214 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
and Aurelian columns) reveals a retreat from realism and a widening of the
gap between emperor and subjects: the emperor is presented on the later
monuments not in profi le but frontally, and towering above groups of
undifferentiated soldiers. The distinctive Asiatic or Oriental style of these
reliefs, on display on the Severan arches in Rome and (even more so) Lepcis
Magna, expresses to perfection the new dynasty’s view of its elevated
religious and political position in the world.
Rome and the empire
In focussing on the capital city, we have put off discussion of the spreading
outwards of the cultural institutions and practices that had developed in
Rome through the fusion of Romano-Italian and provincial, especially
Greek, elements. Romanization was the joint product of central government
initiative and local response. In many parts of the West, what occurred was
the transplantation into an artifi cially created urban setting of a metropolitan
language, educational system, religion, architecture and art through the
agency of emperors and their representatives. Even in these areas of the
empire, however, the speed and depth of Romanization were crucially
dependent upon the willingness of local elites to take the initiative in
transforming the institutions and values of their communities. Otherwise,
the impact of Rome on underlying native cultural traditions varied according
to such factors as distance and accessibility from Rome, degree of
urbanization, extent of immigration from Italy, proximity of a resident army
and the tenacity of local conventions.
The growth of cities is the key development. Romanization was most
resoundingly successful in those areas where urban growth was most
pronounced: the Iberian peninsula (especially in the south and east), the
south of France and north Africa. The urbanization of these areas generated
a race of politicians and offi cials of native or immigrant origin who were
capable of being absorbed into a traditional social hierarchy in Rome.
Urbanization also produced poets in Spain, orators in Gaul and, beginning
with Suetonius, an astonishing crop of African littérateurs, who, whatever
their quality, prided themselves on their Latinity.
The Roman administration imposed Latin as the offi cial language in the
cities it founded in the West, ignoring all local languages, whether Iberian,
Celtic, Punic or Libyan. Urban elites were introduced to Roman- style
education, as we know from key passages in Tacitus and other Rome- based
writers, from the inscriptional evidence for educators (such as the grammaticus
Demetrius of Tarsus who taught at York) and for the composition of bad
poetry (notably in north Africa), and from the careers and literary creations
of the most distinguished products of the educational system.^13
As with politics, so with learning, the most ambitious provincials (and
Italians) transferred their base to Rome, and the best of them dominated the