Unit 6 Writing AssignmentCaesar Augustus (ruled 27BCE to 14CE), was his great uncle JuliusCaesar’s heir and successor. Toward the end of his long life, CaesarAugustus dictated what he considered to be the major deeds of his reignand had them put on bronze pillars in Rome where all could see them.Once you have read Chapter 6 carefully, write a short (250-400 word)essay explaining how the Deeds are a blueprint for the changes Augustusmade and describing how he tried to avoid the political mistakes madeby Julius Caesar. Augustus also wanted people to believe he saved theRepublic, when really he created the Empire. If you can see places inthe Deeds that give this away, put them in your essay. Be sure to givespecific examples from the Deeds to support your arguments. Once
you have posted your own essay, comment on two others.
Unit 7
The history problem you are trying to solve today is how to use a source like Procopius. UnlikeHerodotus or Thucydides, he is not trying to show several sides. Unlike Augustus, he is notwriting an autobiography for the ages. Procopius is hoping to damage reputations, yet we don’thave so many sources, and especially personal ones, to use for this period so we cannot afford toignore it. Your assignment is to write a short essay of 250-400 words explaining how historiansBe sure to give at least two examples from the readings to illustrate your points and relate themto chapter 7 generally. Once you have completed and posted your own essay, comment on atleast two others.should use a source like Procopius in their understanding of the Byzantine Empire of this period.Here are links to the documents for this assignment. Begn by reading the section on Theodoraon p. 196 of your textbook. Procopius, who as the personal historian of Justinian had writtenmany laudatory commentaries on his reign, wrote a Secret History damning Justinian andparticularly his wife, Theodora. Procopius was angry with Justinian for having the generalBelisarius, whom Procopius had worked for and admired, assassinated. Justinian was afraid hisgeneral might try a coup d’etat; now that you know some Roman history this should notsurprise you. Procopius also hated Theodora, who had grown up in the Hippodrome, whom heregarded as little better than a whore. In fact, her upbringing helped her to counsel her husbandto stay put rather than flee the city during the Nika riots when the nobility had no idea how tohandle widespread rioting by the commoners.Procopius, Secret History This link is to the entire work. You only need to read sections ‘Bythe Historian”, 9 & 10 to do this assignment.Music of the Hagia Sophia This link takes you to a great short (4 minute) audio of how amedieval historian and a physicist have used a new process called convolution to recreate howmusic would have sounded sung in the great dome of the building. After 1453, the buildingwas converted to use as a mosque. Although most of the past hundred years saw the buildingused as a museum, recently the building has been returned to its use as a mosque. Unit 8Chapter 8 is really a tale of religious rule of two societies. This was notnew; you studied it in Egypt as well as Greece and Rome. In the case ofthe Merovingian and Carolingian Franks, the Christian religionprovided a way for rulers to define themselves relative to the otherGermanic tribes in northwest Europe and also to appeal toConstantinople and Rome for support. In the case of Islam, the religionand its governing structure expanded at an astonishing rate relative toother major world religions, clearly indicating an unmet need in thelands from Persia to north Africa to Spain. Having read Chapter 8carefully and the links on this page, as well as the Prophet Muhammad’slast sermon, your assignment is to write a short essay of 250-400 wordscontrasting the political roles of the two religions. What components ofeach provided a basis for the governing structure in the Frankishkingdom as well as the early caliphates? Remember that your essayneeds specific examples. Once your own essay is posted, comment on at
least two others.
Unit 6 Writing Assignment
Caesar Augustus (ruled 27BCE to 14CE), was his great uncle Julius
Caesar’s heir and successor. Toward the end of his long life, Caesar
Augustus dictated what he considered to be the major deeds of his reign
and had them put on bronze pillars in Rome where all could see them.
Once you have read Chapter 6 carefully, write a short (250-400 word)
essay explaining how the Deeds are a blueprint for the changes Augustus
made and describing how he tried to avoid the political mistakes made
by Julius Caesar. Augustus also wanted people to believe he saved the
Republic, when really he created the Empire. If you can see places in
the Deeds that give this away, put them in your essay. Be sure to give
specific examples from the Deeds to support your arguments. Once
you have posted your own essay, comment on two others.
How did Augustus and Roman elites
create a foundation for the Roman
Empire?
After Augustus (r. 27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) ended the civil wars that had
raged off and on for decades, he faced the monumental problems of
reconstruction. He rst had to reconstruct a functioning government.
Next he had to pay his armies for their services, and care for the
welfare of the provinces. Then he had to address the danger of
various groups on Rome’s European frontiers. Augustus was highly
successful in meeting these challenges, creating a system of
government in which he ruled together with the Senate and other
members of the Roman elite.
Augustus and His Allies
fi
fi
Augustus claimed that he was restoring the republic, but he actually
transformed the government into one in which he held increasing
amounts of power. Historians used to see this transformation as the
sole creation of Augustus and his family, but they increasingly
recognize that Augustus was assisted in this by senators and other
members of the Roman elite who wanted to play an active role in
governance. Augustus and his successors turned for advice to a
circle of trusted friends. Many of these were from senatorial families
or those just beneath them in Rome’s social hierarchy, who were
called equites, a word meaning “horsemen” in Latin because this
class had originally formed the cavalry of the Roman army.
Together the senators and equites formed a tiny elite of under ten
thousand members who held almost all military, political, and
economic power in Rome’s expanding territory, a pattern that had
started during the republican period and continued under Augustus’s
successors. An ambitious young man from a senatorial or equestrian
family who wished to gain power and wealth generally rst served
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
as an of cial somewhere in the Italian peninsula. He then spent time
as a high military of cer, and if he was successful, he gained a post
as a governor, high of cial, or military leader in the provinces,
taking the Roman legal system and Roman culture with him. He
then might try to gain a seat in the Senate, though Augustus limited
these seats to around six hundred and set high minimum property
requirements, so competition was erce. Sons of sitting senators did
not just inherit their fathers’ seats but had to serve in the
administration or high in the army rst, and then run a campaign.
Although Augustus curtailed the power of the Senate, it continued to
exist as the chief deliberative body of the state, and it continued to
act as a court of law. Augustus and the Senate ruled together, as both
needed the other to rule effectively, and the relationship between
them was uid. Augustus intentionally pursued a policy of
conciliation with some of his former enemies. Toward the end of his
reign, he closed the popular assemblies, so ordinary Romans could
make their opinions known to him only when they saw him in
person at games or during his speeches. At these times vast crowds
of thousands organized themselves to clap, stomp, and shout their
opinions, but these were never as important in determining policy as
the opinions of Augustus’s intimates.
Augustus t his own position into the republican constitution not by
creating a new of ce for himself but by gradually taking over many
of the of ces that traditionally had been held by separate people. He
was elected consul, which gave him the right to call the Senate into
session and present legislation to the citizens’ assemblies. As a
patrician, Augustus was ineligible to be a tribune, but the Senate
gave Augustus the powers of a tribune anyway, such as the right to
preside over the concilium plebis (see Chapter 5). Recognizing the
importance of religion, he had himself named pontifex maximus, or
chief priest. An additional title that the Senate bestowed on
Augustus was princeps civitatis (prihn-KEHPS cih-vee-TAH-tees),
“ rst citizen of the state,” and because of this his government is
called the principate. This title had no of cial powers attached to it
and had been used as an honori c for centuries, so it was inoffensive
to Roman ears. One of the cleverest tactics of Augustus and his
allies among the Roman elite was to use nonin ammatory language
for the changes they were making. Only later would princeps
civitatis become the basis of the word prince, meaning “sovereign
ruler.”
Augustus was also named imperator, another traditional title often
given to a general by his troops after a major victory, derived from
the Latin word imperium, which means “power to command.” In the
late republic more than one military commander sometimes held this
title at the same time, but gradually it was restricted to the man who
ruled Rome, given to him when he acceded to power, and became
one of his titles. (The English word emperor comes
from imperator in this more exclusive sense, and the rulers of Rome
after Augustus are conventionally called emperors.) Here again
Augustus and his successors used familiar language to make change
seem less dramatic. They never adopted the title “king” (rex in
Latin), as this would have been seen as too great a break with
Roman traditions.
Augustus as Imperator In this marble statue, found in the villa of Augustus’s widow, Augustus is depicted in
a military uniform and in a pose usually used to show leaders addressing their troops. This portrayal
emphasizes his role as imperator, the head of the army. The gures on his breastplate show various peoples
the Romans had defeated or with whom they had made treaties, along with assorted deities. Although
Augustus did not declare himself a god — as later Roman emperors would — this statue shows him barefoot,
just as gods and heroes were in classical Greek statuary, and accompanied by Cupid riding a dolphin, both
symbols of the goddess Venus, whom he claimed as an ancestor.
fl
fi
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
Augustus’s title of imperator re ects the source of most of his
power: his control and command of the army. He could declare war,
he controlled deployment of the Roman army, and he paid the
soldiers’ wages. He granted bonuses and gave veterans retirement
bene ts. He could override any governor’s decision about military
matters in a province. Building on the earlier military reforms of
fi
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
Marius and Julius Caesar, Augustus further professionalized the
military, making the army a recognized institution of government.
