Ancient Rome was a
civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the
Italian Peninsula circa the
9th century BC to a massive
empire straddling the
Mediterranean Sea. In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a
monarchy, to a
republic based on a combination of
oligarchy and
democracy, to an
autocratic empire. It came to dominate
Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea through
conquest and
assimilation.
The
Roman empire went into decline in the
5th century AD. The
western part of the empire, including
Hispania,
Gaul, and Italy, broke into independent kingdoms in the
5th century. The eastern empire, governed from
Constantinople, is usually referred to as the
Byzantine Empire after
476. This is the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and for the onset of the
Early Middle Ages, also known as the
Dark Ages.
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 and
language in the
Western world, and its
history continues to have a major influence on the world today.
History
Monarchy
According to
legend, Rome was
founded on
April 21,
753 BC by twin descendants of the
Trojan prince
Aeneas,
Romulus and Remus.
[Adkins, 1998. page 3.] The Latin King
Numitor of
Alba Longa was ejected from his throne by his cruel brother
Amulius and Numitor's daughter,
Rhea Silvia, gave birth to Romulus and Remus.
[The Founding of Rome . Accessed 2007-3-8.][Livy, 1998. page 8.] Rhea Silvia was a
Vestal Virgin who was raped by
Mars, making the twins
half-divine. The new king feared that Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so they were to be drowned.
[Livy, 1998. page 8.] A she-wolf (or a shepard's wife in some accounts) saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
[Durant, 1944. Pages 12-14.][Livy, 1998. pages 9-10.] The twins then founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over which one of them was to reign as the first of seven
Kings of Rome, as well as become the source of the city's name.
[Livy, 1998. pages 10-11.] As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the
Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines.
[Myths and Legends- Rome, the Wolf, and Mars . Accessed 2007-3-8.]
The city of
Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the river
Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade.
[a] According to
archaeological evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded sometime 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.
[[Matyszak, 2003. page 19.][Duiker, 2001. page 129.] 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 the aristocratic and monarchial elite. The Etruscans apparently lost power in the area 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.
[''Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire'' by Michael Kerrigan. Dorling Kindersley, London: 2001. ISBN 0-7894-8153-7. page 12.]
Republic
The
Roman Republic was established around
609 BC, according to later writers such as
Livy, when the last of the seven kings of Rome,
Tarquin the Proud, was deposed, and a system based on annually-elected
magistrates and various representative assemblies was established.
[Matyszak, 2003. pages 43-44.] A
constitution of the Roman Republic 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 in the form of ''
imperium'', or military command.
[Adkins, 1998. pages 41-42.] The consuls had to contend with the
Senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or
patricians, but grew in size and power over time.
[Rome: The Roman Republic by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 1999-6-6. Accessed 2007-3-24.] Other magistracies in the Republic include
praetors,
aediles, and
quaestors.
[Magistratus by George Long, M.A. Appearing on pages 723-724 of ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' by William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D. Published by John Murray, London, 1875. Website written 2006-12-8. Accessed 2007-3-24.] The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or
plebeians.
[Livy II] 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.
[Adkins, 1998. page 39.]
The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the
Etruscans.
[Haywood, 1971. pages 350-358.] 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.
[Pyrrhus of Epirus (2) and Pyrrhus of Epirus (3) by Jona Lendering. Livius.org. Accessed 2007-3-21.][Haywood, 1971. pages 357-358.] The Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman colonies in strategic areas, establishing stable control over the region.
[Haywood, 1971. page 351.] In the second half of the
3rd century BC, Rome clashed with
Carthage in the first of three
Punic Wars. These wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests, of
Sicily and
Hispania, and the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power.
[Haywood, 1971. pages 376-393.][Rome: The Punic Wars by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 1999-6-6. Accessed 2007-3-22.] After defeating the
Macedonian and
Seleucid Empires in the
2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the
Mediterranean Sea.
[Bagnall 1990][Rome: The Conquest of the Hellenistic Empires by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 1999-6-6. Accessed 2007-3-22.]
But foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at the
provinces' expense, but soldiers, who were mostly small-scale farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land, and the increased reliance on foreign
slaves and the growth of ''
latifundia'' reduced the availability of paid work.
[Duiker, 2001. pages 136-137.][Fall of the Roman Republic, 133-27 BC . Purdue University. Accessed 2007-3-24.] Income from war booty,
mercantilism in the new provinces, and
tax farming created new economic opportunities for the wealthy, forming a new class of
merchants, the
equestrians.
[Eques (Knight) by Jona Lendering. Livius.org. Accessed 2007-3-24.] The ''
lex Claudia'' forbade members of the Senate from engaging in commerce, so while the equestrians could theoretically join the Senate, they were severely restricted in terms of political power.
[Adkins, 1998. page 38.][a] The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocking important
land reforms and refusing to give the equestrian class a larger say in the government. Violent gangs of the urban unemployed, controlled by rival Senators, intimidated the electorate through violence. The situation came to a head in the late
2nd century BC under the
Gracchi brothers, a pair of
tribunes who attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. Both brothers were killed, but the Senate passed some of their reforms in an attempt to placate the growing unrest of the plebeian and equestrian classes. The denial of
Roman citizenship to allied Italian cities led to the
Social War of
91–
88 BC.
[Durant, 1944. pages 120-122.] The military reforms of
Gaius Marius resulted in soldiers often having more loyalty to their commander than to the city, and a powerful general could hold the city and Senate ransom.
[Long-lasting Effects of Removal of Land Requirement . Accessed 2007-3-23.] This led to civil war between Marius and his protegé
Sulla, and culminated in Sulla's
dictatorship of
81-
79 BC.
[Scullard 1982, chapters I-IV]
In the mid-
1st century BC, three men,
Julius Caesar,
Pompey, and
Crassus, formed a secret pact—the
First Triumvirate—to control the Republic. After Caesar's
conquest of Gaul, a stand-off between Caesar and the Senate led to
civil war, with Pompey leading the Senate's forces. Caesar emerged victorious, and was made
dictator for life.
[Scullard 1982, chapters VI-VII] In
44 BC, Caesar was
assassinated by senators who opposed Caesar's assumption of absolute power and wanted to restore constitutional government, but in the aftermath a
Second Triumvirate, consisting of Caesar's designated heir,
Octavian, and his former supporters,
Mark Antony and
Lepidus, took power.
[Julius Caesar (100BC - 44BC) . bbc.co.uk. Accessed 2007-3-21.][Augustus (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.) by Garrett G. Fagan. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 2004-7-5. Accessed 2007-3-21.]
