...History of Roman Empire Name Institution Many have credited Augustus Caesar as the first real great emperor of Rome. Modern historians know him as a historical figure made one of the most significant impacts in the ancient world. He became a Caesar after the Assassination of Julius Caesar (Buchan, 1937, p.18). Many people know Augustus Caesar for his effort and achievement of uniting the Roman Empire that became for over one hundred years. There has been a mixed reaction among many scholars concerning the life and rulership of Augustus. Some have viewed his achievements favorable while the other party sees him as a failure. Both facts are worth looking. It is true that while ruling Augustus achieved a lot but also had failures accompanying his reign. Augustus is Roman born in the year 63 B.C. His name was Gaius Octavius. His family was a very influential family. His father was the governor of Macedonia before he died in the year 58 BC. His Mother Caesonia was niece to the greatest general of Rome Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar took Augustus and adopted him as his son in the year 46 B.C. making him his heir. Augustus took over power from his father in the year 27 BC after his dad died of poisoning (Grant, 1978, p.32). While he was an emperor, he expanded Rome borders and took interest in civic and cultural affairs. Augustus slept in the year 14 A.D. and his son Tiberius replaced him. While still...
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...According to tradition, Rome was founded by two brothers, Romulus and Remus (Coffin 169). These two brothers had no idea of how this land they founded would grow to be the grand empire it would eventually become. Throughout the course of centuries, Rome would go through many trials and tribulations that would eventually lead it to greatness. However, as all good things, this too came to an end. Rome’s empire did not start out as this large domain of land. They went through a series of changes and wars to expand their borders. They started off with the Etruscan kings ruling the land. However, the rape of Lucretia, a Roman woman by a son of the Etruscan dynasty, turned the Romans against this dynasty and changed the form of government going forward (Coffin 171). They now focused their government in an aristocratic way. This divided the people into two classes, the plebeians and the patricians. After fighting for rights, the plebeians began to gain some recognition as being equal. With this aspect of Roman life settling down, they were able to continue their expansion. They thrived on the strength of the military. There were many wars including the Punic Wars and the Macedonian and Syrian Wars that were victorious for the Romans and assisted in their continued expansion (Linderski 3). Because of the success of the wars, Rome encountered wealth which would change the political and economical standing of the republic. However, this wealth did not benefit the poor class...
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...The Roman Period Timeline of Roman Period Early History * 1000 BC - Latins begin to settle in Italy. * 753 BC - The city is allegedly founded in this year by Romulus and Remus. * 750 BC - Tarpeia besieges cities, and hands it over to the Sabines * 700 BC - Near Rome, the Etruscan civilization more or less begins. * 659 BC - The enemy city of Alba Longa is destroyed by the Romans. * 616 BC - The first Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus establishes a Forum and a Circus Maximus. * c.600 BC - Cloaca Maxima is probably first built around this year. * 578 BC - Servius Tullius becomes the next Etruscan king of Rome * 565 BC - Servian Walls are built. * 534 BC - King Servius is assassinated. * 510 BC - Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol is completed and consecrated. * 509 BC - Lucius Brutus founds the republic and expels the Etruscans and Tarquin the Proud from Rome. * 508 BC - A Treaty is made between Rome and Carthage. * 507 BC - The famous war against the Etruscans begins, featuring hero Horatio. Republic * 499 BC - A battle against foreign tribes commences, including the construction of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. * 396 BC - The Etruscan city of Veio is defeated by the Romans * 390 BC - Rome is sacked by the Gauls after the Battle of the Allia * 380 BC - The once destroyed Servian Wall is reconstructed. * 312 BC - The Via Appia and Aqua Appia are constructed. * 264 - 241 BC - First Punic...
