Roman Republic
2nd BCE - 44 BCE
“Rome is an idea”
Punic
Wars
Julius Caesar
“Crossing the Rubicon”
“You bring
them blood and
death and
they’ll love you
for it.”
Rome was a
military state.
Generals in
Politics
“Rome is the mob”
-Latifundia (Slavery)
-Extremes of Wealth
(Patricians and Plebes)
-Civil Wars
-Dictator
Coin of Julius Caesar
Upon his acquisition of power in 46 B.C.E.,
Caesar allowed a number of extraordinary
honors to be conferred upon him. The
Senate declared him "father of his country"
and had this stamped on his coinage. He
was the first living Roman to be
represented on a coin, a sign both of his
power and of the break with tradition that
he marked. (Bibliotheque nationale de
France)
From republic to monarchy
• Rome was always beset
with conflicts between
classes
• Tensions worsened as
the Roman empire
expanded
• From c. 31 BCE, Rome
was a “monarchy
disguised as a republic”
• “The empire killed the
republic.”
Julius Caesar
“Dictator for life”
Octavian Caesar
a.k.a. Augustus
“Princeps”
“Bread and Circuses”
“The beating heart of
Rome is not the marble
of the Senate but the
sand of the Coliseum.”
“Win the crowd and you’ll
win your freedom”
Gladiators, mosaic
Gladiators--literally men who
carried a gladius (sword)-fought to the death in the
arena and enraptured the
Roman Empire.
Bread and Circuses
• Romans loved urban
spectacles such as
gladiator games.
• Rome also had a
“welfare system,”
distributing free wheat
to the urban poor.
Roman Empire
44 BCE - 5th CE
Fasces –
symbol of
Imperial Rome
Augustus as imperator
Augustus, dressed in breastplate and
uniform, emphasizes the imperial majesty
of Rome and his role as imperator. The
naked feet signify Augustus's divinity; the
small cupid riding the dolphin alludes to
Augustus's claim that the Julian line
descended from Venus. The breastplate
commemorates his victory over the
Parthians, the triumph that ushered in the
Augustan Peace. (Scala/Art Resource,
NY)
Golden Age of Rome
1st CE – 3rd CE
Pax Romana
“Remember Romans
To rule the people under law, to establish,
The way of Peace”
Virgil, 1st CE
“Robbery, butchery, rapine, they call ‘Empire’
They create a desert and call it peace.”
Tacitus, 1st CE
An empire of force and law:
“Hard” versus “soft” power
Hard power:
Soft power:
• Rome had the strongest
military in the world.
• Roman citizenship was
eventually extended to all free
males within the empire
allowing them protection under
Roman law and other
privileges
• Territories within the empire
either submitted to Roman rule
or were conquered.
• Benefits of being a part of the
integrated economic zone of
the empire
The
Roman
Legion
The tortoise
formation
Resisting the Romans….
• Some peoples
resisted Roman rule
especially in Persia,
Gaul, and Britain
• Most famous revolt:
Boudica and the Iceni
people
• Tacitus: “You made a
desert and you called
it peace.”
Statue of Boudica, near
Houses of Parliament, London
Roman society
• Patricians and
plebians
• Patriarchy
– Pater familias
– Fathers made all
decisions pertaining
to the family
Patrician woman
Slaves in the Roman Empire
• Through military
conquest, Rome
accumulated millions of
slaves
• 1st century CE: 1 in 3 in
city of Rome a slave
• Roman proverb: “Every
slave we own is an
enemy we harbor”
Crassus
Roman Town House
Houses even had central heating!
“The houses of the
patricians, spacious, airy,
sanitary, equipped with
bathrooms and water
closets, heated in winter
by hypocausts, which
carried hot air through
chambers in the floors,
were perhaps the most
commodious and comfortable
houses built for a temperate
climate anywhere until the
20th century, a triumph of
domestic architecture.” Lewis Mumford
But how did the other
half live?
“The main population of the
city that boasted of its
world conquests lived in
cramped, noisy, airless,
foul-smelling, infected
quarters, paying extortionate
rents to merciless
landlords…”
Lewis Mumford
Other engineering wonders…
Aqueducts
Center of Roman social life…
The baths
Roman Empire, 146 CE
“All roads lead to Rome”
MARE NOSTRUM
“Our Sea”
All roads led to Rome…
50,000 miles of main roads
200,000 miles of lesser roads
http://web.arch.ox.ac.uk/archatlas/Trade/Trade.htm#THE%20WEST-EURASIA%20WORLD%20SYSTEM,%203600-1400%20BC
“We believed it once, make us believe it again”
Diocletian's Tetrarchy
The emperor Diocletian's attempt to
reform the Roman Empire by dividing
rule among four men is represented in
this piece of sculpture, which in many
features illustrates the transition from
ancient to medieval art. Here the four
tetrarchs demonstrate their solidarity by
clasping one another on the shoulder.
Nonetheless each man has his other
hand on his sword--a gesture that
proved prophetic when Diocletian's reign
ended and another struggle for power
began. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Colossal statue of Constantine
The head of Constantine is part of
an enormous sculpture of him
seated that was once originally
placed in his basilica. The entire
statue was over 30 feet high; the
head alone weighs over 8 tons.
Head, arms, hands, legs and feet
were of marble. The drapery was
probably of bronze plates over a
masonry frame. The colossal
head and neck are superbly
modeled, but the eyes, which
seem to be fixed on some spot
above our heads (perhaps on
eternity), seem overly large. Such
a feature is common in the early
Christian period. (Scala/Art
Resource, NY)
Roman amphitheater, Tunisia
Amphitheaters where
gladiatorial combats took place
were as common in Italy and the
Roman Empire as skyscrapers
are in a modern city. This
amphitheater in the city of El
Djem in modern Tunisia (the
Roman province of Africa) was
built of high-quality local stone. It
was meant to have sixty-four
arches but was never
completed. The openings in the
floor permitted animals to be
released into the arena. This
amphitheater held at least thirty
thousand spectators. (Adina
Tovy/Robert Harding Picture
Library)
Roman Legacy (RGH #49)
“Rome’s genius was practical”
-Architecture and Engineering
-Administration, Bureaucracy
-Latin
-Law (international law, universal)
-Classical (Greco-Roman) Culture
-Romanization
- Common Citizenship
“You have made the name of
Rome no longer that of a city
but of an entire people.”
Greek Orator
- Christianity
Byzantine Empire
The Decline of the Roman Empire
“3rd Century Crisis”:
• Leadership and
succession crises
• Over-extension of
the empire
• External pressures
Consequences:
• “Devolution”
– Return to barter economy
– People left cities and
moved to countryside
– Decentralization of power
– 476 CE: Western Roman
Empire collapsed
Legacies of the Roman Empire
• Cities and roads of
Europe
• Ideas about law
• “Romance” languages
• Christianity