Ancient Rome was a
civilizationA civilization is a complex society or culture group characterized by dependence upon agriculture, long-distance trade, state form of government, occupational specialization, population, and class stratification.-Definition:...
that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the
Italian PeninsulaThe Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
as early as the
10th century BCThe 10th century BC started the first day of 1000 BC and ended the last day of 901 BC.- Overview :This period followed the Bronze Age collapse in the Near East, and the century saw the Early Iron Age take hold in the Near East. The Greek Dark Ages which had come about in 1200 BC continued. The...
. Located along the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
, it became one of the largest
empireThe term empire derives from the Latin imperium. Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy...
s in the
ancient worldAncient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages in Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China....
.
In its centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchyThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
to an
oligarchicAn Oligarchy is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royal, wealth, intellectual, family, military, or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few" and "rule"...
republicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
to an increasingly
autocraticA autocracy is a form of government in which the political power is held by a self-appointed ruler. The term autocrat is derived from the word autokratōr...
empireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
. It came to dominate South-Western Europe, South-Eastern Europe/
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and the
Mediterranean regionThe Mediterranean Basin comprises the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic...
through
conquestAn invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
and
assimilationCultural assimilation is a political response to the demographic fact of multi-ethnicity which encourages absorption of the minority into the dominant culture...
.
Plagued by internal instabilityThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom...
and
attacked by various migrating peoplesThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, the
western part of the empireThe Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
, including
ItalyItalia, under the Roman Republic and later Empire, was the name of the Italian peninsula.-Under the Republic and Augustan organization :During the Republic and the first centuries of the empire, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status:...
,
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
,
GaulRoman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in the Roman Empire, in modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Roman control of the area lasted for 600 years. The Roman Empire began its takeover of what was Celtic Gaul in 121 BC, when it conquered and annexed the southern...
,
BritanniaRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
and Africa broke up into independent kingdoms in the
5th century ADThe 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini/Common Era.-Overview:This century is noted for being a time of repeated disaster and instability both internally and externally for the Western Roman Empire, which finally unravelled, and came to an...
.
The Eastern Roman Empire, which was governed from
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
, comprising
GreeceRoman Greece is the period of Greek history following the Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC until the reestablishment of the city of Byzantium and the naming of the city by the Emperor Constantine as the capital of the Roman Empire...
, the Balkans, Asia Minor,
SyriaSyria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War...
and Egypt, survived this crisis. Despite the later loss of Syria and Egypt to the
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
ic Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire would live on for another millennium, until its last remains were finally
annexed by the emergingThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April, 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May, 1453 , when the city fell to the Ottomans...
TurkishThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. This eastern, Christian,
medievalThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
stage of the Empire is usually referred to as the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
by historians.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "
classical antiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
" with
ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
, a civilization that inspired much of the
culture of ancient RomeAncient Roman culture evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria and Morocco to the Euphrates....
. Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
,
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
,
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
,
literatureLiterature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" , and therefore the academic study of literature is known as Letters...
,
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
,
technologyTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
,
religionThe Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. Under his rule, Christianity rose to become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, and for his example of a "Christian monarch" Constantine is revered as a saint in...
, and
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
in the
Western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
, and its
historyThe history of Rome spans 2,800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the center of a vast civilization that dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries. Its political power was eventually replaced by that of peoples of mostly...
continues to have a major influence on the world today.
Founding and Roman Kingdom
According to one
legendA legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
, Rome was
foundedThe founding of Rome is reported by many legends, which in recent times are beginning to be supplemented by more scientific reconstructions.Virgil's Aeneid is an important source for information about those early times or, at least, the myth-historical events current in the Augustan period.The...
on April 21,
753 BC-Events and trends:* 756 BC—Founding of Cyzicus.* 755 BC—Ashur-nirari V succeeds Ashur-Dan III as king of Assyria* 755 BC—Aeschylus, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 23 years and is succeeded by Alcmaeon....
by twin brothers descended from the
TrojanTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
prince
AeneasIn Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was also the second cousin of King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy, which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid...
.
RomulusRomulus and Remus are considered to be the traditional founders of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars...
and
RemusRomulus and Remus are considered to be the traditional founders of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars...
were the grandsons of the Latin King,
NumitorIn Roman mythology, King Numitor of Alba Longa, son of Procas, was the father of Rhea Silvia. He was overthrown by his brother, Amulius, and thrown out of his kingdom where he had ruled. Amulius also murdered his sons, in an effort to remove power from his brother for himself. His grandsons,...
of
Alba LongaAlba Longa was an ancient city of Latium in central Italy southeast of Rome in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century BC...
. The King was ejected from his throne by his cruel brother
AmuliusIn Roman mythology, Amulius was the brother of Numitor and son of Procas. He was the hostile uncle of Romulus and Remus' mother.-Myth:His brother, Numitor, was the King of Alba Longa. Amulius overthrew him and took the throne. Amulius forced Rhea Silvia, Numitor's daughter, to become a Vestal...
while Numitor's daughter,
Rhea SilviaRhea Silvia , and also known as Ilia, was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome...
, gave birth. Rhea Silvia was a
Vestal VirginIn Ancient Rome, the vestal virgins , were the virgin holy female priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Their primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta. The vestal duty brought great honor and afforded greater privileges to women who served in that role...
who was raped by
MarsMars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and Jupiter, husband of Bellona, and the lover of Venus. He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions. The martial Romans considered him second in importance only to Jupiter...
, making the twins
half-divineThe term "demi god", meaning "half god", is used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human. A few examples of demi-gods include the Celtic hero Cúchulainn, Sumerian king Gilgamesh, Ancient-Germanic "woodsman" Ansel and Greek hero Heracles...
.
The new king feared that Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so they were to be drowned. A she-wolf (or a shepherd's wife in some accounts) saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
The twins then founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over which one of them was to reign as the
King of RomeThe Roman Kingdom was the monarchical government of the city of Rome and its territories. Little is certain about the history of the Roman Kingdom, as no written records from that time survive, and the histories about it were written during the Republic and Empire and are largely based on legend...
, though some sources state the quarrel was about who was going to give their name to the city. Romulus became the source of the city's name. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the
SabineThe Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, inhabiting also Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
s to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines.
Another legend recorded by Greek historian
DionysiusDionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus.-Life:...
says that Prince Aenas led a group of Trojans on a sea voyage. After a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, but the women who were traveling with them didn't want to leave. One woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they soon realized that they were in the ideal location to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships.
The city of
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
grew from settlements around a ford on the river
TiberThe Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
, a crossroads of traffic and trade. According to
archaeologicalArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded sometime in the
8th century BCThe 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC.- Overview :The 8th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Egypt, the 23rd and 24th dynasties led to rule from Nubia in the 25 Dynasty...
, though it may go back as far as the 10th century BC, by members of the
Latin tribe"Latins" can refer to several groups of people. Its meaning has changed throughout time, and can still refer to different things even today.-Antiquity:...
of Italy, on the top of the
Palatine HillThe Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city...
.
The
EtruscansEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
, who had previously settled to the north in
EtruriaEtruria — usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
, seem to have established political control in the region by the late
7th century BCThe 7th century BC started the first day of 700 BC and ended the last day of 601 BC.The Assyrian Empire continued to dominate the near east during this century, exercising formidable power over neighbors like Babylon and Egypt. In the last two decades of the century, however, the empire began to...
, forming the aristocratic and monarchial elite. The Etruscans apparently lost power in the area by the late
6th century BCThe sixth century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC.In India, Panini, sometime during this century, composed a grammar for Sanskrit, which is the one of oldest extant grammar of any language after 15 other proto-dravidian languages like Brahmi.In the Near East,...
, and at this point, the original Latin and Sabine tribes reinvented their government by creating a
republicA republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "a public affair".Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their...
, with much greater restraints on the ability of rulers to exercise power.
Roman tradition, as well as archaeological evidence, points to a complex within the
Forum RomanumThe Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed...
as the seat of power for the king and the beginnings of the religious center there as well.
Numa PompiliusNuma Pompilius was the second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus.-Life and Reign:Plutarch tells that Numa was the youngest of Pomponius' four sons, born on the day of Rome's founding . He lived a severe life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home...
was the second
king of RomeThe King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. The kings, excluding Romulus who held office by his virtue as the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain the throne...
, succeeding
RomulusRomulus and Remus are considered to be the traditional founders of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars...
. He began Rome's great building projects with his royal palace the
RegiaThe Regia was a structure in Ancient Rome, located in the Roman Forum. It was originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion. It occupied a triangular patch of terrain between the...
and the complex of the
Vestal virginsIn Ancient Rome, the vestal virgins , were the virgin holy female priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Their primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta. The vestal duty brought great honor and afforded greater privileges to women who served in that role...
.
Republic
According to tradition and later writers such as
LivyTitus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
, the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
was established around
509 BCThe sixth century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC.In India, Panini, sometime during this century, composed a grammar for Sanskrit, which is the one of oldest extant grammar of any language after 15 other proto-dravidian languages like Brahmi.In the Near East,...
, when the last of the seven kings of Rome,
Tarquin the ProudLucius Tarquinius Superbus was the seventh King of Rome, reigning from 535 until the Roman revolt in 509 B.C. which would lead to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is more commonly known by his cognomen Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the Etruscan dynasty of Rome...
