EMPIRE & CITY

Pax Romana and Rome

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For approximately two hundred years, the Roman Empire enjoyed a sustained period of peace and stability. Historians date the beginning of this Pax Romana (“Roman peace” in Latin) to the ascension of the Emperor Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE; r. 27 BCE–14 CE), following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and mark its end with the death of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE; r. 161–180 CE). Imperial expansion was ongoing and wars did take place, yet the Roman Empire remained mostly free from large-scale conflict, and trade increased throughout the Mediterranean. This is the political backdrop for Galen’s life: a peaceful world with booming prosperity, where intellectual and artistic endeavors had space to flourish.

The emperor during Galen’s adulthood, Marcus Aurelius, valued cultural projects and intellectual pursuits.

Bust of Marcus Aurelius. Greek after a Roman type, ca. 161 CE. Marble. H. 62 cm. Tomb at Probalinthos, near Marathon, Greece. Musée du Louvre: Ma 1161. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY.

He identified as a philosopher—a Stoic—and his Meditations remain one of the most important texts from this school to come down through time. He wrote in Greek, the language of intellectual life, about virtue and the importance of its pursuit. He lived according to Stoic ideals of sobriety, frugality, emotional control, and indifference to happiness. Likewise, he reigned according to Stoic principles: Marcus Aurelius was known to abstain from evening entertainments in order to work, to sell imperial treasures for revenue rather than increase taxes, and to tolerate rumors of his wife’s infidelities with dancers and gladiators. But his authority was felt by his subjects, too, and he was occasionally resented in Rome for (ahem) limiting the number of dance performances and for sending gladiators to fight for his army. He fought a successful war against the Parthian Empire in the east at the beginning of his reign (161 CE), and later led a campaign in central Europe against the Germanic tribes.

As the empire thrived under Marcus’s enlightened rule, its capital city blossomed, and building initiatives reflected the ruler’s commitment to arts and culture. Rome was still growing in Galen’s day, and it was the largest city in the world at the time: a spectacular metropolis with grand temples, networked aqueducts, and a magnificent colosseum that hosted entertaining, if brutal, spectacles.

Aqua Claudia aqueduct. Roman, 38–52 CE. Near Via Lemonia, Rome. Photo: Chris 73 / Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Colosseum. Roman, 80 CE. Travertine limestone, tuff, and brick-faced concrete. Rome. Photo: FeaturedPics / Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Around one million inhabitants lived there—historians caution that population figures are rough estimates, but by any count the city was dramatically more populous than Pergamon or Alexandria. Like major urban centers today, it attracted all kinds of people from many different places, from rural peasants with aspirations for a better life to wealthy families ambitious to make a mark in politics. Greek intellectuals and doctors were also drawn to Rome, and it was a medical center in its own right. Here is Galen’s impression:

“A city with such a throng of people, that the rhetor Polemo praised it by calling it the epitome of the world.”

Galen had friends and associates already living in Rome when he first arrived, and, between his social network, public lectures, and anatomical spectacles, he gradually attracted a roster of prominent patients and was soon moving in elite circles.

But the city was not all glittering splendor. The impressive marvels of Rome stood in stark contrast to the tight, dark, and squalid streets crowded with crumbling, precarious insulae (multistory tenement apartments), the putrid currents of the Tiber River, and a grim reality to daily life.

Exterior view (left) and interior view (right) of the Insula dell’Ara Coeli, Rome. Photo: Lalupa / Wikimedia. Public domain. CC BY-SA 4.0.

It was a city where a small wealthy elite presided over huge villas and country estates, while the poorest lived in the flood-prone areas in low-lying valleys near the polluted river. Although an aqueduct system brought fresh water to the city from remote locations, the urban conditions were otherwise strikingly unsanitary and communicable diseases abounded: garbage, excrement, animal carcasses, corpses, and other refuse were thrown into the street. Indoor air pollution from oil lamps and cooking fires was a problem, especially for the poor who lived in homes with inadequate ventilation. The density of the city attracted disease-spreading vermin, and stagnant water almost everywhere provided a breeding ground for malaria-causing mosquitos. Indeed, malaria in Rome was endemic, and, although Galen did not know about the plasmodium parasite, he did diagnose a special type of dangerous fever that he saw as characteristic of the city (at the time, fever was seen as a disease rather than a symptom).

Infectious disease and environmental disasters struck young and old alike, and wealth was no guarantee of protection. Even for the elite class, life in Rome was tenuous as illness and disaster were never distant. In addition to the challenges and risks of everyday existence, two major catastrophes affected Rome and its empire in Galen’s lifetime: the Antonine Plague and the great fire. Galen experienced the hardships of both of these events firsthand, and his writings provide us with unique insight into the extent of the human and cultural losses.