Lecture 6 – Republican and Imperial Rome
Prehistoric Italy: Around 1000 BC, the ancestors of the Romans, speakers of Italic
languages, pushed down into the Italian peninsula.
Etruscans: Little is known clearly of this people, but they seem to have arisen around
800 BC to conquer and rule over many of their neighbors (including Rome). They also
traded with distant lands; after 500 BC, they went into decline.
Royal Rome (753 BC? To 510 BC):
The Founding of Rome: Roman tradition held that Rome was founded in 753
BC by Romulus, later said to be a descendent of Prince Aeneas of Troy. The
Roman traditions of the monarchy period assert 7 kings ruled during it; most
historians now think this claim is likely questionable; many more kings likely
ruled. However, the Gauls destroyed all of Rome's early records in 390 BC when
they sacked Rome. Some time in the 6th century BC, a line of Etruscan kings
became the last monarchs of Rome.
Government: Rome's kings had the power of imperium—the ability to issue
commands and have them enforced through fines, physical punishment, or even
death. However, Kings were chosen by the Senate, not hereditary, and had to be
approved by the Assembly of citizens. The members of the Senate served for life,
providing counsel to the king and acting as the voice of the nobility. The curiate
assembly was made up of all citizens, divided into groups; each group voted on an
issue; the majority vote in the group determined that group's vote in the assembly.
It took approval by a majority of votes to then approve or deny measures brought
before it.
Family: The center of Roman life was the family unit. Men ruled the household;
women managed its affairs. A father could kill or sell his children into slavery,
but not his wife, who he could only divorce for serious offenses.
Clientage: Most people were enmeshed in a network of client-patron
relationships in which the patron aided his clients with economic and legal
problems and provided physical protection against violence, while the client
supported the patron politically, worked his land, and fought for him when
necessary. Some patrons were clients to men yet more powerful. Thus, roman
society was a web of patronage networks. Clientage was hereditary, though not
impossible to change.
Patrician and Plebian: The wealthy Patrician (noble) class held the top power
in society, for only Patricians could hold office, conduct religious ceremonies, or
sit in the Senate. Patricians only married Patricians. The Plebians were excluded
from power, though some became very wealthy through trade and artisanship;
most were poor farmers and minor artisans, however.
The Roman Republic (510 BC - ?)
End Point: As will be seen, historians dispute when exactly the Republic ends; it
seems to gradually shade into Empire. The first century BC or AD contains the
usual suspects when historians argue this.
Origins: In 510 BC, the noble families of Rome overthrew the Roman
monarchy, supposedly due to misbehavior by the last King, Tarquinius Superbus,
who ruled by violence and whose son was said to have raped a patrician woman,
Lucretia.
Constitution:
Consuls: The Consuls, two officials elected at the same time for one year
terms, assumed the powers of the kingship, though over time, the Romans
removed some powers to other officials. Their power of Imperium was
only unrestrained with regard to its use in the army in the field; within
Rome, citizens could appeal to the assembly. Futher, each Consul could
veto each other's actions and you only served once, then joined the Senate.
In a crisis, the Consuls could appoint a Dictator for 6 months, which held
unrestricted Imperium. This was for crises.
Other Officials: Quaestors ran the financial affairs of the state.
Proconsul was an office used to extend a consul's office for military
affairs only, so he could serve in the field over a year. Praetors served
judicial functions, as generals, and later as governors. The Censors
identified who was a citizen and to what group they belonged in the
Centuriate Assembly. They were the ones who conducted the yearly
census. They later gained the power to ban people from the Senate for
moral reasons.
Senate and Assembly: The Senate, because it endured and was small
enough to act effectively, largely took over the direction of foreign and
domestic affairs. The Centuriate Assembly was essentially the Roman
army of citizen-soldiers acting as a legislature. It was organized into
centuries—groups of a hundred men who could afford to buy and use
military gear. The assembly was divided into classes according to wealth
as well, according to what gear you had.
Struggle of the Orders: In the 5th - 3rd century BC, the Plebians and
Patricians struggled for control of the Republic. The Plebians won the
right to elect ten Tribunes in a plebian tribal assembly. The Tribunes
could veto any act of a magistrate or any bill proposed in a Roman
assembly or the Senate. In 367 BC, one Consul seat was opened to the
Plebians. In 287 BC, the Plebians secured a law which made the plebian
assembly's decisions binding on all Romans without needing Senate
approval. The nobiles—a collection of wealthy patrician and plebian
families now took control of the Senate and the state. (Some Patricians
had sunk into poverty by now.)
Conquest of Italy:
The Latin League, the Gauls, and the Latin War: In 493 BC, the
Romans joined the Latin League, an alliance of local states. Over time,
the Romans conquered much of central Italy in a series of wars interrupted
by the Gauls sacking Rome in 390 BC, which destroyed much of the
evidence of Rome's past. Despite this defeat, Rome bounced back,
defeating more of its neighbors and falling out with the Latin League,
which it defeated and assimilated after the Latin War (343 BC—338 BC).
Roman Conquests: Rome was generous to those it defeated, offering
some citizenship and others municipal status (local self-government).
Roman's citizen soldiers were rewarded by the grant of lands in conquered
territories, which they colonized. Colonists remained Roman citizens and
were linked by road networks to Rome. Local religion and culture was
left unmolested. Loyal allies could eventually gain Roman citizenship.
