Protection for
Rome and Italy
• Rome built on seven hills
• Alps
• Barrier to the north
• Seas
• Barriers on other three sides
• Poor harbors in eastern Italy
• Little interference from cultures to the east
Unification of
Italy under
Rome
• Rome centrally located on peninsula
• Good location for capital city
• Apennine
Mountains run north-south
• Not a barrier to unification of the peninsula
Farming and
Trade
• Fertile soil and mild climate
• Good for farming
• No need to import foodstuffs
• Central location in
Mediterranean
• Good for trade
• Launching point for expansion throughout
Mediterranean region

• Greek colonists
– Eastern portion of Sicily
– “Heel” and “toe” of Italy
• Carthaginian colonists
– Western portion of Sicily
• Gauls
– Between Alps and Po River

• Mystery – their origins are lost to prehistory
– Numerous hypotheses
• Indigenous (first humans to live in region)
• Migrated from east, north, or south, circa 1000 BCE
• Lived north of Rome
– Region today called “Tuscany” after them
(ancient Etruria)
– Enemies of the Romans
• Taught the Romans:
– Arch in architecture, drainage and sewer-building, phalanx military formation

• Indo-European tribe from the north
• Circa 1200 BCE – Settled south of the Tiber River in an area that came to be called Latium
• Latin League formed for protection
– Rome was the leading city in this league
• Legend of the founding of Rome in 753 BCE
– Twin brothers Romulus and Remus
• Ordered drowned by uncle who wanted throne
• Instead raised by a she-wolf
• Grew up and killed their uncle
• Romulus killed Remus in a fight over what to name the city

Roman Origins
•Circa 1000-509 BCE
•Earliest settlements on Palatine Hill
•753 BCE – Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus
Roman Republic
•509-31 BCE
•Etruscan kings overthrown under leadership of Lucius Junius Brutus, the traditional founder of the Republic, in 509 BCE
•Republic = “thing of the people”
•Ended with Battle of Actium in 31 BCE
Roman Empire
•31 BCE-476 CE
•Began when Octavian’s forces defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra
•End of Western Roman Empire traditionally dated to 476 CE, when last emperor,
Romulus Augustus, deposed
•Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire continued until conquered by the Turks in
1453

Patricians
• Nobles
• Controlled the government of the
Republic
• Executive power
• Two consuls elected for a oneyear term
• Elected by adult male patricians
• Legislature
• Senate – upper house
• About 300 patricians
• Served for life
• Controlled by about 12 families
• Assembly – lower house
• All free, adult males who could afford weaponry
• All acts had to be approved by the Senate
Plebeians
• Common people
• Few rights and little power
• Could not run for public office
• Could not marry into the nobility
(the patrician class)
• Little say in the creation of laws
• Continuously threatened to secede from Rome and create their own city

Aediles ran city
(“local”) government.
Censors kept track of citizen lists, and in later years took charge of public morality.
Dictators , with absolute power, were elected by the Senate in times of emergency to rule for six months.
Praetors were in charge of administering justice.
Quaesters were in charge of Roman finances.

ASSEMBLY: Senate could no longer veto laws made by the Assembly
(the “Comitia”).
INTERMARRIAGE:
Plebeians were given the right to marry patricians.
PUBLIC OFFICES:
These were opened to plebeians.
TRIBUNES: Right to elect tri bunes. These were officials with veto (“I forbid”) power over the
Senate.
TWELVE TABLES: Laws were written down. This protected plebeians from biased patrician judges.
450 B.C.E.

• 509-265 B.C.E.
– Rome came to control all of Italy south of the Po River
• 386 B.C.E.
– Gauls from the north plundered and burned Rome
– Rome got rid of the Gauls by paying them a large amount of gold
• Rome turned its direction from the Gauls and conquered:
– The remaining Etruscans
– Its former allies in the Latin League
– Tribes in central Italy (such as the Samnites in 290
B.C.E.)
– Greeks in the south

• a man of simplicity who places his duty to
Rome before personal interest or wealth.

