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The Pax Romana (Latin for 'Roman peace') is a roughly 200-year-long period of Roman history which is identified as a golden age of increased and sustained Roman imperialism, relative peace and order, prosperous stability, hegemonic power, and regional expansion. This is despite several revolts and wars, and continuing competition with Parthia. It is traditionally dated as commencing with the accession of Augustus, founder of the Roman principate, in 27 BC and concluding in AD 180 with the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the "Five Good Emperors".^[1]

During this period of about two centuries,^[2] the Roman Empire achieved its greatest territorial extent in AD 117 (Emperor Trajan), and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people, which was around 33% of the world's population.^[3] According to Cassius Dio, the dictatorial reign of Commodus, later followed by the Year of the Five Emperors and the Crisis of the Third Century, marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust".^[4]

Overview

The Pax Romana, spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD, stands as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the annals of civilization. However, Walter Goffart wrote: "The volume of the Cambridge Ancient History for the years AD 70–192 is called 'The Imperial Peace', but peace is not what one finds in its pages".^[5] Arthur M. Eckstein writes that the period must be seen in contrast to the much more frequent warfare in the Roman Republic in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Eckstein also notes that the incipient Pax Romana appeared during the Republic, and that its temporal span varied with geographical region as well: "Although the standard textbook dates for the Pax Romana, the famous 'Roman Peace' in the Mediterranean, are 31 BC to AD 250, the fact is that the Roman Peace was emerging in large regions of the Mediterranean at a much earlier date: Sicily after 210 [BC], the Italian Peninsula after 200 [BC]; the Po Valley after 190 [BC]; most of the Iberian Peninsula after 133 [BC]; North Africa after 100 [BC]; and for ever longer stretches of time in the Greek East."^[6]

The first known record of the term Pax Romana appears in a writing by Seneca the Younger in AD 55.^[7] The concept was highly influential, and the subject of theories and attempts to copy it in subsequent ages. Arnaldo Momigliano noted that "Pax Romana is a simple formula for propaganda, but a difficult subject for research."^[8]

The Pax Romana began when Octavian (Augustus) defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC and became Roman emperor.^[1]^[9]^[3] He became princeps, or first citizen. Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a junta of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of civil war. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in Hispania and in the Alps. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the Gates of Janus (a ceremony indicating that Rome was at peace) three times,^[10] first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but Inez Scott Ryberg (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the commissioning of the Ara Pacis.^[11]^[12]^[13] At the time of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BC the Concept of Peace was publicized, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and Agrippa jointly returned from pacifying the provinces. The order to construct the Ara Pacis was no doubt part of this announcement.^{[citation needed]}

Augustus faced a problem making peace an acceptable mode of life for the Romans, who had been at war with one power or another continuously for 200 years.^[12]^{[page needed]} Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but as a rare situation which existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.^[8] Augustus' challenge was to persuade Romans that the prosperity they could achieve in the absence of warfare was better for the Empire than the potential wealth and honor acquired when fighting a risky war. Augustus succeeded by means of skillful propaganda. Subsequent emperors followed his lead, sometimes producing lavish ceremonies to close the Gates of Janus, issuing coins with Pax on the reverse, and patronizing literature extolling the benefits of the Pax Romana.^[12]

After Augustus' death in AD 14, most of his successors as Roman emperors continued his politics. The last five emperors of the Pax Romana are known as the "Five Good Emperors".^[3]

Influence on trade

Roman trade in the Mediterranean increased during the Pax Romana. Romans sailed East to acquire silks, gems, onyx and spices. Romans benefited from large profits, and incomes in the Roman empire were raised due to trade in the Mediterranean.^[14]^[15]

As the Pax Romana of the western world by Rome was largely contemporaneous to the Pax Sinica of the eastern world by Han China,^[16]^[17] long-distance travel and trade in Eurasian history was significantly stimulated during these eras.^[17]

Pax imperia: analogous peaces

The prominence of the concept of the Pax Romana led to historians coining variants of the term to describe other systems of relative peace that have been established, attempted, or argued to have existed. Some variants include:^[1]

More generically, the concept has been referred to as pax imperia^[18]^[19] (sometimes spelled as pax imperium^[20]), meaning imperial peace,^[21]^[22] or—less literally—hegemonic peace.^[22]^[23] Raymond Aron notes that imperial peace—peace achieved through hegemony can—sometimes, but not always— become civil peace. As an example, the German Empire's imperial peace of 1871 (over its internal components like Saxony) slowly evolved into the later German state. As a counter-example, the imperial peace of Alexander the Great's empire dissolved because the Greek city states maintained their political identity. Aron notes that during the Pax Romana, the First Jewish–Roman War was a reminder that the overlapping of the imperial institutions over the local ones did not erase them and the overlap was a source of tension and flare-ups. Aron summarizes that, "In other words, imperial peace becomes civil peace insofar as the memory of the previously independent political units are effaced, insofar as individuals within a pacified zone feel themselves less united to the traditional or local community and more to the conquering state."^[21]

