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{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{Lang|la|Pax Romana|nocat=y}}}}
{{Short description|Roman golden age (27 BC to 180)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Roman government}}
The '''{{Lang|la|Pax Romana}}''' ([[Latin]] for {{gloss|Roman peace}}; {{IPA|la|paːks rɔːˈmaːna|IPA}}) is a roughly 200-year-long period of [[ancient Rome]] that is identified as a [[golden age (metaphor)|golden age]] of increased and sustained [[Imperial cult of ancient Rome|Roman imperialism]], prosperous stability, hegemonic power, [[Roman expansion|regional expansion]], and relative peace and order, although it still featured a number of [[List of Roman civil wars and revolts|internal revolts]] and [[List of Roman wars and battles|external wars]], including the [[Roman–Persian wars]]. Traditionally, the onset is understood to be the ascent of [[Augustus]], who also founded the [[Roman principate]], in 27 BC. Conversely, the end of the era is considered as 180 AD with the death of [[Marcus Aurelius]], the last of the "[[Five Good Emperors]]".<ref name=EncBrit>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447447/Pax-Romana |title=Pax Romana |date=2024-02-23 |publisher=Britannica Online Encyclopedia}}</ref> 

It was as part of this period that the [[Roman Empire]] achieved its greatest territorial extent under [[Trajan]] in 117.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Head |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlU3DwAAQBAJ&q=%22pax+romana%22+%22206+years%22&pg=PA85 |title=World History 101: From Ancient Mesopotamia and the Viking Conquests to NATO and WikiLeaks, an Essential Primer on World History |date=2017-10-03 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-5072-0454-2 |page=85 |language=en}}</ref> Additionally, the Roman Empire's population is estimated to have peaked at 70 million people during the Pax Romana, accounting for 33% of the world's population.<ref name=ushistory/> Following the Pax Romana, and according to [[Cassius Dio]], the dictatorial reign of [[Commodus]], later followed by the [[Year of the Five Emperors]] and the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], marked Rome's descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust".<ref>Dio Cassius [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/72*.html#36 72.36.4], Loeb edition translated E. Cary</ref>

==Overview==
[[File:Impero romano sotto Ottaviano Augusto 30aC - 6dC.jpg|thumb|400px|Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow represents the extent of the Republic in 31&nbsp;BC, while green represents gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas represent [[client state]]s.]]

The Pax Romana, spanning from 27 BC to 180, stands as one of the longest enduring periods of peace in history. However, [[Walter Goffart]] wrote: "The volume of the [[The Cambridge Ancient History|''Cambridge Ancient History'']] for the years AD 70–192 is called 'The Imperial Peace', but peace is not what one finds in its pages".<ref name="Goffart1989">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55pDIwvWnpoC&pg=PA111|title=Rome's Fall and After|publisher=Hambledon Press|year=1989|isbn=978-1-85285-001-2|page=111|author=Walter Goffart}}</ref> On the other hand, [[Arthur Eckstein|Arthur M. Eckstein]] writes that the period must be viewed in contrast to the much more frequent warfare in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC under the [[Roman Republic]]. 

Eckstein also notes that the initial Pax Romana appeared during the [[Roman Republic|Republic]], and that its temporal span varied upon geographical region as well: "Although the standard textbook dates for the Pax Romana, the famous 'Roman Peace' in the [[Mediterranean Basin|Mediterranean]], are 31 BC to AD 250, the fact is that the Roman Peace was emerging in large regions of the Mediterranean at a much earlier date: [[Sicily]] after 210 [BC], the [[Italian Peninsula]] after 200 [BC]; the [[Po Valley]] after 190 [BC]; most of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] after 133 [BC]; [[North Africa]] after 100 [BC]; and for ever longer stretches of time in the [[Greek East and Latin West|Greek East]]."<ref name="RosensteinMorstein-Marx2011">{{cite book|editor1=Nathan Rosenstein |editor2=Robert Morstein-Marx|title=A Companion to the Roman Republic|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4rmmvFAKjoC&pg=PA574|orig-year=2006|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5720-2|page=574|chapter=Conceptualizing Roman Imperial Expansion under the Republic: An Introduction|author= Arthur M. Eckstein}}</ref> [[Thomas F. Madden]] explained the dating of 27 BC as avoiding the civil wars of the 1st century BC. The real origins of Pax Romana for him are in the 2nd century BC, after Rome had eliminated all of its serious military rivals and brought an unprecedented peace and prosperity to the lands of their empire.<ref>Madden, Thomas F. (2008). ''Empires of Trust: How Rome Built—and America Is Building—a New World''. (Dutton Adult), p 197.</ref> [[Tim Cornell]] argued that Pax Romana in the sense of the absence of major inter-state wars began in the Second century BC. Over the course of the last two centuries of the Republic, the character and frequency of these wars declined. Almost continuous warfare in the Fourth and Third centuries BC became sporadic and punctuated by long periods of peace.<ref>Cornell, Tim (1993). "The End of Roman Imperial Expansion." ''War and Society in the Roman World''. (Eds. John Rich and Graham Shipley. London: Routledge), p. 156.</ref>

