Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire - Episode 7: Rebellion and Betrayal (Documentary)

Previously on Rome, rise and fall of an empire. Emperor Trajan scales new heights of glory, defeating the treacherous Dacians, reaping a fortune in barbarian gold, and pushing the imperial borders to their limit. It is the zenith of the empire. Now, after three centuries of relentless war, Rome stands at the center of the world, a lone superpower without rival. But peace makes the empire soft. Wrapped in luxury, distracted by elaborate games in the arena, the Romans are slow to recognize the threat of a new barbarian horde, bent on the empire's utter destruction. In the 200 years following Julius Caesar's death, the empire blossoms. Peace and prosperity usher in Rome's golden and silver ages. But it may be too much of a good thing. The peace had, of course, allowed Rome to concentrate their economic energies inward, away from military affairs. And it's this that may have produced the sort of general air of prosperity and flourishing of arts. It may also, however, have had various pernicious side effects. The people, as they became used to not fighting, found themselves subsequently reluctant to fight. They may have left themselves somewhat less prepared than they otherwise would have been. But barbarians along the frontier, ever restless, continue to probe and raid, seeking weak spots on the empire's immense borders. By 160 A.D., the border stretches across three continents, and 400,000 soldiers protect the 50 million people lucky enough to live inside. Back in Rome, the young heirs to the imperial throne live a comfortable life in their father's palace. Their names are Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Plucked from separate aristocratic families while still boys, both are adopted by Emperor Antoninus Pius, who has no sons of his own. The princes could not be more different, according to 3rd century historian Cassius Dio. Marcus was often frail of health and devoted the greater part of his time to letters. Verus, on the other hand, was a vigorous man of younger years. A free spirit, Verus' rowdy exploits frequently shock Rome. In contrast, intellectual Marcus Aurelius takes his position seriously. Marcus Aurelius had been groomed for rule longer than just about anyone else in the history of the empire. Between his two sons, Emperor Antoninus has a clear favorite, the scholarly Marcus. To him, he gives his prized possession, his daughter Faustina, making Marcus the senior heir. In 161, when the Emperor Antoninus dies, Marcus and Verus claim the throne, supported and approved of by the Emperor's personal army, the Praetorian Guard. It would have been easy for the Praetorians to accept these two young men as their emperors. Of all the troops of the empire, the Praetorians would have known them because they were stationed in Rome and they would therefore have been guarding the palace and they would have had interactions with these two princes over many years. They cement their bond to the Praetorians with a generous kickback, a bonus equal to several years of regular guardsmen's salary. Marcus and Verus will need the loyalty of the Roman army as war looms large on the horizon. To the east, the Parthians invade Rome's ally, Armenia, making Syria vulnerable to attack. Classical historian Cassius Dio. The Parthian general hemmed in the Romans on all sides, striking them down and destroying the whole force, leaders and all. The fighting is savage and Roman forces cannot hold against the Parthian assault. In 162, Rome has no choice but to send its troops to war. For the first time in two generations, an emperor leads the way, Lucius Verus. His brother Marcus Aurelius remains in Rome. Both men really were inexperienced militarily. Marcus, who is the senior of the two emperors, sends Lucius Verus to the east to deal with this threat. Verus marches from Rome to a comfortable headquarters in Antioch, far from the battlefront. He's constantly in communication, or at least his bureaucracy is constantly in communication with leaders on the front. But mostly this is leadership in absentia. And it works. It works as long as you've got good leaders up front. Fortunately on the front, Verus is one of the best leaders of his generation, Ovidius Cassius, the commander of Syria's legions. Ovidius has been a long-time player in imperial politics, but war proves to be his real talent. He was an experienced general. He was himself Syrian. He had connections with the mobility of the east. Verus had just stayed in Antioch and partied, basically, while Ovidius had run the campaign on the ground. Ovidius masterminds a string of victories that take the Romans into the Parthian heartland, face to face with their enemy. The real killing that Roman soldiers did came at arm's length. That frightened