Southern Italy: Rome now turned its eyes south towards the Greek
colonies in Southern Italy. King Pyrrhus of Epirus tried to save these
cities from Rome in the early 3rd century BC, but his three victories over
Rome were so bloody he had to go home. (Source of the concept of
'Pyrric Victory').
Carthage and Sicily: For centuries, the Phoenician colony of Carthage,
located in modern Tunisia, had dominated the western Mediterranean. It
was currently involved in power struggles with the Greek colonies of
Sicily, Sardinia, and Southern Italy. Roman involvement in these politics
led to the first of three wars for control of the Western Mediterranean.
Carthage: Like Rome, Carthage was an oligarchic republic. Founded in
814 BC by Phoenician colonists, as an outpost for Phoenician trade. Over
time, it became independent as its home city, Tyre, fell to empire after
empire of the mainland, eventually becoming too weak to rule Carthage.
By the beginning of the 5th century BC, Carthage had become the
commercial center of the West Mediterranean region, a position it retained
until overthrown by the Roman Republic. The city had conquered most of
the old Phoenician colonies e.g. Hadrumetum, Utica and Kerkouane,
subjugated the Libyan tribes (with the Numidian and Mauretanian
kingdoms remaining more or less independent), and taken control of the
entire North African coast from modern Morocco to the borders of Egypt
(not including the Cyrenaica, which was eventually incorporated into
Hellenistic Egypt). Its influence had also extended into the Mediterranean,
taking control over Sardinia, Malta, the Balearic Islands and the western
half of Sicily, where coastal fortresses such as Motya or Lilybaeum
secured its possessions. Important colonies had also been established on
the Iberian peninsula.
Like Rome, Carthage was ruled by two Suffets, chosen by the oligarchic
council, whose power was checked by a popular assembly. Unlike Rome,
it didn't rely on citizen soldiers, but on a combination of mercenaries,
professional soldiers, forces from subject peoples, and the recruitment of
local natives around its colonies.
The First Punic War (264-241 BC): Similar in many ways to the
Peloponesian war: The Romans were unstoppable on land; the
Carthiginians at sea. It was largely fought in and around Sicily. The
Romans finally turned the tide by developing ships with boarding bridges,
allowing them to use their legionairres at sea to attack Carthaginian ships.
Carthage paid an indemmity and gave up its lands in Sicily.
Spain: Between wars, Carthage now enhanced its colonies in Spain to try
to raise money to be ready for the next war.
The Second Punic War (218-202 BC): The city of Saguntum allied itself
with Rome against Carthage in Spain, then stirred up trouble for Carthage.
Carthiginian general Hannibal, raised by his father to hate Rome, moved
against Saguntum and took it, then when Rome declared war, he took a
force across the mountains to Gaul, then across the Alps to invade Italy
from the north. Between 218 and 216 BC, Hannibal defeated the Romans
in three battles, each worse for Rome than the one before. This
culminated in Cannae, where in 216 BC, Hannibal defeated 80-90,000
men with a force of only 40,000 men, killing or capturing some 60-70,000
Romans. Despite the victory, however, Hannibal was unable to get
Rome's allies to defect or to capture Roman cities. In 215 BC, King Philip
V of Macedon allied with Hannibal, and from 215-205 BC, Hannibal was
able to roam Italy at will, but he was unable to break Rome. The turning
of the war was the appointment of Publius Cornelius Scipio to command a
force sent to Spain, where he conquered Carthage's colonies, causing huge
financial loss to Carthage. In 204 BC he invaded Carthage's African
lands, forcing Hannibal to go home. In 202 BC, he crushed Hannibal at
Zama and Carthage surrendered, losing most of its lands.
The Province System: Rome's new conquests became provinces to be
administered; no offers of citizenship were extended to Spain, Corsica,
Sardinia, or Italy. Instead, they were put under the command of governors
who possessed the Imperium within their lands without the limits which
restricted Consuls and other magistrates. Provinces paid tribute through a
system of tax-farming (privatized tax collection). Tax farmers owed a
fixed amount to the central government each year, but could collect more
than was due to the government. And they did, as they took the job to
MAKE MONEY FAST. End result—massive corruption.
The Conquest of the Hellenistic World:
Philip V: Philip V of Macedon was crushed by the Romans in 197 BC.
Antiochus III: This king of the Seleucid dynasty now chose to challenge Rome.
They crushed him at Magnesia in 189 BC and turned Greece and Asia Minor into
protectorates.
Other Wars: Perseus, son of Philip V tried to revolt and was crushed. The
conservative censor Cato pushed crusel punishment for anti-Roman factions and
revolts, including the 146 BC destruction of Corinth. In the same year, Rome
sacked Carthage, destroying it. Rome made so much money, it abolished
property taxes on citizens.
Greek Influence on the Early Roman Republic
Greek Influence: The conquest of Greece brought many Greek scholars,
teachers, engineers, slaves, etc, to Rome, along with sophisticated Hellenistic
culture.
Religion: Rome had a traditional pantheon of the Gods, some of whom were
connected to planets. They now tended to merge Greek Mythology with their
own by identifying Gods as equivalent—Jupiter and Zeus, Pluto and Hades,
Neptune and Poseidon, Juno and Hera, etc. The cults of Cybele the Great Mother
goddess and Dionysius/Bacchus were introduced from the east in the third century
BC.
