Republican Rome (509-31 B.C.

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Expulsion of Etruscans, now free to rule themselves. Constituted a Republic, governed by people along the lines of Greek city-states but less democratically. 2 chief magistrates/consuls elected for 1 year term by all male citizens. Senate, the principal assembly, drew members from aristocratic families. Power concentrated in hands of upper class (patricians) Lower class (plebeians) permitted to form own assembly. Tribunes- leaders elected by plebeian assembly, represented interests and protected people against state officials who treated them unjustly. 4.6 - Forum- Meeting place for both the Senate and the assemblies of the people, large open space at the foot of the Palatine and Capitole hills that were drained and made habitable to Etruscans. From founding until end of civil wars following the murder of Julius Caesar, dominated by agitation for political equality. First major confrontation- between patricians and plebeians never endangered political stability or military campaigns abroad, both sides showed spirit of compromise. Produced gradual growth in plebeian power avoiding split disastrous enough to interrupt Romes growing domination of Italian peninsula. Final plebian victory (287 B.C.) Hortensian Law Made decisions of plebeian assembly binding on the entire Senate and Roman people. Most of Italy fallen under Roman control, increasing power brought new problems. In third and second centuries B.C., conquered Carthage in Punic wars, defeating the Carthaginians and confiscated their territories. Conquered independent ruler territories in North Africa, Spain, Sicily. By first century B.C., conquered entire Hellenistic world, from Spain to Middle east, subject provinces, protectorates, and nominally free kingdoms depended on Roman goodwill and administrative efficiency. Too busy acquiring land, many chaotic results. Provincial administration incompetent and often corrupt. War hardened Roman character, leading to insensitivity and brutality in treatment of conquered peoples. Increasing political instability at home, old balance of power disturbed by rise of middle class (equites), many plebeians who made fortunes in war. First century B.C., political system inadequate for vast empire. Discontent among allies led to revolt. Social War of 90-88 B.C. Romans victorious, cost lives and economic stability. Ineffective Senate, frustration of Roman people led to struggle for supreme power; Marius briefly held power, replaced by Sulla (82 B.C.) who ruled as dictator, resigned in 79 B.C. Political skirmishes between Pompey and Caesar. Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 B.C. at the Battle of Pharsalus, returned to Rome as dictator, assassinated in 44 B.C. Civil wars that followed brought Republic to its end. Uninterrupted violence profound effect on Roman character; Augustus, the first emperor, brought relief.

Literary Developments During the Republic

Romans put most energy into political and military affairs, Mediterranean under control, allowed to relax. Overwhelmed by Greeks. From third century B.C., Roman art followed Greek models. Plays based on Greek originals, temples imitated Greek buildings, and sculpture and painting depicted Greek Mythology. Ennius (239-169 B.C.) Father of Roman poetry, Major work: Annuals epic chronicle of history of Rome. Greek metrical scheme used to write Latin verse. Plautus & Terence Comic playwrights, turn human foibles into pure comedy. Plautus fond of comic songs and farcical intrigues, far more successful. Terence more refined and characters show greater realism, later much admired. Both fond of elaborate plots with mistaken identities, identical twins, and general confusion all sorted out in the last scene. Roman lyric poetry/ romantic theme, most rewarding genre of Latin literature. Catullus Personal experience, charted own love affair with women called Lesbia. 25 short poems describe relationship. Clarity of style, direct expression of emotions. Julius Caesar Most famous Roman, Commentaries history of own military campaigns. Asassination lead Shakespeare to develop the play Julius Caeser. Marcus Tullius Cicero- Lawyer, took part in important legal cases, exiled for plot in consulship, supported Pompey in struggle between him and Caesar. Letter to friend after dining with Caesar reveals vanity, inability to make decisions, stubbornness, humanity, and sensitivity.

