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Travel to Rome!
Ancient Rome Creation Myth
According to an ancient Roman myth, the war god Mars
fathered twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Their mother was a
Latin princess. A jealous Latin King feared that the twins might
some day claim his throne, so he ordered them placed in a
basket and set afloat on Italy’s Tiber River. The king assumed
they would drown. Miraculously, a she-wolf found the halfstarved infants and fed them with her own milk. Soon after, a
shepherd discovered the babies and brought them up as his
sons.
As young men, Romulus and Remus decided to build a city
near the spot where they had been abandoned as babies. Each
brother chose a hilltop and claimed leadership of the new city.
Soon they were fighting bitterly over their rival claims. In the heat
of anger, Romulus struck his brother and killed him. The hilltop
Romulus had chosen, the palatine, became the center of the
new city. The city itself was called Rome, taking its name from
the triumphant and murderous brother.
Ancient Rome Creation Myth
One day during a thunderstorm, Romulus disappeared. A dark
cloud enveloped him and lifted him up to heaven. Romulus, now a
god, later came back to earth to speak: “Go tell the Romans,” he
said, “it is heaven’s will that my Rome shall be the capital of the
world. Let the children of Rome learn to be soldiers. Let them
know and teach their children that no power on earth can stand
against Roman armies.”
By 27 B.C.E., Rome
was the “capital of the world.”
Rome’s ships controlled the
entire Mediterranean Seas,
and its armies exacted taxes
and tributes from people on three
continents: Africa, Asia,
and Europe.
Three Major Periods of Roman History
Roman Origins
• Circa 1000-509 BCE
• Earliest settlements on Palatine Hill
• 753 BCE – Legendary founding of Rome by
Romulus and Remus
Three Major Periods of Roman History
Roman Republic
• 509-31 BCE
• Etruscan kings overthrown under leadership of Lucius
Junius Brutus, the traditional founder of the Republic, in
509 BCE
• Republic = “thing of the people”
• Ended with Battle of Actium in 31 BCE
Three Major Periods of Roman History
Roman Empire
• 31 BCE-476 CE
• Began when Octavian’s forces defeated the forces of Antony and
Cleopatra
• End of Western Roman Empire traditionally dated to 476 CE, when
last emperor, Romulus Augustus, deposed
• Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire continued until conquered by
the Turks in 1453
Government: Patricians and Plebeians
Patricians
• Nobles
• Controlled the government of the Republic
• Executive power
• Two consuls elected for a one-year term
• Elected by adult male patricians
• Legislature
• Senate – upper house
• About 300 patricians
• Served for life
• Controlled by about 12 families
• Assembly – lower house
• All free, adult males who could afford weaponry
• All acts had to be approved by the Senate
Government: Patricians and Plebeians
Plebeians
• Common people
• Few rights and little power
• Could not run for public office
• Could not marry into the nobility (the
patrician class)
• Little say in the creation of laws
• Continuously threatened to secede
from Rome and create their own city
Why was Rome so successful?
Infrastructure:
Well-built military
roads radiating
from Rome
Military ability
Strategy: Divide
and control
Treatment of
conquered
peoples
The Rise and Fall of the
Roman Empire
What was the Roman Empire?
• There were two periods of Roman
government.
– Roman Republic
• 509 BCE-30 BCE
– Roman Empire
• 30 BCE-476 CE
• Rome technically had an “empire” under the
Roman Republic.
– But the term “Roman Empire” refers to the time
period, beginning with Augustus, when Rome
was ruled by emperors.
Map of Roman Empire at its Height
Over about 300 years the Roman Empire continued to expand
its territory throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Why Did Rome Fall?
• Economic Reasons:
– Gap between rich and poor
– Impoverished workers became tied to
the land as coloni (sold as the land was
sold)
– As fewer members of the lower classes
could afford to buy goods (no
purchasing power), manufacturing and
trade declined
– Large estates became self-sufficient,
further hurting manufacturing and trade
Why Did Rome Fall?
• Military Reasons:
• Roman Republic
– Armies were servants of Rome
• Roman Empire
– Armies made and unmade emperors
• Reliance on barbarian troops
– Not ultimately loyal to Rome
– Could not be counted on to fight their fellow
barbarians
– Interested in obtaining booty, not defending
Rome or furthering Rome’s interests
Why did Rome Fall?
