Ancient Rome
This article is about the history of Rome in antiquity.
For a general overview, see Rome.
For other uses, see Ancient Rome (disambiguation).
| Ancient Rome
Roma | |
|---|---|
| Capital | Rome, several others during the late Empire, notably Constantinople and Ravenna. |
| Common languages | Latin |
| Government | Kingdom (753–509 BC) |
| Historical era | Ancient history |
| Founding of Rome | 753 BC |
| Overthrow of Tarquin the Proud | 509 BC |
| Octavian proclaimed Augustus | 27 BC |
| Collapse of the Western Roman Empire | 476 AD |
In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom (753 BC–509 BC), Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire.
The civilisation began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, traditionally dated to 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed.
The civilization was led and ruled by the Romans, alternately considered an ethnic group or a nationality.
The Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population at the time) and covering 5 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) at its height in AD 117.
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a democratic classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic semi-elective military dictatorship during the Empire.
Through conquest, cultural, and linguistic assimilation, at its height it controlled the North African coast, Egypt, Southern Europe, and most of Western Europe, the Balkans, Crimea and much of the Middle East, including Anatolia, Levant and parts of Mesopotamia and Arabia.
It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.
Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture and engineering.
Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France.
It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments, palaces, and public facilities.
The Punic Wars with Carthage were decisive in establishing Rome as a world power.
In this series of wars, Rome gained control of the strategic islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily; took Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal); and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 BC, giving Rome supremacy in the Mediterranean.
By the end of the Republic (27 BC), Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa.
The Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus.
Seven-hundred and twenty-one years of Roman–Persian Wars started in 92 BC with the first struggle against Parthia.
It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires.
Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak.
It stretched from the entire Mediterranean Basin to the beaches of the North Sea in the north, to the shores of the Red and Caspian Seas in the East.
Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor.
Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century before some stability was restored in the Tetrarchy phase of imperial rule.
Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent barbarian kingdoms in the 5th century.
The eastern part of the empire remained a power through the Middle Ages until its fall in 1453 AD.
Founding myth
Main article: Founding of Rome
According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC on the banks of the river Tiber in central Italy, by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas, and who were grandsons of the Latin King Numitor of Alba Longa.
King Numitor was deposed by his brother, Amulius, while Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, gave birth to the twins.
Since Rhea Silvia had been raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine.
The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so he ordered them to be drowned.
A she-wolf (or a shepherd's wife in some accounts) saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
The twins then founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over the location of the Roman Kingdom, though some sources state the quarrel was about who was going to rule or give his name to the city.
Romulus became the source of the city's name.
In order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted.
This caused a problem, in that Rome came to have a large male population but was bereft of women.
Romulus visited neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables he was refused.
Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins with the Sabines.
Another legend, recorded by Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, says that Prince Aeneas led a group of Trojans on a sea voyage to found a new Troy, since the original was destroyed at the end of the Trojan War.
After a long time in rough seas, they landed on the banks of the Tiber River.
Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, but the women who were traveling with them did not want to leave.
One woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent their leaving.
At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they soon realized that they were in the ideal place to settle.
They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships.
The Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid, where the Trojan prince Aeneas is destined by the gods to found a new Troy.
In the epic, the women also refuse to go back to the sea, but they were not left on the Tiber.
After reaching Italy, Aeneas, who wanted to marry Lavinia, was forced to wage war with her former suitor, Turnus.
According to the poem, the Alban kings were descended from Aeneas, and thus Romulus, the founder of Rome, was his descendant.
Kingdom
Main article: Roman Kingdom
The city of Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the river Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade.
According to archaeological evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded some time in the 8th century BC, though it may go back as far as the 10th century BC, by members of the Latin tribe of Italy, on the top of the Palatine Hill.
The Etruscans, who had previously settled to the north in Etruria, seem to have established political control in the region by the late 7th century BC, forming an aristocratic and monarchical elite.
The Etruscans apparently lost power by the late 6th century BC, and at this point, the original Latin and Sabine tribes reinvented their government by creating a republic, with much greater restraints on the ability of rulers to exercise power.
Roman tradition and archaeological evidence point to a complex within the Forum Romanum as the seat of power for the king and the beginnings of the religious center there as well.
Numa Pompilius the second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus, began Rome's building projects with his royal palace the Regia and the complex of the Vestal virgins.
Republic
Main article: Roman Republic
According to tradition and later writers such as Livy, the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC, when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was deposed by Lucius Junius Brutus and a system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established.
A constitution set a series of checks and balances, and a separation of powers.
The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority such as imperium, or military command.
The consuls had to work with the senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians, but grew in size and power.
Other magistrates of the Republic include tribunes, quaestors, aediles, praetors and censors.
The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or plebeians.
Republican voting assemblies included the comitia centuriata (centuriate assembly), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices, and the comitia tributa (tribal assembly), which elected less important offices.
In the 4th century BC, Rome had come under attack by the Gauls, who now extended their power in the Italian peninsula beyond the Po Valley and through Etruria.
On 16 July 390 BC, a Gallic army under the leadership of tribal chieftain Brennus, met the Romans on the banks of the Allia River ten miles north of Rome.
Brennus defeated the Romans, and the Gauls marched to Rome.
Most Romans had fled the city, but some barricaded themselves upon the Capitoline Hill for a last stand.
The Gauls looted and burned the city, then laid siege to the Capitoline Hill.
The siege lasted seven months.
The Gauls then agreed to give the Romans peace in exchange for 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of gold.
According to later legend, the Roman supervising the weighing noticed that the Gauls were using false scales.
The Romans then took up arms and defeated the Gauls.
Their victorious general Camillus remarked "With iron, not with gold, Rome buys her freedom."
The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans.
The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came when Tarentum, a major Greek colony, enlisted the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed as well.
The Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman colonies in strategic areas, thereby establishing stable control over the region of Italy they had conquered.
Punic Wars
Main article: Punic Wars
See also: Roman conquest of the Iberian peninsula
Marius and Sulla
Gaius Marius, a novus homo, who started his political career with the help of the powerful Metelli family soon become a leader of the Republic, holding the first of his seven consulships (an unprecedented number) in 107 BC by arguing that his former patron Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was not able to defeat and capture the Numidian king Jugurtha.
Marius then started his military reform: in his recruitment to fight Jugurtha, he levied the very poor (an innovation), and many landless men entered the army; this was the seed of securing loyalty of the army to the General in command.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born into a poor family that used to be a patrician family.
He had a good education but became poor when his father died and left none of his will.
Sulla joined the theater and found many friends there, prior to becoming a general in the Jugurthine war.
At this time, Marius began his quarrel with Sulla: Marius, who wanted to capture Jugurtha, asked Bocchus, son-in-law of Jugurtha, to hand him over.
As Marius failed, Sulla, a general of Marius at that time, in a dangerous enterprise, went himself to Bocchus and convinced Bocchus to hand Jugurtha over to him.
This was very provocative to Marius, since many of his enemies were encouraging Sulla to oppose Marius.
Despite this, Marius was elected for five consecutive consulships from 104 to 100 BC, as Rome needed a military leader to defeat the Cimbri and the Teutones, who were threatening Rome.
After Marius's retirement, Rome had a brief peace, during which the Italian socii ("allies" in Latin) requested Roman citizenship and voting rights.
The reformist Marcus Livius Drusus supported their legal process but was assassinated, and the socii revolted against the Romans in the Social War.
At one point both consuls were killed; Marius was appointed to command the army together with Lucius Julius Caesar and Sulla.
By the end of the Social War, Marius and Sulla were the premier military men in Rome and their partisans were in conflict, both sides jostling for power.
In 88 BC, Sulla was elected for his first consulship and his first assignment was to defeat Mithridates VI of Pontus, whose intentions were to conquer the Eastern part of the Roman territories.
However, Marius's partisans managed his installation to the military command, defying Sulla and the Senate, and this caused Sulla's wrath.
To consolidate his own power, Sulla conducted a surprising and illegal action: he marched to Rome with his legions, killing all those who showed support to Marius's cause and impaling their heads in the Roman Forum.
In the following year, 87 BC, Marius, who had fled at Sulla's march, returned to Rome while Sulla was campaigning in Greece.
He seized power along with the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna and killed the other consul, Gnaeus Octavius, achieving his seventh consulship.
In an attempt to raise Sulla's anger, Marius and Cinna revenged their partisans by conducting a massacre.
Marius died in 86 BC, due to age and poor health, just a few months after seizing power.
Cinna exercised absolute power until his death in 84 BC.
Sulla after returning from his Eastern campaigns, had a free path to reestablish his own power.
In 83 BC he made his second march in Rome and began a time of terror: thousands of nobles, knights and senators were executed.
Sulla also held two dictatorships and one more consulship, which began the crisis and decline of Roman Republic.
Caesar and the First Triumvirate
Octavian and the Second Triumvirate
Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil in Rome; without the dictator's leadership, the city was ruled by his friend and colleague, Marcus Antonius.
Soon afterward, Octavius, whom Caesar adopted through his will, arrived in Rome.
Octavian (historians regard Octavius as Octavian due to the Roman naming conventions) tried to align himself with the Caesarian faction.
In 43 BC, along with Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's best friend, he legally established the Second Triumvirate.
This alliance would last for five years.
Upon its formation, 130–300 senators were executed, and their property was confiscated, due to their supposed support for the Liberatores.
In 42 BC, the Senate deified Caesar as Divus Iulius; Octavian thus became Divi filius, the son of the deified.
In the same year, Octavian and Antony defeated both Caesar's assassins and the leaders of the Liberatores, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, in the Battle of Philippi.
The Second Triumvirate was marked by the proscriptions of many senators and equites: after a revolt led by Antony's brother Lucius Antonius, more than 300 senators and equites involved were executed on the anniversary of the Ides of March, although Lucius was spared.
The Triumvirate proscribed several important men, including Cicero, whom Antony hated; Quintus Tullius Cicero, the younger brother of the orator; and Lucius Julius Caesar, cousin and friend of the acclaimed general, for his support of Cicero.
However, Lucius was pardoned, perhaps because his sister Julia had intervened for him.
The Triumvirate divided the Empire among the triumvirs: Lepidus was given charge of Africa, Antony, the eastern provinces, and Octavian remained in Italia and controlled Hispania and Gaul.
The Second Triumvirate expired in 38 BC but was renewed for five more years.
However, the relationship between Octavian and Antony had deteriorated, and Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian in Sicily.
By the end of the Triumvirate, Antony was living in Ptolemaic Egypt, an independent and rich kingdom ruled by Antony's lover, Cleopatra VII.
Antony's affair with Cleopatra was seen as an act of treason, since she was queen of another country.
Additionally, Antony adopted a lifestyle considered too extravagant and Hellenistic for a Roman statesman.
Following Antony's Donations of Alexandria, which gave to Cleopatra the title of "Queen of Kings", and to Antony's and Cleopatra's children the regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories, war between Octavian and Antony broke out.
Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.
Now Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire, and for the Romans, a new era had begun.
Empire – the Principate
Main article: Roman Empire
In 27 BC and at the age of 36, Octavian was the sole Roman leader.
In that year, he took the name Augustus.
That event is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire—although Rome was an "imperial" state since 146 BC, when Carthage was razed by Scipio Aemilianus and Greece was conquered by Lucius Mummius.
Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers.
His reform of the government brought about a two-century period colloquially referred to by Romans as the Pax Romana.
Julio-Claudian dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty was established by Augustus.
The emperors of this dynasty were: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.
The dynasty is so-called due to the gens Julia, family of Augustus, and the gens Claudia, family of Tiberius.
The Julio-Claudians started the destruction of republican values, but on the other hand, they boosted Rome's status as the central power in the world.
While Caligula and Nero are usually remembered as dysfunctional emperors in popular culture, Augustus and Claudius are remembered as emperors who were successful in politics and the military.
This dynasty instituted imperial tradition in Rome and frustrated any attempt to reestablish a Republic.
Augustus
Augustus gathered almost all the republican powers under his official title, princeps: he had powers of consul, princeps senatus, aedile, censor and tribune—including tribunician sacrosanctity.
This was the base of an emperor's power.
Augustus also styled himself as Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar divi filius, "Commander Gaius Julius Caesar, son of the deified one".
With this title he not only boasted his familial link to deified Julius Caesar, but the use of Imperator signified a permanent link to the Roman tradition of victory.
He also diminished the Senatorial class influence in politics by boosting the equestrian class.
The senators lost their right to rule certain provinces, like Egypt; since the governor of that province was directly nominated by the emperor.
The creation of the Praetorian Guard and his reforms in the military, creating a standing army with a fixed size of 28 legions, ensured his total control over the army.
Compared with the Second Triumvirate's epoch, Augustus' reign as princeps was very peaceful.
This peace and richness (that was granted by the agrarian province of Egypt) led the people and the nobles of Rome to support Augustus increasing his strength in political affairs.
In military activity, Augustus was absent at battles.
His generals were responsible for the field command; gaining such commanders as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Nero Claudius Drusus and Germanicus much respect from the populace and the legions.
Augustus intended to extend the Roman Empire to the whole known world, and in his reign, Rome conquered Cantabria, Aquitania, Raetia, Dalmatia, Illyricum and Pannonia.
Under Augustus's reign, Roman literature grew steadily in what is known as the Golden Age of Latin Literature.
Poets like Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Rufus developed a rich literature, and were close friends of Augustus.
Along with Maecenas, he stimulated patriotic poems, as Virgil's epic Aeneid and also historiographical works, like those of Livy.
The works of this literary age lasted through Roman times, and are classics.
Augustus also continued the shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him.
Augustus brought a peaceful and thriving era to Rome, known as Pax Augusta or Pax Romana.
Augustus died in 14 AD, but the empire's glory continued after his era.
From Tiberius to Nero
The Julio-Claudians continued to rule Rome after Augustus' death and remained in power until the death of Nero in 68 AD.
Augustus' favorites for succeeding him were already dead in his senescence: his nephew Marcellus died in 23 BC, his friend and military commander Agrippa in 12 BC and his grandson Gaius Caesar in 4 AD.
Influenced by his wife, Livia Drusilla, Augustus appointed her son from another marriage, Tiberius, as his heir.
The Senate agreed with the succession, and granted to Tiberius the same titles and honors once granted to Augustus: the title of princeps and Pater patriae, and the Civic Crown.
However, Tiberius was not an enthusiast of political affairs: after agreement with the Senate, he retired to Capri in 26 AD, and left control of the city of Rome in the hands of the praetorian prefect Sejanus (until 31 AD) and Macro (from 31 to 37 AD).
Tiberius was regarded as an evil and melancholic man, who may have ordered the murder of his relatives, the popular general Germanicus in 19 AD, and his own son Drusus Julius Caesar in 23 AD.
Tiberius died (or was killed) in 37 AD.
The male line of the Julio-Claudians was limited to Tiberius' nephew Claudius, his grandson Tiberius Gemellus and his grand-nephew Caligula.
As Gemellus was still a child, Caligula was chosen to rule the Empire.
He was a popular leader in the first half of his reign, but became a crude and insane tyrant in his years controlling government.
Suetonius states that he committed incest with his sisters, killed some men just for amusement and nominated a horse for a consulship.
The Praetorian Guard murdered Caligula four years after the death of Tiberius, and, with belated support from the senators, proclaimed his uncle Claudius as the new emperor.
Claudius was not as authoritarian as Tiberius and Caligula.
Claudius conquered Lycia and Thrace; his most important deed was the beginning of the conquest of Britannia.
Claudius was poisoned by his wife, Agrippina the Younger in 54 AD.
His heir was Nero, son of Agrippina and her former husband, since Claudius' son Britannicus had not reached manhood upon his father's death.
Nero sent his general, Suetonius Paulinus, to invade modern-day Wales, where he encountered stiff resistance.
The Celts in modern-day Wales were independent, tough and resistant to tax collectors and fought Paulinus, as he battled his way across from East to West.
It took him a long time to reach the North West coast and in 60 AD he finally crossed the Menai Strait to the sacred island of Mona (modern-day Anglesey), the last stronghold of the Druids.
His soldiers attacked the island and massacred the Druids, men, women and children, destroyed the shrine and the sacred groves and threw many of the sacred standing stones into the sea.
While Paulinus and his troops were massacring Druids in Mona, the tribes of modern-day East Anglia staged a revolt led by queen Boadicea of the Iceni.
The rebels sacked and burned Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium (modern-day Colchester, London and St Albans respectively) before they were crushed by Paulinus.
Boadicea, like Cleopatra before her, committed suicide to avoid the disgrace of being paraded in triumph in Rome.
The fault of Nero in this rebellion is debatable but there was certainly an impact (both positive and negative) upon the prestige of his regime.
Nero is widely known as the first persecutor of Christians and for the Great Fire of Rome, rumoured to have been started by the emperor himself.
In 59 AD he murdered his mother and in 62 AD, his wife Claudia Octavia.
Never very stable, he allowed his advisers to run the government while he slid into debauchery, excess, and madness.
He was married three times, and had numerous affairs with both men and women, and, according to some rumors, even his mother.
A conspiracy against Nero in 65 AD under Calpurnius Piso failed, but in 68 AD the armies under Julius Vindex in Gaul and Servius Sulpicius Galba in modern-day Spain revolted.
Deserted by the Praetorian Guards and condemned to death by the senate, Nero killed himself.
Flavian dynasty
The Flavians were the second dynasty to rule Rome.
By 68 AD, year of Nero's death, there was no chance of return to the old and traditional Roman Republic, thus a new emperor had to rise.
After the turmoil in the Year of the Four Emperors, Titus Flavius Vespasianus (anglicized as Vespasian) took control of the Empire and established a new dynasty.
Under the Flavians, Rome continued its expansion, and the state remained secure.
The most significant military campaign undertaken during the Flavian period, was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 by Titus.
The destruction of the city was the culmination of the Roman campaign in Judea following the Jewish uprising of 66.
The Second Temple was completely demolished, after which Titus's soldiers proclaimed him imperator in honor of the victory.
Jerusalem was sacked and much of the population killed or dispersed.
Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish.
97,000 were captured and enslaved, including Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala.
Many fled to areas around the Mediterranean.
Titus reportedly refused to accept a wreath of victory, as there is "no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God".
Vespasian
Vespasian was a general under Claudius and Nero.
He fought as a commander in the First Jewish-Roman War along with his son Titus.
Following the turmoil of the Year of the Four Emperors, in 69 AD, four emperors were enthroned: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and, lastly, Vespasian, who crushed Vitellius' forces and became emperor.
He reconstructed many buildings which were uncompleted, like a statue of Apollo and the temple of Divus Claudius ("the deified Claudius"), both initiated by Nero.
Buildings once destroyed by the Great Fire of Rome were rebuilt, and he revitalized the Capitol.
Vespasian also started the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater, more commonly known as the Colosseum.
The historians Josephus and Pliny the Elder wrote their works during Vespasian's reign.
Vespasian was Josephus' sponsor and Pliny dedicated his Naturalis Historia to Titus, son of Vespasian.
Vespasian sent legions to defend the eastern frontier in Cappadocia, extended the occupation in Britannia (modern-day England, Wales and southern Scotland) and reformed the tax system.
He died in 79 AD.
Titus and Domitian
Titus had a short-lived rule; he was emperor from 79 to 81 AD.
He finished the Flavian Amphitheater, which was constructed with war spoils from the First Jewish-Roman War, and promoted games celebrating the victory over the Jews that lasted for a hundred days.
These games included gladiatorial combats, chariot races and a sensational mock naval battle on the flooded grounds of the Colosseum.
Titus died of fever in 81 AD, and was succeeded by his brother Domitian.
As emperor, Domitian assumed totalitarian characteristics, thought he could be a new Augustus, and tried to make a personal cult of himself.
Domitian ruled for fifteen years, and his reign was marked by his attempts to compare himself to the gods.
He constructed at least two temples in honour of Jupiter, the supreme deity in Roman religion.
He also liked to be called "Dominus et Deus" ("Master and God").
Nerva–Antonine dynasty
The Nerva–Antonine dynasty from 96 AD to 192 AD was the rule of the emperors Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus.
During their rule, Rome reached its territorial and economical apogee.
This was a time of peace for Rome.
The criteria for choosing an emperor were the qualities of the candidate and no longer ties of kinship; additionally, there were no civil wars or military defeats in this period.
Following Domitian's murder, the Senate rapidly appointed Nerva to hold imperial dignity.
This was the first time that senators chose the emperor since Octavian was honored with the titles of princeps and Augustus.
Nerva had a noble ancestry, and he had served as an advisor to Nero and the Flavians.
His rule restored many of the liberties once assumed by Domitian and started the last golden era of Rome.
Trajan
Nerva died in 98 AD and his successor and heir was the general Trajan.
Trajan was born in a non-patrician family from Hispania Baetica (modern-day Andalusia) and his preeminence emerged in the army, under Domitian.
He is the second of the Five Good Emperors, the first being Nerva.
Trajan was greeted by the people of Rome with enthusiasm, which he justified by governing well and without the bloodiness that had marked Domitian's reign.
He freed many people who had been unjustly imprisoned by Domitian and returned private property that Domitian had confiscated; a process begun by Nerva before his death.
Trajan conquered Dacia (roughly modern-day Romania and Moldova), and defeated the king Decebalus, who had defeated Domitian's forces.
In the First Dacian War (101–102), the defeated Dacia became a client kingdom; in the Second Dacian War (105–106), Trajan completely devastated the enemy's resistance and annexed Dacia to the Empire.
Trajan also annexed the client state of Nabatea to form the province of Arabia Petraea, which included the lands of southern Syria and northwestern Arabia.
He erected many buildings that survive to this day, such as Trajan's Forum, Trajan's Market and Trajan's Column.
His main architect was Apollodorus of Damascus; Apollodorus made the project of the Forum and of the Column, and also reformed the Pantheon.
Trajan's triumphal arches in Ancona and Beneventum are other constructions projected by him.
In the Second Dacian War, Apollodorus made a great bridge over the Danube for Trajan.
Trajan's final war was against Parthia.
When Parthia appointed a king for Armenia who was unacceptable to Rome (Parthia and Rome shared dominance over Armenia), he declared war.
He probably wanted to be the first Roman leader to conquer Parthia, and repeat the glory of Alexander the Great, conqueror of Asia, whom Trajan next followed in the clash of Greek-Romans and the Persian cultures.
In 113 he marched to Armenia and deposed the local king.
In 115 Trajan turned south into the core of Parthian hegemony, took the Northern Mesopotamian cities of Nisibis and Batnae, organized a province of Mesopotamia (116), and issued coins announcing that Armenia and Mesopotamia was under the authority of the Roman people.
In that same year, he captured Seleucia and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon (near modern Baghdad).
After defeating a Parthian revolt and a Jewish revolt, he withdrew due to health issues.
In 117, his illness grew and he died of edema.
He nominated Hadrian as his heir.
Under Trajan's leadership the Roman Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion; Rome's dominion now spanned 5.0 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles).
From Hadrian to Commodus
Many Romans emigrated to Hispania (modern-day Spain and Portugal) and stayed for generations, in some cases intermarrying with Iberians; one of these families produced the emperor Hadrian.
Hadrian withdrew all the troops stationed in Parthia, Armenia and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), abandoning Trajan's conquests.
Hadrian's army crushed a revolt in Mauretania and the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea.
This was the last large-scale Jewish revolt against the Romans, and was suppressed with massive repercussions in Judea.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed.
Hadrian renamed the province of Judea "Provincia Syria Palaestina," after one of Judea's most hated enemies.
He constructed fortifications and walls, like the celebrated Hadrian's Wall which separated Roman Britannia and the tribes of modern-day Scotland.
Hadrian promoted culture, especially the Greek.
He also forbade torture and humanized the laws.
His many building projects included aqueducts, baths, libraries and theaters; additionally, he travelled nearly every province in the Empire to check the military and infrastructural conditions.
Following Hadrian's death in 138 AD, his successor Antoninus Pius built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy.
On becoming emperor, Antoninus made few initial changes, leaving intact as far as possible the arrangements instituted by his predecessor.
Antoninus expanded Roman Britannia by invading what is now southern Scotland and building the Antonine Wall.
He also continued Hadrian's policy of humanizing the laws.
He died in 161 AD.
Marcus Aurelius, known as the Philosopher, was the last of the Five Good Emperors.
He was a stoic philosopher and wrote the Meditations.
He defeated barbarian tribes in the Marcomannic Wars as well as the Parthian Empire.
His co-emperor, Lucius Verus died in 169 AD, probably victim of the Antonine Plague, a pandemic that killed nearly five million people through the Empire in 165–180 AD.
From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, the empire achieved an unprecedented status.
The powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces.
All the citizens enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth.
The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence.
The Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government.
The Five Good Emperors' rule is considered the golden era of the Empire.
Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, became emperor after his father's death.
He is not counted as one of the Five Good Emperors.
Firstly, this was due to his direct kinship with the latter emperor; in addition, he was militarily passive compared to his predecessors, who had frequently led their armies in person.
Commodus usually participated in gladiatorial combats, which were frequently brutal and rough.
He killed many citizens, and Cassius Dio identifies his reign as the beginning of Roman decadence: "(Rome has transformed) from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust."
Severan dynasty
Commodus was killed by a conspiracy involving Quintus Aemilius Laetus and his wife Marcia in late 192 AD.
The following year is known as the Year of the Five Emperors, during which Helvius Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus held the imperial dignity.
Pertinax, a member of the senate who had been one of Marcus Aurelius's right hand men, was the choice of Laetus, and he ruled vigorously and judiciously.
Laetus soon became jealous and instigated Pertinax's murder by the Praetorian Guard, who then auctioned the empire to the highest bidder, Didius Julianus, for 25,000 sesterces per man.
The people of Rome were appalled and appealed to the frontier legions to save them.
The legions of three frontier provinces—Britannia, Pannonia Superior, and Syria—resented being excluded from the "donative" and replied by declaring their individual generals to be emperor.
Lucius Septimius Severus Geta, the Pannonian commander, bribed the opposing forces, pardoned the Praetorian Guards and installed himself as emperor.
He and his successors governed with the legions' support.
The changes on coinage and military expenditures were the root of the financial crisis that marked the Crisis of the Third Century.
Septimius Severus
Severus was enthroned after invading Rome and having Didius Julianus killed.
His two other rivals, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus, were both were hailed by other factions as Imperator.
Severus quickly subdued Niger in Byzantium and promised to Albinus the title of Caesar (which meant he would be a co-emperor).
However, Severus betrayed Albinus by blaming him for a plot against his life.
Severus marched to Gaul and defeated Albinus.
For these acts, Machiavelli said that Severus was "a ferocious lion and a clever fox"
Severus attempted to revive totalitarianism and, addressing the Roman people and Senate, praised the severity and cruelty of Marius and Sulla, which worried the senators.
When Parthia invaded Roman territory, Severus waged war against that country and seized the cities of Nisibis, Babylon and Seleucia.
Reaching Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital, he ordered plundering and his army slew and captured many people.
Notwithstanding this military success, Severus failed in invading Hatra, a rich Arabian city.
Severus killed his legate, who was gaining respect from the legions; and his soldiers fell victim to famine.
After this disastrous campaign, he withdrew.
Severus also intended to vanquish the whole of Britannia.
To achieve this, he waged war against the Caledonians.
After many casualties in the army due to the terrain and the barbarians' ambushes, Severus himself went to the field.
However, he became ill and died in 211 AD, at the age of 65.
From Caracalla to Alexander Severus
Upon the death of Severus, his sons Caracalla and Geta were made emperors.
During their youth, their squabbles had divided Rome.
In that same year Caracalla had his brother, a youth, assassinated in his mother's arms, and may have murdered 20,000 of Geta's followers.
Like his father, Caracalla was warlike.
He continued Severus' policy and gained respect from the legions.
A cruel man, Caracalla was pursued by the guilt of his brother's murder.
He ordered the death of people of his own circle, like his tutor, Cilo, and a friend of his father, Papinian.
Knowing that the citizens of Alexandria disliked him and were denigrating his character, Caracalla served a banquet for its notable citizens, after which his soldiers killed all the guests.
From the security of the temple of Sarapis, he then directed an indiscriminate slaughter of Alexandria's people.
In 212, he issued the Edict of Caracalla, giving full Roman citizenship to all free men living in the Empire, and at the same time raised the inheritance tax, levied only on Roman citizens, to ten percent.
A report that a soothsayer had predicted that the Praetorian prefect Macrinus and his son were to rule over the empire was dutifully sent to Caracalla.
But the report fell into the hands of Macrinus, who felt he must act or die.
Macrinus conspired to have Caracalla assassinated by one of his soldiers during a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Moon in Carrhae, in 217 AD.
The incompetent Macrinus assumed power, but soon removed himself from Rome to the east and Antioch.
His brief reign ended in 218, when the youngster Bassianus, high priest of the temple of the Sun at Emesa, and supposedly illegitimate son of Caracalla, was declared Emperor by the disaffected soldiers of Macrinus.
Bribes gained Bassianus support from the legionaries and they fought against Macrinus and his Praetorian guards.
He adopted the name of Antoninus but history has named him after his Sun god Elagabalus, represented on Earth in the form of a large black stone.
An incompetent and lascivious ruler, Elagabalus offended all but his favourites.
Cassius Dio, Herodian and the Historia Augusta give many accounts of his notorious extravagance.
Elagabalus adopted his cousin Alexander Severus, as Caesar, but subsequently grew jealous and attempted to assassinate him.
However, the Praetorian guard preferred Alexander, murdered Elagabalus, dragged his mutilated corpse through the streets of Rome, and threw it into the Tiber.
