Roman Republic

2nd BCE - 44 BCE

“Rome is an idea”

Punic Wars

Julius Caesar“Crossing the Rubicon”

“You bring them blood and death and they’ll love you for it.”

Rome was a military state.

Generals in Politics

Coin of Julius CaesarUpon his acquisition of power in 46 B.C.E., Caesar allowed a number of extraordinary honors to be conferred upon him. The Senate declared him "father of his country" and had this stamped on his coinage. He was the first living Roman to be represented on a coin, a sign both of his power and of the break with tradition that he marked. (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

“Rome is the mob”

-Latifundia (Slavery)-Extremes of Wealth (Patricians and Plebes)-Civil Wars -Dictator

From republic to monarchy• Rome was always beset

with conflicts between classes

• Tensions worsened as the Roman empire expanded

• From c. 31 BCE, Rome was a “monarchy disguised as a republic”

• “The empire killed the republic.” Julius Caesar

“Dictator for life”

Octavian Caesara.k.a. Augustus “Princeps”

“Win the crowd and you’ll win your freedom”

“Bread and Circuses”

“The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate but the sand of the Coliseum.”

Gladiators, mosaicGladiators--literally men who carried a gladius (sword)--fought to the death in the arena and enraptured the Roman Empire.

Bread and Circuses

• Romans loved urban spectacles such as gladiator games.

• Rome also had a “welfare system,” distributing free wheat to the urban poor.

Augustus as imperatorAugustus, dressed in breastplate and uniform, emphasizes the imperial majesty of Rome and his role as imperator. The naked feet signify Augustus's divinity; the small cupid riding the dolphin alludes to Augustus's claim that the Julian line descended from Venus. The breastplate commemorates his victory over the Parthians, the triumph that ushered in the Augustan Peace. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)

Roman Empire44 BCE - 5th CE

Fasces – symbol of Imperial Rome

Golden Age of Rome

1st CE – 3rd CE

Pax Romana“Remember RomansTo rule the people under law, to establish,The way of Peace”

Virgil, 1st CE

“Robbery, butchery, rapine, they call ‘Empire’

They create a desert and call it peace.”

Tacitus, 1st CE

An empire of force and law:“Hard” versus “soft” power

Hard power:

• Rome had the strongest military in the world.

• Territories within the empire either submitted to Roman rule or were conquered.

Soft power:

• Roman citizenship was eventually extended to all free males within the empire allowing them protection under Roman law and other privileges

• Benefits of being a part of the integrated economic zone of the empire

TheRomanLegion

The tortoiseformation

Resisting the Romans….

• Some peoples resisted Roman rule especially in Persia, Gaul, and Britain

• Most famous revolt: Boudica and the Iceni people

• Tacitus: “You made a desert and you called it peace.”

Statue of Boudica, near Houses of Parliament, London

Roman society

• Patricians and plebians

• Patriarchy – Pater familias

– Fathers made all decisions pertaining to the family

Patrician woman

Slaves in the Roman Empire

• Through military conquest, Rome accumulated millions of slaves

• 1st century CE: 1 in 3 in city of Rome a slave

• Roman proverb: “Every slave we own is an enemy we harbor”

Crassus

Roman Town House

Houses even had central heating!

“The houses of thepatricians, spacious, airy,sanitary, equipped withbathrooms and waterclosets, heated in winterby hypocausts, which carried hot air throughchambers in the floors,were perhaps the mostcommodious and comfortablehouses built for a temperateclimate anywhere until the 20th century, a triumph of domestic architecture.” Lewis Mumford

“The main population of thecity that boasted of itsworld conquests lived in cramped, noisy, airless,foul-smelling, infectedquarters, paying extortionaterents to merciless landlords…”

Lewis Mumford

But how did the otherhalf live?

Other engineering wonders…

Aqueducts

Center of Roman social life…

The baths

Roman Empire, 146 CE

“All roads lead to Rome”

MARE NOSTRUM “Our Sea”

All roads led to Rome…

50,000 miles of main roads200,000 miles of lesser roads

http://web.arch.ox.ac.uk/archatlas/Trade/Trade.htm#THE%20WEST-EURASIA%20WORLD%20SYSTEM,%203600-1400%20BC

Diocletian's TetrarchyThe emperor Diocletian's attempt to reform the Roman Empire by dividing rule among four men is represented in this piece of sculpture, which in many features illustrates the transition from ancient to medieval art. Here the four tetrarchs demonstrate their solidarity by clasping one another on the shoulder. Nonetheless each man has his other hand on his sword--a gesture that proved prophetic when Diocletian's reign ended and another struggle for power began. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)

“We believed it once, make us believe it again”

Colossal statue of ConstantineThe head of Constantine is part of an enormous sculpture of him seated that was once originally placed in his basilica. The entire statue was over 30 feet high; the head alone weighs over 8 tons. Head, arms, hands, legs and feet were of marble. The drapery was probably of bronze plates over a masonry frame. The colossal head and neck are superbly modeled, but the eyes, which seem to be fixed on some spot above our heads (perhaps on eternity), seem overly large. Such a feature is common in the early Christian period. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)

Roman amphitheater, TunisiaAmphitheaters where gladiatorial combats took place were as common in Italy and the Roman Empire as skyscrapers are in a modern city. This amphitheater in the city of El Djem in modern Tunisia (the Roman province of Africa) was built of high-quality local stone. It was meant to have sixty-four arches but was never completed. The openings in the floor permitted animals to be released into the arena. This amphitheater held at least thirty thousand spectators. (Adina Tovy/Robert Harding Picture Library)

Roman Legacy (RGH #49)

“Rome’s genius was practical”

-Architecture and Engineering

-Administration, Bureaucracy

-Latin

-Law (international law, universal)

-Classical (Greco-Roman) Culture

-Romanization

- Common Citizenship

“You have made the name of Rome no longer that of a city but of an entire people.”

Greek Orator

- Christianity

Byzantine Empire

The Decline of the Roman Empire

“3rd Century Crisis”:

• Leadership and succession crises

• Over-extension of the empire

• External pressures

Consequences:

• “Devolution”

– Return to barter economy

– People left cities and moved to countryside

– Decentralization of power

– 476 CE: Western Roman Empire collapsed

Legacies of the Roman Empire

• Cities and roads of Europe

• Ideas about law

• “Romance” languages

• Christianity