Italy (Roman)

Map of the provinces of the Roman Empire after 120. The Cisalpine Gaul , shown in this map, was in fact annexed to Italy at the end of the republic -42

At the time of ancient Rome in the last centuries of the Republic and then under the Empire the concept evolved to arrive from Italy to designate the Italian peninsula in its entirety, from Brindisi to the Alps , however it does not islands, except in the post tetrarchy ( IV ^century ). There was already a vast territory and marked initially by a very wide ethnic and social. Despite the spread of romanization , the unified Italy in Rome, like today, always retained strong local characteristics.

A portion of the table Peutinger , a copy of a map of Renaissance Roman ^fourth century , showing the central southern Italy.

Under the Republic and during the Roman Empire, it never considered that Sicily and Sardinia fissent part of Italy. Similarly, under the empire, now part of Italy depended on the provinces of the Alps: Alps Cottian or Rhaetia. The limits of Italy, north of the peninsula have indeed been changing: many people it disputed the territory: people Italic , Liguria , Etruscans and Celts and Romans. Celtic presence was strong enough and influential to the north of our current Italy was long considered a part of the Celtic world and called Cisalpine Gaul . As this was the only part of the peninsula that was actually a Roman province , the province of Cisalpine Gaul. After Caesar, however this province disappears, becoming a fully fledged piece of Italy.

The territory of Italy, who was the first field expansion of Roman power, was incorporated into the nascent empire in different forms: Roman colonies and Latin, treaties of alliance ( Foedus ), confiscation of land. Italy does not, however, was regarded as a province, a term reserved for the administration of Non-italics. If the word is sometimes used by provincia some of our sources in connection with functions in Italy is never in administrative or technical sense but in its broadest sense, that of "belonging to a district judge" and the late period the Digest he speaks of the provincia of Prefect of the City and found it does so under the Republic the term provincia used to manage forests in the peninsula. Even when Italy had no more privilege in relation to the provinces after Tetrarchy , power always avoided the word Roman province, replacing it with that of region (Regio, regiones).

Indeed, after the Social War the fate of the Italians and Romans did over a peninsula and differed sharply from the other territories controlled by Rome. The advent of the Empire strengthened initially this situation, Italy enjoys unmatched prestige, privileges strong at the same time as a hegemonic military but also economic in the Mediterranean. Only the Italians, indeed, were all Roman citizens with the right soil (jus soli), however, this privilege was also granted to the Roman colonies in the provinces and cities enjoying the juice Italicum. The progressive integration of the provinces in the Empire, their romanization legal and cultural, economic and social development, in perspective, the ^third century , the Italian exception. The ^second century AD marked a turning point in some areas the weight of the provinces to overtake that of Italy, the government of Italy is similar to that of the provinces. The difficulties of the ^third century and the post-reforms ttrachiques put an end to the exception, even if the weight of the past remains prestige. The remoteness of emperors , the foundation of a new capital in the East and the divisions arising from the barbarian invasions saw an Italy divided again into the High Middle Ages.

The work of Auguste

Augustan reorganization completes the integration of the former Cisalpine in Italy: areas north of the peninsula, in Liguria to Transpadane (current Lombardy) came fully into Italy. The latter found himself divided into eleven administrative regions.

• Regio I Latium and Campania
• Regio II Apulia and Calabria
• Regio III Lucania and Bruttium
• Regio IV Sannio
• Regio V Picenum
• Regio VI Umbria and Ager Gallicus
• Regio VII Etruria
• Regio VIII Aemilia
• Regio IX Liguria
• X Regio Venetia and Istria
• Regio XI Transpadane

Italy is now the most privileged of the empire all its free inhabitants are Roman citizens and are exempt from direct taxes, except for the new inheritance tax created to finance military needs (retirement veterans).

