Ancient Rome
|
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. |
Ancient Rome was a
civilization that grew out of the
city-state of
Rome, founded in the
Italian Peninsula circa the
9th century BC. During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchy to an
oligarchic republic to a vast
empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea through
conquest and
assimilation. However, a number of factors led to the eventual
decline of the Roman Empire. The
western half of the empire, including
Hispania,
Gaul, and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the
5th century; the eastern empire, governed from
Constantinople, is referred to as the
Byzantine Empire after 476, the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the
Middle Ages.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "
classical antiquity" with
ancient Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the
culture of ancient Rome. Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of
law,
war,
art,
literature,
architecture, and
language in the
Western world, and its
history continues to have a major influence on the world today.
Further information: History of Rome and Timeline of ancient RomeMonarchy
The city of
Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the river
Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade. According to
archaeological evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded sometime in the
9th century BC by members of two central Italian tribes, the
Latins and the
Sabines, on the
Palatine,
Capitoline, and
Quirinal Hills. The
Etruscans, who had previously settled to the north in
Etruria, seem to have established political control in the region by the late
7th century BC, forming the aristocratic and monarchial elite. The Etruscans apparently lost power in the area by the late
6th century BC, and at this point, the original Latin and Sabine tribes reinvented their government by creating a
republic, with much greater restraints on the ability of rulers to exercise power.
In Roman legend, Rome was
founded on
April 21,
753 BC by twin descendants of the
Trojan prince
Aeneas,
Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over which of them was to reign and became the first of seven
Kings of Rome, as well as the source of the city's name. However newer studies explain that the village was founded by a woman named Roma who was a survivor of Troja. This version of Romes tale was still active till the 18th century. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines.
Republic
The
Roman Republic was established around
509 BC, according to later writers such as
Livy, when the last of the seven kings of Rome,
Tarquin the Proud, was deposed, and a system based on annually-elected
magistrates was established. The most important magistrates were the two
consuls, who together exercised executive authority in the form of
imperium, or military command. However, the consuls had to contend with the
Senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or
patricians, but grew in size and power over time. The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or
plebeians.
The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the
Etruscans. The last threat to Roman
hegemony in Italy came when
Tarentum, a major
Greek colony, enlisted the aid of
Pyrrhus of Epirus in
282 BC, but this effort failed as well. The Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman colonies in strategic areas, establishing stable control over the region. In the second half of the
3rd century BC, Rome clashed with
Carthage in the first of three
Punic Wars. These wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests, of
Sicily and
Hispania, and the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power. After defeating the
Macedonian and
Seleucid Empires in the
2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the
Mediterranean Sea.
But foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at the
provinces' expense, but soldiers, who were mostly small farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land, and the increased reliance on foreign
slaves reduced the availability of paid work. Income from war booty,
mercantilism in the new provinces, and
tax farming created new economic opportunity and wealth among the lower classes, forming a new class of
merchants, the
equestrians. Though the equestrians had vast financial resources at their disposal, they still found themselves counted among the lower-class
plebeians, and therefore severely restricted in terms of political power. The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocking important
land reforms and refusing to give the equestrian class a larger say in the government. Violent gangs of the urban unemployed, controlled by rival Senators, intimidated the electorate through violence. The situation came to a head in the late
2nd century BC under the
Gracchi brothers, a pair of
tribunes who attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. Both brothers were killed, but the Senate passed some of their reforms in an attempt to placate the growing unrest of the plebeian and equestrian classes. The denial of
Roman citizenship to allied Italian cities led to the
Social War of
91–
88 BC. The military reforms of
Marius resulted in soldiers often having more loyalty to their commander than to the city, and a powerful general could hold the city and Senate ransom. This culminated in
Sulla's brutal
dictatorship of
81-
79 BC.
In the mid-
1st century BC, three men,
Julius Caesar,
Pompey, and
Crassus, formed a secret pact—the
First Triumvirate—to control the Republic. After Caesar's
conquest of Gaul, a stand-off between Caesar and the Senate led to
civil war, with Pompey leading the Senate's forces. Caesar emerged victorious, and was made
dictator for life. In
44 BC, Caesar was
assassinated by senators fearing that Caesar sought to restore the
monarchy, and a
Second Triumvirate, consisting of Caesar's designated heir,
Augustus, and his former supporters,
Mark Antony and
Lepidus, took power. However, this alliance soon descended into a struggle for dominance. Lepidus was
exiled, and when Augustus defeated Antony and
Cleopatra of
Egypt at the
Battle of Actium in
31 BC, he became the undisputed ruler of Rome.
Empire
With his enemies defeated,
Augustus assumed almost absolute power, retaining only a pretense of the Republican form of government. His designated successor,
Tiberius, took power without bloodshed, establishing the
Julio-Claudian dynasty, which lasted until the death of
Nero in
68. The territorial expansion of what was now the
Roman Empire continued, and the state remained secure, despite a series of emperors widely viewed as depraved and corrupt. Their rule was followed by the
Flavian dynasty. During the reign of the "
Five Good Emperors" (
96–
180), the Empire reached its territorial, economic, and cultural
zenith. The state was secure from both internal and external threats, and the Empire prospered during the
Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). With the conquest of
Dacia during the reign of
Trajan, the Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion; Rome's dominion now spanned 2.5 million square miles (6.5 million
km2).
The period between
180 and
235 was dominated by the
Severan dynasty, and saw several incompetent rulers, such as
Elagabalus. This and the increasing influence of the army on imperial succession led to a long period of imperial collapse known as the
Crisis of the Third Century. The crisis was ended by the more competent rule of
Diocletian, who in
293 divided the Empire into an eastern and western half ruled by a
tetrarchy of two co-emperors and their two junior colleagues. The various co-rulers of the Empire competed and fought for supremacy for more than half a century. In
330, Emperor
Constantine I firmly established the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in
Byzantium, and the Empire was permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire (later known as the
Byzantine Empire) and the
Western Roman Empire in
364.
The Western Empire was constantly harassed by
barbarian invasions, and the gradual
decline of the Roman Empire continued over the centuries. In
410, the city of Rome itself was sacked, and on
September 4,
476, the Germanic chief
Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west,
Romulus Augustus, to abdicate. Having lasted for approximately 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the west came to an end.
Life in Ancient Rome revolved around the city of
Rome, located on
seven hills. The city had a vast number of
monumental structures like the
Colosseum, the
Forum of Trajan and the
Pantheon. It had
fountains with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of
aqueducts,
theaters,
gymnasiums,
bath complexes complete with
libraries and shops, marketplaces, and functional sewers. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome,
residential architecture ranged from very modest
houses to
country villas. In the
capital city of Rome, there were
imperial residences on the elegant
Palatine Hill, from which the word "palace" is derived. The low and middle classes lived in the city center, packed into
apartments, which were almost like modern
ghettos.
The imperial city of Rome was the largest urban center of its time, with a population well in excess of one million people (about the size of London in the early 19th century, when London was the largest city in the world), with some high-end estimates of 3.5 million and low-end estimates of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron
chariot wheels that
Julius Caesar had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic at night. Historical estimates indicate that around 20 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome (32% in Roman Italy) lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. Most of these centers had a
forum and temples and same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome.
Government
Initially, Rome was ruled by elected
kings. The exact nature of the king's power is uncertain. He may have held near-absolute power, or may also have merely been the chief executive of the
Senate and the people. At least in military matters, the king's authority (
imperium) was likely absolute. He was also the head of the
state religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the
Senate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the
Comitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify
laws suggested by the King; and the
Comitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college which could assemble the people in order to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare the
feast and holiday schedule for the next month.
The
class struggles of the
Roman Republic resulted in an unusual mixture of
democracy and
oligarchy. Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (
Comitia Tributa). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, the
Roman Senate represented an oligarchic
institution, which acted as an advisory body. In the Republic, the Senate held great authority (
auctoritas), but no actual legislative power; it was technically only an advisory council. However, as the Senators were individually very influential, it was difficult to accomplish anything against the collective will of the Senate. New Senators were chosen from among the most accomplished
patricians by
Censors (
Censura), who could also remove a Senator from his office if he was found "morally corrupt"; a charge that could include
bribery or, as under
Cato the Elder, embracing one's wife in public. Later, under the reforms of the dictator
Sulla,
Quaestors were made automatic members of the Senate, though most of his reforms did not survive.
The Republic had no fixed
bureaucracy, and collected
taxes through the practice of
tax farming. Government positions such as
quaestor,
aedile, or
praefect were funded from the office-holder's private finances. In order to prevent any citizen from gaining too much power, new
magistrates were elected annually and had to share power with a colleague. For example, under normal conditions, the highest authority was held by two
consuls. In an emergency, a temporary
dictator could be appointed. Throughout the Republic, the administrative system was revised several times to comply with new demands. In the end, it proved inefficient for controlling the ever-expanding dominion of Rome, contributing to the establishment of the
Roman Empire.
In the early Empire, the pretense of a republican form of government was maintained. The
Roman Emperor was portrayed as only a '
princeps', or "first citizen", and the Senate gained legislative power and all legal authority previously held by the popular assemblies. However, the rule of the emperors became increasingly
autocratic over time, and the Senate was reduced to an advisory body appointed by the emperor. The Empire did not inherit a set bureaucracy from the Republic, since the Republic did not have any permanent governmental structures apart from the Senate. The Emperor appointed assistants and advisers, but the state lacked many institutions, such as a centrally-planned
budget. Some historians have cited this as a significant reason for the
decline of the Roman Empire.
The territory of the Empire was divided into
provinces. The number of provinces increased with time, both as new territories were conquered and as provinces were divided into smaller units to discourage
rebellions by powerful local rulers. Upon the rise of
Augustus and the
Principate, the provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial provinces, depending on which institution had the right to select the governor. During the
Tetrarchy, the provinces of the empire were divided into 12
dioceses, each headed by a
praetor vicarius. The civilian and military authority were separated, with civilian matters still administered by the governor, but with military command transferred to a
dux.
Law
The roots of the legal principles and practices of the ancient Romans may be traced to the law of the
twelve tables (from
449 BC) to the
codification of Emperor
Justinian I (around
530). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes continued into the
Byzantine Empire, and formed the basis of similar codifications in continental
Western Europe. Roman law continued, in a broader sense, to be applied throughout most of Europe until the end of the
18th century.
The major divisions of the law of ancient Rome, as conained within the Justinian and Theodosian law codes, consisted of
Ius Civile,
Ius Gentium, and
Ius Naturale. The
Ius Civile ("Citizen law") was the body of common laws that applied to Roman citizens. The
Praetores Urbani (
sg. Praetor Urbanus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens. The
Ius Gentium ("Law of nations") was the body of common laws that applied to foreigners, and their dealings with Roman citizens. The
Praetores Peregrini (
sg. Praetor Peregrinus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners.
Ius Naturale encompassed natural law, the body of laws that were considered common to all beings.
Economy
Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and human resources. As such, Rome's economy remained focused on
agriculture and
trade. Agricultural
free trade changed the Italian landscape, and by the
1st century BC, vast
grape and
olive estates had supplanted the
yeoman farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price. The
annexation of
Egypt,
Sicily and
Tunisia in
North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn,
olive oil and
wine were Italy's main
exports. Two-tier
crop rotation was practiced, but farm productivity was overall low, around 1 ton per
hectare.
Industrial and
manufacturing activities were smaller. The largest such activity were the
mining and
quarrying of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the buildings of that period. In manufacturing, production was on a relatively small scale, and generally consisted of workshops and small factories that employed at most dozens of workers. However, some
brick factories employed hundreds of workers.
Some economic historians (like
Peter Temin) argue that the economy of the Early Roman Empire was a market economy and one of the most advanced agricultural economies to have existed (in terms of productivity, urbanization and development of capital markets), comparable to the most advanced economies of the world before the
industrial revolution, the economies of
18th-century England and
17th-century Netherlands. There were markets for every type of good, for land, for cargo ships; there was even an insurance market.
The economy of the early Republic was largely based on smallholding and paid labor. However, foreign wars and conquests made
slaves increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on slave labor for both skilled and unskilled work. Slaves are estimated to have constituted around 20% of the Roman Empire's population at this time and 40% in the city of Rome. Only in the Roman Empire, when the conquests stopped and the prices of slaves increased, did hired labor become more economical than slave ownership.
Although
barter was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed
coinage system, with
brass,
bronze, and
precious metal coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in
India. Before the
3rd century BC,
copper was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, across central Italy. The original copper coins (
as) had a face value of one
Roman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its
intrinsic value as metal. After
Nero began debasing the silver
denarius, its
legal value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic.
Horses were too expensive, and other
pack animals too slow, for mass trade on the
Roman roads, which connected military posts rather than markets, and were rarely designed for wheels. As a result, there was little transport of
commodities between Roman regions until the rise of
Roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip from
Gades to
Alexandria via
Ostia, spanning the entire length of the
Mediterranean. Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.
Class structure
|
A Roman clad in a toga, the distinctive garb of Ancient Rome. |
Roman society was strictly
hierarchical, with
slaves (
servī) at the bottom,
freedmen (
liberī) above them, and free-born citizens (
civ"s) at the top. Free citizens were themselves also divided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between the
patricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100 Patriarchs at the founding of the city, and the
plebeians, who could not. This became less important in the later Republic, as some plebeian families became wealthy and entered politics, and some patrician families fell on hard times. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a consul as his ancestor was a
noble (
nobilis); a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such as
Marius or
Cicero, was known as a
novus homo ("new man") and ennobled his descendents. Patrician ancestry, however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices remained restricted to patricians.
A class division originally based on military service became more important. Membership of these classes was determined periodically by the
Censors, according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated politics and command of the army. Next came the
equestrians (
equites, sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse, who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally based on what military equipment their members could afford, followed, with the
proletarii, citizens who had no property at all, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just barely above freed slaves in terms of wealth and prestige.
Voting power in the Republic was dependent on class. Citizens were enrolled in voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the poorer ones, all the
proletarii being enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order and stopped as soon as a majority of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable even to cast their votes.
Allied foreign cities were often given the
Latin Right, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (
peregrini), which gave their citizens rights under Roman law and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of Latin rights, the main division was between those
con suffrage ("with vote"; enrolled in a Roman tribe and able to take part in the
comitia tributa) and
sans suffrage (without vote; unable to take part in Roman politics). Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after the
Social War of
91–
88 BC, and full
Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by
Caracalla in
212. Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or participate in politics.
Family
The basic units of Roman society were
households and
families. Household included the head of the household,
paterfamilias (father of the family), his wife, children, and other relatives. In the upper classes, slaves and servants were also part of the household. The head of the household had great power (
patria potestas, "father's power") over those living with him: He could force marriage and divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his own, and possibly even had the right to kill family members, although this has been recently disputed in academic circles.
Patria potestas even extended over adult sons with their own households: A man was not considered a
paterfamilias while his own father lived. A daughter, when she married, usually fell under the authority of the
paterfamilias of her husband's household, although this was not always the case, as she could choose to continue recognizing her father's family as her true family. However, as Romans reckoned
descent through the male line, any children she had would belong to her husband's family.
Groups of related households formed a family (
gens). Families were based on blood ties (or
adoption), but were also political and economic alliances. Especially during the
Roman Republic, some powerful families, or
Gentes Maiores, came to dominate political life.
Ancient Roman marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political alliance than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes. Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters when they reached an age between twelve and fourteen. The husband was almost always older than the bride. While upper class girls married very young, there is evidence that lower class women often married in their late teens or early twenties.
Education
In the early Republic, boys were taught to read and write by their father, or by educated slaves, usually of
Greek origin; the ultimate aim of Roman education was to produce men who could speak effectively. Village schools were also established. Later, around
200 BC, boys and some girls at the age of 7 were sent to a school outside the home called a
ludus. Basic Roman education included reading, writing, and counting, and their materials consisted of
scrolls and books. At the age of 13, students learned about
Greek and
Roman literature. At the age of 16, some students went on to
rhetoric school. Poorer people were usually taught by their parents as school was not free.
Pupils went to school every day, except religious festivals and market days. There was also a summer holiday.
Demographic outlines in the 6th century BC"1st century AD (the city of Rome area)
| Census | Population | Economic crises | Wars | Epidemics | | 508 BC | 130,000 | | |
| | 505-504 BC | |
| 503 BC | 120,000 | | |
| | 499 or 496 BC | |
| 498 BC | 150,700 | | |
| 493 BC | 110,000 | | |
| | 492-491 BC | |
| | 486 BC | |
| 474 BC | 103,000 | 474 BC | 474 BC |
| 465 BC | 104,714 | | |
| 459 BC | 117,319 | | |
| | 456 BC | |
| | 454 BC | | 454 BC |
| | 440-439 BC | |
| | 433 BC | | 433 BC |
| | 428 BC | | 428 BC |
| | 412 BC | | 412 BC |
| | | 400 BC |
| | | 396 BC |
| 392 BC | 152,573 | 392 BC | | 392 BC |
|390 BC | 390 BC |
| | | 386 BC |
| | 383 BC | | 383 BC |
| | | 343-341 BC |
| 340 BC | 165,000 | | 340-338 BC |
| | | 326-304 BC |
| 323 BC | 150,000 | | |
| | 299 BC | |
| | | 298-290 BC |
| 294 BC | 262,321 | | |
| | | | 293/292 BC |
| 289 BC | 27,200 | | |
| | | 281 BC |
| 280 BC | 287,222 | | 280-275 BC |
| 276 BC | 271,224 | | | 276 BC? |
| 265 BC | 292,234 | | |
| | | 264-241 BC |
| 252 BC | 297,797 | | |
| | 250 BC | 250 BC |
| 247 BC | 241,712 | | |
| 241 BC | 260,000 | | |
| 234 BC | 270,713 | | |
| | 216 BC | 216 BC |
| | 211-210 BC | 211-210 BC |
| 209 BC | 137,108 | | |
| 204 BC | 214,000 | 204 BC | |
| | 203 BC | |
| | 201 BC | |
| | 200 BC | 200-195 BC |
| 194 BC | 143,704 | | |
| | | 192-188 BC |
| 189 BC | 258,318 | | |
| | | | 187 BC |
| | | | 182-180 BC |
| 179 BC | 258,318 | | |
| | | | 176-175 BC |
| 174 BC | 269,015 | | |
| | | 171-167 BC |
| 169 BC | 312,805 | | |
| | | | 165 BC |
| 164 BC | 337,022 | | |
| 159 BC | 328,316 | | |
| 154 BC | 324,000 | | |
| | 153 BC | |
| 147 BC | 322,000 | | |
| 142 BC | 322,442 | | | 142 BC |
| | 138 BC | |
| 136 BC | 317,933 | | |
| 131 BC | 318,823 | | |
| 125 BC | 394,736 | | |
| | 123 BC | |
| 115 BC | 394,336 | | |
| | 104 BC | |
| | | | 87 BC |
| 86 BC | 463,000 | | |
| | | 75 BC |
| 70 BC | 910,000 | | |
| | 67 BC | |
| | 65 BC | |
| | | 54 BC |
| | | 49-46 BC |
| | 43 BC | |
| 28 | 4,063,000 | | |
| | 23-22 | 23-22 |
| 8 | 4,233,000 | | |
| | | 5-6 |
| | | 10 |
| 14 | 4,937,000 | | |
|
Sources
Brunt, P. A. Italian Manpower 225 BC-AD 14. Oxford, 1971; Wiseman, T. P. The Census in the first century B.C. Journal of Roman Studies, 1969; Virlouvet, C. Famines et émuetes à Rome des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Roma, 1985; Suder, W., Góralczyk, E. Sezonowość epidemii w Republice Rzymskiej. Vitae historicae, Księga jubileuszowa dedykowana profesorowi Lechowi A. Tyszkiewiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin. Wrocław, 2001.
Language
The native language of the Romans was
Latin, an
Italic language the
grammar of which relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of
affixes attached to
word stems. Its
alphabet, the
Latin alphabet, is ultimately based on the
Greek alphabet. Although surviving
Latin literature consists almost entirely of
Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished
literary language from the
1st century BC, the actual spoken language of the Roman Empire was
Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in
grammar and
vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.
While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire,
Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the
Byzantine Empire, Greek eventually supplanted Latin as both the written and spoken language. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and
dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct
Romance languages.
Although Latin is an
extinct language with very few remaining fluent speakers, it remains in use in many ways, such as through
Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional language of the
Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the
Vatican City. Additionally, even after fading from common usage Latin maintained a role as western Europe's
lingua franca, an international language of
academia and
diplomacy. Although eventually supplanted in this respect by
French in the
19th century and
English in the
20th, Latin continues to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology—it has been estimated that 80% of all scholarly English words derive directly or indirectly from Latin.
Religion
Archaic
Roman mythology, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of
narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in
Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely-defined sacred spirits called
numina. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own
genius, or divine soul. During the
Roman Republic,
Roman religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank. The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hierarchy, and its chief priest, the
Pontifex Maximus, was the head of the state religion.
Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, while
augurs were trusted with taking the
auspices. The
sacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman empire, emperors were held to be gods, and the formalized
imperial cult became increasingly prominent.
As contact with the
Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became increasingly associated with Greek gods. Thus,
Jupiter was perceived to be the same deity as
Zeus,
Mars became associated with
Ares, and Neptune with
Poseidon. The Roman gods also assumed the attributes and mythologies of these Greek gods. The transferral of
anthropomorphic qualities to Roman Gods, and the prevalence of
Greek philosophy among well-educated Romans, brought about an increasing neglect of the old rites, and in the
1st century BC, the religious importance of the old priestly offices declined rapidly, though their civic importance and political influence remained. Roman religion in the empire tended more and more to center on the imperial house, and several emperors were
deified after their deaths.
Under the empire, numerous foreign
cults grew popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian
Isis and the
Persian Mithras. Beginning in the 2nd century,
Christianity began to spread in the Empire, despite initial
persecution. It became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under
Constantine I, and all religions except Christianity were prohibited in
391 by an edict of Emperor
Theodosius I.
Art, literature and music
Most early Roman painting styles show
Etruscan influences, particularly in the practice of political painting. In the 3rd century BC, Greek art taken as
booty from wars became popular, and many Roman homes were decorated with landscapes by Greek artists. Evidence from the remains at
Pompeii shows diverse influence from cultures spanning the Roman world. Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. During the
Antonine and
Severan periods, more ornate hair and bearding became prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also made in
relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.
Latin literature was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest extant works are of historical
epics telling the early military history of Rome. As the Republic expanded, authors began to produce
poetry,
comedy,
history, and
tragedy.
Games and activities
The ancient city of Rome had a place called
Campus, a sort of
drill ground for Roman soldiers, which was located near the river
Tiber. Later, the
Campus became Rome's
track and field playground, which even
Julius Caesar and
Augustus were said to have frequented. Imitating the Campus in Rome, similar grounds were developed in several other urban centers and military settlements.
In the campus, the youth assembled to play and exercise, which included
jumping,
wrestling,
boxing and
racing.
Riding, throwing, and
swimming were also preferred physical activities. In the countryside, pastime also included
fishing and
hunting.
Women did not participate in these activities. Ball-playing was a popular sport, and ancient Romans had several ball games, which included Handball (
Expulsim Ludere), field hockey, catch, and some form of
football.
A popular form of entertainment were
gladiatorial combats. Gladiators generally fought to the death with a variety of weapons and in a variety of different scenarios. These fights achieved their height of popularity under the emperor
Claudius, who placed the final outcome of the combat firmly in the hands of the emperor with the famous "
thumb up" or "thumb down" designation. Animal shows were also popular with the Romans, where foreign animals were either displayed for the public or combined with gladiatorial combat. A prisoner or gladiator, armed or unarmed, was thrown into the arena and an animal was released.
The
Circus Maximus, another popular site in Rome, was primarily used for
horse and
chariot racing, although it was also used in many other events. It could hold up to 385,000 people; people all over Rome would visit it. Two temples, one with seven large eggs and one with seven dolphins, laid in the middle of the track of Circus Maximus, and whenever the racers made a lap, one of each would be removed. This was done to keep the spectators and the racers informed on the race statistics. Other than sports, the Circus Maximus was also an area of
marketing and
gambling. Higher authorities, like the emperor, also attended games in the Circus Maximus, as it was rude not to. They, knights, and many other people who were involved with the race sat in reserved seats located above everyone else. It was also found rude for emperors to root for a team. The Circus Maximus was created in 600 BC and hosted the last horse racing game in 549, lasting for over a millennium.
