HI363 Age of Augustus: Overview of Roman Culture, 753‐44 BCE Types of evidence ¾ histories: Polybius – 2nd BCE; Livy, Caesar – 1st BCE; Tacitus – 1st CE ¾ poetry : Menander / Terence – 2nd BCE; Vergil, Horace, Ovid – Augustan ¾ biography: Plutarch, Suetonius – 2nd CE ¾ archaeology: monuments, art (sculpture, wall painting, pottery), coins, small finds (jewellry, religious implements, military hardware) ¾ official and private documents – inscriptions, fasti, graffiti, papyrus, lead curse tablets, accounts, correspondence Social systems ¾ community ¾ language & literacy ¾ public vs. private (domus, villa) places o forum, temples, markets, lawcourts, palaces, columns, arenas, amphitheaters, mausoleums, aqueducts, baths, gymnasiums, taverns, bakeries, brothels, aqueducts, roads, bridges ¾ social & military organization ¾ respect for the dead – mos maiorum (“traditions of our ancestors”) ¾ patronage: patronii (“patrons”) vs. clientes (“clients”) ¾ liberation from monarchy ¾ law & equality ¾ class struggle: patricii (“patricians”) vs. plebes (“plebeians”); optimates (“appeal to aristocratic rule”) vs. populares (“appeal to popular support”) ¾ cursus honorum (“rank of honors”): censor, consul, praetor, quaestor, proconsules, propraetores; senatus / senatores; tribuni plebum (“tribunes of the plebs”); quaestiones (“courts”); comitiae and concilia (“assemblies” – military, “democratic,” etc.) ¾ roles for women, children, young adults: gendered expectations Value systems ¾ fratricide & bloodshed ¾ civitas (“citizenship”) and cives (“citizens”) ¾ conquest: warfare and diplomacy, aggression and alliance; professional army ¾ sanction from the gods ¾ expansion: strategic colonization; creation of provinciae (“provinces”) – provincial governors, taxation – in territories, monarchies, etc. ¾ “Romanization,” assimilation of other cultures (esp. Greece) & foreign cult‐worship ¾ dignitas (“dignity”), fides (“loyalty”), honor (“honor”), pietas (“piety), clementia (“clemency”) Economy ¾
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exploitation of natural and manmade resources slave‐based economy: latifundiae (“estates”) trade: shipping to every corner of empire, access to luxury goods major commodities: grain, wine, oil, silk, incense, spices, glass, metals land reform: placating the poor and military veterans equites (“equestrians” – business class) and publicani (“publicans” – tax‐collectors) professional army: careerism, conquest, extension of roads, construction of cities: auxiliarii (“auxiliaries”) vs. legionares (“legionnaires”) Notable individuals and dates ¾ Aeneid: Aeneas ¾ 753: Romulus & Remus ¾ 509: Brutus overthrows Etruscan rex (“king”) and establishes res publica (“republic”) ¾ 300: conquest of Italy ¾ 287: concordia ordinum (“harmony of the orders”) ¾ 202: conquest of Sicily: Scipio Africanus vs. Hannibal ¾ 196: “liberation” of Greece ¾ 167: conquest of Achaia, Greece ¾ 146: destruction of Corinth (Greece) and Carthage (Libya) – Marcus Porcius Cato’s Carthago delenda est (“Carthage must be destroyed”) ¾ 133: conquest of Spain by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus ¾ 133: Attalus III of Pergamum bequeaths kingdom to Rome ¾ 133: socio‐economic revolution: Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus ¾ 108‐87: Gaius Marius ¾ 90‐88: Social War – for civitas in Italy ¾ 89‐65: wars against Mithridates VI of Pontus (Black Sea) ¾ 90‐78: Cornelius Sulla ¾ 88: Sulla seizes Rome; Marius seizes Rome (and dies) ¾ 86: Sulla sacks Athens ¾ 82: Sulla seizes Rome again and is proclaimed dictator rei publicae constituendae causa (“dictator charged with establishing the Republic”) ¾ 84‐53: Marcus Licinius Crassus (killed by the Parthians at Battle of Carrhae) ¾ 78‐44: Gaius Iulius Caesar (pacifies Gaul) ¾ 70‐48: Pompeius Magnus (“Pompey the Great” defeats the pirates) ¾ 63: Catilinarian Conspiracy (Lucius Sergius Catilina vs. Cicero) ¾ 59: First Triumvirate: Crassus, Pompey, Caesar ¾ 49: crossing of the Rubicon and Civil War; 48: Pharsalus (Pompey killed in Egypt) ¾ 70‐43: Marcus Tullius Cicero ¾ 44‐31: Gaius Octavius / Octavianus; Marcus Antonius (“Mark Antony”); Cleopatra ¾ 31: Actium