Chapter 6: Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 500 B.C.- A.D. 500 

Chapter 6.1: The Roman Republic 

• The city of Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of the god Mars and a Latin princess according to legend. 

  • They were abandoned on the Tiber River as infants and raised by a she-wolf. 

  • They then decided to build a city near the spot. 

    • In reality it was men not immortals who built the city and they chose the spot largely for its strategic location and fertile soil. 

• The earliest settlers on the Italian peninsula arrived in prehistoric times. 

  • From about 1000-500 B.C. three groups inhabited the region and eventually battled for control. 

    • They were the latins, the Greeksm and  the Etruscans. 

      • The Latins built the original settlement at Rome, a cluster of wooden huts atop one of its seven hills, Palatine Hill. 

      • They were considered to be the first Romans. 

    • Between 750 and 600 B.C. the Greeks established colonies along southern Italy and Sicily. 

      • The cities became prosperous and commercially active. 

      • They brought all of Italy, including Rome into closer contact with the Greek civilization. 

    • The Etruscans were native to northern Italy. 

      • They were skilled metalworkers and engineers. 

      • They strongly influenced the development of Roman civilization. 

      • They boasted a system of writing, for example and the Romans adopted their alphabet. 

      • They influenced Rome’s architecture, especially the use of the arch. 

• Around 600 B.C. an Etruscan became king of Rome. 

  • Rome grew from a collection of hilltop villages to a city that covered nearly 500 square miles. 

  • Various kings ordered the construction of Rome’s first temples and public centers- the most famous of which was the Forum, the heart of Roman political life. 

  • The last king of Rome was Tarquin the Proud. 

    • He was driven from power in 509 B.C. 

    • The Romans declared they would never again be ruled by a king. 

      • They established a republic. 

        • Republic: a form of government in which power rests with citizens who have the right to vote for their leaders. 

• In the early republic, different groups of Romans struggled for power. 

  • One group was the patricians. 

    • Patricians: the wealthy landowners who held most of the power. 

  • The other group was the plebeians. 

    • Plebeians: the common farmers, artisans, and merchants who made up the majority of the population. 

  • The patricians inherited their power and social status. 

    • They claimed that their ancestry gave them the authority to make laws for Rome. 

  • The plebeians were citizens of Rome with the right to vote. 

    • They were barred by law from holding most important government positions. 

      • In time, Rome’s leaders allowed the plebeians to form their own assembly and elect representatives called tribunes. 

        • Tribunes: protected the rights of the plebeians from unfair acts of patrician officials. 

• An important victory for the plebeians was to force the creation of a written law code. 

  • With laws unwritten, patrician officials often interpreted the law to suit themselves. 

  • In 451 B.C. a group of ten officials began writing down Rome’s laws. 

    • The laws were carved on twelve tablets, or tables and hung in the Forum. 

      • They became the basis for later Roman law. 

      • They established the idea that all free citizens had a right to the protection of the law. 

• In the first century B.C. Roman writers boasted that Rome had achieved a balanced government. 

  • They meant that their government had taken the best features of a monarchy, and aristocracy, and a democracy. 

    • Rome had two officials, called consults. 

      • They commanded the army and directed the government. 

      • Their power was limited, their term was only one year long. 

      • The same person could not be elected consul again for 10 years. 

    • The senate was the aristocratic branch of Rome’s government. 

      • It had both legislative and administrative functions in the republic. 

      • Its 300 members were chosen from the upper class of Roman society. 

      • Later , plebeians were allowed in the senate. 

      • They had great influence over both foreign and domestic policy.

    • The assemblies represented the more democratic side of the government. 

    • In times of crisis, the republic could appoint a dictator. 

      • Dictator: a leader who had absolute power to make laws and command the army. 

        • A dictator’s power only lasted for 6 months. 

        • They were chosen by the consuls and then elected by the senate. 

• The Roman’s placed great value on their military. 

  • All citizens who owned land were required to serve in the army. 

  • Seekers of certain public offices had to perform ten years of military service. 

