Ruling Principles of Roman Empire: the Perspective of a Colonial Elite

An analytical or ideological exegesis of empire by an intellectual of conquered people is to be a rarity as far as the ancient history is concerned, thus demanding aspecial attention to itself as evidence to make feasible the understanding empire as bilateral relationship between the ruling and the ruled. Well, researchers of imperium Romanum, particularly during the era, so-called Pax Romana (1st to 2nd centuries C.E), is blissfully endowed with such rarity through a contemporary panegyric ‘Unto Rome’ (eis Romen), which Greek orator Aelius Aistides prepared for the declamation before the then emperor Antoninus Pius. The author attempts to show in this paper that this oration may be employed as an invaluable testimony to a few things of different planes. Firstly(chapter 2), it shows very cogently how the ruling principles of Roman empire merited as an peaceful, secure and harmonious World Power the assimilationist rapprochement by the colonial elites of the Greek East. Secondly (chapter 3), Aelius' oration reveals, in an very implicit, rhetorical skill, that the defence/peaceoriented strategy of imperial security adopted by the reigning emperor Antoninus as well as his predecessor Hadrianus was a wise and intelligent one that would be conducive to the general ruling principles delineated above. All in all, Aelius' oration ‘Unto Rome’, despite its prima facie defective nature as historical source due to its rhetorical form of expression, deserves far more attentive treatment to enrich our perception of the way Roman empire sustained itself at its most prosperous stage.