Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of the city-state of Rome, founded in the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC. During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to a vast empire. It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through conquest and assimilation. However, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire. The western half of the empire, including Hispania, Gaul, and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the 5th century; the eastern empire, governed from Constantinople, is referred to as the Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the Middle Ages.
Roman civilization is often grouped into "classical antiquity" with ancient Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the culture of ancient Rome. Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development of law, war, art, literature, architecture, and language in the Western world, and its history continues to have a major influence on the world today.
Society
Life in Ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, located on seven hills. The city had a vast number of monumental structures like the Colosseum, the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon. It had fountains with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of aqueducts, theaters, gymnasiums, bath complexes complete with libraries and shops, marketplaces, and functional sewers. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential architecture ranged from very modest houses to country villas, and in the capital city of Rome, there were imperial residences on the elegant Palatine Hill, from which the word "palace" is derived. The low and middle classes lived in the city center, packed into apartments, which were almost like modern ghettos.
The city of Rome was the largest urban center of that time, with a population well in excess of one million people (about the size of London in the early 19th century, when London was the largest city in the world), with some high-end estimates of 3.5 million and low-end estimates of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron chariot wheels that Julius Caesar had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic at night. Historical estimates indicate that around 20 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome (32% in Roman Italy) lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. Most of these centers had a forum and temples and same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome.
Government
Initially, Rome was ruled by elected kings. The exact nature of the king's power is uncertain; he may have held near-absolute power, or may also have merely been the chief executive of the Senate and the people. At least in military matters, the king's authority (imperium) was likely absolute. He was also the head of the state religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the Senate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the Comitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify laws suggested by the King; and the Comitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college which could assemble the people in order to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare the feast and holiday schedule for the next month.
The class struggles of the Roman Republic resulted in an unusual mixture of democracy and oligarchy. Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (Comitia Tributa). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, the Roman Senate represented an oligarchic institution, which acted as an advisory body.[1] In the Republic, the Senate held great authority (auctoritas), but no actual legislative power; it was technically only an advisory council. However, as the Senators were individually very influential, it was difficult to accomplish anything against the collective will of the Senate. New Senators were chosen from among the most accomplished patricians by Censors (Censura), who could also remove a Senator from his office if he was found "morally corrupt"; a charge that could include bribery or, as under Cato the Elder, embracing one's wife in public. Later, Quaestors were also made automatic members of the Senate.
The Republic had no fixed bureaucracy, and collected taxes through the practice of tax farming. Government positions such as quaestor, aedile, or praefect were funded from the officeholder's private finances. In order to prevent any citizen from gaining too much power, new magistrates were elected annually and had to share power with a colleague. For example, under normal conditions, the highest authority was held by two consuls. In an emergency, a temporary dictator could be appointed.[2] Throughout the Republic, the administrative system was revised several times to comply with new demands. In the end, it proved inefficient for controlling the ever-expanding dominion of Rome, contributing to the establishment of the Roman Empire.
In the early Empire, the pretense of a republican form of government was maintained: the Roman Emperor was portrayed as only a 'princeps', or "first citizen", and the Senate gained legislative power and all legal authority previously held by the popular assemblies. However, the rule of the emperors became increasingly autocratic over time, and the Senate was reduced to an advisory body appointed by the emperor. The Empire did not inherit a set bureaucracy from the Republic, since the Republic did not have any permanent governmental structures apart from the Senate. The Emperor appointed assistants and advisors, but the state lacked many institutions, such as a centrally-planned budget. Some historians have cited this as a significant reason for the decline of the Roman Empire.
The territory of the Empire was divided into provinces. The number of provinces increased with time, both as new territories were conquered and as provinces were divided into smaller units to discourage rebellions by powerful local rulers.[3] Upon the rise of Augustus and the Principate, the provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial provinces, depending on which institution had the right to select the governor. During the Tetrarchy, the provinces of the empire were divided into 12 dioceses, each headed by a praetor vicarius. The civilian and military authority were separated, with civilian matters still administered by the governor, but with military command transferred to a dux.
Law
The roots of the legal principles and practices of the ancient Romans may be traced to the law of the twelve tables (from 449 BC) to the codification of Emperor Justinian I (around 530). The Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes became the basis of legal principles and practices in the Byzantine Empire, and in continental Western Europe, and continued, in a broader sense, to be applied throughout most of Europe until the end of the 18th century.
