1. How did Rome lay the foundations of its empire?
The Roman Empire
How did Rome lay the foundations of its empire?

2. Roman Empire

3. Struggle for control Alexander died in 323 B.C.
Rome dominated most of the Italian peninsula
Expansion southward brought Rome into collision with Carthage, the greatest power in the western Mediterranean
Second Carthaginian war ( B.C.): Rome’s southern Italian allies defected to Hannibal
Third war with Carthage in 201 B.C.: Rome emerged not merely victorious but a world power

4. What were the tensions that accompanied Rome’s transformation from city-state to world power?

5. Rome’s transformation into world-power
Roman transformation of Greek tradition through contact with Greek cities in southern Italy, Sicily and mainland Greece
Greek culture began to permeate Roman
The military victories brought in huge numbers of enslaved war captives
Wealthy businessman exerted control over the government
Growing gulf between the wealthy and the poor

6. How was the Republic replaced by imperial rule?
General prosperity masked the potential conflicts
Civil war
By the end of the first century B.C., Rome was the capital of an empire that stretched from the Straits of Gibraltar to the frontiers of Palestine
It gave peace and orderly government to the Mediterranean area for the next two centuries

7. Rome in first century B.C.

8. What is the legacy of the Roman empire?

9. Rome’s legacy
The ideal of the world –state, an ideal that was taken over by the medieval Church
The Church claimed a spiritual authority as great as the secular authority it replaced
How did they achieve success?
Talent for practical affairs (aqueducts)
Not notable political theorists, but they organized a stable federation
Conservative to the core: gravitas
The great body of Roman law is one of their greatest contribution to Western civilization

10. Aquaduct

11. Compare Roman and Greek civilizations
Rome: manliness, industry, discipline
Greece: adaptability, versatility, grace
Greek history begins with an epic poem
The Romans conquered half of the world before they began to write
Latin literature began with a translation of the Odyssey
Latin writers borrowed from Greek originals openly and proudly (Virgil)

12. Odyssey

13. Roman emperors
The civil conflict ended in the establishment of a powerful executive
The Senate retained an impressive share of the power in the Republic, but the new development led to autocracy
Augustus, after the murder of his uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC., controlled the western half of the empire by 31 B.C.
Battle with Mark Anthony, ruler of the eastern half of the empire
Augustus’s victory united the empire under one authority and ushered in an age of peace and reconstruction

14. Roman emperors
The successors of Augustus ruled the ancient world for the next 200 years with only occasional disturbances
Nero who abused his immense power was overthrown
A.D “Five good emperors”:
Longest period of peace that has ever been enjoyed by the inhabitants of an area that included Britain, France, southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa
Yet the literature of the second century reflects a spiritual emptiness described in Petronius’s Satyricon: the new rich can think only in terms of money and material possessions

15. Religion
New religions were imported from the East that made their appeal to citizens of the world: to all nations and classes
Worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis
Hebrew prophet Jesus, crucified in Jerusalem, risen from the dead
Christianity, persecuted and working underground, finally triumphed and became the official religion of the Roman world
The Church in Rome, by converting the new inhabitants, made possible the preservation of much of that Latin and Greek literature that was to serve as a basis for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

16. St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome

17. Ovid’s Metamorphoses
This picture depicts the moment when the statue of Galatea created by Pygmalion comes to life

18. Metamorphoses

19. Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne

20. Io and Jove

21. Io and Jove

22. Europa and Jove

23. Europa and Jove

24. The Rape of Europa by Zeus

25. Iphis and Ianthe

26. Zeus and Europa

27. Rubens, Abduction of Europa