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...almost constant warfare, which, together with rampant piracy, closed the seas to trade. The result, predictably, was stagnation. Stagnation bred weakness in the states of the Mediterranean, which partially explains the ease with which Rome was able to steadily expand its reach beginning in the 3rd century B.C. By the first century B.C., Rome was the undisputed master of the Mediterranean. However, peace did not follow Rome’s victory, for civil wars sapped its strength. Rome’s power hungry leaders and government lead to the downfall of their powerful civilization. Following the murder of Caesar in 44 B.C. His adopted son Octavian finally brought an end to internal strife with his defeat of Mark Antony in the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. Octavian’s victory was due in no small part to his championing of Roman economic freedom against the Oriental despotism of Egypt represented by Antony, who had fled to Egypt and married Cleopatra in 36 B.C. As Oertel (1934: 386) put it, “The victory of Augustus and of the West meant... a repulse of the tendencies towards State capitalism and State socialism which might have come to fruition ... had Antony and Cleopatra been victorious.” The long years of war, however, had taken a heavy toll on the Roman economy. Steep taxes and requisitions of supplies by the army, as well as rampant inflation and the closing of trade...
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...and Fall of Rome The Economics Behind an Empire 4/18/2013 ECO 120 Seb Jaramillo The Rise and Fall of Rome To many people, the ancient world has always been a topic of great interest and study. The ancient world is essentially the explanation for how the world ended up where it is today. Our ancestors laid down the foundation that would help form and mold today’s civilization and the way people live out their lives in modern times. Perhaps no civilization of the past did more for the future than the efforts and contributions of the Roman Empire. For almost a millennia, the Romans controlled the vast majority of the world. Their Empire made it possible to spread wealth and knowledge to the far corners of the world and lay down a base common knowledge that helped pave the path for people to follow. This paper shall look into the background of Rome and see what economic forces helped lead to the formation of such a formidable empire. What allowed these people to become so wealthy and construct a vast territory? Why was it easy for the Romans to do so much while many other nations are still set back in our day and age? The paper shall also look at the forces at work near the end of the Western Empire that brought an end to the glory and majesty of Rome and how this knowledge can perhaps produce a means of prevention of the same fate for the United States. The city of Rome became a Republic around the year 509 BC. By the end of the first century BC Rome controlled almost...
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...focal problem with every emperor recorded in Roman history, and doing it successfully was undeniably a problem that needed a solution for the Roman Empire, as no one was ever happy about what had been decided. However, it was a much more complex issue for all the emperors of the period 31 BC to AD 96; nonetheless there was no single solution to this problem. However not every appropriate successor elected meant that they would be successful in becoming the next definite emperor, as many died even before the emperor of that time did, or they were challenged and then under suspicious circumstances, murdered. The central reason of all the convolutions involved in trying to find an adequate successor, was mainly due to the Roman belief that family praise and glory were the most important things any Roman with authority should consider. And it by no doubt dominated the Romans on how they behaved. Augustus had introduced laws that the princeps or the title of the emperor could not be passed down like a monarchy, but could only be approved by the senate, but it eventually became inheritable. The senate had historically been allowed to pass on their status to their descendants, and so succession within the family was by no doubt acceptable, we can prove this by highlighting the fact that Augustus himself wanted to choose a successor who had been related to Julius Caesar or himself, this had been followed for many years after Augustus’ death even though it had not been passed on as a...
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...1) The two legends are that there were brothers Romulus and Remus who were raised by a wolf. While Romulus was building a wall for Rome, Remus mocked him and got killed. Then, Romulus went on to become the first ruler of Rome. The second legend was that a Trojan hero named Aeneas sailed down the Tiber after the Trojan war and the local king gave him his daughter in marriage and he united the people. 2) They were the cruel ruling Etruscan family. 3) A republic is a state or country where the ruler is elected by the people and the citizens have the right to vote. 4) The Roman military were well-trained who were organized into legions. They were happy to fight. 5) 6,000-10,000 soldiers were in a legion. 6) The Roman Confederation was a system where people got citizenship under the Roman law. 7) A Roman dictator is a ruler with absolute control in an emergency situation. In an empire it isn't just for an emergency. 8) Cininnatus was a former consul who ran a farm. He was called to be dictated when Rome was surrounded by enemies. He surrounded the enemies overnight and stopped supplies from coming in. 9) There were the patricians and the plebians. The patricians were wealthy land-owning citizens. The plebians were the commoners, so basically everyone else. 10) The tree branches were the senate, assembly, and consul. 11) They revolted because the patricians didn't tell them the laws and the plebians couldn't run office. What happened was that the plebians got to run assembly...
