*
World History
*
*Rome is located on the
peninsula of Italy. The
Mediterranean Sea
provides
transportation and
food.
*Italy provides fertile
plains and river valleys
for food and easy
communication.
*
*Alexander died in 323 B.C.
*Rome dominated most of the Italian peninsula
*Expansion southward brought Rome into
collision with Carthage, the greatest power in
the western Mediterranean
*Second Carthaginian war (218-201 B.C.):
Rome’s southern Italian allies defected to
Hannibal
*Third war with Carthage in 201 B.C.: Rome
emerged not merely victorious but a world
power
*
*
* Rome was founded about 509 BCE.
Romans founded a new
type of government called a republic. In a republic people
chose officials to represent them.
* The highest form of government in Rome was the Senate.
Senators were wealthy landowners (called Patricians.)
*
*The senators elected two Consuls, whose job it was
to run the government and command the army.
*
*Roman families were headed by the
eldest male. The Romans
emphasized discipline, strength, and
loyalty.
*Women had many rights and duties in
Roman society. She did not, however
have the key right, the right to vote.
*Officially, the Roman women were
expected to remain in the
background.
* Power hungry Roman Senator
* Conquers Gaul
* The Roman Senate grew jealous of Caesar and
ordered him to return home
* Caesar marched on Rome with his army
*
* The other consul, Pompey, lead an army
against Caesar
* Caesar won the battle and anointed himself
dictator
* Caesar was loved by the lower class, but hated
by the nobles and Senate
* Caesar was betrayed and stabbed to death at
the senate
*
*Roman transformation of Greek tradition
through contact with Greek cities in
southern Italy, Sicily and mainland Greece
*Greek culture began to permeate Roman
*The military victories brought in huge
numbers of enslaved war captives
*Wealthy businessman exerted control over
the government
*Growing gulf between the wealthy and
the poor
*
*The civil conflict ended in the establishment of a
powerful executive
*The Senate retained an impressive share of the
power in the Republic, but the new development
led to autocracy
*Augustus, after the murder of his uncle Julius
Caesar in 44 BC., controlled the western half of
the empire by 31 B.C.
*Battle with Mark Anthony, ruler of the eastern
half of the empire
*Augustus’s victory united the empire under one
authority and ushered in an age of peace and
reconstruction
*
*
*After Julius Caesar
died, his grandnephew,
Octavian (Augustus)
took over.
*Augustus ruled with
absolute power. This
began the Roman
Empire period during
which Rome was ruled
by a series of
emperors.
*
*originally named Octavian
*Caesar’s grandnephew and
adopted son
*defeated rivals in civil wars
after Caesar’s death
*became Rome’s 1st emperor
*started a 200-year period of
prosperity called the Pax
Romana (“Roman Peace”)
*Augustus, Rome’s ablest ruler,
creates lasting system of
government
* Under Augustus Rome enjoyed a
peaceful period that lasted about 200
years. This was referred to as the Pax
Romana.
* The government maintained order,
enforced laws, defended the borders
and helped the poor. Many public
works projects were conducted, such
as aqueducts, canals and roads.
* The successors of Augustus ruled the ancient world for
the next 200 years with only occasional disturbances
* A.D. 96-180 “Five good emperors”: Nerva (96-98)
* Trajan (98-117)
* Hadrian (117-138)
* Antoninus Pius (138-161)
* Marcus Aurelius (161-180)
* Longest period of peace that has ever been enjoyed by
the inhabitants of an area that included Britain, France,
southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa
* Yet the literature of the second century reflects a
spiritual emptiness described in Petronius’s Satyricon:
the new rich can think only in terms of money and
material possessions
*
*Roman Science and
Technology
 Little theoretical science or innovation (Lucretius-atoms)
 Encyclopedists (Pliny)
 Architectural virtuosity
 City planning--water, lead pipes, sewage, fire protection
 Bridges and aqueducts
 Law and administration
*Roman Science and
Technology
 Concrete (if a society can only introduce one invention, it
could do no better than this.)
 Codex form of books
 Water mills (late in Empire)
GREEK
ROMAN
Preferred Structure:
Temples to Glorify Gods
Civic Buildings to honor
Empire
Walls:
Made of cut stone blocks
Concrete with Ornamental
facing
Trademark Forms:
Rectangles, Straight Lines
Circles, Curved Lines
Support System:
Post and Lintel
Rounded Arch
Column Style:
Doric & Ionic
Corinthian
Sculpture:
Idealized Gods &
Goddesses
Realistic (Verism) humans,
idealized officials
Painting:
Stylized figures floating in
Space
Realistic images with
perspective
Subject of Art:
Mythology
Civic Leaders, military
triumphs
18
*Solid paved roads were built to assist trade
and communication around the empire. Many
still exist today.
* Roman aqueducts were incredible works of engineering
and architecture.
* The aqueducts could carry up to 300 million gallons of
water to the city of Rome every day.
GREEK
ROMAN
Preferred Structure:
Temples to Glorify Gods
Civic Buildings to honor
Empire
Walls:
Made of cut stone blocks
Concrete with Ornamental
facing
Trademark Forms:
Rectangles, Straight Lines
Circles, Curved Lines
Support System:
Post and Lintel
Rounded Arch
Column Style:
Doric & Ionic
Corinthian
Sculpture:
Idealized Gods &
Goddesses
Realistic (Verism) humans,
idealized officials
Painting:
Stylized figures floating in
Space
Realistic images with
perspective
Subject of Art:
Mythology
Civic Leaders, military
triumphs
25
* Roman architecture
borrowed Greek
elements, but made
them more grand and
heavy.