The major divisions of the law of the ancient Rome consisted of Ius Civile, Ius Gentium, and Ius Naturale. The Ius Civile ("Citizen law") was the body of common laws that applied to Roman citizens and the Praetores Urbani (sg. Praetor Urbanus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens. The Ius Gentium ("Law of nations") was the body of common laws that applied to foreigners, and their dealings with Roman citizens. The Praetores Peregrini (sg. Praetor Peregrinus) were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners. Ius Naturale encompassed natural law, the body of laws that were considered common to all beings.
Economy
Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and human resources available. As such, Rome's economy remained focused on agriculture and trade. Agricultural free trade changed the Italian landscape, and by the 1st century BC, vast grape and olive estates had supplanted the yeoman farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price: the annexation of Egypt, Sicily and Tunisia in North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn, olive oil and wine were Italy's main exports. Two-tier crop rotation was practiced, but farm productivity was overall low, around 1 ton per hectare.
Industrial and manufacturing activities were smaller, the largest such activity being the mining and quarrying of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the buildings of that period. In manufacturing, production was on in a relatively small scale, and generally consisted of workshops and small factories that employed at most dozens of workers, however, some brick factories employed hundreds of workers.
Some economic historians (like Peter Temin) argue that the economy of the Early Roman Empire was a market economy and one of the most advanced agricultural economies to have existed (in terms of productivity, urbanization and development of capital markets), comparable to the most advanced economies of the world before the industrial revolution, the economies of 18th-century England and 17th-century Netherlands. There were markets for every type of good, for land, for cargo ships; there was even an insurance market.
The economy of the early Republic was largely based on smallholding and paid labour, but foreign wars and conquests made slaves increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on slave labour for both skilled and unskilled work. Slaves are estimated to have constituted around 20% of Roman Empire's population at this time and 40% in the city of Rome. Only in the Roman Empire, when the conquests stopped and the prices of slaves increased, did hired labour become more economical than slave ownership.
Although barter was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed coinage system, with brass, bronze, and precious metal coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in India. Before the 3rd century BC, copper was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, across central Italy. The original copper coins (as) had a face value of one Roman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its intrinsic value as metal; after Nero began debasing the silver denarius, its legal value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic.
Horses were too expensive, and other pack animals too slow, for mass trade on the Roman roads, which connected military posts rather than markets, and were rarely designed for wheels. As a result, there was little transport of commodities between Roman regions until the rise of Roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip from Gades to Alexandria via Ostia, spanning the entire length of the Mediterranean.[4] Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.
Class structure
Roman society was strictly hierarchical, with slaves (servī) at the bottom, freedmen (liberī) above them, and free-born citizens (civēs) at the top. The free citizens were also divided by class. The broadest division was between the patricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100 Patriarchs at the founding of the city, and the plebeians, who could not. This became more important in the late Republic, as some plebeian families became wealthy equestrians (equites), or wealthy businessmen, and some patrician families fell on hard times. However, because of the class distinctions, plebeian families were still restricted from becoming involved in Roman politics, and regardless of their personal wealth were still considered a lesser class to the patricians. Patricians were marked mainly by their political status—the nobles (nobiles), who dominated the Senate. To be a noble, an individual needed to have a consul as an ancestor; men like Marius and Cicero, who were the first of their families to rise to the consulship, were given the title novus homo ("new man").
Allied foreign cities were often given the Latin Right, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (peregrini), which gave their citizens rights under Roman law and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after the Social War of 91–88 BC, and full Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by Caracalla in 212. Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote.
Family
The basic units of Roman society were households and families. Household included the head of the household, paterfamilias (Father of the family), his wife, children, and other relatives. In the upper classes, slaves and servants were also part of the household. The head of the household had great power (patria potestas, "father's power") over those living with him: He could force marriage and divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his own, and possibly even had the right to kill family members, although this has been recently disputed in academic circles.
Patria potestas even extended over adult sons with their own households: A man was not considered a paterfamilias while his own father lived. A daughter, when she married, usually fell under the authority of the paterfamilias of her husband's household, although this was not always the case, as she could choose to continue recognising her father's family as her true family. However, as Romans reckoned descent through the male line, any children she had would belong to her husband's family.