However, this alliance soon descended into a struggle for dominance. Lepidus was
exiled, and when Octavian defeated Antony and
Cleopatra of
Egypt at the
Battle of Actium in
31 BC, he became the undisputed ruler of Rome.
[Scullard 1982, chapter VIII]
Empire
With his enemies defeated, Octavian took the name ''Augustus'' and assumed almost absolute power, retaining only a pretense of the Republican form of government.
[Augustus (63 BC. - AD 14) from bbc.co.uk. Accessed 2007-3-12] His designated successor,
Tiberius, took power without serious opposition, establishing the
Julio-Claudian dynasty, which lasted until the death of
Nero in
68.
[Duiker, 2001. page 140.] The territorial expansion of what was now the
Roman Empire continued, and the state remained secure,
[The Julio-Claudian Dynasty (27 B.C.-68 A.D.) . by the Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Written October, 2000. Accessed 2007-3-18.] despite a series of emperors widely viewed as depraved and corrupt (for example,
Caligula is argued by some to have been insane and
Nero had a reputation for cruelty and being more interested in his private concerns than the affairs of the state
[Nero (54-68 A.D.) by Herbert W. Benario. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 2006-11-10. Accessed 2007-3-18]). Their rule was followed by the
Flavian dynasty.
[Suetonius] During the reign of the "
Five Good Emperors" (
96–
180), the Empire reached its territorial, economic, and cultural
zenith.
[Five Good Emperors from UNRV History. Accessed 2007-3-12.] The state was secure from both internal and external threats, and the Empire prospered during the
Pax Romana ("Roman Peace").
[O'Connell, 1989. page 81.][Lecture 12: Augustus Caesar and the Pax Romana by Steven Kreis. The History Guide. Written 2006-2-28. Accessed 2007-3-21.] With the conquest of
Dacia during the reign of
Trajan, the Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion; Rome's dominion now spanned 2.5 million square miles (6.5 million
km²).
[Scarre 1995]
The period between
193 and
235 was dominated by the
Severan dynasty, and saw several incompetent rulers, such as
Elagabalus.
[Haywood, 1971. pages 589-592.] This and the increasing influence of the army on imperial succession led to a long period of imperial collapse and external invasions known as the
Crisis of the Third Century.
[Crisis of the Third Century (235-285) ''History of Western Civilization'', by E.L. Skip Knox, Boise State University. Accessed 2007-3-20.][Haywood, 1971. pages 592-596.] The crisis was ended by the more competent rule of
Diocletian, who in
293 divided the Empire into an eastern and western half ruled by a
tetrarchy of two co-emperors and their two junior colleagues.
[Diocletian ( 284-305 A.D.) by Ralph W. Mathisen. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 1997-3-17. Accessed 2007-3-20.] The various co-rulers of the Empire competed and fought for supremacy for more than half a century. On
May 11,
330, Emperor
Constantine I firmly established
Byzantium as the capital of the
Roman Empire and renamed it
Constantinople.
[Constantine I (306 - 337 A.D.) by Hans A. Pohlsander. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 2004-1-8. Accessed 2007-3-20.] The Empire was permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire (later known as the
Byzantine Empire) and the
Western Roman Empire in
395.
[Honorius (395-423 A.D.) by Ralph W. Mathisen. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 1999-6-2. Accessed 2007-3-21.]
The Western Empire was constantly harassed by
barbarian invasions, and the gradual
decline of the Roman Empire continued over the centuries.
[Duiker, 2001. page 155.] In the fourth century, the westward migration of the
Huns caused the
Visigoths to seek refuge within the borders of the Roman Empire.
[The Germanic Invasions of Western Europe The University of Calgary. Written August 1996. Accessed 2007-3-22.] In
410, the
Visigoths, under the leadership of
Alaric I, sacked the city of Rome itself.
[Lapham, Lewis (1997). ''The End of the World.'' New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-25264-1. pages 47-50.] The
Vandals invaded Roman provinces in Gaul, Spain, and northern Africa, and in
455 sacked Rome.
[Duiker, 2001. page 157.] On
September 4,
476, the Germanic chief
Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west,
Romulus Augustus, to abdicate.
[Romulus Augustulus (475-476 A.D.)--Two Views by Ralph W. Mathisen and Geoffrey S. Nathan. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 1997-8-26. Accessed 2007-3-22.] Having lasted for approximately 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the
West came to an end.
[Durant, 1944. page 670.]
The Eastern Empire, by contrast, would suffer a similar fate, though not as drastic.
Justinian managed to briefly reconquer
Northern Africa and
Italy, but Byzantine possessions in the West were reduced to southern Italy and
Sicily within a few years after Justinian's death.
[Duiker, 2001. page 347.] In the east the Byzantines were threatened by the rise of
Islam, whose followers rapidly conquered territories in
Syria and
Egypt and soon presented a direct threat to Constantinople.
[The Byzantine Empire by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 1999-6-6. Accessed 2007-4-8.] The Byzantines, however, managed to stop Islamic expansion into their lands during the
8th century, and beginning in the
9th century reclaimed the conquered lands.
[Duiker, 2001. page 349.][a] In 1000 A.D. the eastern Empire was at its height:
Basileios II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia, culture and trade flourished.
[Basil II (A.D. 976-1025) by Catherine Holmes. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 2003-4-1. Accessed 2007-3-22.] However, soon after the expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 at the
Battle of Manzikert. This finally lead the empire into a dramatic decline. Several centuries of internal strife and
Turkic invasions ultimately paved the way for Emperor
Alexius I Comnenus to send a call for help to the West in 1095.
[The Byzantine Empire by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 1999-6-6. Accessed 2007-4-8.] The West responded with the
Crusades, eventually resulting in the
Sack of Constantinople by participants in the
Fourth Crusade. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 would see the fragmentation of what little remained of the empire into successor states, the ultimate victor being that of
Nicaea.
[Gibbon, Edward. ''History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. Chapter 61 . Accessed 2007-4-11.] After the recapture of Constantinople by imperial forces, the empire was little more than a Greek state confined to the
Aegean coast. The Eastern Empire came to an end when
Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on
May 29,
1453.
[Mehmet II by Korkut Ozgen. Theottomans.org. Accessed 2007-4-3.]
Society
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
fountains with fresh drinking-water supplied by hundreds of miles of
aqueducts,
theatres,
gymnasiums,
bath complexes complete with
libraries and shops, marketplaces, and functional sewers. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome,
residential architecture ranged from very 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" is derived. The low and middle classes lived in the city center, packed into
apartments, which were almost like modern
ghettos.
