Transcript Rule of Augustus - Tenafly Public Schools

Rule of Augustus
Octavian changed name to Augustus
 1st Roman Emperor

– Didn’t like title and kept assem., gov. officials, and
Senate
– Strengthened Authority
 Control of army: soldiers swore allegiance to him
 Took charge of daily business & hired everyone
Made natural frontiers as boundaries
 Conquered Greece & Egypt
 Governing Existing Empire

– Long terms & salaries, created census for taxes
– Strict laws, 1st police & library

Achievements
– Peace to Rome
– Patriotism & pride
– Roman citizenship
– Reorganized Gov.

Pax Romana (200 years of peace)
– Trade
 No tariffs or taxes on imported goods
 Shipping became big
 Manufacturing center
– Law
 Judges helped by Juris Prudentes (special lawyers &
judges)
 Created laws fair to all
 All were innocent to proven guilty
 Law was standardized (same in all parts)
Daily Life
•Most lived in the city
•Little housing, expensive, pollution, crime


– Apartments 6 or 7 stories
Rich lived in Domus
Vestibulum
Atrium
And
And
Fauces
Ala
Tablinum
Poor – islands
Peristylium

Family
– Father was the head
– Up until 12, boys & girls went to school
– After 12:
 Rich boys: formal education
– 15 went to rhetoric school
 Rich girls: private tutor
– Better off than men
 Colosseum
and Gladiators
– Colosseum aka: Flavian Amphitheatre
 Built under Vespasian & finished under Titus
 Holds up to 50,000 people

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Most gladiators were slaves, prisoners of war, criminals, or the
poor.
Could fight with others, groups, and animals.
Trained in schools
– Well fed but tremendous discipline

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
Fights started in the afternoons
Could appeal to the emperor to stay alive
Beast Shows
– Animals vs. animals, man vs. animal
 Women & children for political and religious views
Circus Maximus
Place for chariot races
 Held 60,000 to 200,000
 Ran 7 laps
 Only racing companies drove chariots

Roman Theater

Preferred comedies
– Famous playwrights: Plautus and Terence
– Similar to modern comic operas
– Given in morning and lasted 2 hours
– Men played women’s parts
Built at foot of hill
 People talked & shouted throughout

Marcellus
Odeum at Pompeii
Fall of the Roman Empire
By 476 A.D. there was no empire left
 Reasons For the Fall of Rome

– Political
 Absence of a written rule for inheriting the throne
– Economic
 Higher taxes in order to pay
the army
 Inflation: increasing prices
since $ began to lose value
– Foreign Enemies
 Rome’s frontiers open to
attack
 German hunters and Central
Europe herders began
invading Greece & Gaul
 Diocletian
284 AD – 305 AD
– Fortified frontiers to stop invasions
– Established Rule by Divine Right
 Emperor’s power & right to rule came from
Gods
– Divided power of empire into 2 parts
 Western & Eastern

Constantine I - 305 to 337 AD
– Had to follow trade of father
 Caused wealthy to move to country
– Moved capitol east to Constantinople (Turkey)
 Huns
End of an Empire
(Mongolia) were
threatening the Germans
– Germans crossed Danube
River
 Defeated Romans in Battle of
Adrianople w/ use of iron
stirrups
 406
AD – Germans
crossed over Rhine River
into Gaul
 410 AD – Alaric, Germanic
chief, sacked Rome