  • Roman soldiers were organized into large military units called legions. 

    • Legions: was made up of some 5000 heavily armed foot soldiers. 

      • A group of soldiers on horseback supported each legion. 

      • They were divided into smaller groups of 8-0 men, each of which was called a century. 

  • The military organization and fighting skill of the Roman army were key factors in Rome’s rise to greatness. 

• Roman power grew slowly but steadily as the legions battled for control of the Italian peninsula. 

  • By the fourth century B.C. the Romans dominated central Italy. 

  • They defeated the Etruscans to the north and the Greek city states to the south. 

  • By 265 B.C.  the Romans were masters of nearly all of Italy. 

    • Rome had different laws and treatment for different parts of its conquered territory. 

    • The neighboring Latins on the Tiber became full citizens of Rome. 

    • In territories farther from Rome, conquered peoples enjoyed all the rights of Roman citizenship except the vote. 

      • All of the conquered groups fell into a third category, allies of Rome. 

      • Rome did not interfere with its allies, as long as they supplied troops for the Roman army and did not make treaties of friendship with any other state.

        • This lenient policy toward defeated enemies helped Rome to succeed in building a long-lasting empire. 

          • For more than 2 centuries after 265 B.C. Roman power spread far beyond Italy. 

• Rome’s location gave it easy access to the riches of the lands ringing the Mediterranean Sea. 

  • Roman merchants moved by land and sea. 

    • They traded Roman wine and olive oil for a variety of foods, raw materials, and manufactured goods from other lands. 

      • Other large and powerful cities interfered with Roman access to the Mediterranean, such as Carthage. 

        • Its rise to power soon put it in direct opposition with Rome. 

    • In 264 B.C. Rome and Carthage went to war. 

      • This was this the Punic wars. 

        • Between 246 and146 B.C. Rome and Carthage fought three wars. 

          • The first was for control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean. 

            • It lasted for 23 years and it ended in the defeat of Carthage. 

          • The second one began in 218 B.C. in an effort to avenge Carthage’s earlier defeat. 

            • The leader was Hannibal. 

              • Hannibal was a brilliant military strategist. 

              • He assembled an army of 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 60 elephants with the intent of capturing Rome. 

              • He sought to surprise the Romans with a most daring and risky move.

                • He led his army on a long trek from Spain across France and through the Alps. 

                • E won his victory after losing a lot of his men and most of his elephants at Cannae in 216 B.C.

• The Romans found a daring military leader to match Hannibal’s boldness. 

  • A general named Daimio devised a plan to attack Carthage. 

    • This strategy forced Hannibal to return to defend his native city. 

    • In 202 B.C. at Zama near Carthage, the Romans finally defeated Hannibal.

      • The Punic war Rome laid siege to Carthage.  

        • In 146 B.C. Rome’s Mediterranean empire stretched from Anatolia in the east to Spain in the west. 

Chapter 6.2: The Roman Empire 

• Rome’s increasing wealth and expanding boundaries brought many problems. 

  • The most serious were growing discontent among the lower classes of society and a breakdown in military order. 

    • These problems led to a shakeup of the republic and the emergence of a new political system. 

  • As Rome grew, the gap between rich and poor grew wider. 

    • Many of Rome’s rich landowners lived on huge estates. 

    • Thousands of enslaved persons were forced to work on these estates. 

      • By 100 B.C. enslaved persons formed perhaps ⅓ of Rome’s population. 

    • Small farmers found it difficult to compete with the large estates run by the labor of enslaved people. 

      • Many of these farmers were former soldiers.

      • A large number of them sold their lands to wealthy landowners and became homeless and jobless. 

      • Most stayed in the countryside and worked as seasonal migrant laborers. 

      • Some headed to Rome and other cities looking for work. 

      • They joined the ranks of the urban poor, a group tat totaled about ¼ of roman society. 

        • Two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius attempted to help Rome’s poor. 

        • They proposed such reforms as limiting the size of estates and giving land to the poor. 

        • They made enemies of numerous senators, who felt threatened by their ideas. 