, was deposed, and a system based on annually elected
magistratesThe Roman Magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman King was the principal executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army...
and various representative assemblies was established. A
constitutionThe Constitution of the Roman Republic or also known as mos maiorum was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...
set a series of checks and balances, and a
separation of powersThe separation of powers, also known as trias politica, is a model for the governance of democratic states. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the uncodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...
. The most important magistrates were the two
consul-Ancient Rome:During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together...
s, who together exercised executive authority in the form of
imperiumImperium in a broad sense translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'...
, or military command. The consuls had to work with the
senateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
, 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
praetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected magistrate assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period. The...
s,
aedileAedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. Half of the aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and half were patricians...
s, and
quaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
s. The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or
plebeiansThe Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
. Republican voting assemblies included the
comitia centuriata (centuriate assembly), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices, and the
comitia tributa (tribal assembly), which elected less important offices.
The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the
EtruscansEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
. The last threat to Roman
hegemonyHegemony is the preponderance of power, and the construction of consent from the powerless through cultural values.-In politics:...
in Italy came when
TarentumTaranto is a coastal city in Puglia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base.It is the third-largest continental city of southern Italy: according to the 2001 census, it has a population of...
, a major
GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
colony, enlisted the aid of
Pyrrhus of EpirusPyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became King of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...
in
281 BC-Asia Minor:* The Battle of Corupedium in Lydia is the last battle of the Diadochi, the rival successors to Alexander the Great. It is fought between the armies of Lysimachus, King of Thrace and Macedonia, and Seleucus, ruler of Eastern Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judaea, Babylonia and Iran...
, but this effort failed as well. The Romans secured their conquests by founding
Roman coloniesColonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained close, and took specific forms...
in strategic areas, establishing stable control over the region. In the second half of the
3rd century BCThe 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.-Overview:...
, Rome clashed with
CarthageCarthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian...
in the first of three
Punic WarsThe Punic Wars are a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world...
. These wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests, of
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
and
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
, and the
rise of RomeThe rise of Rome to dominate the overt politics of Europe, North Africa and the Near East completely from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, is the subject of a great deal of analysis by historians, military strategists, political scientists and increasingly also some economists.- Universal...
as a significant imperial power. After defeating the
MacedonMacedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paionia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south...
ian and
Seleucid EmpireThe Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, i.e. a successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan...
s in the
2nd century BCThe 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more proper .-Overview:Fresh from its victories in the Second Punic War, the...
, the Romans became the dominant people of the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
.
Foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at the
provincesIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula...
' expense, but soldiers, who were mostly small-scale farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land, and the increased reliance on foreign
slavesSlavery in the ancient world, specifically, in Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war....
and the growth of
latifundiaLatifundia are pieces of property covering tremendous areas. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates, specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, of Egypt and the North African Maghreb and of...
reduced the availability of paid work.
Income from war booty,
mercantilismMercantilism is an economic theory that holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable." Economic assets or capital, are represented by bullion held by the state, which is best increased through a...
in the new provinces, and
tax farmingTax farming was originally a Roman practice whereby the burden of tax collection was reassigned by the Roman State to private individuals or groups. In essence, these individuals or groups paid the taxes for a certain area and for a certain period of time and then attempted to cover their outlay by...
created new economic opportunities for the wealthy, forming a new class of
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s, the equestrians. The
lex ClaudiaLex Claudia was a law established in ancient Rome in 218 BC. The law was written by Quintus Claudius, then Tribune of the Plebs, stating that no senator or senator’s son could own a sea-going ship with a capacity of more than 300 amphorae . Though Q...
forbade members of the Senate from engaging in commerce, so while the equestrians could theoretically join the Senate, they were severely restricted in terms of political power. The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocking important
land reformLand reforms is an often-controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land...
s 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 BC under the
GracchiThe Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were a pair of young men known as tribunes in 2nd century BC who attempted to pass land reform legislation in Ancient Rome that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians...
brothers, a pair of
tribuneTribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. Also, the tribune could summon the Senate and lay proposals before it...
s 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 citizenshipCitizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged social status afforded to certain individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.It is hard to offer meaningful generalities across the entire Roman period, as the nature and availability of citizenship was affected by legislation, for...
to allied Italian cities led to the Social War of 91–
88 BCYear 88 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar.-Rome:* The Social War ends with the defeat of the Italian allies by the Romans.* The First Roman Civil War starts with democratic uprising led by Gaius Marius, but the democrats under the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus are crushed by the conservatives...
. The military reforms of
Gaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career...
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 led to civil war between Marius and his protegé
SullaLucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , or simply Sulla, was a Roman general and politician, holding the office of consul twice as well as the dictatorship....
, and culminated in Sulla's
dictatorshipIn the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
of 81–79 BC.
In the mid-1st century BC, three men,
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
,
PompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey /'pɑmpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
, and
CrassusMarcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded Sulla's decisive victory at Colline gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus and entered into a secret pact, known as the First Triumvirate, with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Gaius Julius Caesar...
, formed a secret pact—the
First TriumvirateThe First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever – its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial...
—to control the Republic. After Caesar's
conquest of GaulThe Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes, lasting from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Romans would also raid Britannia and Germania, but these expeditions never developed into full-scale invasions...
, a stand-off between Caesar and the Senate led to
civil warThe Great Roman Civil War , aka Caesar’s Civil War, is one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic, being the first step to empire...
, with Pompey leading the Senate's forces. Caesar emerged victorious, and was made
dictatorIn the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
for life.
In 44 BC, Caesar was
assassinatedAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
by senators who opposed Caesar's assumption of absolute power and wanted to restore constitutional government, but in the aftermath a
Second TriumvirateThe Second Triumvirate is the name historians give to the official political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus , Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony, formed on 26 November 43 BC with the enactment of the Lex Titia, the adoption of which marked the end of the Roman Republic...
, consisting of Caesar's designated heir,
OctavianGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
, and his former supporters,
Mark AntonyMarcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and General. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia...
and
LepidusMarcus Aemilius Lepidus , was a Roman patrician who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus. His father, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, had been involved in a rebellion against the Roman Republic which led to his death.Lepidus was among Julius Caesar's greatest...
, took power.
However, this alliance soon descended into a struggle for dominance. Lepidus was
exileExile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return...
d, and when Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
at the
Battle of ActiumThe Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the Roman colony of Actium in Greece...
in 31 BC, he became the undisputed ruler of Rome.
Empire
With his enemies defeated, Octavian took the name
Augustus and assumed almost absolute power, retaining only a pretense of the Republican form of government. His designated successor,
TiberiusTiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla...
, took power without serious opposition, establishing the
Julio-Claudian dynastyThe Julio-Claudian dynasty normally refers to the first five Roman Emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula , Claudius, and Nero, or the family to which they belonged; they ruled the Roman Empire from its formation, in the second half of the first century BC, until AD 68, when the last of the line,...
, which lasted until the death of
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
in 68. The territorial expansion of what was now the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
continued, and the state remained secure, despite a series of emperors widely viewed as depraved and corrupt (for example,
CaligulaGaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his cognomen Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41...
is argued by some to have been insane and
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
had a reputation for cruelty and being more interested in his private concerns than the affairs of the state). Their rule was followed by the
Flavian dynastyThe Flavian dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96 CE, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian , and his two sons Titus and Domitian . The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known as the Year of the Four Emperors...
. During the reign of the "Five Good Emperors" (96–180), the Empire reached its territorial, economic, and cultural
zenithIn general terms, the zenith is the direction pointing directly "above" a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at the location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface there...
. The state was secure from both internal and external threats, and the Empire prospered during the
Pax RomanaPax Romana was the long period of relative peace and minimal expansion by military force experienced by the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries AD. Since it was established by Caesar Augustus it is sometimes called Pax Augusta...
("Roman Peace"). With the conquest of
DaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land in East-Central Europe inhabited by the Dacians. Ancient Greeks called the same people "Getae"...
during the reign of
TrajanMarcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from A. D. 98 until his death in A. D. 117...
, the Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion; Rome's dominion now spanned 2.5 million square miles (6.5 million km²). The
Antonine PlagueThe Antonine Plague, AD 165-180, also known as the Plague of Galen, who described it, was an ancient pandemic, whether of smallpox or measles, brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East...
that swept through the Empire in 165–180 AD killed an estimated five million people.
The period between 193 and 235 was dominated by the
Severan dynastyThe Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power during the civil war of 193, known as the Year of the Five Emperors....
, and saw several incompetent rulers, such as
ElagabalusElagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was a Roman Emperor of the Severan dynasty who reigned from 218 to 222...
. This and the increasing influence of the army on imperial succession led to a long period of imperial collapse and external invasions known as the
Crisis of the Third CenturyThe Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...
. The crisis was ended by the more competent rule of
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
, who in 293 divided the Empire into an eastern and western half ruled by a
tetrarchyThe term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...
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. On May 11, 330, Emperor
Constantine ICaesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus , commonly known in English as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman emperor from 306, and the sole holder of that office from 324 until his death in...
firmly established
ByzantiumByzantium was an ancient Greek city, which was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas . The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
as the capital of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
and renamed it
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
. The Empire was permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire (later known as the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
) and the
Western Roman EmpireThe Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
in 395.