Groups of related households formed a family (gens). Families were based on blood ties (or adoption), but were also political and economic alliances. Especially during the Roman Republic, some powerful families, or Gentes Maiores, came to dominate political life.
Ancient Roman marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political alliance than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes. Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters when they reached an age between twelve and fourteen. The husband was almost always older than the bride. While upper class girls married very young, there is evidence that lower class women often married in their late teens or early twenties. [5]
Education
In the early Republic, boys were taught to read and write by their father, or by educated slaves, usually of Greek origin; the ultimate aim of Roman education was to produce men who could speak effectively. Village schools were also established. Later, around 200 BC, boys and some girls at the age of 7 were sent to a school outside the home called a ludus. Basic Roman education included reading, writing, and counting, and their materials consisted of scrolls and books. At the age of 13, students learned about Greek and Roman literature. At the age of 16, some students went on to rhetoric school. Poorer people were usually taught by their parents as school was not free. Pupils went to school every day, except religious festivals and market days. There was also a summer holiday.
Demographic outlines in the 6th century BC—1st century AD (the city of Rome area)
| Census | Population | Economic crises | Wars | Epidemics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 508 BC | 130,000 | |||
| 505-504 BC | ||||
| 503 BC | 120,000 | |||
| 499 or 496 BC | ||||
| 498 BC | 150,700 | |||
| 493 BC | 110,000 | |||
| 492-491 BC | ||||
| 486 BC | ||||
| 474 BC | 103,000 | 474 BC | 474 BC | |
| 465 BC | 104,714 | |||
| 459 BC | 117,319 | |||
| 456 BC | ||||
| 454 BC | 454 BC | |||
| 440-439 BC | ||||
| 433 BC | 433 BC | |||
| 428 BC | 428 BC | |||
| 412 BC | 412 BC | |||
| 400 BC | ||||
| 396 BC | ||||
| 392 BC | 152,573 | 392 BC | 392 BC | |
| 390 BC | 390 BC | |||
| 386 BC | ||||
| 383 BC | 383 BC | |||
| 343-341 BC | ||||
| 340 BC | 165,000 | 340-338 BC | ||
| 326-304 BC | ||||
| 323 BC | 150,000 | |||
| 299 BC | ||||
| 298-290 BC | ||||
| 294 BC | 262,321 | |||
| 293/292 BC | ||||
| 289 BC | 27,200 | |||
| 281 BC | ||||
| 280 BC | 287,222 | 280-275 BC | ||
| 276 BC | 271,224 | 276 BC? | ||
| 265 BC | 292,234 | |||
| 264-241 BC | ||||
| 252 BC | 297,797 | |||
| 250 BC | 250 BC | |||
| 247 BC | 241,712 | |||
| 241 BC | 260,000 | |||
| 234 BC | 270,713 | |||
| 216 BC | 216 BC | |||
| 211-210 BC | 211-210 BC | |||
| 209 BC | 137,108 | |||
| 204 BC | 214,000 | 204 BC | ||
| 203 BC | ||||
| 201 BC | ||||
| 200 BC | 200-195 BC | |||
| 194 BC | 143,704 | |||
| 192-188 BC | ||||
| 189 BC | 258,318 | |||
| 187 BC | ||||
| 182-180 BC | ||||
| 179 BC | 258,318 | |||
| 176-175 BC | ||||
| 174 BC | 269,015 | |||
| 171-167 BC | ||||
| 169 BC | 312,805 | |||
| 165 BC | ||||
| 164 BC | 337,022 | |||
| 159 BC | 328,316 | |||
| 154 BC | 324,000 | |||
| 153 BC | ||||
| 147 BC | 322,000 | |||
| 142 BC | 322,442 | 142 BC | ||
| 138 BC | ||||
| 136 BC | 317,933 | |||
| 131 BC | 318,823 | |||
| 125 BC | 394,736 | |||
| 123 BC | ||||
| 115 BC | 394,336 | |||
| 104 BC | ||||
| 87 BC | ||||
| 86 BC | 463,000 | |||
| 75 BC | ||||
| 70 BC | 910,000 | |||
| 67 BC | ||||
| 65 BC | ||||
| 54 BC | ||||
| 49-46 BC | ||||
| 43 BC | ||||
| 28 | 4,063,000 | |||
| 23-22 | 23-22 | |||
| 8 | 4,233,000 | |||
| 5-6 | ||||
| 10 | ||||
| 14 | 4,937,000 |
Sources
Brunt, P. A. Italian Manpower 225 BC-AD 14. Oxford, 1971; Wiseman, T. P. The Census in the first century B.C. Journal of Roman Studies, 1969; Virlouvet, C. Famines et émuetes à Rome des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Roma, 1985; Suder, W., Góralczyk, E. Sezonowość epidemii w Republice Rzymskiej. Vitae historicae, Księga jubileuszowa dedykowana profesorowi Lechowi A. Tyszkiewiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin. Wrocław, 2001.