The concept of Pax Romana was highly influential, and there were attempts to imitate it in the Byzantine Empire, and in the Christian West, where it morphed into the Peace and Truce of God (pax Dei and treuga Dei).^[22] A theoretician of the imperial peace during the Middle Ages was Dante Aligheri. Dante's works on the topic were analyzed at the beginning of the 20th century by William Mitchell Ramsay in the book The Imperial Peace: An Ideal in European History (1913).^[24]^[25]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Pax Romana". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 23 February 2024.
^ Head, Tom (2017-10-03). World History 101: From Ancient Mesopotamia and the Viking Conquests to NATO and WikiLeaks, an Essential Primer on World History. Simon and Schuster. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-5072-0454-2.
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Pax Romana". www.ushistory.org. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
^ Dio Cassius 72.36.4, Loeb edition translated E. Cary
^ Walter Goffart (1989). Rome's Fall and After. Hambledon Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-85285-001-2.
^ Arthur M. Eckstein (2011) [2006]. "Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction". In Nathan Rosenstein; Robert Morstein-Marx (eds.). A Companion to the Roman Republic. John Wiley & Sons. p. 574. ISBN 978-1-4443-5720-2.
^ Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-134-00704-2.
^ ^a ^b Momigliano, Arnaldo (1942). "The Peace of the Ara Pacis" (PDF). Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 5: 228–231. doi:10.2307/750454. JSTOR 750454. S2CID 195009430.
^ Davis, Paul K. (1999). 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-5760-7075-8.
^ Augustus states in Res Gestae 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See Gates of Janus).
^ Scott Ryberg, Inez (1949). "The Procession of the Ara Pacis". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 19: 77, 79–101. doi:10.2307/4238621. JSTOR 4238621.
^ ^a ^b ^c Stern, Gaius (2010) [2006]. Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BCE. ISBN 978-0-549-83411-3.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ Sir Ronald Syme had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).
^ Temin, Peter (2013). The Roman market economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN 9780691147680. OCLC 784708336.
^ Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith (2016). Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 392. ISBN 9780300178821. OCLC 941874968.
^ Plott, John C. (1989). Global History of Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 57. ISBN 9788120804562.
^ ^a ^b Krech III, Shepard; Merchant, Carolyn; McNeill, John Robert, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. Vol. 3: O–Z, Index. Routledge. pp. 135–. ISBN 978-0-415-93735-1.
^ Tatah Mentan (2010). The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent. African Books Collective. p. 153. ISBN 978-9956-616-12-1.
^ Hyo-Dong Lee (2013). Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation. Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8232-5501-6.
^ Stephen Ross (2004). Conrad and Empire. University of Missouri Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-8262-1518-5.
^ ^a ^b Raymond Aron (2003). Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations. Transaction Publishers. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-7658-0504-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c David Gress (1985). Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security. Hoover Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-0-8179-8093-1.
^ Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-134-00704-2.
^ James Brown Scott (2002) [1939]. Law, the State, and the International Community. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-1-58477-178-4.
^ The imperial peace: an ideal in European history. Oxford, The Clarendon Press. 1913 – via Internet Archive.

External links

[EncBrit-1] "Pax Romana". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 23 February 2024.

[2] Head, Tom (2017-10-03). World History 101: From Ancient Mesopotamia and the Viking Conquests to NATO and WikiLeaks, an Essential Primer on World History. Simon and Schuster. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-5072-0454-2.

[ushistory-3] "The Pax Romana". www.ushistory.org. Retrieved 2017-02-10.

[4] Dio Cassius 72.36.4, Loeb edition translated E. Cary

[Goffart1989-5] Walter Goffart (1989). Rome's Fall and After. Hambledon Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-85285-001-2.

[RosensteinMorstein-Marx2011-6] Arthur M. Eckstein (2011) [2006]. "Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction". In Nathan Rosenstein; Robert Morstein-Marx (eds.). A Companion to the Roman Republic. John Wiley & Sons. p. 574. ISBN 978-1-4443-5720-2.

[7] Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-134-00704-2.

[Momi-8] Momigliano, Arnaldo (1942). "The Peace of the Ara Pacis" (PDF). Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 5: 228–231. doi:10.2307/750454. JSTOR 750454. S2CID 195009430.

