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Civ I- PowerPoint text from Lectures 13 and 14
Lecture 13: The Early Empire
I)
Second Triumvirate
II)
The Principate
III)
Emperors, 14-181 AD
IDs:
Octavian
Marc Antony
Princeps
Augustus
Pax Romana
Praetorian Guard
Aeneid
Tiberius
Caligula
Claudius
Nero
“Year of the 4 Emperors”
Vespasian
Flavian dynasty
bread and circuses
Antonines
Caesar’s Dictatorship
The Ides of March
Octavian
Julius Caesar’s nephew and stepson
Just 18 years old
Named as heir by Julius Caesar
Second Triumvirate
Octavian
- Julius Caesar’s nephew and stepson
Marc Antony
- Caesar’s comrade
Lepidus
- Caesar’s deputy
Marc Antony’s funeral oration
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interréd with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar….
The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it….
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral….
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….
2nd Triumvirate
Rule of Octavian/Augustus
Undermines Marc Antony
Elected consul in 31 BC
Victory at Actium (vs. Antony) by 31 BC
Octavian as “Princeps” in 27 BC
- “1st citizen”
Also becomes emperor as “Augustus”- 27 BC
- end of republic/start of empire
II) The Principate
The Principate
Political reforms:
Cooperation w/ Senate
Mutual recognition
Popular reforms:
Roman fire department,
police
Military reforms:
Reduced size, Praetorian Guard
The Principate
Political reforms:
Cooperation w/ Senate
Mutual recognition
Popular reforms:
Roman fire department,
Military reforms:
Reduced size, Praetorian Guard
Main appeal- stability
Pax Romana
The Two Caesars:
Augustus:
“I restored, I completed, I built, I gave”
“Divine Augustus”
Projecting Pax Romana
Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) 9 BC
“Divine Augustus”
The Principate
police
Main appeal- Pax Romana
- stability
Literary patronage
Propertius, Elegies (p. 153)
Virgil’s Aeneid
“When I had said this, over my breadth of shoulder
And bent neck, I spread out a lion skin
For tawny cloak and stooped to take his weight.
Then little Iulus put his hand in mine
And came with shorter steps beside his father.
My wife fell in behind.”
-
The Aeneid, Book II lines 936- 942
Revision the origins of Rome (vs. Romulus)
- what’s added, what’s lost?
Virgil on Roman destiny (from The Aeneid)
“Others shall plead cases better and others will better
Track the course of the heavens and announce the rising stars.
Remember Romans, your task is to rule the peoples
This will be your art: to teach the habit of peace,
To spare the defeated and subdue the haughty.”
Vs. Ovid
III) Emperors, 14-181 AD
Julio-Claudian Dynasty
Succession?
Tiberius
Gaius (Caligula)
Claudius
Nero
Tiberius
(r. 14-37 AD)
General under Augustus
Divorce and remarriage
“Stern and irascible”
Unhappiness
Emperor Gaius (37-41 AD)
Great-grandson of Augustus Caesar
Nicknamed “Caligula”
Cruel and violent
Killed by the Praetorian Guard in 41 AD
Return to a republic?
Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD)
Bribed the Praetorian Guard
Eliminated any rivals
Died in 54 AD
Emperor Nero
(54-68 AD)
Emperor at 16
Public festivals
Relations with the Senate
Persecution of Christians
Paraniod
Military rebellion in 68 AD
69 AD- “The Year of the Four Emperors”
Invasion of Rome from 4 provincial generals
Quick scramble for power
Civic apathy
How are Emperors like the weather?
“We just to wait for bad ones to pass and hope for good ones to appear.” --Tacitus
Flavian Dynasty
Aqueducts
The Pantheon
Arch of Titus (81 AD)
Frieze from the Arch
Trajan’s Column
The Coliseum (72-80 AD)
Circus Maximus
Roman Baths
Give the People What they Want:
Bread and Circuses
Seneca and the Gladiatorial Games
•
Lecture 14- Imperial Crisis & Christian Origins
I)
Early Imperial Dynasties
II)
The Third-Century Crisis
III)
Consolation?
IDs:
Antonine dynasty
Marcus Aurelius
Septimus Severus
Debasement
Barracks emperors
Sassanids
West Germanic Revolution
Goths
Persecution
neoplatonism
Asceticism
Mystery cults
Synoptic Gospels
John’s Gospel
Revelations
Crucifixion
Saul of Tarsus
•
Julio-Claudian Dynasty
Succession?
Tiberius
Gaius (Caligula)
Claudius
Nero
•
Tiberius
(r. 14-37 AD)
General under Augustus
Divorce and remarriage
“Stern and irascible”
Unhappiness
•
Emperor Gaius (37-41 AD)
Nicknamed “Caligula”
Cruel and violent
Killed by the Praetorian Guard in 41 AD
Return to a republic?
•
Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD)
Bribed the Praetorian Guard
Eliminated any rivals
•
Emperor Nero
(54-68 AD)
Emperor at 16
Public festivals
Relations with the Senate
Persecution of Christians
Paraniod
Military rebellion in 68 AD
•
69 AD- “The Year of the Four Emperors”
Invasion of Rome from 4 provincial generals
Quick scramble for power
Civic apathy
How are Emperors like the weather?
“We just to wait for bad ones to pass and hope for good ones to appear.” --Tacitus
•
Flavian Dynasty
•
Arch of Titus (81 AD)
•
Circus Maximus
•
Give the People What they Want:
Bread and Circus
•
Seneca and the Gladiatorial Games
•
The Antonines (96- 193 AD)
Military leaders
•
The Antonines (96- 193 AD)
Military leaders
Tradition of succession
Ended with Marcus Aurelius
Commodus
- overthrown
•
II) Third-Century Crisis
•
The Third-Century Crisis
Problems:
From Above
•
Pertinax
Successor to Commodus
Appointed by Praetorian Guard
Career soldier
Killed by Praetorian Guard after 3 months
•
Emperor Septimus Severus
(r. 193-211)
Pertinax succeeds Commodus
- killed by Praetorian Guard
Declining plunder
Confiscations from Senators
Military rule
“Enrich the army, boys, and scorn the rest.”
•
Caracalla
(r. 211-217)
and debasement
•
“Barracks emperors”
Praetorian Guard
Financial problems
“Raised and destroyed”:
17 of the 20 emperors between 235 and 284 AD are killed by their own troops or other Romans
•
The Third-Century Crisis
Problems:
From Above
From Outside
•
Problems from outside the Empire
Slowing conquest
Famine and plagues
New barbarian threats
•
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanids:
Revived Persian Empire
Pressure from the East
Emperor Valerian captured
•
West Germanic Revolution
Initial clans
New alliances
Germans:
Franks
Alemanni
Goths:
Germans
Slavs
Scythians
•
The Third-Century Crisis
Problems:
From Above
From Outside
From Below
•
Debasement and inflation
•
Bulla the Lucky
Army of 600 men
Northern Italy
“Carry this message back to your own masters: Let them feed their slaves so that they might not be
compelled to turn to a life of banditry.”
•
Imperial Response: Persecution
Initial explanation of problems:
Roman gods were upset
- resistance from monotheists
Answer: enforce religious conformity
•
Neoplatonism
Founded by Plotinus
Three teachings:
1) Emanations
-soul
-matter
2) Mysticism
- reunion
(c. 204-270 AD)
3) Asceticism
- Denial of materialism
•
Roman “Mystery Cults”
From fringes to the center:
Isis
Mithras
Dionysius
Personal alternative to civic religion