19. Flavians, Pompeii, Adoptive Emperors

What is the law concerning the imperium of Vespasian?

• A statute that formally granted Vespasian the entirety of his imperial authority 

What happened to the titles that used to just be for Augusutus? 

• These titles became official names for people in that position 

Ex. 

• Princeps -> Prince, Imperator -> Emperor 

What is an Imperial Bureaucracy?

• fixed staff of hundreds of employees that surrounded and supported the Roman emperor

• The bureaucracy remains the same regardless of who the emperor is 

What did this sculpture portray? 

• In the background, there are two geniuses (guardian spirits) 

• One is a genius of the roman senate and the other is a genius of the roman people

Vespasian

• Vespasian was a novus homo 

• Vespasian is the judean military commander that became the emperor 

What was Vespasian's military reform? 

• Will no longer allow large number of troops to be put under the command of one commander 

“It doesn’t smell” 

• Vespasian wanted to charge people for public washrooms 

• Vespasian's son said not to do that

• Vespasian responded by picking up money and smelling it then says “it doesn' t smell’ 

• Basically saying that “money is money” doesn't matter where it comes from

What is this? 

• Looting of jewish temple and parading thru rome 

What is this? 

The colosseum

Who rules after Vespasian?

• Titus - the older son 

Who ruled after titus?

• Domitian - the younger son 

What did Domitian want to be addressed as?

• Lord and God 

How did Domitian die? 

• Conspiracy formed against him 

• Was told that he kept a book and had the names of all the people he wanted to kill 

• death note style lmao 

• His guards found the book and decided to kill him first 

What does Damnatio Memoriae mean?

• “Loss of memory” 

• An act where a person's name can be removed from history and anything related to them is removed 

What are adoptive emperors? 

• Choosing successors not based on bloodline, but based on merit 

Who is Nerva 

• Was an ex-consul now emperor 

How does Nerva decide his successor?

• He adopts Trajan ( a military commander) as his son and names his successor 

• Starts the adoptive emperor era 

Trajan

• A spaniard, the first non italian emperor 

What was Trajan called?

Optimus Princeps= the best emperor

What is this? 

• City built by Trajan 

What were Trajan's social reforms? Alimenta and Curator: 

• Alimenta: A program that gave out low interest loans to businessmen. The interest on the loans created schools for poor kids

• Curator: A position where a person would be tasked to investigate a problem and report back to the emperor

What is this? 

• Trajan's Market 

What is this? 

• Baths of trajan 

What is this? 

• Trajans column 

• Depicts details from trajans military invasions

Who is Trajan's successor?

Hadrian

What was Hadrian known as? 

• The wandering emperor 

• Because he spent more time travelling outside of rome

What is the Border Policy that Hadrian placed?

• Created fortified borders along the roman empire 

What is this? 

• The Hadrian wall 

What effect did Trajan and Hadrian have on the Roman empire population? 

• Roman empire was at its largest size and highest population under their rule 

Who does Hadrian choose as his successor?

• Antoninus Pius 

• The happiest and most prosperous era

What is this? 

• Coin of antonius pius 

Who was Antoninus Pius’s successor?

• Marcus Aurelius 

Marcus Aurelius, what was he famous for writing

• Famous for writing “the meditations” - stoic philosophy 

Why is the era of Marcus Aurelius’s rule considered the era of disasters?

• Many natural disasters (ex. flood) 

• 25- Year Pandemic after fighting The Parthian War 

What is this?

• Priest about to sacrifice a bull 

Who broke the tradition of adopting your successor?

• Marcus Aurelius

• His son becomes successor 

Who is Commodus, how did he die?

• Son of Marcus Aurelius 

• Assassinated by his bodyguard

Who was emperor after Commodus?

• 4 different emperors claimed to be emperor 

• Septimius Severus ended up winning and became the emperor 

Septimius Severus 

• A phoenician african emperor of Rome 

What were Septimius Severus’s military reforms? 

• Increased pay of soldiers 

• Disbanded the body guards cuz so many emperors had died because of them 

Who is Julia Domna?

• Wife of Septimius Severus 

• Given the name “mother of the army”

What is this? 

• Painting of Septimius Severus 

• The boys face is carved out because of “Damnatio Memoriae” 

• The two brothers didn't get along, so this one of them removed the other one from "existence" 

What is this?

• Depicts native aspects in roman culture 

What happens to the woman's role in the Severan Dynasty?

• They became more dominant in the political field 

What ancient source tells us what gender a person is presenting?

• There was no identification or source that indicated this so it was impossible to tell 

Who is Elagabalus? What was interesting about his sexuality?

• Emperor from the severan dynasty 

• His name is based on the syrian sun god whom he would worship 

• He dressed as a woman, possibly homosexual

• Some of the people under his rule went under bottom surgery, hinting to possible transgenderism in this era  

What is this painting of?

• Pompeii 

• Inaccurate depiction of the incident 

Why were there these elevated steps in the middle of the sidewalk?

To cross the street in case it is dirty

What are Taverns?

• Upper class romans didn't eat out because it was considered inappropriate

• They would get food from taverns and bring the food home

What is this? 

Painting from a tavern of people gambling

What is this? 

• A fountain 

• The hole is the mouthpiece of the fountain

What is this? 

Flour mill

What is this? 

• A room in a brothel 

• You would know a building is a brothel if it had tons of rooms

What was the ancient equivalent of social media? 

Graffiti

What did Pliny’s (the nephew)  two letters describe about the Vesuvius eruption?

• Described how he saw smoke that looked like a pine tree coming from the volcano 

What did Pliny (the uncle) do once he arrived with warships to Pompeii?

• Tried to calm everyone down by telling them to go back home since it would all pass

How did archaeologists recreate the corpses from pompeii?

• They would create a cast of the bodies by filling carbon pockets with plaster