HIST 314 Ultimate Study Guide Flashcards

Fundamental Abbreviations and Key Concepts

• BCE / CE: Before Common Era and Common Era.

• Princeps: Meaning "First Citizen"; this was the title adopted by Augustus to provide a mask of republican legitimacy for his autocracy.

• Mos Maiorum: Translated as "Ancestral Custom" or traditional Roman values. Key components include:     - Virtus: Courage or manliness.     - Gravitas: Seriousness or dignity.     - Pietas: Loyalty, duty, and religious devotion.

• Pax Deorum: "Peace of the gods"; the belief that proper religious observance and rituals ensured Roman military and political success.

• Damnatio Memoriae: Condemnation of memory; a process of erasing a disgraced emperor’s name from inscriptions and destroying their images.

• Paideia: A system of Greco-Roman education in the classics (and later Christian texts) that served as a hallmark of elite status.

• Collegium: A cross-class occupational association that provided members with burial services, communal meals, and work distribution.

• Decurions: Local town aristocrats responsible for funding public works and administration in exchange for social status.

• Interpretatio Romana: The Roman practice of identifying foreign deities with their Roman equivalents.

• Logos: Meaning reason or the rational principle; a central concept in Stoic philosophy.

• Fiscus Iudaicus: The Jewish tax imposed by Rome following the destruction of the Second Temple.

Part 1: The End of the Republic and the Rise of Augustus

Key Figures of the Transition

• Julius Caesar: Declared himself king, leading to his assassination in $44 \text{ BCE}$ by the "Liberators," led by Brutus and Cassius.

• Mark Antony: Caesar’s right-hand man during the wars in Gaul. He was a soldier rather than a politician and kept order in Rome during civil unrest. Following Caesar's death, he became consul and seized control of Caesar’s finances.

• Cicero: The greatest Roman orator and self-titled "Savior of the Republic." He wrote the Philippics, a series of speeches mocking Antony’s drunkenness and behavior. He was the most famous victim of the subsequent proscriptions.

• Octavian (Gaius Octavianus): The adopted grand-nephew and primary heir of Julius Caesar. He was in Greece at the time of the assassination and returned to Rome to claim his inheritance.

• Cleopatra VII: The Queen of Egypt and mother of Caesar’s only biological son, Caesarion. She later allied herself politically and romantically with Mark Antony.

Key Events of the Civil War Era

• Funeral of Caesar ($44 \text{ BCE}$): Antony delivered the eulogy and read Caesar’s will, which bequeathed money to the Roman people. Octavian borrowed money to ensure these payments were made and renamed himself Gaius Octavian Caesar.

• Second Triumvirate ($44 - 31 \text{ BCE}$): A surprise alliance between the "Caesarian" leaders Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus against the Liberators. This resulted in a new wave of proscriptions similar to Sulla's, leading to Cicero's death.

• Battle of Philippi ($42 \text{ BCE}$): Antony led the command (with Octavian present) to defeat the Liberators. Brutus and Cassius committed suicide. The defeated legionaries were pardoned and granted land. The empire was divided: Octavian took the West, Antony the East, and Lepidus Africa.

• Antony and Cleopatra's Alliance: The pair had three children, including twins named Sun and Moon. This alliance was complicated by Antony's marriage to Octavian’s sister, Octavia.

• Battle of Actium ($31 \text{ BCE}$): A naval engagement in Greece where Octavian trapped Antony’s fleet. Antony and Cleopatra retreated prematurely, abandoning their army. Both committed suicide in $30 \text{ BCE}$.

• The "Cleopatra Ode" (Horace): A literary work that initially depicts Cleopatra as an evil threat but ultimately redeems her through the description of her noble suicide.

Part 2: The Augustan Age ($31 \text{ BCE} - 14 \text{ CE}$)

Political Restructuring

• Augustus "refounded" Rome by reviving mos maiorum, including the restoration of ancient priesthoods and temples.

• First Settlement ($27 \text{ BCE}$): Octavian adopted the name "Augustus" and a new month was named in his honor. He accepted proconsular power over Gaul, Spain, and Syria for a duration of $10$ years.

• Second Settlement ($23 \text{ BCE}$): Augustus gained Imperium Maius (greater authority over all other governors) and Tribunicia Potestas (the power of a tribune, including the veto). This arrangement allowed senators access to the consulship again.

• Provincial Split:     - Senatorial Provinces: Governed by senators.     - Imperial Provinces: Governed by legates who were friends of the emperor.     - Egypt: Held a special status where senators were forbidden from entering without permission due to its grain supply; it was governed by legates.

Social and Cultural Life

• Lex Julia ($18 - 17 \text{ BCE}$): Laws making adultery a crime, providing tax benefits for families with $3$ children, and placing limits on the mass manumission of slaves.