Soldiers who were Roman citizens were organized into legions,
units of about ve thousand men. These legionaries were generally
volunteers; they received a salary and training under career of cers
who advanced in rank according to experience, ability, valor, and
length of service. Legions were often transferred from place to place
as the need arose. Soldiers served twenty-year terms, plus ve in the
reserves, and on retiring were to be given a discharge bonus of cash
or a piece of land. To pay for this, Augustus ordered a tax on
inheritance and on certain types of sales. The legions were backed
up by auxiliaries, military forces from cities allied with Rome,
which were obliged to provide a certain number of recruits each
year, a situation many allies resented. Allies often had to use
conscription to gain enough soldiers for what were often very long
terms. Auxiliaries were paid — though at a lower rate than
legionaries — and were granted Roman citizenship when they
retired, which gave them legal, social, and economic privileges, but
this was still not always an attractive position. Auxiliaries
sometimes stayed near the area where they had been recruited, but
often they served far away from home as well. They specialized in
different ghting techniques than did Roman legions, and the
Romans often sent the auxiliaries into the worst battles rst,
reserving their legions until absolutely necessary. (See “Thinking
Like a Historian: Army and Empire.”)
Grants of land to veterans had originally been in Italy, but by
Augustus’s time there was not enough land to continue this practice.
Instead he gave veterans land in the frontier provinces that had been
taken from the people the Romans conquered, usually near camps
with active army units. Some veterans objected, and at Augustus’s
death they brie y revolted, but these colonies of veterans continued
to play an important role in securing the Roman Empire’s
boundaries and controlling its newly won provinces. Augustus’s
veterans took abroad with them their Latin language and Roman
culture, becoming important agents of Romanization and part of the
cultural mixing that occurred in border areas.
Like the armies of Marius and Julius Caesar, the army that Augustus
developed was loyal to him as a person, not as the head of the
Roman state. This would lead to trouble later, but the basics of the
political and military system that Augustus created lasted fairly well
for almost three centuries.
Roman Expansion
fi
fi
fi
One of the most signi cant aspects of Augustus’s reign was Roman
expansion into central and eastern Europe and consolidation of
holdings in western Europe (Map 6.1). Augustus began his work in
the west by completing the conquest of Spain begun by Scipio
Africanus in the third century B.C.E. In Gaul he founded twelve new
towns, and the Roman road system linked new settlements with one
another and with Italy. The German frontier along the Rhine River
was the scene of hard ghting. In 12 B.C.E. Augustus ordered a
major invasion of Germany beyond the Rhine. Roman legions
advanced to the Elbe River, and the area north of the Main River
and west of the Elbe was on the point of becoming Roman. But in
9 C.E. some twenty thousand Roman troops were annihilated at the
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest by an alliance of Germanic tribes led
by a Germanic of cer who had acquired Roman citizenship and a
Roman military education. Military historians see this major defeat
as an important turning point in Roman expansion, because although
Roman troops penetrated the area of modern Austria, southern
Bavaria, and western Hungary, the Romans never again sent a major
force east of the Rhine. Hereafter the Rhine and the Danube
remained the Roman frontier in central Europe, and the Romans
used these rivers to supply their garrisons.
MAP 6.1 Roman Expansion Under the Empire, 44 B.C.E.–180 C.E. Following Roman expansion during
the republic, Augustus added vast tracts of Europe to the Roman Empire, which the emperor Trajan later
enlarged by assuming control over parts of central Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.
“In 44 B C E, the Roman Empire occupied Italy, Spain, France, the Greek peninsula, Bithynia and
Pontus, the eastern coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea, the northern coastal regions of North
Africa from Numidia to Cyrenaica, the Balearic Islands, and the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Crete
and Cyprus. By the death of Augustus in 14 B C E, the empire had occupied Raetia, Noricum,
Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Moesia located to the north of Italy and Macedonia as well as Egypt and
Syria. By the death of Trajan in 117 C E, Britain, Mauretania, Thrace, Lycia, Cappadocia, and Arabia
were added to the empire. Upper Germany, just north of the Alps, was added by the death of Marcus
Aurelius in 180 C E.
Territories gained and lost by the empire include Germania in 4 to 9 C E, Caledonia 85 to 105 C E,
Dacia 107 to 272 C E, Armenia 114 to 117 C E, Mesopotamia 115 to 117 C E, and Assyria 116 to 117
C E. The Parthian Empire in circa 180 C E extended from Mesopotamia to further east into Asia. The
different colonies founded under Augustus were heavily concentrated in Mauretania and Numidia,
Sicily, and Pamphylia, and sparsely concentrated all over the Mediterranean coastal regions in
Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Judaea.
An inset lists the modern place names of Roman cities as follows:
Roman name: Aquincum; Modern name: Budapest;
Roman name: Burdigala; Modern name: Bordeaux;
Roman name: Camulodunum; Modern name: Colchester;
Roman name: Colonia Claudia Agrippinensis; Modern name: Cologne;
Roman name: Corduba; Modern name: Córdoba;
Roman name: Eburacum; Modern name: York;
Roman name: Emerita Augusta; Modern name: Merida;
Roman name: Londinium; Modern name: London;
Roman name: Lugdunum; Modern name: Lyons;
Roman name: Lutetia Parisiorum; Modern name: Paris;
Roman name: Massilia; Modern name: Marseilles;
Roman name: Mediolanum; Modern name: Milan;
Roman name: Moguntiacum; Modern name: Mainz;
Roman name: Nemausus; Modern name: Nîmes;
Roman name: Singidunum; Modern name: Belgrade;
Roman name: Vindobona; Modern name: Vienna.”
fi
The Romans began to build walls, forts, and watchtowers to rm up
their defenses, especially in the area between the two rivers, where
people could more easily enter Roman territory. Romans then
conquered the regions of modern Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania in
the Balkans, which gave them a land-based link between the eastern
and western Mediterranean. After all the conquests under his rule,
Augustus left explicit instructions in his will that Roman territory
not be expanded any further, as there was plenty to do trying to
subdue, Romanize, and properly govern the huge territory Rome
had. Most of his successors paid no attention to his wishes.
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
Within the area along the empire’s northern border the legionaries
and auxiliaries built forti ed camps. Roads linked the camps with
one another, and settlements grew up around the camps. Traders
began to frequent the frontier and to do business with the people
who lived there. Thus Roman culture — the rough-and-ready kind
found in military camps — gradually spread into the north, blending
with local traditions through interactions and intermarriage. As a
result, for the rst time central and northern Europe came into direct
and continuous contact with Mediterranean culture. Many Roman
camps eventually grew into cities of several thousand people,
transforming the economy of the area around them. Roman cities
were the rst urban developments in most parts of central and
northern Europe.
As a political and religious bond between the provinces and Rome,
Augustus encouraged the cult of Roma et Augustus (Rome and
Augustus) as the guardians of the state and the source of all bene ts
to society. The cult spread rapidly, especially in the eastern
Mediterranean, where local people already had traditions of divine
kingship developed in the Hellenistic monarchies (see Chapter 4) or
even earlier. Numerous temples to Rome and Augustus or just to
Augustus were built throughout Roman territory. The temple at
Caesarea — a new city in Judaea, built as a port and named in honor
of Augustus by King Herod, ruler of the Jewish client state of Rome
— was huge, as big as the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. For later
emperors as well, Roman of cials and provincial elites who acted as
patrons for their cities built celebratory arches, altars, temples,
columns, and other structures to honor and show their loyalty and
devotion to the ruler. (See “Evaluating Visual Evidence: Ara Pacis
Augustae.”)
Many of these structures were decorated with texts as well as
images, chosen by those who set up the monument. For example,
Augustus wrote an of cial account of his long career, which he
included with his will, and told the Senate to set it up as a public
inscription after his death. The original document, which no longer
survives, was engraved on two bronze columns in front of the
Mausoleum of Augustus, a large tomb erected in Rome by Augustus
that is still standing. In many other places throughout the Roman
Empire copies were carved into monuments on the order of
provincial elites, some of which survive, and the text became known
as the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The deeds of the divine Augustus).
In the late eighteenth century the English historian Edward Gibbon
dubbed the stability and relative peace within the empire that
Augustus created the pax Romana, the “Roman peace,” which he
saw as lasting about two hundred years, until the end of the reign of
Marcus Aurelius in 180 C.E. Gibbon’s term has been an in uential
description of this period ever since he invented it, but those the
Romans conquered might not have agreed that Roman rule was so
harmonious (see “Viewpoints: The Pax Romana”).
fl
Although the pax Romana was not peaceful for everyone, under
Augustus and many of his successors the Romans were often able to
continue doing what they had under the republic: create a sense of
loyalty in conquered people by granting at least some of them
citizenship and other privileges. Augustus also respected local
customs and ordered his governors to do the same. Roman
governors applied Roman law to Romans living in their territories,
but they let local people retain their own laws. As long as they
provided taxes, did not rebel, and supplied a steady stream of
recruits for Roman armies, people could continue to run their
political and social lives as they had before Roman conquest. This
policy was crucial in holding the empire together. Although the
Roman army was everywhere, historians have estimated that at its
height in the second century C.E., the Roman military had no more
than roughly 100,000 troops. There is no way that these few men
could have managed populations of millions of rebellious subjects.
While Romans did not force their culture on local people in Roman
territories, local elites with aspirations knew that the best way to rise
in stature and power was to adopt aspects of Roman culture. Thus,
just as ambitious individuals in the Hellenistic world embraced
Greek culture and learned to speak Greek, those determined to get
ahead now learned Latin, and sometimes Greek as well if they
wished to be truly well educated.
How did the Roman state develop
after Augustus?
Augustus’s success in creating solid political institutions was tested
by those who ruled immediately after him, a dynasty historians later
called the Julio-Claudians (27 B.C.E.–68 C.E.) after the families who
comprised it. The incompetence of Nero, one of the Julio-Claudians,
and his failure to deal with the army generals allowed a military
commander, Vespasian (veh-SPAY-zhuhn), to claim the throne and
establish a new dynasty, the Flavians (69–96 C.E.), who reasserted
order. The Flavians were followed by a series of relatively
successful emperors, the Nerva-Antonine dynasty (96–192 C.E.),
and Rome entered a period of political stability, prosperity, and
relative peace that lasted until the end of the second century C.E.
The Julio-Claudians and the Flavians
Augustus had no male children who survived, but he married his
only daughter Julia to a series of male relatives and in-laws who he
thought would be good heirs. Two died, but the third, Tiberius, a
successful general who was the son of Augustus’s wife Livia by her
For fty years after Augustus’s death the Julio-Claudians provided
the rulers of Rome. They generally followed the pattern set by
Augustus and adopted a nephew or great-nephew as their sons in
order to promote them, though there were also often intrigues and
plots surrounding the succession. Augustus’s creation of an elite unit
of bodyguards known as the Praetorian (pree-TAWR-eeuhn) Guard had repercussions for his successors. In 41 C.E. the
Praetorians murdered Tiberius’s successor Caligula (r. 37–41 C.E.)
and forced the Senate to ratify their choice of Claudius as emperor.
Such events were repeated frequently. During the rst three
centuries of the empire, the Praetorian Guard often murdered
emperors they were supposed to protect and raised to emperor men
of their own choosing.
fi
fi
fi
Under Claudius (r. 41–54 C.E.), Roman troops invaded Britain, and
roads, canals, and aqueducts were built across the empire. Claudius
was followed by his great-nephew Nero (r. 54–68 C.E), whose
erratic actions and policies led to a revolt in 68 C.E. by several
generals, which was supported by the Praetorian Guard and
members of the Senate. He was declared an enemy of the people and
committed suicide. This opened the way to widespread disruption
and civil war. In 69 C.E., the “year of the four emperors,” four men
fi
fi
rst marriage and thus Julia’s stepbrother, survived. Adoption of an
heir was a common practice among members of the elite in Rome,
who used this method to pass on property to a chosen younger man
— often a relative — if they had no sons. Long before Augustus’s
death he shared many of the powers that the Senate had given him,
including the imperium over the army, with Tiberius, thus grooming
him to succeed him. In his will Augustus con rmed him as heir, and
left him most of his vast fortune when he died in 14 C.E. The Senate
con rmed Tiberius (r. 14–37 C.E.) as princeps.
claimed the position of emperor in quick succession. Roman armies
in Gaul, on the Rhine, and in the east marched on Rome to make
their commanders emperor. The man who emerged triumphant was
Vespasian, commander of the eastern armies.
Vespasian (r. 69–79 C.E.) restored the discipline of the armies. To
prevent others from claiming the throne, he designated his sons
Titus (r. 79–81 C.E.) and Domitian (r. 81–96 C.E.) as his successors,
thus establishing the Flavian dynasty. Although Roman policy was
to rule by peaceful domination whenever possible, he used the army
to suppress the rebellions that had begun erupting at the end of
Nero’s reign. The most famous of these was one that had burst out
in Judaea in 66 C.E., sparked by long-standing popular unrest over
taxes. Jewish rebels initially defeated the Roman troops stationed in
Judaea, but a larger army under the leadership of Vespasian and his
son Titus put down the revolt. They destroyed much of the city of
Jerusalem, including the Jewish temple, in 70 C.E., and took
thousands of Jews as military captives and slaves, dispersing them
throughout the empire.
The Flavians carried on Augustus’s work in Italy and on the
frontiers. During the brief reign of Vespasian’s son Titus, Mount
Vesuvius in southern Italy erupted, destroying Pompeii and other
cities and killing thousands of people. (See “Individuals in Society:
Pliny the Elder.”) Titus gave money and sent of cials to organize
the relief effort. His younger brother Domitian, who followed him
as emperor, won additional territory in Germany, consolidating it
into two new provinces. Later in life he became more autocratic,
however, and he was killed in 96 C.E. in a plot that involved his own
wife, ending the Flavian dynasty.
The Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
fi
The Flavians were succeeded by the Nerva-Antonine dynasty, which
ruled from 96 C.E. to 192 C.E. In the sixteenth century the political
philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli termed ve of these the “ ve good
emperors” — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
Aurelius. Machiavelli praised them because they all adopted able
men as their successors during their lifetimes, thus giving Rome
stability, although they may simply have been lucky, as this was a
pattern set by Julius Caesar and Augustus, not something new.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians generally regarded
them as “good” because they were members of the Senate (thus of
the class of people these historians believed should rule), and
successful generals. Those people conquered by them might have
had a different opinion, but they left few sources.
Dubbing emperors “good” or “bad” is not something today’s
historians generally do, but they view the Nerva-Antonines as able
administrators and military leaders. Hadrian (r. 117–138 C.E.) is a
typical example. He received a solid education in Rome and became
an ardent admirer of Greek culture. He caught the attention of his
elder cousin Trajan, the future emperor, who started him on a
military career. At age nineteen Hadrian served on the Danube
frontier, where he learned the details of how the Roman army lived
and fought and saw for himself the problems of defending the
frontiers. When Trajan became emperor in 98 C.E., Hadrian was
given important positions in which he learned how to defend and
run the empire. Although Trajan did not of cially declare Hadrian
his successor, at Trajan’s death in 117 Hadrian assumed power.
fi
fi
fi
fi
Hadrian built or completed a number of buildings, including the
circular Pantheon in Rome and new temples in Athens. He
established more formal imperial administrative departments and
separated civil service from military service. Men with little talent
or taste for the army could instead serve the state as administrators.
These innovations made for more ef cient running of the empire
and increased the authority of the emperor.
Under Trajan the boundaries of the Roman Empire were expanded
to their farthest extent, and Hadrian worked to maintain most of
these holdings, although he pulled back Roman armies from areas in
the East he considered indefensible. No longer a conquering force,
the army was expected to defend what had already been won. Forts
and watch stations guarded the borders. Outside the forts the
Romans built a system of roads that allowed the forts to be quickly
supplied and reinforced in times of rebellion or unrest. Trouble for
the Romans included two major revolts by Jews in the eastern part
of the empire, which resulted in heavy losses on both sides and the
exile of many Jews from Judaea.
fi
fi
Roman soldiers also built walls, of which the most famous was one
across northern England built primarily during Hadrian’s reign.
Hadrian’s Wall, as it became known, protected Romans from attacks
from the north, and also allowed them to regulate immigration and
trade through the many gates along the wall. Like all walls around
cities or across territory, it served as a symbol and means of power
and control as well as a defensive strategy.
As the empire expanded, the army grew larger, and more and more
troops were auxiliary forces of noncitizens. Because army service
could lead to citizenship, men from the provinces and even from
beyond the borders of the Roman Empire sometimes joined the
army willingly to gain citizenship, receive a salary, and learn a
trade, though others were drafted. The army evolved into a garrison
force, with troops guarding speci c areas for long periods. Soldiers
on active duty had originally been prohibited from marrying, but
this restriction was increasingly ignored, and some troops brought
their wives and families along on their assignments. At the
beginning of the third century, Emperor Septimius Severus of cially
recognized the marriages of active duty soldiers, which allowed
their families to gain citizenship and the man to legally bequeath his
property to his heirs.
