Transcript Ancient Rome

ANCIENT ROME
Rise of Rome
 2 mountain ranges
 Apennines mountains run down the middle of the
country but don’t divide the country like Greece.
Alps provide protection in the North.
 Outlet to the sea, but far enough inland for
protection
 Position in Mediterranean Sea made Rome an
important crossroad for trade
Roman Republic
 Republic, government where the leader is not
a monarch and certain citizens have the right
to vote
 Rome conquers all of Italy in 267 BCE. They
distrusted kings
 Areas remained free to run their local affairs,
but had to send troops to Rome
 Roman Senate- 300 people who served for
life
Battle with Carthage
 264 BCE the two powers go to war over
control of the Sea.
 Punic Wars
 Rome pushes Carthage off of Sicily
 Hannibal, greatest Carthage general invades
Rome from the North
 Rome sends an army to Carthage and destroys the
city while Hannibal is in Rome
 Result- Rome controls the Mediterranean Sea
Collapse of the Republic
 Civil War begins between generals with loyal
armies
 3 men arise:
 Crassius- control of Syria and was a wealthy
business man from Rome
 Pompey- controls Spain and was a general
 Julius Caesar- controls France and was general
 Julius Caesar wins the civil war and is made
dictator. He is assassinated by Brutus shortly after
Life after Julius Caesar
 New group of leaders
 Octavian- Caesar's heir and nephew. Becomes
Augustus, which means revered one.
 Antony- Caesar’s ally and assistant
 Lepidus- Commander of Caesar’s cavalry
 Augustus wins by killing Antony and Cleopatra in
Egypt.
Pax Romana Period
 Means “Roman Peace”
 Lasted for 100 years
 Lessoned the power of the Senate
 Greatest height of the empire
 Covered 3.5 million square miles
 Population of 50 million
 Latin was the language of the West and Greek was
the language of the East.
R
Other Important Emperors
 Diocletian
 Last emperor to persecute the Christians
 Constantine
 Became first Christian emperor
 Issued the Edict of Milan, proclaimed official
tolerance to Christianity. Christianity doesn’t call
for revolution
 Theodosius the Great
 Adopted Christianity as the official religion
Roman Culture
 Sculptors were realistic with unpleasant
features
 First to use concrete
 Built aqueducts to supply water to the
population
 Toga was the appropriate dress
 Color of toga showed manhood
 Livy wrote History of Rome
N
Slavery was a large part of economy. Large
slave revolt lead by Spartacus.
 Cities were very overcrowded, and fire was
very dangerous
 3 types of entertainment:
 Circus Maximus- horse and chariot races
 Dramatic performances
 Gladiator shows
Fall of Rome
 Plague, inflation and political upheavals led to
weakness.
 Constantine construction a new capital in the
east for defense
 Byzantium becomes the capital of the East and Rome
is the capital of the West. Later is called
Constantinople and today called Istanbul.
 410 the Visigoths sack Rome
 476 Romulus Augustus was defeated by a
Germanic army, which marks the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
 East continues to flourish