Roman Culture
• The Romans admired and studied Greek statues, buildings, and ideas
• They copied the Greeks in many ways, but changed what they borrowed to suit their own needs
• Romans admired Greek art and architecture
• Greek statues were perfect, but Roman statues were more realistic and included the imperfections
• They also used much of Greek architecture, but added arches and domes
• They were also the first to use concrete in their buildings.
Concrete made buildings sturdier and allowed them to build taller

• Roman writers based most of their writing on the writing of Greek authors
• Virgil drew some of his ideas from Homer’s Odyssey, the Aenid describes Aeneas’ travels and the “story of Rome”
• The poet Horace wrote satires-these works poked fun at human weakness, he also composed odes- or poems that express strong emotions about life
• Like the Greeks, the Romans had historians that recorded the events of their civilization- Livy- wrote his “History of Rome” in 10
BC, Livy greatly admired early Romans and he believed people should know their history
• The most lasting of the things from Roman culture may be their language, Latin, which shaped the languages of many civilizations, including our English words today

• By the time of Augustus, a million people lived in Rome and the city was planned out carefully into roads that crossed at right angles
• At the center of Rome was the Forum, this served as a marketplace and public square
• Wealthy Romans lived in large, comfy houses
• The city of Rome was crowded, noisy, and dirty. Most people were poor and lived in apartments made of stone and wood
• To keep the people happy, the Roman government would have
“bread and circuses” or free grain and entertainment
• The biggest attractions were chariot races and gladiator contests.
Gladiators fought animals or each other and were admired like our sports heroes today

• The Romans also learned from Greek science.
• A Greek doctor named Galen brought many medical ideas to Rome; including anatomy, the study of body structure
• Another important scientist of the Roman Empire was
Ptolemy. He studied the sky and mapped over 1000 different stars
• Roman engineers built an impressive system of roads and
bridges to connect the empire
• They also used advanced engineering to supply their cities with freshwater. Engineers built aqueducts, or long troughs supported by arches that brought water from the hills to the cities

• Family life was important to the Romans, their families were large, they included not only parents and children, but also married children and their families, other relatives, and enslaved servants
• The father was the head of the household. He was called
paterfamilias or “father of the family”- had complete control over family members
• Wealthy families hired tutors to teach their younger children at home, some older boys did go to schools where they learned reading, writing, and rhetoric, or public speaking.
• Girls did not go to school, they learned reading and writing at home, they also learned household duties
• Between ages 14 and 16 , a Roman boy celebrated becoming a man. He would burn his toys as offerings to the household gods.
• He would put on a toga, join his family business, became a soldier or begin a career in government

• Roman women did not become adults until they were married
• Women in early Rome had some rights, but they were not full citizens
• The freedoms that a woman enjoyed depended on her husband’s wealth and standing
• Wealthy women had a great deal of independence.
They could own land, run businesses, and sell property.
• Women with less money, had less freedom. They spent most of their time working in their houses or helping their husbands in family-run shops

• Slavery was a part of Roman life from early times
• Thousands of prisoners from conquered lands were brought to Italy.
Most spent their lives performing slave labor. By 100BC, about 40 percent of the people in Italy were enslaved.
• For most enslaved people life was miserable. They were punished severely for poor work or for running away. To escape their hardships, enslaved people often rebelled
• The most famous slave revolt was led by a gladiator named
Spartacus.
• Under Spartacus a force of 70,000 enslaved people defeated several
Roman armies.
• The revolt was crushed two years later. Spartacus and 6,000 of his followers were crucified, or put to death by nailing on a cross.

• In AD 180 Marcus Aurelius died. His son
Commodus took over
• Commodus was cruel and wasted money. Instead of ruling Rome, Commodus spent much of his time fighting as a gladiator
• In AD 192, his bodyguard killed him, this set off a century of fighting and confusion
• After Commodus, emperors called Severans ruled
Rome. Much of their time was spent putting down revolts and protecting Rome’s borders

• When the last Severan ruler died in AD 235, Rome’s government became very weak
• For almost 50 years after, army leaders fought each other for the throne. During the time, Rome had 22 different emperors
• Fewer Romans honored the old ideals of duty, courage, and honesty
• Many government officials took bribes
• Many wealthy citizens even stopped paying taxes
• Fewer people went to schools and a large number of the empire’s people were enslaved.
• Wealthy Romans supported slavery- cheap work

• During the AD 200s, Rome’s economy began to fall apart
• Government weakened-law and order broke down
• Soldiers and invaders seized crops, farmers grew less food, hunger spread
• Less goods are made, less jobs
• A plague, or a disease that spreads widely also did much damagekilled 1 in 10 people
• Inflation-or rapidly increasing prices, was the next problem
• Prices went up, and many people began using no money at all
• They began to barter, or exchange goods without using money
• Invaders swept in and Rome could not pay an army, so they brought in soldiers who were not loyal to Rome

