History of Power in Ancient Rome


History of Power in Ancient Rome


a key to global education: Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci

Experience the History of Power in Ancient Rome with WisdomMaps: The Future of the Past!


Perspective


Roman civilization began with the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BCE and it ended with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. This period encompassed the Monarchy (753–509 BCE), the Republic (509–27 BCE), and the Empire (27 BCE–476 AD). Rome’s seven hills grew into the largest city of its time and eventually the greatest empire ever known, with as many as 90 million subjects and nearly two million square miles of territory under its rule at the Empire’s height in AD 117.

The Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a democratic republic and then to an autocratic and often capricious dictatorship during the Empire. By dint of military conquest and cultural and linguistic assimilation, the Empire extended throughout the Mediterranean, Egypt and Greece, southern and most of western Europe, and much of the Near Eastern lands of Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The contiguous lands and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome inter-mingled and became known as the Classical or Greco-Roman world.

Roman contributed much to many fields. The Romance languages derive from Latin, and modern Western law draws many of its precepts from Rome. There is an extensive literary corpus of Roman philosophy, politics, and governance, and its feats of architecture and engineering endure to the present day. Rome built an extensive system of aqueducts and roads and erected countless monuments, palaces, and facilities such as the public baths and the Coliseum. It created the largest military force in history and a system of republican government that would inspire the founding of republics in the United States and France.

The Punic Wars with Carthage established Rome as a great power. These wars gave Rome control of the strategic islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily and its new province of Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal). Rome’s destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE resulted in complete supremacy in the Mediterranean, and by the end of the Republic in 27 BCE, Rome had conquered the lands of the Mediterranean and beyond, to Arabia and the Danube. The Roman Empire emerged with the dictatorship of Augustus. More than 700 years of war with Persia ensued, starting in 92 BCE to become the longest conflict in human history, with massive consequences for both empires.

The Empire reached its peak under the emperor Trajan, stretching throughout the entire Mediterranean Basin to Britain and the Red and Caspian Seas in the east. The mores and morals of the Republic eroded during the Empire, and civil war seemed to precede the rise of each new emperor. Splinter states divided the Empire during the crisis-ridden 3rd century before some stability was restored under the Tetrarchy.

Wracked by internal instability and beset by invasion, the Western Roman Empire shattered into independent barbarian kingdoms in the 5th century. The Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, remained a salient power through the Middle Ages until its fall in 1453 AD.


sample map



We Invite You to Visit Our Companion Site HawaiiInside.Info • Hawaii’s Inside Story!


Index

Power: Governance: Corruption: JudicialPatronagePoliticalPrivatization | Foreign Affairs | Imperium | Assemblies | Executive | Law: CodesCourtsEarly Development: Later Development Twelve TabletsConstitutionCriminal CourtsEmpireLawyersPenaltiesSourcesStatusesTypesWomen | Military: Empire



Power

digital history of power in Rome | governance

Power: Governance

digital history of power in Rome | corruption

Governance: Corruption

digital history of power in Rome | judicial corruption

Corruption: Judicial

digital history of power in Rome | patronage

Corruption: Patronage

digital history of power in Rome | political corruption

Corruption: Political

Up to Index

digital history of power in Rome | privatization

Corruption: Privatization

Governance: Foreign Affairs

digital history of power in Rome | imperium

Governance: Imperium

Governance: Assemblies

digital history of power in Rome | executive

Governance: Executive

digital history of power in Rome | law

Power: Law

Up to Index

law | codes

Law: Codes

law | courts

Law: Courts

Law: Early Development

digital history of power in Rome | development of law

Law: Later Development

Twelve Tables

Law: Twelve Tables

digital history of power in Rome | constitution

Law: Constitution

Up to Index

digital history of power in Rome | criminal courts

Law: Criminal Courts

digital history of power in Rome | law | Empire

Law: Empire

digital history of power in Rome | lawyers

Law: Lawyers

digital history of power in Rome | penalties of law

Law: Penalties

digital history of power in Rome | law procedures

Law: Procedures

law | sources

Law: Sources

Up to Index

law | statuses

Law: Statuses

digital history of power in Rome | types of law

Law: Types

digital history of power in Rome | women and law

Law: Women

digital history of power in Rome | military

Power: Military

military | Empire

Military: Empire

Up to Index

%d bloggers like this: