History exam

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2_RomanRepublicRiseofChristianityEmpire-Copy.ppt
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  • Ancient Italy
  • Geographical advantages
  • Long peninsula
  • Central alps
  • Plains west of the Apennine Mountains

  • Mussolini
  • Mare Nostrum
  • Our Sea

Emergence of Rome

  • Constructed genesis story (imp. of myth, rituals?)
  • Vestal virgin raped by Mars?, Hercules?, bad guy?
  • Twin sons born: Romulus & Remus, raised by a wolf after being exposed to the elements
  • Romulus kills Remus in fight over where to build city, RomulusRome

  • The less romantic version
  • 1000 BCE several farming villages emerged around the Tiber River
  • Over the course of the next few centuries the early villages prospered and became Rome

  • Those early founders of Roman civilization had multiple contacts with Greece
  • Generalization:
  • Romans more practical
  • Greeks more theoretical

  • Civilization is slow to reach the Western Mediterranean but it does:
  • Three groups:
  • Phoenicians at Carthage, originally just a place to anchor ships but becomes the center of an empire
  • Puni is Roman for Carthaginians
  • Western Greeks challenged Carthaginians but were aided by Etruscans
  • Etruscan Civilization

Carthaginians

  • North African city-state of Carthage
  • PhoenicianGreek for purple
  • Carthage “New City” as opposed to the old city
  • Conduit for Eastern Mediterranean ideas

  • Latium, land west of Appinines; Early Roman society was composed of gentes and village councils
  • Paterfamilias—power of life or death over family
  • Male members of the village formed councils
  • Plebeians—families not organized into councils
  • Patricians—”descendants of fathers”
  • Senate—composed of elders

Etruscans were the first great civilization to emerge in Italy

  • Nearest neighbors
  • Migrated to Tuscany about 800 BCE
  • Introduced Rome to rest of Mediterranean
  • Drained marshes, built fortifications
  • Drained the swamps, built canal to Tiber River

  • EARLY GREECE: to 750BCE
  • Minoan; Mycenaean; Dark Ages; Signs of Recovery
  • ARCHAIC GREECE: 750BCE to 500 BCE
  • Polis!; Sparta & Athens; Solon, Cleisthenes,
  • CLASSICAL GREECE: 500 BCE to 338 BCE
  • Pericles; Socrates; Aristotle; Plato

  • King Servius Tullius introduced Hoplite tactics into Rome
  • This led to the abolition of the family system (gentes)
  • Society is divided into
  • Landowners—classes—ranked according to wealth
  • Infra classem—“under class”
  • Family remains powerful but public life based on property
  • Laid the foundation for Roman Republic
  • Patricians expelled the last king, King Tarquin

Roman Republic

  • 509 BCE Romans overthrew non-Roman rulers & instituted a Republic
  • Genesis story:
  • Lucretia, a Roman noblewoman, was raped by the son of an Etruscan king, she commits suicide
  • Her husband avenges her death by forcing Etruscans out of Rome

509 BCE Republic of Rome is Created

  • Republic comes from the Latin for public property; res publica
  • Consul—highest political office in Republican Rome; two people elected as co-emperors
  • Senate made up of elite
  • Assembly represented the masses

  • Patricians—aristocracy, the landowners, elite
  • Plebians—everyone else
  • Notice the growing gap between the wealthy Patricians and poorer Plebs

The conflict between these two orders

led to

Struggle of Orders

Which resulted in

  • Tribune—chosen by the masses to represent the masses
  • Law of Twelve Tables--first Roman law code
  • Inscribed on twelve bronze tablets
  • Announces basic rights of all free citizens

  • “In reality, Rome had solved neither the problem of conflict between rich and poor nor that of how to govern its enormous empire.”

  • Societies and Cultures in World History

  • Led by Patricians, Rome covers most of Italy
  • Citizenship extended to conquered neighbors
  • By 264, Rome has Italy

What eventually brings the Republic down?

What brings forth military leaders? War

How?

  • Rome is expanding; by 3rd century BCE occupies the entire peninsula
  • Needs to expand, so. . . Hm, Sicily is next door
  • Beginnings of imperialism
  • Sicily is part of the Carthaginian empire

  • Three Punic Wars
  • First Punic War: Rome wins, pushes Carthage out of Sicily
  • Carthage abandons Sicily and heads to Spain

  • Second Punic War: Rome and Carthage fight over the Iberian Peninsula
  • Rome, feeling superior, does not do well
  • Why?
  • Hannibal—crossed the Alps with 90,000 infantrymen, 12,000 cavalry, 18 war elephants
  • Does not attack Rome
  • Why?

How did Rome win?

  • Citizens continued to volunteer for service
  • Wealthy Romans agreed to pay increased taxes
  • Troops overseas did not complain about the lack of payment or lack of supplies

  • Third Punic War: Rome sends Carthage an ultimatum, move your city back ten miles from Mediterranean
  • Romans laid siege to the city
  • Methodically destroyed buildings
  • Carthaginians using precious metals used for equipment
  • Carthaginians harvested women’s hair for rope
  • Population dropped from 500,000 to 50,000

Significance of Punic Wars

The third war marked the beginning of imperialism—when Rome attacked Carthage Rome also attacked Carthage allies, eg, the Greeks, annexing land along the way

Prisoners of war become slaves and slavery becomes more prominent, alters the nature of Roman Society

Before the Punic wars, Rome was a society of small farmers

The spoils of war replace small farms with large plantations—Latifundia

While farmers are fighting, Patricians are taking their land

Landless people move to cities, become a mass of unemployed

One Source of Rome’s Instability

  • Patronage system?
  • Patrons, aka leaders of armies, rewarded their peasant soldiers with money and land
  • So peasants followed patrons instead Roman leaders

Wars are changing society

  • Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus
  • Senators bemoaned the demise of the Roman farmer-soldier but few helped
  • Tiberius instituted reform, limited latifundia size
  • Senators killed him and 300 of his supporters
  • Gaius attempted reform, senators killed him and 3000 of his followers
  • Significance
  • Indicator of serious problems in the Roman Empire
  • Foreshadows a change in political life, i.e. a resort to violence for problem-solving

Rise of Christianity

  • Jesus of Nazareth grew up in Palestine
  • Jesus has a profound personal experience
  • Jesus was turned over to the Roman Emperor

  • Crucified
  • His associates report seeing him
  • Christianity begins, another revolution
  • Teachings
  • Fatherhood of God, brotherhood of humanity, golden rule, forgiveness of one’s enemies, promise of eternal reward

  • Paul took those teachings and began to formulate a theology
  • Eternal life
  • Simple requirement of faith
  • Christianity spreads around the empire

Yellow is Roman Empire; 3rd Century

Red is Christian Presence

C. 375

C. 485

C. 620

  • Why does it spread so dramatically?
  • Simple answer: Offers hope and is spiritually satisfying
  • One, Christianity’s rivals failed
  • Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, Cult of Mithra
  • Two, does a better job of managing heresies and heretics
  • Three, Christian ethics are looking better and better

  • Four, 313, Constantine embraces Christianity
  • Five, persecution of Christians creates martyrs
  • Six, emergence of an institution
  • Bishop of Rome
  • Peter
  • Stable
  • Peter gets power to create doctrine