[Battles-9] Davis, Paul K. (1999). 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-5760-7075-8.

[10] Augustus states in Res Gestae 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See Gates of Janus).

[11] Scott Ryberg, Inez (1949). "The Procession of the Ara Pacis". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 19: 77, 79–101. doi:10.2307/4238621. JSTOR 4238621.

[Stern-12] Stern, Gaius (2010) [2006]. Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BCE. ISBN 978-0-549-83411-3.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[13] Sir Ronald Syme had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).

[14] Temin, Peter (2013). The Roman market economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 13. ISBN 9780691147680. OCLC 784708336.

[15] Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith (2016). Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 392. ISBN 9780300178821. OCLC 941874968.

[16] Plott, John C. (1989). Global History of Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 57. ISBN 9788120804562.

[enckre135-17] Krech III, Shepard; Merchant, Carolyn; McNeill, John Robert, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. Vol. 3: O–Z, Index. Routledge. pp. 135–. ISBN 978-0-415-93735-1.

[Mentan2010-18] Tatah Mentan (2010). The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent. African Books Collective. p. 153. ISBN 978-9956-616-12-1.

[Lee2013-19] Hyo-Dong Lee (2013). Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation. Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8232-5501-6.

[Ross2004-20] Stephen Ross (2004). Conrad and Empire. University of Missouri Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-8262-1518-5.

[Aron2003-21] Raymond Aron (2003). Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations. Transaction Publishers. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-7658-0504-1.

[Gress-22] David Gress (1985). Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security. Hoover Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-0-8179-8093-1.

[Parchami2009-23] Ali Parchami (2009). Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-134-00704-2.

[Scott2002-24] James Brown Scott (2002) [1939]. Law, the State, and the International Community. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-1-58477-178-4.

