Ancient Rome Today
June 21, 15 AD
All the News Romans Need to Know
Rome Italy
Was the Pax Romana Really a Golden
Age?
By: Josh Habius
The Romans call this time a
Golden Age. Currently in 1 A.D.,
Augustus is making significant
achievements such as establishing
peace, order, and stability and
removing all of the corrupt governors
from the provinces. Our great Roman
Empire keeps increasing in size year
after year. But underneath all of the
good times, there is a decaying society
that is on the verge of falling apart.
The streets of many cities are full of
merciless cruelty. Many people of the
population are poor and feeling
forgotten. So, how “golden” is this
period in the Roman Empire? Today I
went to a province about twenty-five
miles from Rome to find out just what
is really going on.
This province had a
diminishing social system and an
enormous population of poor and
helpless civilians. There is neverending viciousness as it is entirely
acceptable to own and kill people for
no apparent reason. People are hiding
from the public because they fear for
their lives. I even heard that people
were using anything from grains in
horse manure to even abandoned
children to help them survive. I’m glad
I don’t live in this town. According to
Yale historian Ramsay MacMullen,
“Nothing was wasted in the ancient
world: not an abandoned baby, not the
cloth that kept a rag picker in
business… not even the grains of
barley in horse manure in the streets.”
“There were always people poor
enough to fight over another’s
leavings. Thanks to the brand new
census, we know that we have
approximately one million plebeians,
patricians, and slaves in Rome. How
can we get these people back on their
feet and prepare for the future
generations. My travels continued to
discover what the government is
doing to resolve these issues.
Extent of the Roman Empire
during Pax Romana
that is on the verge of falling apart and
the government just keeps making
everybody happy. This is a dark and
dangerous time for many civilians and
Augustus needs to really restore order
to Rome.
-Source(s):
Bread and Circus in the Year One by
Lewis Lord
According to multiple
plebeians here in this town, they have
very few chances of finding a job
because the slaves are doing the
majority of the work. The government
is handing out daily wheat rations, but
only to plebeian men and boys. Is it so
difficult to give people less rations so
more people can get wheat? According
to a group of plebeians, Augustus is
having an extravagant amount of
religious ceremonies, festivals, and
ludi, “the game in honor of the gods”,
to distract people of their problems.
This sounds like a lot of fun, but how
is he helping the poor population.
Additionally, the richer the person is,
the fewer amount of taxes he has to
pay. Shouldn’t this be reversed so that
the gap between the rich and poor is
reduced, not widened? The
government can’t keep hiding these
problems, because eventually
everybody will be able to read
through the lines. This matter will
have to be addressed, and delaying it
is not helping.
Overall, this “Pax Romana” may
be considered a Golden Age on the
outside, but really this is an empire