What was life like in the city of
Rome and in the provinces?
The expansion and stabilization of the empire brought changes to
life in the city of Rome and also to life in the provinces in the rst
two centuries C.E. The city grew to a huge size, bringing the
problems that plague any crowded urban area but also opportunities
for work and leisure. Roads and secure sea-lanes linked the empire
in one vast web, creating a network of commerce and
communication. Trade and production ourished in the provinces,
and Romans came into indirect contact with China.
Life in Imperial Rome
fi
fl
fl
fi
Rome was truly an extraordinary city, and with a population
of over a million it may have been the largest city in the
world. Although it boasted stately palaces and beautiful
residential areas, most people lived in shoddily constructed
houses. They took whatever work was available, producing
food, clothing, construction materials, and the many other
items needed by the city’s residents, or selling these
products from small shops or at the city’s many
marketplaces. Many residents of the city of Rome were
slaves, who ranged from highly educated household tutors
or government of cials and widely sought sculptors to
workers who engaged in hard physical tasks. Slaves
sometimes attempted to ee their masters, but those who
fi
fi
fi
failed in their escape attempts were returned to their
masters and often branded on their foreheads. Others had
metal collars fastened around their necks. One collar
discovered near Rome read: “I have run away. Capture me. If
you take me back to my master Zoninus, you will receive a
gold coin.”3 Romans used the possibility of manumission
as a means of controlling the behavior of their slaves, and
individual Romans did sometimes free their slaves. Often
these were house slaves who had virtually become
members of the family and who often stayed with their
former owner’s family after being freed. Manumission was
limited by law, however, in part because freeing slaves made
them citizens, allowing them to receive public grain and
gifts of money, which some Romans thought debased pure
Roman citizenship. A typical day for the Roman family
began with a modest breakfast, as in the days of the
republic. Afterward came a trip to the outdoor market for the
day’s provisions. Seafood was a favorite item, as the
Romans normally ate meat only at festivals. While poor
people ate salt sh, the more prosperous dined on rare sh,
oysters, squid, and eels. Wine was the common drink, and
the rich often enjoyed rare vintages imported from abroad.
As in the republic, children began their education at home,
where parents emphasized moral conduct, especially
reverence for the gods and the law and respect for elders.
Daughters learned how to manage the house, and sons
learned the basics of their future calling from their fathers,
who also taught them the use of weapons for military
service. Boys boxed, swam, and learned to ride when
possible, all to increase their strength, while giving them
basic skills. Wealthy boys gained formal education from
tutors or schools, generally favoring rhetoric and law for a
political career. Tombstones and sarcophagi (stone cof ns)
provide evidence about Roman attitudes toward work and
family, and sometimes also insights into the deceased’s
personal philosophy. A simple tombstone reads: “To the
spirits of the dead. T. Aelius Dionysius the freedman made
this while he was alive both for Aelia Callitycena, his most
blessed wife with whom he lived for thirty years with never a
quarrel, an incomparable woman, and also for Amelius
Perseus, his fellow freedman, and for their freedmen and
those who come after them.”4 The more elaborate
tombstone of a man named Marcus Antonius Encolpus left a
blunt message for the living: “Do not pass by this epitaph,
wayfarer, but stop, listen, hear, then go. There is no boat in
Hades, no ferryman Charon. No caretaker Aecus, no
Cerberus dog. All we dead below have become bones and
ashes, nothing more. I have spoken the truth to you. Go
now, wayfarer, lest even in death I seem garrulous to you.”5
Approaches to Urban Problems
fl
fi
Fire and crime were serious problems in the city, even after
Augustus created urban re and police forces. Streets were narrow,
drainage was inadequate, and sanitation was poor. Numerous
inscriptions record prohibitions against dumping human refuse and
even cadavers on the grounds of sanctuaries and cemeteries. Private
houses generally lacked toilets, so people used chamber pots.
In the second century C.E. urban planning and new construction
improved the situation. For example, engineers built an elaborate
system that collected sewage from public baths, the ground oors of
buildings, and public latrines. They also built hundreds of miles
of aqueducts, sophisticated systems of canals, channels, and pipes,
most of them underground, that brought freshwater into the city
from the surrounding hills. The aqueducts, powered entirely by
gravity, required regular maintenance, but they were a great
improvement and helped make Rome a very attractive place to live.
Building aqueducts required thousands and sometimes tens of
thousands of workers, who were generally paid out of the imperial
treasury. Aqueducts became a feature of Roman cities in many parts
of the empire.
fi
fl
fl
Better disposal of sewage was one way that people living in Rome
tried to maintain their health, and they also used a range of
treatments to stay healthy and cure illness. This included treatments
based on the ideas of the Greek physician Hippocrates; folk
remedies; prayers and rituals at the temple of the god of medicine,
Asclepius; surgery; and combinations of all of these. The most
important medical researcher and physician working in imperial
Rome was Galen (ca. 129–ca. 200 C.E.), a Greek born in modernday Turkey. Like anyone hoping to rise in stature and wealth, he
came to Rome. Building on the work of Hellenistic physicians,
Galen wrote a huge number of treatises on anatomy and physiology,
and he became the personal physician of many prominent Romans,
including several emperors. He promoted the idea that imbalances
among various bodily uids caused illness and recommended
bloodletting as a cure. This would remain a standard treatment in
Western medicine until the eighteenth century. His research into the
nervous system and the operation of muscles — most of which he
conducted on animals, because the Romans forbade dissections of
human cadavers — proved to be more accurate than did his ideas
about the circulation of uids. So did his practical advice on the
treatment of wounds, much of which grew out of his and others’
experiences with soldiers on the battle eld.
Neither Galen nor any other Roman physician could do much for
infectious diseases, and in 165 C.E. troops returning from campaigns
in the East brought a new disease with them that spread quickly in
the city and then beyond into other parts of the empire. Modern
epidemiologists think this was most likely smallpox, but in the
ancient world it became known simply as the Antonine plague,
because it occurred during the reigns of emperors from the Antonine
family. Whatever it was, it appears to have been extremely virulent
in the city of Rome and among the Roman army for a decade or so,
with total deaths estimated at about 5 million.
Along with re and disease, food was an issue in the ever-morecrowded city. Because of the danger of starvation, the emperor,
following republican practice, provided the citizen population with
free grain for bread and, later, oil and wine. By feeding the citizenry,
the emperor prevented bread riots caused by shortages and high
prices. For those who did not enjoy the rights of citizenship, the
emperor provided grain at low prices. This measure was designed to
prevent speculators from forcing up grain prices in times of crisis.
By maintaining the grain supply, the emperor kept the favor of the
people and ensured that Rome’s poor did not starve.
Popular Entertainment
fi
fi
fi
In addition to supplying grain, the emperor and his family also
entertained the Roman populace, often at vast expense. This
combination of material support and popular entertainment to keep
the masses happy is often termed “bread and circuses.” The
emperors gained politically from promoting public entertainment, as
the arenas were places they could be seen and honored, sitting on an
elevated seat next to images of the gods.
The most popular forms of public entertainment were gladiatorial
contests and chariot racing. Gladiator ghts were advertised on
billboards, and spectators were given a program with the names and
sometimes the ghting statistics of the pairs, so that they could place
bets more easily.
Men came to be gladiators through a variety of ways. Some were
soldiers captured in war and some were criminals, especially slaves
found guilty of various crimes. By the imperial period increasing
numbers were volunteers, often poor immigrants who saw
fi
fi
fi
The Romans were even more addicted to chariot racing than to
gladiatorial shows, and watched these in large arenas such as the
Circus Maximus, which could hold 150,000 spectators. Under the
empire four permanent teams competed against one another. Each
had its own color — red, white, green, or blue. Two-horse and fourhorse chariots ran a course of seven laps, about ve miles. One
charioteer, Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a Greek who had Roman
citizenship, raced for twenty-four years, with over 4,000 starts and
nearly 1,500 wins. His admirers honored him with an inscription
that proclaimed him champion of all charioteers. Other winning
charioteers were also idolized, just as sports stars are today, and the
demand for races was so high that they were held on more than one
hundred days a year in imperial Rome.
fi
fi
fi
gladiatorial combat as a way to support themselves. All gladiators
were trained in gladiatorial schools and were legally slaves,
although they could keep their winnings and a few became quite
wealthy. The Hollywood portrayal of gladiatorial combat has men
ghting to their death, but this was increasingly rare, as the owners
of especially skilled ghters wanted them to continue to compete.
