Chapter 5 – Section 1 Notes
The Rise of Rome

Learning Objectives – The students will be able to:

  • Summarize the main causes for the rise of Rome
  • Document the similarities between the Roman Law of Nations and American Civil Law

Reasons Rome was and Ideal Place to Build an Empire

  • Centrally located in the Mediterranean
  • Built on 7 hills = easily defended
  • Located on the TiberRiver=safe from sea attack, but crossing point for traffic

Greeks settled in Southern Italy

Etruscans - North of Rome (Kings of Early Rome)

The RomanRepublic

  • 509 BC - Romans overthrow Etruscan kings and create a Republic
  • New era in Roman history begins

War and Conquest

  • Rome engaged in continuous warfare for almost 200 years
  • They took control over all of Italy – including Greece
  • Roman Confederation

Why was Rome Successful?

  • Good Diplomats
  • Excelled in military matters – brilliant strategists
  • Practical in law and conquest

Government of Rome
Early Rome was divided into two groups:

  • Patricians – land owners; ruling class
  • Plebeians – less wealthy landholders, craftspeople, merchants, and farmers

CEOs of the Republic

  • Consuls – two men chosen each year to run the government & lead the army to battle
  • Praetors – in charge of civil law
  • Senate – 300 patricians who served for life
  • Centuriate Assembly – elected chief officials & passed laws

Struggle between the Classes

  • Patricians vs. Plebeians
  • Council of the plebs
  • Tribunes of the plebs

Peace brought about by The Twelve Tables

  • 450 B.C. - Rome’s first code of laws
  • Guaranteed rights to Plebeians

Law of Nations

Included principles such as:

  • Innocent until proven otherwise
  • Accused allowed to defend self
  • Judge expected to weigh evidence

Punic Wars

Rome vs. Carthage

Battle for control of trade in the Western Mediterranean

First Punic War

  • 264 - 241 B.C.
  • Began when Rome sent an army to Sicily
  • Rome created a naval fleet
  • Rome wins & gets Sicily

Second Punic War

  • Hannibal invades Italy from Spain
  • Crosses the Alps with elephants, horses, & an army of 46,000
  • Hannibal spends 10 years in Italy, but no victory: Romans wouldn’t leave the cities
  • Romans sent troops to Spain & pushed the Carthaginians out

Rome Wins

  • Hannibal forced to return to Spain--defeated at Zama in 202 BC
  • Spain becomes a Roman province
  • Rome is the dominant power

Third Punic War

  • 50 years later
  • Rome attacks Carthage out of spite
  • Carthage burned
  • Rome establishes its empire & now rules the Mediterranean

Chapter 5 – Section 2

From Republic to Empire

Learning Objectives – The students will be able to:

  • Summarize the main causes for the rise of the Roman Empire.

Triumvirate – Government by three people with equal power

The 1st Triumvirate

  • Caesar – had military command in Spain
  • Crassus – Richest man in Rome
  • Pompey – famous General & military hero

Julius Caesar marches on Rome causing a civil war & becomes dictator

Caesar becomes a Great General

Caesar was the first Roman to have his likeness on a coin in his lifetime

Cleopatra

The 2nd Triumvirate

  • Octavian – Caesar's heir & grand nephew
  • Antony– Caesar’s ally
  • Lepidus – Commander of Caesar's cavalry

Mark Antony Gets Eastern Rome

Octavian Takes Western Rome

  • Anthony allies with Cleopatra
  • Octavian defeats them at Actium
  • Anthony & Cleopatra commit suicide – pg. 158

Age of Augustus

  • Octavian ruled the world at age 32
  • Proclaimed the “restoration of the republic”
  • Became the 1st Roman Emperor
  • Senate gave him the title Augustus – “the revered one”

Four emperors after Augustus became more powerful & corrupt

Pax Romana

  • Period of 5 good emporers
  • “Roman Peace”
  • Empire expanded
  • Lots of trade = more money
  • Latifundia

Chapter 5 – Section 3

Culture & Society in the Roman World

Learning Objectives – The students will be able to:

  • Give examples of important technological advances.
  • Analyze the roles of males and females in Roman society.

