Roman civilisation from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD
This article is about the history of Roman civilisation in antiquity. For the history of the city of Rome, seeHistory of Rome. For other uses, seeAncient Rome (disambiguation).
^ While the deposition of EmperorRomulus Augustulus in 476 is the most commonly cited end date for the Western Empire, the last Western Roman emperorJulius Nepos, was assassinated in 480, when the title and notion of a separate Western Empire were abolished. Another suggested end date is the reorganisation of the Italian peninsula and abolition of separate Western imperial institutions underJustinian during the latter half of the 6th century.
Ancient Rome began as anItalic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside theRiver Tiber in theItalian Peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating theGreek culture of southernItaly (Magna Graecia) and theEtruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its height it controlled theNorth African coast,Egypt, Southern Europe, and most of Western Europe, theBalkans,Crimea, and much of the Middle East, includingAnatolia, theLevant, and parts ofMesopotamia andArabia. That empire was among thelargest empires in the ancient world, covering around 5 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) in AD 117,[2] with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of the world's population at the time.[b] The Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to aclassical republic and then to an increasingly autocraticmilitary dictatorship during the Empire.
Ancient Rome is often grouped intoclassical antiquity together withancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as theGreco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture, and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government calledres publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as theUnited States andFrance.[3] It achieved impressivetechnological andarchitectural feats, such as the empire-wide construction ofaqueducts androads, as well as more grandiose monuments and facilities.
Modern reconstruction of the marshy conditions of early Rome, along with a conjectural placement of theearly settlement andits fortifications
Archaeological evidence of settlement around Rome starts to emergec. 1000 BC.[4] Large-scale organisation appears onlyc. 800 BC, with the first graves in theEsquiline Hill's necropolis, along with aclay and timber wall on the bottom of thePalatine Hill dating to the middle of the 8th century BC. Starting fromc. 650 BC, the Romans started to drain the valley between theCapitoline and Palatine Hills, where today sits theRoman Forum.[5] By the 6th century BC, the Romans were constructing theTemple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline and expanding to theForum Boarium located between the Capitoline andAventine Hills.[6]
The Romans themselves had afounding myth, attributing their city toRomulus and Remus, offspring ofMars and a princess of the mythical city ofAlba Longa.[7] The sons, sentenced to death, were rescued by a wolf and returned to restore the Alban king and found a city. After a dispute, Romulus killed Remus and became the city's sole founder. The area of his initial settlement on the Palatine Hill was later known asRoma quadrata ('Square Rome'). The story dates at least to the 3rd century BC, and the later Roman antiquarianMarcus Terentius Varro placed the city's foundation to 753 BC.[8] Another legend, recorded by Greek historianDionysius of Halicarnassus, says that Prince Aeneas led a group of Trojans on a sea voyage to found a new Troy after theTrojan War. They landed on the banks of theTiber River and a woman travelling with them, Roma, torched their ships to prevent them leaving again. They named the settlement after her.[9] The Roman poetVirgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem theAeneid.
Literary and archaeological evidence is clear on there having been kings in Rome, attested in fragmentary 6th-century BC texts.[10] Long after the abolition of the Roman monarchy, a vestigialrex sacrorum was retained to exercise the monarch's former priestly functions. The Romans believed that their monarchy was elective, with seven legendary kings who were largely unrelated by blood.[11]
Evidence of Roman expansion is clear in the 6th century BC; by its end, Rome controlled a territory of some 780 square kilometres (300 square miles) with a population perhaps as high as 35,000.[11] A palace, theRegia, was constructedc. 625 BC;[11] the Romans attributed the creation of their first popular organisations and theSenate to the regal period as well.[12] Rome also started to extend its control over its Latin neighbours. While later Roman stories like theAeneid asserted that all Latins descended from the characterAeneas,[13] a common culture is attested to archaeologically.[14] Attested to reciprocal rights of marriage and citizenship between Latin cities—theJus Latii—along with shared religious festivals, further indicate a shared culture. By the end of the 6th century, most of this area had become dominated by the Romans.[15]
By the end of the 6th century BC, Rome and many of its Italian neighbours entered a period of turbulence. Archaeological evidence implies some degree of large-scale warfare.[16] According to tradition and later writers such asLivy, theRoman Republic was establishedc. 509 BC,[17] when the last of the seven kings of Rome,Tarquin the Proud, wasdeposed and a system based on annually electedmagistrates and various representative assemblies was established.[18] Aconstitution set a series ofchecks and balances, and aseparation of powers. The most important magistrates were the twoconsuls, who together exercised executive authority such asimperium, or military command.[19] The consuls had to work with theSenate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, orpatricians, but grew in size and power.[20]
Other magistrates of the Republic includetribunes,quaestors,aediles,praetors andcensors.[21] The magistracies were originally restricted topatricians, but were later opened to common people, orplebeians.[22] Republican voting assemblies included thecomitia centuriata ('centuriate assembly'), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices, and thecomitia tributa ('tribal assembly'), which elected less important offices.[23]
In the 4th century BC, Rome had come under attack by theGauls, who now extended their power in the Italian peninsula beyond thePo Valley and through Etruria. On 16 July 390 BC, a Gallic army under the leadership of tribal chieftainBrennus, defeated the Romans at theBattle of the Allia and marched to Rome. The Gauls looted and burned the city, then laid siege to the Capitoline Hill, where some Romans had barricaded themselves, for seven months. The Gauls then agreed to give the Romans peace in exchange for 1000 pounds of gold.[24] According to later legend, the Roman supervising the weighing noticed that the Gauls were using false scales. The Romans then took up arms and defeated the Gauls. Their victorious generalCamillus remarked "With iron, not with gold, Rome buys her freedom."[25]
The Romansgradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including theEtruscans.[26] The last threat to Romanhegemony in Italy came whenTarentum, a majorGreek colony, enlisted the aid ofPyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed as well.[27][26] The Romans secured their conquests by foundingRoman colonies in strategic areas, thereby establishing stable control over the region.[26]
In the 3rd century BC Rome faced a new and formidable opponent:Carthage, the other major power in the Western Mediterranean.[29] TheFirst Punic War began in 264 BC, when the city ofMessana asked for Carthage's help in their conflicts withHiero II of Syracuse. After the Carthaginian intercession, Messana asked Rome to expel the Carthaginians. Rome entered this war becauseSyracuse and Messana were too close to the newly conquered Greek cities of Southern Italy and Carthage was now able to make an offensive through Roman territory; along with this, Rome could extend its domain overSicily.[30]
Carthage was a maritime power, and the Roman lack of ships and naval experience made the path to the victory a long and difficult one for theRoman Republic. Despite this, after more than 20 years of war, Rome defeated Carthage and a peace treaty was signed. Among the reasons for theSecond Punic War[31] was the subsequent war reparations Carthage acquiesced to at the end of the First Punic War.[32] The war began with the audacious invasion of Hispania byHannibal, who marched throughHispania to the ItalianAlps. Hannibal's invasion lasted over 16 years, ravaging Italy, but ultimately Carthage was defeated in the decisiveBattle of Zama in October 202 BC.
More than a half century after these events, Carthage was left humiliated and the Republic's focus was now directed towards theHellenistic kingdoms of Greece andrevolts in Hispania. However, Carthage, having paid the war indemnity, felt that its commitments and submission to Rome had ceased, a vision not shared by theRoman Senate. TheThird Punic War began when Rome declared war against Carthage in 149 BC. Carthage resisted well at the first strike but could not withstand the attack ofScipio Aemilianus, who entirely destroyed the city, enslaved all the citizens and gained control of that region, which became the province ofAfrica. All these wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests (Sicily, Hispania and Africa) and the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power.[33]
Late Republic
After defeating theMacedonian andSeleucid Empires in the 2nd century BC, theRomans became the dominant people of theMediterranean Sea.[34] The conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms brought the Roman and Greek cultures in closer contact and the Roman elite, once rural, became cosmopolitan.
Foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at theprovinces' expense; soldiers, who were mostly small-scale farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land; and the increased reliance on foreignslaves and the growth oflatifundia reduced the availability of paid work.[35] Income from war booty,mercantilism in the new provinces, andtax farming created new economic opportunities for the wealthy, forming a new class of merchants, called theequestrians.[36] Thelex Claudia forbade members of the Senate from engaging in commerce, so while the equestrians could theoretically join the Senate, they were severely restricted in political power.[36][37] The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocked importantland reforms and refused 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 theGracchi brothers, a pair oftribunes who attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. Both brothers were killed and the Senate passed reforms reversing the Gracchi brother's actions.[38] This led to the growing divide of the plebeian groups (populares) and equestrian classes (optimates).