• Great soldiers
• Well-trained
• All volunteers

• Few geographical barriers on the Italian peninsula
• Military roads radiated from Rome
– Troops could be sent quickly to quell unrest in any area
– Dual purpose—roads came to allow quick and easy travel by tax collectors, traders, travelers, and officials
• Famous roads
– Appian Way
– Flaminian Way
– Valerian Way
• Public funds dedicated to building and maintaining the Republic’s infrastructure

• Rome’s fear:
– That allies and colonies would unite against
Roman Rule
• Rome’s solution:
– Keep groups under Roman control disunited
• How it was done:
– Forbade alliances between them
– Separate privileges and treaties

• Conquered peoples were treated well
– Some received full Roman citizenship, including suffrage
– Some controlled their own affairs but paid tribute and gave soldiers to the Roman army
• Colonies
– Rome established colonies in conquered areas, each protected by a garrison of Roman soldiers
– Republic encouraged intermarriage
• Led to the spread of Roman culture and language
(Latin)

• The Greeks believed in Philosophy as a “therapy” to deal with the failure of the Polis
• The Romans would have none of this "therapy." Instead, they grasped the cosmopolis head on, and the result was the Roman world.
• Romans established a "religion of culture," a religion that appealed to all Romans -- it literally surrounded them. It was only later, around the 2nd century A.D., that this
"religion of culture" was attacked by an outside force the Romans seemed to have misunderstood, and the result was by the end of the fourth century, a new "culture of religion
.“
• classical Greece was glorified for its artistic, philosophic and cultural achievements but it has been Rome that has really earned all the glory. And we don't have to look very far in order to determine why.
• The Romans managed to maintain their world for more than one thousand years. The
Greeks, even under the brilliance of a Cleisthenes or a Pericles or an Alexander, could not maintain the brilliance of their world view for more than a handful of

• Like every good civilization, a war must be fought. Rome experienced 3 wars for most of their early stages as an Imperial State:
1.The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.)
2.The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.)
3.The Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.)

SICILY BECOMES THE FIRST
OVERSEAS PROVINCE OF ROME

st
•
RESULTS OF THE WAR
– Results of the First Punic War
– While the Roman "victory" was achieved at a terrible cost, they did receive complete control of Sicily through
Carthaginian withdrawal, and the assurance that Syracuse would be unmolested in the future. Carthage was forced to pay 3,200 gold talents in total over a period of 10 years while also paying heavy ransoms for its prisoners. As a direct result of this compensation, Carthage found itself unable to pay her mercenary army leading directly to a devastating revolt. Sicily was organized into Rome's first province soon after the end of the war, and a veritable gold mine in grain wealth was secured.
– More importantly, Rome learned how to conduct war on a massive scale and to survive the turmoil it could cause. The Senate became masters of financing these expansionist activities, while the areas of legion recruiting, logistics, political espionage and fleet building all were part of the invaluable knowledge and experience gained. This already lengthy and costly war, while greatly beneficial to Rome was only the beginning of a longer and bloodier conflict by far, and both sides knew it.

nd

st

nd

The idea of “greatness” and the difference between “impressive” and “influential”
What are some of similarities and differences between Alexander the Great and Hannibal “the Great”?

nd
• Within the 2 nd punic war were a series of small battles:
– War on Italy
– Battle of Cannae
– Battle of Macedonia (4)
• RESULTS OF THE WAR
– Spain was forever lost to Carthage and passed into the control of Rome for the next 7 centuries, though not without troubles of its own.
– Carthage was reduced to the status of a client state and lost all power of enacting its own treaties and diplomacy.
– It was forced to pay a tribute of 10,000 talents, all warships, save 10 were turned over to Rome along with any remaining war elephants.
– Carthage was also forbidden to raise an army without the permission of
Rome. Grain and reparations for lost supplies also had to be provided to
Rome as well as having the responsibility of collecting runaway slaves and returning them.

rd

rd
• RESULTS OF THE WAR
– After learning their lesson, Roman told Carthage they need to vacate the city entirely and hand everything over to
Rome; unconditionally
– the massive amount of slave labor imported from Africa,
Spain and the east created a new economy dependency on continuing slavery.
– These conditions would ultimately be major factors in the crumbling of the Roman political system and the terrible strife between the Patricians, Equestrian order and the common Plebes. With the defeat of Carthage Rome inherited an empire but it ultimately set about the fall of its own Republic.

• At the same time, Rome was also fighting in Macedonia and in Asia Minor (205-
148 B.C.) .
– The end result
– the annexation of Greece and Asia Minor to the Roman world. Macedonia was officially made a province of the Republic and thus, the Romans brought an end to the independent political life of Greece.
– By 44 B.C., the Romans controlled all of Spain, Gaul (France), Italy, Greece, Asia
Minor, and most of North Africa (80% of the coastal lands of the
Mediterranean).
• The Roman Republic had to protect its people from outside invasion and they did this by forming careful alliances with their neighbours. The constant warfare of the
4th and 3rd centuries B.C. reinforced this need for common security and mutual defense.
• This was something the Greeks could not accomplish primarily because of the predominance of Athens as the seat of government, and the isolation of Sparta as a military power. And over time, the Greek army and navy were weakened.
Alexander tried to bring some order to this state of affairs but his early death ultimately meant the undoing of his empire.