i. Patriotism
ii. Stability
iii. Militarism
iv. Humility
i. Was a very Nostalgic ideal in Roman History
ii. Worked by the family and headed by a paterfamilias
iii. Paterfamilias was a small farmer, deeply patriotic, who had no lust for power but did have some military background.
i. Powerless got protection from the powerful
ii. In return the people without power would support their Patron
i. Embodied Pietas for Men
ii. Supposedly was a small farmer living outside of Rome. Etruscans were about to attack. Romans asked him to lead the army. He agreed and in 15 days beat the Etruscans and then went back to farm.
i. Submissive
ii. Obedient
iii. Loyal to one man: Univera
1. Divorce wasn’t possible early on
iv. Producers of Children/Citizens
v. Examples
1. Lucretia, c. 500 B.C
a. Was an important noblewoman
b. Was raped by the son of the Etruscan King
c. Goes home, tells father, friends, etc. what happened
d. Committed suicide rather than be an example of disloyalty
e. Became a model for Roman woman
2. Cornelia, c. 150 B.C.
a. Was a faithful wife
b. A good mother who raised good citizens
c. Mother of the Gracci Brothers
d. Educated, but not pushy about it
i. Senate becomes a ruling body, but is still ruled by a monarch
ii. Rome remains pretty much a farming community
iii. Distinctions between patricians and plebians date from this time
i. Etruscans brought Greek culture to Rome
ii. Brought religion, Architecture, new military styles
iii. Helped Rome evolve into a truly commercial city
i. Didn’t have a master plan for expansion but always had conflicts with neighbors
ii. These conflicts led to wider conflicts
iii. By 264 B.C. They took over the entire Italian Penninsula
i. Taking over The Italian Penninsula brought Rome into conflict with Carthage
ii. 1st Punic war: over control of Sicily
iii. 2nd Punic war: over control of Spain
1. Hannibal brought elephants over alps into Italy
iv. 3rd Punic war: pretext used by Rome to obliterate Carthage
i. Expansion wasn’t planned
1. Got pulled into wider conflicts
ii. Was never a foregone conclusion
1. Many times the Romans were defeated
2. Also Suffered many losses
iii. Was also serious trouble at home—Struggle of the orders between Patricians and Plebians.
iv. Several times Rome teetered on the brink of collapse
i. Protected somewhat by the Alps to the north.
ii. Located on the Tiber river, which served as a crossroads and important port.
iii. Well placed in the Mediterranean—centrally located.
i. Rome had a huge population compared to many of the areas in the Mediterranean
ii. There was fertile land in Italy which produced a large population which produced many males for armies
i. Rome was good at conquering other areas, but it was also good at making conquered people into allies.
ii. Offered conquered people a stake in the Roman society.
iii. Everyone would be better off in new, larger, state.
i. Grew out of the struggle of the old orders.
ii. Constitution evolved over time.
iii. Plebeians got certain rights
1. Could marry patricians
2. Gained their own assembly
iv. Gave plebeians a stake in the government
1. Political stability at home created possibility for expansion abroad.
i. The Roman idea of pietas helped contribute to Rome’s success.
The Crisis of the Late Republic and the roman empire
I. The late Republic, 133-31 B.C.
a. Cultural adjustments
i. Example: Cato (the older)
1. Paterfamilias
2. Senator
3. Opposed Greek influences
4. Knew and studied Greek and Greek culture
ii. Scipio Aemilianus
1. Lived in the city
2. Open to Greek ideals
3. Involved in popular politics.
iii. Conflict between whether to incorporate Greek culture or not was good for Rome—Led to a Greco-Roman culture
1. The old Roman values conflicted with the new Hellenistic ideas of individualism, etc.
2. Greek culture had a much more worldly outlook
b. Socio-economic adjustments
i. As Rome embarked on this period of conquest, the Roman economy was transformed.
ii. One major problem was the decline of the small farmer.
iii. Conquest brought more slaves into Rome.
iv. More slave labor led to large landed estates worked by slaves called Latifundia.
v. As the small farmers get pushed off the land, they go to Rome to look for work, and establish an urban poor class.
vi. Gracchi Brothers try to fix some of these things
1. Tiberius Gracchi
2. Gaius Gracchi
3. They appeal to popular politics, lower classes, and want to reestablish small farming class with land reform.
vii. This change leads to:
1. More slaves
2. Growing urban poor class
3. Small but growing middle class based on equestrians
a. Doesn’t have a voice in the senate
c. Political adjustments/problems
i. Army is becoming less controllable
1. Becomes more important as Rome expands
2. Generals come to rule the army more than the state ruling the army.
3. Right around 100 B.C. a general named Maurius changes the army to an all-volunteer army. This leads to the soldiers being more loyal to the generals than the state.
