(HIST 100:
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
GREECE AND ROME
SCRIPT – 5/22)
PROF. RANDY
LYTTON)
Hello, I'm George Mason University Professor Randy Lytton, and I'll be your guide today as we explore the politics and society of ancient Greece and Rome.
(Lecture opens with two sets of visuals: a. sites and
b. significant Greeks and Romans with voice-overs identifying them - *
indicates visual: Slide: S, or Power Point Graphic: PPG)
These are some places and faces of ancient Greece and Rome.
(Slow)
*(1. S: B18) Mycenae- Bronze Age fortress of Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War
*(2. S: B153) Athens- the birthplace of democracy
*(3. S: B42) Pericles- the democratic leader at the height of AthensÕ greatness
*(4. S: B177) Alexander the Great- whose defeat of the Persian Empire
began the fusion of Greek and Asia cultures
*(5. S: A183) Alexandria- built by Alexander the Great. Its lighthouse was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
*(6. S: C18) Rome- capital of an empire that spanned the Mediterranean
*(7. S: C54) Julius Caesar- the brilliant general who brought down the republican system of Rome
*(8. S: C57) Caesar Augustus- the first emperor of Rome who established the pax Romana, the Roman peace.
(8. out)
Greek and Roman civilization developed and spread within the regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and beyond. LetÕs look at two maps.
* (9. S: B51: Classical Greece)
This first map shows the area where Greeks established their city-states, showing Athens, Sparta, Delphi and Olympia. In the eastern Mediterranean, Greek culture developed in the southern Balkan Peninsula, throughout the islands of the Aegean Sea and along the coast of Ionia, in what is now modern Turkey.
(9. out)
*(10. S: C63: Roman Empire)
In this second map we can see the extent of the Roman Empire that united the entire Mediterranean Sea basin, spreading from Britain in the West eastward and southward to the Black Sea and the coasts of the ancient Near East and North Africa.
(10. out)
Geographical factors help us to understand the dynamics of historical events. In its early historical development, Greece faced east, towards the advanced civilizations of the Ancient Near East.
(IV. Chronology of Ancient Greece and Rome.)
Also important is historical dating. There are two accepted systems for historical chronology: the traditional approach and a more recent method.
*(11. PPG)
Historical Dating
Throughout this lecture I will be using BCE: Before the Common Era instead of BC, and CE: The Common Era instead of AD. This is a new dating terminology based on the Christian calendar. The actual dates that I give you are the same in both systems.
(11. out)
The Greek and Roman civilization, that I will discuss today, flourished in the Mediterranean basin between about 1600 BCE (Before the Common Era) and 180 CE (In the Common Era). That is about 1800 years, almost two millennia. The study of ancient Greece and Rome covers a long time, but can be broken down into manageable periods. Where a date is uncertain, you will see the letter c before it, meaning Òcirca,Ó or ÒaboutÓ.
There are nine distinct time chronologies within this time framework.
The six within Greek history as follows:
*(12. PPG: Ancient Greece) - slow
Ancient Greece
12. out
*(13. PPG: The Hellenistic World) - slow
The reigns of the Macedonian kings, Philip II and his son Alexander the Great bridge the period between Classical Greece and the Hellenistic World.
(13. out)
*(14. PPG: Ancient Rome)
Ancient Rome
Within Roman history, there are three distinct periods of history, the monarchy, the republic and the empire.
(14. out.)
Chronology gives historians a sense of time. Sometimes exact dates are important. When we talk about the founding of Rome we have an exact date: April 21, 753 BCE.
Other times what is more important is relative dating, knowing that the Roman state started as monarchy, changed to a republic and finally was transformed by Augustus into an imperial form of government.
Above all, history follows a chronological process and that is why historians study cause and effect. In other words, what caused the Roman state to change from monarchy to a republic and what effect did it have on Roman history?
Another important aspect of studying ancient Greece and Rome is historical evidence.
There are three questions concerning historical evidence that I would like you to think about. The first concerns historical evidence.
*(15. PPG: Historical Evidence))
do we use in the study of
ancient Greek and Roman history?
(15. out)
The first thing that I want to point out is that very few ancient texts have survived.
There are some writings that have not yet been translated, like Minoan and Etruscan texts.
There are other written works that are known only by their author and title.
Still other texts exist only in fragments, or are only briefly mentioned in the writings of other authors.
A few longer ancient works were abridged for popular consumption.
Since only a limited number of Greek and Roman writings have survived, historians have to study a wide range of textual evidence:
besides histories, there are biographies, epic and lyric poems, tragedies, comedies, satires, letters, essays, speeches, philosophic treatises, inscriptions and coins.
