Rome and Han Dynasties

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Rome and Han Dynasties
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Rome

• Economic Activity farming was the basis of
  wealth
• Early Romans were self-sufficient owned small
  plots of land
• Wealthy families were part of the Counsel of
  Elders
• Roman Republic was not a democracy
• Only men could vote and wealthy mens vote
  counted more then a poor mans

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• Center of power is the Roman Senate
• Made policy and governed
• Nominated their sons for public office, and
  filled vacancies with former officials
• Served for life
• Tied together states wealth, influence, political
  influence, and military experience

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• Conflicts between the elites (patricians) and non
  elites (plebeians)
• Plebeians withdraw from the city and stop
  fighting to make the patricians pass a law
• EX system of checks and balances
• Creation of the tribunes

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Roman Family

• Oldest male had control over his entire family
• Patron client relationship
• Women had very little freedom.
• Inequality in Rome was accepted and turned into a
  system of mutual benefits and obligations

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Numina

• Roman belief in an invisible, shapeless
  forcepulsating energy of fire
• Polytheistic

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Expansion of Rome

• Peaked in the 3rd and 2nd centuries
• Possible reasons greed, aggressiveness, counsels
  who had a lot to prove in their one year or
  service, or people wanted to gain military glory
• Military service
• Army more flexible then the hoplites

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• Romans granted political, legal, and economic
  privileges of Roman citizenship to all conquered
  people
• Expansion caused wars in Rome
• Carthage and Hellenistic Kingdoms

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Failure of Rome

• Farmers were in the military which allowed
  investors to take possession of their farms
• The self-sufficient farms (the backbone of the
  Roman army) were replaced by latifundia
• Owners of the large estates turned the farmland
  into grazing for animals and vineyards

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• Grain had to be imported and peasants who lost
  their farm couldnt find work due to the slaves
• Consequence of the farmers losing their land was
  a decreased in required military service
• Armies became loyal to their leader not their
  country (Caesar, Pompey, Antony,)

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Fixing Rome

• When Caesar died, the republic collapsed
• His grandnephew Octavian became Emperor
• fixed government by maintaining the offices,
  honors, and social prerogatives of the senatorial
  class but changed their power
• Now called Roman Principate

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Octavians Rule

• He accepted the title of Augustus or exalted
  one
• was Romes most able ruler.
• Manipulated all groups of Roman society
• Added Egypt and parts of the Middle East to his
  Empire
• When he died no one remembered the old republic

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Augustus did

• Stabilized the frontier
• Built splendid buildings
• Created a system of government that lasted for
  centuries
• Set up a civil service

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An Urban Empire

• Numerous towns had several hundred inhabitants
• Romes population was approximately 1 million
  people
• Upper class lived in elegant townhouses
• Poor lived in crowded slums
• Damp, dark, made of woodmany fires

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• No matter how people lived, the government was
  the same in all areas of the Empire
• Each place were set up the same
• Taxes were collected from a town council and 2
  annually elected officials from prosperous
  families

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• As slaves became expensive and rare, landowners
  started to allow people to live on their land in
  exchange for a portion of the crops
• Romanization developed

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Rise of Christianity

• Jesus
• Born as a Jew in the town of Bethlehem but was
  raised in Nazareth
• He was a carpenter
• At the age of 30, he started his own public
  ministry
• His teachings included the belief of the 10
  commandments and monotheism.

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The Death of Jesus

• Crowds of people believed Jesus was the Messiah
  (anointed one) that would rescue the Jews.
• Roman and Jewish leaders were concerned by the
  popularity of Jesus
• They said that his teaching were a contempt of
  God.
• Jesus was arrested for defying the authority of
  Rome. He was crucified as a punishment
• .

