Roman History.pdf

Roman History

The greatest empire the earth has ever known is more than just a collection of facts and figures. It

represents both the glorious achievement and at times contemptible behavior of mankind.

In the matter of just a few centuries, Rome grew from a very small village in central Italy to the

absolute dominant power of the entire peninsula.

In a few more centuries, the Roman Empire`s might reached as far north as Britain, east to Persia

and in the south it encompassed the whole of Northern Africa.

Rome's extraordinary achievements and the unparalleled string of influential people shaped the

whole of Europe and even the rest of the world.

One super powered nation, encompassing thousands of cultures kept order, stability and

civilization in an ancient world fraught with turmoil. The fall of Rome, and the centuries of Dark

Ages that followed illustrates the awesome responsibility, reach and impact of the Empire.

Even today, Roman law and foundation of government forms the basis of several modern

democracies. Her monuments still stand millennia later, awing and inspiring us. Her language,

while for all intensive purposes lies dormant and unspoken, forms the basis or penetrates the

deepest fibers of many modern tongues.

Her final faith, Christianity, was spread like wild-fire through the highly connected system of roads

and intermingled cultures of the western world. What else has Rome given us?

In this " History of Rome " series, we will explore the development of the Roman Empire and the

events that built it. From the foundations as a Republic through the Fall of the West, from the great

conquerors to the conquered.

Piece by historical piece, we'll delve into the events and people that shaped not just an era, but the

history of an entire planet.

Founding of Rome

Much of what we know today about the historical foundations of Rome comes to us from ancient

writers such as Livy and Herodotus, along with the findings of archeology. The early history of

Rome, so deeply rooted in legend and mythology, is a mix of fact, fiction, educated guesses and

established notions on the conditions of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The earliest evidence of human habitation in the Latium region which included the city of Rome,

dates from the Bronze Age (c.1500 BC), but the earliest established, and permanent, settlements

began to form in the 8th century BC. At that time archeology indicates two closely related peoples

in the area, the Latins and Sabines. These agrarian Italic peoples were tribal in origin, with a social

hierarchy that dominated Rome's early form of government and throughout its claim to power in

the region.

The date of the founding as a village or series of tribal territories is uncertain, but the traditional

and legendary founding of the city dates to 753 BC. Although this date is heavily laden in myth, it

is at least roughly supported through archeological evidence. It was in the 8th century BC that two

existing settlements, one on the Palatine Hill, the other on the Quirinal, combined to form a single

village, corresponding to the same dates as the legend.

According to legend, Romans trace their origins to Aeneas, a Trojan who escaped the sack of

Troy by fleeing to Italy. The son Aeneas, Iulius (commonly Julius) founded the city of Alba Longa

establishing a monarchy. Two descendents of the Alba Longa Kings, the twin brothers Romulus

and Remus , would go on to become the founders of Rome. Eventually the two brothers quarreled

resulting in the murder of Remus, leaving Romulus as the first King of Rome. The traditional date

of Romulus' sole reign and the subsequent founding of the city, April 21, 753 BC, is still celebrated

with festivals and parades today.

Continuing development of the city was largely influenced by Rome's northern neighbors, the

Etruscans. The Etruscans, threatened by the growing power and influence of the Latin city to their

south, would soon supplant Romulus, and subsequent Latin Kings, with Kings of their own.

Kings of Rome

The Kingdom period of Roman history is as much a part of myth and legend as the founding of the

city. Stories past down generation to generation would eventually find their way into the Historical

records of such writers as Livy and Plutarch. There is evidence which supports the period of

Kings, but exact rulers, dates, events and accomplishments will likely forever be unknown. The

growth of the city and development of its culture during this period, however, is widely accepted.

Romulus ruled as the first King of Rome from 753 - 715 BC. According to Livy, he populated Rome

with fugitives from other countries and gave them wives abducted from the Sabine tribe. He was

said to have vanished in a thunderstorm and was later worshiped as the god Quirinus. He was

known as a warrior King who developed Rome's first army while expanding Rome's territory. He is

also credited with establishment of the patrician, or tribal elder, citizen class and the basis of the

Roman Senate.