          • They both met violent deaths. 

• Adding to the growing turmoil within the republic was a breakdown of the once-loyal military. 

  • As the republic grew more unstable, generals began seizing greater power for themselves. 

  • They recruited soldiers from the landless poor by promising them land. 

    • These soldiers fought for pay and owed allegiance only to their commander. 

    • They replaced the citizen soldiers whose loyalty had been to the republic. 

  • In 60 B.C. a military leader named Julius Caesar joined forces with Crassus, a wealthy Roman, and Pompey, a popular general. 

    • Caesar was a strong leader and a genius at military strategy. 

    • He served only one year as consul. 

    • During 58-50 B.C. Caesar led his legions in a grueling but successful campaign to conquer all of Gaul. 

      • He won his men’s loyalty and devotion. 

      • Gaul made him very popular with the people of Rome. 

    • Pompey became  his political rival and they feared Caesar's ambitions.

      • In 50 B.C. the senate, at Pompey’s urgings, ordered Caesar to disband his legions and return home. 

        • Caesar defied the Senate’s order 

          • On the night of January 10, 49 B.C. he took his army across the Rubicon River in Italy, the southern area he commanded. 

          • He marched his army swiftly toward Rome and Pompey fled. 

          • His troops defeated Pompey’s armies in Greece, Asia, Spain, and Egypt. 

          • In 46 B.C. Caesar returned to Rome where he had the support of the army and the masses. 

            • This same year, he was appointed dictator. 

            • In 44 B.C. he was named dictator for life. 

              • Caesar governed as an absolute ruler, one who has total power. 

              • He started a number of reforms. 

                • He granted Roman citizenship to many people in the provinces. 

                • He expanded the senate, adding friends and supporters from Italy and other regions. 

                • He helped the poor by creating jobs, especially through the construction of new public buildings 

                • He started colonies where people without land could own property and he increased pay for soldiers. 

                • Nobles and senators expressed concern over Caesar's growing power, success, and popularity. 

                • On March 15, 44 B.C. they stabbed him to death in the senate chamber. 

• After Caesar’s death, civil war broke out again and destroyed what was left of the Roman Republic. 

  • Three of Caesar’s supporters banded together to crush the assassins. 

    • Caesar’s 18 year old grandnephew and adopted son Octavian joined with an experienced general named Mark Anthony and a powerful politician named Lepidus. 

      • In 43 B.C. they took control of Rome and ruled for 10 years as the Second Triumvirate. 

      • Their alliance ended in jealousy and violence. 

      • Octavian forced Lepidus to retire. 

        • He and Mark Anthony became rivals. 

        • While leading troops against Rome’s enemies in Anatolia, Mark Anthony met queen Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium in 31 B.C. 

          • Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide. 

        • Octavian became the unchallenged ruler of Rome.  

          • He eventually accepted the title of Augustus 

• Rome was at the peak of its power from the beginning of Augustus’s rule in 27 B.C. to A.D. 180. 

  • For 207 years peace reigned throughout the empire except for some fighting with tribes along the borders. 

    • This period of peace is known as the Pax Romana 

      • During this period the Roman empire included more than 3 million square miles. 

      • The population numbered between 60 and 80 million people. 

        • About 1 million people live in the city of Rome itself. 

  • The romans held their vast empire together in part through efficient government and able rulers. 

    • Augustus was Rome’s ablest emperor. 

      • He stabilized the frontier, glorified Rome with splendid public buildings, and created a system of government that survived for centuries. 

      • He set up a civil service. 

• Agriculture was the most important industry in the empire. 

  • About 90% of the people were engaged in farming. 

  • Most Romans survived on the produce from their local area. 

    • Additional food when needed and luxury items for the rich were obtained through trade. 

    • In Augustus’s time, a silver coin called a denarius was in use throughout the empire, 

      • Rome had a vast trading network 

        • Ships from the east traveled the Mediterranean protected by the Roman navy. 

        • Rome traded with China and India and surrounding cities. 

        • A complex network of roads linked the empire to such far flung places as Persia and southern Russia. 