Education: Education was a family responsibility, handled by tutors who were
often slaves. Roman education focused on making people moral, patriotic, and
conservative. Greeks added the study of philosophy, language, and literature to
the Roman curricula—'Humanitas'. Fluency in Greek was increasingly expected
of anyone with pretensions to social status. Some Romans, like Cicero, even
travelled to Greece to study.
Roman Imperialism:
Effects of War: The Second Punic war dispossessed many farmers and large
land holders gobbled up small forms to form plantations—latifundia. They
staffed the land with war captive slaves. Meanwhile, the old small farmers ended
up as city labor or as tenant farmers. The rich got richer and the poor poorer. The
result was conflict which threatened the Republic
The Gracchi: In the mid-second century BC, Tiberius Gracchus (168-133 BC)
set out to address this conflict. In 133 BC he became tribune on a platform of
land reform. However, another tribune vetoed his plans when he put them to the
tribal assembly. Tiberius convinced the assembly to fire said tribune and passed a
second bill. But his success undermined the rule of law in Rome. Feeling himself
in danger, he planned to illegally run for a second term as tribune. A mob of
senators and their followers now killed him, having no other recourse.
The Populares: New politicians arose like Tiberius who based their power on an
appeal to the people and the assemblies, not on influence among the wealthy. The
Populares were opposed by the Optimates, who backed the Senate's traditional
power.
Gaius Gracchus (159-121 BC): The tribunate of Gaius Gracchus, brother of
Tiberius, was marked by solid support for him from now re-electable tribunes.
Thus the Senate could not easily oppose him. Gaius set up colonies for veterans
and passing a law stabilizing grain prices. He also won the support of the
equestrians, wealthy men who supplied goods and services to Rome and helped
run its provinces. (This class got its name from being cavalrymen in the early
Republic due to affording their own horses.) Gaius bribed them with the right to
collect taxes in the Roman province of Asia in 129 BC. He fell from power after
he tried to extend citizenship to Rome's Italian allies. In 121 BC, he lost his
tribuneship and was killed in mob action with 3,000 of his followers.
Marius and Sulla: Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) was chosen Consul in 107 BC to
fight Jugurtha, king of Numidia (in NW Africa). He eliminated property
qualifications for the army, opening it to any and all volunteers—mostly
dispossed farmers and urban poor—who served for long terms. This began
turning the army from citizen-soldiers into professionals loyal mainly to their
generals. This now enabled generals to challenge the Senate. However, it also
made it much easier to keep armies in the field for long term wars.
Marius now crushed Jugurtha, but a guerilla war dragged on until his subordinate,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC), stepped in and captured Jugurtha. Marius
stole the credit and they fell out.
War Against the Italian Allies (The Social War): 90-88 BC. Rome's Italian
allies now revolted against Rome, seeking equality. Rome gave in and granted
them citizenship and local autonomy for their municipalities.
Sulla's Dictatorship: Sulla was elected Consul for 88 BC and used his power to
crush Marius and his followers. He now became dictator, and in theory, restored
the traditional order and the power of the Senate. But in actuality, he showed that
anyone with an army could not take over Rome.
Fall of the Republic
Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar: In 70 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53
BC) and Gnaeus Pompey (106-48 BC) were elected Consul; they repealled most
of Sulla's reforms. Pompey then fought a campaign to wipe out the
Mediterranean pirates and returned in 62 BC as a hugely popular figure. Crassus
feared his rising power and allied himself to Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC).
The First Triumvirate: To the surprise of all, Pompey disbanded his army and
staged no coup. He wanted a grant of land for his men, but the Senate refused,
causing him to ally with Crassus and Caesar.
Rise of Caesar: Elected consul in 59 BC, Caesar now carried out the
Triumvirate's plans. He then secured the governorship of Gaul and spent 58-50
BC in Gaul, conquering it in a series of wars made famous by his own historical
account of it, which would later become a major part of latin studies:
Commentaries of the Gallic War. He conquered Gaul so thoroughly, it remained
loyal to Rome until the 5th century AD. In his absence, Crassus died fighting the
Parthians at Carrhae in 53 BC. Pompey now allied with the Senate against him.
The Rubicon: At the end of his ten years as governor, the law required Caesar
lay down his Imperium powers as governor and go home to Rome. Instead, he
marched his legions to the Rubicon, southern border of Gaul, and crossed the
river with them to attack Rome. From 49-45 BC, he fought Pompey and other
challengers, crushing them all and emerging triumphant.
Caesar in Power: He now took on many offices and became effectively dictator
without the title. It is unclear what his plans were or if he even had any. On
March 15, 44 BC, a group of Senators and relatives, the most famous of whom
was Marcus Junius Brutus, who Caesar had spared from execution despite Brutus
having aided Pompey against Caesar, stabbed him to death. According to
Eutropius, around sixty or more men participated in the assassination. He was
stabbed 23 times. According to Suetonius, a physician later established that only
one wound, the second one to his chest, had been lethal.
Second Triumvirate: Caesar's heir was his nephew, Octavian (63 BC-14 AD).
He allied with two of Caesar's officers—Marcus Antonius (83-30 BC) and
Lepidus (died 13 BC)-- to form the Second Triumvirate. They now crushed
Caesar's assassins but fell out with each other. Antonius allied with Cleopatra,
Queen of Egypt, last of the Ptolmaic Dynasty. At Actium in 31 BC, Octavian
crushed Anthony and Cleopatra; they both killed themselves. Octavian ruled
alone now, but had to figure out HOW to rule.
