APWH chapter 5.notebookmiamikillianhs.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2015/8/19... · Web view2015/08/19 · The army was Rome's most important institution. Only citizens served as soldiers,

APWH chapter 5.notebook September 22, 2014

Chapter 11 Rome• Rome, according to myth, was founded in 753 BC by Romulus (son of

Mars, the god of war) on seven hills along the Tiber River in central Italy. Rome was a Latinspeaking town of farmers and warriors. It was greatly influenced by Greek culture (there were many Greek colonies in southern Italy). Examples: the idea of an alphabet, art and architecture, form of government, religion (Roman gods and myths were conflated with Greek ones).

• P Rome became a Republic early in its history, in 509 BC after its last king was deposed. The Republic was like a Greek oligarchic polis. It was ruled by an elected assembly, the Senate, whose members came from the wealthier families. Every year the Senate picked two men, the consuls, to govern and serve as commanders in chief.

• The army was Rome's most important institution. Only citizens served as soldiers, and the army was a career. Soldiers were rewarded with land in conquered areas upon retirement, which became a motive for conquest and also a guarantee of loyalty in conquered areas. Rome was always expanding its domains militarily. Its policy was eventually to grant citizenship to all conquered peoples, and respect their local self-government and culture. This policy of assimilation ensured peace and loyalty.

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• S Roman hierarchy: 1) patricians: wealthy landowning class 2) plebeians: free citizens, ordinary farmers and workers 3) slaves: did agricultural, mining, intellectual, and domestic work, and worked as

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gladiators. Plebeians long struggled for political representation in the Republic.

• Rome's great rival during the Republic was Carthage, a North African city founded by Phoenicians which controlled parts of Spain and Italy.

They fought three Punic Wars. During the Second Punic War the Carthaginian army under Hannibal invaded Italy with an army of elephants, but Rome responded by invading Africa, and so the Carthaginians withdrew. During the Third Punic War Rome destroyed Carthage and seized North Africa and Spain.

• Rome later fought wars against the Hellenistic kingdoms in the East, and it conquered Macedonia, the Middle East, and the Greek poleis. So much military expansion made generals very wealthy and powerful, as they were in control of conquered provinces. Powerful, ambitious generals eventually threatened the institutions of the Republic.

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• Julius Caesar (100 BC 44 BC) Famous general, from a patrician family. He conquered Gaul in order to gain fame and wealth. The Senate made him a dictator after marching to Rome with his troops. In alliance with Egypt, which was then ruled by Cleopatra VII (she became his lover and bore him a son), he defeated his rivals in a civil war.

• Some senators wanted to restore the Republic and their old freedoms. They opposed Caesar's dictatorship and feared he would establish a monarchy with Cleopatra. Caesar was popular among common people, however because of his military victories and generosity, since he sponsored games and distributed free food (bread and circuses).

• The conspirators stabbed Caesar to death in the Senate. They thought they would be seen as heroes, but the Roman people opposed the assassination, and the assassins had to flee the city. Civil war broke out between the conspirators and Caesar's heir and followers. His heir was his teenaged grandnephew, Octavian Caesar. Mark Antony had been Caesar's closest associate during his wars. Octavian and Antony together defeated the conspirators and became the masters of Rome. Antony married Octavian's sister.

• Octavian was in charge of the West, and Antony was in charge of the East. There, Antony and Cleopatra became lovers, and they dreamt of creating an empire joining Rome and the East.

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• 31 BC Octavian's forces defeated Antony and Cleopatra's forces at the

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Battle of Actium. Octavian followed them and invaded Egypt. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

• 27 BC Octavian became the first Roman Emperor with the title Augustus Caesar. The Republic was dead. Every future Roman emperor would use caesar as his title.

Roman Empire 27 BC AD 476• Military support was key to being emperor, because there was no

automatic dynastic succession. The army remained the most important institution, and it controlled most of the provinces.

• Caesar was not an absolute monarch. Rome retained legal codes which limited his power.

• Citizenship with all its rights was available to all residents of the Empire.

• Roman engineering also held the Empire together. The empire was connected by roads and bridges. Cities had aqueducts, baths, theaters, temples, and stadiums. Concrete was used extensively in construction.

• The Mediterranean continued being an avenue for extensive trade, as it had been since Phoenician and Greek times. Roman merchants in the Middle East had trade links with the Indian Ocean and the Silk Road.

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Christianity

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• Christianity arose among Jews, the only monotheistic people in the Roman Empire. Many Jews did not accept Roman rule, and they expected a Messiah, "the anointed one," to come and reestablish their kingdom in the promised land of Israel.

• Jesus was born a Jew in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth by a carpenter. At age 30 he began to preach about spiritual transformation through repentance and love. He did not discuss politics, but he was very critical of the Jewish authorities. They had him arrested, and the Romans crucified him in Jerusalem. His followers believed he resurrected from the dead after 3 days. They believed he was the Messiah (Christ in Greek), the Son of God, and the product of a virgin birth.

• The 12 original Apostles spread the new faith in Jesus and the resurrection, mostly within the Roman Empire. This new faith was meant to be universal, unlike Judaism. The most important of the Apostles was Paul (not one of the original 12), a Hellenized Jew most responsible for spreading and explaining the new faith. His letters to early Christian communities are the oldest books in the New Testament. The Christian hope is that everyone will rise from the dead, like Jesus, and live forever, body and soul, in the kingdom of God (no violence, no death, no suffering)

• The only sources for the life of Jesus are the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). There are no texts by Jesus. Jesus lived in the first

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30 years of the 1st century, but the Gospels were written toward the end of the century. All the books of the New Testament were written in Greek.

• Christianity had no legal status in the Roman Empire. Christians could only worship in private, in each other's homes or in cemeteries. Occasionally, the Roman authorities persecuted Christians. Why was Christianity appealing? 1) promise of eternal life 2) a sense of community 3) equality regardless of gender, wealth, slavery, class, or national origin 4) martyrs. The example of those who died heroically for their faith attracted new followers.

• Christians were persecuted because they refused to worship the emperor, which was considered a civic duty.

• Christian worship included prayer, singing, reading the Bible, and reenacting Christ's last supper, when the bread and wine were transformed in to his Body and Blood. One became a Christian through baptism. They also prayed at the graves of the martyrs, so that these saints would pray to God on their behalf. (Saints are people in heaven)

• A hierarchy developed in the early Church (the community of the faithful). Some men led the worship, known as priests. Each city had a leader for all Christians there, known as a bishop. Bishops were considered successors to the apostles. The Bishop of Rome was the successor to Peter, who had been the leader of the apostles. The

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Bishops of Rome (the pope) would claim authority over all other bishops.

• Constantine (emperor from 306337) made Christianity legal in 313 and later became Christian himself. Churches began to be built, and the Christian Church became a branch of the Roman Empire. He also moved the capital of the empire to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople.

• As the empire declined in wealth and power it was split in half (East and West) in 395. Christianity by this point was the empire's only official religion.

• West: in decline by the 4th and 5th centuries, due to inflation, a decline in trade and tax revenue, the inability to pay soldiers, and the threat of German invaders. There were frequent civil wars as there was no agreed method for selecting emperors. Rome was sacked in 410, and the Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic invaders in 476. Roman civilization was never revived in the West.

• East: avoided this social, economic, and political decline. It had bigger cities and more trade and prosperity. It would survive the collapse of the West, and continue for another thousand years. It was Greek-speaking and would be known as the Byzantine Empire.

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APWH chapter 5.notebookmiamikillianhs.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2015/8/19... · Web view2015/08/19 · The army was Rome's most important institution. Only citizens served as soldiers,