Roman Italy
Roman Italy is the period of ancient Italian history going from the founding and rise of Rome to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire; the Latin name of the Italian peninsula in this period was Italia. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home of Aeneas, being the homeland of the Trojans progenitor, Dardanus; Aeneas, instructed by Jupiter, moved to Italy after the fall of Troy, and his descendants, Romulus and Remus, were the founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italic city-state that changed its form of government from Kingdom to Republic, and then grew within the context of a peninsula dominated by the Gauls, Ligures, Veneti, Camunni and Histri in the North; the Etruscans, Latins, Falisci, Picentes, Umbri and Sabines in the Centre; and the Iapygian tribes, the Oscan tribes and Greek colonies in the South.
The consolidation of Italy into a single entity occurred during the Roman expansion in the peninsula, when Rome formed a permanent association with most of other the local tribes and cities; and Italy's inhabitants included Roman citizens, communities with Latin Rights, and socii. The strength of the Italian confederacy was a crucial factor in the rise of Rome, starting with the Punic and Macedonian wars between the 3rd and 2nd century BC. As Roman provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Italy maintained a special status with political, religious and financial privileges. In Italy, Roman magistrates exercised the imperium domi, as an alternative to the imperium militiae exercised in the provinces.
The period between the end of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC was turbulent, beginning with the Servile Wars, continuing with the opposition of aristocratic élite to populist reformers and leading to a Social War in the middle of Italy. However, Roman citizenship was recognized to the rest of the Italians by the end of the conflict and then extended to Cisalpine Gaul when Julius Caesar became Roman dictator. In the context of the transition from Republic to Principate, Italy swore allegiance to Augustus and was then organized in eleven regions from the Alps to the Ionian Sea with more than two centuries of stability afterward. Several emperors made notable accomplishments in this period: Claudius incorporated Britain into the Roman Empire, Vespasian subjugated the Great Revolt of Judea and reformed the financial system, Trajan conquered Dacia and defeated Parthia, and Marcus Aurelius epitomized the ideal of the philosopher king.
With the development of provincial governments and the proliferation of citizenship, Italy gradually lost its position as the empire's heartland, though it retained the ideological value as Roman homeland. The Crisis of the Third Century hit Italy particularly hard, but the Roman Empire managed to survive and reconquer breakaway regions. In 286 AD, the Emperor Diocletian moved the imperial residence associated with the western territories from Rome to Mediolanum. In 293 AD, Diocletian subdivided Italy into provinces and ended its special juridical privileges, which led to the loss of Italy's precedence over provinces. Meanwhile, the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta were added to Italy by Diocletian. The city of Rome declined as the center of power as new capitals were established outside Italy, such as Nicomedia, Sirmium, and later Constantinople. However, Italy remained the centre of the Western Roman Empire in late antiquity. Italian cities such as Mediolanum, Ravenna and Rome continued to serve as capitals for the West. The Bishop of Rome had gained importance gradually from the reign of Constantine the Great, and was given religious primacy with the Edict of Thessalonica under Theodosius I. Italy was invaded several times by the wandering Germanic peoples and fell under the control of Odoacer, when Romulus Augustus was deposed in 476 AD. Afterwards, Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoths and then briefly reconquered by the Byzantine Empire. The Lombard invasion in 568 AD would begin the fragmentation of Italy which lasted until its unification in 1861.
Characteristics
Following the end of the Social War in 87 BC, Rome had allowed its fellow Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted Roman citizenship to all fellow Italic peoples. After having been for centuries the heart of the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century the government and the cultural center began to move eastward: first the Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD, extended Roman citizenship to all free men within the Imperial boundaries. Christianity then began to establish itself as the dominant religion from Constantine's reign, raising the power of Eastern metropolises, later grouped into Pentarchy.Although not founded as a capital city in 330, Constantinople grew in importance. It finally gained the rank of eastern capital when given an praefectus urbi in 359 and the senators who were clari became senators of the lowest rank as clarissimi. As a result, Italy began to decline in favour of the provinces, which resulted in the division of the Empire into two administrative units in 395: the Western Roman Empire, with its capital at Mediolanum, and the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. In 402, the Imperial residence was moved to Ravenna from Milan, confirming the decline of the city of Rome.
History
The name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. According to Strabo's Geographica, before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto ; later the term was extended by Romans to include the Italian Peninsula up to the Rubicon, a river located between Northern and Central Italy.In 49 BC, with the Lex Roscia, Julius Caesar gave Roman citizenship to the people of the Cisalpine Gaul; while in 42 BC the hitherto existing province was abolished, thus extending Italy to the north up to the southern foot of the Alps. Under Augustus, the peoples of today's Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated, and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. Lastly, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to also include the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, as well as Raetia and part of Pannonia. The city of Emona was the easternmost town of Italy.
Augustan organization
At the beginning of the Roman Imperial era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia, had some independence from Rome, while others, the coloniae, were founded by the Romans themselves. Around 7 BC, Augustus divided Italy into eleven regiones, as reported by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia:File:La Turbie BW 1.JPG|thumb|right|The Tropaeum Alpium, The Victory Monument of the Alps, La Turbie, France, marked the Augustan border between Italy and Gaul.
- Regio I Latium et Campania
- Regio II Apulia et Calabria
- Regio III Lucania et Bruttium
- Regio IV Samnium
- Regio V Picenum
- Regio VI Umbria et Ager Gallicus
- Regio VII Etruria
- Regio VIII Aemilia
- Regio IX Liguria
- Regio X Venetia et Histria
- Regio XI Transpadana
Diocletianic and Constantinian reorganizations
During the Crisis of the Third Century, the Roman Empire was on the verge of disintegration under the combined pressures of invasions, military anarchy, civil wars, and hyperinflation. In 284, Emperor Diocletian restored political stability. He carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by two senior emperors called Augusti and two junior vice-emperors called Caesars. He decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses and put them under the supervision of the Imperial vicarius, who was the head of the diocese. During the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because the city was far from the troubled frontiers. Diocletian and his colleagues usually resided in four Imperial seats. The Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, who were responsible for the East and West respectively, established themselves at Nicomedia, in north-western Anatolia and Milan, in northern Italy respectively. The seats of the Caesars were Augusta Treverorum for Constantius Chlorus and Sirmium for Galerius, who also resided at Thessalonica.Under Diocletian Italy became the Dioecesis Italiciana. It included Raetia. It was subdivided into the following provinces:
- Liguria
- Transpadana
- Rhaetia
- Venetia et Histria
- Aemilia
- Tuscia ''et Umbria
- Flaminia
- Latium et Campania
- Samnium
- Apulia et Calabria
- Lucania et Bruttium
- Sicilia
- Corsica et Sardinia
Diocesis Italia annonaria