Ancient Greece- Golden Age
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Pericles’ three goals for athens
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Pericles led Athens to its golden age
461- 429 BCE
 1. To strengthen Athenian democracy
 2. To hold and strengthen the empire by conquer other city states
 3. To glorify Athens
Stronger Democracy
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he increased amount of paid public officials
maid more salaries
poorest could now serve in politics
these reforms made Athens one of the most democratic states in history
DIRECT DEMOCRACY- when citizens rule through themselves and not
representatives
Few other cs practiced this government
Athenian Empire
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He used cash from delian league to fund the 200 ship navy of Athens
strongest in the Mediterranean
Glorifying Athens
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He went against the league and to buy gold ivory and marble
He spent 15 years of building to build the Parthenon
Greek Styles in art
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Parthenon: 23,000 square foot building like a temple
It set the standards for future generations
Greek Sculpture
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In the Parthenon stood a giant statue of Athena goddess of wisdom and
protector of Athens
Phidias sculpture
38 foot tall sculpture
their art values became knows as classical art
Greek Drama
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built first theaters
expression of civic pride and a tribute to the gods
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they wrote two types tragedy and comedy
Tragedy
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serious drama about common themes such as love hate war or betrayal
had a hero a defect would cause his downfall often hubris or excessive
pride
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides were the main play writers
Aeschylus wrote more than 80 plays
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The oresteia based on Agamemnon commander of Greeks at troy
Sophocles wrote about 100 plays including Oedipus the king an antigone
Euripides author of the play medea
Comedy
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Had humor
Satires or works that poked fun at a subject
Made fun of customs politics respected people or ideas of the time
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Aristophanes wrote comedies the birds and lysistrata
Lysistrata was women telling their husbands not to fight in the
Peloponnesian war
Spartans and Athenians Go To War
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Athens and Sparta had tension wanted to fight and did
Peloponnesian war
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Sparta declares war against Athens in 431 BCE
Athens was strongest sea power in Greece
Sparta was better on land
The Spartans invaded and burned the food supply
They went into the guarded city and were safe
Sparta gains the edge
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In the second year of the war a plague spread out and killed about 2/3 of
Athens population
Athens second disaster sent 27,000 soldiers to destroy polis of Syracuse
one of Spartas wealthiest allies
They lost in 413 BCE
404 BCE Athens surrendered
War brings political changes
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after 27 years of war Athens lost its empire
they couldn’t figure out what to do
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
10/22/2010 1:33:00 PM
 People who were determined to sea the truth, the Greek
called them Philosophers (lovers of wisdom)
 Phlosophers based their philosophy on these assumptions:
o The Universe (land, sky, and sea) is put together in
an orderly way, and subject to absolute and
unchanging laws
o And that people can understand these laws by logic
and reason
 There were a group of philosophers, the sophists, questioned
what people thought about their ideas
 One of the Sophists was a man named Protagoras, he question
the Greek’s belief in the gods and if they are really what the
Greeks thought of them
 He also said that “man is the measure of all things”, and
that men think differently than each other
Socrates 469-399 BC:
 He was a strong critic of the Sophists
 He believed that people do exist for the truth and justice
 He encouraged the men of Greece to question themselves
and their moral character
 People who understood what Socrates was saying liked
him, but most people didn’t understand what he was
saying and didn’t get his ideas
 In 399 B.C he was brought to trial, because he was
making the youth of Athens corrupted, and for not
believing in the gods of Athens
 He said that it was the right thing to do, to teach the
youth to think about their values and actions
 The court did not agree with him
 so he was condemned to be killed and he died after
drinking a slow acting death
 He was the teacher of Plato
Plato 427-347 BC:
 Plato’s teacher was Socrates, and he was 28 years old
when Socrates died
 Later after Socrates died Plato wrote a book called The
Republic
 In it he wrote about a perfectly governed society, but not
democracy
 He thought that this would mean, that there would be 3
groups of citizens:
o Farmers and artisans
o Warriors
o And Ruling Class/ guardians
 He thought that the person who had the most intellect
and knowledge in the ruling class should become the
philosopher king
 These ideas dominated philosophic thought in Europe for
almost 1,500 years
 But his rivals were Socrates, his old teacher, and his
student, Aristotle
Aristotle 384-322 BC:
 He was the student of Plato
 Aristotle’s father was a docter
 He questioned the nature of the world, and of human
belief, thought , and knowledge
 He came close to summarizing all of the knowledge in the
world up to his time
 He made a method for arguing according to rules and
logic
 He applied his method to psychology, physics, and
biology, his method today is called the Scientific method
 One of Aristotle’s most famous students was Alexander
the Great
o He was asked by the king, Alexander’s father, to
teach Alexander, when he was 14, 343 BC,
Alexander became king and stopped studying with
Aristotle in 336 BC.
