THE ROMAN CIVILIZATION

The early history of Rome is somewhat shrouded in mystery. A lot

of Rome's early historical records were destroyed when barbarians sacked
the city in 390 BC. Historians and archaeologists have put pieces of the
puzzle together to give us a picture of how Rome was likely founded. There
are several different stories telling how the city of Rome was founded.
Some are more historical, while others are mythological tales told by poets
and authors.
• Historical - Rome was likely first settled around 1000 B.C. The first
settlement was built on Palatine Hill because it was easily defended.
Over time, the six other hills around Palatine were also settled. As
the settlement grew, it became a city. A public area was built
between the hills of Palatine and Capitoline that became known as
the Roman Forum.
• Mythical - Roman mythology says that Rome was founded in 753
B.C by the twins named Romulus and Remus. While building the
settlement on Palatine Hill, Romulus killed Remus and became the
pioneer king of Rome.
The term Ancient Rome refers to the city of Rome, which was located
in central Italy; and also to the empire it came to rule, which covered the
entire Mediterranean basin and much of Western Europe (the entire world
as was known by then). At its greatest extent in stretched from present-day
northern England to southern Egypt, and from the Atlantic coast to the
shores of the Persian Gulf. Rome’s location in central Italy placed it
squarely within the Mediterranean cluster of civilizations. In its early
centuries Rome was particularly influenced by the powerful Etruscan
civilization to its north, from which it acquired many aspects of its culture.
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Mantra: A historian is a prophet of the past!
As Rome’s reach expanded, it came into direct contact with the Greeks.
From then on, the Greek influence would become an increasingly
important element within Roman life. However, the Romans would give
Greek culture their own slant, giving it a new grandeur which can be seen
in Roman remains throughout the empire.
Before the Roman Republic was formed, the Roman empire was
ruled by kings. Roman history tells of seven kings starting with Romulus in
753 B.C. Each king was elected by the people to serve for a life long
tenure. The king was very powerful and acted as the leader of both the
government and the Roman religion. Under the king was a group of 300
men called the Senate. When Rome was first founded there were only 100
senators. More were added later and the number reached 300 by the
founding of the republic. Senators had little real power during the
Kingdom of Rome. They served more as advisors to the king and helped
him to run the government.
The last king of Rome was Tarquin the Proud (r. 535-509 B.C).
Tarquin was a cruel and violent king. Eventually, the Roman people and
the senate revolted and expelled Tarquin from the city. They formed a new
government without a king called the Roman Republic in 509 B.C. The
letters SPQR stood for Senatus Populus Que Romanusa - the Senate and the
People of Rome. After defeating Tarquin, the last Roman king, the people
started a new type of government, a republic. A republic is a type of
government whereby people elect officials to represent them in
government.
As a publicity campaign, and as propaganda, the new senate had the
letters SPQR chiselled, branded or stamped on everything that they
controlled. Public buildings, new coins, and even park benches got the
letters SPQR added to them. The people of Rome were proud of their new
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government, and were reminded every time that they saw SPQR that they
were a part of the Roman Republic, and no longer ruled by a king.
Under the Roman Republic, the government of Rome was ruled by
two elected leaders called Consuls. The consuls only served for one year and
were advised by the senate. It was during the republic that Rome expanded
to become one of the great civilizations in world history.
In 27 B.C., Augustus established the Roman Empire, which was
from then on ruled by an absolute Emperor though there were many
rebellions and plots. Most of what we know about the Roman emperors
comes from Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars (A.D. 119). Not only was this
many years after the events, but Suetonius hated the emperors for
destroying the Senate, and he filled his books with the most disgusting
rumours. Under the Pax Romana, which means Peace of Rome, merchants
traded across the whole known world. Its economy included lead mining,
high-tech watermills and reapers, millions of slaves and latifundia (huge
agricultural estates). As a result, Rome was incredibly wealthy, with
aqueducts, concrete buildings, huge sewers, and lavish baths, and a lifestyle
which included decadent meals for the rich, and bread and circuses to keep
the poor happy.
The Roman Republic had a number of leaders and groups that
helped to govern. Elected officials were called magistrates and there were
different levels and titles of magistrates. The Roman Government was very
complicated and had lots of leaders and councils. Consuls - At the top of
the Roman Republic was the consul. The consul was a very powerful
position. In order to keep the consul from becoming a king or dictator,
there were always two consuls elected and they only served for one year.
