CHAPTER I THE ORGANIZATION OF EUROPE UNDER THE EMPIRE T is of primary importance to the comprehension of the present political system of Europe to recall the fact that where we now behold independent and sovereign states, mutually recognized as co-equal in the family of nations, there once existed an empire of universal pretensions and falling little short of universal domination. From the fragments of that empire, broken and dismembered, have arisen the modern national states, founded upon the idea of territorial sovereignty and united in the maintenance of a system of international law and intercourse. The story of that transformation is a necessary preliminary to the full comprehension of European diplomacy; for not only was the formation of independent sovereign states an essential precondition of diplomatic activity in its modern sense, but the persistence of the imperial idea has created many of its most important problems. The history of modern Europe, regarded from a political point of view and broadly considered, is largely centred about the struggle between two ideas, that of imperial rule and that of territorial sovereignty. To understand thoroughly the character of that contest and the political development of Europe as a whole, it is necessary to comprehend the nature and influence of the imperial idea. I. EUROPE UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE The transformation of Europe If, when measured by the whole of humanity, Europe The unity of seems, notwithstanding its diversity of races, languages, and Europe interests, to possess a unity of its own, it is because the civil CHAP. I B. C. 30A. D. 500 Extent of the ization of the different European nations was derived from the same original source and was received, in the main, through the same channels. In the period of the widest expansion of the Roman Empire one government extended over all that portion of Europe which had been reclaimed from primitive barbarism, and over that government presided at Rome one man, clothed with the attributes of an absolute master. Law, religion, and administration emanated from one centre and were directed toward one end. That centre was the imperial will, and that end its universal domination. From the Mediterranean to the North Sea and the British Isles, from the shores of the Atlantic to the confines of Asia, Europe was politically one. The history of every European country, excepting ancient Greece and the Germanic and Slavic lands of the North and the East, emerging from the dim traditions of mere tribal society, begins with the march of Roman legions and the rule of Roman laws. The imperishable memory of that ancient community of interests and the common inheritance of ideas and influences which have survived its dismemberment have played a large rôle in the subsequent development of Europe. But the Roman Empire was more than a European state, it was an intercontinental power, holding sway over vast areas in Asia and Africa; a World Empire in which that ancient highway of nations, the Mediterranean, had become an inland waterway, and presiding over the destinies of men not only on the Rhine and the Danube, but on the Nile and the Euphrates. The boundaries of the Roman dominion, even before the fall of the Roman Republic, included all the lands of Western Europe between the Mediterranean and the German Ocean, together with the whole of the Italian and Grecian peninsulas, the greater part of Asia Minor, Syria, and a part of Northern Africa. The foreign policy of Rome, originating in the necessity of self-defence, had been stimulated under the Republic by the ambitions of Carthage and Macedonia to the conquest of the entire Mediterranean basin. With the advent of the Empire, whose territories had been greatly augmented by Julius Caesar, it became necessary to confirm these new possessions; and this entailed upon Augustus, in order to defend Gaul against the Germans and to consolidate the East and the West, still further invasions and annexations. In pursuance of this policy, Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Moesia were subjugated, carrying the imperial frontier to the Danube. Under Claudius the conquest of Britain, begun by Julius Caesar, was finally accomplished, and in 51 A. D. that island became a Roman province. Under Trajan Dacia was occupied, carrying the Empire beyond the Danube. In the East, Trajan also acquired Mesopotamia, but Hadrian, considering them useless to the Empire, renounced both Mesopotamia and Assyria; a course which Marcus Aurelius, notwithstanding his pacific disposition, afterward reversed on account of the attacks of the Parthians. The Empire reached the maximum of its territorial area under Trajan (98–117) about the beginning of the second century of our era. At that time all that part of Asia south of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, the entire seacoast of Northern Africa, all of Europe west of the Rhine and south of the Danube, with small regions east and north of those rivers, together with Britain and the islands of the Mediterranean, were included in its forty-four provinces. Its borders were almost coincident with the limits of civilization. CHAP. I B. c. 30 A. D. 500 On account of the highly centralized organization of the The imperial Roman state under the Republic it was not difficult for power Octavius Caesar, who assumed the titles Imperator, Caesar, and Augustus, to gather all the power into his own hands. All the attributes of the state, all the "majesty" of the Roman people, were centred in his person. The fundamental principle of Roman political existence in every period was the absolute sovereignty of the state. Its institutions were founded upon obedience, and submission was the primary law of citizenship. Derived theoretically under the Republic from the majesty of the people, the sovereign power, the imperium, lost nothing of its absolute character by the fact 1 CHAP. I A. D. 500 The Emperor as military chief As first magistrate that it was confided to an individual. Herein lay the triumphant strength of the Roman organization. When, therefore, Augustus Caesar concentrated all the powers of the state in his own person the only innovation was in the personal centralization of power, not in its imperious quality. When, in later times, the ancient legal forms in which authority was exercised by the earlier emperors were disregarded, the people had become habituated to the exercise of power by an absolute master, whose will had become supreme, and the government assumed the character of an absolute despotism. As military chief, the Emperor commanded the army and navy. He alone could levy and organize troops, or direct their operations in the imperial provinces. He appointed the officers, and the soldiers took an oath of allegiance to him and were paid by him. As head of the state, he not only commanded the military and naval forces when engaged in war, but could declare war, make peace, and conduct all negotiations with foreign powers. Although the Senate had, under the Republic, almost entire charge of foreign affairs, under the Empire it fell, in this as in other matters, to the rank of a mere advisory body, to be consulted or not at the Emperor's pleasure. Even the distinction between the "imperial" and the "senatorial" provinces - the former having originally been administered by the imperial legates and the latter by the proconsuls of the Senate - lost all practical importance, and the Emperor acquired the right to command the senatorial proconsuls also. As first magistrate, the Emperor was the highest appellate : judge of the Empire. In both civil and criminal cases appeals were heard by him, either in person or by persons delegated by him for the purpose, the final decision resting always in his hands. The judicial powers originally possessed by the Senate were lost in the third or fourth century, and the imperial judges became the impersonation of the highest judicial authority, although a last appeal to the Emperor himself was not forbidden. The earlier trial by |