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Cover Slide

The Earth and

Its Peoples

3 rd edition

Chapter 6

An Age of Empires:

Rome and

Han China,

753 B.C.E.-330 C.E.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Augustus as imperator

Augustus as imperator

Augustus, dressed in breastplate and uniform, emphasizes the imperial majesty of Rome and his role as imperator. The naked feet signify

Augustus's divinity; the small cupid riding the dolphin alludes to Augustus's claim that the Julian line descended from

Venus. The breastplate commemorates his victory over the Parthians, the triumph that ushered in the Augustan

Peace. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Bronze punic armor

Bronze punic armor

This bronze Punic armor is a breast- and backplate found in a third-century B.C.E. tomb near Carthage. The ornamentation suggests an Italo-Greek origin. (Musee national du Bardo)


Catacombs of Rome

Catacombs of Rome

The catacombs just outside of Rome testify to the vitality of the new religion of Christianity and pagan toleration of it. The early Christians used underground crypts and rock chambers to bury their dead. The bodies were placed in these galleries and then sealed up. The catacombs became places of pilgrimage, and in this way the dead continued to be united with the living.

(Catacombe di Priscilla, Rome/Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Coin of Julius Caesar

Coin of Julius Caesar

Upon his acquisition of power in 46

B.C.E., Caesar allowed a number of extraordinary honors to be conferred upon him. The Senate declared him

"father of his country" and had this stamped on his coinage. He was the first living Roman to be represented on a coin, a sign both of his power and of the break with tradition that he marked.

(Bibliotheque nationale de France)


Colossal statue of Constantine

Colossal statue of Constantine

The head of Constantine is part of an enormous sculpture of him seated that was once originally placed in his basilica. The entire statue was over 30 feet high; the head alone weighs over 8 tons. Head, arms, hands, legs and feet were of marble. The drapery was probably of bronze plates over a masonry frame. The colossal head and neck are superbly modeled, but the eyes, which seem to be fixed on some spot above our heads (perhaps on eternity), seem overly large. Such a feature is common in the early Christian period.

(Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Dagger depicting Taiyi

Dagger depicting Taiyi

Recent archaeological excavations of manuscripts from the Warring States

Period (403-221 B.C.E.) have given us a much clearer understanding of religious beliefs and practices in early China. The deity Taiyi ("Grand One"), depicted on these drawings of a late-fourth-century

B.C.E. dagger, was the god of the pole star. Sacrifices were made to Taiyi to avert evil or gain his protection in battle.

(From Michael Loewe and Edward

Shaughnessy, ed., Cambridge History of

Ancient China (New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1991))


Diocletian's Tetrarchy

Diocletian's Tetrarchy

The emperor Diocletian's attempt to reform the Roman Empire by dividing rule among four men is represented in this piece of sculpture, which in many features illustrates the transition from ancient to medieval art. Here the four tetrarchs demonstrate their solidarity by clasping one another on the shoulder. Nonetheless each man has his other hand on his sword--a gesture that proved prophetic when Diocletian's reign ended and another struggle for power began. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Double portrait, Pompeii

Double portrait, Pompeii

This wall painting from a house joined to a bakery in Pompeii depicts a married couple, possibly the wealthy baker P. Paquius Proculus and his wife.

The portraiture is realistic. The couple carries symbols of education: she holds wax tablets and a stylus (pen), while he grasps a sealed scroll. (Scala/Art

Resource, NY)


Floor littered with food

Floor littered with food

This mosaic is of a floor that can never be swept clean. It whimsically suggests what a dining room floor looked like after a lavish dinner and also tells something about the menu: a chicken head, a wishbone, and the remains of various seafood, vegetables, and fruits are easily recognizable. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Gladiators, mosaic

Gladiators, mosaic

Gladiators--literally men who carried a gladius (sword)--fought to the death in the arena and enraptured the Roman

Empire. This mosaic from a Roman villa in Germany depicts scenes from the area.

The illustration shows a retiarius (netand-trident bearer), fighting a betterarmed secutor (literally "pursuer") under the watchful eyes of a lanista (trainer).

(Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz)


Relief of farmers plowing with oxen

Relief of farmers plowing with oxen

Farmers in the Han dynasty (220-206

B.C.E.) began to use animal-drawn plows, as depicted here in a stone relief.

Improvements in agricultural technology in Han times aided the geographical expansion of Chinese civilization and the growth of the Chinese population. (From

Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Cambridge

Illustrated History of China, 1996)


Roman amphitheater, Tunisia

Roman amphitheater, Tunisia

Amphitheaters where gladiatorial combats took place were as common in Italy and the Roman Empire as skyscrapers are in a modern city. This amphitheater in the city of El Djem in modern Tunisia (the Roman province of Africa) was built of high-quality local stone. It was meant to have sixty-four arches but was never completed. The openings in the floor permitted animals to be released into the arena. This amphitheater held at least thirty thousand spectators. (Adina Tovy/Robert Harding Picture Library)


Roman Forum

Roman Forum

The site of the future Roman Forum, the famous public square and center of

Roman political life, was originally the cemetery of the small community of early Romans. Under the Etruscans the

Forum began its history as a public meeting place, a development parallel to that of the Greek agora. (Josephine

Powell)


Rubbing of salt mining

Rubbing of salt mining

Found in a Chinese tomb of the first century C.E., this rubbing illustrates a procedure for mining salt. The tower on the left originally served as a derrick for drilling a deep hole through dirt and rock. In this scene workers are hauling up buckets full of brine (saltwater) from underground deposits. In the background are hunters in the mountains. (Courtesy of the

Trustees of the British Museum)


Stamped brick: Tax collecting

Stamped brick: Tax collecting

This stamped brick, found in a tomb in western China, depicts, at center, a stooped peasant pouring into a basket the grain demanded by the government. The tax collector, seated and wearing fine clothing, clutches bamboo slips on which he keeps his records. A number of pictorial elements--positioning in the composition, posture, clothing, and vehicles--contrast the wealth, comfort, and superior social status of the government official with the poverty, toil, and low status of the peasant. (Private Collection)


The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

This ceiling painting comes from a

Christian catacomb in Rome dating before 284 C.E. The pastoral image, common in the early church, recalls

Christ's ministry. It symbolizes his beneficence and his sacrifice, as well as his closeness to ordinary people.

(Scala/Art Resource, NY)


Tophet of Carthage

Tophet of Carthage

Here, from the seventh to second centuries B.C.E., the cremated bodies of sacrificed children were buried.

Archaeological excavation has confirmed the claim in ancient sources that the Carthaginians sacrificed children to their gods at times of crisis. Stone markers, decorated with magical signs and symbols of divinities as well as family names, were placed over ceramic urns containing the ashes and charred bones of one or more infants or, occasionally, older children (Martha Cooper/Peter Arnold, Inc.)


Map: The Economic Aspect of the Pax Romana

The Economic Aspect of the Pax Romana

The Roman Empire was not merely a political and military organization but also an intricate economic network through which goods from Armenia and Syria were traded for Western products from as far away as Spain and Britain. (Copyright (c)

Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.)


Map: The Han Empire

The Han Empire

The Han Dynasty asserted sovereignty over vast regions from Korea in the east to Central Asia in the west and Vietnam in the south. Once garrisons were established, traders were quick to follow, leading to considerable spread of Chinese material culture in East Asia. Chinese goods, especially silk, were in demand far beyond East Asia, promoting long-distance trade across Eurasia. (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.)


Map: Italy and the City of Rome

Italy and the City of Rome

The geographical configuration of the Italian peninsula shows how Rome stood astride north-south communication routes and how the state that united Italy stood poised to move into Sicily and northern Africa. (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin

Company. All Rights Reserved.)


Map: Roman Expansion During the Republic

Roman Expansion During the Republic

The main spurt of Roman expansion occurred between 264 and 133 B.C.E., when most of the Mediterranean fell to Rome, followed by the conquest of Gaul and the eastern Mediterranean by 44 B.C.E. (Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All

Rights Reserved.)


Map: Roman Expansion Under the Empire

Roman Expansion Under the Empire

Following Roman expansion during the republic, Augustus added vast tracts of Europe to the Roman Empire, which the emperor Hadrian later enlarged by assuming control over parts of central Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.

(Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.)


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