everybody. To keep fighting at arm's length when your enemy is there with a sword or an axe and you can't tell what's going on behind you or to the side of you because you're wearing a helmet. You can hardly hear and you can only see straight ahead. It required courage and dedication in overcoming your fear to an overwhelmingly amazing degree. Over the next three years, Ovidius and his troops make a brutal sweep across Parthia. In 165 A.D., they reach the capital Ctesiphon, which lies near modern Baghdad. The Romans cruelly ravage the ancient city. Classical historian Cassius Dio. When the Parthian king was deserted by his allies, Ovidius pursued him into Ctesiphon and razed his palace to the ground. The looting gets out of hand. While plundering the temples of the local gods, the soldiers steal sacred vessels and other treasures. It's an abomination to violate temples. Divine punishment for the crime comes swift and furious. The soldiers contract a deadly disease from the Parthian victims, possibly bubonic plague. The Romans leave Ctesiphon swollen on success and unwittingly carrying contagion. Having conquered Parthia and secured the Eastern Empire, Ovidius and Emperor Verus return to Italy. The city honors the glorious victory with a magnificent parade, public feasts, and games that pit gladiators against captives, all part of an extraordinary exhibition known as a triumph. Hundreds of thousands of people would be coming out to watch. They'd be waving flags, throwing things, and cheering as the army went by. And then behind that would be just a massive display of captured loot, captives, and heaps of arms that had been captured. So it was really an enormous public occasion. Months in the making at the cost of a small fortune, the triumph is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Verus celebrates with his new bride Lucilla, the daughter of his brother and co-emperor Marcus. And Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus celebrated this triumph in the 160s. The whole generation had been born and had reached middle age and had never seen a triumph. So it was a huge event. It would have been a major event. But Emperor Marcus is unable to enjoy the festivities. He knows that the campaign in the east has greatly depleted Rome's army. And even as Rome parties, savage barbarians prepare to attack the reduced defenses on the empire's northern frontier. Along the northern border, the legionaries left to guard the fortifications are seriously undermanned. Too few troops have returned from the war in the east. The guards make an easy target for barbarian tribesmen who creep out of the dense woods to prey on the Romans. The fighting abilities of the Germans in the 2nd century had grown proportionally astronomically compared to the initial encounter between Germans and Romans that went all the way back into the 2nd century BC. These were tribes that could field very large armies for a start. So they were really formidable. Already by the 2nd century, they were very formidable. Out on the edges of the empire, soldiers are mercilessly cut down. The dark forests of Germania become their tomb. The Parthian War of Marcus' adopted brother, Lucius Verus, seems to have been responsible for bringing back some form of plague into the Mediterranean basin, which led to simply untold devastation of the population of the empire. Some very, very large percentage of the Roman world died off in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Estimates vary from 10% to 25%. And it will have been very, very much worse in major population centers because the people were piled one on top of each other. Charlatans prey on the people's fears, selling bogus herbal charms to ward off disease. They say the plague is the gods' revenge for raiding Parthian temples. Emperor Marcus must atone for their sin with a sacrifice. The only rational response for a Roman emperor in the face of a giant natural disaster like a plague was to try to restore our peace with the gods by increasing sacrifices, by increasing public manifestations of devotion to the gods. Because in a case of a natural disaster, the emperor had the responsibility of preserving the people by winning back the goodwill of the gods. Despite seven days of sacrifice, the gods are still hungry. The death toll continues to rise, especially among the troops in the army camps. So a lot of experienced soldiers would have been lost and large numbers of the civilian population. So it was hard to rebound quickly. Wounded and sick, the empire is weak. Its enemies swoop in for the kill. In 167, 6,000 German barbarians cross the Danube River and burst into the Roman province of Pannonia. They ravage the unprotected provincials at will, plundering villages and taking hundreds of hostages. Some barbarians even claim land. We don't know whether they're