ABSTRACT
The first two centuries AD fully realized the potential created by Augustus' establishment of widespread peace within the Mediterranean core of the Roman Empire. Rome had become a giant magnet attracting trade and talent from every quarter and radiating its influence in all directions. The writers and artists of the Augustan Golden Age had created a common cultural frame of reference for the Empire's urbanized upper classes. Those classes shaped a remarkably uniform high Imperial culture based on shared values and educational experience. They became elite of Imperial service. Also socially and economically, the Empire reached great heights. With Italy and the interior provinces enjoying unprecedented peace and prosperity and with threats on the frontiers usually contained, foreign and domestic trade flourished. There was enough surplus wealth to support a vigorous tradition of euergetism. The emperors and the upper classes ameliorated the plight of the poor. Those of moderate mean found opportunities for economic and social advancement.
