Midterm 2 History 101 Study Guide  

The origins of rome are explained using, what?

Roman Republic 

I. Origins of Rome

-The origins of Rome are explained using several myths that lack  historical relevance.  

A. The Founding of Rome/Constitution

Etruscans- Influences over Rome and rules them in the 6th-7th century.  The Etruscans were kind of a mystery but we do know that they were a fun loving people.  

Much of what the Romans have and some of what they are credited  with actually comes from the Etruscans (The Toga, the “roman” numerals,  the arch in architecture)  

When the Romans achieve independence from the Etruscans they form the Roman Republic.  

B. The Roman Republic  

The Romans invented the Republic  

When was the first civil war, in rome?

They had they had the first republic and a mixed constitution Rather than a president, they had 2 consuls that served for a one year  term.  

They had a legislative branch with a senate who’s members were  elected for life. The senate primarily had control over finance  They also had popular assemblies which were made up of the people Social Classes-- patricians (aristocrats) and plebeians (everyone  else/the common people). The slaves were completely separate from both  social classes. There was patron/client relations in which the patricians would hire plebeians to work for them. There was marriage between the social  classes.  

Eventually the Plebeians felt that the patricians were dominating the  politics and they wanted representation. This began the struggle of the  orders and continued on from the 5th to the 3rd century.

Marcus aurelius is a?

C. Roman Expansion  Don't forget about the age old question of How are reliability and validity related?

The Romans were known for creating a large empire.  

a. Motives  

a. Defense from the Etruscans, economics (seeking  

treasure/taxes/trade), motives of the senatorial class wanted the  wars to boost the prestige of their families  

b. Steps  

a. The Roman Legion

i. 5,000 soldiers that broke into maniples of about 120 that  fought separately. The legion was extremely flexible  

ii. The won Wars but they lost a lot of battles  

iii. They first expanded to where there were Greek city states  b. The Punic Wars  

i. There were 3 Punic wars.

ii. These wars were between the Romans and the  

Carthaginians to control the Western Mediterranean

iii. The Romans have a very famous General, PC Scipio

iv. In the 3rd Punic War the Romans destroy the city of  If you want to learn more check out What is the difference between lytic and lysogenic viruses?

Carthage which ends the Punic wars and then the Romans  begin to expand eastward  

∙ Diplomacy was key in their victories because they would lose a  lot of battles but they had a lot of loyal allies that helped them to win the wars.  

 Hannibal

o Swears an eternal oath of hatred against the romans. He wins  several battles against the Romans  

o His biggest victory was the battle of Cannae where he skillfully  trapped the Romans and wiped out thousands of them in just one day.  

D. Other Aspects of Roman Society  

1) New social classes developed

i. The publicans (the tax collectors)  If you want to learn more check out In astronomy, what is the surface temperature range of venus?

ii. The publicans were a part of the equestrian class.  

2) Religion  

i. The Roman Religion was basically the reshaping of Greek Religion but with Latin names  

a. Jupiter- father of the gods

b. Juno- mother of the gods  

c. Minerva- wisdom  

d. Venus- goddess of love and beauty  

e. Neptune- goddess of the sea  

f. Mars- God of War  

* The 6 Vestal Virgins- the Gods of the home  

* The Romans had several temples for their gods  Don't forget about the age old question of How does magma move?

* They had long epic poems similar to that of the Greeks  

* The Romans had New Comedy similar to the Greek Comedy  

II. The Roman Revolution  

A. Problems  

1) The effects of war and imperialism, 2nd Punic war We also discuss several other topics like What is the chemical stimulation of the frontal dopamine system?

