Week I, Lecture 2 ROMAN EMPIRE: THE IMPERIAL REPUBLIC
Mediterranean
as geographical focus: Socrates
5th C BC Greek
“We
are huddled around the sea like frogs around a pond."
classical world centers on Mediterranean
=
medius (in middle) + terra (land)
Mare
nostrum = "our sea" "Roman lake" by 1 C. AD
versus medieval Germanic, northern focus; from 15th C, Atlantic orientation
POLITICS
753 BC mythical origins of city Rome: Romulus and Remus
MONARCHY: Romulus as first king,
LIVY 1st C AD
historian of Roman Republic;
narrates legendary
account rule of Tarquin Kings,
ending with rape
of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius 510 BC
* see
excerpt in Text, p. 171 *
REPUBLIC:
founder = Lucius Junius Brutus,
leads revolt against Tarquins
becomes
one of two elected consuls
(with
Collatinus, Lucretia's husband)
SPQR: Senatus populusque
Romanum = "Senate & People of Rome"
power
lies with Senatorial class ( landowning aristocracy)
PATRICIANS vs PLEBIANS
basic social/political tension within Roman society
EMPIRE: military expansion creates
Empire subject to
republican government of city of Rome
MILITARY CONQUEST *
see maps in Text pp. 172, 178 *
by 3rd C. BC Italy; by 2cd C. BC Punic
wars: Carthage, Sicily,
Sardinia,
Corsica, Dalamatia, Illyria, Macedonia, Spain
by 44 BC (death of Julius Caesar) Gaul,
Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt
by 98 AD: Germany to Danube,Britain, North
Africa, Black Sea
PAX ROMANA "Roman peace": from
first Emperor Octavian Augustus
31 BC - 14 AD:
takes new
title of "princeps" ("first citizen")
to
Marcus Aurelius 161-180)
stress on beneficial results
of military conquest; especially
Roman law: administration of justice by
uniform laws,
both civil law (private disputes) & criminal law
ROMAN
SOCIETY:
agrarian & military
basis of Republican Rome:
CITIZEN ARMY (legionnaires)
Roman legions -- citizens
only, unmarried, 20-25 yrs service
Cincinnatus: archetype of
citizen farmer, called to military duty
auxiliaries: non-citizens;
granted citizenship after 25 yrs :
Generals: drawn only from
Senatorial aristocracy
functions: conquest, occupation,
collect taxes, build roads, cities
Militarization
of Empire:
influence of army in government
grows under Empire
Slavery:
result of conquests;
brutalizing treatment: eg gladiators
cheap labor
leads to economic changes: slave plantations
SPARTACUS
= leader of slave revolt in southern Italy 73-71 BC
DECLINE OF ROME: "Second"
Empire after 3rd B.C
1) military pressures: in East,
Persian Sassanid Empire NW,
Germanic
tribes (Goths, Franks, Alemanni); 250 AD first raids
symbol
& reality: building of wall around Rome, 271 AD
2)
response = military revolution, Germanization of army, taxation
DIOCLETIAN
(284-305) reorganization of Empire in four parts:
TETRARCHY =
4 prefectures, each 12 dioceses, 100 provinces
2 Emperors (Augusti)
20 year terms, 2 Caesars as successors
4 capitals: none
at Rome (Milan, Trier, Sirmium, Nicodemia)
3)
social changes in Empire: increasing social stratification
earlier slave
vs free; after 3rd C, free men divided into
honestiores
(more respectable) vs humiliores (more humble)
MORALITY
& RELIGION: CULT OF FAMILY & OF STATE
1) Roman moralism: cultivation of virtue, gravitas (seriousness)
Republican
context: fulfillment of military/political duty
Pietas: loyalty,
devotion to ancestors, family, state (piety)
Virgil's pius Aeneas as personification of Roman pietas
Romanitas: embodying
all Roman virtues (domestic, civic, military)
quality
uniting all Roman citizens, despite local identities
2)
religion of home: Lares and Penates as household gods;
religion of city (Rome):
Vestal Virgins tend fire in Temple of Vesta
3) religion
of state:
military security
of state depends on public sacrifices
PONTIFEX
= "pontiff" or priest; elected, political office;
public
sacrifices to gods for military victory of Roman troops
4) religion of Empire: Roman Pantheon = polytheistic,
always expandable