Many — perhaps most — did die at a young age from their injuries
or later infections, but some fought more than a hundred battles over
long careers, retiring to become trainers in gladiatorial schools.
Sponsors of matches sought to offer viewers ever more unusual
spectacles: left-handed gladiators ghting right-handed ones, dwarf
gladiators, and for a brief period even female gladiators. For a
criminal condemned to die, the arena was preferable to the imperial
mines, where convicts worked digging ore and died under wretched
conditions. At least in the arena the gladiator might ght well
enough to win freedom. Some Romans protested gladiatorial
ghting, but the emperors recognized the political value of such
spectacles, and most Romans enjoyed them.
Prosperity in the Roman Provinces
As the empire grew and stabilized, many Roman provinces grew
prosperous. Peace and security opened Britain, Gaul, and the lands
of the Danube to settlers from other parts of the Roman Empire
(Map 6.2). Veterans were given small parcels of land in the
provinces and became tenant farmers. The rural population
throughout the empire left few records, but the inscriptions that
remain point to a melding of cultures, an important reason for
Rome’s success. One sphere where this occurred was language.
People used Latin for legal and state religious purposes, but
gradually Latin blended with the original language of an area and
with languages spoken by those who came into the area later.
Slowly what would become the Romance languages of Spanish,
Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian evolved. Religion was
another site of cultural exchange and mixture. Romans moving into
an area learned about and began to venerate local gods, and local
people learned about Roman ones. Gradually hybrid deities and
rituals developed. At rst, cultural exchange occurred more in urban
than in rural areas, but the importance of cities and towns to the life
of the wider countryside ensured that its effects spread far a eld.
MAPPING THE PAST
MAP 6.2 Production and Trade in Imperial Rome, ca. 27 B.C.E.–180 C.E.
This map gives a good idea of the main products produced in various parts of the Roman Empire at its height
and the trade routes connecting these regions. Map 10.2 is a similar map that shows products and trade in
roughly the same area nearly a millennium later. Examine both maps and answer the following questions.
ANALYZING THE MAP What similarities and differences do you see in products during these two
periods?
CONNECTIONS To what extent did Roman trade routes in uence later European trade routes?
fi
fi
fl
fi
fi
“Roman Empire at its height, circa 200 C E included Britain, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Gaul, Greece,
Macedonia, Thrace, Crimea, Cappadocia, Pamphylia, Syria, Judaea, Egypt, Libya, Numidia,
Mauretania, and the coastal regions along the Mediterranean Sea.
Principal products traded by sea and included sh. Principal products traded by land included gold,
copper, olives, lead, cloth, grain, tin, glass, pottery, wine, silver, sh, timber, salt, papyrus, marble,
horses, iron, silk, metals, wool, silphium, ivory, incense, and slaves, amber, and hides. Trade routes
by sea centered on most major ports in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, with a few routes also
occurring along Western Europe’s Atlantic Ocean ports. Land routes circled the Mediterranean Sea
and crisscrossed throughout the Roman Empire, into the northern coastal regions of Africa, and
stretching as far north as the Baltic Sea and as far east as the Arabian Desert and the Caspian Sea.
The garrison towns that grew up around provincial military camps
became the centers of organized political life, and some grew into
major cities, including Eburacum (modern-day York), Lutetia
Parisiorum (Paris), and Londinium (London). In order to supply
these administrative centers with food, land around them was
cultivated more intensively. Roman merchants became early
bankers, loaning money to local people and often controlling them
nancially. Wealthy Roman of cials also sometimes built country
estates in rural areas near the city, where they did grow crops but
also escaped from the stresses and unhealthy conditions of city life.
During the rst and second centuries C.E., Roman Gaul became
more prosperous than ever before, and its prosperity attracted
Roman settlers. Roman veterans mingled with the local population
and sometimes married into local families. There was not much
difference in many parts of the province between the original Celtic
villages and their Roman successors.
Roman Britain, ca. 130 C.E.
Military occupation controlled the north and the southwest while the civilian government controlled
the southeast regions of Roman Britain. Roads crisscross throughout the island. There are two
fortresses in the north, two in the center, and one in the south. Hadrian’s Wall built in 122 C E runs
across from the east coast of the Irish Sea to the west coast of the North Sea on the north of the
territory. Eburacum, Camulodunum, and Londinium are the three major cities shown on the map.
fl
fi
fl
In Britain, Roman in uence was strongest in the south, where more
towns developed. Archaeological evidence, such as coins and
amphoras that held oil or wine, indicates healthy trading
connections with the north, however, as Roman merchandise moved
through the gates of Hadrian’s Wall in exchange for food and other
local products.
Across eastern Europe, Roman in uence was weaker than it was in
Gaul or southern Britain, and there appears to have been less
intermarriage. In Illyria (ih-LIHR-ee-uh) and Dalmatia, regions of
fi
fi
Some of the routes extended to Africa, southern Arabia, eastern Africa, China, and India. Grain
which was a principal product was traded to or from Spain, Britain, Gaul, Sicily, Numidia, Greece,
Dacia, Cappadocia, and Egypt.”
modern Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro, the local population
never widely embraced either Roman culture or urban life. To a
certain extent, however, Romanization occurred simply because the
peoples lived in such close proximity.
The Romans were the rst to build cities in northern Europe, but in
the eastern Mediterranean they ruled cities that had existed before
Rome itself was even a village. Here there was much continuity in
urban life from the Hellenistic period. There was also less
construction than in the Roman cities of northern and western
Europe because existing buildings could simply be put to new uses.
The well-preserved ruins of the ancient city of Aspendos, at the
mouth of the Eurymedon (now Kopru) River on the south coast of
modern Turkey (see Map 6.2), give a picture of life in one of these
older eastern cities. Built sometime before 500 B.C.E., the city was
an important economic center in the Persian Empire and one of the
earliest cities to mint coins. It was conquered by Alexander the
Great and then by the Romans, but it remained prosperous. Romans
and indigenous people mixed at the city’s central marketplace and in
temples and public buildings. The Romans built an aqueduct to
bring water into the city, although this was later destroyed in an
earthquake. Over the river they also built an arched stone bridge,
about thirty feet wide so that carts and chariots could easily travel
on it. This may have also collapsed in an earthquake, but its
foundations were so sturdy that a thousand years later the area’s
Turkish rulers used them to build a new bridge, which still stands. In
155 C.E. a local architect built a magni cent theater that probably
held seven thousand spectators, who sat under a retractable awning
that provided shade. Here men and women enjoyed plays and
gladiatorial contests, for these were popular in eastern cities, as was
horse racing.
fi
fl
fi
Organist and Horn Player Games, gladiatorial contests, and other events in the cities of the Roman Empire
were often accompanied by music. In this oor mosaic from a villa in Nennig, Germany, built in the third
century, a horn player plays a large curved instrument known as a cornu, which was also used by the military
to call troops. The organist plays a water organ (hydraulis) in which water stored in the hexagonal podium was
pumped through tubes and the force of the water pushed air through the organ pipes.
More than just places to live, cities like Aspendos were centers of
intellectual and cultural life. Their residents were in touch with the
ideas and events of the day, in a network that spanned the entire
Mediterranean and reached as far north as Britain. As long as the
empire prospered and the revenues reached the imperial coffers, life
in provincial cities — at least for the wealthy — could be nearly as
pleasant as that in Rome.
Trade and Commerce
fi
The expansion of trade during the rst two centuries C.E. made the
Roman Empire an economic as well as a political force in the
provinces (see Map 6.2). Britain and Belgium became prime grain
producers, with much of their harvests going to the armies of the
Rhine, and Britain’s wool industry probably got its start under the
Romans. Italy and southern Gaul produced huge quantities of wine,
which was shipped in large pottery jugs wherever merchant vessels
could carry it. Roman colonists introduced the olive to southern
Spain and northern Africa, which soon produced most of the oil
consumed in the western part of the empire. In the East the olive oil
production of Syrian farmers reached an all-time high, and Egypt
produced tons of wheat that fed the Roman populace.
The growth of industry in the provinces was another striking
development of this period. Cities in Gaul and Germany eclipsed the
old Mediterranean manufacturing centers. Lyons in Gaul and later
Cologne in Germany became the new centers of the glassmaking
industry, joining older glassmaking centers in the eastern
Mediterranean. Roman glass was used for perfume, wine, and other
liquids, and despite its fragility it was shipped widely. The Romans
also took the manufacture of pottery to an advanced stage by
introducing a wider range of vessels and making some of these on
an industrial scale in kilns that were large enough to re tens of
thousands of pots at once. The most prized pottery was terra
sigillata, reddish decorated tableware with a glossy surface.