Culture
Language
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language that relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. Its alphabet, the Latin alphabet, is ultimately based on the Greek alphabet. Although surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the actual spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.
While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, Greek eventually supplanted Latin as both the written and spoken language. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct Romance languages.
Although Latin is an extinct language with very few remaining fluent speakers, it remains in use in many ways, such as through Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the Vatican City. Additionally, even after fading from common usage Latin maintained a role as western Europe's lingua franca, an international language of academia and diplomacy. Although eventually supplanted in this respect by French in the 19th century and English in the 20th, Latin continues to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology—it has been estimated that 80% of all scholarly English words derive directly or indirectly from Latin.
Religion
Archaic Roman mythology, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely-defined sacred spirits called numina. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own genius, or divine soul. During the Roman Republic, Roman religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank. The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hiercharchy, and its chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus, was the head of the state religion. Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, while augurs were trusted with taking the auspices. The sacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman empire, emperors were held to be gods, and the formalized imperial cult became increasingly prominent.
As contact with the Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became increasingly associated with Greek gods. Thus, Jupiter was perceived to be the same deity as Zeus, Mars became associated with Ares, and Neptune with Poseidon. The Roman gods also assumed the attributes and mythologies of these Greek gods. The transferral of anthropomorphic qualities to Roman Gods, and the prevalence of Greek philosophy among well-educated Romans, brought about an increasing neglect of the old rites, and in the 1st century BC, the religious importance of the old priestly offices declined rapidly, though their civic importance and political influence remained. Roman religion in the empire tended more and more to center on the imperial house, and several emperors were deified after their deaths.
Under the empire, numerous foreign cults grew popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Beginning in the 2nd century, Christianity began to spread in the Empire, despite initial persecution. It became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Constantine I, and all religions except Christianity were prohibited in 391 by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I.
Art, literature and music
Most early Roman painting styles show Etruscan influences, particularly in the practice of political painting. In the 3rd century BC, Greek art taken as booty from wars became popular, and many Roman homes were decorated with landscapes by Greek artists. Evidence from the remains at Pompeii shows diverse influence from cultures spanning the Roman world. Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. During the Antonine and Severan periods, more ornate hair and bearding became prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also made in relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.
Latin literature was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest extant works are of historical epics telling the early military history of Rome. As the Republic expanded, authors began to produce poetry, comedy, history, and tragedy.
Games and activities
The ancient city of Rome had a place called Campus, a sort of drill ground for Roman soldiers, which was located near the river Tiber. Later, the Campus became Rome's track and field playground, which even Julius Caesar and Augustus were said to have frequented. Imitating the Campus in Rome, similar grounds were developed in several other urban centers and military settlements.
In the campus, the youth assembled to play and exercise, which included jumping, wrestling, boxing and racing. Riding, throwing, and swimming were also preferred physical activities. In the countryside, pastime also included fishing and hunting. Women did not participate in these activities. Ball-playing was a popular sport, and ancient Romans had several ball games, which included Handball (Expulsim Ludere), field hockey, catch, and some form of football.
A popular form of entertainment were gladiatorial combats. Gladiators generally fought to the death with a variety of weapons and in a variety of different scenarios. These fights achieved their height of popularity under the emperor Claudius, who placed the final outcome of the combat firmly in the hands of the emperor with the famous "thumb up" or "thumb down" designation. Animal shows were also popular with the Romans, where foreign animals were either displayed for the public or combined with gladiatorial combat. A prisoner or gladiator, armed or unarmed, was thrown into the arena and an animal was released.