Greco-Roman Culture

  • Romans preserved and added onto Greek Culture--became the basis of European (and American) Culture

Architecture & Engineering

  • First to build with concrete on a massive scale
  • Constructed roads, bridges, & aqueducts
  • Forms based on curved lines
  • Arch
  • Vault
  • Dome

Roman Literature

  • Augustan Age = the golden age of Latin literature

Virgil - The Aeneid

  • Written in honor of Rome
  • Aeneas is portrayed as the ideal Roman

Latin

  • Remained the language of learning and of the Church
  • Base for Romance Languages
  • Evolved into Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian

Roman Family

Men

  • Strong father figure
  • Paterfamilias

Education

  • All upper-class children expected to learn to read
  • Boys learned reading, writing, moral principles, physical training
  • Father required to provide the education for the children
  • Used Greek slaves as teachers

Women

  • Females weak & needed male guardian
  • Legal age to marry 12

Changing Roles

  • Paterfamilias lost power over time
  • Upper class women could own property & attend social events
  • Could not participate in politics, but influenced through their husbands
  • Either husband or wife could divorce

Slavery

  • Relied heavily on slave labor
  • Spartacus: led revolt of 70,000 slaves, many gladiators

Living Conditions

  • Overcrowded, noise city – traffic banned during the day
  • Insulae – apartment blocks in which the poor lived – often caught on fire
  • High rent forced families to live in one room

Bread and Circuses

  • Cities filled with the poor
  • Danger of Revolution
  • Free food & entertainment

Circus Maximus

Chariot races

Chapter 5 – Section 4
The Development of Christianity

Learning Objectives – The students will be able to:

  • Explain the origins, beliefs, and the spread of Christianity.

By A.D. 6 Judea was under Roman rule

Jews disagreed on Roman rule

  • Sadducees – favored cooperation with Rome
  • Pharisees – felt that close observance of religious law would protect the Jewish identity from Roman influence
  • Essenes – lived apart from society waiting for God to save Israel from oppression
  • Zealots – wanted violent overthrow of the government

Rise of Christianity – JESUS:

  • Began preaching at 30
  • Jew seeking reform
  • Preaching = controversy
  • Saw Jesus as a potential revolutionary
  • Opponents turned him over to Roman authorities

Pontius Pilate orders Jesus’ crucifixion & washes his hands of blame

Executed in AD 29 for challenging the authority of Rome

Jesus’ Followers Believed:

  • He rose from the dead
  • He was the messiah who would deliver Israel from its foes & lead them to a new kingdom

Apostle Peter takes Christianity to Rome

Paul (educated Jewish-Roman citizen) joins the movement

New Testament

  • Personal writings about Jesus were put together to create the second half of the Christian Bible

Jewish Rebellion

  • A.D. 66
  • Rome crushes the rebellion
  • Jewish temple destroyed
  • Rome crushes rebellion

Roman Persecution of Christians

  • Nero first Emperor to persecute
  • Persecution only increased the growth of Christianity
  • Forced it to become more organized
  • Separation between clergy & laity

Why did Christianity attract so many followers?

  • personal & offered salvation to all
  • familiar
  • fulfilled the human need to belong
  • attractive to all classes of people

By 4th Century A.D. Christianity was too strong to be stopped by force

Constantinewas the 1st Christian emperor

Edict of Milan

  • Proclaimed official tolerance of Christianity

Theodosius the Great

  • Adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome

Chapter 5 – Section 5
Decline and Fall

Learning Objectives – The students will be able to:

  • Summarize the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire.

Reason for the Decline

  • Invasions
  • Civil War
  • Plague

Diocletion (284-305 AD) and Constantine (306-337 AD)

  • Divided empire into 4 parts

Moved the Capital to Byzantium, renamed it Constantinople

The reforms of Diocletian & Constantine

  • Strengthened the administrative bureaucracies
  • Enlarged the army
  • Set wage & price controls to fight inflation
  • Forced people to remain in their designated jobs
  • Their reforms were based on control
  • Temporarily successful
  • In the long run they stifled the vitality of the Late Roman Empire

Barbarian Invasions

  • Huns – from Asia; moved into eastern Europe & put pressure on the Visigoths
  • Visigoths – Germanic; moved south & west into Roman territory
  • Vandals – poured into southern Spain & Africa
  • Visigoths first to sack Rome in 410
  • Vandals sack Rome in 455

Western Roman EmpireFalls

  • 476
  • Romulus Augustulus was removed from office by the Germanic head of the army
  • Constantinople & the Eastern Empire lasts another 1000 years