Alexander The Great-empire Builder
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 Macedonia:
 It was t the north of Greece and had rocky mountains and
cold climate
 Their language was very similar to the Greek’s
 Most Macedonian nobles thought of themselves as
Greeks, but the Greeks looked down on them and thought
of them as uncivilized foreigners who couldn’t sculpt,
didn’t have philosophers, and didn’t have any writers
 Philip’s Army:
 Philip II became the king of Macedonia in 359 BC
 At 23 years old he was a brilliant ruler and was a ruthless
politician
 He made the peasants of Macedonia trained professional
Soldiers
 His army strategy was a Phalanx ( like the Greek), but
instead of 9 by 9 he did 16 by 16
 He used this formation to destroy every enemy in his was,
he succeded and was thought as a very powerful army
 He went to go conquer Greece
 Conquest of Greece:
 The Athenian orator Demosthenes tried to warn the
Greece about the threat from Philip II but they didn’t want
to form one army with all the city states
 So Athens and Thebes joined together to fight against
Philip but since it was to late
 The Greeks lost the battle of Chaeronea which was led by
Philips son Alexander (18 years old)
 This defeat ended Greek’s freedom and independence
 Since they lost Greece still were made of City states, but
were ruled by foreign powers, which at the beginning was
Philip from Macedonia
 Philip wanted to invade Persia next, but he wasn’t able to
because a former guardsman stabbed him to death at his
daughter’s wedding in 336 BC
 Alexander, Philip’s son became king because of the death
of his father, and because of his great accomplishments
over the next 13 years he became know as Alexander
The Great
 Alexander Defeats Persia:
 He became king in 336 BC at the age of 20
 He was Aristotle’s student
 When Thebes, a city of Greece, rebelled he destroyed
their city and about 6000 people were killed and the rest
of the rebels were sold into slavery
 The other Greek cities didn’t think of rebelling after this
incident because of their fear
 Invasion of Persia:
 In 334 BC he Alexander led 35,000 soldiers into Anatolia,
Persian messengers raced through the royal road to give
the news about the invasion
 Persia brought 40,000 men to defend themselves
 The two armies met at the Granicus River, Alexander
made the first move and smashed the Persian forces
 This frightened the kind of Persia, Darius, so he vowed to
destroy Macedonia and made a huge army of 50,00075,000 Soldiers
 Alexander realizing that he was outnumbered took his
best soldiers and broke through Persia’s weak part of the
army, then he charged at Darius making him and his
Army run
 This gave Alexander the victory and the control over
Anatolia
 Alexander’s Ambitions grow:
 Darius scared of his defeat offered Alexander a peace
treaty which included the western third of hi kingdom,
Alexander declined and announced that he was going to
conquer the whole Persian Empire
 First he went to Egypt in 332, where they welcomed him
as a liberator and made him pharaoh of Egypt, he also
founded a city at the mouth of the Nile called Alexandria
 Conquering the Persian Empire:
 After leaving Egypt Alexander went to Mesopotamia to
confront Darius
 He assembled 250,000 men to defend themselves, with
chariots that had deadly scythes protruding from the
wheel hubs
 He fought at Gaugamela a small village near the ruin of
Nineveh
 With the armies Phalanx and the cavalry charge,
Alexander one the battle, again Darius fled very
frightened, this ended the Persian power
 Alexander’s army occupied Babylon, Susa, and
Persepolis, and after several months a fire broke out in
Persepolis
o Some Historians say that Alexander burned it down
to show that the Persian Empire was destroyed
o Another says that he did it to take revenge on the
burning of Athens 150 years before
o But another says that he didn’t even plan it
 Alexander’s Other conquests:
 Alexander wanted to expand his empire and wanted to
conquer Persia’s remote Asian provinces
 Alexander in India:
 In 327 BC Alexander and his army crossed into the Indus
Valley
 The Indian army were very strond and blocket off their
path with 200 elephants in their path, but alexadner still
one the battle
 Since the army had been fighting for 11 years and
marched more than 11,000 miles they were very tired
and exauhsted so they wanted to go back, Alexander,
disappointed, agreed and went back home
 The troops gave Alexander water and then he poured it
out on to them
 After they retured Alexander announced that he was
