The rise and fall of the empire of Alexander the Great allowed Rome to expand its influence throughout the Mediterranean region.

GEOGRAPHY:

Like Greece, the geography of the 650-mile-long Italian Peninsula shaped the history of Rome.

As Rome rose in influence, the narrowness of the peninsula (150 miles wide on average) facilitated Latin Rome’s control over the area.  Early in its history, Rome adopted the old Etruscan idea of designing the roads so that they would pass through provincial capitals; the saying that “all roads lead to Rome” is an expression of this development.  This idea was also practical – its kept enemies apart, but also under the control of the dominant cities – especially Rome.

The Apennines formed a continuous backbone of mountains through the Italian Peninsula that also effectively divided it into two regions between north and south.  The northwestern section of the peninsula is dominated by the Po River Valley (the Po is the longest of Italy’s rivers).  Agriculture dominated Roman food production (land thus became equated with notion of liberty).  Despite this emphasis on land ownership and the common Roman dislike for water travel, seafood also became an important resource (the Greeks on the other hand, were very much at home on the sea).

The prehistory and earliest history of Italy involves its colonization by three groups:

1. Etruscans (originating in Anatolia, they settled in the valleys of northern Italy between 900 and 800 BC).  The Etruscan introduced some of the earliest walled cities into Europe.

2. Greeks (southern coastal Italy)

3. Phoenicians (southern Italy)

Continuing in the pattern of city-state development, the city of Rome evolved from many different Neolithic settlements in the marshy lowlands along east bank of the Tiber River.

The city of Rome was traditionally associated with various districts associated with the “Seven Hills” as follows:

1. Palatine (at the center of these hills and ridges)
2. Capitoline
3. Quirinal
4. Viminal
5. Esquiline
6. Caelian
7. Aventine

ROMULUS AND REMUS AND THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY-STATE OF ROME:

In 753 BC Rome was founded by the semi-historic and semi-mythical Romulus, the twin son of a Rhea Silvia, the daughter of the King of Alba who was forced by his brother to become a Vestal Virgin so that she would bear no heirs to the throne.  Having become pregnant by the war-god, Mars,  she gave birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus.  When Rhea Silvia’s uncle and pretender to the throne learned of this development, he arrested her and placed the infant boys into a basket which he sent floating down the flooded Tiber River.

Having washed ashore down stream at a grotto beneath the fig tree Ruminal, the twins were suckled by a mother wolf until their discovery by a shepherd and his wife, who reared them as their own children.  As young men, the twins learned about their true identities and killed their uncle to restore their mothers’ father to the throne.
Afterward, they set about establishing their own city at the site where the she-wolf had “rescued” them from the river.  By studying the flight of birds, Romulus and Remus sought information on which directions to lay out the plan of their new city.  When twelve vultures appeared in the sky over Romulus’ section, and when only six vultures appeared over Remus’ section, the latter twin became jealous.  With a white cow and a white bull pulling his plow, Romulus set about laying out the perimeter of his part of the city.  When Remus, in an act of contempt and jealousy, jumped over the furrow that served as the symbolic boundary of Romulus’ city, Romulus killed him.

Romulus’ new city became populated with migrants from other Italian city-states, and in order to gain wives, these early Etruscan-Romans kidnapped women from a neighboring tribe known as Sabines who occupied Quirinal hill (one of the Seven Hills of Rome).  After enjoying a long and prosperous rule, Romulus disappeared into a thunderstorm.  He then became associated with the god (and worshipped as the god) Quirinus.
 

ESTABLISHING THE ROMAN REPUBLIC: CLASS, DEMOCRACY, ARISTOCRACY, AND OLIGRACHY.

Subsequent to its founding, Rome was ruled by the Etruscans until it gained its autonomy by 500 BC, when the Roman Republic was formed.

Contributions of the Etruscans:

1. Walled cities – within such Roman cities, apartment complexes became known as “suburbs.”

2. Eastern-influenced “mystery” religion that emphasized rituals (often elaborate); the presence of Etruscan rituals and other religious motifs made Roman culture more receptive to the transcendent form of Judaism that became Christianity centuries later.
Like the Jews, who asserted that the authority of their God transcended that of the Roman State, the early Christians did likewise.  Jews and Christians were not prosecuted (or persecuted) for their religious beliefs, but rather for not affirming the Roman State.
In contrast, when Christianity was affirmed by the state in the fourth century AD, non-Christians were prosecuted (and persecuted) for religious reasons (most of the sacred oaks of Britain were cut down since they were the dwelling places of Pagan gods and spirits).