Also, the consuls could veto each other if they didn't agree on something.
The consuls had a wide range of powers; they decided when to go to war,
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Mantra: A historian is a prophet of the past!
how much taxes to collect, and what the laws were. The chief persons in
the governance were-;
! Senators - The Senate was a group of prestigious leaders who
advised the consuls. The consuls usually did what the Senate
recommended. Senators were selected for life.
! Plebeian Council - The Plebeian Council was also called the
Peoples Assembly. This was how the common people,
plebeians, could elect their own leaders, magistrates, pass
laws, and hold court.
! Tribunes - Tribunes were the representatives of the Plebeian
Council. They could veto laws made by the Senate.
! Governors - As Rome conquered new lands, they needed
someone to be the local ruler. The Senate would appoint a
governor to rule the land or province. The governor would be
in charge of the local Roman army and would also be
responsible to collect taxes. Governors were also called
proconsuls.
! Aedile - An Aedile was a city official who was responsible for
the maintenance of public buildings as well as public festivals.
Many politicians who wanted to be elected to a higher office,
like consul, would become aedile so they could hold big
public festivals and gain popularity with the people.
! Censor - The Censor counted the citizens and kept track of the
census. They also had some responsibilities to maintain
public morality and to look after public finances.
Ancient Roman society originated as a society of small farmers.
However, as it grew more powerful and more extensive, it became one of
the most urbanized societies in the pre-industrial world. At the height of its
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empire, Rome was probably the largest city on the planet, with more than a
million inhabitants. The empire had a handful of other cities with several
hundred thousand inhabitants, and many other large and wealthy urban
settlements. The Roman Empire contained around 2000 cities. For the
Romans, cities were communities that ran their own affairs, and
constituted the main building-blocks of the empire. Every free person in
the empire belonged to a city – which may not necessarily have been where
he or she was living at any given time, but was his or her home town.
The Roman city was built around a forum. This was an open space
surrounded by colonnades and public buildings. It functioned as a market
place, political meeting point and social centre. The public buildings
surrounding it would include the main temple, the basilica (the main
government building where the town council met and town administration
was carried on), the law courts (if separate from the Basilica), and the main
public baths of the city.
The Romans referred to people groups outside the Roman Empire
as barbarians. The barbarians had different cultures than the Romans.
They dressed differently, ate different foods, and had different religions.
They did not have the same level of government, education, or engineering
as the Romans. The Romans fought the barbarians at the borders of the
Roman Empire for many years. In some cases, barbarians became part of
the Roman Empire. In other cases, they fought wars and, eventually,
sacked the city of Rome bringing about the end of the Western Roman
Empire.
The barbarians were not just one people group. The word barbarian
comes from the Greek word barbarous. The term barbarian was used to
describe a wide variety of different peoples that had little to do with each
other. Many of the groups that attacked and invaded the Roman Empire
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were Germanic tribes from Northern Europe. The Romans often talked
bad about the Greeks and looked down on them, but they did not
consider them barbarians.
• Goths - One of the most powerful and organized groups of
barbarians were the Goths. The Goths were divided into two major
branches: the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. The Visigoths took over
much of Western Europe and battled Rome constantly in the late
300's. Under their leader Alaric I, the Visigoths sacked Rome in
410.
• Vandals - The Vandals migrated from Northern Europe to the
Iberian Peninsula (Spain) and eventually to North Africa where they
established a powerful kingdom. They established a peace treaty with
Rome in 442 A.D, but attacked Rome in 455 when the treaty was
broken. Under the Vandal King Genseric, the Vandals sacked Rome
in 455 A.D and plundered the city for two weeks.
• Huns - The Huns were a nomadic warrior people who came from the
east. Under the leadership of their leader Attila, the Huns defeated
the Ostrogoths and invaded the Eastern Roman Empire. They then
moved to conquer much of Roman Gaul (France). In 452, the Huns
invaded Italy. They plundered much of Italy, but did not take the
city of Rome.
• Franks – The Franks were a number of Germanic tribes that settled
in the region that is today the country of France (France gets its
name from the Franks). They began invading the borders of the
Roman Empire around 300 A.D. The Franks truly became powerful
after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and would eventually
become one of the leading empires in Western Europe.