The second King, Numa Pompilius, was a Sabine and ruled from 715-673 BC. He is credited with

the foundation of most of the Roman religious rites and offices such as pontifices, flamens (sacred

priests), vestal virgins, the building of the temple of Janus and the reorganization of the calendar

into days. Livy suggests that his reign was one of peace and religious reflection for the city. "Once

Rome's Neighbors had considered her not so much as a city as an armed camp in their midst

threatening the general peace; now they came up to revere her so profoundly as a community

dedicated wholly to worship, that the mere thought of offering her violence seemed like sacrilege."

(Livy, History I, xxi)

672 - 641 BC. Tullius Hostilius succeeded Pompilius as the third King from 672 - 641 BC. He was

the complete opposite of his predecessor as evidenced in Livy's words "In his view, Rome had

been allowed to lapse into senility, and his one object was to find cause for renewed military

adventure." (Livy, History I, xviii) His reign was one of conquest and expansion which included the

eventual destruction of the rival city of Alba Longa. According to lore, Hostilius warlike behavior

and complete neglect of the Roman gods, led to a plague on the city. In asking for help from an

angered Jupiter, Hostilius was struck down by a bolt of lightning.

The reign of Hositilius, and the resulting plague, prompted the Senate to choose Ancus Marcius as

its fourth King. The grandson of Numa Pompilius, Marcius reigned from 640 - 616 BC. He is

credited with the formation of the plebeian citizen class and the founding of the port city of Ostia.

The first bridge across the Tiber, the Pons Sublicius, was also said to have been built by Marcius.

He combined this administrative capability with military achievement as well, conquering and

absorbing several other Latin tribes. Marcius, like his grandfather, was said to have died a natural

death.

Tarquinius Priscus, (Tarquinius I) the first Etruscan monarch, succeeded Marcius as the fifth King

ruling from 616 - 579 BC. He was said to have been made guardian of Marcius' children, sent

them away after his death, and convinced the Romans to elect him as King. His reign is credited

with the foundation of the Roman games (Ludi Romani), the Circus Maximus and the construction

of the great sewers (cloacae). These operations were funded through the conquest of several

more neighboring Latin and Sabine tribes. Much of Rome's military symbolism (the eagle, etc.)

and civil offices is believed to have been developed during this period. He is also credited with

bringing the Etruscan military triumph tradition to Rome, and being the first to celebrate one in the

city. His death was said to have been at the hands of the sons of Marcius.

Servius Tullius followed Tarquinius and ruled as the sixth King from 578 to 534 BC. He is

renowned for implementing a new constitution further developing the citizen classes. The Servian

Walls (city walls of Rome) are attributed to him, but modern archeology indicates that the existing

walls were built in the 4th Century BC. He is also credited with the construction of the Temple of

Diana on the Aventinus hill. He was assassinated by his daughter Tullia and her husband Tarquin.

The seventh and final King of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus , (Tarquin the Proud) ruled from 534-

510 BC. Under his rule, the Etruscans were at the height of their power, and the authority of the

monarchy was absolute. He repealed several earlier constitutional reforms and used violence and

murder to hold his power. His tyrannical rule was despised by the Romans and the final straw was

the rape of Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of Tarquinius' son Sextius. The Tarquins and

the monarchy were cast out of Rome in 510 BC in a revolt led by Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius

Tarquinius Collatinus.

The Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a King and formed a Republic government in

509 BC. Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus went on to become the first

Consuls of this new government. Free from the rule of Kings, the Romans developed a strict social

status hierarchy that would set in motion the conquest of the Western World.

Birth of the Roman Republic

The rape of Lucretia, according to Livy, was the fundamental "last straw" in the overthrow of the

Etruscan King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus . The transition from the Etruscan monarchy to

republic (510-509 BC) was not, however, a simple institutional change. In place of the King, the

newly founded Republic relied upon its Senate, or patrician class families, to oversee the

government and the election of various officials, including 2 shared power Consuls. This

transformation from monarchy to representative style government, headed by the elite social

class, would prove to have troubles of its own.