Historians of modern history often have more evidence than they can hope to use. They have to be very selective in choosing their sources. Students of ancient cultures have to get as much as possible out of the written and the physical evidence that has survived.
A second important question to ask is why we call Greco-Roman literature the Classics?
*(16. PPG: The Classics))
á
Why do we call
Greco-Roman literature
The Classics?
Later Europeans believed that the surviving Greco-Roman texts were the highest class of literature.
Thus, the writings of the Greeks and Romans were called the Classics.
The term Classics comes from the Latin word Òclassicus.Ó Roman citizens were divided into classes, and "classicus" referred to the first class, hence the best.
(16. out)
So for Europeans, Greco-Roman literature set a standard.
Classical works were read and appreciated as sources of great understanding, insight and knowledge.
The Classics were used as models for later literary works.
The final questions that I would like you to consider is:
*(17. PPG)
Herodotus and Thucydides,
teach us about the study of history?
What does the discipline of history owe to the Greeks and Romans?
Herodotus, a Greek from the city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (now Turkey) has been given the title of the "father of history." Herodotus was the first European writer who analyzed historical events.
In his history of the Persian attacks on the Greeks in the early 5th century BCE., Herodotus used written, archeological and oral evidence. Yet, Herodotus, a great story teller, often depended on Greek mythology in his search for historical causation.
Thucydides, EuropeÕs first scientific historian, studied the causes and effects of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the latter part of the 5th century.
A more realistic historical observer than Herodotus, Thucydides was impersonal, impartial, and had a critical and skeptical approach to historical research. Thucydides possessed a keen understood human nature and the psychology of warfare.
(17. out)
(VI. Greek and Roman History.)
We will now turn to the classical foundation of Western Civilization: ancient Greece and Rome. I will follow the chronological outlines that I have given above. Within each period, I will focus on specific historical highlights.
As a review, I would like for you to remember that historical geography, chronology and evidence are three tools that are important to the historian.
Now, lets look at Early Greece from about 1600 to 1100 BCE.
*(18. PPG: Early
Greece: c1600-c1100 BCE) - slow
Early Greece: c1600-c1100
BCE
á
Minoan Crete
á
Mycenaean Greece
á
The Trojan War
We will focus on the Minoan culture on the island Crete, the mainland Mycenaean Greeks and the Trojan War fought on the coast of Asia Minor.
(18. out. )
There is a natural historical progression to Greek history. If you were a Greek of the 5th century BCE, you would consider Early Greece (c1600-c1100 BCE) to be ancient history.
The history of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece was the stuff of legend, a mixture of early religious myths with possible real historical people and events.
Some Greeks believed that there was a king Minos who ruled at the palace of Knossos on Crete, that Theseus, an early Athenian hero, slew the Minotaur, the bull of Minos, and that the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans actually took place.
Other Greeks probably thought that these were just interesting stories from the distant Greek past.
*(19. S. B2: map of Minoan and Mycenaean civilization)
On this map you can see the primary locations for Early Greek history: Knossos the Cretan city of Minos; Mycenae, the bronze age fort which gave its name to early Greek culture, and Troy on the Hellespont, site of the war described in Homer's Iliad.
Greece is a mountainous peninsula located in the eastern Mediterranean. Its orientation towards Asia to the east and Africa to its south, had a significant impact on GreeceÕs early historical development.
The Indo-European speaking nomadic Greeks migrated down from the north during the early Bronze Age about 2000 BCE, settled with the indigenous Mediterranean people on mainland Greece.
(19 out.)
1. These Greeks made contact with the inhabitants of the island of Crete. By 1600, the seafaring Minoan culture on the island of Crete became the cultural and commercial bridge between the early Greeks and Asia and Africa.
*(20. S. B80: Minotaur)
Knossos, the major Cretan city in northern Crete, contained the palace of Minos, whom the Greeks immortalized in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus was the legendary founder of the city of Athens. The story of his slaying the Minotaur, half man half beast, may reflect the AtheniansÕ attempt to break free from the sea empire of Cretan Knossos.
(20. out)
*(21. S. B19: Mycenae)
2. Mycenae was one of the chief fortresses of the Greek Bronze Age, which flourished about 1400. On the Greek mainland, the early Greeks manufactured bronze implements for farming and weapons of war, exporting them throughout the Mediterranean and even out into the Atlantic Ocean as far as the British Isles. Economic records were written in a script we call Linear B. Great Bronze Age fortresses dotted the Greek landscape.