going to unify his empire and conquer Arabia, but he was
not able to because he died from being ill of a fever after
11 days of the sickness
 Alexander’s Legacy:
 Like Alexander said the empire would be ruled by the
strongest general
 3 ambitious general won and they split the power of the
empire
 Antigonous (chanuka story)took control of Macedonia
and the Greek city-states and became king, his
descendants were the antigonids
 Ptolemy became Pharaoh of Egypt and established a
dynasty, his anscestors were Ptomies
 Seleucids became the king of most of the old Persian
Empire and renamed it Seleucid Empire
 These rulers and their decedents had complete power
over their subjects
 As Alexander made his way through the cities that he
conquered he took Persians to be in his army he had a
Persian wife, and he wore clothes of the Persians
 This made a new culture which had a mixture of Greek,
Egyptian, and Eastern customs
The Hellenistic Age
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 Hellenistic Culture in Alexandria:
 Blended cultures with, Greek Egyptian Persian and Indian
cultures made a new culture this was called Hellenistic
culture
 Hellenism-The culture blend of near eastern and Greek
that is overlaid on indigenous peoples
 Hellenic – was the Greek religion
 Koine was the popular spoken language in the Hellenistic
culture, such as Alexandria
o This language was a dialect of Greek
o This was good because traders from different places
throughout the Hellenistic world could speak to each
other
 Trade and Culture Diversity:
 Alexandria was the center of trade and Hellenistic
civilization
 The reason of this was because they had a great
geography, they were right next to the nile and the
Mediterranean
 Alexandria’s Greatest Attractions:
 Visitors and residents loved the beauty of Alexandria
 Rulers built royal palaces overlooking the harbor
 People visited Alexander’s tomb which was a glass coffin
 There was a lighthouse, called Pharos, there wasa bronze
mirror that reflected a light from a fire
 But the most famous and most visited attractions were
alexandria’s museums and libraries, there were art
galleries, zoos, botanical gardens and dinning halls it was
an institute of advanced technology
 In the libraries of Alexandria there were half a million
scrolls of different master pieces of ancient literature
 Science and Technology:
 During the Hellenistic period many scholars came to study
in Alexandria instead of Athens
 There was learning of sciences
 Astronomy:
 In the Alexandria’s museum their was a small observatory
where astronomers could study the planets and the stars
 Aristarchus, an astronomer had 2 scientific conclusions,
1 he said that the sun was 300 times bigger than the
earth, and 2 that the earth and the other planets revolved
around the sun no one thought that Aristarchus was right
and didn’t want to support his theory
 By the second century AD a man named Ptolemy
(different that the ruler of Egypt) said that all the planets
revolved around the earth (this was wrong) everyone
believed him and thought that this was the correct theory
for 14 centuries
 Eratosthenes was a scholar who calculated how big the
earth’s true size was, this man was the director of
Alexandria’s library
 He was also an astronomer, poet, historian, and
mathematician
 He used geometry to come to a conclusion that the earth
was 24,662 miles but really it is 24,860 miles, which was
very close to modern day calculations
 Mathematics and Physics:
 Both Eratosthenes and Aristarchus used a geometry text
compiled by a man named Euclid, this man was a
mathematician who opened a school in Alexandria
 His most famous book was called the elements, which was
465 carefully presented proofs and propositions of
geometry
 Muslims and Europeans used this book up until the 1900s,
it is said that the bible is the only other book that is
widely used throughout the world
 Another Hellenistic scientist was Archimedes from
Syracuse, accurately estimated the value of pi, and
explained the law f the lever and invented the compound
pulley to lift heavy objects
 He also invented the Archemedes screw, a devise that
raised water from the ground, and catapult or a missile
throwing machine
 This encourages Hellenistic scientists to build pneumatic
machines, for pumps, and steam machines
 Stoicism and Epicureanism:(2 very important philosophies)
 A Greek philosopher named Zeno founded a school of
philosophy called stoicism. Stoics believed in a godly
power who controlled the universe
 These people thought that we should live in a virtuous life
in harmony and natural law.