The Western Empire was constantly harassed by
barbarianBarbarian is a term for an uncivilized person, often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
invasions, and the gradual
decline of the western EmpireThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom...
continued over the centuries. In the
4th centuryAs a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400.- Overview :...
, the westward migration of the
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
caused the Visigoths to seek refuge within the borders of the Roman Empire. In 410, the Visigoths, under the leadership of
Alaric IAlaric I , was likely born about 370 on an island named Peuce at the mouth of the Danube. He was king of the Visigoths from 395–410 and the first Germanic leader to take the city of Rome...
, sacked the city of Rome itself. The
VandalsThe Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goth Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under .The Vandals are perhaps...
invaded Roman provinces in Gaul, Hispania, and northern Africa, and in 455
sacked RomeThe second of three barbarian sacks of Rome, the sack of 455 was at the hands of the Vandals, then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus....
. On September 4, 476, the Germanic chief
OdoacerOdoacer , also known as Odovacer, was a Germanic foederati general and the first non-Roman ruler of Italy after AD 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus on 4 September of that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in...
forced the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustus, to abdicate. Having lasted for approximately 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the
WestWest is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points...
came to an end.
The Eastern Empire would suffer a similar fate, though not as drastic.
JustinianFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
managed to briefly reconquer
Northern AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, but Byzantine possessions in the West were reduced to
southern ItalySouthern Italy or the Mezzogiorno generally refers to the southern portion of the continental Italian peninsula and Sicily, historically forming the Kingdom of Two Sicilies plus the island of Sardinia...
and
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
within a few years after Justinian's death. In the east, partially resulting from the destructive
Plague of JustinianThe Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Eastern Roman Empire , including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of...
, the Byzantines were threatened by the rise of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
, whose followers rapidly conquered territories in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
and
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
and soon presented a direct threat to Constantinople. The Byzantines, however, managed to stop Islamic expansion into their lands during the
8th centuryThe 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era.-Overview:During this century, the Middle East, the coast of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula rapidly come under Islamic Arab domination...
, and beginning in the
9th centuryThe 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era.- Britain :Britain experienced a great influx of Viking peoples in the ninth century as the Viking Age continued from the previous century. The kingdoms of the Heptarchy were gradually...
reclaimed parts of the conquered lands. In 1000 AD the Eastern Empire was at its height:
Basileios IIBasil II, later surnamed the Bulgar-slayer , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his...
reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia, culture and trade flourished. However, soon after the expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 at the
Battle of ManzikertThe Battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq forces led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert . It resulted in one of the most decisive defeats of the Byzantine Empire and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes...
. This finally led the empire into a dramatic decline. Several centuries of internal strife and
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
invasions ultimately paved the way for Emperor
Alexius I ComnenusAlexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and the founder of the Komnenian dynasty...
to send a call for help to the West in 1095. The West responded with the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, eventually resulting in the Sack of Constantinople by participants in the
Fourth CrusadeThe Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire...
. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 would see the fragmentation of what little remained of the empire into successor states, the ultimate victor being that of
Nicaeaİznik is a city in Turkey which is known primarily as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Christian church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea...
. After the recapture of Constantinople by imperial forces, the empire was little more than a Greek state confined to the
AegeanThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
coast. The Eastern Empire came to an end when
Mehmed IIMehmet II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446,...
conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453.
Society
The imperial city of Rome was the largest urban center of its time, with a population of about one million people (about the size of London in the early 19th century, when London was the largest city in the world), with some high-end estimates of 14 million and low-end estimates of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron
chariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
wheels that
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic during the day. Historical estimates indicate that around 20 percent of the population under jurisdiction of ancient Rome (25–40%, depending on the standards used, in Roman Italy) lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several
military settlementMilitary settlements represented a special organization of the Russian military forces in 1810–1857, which allowed the combination of military service and agricultural employment.-The beginning of the reform:...
s, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. Most of these centers had a
forumThe Forum was the public space in the middle of a Roman city.A gathering place of great social significance, it was often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions, meetings, et cetera....
and temples and similar style buildings, on a smaller scale, to those found in Rome.
Class structure
Roman society is largely viewed as
hierarchicalSocial hierarchy is a multi-tiered pyramid-like social or functional structure having an apex as the centralization of power. The term can also be applied to animal societies, but the term dominance hierarchy is preferred most times...
, with
slavesSlavery in the ancient world, specifically, in Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war....
(
servi) at the bottom,
freedmenA freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation, ....
(
liberti) above them, and free-born citizens (
cives) at the top. Free citizens were themselves also divided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between the patricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100
PatriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
s at the founding of the city, and the
plebeiansThe Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
, who could not. This became less important in the later Republic, as some plebeian families became wealthy and entered politics, and some patrician families fell on hard times. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a consul as his ancestor was a
nobleNobility is a state-privileged status which is generally hereditary, but which may also be personal only. Titles of nobility are usually associated with present or former monarchies. The term originally referred to those who were "known" or "notable" and was applied to the highest social class in...
(
nobilis); a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such as
MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career...
or
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
, was known as a
novus homoNovus homo was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...
("new man") and ennobled his descendants. Patrician ancestry, however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices remained restricted to patricians.
A class division originally based on military service became more important. Membership of these classes was determined periodically by the Censors, according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated politics and command of the army. Next came the equestrians (
equites, sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse, who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally based on what military equipment their members could afford, followed, with the
proletarii, citizens who had no property at all, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just barely above freed slaves in terms of wealth and prestige.
Voting power in the Republic was dependent on class. Citizens were enrolled in voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the poorer ones, all the
proletarii being enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order and stopped as soon as a majority of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable even to cast their votes.
Allied foreign cities were often given the
Latin RightThe Latin Right was a civic status given by the Romans, intermediate between full Roman citizenship and non-citizen status . The most important tenets of the Latin right were commercium, conubium, and ius migrationis...
, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (
peregrini), which gave their citizens rights under
Roman lawThe term Roman law denotes the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the seventh century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the official lingua franca. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence —...
and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of Latin rights, the main division was between those
cum suffragio ("with vote"; enrolled in a
Roman tribe and able to take part in the
comitia tributa) and
sine suffragio ("without vote"; unable to take part in Roman politics). Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after the Social War of 91–88 BC, and full
Roman citizenshipCitizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged social status afforded to certain individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.It is hard to offer meaningful generalities across the entire Roman period, as the nature and availability of citizenship was affected by legislation, for...
was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by
CaracallaCaracalla , born Lucius Septimius Bassianus and later called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, was the eldest son of Septimius Severus and Roman Emperor from 211 to 217. He was one of the most nefarious of Roman emperors...
in 212. Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or participate in politics.
Family
The basic units of Roman society were
householdThe household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....
s and
familiesFamily denotes a group of people or animals affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence...
. Households included the head (usually the father) of the household,
pater familiasThe pater familias was the head of a Roman family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is irregular and archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -as...
(father of the family), his wife, children, and other relatives. In the upper classes, slaves and servants were also part of the household. The head of the household had great power (
patria potestas, "father's power") over those living with him: He could force marriage (usually for money) and divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his own, and even had the right to punish or kill family members (though this last right apparently ceased to be exercised after the
1st century BCThe 1st century BC, also known as the last century BC or 1st century BCE started on the first day of 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC.It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period...
).
Patria potestas even extended over adult sons with their own households: A man was not considered a
paterfamilias, nor could he truly hold property, while his own father lived. During the early period of Rome's history, a daughter, when she married, fell under the control (
manus) of the
paterfamilias of her husband's household, although by the late Republic this fell out of fashion, as a woman could choose to continue recognizing her father's family as her true family. However, as Romans reckoned
descentKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. In anthropology the kinship system includes people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating...
through the male line, any children she had would belong to her husband's family.
Groups of related households formed a family (
gensIn ancient Rome, a gens was a family or clan that shared a common name and a belief in a common ancestor...
). Families were based on blood ties or
adoptionAdoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
, but were also political and economic alliances. Especially during the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, some powerful families, or
Gentes MaioresIn ancient Rome, a gens was a family or clan that shared a common name and a belief in a common ancestor...
, came to dominate political life.
Ancient Roman marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political alliance than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes. Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters when they reached an age between twelve and fourteen. The husband was almost always older than the bride. While upper class girls married very young, there is evidence that lower class women often married in their late teens or early twenties.
Education
In the early Republic, there were no public schools, so boys were taught to read and write by their parents, or by educated slaves, called
paedagogi, usually of Greek origin. The primary aim of education during this period was to train young men in
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
,
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
fare,
Roman traditionsAncient Roman culture evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria and Morocco to the Euphrates....
, and public affairs. Young boys learned much about civic life by accompanying their fathers to religious and political functions, including the Senate for the sons of nobles. The sons of nobles were apprenticed to a prominent
political figureA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
at the age of 16, and campaigned with the army from the age of 17 (this system would still be in use among some noble families well into the imperial era). Educational practices were modified following the conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the 3rd century BC and the resulting Greek influence, although it should be noted that Roman educational practices were still significantly different from Greek ones. If their parents could afford it, boys and some girls at the age of 7 were sent to a private school outside the home called a
ludus, where a teacher (called a
litterator or a
magister ludi, and often of Greek origin) taught them basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and sometimes Greek, until the age of 11. Beginning at age 12, students went to secondary schools, where the teacher (now called a
grammaticus) taught them about
GreekGreek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...
and
Roman literatureLatin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more...
