Founding myth
According to theKingdom
Republic
Punic Wars
Late Republic
After defeating theMarius and Sulla
Caesar and the First Triumvirate
Octavian and the Second Triumvirate
Empire – the Principate
In 27 BC and at the age of 36, Octavian was the sole Roman leader. In that year, he took the name ''Augustus (honorific), Augustus''. That event is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire—although Rome was an "imperial" state since 146 BC, when Carthage was razed byJulio-Claudian dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty was established by Augustus. The emperors of this dynasty were: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The dynasty is so-called due to the ''gens Julia'', family of Augustus, and the ''gens Claudia'', family of Tiberius. The Julio-Claudians started the destruction of republican values, but on the other hand, they boosted Rome's status as the central power in the world. While Caligula and Nero are usually remembered as dysfunctional emperors in popular culture, Augustus and Claudius are remembered as emperors who were successful in politics and the military. This dynasty instituted imperial tradition in Rome and frustrated any attempt to reestablish a Republic.Augustus
From Tiberius to Nero
Flavian dynasty
Vespasian
Vespasian was a general under Claudius and Nero. He fought as a commander in the First Jewish-Roman War along with his son Titus. Following the turmoil of the Year of the Four Emperors, in 69 AD, four emperors were enthroned: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and, lastly, Vespasian, who crushed Vitellius' forces and became emperor. He reconstructed many buildings which were uncompleted, like a statue of Apollo and the temple of ''Claudius, Divus Claudius'' ("the deified Claudius"), both initiated by Nero. Buildings once destroyed by the Great Fire of Rome were rebuilt, and he revitalized the Capitoline Hill, Capitol. Vespasian also started the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater, more commonly known as the Colosseum. The historians Josephus and Pliny the Elder wrote their works during Vespasian's reign. Vespasian was Josephus' sponsor and Pliny dedicated his ''Naturalis Historia'' to Titus, son of Vespasian. Vespasian sent legions to defend the eastern frontier in Cappadocia, extended the occupation in Britannia (modern-day England, Wales and southern Scotland) and reformed the tax system. He died in 79 AD.Titus and Domitian
Titus had a short-lived rule; he was emperor from 79 to 81 AD. He finished the Flavian Amphitheater, which was constructed with war spoils from the First Jewish-Roman War, and promoted games celebrating the victory over the Jews that lasted for a hundred days. These games included Gladiator, gladiatorial combats, chariot races and a sensational mock naval battle on the flooded grounds of the Colosseum. Titus died of fever in 81 AD, and was succeeded by his brother Domitian. As emperor, Domitian assumed totalitarian characteristics, thought he could be a new Augustus, and tried to make a personal cult of himself. Domitian ruled for fifteen years, and his reign was marked by his attempts to compare himself to the gods. He constructed at least two temples in honour of Jupiter, the supreme deity in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion. He also liked to be called "''Dominus et Deus''" ("Master and God").Nerva–Antonine dynasty
Trajan
From Hadrian to Commodus
Severan dynasty
Commodus was killed by a conspiracy involving Quintus Aemilius Laetus and his wife Marcia in late 192 AD. The following year is known as the Year of the Five Emperors, during which Helvius Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus held the imperial dignity. Pertinax, a member of the senate who had been one of Marcus Aurelius's right hand men, was the choice of Laetus, and he ruled vigorously and judiciously. Laetus soon became jealous and instigated Pertinax's murder by the Praetorian Guard, who then auctioned the empire to the highest bidder, Didius Julianus, for 25,000 sesterces per man. The people of Rome were appalled and appealed to the frontier legions to save them. The legions of three frontier provinces—Roman Britain, Britannia, Pannonia Superior, and Roman Syria, Syria—resented being excluded from the "donative" and replied by declaring their individual generals to be emperor. Lucius Septimius Severus Geta, the Pannonian commander, bribed the opposing forces, pardoned the Praetorian Guards and installed himself as emperor. He and his successors governed with the legions' support. The changes on coinage and military expenditures were the root of the financial crisis that marked the Crisis of the Third Century.Septimius Severus
From Caracalla to Alexander Severus
Crisis of the Third Century
Empire – The Tetrarchy
Diocletian
Constantine and Christianity