The first known record of the term ''Pax Romana'' appears in a writing by [[Seneca the Younger]] in AD 55.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=25}}</ref> The concept was highly influential, and the subject of theories and attempts to copy it in subsequent ages. [[Arnaldo Momigliano]] noted that "''Pax Romana'' is a simple formula for [[propaganda]], but a difficult subject for research."<ref name="Momi"/>

For most historians, the Pax Romana began when Octavian ([[Augustus]]) defeated [[Mark Antony]] and [[Cleopatra]] in the [[Battle of Actium]] on 2 September 31 BC and became Roman emperor.<ref name=EncBrit/><ref name=Battles>{{cite book |first=Paul K. |last=Davis |author-link=Paul K. Davis (historian) |title=100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |page=63 |isbn=978-1-5760-7075-8}}</ref><ref name=ushistory>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/civ/6c.asp |title=The Pax Romana |website=www.ushistory.org |access-date=2017-02-10}}</ref> He became [[princeps]], or ''first citizen''. Lacking a good precedent of successful one-man rule, Augustus created a [[Military junta|junta]] of the greatest military magnates and stood as the front man. By binding together these leading magnates in a coalition, he eliminated the prospect of [[civil war]]. The Pax Romana was not immediate, despite the end of the civil wars, because fighting continued in [[Hispania]] and in the [[Alps]]. Nevertheless, Augustus closed the [[Gates of Janus]] (a ceremony indicating that Rome was at peace) three times,<ref>Augustus states in ''Res Gestae'' 13 that he closed the Gates three times, a fact documented by many other historians (See [[Gates of Janus]]).</ref> first in 29 BC and again in 25 BC. The third closure is undocumented, but [[Inez Scott Ryberg]] (1949) and Gaius Stern (2006) have persuasively dated the third closure to 13 BC with the commissioning of the [[Ara Pacis]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Procession of the Ara Pacis |first=Inez |last=Scott Ryberg |author-link=Inez Scott Ryberg |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |volume=19 |year=1949 |pages=77, 79–101 |doi=10.2307/4238621|jstor=4238621 }}</ref><ref name=Stern>{{cite book |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/305365124 |title=Women, children, and senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A study of Augustus' vision of a new world order in 13 BC. |first=Gaius |last=Stern |year=2006 |isbn=}} {{ProQuest|305365124}} PhD Dissertation, UC Berkley</ref><ref>Sir [[Ronald Syme]] had suggested a later date (but Rome was then at war).</ref>  At the time of the [[Ludi Saeculares]] in 17 BC the Concept of Peace was publicized, and in 13 BC was proclaimed when Augustus and [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]] jointly returned from pacifying [[Hispania]] and the [[Alps]]. The order to construct the Ara Pacis was probably part of this announcement.<ref>"What was the Pax Romana?" ''World Atlas'', https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-pax-romana.html</ref>

Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but as a rare situation which existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.<ref name="Momi">{{cite journal |jstor=750454 |title=The Peace of the Ara Pacis |first=Arnaldo |last=Momigliano | journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |volume=5 |year=1942 |pages=228–231 |doi=10.2307/750454 |s2cid=195009430 |url=https://people.exeter.ac.uk/jda208/The%20Peace%20of%20the%20Ara%20Pacis.pdf}}</ref> Augustus' challenge was to persuade Romans that the prosperity they could achieve in the absence of warfare was better for the Empire than the potential wealth and honor acquired when fighting a risky war. Augustus succeeded by means of skillful propaganda. [[List of Roman emperors|Subsequent emperors]] followed his lead, sometimes producing lavish ceremonies to close the [[Temple of Janus (Roman Forum)|Gates of Janus]], issuing coins with Pax on the reverse, and patronizing literature extolling the benefits of the Pax Romana.<ref name=Stern/>