(21. out)
Mycenae, in southern Greece, was the legendary home of Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. The Mycenaean kings, such as Agamemnon, Achilles and Odysseus, were the heroes of HomerÕs epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
*(22. S. B26: the Dardanelles from the site of Troy)
HomerÕs stories tell about the Greek subjugation of the city of Troy, located on the Asian side of the Hellespont, the narrow water passageway that lead from the Aegean Sea into the Black Sea.
According to Homer, the cause of the Trojan War was the abduction of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. The early Greeks often used simple stories to try to understand the reason for historical events, rather than to engage in the more complex analysis that European historians will practice later. About 1250, BCE, the Mycenaean Greeks were successful in breaking TroyÕs control of the trade that passed by here from the region of the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea.
(22. out)
Now we come to the second period of the ancient Greek history: the Dark Age, which lasted from about 1100 to 750 BCE.
*(23. PPG: The Greek Dark Age 1100-750 BCE) - slow
The Greek Dark Age: c1100-c750 BCE
Modern Europeans designated periods of drastic economic decline, which caused major changes in the social order and political systems, as so-called dark ages.
By about 1100 BCE ancient Greece entered into a Dark Age. When the trade winds shifted, bringing less rain to Greece, farms produced less food. Trade declined.
The great Bronze Age fortresses, like Mycenae, fell into ruin. Mycenaean civilization disappeared. The Greeks had entered the Dark Age.
(23. out)
New waves of Indo-European Greeks, like the Dorian Spartans, entered Greece. They pushed some earlier Ionian Greeks on the Aegean islands and on to the coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which became known as Ionia.
Iron was introduced for tools and weapons. Iron will remain the dominant metal until the 19th century when it was replaced by steel. The art of writing Greek was lost. And yet, the oral tradition of the Trojan War survived through the Dark Ages.
*(24a. S. B25: Homer)
By the early 8th century, the oral saga of the Trojan War will be written down as composed by Homer. HomerÕs Iliad and Odyssey, the earliest tales of the Greek gods and goddesses, were the ÒbibleÓ of the Greeks.
These epic poems, which reveal the Greek ideal of heroic man, will have a lasting impact on European literature.
(24a. out)
*(24b. S. C12: Virgil)
In the early Roman Empire of the emperor Augustus, the poet, Virgil connected the origins of the Roman people with the Trojan War. Virgil used HomerÕs works as a model for his epic poem, the Aeneid.
Aeneas, a prince of Troy, escaped from the burning city and undertook an ÒodysseyÓ westward to settle his people on the coast of Italy near the Tiber River. According to the Romans, these Trojan settlers were the ancestors of the Roman people.
(24b. out)
By about 750 BCE the climate improved in Greece, the land became more productive. There was a revival of trade, and the city-state or polis developed. The use of coinage will soon be introduced from Lydia in Asia Minor.
The Greeks, trading with the Phoenicians along the coast of what is now Lebanon, will adapt the Phoenician alphabet to write Greek again.
We have arrived at the age of the Greek city-states, 750 to 500 BCE.
*(25. PPG: The Greek City-States) -slow
The Greek City-States: c750-500 BCE
1. The city-state, or polis, is GreeceÕs most important contribution to Western Civilization, because it encompassed the Greek entire way of life.
(25. out)
When the 4th century philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that man was a Òpolitical animal,Ó he meant that men and women by nature were meant to live in an urban environment.
Humans flourish in cities. This is where the human spirit is its most creative.
For the Greeks the polis was a community of citizens who drew their religious, social, economic and political life from their associations with each other.
*(26. S. B51: Map of Ancient Greek Civilization).
You donÕt say ÒAthensÓ or ÒSparta,Ó you say Òthe AtheniansÓ or Òthe Spartans.Ó The citizens are the polis. The city-state is a Òcommunity of place.Ó
The polis of the Athenians included not only the city of Athens, but also the surrounding region of Attica. The polis of the Spartans incorporated the region of Laconia.
(26. out)
*(27. S. B168: Acropolis)
The acropolis, or high city, was common to most city-states. The acropolis was the defensive hill upon which the city was built. By the classical period the acropolis was adorned with temples to the cityÕs patron deity.
(27. out)
*(28. S. B167: Agora)
The agora was the market place below the acropolis, where citizens of the city-state socialized and met for economic and political activity.
(28. out)
*(29. S: B24: map of Greek colonization)
2. On this map you can see, in blue, the extent of the spread of Greek or, as the Greeks would say, Hellenic culture.
The city-states of Greece colonized the Black Sea, the coast of Asia Minor (Turkey), parts of North Africa, Spain and southern France spreading Greek culture.