Roman Philosophy and Law

Practical nature made Romans suspicious of professional philosophers, unable to appreciate, argued both sides of a complex moral or ethical question. Most Romans philosophers devoted all energy to expounding Greek philosophy to Romans. 2 principal schools of philosophy: Epicureanism & Stoicism, imported from Greece. Epicureanism never gained many followers. Lucretius poet, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) Synthesis of poetry and philosophy. Gods play no part in human affairs or the phenomena of nature, we can live our lives free from superstitious fear of unknown and threat of divine retribution. Epicuras, founder, correct goal and principle of human actions is pleasure. Stressed moderation and prudence in pursuit of pleasure, Romans believed in self-indulgence and debauchery. Universe made up of atoms and empty space. Death of body separates body, mind, and soul. Stoicism World governed by reason and divine watched over virtuous never allowing them to suffer evil. Desire only what lay in ones control. Seneca wrote essays on Stoic morality, ordered to commit suicide. Epictetus Former slave established school of philosophy in Rome and Greece. Enchiridion (Handbook) Trust in divine to be maintained through misfortune. Great influence on emperor Marcus Aurelius. Meditations Account of attempt to live life of a Stoic. Great number of Romances remained immune to appeal of philosophical life. Festivals honoring traditional deities celebrated. Rituals reading the future popular.

Earliest legal code was the Law of Twelve Tables of 451-450 B.C., outdated, and irrelavent, contradictory and confusing. Lus Civile Julius Caeser created single unified code of civil law. Ius Civile Model for later times Corpus Iuris Civilis By Byzantine Emperor Justinian, remained in use for centuries, influenced modern legal systems Uplian Law is good and fair, developed over centuries while building empire of differing people. Unintentional, adapting to local conditions, changing and developing into new process. Jurists established legal principles and administrative experience. Legal experts in great demand. Judicial council formed by emperor Hadrian to equate human law with that of nature by developing and objective system of natural justice to bring people under single government. Equity Equality for all.

Republican Art and Architecture

4.5 Figures of odd couple on the Volterra sarcophagus. Typical Roman combination and amplification of others styles. Many of best Romance portraits reveal psychological documents.

4.7 Ciceros self-satisfactions and humanity. Realistic details express outer and inner character. 4.8 Huge sanctuary constructed by Sulla at Pareneste around 82 B.C., symmetry and grandeur of Roman architecture, but inspired by Hellenistic building programs like Pergamum. Caesar cleared center of Rome for a forum, public buildings for personal display and glory.

Imperial Rome (31 B.C. A.D. 476)

Mark Antony and Octavian (Heir) avenge Casears assassination. Octavian put in charge of western provinces and Antony to the east. Antonys involvement with Cleopatra alienated support from Rome. Battle of Actitum, couple commited suicide. Octavian sole ruler of Roman world now in ruins, marked end of Roman Republic. Rome continuously involved in civil and external wars. Political and cultural institutions beyond repair, economy wrecked. By Octavians death (A.D. 14), Rome had achieved peace and prosperity unequaled in history, before or after. Art and literature peaked during his reign. New golden age had dawned. Augustus maintained appearance of reborn republic but took all effective power into his own hands and his imperial staff. Civil service developed, various career paths. Reformed army, principal function to guard frontiers, 250,000 Roman citizens, same number of local recruits. Emperor = general-in-chief, soldiers also served as engineers, helped police countryside, respect & gratitude from subjects.

 Empire expanded economically, freedom of travel and trade, no tariffs or customs duties, traders only paid harbor dues. Road system increased number of travelers between great urban city centers. Alexandria & Antioch were self-governing to a degree, with charters giving them constitutions. Imperial system lasted for almost 500 years. Supported and encouraged writers and artists, works echo chief theme of Augustan policies: return of peace, important of land and agriculture, putting aside luxury for a simple life and belief in Romes destiny as worlds ruler. Architecture and sculptures public, commissioned by state and served state purposes. Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro) Aeneid Epic poem honoring Rome, national epic, one of greatest in the world, worthy successor to Homer, held in highest reverence in Middle Ages. 12 books, Aeneas, Trojan prince, flees from Troy and sails to Italy to find new city. Book II Fall of Troy Book III- Wanderings from Troy to Carthage, coast of North Africa. Book IV Best known, tragic love between Queen Dido and Aeneas. Book V Trojans to Italy Book VII & VIII, Trojans arrive at river of Tiber and Aeneas visits future site of Rome. Ends with death of great Italian warrior Turnus and final victory of Aeneas. Aeneas = Archetype of Augustus, makes personal desires into a common good. Eclogues Joys and sorrows of the county and shepherds and herdsman who live there. Georgics 4 books, practical guide to farming, strength of Italy lies in agricultural richness. 4.9 View of garden from villa of Livia and Augustus, reflects interest expressed in Vergils Eclogues and Geogics

