Pax Romana

Pax Romana ("Roman Peace") was a roughly 200-year period of relative peacefulness experienced by the Roman Empire after the end of the Final War of the Roman Republic and before the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century. It is traditionally dated as commencing from the accession of Caesar Augustus, founder of the Roman principate, in 27 BC and concluding in 180 AD with the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the "Five Good Emperors". Since it was inaugurated by Augustus with the end of the Final War of the Roman Republic, it is sometimes called the Pax Augusta. During this period of about two centuries, the Roman Empire achieved its greatest territorial extent and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people.

Quotes

• Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  • To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire, and where they make a desert, they call it peace.
  • Tacitus, Agricola (c. AD 98), ch. 30 (Oxford Revised Translation)

See also

• Roman Empire