Southern Italy and Sicily were known as Greater Greece (Magna Graecia).
(29. out.)
This colonization was not the act of modern national imperialism. The new colonial city-state became politically independent of its mother-polis and they often became economic rivals.
With the commercial expansion between 750 and 500, came the rise of a capitalist middle class. Soon the merchants and bankers demanded to share the political power with the landed aristocrats.
3. This led to class conflict, and the new middle class often turned to the use of popular tyrants to weaken the aristocratic control of the political machinery.
*(30. S. B36: Periander)
Periander, a tyrant of Corinth, helped his city-state take an early lead in industry and commerce among the Greeks.
(30. out)
Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens, helped to create a Timocracy, or rule of the wealthy. The timocractic government allowed the new business class to play a significant role in the political affairs of the Athenian city-state.
LetÕs review the three ages of ancient Greek history that lead up to the Classical Age.
First, Early Greece with the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures and the Trojan War;
Second, the Greek Dark Age with the decline of ancient Greek civilization and the oral transmission of the Homeric epic poetry.
This leads to the third period: the rise of the city-states with the Greek colonization of the Mediterranean, and political systems of Tyranny and Timocracy.
Now we arrive at the zenith of Greek culture, the fifth and early 4th centuries BCE.
*(31. S. PPG: Classical Greece)
Classical Greece: 500-338 BCE
á War and Imperialism
á Athenian Democracy
á The Classics
This may seem like a period of cultural contradictions. During a time of war and imperialism, Athenian democracy will flourish and Athenian literature, philosophy and art established themselves as the Classics of Western Civilization.
(31. out.)
*(32. S. A59: Map of Persian Empire)
1. The fifth century begins with the Persian Wars of 490 and 480 BCE. As you can see from this map, the Persian Empire now spread from the Indus River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Persian Imperialism now threatened the Greeks on the mainland.
(32. out)
*(33. S. A60: Persian bodyguard)
Persian soldiers, like these, marched on Greece, first against the Athenians in 490, and then against all of the Greeks in 480.
The Persian Wars resulted in the brilliant Athenian victory at Marathon in 490. The 26-mile run from the battlefield to Athens to tell of the Persian defeat was immortalized in 1896 when the modern Olympic games created the Marathon race.
Herodotus also recorded the valiant Spartan stand against the Persian at Thermopylae in 480 and the subsequent great Greek naval victory at Salamis off the coast of Attica.
(33. out)
The successful Greek defense of their city-states, led to the formation of the defensive alliance, called the Delian League. Athens turned her leadership of the Greeks into a tyranny over the Greeks.
By the mid fifth century the defensive Delian League of Greek city-states was turned into an overbearing Athenian Empire.
By 431 BCE, Athenian imperialism so threatened the Spartans and their own alliance in southern Greece called the Peloponnesian League that war broke out. The historian, Thucydides, recorded the cause and effects of the Peloponnesian war on the Greeks.
By the end of the fifth century (404), Sparta and her allies defeated the hated Athenian empire.
2. Yet among the events of imperialism and war, the Athenians flourished under a democratic system.
Cleisthenes, an Athenian politician in the late 6th century, created practical democratic institutions that became the intellectual basis for modern democracies. In supporting the political aspirations of the growing Athenian middle class, Cleisthenes broadened political participation to include the thetes who made up the lower class in Athens.
*(34. S. B42: Pericles)
In the fifth century, another
democratic politician, Pericles, widened the lower classÕs involvement in
political affairs by establishing payment for public office.
Now all of the Athenian
demos, or people (the landed aristocrats, the commercial and professional
middle class and the lower working class thetes, could be politically
active. With the inclusion of all
the demos, democracy was born.
Yet one of the ironies of
Athenian democracy was that it was funded in part by the Athenian empire, whose
subjects were forced to pay tribute.
(34. out)
3. War, imperialism and
democracy aside, we think of the fifth century Athens as the high point of
Classical Greek culture.
Greek drama flourished. The tragedies of Aeschylus focused on man's relationships with the gods. The tragedies of Sophocles were centered on human relationships within the Greek polis. The third great writer of tragedies, Euripides, was concerned more with conflicts within the individual. They all have something to tell us about human nature.
One of the many cultural contributions to the Western tradition was the Greek love of wisdom, philosophy. The three outstanding Greek rationalists were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Socrates introduced the ÒSocraticÓ method of inquiry, in which questions and answers are used to expose ignorance in order to arrive at the truth.