Gaius Marius soon became a leader of the Republic, holding the first of his seven consulships (an unprecedented number) in 107 BC by arguing that his former patronQuintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was not able to defeat and capture the Numidian kingJugurtha. Marius then started his military reform: in his recruitment to fight Jugurtha, he levied the very poor (an innovation), and many landless men entered the army. Marius was elected for five consecutive consulships from 104 to 100 BC, as Rome needed a military leader to defeat theCimbri and theTeutones, who were threatening Rome. After Marius's retirement, Rome had a brief peace, during which the Italiansocii ('allies') requested Roman citizenship and voting rights. The reformistMarcus Livius Drusus supported their legal process but was assassinated, and thesocii revolted against the Romans in theSocial War. At one point both consuls were killed; Marius was appointed to command the army together withLucius Julius Caesar andLucius Cornelius Sulla.[39]
By the end of the Social War, Marius and Sulla were the premier military men in Rome and their partisans were in conflict, both sides jostling for power. In 88 BC, Sulla was elected for his first consulship and his first assignment was to defeatMithridates VI ofPontus, whose intentions were to conquer the Eastern part of the Roman territories. However, Marius's partisans managed his installation to the military command, defying Sulla and theSenate. To consolidate his own power, Sulla conducted a surprising and illegal action: he marched to Rome with his legions, killing all those who showed support to Marius's cause. In the following year, 87 BC, Marius, who had fled at Sulla's march, returned to Rome while Sulla was campaigning in Greece. He seized power along with the consulLucius Cornelius Cinna and killed the other consul,Gnaeus Octavius, achieving his seventh consulship. Marius and Cinna revenged their partisans by conducting a massacre.[39][40]
Marius died in 86 BC, due to age and poor health, just a few months after seizing power. Cinna exercised absolute power until his death in 84 BC. After returning from his Eastern campaigns, Sulla had a free path to reestablish his own power. In 83 BC he made hissecond march on Rome and began a time of terror: thousands of nobles, knights and senators were executed. Sulla held twodictatorships and one more consulship, which began the crisis and decline of Roman Republic.[39]
Caesar and the First Triumvirate
Landing of the Romans inKent, 55 BC: Caesar with 100 ships and two legions made an opposed landing, probably nearDeal. After pressing a little way inland against fierce opposition and losing ships in a storm, he retired back across theEnglish Channel to Gaul from what was a reconnaissance in force, only to return the following year for a more seriousinvasion.
In the mid-1st century BC, Roman politics were restless. Political divisions in Rome split into one of two groups,populares (who hoped for the support of the people) andoptimates (the 'best', who wanted to maintain exclusive aristocratic control). Sulla overthrew all populist leaders and his constitutional reforms removed powers (such as those of thetribune of the plebs) that had supported populist approaches. Meanwhile, social and economic stresses continued to build; Rome had become a metropolis with a super-rich aristocracy, debt-ridden aspirants, and a large proletariat often of impoverished farmers. The latter groups supported theCatilinarian conspiracy—a resounding failure since the consulMarcus Tullius Cicero quickly arrested and executed the main leaders.
Julius Caesar reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome:Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had financed much of his earlier career, and Crassus' rival,Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (anglicised as Pompey), to whom he marriedhis daughter. He formed them into a new informal alliance including himself, theFirst Triumvirate ('three men'). Caesar's daughter died in childbirth in 54 BC, and in 53 BC, Crassus invadedParthia and was killed in theBattle of Carrhae; the Triumvirate disintegrated. Caesarconquered Gaul, obtained immense wealth, respect in Rome and the loyalty of battle-hardened legions. He became a threat to Pompey and was loathed by manyoptimates. Confident that Caesar could be stopped by legal means, Pompey's party tried to strip Caesar of his legions, a prelude to Caesar's trial, impoverishment, and exile.
To avoid this fate, Caesarcrossed the Rubicon River and invaded Rome in 49 BC. TheBattle of Pharsalus was a brilliant victory for Caesar and in this and other campaigns, he destroyed all of theoptimates leaders:Metellus Scipio,Cato the Younger, and Pompey's son,Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Pompey was murdered in Egypt in 48 BC. Caesar was now pre-eminent over Rome: in five years he held four consulships, two ordinary dictatorships, and two special dictatorships, one for perpetuity. He was murdered in 44 BC, on theIdes of March by theLiberatores.[41]
Octavian and the Second Triumvirate
Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil in Rome; the city was ruled by his friend and colleague,Mark Antony. Soon afterward,Octavian, whom Caesar adopted through his will, arrived in Rome. Octavian (historians regard Octavius as Octavian due to theRoman naming conventions) tried to align himself with the Caesarian faction. In 43 BC, along with Antony andMarcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's best friend,[42] he legally established theSecond Triumvirate. Upon its formation, 130–300 senators were executed, and their property was confiscated, due to their supposed support for theLiberatores.[43]
In 42 BC, the Senatedeified Caesar asDivus Iulius; Octavian thus becameDivi filius,[44] the son of the deified. In the same year, Octavian and Antony defeated both Caesar's assassins and the leaders of theLiberatores,Marcus Junius Brutus andGaius Cassius Longinus, in theBattle of Philippi. The Second Triumvirate was marked by theproscriptions of many senators andequites: after a revolt led by Antony's brotherLucius Antonius, more than 300 senators andequites involved were executed, although Lucius was spared.[45]
The Triumvirate divided the Empire among the triumvirs: Lepidus was given charge ofAfrica, Antony, the eastern provinces, and Octavian remained inItalia and controlledHispania andGaul. The Second Triumvirate expired in 38 BC but was renewed for five more years. However, the relationship between Octavian and Antony had deteriorated, and Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian inSicily. By the end of the Triumvirate, Antony was living inPtolemaic Egypt, ruled by his lover,Cleopatra VII. Antony's affair with Cleopatra was seen as an act of treason, since she was queen of another country. Additionally, Antony adopted a lifestyle considered too extravagant andHellenistic for a Roman statesman.[46] Following Antony'sDonations of Alexandria, whichgave to Cleopatra the title of "Queen of Kings", and to Antony's and Cleopatra's children the regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories,war between Octavian and Antony broke out. Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in theBattle of Actium in 31 BC.Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Now Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire.
In 27 BC and at the age of 36, Octavian was the sole Roman leader. In that year, he took the nameAugustus. That event is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers.[47] Hisreform of the government brought about a two-century period colloquially referred to by Romans as thePax Romana.
Julio-Claudian dynasty
TheJulio-Claudian dynasty was established byAugustus. The emperors of this dynasty were Augustus,Tiberius,Caligula,Claudius andNero. 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 Mediterranean region.[48] While Caligula and Nero are usually remembered in popular culture as dysfunctional emperors, Augustus and Claudius are remembered as successful in politics and the military. This dynasty instituted imperial tradition in Rome[49] and frustrated any attempt to reestablish a Republic.[50]
Augustus (r. 27 BC – AD 14) gathered almost all the republican powers under his official title,princeps, and diminished the political influence of thesenatorial class by boosting theequestrian class. The senators lost their right to rule certain provinces, like Egypt, since the governor of that province was directly nominated by the emperor. The creation of thePraetorian Guard and his reforms in the military, creating astanding army with a fixed size of 28 legions, ensured his total control over the army.[51] Compared with the Second Triumvirate's epoch, Augustus' reign asprinceps was very peaceful, which led the people and the nobles of Rome to support Augustus, increasing his strength in political affairs.[52] His generals were responsible for the field command, gaining such commanders asMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa,Nero Claudius Drusus andGermanicus much respect from the populace and the legions. Augustus intended to extend the Roman Empire to the whole known world, and in his reign, Rome conqueredCantabria,Aquitania,Raetia,Dalmatia,Illyricum andPannonia.[53]Under Augustus' reign, Roman literature grew steadily in what is known as theGolden Age of Latin Literature. Poets likeVirgil,Horace,Ovid andRufus developed a rich literature, and were close friends of Augustus. Along withMaecenas, he sponsored patriotic poems, such as Virgil's epicAeneid and historiographical works like those ofLivy. Augustus continued the changes to the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him.[54] Augustus brought a peaceful and thriving era to Rome, known asPax Romana.
Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus. The yellow legend represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, the shades of green represent gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas on the map representclient states; areas under Roman control shown here were subject to change even during Augustus' reign, especially inGermania.
The Julio-Claudians continued to rule Rome after Augustus' death in 14 AD and remained in power until the death of Nero in 68 AD.[55] Influenced by his wife,Livia Drusilla, Augustus appointed her son from another marriage,Tiberius, as his heir.[56] The Senate agreed with the succession, and granted to Tiberius the same titles and honours once granted to Augustus: the title ofprinceps andPater patriae, and theCivic Crown. However, Tiberius was not an enthusiast for political affairs: after agreement with the Senate, he retired toCapri in 26 AD,[57] and left control of the city of Rome in the hands of thepraetorian prefectSejanus (until 31 AD) andMacro (from 31 to 37 AD).
Tiberius died (or was killed)[58] in 37 AD. The male line of the Julio-Claudians was limited to Tiberius' nephewClaudius, his grandsonTiberius Gemellus and his grand-nephewCaligula. As Gemellus was still a child, Caligula was chosen to rule the empire. He was a popular leader in the first half of his reign, but became a crude and insane tyrant in his years controlling government.[59] The Praetorian Guard murdered Caligula four years after the death of Tiberius,[60] and, with belated support from the senators, proclaimed his uncleClaudius as the new emperor.[61] Claudius was not as authoritarian as Tiberius and Caligula. Claudius conqueredLycia andThrace; his most important deed was the beginning of theconquest of Britannia.[62] Claudius was poisoned by his wife,Agrippina the Younger in 54 AD.[63] His heir wasNero, son of Agrippina and her former husband, since Claudius' sonBritannicus had not reached manhood upon his father's death.
