Rome

TO-DO: 9/23/14

• WARM-UP: Hannibal

• Notes: Rome – Christianity

• You’ll get your quizzes back tomorrow

Setting• Italy Peninsula in the Mediterranean• Protected in the North by the Alps,

East, West and South by the Mediterranean

• Hilly and mountainous, valleys with very fertile soil

• Rome in the center on the Tiber River

The Roman Republic• Rome founded in 753 BCE

• Etruscan kings overthrown in 507 BCE, Republic begins

• Officials elected yearly by several public assemblies

• membership in the assemblies based on military service and tribes

• Two consuls (head of state), elected yearly by assembly, have veto power (people elect representatives -> Republic)

• Real power with Senate, not elected, has the right to suggest laws

• Codified laws (Twelve Tables of Rome), protects individual rights (trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, right to face your accuser)

Society• Patricians: Owners of large

landholdings, only they can hold public office

• Plebeians: merchants, small landowners, craftsmen; right to vote, but not to hold office

• Slaves: 20-35 % of total population, frequent slave revolts (Spartacus)

• patriarchal society

• pater familias: almost unlimited power over family

• patron/client: legal protection, financial assistance/ services, support in politics

• women seen as children in the eyes of the law, have to be under male guardianship

• arranged marriages; with legal control of the husband

• During empire upper class women often educated

• Legal reforms by Augustus: marriage “without legal control”, property rights and right to divorce and remarry

• political influence behind the scenes

Roman Expansion

• By 290 BCE almost all of Italy controlled by Rome

• Citizenship extended to some conquered territories

• Partial or full citizenship (protection from arbitrary arrest, and violence, right to sign contract, full citizens also have voting right)

• Conflict with Carthage (3 Punic Wars between 260 and 133 BCE, Hannibal): Rome wins Sicily, North Africa, Spain

• Conquest of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (2nd and 1st century BCE (Macedonia, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Turkey)

• Conquest of Gaul (Julius Caesar), 50 BCE

• Many slaves, new ideas from conquered territories

Failure of the Republic• Social crisis (large landowners use slaves

from wars, small farmers lose land, as they are away fighting and big landowners produce cheaper with slave labor))

• Solution: Professional military

• Military commanders take advantage of their soldiers’ loyalty and the poverty of the masses

• Julius Caesar, dictator for life (50-44 BCE)

Augustus, first emperor (31 BCE-14 CE)

Julius Caesar

Pax Romana• Rome capital of the West• Rule of law, common coinage, civil service,

secure travel on the extensive road network• Roman law through out empire, but local customs

and laws were accepted• Period of peace for about 200 years• Roman empire rules all of the Mediterranean,

Britain, and most of Western Europe• Total population about 50 million people

• Some cities with several hundred thousand inhabitants (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch)

• sewer system, aqueducts, public baths, amphitheatres (bread and games)

• Roman culture spread by veterans settled in newly founded cities

• Romanization of Western Europe

• Trade of luxury goods with China and India (silk, spices for silver and gold), leads to a drainage of precious metals in the empire

Roman Law• Codified Law: Twelve Tables of Rome,

ordered systematically by topic (Table I cuvil procedure, table III debt, table IV parents and children)

• All Roman citizens have certain rights and responsibilities

• Trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty• In conquered territories: local customs also

accepted

The Rise of Christianity• Judaea ruled by Romans during life time of Jesus• Christianity spread by apostle Paul among cities in

eastern Mediterranean • Adoption of elements of Middle Eastern cults• Romans were tolerant towards other faiths, but

Christians refused to worship Roman gods -> persecution

• Conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 CE, Edict of Milan

• 395 CE emperor Theodosius Christianity state religion

Spread of Christianity

Technology and Transformation

• Concrete, aqueducts, arches, long walls to protect borders

• Military camps, roads connecting all parts of the empire

• The first 200 years of the empire Pax Romana

• economic crises, emperors chosen by military

• Germanic tribes, Sassanids attack Roman empire

• High cost for military drains economy

• inflation, people leave cities

• Long distance trade collapses

• Diocletian Reforms (300 CE): regulated prices, people could not leave their profession, two emperors (Rome and Constantinople)

• Invasions of Germanic tribes, Huns

• Western Half of the Empire ends 476 CE

Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain

Circus Maximus

Hadrian’s Wall

Pantheon Outside

Pantheon Inside

Roman Bath

Culture

• Influenced heavily by Greek culture (philosophy, literature, art, sculpture)

• Many teachers, doctors Greek slaves

• Bread and Games

• Latin spoken in Spain, France, England