A. In contrast to the Etruscans, the Latin Romans formed a spiritual belief system that emphasized the importance of the hearth – Vesta (Greek Hestia).

B. For Rome, religion was tied to the state, thus diminishing the authority of heads of households to the state (thus abolishing the ancient law that allowed heads of household to take the life of a family member.

C. Though the Greeks had the same idea, they were also open to other religious forms in a way that the Latin Romans generally resisted (with exceptions – by the time of the late Republic period (100 BC) and through the Empire period, Rome incorporated many exotic religious motifs and beliefs).  Contemporary (xenophobic) and later critics would cite this development, along with the transfer of landed estates from Roman to foreign hands as a root of Rome’s collapse.

D. The Roman emphasis on land (patria), family, and religion was expressed in their generally conservative nature, culturally (they weren’t typically prone to excessiveness), and in their devout patriotism.  To this end, Romans created grandiose myths about the greatness of Rome (though these stories were certainly grounded in fact).
This orientation to land, family, and religion was also a factor in the typical Roman sense of deference to authority.

The Roman social framework: Family – Religion – State.

3. The Etruscans were great builders of municipal buildings and roads.
In 500 BC the Latin tribes of Rome won their independence from Etruscan rule (with the help of the Carthaginians – Carthage itself was founded by the Phoenicians).

With Roman independence from its Etruscan rulers, two groups emerged to vie for power.
 

1. Patricians – class of nobles.  The Roman nobility gained military power through the acquisition of horses (same as in Greece).  This aristocratic class valued the interconnectedness between each other through their extended families.  Genealogies and names were important; the name of Gaius Julius Caesar, for example, indicated that he was related to three prominent Roman families.

2. Plebians (they also became known as the “head count.”  Consisting of artisans and crafts specialists, the Plebians had no status in Rome, though they vied for power, successfully winning representation in Roman government in 367 BC with the establishment of the Licinian law.  This new set of laws opened political offices to Plebians, including that of consul, the supreme official in Rome.  Ruled by the privileged patrician class,  the Republic period lasted for four hundred years.  Though containing elements of democracy, the Roman Republic was really an aristocracy ruled by the patrician class through senatorial administration.

Rome as a republic expanded its nascent imperial influence with its domination of Etruria and Latium in the 4th century.  During this time, Rome also came into regular direct contact with Greece, and from this great influence, Classical Rome formed.  Near the end of the Republic Period (with the founding of the Roman Empire by Augustus in 27 BC), Roman aristocratic rule had given way to rule by oligarchy (government by the few).
The expansion of the Roman Empire was such that it dominated parts of Anatolia, Greece, and North Africa before its controlled the Italian Peninsula.

1. As these other Italian tribes were subdued, they were placed into a social order of status, relating to the minority Romans who remained at the highest rung on the social ladder.

2. By structuring their society so, however, gave importance to Roman society as a high culture; anyone could become Roman – as an abstract concept it became the cultural ideal.  Rome was a state of mind.

3. Rome was a classed society (there were no castes).

Roman religion was animistic, with a belief in the presence of numina (spirits, sometimes of the dead) but the religion itself primarily centered on hearth gods, especially Vesta, the goddess of the hearth.  Romanized Greek gods were also common; the gods were associated with place.  Recognition of the patron gods was equated with an affirmation of the authority of, and allegiance to, the state.

With the expulsion of the kings in 510 BC, Rome was ruled by consuls, or the “first men of Rome,” one of which who commanded the military and the other who controlled the treasury and essentially ruled Rome itself.
Republican Rome began not as a democracy (as is often asserted) but rather as a patrician/ senatorial aristocracy, later to develop into an oligarchy.  The two senate-elected Consuls were the supreme leaders of Rome, though they were subject to the approval of the Senate.

1. Drawn from the ranks of elite patricians, the consuls served for 1-year terms.
2. The assistants of the Consuls were the quaestors, who maintained the treasury and prosecuted criminals against the state.
3. In 366 BC the office of praetor was created (their numbers increased to four in 227 BC) to serve in the stead of the consuls when they were away from Rome.
The minimum requirement for consuls during the Republic included significant experience in government and an age of 40 to 45 years.

