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Lecture 12: Roman History
=Roman History: Periodization (753 B.C. ~ A.D. 476)
-Ancient Rome
1. The early Rome (753 B.C. ~ 509 B.C.)
2. The Republic (509 B.C. ~ 49 B.C.)
-Roman Empire (49 B.C. ~ A.D. 476)
=General overview of the early Rome (753 B.C. ~ 509 B.C.)
-Legendary history:
1. The two brothers: Romulus and Remus
2. A woman, called Roma: travelling with Aeneas and the other
survivors from Troy
-The People:
1. The racial map of pre-Roman Italy: the numerous dialects and
varying alphabets exist.
2. Majority of the ancient inhabitants of Italy came down from the
north in the early Bronze age, who spoke Indo-European languages
(connected to Greek, Celtic, German, Persian, and Sanskrit language
families)
3. The Indo-European "Italians" are broken up into several groups,
and the three main groups were the Latins - from whom the Romans
emerged - on the west coast of the peninsula, the Oscans in the
south, and the Umbrians in central and east central Italy. They are
not identical, but there was a mixture of cooperation and competition
between the Latins and the other two groups.
4. After long political struggles and the Social War (90–88 BC), all
these groups fused into the Roman population
5. Several unrelated groups in the Italian peninsula who were
gradually absorbed into the Roman system. The Etruscans dominated
Rome early in the city's history, but were defeated and absorbed by
around the 300 B.C.
-Etymology of Italy: Unknown origin / One of the most well-known
suggestions: Latin Italia may derive from Oscan Viteliu, meaning the
land of young cattle / Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of
southern Italy / The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes
and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of
free Italy during the Social War.
-Geography: Rome’s location was favourable
1. Hills and River: mild climate, good farmland, strategic location
2. City was built on seven hills that could be defended
3. City, next to Tiber River, was close to Mediterranean Sea and
surrounded on three sides by water: aiding trades, providing
protection, conquering new territories
4. Alps, Apennines mountains protected Rome, but didnʼt isolate it
=The early Rome (753 B.C. ~ 509 B.C.): the Kings
-Romulus became the first king of Rome.
-7 Kings: after Romulus, it is said, there reigned Titus Tatius, Numa
Pompilius, Tulius Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus,
Servius Tullius, and Tarquinius Superbus.
-This canonical list was fixed by the fifth century: a line of Sabine,
Latin and Etruscan kings in a non-hereditary succession.
-The three last kings, Tarquinius Priscus (616-579), Servius Tullius
(578-535) and Tarquinius Superbus (534-510), form a strong
contrast to their Latin or Sabine predecessors. They emerge a little
further from the twilight of legend: there can be no reasonable doubt
concerning the historicity of at least two of them.
=The establishment of the Roman Republic (509 B.C. ~ 49 B.C.)
-The fall of Tarquinius Superbus at Rome: Legend tells that the rape
of Lucretia, wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, by Sextus, son of Superbus,
provoked Iunius Brutus and a band of nobles to encompass the fall of
Superbus by inciting the people and army of Rome to revolt. While
Sextus fled to Gabii, where he was killed, his father and two brothers
found refuge in Caere.
-The Republican Government: The power of the monarch passed to
two annually elected magistrates called consuls; they also served as
commanders in chief of the army.
-Conflicts between patricians and plebeians: the magistrates largely
from the Senate (patricians). Politics in the early republic was marked
by the long struggle between patricians and plebeians (the common
people)
-Senate: Under the early monarchy the Senate developed as an
advisory council during which the Senate consisted entirely of patricians.
With the abolition of the monarchy in Rome, the Senate became the
advisory council of the consuls. It thus remained a power secondary to
the magistrates. However, the consuls held office only for one year,
whereas the Senate was a permanent body; in experience and prestige,
its individual members were often superior to the consuls of the year.
-In 450 B.C., the first Roman law code was inscribed on 12 bronze
tablets–known as the Twelve Tables–and publicly displayed in the
Roman Forum:
1. A perennial struggle for legal and social protection and civil rights
between the privileged class (patricians) and the common people
(plebeians). The plebeians felt their legal rights were hampered by the
fact that court judgments were rendered according to unwritten custom
preserved only within a small group of learned patricians. So the
plebeians requested to write them down
2. The Twelve Tables were not a reform or a liberalizing of old custom.
Rather, they recognized the prerogatives of the patrician class and of
the patriarchal family, the validity of enslavement for unpaid debt, and
the interference of religious custom in civil cases.
