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Unit 5 Rome – Part 3
The Romans – The Roman Empire
Lesson Essential Question 1 – How did Augustus rule the Roman Empire?
Why It’s Important (p. 233)
A. What did Octavian do in 27 B. C.?
1. Octavian told the Senate that he had returned the republic and he
offered to resign as the one and only ruler of Rome.
2. The Senate turned down the offer and gave him several titles.
3. In the end, Octavian took the title of Augustus, or “revered one.”
B. What did Octavian become?
1. In practice, Octavian became the first Roman emperor.
2. Define emperor: An emperor is an absolute ruler of an empire.
Section 1: The Rule of Augustus (233-234)
C. What offices did Augustus hold? Augustus held the offices of consul,
tribune, high priest, and senator all at the same time.
D. Why did Augustus refuse to be crowned emperor? Augustus knew that
most Romans would not accept one-person ruling unless it took the form
of a republic.
E. How did Augustus try to make the Roman Empire like a republic?
1. Augustus kept the assemblies and government officials of the
republic.
2. He made sure that senators felt honored.
3. Augustus also talked about tradition and the need to bring back
“old Roman virtues”.
F. What did Augustus do to strengthen his own power and what effect did
each way have?
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1. He had soldiers swear allegiance to him personally.
2. Effect - This gave Augustus control over the armies.
3. Augustus built up his imperial household to take charge of the
daily business of government.
4. He chose people based on talent rather than their birth.
5. Effect - This gave slaves and freedmen, former slaves, a chance to
be part of the government.
G. What did Augustus do with the boundaries of the Roman Empire?
Augustus wanted the boundaries of the empire to be defendable, so he
rounded out the empire to natural boundaries.
North – The Rhine River and the Danube River
West – The Atlantic Ocean
South – The Sahara Desert
H. What other improvements did Augustus make to the Roman Empire?
What were the results of each improvement?
Change
Result
1. He gave provincial governors long
1. By having longer terms, governors
terms of office.
gained experience in their jobs.
2. He also paid provincial governors
2. Large salaries would make sure that
large salaries.
the governors did not feel the need to
overtax the people or keep public money
for themselves.
3. Augustus ordered a census, or
3. Augustus did this to make sure
population count to be taken from time
people were not paying too much or too
to time.
little tax.
I. How did Augustus make Rome more beautiful?
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1. Augustus wrote strict laws to govern the way people behaved in
public.
2. He protected the city by setting up a fire brigade and a police
force.
3. He supported learning by building Rome’s first library.
J. How could one summarize the rule of Augustus?
1. He ruled for 41 years.
2. Augustus brought peace to Rome.
3. He gave Romans a sense of pride and patriotism.
4. He made Roman citizenship available to people in the provinces.
5. Augustus reorganized the government so that it ran well for more
than 200 years.
Section 2: Pax Romana (p. 234-236)
Lesson Essential Question 2 – What happened during Pax Romana?
K. What was Pax Romana? It was the 200 years of Roman peace brought
by Augustus. While there were some revolts and problems, for the most
part, Rome and its people prospered.
Trade (p. 235)
L. What happened to trade during Pax Romana?
1. Trade increased.
2. The same coins were used throughout the empire.
3. There were no tariffs placed on goods brought into the country.
4. Define tariff: Tariffs are taxes placed on goods coming in to a
country.
5. Goods and money moved freely along the trade routes.
6. The Mediterranean was cleared of pirates, making it safe for trade
and travel.
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7. Shipping became big business.
8. Luxury items passed over Roman roads.
9. Increased trade meant more business for Romans.
10. Shopkeepers grew rich.
Law (p. 235-236)
M. What changes came to the area of Roman law during Pax Romana?
1. During Pax Romana, Roman law went through major changes.
2. The laws in the Twelve Tables were changed.
3. Roman judges wrote new laws that would be as fair to nonRomans as to Romans.
4. They created laws that were reasonable.
5. Everyone was considered equal before the law.
6. A person was innocent until proven guilty.
N. What is meant by saying Roman law was “standardized”? How did it
help?