After the overthrow of the Tarquin dynasty, led by Junius Brutus, the ancient Romans avoided a

true monarchal government for the remainder of their storied history (Even the later imperial

government maintained forms of the republican system. While in practice it could be a system of

absolute power for the Emperor, it was theoretically still checked by the Senate and other

representative ideals.) This same Junius Brutus was later claimed as an ancestor by the

Republican loyalist Marcus Brutus who was among the conspirators in the assassination of Julius

Caesar, and shows the deeply rooted Roman aversion to Kings. It was the era of the Republic in

which the great expansion of Roman civilization, power and structure set the path for European

dominance. In these formative and expansive years, Rome was ruled by its Senate and its

people's assemblies. The offices of power were divided among various elected officials to avoid

the conglomeration of power and the re-institution of the monarchy.

These magistracies were in essence, a division of previous monarchal powers. The Romans

instituted a constitution which would dictate the traditions and institutions of government for the

Roman people. This constitution, however, was not a formal or even written document, but rather

a series of unwritten traditions and laws. Deeply rooted in pre-Republican tradition, it essentially

maintained all the same monarchal powers and divided them amongst a series of people, rather

than in one supreme ruler.

Patricians and Plebeians

Discontent and political upheaval lay ahead for the fledgling Republic, since the new constitution

was flawed and exclusive in nature for the general population (plebeians). Rome was surrounded

by powerful external enemies, including its former Etruscan rulers, and Patrician (the hereditary

aristocratic families) in-fighting with each other and the plebeian (common people) class was an

immediate source of difficulty. The Romans developed a complex client system, where aristocratic

families pledged allegiance and voting support to other powerful families. In exchange for political

appointments and advocating of various agendas, some power groups were able to subvert the

state and the will of the masses for personal gain.

The words Patrician and Plebeian have taken on different connotations of wealthy and poor in

modern English, but no such distinction existed in Roman times. The two classes were simply

ancestral or inherited. A citizen's class was fixed by birth rather than by wealth. Patricians

monopolized all of the political offices and probably most of the wealth in the early Republic, but

there were many wealthy plebeians, and conversly many patrician families had little claim to

wealth or prestige other than their family heritage. The relationship between the plebeians and the

patricians sometimes came under intense strain, as a result of this exclusion from political

influence. In repsonse, the plebeians on several occasions, abandoned the city leaving the

patricians without a working class to support their political whims.

Struggle of the Orders

Roman imperium, or the power of law and command, was fully concentrated in the patrician class.

The consuls were elected from among the patricians, as were the quaestors, praetors and

censors. The ensuing class conflicts from the domination of political power by one class over

another, in a virtual transfer of power from King to Senate, was called "the struggle of the orders".

In effect, it was simply the recurring pattern of the patrician class attempting to hold onto power,

while the plebeians worked to rise to social and political equality. The patricians, while mostly

secure in their wealth and noble foundation, were also unable to exist without the plebeians. The

Plebeian class not only produced the grain and supplied the labor that maintained the Roman

economy; they also formed the recruiting basis as soldiers for the Legions.

In 494 BC, only 15 years after the founding of the Republic, a secession of plebeians to the

Sacred Mount outside Rome, ushered in a fundamental change to the Republican government.

The Plebes formed a tribal assembly, and their own alternative government, until the patricians

agreed to the establishment of an office that would have sacrosanctity (sacrosanctitas). This was

the right to be legally protected from any physical harm, and the right of help (ius auxiliandi),

meaning the legal ability to rescue any plebeian from the hands of a patrician magistrate. These

magistrate positions were labelled as Tribunes or tribuni plebes. Later, the tribunes acquired a far

more formidable, and often manipulated power, the right of intercession (ius intercessio). This was

the right to veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, including another tribune, for the good of

the people. The tribune also had the power to exercise capital punishment against any person who

interfered in the performance of his duties. The tribune's power to act was enforced by a pledge of

the plebeians to kill any person who harmed a tribune during his term of office.

