HIST 112:

THE ROMAN WORLD.

Lecture 4 and 5
5.6.2023
 Expected Learning
Outcomes.
Upon successful completion of this lecture, the
student should be able to;
1. Identify and discuss the different periods of
ancient/early Roman history.
2. Critically examine important contributions of
ancient Roman empire to the world.

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 Geography & Topography.
• GEOGRAPHY: Where is it? Is the land
mountainous? Desert? Oceanic?
• POLITICAL: Who controls what? What type
of Government is that? Anything to do with
laws or war.
• ECONOMIC: What type of economy? How
do people make a living?
• SOCIAL: Religious, intellectual, artistic

Department of History, SOA Slide 3

• Civilization Name: Roman Civilization
• Period: 1500 BCE – 1000 BCE
• Originated Location: Italy, Sicily,
• Current Location: Italy
• Major Highlights: Concept of Civil law and
Magistracy, Republic, Roman Catholic

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 Key Terms.
• Republic: a form of government in which the
leader is not a monarch and certain citizens have
right to vote.
• Patrician: one of Rome’s wealthy landowners,
who became Rome’s ruling class (one of two
groups of Roman citizens).
• Plebeian: a member of the second and larger
group of Roman citizens, who were less wealthy
landowners, craftspeople, merchants and small
farmers.
Department of History, SOA Slide 6
• Consul: an officer of the Roman Republic who ran
the government and led the Roman army into battle.
• Praetor: an officer of the Roman Republic who was
in charge of civil law.
• Triumvirate: a government by three people with
equal power.
• Dictator: an absolute ruler
• Imperator: commander in chief of the Roman army, a
title given to Augustus by the Senate.

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 Basic Chronology & Periods of
Roman History.
• Rome was founded as a monarchy according
to Roman tradition.
• It was not long-lived.
• Its’ history was overshadowed by myth and
legend.
• Historians of Rome have divided its’ history
into 2 major periods.
• Based on types of governments that Rome
had at the time.
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1. Republic (republican government)
2. Empire (emperor)

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 Sources & Problems.
• Rome lacked interest in writing their own
history (for the first 600 years).
• According to legend, Rome was found in 753
BCE.
• “Origins” – first Roman history in Latin.
• Was not published until 149 BCE.
• Few Senators had written about Roman
History in Greek.
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• Some aristocrats also kept family histories.
• But modern historians reconstructed the story
of Rome from written and archaeological
sources.
• Work of Tacitus very influential.
• Livy – ‘History of Rome’

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 Early & Middle Republic.
• Founded by Romulus and Remius on seven
(7) hills along River Tiber.
• They made a city out of a collection of villages
that made up Rome.
• The Roman civilization flourished on the
Italian peninsula and the Island of Sicily.
• The early inhabitants also called Latins settled
into farming communities and established
small villages.
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• Between 1200-753 BCE Indo Europeans
from the North infiltrated Italy- little is
known about these people.
• After them came a mysterious people known
as Etruscans, followed by the Greeks
(during the age of Greek colonization-750-
550 BCE).
• The Greeks had a big influence on Rome.

Department of History, SOA Slide 13

• The Romans imitated their sculpture architecture,
literature, and alphabet.
• The Romans also learned how to grow olives and grapes
from the Greeks.
• The Etruscans also influenced the Romans.
• After 650 BCE, they controlled Rome and most of
Latium.
• They changed Rome from village to a city.
• The organization of the Roman army was also borrowed
from the Etruscans.
Department of History, SOA Slide 14
• In 509 BCE, the Romans overthrew the last
Etruscan king and formed a republic (a from of
gov’t in which the leader is not a monarch).
• To rule Italy, the Romans formed the Roman
Confederation
• Rome allowed some people especially the Latins,
to become citizens.
• The Romans believed in duty, courage and
discipline. They were also good diplomats.
Department of History, SOA Slide 15
• The Romans were practical in politics and did
not try to build an ideal government.
• They designed their government in response to
problems, as the problems arose.

Department of History, SOA Slide 16

• Early Rome was divided into two groups or orders –
the patricians and the plebeians.
• The patricians were wealthy landowners, who
became Rome’s ruling class.
• The plebeians were less wealthy landowners,
craftspeople, merchants and small farmers (they were
the largest group).
• Both groups could vote, but it was only the
patricians could be elected to government offices.

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• Consuls and praetors headed the executive
branch of Roman government and they were
patricians.
• In 494 BCE, a struggle broke out between
patricians and plebeians.
• It was known as the Struggle or Conflict of
the Orders.
• The struggle resulted from the plebeians desire
for equality and justice.
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• The plebeians wanted real political representation,
and safeguards against patrician domination.
• The plebeians launched strike and threatened
secession.
• In 471 BCE, plebeians won the right to hold their
own assembly (concilium plebes).
• Plebeian pressure led to the codification of
previously unpublished law known as Law of 12
Tables.
Department of History, SOA Slide 19
 Rome Expansion under Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars:
• First Punic war occurred between 264 and 241 BCE –
fought over Sicily and won by Rome.
• Second war was fought between 219 and 201 BCE –
Carthage attacked Rome through Spain.
• Its leader Hannibal (c.247-188 BCE) led Carthaginian
forces over the Alps into Italy.
• Roman victory turned the Mediterranean into ‘mare
nostrum’ for Rome.
Department of History, SOA Slide 20
• Third Punic war – fought fifty years later with
Carthage in 146 BCE, Roman destroyed
Carthage and it became a Roman province
called Africa.