Political Reasons
• Decline in patriotism
– Democracy did not exist in reality
– Citizens lost their tie (voting rights) to the state
– Patriotism became based on loyalty to an
emperor, not to Rome
• Most emperors did not inspire respect or loyalty
• East/West split
– Two empires created problems regarding loyalty
• No orderly succession
– Murders, forced suicides, and civil wars
frequently accompanied the transition from one
emperor to the next
Why did Rome Fall?
Social Reasons
• Population decline
– Hunger
– Plagues
– War
• Decline in intellectual culture
– People did not dedicate themselves to public service
and intellectual pursuits
– People instead spent their leisure time watching
chariot races and gladiatorial contests
• Religious divisions
– Eastern and Egyptian cults took away the popularity
and status of traditional Roman religion
– New faiths like Christianity directly questioned and
challenged concepts such as imperial divinity
Why is Ancient Rome so important
to world history?
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Administration of a vast empire
Christianity
The Romans did not necessarily
create and invent everything that
Architecture
they are commonly given credit
Engineering
for. What the Romans were best
at was taking something (like the
Historians
Etruscan arch), adapting it, and
Literature
putting it to great use (such as in
the construction of aqueducts).
Roman law
Romance languages
Transmission of Greek (Hellenistic) culture
Tour of the
Roman Senate House
and
Courthouse
Senate House – “Curia”
Courthouse – “Basilica Julia”
Roman Republic
The Republic was broken into three branches of government.
Executive
• two consuls (chief
executives)
• 1 year terms
• elected
• commanded army
• directed
government with
advice of legislative
branch
• consuls could veto
each other
Judicial
• Praetors
• oversaw the entire
legal system
• Elected officials
• heads of the
Roman court
system
The division of
power is an
example of “Checks
and Balances”
Legislative
• Senate and two
Assemblies
• wealthy citizens
were members of the
senate
• all other citizens
were members of the
two assemblies
• voted on laws and
elected officials
Both the Senate and
Courthouse are located in
the Forum.
Senate House
Courthouse
Curia
Here is a 3-D
Model of the
original senate
house. The current
one was rebuilt by
Mussolini in the
1920s using
original materials.
The Curia is where
the Roman
Senators would
meet and discuss
politics.
These are the original senate
doors that ancient Roman
senators would walk through to
get inside the senate house.
The senators were one of the
three branches of the Roman
Republic and were responsible
for foreign and financial
policies. In addition, the
senators advised the two
consuls (leaders) of Rome. The
senate was seen as the most
powerful of the three branches
and was made up of wealthy
landowners.
This is a model of the interior of the
Curia (the senate house)
Besides the senate, the other groups in the legislative branch
were the two assemblies. The assemblies consisted of all the
“lower” class citizens. They were responsible for voting on laws
and electing officials.
Judicial Branch - The Courthouse – Basilica Julia
Today this is all
that remains
A digital mock-up of what
the courthouse looked
like in ancient times.
The duty of the Judicial branch was to carry out the laws of the Roman
Empire in order to ensure peace, stability and order. 180 magistrates
(judges) would oversee the court cases. They were broken into 4 court
rooms, so there were 45 judges at each trial. The accused were allowed to
have lawyers and the public was allowed to watch the trials. Oftentimes
lawyers would hire crowds of spectators to applaud and jeer the opposing
council. Thus, court cases were a form of entertainment for many
Digital representation of the interior of the Basilica Julia, the
building was divided into four courts by simply putting up screens.
The magistrates, lawyers, and accused would be on the bottom
floor, while the spectators would be in the balconies above.
Roman Laws
The job of the judicial branch was to uphold Roman laws. These
laws were based upon the concept of “natural law” which was first
created by Greek philosophers. The main idea of natural law is that
all humans possess the ability to reason, so if reason was common
to all people, all people must be equal. If all human beings are
fundamentally alike, they should all be subject to the same moral
laws and principles. This is the basic principle that underlies the
modern concept that people have natural rights that no government
can deny. If all humans must follow these laws, then the laws must
be made public knowledge. In about 450 B.C. the Romans
engraved their laws on tablets called the Twelve Tables. These
laws were placed in the Forum for all to view. This was the first time
the Romans had ever written down their laws, and these laws
became the foundation of the Roman Republic.
In 521 AD – nearly 1,000 years after the Twelve Tables were
written, Emperor Justinian ordered the compilation of all Roman
laws from the time period of the Tables onward. This written
record became known as the Justinian Code
To explore the Justinian Code … you will compare it to our Bill of
Rights…BUT FIRST, you must deconstruct the Bill of Rights!