An Age of Empires: Rome and Han China

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An Age of Empires Rome and Han China

• 753 B.C.E. 330 C.E.

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Romes Creation of a Mediterranean Empire

• 753 B.C.E. 300 C.E.

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Geography

• Italy and Sicily are at a crossroads in the
  Mediterranean
• Serve as a link between Africa and Europe
• Rome located at a crossroads of the Italian
  Peninsula

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Resources

• Navigable rivers
• Forests
• Iron
• Mild climate
• Arable land to support a large population of
  farmers

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Founding of Rome Legend

• Insert link to video here!

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Founding of Rome Fact

• Rome was inhabited at early as 1000 B.C.E.
• Ruled by 7 kings between 753 and 507 B.C.E.
• Representatives of senatorial class of large
  landowners overthrew kings and established a
  government.

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A Republic of Farmers

• Centers of political power
• 2 Consuls
• Senate
• Senate made laws and governed

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Family Structure in Rome

• Several generations living together
• Oldest living male, paterfamilias , had absolute
  authority
• Roman women had more freedom than Greek women,
  but they were subordinate to the paterfamilias.
• Women eventually became independent after the
  death of their fathers.

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Gods in Rome

• Worshipped a large number of supernatural
  spirits.
• Major gods Jupiter and Mars.
• Proper performance of ritual ensured gods would
  favor Roman state.

Jupiter
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Roman Expansion

• Slowly expanded, then expanded very rapidly in
  the third and second centuries B.C.E.
• Explanations for Expansion
• Greed
• Aggressiveness
• Need for consuls to prove themselves as military
  commanders
• Constant fear of being attacked

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First Stage of Expansion

• Rome conquered rest of Italy by 290 B.C.E.
• Won support of Italian people by giving them
  Roman citizenship.
• Once citizens, they had to provide soldiers for
  the military.

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Taking Over

• Rome defeated Carthage to gain control over
  western Mediterranean and Sicily, Sardinia, and
  Spain.
• 200 30 B.C.E. Rome defeated Hellenistic
  kingdoms to take over Eastern Mediterranean.
• 59 51 B.C.E., Gaius Julius Caesar conquered
  Celts of Gaul.

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Map of Roman Empire
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Administration

• Used elite groups to administer and tax various
  province of the empire.
• A governor supervised local administrators.
• Served a single one-year term in office
• System was inadequate and prone to corruption.

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Failure of the Republic

• As Rome expanded, the social and economic bases
  of republic were undermined.
• Independent farming families had to serve in
  military.
• They sold their land while they were serving in
  the military. Land was bought by large
  landowners.

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Latifundia

• Great estates built by large landowners.
• This caused problems for Rome because latifundia
  owners preferred cash crops like grapes instead
  of staple crops like wheat.
• Since slave labor was cheap, there was not a
  great need for peasant farmers.
• This created an unemployed underclass in urban
  areas

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A Lack of Soldiers

• Because there were less farmers to enlist as
  soldiers, the unemployed became soldiers.
• These soldiers tended to pledge loyalty to
  commanding officer, not Rome.
• Generals took control of politics leading to
  civil war and the end of the republican system of
  government.

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An Urban Empire

• Roman Empire had population of 50-60 million.
• Rome had population of 1 million.
• Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage had populations
  of almost 1 million each.
• 80 of the Roman Empire were rural farmers.
• Considered an urban empire because of the
  administration through a network of cities and
  towns.

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Life in Ancient Rome

• Upper classes lived in elegant, well-built,
  well-appointed houses.
• Many aristocrats also owned country villas
• Poor lived in dark, dank, fire-prone wooden
  tenements in squalid slums built in low-lying
  parts of the city.

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Ancient Roman Town Ruins
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Just Like Rome

• Provincial towns imitated Rome both in urban
  planning and in administration.
• Local elite, who served interests of Rome,
  dominated town councils.
• Local elite served communities by using wealth to
  construct aqueducts, baths, theatres, gardens,
  temples, and other public works projects.

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Aqueducts
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Roman Baths
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Roman Temples
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Roman Forum
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Rural Life in Rome

• Lots of hard work and very little entertainment
• Little contact with representatives of government
  
• By the beginning of C.E., landlords lived in city
  and tenant farmers ran the farms supervised by
  foremen.

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Pax Romana

• Manufacture and trade flourished under Pax
  Romana.
• Grain had to be imported into the city of Rome.
• Rome also imported Chinese silk and Indian and
  Arabian spices.
• Rome and other cities exported glass, metalwork,
  pottery, and other items.