[25] The imperial peace: an ideal in European history. Oxford, The Clarendon Press. 1913 – via Internet Archive.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{Lang|la|Pax Romana|nocat=y}}}}
+{{Short description|Roman golden age (27 BC to 180 AD)}}
 {{Other uses}}
-{{redirect|Pax imperia|the video game|Pax Imperia}}
-{{cleanup|reason=various confusions of Augustine propaganda with fact.|date=August 2014}}
-[[File:Augusto 30aC - 6dC 55%CS jpg.JPG|thumb|400px|Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow represents the extent of the Republic in 31&nbsp;BC, while green represents gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas represent [[client state]]s.]]
-[[File:Romeinse keizers Gordianus III antoninianus Antiochie 243-244.jpg|thumb|400px|AR [[Antoninianus]] of [[Gordian III]], struck [[Antioch]] 243-244 AD with Pax Augusta on the reverse.]]
-'''Pax Romana''' ([[Latin]] for "[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[peace]]") was the long period of relative peace and minimal expansion by the Roman military force experienced by the [[Roman Empire]] after the end of the [[Final War of the Roman Republic]] and before the beginning of the [[Crisis of the Third Century]]. Since it was established by [[Augustus]], it is sometimes called '''Pax Augusta'''. Its span was approximately 206 years (27 BC to 180 AD) according to ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447447/Pax-Romana |title=Pax Romana |publisher=Britannica Online Encyclopedia}}</ref> or from 70 AD to 192 AD according to ''[[The Cambridge Ancient History]]''.<ref name="Goffart1989">{{cite book|author=Walter Goffart|title=Rome's Fall and After|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=55pDIwvWnpoC&pg=PA111|year=1989|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85285-001-2|pages=111–}}</ref>
+The '''{{Lang|la|Pax Romana}}''' ([[Latin]] for {{gloss|Roman peace}}) is a roughly 200-year-long [[periodization|period]] of [[Roman history]] which is identified as a [[golden age (metaphor)|golden age]] of increased and sustained [[Imperial cult of ancient Rome|Roman imperialism]], relative peace and order, prosperous stability, [[Regional hegemony|hegemonic power]], and [[Roman expansion|regional expansion]]. This is despite several [[List of Roman civil wars and revolts|revolts]] and [[List of Roman wars and battles|wars]], and [[Roman–Persian Wars|continuing competition with Parthia]]. It is traditionally dated as commencing with the accession of [[Augustus]], founder of the [[Roman principate]], in 27 BC and concluding in AD 180 with the death of [[Marcus Aurelius]], the last of the "[[Five Good Emperors]]".<ref name=EncBrit>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447447/Pax-Romana |title=Pax Romana |date=23 February 2024 |publisher=Britannica Online Encyclopedia}}</ref>
+During this period of about two centuries,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Head|first=Tom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlU3DwAAQBAJ&q=%22pax+romana%22+%22206+years%22&pg=PA85|title=World History 101: From Ancient Mesopotamia and the Viking Conquests to NATO and WikiLeaks, an Essential Primer on World History|date=2017-10-03|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-5072-0454-2|language=en|page=85}}</ref> the [[Roman Empire]] achieved its greatest territorial extent in AD 117 (Emperor [[Trajan]]), and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people, which was around 33% of the world's population.<ref name=ushistory/> According to [[Cassius Dio]], the dictatorial reign of [[Commodus]], later followed by the [[Year of the Five Emperors]] and the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust".<ref>Dio Cassius [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/72*.html#36 72.36.4], Loeb edition translated E. Cary</ref>
-The Pax Romana is said{{by whom|date=August 2014}} to have been a "miracle" because prior to it there had never been peace for so many centuries in a given period of human history. According to [[Walter Goffart]] however, "peace is not what one finds in it[s pages]".<ref name="Goffart1989"/> Arthur M. Eckstein writes that the period needs to be seen in contrast with the much more frequent warfare that occurred in the Roman Republic in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Eckstein also notes that the incipient Pax Romana appeared during the Republic and that its temporal span varied with geographical region as well: "Although the standard textbook dates for the Pax Romana, the famous “Roman Peace” in the Mediterranean, are 31 BC to AD 250, the fact is that the Roman Peace was emerging in large regions of the Mediterranean at a much earlier date: Sicily after 210 [BC]; peninsular Italy after 200 [BC]; the Po Valley after 190 [BC]; most of Spain after 133 [BC]; North Africa after 100 [BC]; and for ever longer stretches of time in the Greek East".<ref name="RosensteinMorstein-Marx2011">{{cite book|editors=Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx|title=A Companion to the Roman Republic|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=C4rmmvFAKjoC&pg=PA574|origyear=2006|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5720-2|page=574|chapter=Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction|author=
-Arthur M. Eckstein}}</ref>
+==Overview==
-The first historical record of the term ''Pax Romana'' appears to be in a writing of [[Seneca the Younger]] in 55 AD.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=25}}</ref> The concept was highly influential, being theorized upon and attempted to be copied in subsequent ages. [[Arnaldo Momigliano]] noted that "''Pax Romana'' is a simple formula for [[propaganda]], but a difficult subject for [[research]]."<ref name="Momi"/>
+[[File:Impero romano sotto Ottaviano Augusto 30aC - 6dC.jpg|thumb|400px|Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow represents the extent of the Republic in 31&nbsp;BC, while green represents gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas represent [[client state]]s.]]
+The Pax Romana, spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD, stands as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the annals of civilization. However, [[Walter Goffart]] wrote: "The volume of the [[The Cambridge Ancient History|''Cambridge Ancient History'']] for the years AD 70–192 is called 'The Imperial Peace', but peace is not what one finds in its pages".<ref name="Goffart1989">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55pDIwvWnpoC&pg=PA111|title=Rome's Fall and After|publisher=Hambledon Press|year=1989|isbn=978-1-85285-001-2|page=111|author=Walter Goffart}}</ref> Arthur M. Eckstein writes that the period must be seen in contrast to the much more frequent warfare in the [[Roman Republic]] in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Eckstein also notes that the incipient Pax Romana appeared during the Republic, and that its temporal span varied with geographical region as well: "Although the standard textbook dates for the Pax Romana, the famous 'Roman Peace' in the [[Mediterranean Basin|Mediterranean]], are 31 BC to AD 250, the fact is that the Roman Peace was emerging in large regions of the Mediterranean at a much earlier date: [[Sicily]] after 210 [BC], the [[Italian Peninsula]] after 200 [BC]; the [[Po Valley]] after 190 [BC]; most of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] after 133 [BC]; [[North Africa]] after 100 [BC]; and for ever longer stretches of time in the [[Greek East and Latin West|Greek East]]."<ref name="RosensteinMorstein-Marx2011">{{cite book|editor1=Nathan Rosenstein |editor2=Robert Morstein-Marx|title=A Companion to the Roman Republic|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4rmmvFAKjoC&pg=PA574|orig-year=2006|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5720-2|page=574|chapter=Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction|author= Arthur M. Eckstein}}</ref>
-The Pax Romana started after Octavian (Augustus) defeated [[Mark Antony]] in the [[Battle of Actium]] on 2 September 31 BC.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}} He became [[princeps]], or "first citizen". Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a [[Military junta|junta]] of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of civil war. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in [[Hispania]] and in the Alps. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the [[Gates of Janus]] (the Roman ceremony to mark world Peace) three times,<ref>Augustus states in ''Res Gestae'' 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See [[Gates of Janus]]).</ref> first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but Inez Scott Ryberg (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the [[Ara Pacis]] ceremony.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/4238621 |title=The Procession of the Ara Pacis |first=Inez |last=Scott Ryberg |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |volume=19 |year=1949 |pages=79–101}}</ref><ref name=Stern>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.se/books/about/Women_children_and_senators_on_the_Ara_P.html?id=agPYfLmueWEC&redir_esc=y |title=Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BCE. |first=Gaius |last=Stern |publisher=ProQuest |year=2010|origyear=2006 |isbn=978-0-549-83411-3}}</ref><ref>Sir [[Ronald Syme]] had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).</ref>  At the time of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BC the concept of Peace was publicized, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and Agrippa jointly returned from pacifying the provinces. The Ara Pacis ceremony was no doubt part of this announcement.
+The first known record of the term ''Pax Romana'' appears in a writing by [[Seneca the Younger]] in AD 55.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=25}}</ref> The concept was highly influential, and the subject of theories and attempts to copy it in subsequent ages. [[Arnaldo Momigliano]] noted that "''Pax Romana'' is a simple formula for [[propaganda]], but a difficult subject for research."<ref name="Momi"/>
-Augustus faced a problem making peace an acceptable mode of life for the Romans, who had been at war with one power or another continuously for 200 years.<ref name=Stern/> Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but the rare situation that existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.<ref name="Momi">{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/750454 |title=The Peace of the Ara Pacis |first=Arnaldo |last=Momigliano | journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |volume=5 |year=1942 |pages=228–231}}</ref> Augustus' challenge was to persuade Romans that the prosperity they could achieve in the absence of warfare was better for the Empire than the potential wealth and honor acquired when fighting a risky war. Augustus succeeded by means of skillful propaganda. Subsequent emperors followed his lead, sometimes producing lavish ceremonies to close the Gates of Janus, issuing coins with Pax on the reverse, and patronizing literature extolling the benefits of the Pax Romana.<ref name=Stern/>
