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Article: Power pax: a brief history of megalomania.
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- December 1, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Despots claim that if order were not imposed people would live in chaos, so they're the only peacemakers. The historical record suggests otherwise.
Rome
The mother of every imperial pax (the Latin word for peace), the `Pax Romana' in fact lasted little more than 200 years, from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius in AD 180. The tranquility was only relative to the violence that had preceded it -- in 146 BC the Romans destroyed their rivals in Carthage, killing 200,000 and selling the remaining 50,000 into slavery. Rome imposed brutal penalties, tribute, slavery and military service on subjugated ...