A Brief History of Rome
753 BC is commonly believed to be the founding of Rome by Romulus. It is believed that Romulus and Remus, the descendents of Aenied were raised by a she-wolf. It is believed today that the name of the she-wolf was Sylvia. There is evidence that the forest which the she-wolf came from was called Sylva or Sylvannia. This is often depicted in art as two babies being cared for by a wolf(see image above). As the two brothers reached manhood, Romulus killed Remus for power. Later, Romulus founded Rome. During the early years of Rome, the city was ruled by the Etruscans, who originated from Etruria, a city in the North.
The Romans, at this time, had no women (this is very questionable, but it has been found in a respectable source). They attacked a nearby city, and took the women to Rome. This act "jump started" the growth of the legacy of Rome.
When the Etruscan rule weakened, the Romans rebelled, driving the Etruscan kings out of Rome. Today, many people wonder about why the Romans performed this act, because the Etruscans gave the Romans many contributions to their lives. When the Romans succeeded, they no longer had the strongest position in Latium.
After the expulsion of the Etruscans, the monarchy became a republic. At first, the power was in the hands of the patricians, or upper class. These patricians were normally of hereditary nobility. During this time, Rome began to conquer lands and expanded into the south of Etruria . However, there was conflict between the plebeians, or the lower class and the patricians.
The plebeians hold a strike, and win rights from the upper class.
These tables enabled the plebeians to know and understand the laws of Rome. This is one of the first steps in striving for equality in the republic
The Gauls invaded Italy and settled in the Po valley and up to the Alps. In this year, the Gauls sacked Rome.
This law gave full rights to the plebeians as well as equality. Rome then became a democracy, although in reality, Rome was still controlled by the wealthy.
This was the first war Rome fought against a non Italian enemy. Pyrrhus was the Greek leader of the enemy. For a moment, he savoured victory, but doing so harmed him. He was weakened to the extent that he was soon defeated by the Romans. The Romans then gained control of the peninsula south of the Po Valley
The First Punic War was against the north African city of Carthage. Carthage controlled almost all of the western Mediterranean. Rome defeated Carthage in this war, thus gaining control of Sicily. Carthage was replaced by Rome as the dominant power in the western Mediterranean.
After their defeat in the First Punic War, Carthage had expanded into Spain under the control of the brilliant general Hannibal (no, he was not a cannibal). Under his power, the Carthaginians attacked Italy, and almost defeated Rome. However, Publius Cornelius of Rome eventually defeated the Carthaginians in Africa and became the victors of the Second Punic War. Carthage had to rebuild from their ashes of defeat.
The Romans attacked Macedonia because they had aided the Carthaginians during the Punic Wars. Rome became the dominant power in Greece. The Romans gave the Greek cities their independance.
Hannibal had advised Antiochus, the king of Syria to attack Greece. The Romans responded with a sound defeat of the Syrians. Syria's strength in the Middle East is weakened.
The Romans were annoyed by the intriging culture in Macedonia. They then made Macedonia into one of their provinces.
Carthage was defeated quickly in the Third Punic War. Under the general Publius Cornelius Aemilianus Africanus(the grandson of Publius Cornelius), the Roman army destroyed Carthage.
In the same year, Corinth was destroyed. The inhabitants of the Greek city were sold as slaves.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was elected tribune, and granted poor Romans more rights, and land won in wars. He was later killed in a riot.
The younger brother of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was also elected tribune. He passed many laws which almost completely reformed the system. Like his brother, he tried to grant more rights to the poor in Rome. He was later killed in a riot. The deaths of the two brothers can be paralleled to the deaths of the Kennedy brothers. The two were politicians in the United States of America, strove for equality, and were killed.
Gaius Marius was a novo homo which meant that his family had never held a high office position. He was elected consul for five years to prevent invasions of Germanic tribes.
The Italian allies of Rome at the time were dissatisfied with the power they had. They rebelled for more rights. The Romans crushed this rebellion, but due to the number of unhappy Italians, they gave citizenship to almost every Italian.
Sulla became a ruthless dictator. He would write proscriptions, or lists of people to be killed. He eliminated many of his political enemies. After retiring in 79 BC, he died in 78 BC.
Spartacus was a fugitive gladiator (a slave who would fight others as entertainment for citizens). He led a rebellion of farm slaves. This rebellion failed, as Marcus Licinius Crassus crushed it with great difficulty.
Essentially, a consulship meant that the two rulers would rule as one. The advantage of this was that if one ruler tries to do something outrageous, the other would be there to watch over him and stop him.
Pirates had been a constant worry on the minds of sailors at the time. Pompey gained a lot of popularity by defeating the pirates with large naval and land forces.
King Mithridates had overrun many Roman possessions, and was threatening to invade Greece. Pompey defeated King Mithridates, and added new territory to the rapidly growing republic.
Today, Cicero is considered the best Roman orator and prose writer ever to live.
Caesar defeated many Gallic tribes and Gaul became a Roman province. He also crossed the Rhine and defeated the Germanic tribes. An expedition was made to Britain.
49 BC -- 45 BC: Julius Caesar and Pompey fight in a large civil war, in which Caesar emerged as the victor. He made himself dictator, and made many reforms, such as creating the Julian Calendar.
There were some Romans who did not like the idea of a sole dictator. These included Brutus, one of Caesars most trusted friends. The group of conspirators killed Caesar on the ides (according to the Roman dating system, the "ides" is the 15th) of March. After his death, there was a war between the conspirators and the friends of Caesar. Caesar's friends won and Augustus Caesar, the son of Julius Caesar becomes the dictator.
Augustus Caesar defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt at Actium. Egypt was added as a territory of Rome.
This agreement ended the republican government and Rome became an empire.
