only way he could, chose as his place of exile the very province he was supposed to have looted. When he arrived at his place of exile he was greeted warmly with honors and scattered flowers. The province that welcomed him: Asia, formerly the kingdom of Pergamum, and the foundation stone of the Roman empire in the East.

The provincials took the conviction of Rufus to mean that Roman greed would never be capable of controlling itself. These victimized peoples, looking back on the devastation of Corinth, must have wondered many times, "What can possibly be done to fight a power as great as Rome's?" Not only taxes, but hopelessness smashed the spirits of the Greeks of Asia. In one of the many events that happen in history where a small matter snowballs to become a history changing affair, a 'saviour' to the Eastern Greeks did appear, three years after the conviction of Rufus. In the summer of 89 BC, Manilus Aquilius, the Roman commissioner in Asia, invented a reason to invade the Greek kingdom of Pontus. For awhile, Roman business interests had been looking at the kingdom, on the Black Sea coast, in the north of modern Turkey, with hunger. Perhaps Pontus could be the next imperial milk cow?

Aquilius miscalculated very badly in underestimating the opponent he faced in Mithridates, the King of Pontus. Manilus Aquilius's first mistake was in using troops from a client kingdom to do the fighting instead of Roman troops. Mithridates had a special genius for espousing a grandiose propaganda. Indeed his childhood had similiarities to many fairy tales. As a young child, Mithridates had been persecuted by his wicked mother. The young king had to take refuge in a forest for seven years. During his seven years of exile, he supposedly outran deer and fought lions to the death! Mithridates was so obsessed that his mother might try to have him killed, he developed an interest in toxicology. He took antidotes to become immune to specific poisons. Mithridates eventually returned to the capital in command of an army. Once his army secured his throne for him, he ordered his mother killed and to make sure no family 'issues' would come back to haunt him, he also ordered the deaths of his brother and sister. Twenty years after these events took place Mithridates remained as ruthless as ever. Upon his own life, he would fight to the death not to become a Roman puppet.

Now Mithridates had to make a much more fateful decision. Should he attack Rome herself? He knew this would be a fearsome contest, Rome was the superpower in the region-the world and seemed invincible to many, especially the poor, over-taxed, over-burdened Greek kingdoms of the east. A possible war with the Republic was something Mithridates had been preparing for all through his reign. Mithridates liked to think of himself as a second Alexander the Great, and worked to improve the offensive capacities of his military. His newly minted army literally shone like the sun, with its polished weapons and breastplates that were embossed with gold and bright jewels. Traveling incognito in Asia, it seems Mithridates also had a flair for spycraft. He had an up close and personal look at how deep the hatred for Rome had become--this was a factor more than any other that convinced him to make war with the Republic.

Just for a quick summing up before the next post-I hope that it is getting across how imperial overstretch and hubris can have a terrible effect-on even the most powerful of nations-in fact maybe on them moreso than others. I also hope the horrid corrosive effect of money and treasure on a nation when its government and business interests start becoming intertwined-and then actually working together is being brought out in these posts-if it isn't -I am not doing a good job! It seems to me that business and the inevitable corruption of bought influence and bribes have no place in the councils of any government -be it ancient or modern. I hope in the next post about our story about Rome, Pergamum, Mithridates and Pontus to continue showing how when military-industrial-financial axes begin to have an effect on the lawmaking bodies of a nation how terrible the results can be. I am still looking for posts to do to get away from the ancient era for a bit-and because I am overly tired and not feeling the greatest I haven't had much luck so far-although I would definitely not want to break up the current story with Rome, Asia and Mithridates anyway. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus

Empires: Rome - Pandora's Box Part Two

In 123BC, after a decade of pushing for it, Gaius Gracchus succeeded in passing a law that would have some unintended and terrible consequences. By the terms of this law, Pergamum was finally subjected to organized taxation. The Republic had to turn to the private sector to tax the subjects of the bequeathed kingdom, because it did not have the huge bureaucracies that the kings of the east relied on, to not only tax-but over-tax their subjects. This led to tax-collecting contracts being publicly auctioned, with those who bought them paying in full the tribute owed to the state. Even the wealthiest of contributors could not afford to pay these, as the sums were enormous. Instead, the wealth of many investors would be pooled, and the resulting companies administered like the huge financial concerns they were. Just like in modern finance, shares could be offered, meetings held and directors elected to the service of the board. Pergamum had become a Roman province by 129BC, and the 'tax-collecting' staff in the province might include soldiers, sailors-even postmen, besides the regular staff itself. Publicani was the name given to the businessmen who ran these cartels. The rape of the newly minted province was now in full swing.

