In the early centuries of Roman history, architects struggled immensely to keep up with the pace
of their Generals.
By the time they conquered their way to a pan-Mediterranean empire, Rome itself remained
a slapdash, overcrowded tangle of a city.
But with careful planning and a limitless supply of imperial cash, Augustus and subsequent
emperors turned things around: redecorating with temples in a Greco-marbled style, upgrading
the venues for business, politics, and entertainment, bolstering supply lines, core infrastructure,
and water stability, and just slathering the city in imperial propaganda.
Much to the joy of Roman citizens and the satisfaction of their emperors, this process
continued largely uninterrupted for the next 200 years.
After that, ehh, less great — because Civil War reappeared on Rome’s To-Do list, and
by the time the dust had settled, other cities took on Capital status.
Still, even after a visit from the Vandals and the western empire’s overthrow in the
400s, Rome’s alluring grandeur was unshakeable, and it remained a cultural treasure and municipal
masterpiece into the modern day.
But, that’s the city of Rome for you: late to the party, late to die.
For the Romans, the joys of conquest were not limited to siphoning treasures back to
the capital, but taking charge of conveniently pre-assembled cities to call their own.
In ideal circumstances, Rome gets a shiny toy to play with and more architecture to
copy, while the newly-acquired city reaps the benefits of a sprawling Mediterranean
economy — sometimes without even being destroyed first.
Such is (almost) the case with Ephesus.
Originally an Ionian Greek city and home of the legendary Temple of Artemis, Ephesus knew
how to handle new management.
The port-city prospered under the Persian empire, remained a major trading hub during
the Hellenistic Era, and was finally handed to the romans by the King of Pergamon’s
Will; Shockingly clean for a Roman Conquest.
After a crash-course in Roman political turmoil (complete with a sack in 88 BC, whoops), imperial-era
Ephesus became the provincial capital of Asia and possibly the biggest center of scholarship
outside Alexandria, with an absolutely gorgeous library to boot.
Though it would soon be upstaged by Constantinople and later abandoned in the Byzantine era after
the main port dried up, Ephesus had played to its strengths and rolled with the punches
to become, for a time, the most splendid Greek city of the Roman world.
Of course, not all Roman cities were strictly Roman, or even Roman-adjacent like the Greeks.
Many corners of the growing empire were home to former enemies, with their own language
and culture.
The blunt version of the onboarding process was to blow it up and start from scratch,
Sorry Carthage, but a delicate touch and some creative thinking could just as effectively
turn a city “Roman”, as in the success of Leptis Magna.
Originally a Phoenician colony from the 7th century BC, their first experience with Empire
came courtesy of Carthage, but following the Second Punic War, Leptis and their neighbors
split off as an independent kingdom, then broke away from that to ally with Rome a century
later.
And their independent streak continued with their designation as a “Free City”, retaining
their Punic language, local coinage, and traditional constitution.
Even as Roman culture crept in, that Phoenician flavor remained a core feature of the city.
Their big break came when hometown boy Septimius Severus became emperor and proceeded to go
nuts on urban expansion, building a triumphal arch, massive civil basilica, and new harbor,
taking it from “Just Another City” to among the grandest in north Africa, alongside
Alexandria and Carthage.
Yet in 439, the Vandals took over, and that process of readjustment began once again.
Leave it to those Romans to outgrow even the entire Mediterranean Sea and go out scrounging
for more.
After Caesar’s losing encounter with Britannia, Rome refused to leave well enough alone, and
returned a century later to colonize the island, or at least try to.
This remote corner of Europe was rich in metals and full of enslave-able locals, but the native
Celtic people weren’t super jazzed about that second one, so Britannia was as hard
to keep from rebelling as it was to conquer.
On top of that challenge was a lack of established cities to yoink, so the Romans started from
scratch with colonies like Londinium.
Founded in the late 40s AD at a point on the river Thames that was narrow enough to bridge
but deep enough to sail, it became the largest in Britannia by the end of the century.
Not huge by Mediterranean standards, but remarkable for just how fast it took the shape of a full
Roman city, with a gridded street plan, amphitheater, forum, basilica, running water, all the hits.
Similarly impressive was the diversity of goods and people in far-out Londinium, as
well as the development of a Romano-Celtic hybrid culture.
Despite its success, Britannia was always in some form of peril, and when the invasions
came a-comin’ in the 400s, the legions withdrew across the channel and left the cities to
fend for themselves.
Some Romano-Britons kept the dream alive despite their newfound isolation, but by the end of
the century, Londinium was abandoned.
Unfortunately, not everywhere was so lucky as to last the full imperial runtime before
falling into ruin.
Down the coast from Rome lay the fertile Campania Plain and Bay of Naples, home to Etruscans,
Greeks, and Samnites before their conquest by a young Roman Republic.
Following a mass revolt across the Italian peninsula in the first century BC, Rome imposed
a thorough Latinization program (alongside a helpful construction boom), and so Campanian
cities like Pompeii became major entry ports for goods bound for Rome.
Still, Pompeii was a small city, and not especially interesting at the time.
However, the mountain had other plans, because one day in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius woke up and
chose murder, blanketing the city in a 20-foot pile of ash and pumice, burying it so thoroughly
that later romans couldn’t even remember where it was.
And so it lay until excavations in the 1700s unearthed the best preserved and most lifelike
ancient site Ever; practically frozen in time, down to the loaves of bread still in the oven.
Despite its untimely end, no Roman city would survive as vividly as Pompeii.
Hilariously enough, its location atop a volcanic hill technically makes Pompeii a lava sandwich.
Discuss.
It’s obviously fair to say that the Roman empire was diverse, but it’s tough to qualify
what that actually means.
Ethnic diversity, sure, as Italians, Greeks, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Africans, Celts, and
Germans could all partake in the collective Roman world, blending their own cultures into
the wider whole to make a special local flair.
But as well as whom, these cities illustrate the diversity of what Rome could mean.
The ancient ancestral capital, yeah, but just as Roman is the city that became a splendid
hub of scholarship, or one that slowly turned from foe to friend, or the one built from
scratch at the edge of the world, or a small but crucial link in maritime trade that suddenly
drowned in ash.
It’s easy to think of Rome as just this a thousand times over.
But Rome isn’t just one thing, it’s all of these things, constantly changing over
time; with the enthusiasm to be everything that it can, with everyone it can find.
(Granted, some “found” more forcefully than others.)
Yes they were bloodthirsty generals, yes they were brilliant architects, but they also clearly
show us how they were just people.
Thank you so much for watching.
I hemmed and hawed quite a bit about which cities to include here, as there’s certainly
no lack of options, but I’m happy with the picture I was able to paint with these 5.
Huge thanks as always to our wonderful community of patrons, and I will see you all in the
next video.