The Circus Maximus, another popular site in Rome, was primarily used for horse and chariot racing, although it was also used in many other events. It could hold up to 385,000 people; people all over Rome would visit it. Two temples, one with seven large eggs and one with seven dolphins, laid in the middle of the track of Circus Maximus, and whenever the racers made a lap, one of each would be removed. This was done to keep the spectors and the racers informed on the race statistics. Other than sports, the Circus Maximus was also an area of marketing and gambling. Higher authorities, like the emperor, also attended games in the Circus Maximus, as it was rude not to. They, knights, and many other people who were involved with the race sat in reserved seats located above everyone else. It was also found rude for emperors to root for a team. The Circus Maximus was created in 600 BC and hosted the last horse racing game in 549 AD, lasting for over a whole millennium.
Technology
Ancient Rome boasted the most impressive technological feats of its day, utilizing many advancements that would be lost in the Middle Ages and not be rivaled again until the 19th and 20th centuries. However, though adept at adopting and synthesizing other cultures' technologies, the Roman civilization was not especially innovative or progressive. The development of new ideas was rarely encouraged; Roman society considered the articulate soldier who could wisely govern a large household the ideal, and Roman law made no provisions for intellectual property or the promotion of invention. The concept of "scientists" and "engineers" did not yet exist, and advancements were often divided based on craft, with groups of artisans jealously guarding new technologies as trade secrets. Nevertheless, a number of vital technological breakthroughs were spread and thoroughly utilized by Rome, contributing to an enormous degree to Rome's dominance and lasting influence in Europe.
Engineering and architecture
Roman engineering constituted a large portion of Rome's technological superiority and legacy, and contributed to the construction of hundreds of roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, theaters and arenas. Many monuments, such as the Colosseum, Pont du Gard, and Pantheon, still remain as testaments to Roman engineering and culture.
The Romans were particularly renowned for their architecture, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "Classical architecture". However, for the course of the Roman Republic, Roman architecture remained stylistically almost identical to Greek architecture. Although there were many differences between Roman and Greek building types, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new orders of columns, composite and Tuscan, and from the dome, which was derived from the Etruscan arch, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Roman Republic.
It was at this time, in the 1st century BC, that Romans developed concrete, a powerful cement derived from pozzolana which soon supplanted marble as the chief Roman building material and allowed for numerous daring architectural schemata. Also in the 1st century BC, Vitruvius wrote De architectura, possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In the late 1st century, Rome also began to make use of glassblowing soon after its invention in Syria, and mosaics took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during Sulla's campaigns in Greece. Article on history of Roman concrete
Concrete made possible the paved, durable Roman roads, many of which were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Roman Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. Originally constructed for military purposes, to allow Roman legions to be rapidly deployed, these highways had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the phrase "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained way stations which provided refreshments to travelers at regular intervals along the roads, constructed bridges where necessary, and established a system of horse relays for couriers that allowed a dispatch to travel up to 800 km (500 miles) in 24 hours.
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to assist in their agriculture. The city of Rome itself was supplied by eleven aqueducts with a combined length of 350 km (260 miles).[6] Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Powered entirely by gravity, the aqueducts transported very large amounts of water with an efficiency that remained unsurpassed for two thousand years. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 miles had to be crossed, inverted siphons were used to force water uphill.[7]
The Romans also made major advancements in sanitation. Romans were particularly famous for their public baths, called thermae, which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses came to have flush toilets and indoor plumbing, and a complex sewer system, the Cloaca Maxima, was used to drain the local marshes and carry waste into the Tiber river. Some historians have speculated that the use of lead pipes in sewer and plumbing systems led to widespread lead poisoning which contributed to the decline in birth rate and general decay of Roman society leading up to the fall of Rome. However, lead content would have been minimised because the flow of water from aqueducts could not be shut off, it ran continuously through public and private outlets into the drains[1], only a small number of taps were in use.
Military
The early Roman army was, like those of other contemporary city-states, a citizen force in which the bulk of the troops fought as a type of phalanx. The soldiers were required to supply their own arms, and returned to civilian life once their service was ended.
The first of the great army reformers, Camillus, reorganized the army to adopt manipular tactics and divided the infantry into three lines: hastati, principes and triarii.
The small landholders had traditionally been the backbone of the Roman army, but by the end of the 2nd century BCE, the self-owning farmer had largely disappeared as a social class. Faced with acute manpower problems, Gaius Marius transformed the army into a volunteer force and accepted recruits from the lower classes, providing arms and armor for these troops out of his own pocket.