Roman government was dominated by the Patrician class who controlled the supreme council, or Senate, a political, legislative, and administrative body of 300 members that originated as an extension of the council of kings.
The Senate elected the consuls, completely controlling them until the third century BC.

ASSEMBLY:

During the fifth century BC the Plebian outcry against the absolutism of Patrician judges led to the creation of the Roman Assembly, or lower legislative body in 366 BC.  Plebians had (by 450 BC) pushed for the establishment of codified law under the Twelve Tables (there were originally ten; little of this law has survived in its original form), inscribed on a series of tablets placed in a public setting.

MILITARY:

The Roman Republic set about expanding its territory as a means to check potential security threats.
Thus, from its status as the protector of Rome, the military attained great influence and power.
In a consular check-and-balance system the military was required to leave its weapons outside the walls of and area around Rome.  The only armed military within the city of Rome were members of the elite Praetorian Guard who protected the consuls during the early Roman Empire.  The military’s ranks were filled by Roman citizens (or those men from Patrician landed families) who were required to serve the state in the legions.  When the land ownership requirement led to shortages of personnel to fill the legion’s ranks, Caius Marius (157–86 BC; a tribune, or senior officer of the legions) won plebian concessions in the Social War (a civil war waged in 82 BC).  This conflict resulted in the ability of land-less people to serve for the first time in Roman history, thus creating an effective and professional military.  This professional military gained political power in the late Roman Republic.
Plebian tribunes developed by the mid-4th century BC.

1. During the Roman Republic Rome saw a need to consolidate its power as a means to thwart potential security threats.

A. These threats generally came from all Four Corners of the territory.
B. The greatest threats were from the Germanic peoples to the north, who, like most of Eurasia, began moving about during the late 3rd century BC with the westward expansion of the Ch’in and Han dynasties in China.

2. Italy was thus systematically conquered and brought under the control of Rome.

3. During the Empire Period (beginning in the first century BC) Rome realized (beginning with Julius Caesar) that other peoples under Rome’s influence needed to become citizens in order to fill the ranks of the military.

A. All of the tribes of central and northern Italy became Roman citizens; this development ended attacks on Romans in occupied territories.
B. Eventually, citizenship was extended to all of the peoples of the empire.

Other aspects of plebian rights included their acceptance into the Roman priesthoods and city agencies and offices.
The greatest threat to Rome from the western Mediterranean was posed from its old ally, Carthage.  In order to deal with this potential danger, the traditionally land-lubbing Rome needed to create a combat-effective navy.
 

Stages and events in the Roman cultural and military consolidation of empire during the Republic:

1. 390 BC – Celtic tribes known to the Romans collectively as the Gauls invaded and sacked Rome.

2. Greek influence became integrated into Roman world-views as expressed though cultural refinements; Greek attributes became associated with high culture.  Despite such associations, strident conservatism and patriotism amidst changes remained a significant part of Roman culture, with the influence of men like Marcus Porcius Cato/ Cato the Elder (234–149 BC), who personified Roman pater familias that gave them supreme authority over their families.

A. Cato the Elder’s call for the destruction of Carthage resulted in the Third Punic War (149–146 BC).

B. Cato disregarded luxuries and material refinements as decadent.

C. Cato the Elder’s conservatism was expressed through his acceptance of social class divisions and disregard for servants’ rights and needs.

3. Fourth century: South Etruria and West Latium were conquered.

4. Rome subdued the Oscan-speaking city-state of Samnium in south-central Italy in three wars (the Samnite Wars):

A. 343 –341 BC

B. 326 – 304 BC

C. 298 – 290 BC

D. The Samnites continued to fight with other enemies of Rome against the Roman city-state:

a. the Molossian kingdom of Epirus (near Macedonia) under Pyrrhus (318–272 BC); the term “Pyrric victory” comes from his defeat of the Romans at Apulia in 279 BC while losing most of his forces.

b. Hannibal (247–182 BC) the Carthaginian prosecutor of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC)

c. Caius Marius (Social War, 88 BC).

5. Generally at the time of the Samnite Wars the other Italian provincial tribes and city-states were subdued and placed under Roman control; peoples from these territories were placed into slavery.