Methods for making terra sigillata spread from Italy northwards into
Europe, often introduced by soldiers in the Roman army who had
been trained in potterymaking in Italy. These craftsmen set up
facilities to make roof tiles, amphoras, and dishes for their units, and
local potters began to copy their styles and methods of
manufacturing. Terra sigillata often portrayed Greco-Roman gods
and heroes, so this pottery spread Mediterranean myths and stories.
Local artisans added their own distinctive ourishes and sometimes
stamped their names on the pots; these individual touches have
allowed archaeologists to trace the pottery trade throughout the
Roman Empire in great detail. Aided by all this growth in trade and
industry, Europe and western Asia were linked in ways they had not
been before.
Glass Beaker by Ennion This exquisite mold-blown glass beaker from the rst century C.E. with relief
decorations of leaves and basketry has an inscription in Greek: “Ennion made it.” Ennion came from the
coastal city of Sidon in modern Lebanon and is one of a very few artisans from the ancient world whose name
we know. The ne detail and precision of his work led him to have a powerful in uence on the Roman glass
industry.
fi
fl
fi
fl
fi
As the Romans drove farther eastward, they encountered the
Parthians, who had established a kingdom in what is now
Afghanistan and Iran in the Hellenistic period. After the Romans
tried unsuccessfully to drive out the Parthians in the second
century C.E., the Parthians came to act as a link between Roman and
Chinese merchants. Chinese merchants sold their wares to the
Parthians, who then carried the goods overland to Mesopotamia or
Egypt, from which they were shipped throughout the Roman
Empire. Silk was a major commodity traded from the East to the
West, along with other luxury goods. In return the Romans traded
glassware, precious gems, and slaves.
How did Christianity grow into a
major religious movement?
During the reign of the emperor Tiberius in the Roman province of
Judaea, which had been created out of the Jewish kingdom of Judah,
a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth preached, attracted a
following, and was executed on the order of the Roman prefect
Pontius Pilate. At the time this was a minor event, but Christianity,
the religion created by Jesus’s followers, came to have an enormous
impact rst in the Roman Empire and later throughout the world.
Factors Behind the Rise of Christianity
fl
fi
The civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic left their mark on
Judaea, where Jewish leaders had taken sides in the con ict. The
turmoil created a climate of violence throughout the area, and
among the Jews movements in opposition to the Romans spread.
Some of the members of these movements, such as the Zealots,
fi
fi
This was also an era of maritime trade. Roman ships sailed from
Egyptian ports to the mouth of the Indus River, where they traded
local merchandise and wares imported by the Parthians. In the late
rst century C.E. the Chinese emperor sent an ambassador, Gan
Ying, to make contact with the Roman Empire. Gan Ying made it as
far as the Persian Gulf ports, where he heard about the Romans from
Parthian sailors and reported back to his emperor that the Romans
were wealthy, tall, and strikingly similar to the Chinese. His report
became part of a group of accounts about the Romans and other
“Western” peoples that circulated widely among scholars and
of cials in Han China. Educated Romans did not have a
corresponding interest in China, however. For them, China remained
more of a mythical than a real place, and they never bothered to
learn more about it.
encouraged armed rebellion against Roman rule, which would,
indeed, break out several times in the rst and second
centuries C.E. Many Jews came to believe that a nal struggle was
near, and that it would lead to the coming of a Messiah, a word that
means one who is anointed with holy oil, as King David was
(see Chapter 2), and thus the legitimate King of the Jews. This
Messiah, a descendant of King David, would destroy the Roman
legions and inaugurate a period of peace, happiness, and prosperity
for Jews. This apocalyptic belief was an old one among Jews, but by
the rst century C.E. it had become more widespread than ever, with
many people prophesying the imminent coming of a Messiah and
readying themselves for a cataclysmic battle.
The pagan world also played its part in the story of early
Christianity. The term pagan, derived from a Latin word with
negative connotations meaning “rural dweller” (the closest English
equivalent is “redneck”), came to refer to those who practiced
religions other than Judaism or Christianity. Christianity was
initially an urban religion, and those who lived in the countryside
were less likely to be converts. What Christians would later term
pagan practices included religions devoted to the traditional Roman
gods of the hearth, home, and countryside; syncretistic religions that
blended Roman and indigenous deities; the cult of the emperor
spread through the erection of statues, temples, and monuments; and
mystery religions that offered the promise of life after death
(see Chapter 4). Many people in the Roman Empire practiced all of
these, combining them in whatever way seemed most bene cial or
satisfying to them, and some beliefs and practices from paganism
became part of Christian worship.
The Life and Teachings of Jesus
fi
fi
fi
fi
Into this climate of Messianic hope and Roman religious blending
came Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 B.C.E.–ca. 30/33 C.E.). According to
Christian Scripture, he was born to deeply religious Jewish parents
fi
fi
fi
and raised in Galilee, the stronghold of the Zealots and a trading
center where Greeks and Romans interacted with Jews. His ministry
began when he was about thirty, and he taught by preaching and
telling stories.
Like Socrates, Jesus left no writings. Accounts of his sayings and
teachings rst circulated orally among his followers and were later
written down. The principal surviving evidence for his life and
deeds are the four Gospels of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John), books that are part of what Christians later termed the New
Testament. These Gospels — the name means “good news” — are
records of Jesus’s life and teachings, written to build a community
of faith sometime in the late rst century C.E. Many different books
circulated among Jesus’s followers, but the Gospels were among the
most widely copied and circulated early accounts of Jesus’s life. By
the fourth century of cials in the Christian Church decided that they,
along with other types of writing such as letters and prophecies,
would form Christian Scripture. The four Gospels included in the
Bible are called canonical, from the Greek word that means “the
rule” or “the standard,” as are other writings included in scripture.
Other early documents were declared noncanonical, and many were
lost, though some have been rediscovered in modern times. Which
books would form Christian Scripture was a source of much debate
in the early church, and even today different Christian groups accept
different books.
The Gospels include certain details of Jesus’s life, but they were not
meant to be biographies. Their authors had probably heard many
different people talk about what Jesus said and did, and there are
discrepancies among the four accounts. These differences indicate
that early followers had a diversity of beliefs about Jesus’s nature
and purpose, and historians today describe this period as one of
“christianities” rather than a single “Christianity.”
However, almost all the early sources agree on certain aspects of
Jesus’s teachings: He preached of a heavenly kingdom of eternal
happiness in a life after death, and of the importance of devotion to
God and love of others. His teachings were based on Hebrew
Scripture and re ected a conception of God and morality that came
from Jewish tradition. Jesus’s orthodoxy enabled him to preach in
the synagogue and the temple, but he deviated from orthodoxy in
insisting that he taught in his own name, not in the name of Yahweh
(the Hebrew name for God). The Greek translation of the Hebrew
word Messiah is Christos, the origin of the English word Christ.
Was Jesus the Messiah, the Christ? A small band of followers
thought so, and Jesus claimed that he was. Yet Jesus had his own
conception of the Messiah. He would establish a spiritual kingdom,
not an earthly one. As recounted in one of the Gospels, he
commented:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where
thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.
6
fi
fl
fi
fi
The Roman of cial Pontius Pilate, who had authority over much of
Judaea, knew little about Jesus’s teachings. Like all Roman of cials,
he was concerned with maintaining peace and order, which was a
dif cult task in restive Judaea. According to the New Testament,
crowds followed Jesus into Jerusalem at the time of Passover, a
highly emotional time in the Jewish year that marked the Jewish
people’s departure from Egypt under the leadership of Moses
(see Chapter 2). The prospect that these crowds would spark
violence no doubt alarmed Pilate, as some Jews believed that Jesus
was the long-awaited Messiah, while others thought him religiously
dangerous. The four Gospels differ somewhat on exactly what
actions Jesus took in the city and what Jesus and Pilate said to each
other after Jesus was arrested. They agree that Pilate condemned
Jesus to death by cruci xion because he claimed to be the legitimate
king of the Jews, a claim that was reportedly stated in Latin above
Jesus’s head on the cross on which he was cruci ed. The only
“king” the Jews had at this time was the Roman emperor Tiberius,
so Jesus’s claim was a political crime. Pilate’s soldiers carried out
the sentence. On the third day after Jesus’s cruci xion, some of his
followers claimed that he had risen from the dead. For his earliest
followers and for generations to come, the resurrection of Jesus
became a central element of faith.
The Spread of Christianity
fi
fl
fi
fi
fi
fi
The memory of Jesus and his teachings survived and ourished.
Believers in his divinity met in small assemblies or congregations,
often in one another’s homes, to discuss the meaning of Jesus’s
message and to celebrate a ritual (later called the Eucharist or Lord’s
Supper) commemorating his last meal with his disciples before his
arrest. Because they expected Jesus to return to the world very soon,
they regarded earthly life and institutions as unimportant. Only later
did these congregations evolve into what came to be called the
religion of Christianity, with a formal organization and set of beliefs.
