Rome

1
Rome

• Republic to Principate

2
Romulus and Remus

• Rhea was married to Mars, the Roman god of war.
  Rhea had twin sons. She loved her boys, but there
  were plots afoot by other gods and goddesses to
  harm her father, herself, her husband, and her
  children. To protect the boys, she set them
  adrift on the river, hoping someone would find
  them.
• Romulus and Remus were first found by a she-wolf
  who fed them. Then a shepherd and his wife
  adopted the boys.
• As the twins grew older, they decided they did
  not want to take care of sheep. They wanted to be
  kings. They decided to build a city on the shores
  of the Tiber. They both wanted to be the only
  king. They quarreled. In a fit of rage, Romulus
  picked up a rock, killed his brother, and made
  himself king

3
Early Roman State

• Landownership essential to economy and
  therefore social status
• Council of Elders ? senatorial class
• Overthrew the last of the 7 kings

4
Roman Republic

• 507-31BCE
• Governmental Structure
• Voting for all male citizens (although votes of
  wealthy worth more)
• 2 Consuls (serve 1 year, war glory)
• Senate
• Assemblies
• Tribunes (lower classes only, veto power)
• Roman Senate
• Self perpetuating body
• Serve for life
• Nepotism

5
Institutionalized Inequality

• Patricians versus plebeians
• Paterfamilias
• Patron/Client Relationships
• Patron (senator) provided loans, legal advice etc
  in exchange for votes, military service or labour
• Women
• Permanently children
• No land rights
• Strong women emerge to influence politics

6
Administering the Empire

• Political, economic and legal rights extended to
  conquered peoples
• In exchange, required for military service
• Periphery provinces allowed to self govern
  without rights
• Governors sent to serve one year
• Collect taxes, prevent invasion
• Lacked experience, led to corruption
• Year long cycle led to a lack of continuity

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How did Empire lead to decline?

• All land owning men required to perform military
  service (legions)
• Protracted wars with Carthaginians (264-202BCE),
  Hellenistic Kingdoms (200-146BCE) Gaul
  (59-51BCE)
• Soldiers absent from farms for long periods of
  time
• Senatorial class (Patricians) makes huge profits
  from war but because of patron/client
  relationship dont need to fight themselves
• Patricians buy up soldiers farm from families
  left without financial support as
  fathers/husbands fight
• Patricians create uber farms LATIFUNDIA
• Latifundia want cash crops vineyards or animals
  ? shortage of wheat as imports lead to price
  inflation
• POW provide cheap slave labour for Latifundia
• Soldiers return home to no farm and poverty.
  Slavery means no rural employment either!
• Move to cities ? no work here either!
• Angry plebeians!!
• Legions in trouble too! Not enough landowning
  men, therefore not enough people who can act as
  soldiers!!!
• New Men start appealing to the plebeians ruined
  by the Latifundia. Promise wealth and employment
  if serve them in the army
• Legions now loyal to LEADER not the Republic
• New Men like Sulla, Pompey, Mark Antony, Julius
  Caesar and Octavian aim for individual power at
  the expense of the Republic.
• Civil War Octavian triumphs. Becomes Princep
  Augustus

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Augustus the creation of Principate

• Julius Caesar creates 1st dictatorship Civil
  War against Pompey, popularity with the plebeians
  (land reform), deified
• Ides of March, 44BCE Julius Cesar assass.
• 2nd Triumvirate Octavian (Augustus) Mark Antony
  Lepidus peace until 37BCE
• Octavian MA struggle for power MA Cleopatra
  defeated at Battle of Actium
• Lepidus exiled
• Octavian purges Senate. Senate voted to give
  Octavian power for 10 years. Swears allegiance
  as Emperor. Tribune for life
• Augustus Caesar is born

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Augustus Caesar

• 45 years of rule 31BCE 14CE
• Propaganda Republic restored
• Equites merchant/landowning middle class ?
  administration/civil service
• Empire ? extend no further, consolidate existing
• Cash payments for soldiers serving gt 20 years,
  end the new men phenomenon
• Senatorial class given power in provinces near
  Rome, therefore still believe have power
• Pax Romana

10
Roman Empire Post Augustus

• Emperors power publicized and strengthened
• Cult of Emperor worship
• Emperor source of new laws, class of lawyers
  emerges
• Urban Empire urban admin. not urban pop.
  Urban dwellers benefitted
• Slaves decrease (pax romana) tenant farmers
  increase. Wealth based on land but monopolized
  by urban landowners
• Technology ? aqueducts

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• Trade increases under PR,safety stability
• Romanization more powerful than military action
• Citizenship extended ? first soldiers, then as
  reward, by 212 all free men.
• R. army defensive. Walls (GB), forts, natural
  barriers used

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Third Century Crisis

• 235 284CE
• 20 Emperors
• Germanic invasions, Romans build walls
• Economy
• Army drains treasury ? taxes raised in provinces
  ? destroyed urban prosperity ? Emperors devalue
  coin ? return to barter ? local elite responsible
  for unpaid taxes ? bankrupted ? trade destroyed
  as PR ends ? people flee cities ? return to New
  Men

13
Diocletian Constantine save Rome

• 284 305CE
• Rises through army
• Reforms
• Specifies price of goods
• Ends inflation
• Froze families in profession
• Big Government seen as oppressive
• Constantine seizes throne

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Constantine

• Battle of Milvian belief that Christian God had
  granted him victory
• Edict of Milan end persecution of Chris.
• Religiously tolerant
• Unites empire C. on the rise ? spiritual or
  political?
• Moves capital from Rome to Byzantium
• B. renamed Constantinople
• Urban centre and Equites here better survived 3rd
  Century Crisis
• Closer to threatened borders in E. Europe

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Rome the Christian Empire

• Council of Nicea
• 325CE
• Emperor involved in doctrinal issues
• Dispute over Jesus importance (Arians)
• Diocese
• Urban phenomenon
• 392 Pagan worship banned
• Justinian Codes
• Codifies Roman laws innocent until proven
  guilty, burden of proof lies with accuser etc

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Decline of Rome

• Eastern and Western Empires divide by 395
• Byzantine armies successful ? Germanic tribes
  attack West
• Rome falls to Visigoths 410
• 476 last Roman Emperor
• 530 Rome only spiritually important as seat of
  the Pope
• Latin relegated to elite, locals turn to
  dialects Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian