Rome: From
Republic to
Empire
Founding of Rome
 Legendary founding- 753 BCE

Romulus and Remus (twin sons of Mars) founded the city
where they were rescued from the Tiber River by a she-wolf
 For two and a half centuries, the Etruscans ruled the city
 Roman citizens drove out the Etruscans in 509 BCE

Declared Rome a republic
 Roman Government

Militaristic

Divided into centuries

Quaestor- lowest magistrates, limited financial authority

Consuls- highest level, supreme civil and military authority

Always two consuls shared power
Conquest

Alliances to defeat Etruscan cities

Reorganized army


By 264 BCE, Roman armies controlled all of Italy south of the
Po
3 Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome

Rome took outside provinces in 1st

Carthage under Hannibal overran most of Italy in 2nd
 Was eventually defeated in North Africa by general Publius
Cornelius Scipio

Used “New Wisdom”: policy of brute force toward enemies

3rd Punic War ended with Roman annexation of Carthage
Expansion
 Annexed Spain and turned to Gaul (modern France)
 Took most of southern Gaul by 121 BCE
 Northern Gaul was divided, led by Julius Caesar, the
Romans took all of Gaul by 49 BCE
 Expanded east and west
 Defeated Macedonia, Greek city-states, Syria, Egypt
and Asia Minor
Institutions of
Empire
 Rome won loyalty by granting citizenship at various levels
 Patron-Client Relationship

Patrons provided legal protection of their clients (usually
plebeians), clients paid fines in return
 Paterfamilias

Father of family had the right of life and death over his
children
 Women subordinate to men
 Arranged marriages
 Motherhood important for women
Roman
Empire
Julius Caesar and
Octavian
 Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus Licinius Crassus
formed triumvirate
 Caesar took power and ruled solo from 47-44 BCE

Created Julian calendar

Re-organized city government

Paid down Rome’s debts
 Assassinated on March 15, 44 BCE

Succeeded by his heir, Octavian
 Octavian married his sister to his enemy, Antony
 Antony later married Cleopatra, queen of Egypt
 Ruled from Egypt and threatened Octavian
 Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra and annexed Egypt in
31 BCE
Augustus
 Octavian re-unified the Roman world
 Senate gave him title “Augustus” in 27 BCE
 Rule for 56-years until his death in 14 CE
 Stabilized borders
 Public projects
 Roman Golden Age
 Wanted to restore paterfamilias
 Restored temples of worship

End of the
Republic
Augustus turned Rome into an imperial monarchy led by a single
commander, the imperator

All power lay in hands of the emperor

Military replaced the civilian government

Rome expanded

Emperor Trajan annexed Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Dacia

Emperor Hadrian built the northernmost wall in Britain

Limited citizenship given and generals and emperors came from
outside Rome

Jus Gentium, law of the nations, united and pacified the empire

Law codified by Hadrian and Justinian
Economic policies
 Levied tributes, taxes, and rents from conquered lands
 Constructed new cities as administrative, military and
financial centers
 Trade opportunities by sea and land

Intercontinental luxury trade goods from India, China,
Africa, Arabia in exchange for precious metals from Rome
 Pax Romana on the Silk Road

Need for safety and protection on overland routes

Connected four powerful empires
 Middle men were the steppe nomads of Central Asia
 Creditors and debtors
Cultural Policies
 Greco-Roman Culture
 Latin was language of administration but Greek culture
was spread
 Philosophy
 Stoicism founded by Zeno
 World is rational and orderly
 Accept everything that takes place in the world
 Height under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (161-180 CE)
Religion in the
empire

Officially, Rome was centered on the person of the emperor-god

Flexible religious policies


Mithraism, worshiped the Persian sun god Mithra, emphasized
discipline and loyalty

Worship of female goddesses
Conflict in Judea (conquered in 63 BCE)

Opposition to Jews because monotheism questioned power of
emperor
 Jews revolted against Rome and Rome razed Jerusalem, established
a Roman colony, destroyed Judea as a state and exiled the Jews

Also clashed with early Christians
Christianity in the
empire
Romans saw Christian monotheism as treasonable


