Transcript The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire
-Key Concepts-
I. The First Emperor: Augustus
Caesar
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His Dilemma
The Solution
His Rise to Power
The Second
Triumvirate:
Octavian, Lepidus,
Marc Antony
• Victory over
Antony and
Cleopatra at the
Battle of Actium
(31 BCE)
II. The Creation of the Principate
• “Restoration”
of the Republic
• “Augustus”
• “Princeps”
• “Imperator”
• Maintaining
the façade of
the Republic
II. The Creation of the Principate
(cont)
• “Father of the
Country” (2
BCE)
• Supported by
the Roman
Legions
-- “Praetorians”
• Some
partnership
with the Senate
II. Creation of the Principate
(cont)
• Caesar and
provincial
administration
• The cult of
Roma et
Augustus
• “Pontifex
Maximus”
• The role of his
wife, Livia
II. Creation of the Principate
(cont)
• Augustus’
campaigns on the
frontier
--Varus and the
Battle of
Teutoburger
Forest (9 AD)
• Begins practice of
adopting
successor as a son:
Tiberius (step-son)
III. General Characteristics of
Later Roman Emperors
• Most emperors
were competent,
not corrupt
--Nero, Caligula
and Domitian
• Reduction of the
power of the
Senate
• The “spectacle” of
Emperor Caligula
III. General Characteristics of
Later Roman Emperors (cont)
• The “spectacle” of
Nero
• Emperor did not
have to be Italian
• Vespasian and the
Flavians
• Pattern of
defensive military
strategy
• Keeping the peace
within the Empire
III. General Characteristics of
Later Roman Emperors (cont)
• Taxation within
the Empire
• The “Five Good
Emperors”: The
Antonines
--Marcus Aurelius
--Commodus
--Severus
• The Roman
Legions as a
garrison force
IV. The Pax Romana: Signs of
Unity
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Peace
Trade Network
Roman Roads
Imperial
Bureaucracy
Emperor Worship
Luke 1 Census
Spread of GrecoRoman Culture
Roman citizenship
“Acta”: Newsheets
V. Life in the City of Rome
• Peace outside;
poverty and
crowding
inside
• Living in
insulae
• Public baths
• Sanitation
problems
V. Life in the City of Rome (cont)
• Engineering
problems for
Insulae
• Problems of Fire
and Crime
• “Bread and
Circuses”
--Free grain
--chariot races
--Circus Maximus
V. Life in the City of Rome (cont)
• Gladiatorial
contests
-- “Ave, Caesar,
morituri te
salutant”
--editor
--retiarius
--secutor
• Other ludi
• Arches built
throughout the
city
V. Life in the City of Rome (cont)
• Treatment of
Women and Slaves
• Roman realism
versus Greek
idealism
• Romans
emphasized the
interior of their
buildings while
the Greeks
emphasized the
exterior of their
buildings
VI. Communicating the
Emperor’s Image
• Coins as political
advertising
• Buildings
communicate the
majesty and deity
of the Emperor
• Idealized
sculptures of
Augustus Caesar
• Decline in
imperial rivals
VII. Celebrated Ideals in
Imperial Literature
• Golden Age of
Latin Literature:
100 BCE-14 AD
• Virgil’s Aeneid—
testimony to
Roman greatness
• Livy’s History of
Rome
• Elegant,
humanistic and
worldly in both
content and style
VIII. Roman Medicine
• The major issue of
fertility
• Roman
contraceptives
• Similar to
Hellenistic
therapies
• Not much respect
for doctors
• Most famous court
physician: Galen
(129-199 AD)
IX. Life as a Roman Legionnaire
• Organization and
Terms of Service
--Centurion
• Payment and the
origins of the
word “salary”
--900 sesterces pay
per year
• Additional units
of non-citizens
• The fitness of
Roman soldiers
IX. Life as a Roman Legionnaire
(cont)
• The importance of
the Roman roads
• Warfare with
Germanic
tribesmen
• Germanic warriors
as auxiliary forces
• Marcus Aurelius
and the settlement
of Germanic
people in Roman
territory
--The Meditations