. At the age of 16, some students went on to
rhetoricRhetoric is one of the arts of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public...
school (where the teacher, almost always Greek, was called a
rhetor). Education at this level prepared students for legal careers, and required that the students memorize the laws of Rome. Pupils went to school every day, except religious festivals and market days. There were also summer holidays.
Government
Initially, Rome was ruled by
kingsThe Roman Kingdom was the monarchical government of the city of Rome and its territories. Little is certain about the history of the Roman Kingdom, as no written records from that time survive, and the histories about it were written during the Republic and Empire and are largely based on legend...
, who were elected from each of Rome's major tribes in turn. 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 executiveA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
of the
Senate and the peopleSPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus , referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official signature of the government...
. At least in military matters, the king's authority (
ImperiumImperium in a broad sense translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'...
) was likely absolute. He was also the head of the
state religionAncient Roman religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practised in ancient Rome in the form of cult practices. It is therefore the practical counterpart of Roman mythology. Within the Roman world, religious practice varied enough so that one might speak of Roman religions. The...
. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the
SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the
Comitia CuriataThe Curiate Assembly was the principal assembly during the first two decades of the Roman Republic. During these first decades, the People of Rome were organized into thirty units called "Curia"...
, which could endorse and ratify laws suggested by the King; and the
Comitia CalataThe Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
, 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
feastA festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community.Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable...
and holiday schedule for the next month.
The
class struggleClass struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle".Marx's notion of class has...
s of the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
resulted in an unusual mixture of
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
and
oligarchyAn Oligarchy is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royal, wealth, intellectual, family, military, or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few" and "rule"...
. The word republic comes from the Latin
res publica which literally translates to public business.
Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (
Comitia TributaThe Tribal Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman citizens. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of thirty-five Tribes: Four Tribes encompassed citizens inside the city of Rome, while the other thirty-one Tribes encompassed...
). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, the
Roman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
represented an oligarchic institution, which acted as an advisory body. In the Republic, the Senate held great authority (
auctoritas), but no actual legislative power; it was technically only an advisory council. However, as the Senators were individually very influential, it was difficult to accomplish anything against the collective will of the Senate. New Senators were chosen from among the most accomplished patricians by Censors (
Censura), who could also remove a Senator from his office if he was found "morally corrupt"; a charge that could include
briberyBribery, a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an...
or, as under
Cato the ElderMarcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, surnamed the Censor , the Wise , the Ancient , or the Elder , to distinguish him from Cato the Younger...
, embracing one's wife in public. Later, under the reforms of the dictator
SullaLucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , or simply Sulla, was a Roman general and politician, holding the office of consul twice as well as the dictatorship....
,
QuaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
s were made automatic members of the Senate, though most of his reforms did not survive.
The Republic had no fixed
bureaucracyBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
, and collected
taxTo tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es through the practice of
tax farmingTax farming was originally a Roman practice whereby the burden of tax collection was reassigned by the Roman State to private individuals or groups. In essence, these individuals or groups paid the taxes for a certain area and for a certain period of time and then attempted to cover their outlay by...
. Government positions such as
quaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
,
aedileAedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. Half of the aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and half were patricians...
, or
praefectPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
were funded from the office-holder's private finances. In order to prevent any citizen from gaining too much power, new
magistrateA magistrate is a judicial officer; in ancient Rome, the word magistratus denoted one of the highest government officers with judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a magistrate has limited law enforcement and administration authority...
s were elected annually and had to share power with a colleague. For example, under normal conditions, the highest authority was held by two
consul-Ancient Rome:During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together...
s. In an emergency, a temporary
dictatorIn the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
could be appointed. Throughout the Republic, the administrative system was revised several times to comply with new demands. In the end, it proved inefficient for controlling the ever-expanding dominion of Rome, contributing to the establishment of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
.
In the early Empire, the pretense of a republican form of government was maintained. The
Roman EmperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
was portrayed as only a
princepsPrinceps is a Latin word meaning "first in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person."...
, or "first citizen", and the Senate gained legislative power and all legal authority previously held by the popular assemblies. However, the rule of the emperors became increasingly
autocraticA autocracy is a form of government in which the political power is held by a self-appointed ruler. The term autocrat is derived from the word autokratōr...
over time, and the Senate was reduced to an advisory body appointed by the emperor. The Empire did not inherit a set bureaucracy from the Republic, since the Republic did not have any permanent governmental structures apart from the Senate. The Emperor appointed assistants and advisers, but the state lacked many institutions, such as a centrally planned
budgetA budget is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
. Some historians have cited this as a significant reason for the
decline of the Roman EmpireThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom...
.
Law
The roots of the legal principles and practices of the
ancient Romans may be traced to the law of the
twelve tablesThe Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centerpiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
(from
449 BC- Greece :* The Greek city-states make peace with the Persian Empire through the Peace of Callias, named after the chief Greek ambassador to the Persian Court, an Athenian who is a brother-in-law of Cimon. Athens agrees to end its support for the Egyptians rebels still holding out in parts of the...
) to the
codificationThe Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor....
of Emperor
Justinian IFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
(around 530 AD). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes continued into the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
, and formed the basis of similar codifications in continental
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
. Roman law continued, in a broader sense, to be applied throughout most of Europe until the end of the 17th century.
The major divisions of the law of ancient Rome, as contained within the Justinian and Theodosian law codes, consisted of
Ius Civile,
Ius Gentium, and
Ius Naturale. The
Ius Civile ("Citizen law") was the body of common laws that applied to Roman citizens. The
Praetores Urbani (
sg. Praetor Urbanus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens. The
Ius Gentium ("Law of nations") was the body of common laws that applied to foreigners, and their dealings with Roman citizens. The
Praetores Peregrini (
sg. Praetor Peregrinus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners.
Ius Naturale encompassed natural law, the body of laws that were considered common to all being.
Economy
Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and human resources. As such, Rome's economy remained focused on
farmingFarming was an important part of ancient Roman culture. Though Rome relied greatly on resources from many of the provinces it acquired during it conquest and warfare, wealthy Romans developed the land in Italy to produce a variety of crops as well...
and trade. Agricultural
free tradeFree trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services....
changed the Italian landscape, and by the 1st century BC, vast
grapeA grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil...
and
oliveThe Olive is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea...
estates had supplanted the
yeomanYeoman refers to a farmer who cultivates his own land, historically a lesser freeholder of England, below the gentry but with political rights. More generally, yeoman can be an indicator of a position or social class, varying over time and place, or a diligent, dependable worker. A yeoman could...
farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price. The
annexationAnnexation is the legal incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities...
of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
,
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
and
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
in
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn,
olive oilOlive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor and spread from there as far as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and...
and
wineAncient Rome played a pivotal role in the history of wine. The earliest influences of viticulture on the Italian peninsula can be traced to Ancient Greeks and Etruscans. The rise of the Roman Empire saw an increase in technology and awareness of winemaking which spread to all parts of the empire...
were Italy's main
exportIn economics, an export is any good or commodity, transported from one country to another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade. Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic producers. Export is an important part of international trade...
s. Two-tier
crop rotationCrop rotation or Crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped...
was practiced, but farm productivity was overall low, around 1 ton per
hectareA hectare is a unit of area equal to , or one square hectometre , and commonly used for measuring land area....
.
IndustrialAn industry is the manufacturing of a good or service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw...
and
manufacturingManufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
activities were smaller. The largest such activities were the
miningMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
and
quarryA quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel...
ing of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the buildings of that period. In manufacturing, production was on a relatively small scale, and generally consisted of workshops and small factories that employed at most dozens of workers. However, some
brickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.-History:The oldest shaped bricks found date back to 7,500 B.C. They have been found in Çayönü, in the upper Tigris region, and in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings,...
factories employed hundreds of workers.
The economy of the early Republic was largely based on smallholding and paid labor. However, foreign wars and conquests made
slavesSlavery in the ancient world, specifically, in Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war....
increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on
slave laborSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
for both skilled and unskilled work. Slaves are estimated to have constituted around 20% of the Roman Empire's population at this time and 40% in the city of Rome. Only in the Roman Empire, when the conquests stopped and the prices of slaves increased, did hired labor become more economical than slave ownership.
Although
barterBartering is a medium in which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and/or services without a common unit of exchange . It can be bilateral or multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent...
was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed
coinA coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material and sometimes made of synthetic materials, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a government. Coins are used as a form of money in transactions of various kinds, from the everyday circulation coins to the...
age system, with
brassA brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
,
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
, and
precious metalA precious metal is a rare naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value,which is not radioactive . Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...
coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Before the 3rd century BC,
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, across
central ItalyCentral Italy is a geographic area in Italy that encompasses four of the country's 20 regions:*Lazio*Marches*Tuscany*Umbria-See also:* Italian NUTS level 1 regions* Northern Italy* Southern Italy* Insular Italy...