just raiding or whether they want to migrate. A lot of the tribes see the advantages of Roman civilization and would like to have a piece of the action. So raids become frequent, and it's hard for Marcus to mobilize the troops to keep them out. For several agonizing days, the barbarians attack the defenseless Pannonia. The Roman legions are too far away, strung out along the vast frontier. When the legionaries arrive at last, the ferocity of the Germans nearly overwhelms them. I suspect that a lot of them would have had imitation style or even captured Roman equipment. So I think a German army of the time of Marcus Aurelius would have presented quite a formidable facade. Just as the first wave falters, more Roman troops arrive from other points along the border. Their well-timed cavalry assault, coupled with fresh infantry, forces the barbarians to retreat. Showing incredible confidence, the German warlord Balamarius of the powerful Marcomanni tribe ventures into the Roman camp to negotiate a peace treaty. Surprisingly, he represents not only his own people, but ten other tribes as well. This unified front spells a new type of danger for the empire. The German threat that Marcus faced was different from the one that had been faced by earlier emperors. They've become more organized, their societies have changed, probably by influence and exposure to the Romans. There's a great irony there. Alarmed by the growing barbarian menace, Emperor Marcus heads for Pannonia. With no experience in battle, Emperor Marcus must rely on his chief military officer, Pompeianus, to help him earn his glory. German raids had gone across the Danube, stealing cattle, stealing slaves, stealing goods for centuries. Why now does Rome actually decide it's going to lead an expedition, a punitive expedition against these Germans? In my estimation, Marcus Aurelius is simply building that into a case for more military activity in order to give himself more legitimacy in Rome. Though Marcus' brother, Emperor Verus, also joins the campaign, he is drunk and unwell. Before they can even reach the border, Verus succumbs to plague, forcing the entire expedition to turn back. Marcus has no choice but to return to Rome with his brother's body, abandoning the northern border to the ever-growing barbarian threat. He returns to a court facing its own crisis. The empire's many wars have exhausted the royal treasury. There is nothing left to fund a new expedition against the Germans. Most officials probably were wealthy enough that a missed payday wouldn't matter much. But a soldier who was basically living hand to mouth and supplementing that living by gathering booty from conquest, those things begin to matter. Unable to pay his soldiers, Marcus resorts to extreme measures according to the Augustan history. Marcus held a public sale of his own imperial furnishings. He sold goblets of gold and crystal, and even his wife's silken gold embroidered robes. It's sort of as if the royal family in England ran out of money and had to put the crown jewels on eBay or something to raise money. I call this a public relations scheme because you couldn't possibly raise enough money to manage a war by selling off your second and even your third set of china, which is more or less what the emperor did. But it amounted to an attempt to show that even the emperor was going to make a personal sacrifice in favor of the common good, the sort of sacrifice that Americans once made in the buying of war bonds in World War II. Marcus' recruiters hope the money will help lure new soldiers for the German war, but the call to arms gets few takers. The Roman Empire was suffering a huge drain in manpower and economic power, and this may well have made people reluctant to sign up and left families terribly, terribly reluctant to send off healthy young males to war. Resurgent attacks of plague also stretch the empire's resources to the limit. Scandalously, Pompeianus, Emperor Marcus' chief military advisor, turns to the dregs of society, as the Augustan history reports. They armed gladiators and turned the bandits of Dalmatia into soldiers. They even trained slaves for military service. Pompeianus is appalled by the quality of recruits, but before he can prepare this ragtag army for war, disaster strikes on the empire's border. In 169, swarms of German warrior bands attack Roman provinces on the Danube. Marcus and Pompeianus must lead their new legions north to Germania, ready or not. Fighting on the barbarians' home turf, the inexperienced Roman army is clearly outmatched. When Germans were able to draw the Romans across the Danube in a fight, in forested terrain where the Roman soldiers were not able to develop their military lines, not able to use their auxiliaries effectively, the Germans had the advantage and they often won. In the spring of 170, the greatest