Nero sent his general,Suetonius Paulinus, to invade modern-dayWales, where he encountered stiff resistance. TheCelts there were independent, tough, resistant to tax collectors, and fought Paulinus as he battled his way across from east to west. It took him a long time to reach the north-west coast, and in 60 AD he finally crossed theMenai Strait to the sacred island of Mona (Anglesey), the last stronghold of thedruids.[64] His soldiersattacked the island and massacred the druids: men, women and children,[65] destroyed the shrine and thesacred groves and threw many of the sacred standing stones into the sea. While Paulinus and his troops were massacring druids in Mona, the tribes of modern-dayEast Anglia staged a revolt led by queenBoadicea of theIceni.[66] The rebels sacked and burnedCamulodunum,Londinium andVerulamium (modern-dayColchester, London andSt Albans respectively) before they werecrushed by Paulinus.[67] Boadicea, likeCleopatra before her, committed suicide to avoid the disgrace of being paraded in triumph in Rome.[68] Nero is widely known as the first persecutor ofChristians and for theGreat Fire of Rome, rumoured to have been started by the emperor himself.[69] A conspiracy against Nero in 65 AD underCalpurnius Piso failed, but in 68 AD the armies underJulius Vindex in Gaul andServius Sulpicius Galba in modern-day Spain revolted. Deserted by the Praetorian Guards and condemned to death by the senate, Nero killed himself.[70]
TheFlavians were the second dynasty to rule Rome.[71] By 68 AD, the year of Nero's death, there was no chance of a return to the Republic, and so a new emperor had to arise. After the turmoil in theYear of the Four Emperors,Titus Flavius Vespasianus (anglicised as Vespasian) took control of the empire and established a new dynasty. Under the Flavians, Rome continued its expansion, and the state remained secure.[72] Under Trajan, the Roman Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion.[73] Rome's dominion now spanned 5.0 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles).[2]
The most significantmilitary campaign undertaken during the Flavian period was thesiege and destruction ofJerusalem in 70 AD byTitus. The destruction of the city was the culmination of the Roman campaign inJudea following the Jewish uprising of 66 AD. The Second Temple was completely demolished, after which Titus' soldiers proclaimed himimperator in honour of the victory. Jerusalem was sacked and much of the population killed or dispersed.Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the siege, of whom a majority were Jewish.[74] 97,000 were captured andenslaved. Many fled to areas around the Mediterranean.
Vespasian was a general underClaudius andNero and fought as a commander in theFirst Jewish-Roman War. Following the turmoil of theYear of the Four Emperors, in 69 AD, four emperors were enthroned in turn:Galba,Otho,Vitellius, and, lastly, Vespasian, who crushed Vitellius' forces and became emperor.[75] He reconstructed many buildings which were uncompleted, like a statue ofApollo and the temple ofDivus Claudius ("the deified Claudius"), both initiated by Nero. Buildings destroyed by theGreat Fire of Rome were rebuilt, and he revitalised theCapitol. Vespasian started the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater, commonly known as theColosseum.[75] The historiansJosephus andPliny the Elder wrote their works during Vespasian's reign. Vespasian was Josephus' sponsor and Pliny dedicated hisNaturalis Historia to Titus, son of Vespasian. Vespasian sent legions to defend the eastern frontier inCappadocia, extended the occupation in Britannia (modern-day England, Wales and southernScotland) and reformed the tax system. He died in 79 AD.
Titus became emperor in 79. He finished the Flavian Amphitheater, using war spoils from the First Jewish-Roman War, and hosted victory games that lasted for a hundred days. These games includedgladiatorial combats, horse races and a sensational mock naval battle on the flooded grounds of the Colosseum.[76] Titus died of fever in 81 AD, and was succeeded by his brotherDomitian. As emperor, Domitian showed the characteristics of atyrant.[77] He ruled for fifteen years, during which time he acquired a reputation for self-promotion as a living god. He constructed at least two temples in honour of Jupiter, the supreme deity inRoman religion.[78] He was murdered following a plot within his own household.
Following Domitian's murder, the Senate rapidly appointed Nerva as Emperor. Nerva had noble ancestry, and he had served as an advisor to Nero and the Flavians. His rule restored many of the traditional liberties of Rome's upper classes, which Domitian had over-ridden.[79] TheNerva–Antonine dynasty from 96 AD to 192 AD included the "five good emperors"Nerva,Trajan,Hadrian,Antoninus Pius andMarcus Aurelius. Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were part of Italic families settled in Roman colonies outside of Italy: the families of Trajan and Hadrian had settled inItalica (Hispania Baetica), that of Antoninus Pius inColonia Agusta Nemausensis (Gallia Narbonensis), and that of Marcus Aurelius inColonia Claritas Iulia Ucubi (Hispania Baetica). The Nerva-Antonine dynasty came to an end withCommodus, son of Marcus Aurelius.[80]
Nerva abdicated and died in 98 AD, and was succeeded by the generalTrajan. Trajan is credited with the restoration of traditional privileges and rights of commoner and senatorial classes, which later Roman historians claim to have been eroded during Domitian's autocracy.[81] Trajan fought threeDacian wars, winning territories roughly equivalent to modern-dayRomania andMoldova. He undertook an ambitious public building program in Rome, includingTrajan's Forum,Trajan's Market andTrajan's Column, with the architectApollodorus of Damascus. He remodelled thePantheon and extended theCircus Maximus.[82] WhenParthia appointed a king forArmenia without consulting Rome, Trajan declaredwar on Parthia and deposed the king of Armenia. In 115 he took the Northern Mesopotamian cities ofNisibis andBatnae, organised a province ofMesopotamia (116), and issued coins that claimed Armenia and Mesopotamia were under the authority of the Roman people.[83] In that same year, he capturedSeleucia and the Parthian capitalCtesiphon (near modernBaghdad).[84] After defeating a Parthian revolt and aJewish revolt, he withdrew due to health issues, and in 117, he died ofedema.
Trajan's successor Hadrian withdrew all the troops stationed in Parthia, Armenia and Mesopotamia (modern-dayIraq), abandoning Trajan's conquests. Hadrian's army crushed a revolt inMauretania and theBar Kokhba revolt in Judea. This was the last large-scale Jewish revolt against the Romans, and was suppressed with massive repercussions in Judea. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed. Hadrian renamed the province of Judea "Provincia Syria Palaestina", after one of Judea's most hated enemies.[85] He constructed fortifications and walls, like the celebratedHadrian's Wall which separated Roman Britannia and the tribes of modern-day Scotland. Hadrian promoted culture, especially the Greek. He forbadetorture and humanised the laws. His many building projects included aqueducts, baths, libraries and theatres; additionally, he travelled nearly every province in the Empire to review military and infrastructural conditions.[86]
Following Hadrian's death in 138 AD, his successorAntoninus Pius built temples, theatres, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers ofrhetoric andphilosophy. On becoming emperor, Antoninus made few initial changes, leaving intact as far as possible the arrangements instituted by his predecessor. Antoninus expanded Roman Britannia by invading what is now southern Scotland and building theAntonine Wall.[87] He also continued Hadrian's policy of humanising the laws. His reign was the most peaceful in the entire history of Roman Empire, he left "an empire in very fine shape. It was a height that, arguably, it would never reach again."[88] He died in 161 AD.
ThePantheon, Rome, built during the reign ofHadrian, which still contains the largest unreinforced concretedome in the world
From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, the empire achieved an unprecedented status. The powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. All the citizens enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence. The Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. Gibbon declared the rule of these "Five Good Emperors" the golden era of the Empire.[91] During this time, Rome reached its greatest territorial extent.[92]
Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, became emperor after his father's death. He is not counted as one of the Five Good Emperors, due to his direct kinship with the latter emperor; in addition, he was militarily passive.Cassius Dio identifies his reign as the beginning of Romandecadence: "(Rome has transformed) from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust."[89]
Severan dynasty
Commodus was killed by a conspiracy involvingQuintus Aemilius Laetus and his wife Marcia in late 192 AD. The following year is known as theYear of the Five Emperors, during whichHelvius Pertinax,Didius Julianus,Pescennius Niger,Clodius Albinus andSeptimius 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.[93] The people of Rome were appalled and appealed to the frontier legions to save them. The legions of three frontier provinces—Britannia,Pannonia Superior, andSyria—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 oncoinage and military expenditures were the root of the financial crisis that marked theCrisis of the Third Century.
TheSeveran Tondo, c. 199, Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla and Geta, whose face is erased
Severus was enthroned after invading Rome and havingDidius Julianus killed. Severus attempted to revive totalitarianism and, addressing the Roman people and Senate, praised the severity and cruelty of Marius and Sulla, which worried the senators.[94] WhenParthia invaded Roman territory, Severus successfully waged war against that country. Notwithstanding this military success, Severus failed in invadingHatra, a rich Arabian city. Severus killed his legate, who was gaining respect from the legions; and his soldiers fell victim to famine. After this disastrous campaign, he withdrew.[95] Severus also intended to vanquish the whole of Britannia. To achieve this, hewaged war against theCaledonians. However, he became ill and died in 211 AD.