3. Because only random quotations from the Twelve Tables are extant,
knowledge about their contents is largely derived from references in
later juridical writings.
4. The earliest attempt by the Romans to create a Code of Law; it is also
the earliest (surviving) piece of literature coming from the Romans.
-By around 300 B.C., real political power in Rome was centered in the
Senate, which at the time included only members of patrician and
wealthy plebeian families.
=The wars and expansion: Rome and Carthage
-Though Rome owed its prosperity to trade in the early years, it was
war which would make the city a powerful force in the ancient world.
2. The wars with Carthage consolidated Rome's power and helped the
city grow in wealth and prestige.
3. There were three major parts of the Punic wars and they were fought
over the course of more than 100 years:
3.1. First Punic War (264 - 241 BC): The First Punic War was fought
largely over the island of Sicily. This meant a lot of the fighting was at
sea where Carthage had the advantage of a much stronger navy than
Rome. However, Rome quickly built up a large navy of over 100 ships.
Rome soon dominated Carthage and won the war.
3.2. Second Punic War (218 - 201 BC): In the Second Punic War,
Carthage had more success fighting against the Roman legions. The
Carthage leader and general, Hannibal, made a daring crossing of the
Alps to attack Rome and northern Italy. This crossing was made more
famous because he also brought a large number of elephants with him.
Hannibal wasn't able to conquer the city of Rome. The final battle in this
war was the Battle of Zama where the Roman general Scipio Africanus
3.3. Third Punic War (149 - 146 BC): In the Third Punic War Rome
attacked the city of Carthage. After three years of laying siege to the
city, the Roman army broke through the walls and burned it to the
ground.
=The Republic Crumbles & civil wars
-As the Republic of Rome grew in power and prestige, the city of
Rome began to suffer from the effects of corruption and greed to the
extent that Rome’s complex political institutions began to crumble
-The gap between rich and poor widened as wealthy landowners
drove small farmers from public land, while access to government
was increasingly limited to the more privileged classes.
-The reform movements of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus(133-122
B.C.): the two brothers lead a movement for land reform and political
reform in general, but they were both killed by their opponents.
-Social War (91–88 B.C.): Rest of Italy tries to secede from Rome
1. The Social War was a civil war between the Romans and their
Italian allies.
2. The allies of Latium and of Italy had been instrumental in building
up the power of Rome, but the title and the rights of Roman
citizenship were denied them.
3. The allies crowded into Rome, and requested the equality and
citizenships. No effect, so Italy rose. The war was a short but a
bloody one. Italy lost no fewer than three hundred thousand men.
4. Within a year and a half of its outbreak Rome was forced to grant
the right of acquiring Roman citizenship to the citizens of allied states
who should register their names with a Roman praetor within sixty
days.
-Sulla's first civil war (88–87 BC): between Sulla's supporters and
Gaius Marius' forces
-Sertorian War (83–72 BC ): between Rome and the provinces of
Hispania
-Sulla's second civil war (82–81 BC): between Sulla and Marius'
supporters
-Lepidus' rebellion (77 BC): when Lepidus rebelled against the Sullan
regime.
-Catiline Conspiracy (63–62 BC): between the Senate and the
dissatisfied followers of Catiline
=Julius Caesar
-First Triumvirate (60-53 B.C.): Pompey, Crassus, Caesar
1. Pompey formed an uneasy alliance known as the First Triumvirate
with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar.
2. After Pompey’s wife Julia (Caesar’s daughter) died in 54 B.C., and
Crassus was killed in battle against Parthia (present-day Iran) the
following year, the Triumvirate was broken.
-Pompey stepped in as sole consul in 53 B.C., but in 49 B.C. Caesar
crossed the Rubicon and defeated Pompey.
-He effectively ended the period of the Republic by having the
Senate proclaim him dictator in 45 B.C.
-Julius Caesar:
1. He implemented the reforms of government and Roman society
overthrowing already existing government and proclaimed as the
Dictator of the Rome.
2. He is considered as greatest military strategist and brilliant
politicians of all time.
3. The first Romans General that built bridge across the Rhine and
commenced the invasion of Britain.
4. His popularity among the people was enormous and his efforts to create
a strong and stable central government meant increased prosperity for the
city of Rome.
