Introduction

The term Roman Empire refers to the complex of cultural, military, social and political forces which controlled the Mediterranean world and Western Europe from 30 BCE to the fifth century CE. Christianity emerged within the Roman Empire and developed its main characteristics as a phenomenon of the empire. In the fourth century, Christianity was recognised as the religion of the state.

Although the Roman Empire included an incredibly vast area and a historical process spread over many centuries, in this discussion the focus will be on the eastern part of the Roman Empire during the first century (from Augustus to Trajan). How did it come about that Rome dominated the Mediterranean world during the first century?

From city to world power

The Roman Empire grew from small beginnings. It started as a small city-state in central Italy in the eighth century BCE and grew through wars of acquisition. Through trade it exerted a strong economic influence and political domination in areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and areas as far afield as North Africa, Spain, Gaul, Greece and Asia Minor. The seeds for the later imperial power were sown already as early as the sixth century BCE, when Rome became a republic under the governance of two magistrates (known as the time of ‘the Republic’). Wealthy and powerful families vied for power and dominance over the republican Senate, with the last century of the Republic (.140-50 BCE) especially characterised by intense conflicts and social troubles, compounded by strife between the commoners (the plebeians) and the Senate, as well as slave revolts.

These problems were exacerbated by the rise in piracy along the eastern Mediterranean coast which threatened the grain supply to Rome, as well as by the actions of the Parthian (or Persian) king, Mithridates. He saw in the unrest and conflicts in Rome an opportunity to expand the already vast dominions he held in the east further into the west. Although a Roman army under a general Sulla had driven Mithridates from Asia Minor, in 67 BCE to 66 BCE, the Senate voted ‘special powers’ to another Roman general, Pompey, to do what was necessary to deal with the pirate problem and the Parthian threat.