The Julio-Claudians were the descendents of Augustus Caesar and/or his wife Livia, who was of the Claudian family.
27 BC -- AD 14: Augustus Caesar
Rome was ruled by the emperor Augustus Caesar, who later adopted Tiberius, Livia's son.
AD 14 -- AD 37: Tiberius
Tiberius was skilled at being a general and leader. However, he became paranoid and had many Romans killed including two nephews.
AD 37 -- AD 54: Gaius
Gaius was nicknamed Caligula because as a boy, he enjoyed dressing up as a soldier. Soldiers wore slippers named caligulae. He was a good ruler but went insane. He was murdered by his body guard, also known as the praetorian guard.
Claudius was Gaius' uncle. The praetorian guard chose him to replace Gaius as emporor. He was a good administrator and created the civil service of Rome. However, he was flawed in various ways. He was ugly, hunch backed, and stammered. He also had a weakness for women. He married his niece Aggripina, who poisoned him with mushrooms so that her son Nero could become emperor.
Nero was talented in many ways but very conceited. He entered poetry contests, and even participated in chariot races. He thought himself to be a very good musician, but in reality, his music was horrible. He is remembered today as an evil emperor. People believe that in 64 AD, he started the great fire of Rome. He blamed the Christians for the event and killed them. He also erected a statue on a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He killed himself in AD 68 when the governer of Spain tried to kill him.
AD 69: The year of four emperors
The four emperors were Galba, a previous governer of Spain; two senators; Otho, and Vitellius. Each of the four quickly lost their prestigious position.
Titus Flavius Vespasian was Nero's general and he seized power after the fall of the four emperors. He was not Roman, but Italian. He began construction of the Colosseum, or the Flavian Amphitheatre.
A little while after the death of Vespasian, Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Titus succeeded his father Vespasian. He had ended the war in Jerusalem by destroying the city. He was known for his kindness and was very popular
Domitian succeeded his brother Titus. He was also a good administrator, but was stingy. He completed the Flavian amphtitheatre. He was murdered by the praetorian guard when he purged other senators.
Nerva was an elderly senator when he was appointed to be emperor. He gained popularity by adopting the well liked and able general Trajan.
Trajan was previously a governor of Spain. He was very popular and a good administrator and general. He extended the Roman empire to Dacia and parts of Asia.
Hadrian was born in Spain and later adopted by Trajan. He was skilled in many areas, such as being a poet and scholar. He was a good administrator. He travelled frequently. He is famous today for being an excellent architect, designing the beautiful Hadrian's Villa. He also strove for peace, allowing Dacia to be freed.
Antonius Pius was adopted by Hadrian. During his reign, Rome was fruitful and this period is often considered the happiest period in the history of not only Rome but of Europe.
Marcus Aurelius was previously adopted by Antonius Pius. He was a good and conscientious administrator. However, the happy times in Rome were beginning to end, as there was fighting in Balkans. This forced Aurelius to travel to the area, where he later died.
Commodus: AD 180 -- AD 192
Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius. He was a drunk and a poor ruler. He survived many attempted conspiracies and murders. He was eventually killed by his own mistress.
AD 193 -- AD 211: Septimius Severus
After a short period of confusion after the Dominate, Septimius Severus seized the throne. He was born in Africa, and was successful as a general. Before he died, he told his sons Caracalla and Geta to trust no one except for themselves and the army.
One of the fist things Caracalla did after rising to the throne was to kill his brother Geta. He won the army's liking by giving them a large bonus. However, this made Rome in debt. He started raising taxes to extravagent levels and allowed all free born people in the Roman empire to become citizens to enlarge the tax base. He was later murdered by the Praetorian guard.
AD 218 -- AD 222: Heliogabalus
Heliogabalus received his name after being the priest of the Syrian sun god. He was made emperor at age 14. His mother attempted to rule in Heliogabalus' name. They were both later murdered by the praetorian guard.
AD 222 -- AD 235: Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus was the cousin of Heliogabalus. He was a good ruler and well liked among the Romans. Unfortunately, he was killed by mutinous soldiers.
AD 233 to AD 294: Fall and Rise of Rome
For a while due to poor economy, constant warring, the empire fell. After a continuous string of good emperors however, the Roman empire united.
Diocletian was born in Yugoslavia. He made many reforms, such as lowering taxes and encouraging sons to take up the profession of their father. This brought about more organization, but meant that the poor had little chance of rising to success.
AD 306 -- AD 337: Constantine
Constantine "the great" became emperor after a civil war. He built Constantinople, a city in Thrace(currently Istanbul). He supported Christianity, which soon became the dominant religion in the empire. As Christianity grew more popular, pagan religions such as Mithraism declined. The economic and military state of the empire worsened.
Theodosius "the Great" ended the long history of pagan religions by banning them in AD 392. He closed the famous Delphic oracle in Greece, and ended the Olympic games. He realized that the empire was too large for one man to rule alone, and divided the Roman Empire into two, the Western empire and the Eastern Empire.
Augustulus, the last emperor of the West was deposed by barbarian mercanaries. A barbarian replaced him as emporer.
Italy and the Western Roman empire slipped into the Dark Ages, where there was a decline in technological advances. If it were not for the efforts by the monasteries to "preserve" the culture by continuing to use Latin, the Dark Ages may have lasted much longer.
Justinian was the last great emperor of Rome. He had success militarily and even expanded the empire. He created "Justinian's Law", which is still used today as a basis for modern law. He also closed pagan universities.
After Justinian's rule, there were Barbarian invasions. Despite this, the level of civilizations still remained relatively high.
Constantinople was conquered by the Moslem Turks. Mankind must thank the Byzantium scholars for fleeing to the west and preserving information. This brought about an interest in the past, which eventually caused the Renaissance.