Ancient Rome boasted the most impressive technological feats of its day, utilizing many advancements that would be lost in the
Middle Ages and not be rivaled again until the
19th and
20th centuries. However, though adept at adopting and synthesizing other cultures' technologies, the Roman civilization was not especially innovative or progressive. The development of new ideas was rarely encouraged; Roman society considered the articulate soldier who could wisely govern a large household the ideal, and
Roman law made no provisions for
intellectual property or the promotion of invention. The concept of "scientists" and "engineers" did not yet exist, and advancements were often divided based on craft, with groups of
artisans jealously guarding new technologies as
trade secrets. Nevertheless, a number of vital technological breakthroughs were spread and thoroughly utilized by Rome, contributing to an enormous degree to Rome's dominance and lasting influence in Europe.
Engineering and architecture
Roman engineering constituted a large portion of Rome's technological superiority and legacy, and contributed to the construction of hundreds of roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, theaters and arenas. Many monuments, such as the
Colosseum,
Pont du Gard, and
Pantheon, still remain as testaments to Roman engineering and culture.
The Romans were particularly renowned for their
architecture, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "
Classical architecture". However, for the course of the Roman Republic, Roman architecture remained stylistically almost identical to
Greek architecture. Although there were many differences between Roman and Greek building types, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new
orders of columns,
composite and
Tuscan, and from the
dome, which was derived from the
Etruscan arch, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Roman Republic.
It was at this time, in the
1st century BC, that Romans started to widely use
concrete (which was invented in the late
3th century BC), a powerful
cement derived from
pozzolana which soon supplanted
marble as the chief Roman building material and allowed for numerous daring architectural schemata. Also in the 1st century BC,
Vitruvius wrote
De architectura, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In the late
1st century BC, Rome also began to make use of
glassblowing soon after its invention in
Syria, which occurred about 50 BC, and
mosaics took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during
Sulla's campaigns in Greece.
Article on history of Roman concrete |
The Appian Way (Via Appia), a road connecting the city of Rome to the southern parts of Italy, remains usable even today. |
Concrete made possible the paved, durable
Roman roads, many of which were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Roman Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. Originally constructed for military purposes, to allow
Roman legions to be rapidly deployed, these highways had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the phrase "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained way stations which provided refreshments to travelers at regular intervals along the roads, constructed bridges where necessary, and established a system of horse relays for
couriers that allowed a dispatch to travel up to 800 km (500 miles) in 24 hours.
The Romans constructed numerous
aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to assist in
their agriculture. The city of Rome itself was supplied by eleven aqueducts with a combined length of 350 km (260 miles). Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Powered entirely by
gravity, the aqueducts transported very large amounts of water with an efficiency that remained unsurpassed for two thousand years. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 miles had to be crossed,
inverted siphons were used to force water uphill.
The Romans also made major advancements in
sanitation. Romans were particularly famous for their public
baths, called
thermae, which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses came to have
flush toilets and
indoor plumbing, and a complex
sewer system, the
Cloaca Maxima, was used to drain the local
marshes and carry waste into the Tiber river. Some historians have speculated that the use of
lead pipes in sewer and plumbing systems led to widespread
lead poisoning which contributed to the decline in
birth rate and general decay of Roman society leading up to the
fall of Rome. However, lead content would have been minimized because the flow of water from aqueducts could not be shut off, it ran continuously through public and private outlets into the drains
[Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply by A.T. Hodge (1992)], only a small number of taps were in use.
|
Roman soldiers on the cast of Trajan's Column in the Victoria and Albert museum, London. |
The early Roman army was, like those of other contemporary city-states, a citizen force in which the bulk of the troops fought as a type of
phalanx. The soldiers were required to supply their own arms, and returned to civilian life once their service was ended.
The first of the great army reformers,
Camillus, reorganized the army to adopt
manipular tactics and divided the infantry into three lines:
hastati,
principes and
triarii.
The small landholders had traditionally been the backbone of the Roman army, but by the end of the
2nd century BCE, the self-owning farmer had largely disappeared as a social class. Faced with acute manpower problems,
Gaius Marius transformed the army into a volunteer force and accepted recruits from the lower classes, providing arms and armor for these troops out of his own pocket.
The Roman army was a marvel of discipline; it was the best army of its time but not for any normal reasons. There were many enemies Rome faced who had more skilled warriors than the Roman Legionary, and some of these enemies even had the advantage of superior numbers; but yet the Roman Legionaries won through. The Roman army owes a lot of its success to its brilliant generals, but no general can command an army that doesn't obey him.
