Intro To Ancient Rome (Death of Domitian Onward)

Dr. Rabun Taylor at the University of Texas at Austin, 3rd test important terms/ideas

Mount Vesuvius

Erupted in 79 AD

Still Active Volcano that has erupted multiple times

Letters of Pliny the Younger

writings about Pliny the elder to Tacitus

tells story of Pliny the elder going to Pompei in order to help people

eruption happened in august and it looked like a pine tree

describes a large plue and the world being dark

Herculaneum

town that was caught in lava flow of mount vesuvius

flow so fast it destroys and burns buildings

pyroclastic surge causes people to be covered in ash and suffocates

Comitium

Thought to be a voting area

Basilica shape

House of Vettii

house for the wealthy

open hall with a. sunlight window on ceiling

garden in house

Odeum

Covered theater

sat 2,000 people

Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum)

Wanted to get rid of Nero’s mark on Rome

Takes down parts of Neros palace

Drains Nero’s artificial lake and builds the colosseum on top of it

Gladiatorial combat was the most popular sport

Trajan’s Column

Glorious monument to the Dacian war and tells a story over the triumph

Includes dramatic battle scenes with numerous protagonists and antagonists

End scene shows Romans chasing Dacians through a forest and shows death of Decebalus who is cornered and on his knees and chooses to kill himself

Arch of Trajan

In Benevento Italy

Shows civil accomplishments of Trajan and downplays military victories

Shows dudes hanging around and shaking hands

winged victory flying around and handing out crown to Trajan

Depicts alimentas

Library of Hadrian

Traveled to Greece out of curiosity

favored Athens due to its intellectual accomplishments

Modeled library after forum of Nerva and Templum Pacis in Rome

Hadrian’s building in Tivoli

Zonker describes it as Disneyland

Hadrian had themes for these buildings modeled after different areas in the world

Makeshift Aeneas’ journey that leads to the underworld

Pantheon

Built by agrippa

Made to appeal Gods

Venus, Mars, and defied Julius Caesar

Building looks greek and Roman

Rotunda in the background made of brick

Hadrian rebuilt/revamped pantheon after fire

Pantheon is perfectly aligned with the mausoleum of Augustus

Wall of Aurelian

Finished by one of his successors

entrusted army to build so it didn’t cost as much

Wall around rome

Antonine Plauge

Roman troops returning from the east during Parthian war came back with a disease that was similar to smallpox

spread through the empire for 25 years

5000 deaths per day at Rome in 262

decrease of urban and military populations

weakened the empire

type of disease cannot be confirmed because there is no skeletal evidence

nerva

represents break from dynastic model

not bloodline

Alimenta—> child support/ gave food to poor children

Adopted Trajan

Kept a civil war from happening after Domitian’s assassination

Trajan

Continued Nerva’s Alimenta policy

wages dacian wars; wins the wars and is able to use the riches won to fund city infrastructure projects

While trying to expand further east the parthian war erupted and occupied Trajan until his death (Parthian King replaced Roman vassal king)

2nd Jewish revolt broke out

Adopts next emperors

Great builder and focuses on infrastructure

Hadrian

Shift from Expansion to Consolidation (withdrew from east)

Hellenophile

Extremely into the arts

follows greek life and has a greek boyfriend

culturally sophisticated

architect

Triple adoption (Antoninus, Marus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus)

3rd Jewish Revolt (settled a colony in Judea, banned circumcisions, renamed judea Syria Palestina, jews were forbidden entry into jerusalem

Antoninus

marks the high point of the empire

never left italy

maintained military preparedness

no far reaching legal changed were enacted, now were there notable administrative changes

oversees long period pf peace

Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus

Co emperors and shared equal pwoers

Aurelius considered senior emperor and ruled over Rome

Verus ruled over east against Parthians

Parthians sued for peace and gave up part of Northern mesopotamia

Verus dies and Marcus Aureilius chooses his son commodus to co emperor with him

Commodus

Things fall apart

no more co emperors

could not live up to his father’s reputation\his council mainly made decisions

sister tried to assassinate him

fought as a gladiator, similar to Nero because they were both preformers
Tried to rename Rome after himself

Wass assassinated and senate condemned his memory (damnatio memoriae)

Severans

back to dynastic rule

canceled damnation of Commodus

regained northern mesopotamia in parthian conquest and had successful campaigns (arch created for triumph)

adopted into Marcus Aurelius family

Renamed son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (nickname caracalla) (demonstrates primacy of family/pietas)

Military reforms (allowed soldiers to be married during service, increased number of legions by three (one in rome and two in mesopotamia), increased pay of legionaries

Dominance of powerful women (personal ties to military led to wife, Julia Domna, gaining title of mother of the camps)

Did not have good relationship with the senate (reduced administrative posts open to senators

had good policies ( cared for rome and outside territories, left a surplus in the treasury, and changed many roman institutions) but the ineptness and incompetence of his predecessors led to his rule not followed by prosperity

Empire starts to suffer

invasions on large scale

leads to 3rd crisis century

new model of emperors rise, soldier emperors not aristocrats

Citizenship of the 1st Century

Slaves could be granted citizenship through manumission by Roman citizen

3 main ways to gain citizenship

1st: diplomata, grants of citizenship at honorable discharge to provincials who served in auxiliary forces

