Ancient Rome Outline

started page

>> todo: outine lower case?? >> need to decide this on all pages >> see http://jaysromanhistory.com/romeweb/govt/early_govt.htm

Key Concepts

• imperium
• SPQR
• empire v. Empire
  • Empire = form of government
  • empire = conquest

religion

>> see Machiavelli chapt xiv on Roman religion and its role

• augur
  • auguries
  • auspicious
• pollari (from Machiavelli >> not in wiki)
  • • to turn into outline >> from mlb email to JonesA 4/8/12:
      • The “Pollari” were the “guardians of the sacred fowls.” Before going to battle, the Romans always consulted them, collectively called “auguries” (priests). The word “augur” means “directing the birds.” Livy wrote “Who does not know that this city was founded only after taking the auspices, that everything in war and in peace, at home and abroad, was done only after taking the auspices?" (“Auspicium” means “looking at the birds”, and “augurium” is “the determination”).

• • • • The auguries would bring out the birds and if they ate freely, it was “auspicious” (i.e. good fortune). If not, they’d not do anything. It’s easy to see how this system arose, given that birds like to eat and the Romans usually won their battles ( not always). But still, it took some messing around with the system to produce desired results, sometimes. As Machiavelli observed, “Nevertheless, when they saw a good reason why certain things should be done, they did them anyhow, whether the auspices were favorable or not...”

• • • • A couple fun stories arise from this practice: The first regards the consul Papirius, who led Rome at war against the Samnites. A Pollari reported that the birds hadn’t eaten, so Papirius was not to go to war that day. But he knew he should, as the moment was right for him. So, rather than disobeying the augurs, Papirius put the priest at the front of the lines, saying that if he was right then so be it, but if he were a liar, then the gods would punish him. During the battle, the priest was killed by friendly fire, a Roman arrow, and the Romans won the battle. Papirius then claimed that the priest was punished by the gods, who then rewarded Rome with a victory. As such, Papiruis was able to keep to his strategy and keep his soldiers in line under the belief that he was acting on the good graces of the gods. Another story, which we talked about last year, regards Appius Pulcher, a Roman general who preparing to launch his navy consulted the auguries. When told they hadn’t eaten, Appius replied, “Then let us see whether they will drink” and had them tossed into the sea. He launched the fleet, and was defeated. Lol!

origins

Etruscan rule

• Romans ruled by foreign kings
  • = Roman comfort with foreign elements, plus the unity of Romans against autocratic rule (since it was foreign)
  • continuity of the Senate
  • Romulus credited by Livy with forming the senate ??
    • >> sources >> see Machiavelli

• • imperium
    • Roman respect for power & distrust for
• Virtues
  • reflect Roman distrust of individuals
  • attempt to guide behaviors through moral code

Roman Constitution

• see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Roman_Republic
• see http://www.unrv.com/empire/roman-republican-constitution.php

Senate

• see from http://www.unrv.com/empire/the-senate.php
  • The Roman Senate (Senatus) from the latin Senex (for elder or council of elders) was a deliberative governing body. Its important to note the difference between deliberative and legislative, in that the Senate itself didn't propose legislation; though magistrates with the Senate, such as Consuls, did.
  • The body of the senate deliberated these proposals, and along with the later Tribunes of the Plebs, approved or vetoed the various laws. The Senate and the Roman People (SPQR, or Senatus Populusque Romanus), described the distinction in class between the Senate and common people. The Roman People consisted of all citizens who were not members of the Senate.
  • Domestic power was vested in the Roman People, through the Committee of the Hundreds (Comitia Centuriata), the Committee of the Tribal People (Comitia Populi Tributa), and the Council of the People (Concilium Plebis). Actual legislation was secured in the various assemblies. They acted on the recommendations of the Senate's deliberations and also elected the magistrates.

Executive Offices

• see http://www.unrv.com/empire/executive-branch.php
• dictator
  • from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Senate#Senate_of_the_Roman_Republic see: "Since the 3rd century the Senate also played a pivotal role in cases of emergency. It could call for the appointment of a dictator (a right resting with each consul with or without the senate's involvement). However, after 202 the office of Dictator fell out of use (and was revived only two more times) and was replaced with the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"), a senatorial decree which authorised the consuls to employ any means necessary to solve the crisis.[17]

Assemblies

Civil War & Collapse of the Republic

Marc Antony

>> from mlb notes on HWH assignemnt Emperors Feb/2011:

You guys brought up the question in class on Friday as to whether Octavian or Mark Antony was the more virtuous, or, talented leader. We haven't talked much about their origins, other than they were both close to Caesar, Octavian his adopted son and Mark Antony his friend and a general in Caesar's army in Gaul.