          • These roads were built by the Roman army for military purposes. 

• Rome emphasized the values of discipline, strength, and loyalty. 

  • A person with these qualities was said to have the important virtue of gravitas. 

  • The Romans were practical people. 

    • They honored strength more than beauty, power more than grace, and usefulness more than elegance. 

• Slavery was a significant part of Roman life. 

  • It was widespread and important to the economy. 

  • The Romans made more use of the slaves than any previous civilization . 

    • Numbers of slaves may have reached as high as ⅓ of the total armies and included men, women, and children. 

      • Children who were born to slaves also became slaves 

  • Slaves could be bought and sold. 

  • They could be punished, rewarded, set free, or put to death as their masters saw fit. 

  • Slaves worked in both the city and on the farm. 

    • Many were treated cruelly and worked hard at labor all day long. 

    • Some strong, healthy males were forced to become gladiators, or professional fighters, who fought to the death in public contests. 

    • Slaves in the wealthier areas were treated better. 

• The earliest Romans worshipped powerful spirits or divine forces called numina 

  • Closely related to these spirits were the Lares who were the guardian spirits of each family. 

  • They gave names to these powerful gods and goddesses and honored them through various rituals, hoping to gain favor and avoid misfortune. 

  • Government and religion were linked in Rome. 

    • The deities were symbols of the state.

      • Romans were expected to honor them not only in private rituals at shrines in their homes but also in public worship ceremonies conducted by priests in temples. 

      •  The most important Roman gods and goddesses were Jupiter, the father of the gods, Juno, his wife who watched over women, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom and of the arts and crafts. 

      • Worship of the emperor also became part of the official religion of Rome. 

• Wealth and social status made huge differences in how people lived. 

  • Classes had little in common. 

    • The rich lived extravagantly

      • They spent large sums of money on homes, gardens, slaves, and luxuries. 

      • They gave banquets that lasted for many hours and included foods that were rare and costly, such as boiled ostrich and parrot tongue pie. 

    • Most people in Rome barely had the necessities of life.

      • Most of the city’s population was unemployed. 

        • The government supported these people with daily rations of grain. 

        • In the shadow of Rome's great temples and public buildings, poor people crowded into rickety, sprawling tenements. 

• By A.D. 250, there were 150 holidays a year. 

  • On these days of celebration, the Colosseum would fill with the rich and the poor people alike . 

  • The spectacles they watched combined bravery and cruelty, honor and violence. 

  • In animal shows, wild creatures brought from distant lands, such as tigers, lions, and bears, fought to the death. 

  • In other contests, gladiators engaged in combat with animals or each other until one of them was killed.  

Chapter 6.3: The Rise of Christianity 

• Roman power spread to Judea, the home of the Jew, around 63 B.C. 

  • At first the Jewish kingdom remained independent, at least in name. 

  • Rome took control of the Jewish kingdom in A.D. 6 and made it a province of the empire. 

  • A number of Jews believed that they would once again be free. 

• Historians believe that sometime around 6-4 B.C. a Jew named Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea. 

  • Jesus was raised in the village of Nazareth in northern Palestine. 

  • He was baptized by a prophet known as John the Baptist.

  • As a young man he took up the trade of carpentry. 

  • At the age of 30, Jesus began his public ministry. 

    • For the next three years, he preached, taught, did good works, and reportedly performed miracles. 

      • His teachings contained many ideas from Jewish tradition, such as monotheism, and the principles of the Ten Commandments. 

    • He emphasized God’s personal relationship to each human being. 

    • He stressed the importance of people’s love for God , their neighbors, their enemies, and even themselves. 

    • He also taught that God would end wickedness in the world and would establish an eternal kingdom after death for people who sincerely repented their sins. 

• Historical records of the time mention very little about Jesus. 

  • The main source of information about his teachings are the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible. 

    • Some of the gospels are thought to have been written by one or more of Jesus' disciples, or pupils. 

      • These 12 men later came to be called apostles. 

• Jesus’ growing popularity concerned both Roman and Jewish leaders. 