The Roman army was a marvel of discipline; it was the best army of its time but not for any normal reasons. The were many enemies Rome faced who had more skilled warriors than the Roman Legionary, some of these enemies even had the advantage of superior numbers; but yet the Roman Legionaries won through. The Roman army owes a lot of its success to its brilliant generals, but no general can command an army that doesn't obey him.
Roman Legionaries had comparativly less skill at fighting than most of their opponents, they also had less of the impetuous spirit that made their Celtic enemies so fearsome. But with their little swords and unwieldy shields they could defeat all but the most fearsome and determined of barbarian tribes.
Roman discipline was brutal; running from a battle was generally punished by death, and minor breaches of millitary rules could earn a flogging. A Legion was trained to virtually worship the silver eagle standard, and its loss in battle meant the Legion's disbanding. The Roman Legions specialised in working as a team and sticking together, the Legionaries would follow their general anywhere, even to civil war.
The Roman legion was one of the strongest aspects of the Roman army. The Roman triumph was a civic ceremony and religious rite held to publicly honor a military commander.
The last army reorganization came when Emperor Constantine I divided the army into a static defense force and a mobile field army. During the Late Empire, Rome also became increasingly dependent on allied contingents, foederati.
Scholarly studies
The interest of studying Ancient Rome appeared presumably during the Age of Enlightenment in France. Charles Montesquieu wrote a work "Reasonings on causes of grandeur and decline of the Romans". The first major work was The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, which encompassed the period from the end of 2nd century to the fall of Byzantine in 1453. Like Montesquieu Gibbon paid high tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens. Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a founder of the criticism and wrote The Roman History, carried until the First Punic war. Niebuhr has made an attempt to determine the way the Roman tradition appeared. According to him, Romans, like other people, had a historical epos which was preserved mainly in the noble families. During the Napoleonic period the work titled The History of Romans by Victor Duruy appeared. It highlighted the Caesarean period popular at the time. History of Rome, Roman constitutional law and Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, all by Theodor Mommsen, became very important milestones. Later the work Greatness and Decline of Rome by Guglielmo Ferrero was published. The Russian work Очерки по истории римского землевладения, преимущественно в эпоху Империи (The Outlines on Roman Landownership History, Mainly During the Empire) by Ivan Grevs contained information on the economy of Pomponius Atticus, one of the greatest landowners during the end of Republic.
Soviet studies
The studying of Roman history in the USSR was closely concerned with marxism-leninism, which used such works as The Origin of Family, Private Property and State, The Chronological Notes, The Forms Preceded by the Capitalist Industry, Bruno Bauer and the Early Christianity etc. due to lack of particularized works. Meanwhile the slave revolts, their role and the agrarian policy have been highlighted. The first two topics studied e.g. A. V. Mishulin, S. A. Zhebelyov and the agrarian questions studied mainly M. E. Sergeyenko, E. M. Shtayerman and V. I. Kuzishchin. The studying of ideological struggle, which was seen even in the most favourable historical periods, was highly featured (S. L. Utchenko, P. F. Preobrazhenskiy, N. A. Mashkin, Shtayerman, A. D. Dmitrev). The Gracchian movement ideology was studied by S. I. Protasova. The provinces were researched by A. B. Ranovich while the foreign policy by A. G. Bokshchanin. In 1937 The Journal of Ancient History (Вестник древней истории) which often featured Rome-related articles appeared. After the break caused by World War II, in 1948 The History of Rome by S. I. Kovalyov and The History of Roman people by V. N. Dyakov were published. The first work supposed the Roman tradition to be mainly true while the other expressed the doubt on this question.
See also
Notes
- ^ Livy I
- ^ Livy II
- ^ Tuomisto 2002
- ^ Bagnall 1990
- ^ Scullard 1982, chapters I-IV
- ^ Meier 1982; Scullard 1982, chapters VI-VII
- ^ Scullard 1982, chapter VIII
- ^ Suetonius
- ^ Scarre 1995
- ^ Tuomisto 2002
- ^ Tuomisto 2002
- ^ Scarre 1995
- ^ Scarre 1995
- ^ Johnston 1903, chapter 1
- ^ Frontinus
- ^ Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply by A.T. Hodge (1992)
- Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
- Scarre, Chris (1995). The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140513299.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Scullard, H. H. (1982). From the Gracchi to Nero. (5th edition). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02527-3.