By: Aldo Callalli Pimentel. Adelantecronopio@hotmail.com
I. Introduction.
Over the next few digressions will analyze the historical process happened in Rome as a result of clashes and misunderstandings between the structural bases of the slavery system and the dynamics of political actors and social movements that led to his rise and fall, from the expansion of the republican system to the crisis that triggered the collapse of the empire.
II. Consolidation and positioning of the Republican senatorial aristocracy.
War is the continuation of politics by other means was sentenced Claus Von Claussewitz. During the hardest stage of the expansion were raised Roman armed conflicts for hegemony in the peninsula that demonstrated the need to boost the military, to the point of making it the key focus for the Republican position. After the breakdown of the monarchical system senatorial class consists mainly of powerful aristocrats to strengthen their political and economic power, the same that had the support property land. On the other hand, with the growth of trade and following the acquisition of greater wealth, by the commoners began to open up a new conflict of interest, the peak had the same flight to the historic Mount Aventine. However, social struggles not restructure the political scaffolding managed by the patricians, made it rather harder to any seizure. Thus, the plebeians eventually assimilated mate and elitist political system by the aristocracy. After the Republican establishment plebeian agitation strengthened its legal and political structures and revitalize the network of its bureaucracy in order to expand their interests. The order in politics allowed the ruling class to start with more ferocity military company in search of more resources to ensure the production and survival of their land. This process would cause the growth of huge estates as a result of foreign wars, which not only enriched the senatorial class, but also enabled access to slave labor necessary to carry on farming, mainly. However, the republican system would collapse as a result of the brutal expansion of slavery, the same as that required large contingents of the working masses in order to raise production levels to the recurrent crisis in agriculture. This crisis would also impact the proletarianization of small farmers. Likewise, slave uprising broke out, as the case raised in Sicily and the rebellion led by the Thracian Spartacus. Meanwhile, in cities showed a greater polarization between the senatorial class and the impoverished, the corollary would be the rise of social struggles. In this scenario, political parties launched a relentless war for hegemony and control of the state. Civil wars are an example.
III. Collapse of empire and political realignment of the senatorial aristocracy.
With the coming to power of Augustus opens a new political system in West Rome, closer to the worldview of the dominant classes of the East. The principality is the materialization of a political discourse more in line with the historical circumstances of the moment. The pax romana developed by Augusto aims to ensure the security and survival of the levers of power necessary to make possible the continuity of the system. The principality Octavian gave quick solution to a myriad of problems rooted in the discontent of broad social and political sectors. The granting of wheat to the impoverished classes of cities allowed to contain the revolutionary mood of the masses. Likewise, the increase in profits retirement and salaries to soldiers was a move that earned him the trust of the military sector. Finally, the transfer of public and political office for the Italian elite assured him the loyalty and support of an important sector of the emerging mainland.
Now, the old patricians were mutated long ago into rich landowners and merchants potentates following a number of political situations. The survival of the social sector was guaranteed even after the onslaught of the barbarians. The infighting at the highest levels of power evinced a brutal and bitter struggle for political power between city dwellers and provincial nobles. This struggle for power management Rome further intensified with the fall of the dynasty was born from Caesar Augustus, and which came to carve military sectors. The military wrested political authority from the use of their weapons. His successes in the battlefield they won the confidence and legitimacy of the masses. Thus, the path to power was secured. But military commanders, many of them lacked a coherent and effective in order to give solution to the problems of empire. So, it started a fierce struggle for power between different factions and military leaders. The management of public affairs was too complex for simple and concocted a voluntary military.
Years after a period of crisis will shake the foundations of Rome. The third century AD marked the turning point of the Roman imperial system. The economic situation is grim. It unleashed a period in crisis entering the productive structures of the agricultural system. Then there is a considerable decrease in the population not only in cities but also in the field. Moreover, slavery is mortally wounded as a result of border closures and the stagnation of military campaigns, which resulted in the lack of manpower and as a correlate of this was raised prices for the purchase of slaves, needed for agricultural work in the giant estates of the senatorial class. In addition, there was incessant violent invasion of the Germans from the banks of the Danube and the Rhine in a clear sign of further tightening of Diocletian system starts a whole series of measures to give continuity to the imperial establishment. The same applies to Constantine. It is clear that the reins of power will go back into the hands of the senatorial aristocracy as a result of bad political management of the emperors and the effect of the repression of the popular sectors. The results showed the tear balance system from above, which reminds us of the struggles for power management among the ruling classes, and from below as a product of the ongoing social movements.
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