Establishing the Republic
HUM 2051: Civilization I
Fall 2010
Dr. Perdigao
October 8-13, 2010
Transference
Shared cultures—Roman names to Greek gods—but, more significantly, crosscultural contact
Zeus
Jupiter: father
Hera
Juno: queen
Athena
Minerva: wisdom
Aphrodite
Venus: love
Hades
Pluto: underworld
Hermes
Mercury: trade; messenger
Poseidon
Neptune sea
Ares
Mars: war
Hephaestus
Vulcan: fire; blacksmith
Key Virtues

Patria potestas (“father’s power”) in Roman family

Virtue (virtus); dignity (dignitas); fame (fama), competition for political
power and privilege (Perry 120)

Piety toward gods and family, friends, and state

Mos maiorum (the way of the elders)

Virtus (virtue): courage, strength, loyalty—but also moral purity

Faithfulness (fides)
Changing of the Guard

Foundation of the Republic to counter mythological beginnings (509 BCE),
begins with overthrow of Etruscan monarchy by landowning aristocrats
(patricians); Empire in 27 BCE with Octavian (Augustus) as first Roman
emperor after 500 years of republican self-government (Perry 118)

Inheritances from Etruscans—road construction, sanitation, hydraulic
engineering (Perry 118)

Rome—republic at end of sixth century BCE (509 BCE) with landowning
aristocrats (patricians) overthrowing Etruscan king

Struggle of the Orders—conflict between patricians and commoners
(plebeians); government—consuls, Centuriate Assembly, popular assembly
controlled by nobility, and Senate; plebeians won right to own assembly,
the Plebeian Assembly and later Tribal Assembly (119-120)
Foundations

Twelve Tables as first Roman code of laws in 450 BCE (Perry 120)

287 BCE Tribal Assembly gives full civil equality and legal protection to
plebeians although upper class remains in power (Perry 120); class struggle
remains for two hundred years

146 BCE—Rome as dominant state in Mediterranean world: uniting Italian
peninsula; war with Carthage where Rome emerges as ruler of western
Mediterranean; subjugation of Hellenistic states, contact with Greek
civilizations (Perry 122)
Evolution of Forms

Carthage—North African city founded by Phoenicians in 800 BCE,
commercial center (Perry 123)

Wars with Carthage—264-121 BCE—Punic Wars (First Punic War 264-241
BCE, Carthage surrenders Sicily to Rome, Rome later seizes Corsica and
Sardinia; Second Punic War 218-201 BCE)

Hannibal (247-183 BCE) leading Carthaginian army; after Hannibal’s win
at Cannae, Rome’s “worst days”; Hannibal eventually defeated by Scipio
Africanas in 202 BCE in battle of Zama to end Second Punic War (Perry
123-124)

Second Punic War—Rome as greatest power in western Mediterranean;
Philip V of Macedonia joins Hannibal—Rome starts First Macedonian
War, wins in 205 BCE (Perry 124)

Roman imperialism—Third Punic War in 146 BCE to annihilate Carthage
(Perry 125)
Developments

Hellenization—adoption of Greek culture (Perry 125) with Greeks
coming to Rome

Contact with Greek culture—Formation of Roman culture—science,
philosophy, medicine, geography, history, poetry, drama, oratory
(Perry 128)

Plautus’ plays—modeled on Greeks’, with Greek characters, settings,
style of dress; Catullus as lyric poet; Lucretius, Roman Epicurean
philosopher; Cicero, orator

Marius as consul in 107 BCE (Perry 134), Sulla in control in struggle
with Mithridates, but Marius’ supporters return command to Marius;
after Marius’ death, Sulla becomes dictator

First Triumvirate in 60 BCE, Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar,

Caesar crossing the Rubicon, civil war in Republic, dictator for ten
years
The Next Chapter

Temporary dictatorship made lifelong office

44 BCE—March 15—aristocrats assassinate Caesar, including general and
orator Brutus (Perry 136)

Mark Antony and Lepidus join Octavian to defeat Brutus and Cassius;
Antony and Octavian fight for control of Rome, Octavian defeats Antony
and Cleopatra to emerge master of Rome and then first Roman emperor
(Perry 137)

Move from republican institutions to dictatorship (Perry 136); expansion
and disintegration

Next era—Octavian—move to peace as Augustus (backdrop for Virgil’s
text)