2nd: individuals who enrolled in legions who were not already citizens were granted citizenship upon enlistment

3rd: direct grant by emperor to individuals or communities

Roman citizenship was seen as superior because it allowed citizens to be immune to payment of land taxes, ability to join legions, or seek equestrian or senetorial status

Citizens had ties to their orgio (origin city) and took pride in holding local offices

Citizenship of the 2nd century

Citizens started to stop caring as much when it came to hold local positions of officies

appointment of cartakers (curatores) in cities from Rome

Roman citizenship began to lose its attractoin, there was no important distinction between a poor free born, freed, or slave

only imporant distinction was between eleite and poor

Citizenship of Third Century

Septimius severus, who had ties to Carthage, and his wige Julia Domna, whose origo was in Syra, had a lot of power —> ethnicity at this point mattered little to Roman identity

Caracalla granted virtually all freed people citizenship

3rd Century

The senate had little power and no longer provided political stability

New confederacies of barbarian groups that are capable of defeating Romans

Rhine and Danube were constantly being crossed by these groups,

goths killed a roman emperor and his son who was appointed co emperor (1st time Rome had lost an emperor in battle to a for)

Sasanians replaced the Parthians in the east and was a much more formidable foe ( king of kings shapur I captured Roman emperor Valerian and kept him as a slave/literal foot stool)

Principate had no clear system for succession (once an emperor died in battle or assassination, more than one emperor could be proclaimed in various provinces and there was no partial way to distinguish between these claims)

Political and Social instability

Diocletian and Maximian

diocleatian had no dynastic claims to power

severed in several military units and acting commander of the protectores (imperial guardsmen who served at the side of the emperor)

Appointed co-emperor with title caesar to Maximian (an old friend)

empire too large for one ruler

Maximian was loyal to diocletian which created imperial stability

members of the tetrarchy took each others nomenclature and displayed themselves as brothers

Success in gual led to Maximian being promoted to Augustus (equal as diocletian)

Diocletian and Tetrarchy

293, Diocletian appointed a subordinate partner with ranking of caesar, Galerius, to help him in the east, and Maximian appointed Constantius in the west

4 man rule

two seniors (Augustus) and two juniors (Caesar)

led to efficient and dramatic results

Constantius was able to suppress Gallic insurrection

Maximian went to northern Africa to defeat a tribal group (then retired to milan)

Diocletian remained in Sirmium near Danube

Galerius was sent to east where he faced the new sasanian King of Kings, took over capital, and gained new territory

The great persecution

Diocleatian was extremely conservative as a religious leader and had little tolerance for christianity

series of persecutions against minority religious groups

299 expelled Christian soldiers from army

303 diocletian issued an edict ordering that churches across the empire be pulled down and scripture be confiscated and destroyed

another edict in 303 ordered Christian clergy to arrested and could only be freed if they offered a sacrifice

two edicts in 304 ordered that all subjects demonstrate their loyalty by sacrificing in public

New tetrarchy

305 diocletian abdicated the throne due to illness and forced Maximian to abdicate as well leading to Galerius and Constantius be promoted to Augustus

Maximin for east and Daia for west appointed new Caesar (friends of Galerius)

Constantius died and his son Constantine was appointed to replace him in order to maintain the dynasty

this went over the power of the system

Constantine

Restricted movements to Gaul during tetrarchy

Ended Christian persecution in the west

Defeats Maxentius while he tries to cross the Tiber River

Disbanded Praetorian guard

Create scholarii (staff guards) who worked with protectores who accompanied emperor anywhere he went

before the battle of Milvian Bridge against Maxentius, he recieved an omen from the Christian God that he would win

How Constantine become sole ruler

312 tetrarchy broken but Licinius appointed by Diocletian still held Illyricum and the rest of the Balkans and Maximin Daia held the East

313 Licinius and Constantine came together to create the Edict of Milan which gave freedom of religion and practice to Christians

Maximin did not like Christians (2 against 1)

Lucius and Constantine were able to defeat Maximin when he tried to invade Lucius’ territories leaving 2 rulers

Constantine West Lucius East

Constantine and Lucius start beefing when Constantine starts to openly portray himself as christian and lucius starts to persecute christians in the east

Constantine defeats Lucius and becomes sole ruler of the now unified empire

Theaters

Dating predominantly after the mid first century ad are found throughout the roman world

typically seating some 5,000 spectators

Spectators included men and women, slave, free, and free, with the front seats reserved for those with the highest rank

Theaters in the East staged at least selected parts of the classic Greek plays like Oedipus Rex

he Latin West favored performances that could be described as mime or vaudeville, with stock characters in silly situations

Religious and civic processions often began or ended at theaters

Circus

The most famous circus is Rome’s Circus Maximus

Circus Maximus had always allowed the populace to express their pinions to emperors and other figures in authority

Gladiatorial Games

Gladiatorial and beast fights are documented at amphitheaters as early as the third century bc

Both Roman and modern amphitheaters are commonly called “Colosseum” after the great Flavian structure

Spectators watched men fighting against men, almost always in individual pairs except on extraordinary occasions funded by the emperor

pitted men against wild beasts (when an individual found guilty of a capital crime was condemned to the beasts)

most gladiators began as slaves

many rich men financed games there in a display of public benefaction as well as a conspicuois sign of their wealth and power