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How Did The Pax Romana Change

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The Pax Romana was a period of peace and stability after years of civil war. It renewed the citizens’ hope and for a while, trade flourished, they had a steady transfer of power set up by preceding emperors, stopping any more civil wars over leaders. They also had strong virtues regarding loyalty, government, family, and honor. Soon the period ended bringing with it pandemonium and poverty. Their sufficiency in trade decreased and slaves took the place of paid workers making the gap between rich and poor widen bringing with it an increase in class tensions. With the people, the government also lost its virtues and became corrupt causing a decrease in the citizens’ patriotism and their confidence in the empire. Political changes in elections, transfer of power, economic changes in trade, prices, a widening gap …show more content…

However under the reign of Trajan, Romans stopped conquering other territories which was a good yet fatal decision. It stopped Rome from getting bigger, but it also made fewer riches enter the Empire. Fewer riches took away from Rome’s wealth. Despite this the affluent spent extraneous amounts of money on luxuries making Rome pay for them in addition to the army. In response to the increasing debt, the Roman government decided to raise the taxes and to lower the amount of precious metals found in the coins so that they’d have more money. Soon the merchants caught on and increased their prices causing inflation. This caused middle class farmers to give up their land and sell it to patricians all the while still working on it, soon patricians realized they could hire slaves for free labor causing those farmers to no longer have a home. That also caused a wider gap between the rich and the poor. In addition to inflation, piracy was common in the Mediterranean; just another factor that increased their

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