The imperial city of Rome was the largest urban center of its time, with a population of about one million people (about the size of London in the early 19th century, when London was the largest city in the world), with some high-end estimates of 14 million and low-end estimates of 450,000.
[Duiker, 2001. page 149.][''Abstrat of'' The population of ancient Rome. by Glenn R. Storey. HighBeam Research. Written 1997-12-1. Accessed 2007-4-22.][The Population of Rome by Whitney J. Oates. Originally published in ''Classical Philology''. ]
Vol. 29, No. 2 (Apr. 1934), pp101‑116. Accessed 2007-4-22. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron
chariot wheels that
Julius Caesar had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic during the day. Historical estimates indicate that around 20 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome (25% to 40%, depending the standards used, in Roman Italy
[N.Morley, ''Metropolis and Hinterland'' (Cambridge, 1996) 174-83]) lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial standards. Most of these centers had a
forum and temples and same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome.
Government
Initially, Rome was ruled by
kings, who were elected from each of Rome's major tribes in turn.
[Matyszak, 2003. pages 16-42.] The exact nature of the king's power is uncertain. He may have held near-absolute power, or may also have merely been the
chief executive of the
Senate and the people. At least in military matters, the king's authority (''
Imperium'') was likely absolute. He was also the head of the
state religion. In addition to the authority of the King, there were three administrative assemblies: the
Senate, which acted as an advisory body for the King; the
Comitia Curiata, which could endorse and ratify
laws suggested by the King; and the
Comitia Calata, which was an assembly of the priestly college which could assemble the people in order to bear witness to certain acts, hear proclamations, and declare the
feast and holiday schedule for the next month.
The
class struggles of the
Roman Republic resulted in an unusual mixture of
democracy and
oligarchy. The word republic comes from the Latin ''res publica'' which literally translates to public business. Roman laws traditionally could only be passed by a vote of the Popular assembly (
Comitia Tributa). Likewise, candidates for public positions had to run for election by the people. However, the
Roman Senate represented an oligarchic
institution, which acted as an advisory body. In the Republic, the Senate held great authority (''auctoritas''), but no actual legislative power; it was technically only an advisory council. However, as the Senators were individually very influential, it was difficult to accomplish anything against the collective will of the Senate. New Senators were chosen from among the most accomplished
patricians by
Censors (''Censura''), who could also remove a Senator from his office if he was found "morally corrupt"; a charge that could include
bribery or, as under
Cato the Elder, embracing one's wife in public. Later, under the reforms of the dictator
Sulla,
Quaestors were made automatic members of the Senate, though most of his reforms did not survive.
The Republic had no fixed
bureaucracy, and collected
taxes through the practice of
tax farming. Government positions such as
quaestor,
aedile, or
praefect were funded from the office-holder's private finances. In order to prevent any citizen from gaining too much power, new
magistrates were elected annually and had to share power with a colleague. For example, under normal conditions, the highest authority was held by two
consuls. In an emergency, a temporary
dictator could be appointed.
[ Throughout the Republic, the administrative system was revised several times to comply with new demands. In the end, it proved inefficient for controlling the ever-expanding dominion of Rome, contributing to the establishment of the Roman Empire.]
In the early Empire, the pretense of a republican form of government was maintained. The Roman Emperor was portrayed as only a 'princeps', or "first citizen", and the Senate gained legislative power and all legal authority previously held by the popular assemblies. However, the rule of the emperors became increasingly autocratic over time, and the Senate was reduced to an advisory body appointed by the emperor. The Empire did not inherit a set bureaucracy from the Republic, since the Republic did not have any permanent governmental structures apart from the Senate. The Emperor appointed assistants and advisers, but the state lacked many institutions, such as a centrally-planned budget. Some historians have cited this as a significant reason for the decline of the Roman Empire.
The territory of the Empire was divided into provinces. The number of provinces increased with time, both as new territories were conquered and as provinces were divided into smaller units to discourage rebellions by powerful local rulers.[ Upon the rise of Augustus and the Principate, the provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial provinces, depending on which institution had the right to select the governor. During the Tetrarchy, the provinces of the empire were divided into 12 dioceses, each headed by a ''praetor vicarius''. The civilian and military authority were separated, with civilian matters still administered by the governor, but with military command transferred to a ''dux''.]
On a local level, towns were divided into colonia, colonies composed of former soldiers or members of the Roman underclass, and ''municipia'', towns composed of enfranchised provincials. These cities were given constitutions based on the Roman model, with the elected ''duovirs'' and ''aediles'' serving as magistrates, and with the local ''curia'', appointed from men of property for life, serving in an advisory capability, similar to the Senate.
Law
The roots of the legal principles and practices of the ancient Romans may be traced to the law of the
twelve tables (from
449 BC) to the
codification of Emperor
Justinian I (around
530 AD). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes continued into the
Byzantine Empire, and formed the basis of similar codifications in continental
Western Europe. Roman law continued, in a broader sense, to be applied throughout most of Europe until the end of the
17th century.
The major divisions of the law of ancient Rome, as contained within the Justinian and Theodosian law codes, consisted of ''Ius Civile'', ''Ius Gentium'', and ''Ius Naturale''. The ''Ius Civile'' ("Citizen law") was the body of common laws that applied to Roman citizens.
[Adkins, 1998. page 46.] The
''Praetores Urbani'' (''sg. Praetor Urbanus'') were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens. The ''Ius Gentium'' ("Law of nations") was the body of common laws that applied to foreigners, and their dealings with Roman citizens.
[Duiker, 2001. page 146.] The
''Praetores Peregrini'' (''sg. Praetor Peregrinus'') were the individuals who had jurisdiction over cases involving citizens and foreigners. ''Ius Naturale'' encompassed natural law, the body of laws that were considered common to all being.
Economy
Ancient Rome commanded a vast area of land, with tremendous natural and
human resources. As such, Rome's economy remained focused on
agriculture and
trade. Agricultural
free trade changed the Italian landscape, and by the
1st century BC, vast
grape and
olive estates had supplanted the
yeoman farmers, who were unable to match the imported grain price. The
annexation of
Egypt,
Sicily and
Tunisia in
North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains. In turn,
olive oil and
wine were Italy's main
exports. Two-tier
crop rotation was practiced, but farm productivity was overall low, around 1 ton per
hectare.
Industrial and
manufacturing activities were smaller. The largest such activity were the
mining and
quarrying of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the buildings of that period. In manufacturing, production was on a relatively small scale, and generally consisted of workshops and small factories that employed at most dozens of workers. However, some
brick factories employed hundreds of workers.
