"The Year of the Four Emperors"

In 68 AD, Emperor Nero committed suicide, driven to despair by the widespread desertion of his supporters due to the approach of the army of the rebellious commander Servius Sulpicius Galba. With Nero's death, the Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end.

Galba failed to win the people's affection, as the plebs, who were fond of Nero, did not accept the one who overthrew their favorite in favor of the Senate. After Galba refused to pay the legions the promised reward, they rebelled against him.

The first to revolt were the Lower German legions under the command of Aulus Vitellius. Then, in January 69 AD, in Rome itself, Nero's former friend Marcus Salvius Otho rose against Galba. The legionaries killed Galba and proclaimed Otho the new emperor.

However, Otho failed to reach an agreement with Vitellius. In April 69 AD, at the Battle of Bedriacum, the emperor was defeated by Vitellius and committed suicide.

Vitellius owed his power to the Lower German legions, which caused discontent among the eastern and Danubian parts, historically rivaling the Rhine army. Their unwillingness to recognize Vitellius led to a new rebellion led by Titus Flavius Vespasian, who was at that time suppressing a revolt in Judea. Handing over command to his son Titus, he marched on Rome.

In October 69 AD, the Second Battle of Bedriacum took place, in which Vitellius was defeated. He was ready to surrender on the condition of personal safety guarantees, but his own army opposed the capitulation. Vitellius's supporters fought a final battle in Rome itself, resulting in the emperor's death and the complete defeat of his army. In December 69 AD, Vespasian became the new emperor, founding the Flavian dynasty.

Thus, the "Year of the Four Emperors" – the first civil war in the Empire, clearly demonstrated that the army had now become the key political force on which the fate of imperial power depended.

Compromise Principate

By the second half of the 2nd century BC, after the final victory over Carthage, Rome had become the leading power in the Mediterranean region. If politics in the small Roman polis had previously been defined by the confrontation between titled patricians and untitled plebeians, now in the expanded state, the social conflict was between the nobiles and the populares.

The activities of the populares leaders, the Gracchus brothers, in the 130s and 120s BC led to the first exacerbation of the social crisis, which from the 80s BC turned into a whole series of civil wars: Sulla against Marius, Caesar against Pompey, and Caesar's heirs against his murderers. In the last civil war, Caesar's successors fought each other for the right to single-handedly lead the Republic. The winner of this struggle was Octavian Augustus, who now needed to calm Roman society after 60 years of strife.

The compromise that suited everyone was the "Restored Republic." Augustus retained all the former republican magistracies headed by the aristocratic Senate, consuls, praetors, aediles, and quaestors were still elected, and real political competition between candidates resumed in elections. However, now at the top of the political system was a specific political figure – the "princeps," namely Augustus himself.

For the army, he was the emperor, for the magistrates – an official with numerous powers (consul, proconsul, tribune, censor, pontifex maximus), for the majority of the population – a man with enormous authority as a deliverer from civil wars and a "guarantor of stability." Control over the army, numerous administrative powers in the magistracies, and personal authority were the three key components of his power.

In historical science, different opinions have formed regarding the political regime created by Augustus.

The term "principate" was first used by Cornelius Tacitus in his "Annals." According to him, Augustus replaced the Senate, consuls, tribunes, and other magistrates. The historian concluded that "libertatem et consulatum" (freedom and consulship) of the Republic era were replaced by "principatus" (leadership) of Octavian. However, the "scourge of tyrants" refused to call the new regime a monarchy. For Tacitus, the princeps was something between a Hellenistic king and a consul, and the principate was between "true slavery and true freedom".

Theodor Mommsen viewed the issue differently. The German classic insisted on the diarchy of the Senate and emperors. In this system, the princeps was a key figure, yet was limited by Roman law. The main elements of his power were the proconsular imperium and tribunician powers. The princeps became an unaccountable absolute monarch only after the reforms of Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century AD. It was Mommsen who divided Roman imperial history into the "Principate" (from Augustus to Diocletian) and the "Dominate" (from Diocletian onwards). Modern researchers consider the terms "Principate" and "Dominate" outdated, preferring to use "Early Empire" and "Late Empire".

Between the Senate and the People of Rome

The internal political dynamics of the time of the first Julio-Claudian dynasty were determined by the relationships of the emperors with the Senate, equestrians, and plebs. Each Roman emperor built these relationships in his own way.

The creator of the Principate regime, Augustus, having emerged victorious from the civil wars, managed to pacify all interested groups.