  • When Jesus visited Jerusalem about A.D. 29, enthusiastic crowds greeted him as the Messiah, or king- the one who, the Bible had said, would come to rescue the Jews. 

    • The Chief priests of the Jews, however, denied that Jesus was the Messiah. 

    • They said his teachings were blasphemy, or contempt for God. 

    • The Roman governor Pontius Pilate accused Jesus of defying the authority of Rome. 

      • He arrested Jesus and sentenced him to be crucified, or nailed to a large wooden cross to die. 

        • After Jesus’ death, his body was placed in a tomb. 

          • Three days later his body was gone, and a living Jesus appeared to his followers. 

            • The followers of Jesus continued to spread his ideas. 

            • Christianity spread throughout the Roman empire. 

• One man, the apostle Paul, had enormous influence on Christianity's development. 

  • Paul was a Jew who had never met Jesus and at first he was an enemy of Christianity. 

    • While traveling to Damascus in Syria, he reportedly had a vision of Jesus. 

      • He spent the rest of his life spreading and interpreting Jesus’ teachings. 

• During the early years of Christianity, much Roman attention was focused on the land of Jesus’ birth and on the Jews. 

  • In A.D. 66 a band of Jews rebelled against Rome. 

  • In A.D. 70 the Romans stormed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple complex

    • All that remained was a western portion of the wall, which today is the holiest Jewish shrine. 

  • The Jews made another attempt to break free of the Romans in A.D. 132. 

    • Another half million Jew died in three years of fighting. 

    • The Jewish religion survived and the Jewish political state ceased to exist for more than 1800 years. 

    • Most Jews were driven from their homeland into exile. 

• Christians also posed a problem for the Roman rulers. 

  • The main reason was that they refused to worship Roman gods. 

    • This refusal was seen as opposition to Roman rule 

      • Romans exiled, imprisoned, or executed Christians for refusing to worship Roman deities. 

        • Thousands were crucified, burned or killed by wild animals in the circus arenas. 

• Despite persecution of its followers, Christianity became a powerful force. 

  • By the late third century A.D. there were millions of Christians in the Roman empire and beyond. 

  • The appeal of Christianity was: 

    • embraced all people—men and women, enslaved persons, the poor, and nobles; 

    • • gave hope to the powerless; • 

    • appealed to those who were repelled by the extravagances of imperial Rome; 

    • • offered a personal relationship with a loving God; • 

    • promised eternal life after death. 

• A critical moment in Christianity occurred in A.D. 312 when the Roman emperor Constantine was fighting three rivals for leadership of Rome. 

  • He had marched to the Tiber River at Rome to battle his chief rival. 

  • The day before the battle at Milvian Bridge, Constantine prayed for divine help. 

    • He reported that he saw the image of a cross, a symbol of Christianity. 

    • He ordered artisans to put the Christian symbol on his soldiers’ shields. 

    • His troops were victorious in battle. 

      • He credited the success to the help of the Christian God. 

    • On A.D. 313 Constantine announced an end to the persecution of Christians. 

      • He declared Christianity to be one of the religions approved by the emperor. 

        • Christianity continued to gain strength. 

        • In 380, the emperor Theodosius made it the empire’s official religion. 

          • By this time Christians had given their religion a structure, much as the Roman Empire had a hierarchy. 

          • At the local level, a priest led each small group of Christians. 

          • A bishop, who was also a priest, supervised several local churches.

            • Eventually, every major city had its own bishop. 

            • Later bishops of Rome claimed to be the heirs of Peter. 

              • They said that Peter was the first pope, the father or head of the whole church. 

      • As Christianity grew, disagreements about beliefs developed among its followers. 

        • Church leaders called any belief that appeared to contradict the basic teachings a heresy. 

        • In an attempt to end conflicts, Church leader tried to set a single, official standard of belief. 

          • These beliefs were compiled in the New Testament, which contained the four Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, and other documents. 

          • The New Testament was added to the Hebrew bible, which Christians called the Old Testament. 