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...Introduction Christianity came from Judaism. Judaism is a Jewish religion which views originated from the Old Testament. The Old Testament is broken down into five categories: the Torah meaning the “Law” containing the five books of Moses,” History: the book of Joshua to the book of Esther, Wisdom: the book of Job to the book of Song of Solomon, Prophetic Books: the book Isaiah to the book of Daniel and the last twelve books are the Minor Prophets: the book of Hosea to the book of Malachi. The Old Testament books are pivotal to the birth of the New Testament because if God did not keep his promises to the Old Testament patriarchs Christianity would have not been born. In this research I will focus on early Christianity and how it began. Next I will speak upon how the gospel went from Judaism to a world religion. I will then talk about the persecution of the Jewish people by Christians. Lastly I will discuss the conflict between the two. Early Christianity In the first century there were four main religious sects made up of the Palestinian Jews: the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and the Zealots. The Sadducees were religious conservative priest and wanted to maintain the authenticity of the Hebrew teachings, they also did not believe in the resurrection of the dead or an afterlife. The Pharisees unlike the Sadducees took a more liberal mindset towards the Mosaic Law, they allowed multiple interpretations of the Torah, they accepted oral tradition of the Torah (the...
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...INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD PAPER: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ALEXANDER THE GREAT THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD THE PTOLEMAIC PERIOD THE SELEUCID PERIOD ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES THE MACCABEAN PERIOD THE HASMONEAN PERIOD THE ROMAN PERIOD THROUGH HEROD‟S SONS AND JESUS CHRIST CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 3 5 5 6 6 7 9 9 10 12 II 3 INTRODUCTION In this Intertestamental Paper, I will briefly give a brief history describing the Second Temple Period, beginning with the period of Alexander the Great and continuing through the reign of Herod the Great and his sons. I will also address how various events, individuals, and groups that impacted the Jews and land of Israel leading up to and during the time of Christ. The following highlighted historic events, individuals and groups I will address will include: Alexander the Great, The Hellenistic Period, The Ptolemaic Period, The Seleucid Period, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, The Maccabean Period, The Hasmonean Period, The Roman Period through Herod‟s Sons and Jesus Christ. I will conclude with how these events affected the first century world of the New Testament. ALEXANDER THE GREAT Alexander the Great, born in 356 B.C. in Pella, Macedonia, was the son of Philip of Macedon and Princess Olympias of Epirus. As a young boy he was always fearless, strong, and eager to learn. He went on to inherit each of his parent‟s best qualities. His father was an excellent general and organizer, while...
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...A STUDY OF FULVIA by Allison Jean Weir A thesis submitted to the Department of Classics In conformity with the requirements for The degree of Master of Arts Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada December 2007 copyright © Allison Jean Weir 2007 Abstract Who was Fulvia? Was she the politically aggressive and dominating wife of Mark Antony as Cicero and Plutarch describe her? Or was she a loyal mother and wife, as Asconius and Appian suggest? These contrasting accounts in the ancient sources warrant further investigation. This thesis seeks to explore the nature of Fulvia’s role in history to the extent that the evidence permits. Fulvia is most famous for her activities during Antony’s consulship (44 BC) and his brother Lucius Antonius’ struggle against C. Octavian in the Perusine War (41-40 BC). But there is a discrepancy among the authors as to what extent she was actually involved. Cicero, Octavian and Antony, who were all key players in events, provide their own particular versions of what occurred. Later authors, such as Appian and Dio, may have been influenced by these earlier, hostile accounts of Fulvia. This is the first study in English to make use of all the available evidence, both literary and material, pertaining to Fulvia. Modern scholarship has a tendency to concentrate almost exclusively on events towards the end of Fulvia’s life, in particular the Perusine War, about which the evidence is much more abundant in later sources such as Appian and...