His sonsCaracalla andGeta were made emperors. Caracalla had his brother, a youth, assassinated in his mother's arms, and may have murdered 20,000 of Geta's followers. Like his father, Caracalla was warlike. He continued Severus' policy and gained respect from the legions. Knowing that the citizens ofAlexandria disliked him and were denigrating his character, Caracalla served a banquet for its notable citizens, after which his soldiers killed all the guests. From the security of the temple of Sarapis, he then directed an indiscriminate slaughter of Alexandria's people.[96] In 212, he issued theEdict of Caracalla, giving full Roman citizenship to all free men living in the Empire, with the exception of thedediticii, people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.[97]
Mary Beard points to the edict as a fundamental turning point, after whichRome was "effectively a new state masquerading under an old name".[98]
Macrinus conspired to have Caracalla assassinated by one of his soldiers during a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Moon in Carrhae, in 217 AD. Macrinus assumed power, but soon removed himself from Rome to the east and Antioch. His brief reign ended in 218, when the youngster Bassianus, high priest of the temple of the Sun at Emesa, and supposedly illegitimate son of Caracalla, was declared Emperor by the disaffected soldiers of Macrinus. He adopted the name of Antoninus but history has named him after his Sun godElagabalus, represented on Earth in the form of a large black stone. An incompetent and lascivious ruler,[99] Elagabalus adopted his cousinSeverus Alexander, as Caesar, but subsequently grew jealous and attempted to assassinate him. However, the Praetorian guard preferred Alexander, murdered Elagabalus, dragged his mutilated corpse through the streets of Rome, and threw it into the Tiber. Severus Alexander then succeeded him. Alexander waged war against many foes, including the revitalisedPersia and also theGermanic peoples, who invaded Gaul. His losses generated dissatisfaction among his soldiers, and some of them murdered him during his Germanic campaign in 235 AD.[100]
A disastrous scenario emerged after the death ofAlexander Severus: the Roman state was plagued by civil wars, externalinvasions, political chaos,pandemics andeconomic depression.[101] The old Roman values had fallen, andMithraism and Christianity had begun to spread through the populace. Emperors were no longer men linked with nobility; they usually were born in lower-classes of distant parts of the Empire. These men rose to prominence through military ranks, and became emperors through civil wars.
There were 26 emperors in a 49-year period, a signal of political instability.Maximinus Thrax was the first ruler of that time, governing for just three years. Others ruled just for a few months, likeGordian I,Gordian II,Balbinus andHostilian. The population and the frontiers were abandoned, since the emperors were mostly concerned with defeating rivals and establishing their power. The economy also suffered: massive military expenditures from theSeveri caused a devaluation of Roman coins.Hyperinflation came at this time as well. ThePlague of Cyprian broke out in 250 and killed a huge portion of the population.[102] In 260 AD, the provinces ofSyria Palaestina,Asia Minor andEgypt separated from the rest of the Roman state to form thePalmyrene Empire, ruled by QueenZenobia and centered onPalmyra. In that same year theGallic Empire was created byPostumus, retaining Britannia and Gaul.[103] These countries separated from Rome after the capture of emperorValerian by theSassanids ofPersia, the first Roman ruler to be captured by his enemies; it was a humiliating fact for the Romans.[102] The crisis began to recede during the reigns ofClaudius Gothicus (268–270), whodefeated theGothic invaders, andAurelian (271–275), who reconquered both the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires.[104] The crisis was overcome during the reign ofDiocletian.
In 284 AD, Diocletian was hailed as Imperator by the eastern army. Diocletian healed the empire from the crisis, by political and economic shifts. A new form of government was established: theTetrarchy. The Empire was divided among four emperors, two in the West and two in the East. The first tetrarchs were Diocletian (in the East),Maximian (in the West), and two junior emperors,Galerius (in the East) andFlavius Constantius (in the West). To adjust the economy, Diocletian made several tax reforms.[105]
Diocletian expelled the Persians who plundered Syria and conquered some barbarian tribes with Maximian. He adopted many behaviours of Eastern monarchs. Anyone in the presence of the emperor had now to prostrate himself—a common act in the East, but never practised in Rome before.[106] Diocletian did not use a disguised form of Republic, as the other emperors sinceAugustus had done.[107] Between 290 and 330, half a dozen new capitals had been established by the members of the Tetrarchy, officially or not: Antioch, Nicomedia, Thessalonike, Sirmium, Milan, and Trier.[108] Diocletian was also responsible for a significant Christian persecution. In 303 he andGalerius started the persecution and ordered the destruction of all the Christian churches and scripts and forbade Christian worship.[109] Diocletian abdicated in 305 AD together with Maximian, thus, he was the first Roman emperor to resign. His reign ended the traditional form of imperial rule, thePrincipate (fromprinceps) and started the Tetrarchy.
Constantine assumed the empire as a tetrarch in 306. He conducted many wars against the other tetrarchs. Firstly he defeatedMaxentius in 312. In 313, he issued theEdict of Milan, which granted liberty for Christians to profess their religion.[110] 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 theMiddle Ages. He was defeated by theFranks and theAlamanni during 306–308. In 324 he defeated another tetrarch,Licinius, and controlled all the empire, as it was beforeDiocletian. To celebrate his victories and Christianity's relevance, he rebuiltByzantium and renamed it Nova Roma ("New Rome"); but the city soon gained the informal name ofConstantinople ("City of Constantine").[111]
The reign ofJulian, who under the influence of his adviserMardonius attempted to restoreClassical Roman andHellenistic 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 ofHonorius, whenRavenna was made capital, in the 5th century.[112] Constantine's administrative and monetary reforms, that reunited the Empire under one emperor, and rebuilt the city of Byzantium, as Constantinopolis Nova Roma, changed the high period of theancient world.
The situation became more critical in 408, after the death ofStilicho, a general who tried to reunite the Empire and repel barbarian invasion in the early years of the 5th century. The professional field army collapsed. In 410, theTheodosian dynasty saw theVisigoths sack Rome.[116] During the 5th century, the Western Empire experienced a significant reduction of its territory. TheVandals conqueredNorth Africa, theVisigoths claimed the southern part ofGaul,Gallaecia was taken by theSuebi,Britannia was abandoned by the central government, and the Empire suffered further from the invasions ofAttila, chief of theHuns.[117] GeneralOrestes refused to meet the demands of the barbarian "allies" who now formed the army, and tried to expel them from Italy. Unhappy with this, their chieftainOdoacer defeated and killed Orestes, invadedRavenna and dethronedRomulus Augustus, son of Orestes. This event of 476, usually marks the end ofClassical antiquity and beginning of theMiddle Ages.[118] The Roman noble and former emperorJulius Nepos continued to rule as emperor fromDalmatia even after the deposition of Romulus Augustus until his death in 480. Some historians consider him to be the last emperor of the Western Empire instead of Romulus Augustus.[119]
After 1200 years of independence and nearly 700 years as a great power, the rule of Rome in the West ended.[120] Various reasons for Rome's fall have been proposed, including loss of Republicanism, moral decay, military tyranny, class war, slavery, economic stagnation, environmental change, disease, the decline of the Roman race, as well as the inevitable ebb and flow that all civilisations experience.The Eastern Empire survived for almost 1000 years after the fall of itsWestern counterpart and became the most stable Christianrealm during the Middle Ages. During the 6th century,Justinian reconquered the Italian peninsulafrom the Ostrogoths, North Africafrom the Vandals, and southern Hispaniafrom the Visigoths. But within a few years of Justinian's death, Byzantine possessions in Italy were greatly reduced by theLombards who settled in the peninsula.[121] In the east, partially due to the weakening effect of thePlague of Justinian as well as a series of mutuallydestructive wars against the Persian Sassanian Empire, the Byzantines were threatened by therise of Islam. Its followers rapidly brought about theconquest of the Levant, theconquest of North Africa and theconquest of Egypt during theArab–Byzantine wars, and soon presented a directthreat to Constantinople.[122][123] In the following century, the Arabscaptured southern Italy and Sicily.[124] In the west, Slavic populations penetrated deep into the Balkans.
The Byzantine Romans, however, managed to stop further Islamic expansion into their lands during the 8th century and, beginning in the 9th century, reclaimed parts of the conquered lands.[122][125] In 1000 AD, the Eastern Empire was at its height:Basil II reconqueredBulgaria and Armenia, and culture and trade flourished.[126] However, soon after, this expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 with the Byzantine defeat in theBattle of Manzikert. The aftermath of this battle sent the empire into a protracted period of decline. Two decades of internal strife andTurkic invasions ultimately led EmperorAlexios I Komnenos to send a call for help to the Western European kingdoms in 1095.[122] The West responded with theCrusades, eventually resulting in theSack of Constantinople by participants of theFourth Crusade. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 fragmented what remained of the Empire into successor states; the ultimate victor was theEmpire of Nicaea.[127] After the recapture of Constantinople by Imperial forces, the Empire was little more than a Greek state confined to theAegean coast. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire collapsed whenMehmed the Conquerorconquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453.[128]
Society
TheRoman Forum, the political, economic, cultural, and religious center of the city during the Republic and later Empire
The imperial city of Rome was the largest urban center in the empire, with a population variously estimated from 450,000 to close to one million.[129] Around 20% of the population under jurisdiction of ancient Rome (25–40%, depending on the standards used, in Roman Italy)[130] lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and severalmilitary settlements, a very high rate of urbanisation by pre-industrial standards. Most of those centers had aforum, temples, and other buildings similar to Rome's. The average life expectancy in the Middle Empire was about 26–28 years.[131][132]
The roots of the legal principles and practices of theancient Romans may be traced to theLaw of the Twelve Tables promulgated in 449 BC and to the codification of law issued by order of EmperorJustinian I around 530 AD (seeCorpus Juris Civilis). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes continued into theByzantine Roman 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.
