The Roman Legacy
Vast Empire of 3,000 miles
From England to Jordan… beyond!
http://intranet.dalton.org/groups/Rome/RMap.html
The Importance of Rome
Cultural achievements
Assimilation of influences of Greeks and the rest of its
vast empire.
Reminder – Italy had been already partly occupied by
the Greeks. Sicily belonged to the Greeks.
Historical division of Government:
Monarchy/ Etruscan Age (753-510 B.C.E.)
Republican Rome (509-31 B.C.E.)
Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E. - C.E. 476)
The Etruscans and Their Art
Rome founded in mid-8th c. by Latins
Latin – French, Italian, Spanish
Etruscans gained control by 616 B.C.E.
Urban centers, engineering
Social, leisure activities
Trade, expansion
Buried their dead
Sense of Humor/Optimism
Etruscan Art
Primitive but sophisticated, natural focus
Value emotion over intellectual appeal
[Image 4.2]
Capitoline She-Wolf
[Image 4.3]
Apollo of Veii
You Tube
Some videos are repeated because there might not be time in
class to watch all of them…
Some of them are shorter versions
.
Building Rome’s Coliseum – 3:25 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO1NQy4oyJs&feature=related
Private Tape – Segovia Aqueduct – 17 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XGLj4DXHk&feature=related
Roman Baths in Bath, England, Britain – 1.39 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrRXg31taxE&feature=related
Engineering and Empire – Part 1 3.24 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFmO0jxeh74&feature=related
Engineering an Empire – Part 2 - 10:14 minutes (Hadrian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly4TmZb-ZgE&feature=related
Engineering an Empire - Part 2 – 10:25 minutes. Shows in Coliseum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUspFUGGn9g&feature=related
Engineering an Empire - Part 1 - 10:05 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9LxfhZb6Ow&feature=related
Engineering an Empire - Part 2 – 31 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NliNhZZ4JfA&NR=1
[Image 4.4]
Wall painting from the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing
Republican Rome
Etruscan expulsion in 510 B.C.E.
New government
Consuls, Senate, Patricians/Plebeians
Patrician - a group of elite families including both their natural and
adopted members. The class was broadened to include high court
officials.
Plebians – a group of less affluent; allowed to participate
Senate – main governmental system in Republic and Empire.
It was the official body that sent and received ambassadors, and it
appointed officials to manage public lands, including the provincial
governors. It conducted wars and it also appropriated all public funds
and issued money
Political equality / Balance of Power
Hortensian Law – equal share to all
Increasing power / expansion
[Image 4.6]
The Roman Forum
Literary Developments
During the Republic
Ennius (239-169 B.C.E.)
Annals
Tragedies adapted from Greek models
Plautus (254-184 B.C.E.) and Terence (185-159 B.C.E.)
Roman adaptations of Greek comedies
Catullus (80-54 B.C.E.)
Roman lyric poetry
Influenced by Sappho
Governmental and Literary Developments
During the Republic
Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.) named himself “dictator perpetuus”
Wrote Commentaries - biography
Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in
world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman
Republic into the Roman Empire, with the expansion to Britain.
Triumvirate – Julius Caesar, Marcus Linius Crassus, Gnaaeus Pompeius
Magnus. Resulted Civil War when it fell.
Assassinated on March 15, 44 B.C.E – stabbed by 60 senators
Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare.
Brutus and Cassius plot to assassinate Rome's most famous emperor, Julius
Caesar. After they accomplish this in perhaps the most famous death scene
ever written — "Et tu, Bruté?" — Antony and Octavius pursue the
conspirators across Italy, climaxing in one final, epic battle. Julius Caesar is
Shakespeare's fascinating tale of political intrigue, betrayal, and vengeance —
set against the rich tapestry of ancient Rome..
Cicero
Lawyer, orator
Epistolary legacy – written documents in
an organized fashion
In 31 BCE Octavius, the Emperor, renamed
himself to Ceasar Augustus
Roman Philosophy and Law
Epicureanism
Founded by Epicurus (341-271 B.C.E.)