. The original
copper coinsThe standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom is denominated in pounds sterling , and, since the introduction of the two pound coin in 1998, ranges in value from one penny to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence...
(
as) had a face value of one Roman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its
intrinsic valueIntrinsic value, in general, is the argument that the value of a product is intrinsic within the product rather than dependent on the buyer's perception....
as metal. After
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
began debasing the silver
denariusIn the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus.-History:...
, its
legalLegal tender or forced tender is an offered payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt, and have the debt remain in force....
value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic.
Horses were too expensive, and other
pack animalA pack animal is a beast of burden used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back; the term may be applied to either an individual animal or a species so employed....
s too slow, for mass trade on the Roman roads, which connected military posts rather than markets, and were rarely designed for wheels. As a result, there was little transport of
commoditiesA commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk. In other words, copper is copper. The price of copper is universal,...
between Roman regions until the rise of Roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip from
GadesCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Cádiz Province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
to
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
via
OstiaOstia Antica is a large archeological site that was the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 kilometers northeast of the site. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to silting and a drop in sea level, the site now...
, spanning the entire length of the
MediterraneanThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.
Some economists like
Peter TeminDr. Peter Temin is a widely cited economist and economic historian, currently Elisha Gray II Professor of Economics, MIT and former head of the Economics Department....
consider the Roman Empire a
market economyA market economy is economy based on the division of labor in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system set by supply and demand....
, similar in its degree of capitalistic practices to 17th century Netherlands and 18th century England.
Military
The early Roman army (c. 500 BC) was, like those of other contemporary
city-stateA city-state is an independent republican country whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as part of another local government....
s influenced by Greek civilization, a citizen
militiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
which practiced
hopliteA hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx formation. The word hoplite A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx formation....
tactics. It was small (the population of free males of military age was then about 9,000) and organized in five classes (in parallel to the
comitia centuriataThe Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
, the body of citizens organized politically), with three providing hoplites and two providing light infantry. The early Roman army was tactically limited and its stance during this period was essentially defensive. By the 3rd century BC, the Romans abandoned the hoplite formation in favor of a more flexible system in which smaller groups of 120 (or in some cases 60) men called
maniplesManiple was a tactical unit of the Roman legion adopted from the Samnites during the Samnite Wars. It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit....
could maneuver more independently on the battlefield. Thirty maniples arranged in three lines with supporting troops constituted a
legionThe Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the...
, totaling between 4,000 and 5,000 men. The early Republican legion consisted of five sections, each of which was equipped differently and had different places in formation: the three lines of manipular heavy infantry (
hastatiHastati were a class of infantry in the armies of the early Roman Republic who originally fought as spearmen, and later as swordsmen. They were originally some of the poorest men in the legion, and could afford only modest equipment — light armour and a large shield, in their service as the...
,
principesPrincipes were spearmen, and later swordsmen, in the armies of the early Roman Republic. They were men in the prime of their lives who were fairly wealthy, and could afford decent equipment. They were the heavier infantry of the legion who carried large shields and wore good quality armour. Their...
and
triariiTriarii were one of the early Roman military Manipular legions of the early Roman Republic . They were the oldest and among the wealthiest men in the army, and could afford good quality equipment. They wore heavy metal armour and carried large shields, their usual position being the third battle...
), a force of light infantry (
velitesVelites were a class of infantry in the Polybian legions of the early Roman republic. Velites were light infantry and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii for use in melee...
), and the cavalry (
equites). With the new organization came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states.
At nominal full strength, an early Republican legion would have included 3,600 to 4,800 heavy infantry, several hundred light infantry and several hundred cavalrymen, for a total of 4,000 to 5,000 men. Legions were often significantly understrength from recruitment failures or following periods of active service due to accidents, battle casualties, disease and desertion. During the Civil War, Pompey's legions in the east were at full strength because recently recruited, while Caesar's legions were in many cases well below nominal strength after long active service in Gaul. This pattern also held true for auxiliary forces.
Until the late Republican period, the typical legionary was a property-owning citizen farmer from a rural area (an
adsiduus) who served for particular (often annual) campaigns, and who supplied his own equipment and, in the case of
equites, his own mount. Harris suggests that down to 200 BC, the average rural farmer (who survived) might participate in six or seven campaigns. Freedmen and slaves (wherever resident) and urban citizens did not serve except in rare emergencies. After 200 BC, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for service were gradually reduced. Beginning with
Gaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career...
in 107 BC, citizens without property and some urban-dwelling citizens (
proletarii) were enlisted and provided with equipment, although most legionaries continued to come from rural areas. Terms of service became continuous and long—up to twenty years if emergencies required it although Brunt argues that six or seven years was more typical. Beginning in the 3rd century BC, legionaries were paid
stipendium (amounts are disputed but Caesar famously "doubled" payments to his troops to 225
denariiIn the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus.-History:...
a year), could anticipate booty and donatives (distributions of plunder by commanders) from successful campaigns and, beginning at the time of Marius, often were granted allotments of land upon retirement. Cavalry and light infantry attached to a legion (the
auxilia) were often recruited in the areas where the legion served. Caesar formed a legion, the Fifth Alaudae, from non-citizens in Transalpine Gaul to serve in his campaigns in Gaul. By the time of Caesar Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. Legionaries were paid 900
sestercesThe sestertius, or sesterce, was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions...
a year and could expect a payment of 12,000
sesterces on retirement.
At the end of the
Civil WarThe final war of the Roman Republic, also known as Antony's civil war or the war between Antony and Octavian, was the last of the Roman civil wars of the republic, fought between Cleopatra and Octavian...
, Augustus reorganized Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, distributed through the provinces of the Empire. During the
PrincipateThe Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
, the tactical organization of the Army continued to evolve. The
auxilia remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions. A new versatile type of unit, the
cohortes equitatae, combining cavalry and legionaries in a single formation could be stationed at garrisons or outposts, could fight on their own as balanced small forces or could combine with other similar units as a larger legion-sized force. This increase in organizational flexibility over time helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces.
The Emperor
GallienusPublius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268. He took control of the empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
(253–268 AD) began a reorganization that created the final military structure of the late Empire. Withdrawing some legionaries from the fixed bases on the border, Gallienus created mobile forces (the
ComitatensesComitatenses is the Latin plural of comitatensis, originally the adjective derived from comitatus , itself rooting in Comes .However, historically it became the accepted name for...
or field armies) and stationed them behind and at some distance from the borders as a strategic reserve. The border troops (
limitanei) stationed at fixed bases continued to be the first line of defense. The basic unit of the field army was the "regiment",
legiones or
auxilia for infantry and
vexellationes for cavalry. Evidence suggests that nominal strengths may have been 1,200 men for infantry regiments and 600 for cavalry, although many records show lower actual troop levels (800 and 400). Many infantry and cavalry regiments operated in pairs under the command of a
comesComes is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus , especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" + ire "go."-In the...
. In addition to Roman troops, the field armies included regiments of "barbarians" recruited from allied tribes and known as
foederatiFoederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
. By 400 AD,
foederati regiments had become permanently established units of the Roman army, paid and equipped by the Empire, led by a Roman tribune and used just as Roman units were used. In addition to the
foederati, the Empire also used groups of barbarians to fight along with the legions as "allies" without integration into the field armies. Under the command of the senior Roman general present, they were led at lower levels by their own officers.
Military leadership evolved greatly over the course of the history of Rome. Under the monarchy, the hoplite armies would have been led by the kings of Rome. During the early and middle Roman Republic, military forces were under the command of one of the two elected
consulsA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic and Empire.During the time of ancient Rome as a republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. An election occurred every year for new consul...
for the year. During the later Republic, members of the Roman Senatorial elite, as part of the normal sequence of elected public offices known as the
cursus honorumThe cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum...
, would have served first as
quaestorQuaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised financial affairs...
(often posted as deputies to field commanders), then as
praetorPraetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected magistrate assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period. The...
. Following the end of a term as praetor or consul, a Senator might be appointed by the Senate as a
propraetorA promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect...
or
proconsulA promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect...
(depending on the highest office previously held) to govern a foreign province. More junior officers (down to but not including the level of centurion) were selected by their commanders from their own
clientelaeIn ancient Roman society, a client was a plebeian who was sponsored by a patron benefactor...
or those recommended by political allies among the Senatorial elite. Under Augustus, whose most important political priority was to place the military under a permanent and unitary command, the Emperor was the legal commander of each legion but exercised that command through a
legatusA legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
(legate) he appointed from the Senatorial elite. In a province with a single legion, the legate would command the legion (
legatus legionis) and also serve as provincial governor, while in a province with more than one legion, each legion would be commanded by a legate and the legates would be commanded by the provincial governor (also a legate but of higher rank). During the later stages of the Imperial period (beginning perhaps with
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
), the Augustan model was abandoned. Provincial governors were stripped of military authority, and command of the armies in a group of provinces was given to generals (
ducesDux is Latin for leader and later for Duke.During the Roman Republic, dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops, including foreign leaders, but was not a formal military rank...
) appointed by the Emperor. These were no longer members of the Roman elite but men who came up through the ranks and had seen much practical soldiering. With increasing frequency, these men attempted (sometimes successfully) to usurp the positions of the Emperors who had appointed them. Decreased resources, increasing political chaos and civil war eventually left the Western Empire vulnerable to attack and takeover by neighboring barbarian peoples.