Roman legionaries had comparatively less skill at fighting than most of their opponents, but they also had less of the impetuous spirit that made their Celtic enemies so fearsome. With their little swords and unwieldy shields they could defeat all but the most fearsome and determined of barbarian tribes.
Roman discipline was brutal; running from a battle was generally punished by death, and minor breaches of military rules could earn a flogging. A Legion was trained to virtually worship the silver eagle standard, and its loss in battle meant the Legion's disbanding. The Roman Legions specialized in working as a team and sticking together: the Legionaries would follow their general anywhere, even to civil war.
The
Roman legion was one of the strongest aspects of the Roman army. The
Roman triumph was a civic ceremony and religious rite held to publicly honor a military commander. The legions were also physically powerful and had a lower tendency to illness than other armies. Not only because of a food shortage, but because garlic and onions were so effective in being a nutritious food and long-lasting, the Roman army was fed garlic while marching.
The last army reorganization came when Emperor
Constantine I divided the army into a static defense force and a mobile field army. During the Late Empire, Rome also became increasingly dependent on allied contingents,
foederati.
Other articlesMilitary history of the Roman EmpireRoman infantry tactics, strategy and battle formationsRoman Legion and
Roman navyThe interest of studying Ancient Rome appeared presumably during the
Age of Enlightenment in
France.
Charles Montesquieu wrote a work "Reasonings on causes of grandeur and decline of the Romans". The first major work was
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by
Edward Gibbon, which encompassed the period from the end of 2nd century to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in
1453. Like Montesquieu Gibbon paid high tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens.
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a founder of the criticism and wrote
The Roman History, carried until the
First Punic war. Niebuhr has made an attempt to determine the way the Roman tradition appeared. According to him, Romans, like other people, had a historical
epos which was preserved mainly in the noble families. During the
Napoleonic period the work titled
The History of Romans by
Victor Duruy appeared. It highlighted the
Caesarean period popular at the time.
History of Rome,
Roman constitutional law and
Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, all by
Theodor Mommsen, became very important milestones. Later the work
Greatness and Decline of Rome by
Guglielmo Ferrero was published. The Russian work
Очерки по истории римского землевладения, преимущественно в эпоху Империи (
The Outlines on Roman Landownership History, Mainly During the Empire) by
Ivan Grevs contained information on the economy of
Pomponius Atticus, one of the greatest landowners during the end of Republic.
The studying of Roman history in the USSR was closely concerned with
marxism-leninism, which used such works as
The Origin of Family, Private Property and State,
The Chronological Notes,
The Forms Preceded by the Capitalist Industry,
Bruno Bauer and the Early Christianity etc. due to lack of particularized works. Meanwhile the slave revolts, their role and the agrarian policy have been highlighted. The first two topics studied e.g.
A. V. Mishulin,
S. A. Zhebelyov and the agrarian questions studied mainly M. E. Sergeyenko, E. M. Shtayerman and V. I. Kuzishchin. The studying of ideological struggle, which was seen even in the most favourable historical periods, was highly featured (S. L. Utchenko, P. F. Preobrazhenskiy,
N. A. Mashkin, Shtayerman, A. D. Dmitrev). The
Gracchian movement ideology was studied by S. I. Protasova. The provinces were researched by
A. B. Ranovich while the foreign policy by A. G. Bokshchanin. In
1937 The Journal of Ancient History (
'естник древней истории) which often featured Rome-related articles appeared. After the break caused by
World War II, in
1948 The History of Rome by
S. I. Kovalyov and
The History of Roman people by V. N. Dyakov were published. The first work supposed the Roman tradition to be mainly true while the other expressed the doubt on this question.
*
List of Ancient Rome-related topics*
Roman agriculture*
Timeline of Ancient Rome*
Rome vs.Han china# Livy I# Livy II# Tuomisto 2002# Bagnall 1990# Scullard 1982, chapters I-IV# Meier 1982; Scullard 1982, chapters VI-VII# Scullard 1982, chapter VIII# Suetonius# Scarre 1995# Tuomisto 2002# Tuomisto 2002# Scarre 1995# Scarre 1995# Johnston 1903,
chapter 1# Frontinus
*
Edward Gibbon, ''
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
