Rome's Mediterranean Empire
Edmond Brasseur & Matt Hect
Mrs. Hedges
Period 1
The Roman Republic Vs. The Roman Principate
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Roman Republic
o 507 B.C.E.- 31 C.E.
o In 507 B.C.E. members of the senatorial class, led by Brutus "the Liberator,"
impeached Tarquinius Superbus.
o They then instituted a res publica,. a "public possession," or republic.
Roman Principate
o 31 B.C.E.- 330 B.C.E.
o Octavian eliminated all rivals by 31 B.C.E.
o He maintained the forms of the republic, but he fundamentally altered the realities of
power.
o Even though he was a military dictator, he never called himself king or emperor,
claiming to be princeps, "first among equals," in a restored republic.
o For that reason, the period following the Roman Republic is called the Roman
Principate.
Political:
Roman Republic
• The Roman Republic lasted from 507-31 B.C.E.
• Was not a democracy
• Sovereign power was put into assemblies that all male citizens were able to
attend
• Wealth influenced the importance of each vote
• The highest position was to be one of two consuls who led the assemblies,
the Senate, and the military
• Most of the power in this republic was in the Roman Senate
• It was meant to be advising to the king but it made policies and governed
• There was a set of laws on twelve stone tablets
• The republic developed from a bunch of warring tribes into a republic with
its capital centered in Rome
Political:
The Roman Principate
• The Roman Principate lasted from 31 B.C.E. to 330 C.E.
• After Augustus his family members became Emperors and Emperors after
Augustus exercised their authority more overtly like Alexander the Great
and the Hellenistis kings.
• The Empire gradually and reluctantly granted Roman citizenship, with its
attendant privileges, legal protections, and exemptions from some types of
taxation, to people living outside Italy.
• The unending demands of the central government for more tax revenues
from the provinces, as well as the interruption of commerce by fighting,
eroded the towns' prosperity.
• Short-sighted emperors, that were desperate for cash, redused the
ammount of metal in Roman coins.
Economic
• In early Roman times, they relied mainly on the food that
they produced by the farmers
• When Rome became a wealthy society the farmers hired
people to work on the farm and lived in the cities
• Rome relied heavily on grain imports from Sicily and Egypt
• Many food products could only be exchanged locally
because they could spoil
• Stationed armies were also a big market to sell to
• Merchants were wealthy and played a big role in the trade
throughout the empire on nonperishable items
• By law, everyone in the Roman Empire had to pay taxes, in
urban and rural areas
Religious:
Roman Republic
• In early Roman times, Rome was a pagan society
• Like other Italian people, the Romans believed in
invisible, shapeless forces called numina
• The Romans maintained the Pax Deorum, which
was peace between the gods and the Roman state
• In encounters with the Greeks, the Romans
compared their gods to the gods of the Greeks
Religious:
Roman Principate
• Rome continued its pagan society until the rule of Constantine
• Up until then people who refused to worship the emperor were
persecuted
• Under Constantine Christianity was accepted as the main religion of
the Romans and it then expanded throughout the whole empire
• It started with the teaching of Jesus, a carpenter from Galilee in
northern Israel
• Christianity is a monotheistic religion that took roots in Judaism
• After an important victory at the Milvian Bridge near Rome in 312,
and after claiming to see a cross in the sun he decided to take up
the religion, unifying his empire under one religion
• He also relocated the capital to Constantinople
Social
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Below the upper social class of rulers, there were two main social classes
There was the elite group called the patricians and the rest and majority of the
population were called the plebeians
Plebeians occasionally refused there services and left their cities to influence patricians to
make certain political choices, this is called the Conflict of the Orders
Below these two classes were slaves
Within families, the oldest living male, the paterfamilias, had the most authority
The patron/client relationship was a tie between an upper-class person(patron) and one
or many lower class people(client)
Women in this society were usually associated with the upper-class.
The women were never seen as children and was in the paterfamilias's control, until
marriage when she was taken in by her husband's paterfamilia
Women played an influecial role in Roman society
Intellectual
• Romanization - the spread of the Latin language and Roman way of life.
• Romanization was one of the most enduring consequences of empire.
• Greek language and culture continued to dominate the eastern
Mediterranean.
• The Emperors granted citizenship to:
o People that had completed a twenty-six year term of service in the
native military units that backed up Roman legions.
o People that had done good service
o And some emperors granted citizenship to all free, adult, male
inhabitants of the empire
• During the first century C.E. some of the leading literary and intellectual
figures came from these provinces.
Artistic
• Existing parts of roads, fortification walls, aqueducts,
and buildings testify to the engineering expertise of
the Ancient Romans.
• The Romans were pioneers in the use of arches,
which allow the even distribution of great weights
without thick supporting walls.
• The invention of concrete allowed the Romans to
create vast vaulted and domed interior spaces.
• They had paved streets and fountains that allowed
the people to get water.
Near
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Epansion Link
The Roman Empire is made of all the lands surrounding both the
Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, as well as parts of continental Europe.
Near cont.
• Rome's location in the center part of the
Mediterranean contributed to its success as an
empire.
• Italy was a crossroads in the Mediterranean and
Rome (the Roman capital) was a crossroads in Italy
so, it was located in the perfect place for an empire
• It became in control of all lands of all lands in the
ring outside of the Mediterranean and even beyond
that