2) As a result of wars there was a huge neglect of agriculture.  Many of the soldiers were farm owners so when they went off to  war, their farms suffered  

3) Social unrest, as they grew more dependent on slavery. There  was less employment opportunities  

4) Spartacus Revolt- had a slave army and gave his army a fair  share of the winnings which made him a favored leader  

B. Social Division  

1) Optimates (best men) vs. Populares (popular class)

a. The split between the optimates and the populares kept  growing stronger and stronger until it developed into a full blown civil war that brought down the republic

*Populares and the Gracci Brothers  

a. The Populares favored reforms  

i. Land Reforms  

ii. Government Reforms (expand Roman citizenship)  Don't forget about the age old question of How can water form hydrogen bonds?

iii. Land/Public works  

v. Price controls (most specifically price control of bread)  *The Optimates  

a. was a reactionary group  

b. opposed reforms  

The Romans transitioned from a draft army to a volunteer  army. The generals paid the soldiers rather than the state  which caused soldiers to be more loyal to the generals than to  the Republic.  

B. The First Triumvirate  

a. The Triumvirate  

-Crassus- richest man in the Roman Republic. He acquired his  wealth in unfair ways  

-Pompey- eventual leader of the optimates. Known for his  military success. “The Roman Alexander”

*Julius Caesar- eventual leader of the populares. He was a  patrician and favored reforms. He was very ambitious but he  remained loyal to the populares even when it wasn’t in his favor.  He was a great military general. He wanted provincial  

government in Gaul. He sought to gain military presences and  plunder from Gaul.

Julius Caesar was known for his clemency. He was very forgiving,  but only to other romans. He tended to treat others very poorly  and would not hesitate to execute them.  

Julius Caesars war tactics- he liked to stay behind the line and  watch the battle and watch the battle and if he saw trouble he  would go to that area and help his troops.

C. The First Civil War  

a. Causes  

1) The death of Julia  

2) The death of Crassus  

3) The Triumvirate begins to fall apart and the split into the  optimates (lead by Pompey) and the populares (lead by Caesar)  b. Course  

1) Caesar must decide whether or not to cross the Rubicon and  begin civil war against the Optimates.

2) Caesar easily defeats the Optimate forces in the Battle of  Pharsalus and wins the Civil War  

3) Pompey flees and it’s the true end of the Civil War and the  populares emerge victorious  

4) After winning the Civil war, Julius Caesar declares himself  dictator for life.  

Roman Republic Continued  

A. Caesar’s Dictatorship  

a. Caesar’s generals fought over land and who would rule what.  One of the empires was the Ptolemies. Cleopatra was a ruler in  the Ptolomate and co-ruled with her brother. They didn’t get  along at all and eventually Cleopatra’s father exiled her.  

b. After being exiled, Cleopatra was looking for opportunities to get  her power back and when Caesar came, she saw her chance.  i. Cleopatra had herself smuggled into the mansion in a  

carpet which leads to an affair between herself and Caesar.

It was a political relationship as well as a romantic  

relationship. Caesar got influence in Egypt and Cleopatra  

eventually won a small war against her brother to gain her  

power back.  

Cleopatra 

Today, Cleopatra is known for her beauty, but really, she was known for her great intelligence. She excelled in math, languages, and music. She took great interest in the Egyptian life and was known for the power of her voice and intelligence.

Cleopatra’s Policies

 Wanted to prevent famine in Alexandria  

 Wanted to promote her son and made him a co-ruler

 She wanted to expand the Ptolomate empire through the powers of  Rome and make it powerful once again

c. The Policies of Julius Caesar

 Debt relief.

a. He cancelled a quarter of people’s debts  

 He establishes more colonies (about 40) in order to  

give people their land back

 He adopts the Egyptian (365 day) calendar through  

the influence of Cleopatra  

d. Caesars Dictatorship and his Assassination

i. Caesars dictatorship is one of the things that prompted the conspiracy to kill Caesar.

ii. Another reason for Caesars assassination was that the  conspiracy believed he had plans to make himself king  

 Marcus Brutus was the leader of the Conspiracy to  

kill Caesar  

 Caesar was assassinated during a meeting of the  

Senate  

a. All the conspirators ganged up on Caesar with  

their daggers and Caesar could not fight them  

off. His final words were “Et tu, Brute.”

B. More Civil Wars and the End of the Republic  

a. The Republicans (the Conspirators) allow Marc Antony to speak  at Caesar’s funeral and he uses it to whip up support for Caesar  which causes some people to rebel against the Republicans  

b. Cicero wanted the restoration of the Republic but was not a part of the Conspiracy  

c. Octavian Caesar  

i. Was a nephew of Julius Caesar but Caesar adopted him as  a son in his will which meant that Octavian was an heir to  the thrown  

ii. Octavian was a great politician but not a very good military leader.  

d. Octavian and Antony join forces, and pool their resources to turn  against the Republicans in a war (proscription) which causes the  Second Triumvirate to form

e. It becomes the Republicans vs. the Triumvirate  

f. The Triumvirate eventually defeat the Republicans after several  battles and then Octavian rules the Western part of the roman  world and Antony rules the Eastern part of the roman world  

i. This doesn’t last very long because both men want to  control all of the roman world, not just parts.  

g. Antony summons Cleopatra to Asia Minor so that he can have the support of Egypt’s politics, economics, and military. This begins a romantic/political relationship between Antony and Cleopatra  

h. Problems arise and in order to settle them, Antony promises to  marry Octavian’s sister Octavia  

i. Antony gets tired of Octavia and divorces her and goes back to  Cleopatra  

C. Civil War  

a. Octavian vs. Antony/Cleopatra  

b. Octavian wins in a decisive naval battle in the Battle of Actium  c. After their defeat, Antony commits suicide and Cleopatra is  captured but kills herself in order to avoid being paraded as a  prize in the Octavian/Roman victory celebration.  

i. It is possible that Octavian actually put Cleopatra to death  and just made it look like a suicide  

OCTAVIAN TRIUPHS OVER ALL

D. The Principate or Augustan Age  

a. Octavian becomes the sole ruler in the Roman world and  disguised his dictatorship in the principate  

i. Octavian renames himself Augustus  

ii. Wasn’t great at military aspects of ruling but was very  successful when in came to politics and propaganda  

iii. Achieved peace and prosperity  

iv. Had direct control over Egypt  

v. Augustus was very focused on having total control

vi. He made himself absolute tribune for life which meant that he was able to veto any laws at any time  

vii. Used Bread & Circus  

viii. Did a lot to focus on his dictatorship  

ix. Made Adultery a state crime (he did not obey this himself  and had many affairs claiming that it was necessary for  him to know what was happening in his court.)  

 Showed an extreme interest in Family Affairs  

b. Livy- was a famous Roman Historian, He attributed the fall of the Roman Republic to the loss of morality and praised Augustus for  restoring it  

c. Ovid- Romanic love poetry  

E. The Roman Empire  

 Republic--Principate- Empire

A. Julio-Claudian Dynasty (first century AD)  

a. The idea of hereditary succession develops which  

means that families rule

b. Rulers were flakey and extremely cruel

1. Caligula (First of the rulers in the Julio-Claudian  

Dynasty)  

1. He was extremely cruel  

2. He believed he was a living god

a. Had all the heads on the statues of  

Roman gods replaced with his own  

head  

3. He appointed one of his horses to the  

Senate  

2. Nero (the worst of the Julio-Claudian rulers)  

1. VERY CRUEL  

a. He has his mother killed and he tries  

to make it look like an accident but  

when that doesn’t work, he simply has

her executed  

b. He got in a fight with his pregnant  

wife and kicked her to death

c. He was the first persecutor of  

Christians. Used them as human  

torches, killed them, tortured them,  

blamed them for things that went  

wrong

2. People were suspicious of him in several  

cases  

a. He became very paranoid and began  

executing people when he was  

suspicious of them which caused the  

people to turn on him

i. He fled and killed himself.  