Comparatively less is known about the Roman navy than the Roman army. Prior to the middle of the 3rd century BC, officials known as
duumviri navales commanded a fleet of twenty ships used mainly to control piracy. This fleet was given up in 278 AD and replaced by allied forces. The
First Punic WarThe Punic Wars are a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world...
required that Rome build large fleets, and it did so largely with the assistance of and financing from allies. This reliance on allies continued to the end of the Roman Republic. The
quinquiremeFrom the 4th century BC on, new types of oared warships appeared in the Mediterranean Sea, superseding the trireme and transforming naval warfare. Ships became increasingly bigger and heavier, including some of the largest wooden ships ever constructed...
was the main warship on both sides of the Punic Wars and remained the mainstay of Roman naval forces until replaced by the time of Caesar Augustus by lighter and more maneuverable vessels. As compared with a
triremeThe trireme is a class of warship used by the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans. In English, no differentiation is made between the Greek triērēs and the Latin triremis...
, the quinquireme permitted the use of a mix of experienced and inexperienced crewmen (an advantage for a primarily land-based power), and its lesser maneuverability permitted the Romans to adopt and perfect
boarding tacticsA corvus or harpago was a Roman military boarding device used in naval warfare during the First Punic War against Carthage....
using a troop of approximately 40 marines in lieu of the
ramNaval tactics in the age of galleys were used from antiquity to the early 17th century when sailing ships replaced oared galleys.-Weapons in the age of galleys:Throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages until the 16th century, the weapons relied on were:...
. Ships were commanded by a
navarchNavarch is a Greek word meaning "leader of the ships", which in some states became the title of an office equivalent to that of a modern admiral.- Historical usage :Not all states gave their naval commanders such a title...
, a rank equivalent to a centurion, who were usually not citizens. Potter suggests that because the fleet was dominated by non-Romans, the navy was considered non-Roman and allowed to atrophy in times of peace.
Available information suggests that by the time of the late Empire (350 AD), the Roman navy comprised a number of fleets including both warships and merchant vessels for transportation and supply. Warships were oared sailing galleys with three to five banks of oarsmen. Fleet bases included such ports as Ravenna, Arles, Aquilea, Misenum and the mouth of the Somme River in the West and Alexandria and Rhodes in the East. Flotillas of small river craft (
classes) were part of the
limitanei (border troops) during this period, based at fortified river harbors along the Rhine and the Danube. The fact that prominent generals commanded both armies and fleets suggests that naval forces were treated as auxiliaries to the army and not as an independent service. The details of command structure and fleet strengths during this period are not well known although it is known that fleets were commanded by prefects.
Culture
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, located on
seven hillsThe Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the walls of the ancient city.The seven hills are:* Aventine Hill * Caelian Hill * Capitoline Hill...
. The city had a vast number of
monumentA monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events. They are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location. Cities that are planned...
al structures like the
ColosseumThe Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
, the
Forum of TrajanTrajan's Forum is chronologically the last of the Imperial fora of Rome. The forum was constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus.-History:...
and the
PantheonThe Pantheon is a building in...
. It had fountains with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of
aqueductsThe ancient Romans typically built numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome itself, being the largest city, had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed...
,
theatresThe characteristics of Roman theatres are similar to those of the earlier Greek theatres due in large part to its influence on a single Roman Consul, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Much of the architectural influence on the Romans came from the Greeks, and theatre structural design was no different from...
,
gymnasiumsThe gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits. The name comes from the Greek term gymnos meaning naked. Athletes competed in the nude, a practice said to encourage...
,
bath complexesThe terms balnea or thermae were the words the ancient Romans used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization. Baths were extremely important for Romans. They stayed there for...
complete with libraries and shops, marketplaces, and functional sewers. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
ranged from very modest houses to
country villasA Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
. In the capital city of Rome, there were
imperialThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
residencesA house is generally a shelter, building or structure that is a dwelling or place for habitation by human beings. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings...
on the elegant
Palatine HillThe Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city...
, from which the word
palace is derived. The low
PlebianThe Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
and middle Equestrian classes lived in the city center, packed into
apartmentAn apartment, or flat, is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Such a building may be called an apartment building, especially if it consists of many apartments for rent...
s, or
InsulaeIn Roman architecture, insulae were large apartment buildings where the lower and middle classes of Romans dwelled...
which were almost like modern
ghettoOriginally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live, a ghetto is now described as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live; especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure." - Etymology :...
s. These areas, often built by upper class landlords for the rental incomes collected, were often centred upon
collegiaIn Ancient Rome, a collegium was any association with a legal personality. Such associations had various functions.-Functioning:...
or
tabernaA taberna was a single room shop covered by a barrel vault within great indoor markets of ancient Rome. Each taberna had a window above it to let light into a wooden attic for storage and had a wide doorway....
. These people, provided by a
free supply of grainThe megalopolis of ancient Rome could never be fed entirely from its own surrounding countryside, especially as this region was increasingly used to produce fruit, vegetables and other perishable goods, and also taken up with the villas and parks of the aristocracy...
, and entertained by
gladatorial gamesA Gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
, were enrolled as
clientsIn ancient Roman society, a client was a plebeian who was sponsored by a patron benefactor...
of
patronsPatronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
amongst the upper class Patricians, whose assistance they sought and whose interests they upheld.
Language
The native
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
of the Romans was
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
, an
Italic languageThe Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan, and Latin itself.In the past various definitions of "Italic" have prevailed...
the
grammar of whichThe grammar of Latin, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflected, which allows for a large degree of flexibility when choosing word order. In Latin, there are five declensions of nouns and four conjugations of verbs...
relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of
affixAn affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
es attached to
word stemIn linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached...
s. Its
alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
was based on the
Etruscan alphabetOld Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European languages and non-Indo-European languages...
, which was in turn based on the
Greek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is the first and oldest alphabet in the narrow sense that it notes each vowel and consonant with a separate symbol. It is as such in continuous use to...
. Although surviving
Latin literatureLatin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more...
consists almost entirely of
Classical LatinClassical Latin in simplest terms is the sociolinguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
, an artificial and highly stylized and polished
literary languageA literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
from the 1st century BC, the actual
spoken languageSpoken language is a form of communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into syntactically...
of the Roman Empire was
Vulgar LatinVulgar Latin can be defined simply as colloquial Latin.-Origin of the term:...
, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
and
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
, and eventually in pronunciation.
While
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
remained the main written language of the Roman Empire,
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
, Latin was never able to replace Greek, and after the death of Justinian, Greek became the official language of the Byzantine government. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
ized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct
Romance languagesThe Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
.
Religion
Archaic
Roman religionAncient Roman religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practised in ancient Rome in the form of cult practices. It is therefore the practical counterpart of Roman mythology. Within the Roman world, religious practice varied enough so that one might speak of Roman religions. The...
, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written
narrativeA narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events...
s, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely-defined sacred spirits called
numina. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own
geniusGenius in Roman mythology is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place or thing.-Religious context:...
, or divine soul. During the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
,
Roman religionAncient Roman religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practised in ancient Rome in the form of cult practices. It is therefore the practical counterpart of Roman mythology. Within the Roman world, religious practice varied enough so that one might speak of Roman religions. The...
was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank. The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hierarchy, and its chief priest, the
Pontifex MaximusThe Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
, was the head of the state religion.
FlamenA flamen was a name given to a priest assigned to a state-supported god or goddess in Roman religion. There were fifteen flamines in the Roman Republic. The most important three were the flamines maiores , who served the three chief Roman gods of the Archaic Triad...
s took care of the cults of various gods, while
augurThe augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds , known as "taking the auspices." The ceremony and function of the augur...
s were trusted with taking the
auspiceAn auspice is a type of omen already familiar to the king of Alasia in Cyprus who, in the Amarna correspondence has need of an 'eagle diviner' to be sent from Egypt...
s. The
sacred kingThe Rex Sacrorum was the office of the highest-ranking priest under the Roman Kingdom. This changed upon the founding of the Roman Republic when the newly-created office of pontifex maximus was reserved for the top priest....
took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman empire, emperors were held to be gods , and the formalized
imperial cultThe Roman Imperial cult identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State. The framework for Imperial cult was formulated during the early Principate of Augustus, and was rapidly established throughout the Empire and its provinces, with...
became increasingly prominent.
As contact with the
GreeksAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
increased, the old
Roman godsRoman mythology, or Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Ancient Rome. It can be considered as having two parts; One part, largely later and literary, consists of borrowings from Greek mythology...
became increasingly associated with
Greek gods. Thus,
JupiterIn Roman mythology, Jupiter or Jove was the king of the gods, and the god of sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon. He was called Iuppiter Optimus Maximus ; as the patron deity of the Roman state, he ruled over laws and social order...
was perceived to be the same deity as
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
,
MarsMars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and Jupiter, husband of Bellona, and the lover of Venus. He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions. The martial Romans considered him second in importance only to Jupiter...
became associated with
AresIn Greek mythology, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."-Etymology:Ares is the god of war...