The Augustan Principate:
Princeps: Octavian was now given the title of Augustus by the Senate as an
honor. Augustus (Octavian) created a monarchy swaddled in Republican
clothing, taking up the title of First Citizen ("Princeps"), leaving Republican
institutions in place while basically neutering them. Later, his successors took the
title of imperator ('Emperor', or the holder of the Imperium). In 27 BC, he took
Proconsular command of Spain, Gaul and Syria and retained a consulship in
Rome; 20 of Rome's 26 legions were in his lands, giving him effective power over
the Senate. The Senate gave him many honors, including the title "Augustus",
which connoted veneration, majesty, and holiness.
Administration: Augustus reformed administration to remove corruption and
controlled election to office so as to elevate men of talent, both Italian and
provincal. The Senate was treated with respect but rendered mainly a talking
shop and source of adminstrators. His reign was a time of peace and prosperity,
generated by wealth from newly conquered egypt, an end of violence, a revival of
small farming and a vast program of public works.
New Services: The city of Rome was utterly transformed under Augustus, with
Rome's first institutionalized police force, fire fighting force, and the
establishment of the municipal prefect as a permanent office. The police force
was divided into cohorts of 500 men each, while the units of firemen ranged from
500 to 1,000 men each, with 7 units assigned to 14 divided city sectors. A
praefectus vigilum, or "Prefect of the Watch" was put in charge of the vigiles,
Rome's fire brigade and police.
The Army and Defense: The military was now fully professionalized. You
served for 20 years with good pay, then could settle in a military colony and get
your own land on retirement with a pension. 300,000 men served, guarding the
frontiers. Many retired soldiers married local women, helping to assimilate
conquests and bringing Roman culture.
Religion and Morality: A century of political strife and civil war had
undermined Roman society. Augustus believed it necessary to restore Roman
moral fiber by attacking adultery and divorce, by rebuilding temples and restoring
traditional rites, and by encouraging marriage and production of legitimate
children. Augustus was deified and worshipped after his death; in time, the
worship of divinized emperors would become a sign of loyalty to the state—a
major problem for the Jews and Christians, who refused to do so.
Civilization of the Ciceronian and Augustan Ages
The Ciceronian Age (The Late Republic):
Cicero (106-43 BC): Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106 BC –
December 7, 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist,
and philosopher. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest
orators and prose stylists. Many of his speeches, books, and letters
survive, giving us more information than usual about him. Cicero looked
to law, custom, and tradition to produce both stability and liberty. He
hoped to reform the ruling class and convert it from a venial system of
hereditary wealth to an aristocracy of the talented and virtuous from all the
classes. He was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, but supported the Senate
and was killed by those avenging Caesar's death.
Law: It was in this period that the idea of a law not based mainly on
custom truly arose, the idea of the jus gentium, "law of peoples." The
Romans also drew upon the idea of natural law, jus naturale, developed
by the Greeks.
Poetry: Two of Rome's greatest poets, Lucretius (99-55 BC) and Catullus
(84-54 BC) lived in this period. Hellenistic poets wished to educate;
Lucretius followed this tradition in writing his De Rerum Natura ("On the
Nature of Things"), which laid out the scientific and philosophical theories
of Epicurus and Democritus.
Catallus: The poetry of Catallus, by contrast, is deeply personal, writing
about the ordinary life of the Roman upper class and love, and sometimes
rather explict.
The Age of Augustus: This was the Golden Age of Roman literature. Support
for art flowed from the wealth of the Princeps.
Virgil (70-19 BC): Most important of the Augustan Poets. He wrote on
many topics, but his greatest work was the Aeneid, which tied together
Roman and Greek Mythology by showing the story of Prince Aeneas of
Troy, whose descendents would found Rome. Aeneas personifies Roman
virtues of "duty, responsibility, serious purpose, and patriotism."
Horace (65-8 BC): Quintus Horatius Flaccus was another poet, whose
Odes glorify the new Augustan order, the imperial family, and the empire.
(Despite the fact that he had fought as a soldier against Augustus, and had
his family lands confiscated. He knew which way the wind blows.) He
wrote many Latin phrases that remain in use (in Latin or in translation)
including carpe diem, "seize the day"; Dulce et decorum est pro patria
mori; and aurea mediocritas, the "golden mean." His lyric poetry
(designed for singing) was written in Greek metres.
Ovid (43 BC – 18 AD): He wrote love elegies which showed the
sophistication and lose sexual conduct of the Roman aristocracy. Ovid was
generally considered the greatest master of the elegiac couplet. He is most
famous for his Metamorphoses, an epic length poem which adapts various
Greek myths about changes (often magical) into a history of the world
from creation. (Which, ironically, is written in dactylic pentameter, like
the Aeneid and Homer's epics.) Ovid was banished in AD 8, possibly due
to offending Augustus with his tales of Roman decadence when Augustus
sought moral reform.
History: Livy (59 BC-17 AD) wrote his History of Rome in this period, a
critical source for our knowledge of Rome's past. It covered everything
from 753 BC to 9 BC. Only one fourth of it survives; Livy sought to
glorify Rome's greatness and show how its history embodied its virtues.