        • In A.D. 325, Constantine moved to solidify further the teachings of Christianity. 

          • He called Church leaders to Nicaea in Anatolia. 

      • Also influential in defining Church teachings were several early writers and scholars who have been called the Fathers of the Church. 

        • One of the most important was Augustine, who became bishop of the city of Hippo in North Africa in 396. 

          • He taught that humans needed the grace of God to be saved. 

          • He further taught that people could not receive God’s grace unless they belonged to the Church and received the sacraments. 

          • One of his most famous books is The City of God. 

            • It was written after Rome was plundered in the fifth century. 

Chapter 6.4: The Fall of the Roman Empire 

• During the third century A.D. several factors prompted the weakening of Rome’s economy. 

  • Hostile tribes outside the boundaries of the empire and pirates on the Mediterranean Sea disrupted trade. 

  • The Romans lacked new sources of gold and silver. 

  • The economy soon suffered from inflation. 

    • Inflation: a drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices. 

  • Agriculture faced equally serious problems. 

    • Harvests in Italy and western Europe became increasingly meager because overworked soil had lost its fertility. 

    • Years of war had destroyed much farmland. 

      • Serious food shortages and disease spread, and the population declined. 

• By the third century A.D the Roman military was also in disarray. 

  • Roman soldiers in general had become less disciplined and loyal. 

  • To defend against the increasing threats to the empire, the government began to recruit mercenaries. 

    • Mercenaries: foreign soldiers who fought for money 

    • They would accept lower pay than Romans, they fely little sense of loyalty to the empire. 

• Rome survived intact for another 200 years. 

  • This was due largely to reform-minded emperors and the empire’s division into two parts. 

  • In A.D. 284 Diocletian, a strong-willed army leader, became the new emperor. 

    • He ruled with an iron fist and severely limited personal freedoms. 

    • He doubled the size of the Roman army and sought to control inflation by setting fixed prices for goods. 

  • Siocletian believed that the empire had grown too large and too complex for one ruler. 

    • He divided the empire into the Greek speaking East and the Latin-speaking West. 

    • He took the eastern half for himself and appointed a co-ruler for the West

    • He retired in A.D. 305 due to his ill health. 

      • His plans for orderly succession failed. 

      • Civil war broke out immediately. 

      • By 311, four rivals were competing for power. 

        • Among them was an ambitious young commander named Constantine, the same Constantine who would later end the persecution of Christians. 

          • Constantine gained control of the western part of the empire in A.D. 312 and continued many of the social and economic policies of Diocletian. 

          • In 324 Constantine also secured control of the East, thus restoring the concept of a single ruler. 

          • In A.D. 330 Constantine took a step that would have great consequences for the empire. 

            • He moved the capital from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium in what is now Turkey. 

              • The new capital stood on the Bosporus Strait, strategically located for trade and defense purposes on a crossroads between West and East. 

• With Byzantium as its capital, the center of power in the empire shifted from Rome to the east. 

  • Soon the new capital stood protected by massive walls and filled with imperial buildings modeled after those in Rome. 

  • The city eventually took a new name Constantinople, or the city of Constantine. 

• The decline of the Western Roman Empire took place over many years. 

  • Its final collapse was the result of worsening internal problems, the separation of the Western Empire from the wealthier Eastern part, and outside invasions. 

  • Germanic peoples had gathered on the northern borders of the empire and coexisted in relative peace with Rome. 

    • Around A.D. 370 all that changed when a fierce group of Mongol nomads from central Asia, the Huns, the various Germanic people pushed into Roman lands. 

      • They kept moving through the Roman provinces of Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. 

      • In 410, hordes of Germans overran Rome itself and plundered in for three days. 

• The Huns were indirectly responsible for the Germanic assault on the empire, and became a direct threat. 

  • In 444, they united for the first time under a powerful chieftain named Attila. 

    • With his 100,000 soldiers, Attila terrorized both halves of the empire. 

    • In the east, his armies attacked and plundered 70 cities. 