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 • Saxons - As Rome began to weaken, the Saxons moved from Western
Europe and began to invade Great Britain. They took over many
Roman settlements in Great Britain as the Emperor was too weak to
send the Romans in Great Britain aide.
• Others - There were many other peoples that the Romans referred to
as barbarians including the Celts, Thracians, Parthians, Picts,
Lombards, and the Burgundians.

Roman Religion and Worship

The Romans were regarded as practical people. There were more
consumed with building, organizing and enjoying themselves and did not
seem to concern themselves too much with spiritual and religious matters.
In general, the Romans took a more light-hearted view of spiritual matters
and the god they worshiped reflected this. Cults, superstition, rituals,
festivals and sacrifices appealed to them more than devotion and morality.
The priesthood was often more interested in politics than spirituality. The
Senate and Emperor were religious figures.
The Romans took on and embraced many of the gods of the people
they conquered. The official Roman religion was the worship of a large
group of Greco Roman gods. The three main Roman gods, known as the
Capitoline Triad, were Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. However, as pertains to
roman gods, a list of twelve gods is more popular. The six gods and six
goddesses were sometimes arranged in male-female couples: Jupiter-Juno,
Neptune-Minerva, Mars-Venus, Apollo-Diana, Vulcan-Vesta and Mercury-
Ceres. Their specific roles were-;
i. Jupiter; King of gods and god of thunder and lightening
ii. Juno; Wife of Jupiter and goddess of women and fertility
iii. Mars; Son of Jupiter and Juno and god of war
iv. Mercury; god of travellers and tradesmen

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 v. Neptune; Brother of Jupiter and god of the sea
vi. Venus; goddess of love and beauty
vii. Apollo; god of music, archery, healing, poetry and truth
viii. Diana; goddess of hunting, archery and animals
ix. Minerva; goddess of wisdom, learning, arts and industry
x. Ceres; goddess of agriculture, harvest and the seasons
xi. Vulcan; god of blacksmith and volcanoes
xii. Vesta; Sister of Jupiter, goddess of hearth and home

A Roman priest was responsible for the proper ritual worship to the
gods. The very success of the Roman Empire proved that the Romans had
properly worshiped their gods. The Romans were tolerant of other peoples'
gods, allowing natives in their provinces to worship whatever gods they
chose. Beyond the official gods, individual families and regions had their
local gods. There were many temples in Rome and throughout the Roman
Empire.
They were generally built for a single god and had a statue of the
god at the center. The most important temple in Ancient Rome was the
Temple of Jupiter located on Capitoline Hill. The Pantheon was a temple
to all the Roman gods. There were also temples built to the Emperors such
as Julius Caesar and Augustus.
The 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon, observed that; The various

modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true;
by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced

not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.

The Fall of the Roman Empire

The combination of great wealth and mass poverty in Rome itself
poisoned the political climate there. Political gang-masters put votes and
mobs up for sale, corruption spread, and Roman politics became
dominated by feuding factions. These were not modern political parties
representing broadly different ideologies, but there were ideas around

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which different factions grouped. One set of ideas was taken up by those (a
minority in the senate) who wished to see land redistribution – estates
limited in size and the balance of land distributed to the landless poor –
and the opposing groups (the majority) wished to preserve the interests of
the best people (i.e. themselves) intact. In 133 a famous incident led to the
death of a reformist politician, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the first
murder in Roman politics for centuries. The death of his brother, Gaius,
in similar circumstances followed ten years later. Factionalism and strife
steadily increased thereafter.
The middle years of the first century B.C were dominated by the
careers of two powerful generals, Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar.
Their conquests and maneouverings set the stage for the final fall of the
Republic.
i. The first reason and possibly the most important reason for Rome's collapse is
when Emperor Diocletian divided the Empire into two halves. The Western
Empire seated in the city of Milan, and the Eastern Empire in Byzantium, later
known as Constantinople. The division made the empire more easily
governable in the short term, but over time the two halves drifted apart. East
and West failed to adequately work together to combat outside threats, and the
two often squabbled over resources and military aid. As the gulf widened, the
largely Greek-speaking Eastern Empire grew in wealth while the Latin-speaking
West descended into economic crisis. They had a religious divide as well. While
both were Christian, The Western Empire was Roman Catholic (Latin
speaking) while the Eastern Empire was Eastern Orthodox (Greek speaking).
ii. The second reason for Rome's collapse is thanks to economic catastrophes.
Constant wars and overspending had drained imperial reserves, and oppressive
taxation and inflation had widened the gap between rich and poor. At the same
time, the empire was rocked by a labour deficit. Rome’s economy depended on
slaves to till its fields and work as craftsmen, and its military might had
traditionally provided a fresh influx of conquered peoples to put to work. But