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Romanization

• In the western part of the Empire many parts of
  Roman culture were adopted
• Latin language
• Roman clothing
• Roman lifestyle
• Eventually Roman emperors extended Roman
  citizenship to all free adult male inhabitants of
  the empire.

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Ancient Roman Clothing
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Rise of Christianity

• Jesus lived in a society marked by resentment
  against Roman rule.
• This inspired the belief that a Messiah would
  arise to liberate the Jews.
• When Jesus sought to reform Jewish religious
  practices, the Jewish authorities turned him over
  to the Roman governor for execution.

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After the Execution

• Jesus disciples continued to spread his
  teachings.
• Also spread belief that Jesus had been
  resurrected.
• The target of their proselytizing was fellow
  Jews.
• Target of proselytizing changed from Jews to
  non-Jews in the 40s 70s C.E.

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Shift in Target

• Paul of Tarsus, an Anatolian Jew, discovered that
  non-Jews were much more receptive to the
  teachings of Jesus than Jews were.
• Jewish revolt in Judaea (66 C.E.) and the
  subsequent Roman re-conquest destroyed the
  original Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem.

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Growth of Christianity

• Grew slowly for two centuries
• Developed a hierarchy of priests and bishops
• Developed a commonly accepted theological
  doctrine
• Resisted the persecution of Roman officials
• By late third century, Christians were a sizeable
  minority in the Roman Empire.

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Dissatisfaction

• The expansion of Christianity in the Roman Empire
  came when Romans were not happy with their
  traditional religion.
• This inspired Romans to become interested in a
  variety of mystery cults and universal creeds
  that had their origins in the eastern
  Mediterranean.

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Roman Technology

• Expert military and civil engineers
• Accomplishments included
• Bridge-building
• Ballistic weapons
• Elevated and underground aqueducts
• Use of arches and domes
• Invention of concrete

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Roman Bridge
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Roman Aqueduct
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Roman Domes
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Roman Coliseum
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Roman Forum
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Change in the Army

• After the death of Augustus, the army was
  organized primarily for defense.
• Rhine-Danube frontier was protected by a string
  of forts.
• Long walls protected the frontiers of North
  Africa and Britain.
• The Romans fought for centuries against the
  Parthians on the eastern front neither made any
  significant gains.

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The State System

• Created by Augustus to help with Roman
  administration
• Worked well until Romes third-century crisis
• Caused by
• Frequent change of rulers
• Raids by German tribesmen from across the
  Rhine-Danube frontier
• Rise of regional power when Rome seemed unable to
  guarantee security

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The Economy Falls

• Economy undermined by
• High cost of defense
• Debasement of currency
• Inflation
• Disruption of trade
• Reversion to a barter economy
• Disappearance of the municipal aristocracy of the
  provincial cities
• Movement of population out of cities into rural
  areas

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Diocletian

• Emperor from 284 305 C.E.
• Saved Roman state by instituting a series of
  reforms that included
• price controls
• Regulations to have people stay in profession and
  train son to do same job
• Some side effects of these reforms included a
  flourishing black market and growing resentment
  of the government.

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Constantine

• Emperor from 306 337 C.E.
• Formally ended persecution of Christians.
• Patronized Christian church and made it official
  religion of Roman Empire.
• Transferred capital to Byzantium and renamed it
  Constantinople in 324.

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Rome under Constantine
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Arch of Constantine
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The Origins of Imperial China221 B.C.E. 200
C.E.
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Resources

• Two most important resources agricultural
  production and labor
• Agricultural production in China was intensive
  and taxed by the government.
• Most productive region was the Yangzi Valley
• Linked to centers of political power (Changan
  and Luoyang) by canals.

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Exploitation

• Qin and Han governments exploited labor power of
  rural China by demanding that peasant families
  supply men for labor and the military.
• Periodic census and updated records of land and
  households enabled officials to collect the
  proper amount of taxes, labor services, and
  military service.

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Expansion

• Throughout their rule, the Han Chinese people
  expanded their empire at the expense of other
  ethnic groups.
• Expanded into areas that were suitable for
  settled agriculture.
• Did not expand into areas that were suitable only
  for nomadic economies.

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Family

• Basic unity of society.
• Conceived of as an unbroken chain of generations
  including the ancestors as well as the current
  generations.
• Ancestors thought to take an active interest in
  the affairs of current generation.
• Ancestors routinely consulted, appeased, and
  venerated.

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Confucius

• Teachings were a fundamental source of values for
  family, social, and political organization.
• Said absolute authority in hands of father.
• People would properly fulfill roles if they were
  correctly instructed and imitated good role
  models.