Alexander Severus then succeeded him.
Alexander waged war against many foes, including the revitalized Persia and also the Germanic peoples, who invaded Gaul.
His losses generated dissatisfaction among his soldiers, and some of them murdered him during his Germanic campaign in 235 AD.
Crisis of the Third Century
Main article: Crisis of the Third Century
A disastrous scenario emerged after the death of Alexander Severus: the Roman state was plagued by civil wars, external invasions, political chaos, pandemics and economic depression.
The old Roman values had fallen, and Mithraism and Christianity had begun to spread through the populace.
Emperors were no longer men linked with nobility; they usually were born in lower-classes of distant parts of the Empire.
These men rose to prominence through military ranks, and became emperors through civil wars.
There were 26 emperors in a 49-year period, a signal of political instability.
Maximinus Thrax was the first ruler of that time, governing for just three years.
Others ruled just for a few months, like Gordian I, Gordian II, Balbinus and Hostilian.
The population and the frontiers were abandoned, since the emperors were mostly concerned with defeating rivals and establishing their power.
The economy also suffered during that epoch.
The massive military expenditures from the Severi caused a devaluation of Roman coins.
Hyperinflation came at this time as well.
The Plague of Cyprian broke out in 250 and killed a huge portion of the population.
In 260 AD, the provinces of Syria Palaestina, Asia Minor and Egypt separated from the rest of the Roman state to form the Palmyrene Empire, ruled by Queen Zenobia and centered on Palmyra.
In that same year the Gallic Empire was created by Postumus, retaining Britannia and Gaul.
These countries separated from Rome after the capture of emperor Valerian by the Sassanids of Persia, the first Roman ruler to be captured by his enemies; it was a humiliating fact for the Romans.
The crisis began to recede during the reigns of Claudius Gothicus (268–270), who defeated the Gothic invaders, and Aurelian (271–275), who reconquered both the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires.
The crisis was overcome during the reign of Diocletian.
Empire – The Tetrarchy
Main article: Roman Empire
Diocletian
In 284 AD, Diocletian was hailed as Imperator by the eastern army.
Diocletian healed the empire from the crisis, by political and economic shifts.
A new form of government was established: the Tetrarchy.
The Empire was divided among four emperors, two in the West and two in the East.
The first tetrarchs were Diocletian (in the East), Maximian (in the West), and two junior emperors, Galerius (in the East) and Flavius Constantius (in the West).
To adjust the economy, Diocletian made several tax reforms.
Diocletian expelled the Persians who plundered Syria and conquered some barbarian tribes with Maximian.
He adopted many behaviors of Eastern monarchs, like wearing pearls and golden sandals and robes.
Anyone in the presence of the emperor had now to prostrate himself—a common act in the East, but never practiced in Rome before.
Diocletian did not use a disguised form of Republic, as the other emperors since Augustus had done.
Between 290 and 330, half a dozen new capitals had been established by the members of the Tetrarchy, officially or not: Antioch, Nicomedia, Thessalonike, Sirmium, Milan, and Trier.
Diocletian was also responsible for a significant Christian persecution.
In 303 he and Galerius started the persecution and ordered the destruction of all the Christian churches and scripts and forbade Christian worship.
Diocletian abdicated in 305 AD together with Maximian, thus, he was the first Roman emperor to resign.
His reign ended the traditional form of imperial rule, the Principate (from princeps) and started the Tetrarchy.
Constantine and Christianity
Constantine assumed the empire as a tetrarch in 306.
He conducted many wars against the other tetrarchs.
Firstly he defeated Maxentius in 312.
In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, which granted liberty for Christians to profess their religion.
Constantine was converted to Christianity, enforcing the Christian faith.
He began the Christianization of the Empire and of Europe—a process concluded by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.
He was defeated by the Franks and the Alamanni during 306–308.
In 324 he defeated another tetrarch, Licinius, and controlled all the empire, as it was before Diocletian.
To celebrate his victories and Christianity's relevance, he rebuilt Byzantium and renamed it Nova Roma ("New Rome"); but the city soon gained the informal name of Constantinople ("City of Constantine").
The reign of Julian, who under the influence of his adviser Mardonius attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors.
Constantinople served as a new capital for the Empire.
In fact, Rome had lost its central importance since the Crisis of the Third Century—Mediolanum was the western capital from 286 to 330, until the reign of Honorius, when Ravenna was made capital, in the 5th century.
Constantine's administrative and monetary reforms, that reunited the Empire under one emperor, and rebuilt the city of Byzantium changed the high period of the ancient world.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Main article: Fall of the Western Roman Empire
In the late 4th and 5th centuries the Western Empire entered a critical stage which terminated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Under the last emperors of the Constantinian dynasty and the Valentinianic dynasty, Rome lost decisive battles against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic barbarians: in 363, emperor Julian the Apostate was killed in the Battle of Samarra, against the Persians and the Battle of Adrianople cost the life of emperor Valens (364–378); the victorious Goths were never expelled from the Empire nor assimilated.
The next emperor, Theodosius I (379–395), gave even more force to the Christian faith, and after his death, the Empire was divided into the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled by Arcadius and the Western Roman Empire, commanded by Honorius, both of which were Theodosius' sons.
The situation became more critical in 408, after the death of Stilicho, a general who tried to reunite the Empire and repel barbarian invasion in the early years of the 5th century.
The professional field army collapsed.
In 410, the Theodosian dynasty saw the Visigoths sack Rome.
During the 5th century, the Western Empire experienced a significant reduction of its territory.
The Vandals conquered North Africa, the Visigoths claimed the southern part of Gaul, Gallaecia was taken by the Suebi, Britannia was abandoned by the central government, and the Empire suffered further from the invasions of Attila, chief of the Huns.
General Orestes refused to meet the demands of the barbarian "allies" who now formed the army, and tried to expel them from Italy.
Unhappy with this, their chieftain Odoacer defeated and killed Orestes, invaded Ravenna and dethroned Romulus Augustus, son of Orestes.
This event of 476, usually marks the end of Classical antiquity and beginning of the Middle Ages.
The Roman noble and former emperor Julius Nepos continued to rule as emperor from Dalmatia even after the deposition of Romulus Augustus until his death in 480.
Some historians consider him to be the last emperor of the Western Empire instead of Romulus Augustus.
After some 1200 years of independence and nearly 700 years as a great power, the rule of Rome in the West ended.
Various reasons for Rome's fall have been proposed ever since, including loss of Republicanism, moral decay, military tyranny, class war, slavery, economic stagnation, environmental change, disease, the decline of the Roman race, as well as the inevitable ebb and flow that all civilizations experience.
At the time many pagans argued that Christianity and the decline of traditional Roman religion were responsible; some rationalist thinkers of the modern era attribute the fall to a change from a martial to a more pacifist religion that lessened the number of available soldiers; while Christians such as Augustine of Hippo argued that the sinful nature of Roman society itself was to blame.
The Eastern Empire had a different fate.
It survived for almost 1000 years after the fall of its Western counterpart and became the most stable Christian realm during the Middle Ages.
During the 6th century, Justinian reconquered the Italian peninsula from the Ostrogoths, North Africa from the Vandals, and southern Hispania from the Visigoths.
But within a few years of Justinian's death, Byzantine possessions in Italy were greatly reduced by the Lombards who settled in the peninsula.
In the east, partially due to the weakening effect of the Plague of Justinian, the Byzantines were threatened by the rise of Islam.
Its followers rapidly brought about the conquest of the Levant, the conquest of Armenia and the conquest of Egypt during the Arab–Byzantine wars, and soon presented a direct threat to Constantinople.
In the following century, the Arabs also captured southern Italy and Sicily.
On the west, Slavic populations were also able to penetrate deep into the Balkans.
The Byzantines, however, managed to stop further Islamic expansion into their lands during the 8th century and, beginning in the 9th century, reclaimed parts of the conquered lands.
In 1000 AD, the Eastern Empire was at its height: Basil II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia, and culture and trade flourished.
However, soon after, this expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 with the Byzantine defeat in the Battle of Manzikert.
The aftermath of this battle sent the empire into a protracted period of decline.
Two decades of internal strife and Turkic invasions ultimately led Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to send a call for help to the Western European kingdoms in 1095.
The West responded with the Crusades, eventually resulting in the Sack of Constantinople by participants of the Fourth Crusade.
The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 fragmented what remained of the Empire into successor states; the ultimate victor was the Empire of Nicaea.
After the recapture of Constantinople by Imperial forces, the Empire was little more than a Greek state confined to the Aegean coast.
The Byzantine Empire collapsed when Mehmed the Conqueror conquered Constantinople on 29 May, 1453.
Society
Culture
Main article: Culture of ancient Rome
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, located on seven hills.
The city had a vast number of monumental structures like the Colosseum, the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon.
It had theatres, gymnasiums, marketplaces, functional sewers, bath complexes complete with libraries and shops, and fountains with fresh drinking water supplied by hundreds of miles of aqueducts.
Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential architecture ranged from modest houses to country villas.
In the capital city of Rome, there were imperial residences on the elegant Palatine Hill, from which the word palace derives.
The low Plebeian and middle Equestrian classes lived in the city center, packed into apartments, or Insulae, which were almost like modern ghettos.
These areas, often built by upper class property owners to rent, were often centred upon collegia or taberna.
These people, provided with a free supply of grain, and entertained by gladiatorial games, were enrolled as clients of patrons among the upper class Patricians, whose assistance they sought and whose interests they upheld.
Language
Main article: Latin
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language the grammar of which relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems.
Its alphabet was based on the Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn based on the Greek alphabet.
Although surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.
Speakers of Latin could understand both until the 7th century when spoken Latin began to diverge so much that 'Classical' or 'Good Latin' had to be learned as a second language
While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek.
In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, Latin was never able to replace Greek, and after the death of Justinian, Greek became the official language of the Byzantine government.
The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and Vulgar Latin evolved into dialects in different locations, gradually shifting into many distinct Romance languages.
Religion
Main articles: Religion in ancient Rome, Roman mythology, and Roman temple
Further information: Constantine the Great and Christianity and State church of the Roman Empire
Archaic Roman religion, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans.
Unlike in Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely defined sacred spirits called numina.
Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own genius, or divine soul.
During the Roman Republic, Roman religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank.
The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hierarchy, and its chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus, was the head of the state religion.
Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, while augurs were trusted with taking the auspices.
The sacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings.
In the Roman Empire, emperors were deified, and the formalized imperial cult became increasingly prominent.
As contact with the Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became increasingly associated with Greek gods.
Thus, Jupiter was perceived to be the same deity as Zeus, Mars became associated with Ares, and Neptune with Poseidon.
The Roman gods also assumed the attributes and mythologies of these Greek gods.
Under the Empire, the Romans absorbed the mythologies of their conquered subjects, often leading to situations in which the temples and priests of traditional Italian deities existed side by side with those of foreign gods.
Beginning with Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD, Roman official policy towards Christianity was negative, and at some points, simply being a Christian could be punishable by death.
Under Emperor Diocletian, the persecution of Christians reached its peak.
However, it became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Diocletian's successor, Constantine I, with the signing of the Edict of Milan in 313, and quickly became dominant.
All religions except Christianity were prohibited in 391 AD by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I.
Ethics and morality
Like many ancient cultures, concepts of ethics and morality, while sharing some commonalities with modern society, differed greatly in several important ways.
Because ancient civilizations like Rome were under constant threat of attack from marauding tribes, their culture was necessarily militaristic with martial skills being a prized attribute.
Whereas modern societies consider compassion a virtue, Roman society considered compassion a vice, a moral defect.
Indeed, one of the primary purposes of the gladiatorial games was to inoculate Roman citizens from this weakness.
Romans instead prized virtues such as courage and conviction (virtus), a sense of duty to one's people, moderation and avoiding excess (moderatio), forgiveness and understanding (clementia), fairness (severitas), and loyalty (pietas).
Contrary to popular descriptions, Roman society had well-established and restrictive norms related to sexuality, though as with many societies, the lion's share of the responsibilities fell on women.