, and Neptune with
PoseidonIn Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
. The Roman gods also assumed the attributes and mythologies of these Greek gods. Under the empire, the Romans absorbed the mythologies of their conquered subjects, often leading to situations in which the temples and priests of traditional Italian deities existed side by side with those of foreign gods. Beginning with Emperor
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
, Roman official policy towards Christianity was negative, and at some points, simply being a Christian could be punishable by death. Under Emperor
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
, the
persecution of ChristiansPersecution of Christians is the religious persecution of Christians as a consequence of professing their faith, both historically and in the current era....
reached its peak. However, it became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under
Constantine ICaesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus , commonly known in English as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman emperor from 306, and the sole holder of that office from 324 until his death in...
and became dominant. All religions except Christianity were prohibited in 391 AD by an edict of Emperor
Theodosius IFlavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire...
.
Art, music and literature
Roman
paintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
styles show
GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
influences, and surviving examples are primarily
frescoFresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins...
es used to adorn the walls and ceilings of country
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
s, though
Roman literatureLatin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more...
includes mentions of paintings on
woodWood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees . In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves...
,
ivoryIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
, and other materials. Several examples of Roman painting have been found at
PompeiiPompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei...
, and from these
art historiansThe history of art refers to the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture . It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and literature. It is also one of the humanities...
divide the history of Roman painting into four periods. The first style of Roman painting was practiced from the early 2nd century BC to the early- or mid-1st century BC. It was mainly composed of imitations of
marbleMarble is a non foliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications...
and
masonryMasonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone such as marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, and...
, though sometimes including depictions of mythological characters. The second style of Roman painting began during the early 1st century BC, and attempted to depict realistically three-dimensional architectural features and landscapes. The third style occurred during the reign of
AugustusGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
(27 BC – 14 AD), and rejected the
realismRealism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
of the second style in favor of simple ornamentation. A small architectural scene, landscape, or abstract design was placed in the center with a monochrome background. The fourth style, which began in the
1st century ADThe 1st century was the century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period...
, depicted scenes from mythology, while retaining architectural details and abstract patterns.
Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and
idealismIdealism is the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception...
. During the Antonine and
SeveranThe Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power during the civil war of 193, known as the Year of the Five Emperors....
periods, more ornate hair and bearding became prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also made in
relief sculpturesA relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or, in a sunken-relief, lowered, from a plane from which the main elements of the composition project . Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian...
, usually depicting Roman victories.
Latin literatureLatin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more...
was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest extant works are of historical
epicsAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
telling the early military history of Rome. As the Republic expanded, authors began to produce
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
,
comedyComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, and
tragedyTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
.
Roman music was largely based on
Greek musicThe music of ancient Greece was almost universally present in society, from marriages and funerals to religious ceremonies, staged dramas, folk music and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks...
, and played an important part in many aspects of Roman life. In the
Roman militaryThe military of the of the Western Roman Empire. Originally, the Roman military consisted entirely of the Roman army, but a small navy was first added during the Samnite Wars and later significantly expanded to include specialized ranged Navy and Land Artillery....
, musical instruments such as the
tuba (a long
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
) or the
cornu (similar to a
French hornThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
) were used to give various commands, while the
bucina (possibly a trumpet or
hornThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
) and the
lituus (probably an elongated J-shaped instrument), were used in ceremonial capacities. Music was used in the
amphitheatersAn amphitheatre is an open-air venue for spectator sports, concerts, rallies, or theatrical performances. There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word 'amphitheatre' is used: Ancient amphitheatres, built by the ancient Romans, were large central performance spaces...
between fights and in the
odeaAn Odeon, from the ancient Greek Ωδείον is a name for several ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions. They were generally small in size, especially as compared to a full-size ancient Greek theatre....
, and in these settings is known to have featured the
cornu and the
hydraulis (a type of water organ). The majority of religious rituals featured musical performances, with
tibiae (double pipes) at sacrifices,
cymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s and
TambourineThe tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"...
s at
orgiastic{Two other uses|ancient Greek gathering|sex orgy|Group seIn Ancient Greek religion, an orgy was a secret nighttime cultic congregation overseen by an orgiophant .-The Greek orgia:...
cultsIn traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is...
, and
rattlesA rattle is a percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects, like sand or nuts. Rhythmical shaking of this instrument produces repetitive, rather dry timbre noises. In some kinds of music, a rattle assumes the role of the metronome, as an alternative to...
and hymns across the spectrum. Some music historians believe that music was used at almost all public ceremonies. Music historians are not certain if Roman musicians made a significant contribution to the
theoryMusic theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composers' techniques. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the parameters or elements of music – rhythm, harmony , melody,...
or practice of music.
The
graffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
,
brothelA brothel, also known as a bordello, cathouse, whorehouse, sporting house and various other euphemisms, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sexual intercourse with clients.-Legality:Today, brothels are illegal in the vast...
s,
paintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
s, and
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
s found in
PompeiiPompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei...
and
Herculaneumthumb|240px|The towns and villages under the likely pyroclastic cloud of the [[Mt Vesuvius]] 79 AD eruption. Herculaneum is visible along the northwestern edge of the shadowed area...
suggest that the Romans had a very sex-saturated culture.
Scholarly studies
Interest in studying ancient Rome arose during the
Age of EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
.
Charles MontesquieuCharles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu , was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Era of the Enlightenment...
wrote a work
Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans. The first major work was
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written by English historian Edward Gibbon and published in six volumes. Volume I was published in 1776, and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, VI in 1788-89. The original volumes were...
by
Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788...
, which encompassed the period from the end of
2nd centuryThe 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period...
to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Like Montesquieu, Gibbon paid high tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens.
Barthold Georg NiebuhrBarthold Georg Niebuhr was a German statesman and historian.-Education and politics:Son of Carsten Niebuhr, he was born in Copenhagen...
was a founder of the examination of ancient Roman history and wrote
The Roman History, tracing the period until the
First Punic warThe First Punic War was the first of three major wars fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea. Carthage, located in what is today Tunisia, was the dominant Western Mediterranean power at the beginning of...
. Niebuhr made an attempt to determine the way the Roman tradition evolved. According to him, Romans, like other people, had an historical
ethosEthos is a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed place" , "custom, habit", equivalent to Latin mores....
which was preserved mainly in the noble families. During the
NapoleonicNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
period a work titled
The History of Romans by
Victor DuruyJean Victor Duruy was a French historian and statesman.He was born in Paris, the son of a factory worker, and at first intended for his father's trade...
appeared. It highlighted the
CaesareanGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
period popular at the time.
History of RomeThe History of Rome is a multi-volume history of ancient Rome written by Theodor Mommsen . "The Roman History made Mommsen famous in a day." Eventually it earned him the Nobel Prize.-Publication:...
,
Roman constitutional law and
Corpus Inscriptionum LatinarumThe Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life and history...
, all by
Theodor MommsenChristian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
, became very important milestones. Later the work
Greatness and Decline of Rome by
Guglielmo FerreroGuglielmo Ferrero was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome . Ferrero devoted his writings to liberalism....
was published. The Russian work
Очерки по истории римского землевладения, преимущественно в эпоху Империи (
The Outlines on Roman Landownership History, Mainly During the Empire) by Ivan Grevs contained information on the economy of
Pomponius AtticusTitus Pomponius Atticus, born Titus Pomponius , came from an old but not strictly noble Roman family of the equestrian class and the Gens Pomponia. He was a celebrated editor, banker, and patron of letters with residences in both Rome and Athens...
, one of the greatest landowners during the end of the Republic.
Games and activities
The youth of Rome had several forms of play and exercise, such as
jumpingJumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory...
,
wrestlingWrestling is an ancient martial art that uses grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, generally between two people, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
,
boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
, and
racingthumb|right|Air racing: Hungarian aerobatics pilot Peter Besenyei at speed in his Extra 300 at an air race in EnglandA sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest...
. In the countryside, pastimes for the wealthy also included
fishingFishing is the activity of catching fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and
huntingHunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
. The Romans also had several forms of ball playing, including one resembling
handballAmerican handball, usually referred to simply as handball, is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against one or more walls using their hands.- History :...
.
Dice gameDice games are games that use or incorporate a die as their sole or central component, usually as a random device.-Collectible dice games:Patterned after the success of collectible card games, a number of collectible dice games have been published...
s,
board gameA board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board"...
s, and
gamble gamesGambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period....
were extremely popular pastimes. Women did not participate in these activities. For the wealthy, dinner parties presented an opportunity for entertainment, sometimes featuring music, dancing, and poetry readings. Plebeians sometimes enjoyed similar parties through clubs or associations, although recreational dining usually meant patronizing
tavernA tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna, whose original meaning was a shed or...
s. Children entertained themselves with toys and such games as
leapfrogLeapfrog is a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs. The first participant rests hands on knees and bends over, which is called giving a back. Games of this sort have been called by this name since at least the late sixteenth century.The next player places hands on...
.
A popular form of entertainment was
gladiatorA Gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
ial combats. Gladiators fought either to the death, or to "first blood" with a variety of weapons and in a variety of different scenarios. These fights achieved their height of popularity under the emperor
ClaudiusTiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54...