 They also thought that human desires, power, and wealth
were dangerous distraction that should be controlled
 They explained nature and had an ethical approach to life
 This ethical doctrine appealed to people of many different
races, cultures, and economic backgrounds
 Epicurus founded the school of thought called
Epicureanism, he said that the universe was composed
of atoms and ruled by gods who had no interest with
humans
 Epicurus thought that the only real objects in the world
were things that had the five senses
 Realism in Sculpture:
 Wealthy merchants and cities all purchased sculptures
during the Hellenistic age to commemorate heroes, and
portray ordinary people in everyday life
 The larest know Hellenistic statue was created on the
island of Rhodes, known as the Colossus Rhodes which
wasa bronze statue, this statue was more than 100 feet
high, Later on the statue was toppled by earthquake in
225 BC
 Another great Hellenistic statue was found by
archeologists in 1863 which was, the Winged Victory of
Samothrace, this statue commemorated the victory of
the Greeks against foes who would have enslaved them
 By 150 BE the Hellenistic world was in decline and a new
city, Rome, arose and eventually became the core of
Western Civilization
Introduction to Rome and early Republic10/22/2010 1:33:00 PM
 The Beginnings of Rome:
 According to Roman legend the city of Rome was founded
in 753 BC, by Romulus and Remus
o These people were twin sons of the god Mars and
Latin Princess
o They were abannned at Tiber and raised by a
shewolf
 In reality though, rome developed because of its location,
strategic location and its fertile soil
 Rome was in the center f the Italian peninsula
o It was built on seven rolling hills which was on the
Tiber River
 Settlers came to the Italian peninsula between 1000 and
500 BC, they were the Greeks, Latins, and the
Etruscans and they fought over the land for control
 Latins- these people were farmers and Shepherds, and
they wandered into italy around 1000 BC, they settled in
a region called Latium, their settlement was on a hill
named Palatine Hill where they wooden huts
o these settlers were the first Romans
 Between 750 and 600 BC Greek settlers came to Italy
where they built about 50 colonies which were all
prosperous and commercially active, these settlers
brought all of Italy (including Rome) into closer contact
with Greek civilization
o These settlers taught the Romans how to grow
grapes and olives
 Etruscans were skilled metalworkers and engineers, they
strongly influenced the development of Roman culture
o They had a system of writing, and the Romans
developed that and their alphabet
o They also influenced the development of Architecture
in Rome
 Romans used religious ideas from the Greek and the
Etruscans and they borrowed rituals from the Etruscans,
and the roman gods took the personalities of the Greeks
gods
 Like Zeus in Greece was Jupiter in Rome and Hera in
Greece was Juno in Rome
 The Early Republic:
 Around 600 BC an Etruscan became king of Rome, but
Rome was not controlled by the Etruscan cities
 Rome under the Etruscan king grew to be as big as 500
square miles
 Most of Rome was rich agricultural land
 Many kings ordered the construction of Rome’s first
temples and public buildings
 The Swampy valley of Palatine Hill was made into a public
meeting place and eventually became the heart of Roman
political Life
 The last king of Rome was a man named Tarquin, he was
a harsh tyrant and was driven from power in 509 BC
o Roman Aristocrats, wealthy landowners (who
resented the Etruscan kings) over threw Tarquin
 After this they swore to never have another king, and who
ever plotted to become king would be put to death
 The Romans established a new governemtn which they
called a Republic (which was from latin words, res
publica, which means Public affairs
 A Republic is a form of government in which power is
with the citizens who have the right to vote to select their
leaders, only freeborn male citizens were allowed to vote
 Patricians and Plebeians:
 Patricians were one of the groups who struggled to gain
power.
