6.1 Roman World Takes Shape

•Geography.

•509 BC Roman Republic begins; Etruscan king driven out

Roman Government

•Roman government. Senate was 300 patricians who served for life.

•2 consuls elected by senators to supervise government and command the armies. Consuls served one term

•A dictator could be chosen for 6 months.

Government

•Plebians were the bulk of the population, the poor, farmers, merchants, artisans, traders

•Advance for plebes was the 450 BC move of the 12 tablets to be setup in the Forum.

•Eventually plebes got to elect their own tribunes, who could veto

•Our govt 2000 years later would borrow senators, veto, checks and balances

Soldiers

•Roman army was victorious in taking the Italian peninsula;

• Citizen-soldiers, tough discipline, taught military skills and loyalty and courage

•The conquered had to pay taxes, supply soldiers, and acknowledge Roman authority.

Rivalry with Carthage

•Punic Wars 264-146 BC. 1st Rome won and got Sicily…

•23 years later Hannibal sought revenge.

•He embarked on one of the most daring campaigns in history

•Taking elephants across the Alps, caught Romans off guard.

•Counterattack of Carthage led Hannibal to return

•He was defeated at the Battle of Zama.

End of Carthage

•Carthage gave up all its lands in this 2nd Punic War, except African lands.

•Cato, wealthy Senator, ends every speech with “Carthage must be destroyed.”

•Rome attacked and completely destroyed the 700 year old city.

•Survivors were sold into slavery, salt was poured on the land.

•Mare Nostrum

6.2 From Republic to Empire

•Wealthy class emerged in Rome.

•Huge estates called latifundia (plantations) developed, worked by slaves.

•This hurt farmers, along with imported grain.

•Corruption increased, greed replacing the virtues of simplicity, hard work, devotion to duty

•Gracchi (Tiberias, elected tribune and Gaius) attempted reforms

•Killed in street violence

Civil War

•Century of civil war followed….battles between Senate and ambitious political leaders

•Armies became professional

•Pompey and Caesar two powers in Rome

•Caesar takes his army to Gaul for 9 years

•Pompey gets the Senate to tell Caesar to disband his army and return

•Caesar crosses the Rubicon

•Caesar crushes Pompey. Veni vidi vici

Caesar’s reforms

•Public works to employ the jobless

•Gave land to the poor

•Granted Roman citizenship to more people

•Intro of Julian calendar

•44BC Ides of March

•Mark Anthony and Octavian hunt down the killers, but then separate.

•31 BC Octavian defeates mark Anthony

Pax Romana

•Octavian called Augustus (Exalted One) by Senate

•Under Augustus the 500 year old republic ended.

•The age of the Roman Empire began.

•Augustus helped Rome recover from civil war

•Created efficient civil service.

•He ordered census to make tax system more fair.

•Set up postal service, issued new coins; put jobless to work building roads

•Who would rule when the emperor died? Caligula, Nero, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius

•Pax Romana, 27 BC to 180 AD Aug to Aurelius

The Roman Achievement, 6.3

•Building, government, the rule of law, and Cicero as an orator, philosopher, politician

•Virgil, Aeneid

•Horace and Juvenal make fun of Rome

•Livy, historian, sought to arouse patriotism

•Tacitus, historian, wrote bitterly that Augustus and others destroyed R. liberty

•Galen, collected medical info in an encyclopedia; insisted on experimentation..

•Pliny the Elder, compiled volumes on zoology, botany, geography

Christianity

•Jesus, a Jew

•Christianity a sect within Judaism

•Paul, a Jew, began a missionary effort that turned Christianity into a world religion.

•313 A.D. Edict of Milan

•392 A.D. The official religion of the Roman Empire

The Causes of the Rise of Christianity

EDWARD GIBBON The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1.The inflexible zeal of the Christians. They really believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and they wanted other people to know this.

2.The doctrine of a future life. Christians taught that Jesus’ death on the cross provided a way for forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven. This attracted people.

3.The miraculous power attributed to the early church. It was not only Jesus who worked miracles, but also Peter and Paul and other Christians in the first century.

4.The pure and austere morals of the Christians. The Christians in the First Century stood out. While Roman society was degenerating into “wine, women and song,” Christians were seeking purity. They did not indulge in the decadence and debauchery that was increasingly spreading in the Roman Empire

5.The union and discipleship of the Christians. The unity of Christians attracted people. The early Christians displayed love and loyalty for each other. Their discipleship, their devotion to following the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Paul in the New Testament unified them and gave them powers in numbers.

Jews and the Roman Empire

•63 BC the Romans conquered Palestine

•Religious ferment to stick to strict obedience to Jewish laws and traditions

•Zealots- revolt against Rome and re-establish an independent Israel.

•66-70 A.D. Temple destroyed

•135 A.D. Jews prohibited from entering Jerusalem

Sermon on the Mount

•5:1 Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 5:2 He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

–5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

–5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

–5:5 Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

•The barbarian invasion

–In 410 Alaric, Visigoth general, overran Italy

–434 Attilla the Hun invaded Europe sending Germanic peoples into the Roman Empire

•Decline in the training and discipline of Roman armies

•Hiring of mercenary soldiers

•The mercenaries felt no loyalty to Rome

Political Causes

•The government became more oppressive and authoritarian

•Whereas Romans had taken pride in their republic, the government of the Empire had become too large, greedy and out of touch with the people.

•The government lost their support

•Dividing the Empire into two at a time when it was under attack weakened it.

Economic Causes

•Taxes became more oppressive to support the huge government bureaucracy and the army

•Farmers had to abandon their land as wealth dwindled

•The middle classes sank into poverty

•Reliance on slave labor – no innovation

•War and epidemic lowered the population

Social Causes

•Decline in values

–Patriotism

–Discipline

–Devotion to duty

•Upper class devoted to luxury and self-interest

•“Bread and circuses” undermined the self-reliance of the masses

End of Rome…

•476 AD is given as the date of the fall

•Odoacer, a German leader, ousted the emperor in Rome.

•So Rome started in 509 BC by pushing out an Etruscan king, and then finally being pushed out themselves in 476 AD.

Going the Way of Rome?