Tiberius, Augustus's stepson and the second Roman princeps, did not have the authority similar to that of his adoptive father. He began his reign by strengthening the role of the Senate but gradually isolated himself on the island of Capri, sinking into melancholy and paranoia, delegating governance to his favorites like Sejanus and Macro. Eventually, the repressive processes of "offending majesty" undermined the Senate's influence, although the isolated Tiberius never openly opposed it.

If Tiberius became princeps at 56, Caligula did so at 25. He did not have the political experience that Tiberius gained before his reign, but he had dynastic authority as the son of the plebs' beloved Germanicus. Caligula's views were also influenced by his upbringing among eastern princes with their notions of the relationship between rulers and subjects. As a result, the third emperor openly opposed the Senate, relying on equestrians and plebs and bribing the latter with "bread and circuses." However, open confrontation against the more organized senatorial group ended disastrously for Caligula—four years after becoming princeps, he was killed along with his wife and child.

The conspirators hastened to announce a return to republican freedoms but were met with resistance from the Praetorian Guard and plebs, who had already become accustomed to the princeps being their protector against the aristocracy. Thus, Claudius became emperor.

Instead of terrorizing senators like Tiberius and Caligula, he began creating a bureaucracy from his own freedmen—thus gradually forming a separate social layer that began to take over governance from the aristocracy. The absence of terror reconciled the emperor with the senators, and a generous policy of "bread and circuses" ensured the support of the plebs. Claudius died either of natural causes from old age or was poisoned as a result of female intrigues.

The next emperor, Nero, became princeps at 16 and in some sense repeated Caligula's path, as both admired Hellenistic culture. In the early years of his reign, Nero relied on representatives of the senatorial aristocracy—Seneca and Burrus—but then reoriented towards favorites from among the plebeians, like Tigellinus, and began to repress aristocrats, presenting himself as a defender of equestrians and plebs. However, at some point, the emperor turned the army commanders in the west of the empire against him, provoked a rebellion, and was forced to commit suicide in the face of defeat.

In summary, Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius did not openly oppose the Senate—Augustus relied on his personal authority, Tiberius isolated himself, maintaining his power through repression and favorites, while Claudius, in general agreement with the Senate, created an alternative administrative structure in the form of a bureaucracy.

Augustus and Claudius also secured the support of the equestrians and plebeians through a generous policy of "bread and circuses." Only Tiberius, known for his stinginess, deviated from this, making him perhaps the most unpopular member of the dynasty among the people.

In contrast, Caligula and Nero represented examples of open confrontation between imperial power and the Senate. Both young princes sought to strengthen their sole authority by portraying themselves as defenders of the equestrians and plebeians against the senatorial aristocracy. However, for both, this open conflict ended in a series of conspiracies and eventual demise.

Beyond Italy

The era of the first imperial dynasty of the Julio-Claudians marked the beginning of another long-term trend in Roman history—the increased attention to Roman provinces beyond Italy.

Starting with Augustus, the empire was divided into senatorial and imperial provinces—this was part of the Principate era compromise on the distribution of power. In senatorial provinces, governors were appointed from among former consuls, praetors, and quaestors. In imperial provinces, the princes solely appointed their own legates, prefects, and procurators, mainly from the equestrian class. For example, the famous prefect of Judea during Tiberius's time, Pontius Pilate, was of equestrian origin.

Overall, under the Julio-Claudian dynasty, control over the activities of governors was significantly strengthened, both in senatorial and imperial provinces, the rights of tax collectors were curtailed in favor of local communities and the imperial bureaucracy. Veteran colonies of Italians were established throughout the Mediterranean. Certain communities in Gaul and Spain were granted Roman citizenship, and under Claudius, part of the Romanized Gallic elite even entered the Senate. All these measures contributed to the integration of the provinces into the common imperial space and set a trend towards strengthening the political role of provincials.

Augustus actively engaged in foreign conquests, under him the empire expanded to the banks of the Danube and the Elbe. However, under Tiberius, the empire's borders stabilized, and of the subsequent emperors, only Claudius dared to undertake a large-scale conquest expedition to Britain.

Nevertheless, the army was always at the center of the princes' attention, as ultimately their loyalty and professionalism ensured imperial power. The sad fate of Nero, who quarreled with the commanders, proved this.

New People

As a result of the "Year of the Four Emperors," the new ruler of Rome became Titus Flavius Vespasian, who was the first of three representatives of the Flavian imperial dynasty, which ruled for the next 27 years.