    • In A.D. 452, Attila’s forces advanced against Rome, but bouts of famine and disease kept them from conquering the city. 

    • The Huns were no longer a threat to the empire after Attila’s death in 453, the Germanic invasions continued. 

Chapter 6.5: Rome and the Roots of Western Civilization

• Under the Roman Empire, hundreds of territories were knitted into a single state. 

  • Each Roman province and city was governed in the same way.; 

  • By the second century B.C. Romans had conquered Greece and had come to greatly admire Greek culture. 

    • Educated Romans learned the Greek language. 

    • The mixing of elements of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman culture produced a new culture, called Greco-Roman culture. 

      • This was often called classical civilization.

      • Roman artists, philosophers, and writers did not merely copy their Greek and Hellenistic models. 

        • They adapted them for their own purposes and created a style of their own. 

        • Roman art and literature came to convey the Roman ideals of strength, permanence, and solidity. 

  • Romans learned the art of sculpture from the Greeks. 

    • The Greeks were known for the beauty and idolization of their sculpture, Roman sculptors created realistic portraits in stone. 

  • The reign of Augustus was a period of great artistic achievement. 

    • The Romans further developed a type of sculpture called bas-relief. 

      • In bas-relief images project from a flat background. 

      • Romans used bas-relief to tell stories and to represent crowds of people, soldiers in battle, and landscapes. 

        • They were also skilled in creating mosaics. 

          • Mosaics were pictures or designs made by setting small pieces of stone, glass, or tile onto a surface. 

          • Most wealthy homes had at least one colorful mosaic. 

    • The Romans excelled in the art of painting. 

      • Most wealthy  Romans had bright, large murals, called frescoes, painted directly on their walls. 

        • The best examples of Roman painted are found in the Roman town of Pompeii and date from as early as the second century B.C. 

  • The Romans borrowed much of their philosophy from the Greeks. 

    • Stoicism, the philosophy of the Greek teacher Zeno, was especially influential. 

    • It encouraged virtue, duty, moderation, and endurance. 

    • The Romans wrote excellent prose, especially history. 

      • Livy compiled a multivolume history of Rome from its origin to 9 B.C. 

        • He used legends freely, creating more of a national myth of Rome than a true history. 

        • Tacitus is a Roman historian who is notable among ancient historians because he presented the facts accurately. 

          • He was concerned about the Roman’s lack of morality. 

          • He wrote about the good and the bad of imperial Rome. 

• The presence of Rome is still felt daily in the languages, the institutions, and the thoughts of the western world. 

  • Latin is the language of the Romans, and remained the language of learning in the West long after the fall of Rome/. 

    • It was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church into the 20th century. 

    • Latin was adopted by different peoples and developed into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romainian. 

      • These languages are called Romance Languages because of their common Roman heritage. 

      • Latin also influenced other languages. 

        • More than half of the words in English had a basis in Latin.

• Visitors from all over the empire marveled at the architecture of Rome. 

  • The arch, the dome, and concrete were combined to build spectacular structures, such as the Colosseum. 

    • Arches also supported bridges and aqueducts. 

      • Aqueducts were designed by Roman engineers to bring water into cities and towns. 

        • Many large public buildings, such as the U.S. capitol and numerous state capitols, include Roman features. 

  • Roman roads were also technological marvels. 

    • They connected Rome to all parts of the empire. 

      • Many lasted into the Middle Ages; some are still used. 

• Rome’s most lasting and widespread contribution was its law. 

  • Early roman law dealt mostly with strengthening the rights of Roman citizens. 

    • With the growth of the empire, the Romans came to believe that laws should be fair and apply equally to all people, rich and poor. 

    • Some of the most important principles of Roman law were: 

      •  All persons had the right to equal treatment under the law. 

      •  A person was considered innocent until proven guilty. 

      •  The burden of proof rested with the accuser rather than the accused. 

      •  A person should be punished only for actions, not thoughts. 

      •  Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly unfair could be set aside. 

        • The principles of Roman law endured to form the basis of legal systems in many European countries and of places influenced by Europe, including the United States of America

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