1. All legal procedures were the same in all parts of the empire.
2. This helped Rome govern a large area successfully.
Section 3: Daily Life (p. 236-239)
Lesson Essential Question 3 – What was daily life like for the Romans?
O. During the early years of the empire, how many people lived in Rome?
During the early years, about 1 million people lived in Rome.
P. What were the problems facing the city of Rome?
1. One problem was too little housing.
2. The air was polluted.
3. There was crime in the streets.
4. The cost of living was high.
5. Many Romans could not find jobs.
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6. They had to pay taxes on almost everything.
Q. Describe the homes of the rich.
1. Rich people lived in a domus.
2. A domus was a house with marble walls, colored stone floors, and
windows made of glass.
3. The rooms in the house had furnaces that heated them and pipes
brought water even to the upper floors.
R. Describe the homes of the poor.
1. Most Romans lived in apartment houses called islands.
2. Islands were six or seven stories high and took up an entire city
block.
3. The higher the floor, the cheaper the rent.
The Family (p. 2237-238)
S. Describe the Roman family.
1. The Father
a. The father was head of the household.
b. His word was law.
c. The father arranged the children’s marriages to improve social
position or to increase wealth.
2. Cousins – Cousins were expected to help one another politically.
3. Boys
a. Most Roman boys and girls went to school together until age 12.
b. Sons of the poor went to work at age 12.
c. At age 12, sons of the rich began their formal education.
d. Sons of the rich studied reading, grammar, writing, music, etc.
e. When they were 15, boys entered a school or rhetoric, or speech
and writing, to prepare for a political career.
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f. Some boys went to Athens or Alexandria to study philosophy or
medicine.
4. Girls/Women
a. Girls received a different kind of education.
b. When they were 12, their formal education stopped.
c. Instead of school, daughters of the wealthy were given private
lessons at home.
d. As a result, many Roman women were just as educated, if not
more educated, than Roman men.
e. Some women worked in or owned small shops.
f. Wealthy women had slaves to do housework.
g. Having enslaved people allowed rich women free to study the arts,
literature, and fashions, or to ride chariots in the country.
At Leisure (p. 238-239)
T. What activity did Roman’s participate in at home?
The Romans gambled with dice at home.
U. What were bathhouses like?
1. The Romans would meet friends at public bathhouses, where they
could take warm, cold, or steam baths.
2. The bathhouses of Rome provided more than baths.
3. Some bathhouses had gymnasiums, sports stadiums, and libraries.
4. There, the Romans could watch or play games.
5. They also could listen to lectures, see musicals, exercise, or just sit
and talk.
V. How did public games differ between the republic and the empire?
1. During the republic, the games had been staged by the politicians
looking for votes.
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2. During the empire, the games were staged by the government.
W. What types of games were held? The games included circuses, chariot
races, and gladiatorial games.
X. What was the Circus Maximus? The Circus Maximus was an oval arena
where chariot races were held. It could seat more than 200,000 people.
Y. Describe gladiators.
1. Define gladiators: Gladiators were people fought animals or one
another in arenas.
2. Most gladiators were enslaved people, prisoners or war, criminals,
or poor people.
3. Gladiators were trained by managers who hired them out.
4. A few gladiators were upper-class Romans who wanted
excitement and public attention.
5. The night before a fight, gladiators would appear at a feast.
6. There, they could be looked over by fans and gamblers who
wanted to bet on the outcome of a match,
7. When gladiators would enter the arena, they would walk past the
emperors box and say, “Hail Emperor, those who are about to die
salute you.”
8. Many gladiators did die.
9. Those whose fighting pleased the crowd became idols of the
people.
10. All kinds of animals were used in the public games.
Section 4: Fall of the Empire (p. 240-244)
Lesson Essential Question 4 – Why did the Roman Empire decline?