• In AD 284, a general named Diocletian became emperor
• To stop the decline, he installed reforms, or political changes to make things better
• Empire was too big for one person to rule, divided it into 4 parts, named officials to rule these parts, but had authority
• To slow inflation, set the price of goods and wages
• To make sure there were enough products, he ordered workers to stay at the same job until they died
• People ignored the rules and Diocletian did not have enough power to make them obey

• In AD 305, Diocletian retired from office and after a period of fighting, Constantine became emperor in AD
312
• To aid the economy Constantine issued several orders
• Sons of workers had to follow their fathers’ trades, sons of farmers had to work same land as their fathers, sons of soldiers had to serve in the army
• Constantine could not halt the decline in the west, named new capital in the east, Constantinople
• Today: called Istanbul, Turkey

• Both Diocletian and Constantine failed to save the Roman Empire
• When Constantine died in AD 337, fighting broke out again
• In AD 395, the Roman Empire split into two separate empires. Western Roman Empire-
Rome and the Eastern Roman Empire-
Constantinople

• As Rome declined, it was no longer able to hold back the Germanic tribes on its borders
• In AD 410, Visigoth leader Alaric and his soldiers captured Rome itself.
• It was the first time Rome had been conquered in 800 years, the people were shocked
• Another Germanic tribe known as the Vandals overran
Spain and Northern Africa
• A Germanic general named Odoacer took control overthrowing the 14 year old emperor, Romulus
Augustulus, the last Roman emperor, marking the end of the Roman empire

• Roman ideas of law are still with us today as written in the Twelve Tables
• People are equal under law, we expect judges to decide cases fairly, and consider people innocent until proven guilty
• The alphabet of the Latin language has shaped the world and many languages (English,
Italian, Spanish) just to name a few

• Although the Western Roman Empire fell to
Germanic invaders, the Eastern Roman Empire prospered becoming known as the Byzantine
Empire
• The Byzantine Empire reached its peak around the AD 500s stretching west to Italy, south to
Egypt, and east to the border with Arabia
• Greeks made up the empire’s largest group, but
Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, Armenians, Jews
Persians, Slavs, and Turks could be found in the empire

• Constantine moved the Roman capital to
Constantinople, during the Byzantine Empire, it was thriving and had become one of the world’s great cities
• One reason: location, it was located on the waterways between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea
• Harbors offered safe shelter for fishing boats, trading ships, and warships
• It was also at the crossroads of trade routes between
Europe and Asia
• Laying on a peninsula, it was protected by the Seas on three sides, on the fourth side a huge wall

• The Byzantines first followed Roman ways, in fact Constantinople was known as the “New Rome”
• The city even had an arena for chariot races and events called the
Hippodrome
• Political and social life was also based on Roman, emperors spoke
Latin, and enforced Roman laws
• As time passed, the Byzantine Empire became less Roman and more Greek
• Most Byzantines spoke Greek and honored their Greek past
• Emperors and officials began to speak Greek as well
• The culture was influenced by Egyptians, Slavs, and Persians
• The cultures blended together and from AD 500-AD 1200, the
Byzantines had one of the world’s richest and most advanced empires

• Justinian became the emperor of the Byzantine Empire in
AD 527 and ruled until AD 565
• Justinian was a strong leader who controlled the military, made laws, and was supreme judge. His order could not be questioned
• Justinian’s wife Theodora helped him run the empire. She was a former actress who was strong willed and helped make decisions.
• She convinced Justinian to give women more rights,
Byzantine women for the first time could own land
• In AD 532 she helped save the throne. Angry taxpayers attacked but Theodora advised that Justinian stand his ground, he did and crushed the uprising

• Justinian wanted to reunite the Roman Empire and bring back Rome’s glory
• To do this he had to conquer Western Europe and northern Africa, so he hired a general named
Belisarius to strengthen and lead the Byzantine army
• During Justinian’s reign, the Byzantine military conquered most of Italy and northern Africa and defeated the Persians in the east.
• After he died, the empire did not have enough money to hold the territory in the west.

• Justinian decided that the empire’s laws were disorganized and too difficult to understand
• He put together a group to analyze and reform the law code
• The group’s new simplified code became known as the Justinian Code.
• Officials, businesspeople, and individuals could now more easily understand the law.
• Over the years, the Justinian Code has had a great influence on the laws of almost every country in
Europe.

• The Byzantine Empire lasted approximately 1,000 years
• The city of Constantinople was one of the great cities of the world during its time due to the trade because of its location
• Art was supported by the emperors. Most art was about religious figures.
• Mosaics- or pictures made from many bits of colored glass or stone were very common.
• Women’s roles were expanded by Theodora, but they were encouraged to do the house work and take care of the family. They could be regents though.
• A regent is a person who stands in for a ruler who is too young or too ill to govern.