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...Reader, J. (2004). War, Greece and Rome. In, Cities. (pp.51-67 & 310-311 ; Figures : 22-41). London : William Heinemenann. 5 WaJ; Greece and Rome An adequate and reliable food supply is the first priority of every -city - a priority handled so efficiently· in the modern world that we take it for granted. Ancient cities, contending with the vagaries of climate and problems of transport, were not so fortunate. Securing the food supply pushed cities into war and conquest, but also inspired significant advances in farming, transport and government. Sumer can claim a number of important firsts in world history - the first cities, the first irrigated agriculture, the first civilisations, the first written language - and the influence of these is with us still (not least in that every passing minute, every hour acknowledges the Sumerians' sexagesimal system of numeration), but there is one first that humanity might have preferred to do without: warfare. Warfare itself did not provoke the establishment of cities generally (see pp. II-I2) , and there is certainly nothing to suggest that warfare inspired the foundation of Sumer's earliest cities, but there is plenty of evidence indicating that, once established, cities and the fruits of civilisation became important factors in the development of military power. The story of Sumer persuasively suggests that the advent of organised warfare probably began as the growing populations and falling agricultural production described at...
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...1. In the 1st century AD, Christianity was not widely accepted or even legal. Christians were persecuted in many areas. In the 4th century, Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and made it legal. 2. In the 3rd century, Rome lost up to 1/3 of its population due to natural disasters like famine and disease. In 1346-52, the Black Death claimed 1/3 of the population of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 3. In 1st-2nd century Rome, the basic principles of law were established that would be used by nearly every western system of law after: innocent until proven guilty, right to defend yourself in front of a judge, and the judge had to research all evidence carefully before making a verdict. 4. In Classical Greece (480-330 BC), homosexuality was widely practiced and accepted....
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...HUM 1000: WORLD CIVILIZATIONS NOTES BY DR. KAKAI P.W THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA Definition of key terms As we begin this course, it is crucial to first discuss our understanding of the concept ‘civilization’. This is a comparative term which is usually applied in comparison to such words as ‘barbarian’ ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’. In classical antiquity the Europeans used the word ‘barbarian’ to refer to a foreigner who was regarded as inferior (Ogutu and Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African History, 1991 p33). Do you think this is still the way we use the word barbarian? The Latin speakers referred to hunters, food-gatherers as savage. In the 17th century this term ‘savage’ referred to a person without art, literacy, or society who lived in fear of existence and death. ‘Primitive’ on the other hand, in Latin meant ‘the first or original’. Europeans used these words interchangeably when referring to non-Europeans while the word civilization was preserved to describe historical developments of European people (ibid). Now the term civilization is no longer confined to the above development but also extends reference to non-European communities. Attributes of civilization includes observance to law, belonging to an organized society, having a society of literate people with advanced developments in urbanization, agriculture, commerce, arts and technology. The French thinkers of the 18th century referred to a person of the arts and literature...
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...A Review of Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail by Michele Boldrin, David K. Levine and Salvatore Modica Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail [2012] is a grand history in the style of Diamond [1997] or McNeil [1963]. Like those books, this book is exceptionally fun to read and full of interesting historical examples and provocative ideas. The basic theme of the book is that what matters most in why some nations fail – and others succeed, for the book is as much about success as failure – are not – as earlier authors have argued - economic policies, geography, culture, or value systems – but rather institutions, more precisely the political institutions that determine economic institutions. Acemoglu and Robinson theorize that political institutions can be divided into two kinds - “extractive” institutions in which a “small” group of individuals do their best to exploit - in the sense of Marx - the rest of the population, and “inclusive” institutions in which “many” people are included in the process of governing hence the exploitation process is either attenuated or absent. Needless to say Acemoglu and Robinson’s theory is more subtle than this simple summary. They argue that for any economic success political institutions must be sufficiently centralized to provide basic public services including justice, the enforcement of contracts, and education. Given that these functions are carried out, inclusive institutions enable innovative energies to emerge and lead to continuing...
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...Provided by The Internet Classics Archive. See bottom for copyright. Available online at http://classics.mit.edu//Caesar/gallic.html The Gallic Wars By Julius Caesar Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOK 1 Chapter 1 All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii...
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