15 Kasım 2010 Pazartesi

ROMAN HISTORY: The Empire

ROMAN EMPIRE (27 B.C – end of 2nd century A.D)

44-27 BC: struggle for power (2d triumvirate: Antony, Octavian, Lepidus)
31 BC: victory of Octavian ( battle of Actium)
27: Octavian becomes Augustus→ TRANSITION FROM REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE

1)   Political system
a)   Augustan Reforms:
His power base:
  • Proconsular power
  • Tribunician power             
power in Rome and the provinces

His reforms:
  • in the senate
  • in the administration
  • in the army professionalization
  • in legislation and morality
Fiction of the restauration of the Republic and beginning of the Empire.
The Roman Emperors:
27 B.C-69 A.D. (Julio-Claudian dynasty): Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero
69-96 (the Flavian dynasty): Vespasian, Titus, Domitian
96-180 (Nervan- Antoninan ‘5 Good Emperors’): Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius

2)    Expansion of Rome:
Walls of Rome:

Provincial administration:
- imperial provinces and senatorial provinces (eg. Bithynia)
-role of the provincial elites
-economic role of the provinces (food and goods for the capital)
-citizenship extended to all inhabitants of the Empire in 212.

3)   Social changes and mobility
-Aristocracy of land owners
-Trade for equestrians and freedmen
       - Rise of the freedmen (eg Trimalchio in Petronius’ novel)


4)    Roman Gods:

-Household worship
-‘Official’ roman gods
-Imperial cult: the divine emperors
 -Mystery cults (Isis, Mithra) / Christianity