By a coincidence of history the Roman empire,at its start,has recently achieved a new geographical completeness.The campaigns of Pompey have led to the annexation of Syria in 64 BC and the capture of Jerusalem in 63.With Octavian's defeat of Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC,Egypt too becomes a province.Just in time for the start of the empire,the eastern pieces of the jigsaw are in place.
The Mediterranean,centre of the known world (as its name states),has become what it will remain for the next four centuries - a Roman sea.And during the same period,until Constantine gives the city a new Christian role,the story of Rome itself becomes submerged in that of the wider Roman empire.
The rule of Augustus Caesar brings an unprecedented forty years of peace in Italy.With few setbacks on distant frontiers,Rome and its territories enjoy a steady increase in prosperity and trade.
The frontiers of empire are slightly extended.More important,they become stablized and properly defended.Professional careers are now possible in the army (recruits sign on for sixteen years,later increased to twenty) and in the civil service.Improved roads make it easier to keep in close touch with distant parts of the Roman world,and to move troops wherever they are needed.New towns,built to Roman design,are established in areas where there was previously no administrative structure.
The region in which Augustus makes the most effort to extend the empire is beyond the Alps into Germany.By 14 BC the German tribes are subdued up to the Danube.In the next five years Roman legions push forward to the Elbe.But this further border proves impossible to hold.In AD 9 Arminius,a German chieftain of great military skill,destroys three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest.
The Romans pull back (though they return briefly to avenge what seems a shameful defeat).The conclusion,bequeathed by Augustus to his successors,is that the Roman empire has some natural boundaries; to the north these are the Rhine and the Danube.
Within these boundaries the reign of Augustus introduces what becomes known as the Pax Romana,the Roman peace.For those within the empire this represents a real and unprecedented benefit.
Somehow,after the death of Augustus in AD 14,this fortunate state of affairs survives even the grotesque behaviour on the imperial throne of the descendants either of Augustus himself or of his second wife Livia.The family life of the Caesars,recorded in dramatic detail by Tacitus and others,has fascinated subsequent generations.But amazingly the empire not only survives this first dynasty of emperors (AD 14-68).It even grows.