*(35. S. B116: Plato)
Plato, a student of Socrates, used the dialogue method of argumentative conversation in his writings to make distinctions between the material world of the senses and the higher world of ideas.
Plato argued that democracy was inherently unstable and that the best form of political rule was the concept of the philosopher-king. Rulers should employ both reason and force in governing.
(35. out)
Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school of philosophy since he liked to walk around his classroom. He attempted to classify all knowledge, and established the scientific method of inquiry.
These men were intellectual giants, and medieval and modern philosophers bow to them.
*(36. S.B59: Delphi)
The Greeks also had their spiritual side. Two religious centers were common to all Greeks. The first, Delphi, was sacred to the god Apollo.
In his sanctuary at Delphi Apollo revealed the will of the gods to all Greeks who sought his advise.
(36. out)
*(37. B134: Olympia)
The second common religious site was Olympia, where the Greeks met every four years to compete in athletic contests to honor Zeus, chief of all the Greek deities.
The modern Olympic games were introduced in 1896 and continue to be central to our global culture.
(37. out)
The Classical Age ends in the fourth century with the city-states of Greece fighting among them selves for political supremacy. Militarily weakened, they fall the expansionism of the Macedonians to the north.
First under King Philip II and then under his son Alexander III, the Greeks loose their independence. The Age of AlexanderÕs empire was a unifying force between Europe and Asia and resulted in a new culture, which we call Hellenistic.
*38. (PPG: Alexander and his Legacy: 336-31 BCE)
Alexander and his Legacy: 336-31 BCE
(38. out)
*(39. S. B177: Alexander the Great)
1. In 334 BCE, Alexander, carried out his fatherÕs plans to attack the empire of the Persians, who had sacked Athens in the early fifth century, devastating much of Greece before their defeat.
AlexanderÕs brilliant campaign strategy and tactics created to a Macedonian empire, which stretched from the coast of the Black Sea in the north southward to Nile River in Egypt, and from the coastline of the eastern Mediterranean to the banks of the Indus River. This feat earned Alexander the title of ÒMagnus,Ó which means Òthe Great.Ó
(39. out)
*(40. S. B178: Map of
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander the Great, 323 BCE)
Here you can see the vast extent of Alexander's empire and how it fragmented after his death in 323 BCE. In addition to Macedonia and Greece, it included Lydia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Media, Persia, Parthia, Bactria and the Indus Valley. Think about what modern nations make up this region today.
2. Besides destroying the Persian Empire of Darius I, what was Alexander the GreatÕs legacy? When Alexander died in 323 BCE, his generals fought for control over the empire.
Alexander the GreatÕs son, Alexander IV, was too young to succeed his father, and none of the generals proved to be powerful enough to hold the vast empire together.
AlexanderÕ empire split into four states, the kingdoms of Antgonid Macedonia, Seleucid Syria, Ptolemaic Egypt and Pergamum in Asia Minor. The once proud Greek city-states lived in the shadow of these more powerful monarchies.
From 323 to 31 BCE the Hellenistic kingdoms constantly competed among themselves for political supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. None succeeded in reestablishing AlexanderÕs empire.
Ultimately, Rome took advantage of their disunity and incorporated the Hellenistic monarchies into a Roman empire.
*(40. out)
3. Even though Alexander created no lasting political empire, he began the cultural fusion of European and Asian peoples, which is called the Hellenistic Age. The eastern Mediterranean was held together by a common Hellenistic culture.
*(41. S. B183: Theatre at Ephesus)
(41. out)
During the Hellenistic Age, astronomy was studied. Aristarchos of Samos came up with a heliocentric, or sun centered, universe in the third century BCE. It was not universally accepted and Europeans will continue to believe in a geocentric, or earth centered universe, until the 15th century CE when the astronomer Copernicus will argue for a heliocentric world.
The Hellenistic age was a period of political uncertainty, which can create stress. To cope with the uncertainties of life, new philosophies were created with the goal of personal happiness.
*(42. PPG: Hellenistic Philosophies)
Hellenistic Philosophies
Stoicism taught individuals to accept whatever happens in life; to be self-sufficient and to suppress emotion.
Epicureanism taught that the highest good of life is pleasure. Individuals should avoid activities that cause pain or fear. One should live a simple life of moderation.
(42. out)
Ancient Greece
LetÕs review the progress
of Greek history before we turn to Rome.
So far the Greeks have dominated EuropeÕs ancient past. From Early Greece of the Bronze Age
Mycenaeans, we have passed through the Greek Dark Age to the rise of the Greek
city-states.
The power and culture
Classical Greece reached its height during the 5th century, but
Greek city-states lost their independence under the Macedonian monarchy of
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age. Now it is RomeÕs turn.