6. The Punic Wars resulted from a contest over control of the Mediterranean trade between Carthage (that dominated it) and a nascent Rome.  With its success in the Punic Wars, Rome became the greatest political, military, and cultural force west of China.

A. The First Punic War (264–241 BC) erupted between Rome and Carthage which each were allied to conflicting city-states on Sicily (the granary of the Mediterranean) and Syracuse.

B. Second Punic War (218–201 BC) began when Rome declared war on Carthage after Carthaginian commander Hannibal, in a treaty violation, conquered the Spanish city-state of Saguntum, an ally of Rome.

In this conflict, Hannibal directed one of the most remarkable military campaigns in history when he led an elite core of Carthaginian forces with elephants and a complete supply caravan through a little-known overland route along the East Coast of Spain.  Crossing the Pyrenees Mountains to the Rhône River in southern France, Hannibal led his entourage up and over the Alps into the Po River Valley where they subdued this agriculturally rich region with superior cavalry forces, picking up Gallic recruits along the way.  In 217 BC he crossed the Apennines and moved toward Rome.

After a series of spectacular defeats against Rome, Hannibal circumvented the fortified city of Rome and moved south, where he successfully received support and troops from the southern Italian tribes, including the influential city-state of Capua.  Without a continual flow of support from Carthage, however, Hannibal was unable to attack the city of Rome itself.

By 212 BC, this support began to fade as Roman forces defeated Capua and reclaimed much of Hannibal’s conquered Italian territories.  After the death of his brother in battle in 207 BC, Hannibal retreated to the mountains of Bruttium (in the tow of the boot of Italy).
By 203 BC the Roman general Scipio Africanus Major (236–183 BC) launched an assault on Carthage itself, forcing Hannibal to return home to defend his city.  Hannibal failed to this end, having been defeated at Zama (near present-day Tunisia) the year later (202 BC).
Scipio Africanus after defeating Hannibal, later offered the defeated Carthaginian general his safety as an expression of Roman magnanimity, to Roman statesman Cato the Elder’s dismay.

With the defeat of the Carthaginians, Rome was free to pursue conquests in the East, beginning with the Philip V of Macedon.  With the subsequent defeat of the Hellenic King Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great: d. 187 BC) of Syria, Macedonia became a Roman province.

– The Achaean League (formed prior to, but strengthened by Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great) joined Rome in 198 BC resulting in the Roman dominance in Peloponnesus.
– After attempting with Macedonia to win their independence from Rome, the leaders of the Achaean League were exiled to Italy and the league was disbanded, formally ending all notions of Classical Greek liberty that existed prior to that time.

HANNIBAL in the POST 2nd PUNIC WAR ERA:

After the 201 BC treaty of peace, Hannibal worked as an official, managing tribute paid to Rome from Carthage.  After accusations of intrigues against Rome, Hannibal fled to Syria where he joined in King Antiochus III’s fight against Rome in the attempt to restore the Hellenistic (post-Alexandrian) Seleucid Empire that ranged from Thrace and Anatolia to the mountains west of the Indus Valley.

– the forces of Antiochus III were beaten at Thermopylae (191 BC) and Magnesia (190 BC) ending the hope of reviving the Empire of Alexander the Great.
With the defeat of the Syrians, Hannibal fled once again, this time to the Thracian province of Bithynia in Anatolia.
Facing arrest by the Romans, Hannibal poisoned himself instead.

C. Cato the Elder’s call for the destruction of Carthage resulted in the Third Punic War (149–146 BC).  Scipio Africanus Minor (185–129 BC: the adopted son of the eldest son of Scipio Africanus Major) led the blockade of Carthage and the house-to-house arrests of the Carthaginian people (who were executed and sold into slavery), and the subsequent razing of the city.

The site of Carthage was afterward plowed up so that there would be no visible remains.

7. With the Romanization of Macedonia 198 BC, Egypt under the Ptolemy rulers became a province of Rome in 168.

The fall of the Roman Republic took place between 150 BC and 50 AD as the Plebians withdrew their support of the government due to severe economic problems.
 

