PAX ROMANA

PAX ROMANA. This Latin phrase, “the Roman Peace,” refers to the rule of the Roman Empire (q.v.) over the entire Mediterranean basin from the century before Christ to the death of the Emperor Theodosius I in 395 in the East, and at least until the fall of Rome in 476 in the West, if not to the coronation of Charlemagne (q.v.) in 800. In any event the pax romana was the matrix of the nascent Christian Church. Many nations governed by a single polity had a profound influence on the Church’s institutions and psychology in both the Latin West and Greek East.