Roman society is largely viewed ashierarchical, withslaves (servi) at the bottom,freedmen (liberti) above them, and free-born citizens (cives) at the top. Free citizens were subdivided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between thepatricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100patriarchs at the founding of the city, and theplebeians, 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 economically. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a consul as his ancestor was anoble (nobilis); a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such asMarius orCicero, was known as anovus homo ('new man') and ennobled his descendants. Patrician ancestry, however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices remained restricted to patricians.
Aclass division originally based on military service became more important. Membership of these classes was determined periodically by thecensors, according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated politics and command of the army. Next came theequestrians (equites, sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse, and who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally based on the military equipment their members could afford, followed, with theproletarii, citizens who had no property other than their children, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just above freed slaves in wealth and prestige.
Voting power in the Republic depended on class. Citizens were enrolled in voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the poorer ones, all theproletarii being enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order, from top down, and stopped as soon as most of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable to cast their votes.
Women in ancient Rome shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or take part in politics. At the same time the limited rights of women were gradually expanded (due toemancipation) and women reached freedom frompater familias, gained property rights and even had more juridical rights than their husbands, but still no voting rights, and were absent from politics.[135]
Allied foreign cities were often given theLatin Rights, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (peregrini), which gave their citizens rights underRoman law and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of Latin rights, the main division was between thosecum suffragio ('with vote'; enrolled in aRoman tribe and able to take part in thecomitia tributa) andsine suffragio ('without vote'; could not take part in Roman politics). Most of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after theSocial War of 91–88 BC, and fullRoman citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire byCaracalla in 212, with the exception of thedediticii, people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.[97]
In the early Republic, there were no public schools, so boys were taught to read and write by their parents, or by educatedslaves, calledpaedagogi, usually of Greek origin.[136][137][138] The primary aim of education during this period was to train young men in agriculture, warfare,Roman traditions, and public affairs.[136] Young boys learned much about civic life by accompanying their fathers to religious and political functions, including the Senate for the sons of nobles.[137] The sons of nobles were apprenticed to a prominentpolitical figure at the age of 16, and campaigned with the army from the age of 17.[137] Educational practices were modified after the conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the 3rd century BC and the resulting Greek influence, although Roman educational practices were still much different from Greek ones.[137][139] 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 aludus, where a teacher (called alitterator or amagister ludi, and often of Greek origin) taught them basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and sometimes Greek, until the age of 11.[137][138][140]
Beginning at age 12, students went to secondary schools, where the teacher (now called agrammaticus) taught them aboutGreek andRoman literature.[137][140] At the age of 16, some students went on torhetoric school (where the teacher, usually Greek, was called arhetor).[137][140] Education at this level prepared students for legal careers, and required that the students memorise the laws of Rome.[137]
Initially, Rome was ruled bykings, who were elected from each of Rome's major tribes in turn.[141] The exact nature of the king's power is uncertain. He may have held near-absolute power, or may have merely been the chief executive of the Senate and the people. In military matters, the king's authority (Imperium) was likely absolute. He was also the head of thestate religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: theSenate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; theComitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify laws suggested by the King; and theComitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college that could assemble the people to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare thefeast and holiday schedule for the next month.
Theclass struggles of the Roman Republic resulted in an unusual mixture of democracy andoligarchy. The word republic comes from the Latinres publica, which literally translates to 'public business'.Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (Comitia Tributa). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, theRoman Senate represented an oligarchic institution, which acted as an advisory body.
In the Republic, the Senate held actual authority (auctoritas), but no real 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 accomplishedpatricians bycensors (Censura), who could also remove a senator from his office if he was found "morally corrupt". Later, under the reforms of the dictatorSulla,quaestors were made automatic members of the Senate, though most of his reforms did not survive.
The Republic had no fixedbureaucracy, and collected taxes through the practice oftax farming. Government positions such as quaestor,aedile, orpraefect were funded by the office-holder. To prevent any citizen from gaining too much power, newmagistrates were elected annually and had to share power with a colleague. For example, under normal conditions, the highest authority was held by two consuls. In an emergency, a temporarydictator 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 theRoman Empire.
In the early Empire, the pretense of a republican form of government was maintained. TheRoman emperor was portrayed as only aprinceps, 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 increasinglyautocratic, 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 budget. Some historians have cited this as a significant reason for thedecline of the Roman Empire.
The earlyRoman army (c. 500 BC) was, like those of other contemporarycity-states influenced by Greek civilisation, a citizenmilitia that practisedhoplite tactics. It was small and organised in five classes (in parallel to thecomitia centuriata, the body of citizens organised 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.[142][143][144]
By the 3rd century BC, the Romans abandoned the hoplite formation in favour of a more flexible system in which smaller groups of 120 (or sometimes 60) men called 'maniples could manoeuvre more independently on the battlefield. Thirty maniples arranged in three lines with supporting troops constituted alegion, totalling between 4,000 and 5,000 men.[142][143] The early Republican legion consisted of five sections: manipular heavy infantry (hastati,principes andtriarii), a force of light infantry (velites), and the cavalry (equites). With the new organisation came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states.[142][143]
Until the late Republican period, the typical legionary was a property-owning citizen farmer from a rural area (anadsiduus) who served for particular (often annual) campaigns,[c] and who supplied his own equipment. After 200 BC, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for compulsory service were gradually reduced. Beginning in the 3rd century BC, legionaries were paid astipend. By the time of Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. At the end of theCivil War, Augustus reorganised Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, distributed through the provinces of the Empire.[146]
During thePrincipate, the tactical organisation of the Army continued to evolve. Theauxilia remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions. A new and versatile type of unit, thecohortes equitatae, combined cavalry and legionaries in a single formation. They could be stationed at garrisons or outposts and could fight on their own as balanced small forces or combine with similar units as a larger, legion-sized force. This increase in organizational flexibility helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces.[147] The EmperorGallienus (253–268 AD) began a reorganisation that created the last military structure of the late Empire. Withdrawing some legionaries from the fixed bases on the border, Gallienus created mobile forces (thecomitatenses, 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 defence. The basic units of the field army were regimental;legiones orauxilia for infantry andvexillationes for cavalry. Nominal strengths may have been 1,200 men for infantry regiments and 600 for cavalry, but actual troop levels could have been much lower—800 infantry and 400 cavalry.[148] Many infantry and cavalry regiments operated in pairs under the command of acomes. Field armies included regiments recruited from allied tribes and known asfoederati. 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. The Empire also used groups of barbarians to fight along with the legions as allies without integration into the field armies, under overall command of a Roman general, but led by their own officers.[148]
Military leadership evolved over the course of the history of Rome. Under the monarchy, the hoplite armies were led by the kings. During the early and middle Roman Republic, military forces were under the command of one of the two electedconsuls 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 thecursus honorum, would have served first asquaestor (often posted as deputies to field commanders), then aspraetor.[149][150] Following the end of a term as praetor or consul, a Senator might be appointed by the Senate as apropraetor orproconsul (depending on the highest office held before) to govern a foreign province. 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 alegatus (legate) he appointed from the Senatorial elite. In a province with a single legion, the legate commanded the legion (legatus legionis) and served as provincial governor, while in a province with more than one legion, each legion was commanded by a legate and the legates were commanded by the provincial governor (also a legate but of higher rank).[151]
During the later stages of the Imperial period (beginning perhaps withDiocletian), 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 (duces) 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. Decreased resources, increasing political chaos and civil war eventually left the Western Empire vulnerable to attack and takeover by neighbouring barbarian peoples.[152]
Less is known about theRoman navy than the Roman army. Prior to the middle of the 3rd century BC, officials known asduumviri 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. TheFirst Punic War 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. Thequinquereme 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 manoeuvrable vessels.[155]
As compared with atrireme, the quinquereme permitted the use of a mix of experienced and inexperienced crewmen (an advantage for a primarily land-based power), and its lesser manoeuvrability permitted the Romans to adopt and perfectboarding tactics using a troop of about 40 marines in lieu of theram. Ships were commanded by anavarch, a rank equal to a centurion, who was usually not a citizen. 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.[155]
Information suggests that by the time of the late Empire (350 AD), the Roman navy comprised several fleets including 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 thelimitanei (border troops) during this period, based at fortified river harbours along the Rhine and the Danube. 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 fleets were commanded by prefects.[156]
Workers at a cloth-processing shop, in a painting from the'fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus in Pompeii
Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and human resources. As such, Rome's economy remained focused onfarming and trade. Agriculturalfree trade changed the Italian landscape, and by the 1st century BC, vast grape andolive estates had supplanted theyeoman farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price. The annexation of Egypt, Sicily andTunisia in North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn,olive oil andwine were Italy's main exports. Two-tiercrop rotation was practised, but farm productivity was low.
