April 23, 1932
I HAVE not written to you for many days, my dear. I have been disturbed and thrilled by news from Allahabad, and, above all, by news of Dol Amma, your old grandmother. And I have chafed a little at my comparative comfort in gaol when my mother, frail and weak, has had to face and receive the lathi blows of the police. But I must not allow my thoughts to run away with me and to interfere with my story.
We shall go back to Rome, or Romaka as the old Sanskrit books 88
have it. You will remember that we have talked of the end of the Roman Republic and of the coming of the Roman Empire. Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Csesar, became the first monarch, under the name of Augustus Caesar. He did not call himself king, partly because the title was not considered big enough for him, and partly because he wanted to keep up the outward forms of the Republic. He therefore called himself " Imperator" or commander. This word imperator thus came to be the highest title, and, as you perhaps know, the English word "
emperor " comes from it. So the early empire in Rome gave two words, which were long coveted and used by monarchs all over the world almost— emperor and Caesar or Kaiser or Tsar.
Originally, it was supposed that there could only be one emperor at one time, a kind of boss of the whole world. Rome was called Mistress of the World, and people in the West thought that the whole world was overshadowed by Rome. This was of course incorrect and only displayed ignorance of geography and history. The Roman Empire was largely a Mediterranean empire and
never went beyond Mesopotamia in the east. There were bigger and more powerful and more cultured States in China and India from time to time. None the less, so far as the western world was concerned, Rome was the sole empire, and as such represented a kind of world-empire to the ancients. It had tremendous prestige.
The most wonderful thing about Rome is this idea behind it— the idea of world-dominion, of the headship of the world. Even when Rome fell, this idea protected it and gave it strength. And the idea persisted even when it was cut off completely from Rome itself. So much so that the Empire itself vanished and became a phantom, but the idea remained.
I find it a little difficult to write of Rome and of its successors. It is not easy to pick and choose what to tell you, and my mind is, I am afraid, a bit of a jumble of ill-assorted pictures gathered from old books that I have read, largely in prison. Indeed, one of the famous books on Roman history I would probably not have read if I had not come to prison. The book is so big that it is difficult to find time, in the midst of other activities, to read it right through. It is called The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and is by an Englishman named Gibbon. It was written quite a long time ago— about 150 years—on the shores of Lac Leman in Switzerland, but it makes fascinating reading even now, and I found its story, given in somewhat pompous but melodious language, more engrossing than any novel. Nearly ten years ago I read it in Lucknow District Gaol, and for over a month I lived with Gibbon for a close companion, wrapped up in the images of the past that his language evoked. I was suddenly discharged before I had quite
finished the book. The charm was broken, and I found some difficulty in finding the time and the mood to go back to ancient Rome and Constantinople and read the hundred or so pages that remained.
But this was nearly ten years ago and, of course, I have forgotten a very great deal of what I read then. Still, enough remains in
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my mind to fill it and confuse it, and I do not want the confusion to pass on to you.
Let us, first of all, cast a look at the Roman Empire or Empires through the ages. Later perhaps one may try to fill in the picture a little.
The Empire begins with Augustus Caesar on the eve of the Christian era. For a little while the Emperors pay deference to the Senate, but almost the last traces of the Republic disappear soon enough, and the Emperor becomes all-powerful, a wholly autocratic monarch— indeed, almost a god. During his lifetime he is worshipped as semi-divine. After his death he becomes a. full god.
All the writers of the day endow most of the early Emperors with every virtue— specially Augustus. They call it the Golden Age, the Age of Augustus, when every virtue flourished and the good were rewarded and the wicked punished. That is the way writers have in despotic countries, where it is obvious that the praise of the ruler pays. Some of the most famous of Latin authors—Virgil, Ovid, Horace— whose books we had to read at school, lived about this time. It is possible that after the civil wars and troubles which took place continually during the latter
days of the Republic, it was a great relief to have a period of peace and respite when trade and some measure of civilization could flourish.
But what was this civilization ? It was a rich man's civilization, and these rich were not even like the artistic and keen-witted rich of ancient Greece, but a rather commonplace and dull crowd, whose chief job was to enjoy themselves. From all over the world foods and articles of luxury came for them, and there was great magnificence and show. The tribe of such people is not extinct even yet. There was pomp and show and a succession of gorgeous processions and games in the circus and gladiators done to death. But behind this pomp was the misery of the masses.
There was heavy taxation which fell on the common people chiefly, and the burden of work fell on the innumerable slaves. Even their doctoring and philosophizing and thinking the great ones of Rome left largely to Greek slaves ! There was exceedingly little attempt to educate or to find out facts about the world of which they called themselves the masters.
Emperor followed emperor, and some were bad and some were very bad. And gradually the army became all-powerful and could make and unmake emperors. So it came about that there was bidding to gain the favour of the army and money was squeezed from the masses or from conquered territories to bribe the army. One of the great sources of revenue was the slave-trade, and there were regular organized slave-hunts by Roman armies in the East. Slave merchants accompanied the armies to buy up the slaves on the spot. The island of Delos, sacred to the old Greeks, became a great slave-market, where sometimes as many as 10,000 slaves were sold in a day ! In the great Colosseum of Rome, a popular emperor used to display as many as 1200 gladiators at a time— slaves who were to die to provide sport for the emperor and his people.
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Such was Roman civilization in the days of the Empire. And yet our friend Gibbon writes that:
"Ifa man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world when the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus"—this means the eighty-four years from 96 A.C. to 180 A.C. I am afraid Gibbon, with all his learning, has said something with which most people will certainly hesitate to agree. He talks of the human race, meaning thereby the
Mediterranean world chiefly, for he could have had little or no knowledge of India or China or ancient Egypt.
But perhaps I am a little hard on Rome. It must have been a pleasant change to have some measure of peace within the Roman dominions. There were frequent wars on the frontiers, but within the Empire there was, during the early days at least, the Pax Romana—the Roman Peace.
There was some security, and this brought trade. Roman citizenship was extended to the whole Roman world—but remember that the poor slaves had nothing to do with it. And also remember that the Emperor was all-powerful and the citizen had few rights. Any discussion on politics would have been considered treason against the Imperator. For the upper classes there was a measure of uniform government and one law. This must have been a great gain to many people who had previously suffered under worse despotisms.
Gradually the Romans became too lazy or otherwise unfit even to fight in their own armies. The farmers in the countryside became poorer under the burdens they had to carry, and so did the people in the city. But the emperors wanted to keep the city-folk pleased, so that they might not give trouble. For this purpose free bread was given to the people of Rome and free games in the circus to amuse them. Thus they were kept in good humour, but this free distribution could only take place in a few places, and even this was done at the cost of misery and suffering to the slave populations in other countries like Egypt, who provided the free flour.
As the Roman people did not readily join the armies, people from outside the Empire—"
barbarians " as they were called—were enlisted, and the Roman armies came largely to consist of people who were allied or related to the "barbarian" enemies of Rome. On the frontiers these "
barbarian " tribes continually pressed and hemmed in the Romans. As Rome grew weaker the "
barbarians " seemed to grow stronger and more daring. From the east especially there was danger, and as this frontier was far from Rome, it was not easy to defend it. Three hundred years after Augustus Caesar, an emperor named Constantino took a great step which was to have far-reaching consequences. He actually shifted the seat of his empire from Rome to the East. Near an old city called Byzantium on the shores of the Bosphorus, between the Black Sea and the
Mediterranean, he founded a new city, which he called, after himself, Constantinople.
Constantinople, or New Rome as it was also called, became then the capital and seat of the Roman Empire.
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Even to-day in many parts of Asia Constantinople is known as Rum or Roum.