Some economic historians (like
Peter Temin) argue that the economy of the Early Roman Empire was a market economy and one of the most advanced agricultural economies to have existed (in terms of productivity, urbanization and development of capital markets), comparable to the most advanced economies of the world before the
industrial revolution, the economies of
18th-century England and
17th-century Netherlands. There were markets for every type of good, for land, for cargo ships; there was even an insurance market.
The economy of the early Republic was largely based on smallholding and paid labor. However, foreign wars and conquests made
slaves increasingly cheap and plentiful, and by the late Republic, the economy was largely dependent on slave labor for both skilled and unskilled work. Slaves are estimated to have constituted around 20% of the Roman Empire's population at this time and 40% in the city of Rome. Only in the Roman Empire, when the conquests stopped and the prices of slaves increased, did hired labor become more economical than slave ownership.
Although
barter was used in ancient Rome, and often used in tax collection, Rome had a very developed
coinage system, with
brass,
bronze, and
precious metal coins in circulation throughout the Empire and beyond—some have even been discovered in
India. Before the
3rd century BC,
copper was traded by weight, measured in unmarked lumps, across central Italy. The original copper coins (''
as'') had a face value of one
Roman pound of copper, but weighed less. Thus, Roman money's utility as a unit of exchange consistently exceeded its
intrinsic value as metal. After
Nero began debasing the silver
denarius, its
legal value was an estimated one-third greater than its intrinsic.
Horses were too expensive, and other
pack animals too slow, for mass trade on the
Roman roads, which connected military posts rather than markets, and were rarely designed for wheels. As a result, there was little transport of
commodities between Roman regions until the rise of
Roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC. During that period, a trading vessel took less than a month to complete a trip from
Gades to
Alexandria via
Ostia, spanning the entire length of the
Mediterranean.
[ Transport by sea was around 60 times cheaper than by land, so the volume for such trips was much larger.]
Class structure
Roman society was strictly
hierarchical, with
slaves (''servī'') at the bottom,
freedmen (''libertī'') above them, and free-born citizens (''civēs'') at the top. Free citizens were themselves also divided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between the
patricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100
Patriarchs at the founding of the city, and the
plebeians, who could not. This became less important in the later Republic, as some plebeian families became wealthy and entered politics, and some patrician families fell on hard times. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a consul as his ancestor was a
noble (''nobilis''); a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such as
Marius or
Cicero, was known as a ''
novus homo'' ("new man") and ennobled his descendants. Patrician ancestry, however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices remained restricted to patricians.
A class division originally based on military service became more important. Membership of these classes was determined periodically by the
Censors, according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated politics and command of the army. Next came the
equestrians (''equites'', sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse, who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally based on what military equipment their members could afford, followed, with the ''proletarii'', citizens who had no property at all, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just barely above freed slaves in terms of wealth and prestige.
Voting power in the Republic was dependent on class. Citizens were enrolled in voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the poorer ones, all the ''proletarii'' being enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order and stopped as soon as a majority of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable even to cast their votes.
Allied foreign cities were often given the
Latin Right, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (''peregrini''), which gave their citizens rights under Roman law and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of Latin rights, the main division was between those ''con suffrage'' ("with vote"; enrolled in a Roman tribe and able to take part in the ''comitia tributa'') and ''sans suffrage'' (without vote; unable to take part in Roman politics). Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after the
Social War of
91–
88 BC, and full
Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by
Caracalla in
212. Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or participate in politics.
Family
The basic units of Roman society were
households and
families.
[Duiker, 2001. page 146.] Households included the head (usually the father) of the household, ''
paterfamilias'' (father of the family), his wife, children, and other relatives. In the upper classes, slaves and servants were also part of the household.
The head of the household had great power (''patria potestas'', "father's power") over those living with him: He could force marriage and divorce, sell his children into slavery, claim his dependents' property as his own, and even had the right to kill family members (though this last right apparently ceased to be exercised after the
first century B.C.).
[Casson, 1998. pages 10-11.]
''Patria potestas'' even extended over adult sons with their own households: A man was not considered a ''paterfamilias'', nor could he truly hold property, while his own father lived.
[Family Values in Ancient Rome by Richard Saller. The University of Chicago Library Digital Collections: Fathom Archive. Written 2001. Visited 2007-4-14.] During the early period of Rome's history, a daughter, when she married, fell under the control (''manus'') of the ''paterfamilias'' of her husband's household, although by the late Republic this fell out of fashion, as a woman could choose to continue recognizing her father's family as her true family.
[Adkins, 1998. page 339.] However, as Romans reckoned
descent through the male line, any children she had would belong to her husband's family.
[Adkins, 1998. page 340.]
Groups of related households formed a family (
gens). Families were based on blood ties (or
adoption), but were also political and economic alliances. Especially during the
Roman Republic, some powerful families, or ''
Gentes Maiores'', came to dominate political life.
Ancient Roman marriage was often regarded more as a financial and political alliance than as a romantic association, especially in the upper classes. Fathers usually began seeking husbands for their daughters when they reached an age between twelve and fourteen. The husband was almost always older than the bride. While upper class girls married very young, there is evidence that lower class women often married in their late teens or early twenties.
Education
In the early Republic, there were no public schools, so boys were taught to read and write by their parents, or by educated slaves, called ''
paedagogi'', usually of
Greek origin.
[Lecture 13: A Brief Social History of the Roman Empire by Steven Kreis. Written 2006-10-11. Accessed 2007-4-2.][Adkins, 1998. page 211.][Werner, 1978. page 31.] The primary aim of education during this period was to train young men in
agriculture,
warfare,
Roman traditions, and public affairs.
[a] Young boys learnt much about civic life by accompanying their fathers to religious and political functions, including the Senate for the sons of nobles.
[a] The sons of nobles were apprenticed to a prominent political figure at the age of 16, and campaigned with the army from the age of 17 (this system would still be in use among some noble families well into the imperial era).
[a] Educational practices were modified following the conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Third Century BC and the resulting Greek influence, although it should be noted that Roman educational practices were still significantly different from Greek ones.
[Duiker, 2001. page 143.][a] If their parents could afford it, boys and some girls at the age of 7 were sent to a private school outside the home called a ''
lūdus'', where a teacher (called a ''litterator'' or a
''magister ludi'', and often of Greek origin) taught them basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and sometimes Greek, until the age of 11.