Industrial and manufacturing activities were small. The largest such activities were the mining andquarrying 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 brick factories employed hundreds of workers.
The economy of the early Republic was largely based onsmallholding and paid labour. However, foreign wars and conquests madeslaves increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent onslave labour 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 labour become more economical than slave ownership.
Althoughbarter was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed coinage system, with brass, bronze, and precious metal coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in India. Before the 3rd century BC, copper was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, acrosscentral Italy. The originalcopper coins (as) had a face value of oneRoman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its intrinsic value as metal. AfterNero began debasing the silverdenarius, itslegal value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic value.
Horses were expensive and otherpack animals were slower. Mass trade on theRoman roads connected military posts, where Roman markets were centered.[157] These roads were designed for wheels.[158] As a result, there was transport ofcommodities between Roman regions, but increased with the rise ofRoman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip fromGades toAlexandria viaOstia, spanning the entire length of theMediterranean.[73] Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.
Some economists consider the Roman Empire amarket economy, similar in its degree of capitalistic practices to the 17th-century Netherlands and 18th-century England.[159]
Agold glass portrait of a family fromRoman Egypt. The Greek inscription on the medallion may indicate either the name of the artist or thepater familias who is absent in the portrait.[160]A funerary relief with members of thegensVibia, late 1st century BC,Vatican Museums
The basic units of Roman society were households and families.[134] Groups of households connected through the male line formed a family (gens), based on blood ties, a common ancestry oradoption. During the Republic, some powerful families, orGentes Maiores, came to dominate political life. Families were headed by their oldest male citizen, thepater familias (father of the family), who held lawful authority (patria potestas, 'father's power') over wives, sons, daughters, and slaves of the household, and the family's wealth.[134]
The extreme expressions of this power—the selling or killing of family members for moral or civil offences, including simple disobedience—were very rarely exercised, and were forbidden in the Imperial era. Apater familias had moral and legal duties towards all family members. Even the most despoticpater familias was expected to consult senior members of his household andgens over matters that affected the family's well-being and reputation. Traditionally, such matters were regarded as outside the purview of the state and its magistrates; under the emperors, they were increasingly subject to state interference and legislation.[161]
Once accepted into their birth family by their fathers, children were potential heirs. They could not be lawfully given away, or sold into slavery. If parents were unable to care for their child, or if its paternity was in doubt, they could resort toinfant exposure (Boswell translates this as being "offered" up to care by the gods or strangers). If a deformed or sickly newborn was patently "unfit to live", killing it was a duty of thepater familias. A citizen father who exposed a healthy freeborn child was not punished, but automatically lost hispotestas over that child. Abandoned children were sometimes adopted; some would have been sold into slavery.[162] Slavery was near-ubiquitous and almost universally accepted. In the early Republic, citizens in debt were allowed to sell their labour, and perhaps their sons, to their debtor in a limited form of slavery callednexum but this was abolished in the middle Republic. Freedom was considered a natural and proper state for citizens; slaves couldbe lawfully freed, with consent and support of their owners, and still serve their owners' family and financial interests, as freedmen or freed women. This was the basis of theclient-patron relationship, one of the most important features of Rome's economy and society.[163]
In law, apater familias heldpotestas over his adult sons with their own households. This could give rise to legal anomalies, such as adult sons also having the status of minors. No man could be considered apater familias, nor could he truly hold property under law, while his own father lived.[164][165] During Rome's early history, married daughters came under the control (manus) of their husbands'pater familias. By the late Republic, most married women retained lawful connection to their birth family, though any children from the marriage belonged to her husband's family.[166] The mother or an elderly relative often raised both boys and girls.[167] Roman moralists held that marriage and child-raising fulfilled a basic duty to family,gens, and the state. Multiple remarriages were not uncommon. Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters when these reached an age between twelve and fourteen, but most commoner-class women stayed single until their twenties, and in general seem to have been far more independent than wives of the elite. Divorce required the consent of one party, along with the return of any dowry. Both parents had power over their children during their minority and adulthood, but husbands had much less control over their wives.[168]
Roman citizen women held a restricted form of citizenship; they could not vote but were protected by law. They ran families, could own and run businesses, own and cultivate land, write their own wills, and plead in court on their own behalf, or on behalf of others, all under dispensation of the courts and the nominal supervision of a senior male relative. Throughout the late Republican and Imperial eras, a declining birthrate among the elite, and a corresponding increase among commoners was cause of concern for manygentes;Augustus tried to address this through state intervention, offering rewards to any woman who gave birth to three or more children, and penalising the childless. The latter was much resented, and the former had seemingly negligible results. Aristocratic women seem to have been increasingly disinclined to childbearing.[169]
Roman hours were counted ordinally from dawn to dawn. Thus, if sunrise was at 6 am, then 6 to 7 am was called the 'first hour'. Midday was calledmeridies, and it is from this word that the termsam (ante meridiem andpm (post meridiem) stem. The English word "noon" comes fromnona ('ninth (hour)'), which referred to 3 pm in ancient Rome.[d] The Romans had clocks (horologia), which included giant publicsundials (solaria) and water clocks (clepsydrae).
The ancient Roman week originally had eight days, which were identified by letters A to H, with the eighth day being thenundinum, or market day, a kind of weekend when farmers sold their produce on the streets. Theseven-day week, introduced from the East during the early Empire, was officially adopted during the reign ofConstantine. Romansnamed week days after celestial bodies from at least the 1st century AD.
The Roman year originally had ten months from Martius (March) to December, with the winter period not included in the calendar. The first four months were named after gods (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius) and the others were numbered (Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December).Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome (716–673 BC), is said to have introduced the months of January and February, both also named after gods, beginning the 12-month calendar still in use today. In 44 BC, the month Quintilis was renamed to Julius (July) after Julius Caesar and in 8 BC, Sextilis was renamed to Augustus (August) after Augustus.
The Romans had several ways of tracking years. One widespread way was theconsular dating, which identified years by the twoconsuls who ruled each year. Another way, introduced in the late 3rd century AD, was counting years from theindictio, a 15-year period based on the announcement of the delivery of food and other goods to the government. Another way, less popular but more similar to present day, wasab urbe condita, which counted years from the mythical foundation of Rome in 753 BC.
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, located onseven hills. The city had a vast number of monumental structures like theColosseum, theTrajan's Forum and thePantheon. It hadtheatres,gymnasiums, marketplaces, functional sewers,bath complexes complete with libraries and shops, and fountains with fresh drinking water supplied by hundreds of miles ofaqueducts. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential architecture ranged from modest houses tocountry villas.
In Rome, there wereimperial residences onPalatine Hill. The lowplebeian and middleequestrian classes lived in the city center, packed into apartments, orinsulae, which were almost like modernghettos. These areas, often built by upper class property owners to rent, were often centred uponcollegia ortaberna. These people, provided with afree supply of grain, and entertained bygladiatorial games, were enrolled asclients of patrons among the upper classpatricians, whose assistance they sought and whose interests they upheld.
While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. Most of the emperors were bilingual but had a preference for Latin in the public sphere for political reasons, a practice that first started during thePunic wars.[174] In the eastern part of the Roman Empire (and later theEastern Roman Empire), Latin was never able to replace Greek, a legacy of theHellenistic period.[175] Justinian would be the last emperor to use Latin in government and marks when Greek officially took over.[176] The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and Vulgar Latin evolved into many distinctRomance languages.
Punishment ofIxion: in the center isMercury holding thecaduceus and on the rightJuno sits on her throne. Behind herIris stands and gestures. On the left isVulcan (blond figure) standing behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it.Nephele sits at Mercury's feet; a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of thetriclinium in theHouse of the Vettii,Pompeii,Fourth Style (60–79 AD).
ArchaicRoman religion, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans.[177] Unlike inGreek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely defined sacred spirits callednumina. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its owngenius, or divine soul. During theRoman Republic,Roman religion was organised 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, thePontifex Maximus, was the head of the state religion.Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, whileaugurs were trusted with taking theauspices. Thesacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman Empire, deceased emperors who had ruled well were deified by their successors and the Senate.[178] and the formalisedimperial cult became increasingly prominent.
As contact with theGreeks increased, the oldRoman gods became increasingly associated withGreek gods.[179] 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.[180]
Beginning with EmperorNero in the 1st century AD, Roman official policy towards Christianity was negative, and at some point, being a Christian could be punishable by death. Under EmperorDiocletian, thepersecution of Christians reached its peak. However, it became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Diocletian's successor,Constantine I, with the signing of theEdict of Milan in 313, and quickly became dominant. All religions except Christianity were prohibited in 391 AD by an edict of EmperorTheodosius I.[181]
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 civilisations like Rome were under constant threat of attack from marauding tribes, their culture was necessarily militaristic with martial skills being a prized attribute.[182] Whereas modern societies considercompassion a virtue, Roman society considered compassion a vice, a moral defect. One of the primary purposes of the gladiatorial games was to inoculate Roman citizens from this weakness.[183][182][184] 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).[185]
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). Wearing a veil was a common expectation to preserve modesty. Sex outside of marriage was generally frowned upon for men and women and was made illegal during the imperial period.[186] Nevertheless, prostitution was an accepted and regulated practice.[187]
Public demonstrations of death, violence, and brutality were used as a source of entertainment in Roman communities; however it was also a way to maintain social order, demonstrate power, and signify communal unity.