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Gender Roles

• Upper Class Women cook, take care of household
  chores, respect parents-in-law, obey their
  husbands.
• Lower-Class Women not as constrained.
• Marriages were arranged
• New wife had to prove herself to her husband and
  mother-in-law through hard work, obedience,
  devotion, and by bearing sons.

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Spirits

• Believed in a number of nature spirits to whom
  they sacrificed.
• Unusual natural phenomena were regarded as ill
  omens.
• Landscape thought to channel the flow of good and
  evil power.
• Experts in feng shui were employed to identify
  the most fortunate location and orientation for
  buildings and graves.

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The First Chinese Empire

• After Warring States Period, the state of Qin
  united China.
• Factors contributing to reunification
• Ability and ruthlessness of Qin ruler
• Location in Wei valley with many independent
  farming households
• Qins experience in mobilizing manpower for
  irrigation and flood-control projects

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Qin Ruler

• Shi Huangdi
• First Emperor
• Ruler from 221 210 B.C.E.

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Qin Rule

• Strong centralized state based on Legalist model.
  
• Suppressed Confucianism
• Eliminated rival centers of authority
• Abolished slavery
• Constructed a rural economy of free
  land-owning/tax-paying farmers.
• Standardized weights and measures
• Built roads and a long wall for defense

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Great Wall of China
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Defeat of the Qin Dynasty

• Oppressive nature and exorbitant demands for
  taxes and labor caused popular rebellions.
• Dynasty overthrown after death of Shi Huangdi in
  210 B.C.E.

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Shi Huangdis Tomb
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Long Reign of the Han 206 B.C.E. 220 C.E.

• Liu Bang, a peasant who defeated all other
  contestants for control of China established the
  Han dynasty.
• Established a political system that drew on both
  Confucian philosophy and Legalist techniques.

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Expansion

• Han went through period of expansion under
• Emperor Wu (r. 140 87 B.C.E.)
• Western Han Period (202 B.C.E. 8 C.E.)
• Capital at Changan
• Eastern Han Period (23-22 C.E.)
• Capital at Luoyang

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Changan

• Walled city
• Easy to defend
• Access to good arable land
• Population 2 C.E. 246,000
• Other cities and towns imitated the urban
  planning of Changan.

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Changan
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Changan Elite

• Lived in elegant multistoried houses on broad
  streets
• Dressed in fine silks
• Connoisseurs of art and literature
• Many entertainment venues for these people

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Emperor

• Supreme in state and in society.
• Regarded as the Son of Heaven.
• Link between heaven and human world.
• Emperors were the source of law.
• Anything that went seriously wrong meant Emperor
  was losing Mandate of Heaven.
• Emperors lived secluded from general population.
• Were surrounded by wives, family, servants,
  courtiers, and officials.

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Central Government

• Run by two chief officials
• Included number of functionally specialized
  ministers
• Local officials
• Collected taxes
• Drafted men for labor and military service
• Settled local disputes
• Most people had no contact with central
  government

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Gentry

• Local officials supplied with class of moderately
  wealthy, educated local landowners called the
  gentry.
• Adopted Confucianism as their ideology
• Pursued careers in civil service.

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Technology

• Advanced from bronze to iron around 500 B.C.E.
• Ironworkers melted the iron and used molds to
  make cast-iron and steel tools and weapons.
• Created crossbow, cavalry, watermill, and horse
  collar, road system, courier system, and canals.

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Technology
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Growth and Trade

• 10 to 30 percent of population lived in towns
  much bigger than before.
• Most important export silk.
• Most important export route Silk Road.
• Government sought to control this route by
  sending armies and colonists to Central Asia.

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Map of the Silk Road
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Security Problems

• Nomadic tribes on northern border
• Confederacy of nomads called Xiongnu were a big
  problem.
• Fought them by strengthening cavalry and making
  compliant nomads into tributaries

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Decline of Han Empire

• Expense of defending northern borders
• Nobles and merchants built up landholdings at
  expense of small farmers.
• Military conscription broke down
• central government had to rely on mercenaries
• Factionalism at court
• Official corruption
• Peasant uprisings
• Nomadic attacks
• Dynasty falls in 220 C.E.

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Imperial Parallels
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Similarities

• Family structure and values
• Patterns of land tenure, taxation, and
  administration
• Empire building
• Consequences for the identity of the conquered
  areas.
• Common problems with defense
• Economy undermined by military expenses

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Differences

• China imperial model revived and territory of
  Han Empire reunified.
• Former Roman Empire never reconstituted.
• This was because of differences in
• Concept of individual
• Greater degree of mobility in Rome than in China
• Political ideology
• Religions of two empires