Encyclopedia
Ancient Rome was a
civilization that grew out of the city-state of
Rome, founded in the
Italian Peninsula circa the
9th century BCE. During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchy to an oligarchic
republic to a vast
empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea through
conquest and assimilation. Nonetheless, a number of factors led to the eventual
decline of the Roman Empire. The
western half of the empire, including
Hispania,
Gaul, and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the
5th century; the eastern empire, governed from
Constantinople, is usually referred to as the
Byzantine Empire after 476, the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the
Middle Ages.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "
classical antiquity" with
ancient Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the
culture of ancient Rome. Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of
law,
war,
art,
literature,
architecture,
technology and
language in the
Western world, and its
history continues to have a major influence on the world today.
History
- Further information: History of Rome and Timeline of ancient Rome
Monarchy
The city of
Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the river
Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade. According to
archaeological evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded sometime in the
9th century BCE by members of two central Italian tribes, the Latins and the
Sabines, on the
Palatine,
Capitoline, and
Quirinal Hills. The
Etruscans, who had previously settled to the north in
Etruria, seem to have established political control in the region by the late
7th century BCE, forming the aristocratic and monarchial elite. The Etruscans apparently lost power in the area by the late
6th century BCE, and at this point, the original Latin and Sabine tribes reinvented their government by creating a
republic, with much greater restraints on the ability of rulers to exercise power.
In Roman legend, Rome was
founded on April 21, 753 BCE by twin descendants of the
Trojan prince
Aeneas,
Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over which of them was to reign and became the first of seven
Kings of Rome, as well as the source of the city's name. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines.
Republic
The
Roman Republic was established around 509 BCE, according to later writers such as
Livy, when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was deposed, and a system based on annually-elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority in the form of
imperium, or military command. The consuls had to contend with the
Senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians, but grew in size and power over time. Other magistracies in the Republic include praetors, aediles, and quaestors. The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or plebeians. Republican voting assemblies included the
comitia centuriata and the
comitia tributa.
The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the
Etruscans. The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came when
Tarentum, a major
Greek colony, enlisted the aid of
Pyrrhus of Epirus in 282 BCE, but this effort failed as well. The Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman colonies in strategic areas, establishing stable control over the region. In the second half of the 3rd century BC, Rome clashed with
Carthage in the first of three Punic Wars. These wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests, of
Sicily and
Hispania, and the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power. After defeating the
Macedonian and
Seleucid Empires in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the
Mediterranean Sea.
But foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at the
provinces' expense, but soldiers, who were mostly small farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land, and the increased reliance on foreign
slaves reduced the availability of paid work. Income from war booty,
mercantilism in the new provinces, and tax farming created new economic opportunity and wealth among the lower classes, forming a new class of merchants, the equestrians. Though the equestrians had vast financial resources at their disposal, they still found themselves counted among the lower-class plebeians, and therefore severely restricted in terms of political power. The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocking important land reforms and refusing to give the equestrian class a larger say in the government. Violent gangs of the urban unemployed, controlled by rival Senators, intimidated the electorate through violence. The situation came to a head in the late
2nd century BCE under the Gracchi brothers, a pair of tribunes who attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. Both brothers were killed, but the Senate passed some of their reforms in an attempt to placate the growing unrest of the plebeian and equestrian classes. The denial of
Roman citizenship to allied Italian cities led to the Social War of 91–88 BCE. The military reforms of
Marius resulted in soldiers often having more loyalty to their commander than to the city, and a powerful general could hold the city and Senate ransom. This culminated in
Sulla's brutal dictatorship of 81-79 BCE.
In the mid-
1st century BCE, three men,
Julius Caesar,
Pompey, and Crassus, formed a secret pact—the First Triumvirate—to control the Republic. After Caesar's
conquest of Gaul, a stand-off between Caesar and the Senate led to
civil war, with Pompey leading the Senate's forces. Caesar emerged victorious, and was made dictator for life. In 44 BCE, Caesar was
assassinated by senators fearing that Caesar sought to restore the
monarchy, and a
Second Triumvirate, consisting of Caesar's designated heir, Augustus, and his former supporters,
Mark Antony and Lepidus, took power. However, this alliance soon descended into a struggle for dominance. Lepidus was exiled, and when Augustus defeated Antony and
Cleopatra of
Egypt at the
Battle of Actium in 31 BC, he became the undisputed ruler of Rome.
Empire
With his enemies defeated, Augustus assumed almost absolute power, retaining only a pretense of the Republican form of government. His designated successor,
Tiberius, took power without bloodshed, establishing the
Julio-Claudian dynasty, which lasted until the death of
Nero in 68. The territorial expansion of what was now the
Roman Empire continued, and the state remained secure, despite a series of emperors widely viewed as depraved and corrupt. Their rule was followed by the Flavian dynasty. During the reign of the "
Five Good Emperors" , the Empire reached its territorial, economic, and cultural zenith. The state was secure from both internal and external threats, and the Empire prospered during the
Pax Romana . With the conquest of
Dacia during the reign of
Trajan, the Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion; Rome's dominion now spanned 2.5 million square miles .
The period between 180 and 235 was dominated by the
Severan dynasty, and saw several incompetent rulers, such as
Elagabalus. This and the increasing influence of the army on imperial succession led to a long period of imperial collapse known as the Crisis of the Third Century. The crisis was ended by the more competent rule of
Diocletian, who in 293 divided the Empire into an eastern and western half ruled by a
tetrarchy of two co-emperors and their two junior colleagues. The various co-rulers of the Empire competed and fought for supremacy for more than half a century. In 330, Emperor
Constantine I firmly established the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in Byzantium, and the Empire was permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire and the
Western Roman Empire in 364.
The Western Empire was constantly harassed by barbarian invasions, and the gradual
decline of the Roman Empire continued over the centuries. In 410, the city of Rome itself was sacked, and on September 4, 476, the Germanic chief
Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustus, to abdicate. Having lasted for approximately 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the west came to an end.
Society
Life in Ancient Rome revolved around the city of
Rome, located on
seven hills. The city had a vast number of
monumental structures like the
Colosseum, the
Forum of Trajan and the
Pantheon. It had
fountains with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of
aqueducts, theaters, gymnasiums,
bath complexes complete with
libraries and shops, marketplaces, and functional sewers. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome,
residential architecture ranged from very modest
houses to
country villas. In the capital city of Rome, there were
imperial residences on the elegant
Palatine Hill, from which the word "palace" is derived. The low and middle classes lived in the city center, packed into
apartments, which were almost like modern
ghettos.
The imperial city of Rome was the largest urban center of its time, with a population well in excess of one million people , with some high-end estimates of 3.5 million and low-end estimates of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron
chariot wheels that
Julius Caesar had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic at night. Historical estimates indicate that around 20 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. Most of these centers had a forum and temples and same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome.
Government
Initially, Rome was ruled by elected
kings. The exact nature of the king's power is uncertain. He may have held near-absolute power, or may also have merely been the chief executive of the
Senate and the people. At least in military matters, the king's authority was likely absolute. He was also the head of the state religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the
Senate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the Comitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify
laws suggested by the King; and the Comitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college which could assemble the people in order to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare the
feast 