o These people were aristocratic landowners who held
most of the power
o They claimed that the authority gave them the
power to make laws for Rome
 Plebeians were the other group of people who struggled
to gain power of the land
o These people were common farmers, artisans
o , and merchants who were the majority of the
population
o The Senate allowed these people to have their own
assembly and to elect representitives who were
called tribunes
 The tribunes protected the rights of the
plebeians fomr unfair acts from the patrician,
eventually the plebeians gained additional
political power
 Twelve tables:
 The Plebeians forced the creation of a written law code
o Written because with unwritten laws the patricians
interpreted the law how they felt
o In 451 BC a group of ten officials came together and
wrote Rome’s laws, they carved it in 12 tablets or
tables
 These laws established the idea that all free,
patricians and plebeians had the right to protect
the law
 Government Under the Republic:
 In the first century BC the Roman writers boasted how
Rome had achieved a balanced government, their
government had taken form of a monarchy, aristocracy,
and a democracy, but instead of a king they had two
officials called consuls these two people like kings
commanded the army and directed the government
o their term was only one year long and their power
was limited and the same consul could not be elected
again for ten years
o and also one consul could overrule or veto the
consul’s decision
 The Senate was the aristocratic branch of Rome’s
Government it had both legislative and administrative
functions in the republic
o There was 300 upper class men chosen to be in the
senate
o This influenced both foreign and domestic policy
 All citizen soldiers were members of the Centuriate
Assembly
o This assembly appointed consuls and made laws
o It had less power than the senate
 An assembly organized by the Plebeians was the Tribal
Assembly
o This Assembly elected tribunes and made laws for
the common people and later one the right to make
laws for the republic
 In times of a crisis the republic could appoint a dictator,
this person was a leader who had abolute control to make
laws and command the army, but it only lasted for six
months
o Dictators were chosen by the consuls and then
elected by the senate
 The Roman Army:
 All citizens who owned land were required to be in the
army, and 10 years was required of military services
because of public offices
 Roman soldiers were put into large military units called
Legions, which was made up of 5,000 heavily armed foot
soldiers(infantry), a group of soldiers on horseback
(cavalry)
 Legions were then devided up into smaller groups of 80
which was clalled a Century
 The strength of the Legion in battle was its flexibility
because each century in the legion could act on its own.
 The roman army was the key factor in Rome’s rise to
greatness
Rome Spreads its Power
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 Rome spreads its power:
 After hundreds of years after the creation of the republic
Rome wanted to become larger in trade and conquest
 Rome Conquers Italy:
 Roman power steadily grew and by the 4th century the
Romans had power over the Italian Peninsula
 But in 390 BC a group of people called the Gauls, a
Celtics, from the Po River Valley sacked (attacked)
them out of no where, but soon the Romans recovered
and rebuilt the destroyed cities
 They reestablished their control over the Italian Peninsula
and conquered some enemies, the Etruscans, and the
Greek cities.
 By 265. BC Rome conquered all of Italy except for the Po
Valley
 Rome had different laws and treatments from the places
they conquered, the Latins on the Tiber were full Roman
citizens, but the places farther from Rome were given all
roman rights except for voting
 All of the other groups that had been conquered by Rome
fell under a Third category, the allies of Rome.
o Rome didn’t interfere with these places unless they
didn’t send soldiers to the roman army, or if they
made a peace treaty with another state
 The conquered people and allies were partners in Rome’s
growth
 Because of these lenient rules Rome was a long lasting
prosperous empire
 For 250 years after 265 BC Roman power spread far
beyond Italy
 Rome’s Commercial Network:
 Rome’s location was great because it was easy to
transport goods because they has easy access to the
Mediterranean sea
 This meant that traders were able to trade roman olive oil
and wine by sea or by land
o Olive oild and wine traders traded these things for
raw materials, variety of foods, and manufactured
goods (from other lands)
 Although Rome had great access to many things, a city
called Carthage interfered the Roman’s access to the
Mediterranean sea,
 Carthage is located on the peninsula o the North African
Coast, and these people were once a colony of the
Phoenicians
 This angered the Romans leading to a cold and bloody
war with each other
 War with Carthage:
 In 264 BC Rome and Carthage went to war and this long
struggle was known as, The Punic Wars.
