Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - Women in Ancient Rome & Roman Egypt

Ancient Roman & Egyptian
Artifacts
07/07/05
Historical Overview of Roman
History
Early Rome: Archaeological
Evidence
 Population grew with the transition from the
Bronze to the Iron Age in the 10th c. BCE.
 Large nucleated settlements developed, including
Rome, 20 km inland.
 Traces of iron-age huts (thatched) and cemeteries
dating from the 9th-7th c. have been found in
several places in Rome.
 Surviving literary accounts of the beginnings of
Rome are based entirely on legend - show us how
the Romans liked to see themselves.
Early Latium
Early Rome
Roman Hut Urn
Palatine Hut Foundations
Palatine Hut Foundations
Romulus’ City (8th-6th c.BCE)
 Later Roman tradition credited Romulus with
founding Rome in 753 BCE, its first king.
 During the 8th-6th c. 3 distinct groupings
appeared in central Italy: in Latium, Etruria, and
Samnium - the peoples in each spoke different
languages (Latin, Etruscan, Oscan). They had
similar social and political systems, but rather
different religious and funerary practices.
 Individual settlements were separate, each with a
‘king’ or small ruling elite of warrior-landowners.
The Time of the Kings
 Legend preserves seven king names, but there
were surely more.
 In the course of the 6th c. Rome grew into a major
power.
 The city now contained a large temple of Jupiter,
land drains and culverts to increase habitable land,
large stone aristocratic houses.
 Romans built a defensive wall circuit enclosing
426 hectares, and held sway over much of Latium
(up to 100 km to the south).
The Roman Republic: The
Capital of Italy
 Towards the end of the 6th c. Rome abolished the
monarchy and established a new political order the Republic.
 King was replaced by 2 consuls and a number of
lesser magistrates elected yearly by the male
citizen body.
 The consuls chose an advisory body, the Senate
(later you had to have well-defined qualifications
to serve; landed wealth, military & political
service)
The Patricians
 Consuls led the army in war and had executive
legislative powers.
 Army service was a duty of citizenship, but in
reality limited to those who could afford their own
equipment.
 A small number of aristocratic families, the
patricians, gained a monopoly on the consulship
and most other civic and priestly offices from the
middle of the 5th century on.
The Plebeians
 Late 5th c.: the lower classes formed their own
alternative state, electing their own officers and
forming their own cult.
 For 200 years this plebeian organization fought to
improve the lot of its members.
 Principal demands: debt relief, fairer distribution
of economic resources (like land).
 4th c. the plebeians won equal rights - a pleb could
now run for consul. In 342, a rule was established
mandating that one of the two consuls be plebeian.