Epicurus was an atomist, following in the steps of
Democritus His materialistic view led him to a general
attack on superstition and divine intervention
Gods play no part in human affairs
Epicureanism declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good,
its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure,
and it advocates for a simple life.
Seek Pleasure and calm composure
Stoicism
Greek philosophy adapted by Romans
World governed by Reason
In the life of the individual man, virtue is the sole good; such things as
health, happiness, possessions, are of no account. Since virtue resides in
the will, everything really good or bad in a man's life depends only
upon himself. He may become poor, but what of it? He can still be
virtuous
Roman Stoics
Seneca - was a Roman Stoic Philospher, Statesman Dramatist, and
in one work humorist of the of Latin Literatur He was tutor and
later advisor to emperor Nero.
Marcus Aurelius – Roman Emperor
Roman Philosophy and Law
Law of the Twelve Tablets – Literally written on
ivory tablets.
The laws of the Twelve Tables were not a
comprehensive statement of all law; they are a sequence
of definitions of various private rights and procedures,
similar to a bill of rights
Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis (Civil Rights)
Roman science of law
Legal experts
Republican Art and Architecture
Roman portraiture
Realistic details
Express outer appearance and inner character
Propagandistic
Architecture as political medium
Public buildings for glory of leaders
[Image 4.7]
Bust of Cicero
Imperial Rome
(31 B.C.E. - C.E. 476)
Julius Caesar assassinated 44 B.C.E.
Battle of Actium (31 B.C.E.)
Octavian vs. Mark Antony and Cleopatra
Octavian inaugurated as Augustus (27 B.C.E.)
Vast, multiethnic empire
Emperor, bureaucracy, civil service
Roman army
fictionalized depiction by Reginal Arthur (circa 1914
Augustan Literature: Vergil
Roman art promoted Augustan worldview
Official, public, served state purposes
Vergil’s Aeneid
Tribute to Rome and Augustus
National epic of Rome
Human destiny and personal responsibility
____________________________________________
So far in Literature from the Greeks to the
Romans – Most Famous
Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer, Vergil.
[Image 4.9]
View of the Garden from the villa of Livia
and Augustus
Augustan Sculpture
Ara Pacis
Characteristics of Vergil’s poetry
Political and social message
Dedicated to the spirit of Peace
Celebrates the abundance of nature
Evidence of Pompeii
Vesuvius: August 24, C.E. 79
Pliny the Younger
Preservation of ordinary Pompeian life
Buildings
Domestic ornaments
Food
Pliny the Younger’s
Letters/Documents
These letters are a unique testimony of Roman
administrative history and everyday life in the 1st Century.
The style is very different from that in the Panegyricus and
some commentators affirm that Pliny was the initiator of a
new particular genre: the letter written for publication.
This genre offers a different type of record than the more
usual history one which dispenses with objectivity but is
no less valuable for it. Especially noteworthy among the
letters are two (6.16; 6.20) in which he describes the
eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in August of 79, during which his
uncle, Pliny the Elder, died.
Roman Imperial Architecture
Triumphal arches, internal arches, vaults
Barrel Vault
Dome (hemispherical vault)
Hadrian’s Pantheon and imperial Dome,
oculus
Engineering Achievements
Aqueducts (Pont du Gard)
Covered sewers
Oculus
Rome as the Object of Satire
Overcrowding
Humble private residences
Juvenal (C.E. 60-130)
Satirical poet (sixteen Satires)
Biting sarcasm
Misogyny – fear, hatred or strong prejudice
against women.
The End of the Roman Empire
Gradual decline and political disunity
Empire too vast to be controlled
Insufficient army / use of mercenary troops
Increased taxes, decreased value of money
Impossibility of trade
Emperor Diocletian (284-305)
Emperor Constantine (306-337)
End of Roman Empire - Deposition of
Romulus Augustulus (476)
Late Roman Art and Architecture
Last great Roman imperial buildings
Basilica of Constantine
Palace of Diocletian
Abandonment of Classical ideals
Lack of perspective and precision
Enthusiasm for Eastern religious cults
Role of Christianity