Constantine I, Constantine assumed the empire as a tetrarch in 306. He conducted many wars against the other tetrarchs. Firstly he defeated Maxentius in 312. In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, which granted liberty for Christians to profess their religion. Constantine was converted to Christianity, enforcing the Christian faith. He began the Christianization of the Empire and of Europe—a process concluded by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. He was defeated by the Franks and the Alamanni during 306–308. In 324 he defeated another tetrarch, Licinius, and controlled all the empire, as it was before Diocletian. To celebrate his victories and Christianity's relevance, he rebuilt Byzantium and renamed it Nova Roma ("New Rome"); but the city soon gained the informal name of Constantinople ("City of Constantine"). The reign of Julian the Apostate, Julian, who under the influence of his adviser Mardonius (philosopher), Mardonius attempted to restore Religion in ancient Rome, Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Constantinople served as a new capital for the Empire. In fact, Rome had lost its central importance since the Crisis of the Third Century—Mediolanum was the western capital from 286 to 330, until the reign of Honorius (emperor), Honorius, when Ravenna was made capital, in the 5th century. Constantine's administrative and monetary reforms, that reunited the Empire under one emperor, and rebuilt the city of Byzantium changed the high period of the Classical antiquity, ancient world.Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In the late 4th and 5th centuries the Western Empire entered a critical stage which terminated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Under the last emperors of the Constantinian dynasty and the Valentinianic dynasty, Rome lost decisive battles against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, Germanic barbarians: in 363, emperor Julian (emperor), Julian the Apostate was killed in the Battle of Samarra, against the Persians and the Battle of Adrianople cost the life of emperor Valens (364–378); the victorious Goths were never expelled from the Empire nor assimilated. The next emperor, Theodosius I (379–395), gave even more force to the Christian faith, and after his death, the Empire was divided into the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled by Arcadius and theSociety
Law
The roots of the legal principles and practices of the Outline of ancient Rome, ancient Romans may be traced to the Twelve Tables, Law of the Twelve Tables promulgated in 449 BC and to the codification of law issued by order of Emperor Justinian I around 530 AD (see Corpus Juris Civilis). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes continued into the Byzantine Empire, and formed the basis of similar codifications in continental Western 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 Praetor urbanus, ''Praetores Urbani'' (''sg. Praetor Urbanus'') were the people 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 Praetor peregrinus, ''Praetores Peregrini'' (''sg. Praetor Peregrinus'') were the people who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners. ''Ius Naturale'' encompassed natural law, the body of laws that were considered common to all beings.Class structure
Education
In the early Republic, there were no public schools, so boys were taught to read and write by their parents, or by educated List of slaves, slaves, called ''paedagogi'', usually of Greek origin.Lecture 13: A Brief Social History of the Roman EmpireGovernment
Initially, Rome was ruled by Roman Kingdom, kings, 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 executive of the SPQR, Senate and the people. At least in military matters, the king's authority (''Imperium'') was likely absolute. He was also the head of the Religion in ancient Rome, state religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the Roman Senate, Senate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the Curiate Assembly, Comitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify laws suggested by the King; and the Roman assemblies, Comitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college that could assemble the people to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare the Festival, feast and holiday schedule for the next month.Military
Economy
Family
Culture
Language
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic languages, Italic language the Latin grammar, grammar of which relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. Its Latin alphabet, alphabet was based on the Old Italic alphabet, Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn based on the Greek alphabet. Although surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation. Speakers of Latin could understand both until the 7th century when spoken Latin began to diverge so much that 'Classical' or 'Good Latin' had to be learned as a second language While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek language, Greek 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 Empire, 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 Vulgar Latin evolved into dialects in different locations, gradually shifting into many distinct Romance languages.Religion