4. The army becomes a dangerous political weapon.
ii. As Rome expands, it becomes increasingly difficult for Rome to control the provinces.
iii. Senate begins to change
1. Earlier had been effective
2. Was now too diffuse to govern all the vast territories that Rome had acquired.
II. The Roman Empire
a. Pax Romana: 31 B.C. – 180 A.D.
i. Beginning
1. In 31 B.C., Octavian (Augustus) becomes first emperor even though he doesn’t call himself one.
2. After battle of Actium in Egypt Rome controls all of Mediterranean basin
3. The battle brings Octavian to the throne.
4. Octavian was a “conservative innovator”
a. Tried to protect small forms
b. Tried to protect religions
c. Tried to reinstate Senates
d. He makes new institutions to protect old values
ii. Period
1. Rome controlled vast amount of territory through buttresses:
a. The army
i. Emperors kept the army busy, out of politics
ii. Army was seen as a means of upward social mobility
iii. Was a means of spreading Roman culture throughout the Mediterranean basin
b. Growth of power of emperor and bureaucracy
i. Highly efficient and centralized in Rome.
ii. Left local government in hands of city officials—delegated power
c. Administration of cities
i. Leaves the administration of cities up to locals
ii. Locals were willing to do the bidding of Rome.
iii. Development of a class of civil servants
iii. End (Five good emperors)
1. Emperor could choose his own successor
2. An emperor chooses unwisely
b. Crisis of the Third Century: 180-284 A.D.
i. Buttresses collapse
1. Army is forced into fighting expensive, demoralizing defensive wars.
a. Drains both the treasury and morale of troops
ii. Bureaucracy and emperorship collapses
1. Barracks emporers—one every two years or so for a while (26 emporers in 50 years)
iii. Cities collapse
1. Droughts lead to inflation in cities
2. Locals aren’t so willing to do Rome’s bidding
c. The Empire Reorganized: 284-395 A.D.
i. In the fourth century, three strong emperors emerge (Diocletian, Constantine, and Theodosius)
ii. Strategies to save empire
1. Divided empire into west and east.
a. Wanted to make it more governable
b. Capital of Western Empire is still Rome
c. Eastern capital is Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul
d. By 395 empire is completely divided, Theodosius left two parts of Empire to two different people.
2. Tried to use Christianity to hold empire together.
a. Diocletian was the last emporer to openly persecute Christians.
b. Constantine, after him, was the first Christian emperor. Made Christianity the official state religion. Calls for end of persecution in 313, by 391 Christianity is the state religion.
3. Government by decree
a. Government comes directly from Capitols (Rome and Constantinople)
d. Final Decline in the west: 395-476 A.D.
i. The east does not fall.
Religion in the Roman World, 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.
Themes:
I. Religion was suitable to Roman world
a. The religion Reflected Roman Society
II. It was a hybrid religion.
I. Religious Practices c. 500 B.C.
a. Indigenous elements
i. Animism—Every living thing has a spirit
ii. Led to belief in Numina (sing. Numen)
1. Small deities
2. 4 main ones
a. Janus—God of the household (doorway)
b. Vesta—Godess of the Hearth.
c. Penates—Group of Gods that guarded grain and storehouses.
d. Lares—Group of Gods dealt w/veneration of ancestors.
3. Reflected the values of the farming ideal
iii. Roman religion was contractual—if Romans performed correct rituals then they would get something from the Gods
1. Mirrored clientage and patronage.
iv. Usually had several altars in home where they would pray and sacrifice.
v. Numina also venerated at state level
b. Etruscan elements
i. Most of Roman practices and rituals were adopted from the Etruscans
ii. Etruscans provided the idea of professional clergy.
iii. Divination—trying to read the future
1. Augurs—people who read the signs that the Gods had left.
iv. Sibylline Books
1. A way for the Romans to communicate with the Gods.
2. The recorded words of the Sibyls (Priestesses)
c. Greek elements
i. Romans adopted almost all Olympian Deities, but romanized gods
1. Made them less anthropomorphic
d. Resultant Religion was well suited to Roman society
i. Links to farm and home
ii. Contractual
iii. Stable
iv. etc.