• Literary Figures: Included Horace, Vergil (author of the Aeneid), and the elegists Tibullus and Propertius. Ovid was famously exiled for writing Ars Amatoria.

• Ara Pacis: The Altar of Peace, a unique monument commemorating the peace established by Augustus.

• Egyptomania: A Roman fad for Egyptian culture and aesthetics; notably, Roman-made Egyptian statues often retained Greek artistic features.

• Succession and Family: Augustus had no biological sons. His daughter Julia was used as a political pawn in various marriages. He eventually forced Tiberius to adopt Germanicus to ensure the succession.

• Anecdote: Julia was known for her wit, once joking that she "only takes on a passenger when the ship is full," meaning she only engaged in affairs when already pregnant.

• Disaster in Germany ($9 \text{ CE}$): The Germanic leader Arminius destroyed $3$ Roman legions. Augustus was famously distraught, crying out, "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!" This event effectively ended Roman expansion into Germany.

Part 3: The Julio-Claudian Emperors ($14 - 68 \text{ CE}$)

Tiberius ($14 - 37 \text{ CE}$)

• Groomed by Augustus but struggled with the Senate, which had lost its independence after $50$ years of autocratic rule.

• Germanicus: A popular general and grandson of Antony; his success in Germany gave him his name. He died in Syria, with rumors suggesting he was poisoned by the governor Piso.

• Roman Magic: The use of defixiones (cursed tablets) inscribed with foreign words was common.

• The Praetorian Guard: The emperor's private guard of approximately $5000$ men. Under the prefect Sejanus, they became a political powerhouse.

• Governance and Exile: Sejanus used maiestas (treason) trials and delatores (informers) to eliminate rivals. Tiberius retired to the island of Capri in $27 \text{ CE}$. Sejanus was executed for conspiracy in $32 \text{ CE}$, and Tiberius died in $37 \text{ CE}$.

Caligula ($37 - 41 \text{ CE}$)

• Initially popular for returning exiles and repealing treason laws. After a severe illness, he was described as a "monster."

• He executed Tiberius' grandson, Gemellus. Historical sources like Tacitus and Suetonius record allegations of rape, incest, and insanity, including a story that he intended to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul.

• He was assassinated in $41 \text{ CE}$ by Cassius Chaerea.

Claudius ($41 - 54 \text{ CE}$)

• Initially treated as an invalid and focused on historical scholarship. He was appointed by the Praetorian Guard in exchange for a financial donative.

• Major Achievements: Led the successful invasion of Britain in $43 \text{ CE}$ and advocated for Gauls to enter the Senate (as recorded on the Lyons Tablet).

• Administration: Relied on Imperial Freedmen because he distrusted the Senate.

• Marriages: His third wife, Valeria Messalina, was subject to rumors of extreme adultery (satirized by Juvenal). She was executed after attempting to marry another man while still wed to Claudius.

Nero ($54 - 68 \text{ CE}$)

• Quinquennalia: The first "Good Five Years" of his reign ($54 - 59 \text{ CE}$) were guided by Seneca the Younger, Burrus, and his mother Agrippina.

• Seneca the Younger: A Stoic philosopher and the only Roman tragedian whose works (e.g., Medea, Phaedra) survived. He served as Nero's advisor until $62 \text{ CE}$.

• Downfall and Violence: Nero eliminated his rival Britannicus in $55 \text{ CE}$, orchestrated the murder of his mother Agrippina via a shipwreck plot, and killed his wife Poppaea.

• Cultural Concepts: Otium (productive leisure) vs. Negotium (business).

• Petronius Arbiter: Known as the "judge of elegance" at Nero's court and the likely author of the Satyricon. He was killed following the Piso conspiracy.

• The Great Fire ($64 \text{ CE}$): Rumors claimed Nero sang while Rome burned; he used the cleared land to build the Domus Aurea (Golden House).

• Conspiracy of Piso ($65 \text{ CE}$): A failed aristocratic revolt that led to the forced suicides of Seneca, Lucan, and Petronius.

• End of Reign: Revolts by Boudicca in Britain ($64 \text{ CE}$), Julius Vindex in Gaul ($68 \text{ CE}$), and Jewish rebels led to his abandonment. He committed suicide in $68 \text{ CE}$, famously saying, "What an artist dies in me!"

Part 4: The Year of the Four Emperors and the Flavian Dynasty ($68 - 96 \text{ CE}$)

The Civil War of $69 \text{ CE}$

• Galba: Failed to pay the Praetorian donative and was assassinated. Tacitus remarked: "He would have been thought capable of ruling—if only he had never ruled."

• Otho: Bribed the Praetorians but was defeated by Vitellius and committed suicide.

• Vitellius: The choice of the German legions; he was eventually tortured and killed by Vespasian's forces.