After Augustus' death in AD 14, most of his successors as Roman emperors continued his politics. The last five emperors of the Pax Romana are known as the "[[Five Good Emperors]]".<ref name=ushistory/>

==Influence on trade==
[[File:Romeinse keizers Gordianus III antoninianus Antiochie 243-244.jpg|thumb|300px|AR [[Antoninianus]] of [[Gordian III]], struck at [[Antioch]] 243–244 with Pax Augusta on the reverse]]
Roman trade in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] increased during the Pax Romana.  Romans sailed East to acquire [[Silk|silks]], gems, [[onyx]] and spices.  Romans benefited from large profits, and incomes in the Roman empire were raised due to trade in the Mediterranean.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Roman market economy|last=Temin|first=Peter|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691147680|location=Princeton|pages=13|language=en|oclc = 784708336}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Pax Romana : war, peace, and conquest in the Roman world|last=Goldsworthy|first=Adrian Keith|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780300178821|location=New Haven|pages=392|oclc=941874968}}</ref>

As the Pax Romana of the western world by Rome was largely contemporaneous to the [[Pax Sinica]] of the eastern world by [[Han dynasty|Han China]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Plott|first=John C.|title=Global History of Philosophy|year=1989|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|isbn=9788120804562|page=57}}</ref><ref name=enckre135/> long-distance travel and trade in [[History of Eurasia|Eurasian history]] was significantly stimulated during these eras.<ref name=enckre135>{{cite book
 |editor-last=Krech III |editor-first=Shepard
 |editor2-last=Merchant |editor2-first=Carolyn
 |editor3-last=McNeill |editor3-first=John Robert
 |title=Encyclopedia of World Environmental History
 |volume=3: O–Z, Index
 |year=2004
 |publisher=Routledge
 |isbn=978-0-415-93735-1
 |pages=135–
 |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Dmky95hwKr0C |page=135 }} }}</ref>

{{anchor|Imperial peace}}

==Pax imperia: analogous peaces==
{{Redirect|Pax imperia|the video game|Pax Imperia}}
{{Related articles|List of periods of regional peace|Regional hegemony}}

The prominence of the concept of the ''Pax Romana'' led to historians coining variants of the term to describe other systems of relative peace that have been established, attempted, or argued to have existed. Some variants include:<!--{{citation needed|date=August 2014}} ---><ref name=EncBrit/><ref>Palen, Marc-William. 2024.''Pax Economica : Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World.'' John Wiley & Sons. {{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=May 2025}}</ref>
* [[Pax Americana]]
* [[Pax Assyriaca]]
* [[Pax Atomica]]
* [[Pax Britannica]]
* [[Pax Europaea]]
* [[Pax Gupta|Pax Guptana]]
* [[Pax Hispanica]]
* [[Pax Khazarica]]
* [[Pax Kushana]]
* [[Pax Mafiosa]] (Pax Narcotica)
* [[Pax Mongolica]]
* [[Pax Ottomana]]
* [[Porfiriato|Pax Porfiriana]]
* [[Pax Sinica]]
* [[Pax Sovietica]]
* [[Pax Syriana]]
* [[Tokugawa shogunate|Pax Tokugawana]]