F. Interim  

a. After the death of Nero, the Year of the 4 Emperors  emerged  

b. Following the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was the Flavian  Dynasty  

i. The Flavian Dynasty  

 There was some stability until there was a major  

Jewish revolt  

a. In order to stop the revolt, the Romans  

destroyed the second Jewish Temple (all but  

the Western wall, which is still worshiped by  

the Jews today)  

b. Out of this comes the diaspora, the Jews  

migrate to places all over the world  

 During the Flavian Dynasty Mt. Vesuvius Erupts and  destroys the city of Pompeii.  

a. The lava wasn’t what killed the people  

b. The combination of the sheer heat and the  

poisonous gas is what killed the people  

c. The bodies and the buildings were preserved  

by lava  

G. The 5 Good Emperors (AKA the Fab 5)  

a. Rather than hereditary succession, they used the principle of  adoption which meant that the ruler chose the brightest mind  they could find to succeed them which is what ensured each  ruler was so good.  

A. The 5 Good Emperors  

a. Principle of Adoption

i. Picked the most promising and talented and formally  adopted them so they could become the next ruler  

b. Trajan  

i. A GREAT CONQUERER AND WARRIOR EMPORER

ii. Under is reign, the Roman Empire reaches its farthest  spread

1. Best/Most important conquest=Dacia

iii. Sponsored some building projects  

c. Hadrian  

i. A WISE AND HUMANE LAW GIVER  

ii. Extended legal rights to women in the law courts  

iii. Banned brutalization of slaves by slave masters  

iv. He thought that the empire had over-extended so he built  “Hadrian’s wall” to protect the empire  

v. Pax Romania- a period of Roman peace in the 2nd century AD  

d. Marcus Aurelius  

i. PLATOS PHILOSOPHER KING

ii. Was into stoicism type philosophy  

iii. Wanted a community of nations  

iv. Wrote “the Meditations” that highlighted the key aspects of stoicism  

v. During his reign, the prosperity of Rome begins to decline  and many problems begin to develop  

vi. Marcus Aurelius goes back to hereditary succession and  has son become the next ruler. He was cruel and ruthless  which brought the Empire to its end  

 e. The Secret of the Empire  

“Spoil the Army and despise the rest.”

 Basically, they wanted to make sure they had the  

best army in order to have the most power as an  

empire.

B. The Roman Legacy  

a. Emphasis  

i. Practical vs. speculative realms  

b. Engineering  

i. Many highways built by roman engineers  

1. “ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME”  

ii. Military engineers built many miles of roads  

iii. Had milestones showing how many miles to each city  iv. Aqueducts  

1. For common folk there was public fountains  

2. For wealthy they had lead pipes that brought water  

to their homes  

c. Architecture/sculpture  

i. Arches and vaults  

ii. Triumphant aches  

iii. Corinthian columns  

iv. Concrete (cement, pebbles, sand, water)

 The Colosseum- best example of a roman  

stadium  

a. Could accommodate approximately 50,000  

people  

b. Was rather advanced and inspired some  

modern stadiums  

 The Parthenon- best example of a roman temple  

a. Was dedicated to the roman gods  

ii. In sculpture they had realism to the MAX  

iii. They really focused on showing people as they really were  and not idealizing the  

*Realism in the beginning during the Republic  

*It develops into a mix of realism and idealism  

*Idealism becomes more prominent towards the end of the  Roman Empire  

 d. law  

i. Roman law= fairness  

ii. The 12 tables  

a. THE 12 TABLES WERE A LEGAL CODE  

b. They were created by common folk to give them fair  

control (not allowing the aristocrats to have too much

i. Precision of language  

j. Influence of Latin language in law  

k. Laws were flexible to they were able to mold to changing times THE ROMANS INVENT THE REPUBLIC  

-Checks and balances/A mixed constitution  

-SPAR- the government and people of Rome  

The Roman Legacy Continued  

A. The Roman Republic  

a. There was disadvantages to the Roman Republic  

i. Fascists in Italy wanted to imitate the bad parts of the  

Roman Empire which lead to some issues  

1. Adopted imperialism

2. Hail Caesar=Hitler Salute  

b. Language  

i. Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.)