of the German tribes, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, square off against the Romans and crush them. Marcus Aurelius is definitely something special, but does that mean that he's a good leader? How effectively can you lead the troops in battle? The fact is that Marcus Aurelius' record there is not good. Marcus' first major battle results in the massacre of 20,000 Romans. It is the worst Roman defeat in a century. In 170 AD, they pounce upon the rich port town of Aquileia, near modern-day Venice, and ravage it at will. It is the first time in three centuries that barbarians raid the Italian heartland. They're fierce, they're cruel, they're barbarian, and they probably conjure up in the Romans' mind images of the Gauls coming into Rome in the 4th century BC, the threats of the Cimbri and the Teutones in the late 2nd century BC. The Romans particularly fear these individuals coming to Italy. With Rome in the grips of terror, Emperor Marcus Aurelius must act quickly to vanquish the enemy once and for all. He moves with his army north along the Danube and prepares to invade the lands of the powerful Marcomanni tribe. The cold green forests of the north are alien to the Roman emperor. Alone and far from the only home he has ever known, Marcus adjusts poorly to the rugged life of an army officer. His health declines. We know that the famous ancient doctor Galen was Marcus' personal physician for a time, and we know that Galen prepared a medicine for him to take every day, both to treat current illnesses and to stave off future ones. In particular, plague, which continues to devastate his troops. With death constantly on his mind, Marcus records his innermost thoughts in a journal known as the Meditations. It is still in print today and reveals a man grappling with his fate. Do not act as if you were going to live 10,000 years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be a decent man. Philosophy gives him a way of dealing with the crises, of dealing with the unpleasant things he has to face on a daily basis along the Danube. The solitude of the deep German woods is a far cry from the chaos and bloodshed Marcus will meet on the battlefield. He launches a series of military strikes in the lands of the most dangerous tribes, the Sarmatians, the Quadi, and the Marcomanni. The barbarians have defeated Marcus before and remain confident as they set up camp along the river. But Marcus is learning from his enemy. He abandons the established Roman line formation in favor of smaller, more mobile units called vexillations. These give his army greater flexibility as they maneuver through the trees. It was a new war. It was a different war. And it was a war that was far different from some of these veterans who had just fought the Parthians in very straight lines and using conventional tactics in the Middle East. This was a war where ambushes were going to be the norm. When the barbarians least suspect it, the Romans swoop in. In the heat of battle, a Roman soldier was on a very dangerous tightrope. He had to balance this incredible adrenaline rush that would lead him to attack. He had to stay calm even though his hormones are overcoming him. He had to set aside the natural panic that affects anybody when you're going to be only two feet away in a killing zone that's just as dangerous to you as to your enemy. At last, the ailing and inexperienced Emperor Marcus can claim a victory on German soil. The Romans build on their triumph by erecting a line of garrisons in Marcomanni and Quadi territory. The annexation of Germania begins in earnest. But the Germans respond aggressively against the fortifications. Like hornets whose nest has been violated, the barbarians swarm the imperial headquarters in coordinated attacks. The Germans that came out of the forests against Marcus Rulius are not howling savages dressed in bear skins with wooden shields and big axes like we see in Hollywood. They had been dealing with the Romans now for two centuries. They had learned their techniques, they'd observed their equipment, so they knew how the Romans fought. If they breach the fortress, the Romans know they will destroy everyone inside. Inside the fortress, Marcus Aurelius moves among his men, restoring their spirits and exposing himself to danger. He may well have felt, out of some sense of personal responsibility, of which we would entirely approve, that if he was going to send men to their death in war, that he ought, in fact, to be present, to take an interest, to manage those campaigns. As the situation becomes most critical, Marcus turns to his pagan gods, sacrificing and asking for their help against the German hordes. They answer him with a miracle, according to the 4th century Augustan history. Standing his ground, he prayed to the gods and summoned a thunderbolt from heaven against