The Antonines: The Roman Empire in Transition
The prolific Grant, from whom last issuedConstantine the Great, here summarizes the careers of three mid-second century emperors and the surviving works of a dozen contemporary writers. Coming after the active reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, who brought the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent and left walls and columns testifying to the apogee of expansion, the Antonines--Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus--projected a policy of stability. Militarily, this involved pulling back from the Euphrates frontier with the Parthians and fixing the Danube line against the German tribes. Socially, the conservative senatorial status quo continued, and Grant accords a similar lack of innovation in the arts (with the exception of sculpture) during the years of the three reigns, 138 to 192. Not uniformly bland, with its share of barbarian invasions and revolts of proconsuls, these years also harbored the earliest Christian apologists alongside defenders of Roman religion (including Marcus Aurelius himself, in his famousMeditations). Though not one of Grant's monumental works, this short study should still interest his legion of readers.Gilbert Taylor