[Roman Education . Latin ExCET Preparation. Texas Classical Association. Written by Ginny Lindzey, September 1998. Accessed 2007-3-27.][a] Beginning at age 12, students went to secondary schools, where the teacher (now called a ''grammaticus'') taught them about
Greek and
Roman literature.
[a][a] At the age of 16, some students went on to
rhetoric school (where the teacher, almost always Greek, was called a ''
rhetor'').
[a][a] Education at this level prepared students for legal careers, and required that the students memorize the laws of Rome.
[a] Pupils went to school every day, except religious festivals and market days. There were also summer holidays.
Culture
Language
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.
[Latin Online: Series Introduction by Winfred P. Lehmann and Jonathan Slocum. Linguistics Research Center. The University of Texas at Austin. Written 2007-2-15. Accessed 2007-4-1.] Its
alphabet was based on the
Etruscan alphabet, which was in turn based on the
Greek alphabet.
[The Latin Alphabet by J. B. Calvert. University of Denver. Written 1999-8-8. Accessed 2007-4-1.] 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 actual spoken language of the Roman Empire was
Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in
grammar and
vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.
[Classical Latin Supplement . page 2. Accessed 2007-4-2.]
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.
[Adkins, 1998. page 203.] The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and
dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct
Romance languages.
Although Latin is an
extinct language with very few remaining fluent speakers, it remains in use in many ways, such as through
Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional language of the
Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the
Vatican City. Additionally, even after fading from common usage Latin maintained a role as western Europe's ''
lingua franca'', an international language of
academia and
diplomacy. Although eventually supplanted in this respect by
French in the
19th century and
English in the
20th, Latin continues to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology—it has been estimated that 80% of all scholarly English words derive directly or indirectly from Latin.
Religion
Archaic
Roman religion, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of written
narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans.
[Matyszak, 2003. page 24.] 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 held to be gods, and the formalized
imperial cult became increasingly prominent.
As contact with the
Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became increasingly associated with Greek gods.
[Willis, 2000. page 168.] 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. The transferral of
anthropomorphic qualities to Roman Gods, and the prevalence of
Greek philosophy among well-educated Romans, brought about an increasing neglect of the old rites, and in the
1st century BC, the religious importance of the old priestly offices declined rapidly, though their civic importance and political influence remained. Roman religion in the empire tended more and more to center on the imperial house, and several emperors were
deified after their deaths.
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.
[Willis, 2000. page 166.] Numerous foreign
cults grew popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian
Isis and the
Persian Mithras. Beginning in the 2nd century,
Christianity began to spread in the Empire, despite initial
persecution. Beginning with Emperor
Nero, 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
Constantine I and became exponentially popular. After a brief and unsuccessful pagan revival by the emperor
Julian the Apostate[Julian the Apostate (360-363 A.D.) by Walter Roberts and Michael DiMaio, Jr. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 2002-2-19. Accessed 2007-4-4.] Christianity became the permanent religion of the empire. All religions except Christianity were prohibited in
391 by an edict of Emperor
Theodosius I.
[Theodosius I (379-395 A.D.) by David Woods. De Imperatoribus Romanis. Written 1999-2-2. Accessed 2007-4-4.]
Art, music and literature
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.
[Adkins, 1998. pages 350-352.][Roman Painting from Timeline of Art History. Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Written 2004-10. Accessed 2007-4-22.] 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
second century BCE to the early or mid
first century BCE. 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
first century BCE, and attempted to realistically depict three-dimensional architectural features and landscapes. The Third Style occurred during the reign of
Augustus (27 BCE.–14 CE), 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
monochrome background. The Fourth Style, which began in the
first century CE, 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, more ornate hair and bearding became prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also made in relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.
Latin literature was from its very inception 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. [Chronology: Ancient and Medieval: Ancient Rome . iClassics. Excerpt from ''A History of Western Music, Fifth Edition'' by Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: 1960. Accessed 2007-4-22.] In the Roman military, musical instruments such as the ''tuba'' (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.[Adkins, 1998. page 89.] 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).[Adkins, 1998. page 349-350.] The majority of religious rituals featured musical performances, with ''tibiae'' (double pipes) at sacrifices, cymbals and tambourines at orgiastic cults, and rattles and hymns across the spectrum.[Adkins, 1998. page 300.] Some music historians believe that music was used at almost all public ceremonies.[Chronology: Ancient and Medieval: Ancient Rome . iClassics. Excerpt from A History of Western Music, Fifth Edition by Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: 1960.] Music historians are not certain as to whether or not 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 very sex-saturated culture.[Grant, 2005. pages 130-134.]
Games and activities
The youth of Rome had several forms of play and exercise, such
jumping,
wrestling,
boxing, and
racing.
[Casson, 1998. pages 98-108.] In the countryside, pastimes for the wealthy also included fishing and hunting.
[Daily Life: Entertainment . SPQR Online. Written 1998. Accessed 2007-4-22.] The Romans also had several forms of ball playing, including one resembling
handball.
[ Dice games, board games, and gamble games were extremely popular pastimes.][ Women did not participate in these activities. For the wealthy, dinner parties presented an opportunity for enterntainment, sometimes featuring music, dancing, and poetry readings.][Adkins, 1998. page 350.] Plebeians sometimes enjoyed such parties through clubs or associations, although recreational dining usually meant patronizing taverns.[ Children entertained themselves with toys and such games as leapfrog.]
A popular form of entertainment were gladiatorial combats. Gladiators fought either to the death, or to "first blood" with a variety of weapons and in a variety of different scenarios. These fights achieved their height of popularity under the emperor Claudius, who placed the final outcome of the combat firmly in the hands of the emperor with a hand gesture. Contrary to popular representations in film, several experts believe the gesture for death was not "thumbs down". Although no one is certain as to what the gestures were, some experts conclude that the emperor would signify "death" by holding a raised fist to the winning combatant and then extending his thumb upwards, while "mercy" was indicated by a raised fist with no extended thumb.[The Gladiator and the Thumb . Encyclopedia Romana. University of Chicago. Accessed 2007-4-24.] Animal shows were also popular with the Romans, where foreign animals were either displayed for the public or combined with gladiatorial combat. A prisoner or gladiator, armed or unarmed, was thrown into the arena and an animal was released.
