EARLY ROMANS

1
EARLY ROMANS

• Ancestors of Romans arrived in Italy around 1000
  BC
  
• Settled near ford in the Tiber River in central
  Italy
  
• Italy already inhabited when they arrived
• Italian tribes
• Greeks in southern Italy
• Etruscans in northern Italy

2
ETRUSCANS

• Mysterious people with untranslated written
  language
  
• Created small empire in northern Italy
• Took over early Romans shortly after they
  arrived
  
• City of Rome founded under Etruscan rule
• Meeting place between Etruscan and Greek
  merchants
  
• Romans borrowed aspects of their civilization
  from both
  
• 509 BC Rome overthrew Etruscan rule and
  absorbed former Etruscan territory
  
• 500-400 BC Rome gradually conquers all of Italy

3
CARTHAGE
Former Phoenician trading post
Commercial city
Had western Mediterranean empire
Felt threatened by Romes rise to dominance in
Italy
4
PUNIC WARS

• Against Carthage
• Three over a 120 year period (264-146 BC)
• Demonstrated Roman perseverance and adaptability
• Rome won all three
• Carthage completely destroyed after Third Punic
  War
  
• Rome takes over all former Carthaginian territory
  in Western Mediterranean
  

5
ROMAN EXPANSION

• Rome increasingly draw into the affairs of the
  successor kingdoms of the East
  
• Grows tired of trying to maintain a balance of
  power in the East and gradually conquers the
  region
  
• Greece and Macedonia
• Asia Minor
• Mediterranean Middle East
• Egypt (later)
• By 100 BC, the basic outline of the Roman Empire
  is in place
  
• Romans already refer to the Mediterranean Sea as
  Mare Nostrum (our sea)

6
ROMAN REPUBLIC

• Not a democracy
• Monopolized by nobility (patricians) and wealthy
  commoners (plebians)
  
• Ordinary people excluded from meaningful
  political participation
  
• Possessed elected officials
• Top officials were consuls (2 elected each year)
• Several citizen assemblies
• Tribal Assembly (legislature)
• Senate (powerful advisory assembly)
• Devised to run a small city-state but not
  adequate for running an empire
  

7
ROMAN GENERALS/POLITICIANS

• ROMAN REVOLUTION
• 133-31 BC
• Political violence
• Street fights
• Physical assaults
• Murder
• Social unrest
• Appearance of a series of ambitious and ruthless
  military commanders
  
• Used armies to impose themselves as dictators of
  Rome
  

Pompey Magnus
Gaius Marius
LC Sulla
Julius Caesar
8
BATTLE OF ACTIUM

• 31 BC
• Marked end of the Roman Revolution
• Octavian defeats forces of Marc Antony and
  Cleopatra off the coast of Greece
  
• Roman power survives intact but the price was
  high
  
• Roman Republic ceased to exist

OCTAVIAN
Cleopatra
Marc Antony
9
AUGUSTUS

• First emperor
• Created new government adequate to running
  world-wide empire
  
• Retained republican institutions but robbed them
  of all power
  
• Kept all power in his own hands
• Kept sole control of army

10
WEAKNESSES IN THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM

• ARMY
• Ties with emperor were personal
• Never attempted to institutionalize relationship
• Roman army only loyal to person of emperornot
  state

• SUCCESSION
• Never set up clear cut system
• Choice of heir left to current emperor
• Might choose relative or friend
• Heir had to have support of army

11
ROMAN EMPIRE
12
ANTONINE DYNASTY(FIVE GOOD EMPERORSAND A BAD
ONE)
Trajan
Antoninus Pius
Nerva
Hadrian
Marcus Aurelius
Commodus
13
ROME AT THE TIME OF THE ANTONINE EMPERORS
14
INCREASING CHAOS

• After 180 AD
• Confusing series of short-term rulers
• Many were generals who were put into power by
  their troops only to be shortly thereafter killed
  either by troops of rival general or their own
  fickle men
• Standard-of-living dropped throughout empire
• Countryside became depopulated
• Farmers abandoned farms to avoid marauding
  legions and barbarians
  
• Moved to Rome, thereby swelling the already huge
  number of poor living on government charity
  
• Middle class declined due to crushing tax burden
• Pressure on the northern border increased as
  German barbarians began to push south

15
DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE

• DIOCLETIAN
• Improved shaky prestige of emperor by changing it
  into semi-divine office
  
• Created hereditary caste system
• Regimented society in order to restore stability
• Created new succession system
• CONSTANTINE
• Legalized Christianity
• Divided empire in half
• Built Constantinople
• Halves drifted apart after his death, creating
  two separate political units the Eastern
  (Byzantine) Empire and the Western (Roman) Empire

16
TWO EMPIRES
17
FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE

• Plagued by new civil wars and continued social
  and economic problems
  
• Finished off by massive German barbarian
  invasions
  
• Triggered by arrival of the Huns in Germany
• Germans set up kingdoms on ruins of Western
  Empire
  
• Finished by 565 AD

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BARBARIAN KINGDOMS
Angles and Saxons
Franks
Visigoths
Ostrogoths
Vandals
19
CONCLUSION I

• IF ROME HAD BEEN HEALTHY, IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE
  TO RESIST GERMAN INVASIONS
  
• BUT ROME WAS NOT HEALTHY
• FATALLY WEAKENED BY INTERNAL PROBLEMS
• UNABLE TO PUT UP EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE TO GERMANS

20
CONCLUSION II

• FALL OF ROME WAS NO BIG LOSS
• WEST HAD BECOME IMPOVERISHED, REGIMENTED,
  REPRESSIVE, AND STERILE
  
• NOTHING POSITIVE COULD HAVE COME FROM THIS MESS
• SLATE NEEDED TO BE WIPED CLEAN FOR FURTHER
  PROGRESS
  
• BY DESTROYING ROME, GERMANS OPENED DOOR FOR
  FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
  
• BASED ON BEST OF ANCIENT LEGACY
• ALSO BASED ON GERMAN COMPONENTS
• GAVE BIRTH TO THE MIDDLE AGES