AP World Rome Notes

AP World Chapter Rome Notes

Rome is one of the longest lasting and most influential empires. It was the center of comm. and trade for the entire Italian peninsula. At its greatest extent in second century C.E., the Roman Empire ruled between 70 and 100 million diverse people. Spread 2700 miles east and 2500 north to south. At its most powerful (27 BCE - 180 CE) the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, was enforced.
From Hill Town to Empire: Rome founded in 753 BCE. For two and a half centuries Rome was ruled by the neighboring Etruria, who taught Romans much about city-building, art, religion, mythology, and even language. The king Servius Tullius (578-534 BCE) reformed the military and created the comitia centuriata, a ruling council organized by hundreds, representing the soldiers of Rome. About 509 BCE, the wealthy, powerful Romans - all military veterans, drove out the Etruscan kings. Rome became a republic, the power was in the citizens and their representatives. Armies remained center of power. Soldiers were divided by class and then divided into units of 100 called centuries. The leaders met and discussed peace, war, etc. Quaestors and consuls administered the Roman Republic and were in pairs so no one could have excessive power (a dictator was elected for 6 months in extreme emergencies).
The Conquest of Italy: The Romans challenged the Etruscans. In 396 BCE the Romans captured Veii, a principal Etruscan city. Romans reorganized their armies with less experienced soldiers in front and more in the back. By 264 BCE, Rome controlled all of Italy south of the Po valley. Rome offered alliance or conquest and bestowed various levels of citizenship to induce support. Most bitter and decisive battles were the 3 Punic Wars against Carthage.
Conquest of Carthage and West Mediterranean: Just as Rome dominated Italy, Carthaginians controlled the north central coast of Africa and west Mediterranean. To protect their routes of trade focused on the mineral wealth of Spain, they developed ports in Sicily and Sardinia. Carthage and Rome were on a collision course. Fighting began in Sicily in 264 BCE. By 241 the first war ended, Rome victorious. Carthage rebuilt its forces. Second war begun after Hannibal defeated Rome’s troops when trying to help Saguntum of Spain (202 - 191 BCE). Lasted 20 years. Carthage became a dependency of Rome. Romans used “New Wisdom” to punish rebellious Capua and Carthage after attacking African ally King Masinissa of Numidia. This began the third war (149 - 146 BCE). Rome brutally used their military to defeat Carthage and annex them into the Roman province of Africa.
Subsequent Expansion: Rome turned to conquest the Gauls in northern Italy and annexed their territory. Annexed Spain in 197, treated them so harshly that revolts broke out constantly until Rome crushed them in 133 BCE. Roman ally Massilia asked for help against Gallic tribes in southern Gaul. By 121 BCE Rome annexed most of the region. Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) conquered all of Gaul by 49 BCE. Rome seized land with every opportunity.
Institutions of Empire: Empires are ultimately sustained by military force, but support from the people is also required to prosper. Rome won much support through citizenship granting, and several political, economic, and ideological policies. Politically, all free men of Rome were citizens automatically. Roman citizenship provided protection from arbitrary arrest and violence. Sometimes only partial citizenship. In 91 BCE, Marcus Livius Drusus the Younger was elected tribune and subsequently assassinated. “War of the Allies” ensued and Romans offered citizenship or partial citizenship to all who remained loyal.
Patrons and Clients: Earliest enduring social structure in Rome was the patron-client relationship. Strong men protected the weak, weak provided obedience. Patricians represented plebeians legally, in exchange for paying fines and public charges levied against patrons.
The Roman Family: Patron-client also marked family structure. Father had right of life/death over children, occupations, spouses, economic possessions. Woman's’ role was subordinate to man’s. Woman was legally subject to her father for life. After his death, husband. Actual practice, women gained independence after father’s death. As early as 5th century BCE Law of the Twelve Tables, women could block legal powers of their husband by absenting themselves from his home for three nights in a row each year. Motherhood was rite of passage for women. Exempted from guardian after 3 kids, 4 for freed women. People respected women who followed rules. If women were caught committing adultery, they were banished and occasionally executed, not men. Women drinking could be punished, not men.
The Struggle of the Order: First conflict between patricians and plebeians was 494-440 BCE. Plebeians relied on strength and numbers. Twelve Tables was passed and plebeians were horrified by the brutal punishments that the lower class received.
Urban Splendor and Squalor: Roman population reached 1 million by the first century CE. The wealthy added new architecture and urban design, They replaced mud, wood, and volcanic rock with concrete and finer stone. Wealthy patricians’ homes were spacious, airy, sanitary, had bathrooms, water closets, heated in winter by hypocausts. The poor’s houses were much worse. Unheated, no waste pipes, unadapted to cooking, etc.
Attempts at Reform: Gracchi brothers tried for equality (163- 121 BCE). As tribune, Tiberius wanted plebeians to have some land. Tiberius was clubbed to death in public. Gaius also assassinated.
Bread and Circuses: A method of coping with class conflict. Rome bribed the poor, many of them former soldiers from its conquering armies, with free bread. Up to 200,000 people served each day. Entertainment such as races, theatre, gladiatorial contests of great cruelty were offered in order to keep the unemployed urban masses from complaining.