+The Pax Romana began when Octavian (Augustus) defeated [[Mark Antony]] and [[Cleopatra]] in the [[Battle of Actium]] on 2 September 31 BC and became Roman emperor.<ref name=EncBrit/><ref name=Battles>{{cite book |first=Paul K. |last=Davis |author-link=Paul K. Davis (historian) |title=100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |page=63 |isbn=978-1-5760-7075-8}}</ref><ref name=ushistory>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6c.asp |title=The Pax Romana |website=www.ushistory.org |access-date=2017-02-10}}</ref> He became [[princeps]], or ''first citizen''. Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a [[Military junta|junta]] of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of [[civil war]]. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in [[Hispania]] and in the [[Alps]]. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the [[Gates of Janus]] (a ceremony indicating that Rome was at peace) three times,<ref>Augustus states in ''Res Gestae'' 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See [[Gates of Janus]]).</ref> first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but [[Inez Scott Ryberg]] (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the commissioning of the [[Ara Pacis]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Procession of the Ara Pacis |first=Inez |last=Scott Ryberg |author-link=Inez Scott Ryberg |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |volume=19 |year=1949 |pages=77, 79–101 |doi=10.2307/4238621|jstor=4238621 }}</ref><ref name=Stern>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agPYfLmueWEC |title=Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BCE. |first=Gaius |last=Stern |year=2010 |orig-year=2006 |isbn=978-0-549-83411-3 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>Sir [[Ronald Syme]] had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).</ref>  At the time of the [[Ludi Saeculares]] in 17 BC the Concept of Peace was publicized, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]] jointly returned from pacifying the provinces. The order to construct the Ara Pacis was no doubt part of this announcement.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}
-==Similar terms and generic notion==
-Given the prominence of the concept of the ''Pax Romana'', historians have coined variants of the term to describe systems of relative peace that have been established, attempted or argued to have existed. Such times have been credited to the British Empire during the 19th century. Some variants include:{{citation needed|date=August 2014}}
+[[File:Romeinse keizers Gordianus III antoninianus Antiochie 243-244.jpg|thumb|300px|AR [[Antoninianus]] of [[Gordian III]], struck at [[Antioch]] 243–244 AD with Pax Augusta on the reverse]]
+Augustus faced a problem making peace an acceptable mode of life for the [[Demography of the Roman Empire|Romans]], who had been at war with one power or another continuously for 200 years.<ref name=Stern/>{{page needed |date=June 2022}} Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but as a rare situation which existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.<ref name="Momi">{{cite journal |jstor=750454 |title=The Peace of the Ara Pacis |first=Arnaldo |last=Momigliano | journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |volume=5 |year=1942 |pages=228–231 |doi=10.2307/750454 |s2cid=195009430 |url=https://people.exeter.ac.uk/jda208/The%20Peace%20of%20the%20Ara%20Pacis.pdf}}</ref> Augustus' challenge was to persuade Romans that the prosperity they could achieve in the absence of warfare was better for the Empire than the potential wealth and honor acquired when fighting a risky war. Augustus succeeded by means of skillful propaganda. [[List of Roman emperors|Subsequent emperors]] followed his lead, sometimes producing lavish ceremonies to close the [[Temple of Janus (Roman Forum)|Gates of Janus]], issuing coins with Pax on the reverse, and patronizing literature extolling the benefits of the Pax Romana.<ref name=Stern/>
+After Augustus' death in AD 14, most of his successors as Roman emperors continued his politics. The last five emperors of the Pax Romana are known as the "[[Five Good Emperors]]".<ref name=ushistory/>
+==Influence on trade==
+Roman trade in the Mediterranean increased during the Pax Romana.  Romans sailed East to acquire silks, gems, onyx and spices.  Romans benefited from large profits, and incomes in the Roman empire were raised due to trade in the Mediterranean.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Roman market economy|last=Temin|first=Peter|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691147680|location=Princeton|pages=13|language=en|oclc = 784708336}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world|last=Goldsworthy|first=Adrian Keith|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780300178821|location=New Haven|pages=392|oclc=941874968}}</ref>
+As the Pax Romana of the western world by Rome was largely contemporaneous to the [[Pax Sinica]] of the eastern world by [[Han dynasty|Han China]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Plott|first=John C.|title=Global History of Philosophy|year=1989|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|isbn=9788120804562|page=57}}</ref><ref name=enckre135/> long-distance travel and trade in [[History of Eurasia|Eurasian history]] was significantly stimulated during these eras.<ref name=enckre135>{{cite book
+ |editor-last=Krech III |editor-first=Shepard
+ |editor2-last=Merchant |editor2-first=Carolyn
+ |editor3-last=McNeill |editor3-first=John Robert
+ |title=Encyclopedia of World Environmental History
+ |volume=3: O–Z, Index
+ |year=2004
+ |publisher=Routledge
+ |isbn=978-0-415-93735-1
+ |pages=135–
+ |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Dmky95hwKr0C |page=135 }} }}</ref>
+{{anchor|Imperial peace}}