Ethics and morality
Like many ancient cultures, concepts of ethics and morality, while sharing some commonalities with modern society, differed greatly in several important ways. Because ancient civilizations like Rome were under constant threat of attack from marauding tribes, their culture was necessarily militaristic with martial skills being a prized attribute. Whereas modern societies consider compassion a virtue, Roman society considered compassion a vice, a moral defect. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of the gladiatorial games was to inoculate Roman citizens from this weakness. Romans instead prized virtues such as courage and conviction (''virtus''), a sense of duty to one's people, moderation and avoiding excess (''moderatio''), forgiveness and understanding (''clementia''), fairness (''severitas''), and loyalty (''pietas''). Contrary to popular descriptions, Roman society had well-established and restrictive norms related to sexuality, though as with many societies, the lion's share of the responsibilities fell on women. Women were generally expected to be monogamous having only a single husband during their life (''univira''), though this was much less regarded by the elite, especially under the empire. Women were expected to be modest in public avoiding any provocative appearance and to demonstrate absolute fidelity to their husbands (''pudicitia''). Indeed, wearing a veil was a common expectation to preserve modesty. Sex outside of marriage was generally frowned upon for men and women and indeed was made illegal during the imperial period. Nevertheless, prostitution was seen entirely differently and indeed was an accepted and regulated practice.Art, music and literature
Cuisine
Ancient Roman cuisine changed over the long duration of this ancient civilization. Dietary habits were affected by the influence of Greek culture, the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new, provincial culinary habits and cooking techniques. In the beginning the differences between social classes were relatively small, but disparities evolved with the empire's growth. Men and women drank wine with their meals, a tradition that has been carried through to the present day.Games and recreation
Technology
Legacy
Ancient Rome is the progenitor of Western civilization. The Norm (sociology), customs, Religion in ancient Rome, religion, Roman law, law, Roman technology, technology, Roman architecture, architecture, Politics of Ancient Rome, political system, Roman military, military, Latin literature, literature, Latin language, languages, Latin alphabet, alphabet, government and many factors and aspects of western civilization are all inherited from Roman advancements. The rediscovery of Roman culture revitalized Western civilization, playing a role in the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.Genetics
A genetic study published in ''Science (journal), Science'' in November 2019 examined the genetic history of Rome from the Mesolithic up to modern times. The Mesolithic inhabitants of Rome were determined to be Western Hunter Gatherers (WHGs), who were almost entirely replaced by Early European Farmers (EEFs) around 6,000 BC coming fromHistoriography
Although there has been a diversity of works on ancient Roman history, many of them are lost. As a result of this loss, there are gaps in Roman history, which are filled by unreliable works, such as the ''Historia Augusta'' and other books from obscure authors. However, there remains a number of reliable accounts of Roman history.In Roman times
The first historians used their works for the lauding of Roman culture and customs. By the end of Republic, some historians distorted their histories to flatter their patrons—especially at the time of Gaius Marius, Marius's and Sulla's clash. Julius Caesar, Caesar wrote his own histories to make a complete account of his military campaigns in Gaul and during the Caesar's Civil War, Civil War. In the Empire, the biographies of famous men and early emperors flourished, examples being ''The Twelve Caesars'' of Suetonius, and Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives''. Other major works of Imperial times were that of Livy and Tacitus. * Polybius – ''The Histories (Polybius), The Histories'' * Sallust – ''Catiline, Bellum Catilinae'' and ''Jugurthine War, Bellum Jugurthinum'' * Julius Caesar – ''De Bello Gallico'' and ''De Bello Civili'' *In modern times
