ROME, RULER OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
Periods in the history of Rome
The origins of Rome
Rome was a small village on the banks of the Tiber River when it was founded. It was inhabited by the Latins.
In the 6th century BC, the Etruscans conquered and gained control of Latium. Rome’s main economic activity was maritime trade.
The Monarchy
Rome was ruled by seven different kings. The king ruled with the help of the Senate. The Senate was made up of patricians and only patricians had citizenship rights.
Plebeians, who were peasants, traders and artisans, had no political power.
The Republic
Romans overthrew the Monarchy and expelled the Etruscan kings, and Rome became a Republic in 509 BC.
Institutions they formed during the Republic:
Roman assemblies. They were citizen assemblies, the passed laws but they couldn’t make decisions.
The Senate. The Senate was formed by 300 patricians, a minority group that controlled the land.
Magistrates. They were elected annually by the assemblies to prevent the abuse of power.
Patricians monopolised power at the beginning, but the plebeians demanded political rights to participate in governing the city and finally they got rights through votes.
The fall of the Roman Empire
Territorial conquests came to an end. In their place, there were numerous military uprisings with the aim of bringing down emperors and crowning new ones. This created great political.
The military became less effective in defending the borders of the Empire. As they weakened, foreign peoples, began to attack.
The Roman economy weakened, as they lost their income from territorial conquests. There were fewer slaves, and fewer precious metals to manufacture coins.
Trade was negatively affected.
Society became more rural.
Taxes were increased.
Emperor Diocletian tried to resolve the crisis by reforming the system of government. This was a system of government that divided the Empire between four rulers. When his reign came to an end as this system failed with is successors.
The power of the emperor became very weak during the 4th century AD.
In AD 380, Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire thorough the Edict of Thessalonica.
Theodosius D died in AD 392, and the Empire was divided among his sons. The western half of the Empire was given to Honorius and the eastern half.
Relations between Rome and the Germanic tribes were tense, as some took advantage of the Empire´s weak borders and settled around them during the 3rd and 4th centuries.
But it was in AD 476 when a Germanic military leader, Odoacer, brought down the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustus.
Roman soldiers´ equipment
Rome´s military sucess was due to the effectivenness of its army. It allowed rome to expand its territory throughout the mediterranean and maintain stability in its conquered territories.
45Rome territory expasion in the 3rd centaury bc.
Conquest of italy: Romme took control on the italy peninsula arround 270 bc.
First punic war (264-241 bc): Rome frought againstb the Carthaginians in order to conquer sicily.
Second punic war(218-201bc): this primarily took place on the iberian peninsula.
Third punic war(146bc):Carthage was conquerd and became par of the roman wempire
In the 2nd centuary bc, Rome took control of the mediterranean by defeating the helleistic kingdoms
1st centuary bc, rome took contro of iberian peninsula, the south of great britain and parts of central europe
2nd centuary ad, emperor trajan expannded the empire to in asia and dacia
The expansion of rome
The romans were the most powerful people in acinet history. Their economic and cultura power , the roman´s domination over this sea was so significant, they started calling it MARE NOSTRUM, or´our sea´.
-the political unity
-the romanisation
-commercial strength
-yhe importance of sale labour as the basis of its economy
- the assimilation of the cultural element
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The crisis of the roman republic
-The 3rd century, Rome expanded throughout the Mediterranean. Territorial expansion allowed rome to acquire wealth, but it was not discributed equally among all sociall grooups
-This was due to the difficult of controlling caused by the unequal distribution of wealth.
-To try to solve this Seneta handed over command to three military leaders who formed a triumvirate:Crassus, Pompey and Julius cesar.Following a civil war.
-Julius cesar, he was muredered in 44 bc.
The roman empire
Octavian augustus, Mark Antony and Lepidus formed a new triumvirate. A war started in 27 bc.
This proclamation marked a new period in the history of Rome. The representative lost power during this time because emperor held all the power of rome his whole life.
After defeating his rival Octavian Augustus recived the following titles:
August
Pontiex Maximuns
Imperator
Princeps
The Pax Romana
The period between the 1st and 2nd centuries bc iis called High Empire. Was not hereditary. Some times caused struggles for sucesion.
During this period, was consoleted, as great power.Its territory was organised into administrative provinces There are two types of provinces:
Senitorial provinces: the autority of Senate and their known as proconsuls
Imperials provincesThe direct authory of the emperor . Their were nonms as legates
The personal power of the emperor was reinforced. He controlled Senate and the magistral
There was the extension of the right to Roman citizenchips in 212 ad, emeror Caracalla granted the freemen of the empire citizenships. This hel`ped roman culture and customs spread to territories.
In the century 3 ad, the period of lower empire began. Experimended a deep crissis