Slaves and Slave Revolts: Romans assembled vast estates and captured valuable underground resources, needed slaves. Received slaves through conquest, raids, piracy. Three great slave revolts grew into wars. The Great Slave War in Sicily (134 BCE-131 BCE) 70000 slaves resulted to armed resistance. 104-110 BCE, a second revolt in Sicily. Finally, Spartacus led a revolt among the gladiators in 73-71 BCE that the Romans crushed. 100000 slaves killed and 6000 crucified.
Military Power: Rome was a military state from the beginning. Romans learned to build sophisticated warships by capturing one from Carthage and copying it. Rome developed unprecedented machinery to besiege protective walls, catapulting firepower into them and battering them down. Captured city-states served in the army, did not give money. In the field soldiers established military camps, administrative towns, fortress watch towers, roads, aqueducts. August linked walled military camps in rural regions with 50,000 miles of first class roads and 200,000 miles of lesser roads.
Generals in Politics: In 60 BCE, generals Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus Licinius Crassus, formed a triumvirate, an alliance of three men to rule. Caesar defeated the others and dictated until 44 BCE when he was assassinated due to excessive power. In his three years of dictating, Julius revised the Roman calendar that lasted for 1500 years; reorganized the city government; extended citizenship to the peoples of many conquered provinces; continued the policy of free bread and circuses; and appointed many of his opponents to public office in attempt at reconciliation. He resolved the debts that piled up during the years of civil war. Octavian offered Octavia who Antony divorced and married Cleopatra. He embarrassed Octavian personally, and angered him politically. He defeated them and seized the Egyptian treasury for himself. “Augustus” ruled for fifty-six years and fought wars that stabilized the borders of the empire while ensuring peace and facilitating trade, commerce, and economic growth. He reconstructed imperial administration. He kept Rome beautiful and its people employed. He built roads and cities throughout the length and breadth of the empire. New marriage laws made women equal to husbands and they could divorce without a guardian.
The End of the Republic: With Augustus, Rome became an imperial monarchy, territorial, political, and economic empire ruled by a single military commander. He annexed modern Switzerland and Noricum ikn 16-15 BCE. Conquered modern England and Wales in the 40s CE.
Economic Policies of the Empire: Romans levied tribute, taxes, and rents, and recruited soldiers from the peoples they conquered. Livy, a historian, wrote at the height of Augustus that the Romans morals had disappeared. He also continued to say that he condemned the maltreatment of the plebeians and the slaves that the patricians owned. The nostalgia had another version, however. He wished to re-create the days of the oligarchic, patrician Republic, before the transfer of power from the Senate to the generals.
Supplying Rome: Romans imported grain from Sicily, Egypt, and the north African coast, Spain, and lands around the Black Sea. Olive oil and wine came from within Italy, Spain. Pottery/glass from Rhineland, leather from France, wood textiles from Britain, etc.
Building Cities: Most of the empire was locally self-sufficient. Rome constructed and promoted new cities as administrative, military, and financial centers to incorporate agricultural regions into the empire.
Cultural Policies of the Empire: As Rome conquered the Greek city-states, it began to absorb the culture. Aristocrats adopted language and literature as well as architectural, sculptural, and painting traditions of the Greeks.
Stoicism: Romans borrowed philosophical as well as literary ideas from the Greeks. Founded by Greek Zeno about 300 BCE. Zeno began with a cosmic theory of the world as a rational, well-ordered, coherent system. Humans should accept everything that happens.
Religion in the Empire: Rome celebrated a religion centralized on the person of the emperor-god. Made animal sacrifices to dead Augustus, his successors, and pagan gods, especially Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Religion that worshipped sun god Minerva as mediator between god and man, emphasized discipline and loyalty (Mithraism). Some faiths worshipped Cybele, the venerated earth-mother of Asia Minor, and Egyptian goddess Isis (annual promise of rebirth).
Christianity Triumphant: By Marcus Aurelius, Christianity was making serious inroads into Roman thought. Christianity added faith in a god actively intervening in human affairs and, specifically, the doctrines of the birth, life, miracles, and resurrection of Jesus. Christianity was at first rejected, but over 3 centuries became much more accepted. Greater freedom for women was provided. Constantine made Christianity legal in 313.
Invaders at the Gate: Celts arrived in central Europe as early as 2000 BCE. By 400 BCE, they were expanding their territory, in 390 they sacked Rome, by 200 they covered central Europe and were pushing outward. Built fortified towns. Rome conquered the Celtic peoples.
Decline and dismemberment of the Roman Empire: Rome was vulnerable due to plague that wiped out a quarter of the population.
Crisis of the Third Century: Invaders repeatedly penetrated the borders. The Goths continued into the Balkans and beyond into Asia Minor. Took ships and attack Black Sea commerce, cutting off large parts of Rome’s grain supply. Further west, the Franks and Vandals swept across the Rhine into Gaul, Spain, and as far south as north Africa.