(43. out)
Rome was founded in the Italian region of Latium (the region from which we get the Latin language). The Seven Hills of Rome sits near a ford of the Tiber River that was easy to cross.
Rome was never became a great commercial center like Athens in Greece or Alexandria in Egypt. RomeÕs future importance was the as the capital of the Roman Empire.
*(44. C16: Map of Ancient Roman Italy)
Rome used an extensive road network, similar to our federal highway system, to unify the Italians and then other Mediterranean peoples into an empire.
Here you can see the peninsula of Italy crisscrossed by Roman roads. In time, most, if not all, roads will lead to towards Rome.
To the south of Rome were the coastal city-states founded as Greek colonies. Neapolis (New City) in Campania is now the modern city of Naples. Southern Italy was called Magna Graecia or Greater Greece.
(44. out)
*(45. S. C1: Bridge on Etruscan Foundation)
To the north of Latium was a region called Etruria. In their road building the Roman used an Etruscan foundation for this bridge.
*(45. out)
The Etruscan people were a mystery even in ancient times. The ancients debated where the Etruscans came from. Some said that they migrated from Asia Minor; others thought that they were indigenous to Italy.
In either case, the Etruscans had a tremendous influence on early Rome.
*(46a. PPG. Early Rome: 753-509 BCE)
Early Rome: 753-509 BCE
á
Legendary Rome
á
Etruscans
á
The Fall of the
Monarchy
The early Roman monarchy begins with a legendary past and falls with the expulsion of the Etruscan kings that ruled Rome in the 6th century BCE.
(46a. out)
1. The early Romans believed in two legendary traditions. The first was that the Roman people were descended from the Trojans, who had fought the great war with the early Greek Mycenaeans, immortalized in HomerÕs epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey.
*(46b. S. B32: Aeneas)
Virgil, RomeÕs greatest epic poet, wrote that Aeneas, a prince of Troy whom you see here, escaped after the defeat by the Mycenaean Greeks in the late Bronze Age.
With his father, son and other Trojans, Aeneas fled to the coast of Italy. His people would later become the Romans.
Virgil used HomerÕs composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey as a model when he wrote the Aeneid. The Romans modeled much of their literature on Greek precedents.
(46b. out)
*(47. S. C6: Romulus and Remus)
The second tradition concerns founding of the city of Rome.
In Roman tradition, Romulus and his brother, Remus, were fathered by the god Mars. Their uncle, in order to deny their right to the throne, abandoned them along the bank of the Tiber River.
They were found and nursed by a she-wolf. When the two brothers became political rivals, Romulus killed Remus. Romulus then founded the city of Rome on the Tiber, April 21, 753 BCE.
*(47. out)
As king of Rome, Romulus
created a body of Senators, who advised the king.
All together there were
seven kings in early Rome. Numa,
RomeÕs second king was responsible for establishing the Roman priesthoods and
religious practices.
The Romans were a very
religious people, believing in spirits that protected their homes, their fields
and their persons. The genius
looked over Roman males and the Juno, Roman females.
2. The last three kings
of Rome were Etruscan rulers. The
Etruscans dominated Latium in the 6th century BCE. They unified the villages of the seven
hills into a single urban Roman community. The Etruscans introduced the Romans to Greek culture.
According to Roman tradition, Roman aristocrats deposed the last of the Etruscan kings, Tarquin the Proud, in 509 BCE. They believed that he had behaved tyrannically toward the aristocratic Senators, who advised the king.
The aristocrats literally ran Tarquin and his family out of Rome.
*(48. PPG. The Roman Republic: 509-31 BCE)
The Roman Republic:
509-31 BCE
á
Republican Government
á
Roman Imperialism
á Fall of the Republic
In 509 BCE, The Romans
set up a republican government, which will become the basis for modern
republics like our own. Under this political system the Romans will proceed to
conquer first the Italian peninsula, then the western Mediterranean and finally
the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean.
Ultimately by 31 BCE, the weight of the empire and the strain it will
place on the republican system will cause its fall.
(48. out)
1. In the Republic, aristocrats replaced the king with two annually elected consuls who were equal in power. They could, in fact, veto each otherÕs actions.
The Senate, as an advisory body to the consuls, will oversee the creation of RomeÕs empire. The people's authority was represented in the electoral and legislative assemblies.
The Greek historian Polybius believed that the republican constitution was one of the main reasons why Rome was such a successful imperial power.
According to Polybius, Rome had a mixed constitution made up of monarchy (the consuls), aristocracy (the Senate) and democracy (the popular electoral and legislative assemblies along with the law courts).
