Download Rome Notes Roman Values and Virtues • Greeks vs. Romans

Rome Notes
Roman Values and Virtues
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Greeks vs. Romans
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Paterfamilias
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Augurs and vesta
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Virtues (literally means “manliness”) – these four virtues
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Pietas - (respect for authority)
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Fides – (being true to your responsibility)
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Religio – (the common beliefs that bind people together)
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Gravitas – (sober seriousness)
Patricians and Plebians – (upper class aristocratic class and other Roman citizens)
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The Senate - (several hundred leading families in an assembly… lacks explicit legislative
authority, but sets and approves of general policies by consuls and magistrates … their social
clout, flexibility, adaptability, and leadership – esp. in a social order marked by a client/patron
political bases of power
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Consuls – two executives appointed by Senate to carry out the laws…became Senator after their
one-year term
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Struggle of the Orders – the period from ca.500-280 that saw the plebians slowly gaining more
pol. Power – law code (Twelve Tablets)… plebian assemblies…right to marry into the patrician
class
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Tribunes – two plebians appointed for one-year executive authority… power to veto laws passed
by assemblies….
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Assemblies and magistrates …. Postitions like questor and praetor to interpret laws…. The
censor both controlled information AND counted Rome’s population every five years in a
census
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Gift for compromise….. the Roman system evolved and adapted
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An absorptive polity….the patricians absorbed the plebians….Rome absorbed other Italian
people….in the Samnite Wars….and much later in the Social Wars….extended Roman citizenship
to many others in Italy…. The loyalty of “conquered” people helped Rome win the Punic Wars
Punic Wars
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First PW – ca 260….Rome builds a navy. First province in Sicily.
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Second PW – ca 210…..Hannibal invaded Italy and nearly won and then Scipio Africanus invaded
Carthage and defeated Hannibal
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Third PW – ca 146… Cato: “Carthago delenda est”….For years Cato had muttered that Carthage
had to be destroyed….. So, Rome successfully mopped up what was left of Carthage and left it in
ruins
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Spread into Eastern Med. –because many Greek states supported Carthage, the Romans
justified their conquest of most of Greece and then Asia Minor ca 180-120
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Social impact – can a republic become an empire?
Civil Wars 133-31 BCE
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Breakdown of old Rome – gluttony (losing the discipline of the republican virtues….orgies, and
villas built with special “vomitoriums” where you could get yourself ready for the next course in
the meal………………..
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and slavery (after 2nd Punic War, Roman vets could not compete with other landowners who
were able to buy slaves among the many war captives….small farmers losing land to large
estates called “latifundia”…changed basis of labor …citizens fled to the city and became
impoverished….eventually willing to support any general - like Marius and Sulla – who could
promise them booty from war.
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Grachi Brothers – 133 – popular tribunes….both attempted to distribute land to impoverished
Roman citizens; both killed…..Senate actually killed the previously untouchable tribunes
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Marius and Sulla – successful generals whose victories effectively showed that the Senate was
losing power to the army….put down Spartacus slave revolt and killed 6000 slaves by crucifying
them along the Appian War
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First Triumvirate: Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar. JC conquered Gaul….wrote a book that all
Latin students studied for 1900 years….eventually crossed the Rubicon to enter Italy (against
Senate’s orders)….JC defeated Pompey….became dictator…extended citizenship, gave soldiers
land, reformed calendar…..but pissed off the Senate….so…..
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44BC – The Ides of March…..Senate murdered Caesar….led to ….
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Civil War and triumph of Octavian/Augustus (JC’s adopted son) over previous ally Marc Antony
and Cleopatra…..came back to Rome and proclaimed that he had restored the republic.
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Stay tuned.