Z. What happened to the Roman Empire?
1. Pax Romana ended after about 200 years.
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2. From then on, the Roman Empire grew worse.
3. By 476 A. D., there was no empire left.
4. Instead, much of western Europe was a patchwork of Germanic
kingdoms.
5. The eastern part of the empire, however, lasted another 1,000
years as part of the Byzantine Empire.
AA. What were the reasons the Roman Empire fell?
1. Political
a. The emperors had no written rule over who inherited the throne.
b. Sometimes, the throne was inherited by a son.
c. Sometimes, an emperor adopted an heir to the throne.
d. Between 96 A. D. and 180 A. D., all emperors were adopted.
e. The system worked well until then.
2. Economic
a. To stay in office, an emperor had to keep the soldiers who
supported him happy.
b. He did this by giving the soldiers high wages.
c. This meant more and more money was needed to pay for the army.
d. Romans had to pay higher taxes.
e. In addition to taxes, the Romans began to suffer from inflation.
f. Define inflation: Inflation is a period of ever-increasing prices.
g. Since there were no new conquests, there was no gold coming in to
Rome, but there was gold going out.
h. People began to barter for goods.
i. Define barter: Bartering is when goods are exchanged without
using money.
3. Foreign Enemies
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a. Roman borders were open for attack.
b. Germanic hunters and herders began to raid Greece and Gaul.
c. Trade and farming in Greece and Gaul declined.
d. Cities again began to surround themselves with walls to protect
themselves.
Diocletian and Constantine I (p. 241, 243)
Lesson Essential Question 5 – What efforts were made to save the Roman
Empire?
BB. What two emperors tried to save the Roman Empire?
1. Diocletian
2. Constantine I
CC. Who was Diocletian? Diocletian was the son of a freedman.
DD. What changes did Diocletian make as emperor?
1. He fortified the frontiers to stop invasion.
2. Diocletian reorganized different governments to make them work
better.
3. To keep prices from rising, he set maximum prices for wages and
goods.
4. To make sure goods were produced, he ordered workers to stay in
the same jobs until they died.
5. Diocletian made city officials personally responsible for the taxes
their communities had to pay.
EE. What was one of the most important changes Diocletian made?
Diocletian made the policy rule by divine right for the emperor.
FF. Define rule by divine right: A policy in which an emperors powers and
the right to rule did not come from the people but from the gods.
GG. What did Diocletian do to the empire?
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1. Diocletian divided the empire into two parts because he realized the
empire was too big for one person to rule.
2. Diocletian ruled the richer eastern portion, while someone else ruled
the western portion.
HH.
What did Constantine do to prevent people from leaving their jobs
when things got bad?
1. The sons of workers had to follow their fathers’ trade.
2. The sons of farmers had to stay and work the land their fathers
worked.
3. The sons of ex-soldiers had to serve in the army.
II. What did wealthy Romans do to avoid Constantine’s control and
pressure?
1. Wealthy landowners moved to their villas, or country estates.
2. Most villas were like small, independent cities.
3. Each villa produced enough food and goods to meet the needs of
everyone who lived in the villa.
JJ. What move did Constantine make in 330 A. D.? Why? Constantine
moved the capital from a dying Rome east to a new city called
Constantinople in present-day Turkey.
End of the Empire (p. 243-244)
KK.
Why were the Germans able to defeat the Romans? One reason the
Germans were able to defeat the Romans was because an invention the
Romans borrowed from the Huns, the iron stirrup.
LL. What happened in 406 A. D.?
1. The Rhine River froze.
2. Groups of Germans crossed the frozen river and entered
Gaul.
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3. The Romans were not able to force them back across the
border.
MM. What happened in 410 A. D.?
1. The Germanic chief Alaric and his soldiers invaded Rome.
2. They burned records and looted the treasury.
3. The Roman Senate told the people, “You can no longer
rely on Rome for finance or direction. You are on your
own.”
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