 Between 264 and 146 BC Rome and Carthage there were
three wars
 The first war was for the control of Sicily and the western
Mediterranean, this war lasted for 23 years (264-241 BC)
o Carthage lost the war so Rome took the rich and
grain growing island of Sicily as the victory prize
 The second punic war began in 218 BC
o The Carthaginians were commanded by a man
named Hannibal (a Carthaginian who was 29 years
old)
 he became a brilliant military sergeant to take
revenge on Rome for beating them in the first
war
 Hannibal assembled an army 50,000 infantry, 9,000
cavalry and 50 elephants to fight the Romans
 He took his army through Spain and France and through
the alps to confuse the Romans, but he lost half his men
and most of his elephants but he still invaded northern
Italy
 He went up and down the Italian peninsula for a month,
him and his troops lived off of crops and cattle that they
seized from farmhouses
 Soon Hannibal his greatest victory at Cannae in 216 BC,
where the Romans lost a lot of battles to him, but the
Romans brought together their allies and became strong
once again, which prevented Hannibal from conquering
Rome
 Finally a man named Scipio a sergeant of the roman
army was able to match up to Hannibal’s boldness and
was able to defeat the Carthage in 202 BC making
Hannibal and his army retreat
 By the third Punic War the Carthage wasn’t a threat to the
Romans anymore, the Romans didn’t really need to
conquer them, but an old senetor always ended his
speeches that said that they have to destroy Carthage. So
in 149 BC Rome laid siege to Carthage and burned down
its city in 146 BC and sold 50,000 of its people to slavery
 Later on this province was made the new province of
Africa
 Rome Controls the Mediterranean:
 After the Punic Wars Rome had domination over the
western Mediterranean, so they continued to conquer
Macedonia, Greece and parts of Anatolia.
 This stretched Rome’s kingdom from Anatolia to the east
to Spain on the west
1. The roman army was very powerful so what they needed to do
was to destroy everyone around. Since Rome’s geography was so
conveniently located it was very easy to conquer other areas.
Rome had a very good military strategy and they had great army
leaders. After destroying Carthage there weren’t anymore armies
that were a threat to Rome in the Mediterranean so it was easy to
conquer the other areas
2. Every place that Rome conquered was different, in the Italian
Peninsula they conquered territories and all they did were make
them allies to Rome but most of the time, after Rome would
conquer a place or province they would take all of their
conquered area’s positions, money food, crops, and all of their
resources, and in some cases they sold the people who they
conquered into slavery. This was good and bad to the
contribution to the Roman’s stability. It was good in some cases
because in the places that they conquered where they treated
them well they made many allies, and still in places that they
didn’t treat them well they either destroyed those people or sold
them into slavery, which meant that they didn’t have to worry
about getting attacked by them anymore. But It was bad because
a lot of the time the enemies were very mad at the Romans so
they revolted, like the Carthaginians.
10/22/2010 1:33:00 PM
 Expansion Creates Problems in the Republic:
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Their prosper brought many problems
Wide gap between poor and rich
Latifundia rich estates
They were made from spoils of war
Made tons of slaves from war
100 B.C.E. slaves were a tird of the population
tensions were the cause of the collapse
 The Republic Collapses:
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Tiberius and gaius gracchus tried to help the poor
They were killed in: Graccus 133 B.C.E. Gaius 121 B.C.E.
Civil war followed their deaths
Generals who had big armies could take power
Gaius Marius wanted to pass a law that said that
you didn’t need land to serve in the legions
They wanted this because they wanted the poor people to
vote for them
The senate passes the law.