Roman painting styles showGreek influences, and surviving examples are primarilyfrescoes used to adorn the walls and ceilings ofcountry villas, though Roman literature includes mentions of paintings on wood,ivory, and other materials.[188][189] Several examples of Roman painting have been found atPompeii, and from these art historians divide the history of Roman painting intofour periods.
The first style of Roman painting was practised from the early 2nd century BC to the early- or mid-1st century BC. It was mainly composed of imitations ofmarble andmasonry, though sometimes including depictions of mythological characters.The second style 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 ofAugustus (27 BC – 14 AD), and rejected therealism of the second style in favour of simple ornamentation. A small architectural scene, landscape, or abstract design was placed in the center with amonochrome background. The fourth style, which began in the 1st century AD, depicted scenes from mythology, while retaining architectural details and abstract patterns.
Portrait sculpture used youthful and classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism andidealism. During theAntonine andSeveran periods, ornate hair and bearding, with deep cutting and drilling, became popular. Advancements were also made inrelief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.
Roman music was largely based onGreek music, and played an important part in many aspects of Roman life.[190] In theRoman military, musical instruments such as thetuba (a long trumpet) or thecornu were used to give various commands, while thebuccina (possibly a trumpet or horn) and thelituus (probably an elongated J-shaped instrument), were used in ceremonial capacities.[191] Music was used in theRoman amphitheatres between fights and in theodea, and in these settings is known to have featured thecornu and thehydraulis (a type of water organ).[192] Most religious rituals featured musical performances.[193] Some music historians believe that music was used at almost all public ceremonies.[190]
Latin literature was, from its start, influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest extant works are of historicalepics telling the early military history of Rome. As the Republic expanded, authors began to produce poetry, comedy, history, andtragedy.
Ancient Rome's literary contributions are still recognised today and the works by ancient Roman authors were available in bookshops as well as in public and private libraries. Many scholars and statesmen of ancient Rome cultivated private libraries that were used both as demonstrations of knowledge and displays of wealth and power.[195]
Although Julius Caesar had intended to establish public libraries to further establish Rome as a great cultural center like Athens and Alexandria, he died before this was accomplished. Caesar's former lieutenant,Gaius Asinius Pollio, took up the project and opened the first public library in Rome in theAtrium Libertatis.[196] Emperors Augustus, Tiberius,Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan also founded or expanded public libraries in Rome during their reigns.[197][198][199] These included theUlpian Library in Trajan's Forum and libraries in theTemple of Apollo Palatinus, theTemple of Peace in the Roman Forum, theTemple of Divus Augustus, which was dedicated to Minerva when it was rebuilt under Emperor Domitian's orders.[200] By the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city of Rome had more than two dozen public libraries.[201] As the Roman Empire spread, public libraries were established in other major cities and cultural centers including Ephesos, Athens, andTimgad.[202][203]
A boy with a platter of fruits and what may be a bucket of crabs, in a kitchen with fish andsquid, on the June panel from a 3rd-century mosaic depicting the months, in theHermitage Museum inSt Petersburg,Russia[204]
Ancient Roman cuisine changed over the long duration of this ancient civilisation. Dietary habits were affected by the influence of Greek culture, the political changes fromKingdom toRepublic toEmpire, and the 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.[205]
However, some foods now considered characteristic of modern Italian cuisine were not used.[208] In particular,spinach andeggplant (aubergine) were introduced later from theArab world, and tomatoes, potatoes,capsicum peppers, and maize (the modern source ofpolenta)[207] only appeared in Europe following the discovery of theNew World and theColumbian Exchange.[208] The Romans knew of rice, but it was very rarely available to them. There were also fewcitrus fruits.[208]
Butcher's meat such as beef was an uncommon luxury. The most popular meat was pork, especiallysausages.[209] Fish was more common than meat, with a sophisticatedaquaculture and large-scale industries devoted tooyster farming. The Romans also engaged insnail farming and oak grub farming. Some fish were greatly esteemed and fetched high prices, such asmullet raised in the fishery atCosa, and "elaborate means were invented to assure its freshness".[210]
Traditionally, a breakfast calledientaculum[211] was served at dawn. At mid-day to early afternoon, Romans atecena,[211] the main meal of the day, and at nightfall a light supper calledvesperna.[212] With the increased importation of foreign foods, thecena grew larger in size and included a wider range of foods. Thus, it gradually shifted to the evening, while thevesperna[212] was abandoned completely over the course of the years. The mid-day mealprandium became a light meal to hold one over untilcena.[211]
Thetoga, a common garment during the era of Julius Caesar, was gradually abandoned by all social classes of the Empire. At the early 4th century, the toga had become just a garment worn by senators in Senate and ceremonial events. At the 4th century, the toga was replaced by thepaenula (a garment similar to a poncho) as the everyday garment of the Romans, from the lower classes to the upper classes. Another garment that was popular among the Romans in the later years of theWestern Roman Empire was thepallium, which was mostly worn by philosophers and scholars in general. Due to external influences, mainly from the Germanic peoples, the Romans adoptedtunics very similar to those used by the Germanic peoples with whom they interacted in the final years of the Western Empire, also adopted trousers and hats like thepileus pannonicus. During the Late Empire, thepaludamentum (a type of military clothing) was used only by the Emperor of Rome (since the reign of Augustus, the first emperor) while thedalmatic (also used by the Christian clergy) began to spread throughout the empire.[213]
The youth of Rome had several forms of athletic play and exercise. Play for boys was supposed to prepare them for active military service, such asjumping,wrestling,boxing, andracing.[214] In the countryside, pastimes for the wealthy also included fishing and hunting.[215] The Romans also had several forms of ball playing, including one resemblinghandball.[214]Dice games,board games, andgamble games were popular pastimes.[214] For the wealthy, dinner parties presented an opportunity for entertainment, sometimes featuring music, dancing, and poetry readings.[188] The majority, less well-off, sometimes enjoyed similar parties through clubs or associations, but for most Romans, recreational dining usually meant patronisingtaverns.[188] Children entertained themselves with toys and such games asleapfrog.[215][188]
Public games and spectacles were sponsored by leading Romans who wished to advertise their generosity and court popular approval; in Rome or its provinces, this usually meant the emperor or his governors. Venues in Rome and the provinces were developed specifically for public games. Rome'sColisseum was built in 70 AD under the Roman emperor Vespasian and opened in 80 AD to host other events andgladiatorial combats. Gladiators sometimes fought to the death, but more often to an adjudicated victory, usually in keeping with the mood of the watching crowd. Shows of exotic animals were popular in their own right; but sometimes animals were pitted against human beings, either armed professionals or unarmed criminals who had been condemned to public death.
Chariot racing was extremely popular among all classes. In Rome, these races were usually held at theCircus Maximus, which had been purpose-built for chariot and horse-racing and, as Rome's largest public place, was also used for festivals and animal shows.[216] It could seat around 150,000 people.[217]
Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advancements that were lost in theMiddle Ages and not rivalled again until the 19th and 20th centuries. An example of this isinsulated glazing, which was not invented again until the 1930s. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier Greek designs. Advancements were often divided and based on craft.Artisans guarded technologies astrade secrets.[218]
The Romans were renowned for theirarchitecture, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "Classical architecture". Although there were many differences fromGreek architecture, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two neworders of columns,composite andTuscan, and from thedome, which was derived from theEtruscanarch, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Republic.
In the 1st century BC, Romans started to useRoman concrete widely. Concrete wasinvented in the late 3rd century BC. It was a powerful cement derived frompozzolana, and soon supplantedmarble as the chief Roman building material and allowed many daring architectural forms.[219] Also in the 1st century BC,Vitruvius wroteDe architectura, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history.
The Romans also largely built using timber, causing a rapid decline of the woodlands surrounding Rome. The first evidence of long-distance wood trading come from the discovery of wood planks, felled between AD 40 and 60, coming from the Jura mountains in northeastern France and ending up more than 1,055 miles (1,700 km) away, in the foundations of a lavish portico that was part of a vast wealthy patrician villa, in Central Rome. It is suggested that timber, around 4 metres (13 ft) long, came up to Rome via the Tiber River on ships travelling across the Mediterranean Sea from the confluence of theSaône andRhône rivers in what is now the city ofLyon in present-day France.[220]
TheAppian Way (Via Appia), a road connecting the city of Rome to the southern parts of Italy, remains usable even today
With solid foundations and good drainage,[221]Roman roads were known for their durability and many segments of the Roman road system 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. They allowedRoman legions to be deployed rapidly, with predictable marching times between key points of the empire, no matter the season.[222] 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 a system of way stations, known as thecursus publicus, and established a system of horse relays allowing a dispatch to travel up to 80 km (50 mi) a day.
