Transcript Humanities 2020 Chapter 4

Rome
Ancient Rome:
The Spirit of Empire
The Drama of Roman History
The Rise of Republican Rome:
City founded in 753 B.C. (legend)
Republic: government of representatives
chosen to act for the people at large
Romans conquered Italian peninsula
Struggle between patricians and plebeians
After Italy, the Mediterranean: Punic Wars
146 B.C. Romans conquered Corinth
and the entire Hellenistic world and
culture.
Julius Caesar(100-44 B.C.) conquered
Gaul (France) and had himself named
dictator for life in 46 B.C. Assassinated
in 44 B.C.
Octavian (63 B.C.-A.D. 14) defeated
Mark Antony in 31 B.C.
Imperial Rome
Romans rude farmers compared to
cultured Athenians
Culture began under Octavian (Caesar
Augustus: Pax Romana: “I found Rome a
city of bricks and left it a city of marble.”
Virgil: The Aeneid
Romans absorbed Greek culture and were
very practical.
The Art of an Empire
Statues and buildings: political
advertisements
Augustus: Augustus of Primaporta, Ara
Pacis
Trajan: Forum, Basilica Ulpia, Column of
Trajan
The Architecture of Rome
Buildings for practical purposes:
Basilicas, baths,, libraries
Innovations: concrete and the arch
Arch: flexible construction
Barrel vault, cross vault, dome
Concrete: quick and inexpensive allowed
for fast construction
Roman Buildings
Concentrated on interiors
Buildings for recreation: baths were
beauty salon, library, shopping mall
Basilica of Constantine
Baths of Caracalla
Colosseum
The Pantheon
Only building from Antiquity entirely
preserved.Dedicated to the 7 planetary
gods
Built by Hadrian in A.D. 120
Interior is perfect hemisphere
30 ft. opening:oculus for light
Roman Art and Daily Life
Family: basis of social identity.
Paterfamilias
Women: confined social roles, but could
own property, divorce their husbands, and
could inherit husband’s wealth.
Pompeii
Destroyed in 79 by eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius
First excavated in the 18th century: offers
glimpse of Roman household & decoration
atrium; wall paintings; mosaic
Busts to commemorate family members:
realistic renditions. Death masks
Roman Theater and Music
Entertainment: a birthright!
Theater: Comedies and tragedies
borrowed from Hellenistic empire.
Plautus: comic playwright: farces, coarse
humor.
Terence: Fully developed characters.
Greeks easier to mock.
Seneca: Tragedian. Exaggerated plots.
Bear fighting and gladiator fights were
preferred to plays.
Pantomime. Elements of farce,
improbable situations, exaggeration and
horseplay.
Often obscene spectacles
Theaters were large structures with
multi-storied stages. Up to 60,000
spectators
Masks and wigs: Men still played all the
roles.
Actors were often slaves; not respected
Roman Music and Dance
Imitated Greek music and instruments
Orators had musicians play for effect
Tuba, horn, organ (hydraulis), aulos,
cythara (twelve-stringed lyre)
Roman Poets
Catullus: lyric poet who studied Sappho;
wrote love poems
Ovid: poet. Metamorphoses: Source for
many other European writers, such as
Chaucer and Shakespeare
Vergil: epic poet. Aeneid celebrated
traditional Roman values; propaganda for
Roman imperialism
Story of Aeneas, Trojan warrior’s
adventures.
Unifying theme: destiny
Dido and Aeneas
Roman Satire
Superior over the Greeks
Satire: artistic form that wittily ridicules
human folly or vice.
Horace: fables
Juvenal: Criticism of Roman life.
Roman Philosophy
Lucretius: Good is moderate and lasting
pleasure. Epicureanism
Stoicism: duty and world order. Divine
reason controlled the universe. Happiness
was in social duty.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (stoic
Roman character)
Rome’s Division and Decline
Diocletian: Empire had grown unwieldy.
Divided into East and West.
In the third century, Constantine moved
the capital to the East, in Constantinople
or Istanbul, Turkey.