the enemy. The barbarians, of course, would have seen a thunderbolt as a very negative thing. It seemed that the gods were favoring the Romans in this case, and that's not a good thing, so presumably they would have to deal with that. At the very gates of the fortress, the terrified barbarians break and run. The Romans are delivered. Thrilled, the Romans hail Marcus by a new title, Germanicus, the conqueror of the Germans. Even the peaceful German farming communities are not safe from Marcus' wrath. The Romans prove their mastery by the edge of their swords. A lot of these wars against the Germans were genocidal kinds of wars, Romans attacking villages, wiping everyone out, carrying women and children off into slavery. We see soldiers bringing heads of defeated enemies to get rewards. The Romans record the ugliness of the conflict on a towering monument, which commemorates Marcus' German campaigns. It is known as the Aurelian Column. The Marcus Aurelius Column is saying, this is a brutal, nasty business that your emperor is doing for your safety. And this is the cost of it. It's not pleasant. In the German tribal lands, Marcus carves out two new Roman provinces, Markomania and Sarmatia. But just as they seem to be stabilizing, disturbing news comes from an unexpected quarter, Egypt. Egypt was one of the most important territories in the Roman Empire because it was so rich. There were sort of fears that somebody who controlled Egypt might threaten the entire empire. These fears prove well-founded when Egyptian rebels lead a bloody revolt against their Roman leaders. The terror in the desert only increases. It was definitely a worrying thing. You had to respond to that promptly. Egypt was a huge supplier of grain for Rome itself. So a person who controlled Egypt could put the squeeze on the food supply for the plebs and the populace in the city of Rome, and they would, in turn, obviously put pressure on the emperor to do something about it. In 174, Marcus sends to Syria, where he has three legions stationed. He directs them to Alexandria, Egypt. At the head of the avenging army rides one of Marcus' oldest and most trusted friends, Ovidius Cassius. Marcus Aurelius designated a famous and successful general under his command, Ovidius Cassius, to have an overarching command in the eastern half of the empire, superordinate to provincial governors. The hero of the Parthian campaign does not disappoint. Ovidius puts down the rebellion swiftly, securing the Egyptian territory and its wealth for the empire. But along the empire's northern border in Germania, the enemy is much more elusive. The German campaign seems to go on without end. I mean, he is making progress. But when you drive back one tribe, another one might appear 50 miles up the river, and you have to deal with that. For seven years, Marcus has battled the barbarians in the dense northern forests to the wretched decline of his own health. In 175, he falls ill on the German frontier. Whether it is plague or ulcers, his death seems imminent. His nurse and wife, the Empress Faustina, has stood by him for 20 years. Now she worries about her own future. If you're an empress or a princess, it's very clear what happens if the male that you're attached to dies or falls from grace or is usurped. Then your life expectancy can be reckoned in minutes, along with that of your children. You want to be sure that your husband is doing well and is healthy and is supported. And if he's not, then you need to be thinking about contingencies. Grief overwhelms Faustina. Who will protect her if he dies? She offers her hand and the empire to another noble, Ovidius Cassius, the popular commander of the armies in Egypt. Eager to gain the glory he knows he deserves, Ovidius leaps at the chance to become emperor. The Augustan History While Marcus still breathed, Ovidius Cassius spread false rumors of his death. Indeed, he told his army that the Senate had already decreed Marcus a god. Then he declared himself emperor. Ovidius may also have felt that it was for the benefit of the people. Marcus Aurelius is considered to be a good emperor, but he was not a strong emperor in many ways. Not necessarily so good in the military. Yet just as Ovidius claims the throne, Marcus recovers from his illness, putting both men in an impossible position. What do you do? You can't say, listen, I'm sorry about that claim on the throne business. It was a bit of a mistake, you know, rush of blood to the head, can we move on? Once you'd staked your claim, you had declared your intention to be emperor, you'd always be suspected from that point on. This was threatening to Marcus Aurelius for a number of reasons. Ovidius Cassius was a major military commander in charge of a significant number of troops. And now he intends to take those troops to Rome itself and assert his claim. Marcus