=Birth of Roman Empire
-Less than a year later, Caesar was murdered by a group of his enemies,
led by the republican nobles Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius in 44
B.C.
-The conspirators seemed to fear that Caesar was becoming too powerful
and that he might eventually abolish the Senate.
-Following his death, his right-hand man, and cousin, Marcus Antonius
(Mark Antony) joined forces with Caesar's nephew and heir, Gaius Octavius
Thurinus (Octavian) and Caesar's friend, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, to
defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Phillippi in 42 BCE.
-The Second Triumvirate: Mark Antony (the east), Octavian (the west), and
Lepidus (Africa)
-Antony's involvement with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII upset
the balance Octavian had hoped to maintain and the two went to war.
-In 31 B.C., Octavian triumped over the forces of Antony and Queen
Cleopatra of Egypt in the Battle of Actium.
-In 27 B.C. Octavian was granted extraordinary powers by the Senate
and took the name of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome. The
history of Rome ends and the history of the Roman Empire begins.
-The Roman Empire began when Augustus Caesar became the first
emperor of Rome (31 BCE) and ended, in the west, when the last
Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the Germanic
King Odoacer (476). In the east, it continued as the Byzantine Empire
until the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Turks in 1453.
=Age of the Emperors
-Augustus’s Dynasty: the unpopular Tiberius (14-37 A.D.), the
bloodthirsty and unstable Caligula (37-41), Claudius (41-54), who
was best remembered for his army’s conquest of Britain, and Nero
(54-68).
-Four emperors took the throne in the tumultuous year after Nero’s
death; Vespasian (69-79), Titus (79-81) and Domitian (81-96) (the
Flavians), Nerva (96-98)
-Titus and Domitian they attempted to temper the excesses of the
Roman court, restore Senate authority and promote public welfare.
Titus earned his people’s devotion with his handling of recovery
efforts after the infamous eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the
towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
-Nerva began another golden age in Roman history, during which four
emperors–Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius–took
the throne peacefully, succeeding one another by adoption, as
opposed to hereditary succession.
-Trajan (98-117) expanded Rome’s borders to the greatest extent in
history with victories over the kingdoms of Dacia (now northwestern
Romania) and Parthia. His successor Hadrian (117-138) solidified the
empire’s frontiers and continued his predecessor’s work of
establishing internal stability and instituting administrative reforms.
-Under Antoninus Pius (138-161), Rome continued in peace and
prosperity
-The reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) was dominated by conflict,
including war. When Marcus fell ill and died near the battlefield at
Vindobona (Vienna), he broke with the tradition of non-hereditary
succession and named his 19-year-old son Commodus as his successor.
=Decline and Disintegration of the Empire
-The decadence and incompetence of Commodus (180-192) brought the
golden age of the Roman emperors to a disappointing end. His death at the
hands of his own ministers sparked another period of civil war, from which
Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211) emerged victorious.
-During the third century Rome suffered from a cycle of near-constant
conflict. A total of 22 emperors took the throne, many of them meeting
violent ends at the hands of the same soldiers who had propelled them to
power.
-Threats from outside plagued the empire and depleted its riches,
including continuing aggression from Germans and Parthians and raids by
the Goths over the Aegean Sea.
-The reign of Diocletian (284-305) temporarily restored peace and
prosperity in Rome, but at a high cost to the unity of the empire.
Diocletian divided power into the so-called tetrarchy (rule of four),
sharing his title of Augustus (emperor) with Maximian.
-Constantine (the son of Constantius) emerged from the ensuing
power struggles as sole emperor of a reunified Rome in 324. He
moved the Roman capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he
renamed Constantinople. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine
made Christianity Rome’s official religion.
-30 years after the death of Constantine the eastern and western
empires were again divided.
-The eastern Roman Empire–later known as the Byzantine Empire–
would remain largely intact for centuries to come, but the western
Roman Empire was wracked by internal conflict as well as threats
from abroad–particularly from the Germanic tribes
-Rome eventually collapsed under the weight of its own bloated
empire, losing its provinces one by one. In September 476, a
Germanic prince named Odovacar won control of the Roman army in
Italy. After deposing the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus,
Odovacar’s troops proclaimed him king of Italy, bringing an ignoble
end to the long, tumultuous history of ancient Rome.
Group Discussion
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