The catalyst in the spread of Jesus’s teachings and the formation of
the Christian Church was Paul of Tarsus, a well-educated Hellenized
Jew who was comfortable in both the Roman and the Jewish worlds.
The New Testament reports that at rst he persecuted members of
this new Jewish sect, but then on the road to the city of Damascus in
Syria he was struck blind by a vision of light and heard Jesus’s
voice. Once converted, he traveled all over the Roman Empire and
wrote letters of advice to many groups. These letters were copied
and widely circulated, transforming Jesus’s ideas into more speci c
moral teachings. Recognizing that Christianity would not grow if it
remained within Judaism, Paul connected it with the non-Jewish
world. As a result of his efforts, he became the most important
fi
fi
fi
gure in changing Christianity from a Jewish sect into a separate
religion, and many of his letters became part of Christian Scripture.
The breadth of the Roman Empire was another factor behind the
spread of Christianity. If all roads led to Rome, they also led
outward to the provinces. This enabled early Christians to spread
their faith easily throughout the world known to them. Though most
of the earliest converts seem to have been Jews, or Greeks and
Romans who were already interested in Jewish moral teachings,
Paul urged that Gentiles, or non-Jews, be accepted on an equal
basis. The earliest Christian converts included people from all social
classes, though urban residents who were socially mobile were most
likely to become Christian. Missionaries and others spread the
Christian message through family contacts, friendships, and
business networks.
The growing Christian communities differed about many things.
Among these was the extent to which women should participate in
the workings of the religion; some favored giving women a larger
role in church affairs, while others were more restrictive, urging
women to be silent on religious matters. Many women were active
in spreading Christianity. Paul greeted male and female converts by
name in his letters and noted that women often provided nancial
support for his activities.
People were attracted to Christian teachings for a variety of reasons.
It was in many ways a mystery religion, offering its adherents
special teachings that would give them immortality. But in contrast
to traditional mystery religions, Christianity promised this
immortality widely, not only to a select few.
Most early Christians believed that they would rise in body, not
simply in spirit, after a nal day of judgment, so they favored burial
of the dead rather than the more common Roman practice of
cremation. They began to dig tunnels in the soft rock around Rome
for burials, forming huge complexes of burial passageways called
catacombs. Memorial services for martyrs were sometimes held in
or near catacombs, but they were not regular places of worship.
Instead people worshipped in the houses of more well-to-do
converts.
Wall Painting in a Roman Catacomb This fresco from the Coemeterium Maius, a third-century set of
catacombs in Rome, shows a woman praying with outstretched hands, anked by two men. The cuts in the
rock below are places where visitors could celebrate commemorative meals for the dead, a pre-Christian
Roman practice that Christians continued. Christians brought food to catacombs and cemeteries to honor
martyrs as well as deceased relatives, and the painting may represent the martyrs venerated here: a woman
reputed to have been martyred while praying and two soldier-martyrs.
Along with the possibility of life after death, Christianity also
offered rewards in this world to adherents. One of these was the
possibility of forgiveness, for believers accepted that human nature
is weak and that even the best Christians could fall into sin. But
Jesus loved sinners and forgave those who repented. Christianity
was also attractive to many because it gave the Roman world a
cause. Instead of passivity, Christians stressed the ideal of striving
for a goal. By spreading the word of Christ, Christians played their
part in God’s plan for the triumph of Christianity on earth.
Christianity likewise gave its devotees a sense of community, which
was very welcome in the often highly mobile world of the Roman
Empire. To stress the spiritual kinship of this new type of
community, Christians often called one another “brother” and
“sister.” Also, many Christians took Jesus’s commandment to love
one another as a guide and provided support for widows, orphans,
and the poor, just as they did for family members. Such material
support became increasingly attractive as Roman social welfare
programs broke down in the third century.
The Growing Acceptance and Evolution of
Christianity
fl
fi
fi
fi
At rst most Roman of cials largely ignored the followers of Jesus,
viewing them simply as one of the many splinter groups within
Judaism. Slowly some Roman of cials and leaders came to oppose
fl
Christian practices and beliefs. They considered Christians to be
subversive dissidents because they stopped practicing traditional
rituals venerating the hearth and home and they objected — often
publicly or in writing — to the cult of the emperor. Some Romans
thought that Christianity was one of the worst of the mystery
religions, with immoral and indecent rituals. For instance, they
thought that the ritual of the Lord’s Supper, at which Christians said
that they ate and drank the body and blood of Jesus, was an act of
cannibalism involving the ritual murder of Roman boys. Many in
the Roman Empire also feared that the traditional gods would
withdraw their favor from the Roman Empire because of the
Christian insistence that these gods either did not exist or were evil
spirits. The Christian refusal to worship Roman gods, in their
opinion, endangered Roman lives and society. Others worried that
Christians were trying to destroy the Roman family with their
insistence on a new type of kinship, and they pointed to Jesus’s
words in the Gospels saying that salvation was far more important
than family relationships. A woman who converted, thought many
Romans, might use her new faith to oppose her father’s choice of
marital partner or even renounce marriage itself, an idea supported
by the actions of a few female converts.
Governors of Roman provinces were primarily interested in
maintaining order, and they hoped that Christians and nonChristians would coexist peacefully, but con icts arose, leading
governors to carry out campaigns against Christians, including
torture and executions. Most persecutions were local and sporadic in
nature, however, and some of the gory stories about the martyrs are
later inventions, designed to strengthen believers with accounts of
earlier heroes. Christians differed in their opinions about how to
respond to persecution. Some sought out martyrdom, while others
thought that doing so went against Christian teachings.
fi
fi
fi
fi
Responses to Christianity on the part of Roman emperors varied.
Nero persecuted Christians, but Trajan forbade his governors to hunt
them down. Though admitting that he considered Christianity an
abomination, he decided it was better policy to leave Christians in
peace. Later emperors increased persecutions again, ordering
Christians to sacri ce to the emperor and the Roman gods or risk
death. Executions followed their edicts, although estimates of how
many people were actually martyred in any of these persecutions
vary widely.
By the second century C.E. Christianity was also changing. The
belief that Jesus was soon coming again gradually waned, and as the
number of converts increased, permanent institutions were
established instead of simple house churches. These included
buildings and a hierarchy of of cials often modeled on those of the
Roman Empire. Bishops, of cials with jurisdiction over a certain
area, became especially important. They began to assert that they
had the right to determine the correct interpretation of Christian
teachings and to choose their successors. Councils of bishops
determined which writings would be considered canonical, and lines
were increasingly drawn between what was considered correct
teaching and what was considered incorrect, or heresy.
Christianity also began to attract more highly educated individuals
who developed complex theological interpretations of issues that
were not clear in scripture. Often drawing on Greek philosophy and
Roman legal traditions, they worked out understandings of such
issues as how Jesus could be both divine and human, and how God
could be both a father and a son (and later a spirit as well, a
Christian doctrine known as the Trinity). Bishops and theologians
often modi ed teachings that seemed upsetting to Romans, such as
Jesus’s harsh words about wealth and family ties. Given all these
changes, Christianity became more formal in the second century,
with power more centralized.
Unit 7
The history problem you are trying to solve today is how to use a source like Procopius. Unlike
Herodotus or Thucydides, he is not trying to show several sides. Unlike Augustus, he is not
writing an autobiography for the ages. Procopius is hoping to damage reputations, yet we don’t
have so many sources, and especially personal ones, to use for this period so we cannot afford to
ignore it. Your assignment is to write a short essay of 250-400 words explaining how historians
should use a source like Procopius in their understanding of the Byzantine Empire of this period.
Be sure to give at least two examples from the readings to illustrate your points and relate them
to chapter 7 generally. Once you have completed and posted your own essay, comment on at
least two others.
Here are links to the documents for this assignment. Begn by reading the section on Theodora
on p. 196 of your textbook. Procopius, who as the personal historian of Justinian had written
many laudatory commentaries on his reign, wrote a Secret History damning Justinian and
particularly his wife, Theodora. Procopius was angry with Justinian for having the general
Belisarius, whom Procopius had worked for and admired, assassinated. Justinian was afraid his
general might try a coup d’etat; now that you know some Roman history this should not
surprise you. Procopius also hated Theodora, who had grown up in the Hippodrome, whom he
regarded as little better than a whore. In fact, her upbringing helped her to counsel her husband
to stay put rather than flee the city during the Nika riots when the nobility had no idea how to
handle widespread rioting by the commoners.
Procopius, Secret History This link is to the entire work. You only need to read sections ‘By
the Historian”, 9 & 10 to do this assignment.