Gaius marius promises the poor people land if they return
alive from the army
The government was hoping that they wouldn’t return,
but they win the war and many of the poor people came
back expecting land that they were promised, but the
government said no
Gaius marius and lucius Cornelius sulla fought civil
war 88-82 B.C.E.
Sulla one the fight
Sulla became the dictator and rivalries continued
He was dictator from 82-79 BCE and was a mean ruler
and whatever he wanted he got
Julius Caesar emerged to bring order to Rome after
Sulla steps down from power
 Julus was part of the Populares, they made polocies
that had to do with the regular people
 There was another group called optimates, these people
made the rules for the nobles
 Julius Caesar Takes Control:
 60 B.C.E. Caesar combined forces with crassus a wealthy
Roman and pompey
 Caesar was elected consul in 59 B.C.E.
 The men who ruled were a triumvirate a group of three
rulers
 Caesar appointed him governor of gaul now france
 58-50 B.C.E. heconquered all of gaul
 his success made him very popular
 pompey was his rival and scared of him
 50 B.C.E. the senate because of pompey orders Caesar to
return home
 Ceaser was made to come home without his army and
was not allowed to cross the rubicon river but he crossed
it with his troops
 Caesar caused civil war
 January 10, 49 B.C.E. leads his men toward Rome
 Pompey fled to Greece, asia, spain, and finally was killed
by Ptolemy, for Caesar,in Egypt
 Caesar gets mad at Ptolemy for killing Pompey because
he thought that it wasn’t right to kill someone who wasn’t
protected
 While Pompey was fleeing Caesar chased him the whole
way
 Caesar tries to make it seam like he is very sad so he
makes a funeral for him
 46 B.C.E. Caesar returns and in and becomes dictator for
6 months (this was the roman law) 44 B.C.E. becomes
dictator for life
 Caesar’s Reforms
absolute ruler- one with total power
he expanded the senate
helped the poor by creating jobs
increased pay for soldiers
senators and wealthy troubled by his power
marcus brutus and gaius cassius plotted his
assaniation
o march, 15 44 B.C.E. he was stabbed to death in the
senate chamber
o
o
o
o
o
o
 Beginning of the Empire:
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 after his death civil war broke out and destroyed the
remains of the republic
 3 supporters of Caesar to kill assassins: Octavian- 18
year old nephew and adopted son mark antony- a general
lepidus- a powerful politician
 43 B.C.E. these three took over Rome and ruled for 10
years known as the second triumvirate
 Octavian made lepidus retire
 After this Octavian and mark antony became rivals
 Mark antony and Cleopatra of Egypt were loers he
followed her
 Octavian accused him of lotting against rme with Egypt
causing another civil war
 Octavian defeated them
 in 31 BCE the Romans sent ship and have a major battle
with Cleopatra and marc antony and the marc and
Cleopatra side loses
 31 B.C.E. antony and Cleopatra comminted suicide
 in 31 BCE the Romans sent ship and have a major battle
and Cleopatra and marc antony
 Octavian becomes emperor or imperator and the senete
makes his name Auhustus, in 31 BCE and the REPUBLIC
FALLS
 A vast and Powerful Empire:
 27 B.C.E. to 180 was Romes peak
 more than 3 million square miles and about 70 million
people
 his policy was that he was very tolerant and he encourage
autonomy for his empire
 An Economy Based on Agriculture and Trade:
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90% of people were farmers
denarius silver coin used throughout augustus’ reign
Rome traded with everybody
Roads were made thatw ere originally for the army
Most important roads were silk roads
Trade brought their influence to everyone
 Managing a Huge Empire:
 Roman border 10,000 miles
 2nd c ad reached from spain to Mesopotamia
 the men became Roman citizens after they served in the
army
 A Sound Government:
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augustus was Romes best emperor
he made Rome wonderful in everyway
he let everyone govern
Tiberius his son was chosen when he died
Most rulers were stable except coligula and nero they
were insane
 Augusts’ government was the best
 The Emperors and Succesion:
 Pease and prosperity was in the hands of the transfer or
power
 Fiver good emeperors from nerva in 96 ad until marcus
aurilius
 His death was the start of the end
Life in Imperial Rome
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 Men and Women:
 Throughout Rome history they emphasized the values of
discipline, strength, and loyalty, and a person who had
these qualities was said to have the important vitue of
Gravitas
 Romans honored strength more than beauty, power more
than grace, and usefulness more than elegance
