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EARLY ROMANS

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Ancestors of Romans arrived in Italy around 1000 BC ... Created small empire in northern Italy. Took over early Romans shortly after they arrived ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: EARLY ROMANS


1
EARLY ROMANS
  • Ancestors of Romans arrived in Italy around 1000
    BC
  • Settled near ford in the Tiber River in central
    Italy
  • Italy already inhabited when they arrived
  • Italian tribes
  • Greeks in southern Italy
  • Etruscans in northern Italy

2
ETRUSCANS
  • Mysterious people with untranslated written
    language
  • Created small empire in northern Italy
  • Took over early Romans shortly after they
    arrived
  • City of Rome founded under Etruscan rule
  • Meeting place between Etruscan and Greek
    merchants
  • Romans borrowed aspects of their civilization
    from both
  • 509 BC Rome overthrew Etruscan rule and
    absorbed former Etruscan territory
  • 500-400 BC Rome gradually conquers all of Italy

3
CARTHAGE
Former Phoenician trading post
Commercial city
Had western Mediterranean empire
Felt threatened by Romes rise to dominance in
Italy
4
PUNIC WARS
  • Against Carthage
  • Three over a 120 year period (264-146 BC)
  • Demonstrated Roman perseverance and adaptability
  • Rome won all three
  • Carthage completely destroyed after Third Punic
    War
  • Rome takes over all former Carthaginian territory
    in Western Mediterranean

5
ROMAN EXPANSION
  • Rome increasingly draw into the affairs of the
    successor kingdoms of the East
  • Grows tired of trying to maintain a balance of
    power in the East and gradually conquers the
    region
  • Greece and Macedonia
  • Asia Minor
  • Mediterranean Middle East
  • Egypt (later)
  • By 100 BC, the basic outline of the Roman Empire
    is in place
  • Romans already refer to the Mediterranean Sea as
    Mare Nostrum (our sea)

6
ROMAN REPUBLIC
  • Not a democracy
  • Monopolized by nobility (patricians) and wealthy
    commoners (plebians)
  • Ordinary people excluded from meaningful
    political participation
  • Possessed elected officials
  • Top officials were consuls (2 elected each year)
  • Several citizen assemblies
  • Tribal Assembly (legislature)
  • Senate (powerful advisory assembly)
  • Devised to run a small city-state but not
    adequate for running an empire

7
ROMAN GENERALS/POLITICIANS
  • ROMAN REVOLUTION
  • 133-31 BC
  • Political violence
  • Street fights
  • Physical assaults
  • Murder
  • Social unrest
  • Appearance of a series of ambitious and ruthless
    military commanders
  • Used armies to impose themselves as dictators of
    Rome

Pompey Magnus
Gaius Marius
LC Sulla
Julius Caesar
8
BATTLE OF ACTIUM
  • 31 BC
  • Marked end of the Roman Revolution
  • Octavian defeats forces of Marc Antony and
    Cleopatra off the coast of Greece
  • Roman power survives intact but the price was
    high
  • Roman Republic ceased to exist

OCTAVIAN
Cleopatra
Marc Antony
9
AUGUSTUS
  • First emperor
  • Created new government adequate to running
    world-wide empire
  • Retained republican institutions but robbed them
    of all power
  • Kept all power in his own hands
  • Kept sole control of army

10
WEAKNESSES IN THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM
  • ARMY
  • Ties with emperor were personal
  • Never attempted to institutionalize relationship
  • Roman army only loyal to person of emperornot
    state
  • SUCCESSION
  • Never set up clear cut system
  • Choice of heir left to current emperor
  • Might choose relative or friend
  • Heir had to have support of army

11
ROMAN EMPIRE
12
ANTONINE DYNASTY(FIVE GOOD EMPERORSAND A BAD
ONE)
Trajan
Antoninus Pius
Nerva
Hadrian
Marcus Aurelius
Commodus
13
ROME AT THE TIME OF THE ANTONINE EMPERORS
14
INCREASING CHAOS
  • After 180 AD
  • Confusing series of short-term rulers
  • Many were generals who were put into power by
    their troops only to be shortly thereafter killed
    either by troops of rival general or their own
    fickle men
  • Standard-of-living dropped throughout empire
  • Countryside became depopulated
  • Farmers abandoned farms to avoid marauding
    legions and barbarians
  • Moved to Rome, thereby swelling the already huge
    number of poor living on government charity
  • Middle class declined due to crushing tax burden
  • Pressure on the northern border increased as
    German barbarians began to push south

15
DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE
  • DIOCLETIAN
  • Improved shaky prestige of emperor by changing it
    into semi-divine office
  • Created hereditary caste system
  • Regimented society in order to restore stability
  • Created new succession system
  • CONSTANTINE
  • Legalized Christianity
  • Divided empire in half
  • Built Constantinople
  • Halves drifted apart after his death, creating
    two separate political units the Eastern
    (Byzantine) Empire and the Western (Roman) Empire

16
TWO EMPIRES
17
FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE
  • Plagued by new civil wars and continued social
    and economic problems
  • Finished off by massive German barbarian
    invasions
  • Triggered by arrival of the Huns in Germany
  • Germans set up kingdoms on ruins of Western
    Empire
  • Finished by 565 AD

18
BARBARIAN KINGDOMS
Angles and Saxons
Franks
Visigoths
Ostrogoths
Vandals
19
CONCLUSION I
  • IF ROME HAD BEEN HEALTHY, IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE
    TO RESIST GERMAN INVASIONS
  • BUT ROME WAS NOT HEALTHY
  • FATALLY WEAKENED BY INTERNAL PROBLEMS
  • UNABLE TO PUT UP EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE TO GERMANS

20
CONCLUSION II
  • FALL OF ROME WAS NO BIG LOSS
  • WEST HAD BECOME IMPOVERISHED, REGIMENTED,
    REPRESSIVE, AND STERILE
  • NOTHING POSITIVE COULD HAVE COME FROM THIS MESS
  • SLATE NEEDED TO BE WIPED CLEAN FOR FURTHER
    PROGRESS
  • BY DESTROYING ROME, GERMANS OPENED DOOR FOR
    FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
  • BASED ON BEST OF ANCIENT LEGACY
  • ALSO BASED ON GERMAN COMPONENTS
  • GAVE BIRTH TO THE MIDDLE AGES
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