Notes on Rome

After the Punic wars, 1/3 of Rome was occupied by enslaved persons, causing the rich to have bigger estates and leave the poor homeless and jobless. Many of these poor farmers joined a group called the urban poor in order to find work. In fact, 1/4 of Rome was in this group. It seemed as if the poor Romans would never have a good life again until Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus came along. These brothers were tribunes for the lower class people of Rome and attempted to help the poor by limiting the land people could own and splitting it with the poor. However, the brothers failed and died horrible deaths. After they died, civil war broke out. During the civil wars, generals would use the people's economic struggles to their advantages so they would fight for them instead of for Rome. Julius Caesar used this strategy in order to become ruler of Rome. First, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed a triumvirate with Caesar as the consul. After his rule was up, Caesar became governor of Gaul and went on many war campaigns to gain control of all of Gaul and defeat Pompey's armies in Greece, Asia, Spain, and Egypt. All of these campaigns impressed the people and they named Caesar dictator of Rome, replacing the Republic. Caesar was not a bad ruler, however. He expanded the senate, granted many people in Roman provinces citizenship, created jobs to help the economy, started colonies where everyone could own property, and he even increased the pay of soldiers. It seemed as if Caesar had fixed all of Rome's problems, but was he too powerful? Some senators believed so. Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius felt that they were losing their influence and Caesar had too much power for his own good so they stabbed him to death on the Ides of March. Caesar's death sparked another civil war where Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus fought the assassins of Caesar. They won the war and the Republic was destroyed, them becoming another triumvirate. This triumvirate didn't last long though. Lepidus was forced by Octavian to retire and he and Mark Antony became rivals. The triumvirate also ended in another civil war because Octavian accused Antony of plotting against Rome in Egypt with his lover, Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra lost the war and committed suicide. Octavian then went on to rule as the first empire of Rome, Augustus. Augustus was an amazing ruler and even caused Pax Romana and the peak of Roman power. Rome was huge and contained 60-80 million people. Augustus also stabilized the Roman frontier, created many public buildings, created a working government system, set up a civil service where workers managed the government affairs, even slaves and plebeians were able to help with the government and empire. Augustus' government continued after his death and the empire expanded from Spain to Mesopotamia and North Africa to Britain. The Roman Empire was mainly supported by agriculture. A majority of Romans were farmers and trade was made easier using a denarius, a silver coin. Rome was also huge in trading. They traded across the mediterranean from Greece to Anatolia to Antioch to China and India. The Romans also had roads that allowed them to trade to very far away places. The Roman Empire had a very elite culture. They believed that discipline, strength, and smarts were much more important than beauty. The Romans also had the most slaves out of every previous civilization and used them for help on large farms and plantations or even in cities as gladiators for entertainment purposes. However, slaves were treated poorly and often tried to revolt. The religion followed by the Romans was similar to the Greeks, they worshipped Gods and Goddesses called numina and Lares. The numina were in charge of everything around the Romans and the Lares were powerful forces in charge of the Roman families. Gods and Goddesses were symbols of the Roman state and Romans were expected to worship them at home, and in public at worship ceremonies. Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the emperor were the most important Gods and Goddesses to be worshipped. However, later in Roman history, Christianity became more popular. The poor and rich in Roman society were complete opposites. The poor lived in awful conditions whilst the rich were living in heavenly conditions. However, both classes could attend gladiator contests and games, races, and mock battles in the Colosseum. During these contests, animals and animals or people and animals would battle until one was killed. The Colosseum was an important form of entertainment in Roman society.


DEFINITIONS
civil war- A conflict between groups with the same country.
Julius Caesar- Military leader of Rome turned dictator, he was assassinated by Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius.
triumvirate- A group of three leaders.
Augustus- Octavian's new title, first Roman emperor, ruled during Rome's most powerful era.
Pax Romana- A time of peace in Rome "Roman Peace"