Agenda
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Bell ringer
Go over class work
Review Alexander the Great
Rome (to Principate)
Closure
Review
• How did Alexander the Great promote
Hellenistic culture throughout his empire?
Unit 2: Organization and
Reorganization of Human Societies
(600 B.C.E. – 600 C.E.)
ESSENTIAL LEARNING: ROME’S
CREATION OF A MEDITERRANEAN
EMPIRE (753 BCE-600 CE)
Objectives
• Assess how Rome’s geographic features
contributed to its rise to empire.
• Describe the structure of Rome’s government
during the Republic.
• Assess the reasons for Rome’s expansion.
• Describe the social changes that took place
throughout Rome’s expansion.
• Describe government during the Principate.
Essential Questions
• How did Rome’s geographic features contribute
to its rise to empire?
• What was the structure of Rome’s government
during the Republic?
• What were the reasons for Rome’s expansion?
• What social changes took place throughout
Rome’s expansion?
• What kind of government existed in Rome during
the Principate?
Where is Italy?
Target: Geography
• Central location in the Mediterranean Sea
– Began in central Italy.
– Fertile farmland.
• Low mountains – few natural barriers to
expansion
– Well forested, northwest rich in metals.
– Navigable rivers.
Target: The Republic (753-31 BCE)
• 507 BCE – Senate instituted a republic
• Government
– Assembly
• Male citizens, wealthy votes counted more
• Two consuls presided, commanded army, chosen
annually
– Senate – real center of power, life terms
• Advised kings and Consuls, then made policy and
governed
– Dictator – up to 6 months
• Society
– Conflict of Orders
• Inequalities between patricians (landowning upper
class) and plebeians (farmers, merchants, traders)
• Twelve Tables (450 BCE) – written laws prevented
arbitrary judicial decisions
• Creation of tribunes – officials drawn from non-elite
classes, could veto actions of the Assembly
Twelve Tables
• Table I mandates that when a person is accused of
something, both accused and accuser must be present
at a hearing or trial on the matter.
• Table III gives debtors 30 days to pay off a debt.
• Table IV makes a man's will binding.
• Table VIII lists specific punishments for certain crimes.
Most importantly, it says that a person shown to have
lied in court will be put to death.
• Table IX specifies capital punishment for judges who
have taken bribes and for people who have committed
treason.
• Table XI prohibits a plebeian from marrying a patrician
•
(http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/worldhistory/twelvetables.htm)
– Family – several living generations, domestic
slaves
• Paterfamilias had absolute authority
– Patron/client relationships
– Women played no public role
• Could not own property or represent herself legally
• Eventually more personal protection and economic
freedom
– Polytheistic religion
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Numina – invisible forces
Other gods more important (Jupiter, Mars)
Pax deorum (“peace of the gods”)
Took over the myths attached to Greek gods
Target: Expansion in Italy and the
Mediterranean
• Potential reasons for expansion
– Greed and aggressiveness
– Consuls – one year to gain military glory
– Defense
• Well-disciplined, well-trained army
– Male citizens with specified amount of land
• Treated conquered people fairly
– Often granted some or all privileges of Roman
citizenship
– Conquered lands supplied soldiers and taxes
• Cooperative groups given more autonomy
• Punic Wars
– Rome vs. Carthage
– Hannibal
– Third Punic War – Rome destroyed Carthage, took
slaves
• Senators sent as governor to each province
annually – defended, oversaw tax collection,
decided legal cases.
Target: Failure of the Republic and
Transition to Empire
• Wealth – upper classes
• Farmers replaced by latifundia (“broad
estates”)
• Cheap slave labor = peasants lived in poverty
in cities
• Fewer peasant farmers = fewer military men,
propertyless men began to serve
• 88-31 BCE – series of ambitious men
commanded armies loyal to them
– Julius Caesar took control
• Reforms made him popular
• Assassinated by members of the Senate
Target: The Roman Principate (31 BCE330 CE)
• Octavian (63 BCE-14 CE)
– Fundamentally changed realities of power
– Expanded territory
– Allied himself with the equites, well-to-do Italian
merchants and landowners
• After Augustus, the Senate confirmed
emperors, but in reality chosen by armies
– By 100 CE, emperors hand-picked a successor
– Future emperors exercised authority more
blatantly
• Law
– Emperors were major source
– Class of legal experts studied and organized
– Property and rights of individuals
– Foundation of European law
• Rural Rome
– 80% farmed
– Little contact with government
– Tenant farmers cultivated land in return for
portion of crops
• Urban Rome
– Wealthy in elegant townhouses, poor in crowded
slums
• Commerce
– Some urban Romans rich
– Helped by the pax romana (“Roman peace”),
increased trade
• Romanization and citizenship
– Spread of Latin language and Roman culture
– Citizenship gradually granted to those outside Italy
Essential Questions
• How did Rome’s geographic features contribute
to its rise to empire?
