Those who rule like their rule being associated with peace.
The propaganda term “pax Romana” was and continues to be used for the time from empire’s beginning, 27 BC, to the death of the stoic Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD.
The first known use is that of the other great stoic Seneca about a century earlier. In De Providentia he wrote “omnes considera gentes in quibus Romana pax desinit”. This reads “Look at all the nations in which the Roman peace ends” but means “Look at all the nations that dwell beyond the Roman Empire”. The point, of course, is that by Seneca’s time, the propaganda equation ran Goddess Pax = the peace of Rome = the Roman empire.
An important piece of this peace occurred on 30 January 9 BC, with the consecration in Rome of the Ara Pacis Augustae, or the Altar of Augustan Peace. Unsurprisingly, the politically astute of the day used “pax Augusta” as well as “pax Romana”.
The term has endured. The Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy was created to prepare FDR – born 30 January 1882 – for a postwar world. Faced with the passing of the British Empire, it reported that the US:
… must cultivate a mental view toward world settlement after this war which will enable us to impose our own terms, amounting perhaps to a Pax Americana…
The Committee was right. Pax Britannica did pass. A famous figure in that passing, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated on 30 January 1948.
Whether Committee successors are now advising US presidents on the problem of Pax Sinica, it is condign to recall that the first period of Pax Sinica occurred during the Han dynasty, declining about the same time as Pax Romana.
Chinese records from the 6th century suggest that the aforementioned Marcus Aurelius sent the first ambassadorial mission with gifts of elephant tusk, rhinoceros horn and tortoise shell. They appear to have travelled not cross country but by sea, arriving through Vietnam.
In centuries to come, historians may debate whether Pax Americana ever came to grips with Asia and when Pax Sinica had its roots. In 1968, North Vietnam launched the Tet offensive, preferring Chinese over Russian advice. Though the offensive was a military failure, it broke an already fractured US domestic stance, with LBJ unable to sell a victory as anything but a defeat.
Although Vietnam and China were themselves at war a decade later, the offensive may well be seen in that debate as pivotal. It began soon after midnight on 30 January. The message telegraphed to the troops was a far from peaceful “Crack the Sky, Shake the Earth”.