II. Religious Crisis during the Late Republic. (c. 133-31 B.C.)
a. Traditional religious practices fall into steep decline.
i. Contractual relationship wasn’t working
ii. State and powerful politicians had used religious rituals for their own ends.
b. Household deities still important, but with the decline of family farm, less so.
c. At state level, religious practices declined drastically
d. There is a gap of Belief
e. People turned to Mystery cults
f. State tried to suppress some of them
i. The Cult of Baccus—wild partying
III. Religion during the Pax Romana (31 B.C—180 A.D.)
a. Reforms of Augustus
i. Tried to reestablish state religion on a new basis.
ii. Rebuilt decaying temples
iii. Recruited Vestal Virgins
iv. Made himself the chief Pontiff
v. He got enthusiasm for this for a while but it soon fizzled
vi. Introduced emperor worship.
1. In the east, he was worshipped as a God.
2. He brought this practice to the west.
b. Why were people searching for new religions at this time but not earlier?
i. Perhaps Because of peace
c. Solutions:
i. Mystery Cults
1. Became more important, and new ones sprang up
2. Cult of Isis
3. Cult of Mithras
a. Influenced by Persian beliefs
b. Dualistic belief system
i. World divided into two realms, Good and Evil.
ii. Mithras was a warrior God who battled the Darkness.
4. Mystery Cults had been known before, but now they became popular and if not officially sanctioned, at least not officially condemned
5. Common Characteristics of Mystery Cults
a. All had initiation or secret rites.
b. Often offered or promised better life and/or afterlife
c. Mysticism—people could make personal contact with the deity.
ii. Philosophic Alternatives.
1. Many Romans turned to philosophies as quasi-religions
2. Two main ones
a. Stoicism—Zeno
i. Each individual should accept their place in life and do their duty as that person.
b. Neoplatonism—Based on the philosophy of Plato
9/11/99
i. Main tenet was Plato’s theory of the forms.
1. Reality was only a poor copy of “The True Form of Things.”
2. This applied also to people.
3. Our reality is constantly changing, but the Ideal Form exists somewhere else.
4. People should aspire to the Ideal Form.
ii. Followers saw a division between soul and existence.
iii. Divine spark in everyone
iv. Plotinus (ca 250 A.D.) helped form these ideas.
v. Self-denial—You shouldn’t worry about your body here in reality because it’s not an ideal form.
vi. “Higher plane of existence.”
IV. The Rise of Christianity
a. The Foundations of Christianity in 1st Century C.E.
i. Jesus: Teachings
1. Charity, meekness, brotherly love
2. Asceticism
3. Internal over external spirituality
4. Final Judgment at end of world
ii. Paul (5 C.E. – 67 C.E.)
1. Originally persecuted Christians
2. Converted
3. Spread the word of Christianity to gentiles
4. Systematized Christian Faith
5. Christianity was now a separate religion from Judaism
6. Organized Christian communities and churches
b. The Growth of Christianity in 3rd Century C.E.
i. Tracing the growth
1. In 200 C.E. only about 1% of population was Christian
2. By 300, about 10%
3. By 400, about 95%
ii. Explaining the growth
1. Historical context
a. Political instability
b. Decline of cities, trade
c. People looking for something other than the state to help them order their lives.
d. Why did people turn to it
i. Otherworldly religion
ii. This world was only a test for true life in afterlife.
iii. Neoplatonists, main rival religion, had similar message
iv. Manicheans—another rival religion
v. Novelty—New religion
vi. Exclusivity—Couldn’t practice Christianity and other religion at same time.
vii. Stability
viii. Theology—devout
1. Christianity had better explanations then other religions
ix. Social appeal—open to everyone, spreads across class lines
x. Social services through churches
xi. Better organization than other religions
xii. Persecutions—people were intrigued by such conviction.
c. The Institutionalization of Christianity in the 4th and 5th Centuries
i. Toleration (311-313); official religion (391)
ii. Doctrinal controversy and development
1. Once there is no more persecution, doctrines are argued upon.
a. Trinity
b. Afterlife
c. Could sinful priests be effective priests?
2. Effects of arguments
a. Decisions reached defined orthodoxy and heresy
b. Aggravate differences between eastern and western church.
c. Encourage emperors to act as heads of church.
i. Caesaropapism
ii. Should the church be headed by a religious officer or a secular officer
d. Where does true Christian authority reside?
iii. Development of a Church hierarchy.
1. Laity
2. Priests
3. Bishops
4. Patriarchs—based in several different cities around Roman empire.
5. No pope yet
V. The Fall of Rome
a.