Augustan Sculpture
4.10 Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), Aeneas sacrificing, depicts abundance of nature that could flourish again in the peace of the Augustan Age. 4.11- Altar dedicated on January 30, 9 B.C., ceremony shown in surrounding reliefs, divided into 2 parts, Augustus, priests and family in south, senators and dignitaries in north. Lower wall, fruit and flower motifs intertwined amid swans. o o o o o Dedicated to spirit of Peace. Augustus equal, rather than supreme monarch. Family indicates successor is to be drawn from them, special role in public affairs. Relates to Romes glorious past, need for vigilance, and rewards of agriculture. Classical work based on Parthenon frieze, artists chose artistic language of the Golden Age of Athens to depict the New Golden Age of Augustus.

4.12- Augustus of Prima Porta Statue of Emperor, stance of quiet authority, ornately carved breastplates recalls defeat of Parthians, cupid on feet symbolizes Venus and looks to the future representing Gaius, Augustuss grandson. Chose unpopular Tiberius as successor, no effective mechanism devised for guaranteeing a peaceful transfer of power. Visual arts, Augustan artists set styles that dominated succeeding generations while writers like the poets Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Propertius, and Livy established Golden Age of Latin Literature. Only person to doubt Augustan achievement was Augustus himself.

The Evidence of Pompeii

4.13 Excavated view of Pompeii, A.D. 79 Vesuvius erupted and many small towns buried, much volcanic debris gives us a rich and vivid impression of the ways of life in a provincial town in early Empire. Plinny the Elder (AD 23-79) Interested in natural phenomena, chief work was a Natural History in 37 volumes, to investigate for himself the nature of the explosion, suffocated to death by fumes. Plinny the Younger - (A.D. 62 Before 114) Letter to Tacitus on the Eruption of Vesuvius Eyewitness account of eruption. o Buildings collapsed, huge mobs, carriages kept rolling back and forth, sea sucked back and repelled vibration of the earth, shoreline much farther out, marine life caught on dry sands, black and frightening cloud, paths of fire, left danger at top speed. Cloud began to cover the sea, fear of death and prayer. At last the fog dissipated.

4.16 Frescos from the Villa of the Mysteries, relate Dionysus and the importance of the cult for girls approaching marriages, details difficult to interpret. 4.17 Atrium of the House of the Silver Wedding, open plan of substantial houses helped keep the interior cool in the summers; the adjoining rooms closed off by folding doors in winter.

Population less than 20,000, baths, theater, concert, hall, amphitheater, brothels, forum closed to traffic stock exchange, law courts. Life extremely comfortable Small part of Herculaneum excavated, some mansions found there surpass houses of Pompeii. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1787 wrote of the buried city few have provided so much delight to posterity. Johann Winckelmann Father of archaeology and art history, History of Ancient Art Artists like Ingres, David, and Canova influenced by Pompeian paintings and sculptures; style of Wedgewood china based on Pompeian motifs. Poets and novelists set episodes in excavations at Pompeii or tried to imagine life there in Roman times.

Roman Imperial Architecture

4.18 Model of Ancient Rome, public buildings and private houses. Achievement in architecture and engineering had a lasting effect on development of later architectural styles. Arch Borrowed from Estrucans, widely imitated.

4.19 Arch of Titus, triumphal arches commemorated military victories. 4.20 Simple arch, internal arches and vaults, Greeks rarely built arches, Estrucans used then in 5th century B.C., 6th century B.C. and on, stone arches used regularly for bridges and aqueducts. Vaults of small size used for domestic buildings. By time of Augustus, architects constructed larger- scale barrel vaults, semi cylindrical in shape. Dome- Really popular hemispherical vault, popular building baths. Bricks and concrete, elaborate building. Marble covered inside and outside to conceal elaborate internal support structure. Many works destroyed during Barbarian invasions of the 5th & 6th century, many wrecked in renaissance.