Interest in studying, and even idealizing, ancient Rome became prevalent during the Italian Renaissance, and continues until the present day. Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, Charles Montesquieu 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 Empire'' by Edward Gibbon, which encompassed the Roman civilization from the end of the 2nd century to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Like Montesquieu, Gibbon paid tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens. Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a founder of the examination of ancient Roman history and wrote ''The Roman History'', tracing the period until the First Punic War, First Punic war. Niebuhr tried to determine the way the Roman tradition evolved. According to him, Romans, like other people, had an historical ethos preserved mainly in the noble families. During the Napoleon I of France, Napoleonic period a work titled ''The History of Romans'' by Victor Duruy appeared. It highlighted the Julius Caesar, Caesarean period popular at the time. ''History of Rome (Mommsen), History of Rome'', ''Roman constitutional law'' and ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', all by Theodor Mommsen, became very important milestones. Later the work ''Greatness and Decline of Rome'' by Guglielmo Ferrero 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 Titus Pomponius Atticus, Pomponius Atticus, one of the largest landowners at the end of the Republic. * Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) – ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' * John Bagnall Bury (1861–1927) – ''History of the Later Roman Empire'' * Michael Grant (author), Michael Grant (1914–2004) – ''The Roman World'' * Barbara Levick (born 1932) – ''Claudius'' * Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831) * Michael Rostovtzeff (1870–1952) * Howard Hayes Scullard (1903–1983) – ''The History of the Roman World'' * Ronald Syme (1903–1989) – ''The Roman Revolution'' * Adrian Goldsworthy (born 1969) – ''Caesar: The Life of a Colossus'' and ''How Rome fell''See also
* Ancient Roman architecture * Daqin, the Chinese name for the Roman Empire * Outline of classical studies ** Outline of ancient Rome *** Constitution of the Roman Republic *** History of Rome *** Timeline of Roman history *** Legacy of the Roman Empire *** Adjectivals and demonyms for regions in Greco-Roman antiquity, Regions in Greco-Roman antiquity *** Roman agriculture *** List of ancient Romans *** List of Roman Emperors *** Roman culture *List of Roman civil wars and revoltsReferences
Footnotes CitationsSources
* * * * * * * * * * Edward Gibbon, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' * Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith (2008). ''Caesar: Life of a Colossus''. Yale University Press * * * * * *Further reading
* Coarelli, Filippo. ''Rome and environs: An archaeological guide''. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2007. * Cornell, Tim J. ''The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000–264 BC)''. London: Routledge, 1995. * Coulston, J. C, and Hazel Dodge, editors. ''Ancient Rome: The archaeology of the eternal city''. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology, 2000. * Forsythe, Gary. ''A critical history of early Rome''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. * Fox, Matthew. ''Roman historical myths: The regal period in Augustan literature''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. * Gabba, Emilio. ''Dionysius and the history of Archaic Rome''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. * Holloway, R. Ross. ''The archaeology of early Rome and Latium''. London: Routledge, 1994. * Keaveney, Arthur. ''Rome and the unification of Italy''. 2nd edition. Bristol: Bristol Phoenix, 2005. * Kraus, Christina Shuttleworth, and A.J. Woodman. ''Latin historians''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. * Mitchell, Richard E. ''Patricians and plebeians: The origin of the Roman state''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. * Potter, T.W. ''Roman Italy''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. * Raaflaub, Kurt A., editors. ''Social struggles in Archaic Rome: New perspectives on the conflict of the orders''. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. * Rosenstein, Nathan S., and Robert Morstein-Marx, editors. ''A companion to the Roman Republic''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006. * Scheidel, Walter, Richard P Saller, and Ian Morris. ''The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. * Smith, Christopher J. ''Early Rome and Latium: Economy and society c. 1000–500 BC''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. * Stewart, Roberta. ''Public office in early Rome: Ritual procedure and political practice''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. * Woolf, Greg. ''Rome: An Empire's Story''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. * Wyke, Maria. ''Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History''. New York: Routledge, 1997.External links