In 451 BC, another Plebeian secession led to the appointment of the decemvirate, or a

commission of ten men. This eventually resulted in the adoption of the bronze engraved Laws of

the Twelve Tables , and raised the number of Plebeian Tribunes to 10. In 445 BC, the Canuleian

law legalized marriages between patricians and members of the plebs. Along with later inter-class

adoptions, plebeians were allowed additional class mobility and eventual inclusion into previous

Patrician only magistracies. In 367 the plebeians gained the right to be elected consul, and in 366

the first was elected. Thereafter, the Licinian-Sextian laws demanded that at least one consul be a

plebeian. After the completion of the term of consular office, the plebeian consul became a

member of the Senate resulting in the disintegration of the patrician hold on the Senate.

Furthermore,in 300 BC, plebeians were allowed to serve at all levels of the priesthood, thus

making them religiously equal to the patricians. Finally, the greatest achievement of power for the

people, in 287 BC, the decisions and legislation of the plebeian assembly, Concilium Plebis or

"Council of the Plebeians", became not only binding on the plebeians, but on the entire Roman

citizenry.

All power was not shifted away from the patricians, however. While still maintaining significant

power through clients and the prestige of their heritage, they were also able to turn the tables.

Using the plebeian adoption methodology for upward mobility, some patricians used it to adopt

into the plebeian class and become available to serve as plebeian only Tribunes. While a rare

occurrence, such mobility made made the entire political spectrum open to the ruling classes.

This political upheaval brought about a new aristocracy, composed of patrician and wealthy

plebeian families, and admission to the Senate became almost the hereditary privilege of these

families. The Senate, which in original function maintained no law making, and little administrative

power, became a powerful governing force. They oversaw matters of war and peace, foreign

alliances, the founding of colonies, and the handling of the state finances. The rise of this new

nobilitas ended the conflict between the upper echelons of the two orders, but the position of the

poorer plebeian families was not improved. In fact, a class designation of equestrian (knight),

originally composed of patrician senatorial families, developed into one including plebes that

signified a particular level of wealth, and further separated the plebeian elite from the common

people. The decided contrast between the conditions of the rich and the poor led to struggles in

the later Republic between the aristocratic party and the popular party. These struggles developed

into one of several major factors in the eventual collapse of the Republican system.

Conquest of Italy

The Consolidation of Latium

With the expulsion of the Etruscan Kings and the establishment of the Republican system firmly

rooted, Rome soon turned its attention to regional dominance and expansion. Rome ineherited

leadership from the Etruscans and was already the dominant player in the Latium region by 509

BC. A treaty with Carthage at this time essentially recognized Roman authority and influence over

the other Latin states. These city states had formed and alliance called the Latin League, intended

to provide enough mutual strength and unity of interests to treat with Rome as equals. There is

some conflicting evidence on Roman inclusion within this league, but there is no doubt that within

these formative stages, they were mostly at odds.

From the early Sixth Century BC on, the Latin League was a cooperation of states sharing

common interests such as religious worship and defense of the region from invasion. Latium was

fertile, wealthy, had access to the sea and was therefore an inviting target to enemies such as the

Etruscans, Volscians, and the Aequians. The cities of the Latin league shared commercial treaties

and provided rights of commerce, inter-marriage and settlement to its citizens. It was these rights

that formed the basic of the Latin rights that were to play such an important role in later Roman

politics and treaties.

When Etruscan rule over Rome, and the other states in Latium, was broken, the League vied with

each other for dominance. The balance of power shifted often between Rome and other influential

cities like Alba Longa and Lavinium. By 496 BC these power gambits turned to war when Lavinium

broke its alliance with Rome in an attempt to assume power. Members of the League united with

Lavinium and Tusculum and moved against Rome. At the battle of Lake Regillus, Rome claimed

victory over the combined might of her neighbors. Whether this victory was outright, or for all

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