Since each one of the three parts of the republican government could check the power of the others, no single part of the republican government could dominate the others.
The mixed constitution of the Roman Republic with its checks and balances appealed to the 18th century founding fathers of the American republic who wanted to overthrow the tyranny of King George III of England.
*(49. S. C56: Cicero)
One of the strongest supporters of this republican system of government was Cicero, one of Rome's great intellects. As an orator and a writer of philosophical treatises, Cicero advocated that true citizenship meant playing an active political life in the affairs of the community.
(49. out)
*(50. S. C25: Map of Roman expansion)
2. During the Roman Republic, Rome created a great empire. Notice on this marble map how far Rome power had expanded by the mid second century BCE. Rome controlled most of Spain, all of Italy and Greece, the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.
Look at the location of Carthage in North Africa, which threatened Rome under her leader Hannibal. Today the ruins of Carthage are in the nation of Tunisia.
The creation of Rome's empire was based on the concept of defensive imperialism. RomeÕs expansion was based on her belief that the best way to defend her borders was to wage war against those who threatened her possessions.
There was no overall plan of imperial subjugation. Defensive imperialism was just a part of the mentality of RomeÕs generals.
(50. out)
*(51. S. C78: Roman Legionary)
The Roman army started out
as a voluntary militia, which defended the city of Rome. But soon the army developed into a
professional force with legionaries being paid by the state.
Roman legions expanded
not only Roman power over the entire Mediterranean but also exported Roman
culture.
First Rome defended the Latin communities from the Italian hill tribes. Then Roman armies provided protection for the Greek colonies to her south resulting in an Italian Empire by 267 BCE.
(51. out)
*(52. S. C20:
Map of Carthaginian Empire)
Control over southern Italy brought Rome into contact with the North African city of Carthage that was expanding its empire in the western Mediterranean.
Rome defended the economic interests of her southern Italian allies by declaring war on Carthage.
The most well known of these conflicts was the second Punic War against the great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, who brought his army with its elephants into Italy and ravaged the Italian countryside for 18 years.
(52. out)
In the process of empire building Rome defeated not only Carthage, but also the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria and Egypt.
The resulting provincial system created out of the newly acquired territory included the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, the western Mediterranean coasts of North Africa, Spain and France (then called Gaul), Macedonia and Greece, finally eastern Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt.
3. Whether Rome meant to or not, she had gained an empire. But Rome paid a political price. Imperial expansion weakened the republican government.
*(53. PPG.
Republican Aristocratic Factions)
The Senatorial aristocracy had split into factions.
The optimates (Òthe bestÓ) represented the landed interests of the patrician class.
The populares advocated ÒpopularÓ measures to please the plebeian middle and lower classes, as well as RomeÕs allies who wanted citizenship and the RomeÕs subjects in the provinces who were often mistreated.
There was great wealth and political influence to be gained in ruling the empire, and aristocratic factions fought for wealth and power.
(53. out)
Between 133 and 31 BCE,
the Roman Republic unraveled.
Roman generals, such as
Marius, Sulla and Pompey fought for political power and weakened the state.
Roman nobles, such as
Cicero, tried to save the Republic, but to no avail.
*(54. S. C54: Julius Caesar)
In 49 BCE, Julius Caesar, a general who had just conquered most of Gaul, crossed the Rubicon River in northern Italy, and marched on Rome.
CaesarÕs success brought and end to the Roman Republic. Caesar became ruler for life.
The Republic was finished, but as a final gesture, a group of republican aristocrats assassinated Julius Caesar on March 15th, 44 BCE, the Ides of March.
(54. out)
Following CaesarÕs death, civil war broke out. Octavian, CaesarÕs adopted son, was victorious at the battle of Actium in 31 BCE. The Roman Republic died that day, and the Roman Empire was born.
*(55. PPG:
The Early Roman Empire: 31 BCE-180 CE)
Yet the new imperial system brought new era of peace, called the Pax Romana, to RomeÕs will unite the Roman Empire from 31 BCE to 180 CE. Roman society and culture will flourish from Roman Britain to Egypt.
(55. out)
*(56. S. C58: Augustus)
1. After the civil war, Octavian, who took the name Augustus, claimed that he ÒrestoredÓ the Republic, but in fact he transformed Roman government back to a form of monarchy.
He called it the rule of the Princeps (first citizen); we call it the rule of an Emperor. But Romans and others within the empire, exhausted by war and civil strife, were more than ready to accept imperial rule
Holding no specific political office, Augustus was given an accumulation of powers by the Senate and the people of Rome that gave him supreme authority over the state.