Architecture and Sculpture: Augustus engaged in a massive project of
cleaning up and rebuilding Rome. On his deathbed, Augustus boasted "I
found Rome of clay; I leave it to you of marble;" he rebuilt substantial
public areas with marble and other sturdier methods. He massively
improved the city's water supply.
Imperial Peace and Prosperity (AD 14 to 180)
Imperator and Caesar: The first dynasties of Roman emperors claimed the
leadership of Rome by two rights—their holding Imperium (control of the
military) and connection to the Imperial house. From 14 AD to 68 AD, the
relatives of Augustus (Tiberius, "Caligula" (Gaius), Claudius, Nero) governed the
empire. After Nero's death, a series of military leaders took over, followed by the
Flavian dynasty (69-96 AD, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian (persecutor of the author
of the Book of Revelations)), descended of Vespasian, who put down the
rebelling generals. With the end of the Flavians, a series of emperors took the
throne who each adopted an heir instead of picking a blood relative as heir:
Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius, and Marcus Aurelius (96-180 AD for
the five collectively, sometimes referred to as the 'Five Good Emperors').
Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his much less competent son Commodus
(180-192 AD); the movie Gladiator shows a somewhat distorted view of
Commodus' reign, but he was not a very good ruler, and the best years of Rome
end with him.
Administration: The Empire was a collection of cities and towns with associated
countryside. The Romans raised cities and towns to self-governing municipality
status, and enlisted local elites to run local areas with a layer of Roman
management above the municipality level. Over time, however, growing
bureaucracy shrank the autonomy of the municipalities.
Peak Size: Under Trajan, the Roman Empire hit its territorial height with the
occupation of Dacia (modern Romania) in 106 AD. This is why Romanian is a
Romance language today (a language derived from Latin, not Slav, German, or
Greek as most East European languages are). Trajan attempted to crush Parthia,
but after much success, died of heat stroke. His successor, Hadrian, retrenched,
building defensive walls and ceasing expansion. The most famous of his defenses
is Hadrian's Wall in Britain; portions of it still stand today. To maintain morale
and keep the troops from getting restive, Hadrian established intensive drill
routines, and personally inspected the armies. Although his coins showed
military images almost as often as peaceful ones, Hadrian's policy was peace
through strength, even threat.
Literature: The time from 14 AD to 180 AD is seen as the Silver Age of Roman
Literature. Silver Age writers were gloomy, negative, and pessimistic and
avoided discussing the present to stay clear of imperial wrath. Scholarship and
escapist literature in Greek predominated; poetry dwindled.
Architecture: The prosperity and relative stability of the first two centuries of
Imperial Rome brought Roman architecture to full flower. The Romans could
now build huge building projects with the semi-circular arch and concrete. The
Colisseum in Rome, though now badly damaged, is a classic example of Roman
architecture on the grand scale. The biggest impact, however, was the Roman
road and aqueduct networks.
Society: In the first century AD, the Empire worked very well; by the second
century, trouble was arising. As municipalities lost their autonomy, emperors had
to force elites to take up municipal offices because they didn't want the revenue
raising responsibilities unless they got real power with it. Prosperity was
declining and the government needed ever more money to run the army and
bureaucracy, to appease the roman mob with "bread and circuses", and to defend
the fronteirs. This led to various economy damaging expedients like debasing the
currency.
Apartment Houses: In the city of Rome, over 500,000 people lived (as
compared to 20,000 or so for other cities). The result was that most people lived
in insulae (literally 'islands', which were apartment buildings). They collapsed
easily and burned frequently. The floor at ground level was used for tavernas,
shops and businesses with living space on the higher floors. Because of the
inherent safety issues and extra flights of stairs, the uppermost floors were the
least desirable, and thus the cheapest to rent. Living quarters were typically
smallest in the building's uppermost floors, with the largest and most expensive
apartments being located on the bottom floors. The insulae could be up to six or
seven stories high (some were even 8 or 9 stories high- these very tall buildings
were being built before the height restrictions). A single insula could
accommodate over 40 people in only 400 square meters (4305 sq. feet), however
the entire structure usually had about 6 to 7 apartments, each had about 200
square meters (2152 sq. feet). Some had running water, others did not.
Domus: A domus was the form of house that wealthy families owned in ancient
Rome and almost all the major cities of the Empire. (The middle classes and the
poor were housed in crowded apartment blocks, known as insulae, while the
country houses of the rich were known as villas). The domus included multiple
rooms, and an indoor courtyard: the atrium, which was the focal point of the
domus, off which were cubicula (bedrooms), an altar to the household gods, a
triclinium where guests could lie on couches and eat dinner whilst reclining, and a
tablinum (living room or study) and cellae(shops on the outside, facing the street).
In cities throughout the Roman Empire, wealthy homeowners lived in one story
buildings with few exterior windows. Glass windows weren't readily available:
glass production was in its infancy, and the cost would have been prohibitive, but
this exterior blankness did give the occupiers the advantage of protecting
themselves from outside noise, intruders, and the elements. Homeowners tended
to view their exterior walls as public property, and they quickly became filled
with political graffiti. Wealthy homeowners often rented out the two front rooms
of their homes to merchants if they lived on busy streets. Thus a wealthy Roman
citizen lived in a large house separated into two parts, and linked together through
the tablinum or study or by a small passageway.