More generically, the concept has been referred to as ''pax imperia''<ref name="Mentan2010">{{cite book|author=Tatah Mentan|title=The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCR79AuxTi4C&pg=PA153 |date=2010 |publisher=African Books Collective|isbn=978-9956-616-12-1|page=153}}</ref><ref name="Lee2013">{{cite book|author=Hyo-Dong Lee|title=Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude: A Comparative Theology for the Democracy of Creation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=smsGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5501-6|page=12}}</ref> (sometimes misspelled as ''pax imperium''<ref name="Ross2004">{{cite book|author=Stephen Ross|title=Conrad and Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/conradempire00ross_0|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1518-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/conradempire00ross_0/page/76 76]}}</ref>), meaning ''imperial peace'',<ref name="Aron2003">{{cite book|author=Raymond Aron|title=Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YaOe6XFwjvYC&pg=PA151|year=2003|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0504-1|pages=151–152}}</ref><ref name="Gress"/>  or—less literally—''hegemonic peace''.<ref name="Gress">{{cite book|author=David Gress|author-link=David Gress|title=Peace and Survival: West Germany, The Peace Movement & European Security|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBKsA0RDc-gC&pg=PA96|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=978-0-8179-8093-1|pages=96–99|year=1985}}</ref><ref name="Parchami2009">{{cite book|author=Ali Parchami|title=Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-00704-2|page=31}}</ref> [[Raymond Aron]] notes that imperial peace—peace achieved through [[hegemony]] can—sometimes, but not always—become civil peace. As an example, the [[German Empire]]'s imperial peace of 1871 (over its internal components like [[Saxony]]) slowly evolved into the later German state. As a counter-example, the imperial peace of [[Alexander the Great]]'s empire dissolved because the Greek [[city states]] maintained their political identity. Aron notes that during the Pax Romana, the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] was a reminder that the overlapping of the imperial institutions over the local ones did not erase them and the overlap was a source of tension and flare-ups. Aron summarizes that, "In other words, ''imperial peace'' becomes civil peace insofar as the memory of the previously independent political units are effaced, insofar as individuals within a pacified zone feel themselves less united to the traditional or local community and more to the conquering state."<ref name="Aron2003"/>

The concept of Pax Romana was highly influential, and there were attempts to imitate it in the [[Byzantine Empire]], and in the [[Christian West]], where it morphed into the [[Peace and Truce of God]] (''pax Dei'' and ''treuga Dei'').<ref name="Gress"/> A theoretician of the imperial peace during the Middle Ages was [[Dante Aligheri]]. Dante's works on the topic were analyzed at the beginning of the 20th century by [[William Mitchell Ramsay]] in the book ''The Imperial Peace: An Ideal in European History'' (1913).<ref name="Scott2002">{{cite book|author=James Brown Scott|author-link=James Brown Scott|title=Law, the State, and the International Community|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2ItplkkogIC&pg=PA223|year=2002|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-58477-178-4|pages=223–224|orig-year=1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialpeaceide00ramsrich|title=The imperial peace: an ideal in European history|via=Internet Archive|publisher=Oxford, The Clarendon Press|year=1913}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
* [[Imperialism]]
* [[Mos maiorum]]
* [[Succession of the Roman Empire]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Pax Romana |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* Burton, Paul. 2011. "Pax Romana/Pax Americana: Perceptions of Rome in American Political Culture, 2000–2010". ''International Journal of Classical Tradition'' 18.1:66–104. {{JSTOR|41474687}}.
* Cornwell, Hannah. 2017. ''Pax and the Politics of Peace: Republic to Principate''. Oxford Classical Monographs.   Oxford; New York:  Oxford University Press.
* Galinsky, Karl.  2012.  ''Augustus: Introduction to the Life of an Emperor''.   Cambridge; New York:  Cambridge University Press.
* Goldsworthy, Adrian. 2016. ''[[Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World]]''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Hardwick, Lorna. 2000.  "Concepts of Peace". In ''Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire'', edited by Janet Huskinson, 335–368. London: Routledge.
* Lopez, Gennaro. 2002. "Pax Romana/Pax Augusta". ''Invigilata Lucernis'' 24: 97–110.
* Stern, Gaius. 2015. "The New Cult of Pax Augusta 13 BC–AD 14". ''Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'' 55.1–4: 1–16.
* Yannakopulos, Nikos. 2003.  "Preserving the Pax Romana: The Peace Functionaries in Roman East". ''Mediterraneo Antico'' 6.2: 825–905.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.unrv.com/early-empire/pax-romana.php United Nations of Roma Victrix History: Pax Romana]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203082948/http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Group/139585 Pax Romana Discussion group]

{{Ancient Rome topics|state=autocollapse}}
{{Paxes}}

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[[Category:1st century in international relations]]
[[Category:1st century in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:2nd century in international relations]]
[[Category:2nd century in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Ancient international relations]]
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