, who placed the final outcome of the combat firmly in the hands of the emperor with a hand gesture. Contrary to popular representations in film, several experts believe the gesture for death was not "thumbs down". Although no one is certain as to what the gestures were, some experts conclude that the emperor would signify "death" by holding a raised fist to the winning combatant and then extending his thumb upwards, while "mercy" was indicated by a raised fist with no extended thumb. Animal shows were also popular with the Romans, where foreign animals were either displayed for the public or combined with gladiatorial combat. A prisoner or gladiator, armed or unarmed, was thrown into the arena and an animal was released.
The
Circus MaximusThe Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest Chariot Racing Stadium in ancient Rome...
, another popular site in Rome, was primarily used for
horseHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times are an early example, as is the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. It is inextricably associated with gambling...
and
chariot racingChariot racing was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse—they frequently suffered serious injury and even death—but generated strong spectator enthusiasm...
, and when the Circus was flooded, there could be sea battles. It was also used for many other events. The Circus could hold up to 385,000 people; people all over Rome would visit it. Two temples, one with seven large eggs and one with seven dolphins, lay in the middle of the track of Circus Maximus, and whenever the racers made a lap, one of each would be removed. This was done to keep the spectators and the racers informed of the race statistics. Other than for sports, the Circus Maximus was also an area of
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
and
gamblingGambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period....
. Higher authorities, such as the emperor, also attended games in the Circus Maximus, as it was considered rude to avoid attendance. The higher authorities, knights, and many other people who were involved with the race, sat in reserved seats located above everyone else. It was also considered inappropriate for emperors to favour a particular team. The Circus Maximus was created in 600 BC and hosted the last horse-racing game in 549 AD, after a custom enduring over a millennium.
Roman Technological Achievements
Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advancements that would be lost in the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
and not be rivaled again until the 19th and 20th centuries. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier Greek designs. Advancements were often divided and based on craft. Groups of
artisansA trade is an occupation that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in most kinds of crafts and small-scale production of goods.The households of the...
jealously guarded new technologies as
trade secretA trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s.
Roman engineeringRomans are generally famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology...
as well as
Roman military engineeringThe military engineering of Ancient Rome's armed forces was of a scale and frequency far beyond that of any of its contemporaries. Indeed, military engineering was in many ways institutionally endemic in Roman military culture, as demonstrated by the fact that each Roman legionary had as part of...
constituted a large portion of Rome's technological superiority and legacy, and contributed to the construction of hundreds of roads, bridges,
aqueductAn aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s,
bathsPublic baths originated from a communal need for cleanliness. Often the term public is misleading to some people, as they will have restrictions based upon who can use the facility — elite members of the culture, men only, religious only, etc...
,
theatersTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
and
arenaAn arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s. Many monuments, such as the
ColosseumThe Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
,
Pont du GardThe Pont du Gard is an aqueduct in the South of France constructed by the Roman Empire, and located in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département.-Name:...
, and
PantheonThe Pantheon is a building in...
, still remain as testaments to Roman engineering and culture.
The Romans were particularly renowned for their
architectureThe architecture of Ancient Rome at first adopted the external Greek architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from Greek buildings as to create a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture...
, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "
Classical architectureClassical architecture is the architecture of classical antiquity; chiefly the impressive public buildings, which have survived to be studied in the modern age...
". Although there were many differences from
Greek architectureArchitecture was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period to the 7th century BC, when plebian life and prosperity recovered to a point where public building could be undertaken...
, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new
ordersA classical order is one of the ancient styles of building design in the classical tradition, distinguished by their proportions and their characteristic profiles and details, but most quickly recognizable by the type of column and capital employed. Each style also has its proper entablature,...
of columns,
compositeThe composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order. The composite order volutes are larger, however, and the composite order also has echinus molding with egg-and-dart ornamentation between the volutes...
and
TuscanAmong the classical orders of architecture, the Tuscan order's place in the architectural canon is disputed. The order was only defined in the canon of classical architecture by Italian architectural theorists of the 16th century. The five orders including a "Tuscan order" were meticulously...
, and from the
domeA dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
, which was derived from the
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
archAn arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-History:Arches...
, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Republic.
In the 1st century BC, Romans started to use
concreteConcrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water, and chemical admixtures...
, widely. Concrete was invented in the late 3rd century BC. It was a powerful
cementIn the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term "opus caementicium" to describe masonry which resembled concrete and was made from crushed...
derived from
pozzolanaPozzolana, also known as pozzolanic ash, is a fine, sandy volcanic ash, originally discovered and dug in Italy at Pozzuoli in the region around Vesuvius, but later at a number of other sites...
, and soon supplanted
marbleMarble is a non foliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications...
as the chief Roman building material and allowed many daring architectural schemata. Also in the 1st century BC,
VitruviusMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices...
wrote
De architecturaright|thumbnail|A 1521 [[Italian language]] edition of De architectura, translated and illustrated by [[Cesare Cesariano]].' is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for building projects...
, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In late 1st century BC, Rome also began to use
glassblowingGlassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating the molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of the blowpipe, or blow tube...
soon after its invention in
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
about 50 BC.
MosaicMosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
s took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during
Lucius Cornelius SullaLucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , or simply Sulla, was a Roman general and politician, holding the office of consul twice as well as the dictatorship....
's campaigns in Greece.
Article on history of Roman concrete
Concrete made possible the paved, durable
Roman roads, many of which were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. It was originally constructed to allow
Roman legionThe Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the...
s to be rapidly deployed. But these highways also had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the saying "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained way stations which provided refreshments to travelers at regular intervals along the roads, constructed bridges where necessary, and established a system of horse relays for
courierA courier is a person or company employed to deliver messages, packages and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of services, and committed delivery times, which are optional for...
s that allowed a dispatch to travel up to 800 kilometers (500 mi) in 24 hours.
The Romans constructed numerous
aqueductsThe ancient Romans typically built numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome itself, being the largest city, had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed...
to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to assist in
their agricultureIn ancient Rome, agriculture was highly regarded. Virgil in his Georgics argued that simple rural life was endowed with the aura of virtues. Cicero considered farming the best of all Roman occupations...
. The city of Rome was supplied by 11 aqueducts with a combined length of 350 kilometres (220 mi). Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 metres (165 ft) had to be crossed,
inverted siphonsA siphon is a continuous tube that allows liquid to drain from a reservoir through an intermediate point that is higher, or lower, than the reservoir, the flow being driven only by the difference in hydrostatic pressure without any need for pumping...
were used to force water uphill.
The Romans also made major advancements in
sanitationSanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
. Romans were particularly famous for their public
bathsBathing is the immersion of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practiced for hygiene, religious or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....
, called
thermaeThe terms balnea or thermae were the words the ancient Romans used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization. Baths were extremely important for Romans. They stayed there for...
, which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses came to have
flush toiletA flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...
s and
indoor plumbingTap water is part of indoor plumbing, which became available in the developed world in the late 19th century and common in the mid-20th century....
, and a complex
sewerA sanitary sewer is a type of underground carriage system, , for transporting sewage from houses or industry to treatment or disposal...
system, the
Cloaca MaximaThe Cloaca Maxima was one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Constructed in ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove the waste of one of the world's most populous cities, it carried an effluent to the River Tiber, which ran beside the city....
, was used to drain the local
marshIn geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants. Woody plants will be low-growing shrubs. A marsh is different from a swamp,...
es and carry waste into the Tiber river. Some historians have speculated that the use of
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
pipes in the sewer and plumbing systems led to widespread
lead poisoningLead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body...
which contributed to the decline in
birth rateCrude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year.According to the United Nations' World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, crude birth rate is the Number of births over a given period divided by the person-years lived by the population over that...
and general decay of Roman society leading up to the
fall of RomeThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to both the gradual disintegration of the economy of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom...
. However, lead content would have been minimized because the flow of water from aqueducts could not be shut off; it ran continuously through public and private outlets into the drains, and only a small number of taps were in use.
See also
- Constitution of the Roman Republic
The Constitution of the Roman Republic or also known as mos maiorum was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...
- History of Rome
The history of Rome spans 2,800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the center of a vast civilization that dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries. Its political power was eventually replaced by that of peoples of mostly...
- Legacy of the Roman Empire
The legacy of the Roman Empire refers to the set of cultural values, religious beliefs, as well as technological and other achievements of Ancient Rome which were passed on after the demise of the empire itself and continued to shape other civilizations, a process which continues to this day.-...
- List of topics related to ancient Rome
- Regions in Greco-Roman antiquity
- Roman agriculture
In ancient Rome, agriculture was highly regarded. Virgil in his Georgics argued that simple rural life was endowed with the aura of virtues. Cicero considered farming the best of all Roman occupations...
- Roman legion
The Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the...
- Timeline of ancient Rome
This is a Timeline of events concerning ancient Rome, from the city foundation until the last attempt of the Eastern Roman Empire to re-conquer Rome.-8th century BC:* 753 BC Traditional date for the founding of Rome by Romulus; Rome as a kingdom...
Further reading
- Cowell, Frank Richard. Life in Ancient Rome. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1961 (paperback, ISBN 0-399-50328-5).
- Gabucci, Ada. Rome (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 2). Berkekely: University of California Press, 2007 (paperback, ISBN 0520252659).
- Wyke, Maria. Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History. New York; London: Routledge, 1997 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-90613-X, paperback, ISBN 0-415-91614-8).
External links