The Roman
Empire
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History of Italy)
The events
of the first century BC in Italy are marked by a move from republican
liberties to dictatorial regimes and a return to a democratic-type
structure (rather similar to present-day presidential republics)
with the advent of the principate of Augustus (27 BC-AD
14). At this stage the State was transformed into the Roman
Empire, which gradually became a kind of elective monarchy
although hereditary transmission was also not a rare occurrence.
The Empire was to formally last until beyond mid 5C AD (476
was the year in which the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus,
was deposed) but came to an end for all practical purposes at
the death of Emperor Theodosius (AD 395).
During the
forty years of his principate, Octavian sought to give his empire
a better organized territorial structure, which was necessary
for the administrative, judicial and military reforms that were
to flow. In this structure Italy formed one of the senatorial
provinces in which the Empire was divided; this province was
divided in its turn into eleven independent administrative regions,
with the exceptions of Sardinia and Corsica that were imperial
provinces. Much later, under Diocletian (284-305), these last
two, together with the Italian peninsula and the addition of
Rhaetia, formed the diocese of Italy, which was united to that
of Africa as one of the four prefectures of the Empire. Octavian
also took particular care to construct an efficient road network
to link the various imperial provinces. These roads are represented
in detail on the `Tabula Peutingeriana', which shows the entire
imperial road network and probably dates to AD 4C.
Though retaining the Empire's
capital (until it was transferred to Constantinople at the beginning
of the 4C), the imperial period saw a radical economic and political
change. In Italy this was characterized by the gradual loss
of its pre-eminence in comparison with the other provinces with
which it had to compete. The possibility of importing from many
parts of the world all types of products, including foodstuffs,
signalled the progressive decline of cultivation by small and
medium proprietors and favoured the large cereal and pastoral
estates to which flocked as tenants the old peasant class. Also,
after the relative prosperity of the Augustan and Antonine periods,
there was a profound reduction in cultivation and large-scale
crops partially replaced specialized forms, such as grapes and
olives. Another aspect was the growth of towns, which became
the centres of political and economic life and thus also attracted
an increasing population. Industrial production was organized
by the State through its `fabricae', while craftsmanship took
a corporate form that served to further harden social structures.
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