Notes - Rome

Rome

Monday, March 01, 2010

9:41 AM

• Rome was the first real empire
• We still feel the affects of the Roman Empire
• Trojan war forms the same mythological background for the Romans as I did for the Greeks
• Some people escaped
• Led by Aeneas and his father and his son
• Trojans go to Carthage in Africa
• Aeneas falls in love with the Carthaginian queen
• Gods tell Aeneas that his future isn't there it's in Italy
• At this time Sicily was mostly in Greek control
• Southern Italy was inhabited by Greeks
• There's a variety of people and geography
• When Aeneas landed he fought a war against the Latins who were the people that lived there
• He wins the war and takes over that part
• Alba Longa was the capital of the new Trojan settlement just south of Rome

• Romulus and Remus were raised by a She wolf and grew up
• Romulus and Remus go to war
• Romulus wins and founds the city Roma or Rome
• Rome was founded 753 B.C.E.
• At first is was really just a village
• It was formed around two different social classes
• The Patricians had the money and power and everyone else were plebeians
• The struggle of the orders is the struggle between the two social classes
• The Patricians give the plebeians one representative with a veto power
• Rome will be the first city to have 1 million people
• It will be the biggest empire in history
• They conquer the land north to them
• When they conquer something they place a governor and a battalion place a few new laws and a tax and then let the people be
• After the capture the rest of Italy, the go to southern France
• Then they go to Spain
• The Greek generals want to know who these Romans are and the set out to conquer them
• Pyrrhus leads and expedition to invade Rome
• He wins almost all of the battles but he loses so many people that he can't continue any more and they can't pull of the final victory
• Rome is able to fend off their first major attacker and gets put on the map
• In the age of expansion Rome starts to have power in the Mediterranean
• Their first major conflict is against the Carthaginians
• Sardinia asks for help when fighting over trade routes and Romans come to help their allies
• Three Punic Wars in 100 years
• Between 264 B.C.E and 146 B.C.E

Important events in Rome

1. Aeneas / Trojans defeat Latium
2. Alba Longa
3. Romulus and Remus / founding of Rome in 753 BCE

4. Expulsion of Etruscan Kings / Establishment of Roman Republic

Etruria

Tarquin the Proud

Tarquin the Sixth

Lucretia

Lucius Junius Brutus

Roman republic 509 BCE

5. Struggle of the orders / tribune of the plebs
6. Roman Expansion / Pyrrhus

7. First Punic War

Herodotus - history of the Persian War - he is known as the father of history - first time that we really have a systematic history of a certain event - he goes out and tracks down stories by himself - he goes to the places and talks to people

Thucydides - Greek lived after Herodotus - closer to the age of Aristotle - wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War - much more accurate in what h says

Livy - A roman Historian - writes the history of Rome from Romulus and Remus to his tome in Augustine's rule

Punic Wars

• In the first war Rome helps Sardinia and is able to control a bit more but the fundamental difference isn't resolved
• Fought over the trade routes between Sicily and Sardinia to control routes all over the Mediterranean
• Put Rome on the map

• The second Punic War
• Rome only controlled the southern half of Italy Sardinia and Corsica
• Carthage controlled most of North Africa and Part of Spain
• Hannibal brings war elephants
• They trampled roman forces and decimated them
• Hannibal gets within 50 miles of Rome
• Doesn't have the man power or the supplies to siege Rome
• Eventually loses because he had to retreat to

• Last Battle of the Second Punic War
• Scipio and Hannibal on opposite sides
• Battle of Zama
• Hannibal tries to use his elephants but Romans care them with noise
• Scipio charges with infantry
• Calvary clashes
• Most of the Calvary is drawn off
• Almost in a stalemate
• Then Scorpio brings the little Calvary he has left back
• Defeats Carthaginians

Find a resource on the ancient world or history - write an explanation of what it is and why its useful

What were roman attitudes to women and children when the twelve tables were written

AD Rome

• Villa culture
• Villa - almost like a country home
• Decorated with art and spoils of war
• Senators worked in city then left for the weekend
• Many villas near Naples
• Helped them forget about the wars and conquests and politics
• Only patricians had villas
• Suburb was a tight compacted neighborhood with dozens of people within feet of you constantly
• Gracchus brothers - Tiberius and Gaius
• Ran on a platform of land rights for plebeians
• Said it was unfair that the plebeians were fighting for Rome's expansion and they don't get any awards
• Both were assassinated because it caused friction between people in the Senate
• Assassinated in two separate events
• First ones assassinated

• Marullus and sullies
• Had fought for Rome and had had great victories that conquered other place
• Begin to butt heads
• Marullus is involve in the social war
• Patricians and plebeians fight
• Sent to put down these uprising all over Italy
• See a buildup of troops loyal to specific generals