Rise of Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth: Almost all of the major religious founders (Buddha, Moses,
Jesus, Mohammed) pose a similar problem: We only know them through sacred
texts written years to decades to centuries after their death. As a result, it is hard
to separate myth from fact. Jesus was born in Judea, possibly in the tail end of the
reign of King Herod. While in theory our calendar sets 1 AD as the year of Jesus'
birth, Jesus could well have been born anywhere between ten years earlier or later
than 1 AD. In his adulthood, he became a travelling teacher of a type common to
the religious ferment of his time, a rabbi.
The Four Schools Of Judaism: Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, attests
to four major schools of Jewish thought at the time of Jesus in the first century:
The Essenes, the Revolutionaries, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
The Essenes: The Essenes were apocalyptic mystics who held to a
collection of religious texts rejected by other Jews, such as the Book of
Jubilees and "Malhama" (The End Time Great War), under the leadership
of the "Teacher of Righteousness". They withdrew from society and lived
communally and celibately in the wilderness. They thought the end of the
world was coming soon and they saw themselves as preparing to fight on
God's side. Some scholars think Jesus either was an Essene or was
influenced by the Essenes.
The Revolutionaries: Some Jews were preoccupied with overthrowing
the Romans to defend Jewish society and culture from Roman
encroachment. They looked to the past Jewish revolt of the Maccabees
against the Selucids for inspiration (forgetting it was Rome who finally
helped the Maccabes get independence.) The Bible refers to them as
'Zealots'.
The Sadducees: The Sadducees represented a conservative strand of
Jewish religious thought. They were essentially the temple party, holding
to older Jewish religious ideas and practices against the Pharisees, and
supporting the line of Hasmonean priests who took over Temple duties
during and after the Maccabean revolt against the Selucids. They rejected
the metaphysical speculations of the Pharisees (souls, angels, the
resurrection of the dead) in favor of literal intepretation of the Hebrew
Bible. They would be destroyed with the sacking of the Second Temple in
70 AD.
The Pharisees: The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political
party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that
flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BC–70 AD). They
emerged during Selucid rule as resistors to the cultural assimilation of the
Jews attempted by the Selucids, calling on all Jews to follow the laws of
the Torah, especially the rules for ritual purity. The Pharisees combined
the written Torah with oral traditions passed down by lines of teachers, the
rabbis, a great system of commentary to expand and comprehend the Laws
given by God. Further, the Pharisees were more prone to metaphysical
speculation, believing in concepts such as life after death, the soul, angels,
etc. The Pharisees encouraged the formation of local synagogues for the
study of the Torah and the oral law (which would eventually become the
Talmud). Like the Prophets, the Pharisees emphasized good deeds and
compassion for others over ritual sacrifice, the purification of the self.
Jesus the Teacher: Around 30 AD, Jesus began a several year campaign of
travelling and teaching, recruiting disciples and preaching to crowds. Jesus spoke
of the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of God, which was a spiritual kingdom,
not a material one, though he urged people to act righteously here on Earth. He
laid out his moral code in the Sermon on the Mount: humility, generosity,
kindness, love, and charity. Jesus won a strong following, especially among the
poor, but this caused the religious leadership of the time, embodied in the
religious assembly, the Sanhedrin, to turn on him and seek his death. He was
crucified by the Romans and his followers believed that he rose from the dead on
the third day and that he was the Messiah and that they now had a duty to preach
his message to all.
Paul of Tarsis: Without Paul (born Saul of Tarsis), Christianity might have
remained a small Jewish sect. Paul was a Hellenized Jew, well educated and
literate, but also a Pharisee. Originally, he helped to persecute Christians, but
then he underwent a vision on the road to Damascus (around 35 AD) and
converted to Christianity, insisting on becoming one of the Apostles (the leaders
of early Christianity; all the rest had been hand-picked by Jesus as his inner circle
of followers. They were reluctant, understandably, to accept Paul.) He clashed
with James, 'brother' of Jesus (James might have been anything from an actual
brother to a half-brother to a cousin. There are translation issues), who insisted
converts keep the Jewish law. Paul became the Apostle to the Gentiles, spreading
Christianity to non-Jews and not requiring them to keep the Law of Moses.
(Gentiles = non-Jews in Jewish parlance). Faith was the key to salvation, not
ritual practices.
Practices: Early Christians practicised baptism as an initiation ceremony to wash
away sin and a common meal known as the agape (love feast), followed by the
Eucharist, a celebration of the Lord's Supper modelled on Jesus' last meal with his
followers. Unleavened bread was eaten and unfermented wine drunk. There were
also prayers, hymns and readings. Some congregations had a tradition of
prophesying and its interpretation (similar to modern 'speaking in tongues' and
other activities of Pentecostal churches).
Organization: Early Christianity was divided into mostly independent
congregations which had a certain loyalty to their founders and the Apostles in
Jerusalem, but all ties between different communities were basically informal. By
the second century AD, every city had a leader known as the bishop (which meant
"overseer"), but every city was basically independent. The idea of Apostolic
Succession linked lines of bishops back to the Apostles; this continuity was the
source of their authority. Bishops came together in councils to settle disputes and
theological issues, though empire-wide councils only became possible after
legalization. Christianity was most common among the urban poor.