Women were generally expected to be monogamous having only a single husband during their life (univira), though this was much less regarded by the elite, especially under the empire.
Women were expected to be modest in public avoiding any provocative appearance and to demonstrate absolute fidelity to their husbands (pudicitia).
Indeed, wearing a veil was a common expectation to preserve modesty.
Sex outside of marriage was generally frowned upon for men and women and indeed was made illegal during the imperial period.
Nevertheless, prostitution was seen entirely differently and indeed was an accepted and regulated practice.
Art, music and literature
Main articles: Roman art, Latin literature, Music of ancient Rome, Roman sculpture, and Theatre of ancient Rome
Roman painting styles show Greek influences, and surviving examples are primarily frescoes used to adorn the walls and ceilings of country villas, though Roman literature includes mentions of paintings on wood, ivory, and other materials.
Several examples of Roman painting have been found at Pompeii, and from these art historians divide the history of Roman painting into four periods.
The first style of Roman painting was practiced from the early 2nd century BC to the early- or mid-1st century BC.
It was mainly composed of imitations of marble and masonry, though sometimes including depictions of mythological characters.
The second style of Roman painting began during the early 1st century BC, and attempted to depict realistically three-dimensional architectural features and landscapes.
The third style occurred during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), and rejected the realism of the second style in favor of simple ornamentation.
A small architectural scene, landscape, or abstract design was placed in the center with a background.
The fourth style, which began in the 1st century AD, depicted scenes from mythology, while retaining architectural details and abstract patterns.
Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism.
During the Antonine and Severan periods, ornate hair and bearding, with deep cutting and drilling, became popular.
Advancements were also made in relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.
Latin literature was, from its start, influenced heavily by Greek authors.
Some of the earliest extant works are of historical epics telling the early military history of Rome.
As the Republic expanded, authors began to produce poetry, comedy, history, and tragedy.
Roman music was largely based on Greek music, and played an important part in many aspects of Roman life.
In the Roman military, musical instruments such as the (a long trumpet) or the cornu (similar to a French horn) were used to give various commands, while the bucina (possibly a trumpet or horn) and the lituus (probably an elongated J-shaped instrument), were used in ceremonial capacities.
Music was used in the amphitheaters between fights and in the odea, and in these settings is known to have featured the cornu and the hydraulis (a type of water organ).
Most religious rituals featured musical performances, with tibiae (double pipes) at sacrifices, cymbals and Tambourines at orgiastic cults, and rattles and hymns across the spectrum.
Some music historians believe that music was used at almost all public ceremonies.
Music historians are not certain if Roman musicians made a significant contribution to the theory or practice of music.
The graffiti, brothels, paintings, and sculptures found in Pompeii and Herculaneum suggest that the Romans had a sex-saturated culture.
Cuisine
Main article: Ancient Roman cuisine
Ancient Roman cuisine changed over the long duration of this ancient civilization.
Dietary habits were affected by the influence of Greek culture, the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and empire's enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new, provincial culinary habits and cooking techniques.
In the beginning the differences between social classes were relatively small, but disparities evolved with the empire's growth.
Men and women drank wine with their meals, a tradition that has been carried through to the present day.
Games and recreation
In Roman times
The first historians used their works for the lauding of Roman culture and customs.
By the end of Republic, some historians distorted their histories to flatter their patrons—especially at the time of Marius's and Sulla's clash.
Caesar wrote his own histories to make a complete account of his military campaigns in Gaul and during the Civil War.
In the Empire, the biographies of famous men and early emperors flourished, examples being The Twelve Caesars of Suetonius, and Plutarch's Parallel Lives.
Other major works of Imperial times were that of Livy and Tacitus.
- Polybius – The Histories
- Sallust – Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum
- Julius Caesar – De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili
- Livy – Ab urbe condita
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus – Roman Antiquities
- Pliny the Elder – Naturalis Historia
- Josephus – The Jewish War
- Suetonius – The Twelve Caesars (De Vita Caesarum)
- Tacitus – Annales and Histories
- Plutarch – Parallel Lives (a series of biographies of famous Roman and Greek men)
- Cassius Dio – Historia Romana
- Herodian – History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius
- Ammianus Marcellinus – Res Gestae
In modern times
Interest in studying, and even idealizing, ancient Rome became prevalent during the Italian Renaissance, and continues until the present day.
Charles Montesquieu wrote a work Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans.
The first major work was The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, which encompassed the Roman civilization from the end of the 2nd century to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.
Like Montesquieu, Gibbon paid tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens.
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a founder of the examination of ancient Roman history and wrote The Roman History, tracing the period until the First Punic war.
Niebuhr tried to determine the way the Roman tradition evolved.
According to him, Romans, like other people, had an historical ethos preserved mainly in the noble families.
During the Napoleonic period a work titled The History of Romans by Victor Duruy appeared.
It highlighted the Caesarean period popular at the time.
History of Rome, Roman constitutional law and Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, all by Theodor Mommsen, became very important milestones.
Later the work Greatness and Decline of Rome by Guglielmo Ferrero was published.
The Russian work Очерки по истории римского землевладения, преимущественно в эпоху Империи (The Outlines on Roman Landownership History, Mainly During the Empire) by Ivan Grevs contained information on the economy of Pomponius Atticus, one of the largest landowners at the end of the Republic.
- Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) – The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- John Bagnall Bury (1861–1927) – History of the Later Roman Empire
- Michael Grant (1914–2004) – The Roman World
- Barbara Levick (born 1932) – Claudius
- Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831)
- Michael Rostovtzeff (1870–1952)
- Howard Hayes Scullard (1903–1983) – The History of the Roman World
- Ronald Syme (1903–1989) – The Roman Revolution
- Adrian Goldsworthy (born 1969) – Caesar: The Life of a Colossus and How Rome fell
See also
- Ancient Rome portal
- Ancient Roman architecture
- Daqin, the Chinese name for the Roman Empire, see Sino-Roman relations
- Outline of classical studies
- List of Roman civil wars and revolts
Credits to the contents of this page go to the authors of the corresponding Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient Rome.