Roman governor Pontius Pilate tried and crucified Jesus
 Viewed as a threat to the religious and political stability of
their colony
 Christianity spread and was adopted by Stoics

Despite persecution under many emperors, Christianity
flourished
 By the time of the conversion of Constantine (313 CE),
1/10 Romans were Christian

Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan
 Recognized Christianity as a valid faith
Roman Life
Class Conflict
 Struggle of the Orders (494-440 BCE)
 First plebian consul elected in 360 BCE
 Gracchi brothers (Tiberius and Gaius) tried to reform
 Redistributed land, subsidized crops, and created
“publicans” (tax farmers)
 Both clubbed to death and supporters executed
 “Bread and circuses” to bribe the poor with free bread
and festivities
 Keep the masses quiet without solving problems
Slaves
 Millions of slaves from military conquest, piracy, and
raids
 “Every slave we own is an enemy we harbor”
 3 slave revolts grew into wars
 Great Slave War in Sicily (134-131 BCE)
 Second Slave War in Sicily (104-100 BE) by Germanic
tribes
 Spartacus-led gladiator revolts in Rome 73-71 BCE
 Later joined to fight alongside the Barbarians
Military
 Rome was a military state

Army central to life

Copied Greek phalanxes and technology

Built navy against Carthage
 All free men served in the army

Later become professional under Augustus
 Armed forces expanded with Roman Empire

Roads, bridges and aqueducts sustained army
 Generals competed for power
Fall of Rome
Barbarians
 Rome labeled many of its neighbors Barbarians
 Spoke unknown foreign languages, didn’t have cities,
written languages, or codified laws
 The Celts
 Expanded territory c. 400 BCE towards Spain, Britain,
Balkans, and Anatolia
 Were conquered by Romans
 Killed, assimilated, or fled to British isles
Barbarians
 Goths
 Germanic peoples of northern Europe
 Many conflicts with Romans
 In 370 CE steppe nomads began to invade from
central Asia
 Pushed the Goths westward
 Romans called these steppe nomads “Huns”
 Huns toppled the Han dynasty, invaded India, and
displaced other barbarians on their way to Rome
Decline
 Rome was vulnerable to invaders
 The Marcomanni (Germanic) invaded the Danube and
pushed into Greece and Italy
 Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180 CE) fought against the
invaders but also tried to assimilate them
 Goths continued to push across the Danube and
Rhine into the Balkans and Asia Minor
 In the east, Rome had to fend of the Sassanian
dynasty of Persia

Fragmentation
and
Dissolve
Constant warfare forced decentralization

Emperors established regional capitals
 Goths, Franks and Vandals settled within the imperial borders in
increasing numbers

Visigoths invaded Italy in 401 and 407
 Sacked Rome in 410
 Goths, Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and Burgundians moved into Spain

Sacked, looted, and burned then established their own settlements
 Huns under Attila invaded Italy in 451
 First Barbarian king of Italy was German general Odoacer in 476

Cause of Decline
and
Fall
Internal Causes

Between elite and the masses

Cost of sustaining the empire and military

Overextension of empire

No viable system of succession
 External Causes

Could not fend off the invaders

Tried to assimilate them but became heavily Germanic

Rise of Christianity decreased the power of the emperors
 Alternate value system
Empire in the
East
Eastern Empire
 Constantinople, the second Roman capital, was established
by Constantine in 331 CE

Greek language and culture

Roman law and administration

Christian faith and organization
 Justinian I (r. 527-565)

Recaptured some lands

Legal, administrative and architectural initiatives
 Civil Law codified into the Justinian Code
 Basis of modern European law

Religious reforms
 Constructed churches and tried to conform theology
Byzantine Empire
 Over time, Constantinople changed so much from Rome it
took on the new identity known as the Byzantine Empire

Confronted Islamic invaders
 Iconoclasm (began 726)

Battle over the use of images, or icons, in Christian worship
 The decision split the Catholic church into western Church
and Eastern Orthodoxy
 Decline of Byzantium came in late eleventh century from
religious and political antagonisms
 WHY DID THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE LAST 1000
YEARS LONGER THAN THE ROMAN EMPIRE?!