The Council of Jamnia (90 AD): Leaders of the Pharisaic tradition came
together to formulate a joint religious canon and to set out guidelines for Jewish
adaptation to the world in the aftermath of the sack of the Second Temple. This
meeting is the root of most modern Jewish sects and at this time, the Jews threw
any book originally written in Greek (the Apocrypha) out of their canon. Martin
Luther did likewise centuries later, which is why Protestants have a smaller bible
than Catholics, who go by the second century BC Septuagint for the Old
Testament.
Persecution: Christians refused to worship the Imperial line. This was treason
and there were periodic waves of persecution of Christians. By 100 AD, being a
Christian was a crime.
Rise of Catholicism: Until the Council of Nicea (325 AD), there was no single
definitive bible or creed, but most of the Christian churches shared a body of
teachings which would undergird that council's decisions. This body came to be
known as Catholic ("universal") or orthodox. Those holding other opinions were
called "heretics". By 200 AD, an orthodox religious canon and theology had
emerged, though it was only at Nicea that the whole body of the Church would
put a final seal on such matters.
Rise of the Roman Church: The Roman Church was able to trace its origins
back to visits by both Peter and Paul (and their martyrdoms in that city). It traced
its apostolic succession back to Peter himself, giving it a special pre-eminince in
the early church, though the churches of Antioch and Jerusalem (and later
Constantinople) also held special prominence.
The Gnostics: Gnosticism began as a pre-Christian philosophy; some Christians
fused it with Christian ideas, forming one of the larger heretical groups of the
early church. Gnosticism (from Greek gnosis, knowledge) refers to a diverse,
syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally
united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world
created by an imperfect spirit, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the
Abrahamic God. The demiurge, who is often depicted as an embodiment of evil,
at other times as simply imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy allows,
exists alongside another remote and unknowable supreme being that embodies
good. In order to free oneself from the inferior material world, one needs gnosis,
or esoteric spiritual knowledge available only to a learned elite. Jesus of Nazareth
is identified by some (though not all) Gnostic sects as an embodiment of the
supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnosis to the Earth. Gnostic sects
thus tended to reject the value of the human side of Jesus' nature in favor of the
divine. The Gospel of Thomas is one of many gnostic Christian writings which
were lost and suppressed after Nicea.
The Crisis of the Third Century:
The Severan Dynasty (193-235 AD): In 192 AD, Emperor Commodus was
strangled by a professional wrestler named Narcissus; five seperate men tried to
claim the throne in 192-3. Septimus Severus (193-211 AD) emerged on top,
beginning a period in which succession to the throne destabilized and civil wars,
coups, and invasions became more frequent.
Administration: The Severan Dynasty made serious changes in the army and
government. He purged the Senate of enemies, raised the pay of soldiers,
increased the number of legions and began a rise in recruitment of peasantry from
the less Romanized provinces and even of actual barbarian foreigners. The army,
as in the late Republic, was increasingly loyal more to its generals than the state.
And it put a heavy burden on the citizenry. However, he also stomped out the
corruption and license of the reign of Commodus.
Economy Difficulties: Rising inflation and debasement of the currency undercut
the economy. Public order declined due to endless wars on the fronteir soaking
up all troops. Heavy burdens on the people led to revolts.
The Social Order: The state grew militarized; your clothing denoted your social
status / rank. The government granted privileges to the honestiores (senators,
equestians, municipal aristocrats and soldiers), while keeping everyone else down
(the humiliores).
Civil Disorder: By the late third century, the military was largely made up of
Germanic mercenaries and an Imperial heavy cavalry force. They supported coup
after coup by would-be emperors. From 235 to 268, 14 emperors reigned in 33
years, before the rise of the Illyrian Emperors. These revolts left holes in the
border defenses for barbarians to invade.
The Late Empire
The Fourth Century and Imperial Reorganization: The reigns of Diocletian
(284-305 AD) and Constantine (306-337 AD) ended the rising anarchy and set up
the final form of Roman government in the period up to the final collapse of the
Western half of the Empire.
Diocletian: Diocletian came to the throne by military means, but set out to create
a coherent system for peaceful succession and defense—The Tetrarchy. Two
co-emperors would rule, one for the West, one for the Eastern Empire, known by
the title of Augustus. Each would pick an heir who would help him rule, known
as the Caesar. Diocletian forced his co-emperor, Maximian, to resign with him in
305, so as to set an example for peaceful succession. Though it didn't work as
civil war broke out shortly thereafter...
Constantine: Emperor Constantine won the civil war, then made Christianity a
tolerated religion and ruled the empire from a new city he built in Thrace—
Constantinople, now known as Istanbul in Turkey. It would endure for over a
thousand years.
Dominus: The Emperor was now known as Dominus ("lord") and viewed as
divinely chosen. He was effectively an absolute monarch who men prostrated
themselves before.
Administration and Finance: The bureaucracy was carefully separated from the
army and spied on by informers and spies. But the finances of the empire,
especially in the west, were a mess. Peasants couldn't pay their taxes and the
upper classes fled to country estates for the same reason; peasants bound
themselves to the estates of the upper classes to avoid responsibility for taxes.
Division of the Empire: In the late fourth century, the Huns were on the move
on the steppes of modern Russia, pushing other tribes west into Europe. The later
members of the Constantinian Dynasty divided the Empire into halves again to
make it easier to coordinate local defense.
Adrianople: The defeat of Roman legions by Visigothic cavalry at Adrianople in
378 AD presaged trouble for the empire, whose military would prove inadequate
in the West to deal with the new age of Cavalry with the stirrup.