As emperor, Augustus had the power to control RomeÕs armies, and to represent the interests of the lower plebeian class. The aristocratic Roman Senate, which had dominated the Republic, was left with little, if any, real political authority.
Rome was now under the rule of one person, not a king, but an emperor. The empire finally had stable leadership, but at the cost of aristocratic political liberty.
(56. out)
During the Roman monarchy and Republic, the father of the family, the paterfamilias, had had almost autocratic control over his wife, children and slaves.
The paterfamilias oversaw the household religion, the education of his sons and daughters and their marriages, which were often political alliances.
Slaves, gained through conquest, were used as tutors, household servants and farm hands.
During the pax Romana, women gained more independence within the family.
Many freed slaves, or freedmen, became businessmen or part of the growing governmental bureaucracy.
*(57. S. C63: map of Roman Empire 14 CE)
Commerce and trade were protected by the Roman peace from 31 BCE to 180 CE. Roman society and culture will prosper.
In this map the Roman Empire under Augustus is colored green. Notice how the Mediterranean basin has become a Roman lake.
Merchants plied their wares of iron implements, pottery and grain along the roads and shipping lanes of the Mediterranean and beyond.
From China, Rome imported silk. Romans and subjects of the
empire could move freely without fear of piracy. Roman law protected Romans and provincials alike.
(57. out)
*(58. S. C110: Gladiators)
For all Romans and their provincial subjects, the Romanization of the Mediterranean meant the enjoyment of good roads, well planned cities, public baths, theatrical performances, horse races in the amphitheaters and popular gladiatorial contests.
(58. out)
3. These first two centuries of the imperial period was also the highpoint of literature and the arts. The Golden and Silver Ages of Latin Literature saw an outpouring of poetry and prose that would have a significant influence on later European writing.
* (59. S. C12: Virgil)
Virgil and Horace, RomeÕs greatest poets, idealized RomeÕs legendary and bucolic past. Ovid, who wrote love poetry, and Juvenal, the satirist, uncovered the foibles of contemporary society.
Livy and Tacitus studied the political and social development of Rome through the rule of kings, consuls and emperors.
(59. out)
The Roman Empire reached its height under the Òfive good emperorsÓ of the second century CE. Trajan added new lands, Dacia (modern Romania) and Mesopotamia, to the empire.
His successor, Hadrian, began the process of restricting RomeÕs imperial growth. Soon the pressure of tribes outside the empire brought the collapse of the empireÕs borders.
The third century CE can be seen either as the beginning of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire or as the beginning of the transition to the medieval period of Western Civilization.
The western part of RomeÕ empire will not survive the 5th century, but the eastern portion of the Roman Empire will flourish as the medieval Byzantine Empire. The rise of Christianity during the Roman period will evolve into medieval Christendom.
As a final review, letÕs look back at what we have covered today.
First, in studying ancient Greek and Roman history, get a sense of space by learning historical geography. Learn to visualize history by looking at maps as you read.
Get a feel for the cause and effect of historical events. There is a natural flow to history.
Sometimes exact dates are important to know, but always get a feel for relative dating.
Ancient Greece had its own historical chronology:
The ancient times were found in myths about the Minoan and the Mycenaean peoples.
There was a Medieval Greek Dark Age, when the art of writing was lost, but the oral tradition of HomerÕs epics preserved the memory of the Trojan War.
Ancient Greece entered its ÒModern AgeÓ with the rise of the city-state, colonial expansion, and the development of democratic government in Athens.
The 5th century began the movement towards the world-state: The Athenian Empire, followed in the next century by the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great.
Then came the rise of Rome.
Through the myth or story of Aeneas, the Romans connected themselves to the ancient Greeks.
As the Romans went from a monarchy to a republic and finally to an imperial government, they created the greatest world-state ever, absorbing the Hellenistic remnants of AlexanderÕs Empire in the process.
This led to an era of peace and prosperity, the Pax Romana.
*(60. B57: Sacred Way)
*(61. B58: The Temple of Apollo)
*(62. B59: The Theater at Delphi)
*(63. B132: The Palestra)
*(64. B133: The Entrance to the Stadium)
*(65. B134: The Stadium)
*(66. C26: The Porta Romana)
*(67. C37: An Apartment Complex)
*(68. C42: A Roman Restaurant)
In the suburbs of modern Naples, you can visit the magnificent remains of Roman Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
*(69. C127: A garden in a Roman villa)
*(70. C123: A neighborhood bakery)
*(71. C131: The Great Amphitheater)