Roman Civilization

• It became one of the largest empires in the ancient world.

• Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural
community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC.
• Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to an
increasingly autocratic empire.
• The Roman civilization started along the Tiber River, in the west of Italy
• Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural
and human resources.
• Roman civilization is often grouped into "classical antiquity" with ancient
Greece, a civilization that inspired much of the culture of ancient Rome.
• Ancient Rome contributed greatly to the development
of law, war, art, literature, architecture, technology, religion,
and language in the Western world, and its history continues to have a major
influence on the world today.
• With the rise of the Roman political power the Latin language became
popular.
• Roman society is largely viewed as hierarchical, with slaves (servi) at the
bottom, freedmen (liberti) above them, and free-born citizens (cives) at the
top.
• The primary aim of education during this period was to train young men
in agriculture, warfare, Roman traditions, and public affairs.
• Sometime around 1st millennium BC some other tribe, probably from the
eastern Mediterranean side, came and settled in Etruria (now Toscana or
Tuscany) on the northwestern side of the river Tiber and These people were
called the Etruscans.
• They promoted trade and gave the idea of the citizen assembly. Under
their rule, Rome grew into a prosperous city.
• Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical
proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism.
• The Romans expanded their empire, gained full control over the
Mediterranean coasts up to Spain, and conquered Greece and Macedonia by
140 BC.
• Julius Caesar became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by pushing off
the others; but he was assassinated by a group of Republican aristocrats in
44 BC.
• Octavian (heir of Julius Caesar) took over the reign with the alliance of two
more army officers including Mark Anthony who fell in love with Cleopatra
(the Queen of Egypt).
• The Roman Empire reached its height between 100 to 180 AD in power and
prosperity and all of the neighboring countries of the Mediterranean
including Jerusalem were under its regime.
• There was a period of chaos in the emperorship between 235 to 286 AD
when any powerful person or officer could seize the power by force and
overthrow his rival.
• Roman Empire was split into two sections, Eastern and Western, with
separate emperorships For the convenience of administration the.
• They also introduced a calendar around 738 BC that had only 10 months in
a year, and a year had only 304 days.
• In 80 AD, they built a four story open amphitheater in Rome with a 50,000
seating capacity, called the Colosseum.
• Before 300 AD, in the Roman empire, most of the people worshipped a
number of traditional gods and goddesses like: Jupiter, Juno, Pluto, Bacchus,
Diana and Venus, etc.
• In 313 AD Constantine I accepted the Christian religion and since then
Christianity flourished.
• When Theodosius died in 395 AD, the Roman Empire was permanently split
into two Empires, East and West, and Christianity was accepted as their state
religion.
• Thus, in 509 BC the Romans took over the rule of Rome by throwing out
the last king of the Etruscans and started the Roman Republic