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 when expansion ground to a halt in the second century, Rome’s supply of slaves
and other war treasures began to dry up.
iii. The third reason for Roman Empires collapse pins it on the many military
losses sustained against outside forces. Rome had fought with Germanic tribes
for centuries. By the 300s, Barbarian groups had made it beyond the Empire’s
borders. The Romans weathered a Germanic uprising in the late fourth century,
but in 410 the Visigoth King Alaric successfully sacked the city of Rome. The
Empire spent the next several decades under constant threat before Rome was
raided again in 455, this time by the Vandals. Finally, in 476, the Germanic
leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed the Emperor Romulus Augustulus.
iv. The fourth reason for Rome's collapse is that it stretched from the Atlantic
Ocean all the way to the Euphrates River in the Middle East. With such a vast
territory to govern, the empire faced an administrative and logistical nightmare.
Even with their excellent road systems, the Romans were unable to
communicate quickly or effectively enough to manage their holdings.
v. The fifth and final reason and the final reason is ineffective and inconsistent
leadership. Being the Roman emperor had always been a dangerous job, but
during the second and third centuries, it nearly became a death sentence. Civil
war thrust the empire into chaos, and more than 20 men took the throne in the
span of only 75 years, usually after the murder of their predecessor. The
corruption also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the
excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and
incompetence. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman
citizens lost trust in their leadership.
vi. The sixth factor One of the many factors that contributed to the fall of the
Roman Empire was the rise of a new religion, Christianity. The Christian
religion, which was monotheistic ran counter to the traditional Roman religion,
which was polytheistic (many gods). At different times, the Romans persecuted
the Christians because of their beliefs, which were popular among the poor. In
313 A.D, Roman emperor Constantine the Great ended all persecution and
declared toleration for Christianity. Later that century, Christianity became the
official state religion of the Empire. This drastic change in policy spread this

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 relatively new religion to every corner of the Empire. By approving Christianity,
the Roman state directly undermined its religious traditions. Finally, by this
time, Romans considered their emperor a god. But the Christian belief in one
god — who was not the emperor — weakened the authority and credibility of the
emperor.
The wave after wave of Germanic barbarian tribes swept through the
Roman Empire. Groups such as the Visigoths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons,
Franks, Ostrogoths, and Lombards took turns ravaging the Empire,
eventually carving out areas in which to settle down. The Angles and
Saxons populated the British Isles, and the Franks ended up in France. In
476 A.D. Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was
overthrown by the Germanic leader called Odoacer, who became the first
Barbarian to rule in Rome. The order, stability and systems that the
Roman Empire had brought to western Europe for 1000 years were no
more.

The Legacy of Roman Civilization

! The Roman alphabet is used by many languages around the

world including the Romance languages and English. It was
first developed by the Etruscans.
! The Renaissance was a time when the art and ideas of
Ancient Rome and Greece were rediscovered after the Middle
Ages.
! Roman numerals are sometimes still used today.
! Latin terms are still commonly used in science, medicine, and
law. Many words in the English language were influenced by
Latin and have Latin roots. Romance languages such as
Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian are of Latin
origin- the word romance comes from the word Roman.
! Christianity; Rome began as a polytheistic civilization
practicing Roman mythology. The monotheistic religion of
Christianity began to spread into the Roman Empire by the
late third century A.D. At first Christians were persecuted,
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 but then Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and
made the religion legal. It became the official religion of the
empire under Emperor Theodosius. The latter part of the
Roman Empire had a great impact on religion in Europe
through the spread of Christianity. Rome was the home of
the Catholic Church which would hold great influence over
Europe for the next thousand years. Today, Christianity is the
largest religion in the world.
! Art; Roman culture valued strength, loyalty, practicality that
was blended with Greek writing styles, concept of artistic
ideal, The Artists created mosaics—pictures made of tiny,
coloured pieces of stone.
! Literature; Romans adopted form of Greek epic—long poem
about a heroʼs adventures. Virgilʼs epic poem the Aeneid is
story of Aeneas—Trojan founder of Rome - modeled on Greek
Odyessy, Iliad. The Statesman Ciceroʼs works include his
speeches. Cicero was master of oratory—art of public speaking
as a means of persuasion.
! Architecture; Ancient Romans built a temple for all the gods
called the Pantheon. This building had a large dome at the
top held up by columns. The Coliseum, another legacy, was a
stadium in Rome used for gladiator fights. The Coliseum
could fit up to 50,000 people and is used today as a model for
sports stadiums. The Roman Forum was an open space used
as a marketplace and a public square. Many temples and
public buildings were built around the Forum. The Roman
structural features were columns, arches, and domes.
! Hygiene; Romans knew that in order to stop the spread of
disease, they had to have conditions that would help keep the
body clean. Public baths were located in every major town.
These baths were used not only for swimming or taking a
bath, but were also the centre of social life. Romans also had
access to a public water system. Water was pumped into the
city and then a sewer system was created to pump out all the
dirty water once it was used. Medical schools were also
created in Rome where medical professionals could learn how
to care for the sick.
! Law; A final Roman legacy was its law system. Early Roman
law helped increase the rights of Roman citizens. Romans
believed that everyone, both the rich and the poor, should
have equal rights under the law. The most important rule of

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Roman law was that a person was considered innocent until proven
guilty. This idea came from the Twelve Tables which was
Rome’s written law code. The laws were carved on twelve
tablets and hung in the Roman Forum.

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Lecture Notes prepared by Rev. Dr. B. Mungai; May-August Semester 2020.
Mantra: A historian is a prophet of the past!