• The first civil war
• Between Sulla's army and Marullus army
• Sulla threatens to march o Rome
• Marullus said he would defend Rome
• Sulla wins and Marullus has to flee Rome

• Julius Caesar
• Caesar born in 100 BC
• Right at the turn of the century
• Live until 44 BC
• Complete revolution in Roman politics
• Form family call the Julia
• Glorious past but not much has happened recently
• Julius wants to relive that glory and he runs for the Senate
• Highest position is the councils
• Like a parliamentary system with a prime minister
• After their term was over they were sent out to be a governor somewhere in the empire
• Traditionally roman patricians got their council by being buddy buddy with other patricians
• Instead Caesar becomes popular among the people of Rome
• Two political parties are formed
• One is the Optimizes - patricians and patricians
• Populates - caser - gain their power from the common people
• He wins the Council
• Senators don't like this young guy getting power by the people
• They try to make his life miserable
• Match him with another guy that is the complete opposite of him
• After his term they send to Gaul
• Then it was the middle of nowhere
• Was just the bottom of modern day France
• Caesar goes and makes a name for himself
• He sets out to conquer all of Gaul
• He conquers all of France and then crosses the English channel and conquers some of Britain
• Senators get nervous because people love the stories that Caesar's sends back
• When its time for him to get back
• Senators say that Cesar's battles are illegal because they didn't have the authority
• Say he needs to stand trial
• Cesar decides to start a civil war instead and
• The senators send Pompey to fight Cesar
• Cesar had the utmost respect for them
• Pompey had made has name fighting the pirates in the Mediterranean
• Pompey v. Caesar
• Caesar's troops are known for being extremely fast and they fight all over the medditerean during the war\r\
• The final battle occurs in Pharsalus
• Decisive battle of the civil war between Caesar and Pompeii
• Mark Antony has a huge role in winning the battle
• Most of the leaders on pompeys side either are killed or they commit suicide
• Caesar mad that people in Egypt decapitate Pompey when he flees
• Egypt and Rome become allies
• When he comes home to Rome he is hailed a hero
• Soon senators get scared and they decide to kill him
• Brutus is the central one

Octavian and Augustine

• Octavian - Caesar's nephew and named his heir
• Swears revenge on the people that killed Caesar's
• Octavian and Antony - form an alliance (triumvirate) with Lepidus
• Lep. Is the money guy Antony and Octavian have the power
• Split the empire in three
• Octavian west - Antony central - Lep. - east
• Soon lep. Is knocked out
• Antony has an alliance with Cleopatra
• They go to war with Octavian
• Giant sea battle
• Octavia defeats Antony
• Antony kills himself and so does Cleopatra
• Octavian becomes the sole power in the Roman empire
• Honored by the senate that declares him Augustus
• Becomes the first emperor in Rome
• Republic is effectively over
• Democracy was replaced by a permanent dictatorship
• Augustus becomes the first of the Julio - Claudia Dynasty
• Augustus
• Tiberius
• Caligula
• Claudia
• Nero

• Augustus' heirs weren't as competent
• Following emperors had some issues
• Suetonius - historian that writes about the Emperors
• Augustus - the pricipate
• Doesn't think of himself as better that the senators but he is first
• Augustus' ancestors were supposedly gods
• Used political propaganda - famous statue

• Tiberius is not heir of Augustus
• He was Augustus' step son
• Good at administrative but he was cruel man

• Caligula - NUTCASE
• Had relations with his sister
• Tried to have his horse named a senator
• Had people killed before him for fun

• Claudius ok
• Deformed and kept to himself
• Ok because he let the professionals handle everything

• Nero - NUTCASE
• Burned down half of Rome to build a park
• Forced to kill himself

• He ends the Julio - Claudian emperors

• Vespasian
• Old military general
• Didn't take no BS
• Wanted strict military order
• Thought most of the others were nutcases
• Mostly the empowers were made into gods
• That’s why the Christians got into trouble because they refused to pay the god tax

• Titus
• Son of Vespasian
• Coliseum is finished under him
• Titus has his men sack Jerusalem and destroy the temple
• Part of why there's controversy in Jerusalem today

• Domitian
• Blood relative
• Builds public things like baths and such
• Assassinated

• Good Emperors
• Nerve 96-98
• Trajan 98-117
• Hadrian 117 - 138
• Antonius Pius 138 - 161
• Marcus Aurelius

Nerva

• Starts the practice of Rome of choosing who his heir is instead of just having the closest blood relative

Trajan

• Military genius
• Dacain campaign
• Trojans column tells war stories
• Expands empire

Hadrian

• Unlike any other emperor
• A renaissance man
• Philosopher, architect, world traveler
• Not from Italy, from Spain