4.21 Pantheon built A.D. 126 , during reign of Hadrian (117-138) designed by emperor himself. 4.22 Austere and majestic exterior portfolio supported on granite columns with Corinthian capitals. Leads into central rotunda, 142 feet high, concrete dome rests on a wall interrupted by a series of niches. Buildings only light sources are a huge oculus eye at the top of the dome. Proportions of building carefully calculated and contribute to air of balance. Height and dome from the group is equal to its width. Parthenon dwarfed huge complex of buildings that made up the imperial fora. 4.23 Plan of imperial fora, unsurpassed in antiquity and barely equaled, monuments to emperors who commissioned them. Architectural principals applied through the Roman Empire, Spain to Middle East, public buildings erected according to same basic designs, leaving permanent record of construction methods. Urban life required constant supply of water. System of aqueducts impressive achievement of Romans. Vast network of pipes brought millions of gallons of water a day into Rome, distributing it into fountains and baths and private villas of wealthy. Street drains built, eliminated sewers. Sewers returned in Medieval times. 4.24 Pont du Gard, aqueduct supplying 100 gallons of water a day to Nimes, can still be seen in Southern France. Imperial Rome suffered from overcrowding. Average Roman lived in an apartment block.

4.25 Apartment block in Ostia, seaport of Ancient Rome. Height controlled by law to prevent unsafe buildings. Grandeur to distract poor Romans from thoughts of their private residences.

Rome as the Object of Satire

Problems: Noise, traffic jams, dirty streets, overcrowding. Juvenal (A.D. 60 C. 130) Roman satirist, magistrate to Emperor Domitian. Exiled to Egypt. 16 Satires Writes of corruption of Rome, depraved aristocracy, and general greed and meanness. Loathing for foreigners, attacked women in one document of misogyny. One of the greatest satirical poets in Western literature, sarcasm, irony, and outright invective.

The End of the Roman Empire

A.D. 476 Deposition of last Roman emperor, Romulous Augustulus. Political unity disintegrated. Many different possible factors: A.D. 330 Emperor Constantine moved capital from Rome to a new city on Bosporus, Constantinople, represented a new development. Growing power and changing character of army. Larger it became, more necessary to recruit troops from distant provinces (Germans, Illyrians, etc.) Never been near Rome, no loyalty to emperor, no reason to defend interests. Increased pay and promised gift of lands. Many new non-Roman emperors including Africans, Thracians, a Syrian, and an Arab, unlikely to place interests of Rome over themselves and their own men. Increasingly threatened from outside. West- Barbarian tribes like the Huns, Goths, and Alemanni penetrated further into defenses and sacked Rome. Constantly resisting Persians. Some parts of Rome were unable to provide help against invaders, some provinces set up as independent states with own armies. To support army, taxes increased, value of money depreciated. General standard of living declined. Eastern provinces (Hellenistic kingdoms) suffered less, protected by wealth accumulated over centuries and long tradition of civilization. Italy sank to the level of a province after remaining center of imperial administration. Total collapse prevented by 2 emperors: Diocletian ruled from A.D. 284-305 & Constantine ruled from A.D. 306-337. Master organizers, only way to save empire was to impose most stringent controls on every aspect of life social, administrative and economic. Edict of Diocletian Fixed maximum for sale of goods and for vages. Vast bureaucracy set up to collect taxes and administer provinces. Emperor became focal point of empire but never appeared in public to prevent himself from dangers of coup and assassinations. Elaborate court with complex

rituals developed, emperors claim to semidivine status invested new religious authority in him. Constantines successors in East, Byzantine emperors were successors of Augustus, tradition continued from beginning of empire in 31 B.C. to the fall of Constantinople is A.D. 1453

Late Roman Art and Architecture

4.26 Basilica of Constantine, 100 feet high, assembly hall reminder of emperors authority. 4.27 30 foot statue of Constantine. 4.28 Diocletians palace at Splite on the Adriatic coast, constructed on the plan of a military camp with enormous central avenues dividing it into four quarters. Eastern motifs, far from classical style. Sculpture - Realistic portraiture and naturalistic drapery neglected. No longer tried to express depth or reality in relief carving. Lack of perspective and precision foreshadows art of Middle Ages. 4.29 Constantine Receiving Homage from the Senate, figures shown frontally. Waning interest in Stoicism and Epicureanism and new enthusiasm for Eastern religious cults. Some Romans sought religious satisfaction in the worship of Eastern deities. Strong cults developed around the Phrygian goddess, Cybele, Egyptian Isis, and sun god Mithras. Christianity emerging as official religion of the empire played a final and decisive part in the end of the Classical era. Pagan art, literature, and culture strongly rejected. Art of early Christians fundamentally different in its inspiration. Fathers of the church could not fail to be moved by the end of a so great cultural tradition.