Music of the Hagia Sophia This link takes you to a great short (4 minute) audio of how a
medieval historian and a physicist have used a new process called convolution to recreate how
music would have sounded sung in the great dome of the building. After 1453, the building
was converted to use as a mosque. Although most of the past hundred years saw the building
used as a museum, recently the building has been returned to its use as a mosque.
8-1
A Muslim Describes the Conquest of Spain
IBN ABD-EL-HAKEM, The Conquest of Spain (ca. 870)
fi
Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, an Egyptian from a prominent family of legal scholars, wrote his
history of the conquest of Spain more than a century after the actual events. As the
oldest of such histories written by an Islamic scholar, it was frequently cited by later
Muslim historians. The events he describes are a combination of myth and fact. In the
following excerpt, he discusses the events that led to the defeat of Roderic, a Visigothic
king, by Tarik ibn Ziyad, the Muslim commander who led the conquest of Visigothic
Spain. After the conquest, the Muslims in Spain — the land they called al-Andalus —
built a kingdom known as a center of culture and the arts that lasted for centuries. As
you read the excerpt, consider how distrust and misunderstanding shaped interactions
between Muslims and Visigoths. The governor of the straits between this district
[Tangiers] and Andalus was a foreigner called Ilyan, Lord of Septa. He was also the
governor of a town called Alchadra, situated on the same side of the straits of Andalus
as Tangiers. Ilyan was a subject of Roderic, the Lord of Andalus [i.e., king of Spain],
who used to reside in Toledo. Tarik put himself in communication with Ilyan, and treated
him kindly, until they made peace with each other. Ilyan had sent one of his daughters to
Roderic, the Lord of Andalus, for her improvement and education; but she became
pregnant by him. Ilyan having heard of this, said, I see for him no other punishment or
recompense, than that I should bring the Arabs against him. He sent to Tarik, saying, I
will bring you to Andalus…. But Tarik said I cannot trust you until you send me a
hostage. So he sent his two daughters, having no other children. Tarik allowed them to
remain in Tlemsen, guarding them closely. After that Tarik went to Ilyan who was in
Septa on the straits. The latter rejoicing at his coming, said, I will bring you to Andalus.
But there was a mountain called the mountain of Tarik between the two landing-places,
that is, between Septa and Andalus. When the evening came, Ilyan brought him the
vessels, in which he made him embark for that landing-place, where he concealed
himself during the day, and in the evening sent back the vessels to bring over the rest of
his companions. So they embarked for the landing-place, none of them being left
behind: whereas the people of Andalus did not observe them, thinking that the vessels
crossing and recrossing were similar to the trading vessels which for their bene t plied
backwards and forwards. Tarik was in the last division which went across. He
proceeded to his companions, Ilyan together with the merchants that were with him
being left behind in Alchadra, in order that he might the better encourage his
companions and countrymen. The news of Tarik and of those who were with him, as
well as of the place where they were, reached the people of Andalus. Tarik, going along
with his companions, marched over a bridge of mountains to a town called
Cartagena…. When the Muslims settled [on an island near Andalus], they found no
other inhabitants there, than vinedressers.1 They made them prisoners. After that they
took one of the vinedressers, slaughtered him, cut him in pieces, and boiled him, while
the rest of his companions looked on. They had also boiled meat in other cauldrons.
When the meat was cooked, they threw away the esh of that man which they had
boiled; no one knowing that it was thrown away: and they ate the meat which they had
boiled, while the rest of the vinedressers were spectators. These did not doubt but that
the Muslims ate the esh of their companion; the rest being afterwards sent away
informed the people of Andalus that the Muslims feed on human esh, acquainting them
with what had been done to the vinedresser. When Tarik landed, soldiers from Cordova
came to meet him; and seeing the small number of his companions they despised him
on that account. They then fought. The battle with Tarik was severe. They were routed,
and he did not cease from the slaughter of them till they reached the town of Cordova.
When Roderic heard of this, he came to their rescue from Toledo…. They fought a
severe battle; but God, mighty and great, killed Roderic and his companions. From Ibn
Abd-el-Hakem, History of the Conquest of Spain, trans. John Harris Jones (Goettingen:
Dietrich, 1858), pp. 18–20. Text modernized by Amy R. Caldwell. 1vinedressers: People
who cultivate grapevines.
8-2
An Arab Account of the Frankish Defense of
Gaul
ANONYMOUS ARAB SOURCE, The Battle of
Poitiers (ca. 732)
fl
fl
fl
After the initial conquest of Spain by Muslim forces early in the eighth century, an
expeditionary force continued into Frankish territory and was defeated by Frankish
forces led by Charles Martel. The defeat marked the end of Muslim incursions across
the Pyrenees and allowed the Franks and Martel to build a powerful kingdom, which
peaked under his grandson Charlemagne. There are numerous Catholic accounts of the
battle, but the following is one from an unknown Arab chronicler that provides a
counterpoint to the Christian point of view. This excerpt picks up after a string of Muslim
victories. Abderrahman1 drove them back; and the men of Abderrahman were puffed up
in spirit by their repeated successes, and they were full of trust in the valor and the
practice in war of their emir. So the Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the River
Garonne, and laid waste the country, and took captives without number. And that army
went through all places like a desolating storm. Prosperity made these warriors
insatiable. At the passage of the river, Abderrahman overthrew the count,2 and the
count retired into his stronghold, but the Moslems fought against it, and entered it by
force and slew the count; for everything gave way to their cimeters,3 which were the
robbers of lives. All the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army, and they
betook them to their king Caldus,4 and told him of the havoc made by the Moslem
horsemen, and how they rode at their will through all the land of Narbonne, Toulouse,
and Bordeaux, and they told the king of the death of their count. Then the king bade
them be of good cheer, and offered to aid them. And in the 114th year5 he mounted his
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
fl
fl
horse, and he took with him a host that could not be numbered, and went against the
Moslems. And he came upon them at the great city of Tours. And Abderrahman and
other prudent cavaliers saw the disorder of the Moslem troops, who were loaded with
spoil; but they did not venture to displease the soldiers by ordering them to abandon
every thing except their arms and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valor of
his soldiers, and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But such defect of
discipline is always fatal to armies. So Abderrahman and his host attacked Tours to gain
still more spoil, and they fought against it so ercely that they stormed the city almost
before the eyes of the army that came to save it; and the fury and the cruelty of the
Moslems toward the inhabitants of the city was like the fury and cruelty of raging tigers.
It was manifest that God’s chastisement was sure to follow such excesses; and Fortune
thereupon turned her back upon the Moslems. Near the River Owar6 the two great
hosts of the two languages and the two creeds were set in array against each other.
The hearts of Abderrahman, his captains, and his men, were lled with wrath and pride,
and they were the rst to begin the ght. The Moslem horsemen dashed erce and
frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many
fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun. Night parted the two armies; but
in the gray of the morning the Moslems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers had soon
hewn their way into the centre of the Christian host. But many of the Moslems were
fearful for the safety of the spoil which they had stored in their tents, and a false cry
arose in their ranks that some of the enemy were plundering the camp; whereupon
several squadrons of the Moslem horsemen rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed
as if they ed; and all the host was troubled. And while Abderrahman strove to check
their tumult, and to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came around
him, and he was pierced through with many spears, so that he died. Then all the host
ed before the enemy, and many died in the ght. This deadly defeat of the Moslems,
and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier Abderrahman, took place in the
hundred and fteenth year. From Edward Creasy, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the
World: From Marathon to Waterloo (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1862), pp. 177–178.
1Abderrahman: Abd-ar-Rahman, the Muslim governor of Córdoba. 2count: Count Odo
of Aquitaine, also known as Duke Odo. 3cimeters: Scimitars; curved swords used by the
Muslim forces. 4king Caldus: Charles Martel, mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, a
powerful statesman and military leader who basically ruled the territory of Francia from
718 to 741 C.E. 5114th year: This refers to 114 years after the hijra, or the migration of
the Muslim community from Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. 6River Owar: Possibly the
Loire River.
Unit 8
Chapter 8 is really a tale of religious rule of two societies. This was not
new; you studied it in Egypt as well as Greece and Rome. In the case of
the Merovingian and Carolingian Franks, the Christian religion
provided a way for rulers to define themselves relative to the other
Germanic tribes in northwest Europe and also to appeal to
Constantinople and Rome for support. In the case of Islam, the religion
and its governing structure expanded at an astonishing rate relative to
other major world religions, clearly indicating an unmet need in the
lands from Persia to north Africa to Spain. Having read Chapter 8
carefully and the links on this page, as well as the Prophet Muhammad’s
last sermon, your assignment is to write a short essay of 250-400 words
contrasting the political roles of the two religions. What components of
each provided a basis for the governing structure in the Frankish
kingdom as well as the early caliphates? Remember that your essay
needs specific examples. Once your own essay is posted, comment on at
least two others.