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TRANSCRIPT
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Rome and the Barbarians
• At height, 2nd century C.E., Roman Empire contained 70-‐100 million people in an empire reaching 2,700 miles east to west and 2,500 miles north to south
• Rome enforced Pax Romana across empire • Contemporaries praised it for promoEng peace and prosperity while criEcs claimed Pax Romana was brute military conquest
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From Hill Town to Empire
• The Founding of the Roman Republic – Founded in 753 B.C.E. [in legend] – Ruled for 250 years by Etrurians [Etruscans] – Republic created in 509 B.C.E. when upper-‐class Romans drove Etruscans out of city
– New republican government had two consuls and a Senate using a system of checks and balances
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From Hill Town to Empire
• The Conquest of Italy – Army established on Greek model of phalanx – Drove Etruscans out of central Italy, 396 B.C.E. – Controlled all Italy south of Po Valley, 264 B.C.E.
– Offered opponents the choice of alliance or conquest
– Republic was a society geared for war
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Conquest of Carthage and Western Mediterranean – Carthage controlled North Africa and was a rival to Rome in commerce
– Rome and Carthage fought three Punic Wars from 264 to 146 B.C.E.
– Wars included invasion of Rome by Hannibal using elephants
– Romans destroyed Carthage and sold ciEzens into slavery at end of war
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Subsequent Expansion – Annexed Spain, 197 B.C.E. – Series of wars led to annexaEon of Gaul (France) by 49 B.C.E.
– Moved into successor states of Alexander’s empire at invitaEon of the Greeks
– Rome applied “new wisdom” of harsh treatment to conquered areas
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From Hill Town to Empire
• InsEtuEons of Empire – Support of conquered people achieved by • SelecEve offers of full ciEzenship to non-‐Romans • Others could get parEal ciEzenship, right to marry Roman ciEzens, and freedom from arbitrary arrest
• CiEzenship offer directed toward upper classes
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – An ancient form of relaEonship where strong protected weak and received obedience and support in return
– Patrons were patricians; clients were plebeians who helped pay patron expenses and showed submission by ritual visit to patron’s house
– RelaEonship present in Republic and Empire
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients [cont.] – The Roman Family • Paterfamilias (father) had life and death control • Control of daughters did not pass to husbands • Women had no formal rights but some control in pracEce
• Marriages were arranged • RestricEons did not apply to lower classes
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – Class and Class Conflict • Existed despite patron-‐client relaEonship • Plebeians and patricians forbidden to intermarry under Etruscans
• Plebeians not allowed to be army officers in early Republic
• Etruscan king had protected plebeians from patricians; Republic meant loss of protecEon
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – The Struggle of the Orders
• Term applies to plebeians’ long struggle for rights • Boycoes of Rome provided leverage in struggle • Plebeians had no economic rights • First plebeian consul was 360 B.C.E. • Fruits of imperial expansion went to patricians • Plebeian soldiers would return home to find their land confiscated for debts
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – Urban Splendor and Squalor • Rome was most extreme example of wealth and poverty
• Newly wealthy patricians relocated to Rome and built stunning mansions • Poor flocked to Rome in search of work and food and lived in hovels
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – Aeempts at Reform
• Tiberius Gracchus clubbed to death by Senate for his support of the poor (133 B.C.E.)
• Gaius Gracchus (consul, 123 B.C.E.) redistributed land, subsidized grain sales, reseeled some poor in lands won in Punic Wars (assassinated in 121 B.C.E.)
• Tax farming proposal unpopular • Reforms fail but lay groundwork for later permanent reform
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Patrons and Clients – “Bread and Circuses” • New soluEon was to bribe poor in form of free daily bread raEon
• Also presented many free public entertainments to fill idle hours of the poor • Threat of revolt by poor conEnued throughout life of Roman Empire
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Slaves and Slave Revolts – Conquests led to agricultural and mineral wealth that required an enlarged labor force
– Millions of slaves acquired in wars – Rebellions included Great Slave War (134-‐131 B.C.E.) in Sicily and Spartacus-‐led gladiator revolt of 73-‐71 B.C.E.
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Military Power – Roman armies were central to the state – Willing to innovate: Greek phalanx, small maneuverable units, cavalry, sophisEcated warships, walled camps
– Service in army made men free but involved lengthy enlistment: 16-‐25 years under Augustus
– Conquered people served in army
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Generals in PoliEcs – Military experience basis of poliEcal power – Control by Senate and Assembly weakens – Julius Caesar a model of how military success leads to poliEcal power
– Augustus Caesar (Octavian) completed process with creaEon of Empire with central power coupled with promoEon of tradiEonal family values
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From Hill Town to Empire
• The End of the Republic – Augustus created imperial monarchy – Military expansion conEnued into Switzerland, Britain, Mesopotamia
– Gains consolidated by Trajan (117-‐138 C.E.) – CiEzenship for conquered peoples now limited – Created internaEonal law (jus gen(um) to deal with diverse people of empire
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Economic Policies of the Empire – Romans worked with local elites in provinces – Cost of empire to subjects included taxes and military service
– Prosperity caused some to worry they had lost the simple virtues of Republican life before the rise of military leadership, or even before the overthrow of the Etruscans
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Economic Policies of the Empire – Supplying Rome • Feeding Rome, a city of one million under Augustus, was major task
• Empire moved a large variety of products by ship within empire • Trade included exoEc animals and gladiators for public entertainment
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Economic Policies of the Empire – Building CiEes • Empire was largely agricultural but managed by potent urban civilizaEon
• Built administraEve ciEes around empire including ones that became core of London, Paris, and Lyons • Empire contained over 5,000 civic bodies (ciEes and towns)
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Economic Policies of the Empire – Luxury Trades • Included goods transported over great distances including Chinese silks
• Payment for luxuries was in metal (gold/silver) • Overland routes also vital (“all roads lead to Rome”) • Upper classes publicly scorned but privately parEcipated in commercial acEvity
• End of Pax Romana sharply reduced luxury trade in the late 2nd century, C.E.
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Cultural Policies of the Empire – Greco-‐Roman Culture • Incorporated Greek ideas and language through conquest and spread them across empire
• Greek was the language of high culture; LaEn was the language of administraEon • Sense of Roman triumph a key element of Roman sense of self and others
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Cultural Policies of the Empire – Stoicism • From Zeno, a Greek philosopher (c. 300 C.E.) • World is raEonal, well-‐ordered system • People should accept events without joy or grief • Treat all people with decency as brothers and sisters • Stoics sought more humane treatment of slaves • Height of influence under Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-‐180 C.E.)
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Cultural Policies of the Empire – Religion in the Empire
• Accepted religious diversity and divinity of emperor • Mithraism and cult of Cybele aeracted women • Monotheism of Judaism led to Jewish revolts and Roman suppression
• ChrisEanity seen as atheisEc (ChrisEans rejected divinity of emperor) and treasonous (refused to parEcipate in public religious fesEvals)
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From Hill Town to Empire
• Cultural Policies of the Empire – ChrisEanity Triumphant • ChrisEans gained by Eme of Marcus Aurelius • Stoic idea of orderly world and concern for social welfare paralleled ChrisEan ideals
• IniEally aeracted poor and women • Acceptance in Edict of Milan (313 C.E.) culminates in ChrisEanity being named official religion of empire in 394 C.E. when polytheisEc cults are banned
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Invaders at the Gates – Celts sacked Rome in 390 B.C.E.; fomented revolt in 61 C.E. led by Boudicca, a woman
– Goths (Germanic) on northern border from 50 B.C.E. move west into Empire (under pressure from Huns) and form states within empire
– Huns pressure late Empire, topple dynasty in China and invade India
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Decline/Dismemberment of Roman Empire – Roman vulnerability to invasion increased by plague that killed one-‐quarter of Roman populaEon (165-‐180 C.E.)
– Marcus Aurelius recognized invaders could be assimilated
– Some invaders took ciEzenship, others wanted plunder, others wanted to set up separate states
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Decline/Dismemberment of Empire [cont.] – Crisis of the 3rd Century • Repeated invasions along Danube and Rhine rivers • Invasion of Italy thwarted in 253-‐268 C.E. • Loss of territory beyond Danube • Persian revolts unsuccessfully threaten Roman control of the east
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Decline/Dismemberment of Empire [cont.] – The FragmentaEon of Authority
• Warfare required decentralizaEon of power to regional capitals, including use of ConstanEnople as home to a second, eastern center of Roman power
• ValenEnian (r. 364-‐375 C.E.) last emperor able to defeat invaders
• AdministraEon moved to Milan and Ravenna [c. 400 C.E.] • Vandals and Huns extended power into west • Control of west into barbarian hands
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Causes of the Decline and Fall – Structural problems • Class conflict conEnued • Cost of armies drained treasury • People more impoverished over Eme • Yeoman-‐farmer class, backbone of the Republic, was ruined although wealthy sEll prospered • Support of idea of empire faded
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• Causes of Decline and Fall [cont.] – Quality of emperors declined – Couldn’t defeat enemies or assimilate them – ChrisEanity criEcal of pursuit of earthly power – Climate change and epidemics – TradiEonal list includes overextension, military and financial exhausEon, leadership failure, new values systems, infiltraEon of outsiders, new states that rejected Roman leadership
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• The Empire in the East – Focus on ConstanEnople, the “New Rome” – Combined Greek culture, Roman law, and ChrisEan faith
– ConstanEnople, later called ByzanEum, lasts to 1453 C.E.
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• The Empire in the East [cont.] – Resurgence under JusEnian • ConstanEnople impervious to Germanic aeacks • JusEnian recaptured lost porEons of western empire [r. 527-‐565 C.E.] • Created legal codes known as JusEnian Code • Suppressed Monophysite understanding of ChrisEanity, the basis for ongoing religious conflict in the east and amenability to Islam
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• The Empire in the East [cont.] – Religious struggles
• Armies of Islam launch invasions aqer 632 C.E. • Divisive iconoclasEc controversy: is there a place for icons within ChrisEan religion and pracEce?
• Ability to resist invaders declines • ByzanEne emperor asks Pope [western ChrisEan leader] for help
• Result is start of the Crusades
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Barbarians and Fall of Roman Empire
• The Empire in the East [cont.] – A Millennium of ByzanEne Strength • Ruling classes not as separated from rest of people as in Rome
• Less geographical overextension • Longstanding urban tradiEon
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The Legacy of the Roman Empire
• What Difference Does It Make? – Language was basis of many European languages and survived in liturgy to 20th century
– Law a basis of and inspiraEon for modern law – Roman towns survive to present day – Roman Catholic church was organized along Roman imperial lines
– Remains a model for modern empires