1. Developed through conquests and the influences of  

Latin  

ii. Language of learning and Catholicism (Latin used most  commonly)  

iii. Influences of Latin in English as well even though it isn’t a  romance language  

B. Preservation and Transmission of Classical Cultures  

a. The Gladiators

i. The Gladiators were meant to represent other peoples, not  just Romans  

1. They were pit against each other with different  

weapons  

ii. Gladiators were often times slaves. Some people  

volunteered with hopes of fame from their success but  

most of them were slaves

Rise of Christianity  

A. Role of Jesus  

a. Judea  

i. Jesus born in Judea during King Harrod’s reign  

ii. When Harrod hears of a supposed king/messiah being born, he takes it as a threat to his power and orders that all male babies be killed  

iii. The holy family flees to Egypt because of this threat  

b. Jesus  

i. Jesus was a stone cutter  

ii. Around age 20, he is baptized by John the Baptist and then  he begins his public ministry  

iii. Goes around spreading his word with many peoples  

iv. Had 12 of his closest followers (AKA his disciples)  

1. Peter  

2. John

c. Preformed many miracles  

i. Raising Lasrith from the dead  

ii. Walking on water  

iii. Fish, bread, and wine  

d. Preached using parables  

i. Stories with both surface level meaning and a spiritual  

meaning  

e. Son of God/Son of Man  

f. Second coming of Christ  

i. Jesus will come back and restore peace in the world

g. Jesus comes back into Jerusalem

i. Gets a great welcome  

ii. Reveals during the Last Supper that he will sacrifice  

himself for everyone’s sins  

iii. Some people thought he was a political messiah  

h. Jesus was taken by the Romans and charged with crimes  i. Blasphemy  

ii. Conspiracy to overthrow Roman government  

iii. The Romans torture and crucify Jesus  

1. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ 3 days later  

B. Reasons for the Spread of Christianity

a. Some features of Christianity were similar to mystery cults  i. Mystery cults were very popular  

ii. Offered a personal relationship with your religion  

b. Jesus was easy for people to believe in because he was a human  being  

c. Christians were able to draw upon Jewish background  

d. Strong sense of Ethics in Christianity really appealed to people  C. Organization  

a. Priests, deacons, bishops, papa, Pope, Rome, doctrine of  apostolic succession

D. Persecution and martyrs  

a. Martyr’s blood is the seed of the church  

i. People saw the dedication they had to the church and it  inspired them to convert because they wanted to be a part  of it  

b. Christians were used as scapegoats for problems  

c. Refused to acknowledge the other Gods  

d. Persecutions backfired and made the church stronger  

e. The church created a place for women  

E. Key individuals  

a. Paul  

i. Former prosecutor and converts to Christianity

ii. He is an apostle and reaches out to convert the gentiles  (non-Jewish peoples)  

iii. Epistles of Paul- New testament advice he gave to people  iv. Found many Christian communities  

v. Called the 2nd founder of Christianity (after JC)  

b. Doctrine of the Trinity (Nicene Creed)

i. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit  

c. Constantine the Great  

i. Was baptized on his death bed  

ii. Tolerance of Christianity  

d. Church Fathers  

i. Wrote patristics

1. Used their intellect to turn skeptics to the Christian  

Religion  

ii. St. Augustine  

1. A church Father  

2. Bishop  

3. Confessions  

iii. Loving Creator God  

1. People should be more dedicated to Gods heavenly  

city than to the earthly world.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West

A. General Causes  

a. Intellectual sterility, lack of the “vision thing”  

b. Problems of the political economy  

i. Civil wars (235-85 AD)  

ii. Disruption of trade and agriculture  

iii. End to expansion  

iv. Debasement of coinage  

v. Inflation  

vi. Diocletian (late 3rd century)  

1. Mean guy  

2. Tax devouring  

3. He imposes a lot of tax to get more money for the  

government  

4. He wanted to dominated society

vii. There were several internal weaknesses which brought the  Western Empire to its end  

c. Barbaric Pressure  

i. Germanic pressures  

ii. Motives of fear  

iii. Economic opportunity  

iv. Means of entry  

v. Slaves, peasants

vi. Under Atilla the Hun, the Huns are able to establish their  empire in Europe and come out of Asia  

1. The pressure of the Huns caused some Romans to  

flee which caused them to be weaker  

2. There was a plague and Atilla the Huns army suffers