The Romans constructed numerousaqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to aid intheir agriculture. By the third century, the city of Rome was supplied by11 aqueducts with a combined length of 450 km (280 mi). The Romans also made major advancements in sanitation. Romans were particularly famous for their public baths, calledthermae, which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses hadflush toilets andindoor plumbing, and a complexsewer system, theCloaca Maxima, was used to drain the local marshes and carry waste into the Tiber. Some historians have speculated that lead pipes in the sewer and plumbing systems led to widespreadlead poisoning, which contributed tofall of Rome; however, lead content would have been minimised.[223][224]
The two longest ancient accounts of the Roman history, the histories of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were composed 500 years later than the date for the founding of the republic and 200 years from the defeat of Hannibal.[227] 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 theHistoria Augusta.[228]Caesar wrote his own accounts of his military campaigns inGaul and during theCivil War in part to impress his contemporaries.[229]
In the Empire, the biographies of famous men and early emperors flourished, examples beingThe Twelve Caesars of Suetonius, and Plutarch'sParallel Lives. Other major works of Imperial times were that of Livy and Tacitus.
^The specific dates vary, depending on whether one follows Roman tradition, modern archaeology, or competing views of which particular events mark endpoints.
^There are several different estimates for the population of the Roman Empire.
Goldsmith, Raymond W. (September 1984). "An Estimate of the Size And Structure of the National Product of the Early Roman Empire".Review of Income and Wealth.30 (3): 263.doi:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1984.tb00552.x. estimates 55.
Beloch, Karl Julius (1886).Bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen Welt (in German). Duncker. p. 507. estimates 54.
Maddison, Angus (2007).Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford University Press. pp. 51, 120.ISBN978-0-19-922721-1. estimates 48.
Roman Empire Population estimates 65 (while mentioning several other estimates between 55 and 120).
^Between 343 and 241 BC, the Roman army fought in every year but five.[145]
^Later in Christian liturgy, "noon" came to describe thenones, a time of prayer originally at 3 pm but later at midday, so "noon" became synonymous with midday.
References
^"Ancient Rome".Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved5 September 2017.
^Mellor, Ronald and McGee Marni,The Ancient Roman World p. 15 (Cited 15 March 2009).
^Boatwright 2012, p. 35. "Rex, the Latin word for king, appears in two fragmentary sixth-century texts, one an inscription from the shrine ofVulcan, and the other a potsherd found in theRegia".
^Magistratus by George Long, M.A. Appearing on pp. 723–724 ofA Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities by William Smith, D. C. L., LL.D. Published by John Murray, London, 1875. Website, 8 December 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2007.
^Bennett, Matthew; Dawson, Doyne; Field, Ron; Hawthornwaite, Philip; Loades, Mike (2016).The History of Warfare: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the History of Warfare from the Ancient World to the American Civil War. p. 61.
^Tarver, John Charles (1902).Tiberius, the tyrant. A. Constable. pp. 342–428.
^Johann Jakob Herzog; John Henry Augustus Bomberger (1858).The Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopedia: Being a Condensed Translation of Herzog's Real Encyclopedia. Lindsay & Blakiston. p. 99.;The Chautauquan. M. Bailey. 1881. p. 445.
^Compendium (1858).A compendium of universal history. Ancient and modern, by the author of 'Two thousand questions on the Old and New Testaments'. p. 109.
^Smith, William (1890).Abaeus-Dysponteus. J. Murray. p. 776.
^[22] Cassius Dio,Roman History, LXXVIII, 22–23.;[23]Historia Augusta,The Life of Caracalla, VI.
^abGiessen Papyrus, 40, 7–9 "I grant to all the inhabitants of the Empire the Roman citizenship and no one remains outside a civitas, with the exception of the dediticii"
^Gibbon, Edward (1906). "Chapter XX". In Bury, J. B. (ed.).The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fred de Fau and Co.
^Gibbon, Edward (1906)."Chapter XVII"(Online version). In Bury, J.B. (ed.).The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fred de Fau and Co.;Constantine I (306–337 AD) by Hans A. Pohlsander. De Imperatoribus Romanis. 8 January 2004. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
^Honorius (395–423 AD) by Ralph W. Mathisen. De Imperatoribus Romanis. 2 June 1999. Retrieved 21 March 2007.
^Gibbon, Edward (1906)."Chapter XXVI"(Online version). In Bury, J.B. (ed.).The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fred de Fau and Co.
^Lapham, Lewis (1997).The End of the World. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.ISBN0-3122-5264-1. pp. 47–50.
^[28] Bury, J.B.:History of the Later Roman Empire, 8, § 2.;[29] Bury, J.B.:History of the Later Roman Empire, 6, § 4.;[30] Bury, J.B.:History of the Later Roman Empire, 6, § 3.;[31] Bury, J. B.:History of the Later Roman Empire, 9.;"The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe".University of Calgary. August 1996. Archived fromthe original on 12 August 2013. Retrieved22 March 2007.;Duiker & Spielvogel 2001, p. 157
^Basil II (AD 976–1025) by Catherine Holmes. De Imperatoribus Romanis. 1 April 2003. Retrieved 22 March 2007.
^Gibbon, Edward (1906)."Chapter LXI"(Online version). In Bury, J. B. (ed.).The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fred de Fau and Co.
^Mehmet II by Korkut Ozgen. Theottomans.org. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
^Rossi, Lino (1981).Rotocalchi di pietra. Segni e disegni dei tempi sui monumenti trionfali dell'Impero romano (in Italian). Jaca Book. p. 59.ISBN978-8-8164-0071-9.
^For a discussion of hoplite tactics and their sociocultural setting, seeHanson, Victor Davis (1989).The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.ISBN0-394-57188-6.
^Oakley, Stephen P. (2004).The Early Republic. p. 27. inFlower 2004
^Mackay 2004, pp. 249–250 Mackay points out that the number of legions grew to 30 by 125 AD and 33 during theSeveran period (200–235 AD).
^Saddington, D. B. (2011) [2007]. "Classes: the Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets". In Erdkamp, Paul (ed.).A Companion to the Roman Army. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 201–217 (Plate 12.2 on p. 204).ISBN978-1-4051-2153-8.
^Coarelli, Filippo (1987),I Santuari del Lazio in età repubblicana. NIS, Rome, pp. 35–84.
^abThis paragraph is based uponPotter 2004, pp. 76–78
^See"Masterpieces. Desiderius' Cross".Fondazione Brescia Musei. Archived fromthe original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved2 October 2016.. For a description of scholarly research on the Brescia Medallion, see Daniel Thomas Howells (2015). "A Catalogue of the Late Antique Gold Glass in the British Museum (PDF)." London: the British Museum (Arts and Humanities Research Council), p. 7. Accessed 2 October 2016.gold glass portrait (most likely by anAlexandrian Greek due tothe Egyptian dialect of the inscription), dated to the 3rd century AD; Beckwith, John, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), 2nd edn. 1979,ISBN0-1405-6033-5, p. 25; Boardman, John ed., The Oxford History of Classical Art, 1993, OUP,ISBN0-1981-4386-9, pp. 338–340; Grig, Lucy, "Portraits, Pontiffs and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome",Papers of the British School at Rome, Vol. 72, (2004), pp. 203–230,JSTOR40311081, p. 207; Jás Elsner (2007). "The Changing Nature of Roman Art and the Art Historical Problem of Style", in Eva R. Hoffman (ed),Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Medieval World, 11–18. Oxford, Malden & Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.ISBN978-1-4051-2071-5, p. 17, Figure 1.3 on p. 18.
^Parkin, Tim, & Pomeroy, Arthur,Roman Social History, a Sourcebook, Routledge, 2007, p. 72.ISBN978-0-4154-2675-6
^Boswell, John Eastburn, "Expositio and Oblatio: The Abandonment of Children and the Ancient and Medieval Family",American Historical Review,89, 1984, p. 12
^Frier, Bruce W., and McGinn, Thomas A. J.A Casebook on Roman Family Law, Oxford University Press: American Philological Association, 2004, p. 20
^Rawson, Beryl, "The Roman Family", inThe Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives, Cornell University Press, 1986, pp. 30, 40–41.; Galinsky, Karl,Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction, Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. 130–132,ISBN978-0-6910-5890-0
^Boyd, C. E. (1915).Public Libraries and Literary Culture in Ancient Rome. University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-1-164-83397-0.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^J. Carson Webster,The Labors of the Months in Antique and Mediaeval Art to the End of the Twelfth Century, Studies in the Humanities 4 (Northwestern University Press, 1938), p. 128. In the collections of theHermitage Museum.
^Finley, M.I. (2008).Ancient History: Evidence and Models. ACLS History. p. 9.ISBN978-1-59740-534-8.Unfortunately, the two longest ancient accounts of Roman Republican history, the area in which the problems are currently the most acute and the most widely discussed, the histories of Livy and of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were composed 500 years (in very round numbers) later than the traditional date for the founding of the Republic, 200 years from the defeat of Hannibal.
^[32] Plutarch,Parallel Lives,Life of Marius, XI, 5–7.
^Handford, S. A. (1951).Caesar: The Conquest of Gaul. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 24.
_p182_Siege_of_Numantia.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_und_ihre_Kinder.jpg)
_-_frescos_02.jpg)
.jpg)