The ''Circus Maximus'', another popular site in Rome, was primarily used for horse and chariot racing, and when the circus was flooded, there were even sea battles. It was also used in many other events.[Circus Maximus . Encyclopedia Romana. University of Chicago. Accessed 2007-4-19.] It could hold up to 385,000 people;[Athena Review I,4: Romans on the Rhône: Arles ] people all over Rome would visit it. Two temples, one with seven large eggs and one with seven dolphins, lay in the middle of the track of Circus Maximus, and whenever the racers made a lap, one of each would be removed. This was done to keep the spectators and the racers informed on the race statistics. Other than sports, the Circus Maximus was also an area of marketing and gambling. Higher authorities, like the emperor, also attended games in the Circus Maximus, as it was rude not to. They, knights, and many other people who were involved with the race sat in reserved seats located above everyone else. It was also found rude for emperors to root for a team. The Circus Maximus was created in 600 BC and hosted the last horse racing game in 549 AD, lasting for over a millennium.
Technology
Ancient Rome boasted the most impressive technological feats of its day, using many advancements that would be lost in the
Middle Ages and not be rivaled again until the
19th and
20th centuries. But though adept at adopting and synthesizing other cultures' technologies, the Roman civilization was not especially innovative or progressive. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier Greek designs. New ideas were rarely developed. Roman society considered the articulate soldier who could wisely govern a large household the ideal, and
Roman law made no provisions for
intellectual property or the promotion of invention. The concept of "scientists" and "engineers" did not yet exist, and advancements were often divided based on craft, as groups of
artisans jealously guarded new technologies as
trade secrets. Nevertheless, a number of vital technological breakthroughs were spread and thoroughly used by Rome, contributing to an enormous degree to Rome's dominance and lasting influence in Europe.
Architecture
The Romans were particularly renowned for their
architecture, which is grouped with Greek traditions into "
Classical architecture". During the Roman Republic, it remained stylistically almost identical to
Greek architecture. Although there were many differences from Greek architecture, Rome borrowed heavily from Greece in adhering to strict, formulaic building designs and proportions. Aside from two new
orders of columns,
composite and
Tuscan, and from the
dome, which was derived from the
Etruscan arch, Rome had relatively few architectural innovations until the end of the Republic.
Then, in the
1st century BC, Romans started to widely use
concrete, invented in the late
3rd century BC. It was a powerful
cement derived from
pozzolana, and soon supplanted
marble as the chief Roman building material and allowed many daring architectural schemata. Also in the 1st century BC,
Vitruvius wrote ''
De architectura'', possibly the first complete treatise on architecture in history. In late 1st century BC, Rome also began to use
glassblowing soon after its invention in
Syria about 50 BC.
Mosaics took the Empire by storm after samples were retrieved during
Lucius Cornelius Sulla's campaigns in Greece.
Article on history of Roman concrete
Roads
Concrete made possible the paved, durable
Roman roads, many of which were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The construction of a vast and efficient travel network throughout the Empire dramatically increased Rome's power and influence. It was originally constructed to allow
Roman legions to be rapidly deployed. But these highways also had enormous economic significance, solidifying Rome's role as a trading crossroads—the origin of the phrase "all roads lead to Rome". The Roman government maintained way stations which provided refreshments to travelers at regular intervals along the roads, constructed bridges where necessary, and established a system of horse relays for
couriers that allowed a dispatch to travel up to 800 km (500 miles) in 24 hours.
Aqueducts
The Romans constructed numerous
aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites and to assist in
their agriculture. The city of Rome was supplied by 11 aqueducts with a combined length of 350 km (260 miles).
[Frontinus] Most aqueducts were constructed below the surface, with only small portions above ground supported by arches. Sometimes, where depressions deeper than 50 metres had to be crossed,
inverted siphons were used to force water uphill.
Sewers
The Romans also made major advancements in
sanitation. Romans were particularly famous for their public
baths, called ''
thermae'', which were used for both hygienic and social purposes. Many Roman houses came to have
flush toilets and
indoor plumbing, and a complex
sewer system, the ''
Cloaca Maxima'', was used to drain the local
marshes and carry waste into the Tiber river. Some historians have speculated that the use of
lead pipes in the sewer and plumbing systems led to widespread
lead poisoning which contributed to the decline in
birth rate and general decay of Roman society leading up to the
fall of Rome. However, lead content would have been minimized because the flow of water from aqueducts could not be shut off; it ran continuously through public and private outlets into the drains, and only a small number of taps were in use.
[''Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply'' by A.T. Hodge (1992)]
Military
The early Roman army (circa 500 BCE) was, like those of other contemporary city-states influenced by Greek civilization, a citizen ''
militia'' which practiced
hoplite tactics. It was small (the population of free males of military age was then about 9,000) and organized in five classes (in parallel to the ''
comitia centuriata'', the body of citizens organized politically), with three providing hoplites and two providing light infantry. The early Roman army was tactically limited and its stance during this period was essentially defensive.
[John Keegan, ''A History of Warfare'', Alfred A. Knopf (New York 1993) 0-394-58801-0 , p.263; David Potter, "The Roman Army and Navy," in Harriet I. Flower, editor, ''The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic'', Cambridge University Press (Cambridge U.K. 2004) 0-521-00390-3 , pp. 67-69. For a discussion of hoplite tactics and their sociocultural setting, see Victor Davis Hanson, ''The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece'', Alfred A. Knopf (New York 1989) 0-394-57188-6 .] By the third century BCE, the Romans abandoned the hoplite formation in favor of a more flexible system in which 6 groups of 80 men and a commander is called "
maniples'', also know as
units, could maneuver more independently on the battlefield. A group of 30 maniples fighting in three mutually supporting lines of ten maniples each, with supporting troops, constituted a
legion. A
legion is made of 4000 to 6000 soliders. The
legion commander gave orders through trumpet signals. An early Republican legion consisted of five sections, each of which was equipped differently and had different places in formation -- the three lines of manipular heavy infantry (''
hastati'', ''
principes'' and ''
triarii)'', a force of light infantry (''
velites'') and the cavalry (''
equites''). With the new organization came a new orientation toward the offensive and a much more aggressive posture toward adjoining city-states.
[Keegan, p. 264; Potter, pp. 69-70.]
At nominal full strength, an early Republican legion would have included 3,600 to 4,800 heavy infantry, several hundred light infantry and several hundred cavalrymen, for a total of 4,000 to 5,000 men.
[Keegan, p.264; Adrian Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army at War 100 BC - AD 200'', Oxford University Press (Oxford 1996) 0-19-815057-1 , p. 33; Jo-Ann Shelton, ed., ''As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History'', Oxford University Press (New York 1998)0-19-508974-X , pp. 245-249.] Legions were often significantly understrength from recruitment failures or following periods of active service due to accidents, battle casualties, disease and desertion. During the Civil War, Pompey's legions in the east were at full strength because recently recruited, while Caesar's legions were in many cases well below nominal strength after long active service in Gaul. This pattern also held true for auxiliary forces.