+==Pax imperia: analogous peaces==
+{{Redirect|Pax imperia|the video game|Pax Imperia}}
+{{Related articles|List of periods of regional peace|Regional hegemony}}
+The prominence of the concept of the ''Pax Romana'' led to historians coining variants of the term to describe other systems of relative peace that have been established, attempted, or argued to have existed. Some variants include:<!--{{citation needed|date=August 2014}} ---><ref name=EncBrit/>
+* [[Pax Americana]]
+* [[Pax Assyriaca]]
+* [[Pax Atomica]]
 * [[Pax Britannica]]
-* [[Pax Americana]]{{clarify|date=August 2014}}
+* [[Pax Europaea]]
-* [[Pax Europaea]]{{clarify|date=August 2014}}
+* [[Pax Gupta|Pax Guptana]]
 * [[Pax Hispanica]]
+* [[Pax Khazarica]]
+* [[Pax Kushana]]
+* [[Pax Mafiosa]] (Pax Narcotica)
 * [[Pax Mongolica]]
 * [[Pax Ottomana]]
+* [[Porfiriato|Pax Porfiriana]]
 * [[Pax Sinica]]
-* [[Pax Khazarica]]
+* [[Pax Sovietica]]
 * [[Pax Syriana]]
+* [[Tokugawa shogunate|Pax Tokugawana]]
-More generically, the concept has been referred to as '''pax imperia''',<ref name="Mentan2010">{{cite book|author=Tatah Mentan|title=The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lCR79AuxTi4C&pg=PA153|date=2010|publisher=African Books Collective|isbn=978-9956-616-12-1|page=153}}</ref><ref name="Lee2013">{{cite book|author=Hyo-Dong Lee|title=Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=smsGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5501-6|page=12}}</ref> (sometimes spelled as '''pax imperium'''<ref name="Ross2004">{{cite book|author=Stephen Ross|title=Conrad and Empire|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gPm5Kr9tYYAC&pg=PA76|year=2004|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1518-5|page=76}}</ref>) meaning '''imperial peace''',<ref name="Aron2003">{{cite book|author=Raymond Aron|title=Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YaOe6XFwjvYC&pg=PA151|year=2003|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0504-1|pages=151–152}}</ref><ref name="Gress"/>  or—less literally—'''hegemonic peace'''.<ref name="Gress">{{cite book|author=[[David Gress]]|title=Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kBKsA0RDc-gC&pg=PA96|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=978-0-8179-8093-1|pages=96–99|year=1985}}</ref><ref name="Parchami2009">{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=31}}</ref> [[Raymond Aron]] notes that imperial peace—peace achieved through [[hegemony]]—sometimes, but not always—can become [[civil peace]]. As an example, the [[German Empire]]'s imperial peace of 1871 (over its internal components like [[Saxony]]) slowly evolved into the later German state. As a counter-example, the imperial peace of [[Alexander the Great]]'s empire dissolved because the [[Greek city state]]s maintained their political identity and more importantly, embrios of their own armed forces. Aron notes that during the Pax Romana, the [[First Jewish–Roman War|Jewish war]] was a reminder that the overlapping of the imperial institutions over the local ones did not erase them and the overlap was a source of tension and flare-ups. Aron summarizes that "In other words, ''imperial peace'' becomes civil peace insofar as the memory of the previously independent political units are effaced, insofar as individuals within a pacified zone feel themselves less united to the traditional or local community and more to the conquering state.'<ref name="Aron2003"/>
+More generically, the concept has been referred to as ''pax imperia''<ref name="Mentan2010">{{cite book|author=Tatah Mentan|title=The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCR79AuxTi4C&pg=PA153 |date=2010 |publisher=African Books Collective|isbn=978-9956-616-12-1|page=153}}</ref><ref name="Lee2013">{{cite book|author=Hyo-Dong Lee|title=Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=smsGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5501-6|page=12}}</ref> (sometimes spelled as ''pax imperium''<ref name="Ross2004">{{cite book|author=Stephen Ross|title=Conrad and Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/conradempire00ross_0|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1518-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/conradempire00ross_0/page/76 76]}}</ref>), meaning ''imperial peace'',<ref name="Aron2003">{{cite book|author=Raymond Aron|title=Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YaOe6XFwjvYC&pg=PA151|year=2003|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0504-1|pages=151–152}}</ref><ref name="Gress"/>  or—less literally—''hegemonic peace''.<ref name="Gress">{{cite book|author=David Gress|author-link=David Gress|title=Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBKsA0RDc-gC&pg=PA96|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=978-0-8179-8093-1|pages=96–99|year=1985}}</ref><ref name="Parchami2009">{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=31}}</ref> [[Raymond Aron]] notes that imperial peace—peace achieved through [[hegemony]] can—sometimes, but not always— become civil peace. As an example, the [[German Empire]]'s imperial peace of 1871 (over its internal components like [[Saxony]]) slowly evolved into the later German state. As a counter-example, the imperial peace of [[Alexander the Great]]'s empire dissolved because the Greek [[city states]] maintained their political identity. Aron notes that during the Pax Romana, the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] was a reminder that the overlapping of the imperial institutions over the local ones did not erase them and the overlap was a source of tension and flare-ups. Aron summarizes that, "In other words, ''imperial peace'' becomes civil peace insofar as the memory of the previously independent political units are effaced, insofar as individuals within a pacified zone feel themselves less united to the traditional or local community and more to the conquering state."<ref name="Aron2003"/>
