Download Hist 331: Civil War and Reconstruction (Fall 2001)

Hist 100
World Civilization I
Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer
Upper Iowa University
Lecture 6
Rome: Introduction


Rome: the empire to which all of
other empires and governments
are compared
So what made Rome great?


Not the extent of the empire—
others before had done that
The success of the Romans
was in incorporating
conquered peoples into the
Roman system


Much more than the
Hellenistic Greeks they were
able to transplant their
language, religion, and
customs to conquered
peoples
Their influence survives them
to the present day
Roman Empire at its zenith in
the 2nd Century CE
Lecture 6
Rome: Origins
 Rome as a conqueror was
blessed by geography
 Its position halfway up the Italian
peninsula put it in a good
position to dominate Italy
 Italy was well situated to
dominate the Mediterranean
 Actual Roman origins shrouded
in myth
 Archeological evidence suggests
the Romans heavily influenced
by Greeks and the mysterious
Etruscans
 Romans apparently a subject
people of the Etruscans who
broke free, but not all scholars
agree on this idea
Etruscan territory
and artifacts
Lecture 6
Roman Republic (509-45 BCE)
 Documentable Roman history
begins about 509 BCE with the
rise of the republic
 This period notable for its
gradual codification of law and
the law’s growing fairness
Roman
Patricians
 Demonstrated the Roman
interest in practical government
 Divisions of Roman society
 Patricians: wealthy, land-owning
class that dominated the Senate
and Consulship
 Plebians: ordinary folk, who
during the Republic forced the
patricians to increasing share
power

Tribunes
Roman
Plebians
Lecture 6
Roman Conquests (1)
 The later centuries of the
republic saw the spread of
Roman rule beyond Italy
 The Romans do not seem to
have deliberately set out to
conquer an empire, at least not
at first

Instead, the conquests initially
came through wars with rival
states in the Mediterranean,
particularly Carthage
 Carthage



A wealthy and powerful
Phoenician city-state on the
coast of North Africa
Became Rome’s main rival for
dominance in the
Mediterranean world
Based its military power on its
large navy
Carthaginian
Empire and its
military genius
Hannibal
Lecture 6
Roman Conquests (2)
 The Punic Wars
 Rome’s wars with Carthage for
dominance

1st Punic War began in 264 BCE,
last ended in 146 BCE
 Since Rome dominated on land,
and Carthage at sea, who
triumphed eventually boiled
down to who could beat the
other at what was good at.
 After nearly losing the 2nd Punic
War to Hannibal’s land
campaign, Rome built a navy
that defeated Carthage in the 3rd
Punic War
 Carthaginian Empire wiped out
and its territories incorporated
into Roman domains
Successful Roman conquerors
given the honor of a “triumph” or
victory parade through Rome
Lecture 6
Decline of the Roman Republic (1)
 Republican government proved
unsuitable for ruling an empire made
up of foreign peoples

The wars also created military leaders
too mighty for the Roman state to
control
 The large army weakened the
Roman agricultural economy


Agriculture production dropped
It became easier for ambitious men to
squeeze out small-holders in rural
areas and amass large estates using
slave labor
 Dispossessed often moved to Rome,
where there was not enough
employment

Situation ripe for strongmen who
could feed and entertain the idle
Roman mob

“Bread and Circuses”
Part of providing bread and
circuses was arranging
gladiatorial battles
Lecture 6
Decline of the Roman Republic (2)
 Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE)

Rose to power as a politician and
general


Pragmatic, ruthless politician



Conqueror of Gaul (France)
Formed the First Triumvirate with
Pompey and Crassus, abandoned it
when it was no longer useful to his
ambition
He engaged in useful reforms
Julius
Caesar
His undoing was to make himself a
dictator

Assassinated in 44 BCE
 Augustus Caesar (44 BCE-10 CE)
Julius Caesar’s grandnephew,
adopted as his heir
 Initially forced to share power with
Lepidus and Marc Anthony
 Later emerges as “princeps civitatis”
and later “imperator,” ushers in the
Pax Romana

Augustus
Caesar
(Octavian)
Lecture 6
Roman Society (1)
 Rome: city of contrasts
Population: about 1 million at its peak
in ancient times
 State palaces and lavish residences
for the elite, but average Roman
resident lived in squalor
 Government forced to feed
unemployed with imported grain paid
for by tribute levied on conquered
peoples—”tithe”

 Family


Basic unit of Roman society
Headed by “paterfamilias”


Women held no formal power, but
sometimes influential behind the
scenes


Oldest male in the extended family
Ideal Roman matron was faithful,
chaste, modest, and single-mindedly
dedicated to her family
Like all humans, the Roman family
did not always live up to its ideals
Lecture 6
Roman Society (2)
 Roman slavery
Slaves generated by Rome’s foreign
conquests
 Came from Europe, Africa, and the
Hellenistic East


Quite diverse in their backgrounds
Slavery hereditary, but slaves often
freed
 Slavery a fact of life for the Romans,
as all ancient people

Roman slaves
tend their
owner
 Roman religion
Romans Gods closely paralleled
Greek deities
 Worship of these gods became a
form of civic religion




Helps explain the deification of Roman
emperors, starting with Caesar
Augustus
Helps explain the persecution of groups
like the Christians who refused to
worship Roman Gods
The need for religion with more
excitement explains the appeal of
Eastern mystery religions
Roman depiction of
Apollo, 6th century BCE
Lecture 6
Christianity (1)
 Christianity emerges from the
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

Scholars know little of him outside of
the Gospels, written decades after his
death, whose provenance and
authorship remains uncertain
 Jesus’ Palestine





Much more is known of the Palestine
of Jesus’ time
A province of Rome since 65 BCE
At time of Jesus’ birth ruled through a
Roman client king, Herod the Great
After Herod’s death, the Jews
revolted, prompting the Romans to
send a governor to rule the province
Jews heavily factionalized



Sadducees
Pharisees
Zealots
Images of Jesus of Nazareth
From the 6th and 7th centuries CE
Lecture 6
Christianity (2)
 Paul (Saul) of Tarsus
 Christianity might have died but
for the efforts of Paul of Tarsus
 Paul initially persecuted the early
Christians, but then converted to
the religion
 As Jewish Roman citizen, he
was able to bridge the divide and
turn a Jewish sect into a religion
for non-Jews


Asserted Christians not bound by
Jewish law, especially its dietary
restrictions
Also asserted that Christ’s
teaching were universal
 Pax Romana and Roman roads
made possible his evangelical
activities
Lecture 6
Christianity (3)
 Appeal of Christianity
Unlike the mystery religions, its
message freely available, not just to
initiates, and easily understood
 Attractive message: forgiveness for
sin, God’s unconditional love, and the
promise of eternal life

Nero
 Christianity and Rome
Nero blamed Christians for the fire
that burned Rome in 64 CE, and
ordered their persecution
 Persecution peaked during the reign
of Diocletian (284-305 CE)
 Diocletian’s successor, Constantine
(306-337 CE) sanctioned Christianity
 Christianity made the state religion of
Rome in 380 CE

Diocletian
Constantine
Lecture 6
Empire’s Fall in the West
 Rome never actually “fell”
 The center of the empire shifted to
the east, and the Romans, unable to
defend the western part of the
empire, gradually abandoned it to
barbarian invaders
 Germanic tribes, pressed by Asiatic
invaders, pressed against Roman
frontiers in the 4th century and
gradually swallowed it up

After Justinian in the mid-500s, the
eastern Roman Empire stopped trying
to reclaim the west
 The eastern part of the empire, being
wealthier and more defensible,
remained intact gradually becoming
the Byzantine Empire (which lasts
until 1453)
Justinian: last Roman
emperor to try to reclaim
the western part of
the empire from
barbarian tribes