1. Rome From City-State to Empire
Chapter 10
Rome From City-State to Empire

2. Roman Foundations Etruscans
Arrived in Italy around 800 BCE
From small city states in north, central Italy
Strongly influenced Roman religious beliefs, art and architecture
Federation, including Romans, ruled by Etruscans ( BCE)
Gradually disappeared from history
Greeks - the one alien group Romans thought superior
Carthage - most powerful force in western Mediterranean

3. Republican Government
Res Publica (Latin for Republic) – state without a monarch
Senate made up of patricians (from Latin patres, fathers, 5-10% of the population)
General Assembly made up of plebeians (the mass, 90% of the population)
Two consuls (elected from the senate – one year terms)
Censors (originally tax assessors, later reviewed morals/conduct of senators)
Tribunes (with power to speak/act in name of commoners)
Equal voting rights (Hortensian Law, 287 BCE, gave patricians and plebeians equal voting rights)
No REAL equal access to government for all

4. Rome’s Conquest of Italy
Rome ruled most of central Italy by 340
Encouraged subject populations to become integrated with Rome
Punic Wars ( BCE)
First Punic War – Rome embarked on imperial expansion
Second Punic War ( BCE) – Rome defeated Carthage at Battle of Zama (212 BCE); controlled western Mediterranean
Conquest of East
Some Senate opposition
Built outstanding military machine
Pro-consuls (from mid-300s BCE) created as permanent
Military commander/governors
Election fell into disuse
Leadership fell to politically/militarily powerful men

5. The Crisis of the Late Republic
Late Republic’s Crisis
Strains were beginning to show
Poverty stricken farmers (proletariat) flocked to cities
Proletariat (people with income except form daily labor)
Ready to follow any general who would lead them
Marius (former consul, re-elected for 6 mos.)
Abolished property qualifications for soldiers)
Army became a base for instability
Sulla (Harsh soldier/consul, became dictator in 83 BCE)
The Triumvirates
Julius Caesar and First Triumvirate (with Crassus, Pompey)
50s BCE, Caesar conquered Gaul
Dictator, BCE
Assasinated, 44 BCE
Octavian (adopted son of Caesar) and Second Triumvirate (with Mark Antony, Lepidus)
Crushed assassins and divided the empire
War with Antony (32 BCE)
Octavian’s final victory at Actium (31 BCE)

6. The Augustan Age Augustus’ reforms Imperial government policies
“Retain the form, change the substance”
Pretended to be “another elected official” (Pontifex Maximus)
Octavian accepted title of “Augustus” (“Revered One”), preferred to be called “Princeps” (“First Citizen”, 27 BCE-14 CE, called Principiate)
Imperial government policies
Kept republican institutions intact
Recognized problem of impoverished citizens
Tried to institute moral reforms, ended the love of luxury
Tried to revive faith in old gods and state cult
Reformed imperial protection, administration
Other military reforms
Praetorian Guard only armed force in Italy

7. The Augustan Age Imperial Government Policy
Supposedly, Senate/citizens were sovereign
Reality: Augustus had final say
Possible because commoners appalled by rebellion, civil wars, assassinations
By 31 BCE, Augustus strong enough to intimidate
Social policy
Basic food rations from state
“Gifts” from Augustus
Control wider public
Public Works
Moral reform, end “love of luxury”
Faith in “Old Gods”
Germanic tribes remained a problem
Yet Augustus reduced size of army by 50% (to 250,000)

8. The Augustan Age Peace and Prosperity Succession Problem
Pax Romana – greatest of his achievements
Many benefits for people in this period
Succession Problem
One important problem he could not solve
Successors depended on military support more than heredity to get into office
Imperial Unification
Imperial government became increasingly centralized
Municipia – Roman towns, administrative units
Government became open to non-Italians

9. Roman Culture Law Arts Patterns of Belief
Probably most valued Roman gift to later society
Basic principles: precedent, equity, interpretation
Ius gentium: law for relations between citizens, non-Romans
Arts
Literature
Pictorial and plastic arts
Patterns of Belief
Leaned toward the pragmatic, here-and-now
Religious convictions centered on duty to state and family hearth
Educated Romans affirmed Stoicism

10. Patterns of Belief “How best to live?” Seneca
Marcus Aurelius (rule, CE)
Last of “Five Good Emperors”
Wrote Meditations
Pessimistic Stoic (Good man in a bad world)
Seneca
All shared in divine spark, should be valued
Pragmatic People, “here and now”
Admired, cultivated the arts (“Finer things”)
Religions
Duty to state and family
Mutual promises
Gods - protection for community and survival
People – ceremonial worship and respect
Jupiter (Zeus), Apollo, Neptune (Poseidon), Venus (Aphrodite), Minerva (Athena), Ares (Mars)
Much borrowed from Greeks

11. Society and Economy Considerable boom in trade and manufacturing
Livelihood changed little
Slavery and Freedom
Increasing number of slaves
Often more educated
Better skilled than their masters
Roman slavery was harsher than before
Increasing amount of voluntary slavery

12. Society Gender relations Children and education
Patria potestas – authority of father over family
Women regarded as property
Marriages arranged, divorce common
Women worked in most trades
Children and education
Patrician male child was important, well-educated
Females gradually got increased freedom

13. Discussion Questions
1. During the years of the Republic and early Empire, Rome expanded from a relatively insignificant group of people living in central Italy, to make the Mediterranean into a “Roman Lake”. What modern nations enlarged their territory the same way, in stages and usually through a series of wars? Choose one of them and compare their expansion to the Roman story.

14. Discussion Questions
2. Emperor Augustus tried to solve social and moral problems by instituting his own reforms. Consider how he handled the problem of the homeless – how did his solution differ from modern attempts to resolve this problem? Are there any similarities? What about his concern about the love of luxury and the modern paradigm of consumerism and materialism? What similarities? What differences?