ROMAN REPUBLIC

• Mythology

• Romulus and Remus (771 BC)

• ​Italian myth

• Twin sons of Rhea Silvia to be killed by being left in a basket, sailed down Tiber River

• Found by she-wolf, raised

• Founded area that would be called "Rome" (after Romulus0

• Aeneus from Troy (by Virgil)

• ​Aeneus escaped from Troy (13th c. BC)

• Affair with Queen Dido of Carthage

• Landed in Rome

• Story written during Caesar Augustus

• Rape of the Sabine Women

• ​In order to populate Rome, women ​​​​​​​​​​were abducted from neighboring regions.

• Etruscans

• Monarchy

• Culture: Women equal, superstitious.

• Built Rome

• Etruscan kings overthrown 508 BC

• Rape of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius

• Father, Tarquinius Superbus, overthrown

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• Republic

• ​Two consuls (veto power, 1 year terms)

• Senate (elects consuls, sit for life)

• Tribunes (represent plebeians)

• Expansion

• 340 Latin states

• Greek communities in south Italy 267 BC

• Etruscans defeated 264 BC

• Struggle of orders 494 BC to 287 BC,

• Patricians v. Plebeians

• Council of plebs, tribune

• Twelve Tables (450 BC)

• Punic Wars

• First – Sicily

• Second – Hannibal, Battle of Cannae, Battle of Zama 202 BC

• Third – 146 BC Carthage destroyed

• Greeks taken over 146 BC

• Decline of Republic 133-31 BC

• Gracchus Brothers (reforms)

• Marius (army of landless, loyal to generals)

• Sulla (marched into Rome with his army)

• Spartacus – 73 BC

• Gladiator Revolt

• Put down by Crassus

• First Triumvirate (59-53 BC)

• Crassus, Pompey, Julius Caesar (60 BC)

• Crassus

• Rich, defeated Spartacus

• Pompey

• Consul 55-54 BC an 52-51 BC

• Took Syria and Judea

• Julius Caesar

• Crossed Rubicon

• Became “dictator for life”

• Killed 44 BC ("Beware the ides of March")

• Second Triumvirate (43 - 33 BC)

• Caesar Augustus, Mark Antony, Marcus Lepidus

• Unlike first triumvirate, the second triumvirate was legal and official

• Octavian (Augustus) (31 BCE – 14 CE)

• Defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium 31 BC)

• “Restoration of the Republic” 27 BC

• Pax Romana

ROMAN EMPIRE

Early Empire (14-180)

• Tiberius

• Established Julio-Claudian dynasty (14-68)

• Nero (54-68)

• Persecuted Christians

• Eliminated people

• Burned down Rome so that he could rebuild his palace

• Five Good Emperors (96-180)

• Trajan

• Expanded to Dacia, Mesopotamia, Sinai

• Roman Empire at it's greatest extent (AD 117)

• Hadrian (117-138)

• Withdrew from Trajan's territorial gains in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia

• Invested in stable, defensible borders

• Built Hadrian's Wall marking northern limit in Britain

• Caracalla 212

• Roman citizenship to all

• Crisis of Third Century (235-284)

• After assassination of Alexander Severus in 235

• Empire nearly collapsed

• Invasions, plague, economic collapse, civil war

• "Barracks Emperors' -- 20 emperors who rose and fall in 50 years

• Anarchy

Late Roman Empire (end 3rd, beg. Of 4th c.)

• Diocletian (284-305)

• Divided empire into Tetrarchy

• Constantine (306-337)

• Reunified Empire

• Moved capital east to Byzantium/Constantinople

• Edict of Milan 312 – Christianity tolerated

• Theodosius 347 -395

• Christianity official religion

END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

• Visigoths

• Pushed out by Huns

• Battle at Adrianople 378

• Sacked Rome 410

• Odoacer

• Deposed last emperor in West in 476

• Romulus Augustus

• German “master of soldiers”