Street Violence and Mobs in Ancient Rome

Riots were always a threat in the cities of the classical world. During the reign of Nero, for instance, a brawl in the stands of Pompey's amphitheater devolved into a full-scale street battle between the inhabitants of two rival towns, which left dozens dead. The metropolis of Alexandria, driven by tension between its Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish communities, periodically tore itself apart in bloody riots. The infamous Nica riots in the reign of Justinian destroyed about half of Constantinople and ended with the massacre of tens of thousands in the Hippodrome. Even by these standards, Rome was exceptionally susceptible to unrest. Although the historical record is far from complete, the city seems to have suffered a major riot, on average, about once every few years. Many riots were sparked by high grain prices. Despite, or because of, supply chains stretching to Egypt and Sicily, provisioning Rome's million inhabitants was a never-ending challenge. Although true famine was rare, shortages were chronic. Riots tended to follow, often inspired by rumors that politicians and rich men were hoarding grain or raising prices. During one of these episodes, the emperor Claudius was pelted with stale bread crusts. New or increased taxes also spurred unrest, as did the contentious issue of debt forgiveness. During the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey, for example, protests surrounding a proposed debt relief measure led to a crowd erecting barricades around the forum, complete with makeshift watchtowers. During the turbulent last days of the republic, as we'll discuss shortly, rival politicians sent gangs of supporters to disrupt elections and the passage of laws. Officials were sometimes attacked in the streets. One unfortunate consul had a bucket of excrement emptied over his head. In the imperial era, political protests tended to concentrate on unpopular officials. As late as the 4th century, the houses of two urban prefects, essentially mayors of Rome, were burned by mobs. Although it was more dangerous to protest against an emperor directly, this sometimes occurred, as when angry crowds gathered outside the palace after Nero divorced his popular wife Octavia. However a riot started, Roman officials were not known for being gentle about crowd control. When a few of Caesar's soldiers became rowdy in the wake of his triumph, he had them publicly executed and displayed their severed heads in the forum. Marc Antony crucified some rioters and had others hurled from the Tarpaian rock. Imperial Rome had no professional police. Besides the firemen known as the vigiles, the only force available for imposing order were the legionaries known as the urban cohorts. If they failed to keep the peace, the emperors sometimes sent in the praetorian guard. To provide a sense of how riots worked in ancient Rome, let's take a look at four examples spread over four centuries. Riot number one, free the gladiators. In the spring of 238 AD, Rome was restless. A few months before, when the governor of Africa had rebelled against the reigning emperor, the senate had openly supported the rebel. Now the rebel was dead and the emperor, the fearsome Maximinus Thrax, was marching on Rome at the head of a hardened army. The senate proclaimed two of its members joint emperors. Almost immediately, the new emperors were attacked in the street by a mob that resented the senate's high-handed management of the crisis. At the next meeting of the senate, a small group of bystanders, all unarmed members of the praetorian guard, edged through the doors of the senate house to hear the debate. Two senators, on edge after the recent violence, leapt up and attacked the men with daggers, killing several of them. The other praetorians fled, pursued by the senators, who shouted that they were under attack by agents of Maximinus. The praetorians ran for the shelter of their walled camp on the outskirts of Rome. A mob, whipped up by the senate, pursued them there and tried to storm the gates. When they failed, the senate opened the public arsenals and distributed the armor and weapons stored there to the people. Then every gladiator in the city was freed, armed, and sent to attack the praetorian camp. A full-scale battle ensued. The Roman mob, wearing parade armor from the arsenals and led by hundreds of gladiators, charged the walls of the praetorian camp. The praetorians repelled every assault with pikes and arrows. At nightfall, after most of the gladiators had been wounded, the mob began to fall back. Then the praetorians opened their gates, charged out in battle formation, and butchered every gladiator and rioter they could find before withdrawing to their camp. Over the following days, the mob laid siege to the praetorian camp. Every day they launched an assault, and every day they were flung back. At last, someone had the idea of cutting the aqueduct conduits leading into the camp. Realizing that they could no longer remain behind their walls, the praetorians broke out again and dispersed through the streets of Rome, attacking everyone they met. A chaotic day of street fighting followed, as groups of rioters hurled tiles and chamber pots down on the praetorians from rooftops, and groups of praetorians set fire to the wooden balconies and doors of Rome's towering apartment blocks. The flames spread out of control. As whole neighborhoods burned, both soldiers and rioters turned from fighting to looting. The area ultimately destroyed by fire was said to be the size of the empire's largest provincial cities. Before we continue, a brief word about this video's sponsor. Skillshare is an online community