Under the Empire

from the ^second century

Italy's place in the empire, in the second century, began to lose his balance. Romanization of the provinces, and some well into the integration of elites within their orders and riding Senate have diminished the uniqueness of Italy. Although Italians are still the majority in the senate until almost the end of the century, the provincial input has changed the policy. The second century saw the empire ruled by emperors from provincial families who are of Italian origin, however: Trajan and Hadrian from Spain, Antoninus Pius of Narbonne. From the early years of the century, Trajan had to regulate the presence of senators in Italy, forcing them to own a significant portion (one third) of their lands in Italy: according to Pliny the Younger (VI, 19), some senators lived indeed in Italy as an inn, such travelers. The measure had only limited effect and was reiterated by Marcus Aurelius, but to a lesser extent (one quarter of the land).

Other factors which ensured its supremacy over the empire gradually change in a shift that lasts throughout the century and began the first century. The legions now fixed the borders of the empire in distant provinces, gradually regionalize their recruitment. The proportion of Italians in the military is decreasing, provincial increases, although the Italians never gave the officer positions as those of centurions, the traditional areas of military recruitment in Italy are not put to use that exceptionally, during the creation of new legions example, as was the case under Marcus Aurelius.

For a long time these observations were supported by a picture of Roman Italy in decline, hit by a severe economic crisis, depopulation and finally unable to resist the competition of the provinces. While in some areas of the provinces have captured markets formerly provided by Italy as the terra sigillata , it is difficult to extrapolate a general situation. Moving productions of Samian Italy to Gaul also corresponds to the emergence on the Rhine demand legionnaires. Furthermore it is possible, with Moses Finley, minimize the overall importance of these productions in the ancient economy. Conversely, some researchers consider them as a marker of economic displacement more important but less visible in our sources. In this perspective a few excavations have received copies exposure very strong and sometimes seemed to sum up the fate of Italy and its economy in the second century. This is the case towards the villa Settefinestre Cosa, which saw its production decline and then dropped to 160 - 170. Again it is risky to generalize the story - even brilliantly restored - a single region, and try to draw lessons for all of Italy. Other regions show instead a vibrant agrarian and economic, as the region of Aquileia. It also seems that we should understand many imports from provinces not as a sign of decline in Italy, but rather as the result of the disproportionate size of a Roman market and technological situation that caused some transportation Long distance shipping were more economical than land transport medium range. Italy alone can not feed Rome, imports account for this fact more than a decline that can scarcely more to do in the second century. Similarly, the population decline is not placed before the Antonine plague , and the consequences thereof are discussed and unclear.

The symbolic place in Italy is hardly affected either, and is the subject of concern of the emperors who reside mostly in its territory with the exception of the emperors engaged in wars ( Trajan , Marcus Aurelius ) and Hadrian , a traveler by choice and perhaps political will. The establishment of foundations by Trajan food, as much as the need to help some less fortunate Italians testifies to the solicitude of the emperor for the Italian land and its citizens. Nevertheless, this concern was also a downside: a thorough check on municipal autonomy of many cities of the peninsula. It is through the institution of curators it occurs. However we interpret more today Trustee as expressing a desire to hold on the imperial cities, and we know better, since the work of F. Jacques, the distance it has with the city that it must monitor occasionally. The principle of monitoring by the imperial administration was needed though.

Hadrian tried to deepen it further? It gave Italy four consular styled legates of Augustus propraetor the title used for the governors of provinces. The outcry in the senate ordered that the measure was revoked by his successor. She answered yet a real need: the regions of Italy needed a more hierarchical administration, particularly in the field of civil justice (law of guardianship). Marcus Aurelius also founded there in 165 the legal (iuridici) who exercised in the district rather changing geography. The area within 100 miles of Rome depended for its prefect of the city that saw its increased powers under the Severi. Outside this zone, and for serious cases or cases affecting the interests of the emperor, or to matters of policing, the praetorian prefect could intervene, as they did to 168, forcing the city of Saepinum to respect the rights of transhumant pastoralists.

In many ways the second century in Italy a century of transition back to its pre-eminence, but in no case exceeded the decline in historiography that wanted to see into the 1970s, based inter alia on Mr. Rostovtseff theses.

References

1. Gaul before the Alps
2. Gaul beyond the Po

Source

• Strabo Geografia, IV, 6, V, 1-4, VI, 1

See also

• Italos
• Pre-Roman Italy
• History of Italy

• Portal History
• Ancient Rome portal
• Italy portal

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