Why Did Roman Emperors Use Their Power?

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Throughout many centuries of dominance, the auspicious Roman Empire accomplished great achievements. These achievements both on, and off the battlefield required the dedication and faith of the whole Roman society to the Emperors. Acquiring such commitment was completed through the notion of numen. Numen is defined as a spirit believed to inhabit an object or preside over a place. The idea of numen enabled the Emperors to maintain their power over the public. To comprehend this particular concept three key aspects will be examined. These include; how the Emperors taught the people to worship, why was the idea of numen controlling as well as how did the Emperors use this power? The Emperors taught the public many methods of worship. Worship…show more content…
A standard way that the Emperors used their power was for military purposes. Because Rome was a large and thriving empire; a strong army was needed for equally attacking and defending against opposition. Emperors could effortlessly find new recruits for enlistment to the Roman legions. This would provide the advantage of larger numbers of soldiers in a battle. This benefit allowed tactics such as the ‘wedge’ to be executed as more soldiers could reinforce the wedge from behind, which would consequently break the enemies’ formation (Roman Empire.net 2012). As a result of these tactics many battles were won in favour of Rome. These victories can be appreciated as it too aided the faith in the Emperors. In comparison; Emperors used this power among society to increase their popularity. Instances in which this can be seen would be the gladiator games. These “to the death” fights would often be the result of Emperors wanting to upturn their reputation in the public. Gladiators would fight it out in arenas such as the Colosseum for entertainment. These fighters would use weapons such as the scissor in which, upon impact, would inflict fatal injuries (deadliestwarrior.wikia, 2012). It is evident that numen enabled the Emperors to maintain their power over the public and hence presented supremacy in which was vastly
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