 Roman law was that the father or the eldest man of the
house would rule the household
o He had all the power over all of his family members,
he could banish them, sell them into slavery, and
disown newborn babies
 By the time the empire was established roman women
had become nearly the social equals of men, this applied
for rich and poor women
o The Upper-class women ran the household and were
given respect
 they were given more respect than the Greece
women and most of the women in the world
until the 19th century
 the roman women were allowed to own land
and testify in court but the couldn’t vote and
officially they were expected to remain in the
background but they went to the public baths,
where the Romans used to bathe, plays,
festivals, and games
o Lower- class women worked at jobs such as
spinners, weavers, shopkeepers, midwives,
entertainers, and waitresses
 Children and Education:
 The Romans favored their boys over the girl children
o Boys would become citizens and would get the right
to vote and carry on family traditions
o Girls weren’t given their own names, they would be
named after the feminine form of the father’s name
with a number after it
 Only a few people went to school, mostly the nobles went
and the wealthy families
o The boys would go to school until they turned 16
when they were officially adults
o Girls would be home schooled and were prepared for
marriage and motherhood, because the girls usually
got married at the age of 12 to 15 to much older
husbands
o But poor children didn’t go to school, weren’t
educated, and had to work and remained illiterate
 Slaves and Captivity:
 Slaves were very important to roman culture, they used
slaves more than any other civilization in the world and
slaves were probably one third of the roman population
 Most slaves were brought back from war, including
women, men, and children, kids who ere born into slavery
were also slaves
o Slaves could be bought or sold
o According to roman law, the owner of the slave had
full power over the slave, the owner could punish,
set free, reward or kill the slave if he wanted to
o Most slaves were treated cruelly
o Slaves worked in the city and on the farm
o Healthy male slaves were forced to become
gladiators (prefessional fighters) and were forced to
fight in battles till the death
o In the wealthy households the slaves were treated
well
 When there were slave revolts, occasionally, they would
never succeed and more than 1,000,000 slaves died
trying to become free
 Gods and Goddesses:
 In the earliest parst of Rome the people worshiped gods
called numina which they thought controlled everything
around them
 They also believed in a god, which was closely related to
the other god, called Lares, this god were the guardian
spirits of each family
 After coming in contact with the Greeks and the Etruscans
they started to think that these gods had humanlike forms
and different personalities. They gave them roman names
and prayed to them so they could gain favor and avoid
misfortune
 In Rome Government and relgion were linked, you were
expected to not only do you private religious rituals but to
do those rituals in public places
 The most important gods in Rome were Jupiter, the
feather of the gods, Juno, the wife of Jupiter who
watched over the women, and Minerva, the goddess of
wisdom and the arts and crafts
 During the empire you were also supposed to worship the
emperor of Rome
 By AD 100 Rome started to be interested in the asian
religion and thought that it was more personal and
emotional than their religion
 “Bread and Circuses”-Food and Entertainment
 During the time of the empire social class made a huge
difference in how people lived
 The classes were very different
o The upper class live in luxury, they spend large sums
of money on houses, gardens, slaves, and luxuries
and had many banquets that lasted many hours
where they had costly food like boiled ostrich and
parrot tongue pie
o Most of Rome was poor though
 The poor people barely had the necessities of life, the
government gave them daley rations of grain and they
lived in tenements where the risk of fire was very high
 The government provided free games, race, mock battle,
and gladiator contests, to distract and control the masses
of Romans
 By Ad 250 there were 150 holidays a year where they
played games
 These games were played in an arena called the coliseum
where they had crazy animals fight against each other
against gladiators and gladiators fought against other
gladiators and they fought till the death
 The Pax Romana brought peace and prosperity to Rome
for 200 years and a new religion developed called
christianity
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