• Vespasian ($69 - 79 \text{ CE}$): The choice of the Eastern legions. He established the Flavian dynasty and was the first emperor of Equestrian (non-senatorial) and Italian (non-Roman) origin.

Flavian Rule

• Vespasian's Policies: Focused on simplicity and frugality. He famously taxed public urinals, stating "Pecunia non olet" (money doesn't smell). He commissioned the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater) on the site of Nero's artificial lake.

• Titus ($79 - 81 \text{ CE}$): The victor of the Jewish War and lover of Queen Berenike. He was highly popular but died young of a fever.

• Domitian ($81 - 96 \text{ CE}$): Known for his paranoia and obsession with moral purity. He executed Vestal Virgins, held the consulship annually, and demanded to be called "Dominus et Deus" (Lord and God). He was murdered in a senatorial conspiracy in $96 \text{ CE}$, resulting in the first major damnatio memoriae.

Part 5: The Jewish War ($66 - 73 \text{ CE}$)

• Causes: Tensions between Greeks and Hellenized Jews, messianic fervor, and the desire for independence.

• Second Temple: The Romans permitted sacrifices at the temple in exchange for taxes. Eleazer ben Simon led the Zealot faction during the revolt.

• Conflict and Siege: The Romans used starvation tactics. The historian Josephus (Flavius Josephus) documented the conflict in Antiquities of the Jews.

• Destruction: Titus stormed Jerusalem in $70 \text{ CE}$, destroying the Temple (leaving only one wall). The Arch of Titus was built to commemorate this. The mountain fortress of Masada fell in $73 \text{ CE}$.

Part 6: The Pax Romana and the Adoptive Emperors ($96 - 180 \text{ CE}$)

• Nerva ($96 - 98 \text{ CE}$): Short reign; initiated the system of adopting a competent successor rather than a biological heir by choosing Trajan.

• Trajan ($98 - 117 \text{ CE}$): Roman-Spanish origin. His reign saw a literary golden age documented by Pliny the Younger in his Panegyricus.     - Dacian Wars: Defeated King Decebalus. Dacia became a province, an event narrated on Trajan's Column.     - Alimenta Program: A welfare system providing food and education for children in Italy.     - Expansion: Created three new provinces after attacking Mesopotamia in $115 \text{ CE}$.

• Hadrian ($117 - 138 \text{ CE}$): Heavily influenced by Greek culture (the first bearded emperor).     - Great Works: Built Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the city of Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem after crushing the Bar Kochba War ($132 - 135 \text{ CE}$).     - Personal Life: Deified his Greek lover Antinous after the youth drowned.

• Antoninus Pius ($138 - 161 \text{ CE}$): Earned the name "Pius" by forcing the Senate to deify Hadrian. His reign was a noted age of peace.

• Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus ($161 - 180 \text{ CE}$): The first instance of co-emperors. Marcus Aurelius was a dedicated Stoic who wrote Meditations in Greek. His reign was beset by the Parthian War, the Marcomannic Wars on the Danube, and a plague in $166 \text{ CE}$.

Part 7: Stoicism and the Severan Dynasty

Stoic Philosophy

• Founded by Zeno of Citium ($c. 300 \text{ BCE}$).

• Core tenets: Virtue is the only good; live in harmony with the universal Logos and nature.

• Contrasted with Epicureanism, which prioritized pleasure as the highest good.

The Severans ($193 - 235 \text{ CE}$)

• Year of the Five Emperors ($193 \text{ CE}$): Pertinax was killed by Praetorians; Didius Julianus literally bought the throne at auction. Septimius Severus eventually won the resulting civil war.

• Septimius Severus ($193 - 211 \text{ CE}$): Established open military rule and increased soldier wages. His dying advice to his sons was: "Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, scorn all others."

• Caracalla ($211 - 217 \text{ CE}$): Murdered his brother Geta. Issued the Constitutio Antoniniana in $212 \text{ CE}$, granting universal citizenship to all free inhabitants (likely for tax and military purposes).

• Elagabalus ($218 - 222 \text{ CE}$): A teenaged emperor who mandated the worship of the Syrian sun god El-Agabal (represented by a black stone).

• Mystery Religions: Popular among soldiers, these included Mithras (the bull-slayer), Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), and cults of Isis and Cybele.

• Severus Alexander ($222 - 235 \text{ CE}$): The last of the dynasty, murdered by his own troops in Germany for attempting to buy off the enemy.

Part 8: Crisis of the Third Century and the Tetrarchy

The Crisis ($235 - 284 \text{ CE}$)

• Characterized by $50$ "Barracks Emperors" in $50$ years, runaway inflation, and breakaway states like the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires.

