Transcript ROME - Denton ISD

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
509 B.C.E- 29 B.C.E.
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2 Consuls
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Rulers of Rome
Served one year term
Senate
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Representative body composed of patricians
 Patricians- Noble families
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Tribal Assembly
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Representative body for plebeians
 Plebeians- lower class
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Provided political and social rights for the
plebeians
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Extensive Road system
Aqueducts
Forum
Coliseum
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Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
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Gave the poor grain and small plots of free land
Gauis Marius
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Recruited an army from the poor and homeless
Gave them land for their service
Professional standing army
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Class tensions
Gracchus brothers reforms did not work
Civil War Breaks out 88-82 B.C.E
New generals emerge
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Sulla vs. Marius
Sulla named Dictator
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Tries to Reform Rome
 Reforms ultimately fail
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Sulla relinquishes his power back to the Senate
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Group of three rulers
60 BC – Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey
dominate Rome for 10 years
Breakdown of Triumvirate:
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Julius Caesar governing Gaul
Crassus sent to Persia
Pompei stays in Rome
Caesar marches on Rome 49 B.C.E.
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Reforms as an Absolute Ruler
Death- Ides of March 44 B.C.E.
Et tu, Brute?
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Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus
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ended in violence
Octavian defeated Antony & Cleopatra in
battle of Actium 31 BC
Begins the Roman Empire
27 BCE - 476 CE
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Octavian claimed to restore Republic
Augustus – exalted one
 Imperator – supreme military commander
(emperor)
 Had right to select his own heir
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Very simple and frugal
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207 years of peace
Roman Empire spanned more than 3 million
square miles
Population: 60 - 80 million
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Ecomony
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90% engaged in agriculture
Luxury items obtained through trade
Denarius – common coinage
Roman Roads
Government
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Soldiers of Roman Army left in the provinces to
govern
 Often intermarried with locals
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Locals allowed to keep customs and religious
practices
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Roman empire was an empire with long,
exposed landward frontiers.
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African Coastal provinces flanked by deserts
 False sense of security
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Europe never satisfactorily defended
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Even after 100 years of conquest/expansion
 Most crucial mistake Caesar made was not expanding
beyond the Rhine river and accepting those cultures
 Would be bitter about not being included in the Roman
Empire
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Sprawling Size
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Civil Wars
Uneasy relations with Persia
Christianity
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Long, vulnerable land frontier
Subversive- challenged worship of Emperor as
divine
Germanic peoples coveted Roman Wealth
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Republic Government
Roman Law
Latin Language
Roman Catholic Church
Romanesque Architectural Style
Roman Engineering
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Aqueducts
Sewage systems
Dams
Cement
Arch