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 22-24, 37-38; Adrian Goldsworthy, ''Caesar: Life of a Colossus'', Yale University Press (New Haven 2006) 0300120486, ISBN-13: 978-0-300-12048-6 , pp. 384, 410-411, 425-427. Another important factor discussed by Goldsworthy was absence of legionaries on detached duty.]
As described by Goldsworthy, both the Greek and Roman phalanx and the early Republican legions were intended to fight large scale battles involving a single quick, decisive clash with the enemy. At this they were generally very successful.
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 33, 37.] At the time of the
Marian reforms in the late Republic (circa 100 BCE), further organizational change created a more flexible, resilient and versatile force. The legion was now divided into ten cohorts of 480 men each, comprised of three of the old maniples (now called
''centuriae'' or "centuries" commanded by a
centurion).
[Later in the Imperial period, the first cohort grew to a nominal strength of 800 men organized in five ''centuriae'' commanded by the ''primi ordines'', the senior centurions of the legion. Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', p.14.] Moreover, the ''velites'' (light infantry) and (probably) the ''equites'' were eliminated and replaced by
''auxilia'' (auxiliary units of cavalry, archers and slingers, and light infantry, usually recruited from non-citizens). There were no other subdivisions within a legion, but many men with specialized skills -- medics, engineers, technicians, artillerymen -- were included among the legionaries.
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 16-17.] The centuries in a cohort had a unified command structure and were experienced at working with the other centuries in the cohort as a unit. A legion organized in cohorts was easier to control, and cohorts could easily be detached and act independently where that was useful on the battlefield or a separate smaller force was needed. Accordingly, legions organized in cohorts could conduct operations of almost any scale.
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp.33-35.]
Three long-term trends characterized the development of the Roman army over its history: increasing professionalization, a widening of the base for recruitment, and an increase in the variety and flexibility of military units. Until the late Republican period, the typical legionary was a property-owning citizen farmer from a rural areas (an ''adsiduus'') who served for particular (often annual) campaigns,
[Between 343 BCE and 241 BCE, the Roman army fought every year except for five. Stephen P. Oakley, "The Early Republic," in Harriet I. Flower, editor, ''The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic'', Cambridge University Press (Cambridge U.K. 2004) 0-521-00390-3 , p. 27.] and who supplied his own equipment and, in the case of ''equites'', his own mount. Harris suggests that down to 200 BCE, the average rural farmer (who survived) might participate in six or seven campaigns. Freedmen and slaves (wherever resident) and urban citizens did not serve except in rare emergencies.
[ P. A. Brunt, "Army and Land in the Roman Republic," in ''The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays'', Oxford University Press (Oxford 1988) 0-19-814849-6 , p.253; William V. Harris, ''War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327-70 B.C.'', Oxford University Press (Oxford 1979) 0-19-814866-6 , p. 44.] After 200 BCE, economic conditions in rural areas deteriorated as manpower needs increased, so that the property qualifications for service were gradually reduced. Beginning with
Gaius Marius in 107 BCE, citizens without property and some urban-dwelling citizens (''proletarii'') were enlisted and provided with equipment, although most legionaries continued to come from rural areas. Terms of service became continuous and long -- up to twenty years if emergencies required it although Brunt argues that six or seven years was more typical.
[Keegan, pp. 273-274; Brunt, pp. 253-259; Harris, pp. 44-50.] Beginning in the third century BCE, legionaries were paid ''stipendium'' (amounts are disputed but Caesar famously "doubled" payments to his troops to 225
''denarii'' a year), could anticipate booty and donatives (distributions of plunder by commanders) from successful campaigns and, beginning at the time of Marius, often were granted allotments of land upon retirement.
[Keegan, p. 264; Brunt, pp. 259-265; Potter, pp. 80-83.] Cavalry and light infantry attached to a legion (the ''auxilia'') were often recruited in the areas where the legion served. These troops were familiar with local conditions and fought in a style adapted to the local terrain.
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 35-36.] Caesar formed a legion, the Fifth Alaudae, from non-citizens in Transalpine Gaul to serve in his campaigns in Gaul.
[Goldsworthy, ''Caesar'', pp. 391.] During the Civil War when large armies were required, both sides raised legions from non-citizens, as Goldsworthy notes, "without bothering with the formality of granting citizenship to the men on enlistment."
[Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 35-36.] By the time of Caesar Augustus, the ideal of the citizen-soldier had been abandoned and the legions had become fully professional. Legionaries were paid 900
''sesterces'' a year and could expect a payment of 12,000 ''sesterces'' on retirement.
[Karl Christ, ''The Romans'', University of California Press (Berkeley, 1984)0-520-04566-1 , pp. 74-76 .]
At the end of the
Civil War, Augustus reorganized Roman military forces, discharging soldiers and disbanding legions. He retained 28 legions, which were now based in permanent camps on the frontier along the Rhine and Danube Rivers and in Syria. Comprised of about 150,000 citizen legionaries, an approximately equal number of ''auxilia'' and a navy of unknown size, this establishment remained the standard until late in the history of the Empire.
[ Christopher S. Mackay, ''Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History,'' Cambridge University Press, (Cambridge, U.K. 2004), pp. 249-250. Mackay points out that the number of legions (not necessarily the number of legionaries) grew to 30 by 125 CE and 33 during the Severan period (200-235 CE).] During the
Principate, with a few exceptions,
[For example, the Pannonian Revolt (CE 6-9), periodic wars against the Parthians, and campaigns by Domitian and Trajan against the Dacians.] warfare was conducted on a smaller scale. The ''auxilia'' were not organized into larger units but remained independent cohorts, and legionary troops themselves often operated as groups of cohorts rather than as full legions. A new versatile type of unit, the ''cohortes equitatae'', combining cavalry and legionaries in a single formation could be stationed at garrisons or outposts, could fight on their own as balanced small forces or could combine with other similar units as a larger legion-sized force. This increase in organizational flexibility over time helped ensure the long-term success of Roman military forces.
[Goldsworthy, ‘’The Roman Army’’, p.36-37.]
The Emperor
Gallienus (253-268 CE) began yet another reorganization that created the final military structure of the late Empire. Withdrawing some legionaries from the fixed bases on the border, Gallienus created mobile forces (the ''
Comitatenses'' or field armies) and stationed them behind and at some distance from the borders as a strategic reserve. This reduced the need to move troops from one province to another to reinforce the border in case of attacks. The border troops (''limitanei'') stationed at fixed bases continued to be the first line of defense. The Emperor
Diocletian (284-305 CE) reversed this reorganization but it became the norm by the middle of the fourth century CE. Diocletian also introduced the so-called
Tetrarchy under which the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire were each governed by an "Augustus" (Emperor) and a "Caesar" (junior Emperor), who resided at different locations near the borders and commanded troops within their respective regions.