Department of History, SOA Slide 21

 Fall of the Roman Republic.
• Activity of political factions – the ‘populares’
and the ‘optimates’.
• Defined by political violence and civil war.
• The death of Gracchus brothers

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 Lecture 5

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

 From Republic to Empire.
• Growing inequality and Unrest – senate was
controlled by a wealthy group of aristocrats.
• Two brothers – Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus,
tried to solve this problem.
• A group of senators killed the Gracchus
brothers.
• A new role for the army – by the end of the 2 nd
C, a Roman general named Marius began to
recruit his armies (landless poor).
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• A civil war broke out between Marius and
Sulla (due to transfer of command).
• For the next 50 years (82-31 BCE), Rome was
torn by civil wars.
• Various men competed for power.
• 3-men: Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar
were victorious.
• Crassus was a richest man, Pompey and JC-
military heroes.
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• Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar form the
first triumvirate.
• Crassus – command spain
• Pompey – in Syria
• Julius Caesar – in Gaul (What is now
known?).
• The deaf of Crassus in battle in 53 BCE, left
two leaders.
• Caesar’s army defeated Pompey’s
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• Caesar became dictator (absolute ruler) in 45
BCE.
• He gave land to the poor, and increased the
number of the senators to 900.
• This weakened the power of the senate.
• In 44 BCE, a group of leading senators
assassinated him,
• After his death, there was a struggle for power.

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 2nd Triumvirate
• 3-men: Octavian, Antony and Lepidus –
joined forces and formed the Second
triumvirate.
• Octavian was Caesar’s grandnephew.
• Antony had been Caesar’s assistant.
• Lepidus had been the commander of Caesar’s
cavalry.
• Within a few years, only two of the men,
Octavian and Antony were in power.
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• They divided Roman world between them –
Octavian took the west, and Antony took the
east.
• Octavian and Antony soon came into conflict.
• Antony allied himself with the Egyptian queen
Cleopatra VII.
• At the battle of Actium, in Greece (31 BCE),
Octavian forces won.

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 The Age of Augustus.
• Octavian was now the only leader of Rome,
civil war had ended.
• Octavian proclaimed the ‘restoration of the
Republic’.
• He became the first Roman emperor and the
Senate gave him the title – Augustus when
means ‘the revered one’.
• The period from 31 BCE to 14 CE is known as
the Age of Augustus.
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 Pax Romana.
• Beginning 14 CE, a series of new emperors
ruled Rome.
• This period is called the Early Empire, the
emperor could select his successor from his
own family.
• The first four emperors after Augustus came
from his family.
• They were Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and
Nero.
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• These emperors took away more and more of
the Senate’s powers,
• They became more powerful and more
corrupt.
• Nero, for example, had people killed if he
wanted them out of the way.
• He even killed his own mother.
• At the beginning of the 2nd C, there were a
series of 5 emperors who are called the ‘good
emperors’. 32
• They were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus
Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
• They created a period of peace and prosperity
known as the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace)
• This period lasted for almost a hundred years.

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 Early Religion of Rome.
• Romans profoundly copied the Greek gods, changing
their name and attribute.
• Sacrifice was practice fundamentally in many of the
ceremonies.
• It was believed that Roman received a good fortune if
god was happy.
• In order to make the Roman gods happy, several
sacrifice was practiced in ancient Rome. Each
sacrifice was highly ritualized.
Department of History, SOA Slide 34
Source: (Glencoe World History) Slide 35
 Major God in Rome influenced by
Greek.
ROMAN GOD GREEK ORIGIN
• Apollo • Apollo
• Ceres • Demeter
• Diana • Artemis
• Juno • Hera
• Jupiter • Zeus
• Mars • Ares
• Mercury • Hermes
• Minerva • Athena
• Neptune • Poseidon 36
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 Some popular Gods of Rome.

Jupiter (Male): The main and master God of the Rome.

Juno (Female): Wife of Jupiter and Goddess of Women
and fertility
Mars (Male): War of God.
Venus (Female): Goddess of Love and beauty
Minerva (Female): Goddess of Wisdom, art crafts, learning
and industry
Neptune (Male): God of the sea
Ceres (Female): Goddess of harvest
Vulcan (Male): God of underworld
Diana (Female): God of Hunting
Mercury (Male): God of messenger of Gods.
Vesta (Female:
Department Goddess of the hearth and home
of History, )SOA Slide 38
 Achievements of the Romans.
1. Roman Art and Architecture: the Romans shipped
home thousands of Greek statues when they
conquered Greece. They produced realistic statues.
They were the first to use concrete. They built
roads, bridges, aqueducts, circuses and coliseum .
2. Roman Literature, Poetry and History: The Age of
Augustus has been called the golden of Latin
literature, the greatest poet of Augustus was Virgil
and Horace.
Livy was a historian who wrote ‘History of Rome’.
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• Julius Caesar and Cicero were renowned
Roman writers. Caesar’s work included
‘commentaries on the Gallic Wars’.
3. Roman judicial system: Romans developed a
system of law which is today considered one of
the greatest achievements to deal with the
practical problems of government. The law
established that an ‘accused person was
considered innocent until proven guilty’.
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• The Twelve Tables of Law – suited to the needs of
simple peasant.
• Civil law – that dealt with claims of Roman citizens
• Law of Nations – dealt with claims of foreigners.
4. Science, Engineering & Medicine: Ptolemy – earth
was the centre of the universe and the sun and planets
revolve around it.
5. Roman Calendar: Julian calendar named after Julius
Caesar – 365 days and 1 extra day every 4th year. The
month July, also Roman numerals.
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Thank you for listening….