The name publicani, referred to these men as agents of the state. There was however, nothing public in the quality of the 'service' they provided in Pergamum. Profit was all that mattered-the bigger the better. The ultimate goal of these men was not only to collect the tribute owed to the state, but also to bully the provincials in paying extra for the 'privilege' of being bled dry. Of course, by the laws of the Republic, subjects on paper did have some appeal against the torments of the tax predators. The taxation system may have been privatized, but the provinces administration remained in the hands of the Senate. In other words, with the men supposedly imbued the most with the values of the Republic. These ideals were supposed to have obliged governors to provide their subects with the benefits of security, peace and stability. However, in the case of Pergamum, the bribes offered to look the other way were so gainful, that even some of the most law abiding men were taken in. Roman rectitude and uprightness were becoming values lost to the gold rush in the province. To the benighted provincials, there appeared to be little difference in the publicani and the senators sent to govern them. The rape of Pergamum's wealth was an in-your-face spectacle of pure greed overcoming any sense of decency and honor that the Republic was supposed to stand for.

The highways that were originally built for commerce or war now just brought the Roman tax predators to their victims faster, pack animals literally strained under the weight of the tribute they carried along these roads as they were guarded by legionaires. Ships across the Meditteranean sailed for Italy, loaded with plundered treasure from imperial extortion. Rome was becoming a nightmare behemoth whose innards were becoming clogged with gold. The more Rome became over-laden with silver, gold and other treasure, the harder she closed her massive fists to attain more. The lust for more and more mineral wealth actually began to alter the landscape of her western provinces. Almost as if the giant fingers of the Roman behemoth had dug for hidden mineral wealth, the scarred terrain of the provinces in the west bore witness to the Republic's lust for silver and gold. In the east cities were plundered for treasure of any kind, be it money, works of art-even foodstuffs. In the west it was the earth itself that fell victim to imperial greed. The result of this was mining on a scale that would not be seen again until the industrial revolution! Spain bore witness to the worst of the excavation devastation. Many observers talked in awe of what they had seen there.

A century previously, the publicani had taken over the mines that Rome had annexed from Carthage. They bore and dug there with their exemplary flair for turining a profit. A single network of tunnels might extend for more than a hundred square miles. Forty thousand slaves had a nightmare existence working in just one of these networks. For people who think pollution and smog started with the industrial age; the cloud of pollution that hung over the devastated landscape from the smelting furnaces through giant chimneys in Spain was so toxic that birds would die if they flew through the exhaust. Originally, large areas of Spain were thought to be too remote and dangerous to dig for mineral wealth. However, by the second century BC, all areas except the north of the Iberian peninsula had been used for mining (the Iberian peninsula was not brought under Roman control completely until 23 BC). The measurement of concentrations of lead in the ice from Greenland's glaciers, show an extremely marked increase during this time. These lead concentrations are a stark reminder of how huge the mass of poisonous fumes that the Roman mines were emitting must have been. The ore that was being smelted was silver and it has been estimated that for every ton of silver extracted over then thousand tons of rock had to be quarried.

By the first century BC, it has also been estimated that the Roman mint was using fifty tons of silver each year. The immense scale of these operations, both in Asia and in Spain could not have come to fruition without the public sector working hand in glove with the private sector. The Roman authorities in the provinces began to look for partners in crime in the ranks of Roman officialdom, for providing such handsome pay-outs, safe roads, good harbors and natives who were kept under the imperial thumb. It was the height of hypocrisy to watch senators show such an uppity contempt for all matters financial--and yet at the same time making loads of money from these 'arrangements'. There was even a law that a publicanus would not be allowed to join the Senate, just as no senator was permitted to have anything to do with trade beyond Rome's boundaries. However, in real life these laws did not work hardly at all. Both the entrepreneur and the senator or governor needed each other to become wealthy. The actions between the private sector and public sectors in ancient Rome, very much became what might be thought of as an archetypal military-industrial complex. It had all started with the willing of the kingdom of Pergamum to the Republic. In the years after this, motives for profit, status and Rome's traditional values had become more confused than ever.

To the two or three people who read this blog:-) Usually you will never see me type the amount that I did in this post because I am such a horrid typist (not that it was a lot of material)-I was just very anxious to show the corrosive effect on the government -even back to ancient times-when money is allowed to cloud people's minds-and also thought some of the other information was good to know-as the info about mining and the like was completely new to me(as to the extent of pollution etcetera). I would have kept on going -but came to the end of information I had on paper-back pain is horrid right now-but when you are doing something you love it doesn't matter as much. I am really excited about the continuation of the story here and hope to have it here as soon as I can. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!