[ Mackay, pp. 275, 279-281.] The basic unit of the field army was the "regiment," ''legiones'' or ''auxilia'' for infantry and ''vexellationes'' for cavalry. Evidence suggests that nominal strengths may have been 1,200 men for infantry regiments and 600 for cavalry, although many records show lower actual troop levels (800 and 400). Many infantry and cavalry regiments operated in pairs under the command of a ''
comes''. In addition to Roman troops, the field armies included regiments of "barbarians" recruited from allied tribes and known as ''
foederati''. By 400 CE, ''foederati'' regiments had become permanently established units of the Roman army, paid and equipped by the Empire, led by a Roman tribune and used just as Roman units were used. In addition to the ''foederati'', the Empire also used groups of barbarians to fight along with the legions as "allies" without integration into the field armies. Under the command of the senior Roman general present, they were led at lower levels by their own officers.
[Hugh Elton, ''Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350-425'', Oxford University Press (Oxford 1996)0-19-815241-8 pp. 89-96.]
The nature of military leadership evolved greatly over the course of the history of Rome. Under the monarchy, the hoplite armies would have been led by the kings of Rome. During the early and middle Roman Republic, military forces were under the command of one of the two elected
consuls for the year. During the later Republic, members of the Roman Senatorial elite, as part of the normal sequence of elected public offices known as the
''cursus honorum'', would have served first as
''quaestor'' (often posted as deputies to field commanders), then as
''praetor'' (sometimes posted as provincial governors in charge of military forces in the relevant province), then as consul (supreme command of all military forces). Following the end of a term as praetor or consul, a Senator might be appointed by the Senate as a
''propraetor'' or
''proconsul'' (depending on the highest office previously held) to govern a foreign province. More junior officers (down to but not including the level of centurion) were selected by their commanders from their own
''clientelae'' or those recommended by political allies among the Senatorial elite.
[T. Correy Brennan, "Power and Process Under the Republican 'Constitution'," in Harriet I. Flower, editor, ''The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic'', Cambridge University Press (Cambridge U.K. 2004) 0-521-00390-3 , Chapter 2; Potter, pp. 66-88; Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', pp. 121-125. Julius Caesar's most talented, effective and reliable subordinate in Gaul, Titus Labienus, was recommended to him by Pompey. Goldsworthy, ''The Roman Army'', p. 124.] Under Augustus, whose most important political priority was to place the military under a permanent and unitary command, the Emperor was the legal commander of each legion but exercised that command through a
''legatus'' (legate) he appointed from the Senatorial elite. In a province with a single legion, the legate would command the legion (''legatus legionis'') and also serve as provincial governor, while in a province with more than one legion, each legion would be commanded by a legate and the legates would be commanded by the provincial governor (also a legate but of higher rank).
[Mackay, pp. 245-252.] During the later stages of the Imperial period (beginning perhaps with
Diocletian), the Augustan model was abandoned. Provincial governors were stripped of military authority, and command of the armies in a group of provinces was given to generals (
''duces'') appointed by the Emperor. These were no longer members of the Roman elite but men who came up through the ranks and had seen much practical soldiering. With increasing frequency, these men attempted (sometimes successfully) to usurp the positions of the Emperors who had appointed them. Decreased resources, increasing political chaos and civil war eventually left the Western Empire vulnerable to attack and takeover by neighboring barbarian peoples.
[MacKay, pp. 295-296 and Chapters 23-24.]
Comparatively less is known about the Roman navy than the Roman army. Prior to the middle of the third century BCE, officials known as ''duumviri navales'' commanded a fleet of twenty ships used mainly to control piracy. This fleet was given up in 278 CE and replaced by allied forces. The
First Punic War required that Rome build large fleets, and it did so largely with the assistance of and financing from allies. This reliance on allies continued to the end of the Roman Republic. The
quinquireme was the main warship on both sides of the Punic Wars and remained the mainstay of Roman naval forces until replaced by the time of Caesar Augustus by lighter and more maneuverable vessels. As compared with a
trireme, the quinquireme permitted the use of a mix of experienced and inexperienced crewmen (an advantage for a primarily land-based power), and its lesser maneuverability permitted the Romans to adopt and perfect
boarding tactics using a troop of approximately 40 marines in lieu of the
ram. Ships were commanded by a
''navarch'', a rank equivalent to a centurion, who were usually not citizens. Potter suggests that because the fleet was dominated by non-Romans, the navy was considered non-Roman and allowed to atrophy in times of peace.
[This paragraph is based upon Potter, pp. 76-78.]
Available information suggests that by the time of the late Empire (350 CE), the Roman navy comprised a number of fleets including both warships and merchant vessels for transportation and supply. Warships were oared sailing galleys with three to five banks of oarsmen. Fleet bases included such ports as Ravenna, Arles, Aquilea, Misenum and the mouth of the Somme River in the West and Alexandria and Rhodes in the East. Flotillas of small river craft (''classes'') were part of the ''limitanei'' (border troops) during this period, based at fortified river harbors along the Rhine and the Danube. The fact that prominent generals commanded both armies and fleets suggests that naval forces were treated as auxiliaries to the army and not as an independent service. The details of command structure and fleet strengths during this period are not well known although it is known that fleets were commanded by prefects.
[This discussion is based upon Elton, pp. 97-99 and 100-101.]
Scholarly studies
The interest in studying ancient Rome arose presumably during the
Age of Enlightenment in
France.
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 period from the end of 2nd century to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in
1453. Like Montesquieu Gibbon paid high tribute to the virtue of Roman citizens.
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a founder of the criticism and wrote ''The Roman History'', carried until the
First Punic war. Niebuhr has made an attempt to determine the way the Roman tradition appeared. According to him, Romans, like other people, had a historical
ethos which was preserved mainly in the noble families. During the
Napoleonic period the 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 greatest landowners during the end of the Republic.
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Further reading
Cowell, Frank Richard. ''Life in Ancient Rome''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1961 (paperback, ISBN 0-399-50328-5).
Gabucci, Ada. ''Rome (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 2)''. Berkekely: University of California Press, 2007 (paperback, ISBN 0520252659).
Wyke, Maria. ''Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History''. New York; London: Routledge, 1997 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-90613-X, paperback, ISBN 0-415-91614-8).