* Roman architects
designed arches and
domes that could carry
great weights.
*
*
*Roman poets, historians
and philosophers like
Virgil and Tacitus wrote
works in Latin that
survive to this day.
*Latin is the root of
several modern
languages.
*Roman numerals can
also be seen in many
places today.
*
*The most valued contribution of the
Romans to the world was the Twelve
Tables of written laws.
*The Roman legal system provided
security for the empire, equality
under the law, the right to a defense
and to be considered innocent until
proven guilty.
*The Roman legal system inspired
legal principles still practiced around
the world today.
*
*20-25 emperors and many claimants
*Internal dissension weakens frontiers
*Dacia (modern Romania) lost
*Empire fractures into three parts 258-275
*Economic stagnation and hyperinflation
*Two tough general-emperors, Claudius Gothicus and
Aurelian, stabilized Empire
*Diocletian (284-305) created autocracy, reformed
military, bought another two centuries for the Empire
*Constantine the Great (306-337)
*Legalized Christianity 313
*Theodosius I (379-395)
*The last ruler of the whole empire
*Made Christianity official 391
*Empire divided East-West 395
*Eastern Invasions
*Romulus Augustulus deposed 476
*Eastern half endures as Byzantine Empire to 1453
*
*
Edward Gibbon suggested four reasons for fall of Rome:
* “Immoderate greatness”--growth of bureaucracy and military
* Wealth and luxury
* Barbarian invasions (cause or symptom?)
* Spread of Christianity
*
*Rome wasn’t built in a day and it took a long time
to decline. Eventually the emperor Diocletian
divided the empire into eastern and western
empires.
*While the western empire fell into chaos and was
invaded, the eastern empire survived as a center
of trade and culture and became the Byzantine
Empire.
* Under Julius Caesar, Rome became an empire.
* Octavian Augustus was the first emperor of Rome.
* Rome became too powerful to be challenged and entered a time of
peace in the empire, known as the Pax Romana or “Roman Peace.”
* Allowed ideas to spread across the world.
*
*3 million square
miles
*80 million
people
*1 million *
residents in city
of Rome.
* In 63 BC, Rome took over Judea, the
home of the Jewish religion.
* Judea was controlled by King Herod, a
Jewish governor for Rome.
* After Herod’s death, fighting broke out
among his sons.
* Rome sent troops to create peace in Judea.
*
* Judaism was tolerated by the Romans at first.
* First Monotheistic Religion: Only one supreme god.
* Jesus of Nazareth was born under the rule of Octavian (Caesar
Augustus)
* Grew up preaching the idea of one true god
* Spread a message of peace, love, forgiveness.
* Many Jews believed that Jesus was the Messiah or Savior, from the
Romans.
* Jesus was called Christ which means “savior” in Greek.
*
* Followers of Jesus wrote about the teachings and
experiences that occurred during his life.
* These writings were called Gospels, meaning ‘good
news’
* Can be found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
* The Old Testament is used by the Jewish faith which does
not believe Jesus was the true Messiah.
*
Why did Christianity appeal to people?
Embraced All people
Promised life after death for
ALL people.
Appealed to poorer people
who were not wealthy like Romans.
Because of the Pax Romana, these ideas of Christianity were able
to spread quickly through the empire.
*
* The popularity of Jesus with the poor angered the Romans and the
Jews.
* Jesus was called the “Son of God” and a “King”
* Jews feared Jesus’s preaching would anger the Romans
* Jewish leaders turned Jesus over to the Roman governor of Jerusalem,
Pontius Pilate to be Crucified.
*“Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to
God.”
*
*
*Followers of Jesus became known as Christians.
Much of what is known about Jesus comes from the writings of his
Apostles.
*Apostle means“One who travels”.
Apostles traveled, spread Christian teachings,
and wrote the Gospels of the Bible.
Peter and Paul were two very influential Apostles.
*
*
* Why did the Romans hate Christianity/Judaism?
* Monotheism vs. Polytheism
* Christians/Jews didn’t recognize the emperors as Gods.
* Blamed for any problems in Roman society.
* Emperors such as Nero crucified and tortured Christians and Jews as
traitors.
* Many Jews fled their homeland to escape- Known as the Jewish Diasporaor “spreading out”
* Christians and Jews became Martyrs: Dying for their beliefs.
*
* 66 AD- Jews rebel against the Romans.
* 70 AD- Romans stormed Jerusalem and destroy their temple, leaving
only the Western Wall a.k.a the “wailing wall”.
* 73 AD- Jews and Romans fight at the Battle of Masada. Over 500,000
Jews died in this battle, mostly of suicide.
* Today- The Western Wall is Jerusalem’s holiest shrine.
*
*
*
*
* Peter the Apostle traveled to Rome and was crucified
upside down by Nero.
* Believed to be the first “Bishop” or Pope of the
Christian Church.
* Today, all Popes are believed to be descendants of St.
Peter.
* We now call this the “Catholic” church which means
“Universal”.
*
*
*
*
* In 312 AD, Constantine became Emperor of Rome.
* During Battle, he saw an image of a cross and won.
* 313 AD- Constantine issues the Edict of
Milan making
Christianity a legal religion in Rome.
* To strengthen the religion he called the Council of
Nicaea
to establish the core beliefs of Christianity, leading to the
Nicene Creed.
*
* In 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity
the Offical Religion of the Roman Empire.
*
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