• What was the structure of Rome’s government
during the Republic?
• What were the reasons for Rome’s expansion?
• What social changes took place throughout
Rome’s expansion?
• What kind of government existed in Rome during
the Principate?
Agenda
Review
• How did Rome’s geographic features contribute
to its rise to empire?
• What was the structure of Rome’s government
during the Republic?
• What were the reasons for Rome’s expansion?
• What social changes took place throughout
Rome’s expansion?
• What kind of government existed in Rome during
the Principate?
Objectives
• Describe the rise of and major beliefs of
Christianity.
• Describe the achievements attained by Rome
during the Pax Romana.
• Evaluate the causes of the fall of the Roman
Empire.
Essential Questions
• What are the major beliefs of Christianity and
how did it expand under the Roman Empire?
• What achievements did Rome attain during
the Pax Romana?
• Why did the Roman Empire fall?
Target: The Rise of Christianity
• Romans conquered Jewish homeland of Judea
in 6 CE
– Roman governors caused resentment
– Jews waited for the Messiah
• Jesus
– Called himself the son of God
– Believed in the Jewish idea of one god, accepted
10 Commandments
– Claimed he was "Christ”
– Caught the attention of the Jewish authorities
• Crucified.
• His followers, Apostles, spread teachings.
• Christianity grew for more than 200 years
– Many women, slaves, and urban poor were first
converts
• Monotheistic – refusal to worship the
emperor seen as disloyalty, persecuted by
Roman officials
• Holy book – The Bible
Target: Pax Romana (27 BCE- 180 CE)
• Expansion of Roman Empire resulted in
blending of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman
cultures (Greco-Roman civilization)
Examples of Roman Achievements
• Adapted the realistic Hellenistic style of
statues
• Architecture
• Over 250,000 miles of road
• Also had bridges, harbors, and aqueducts
• Influenced laws in Europe and America.
The Pantheon
aqueducts
Roman Mosaics
Why is Windsor a good district?
What if…
• All districts in the surrounding area join the
district, but only Mr. Andrews is the
superintendent?
• What issues do you foresee becoming a
problem?
• How do you solve these problems?
Target: Fall of the Roman Empire
• Causes of the fall of Rome
– Taxes too high
– Many corrupt people in government
– Poor farmers left land for protection of stronger
landowners
– People become lazy
– Roman army lacks discipline, Romans forced to
hire foreign soldiers to defend borders
– Barbarian invasions
• Third-Century Crisis (235-284 CE)
– Offensive to defensive strategy
– Frequent leadership change
– Buying army loyalty drained treasury, high taxes,
coins disappeared into emperors’ pockets
– Population shifted to countryside
• Bread and circuses
• Diocletian gained power
in 284
– Divided empire into two
parts
– Set maximum prices
– Froze people into
“essential” professions
• Constantine (r. 306-337
CE)
– Edict of Milan (313) –
ended persecution of
Christians, granted
freedom of religion
• Christianity later became
the official religion
– Transferred capital from
Rome to Byzantium
(324)
• Renamed Constantinople
• End of Rome
– Two halves of the empire followed different
pathways after the transfer of the capital
– Western Empire ended in 476 when Romulus
Augustulus abdicated
• Eastern Empire, Byzantine, could continue to
flourish for 1000 years
Essential Questions
• What are the major beliefs of Christianity and
how did it expand under the Roman Empire?
• What achievements did Rome attain during
the Pax Romana?
• Why did the Roman Empire fall?