must crush the revolt of Ovidius Cassius. He must deal with the betrayal by his wife. But knowing he may die in the struggle to come, he proclaims his own son, Commodus, as his heir. Commodus was not then old enough to be a significant power broker in his own right. Marcus Aurelius does not ever seem to have considered anyone other than his son to succeed him. Having been spoiled in the indulgences of his royal youth, the boy has yet to prove his character or worth as a soldier. But he is Marcus' only son. The choice will not be a good one for Rome. Why did he appoint Commodus? Well, because Commodus was his natural son and this was the normal way for Roman aristocratic families to think. It had always been the case that Roman upper-class senators and aristocrats had promoted themselves over many generations. With his son's position secured, Marcus turns now to the wife who betrayed him to Ovidius Cassius. Astonishingly, he forgives her. Marcus did not punish Faustina afterwards. He was a very intelligent man and understood perhaps after heart-to-heart with her what her motives were. He didn't in any way put her aside or divorce her or in any way dishonor her. As his troops prepare to march against the armies of Ovidius Cassius, a messenger approaches sent by Ovidius' soldiers. They have ousted the usurper, hoping to avoid the true emperor's revenge. They know the price of treason. The usual course of action would be for rounds of denunciations, interrogations, tortures, exiles, executions, forced suicides. The messenger bears a grisly gift, the head of Ovidius Cassius, once his great friend. Historian Cassius Dio. Marcus was so greatly grieved at Ovidius' death that he could not bring himself to even look at the severed head of his enemy. The rebellion is finished and Marcus can turn again to the great project of his life, conquering the German barbarians once and for all. The rebellion interrupts his campaign. He has to divert resources, divert troops, shift money, and that causes a disruption in his plan. The barbarians take advantage of such distractions. In 178, Marcus sends in troops to face down a violent band of rebels on the Danube River. Their savagery has only increased. It was so overwhelming to face these barbarians, tall or loud or smelling, looking different, that sometimes you'd have to drink before you went into battle to calm your nerves. Marcus must subdue this enemy or his years of hard work on the frontier will come to nothing. The aging Marcus isolates the rebel leaders and has them brutally put to death. He believes that just one more season of campaigning will bring the conflict to an end. The German wars of Marcus Aurelius would turn out to be extraordinarily long and protracted, but it's not clear that it was obvious to Marcus or to anyone else that they would be so from the start. Now almost 60, Marcus hopes that his son and heir, Commodus, will carry on his battle against the Germans, a struggle that has taken the best years of his life. Marcus Aurelius had trained Commodus, took him with him on his campaigns, but he was just too young. I don't think Marcus Aurelius fully realized what kind of emperor Commodus would have become. But in his role as co-emperor, the boy has become lazy, with no interest in hard-won victories, as unlike Marcus as a man could be. Still, he is by his father's side when Emperor Marcus Aurelius succumbs at last, probably to the same ruinous plague that claimed his brother. Just 19, Commodus has no patience for warfare and longs for the good life in Rome. He doesn't have the leadership or the vision that his father had, and he pretty much backs off of the campaigns along the Danube long-term. It's a very negative thing for Rome. With weak treaties and reduced garrisons, the new emperor, Commodus, abandons Germania, squandering 13 years of struggle and bloodshed to return to the comfort of Rome. Without the vigilance of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Empire fights a losing battle against the barbarian swarm. When you have a perfect storm of bad leadership, bad luck, and foreign threats, you are in really very deep trouble. What they would discover, not least in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, is that they could not withstand challenges across more than, say, a certain number of points along that border at any given time. The tide is turning for Rome. There will never be an emperor like Marcus Aurelius again. According to Dio, it is the beginning of the end. Our history now descends from a kingdom of gold and silver to one of iron. Next on Rome, rise and fall of an empire. Just when the empire needs them most, Rome's ancient gods are threatened by a new religion, Christianity. As plague strikes and barbarians attack, Emperor Decius must find a way to quell the gods' wrath, or all will be lost.