• Aurelian ($270 - 275 \text{ CE}$): Reconquered the breakaway empires and built the Aurelian Walls in Rome.

Diocletian ($284 - 305 \text{ CE}$)

• The Tetrarchy: "Rule of Four" consisting of two senior Augusti (Diocletian and Maximian) and two junior Caesares (Galerius and Constantius Chlorus).

• Reforms:     - Administrative: Split military and civilian roles; created Duces and Dioceses.     - Military: Split the army into limitani (border) and comitatus (mobile) units.     - Economic: The Caput-Iugum system tied peasants (coloni) to the land; the Edict of Maximum Prices ($301 \text{ CE}$) was an unsuccessful attempt to curb inflation.

• The Great Persecution ($303 - 311 \text{ CE}$): Aimed at Christians to restore the pax deorum.

Part 9: Constantine and Christianity

• Paul of Tarsus: Opened the Jesus movement to Gentiles; wrote the first Christian texts.

• Battle of Milvian Bridge ($312 \text{ CE}$): Constantine defeated Maxentius after seeing a vision of a cross with the words "Conquer by this."

• Edict of Milan ($313 \text{ CE}$): Established religious tolerance.

• Council of Nicaea ($325 \text{ CE}$): Refuted Arianism (the belief that Jesus was subordinate to the Father) and created the Nicene Creed. Established the emperor as the head of the Church.

• Theodosius I ($380 - 395 \text{ CE}$): Made Christianity the sole legal religion and permanently divided the empire into East and West.

Part 10: The Fall of the West ($410 - 476 \text{ CE}$)

• Sack of Rome ($410 \text{ CE}$): Conducted by Alaric the Visigoth. Prompted St. Augustine to write City of God.

• Key Figures:     - Magister Militum: Germanic military chiefs (like Stilicho and Ricimer) who became the real power behind the throne.     - Attila the Hun: Attempted to destroy the empire; defeated at the Battle of Chalons ($451 \text{ CE}$).

• The Official Fall ($476 \text{ CE}$): Odoacer deposed the child emperor Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial regalia to the East.

Questions & Discussion

• Q1: How did Augustus maintain the illusion of the Republic through the First and Second Settlements?

• Q2: Discuss the relationship between the Julio-Claudian emperors and the Praetorian Guard.

• Q3: What were the primary social and economic causes of the Jewish War?

• Q4: Evaluate the success of Diocletian’s Tetrarchy and the Caput-Iugum system.

• Q5: Compare the popular appeal of Mithraism versus Christianity among Roman soldiers.

• Q6: Analyze Gibbon’s theory that Christianity weakened the Roman martial spirit.

• Q7: How did the concept of Paideia evolve from a secular elite marker to a Christian educational standard?

• BCE / CE: Before Common Era and Common Era.

• Princeps: Title adopted by Augustus as "First Citizen".

• Mos Maiorum: Traditional Roman values including Virtus (courage), Gravitas (seriousness), Pietas (loyalty).

• Pax Deorum: Religious observance ensures military success.

• Damnatio Memoriae: Erasure of a disgraced emperor’s memory.

• Paideia: Greco-Roman education marking elite status.

• Collegium: Occupational associations providing members services.

• Decurions: Local aristocrats funding public works.

• Interpretatio Romana: Identifying foreign deities with Roman equivalents.

• Logos: Reason, central to Stoicism.

• Fiscus Iudaicus: Jewish tax post-Second Temple destruction.

The End of the Republic and the Rise of Augustus

• Key Figures: Julius Caesar's assassination led to civil war; Octavian became Augustus after defeating Antony and Cleopatra.

The Augustan Age

• Augustus restored Roman values, enacted laws for family and moral behavior, and faced threats in Germany.

The Julio-Claudian Emperors

• Tiberius (struggled with Senate), Caligula (known for cruelty), Claudius (expanded empire), Nero (destructive rule and decline).

The Year of the Four Emperors and the Flavian Dynasty

• Civil war led to Vespasian's rise; tyranny and paranoia marked Domitian's rule.

The Jewish War

• Greek and Jewish tensions led to revolt; Jerusalem fell in 70 CE.

The Pax Romana and the Adoptive Emperors

• Nerva's adoption system; Trajan's expansion; Hadrian's cultural focus; Antoninus Pius's peaceful reign.

Stoicism and the Severan Dynasty

• Stoicism's core tenets vs. Epicureanism; Severan civil turmoil and military focus.

Crisis of the Third Century and the Tetrarchy

• Diocletian's reforms aimed to stabilize empire and curb inflation.

Constantine and Christianity

• Paul of Tarsus’s influence; Constantine’s conversion and establishment of Christianity.

The Fall of the West

• The sack of Rome by Alaric; key military figures dominated power until Odoacer’s deposition of the last emperor in 476 CE.