-The concept of Pax Romana was highly influential, and attempted to be imitated in the [[Byzantine Empire]] as well as in the [[Christian West]], where it morphed into the [[Peace and Truce of God]] (''pax Dei'' and ''treuga Dei'').<ref name="Gress"/> A theoretician of the imperial peace during the Middle Ages was [[Dante Aligheri]]. Dante's works on the topic were analyzed at the beginning of the 20th century by [[William Mitchell Ramsay]] in the book ''The Imperial Peace; An Ideal in European History'' (1913).<ref name="Scott2002">{{cite book|author=[[James Brown Scott]]|title=Law, the State, and the International Community|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=o2ItplkkogIC&pg=PA223|year=2002|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-58477-178-4|pages=223–224|origyear=1939}}</ref><ref>https://archive.org/details/imperialpeaceide00ramsrich</ref>
+The concept of Pax Romana was highly influential, and there were attempts to imitate it in the [[Byzantine Empire]], and in the [[Christian West]], where it morphed into the [[Peace and Truce of God]] (''pax Dei'' and ''treuga Dei'').<ref name="Gress"/> A theoretician of the imperial peace during the Middle Ages was [[Dante Aligheri]]. Dante's works on the topic were analyzed at the beginning of the 20th century by [[William Mitchell Ramsay]] in the book ''The Imperial Peace: An Ideal in European History'' (1913).<ref name="Scott2002">{{cite book|author=James Brown Scott|author-link=James Brown Scott|title=Law, the State, and the International Community|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2ItplkkogIC&pg=PA223|year=2002|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-58477-178-4|pages=223–224|orig-year=1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialpeaceide00ramsrich|title=The imperial peace: an ideal in European history|via=Internet Archive|publisher=Oxford, The Clarendon Press|year=1913}}</ref>
-===In fiction===
+== See also ==
+{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
-*[[Isaac Asimov]]'s fictional ''[[Galactic Empire (series)|Galactic Empire]]'' and ''[[Foundation series|Foundation]]'' series refer to ''Pax Trantorica'' and ''Pax Imperium''.
+* [[Imperialism]]
-*''[[Pax Soprana]]'' is the sixth episode of the [[HBO]] original series ''[[The Sopranos]]''.
+* [[Mos maiorum]]
-*In ''[[Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic]]'', ''Reim's Peace'' is the Reim Empire's version of Pax Romana, established about 200 years prior to the series by Empress Scherazade. Reim is a nation based on the Roman Empire.
+* [[Succession of the Roman Empire]]
-==See also==
+== References ==
-* [[Pax Americana]]
-==References==
 {{Reflist}}
+==Further reading==
+{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Pax Romana |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
+* Burton, Paul. 2011. "Pax Romana/Pax Americana: Perceptions of Rome in American Political Culture, 2000–2010". ''International Journal of Classical Tradition'' 18.1:66–104. {{JSTOR|41474687}}.
+* Cornwell, Hannah. 2017. ''Pax and the Politics of Peace: Republic to Principate''. Oxford Classical Monographs.   Oxford; New York:  Oxford University Press.
+* Galinsky, Karl.  2012.  ''Augustus: Introduction to the Life of an Emperor''.   Cambridge; New York:  Cambridge University Press.
+* Goldsworthy, Adrian. 2016. ''Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
+* Hardwick, Lorna. 2000.  "Concepts of Peace". In ''Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire'', edited by Janet Huskinson, 335–368. London: Routledge.
+* Lopez, Gennaro. 2002. "Pax Romana/Pax Augusta". ''Invigilata Lucernis'' 24: 97–110.
+* Stern, Gaius. 2015. "The New Cult of Pax Augusta 13 BC–AD 14". ''Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'' 55.1–4: 1–16.
+* Yannakopulos, Nikos. 2003.  "Preserving the Pax Romana: The Peace Functionaries in Roman East". ''Mediterraneo Antico'' 6.2: 825–905.
 ==External links==
+{{Wikiquote}}
 * [http://www.unrv.com/early-empire/pax-romana.php United Nations of Roma Victrix History: Pax Romana]
-* [http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Group/139585 Pax Romana Discussion group]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203082948/http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Group/139585 Pax Romana Discussion group]
 {{Ancient Rome topics|state=autocollapse}}
 {{Paxes}}
-[[Category:Roman Empire]]
 [[Category:Pax|Rome]]
-[[Category:Foreign relations of Ancient Rome]]
+[[Category:1st century BC in international relations]]
-[[Category:History of the Roman Empire]]
+[[Category:1st century BC in the Roman Empire]]
 [[Category:1st century in international relations]]
-[[Category:2nd century in international relations]]
-[[Category:Augustus]]
 [[Category:1st century in the Roman Empire]]
+[[Category:2nd century in international relations]]
 [[Category:2nd century in the Roman Empire]]
-[[Category:Latin political phrases]]
+[[Category:Ancient international relations]]
+[[Category:Augustus]]
+[[Category:Foreign relations of ancient Rome]]
+[[Category:Latin political words and phrases]]

v t e Periods of regional and relative peace
Contemporary	Long Peace Pax Americana Pax Atomica Pax Europaea Pax Praetoriana
Historical	Pax Assyriaca Pax Austriaca Pax Britannica Pax Dei Pax Gupta Pax Helvetica Pax Hispanica Pax Italica Pax Khazarica Pax Kushana Pax Mafiosa Pax Minoica Pax Mongolica Pax Ottomana Pax Romana Pax Russica Pax Sinica Pax Sovietica Pax Sumerica Pax Syriana Pax Tokugawana