Deurbanization in the West: The western cities lost purpose and strength as the
wealthy moved to rural estates and fled Imperial duties and burdens. Life
centered around the villa (Roman estate). Coloni (tenant farmers) served the lord
of the villa in return for economic aid and protection. Roads and police services
crumbled. Only Christianity and the Imperial Army formed links between
isolated communities, but the Army was coming apart for lack of money to pay
for it.
The Roman East: Predominately Greek speaking, this area was wealthier and
more urbanized and less the target of barbarian invasion. It would weather the
fall of the West and evolve into the Byzantine Empire.
The Final Collapse: On the death of Theodosius the Great in 395 BC, he was
followed by a child-emperor, Honorius (born 384, ruled 395-423). Honorius was
weak and palace intrigues among his servants undermined the defense of the
borders. Barbarian tribes—Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and others,
began to infiltrate the empire, taking over entire provinces. In 410 AD, the last
roman legions abandoned Britain to try to shore up Gaul's defenses, at the same
time that the Visigoths sacked Rome.
As the empire declined, pressure from the growing empire of the Huns drove ever
more tribes into the empire. Finally, in the 440s and 50s, Atilla the Hun led his
forces into the empire in a series of raids that turned into conquest attempts.
Despite Atilla's defeat at Chalons-sur-Marne in 454 AD by an alliance of
barbarians and Romans, the Western Empire had now collapsed to be little more
than bits of Africa and Gaul combined with Italy. Rome was now sacked in 455
by the Vandals, who now controlled Northern Africa. What was left was
dependent on aid from the Eastern Empire. With the deposal of Romulus
Augustus (himself a puppet figurehead for his father, a military commander) in
476 AD and the fall of Italy to the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great in the
490s AD, the western empire quietly faded away.
Triumph of Christianity
Syncretism: In the fourth and fifth century, Romans sought the aid of strong
personal dieties; many folk melded together old religions and gods (syncretism).
Imperial Persecution: In 303, Diocletion launched the most thorough, though
brief persecution of Christians; like previous attempts, it failed. Ancient states
could not muster the thoroughness needed to crush a popular religion if its
adherents remained firm.
Constantine and Recognition: After his conversion, Emperor Constantine made
Christianity a tolerated religion in 313 AD through the Edict of Milan. In 394
AD, emperor Theodosius outlawed paganism and made it the official religion of
the empire. In the east, the church ended up as an arm of the state; in the west,
weakened states meant more autonomy for the Church. Indeed, western Bishops
could sometimes force leaders to do penance, as Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, did
to Emperor Theodosius in 390 AD.
Arianism: At the time of Christianity's toleration, Christians were divided
between the ideas of Arius of Alexandria (280-336 AD) and the more orthodox
view of Jesus' divinity. Arius taught against the Trinity of orthodoxy (which
taught God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost had all existed together as one
being from eternity and shared one substance); Arius taught that God the Father
and the Son did not exist together eternally. Further, Arius taught that the preincarnate Jesus was a divine being created by (and possibly inferior to) the Father
at some point, before which the Son did not exist. Jesus was a created divine
being. The Arian missionary Ulfius would go on to spread Arian ideas among
many of the Germanic tribes that invaded the empire in the 4th-5th century AD.
The Council of Nicea (325 AD): This council was called by Constantine to settle
the disputes. 1,800 Bishops were invited—somewhere between 250 to 320
attended. It laid out the Nicene Creed, which taught Trinitarian, Orthodox
theology.
The Canon of the Bible: A series of councils worked at the problem of laying
out the exact content of the Bible; the issue was finally settled in 393 AD at the
Council of Hippo. In 400 AD, Saint Jerome translated the bible into Latin; his
work, the 'Vulgate', would remain standard for Western Catholics until the
Reformation.
Art and Culture in the Late Empire
Art as Conflict: Christianity and Paganism's clash in the last years produced
large amounts of polemnic and propaganda.
Preservation of Classical Culture: One of the major accomplishments of this
period was the saving of classical literature of times past despite declining
literacy; Christian monasteries would emerge as a major vehicle of this work.
Scholars copied old works and also wrote condensed versions of ancient texts, as
well as learned commentaries and grammars.
Christian Writing: In 400 AD, Saint Jerome (late 4th to early 5th century AD)
translated the bible into Latin; his work, the 'Vulgate', would remain standard for
Western Catholics until the Reformation. Eusebius of Caesarea (ca 260-340 AD)
wrote Ecclesiastical History, which developed a Christian theory of history as the
working out of God's will.
The works of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD) show the
interrelationship between Pagan and Christian scholarship in this period.
Augustine deployed his classical (and Pagan) Roman education in rhetoric and
philosophy to defend and articulate Christian theology. His Confessions (397-8
AD) (autobiography) and The City of God are his greatest works. The City of
God (410 AD) was a response to the Sack of Rome in 410 AD, which many
feared was a punishment for the abandonment of paganism. The book presents
human history as being a conflict between what Augustine calls the City of God
and the City of Man (a conflict that is destined to end in victory for the former).
The City of God is marked by people who forgo earthly pleasure and dedicate
themselves to the promotion of Christian values. The City of Man, on the other
hand, consists of people who have strayed from the City of God. This was his
way of seperating God's church from the Roman Empire; the latter might fall due
to corruption, but God's church would endure.