that offers courses designed to help you learn a new hobby, discover a new passion, or embark on a new career. Although I've been on YouTube for a few years now, I still have a lot to learn about content creation. That's why I'm a fan of Skillshare's classes on personal branding. I recently discovered, for example, how to use hashtags more effectively on Instagram. I've also explored some of Skillshare's many courses on video marketing. Christopher Berry's introduction to making YouTube Shorts helped me understand how to differentiate Shorts content from my regular YouTube videos. Since I'm currently working on my first batch of Shorts, this was very timely advice. To learn new skills, achieve personal goals, or redefine your career, try Skillshare. The first thousand people to click on the link in the description will get a free one-month trial. Back to our topic. Riot number two. A funeral in the forum. The last decades of the Roman Republic were, to put it mildly, turbulent. Confronted with a world torn apart by civil war and an increasingly dysfunctional political system, ambitious men made their own rules as they fought their way to the top. None were more ambitious, or less scrupulous, than Publius Claudius Pulcher. Though descended from one of Rome's oldest aristocratic families, Claudius was the first politician to mobilize the Roman mob. As tribune of the plebs, he instituted the famous grain doll, and he used an elaborate network of neighborhood bosses and henchmen to rally the plebs against his political opponents. He was accused of turning the temple of Castor and Pollux, opposite the Senate House, into a political clubhouse, stockpiled with weapons for street fighting. Claudius's great rival was Titus Annius Milo, an equally unscrupulous politician who hired a troop of gladiators to combat Claudius's thugs. The two men's gangs clashed throughout Rome, attacking each other's houses, disrupting elections, and fighting pitched battles in the forum. The rivalry came to a head in January 52 BC, when Milo happened to encounter Claudius in Rome's suburbs. As they passed on the road, two of Milo's gladiators picked a fight with some of the men following Claudius. Their scuffle escalated into an all-out brawl, which resulted in the death of Claudius. The demagogue's body was carried into the forum, where a huge crowd gathered to see it. Whipped into a frenzy by incendiary speeches, the plebs carried the corpse into the Senate House, heaped wooden benches into a funeral pyre, and burned the building to the ground, along with most of the forum. It took a generation and the initiative of Augustus to rebuild it. Riot number three. Cleander must die. Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, is generally considered one of the worst Roman emperors. While he was busy parading around dressed as Hercules and renaming the months after himself, he delegated the management of the empire to his favorites. The most powerful of these was his freedman Cleander, commander of the Praetorian Guard, who was despised for using his power to sell Rome's most distinguished offices to the highest bidder. In the spring of 190, Rome was gripped by a bread shortage, which was worsened by the incompetence or plotting of the grain commissioner. During a race at the Circus Maximus, a group of children ran onto the track and began shouting that they were hungry because Cleander was hoarding all the grain. The spectators took up their cry, and thousands left their seats to rush toward the palace, calling for the death of Cleander. Understandably nervous, Cleander fled to Commodus, who was lounging in one of his suburban villas. An angry mob followed. Cleander ordered mounted units of the Praetorian Guard to charge the They did, massacring hundreds. But as they pursued the rioters down Rome's narrow streets, the tide turned. Men standing on rooftops hurled tiles and stones down on the soldiers, felling many. At last, the urban cohorts, who had a long-standing rivalry with the Praetorians, joined the street battle on the side of the people. Commodus decided that the quickest way to end the violence was to sacrifice Cleander. His former confidant was decapitated, and the head, stuck on a spear, was sent out to the mob. After lynching a few of the dead man's associates and dragging their bodies through the streets, the people were satisfied and dispersed. Riot number four. One pope, too many. By the middle of the fourth century AD, there were hundreds of thousands of Christians in Rome, and the city's bishop, already beginning to be known as the pope, was among the most powerful men in the city. And so, when Pope Liberius died in the fall of 366, and the Roman clergy prepared to select his successor, tensions were running high. The favorite candidate of the higher clergy was Damasus, an archdeacon from an aristocratic background. But another deacon, Ursinus, was more popular among the Roman people. When the election came, Damasus was duly chosen bishop of Rome. Simultaneously, however, a rival faction proclaimed Ursinus the true pope. The Christians of Rome split into two camps, and began sparring in the streets. Both sides mobilized the fasores, the tough catacomb diggers who split heads with their pickaxe handles. After a bloody confrontation in the dead. It was only after appeals to the emperor, the exile of Ursinus, and a vigorous round of excommunications that Pope Damasus prevailed, ending yet another chapter in the long history of unrest in ancient Rome. I have a new book, Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines, more frequently asked questions about the ancient Greeks and Romans. 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