Problems in the Roman Republic:

1. Land:

A. ownership; with regard to grants of newly acquired or conquered territories.

a. With the acquisition of new lands and slaves, the potential for senatorial and patrician corruption grew.

b. Patricians thus expanded plantations (latifundia) that focused production on certain crops, out-producing and undercutting the production of Rome’s small plebian farmers.

c. Compounding this development, plebian farmers found themselves unable to pay their land taxes which resulted in losing their farms.

d. Unemployment and landlessness rose, causing displaced Plebians to relocate to the cities, especially Rome itself, where they massed into crowded and unsanitary urban settings.

e. These unemployed people were put to work in public works projects, given free bread, and entertained at the free circus when there was no work.

B. The Gracchi brothers (Gaius (153–121 BC) and Tiberius Gracchus (163–133 BC) who was ultimately killed by a mob led by the pontifex maximus) were among the foremost of the reformers who sought to relieve the problems associated with plebian poverty.
The brothers launched an agrarian revolt that resulted in land reforms.

C. Waging war itself was a problem, since Plebians pressed into service often found that they could not pay the taxes on their lands, and thus lost them to the state.

2. Debts:

A. Harsh debt laws resulted in the heavy use of debtors’ prison.

3. Class inequality and conflict:

A. When Caius Marius joined the call for equal access to newly acquired lands in the Social War, c. 88 BC he ended up confronting his old compatriot and rival Lucius Cornelius “Felix” Sulla (138–78 BC) and conquered Rome in the process.

4. Civil war:

A. Marious died two years later, and the civil war that followed between his forces and those of Sulla brought this general to power for several years as a Roman dictator.

B. Though Sulla abdicated his dictatorship in 79 BC for the Roman republican system of government, he nevertheless set a precedent that resulted in a series of civil wars and contests for Roman leadership for the next 50 years.

C. The history of the late Roman Republic (79–27 BC) is one that involved power plays and contests between politically ambitious statesmen and military leaders including the following:

a. Caius Octavius (named Augustus by the Senate: 63 BC–14 AD); the heir to the throne of Caesar he became (with the help of Marc Antony and Lepidus – the Second Triumvirate) the first Roman Emperor, he was the grandson of the sister of Julius Caesar.

b. Marcus Tullius “Tully” Cicero (106 – 43), though pompous, he became ancient Rome’s most famous orator, this philosopher politician served as a consul and member of the Senate.  He was well schooled in the law, and was a leader of the conservative party he was Rome’s greatest orator.

Returning to Rome from exile as a hero in 57 BC, and strongly opposed the political authority of Julius Caesar, approving the leader’s assassination in 44 BC.  By a conspiracy between his bitter rival Marcus Antonius and Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Cicero was executed in 43 BC.

c. Marcus Lisinius Crassus (d. 53 BC), a member of the First Triumvirate of which its members agreed to further the ambitions and interests of the other two members.

d. Julius Caesar (100–44 BC), a Roman general and statesman, he a member of the First Triumvirate.  Though born into one of the oldest patrician families, he remained a leader in the popular political party.  Elected consul in 44 BC he became dictator which brought on his assassination on March 15 (the Ides of March) of that year.  In his will he left his entire estate to his grandnephew (and adopted son) Augustus.

e. Marc Antony (83–30 BC) a soldier and statesman, he was a cousin and valued lieutenant of Julius Caesar.  Antony joined Julius Caesar in the legendary crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BC (against the orders of the Senate) to defeat the forces of Pompey in one of Rome’s civil wars of the Late Republic period.  Antony’s love affair with one of the Cleopatras of Egypt was also well known, and the intrigues involved with the affair resulted in each one of them committing suicide.

– After Antony’s assistance in placing Augustus to the seat of the Empire, he proved to be Rome’s biggest threat.

– With accusations of treason from Augustus, the forces of these two leaders met at Actium in Greece in 31 BC.
Rome’s imperial forces soundly defeated those of Marc Antony, forcing him to end his own life rather than face arrest.

– Thus ended the era of civil wars in Rome that began more than fifty years earlier.

f. Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey: 106–48 BC), a lieutenant of Sulla’s and a member of the First Triumvirate, this Roman general crushed the slave revolt led by the Thracian gladiator Spartacus in 71 BC.  After his defeat by Julius Caesar (his father-in-law), Pompey fled to Egypt where he was assassinated.

The greatness of Rome evolved out of its imperial program of conquering others and establishing colonies.
Rome’s military expansion brought great material benefits to the Roman State centered at its imperial city, Rome.
As such Rome grew into a cosmopolitan capital where affluence and material wealth became signs if status, individual importance, and success.