Ancient Rome exercises a powerful grip on the imagination of modern man. It was a sophisticated and powerful civilization, which has had a profound influence on all later western societies.
Ancient Rome Civilization Topics
Emerging from a small agricultural community in central Italy, the city of Rome was traditionally founded in 753 BC. In 509 BC it became a Republic, whose power grew until it embraced the entire Mediterranean world. The Republic collapsed in bloody civil war during the First Century BC, and in 27 BC the history of Rome entered a new phase with the founding of the Empire. Under the Empire, the Roman world knew peace for more than two hundred years before the Third Century brought civil wars and barbarian invasions. The Empire looked as if it would collapse, but was saved by a series of soldier-emperors who imposed the new, more despotic system of government of the Late Empire. This phase is regarded as lasting from 284, when the emperor Diocletian came to the throne, until about 476, when the last western emperor was deposed. From then on, the history of the Roman empire is focussed on the eastern provinces, centred on Constantinople. Scholars usually designate this the Byzantine empire.
The city of Rome is located in central Italy, but the empire it came to rule covered the entire Mediterranean basin, together with much of western Europe. At its greatest extent in stretched from present-day northern England to southern Egypt, and from the Atlantic coast of Portugal to the Iraqi shores of the Persian Gulf.
Rome’s location in central Italy placed it squarely within a cultural environment dominated by a cluster of interlinked Mediterranean civilizations. The most famous of these was that of the Ancient Greeks, but others included those of the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians and the Etruscans, plus several lesser-known peoples such as the Lycians. In its early centuries Rome was particularly influenced by the powerful Etruscan civilization to its north, from which it acquired many aspects of its culture. As Rome’s reach extended throughout the Italian peninsula it came into direct contact with the Greek cities to the south. From then on Greek influence would become an increasingly important element within Roman life. However, the Romans would give Greek culture their own slant, giving it a new grandeur which can be seen in Roman remains throughout the empire.
Roman art was closely related to late Greek art – indeed, as the Romans conquered more and more Greek cities, more and more Greet art found its way to Rome. The same is true of Greek artists, who found in the Roman ruling classes keen patrons of their work. Nevertheless, Roman sculpture in particular has an unmissable characteristic all its own. The sculptural portraits of leading Romans of the late Republic and early Empire are simple and dignified, and above all startlingly realistic We really do know what Julius Caesar looked like! To see them “in the flesh”, so to speak, is an awe-inspiring experience.
What is true for art is even more true for architecture. One can see Greek influences powerfully at work in the buildings of Ancient Rome, but transformed into a uniquely Roman style. There is nothing in Ancient Greece that is similar to the arched facades of the Colosseum, or the theatre of Pompey (except those buildings which the Romans themselves built, in, for example, Athens, where the Theatre of Hadrian is one of the most spectacular ancient remains); nor to the arched construction of the great Roman aqueducts, or the triumphal arches which adorn the Forum Romanum. The arch is a brand new innovation in Roman architecture, reflecting Roman engineering capabilities in solving the problem of carrying greater weight. The same is true for the dome, which appeared most famously in the Pantheon and which allowed Roman architects to span much greater spaces than before. The theme here is size and grandeur – the Romans built big to reflect their power and confidence.
The above account of their architecture shows that the Romans were adventurous and highly skilled engineers. More than anything else, this is seen in their roads, which ran for hundreds of miles across all sorts of terrain, and played an important part in knitting the empire together so effectively. Advanced engineering skills are also seen in the public baths and elaborate water supply systems which the towns and cities of the empire enjoyed (Ancient Rome had more fresh water supplied to it than modern Rome until the late-20th century).
The spirit of practical innovation that can be seen in Roman engineering and architecture can also be seen in the sphere of government. The Roman Republic presided over Rome as it changed from being a single city-state to being an enormous empire. As it grew, it met new challenges by adapting old institutions to deal with new situations; and although the stresses and strains of growth eventually led to the breakdown of the Republic, the resolution of this crisis – the Augustan settlement and the coming of the Empire - was a masterpiece of practical adaptation. The Roman ruling classes also adopted an inclusive approach to the lower orders and to conquered elites – by the second century of the empire over half of all senators came from outside Italy.
The Greeks had developed legal codes to deal with social tensions, but the Romans took the whole concept of law to an entirely new level. Roman law guaranteed a whole range of basic rights for its citizens, to the extent that Roman citizenship became a prized possession. For the first time in history an individual human being was given rights in relation to the state – above all, protection from arbitrary punishment. These rights, originating and evolved within the Republic, where not taken away under the emperors, at least for the majority of the population: even a Jew in a far away province who happened to possess Roman citizenship could cry, “I appeal to Caesar”, and to Caesar he went! The great legal compendia of the Late Empire enshrined these principles and passed them on to future European civilization.
Roman society originated as a society of small farmers. However, as it grew more powerful and more extensive, it became one of the most urbanized societies in the pre-industrial world. Rome itself is a possible candidate for being the largest city on earth before the 18th century. If one excludes China, it almost certainly was. And Rome was not alone; the empire had a handful of cities with several hundred thousand inhabitants, and many other large and wealthy urban settlements. These cities had some features which would have looked very familiar to us: high rise apartment buildings, overcrowding, busy streets, plazas, imposing public administrative buildings, and so on. They – and above all, Rome – also had marked social differences, from multi-millionaire politicians and businessmen to the mass of poor slum dwellers.
One ubiquitous feature of Roman society which is not found today, at least in western nations, was slavery. Slaves would have been found everywhere, in the city and in the country, and of course in the home. They worked in all kinds of businesses, and did all kinds of work – from unskilled labouring through to high level professional jobs. A few were amongst the most powerful people in the empire; many were amongst the most miserable – especially those who worked in mines or on large plantations. None had any legal rights – they were property, like cattle. But one thing they could, with luck, look forward to: freedom. Generation by generation, millions of slaves were freed and joined the main body of citizens, with all their rights. Some freedmen became very rich; many others made a moderate living in their trade. But all swelled the ranks of citizens and over time altered the racial mix of the Roman people.
The TimeMap of World History covers maps of Ancient Rome, from its emergence in Cental Italy, to super power of the Ancient World. Each TimeMap is supported by an encyclopedia entry, detailing the progress of the civilization and the chronological story of what was happening:
Maps of the stages of Rome's development:
Ancient Rome 200 BC. The city of Rome has become a leading power in the Western Mediterranean.
Ancient Rome 30 BC. Rome now dominates the Meditteranean.
The Roman Empire AD200. Flourishing over the last two centuries, the Roman Empire has enjoyed long spells of peace and stability.
The Roman Empire AD500. Now overrun by German tribes in the west, the empire has decreased in size, however cultural influence remains strong.
FOR EXTRA TEACHING RESOURCES ON ANCIENT ROME AND THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, SEE OUR DYNAMIC HISTORY MAPS for The Rise of the Roman Empire and The Fall of the Roman Empire.