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• Jesus was buried, however 3 days after his death,
  his body was gone and said to be appearing to his
  followers
• Convinced that he had somehow survived, people
  began to spread his ideas
• After a while, his followers created a new
  religion based on his teachings

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Paul the Apostle

• Originally a Jew, Paul had a vision of Jesus and
  then dedicated his life to interpreting Jesus'
  teachings
• The Pax Romana allowed Paul to spread the word of
  Jesus easily.
• He declared that Christianity should welcome all
  converts

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Persecution of the Christians

• Roman rulers were not happy with the Christians
  because they refused to worship Roman Gods.
• Christians were killed because of this

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Technology Transformed Rome

• The Romans were expert military and civil
  engineers.
• Accomplishments bridge-building, ballistic
  weapons, elevated and underground aqueducts, the
  use of arches and domes, and the invention of
  concrete.

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• Augustus went from a offensive mind set to a
  defensive one
• The state system constructed by Augustus worked
  well until Romes third-century crisis.
• Causes of the crisis were frequent change of
  rulers, raids by German tribesmen from across the
  Rhine-Danube frontier, and the rise of regional
  power when Rome seemed unable to guarantee
  security.

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• The economy of Rome collapsed
• Buying loyalty of the army
• Military emergencies
• Towns prosperity decreased
• Coins become worthless

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• Population shift from cities to country side
• Decline of trade
• Diocletian saved Rome from self destruction
• Stopped inflation
• Froze people in their profession and made them
  train their sons

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• People began a black market and questioned their
  loyalty to the government

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Constantine

• Took over after Diocletian
• Reunited the kingdom
• Constantine ended the persecution of Christians
  and patronized the Christian church
• This contributed to the rise of Christianity as
  the official religion of the empire.

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• Constantine also transferred the capital of the
  empire from Rome to the eastern city of
  Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople.

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Nova Roma
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Imperial China

• Resources
• Agriculture produced the money that supported
  imperial China
• Paid for luxurious lifestyle of the royal court,
  daily tasks of govt, and military units.
• Large populations in Changan and Luoyang

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• Most people lived in the eastern part of the
  countryside where the river could support a large
  population
• When the population was not farming they were
  working on public works project
• The state also required 2 years of a military
  service

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• Unlike Rome, China was not making a new Empire.
  The Chinese were trying to revive their empire

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Major Chinese Dynasties Since 2200 B.C.E.
Xia Dynasty 21001600 B.C.E
Shang Dynasty 16001046 B.C. E.
Zhou Dynasty 1045256 B.C.E.
Qin Dynasty 221B.C.E. 206 C.E.
Han Dynasty 206 B.C.E. 220 C.E.
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• By 500 B.C.E. China was in ruins
• This is unacceptable to the Chinese
• Shihuangdi (Qin Empire) united China
• Developed a bureaucracy, subordinated the
  aristocracy, equipped an army with Iron weapons,
  rising agriculture output, a growing population,
  and edveloped Legalism

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• Under Shihuangdi China extended north into
  Vietnam, NE into Korea, and to the NW where the
  nomadic people were pushed out of their steppes
• Shihuangdi centralized the government
• Imposed a unified system of weights, measures,
  money, length of axels for carts, and a written
  form of Chinese language

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• Shihuangdi made superficial changes and the Qin
  empire ended in 206 B.C.E. and the Han dynasty
  began.

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Comparing Rome and Han Empires

• They both define themselves as universal empires
• Both invoked supernatural sanctions to support
  their rule
• Both absorbed a foreign religious tradition

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• Both had different relationships with the
  societies they governed
• Language served each empire in different ways
• Both had centralized government but the Chinese
  had and elaborate bureaucracy that held it
  together while Rome relied on regional
  aristocrats and the army

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The Fall of Rome and China

• They both were too big, cost too much money, and
  were over extended to be sustained by the
  available resources
• No technology to help them
• Growth of large landowning estates enabled them
  to avoid paying taxes, turned free peasants into
  tenant farmers and that diminished the power of
  the central government

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• Rivalry among the rich created instability
• Threat for nomads on the frontier regions

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• The collapse of these empires meant the decline
  of urban life, a contracting population, less
  area under cultivation, diminishing trade,
  insecurity for common people
• When China fell, after 350 they were reunited by
  the Sui, Tang , and Song Empirescentralized
  govt and all

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• The Romans was never recentralized.
• No part of Western Europe was
• Most of Europe became decentralized political
  systems involving kings with little authority,