Octavian was actually the more solid personality. Antony was meteoric in temperament and less stable as a leader. Antony was known to be a drunk and to have carried on a long-standing homosexual relationship with a childhood friend (whose wife he married after his friend died... wow). As a young man, Antony and his friends Romed it up, wandering the streets and getting into mischeif. By the time he was 20, he was in debt by 250 talents, which is estimated to be about $5 million.

Running from his creditors, he left for Greece to study, and ended up fighting in Syria and Egypt, where he befriended the Ptolomic king of Egypt, the father of, you guessed it, Cleopatra. There he re-made is fortune and his reputation, and he returned to Rome to become Caesar's fellow consul. He actually tried to warn Caesar of the assassination, but didn't get there in time (get this: Cicero, who hated Caesar, told him about it!). Antony and Caesar settled a peace with the Senate, covering up the murder, but at Caesar's funeral, he unexpectedly denounced Ceasar's murderers and displayed the knife wounds to the public.

Antony left Rome to fight in Gual again, and the Senate instructed Octavian to attack him, which he did and defeated him. However, back in Rome the Brutus faction was bringing its own army into Rome, so Octavian teamed up with Antony to take them on. Antony and Octavian won, and then they divided the Empire into two, Octavian in Rome and Antony in the East (along with another guy, this becames the Second Triumvirate).

With Antony in Egypt with Cleopatra, while Octavian started bad-mouthing Antony, calling him a drunk, unfaithful and "going native" with the Egyptians (i.e., betraying his Roman-ness). Octavian borrowed heavily from Cicero's speeches against Antony (which is why Antony so hated Cicero and had him killed), which gave Octavian's accusations more force. From there they began their war against each other, with Octavian defeating Antony in a naval battle in Greece, and eventually forcing his suicide in Egypt.

It didn't work out for Cleopatra, either, because she actually wanted to become ruler of Rome. She was going to get there through Antony, by giving him her empire, and defeating Octavian she could have joined East and West again under her and Antony. Octavian, instead, took the whole thing.

Antony was clearly an amazing personality, but he was weaker than Octavian and less forceful than Cicero, who held far more Gravitas than Antony or Octavian. Only Octavian didn't go against Cicero, which kept him clean of Cicero's murder.

Between Octavian and Antony, we have the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, which controlled the first five emperorships. <<<<< mlb notes on Antony end here

opimates v. populares

• definitions generally from Cicero
• optimates =
  • appealed to Roman traditions and glory of the past Republic
  • generally supports powers of Senate
  • exemplified by Cato
• populares =
  • appealed to masses of people and popular measures
  • generally supports powers of Assemblies
• these are NOT social classes
  • = political classes
    • not political parties, but political points of view
• optimates and populares both use all structures of Roman government to advance their agenda
  • there are patricial populares and plebeian or equine optimates
    • >> to give examples

Tiberius Gracchus

• family
  • his father was a plebeian, but from the wealthy Sempronia line, which went both ways on patrician/plebeian status.
  • his mother was from a patrician line, which included Scipio Africanus.
    • Her family was aligned with the Claudii faction (!)
    • Scipio Africanus and Cato the Elder were political enemies.

>> Scipio = patrician >>> sympathized w/ populares >>Cato the Elder = plebeian family, rose through military; served under Scipio

Cato = optimates

include for Triumph: triumph: >> the parade of a conquering general crossing into Rome and returning to civilian life (source: BBC "Rome" book)

Qualification for Senate: "Her total dowry was 400,000 sesterces, which was the exact amount needed for a man to run for senator." (wikipeida entry on Terentia, wife of Cicero http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terentia

Augustus

• radnishnikan moment
  • relate to American Civil War >> common values interpretned / rationalized in opposition (optimates v. populares; union v. state rigths>> both believing in liberty and self-government, but interepreting it in opposition to each other
  • Augusust = building of Memorial Bridge >> re-unification
  • his own monuments, reconstruction of traditional rome etc.

Resources & Links =

>> keep this consistent with format of other articles

• Roman Recipes
• for magistrates and cursus honorum (sp?) >> http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/romangvt.html
• Livius.org
  • Full Catalog of ancient history
  • Rome People Index
  • Photos of ROme
  • Historiography - List of ancient Historians
• DJÉMILA - ANCIENT BERBERO-ROMAN CITY ALGERIA w/ 3D images & videos of ruins

links to do

• Watering Ancient Rome NOVA page on Roman aquaducts

• http://www.romansociety.org/index.html

• polybius on Roman constitution: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/6*.html