The roman rise to Empire:

Rome’s early history:

The age between Greeks and Romans is the Classic age
Their origin:
After the beginning of the first Millennium B.C.E, the Latins (tribes of Iron Age) invaded the
Italian Peninsula,
By the mid-eighth century B.C.E, these people had founded the city of Rome in the lower
valley of the Tiber River, a strategic spot for them to control the Italian peninsula and to
access the Mediterranean Sea
There were 3 influencers who brought their cultures to enrich Rome and become a well-
organized Empire:
1. Etruscans: unknown origin, established themselves in Northwest Italy, sophisticated,
Hellenize people, experts in Metallurgy, town building, and city planning.
2. Greeks: masters of Philosophy and arts, colonized the tip of the Italian Peninsula
3. Phoenicians: brought the Alphabet, commercial and maritime skills, settled on the
Northern coast of Africa.

Roman Republic (509-133 B.C.E):

First, Etruscan ruled the Latins, after that the Latins threw them away, then a government of the
people was established (res publica).
The agricultural population of ancient Rome consisted of 2 classes:
1. Patricians: powerful class of large Landowners, wealthy, life members of the Roman
Senate, who controlled the lawmaking process.
2. Plebeians (small landowners) and a more populous class of farmers.
- They constituted the membership of a popular assembly.
- They conferred civil and military authority (the imperium) upon two elected
magistrates (called consuls), but its lower-class members had little voice in
government.
- However, they soon gained increasing political influence and they had the right to
contribute in the law-making process. And then to hold executive office, and, finally,
in 287 B.C.E., the privilege of making laws.
- The stern and independent population of Roman farmers had arrived at a res
publica by peaceful means.
- Rome became a Republic after the 2 classes become equal and they started
expanding.
- After invading the Etruscan, Punic wars started with the Phoenicians where it lasted
150 years of intermittent violence that ended with the destruction of Carthage,
Phoenicia’s commercial stronghold where Rome assumed naval and commercial
leadership in the western Mediterranean, the sea they would come to call mare
nostrum (“our sea”)

- Rome seized every opportunity for conquest, and by the end of the first century 
B.C.E., the Empire included most of North Africa, the Iberian peninsula, Greece,
Egypt, much of Southwest Asia, and the territories constituting present-day Europe as
far as the Rhine River.

- Romans were efficient administrators because:

1. Well- organized and strong army for their military defense. They were the
backbone of the empire. They were well-trained, they had effective weapons, they
build a palace from wood, they put their tents, and they were very well disciplined

- During the Republic, the army consisted of citizens who served two-year terms
- By the first century C.E., the military had become a profession to which all free
men might devote twenty-five years (or more) of their lives.

2. Paying their usual taxes: this ensures they will get their rights.

- The Romans brought the Latin language and Roman law to the provinces.
- Their governors were Senates from the higher ranks in the military.
- They built paved roads, freshwater aqueducts, and bridges
- They granted the people of their conquered territories as Roman citizenship.
- They were very respectful and tolerated, have local religion, customs and
government
- They had total freedom to do anything after they do their duties that are set by the
government.

The collapse of the Republic: (133-30 B.C.E)

- By the beginning of the first millennium C.E., Rome had become the watchdog of the
ancient world.

- Roman imperialism affected the Republic itself. By its authority to handle all
military matters, the Senate became increasingly powerful

- Large land owners were given an economic advantage after the increased
agricultural productivity of the Lati-Fundia
 - Lower land owners were driven out of business.

- Small farmers were forced to sell their farms to Patricians to leave them on the land
and this led to the decline of the republic

- Rich people became richer, poor ones became poorer, until the patricians worked on
redistributing the wealth equally

- In 46 B.C.E., Gaius Julius Caesar, an extraordinary army commander triumphantly

entered the city of Rome and established a dictatorship. He had spent nine years
conquering Gaul (present-day France and Belgium), and was as shrewd in politics
brilliant in war.

The Roman Empire (30 B.C.E. -180 C.E.):

- Following the assassination (‫ )اغتيال‬of Julius Caesar, a struggle for power followed
between Mark Anthony, Caesar’s first lieutenant (‫)مالزم‬, (ca.  80–30 B.C.E.), and his
grandnephew (and adopted son) Octavian.

- The Senate, however, awarded him the title Augustus (“the Revered One”). Where
he shared legislative power with the Senate, but retaine+d the right to veto
legislation. Thus, to all intents and purposes, the Republic was defunct (departed).

- Augustus’ reign was in an era of peace and stability, a Pax Romana (Roman Peace);
from 30 b.c.e. to 180 c.e.,

- Rome enjoyed active commercial contact with all parts of the civilized world,
including India and China.
- Augustus tried to restore family values and the begetting of legitimate children, he
passed laws to curb adultery and to prevent bachelors from receiving
inheritances.
- Artistic and literary productivity were increased. Augustus commissioned
literature, sculpture, and architecture
Roman Laws:
- Rome’s contributions to the humanistic tradition were practical rather than
theoretical.
- They inspired engineering programs, such as bridge and road building that united all
regions under Roman rule.
- The development of a system of law was one of Rome’s most original and influential
achievements.
- In 450 b.c.e. the Romans published their first civil code, the Twelve Tables of Law,
where they placed these laws on view in the Forum. They provided Rome’s basic
 legal code for almost a thousand years. Acts of the Assembly and the Senate, and
public decrees of the emperors were added to this law.
- For some 500 years, praetors (magistrates who administered justice) and juris
consults (experts in the law) interpreted the laws, bringing commonsense resolutions
to private disputes. Their interpretations constituted a body of “case law.” They
considered individual needs, and cultivated the concept of equity, which puts the
spirit of the law above its letter.
- The decisions of Roman jurists became precedents that established comprehensive
guidelines for future judgments.
- Thus, Roman law was not fixed, but was an evolving body of opinions on the
nature and dispensation of justice
- The Emperor Justinian would codify this huge body of law, thereafter known as the
Corpus Juris Civilis.
- The Roman system of law influenced the development of codified law in all
European countries.

The Roman Contribution to Literature:

Roman Philosophic Thought
- Stoics: they are the Romans who believed that an impersonal force (Providence or
Divine Reason) governed the world, and that happiness lay in one’s ability to accept
the will of the universe.

- They had the attitude of rational detachment ‫))موقف االنفصال العقالني‬

- They rejected any emotional attachments that might enslave them. They believe that
the ideal spiritual condition and the most conducive to contentment depends on self

- Stoicism offered a reasoned retreat from psychic pain and moral despair, as well as a
practical set of solutions to the daily strife between the self and society
The Arts of the Roman Empire

Roman Architecture

- It reflected the practical needs of a sprawling empire whose urban centers suffered from the
congestion (‫)ازدحام‬, noise, and filth ((‫قذارة‬described by Juvenal (2a7des).
- Roman engineers built 50,000 miles of paved roads to link the provinces from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Euphrates River, many of which are still in use today.
- Roman architecture and engineering were considered one and the same discipline.
- Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture, the oldest and most influential work of its kind,
includes instructions for hydraulic systems, city planning, and mechanical devices.
- For the Roman architect, the function of a building determined its formal design.
The Fall of Rome
The cause of Roman Empire collapse in the fifth century c.e. has intrigued scholars for centuries.
Great many theories have been advanced about the collapse so some claim that it is caused by
- Soil exhaustion and lead poisoning to the malaria epidemic of the third century, and
the absence of a system for legitimate succession to the throne.
But it is said that it was hastened by a combination of internal factors:
1. The overreaching imperial ambitions of its rulers: the difficulties of governing so
huge an empire, one-third to one-half of Rome’s urban population received some
form of public welfare.

2. political and economic problems, the decline of the slave trade, and the increasing
gap between the rich and the poor—during the Pax Romana,

3. The attacks of Germanic tribes on the borders of the Empire: The Empire’s
internal problems were made all the worse by repeated barbarian attacks on Rome’s
borders. The emperors Diocletian (245–316) and Constantine (ca. 274–337) tried, but
failed, to arrest the decline. Finally, in 476, a Germanic army commander led a
successful attack on Rome and deposed the reigning Roman emperor, Romulus
Augustulus.

GLOSSARY:
Atrium: the inner courtyard of a Roman house, usually colonnaded and open to the sky
Imperium (Latin, “command,” “empire”) the civil and military authority exercised by the rulers
of ancient Rome (and the root of the English words “imperialism” and “empire”); symbolized in
ancient Rome by an eagle-headed scepter and the fasces, an ax bound in a bundle of rods
Pastoral pertaining to the country, to shepherds, and the simple rural life; also, any work of art
presenting an idealized picture of country life
res publica (Latin, “of the people”) a government in which power resides in citizens entitled to
vote and is exercised by