Rome (unit 4)
Welcome to Rome! We will continue to improve our HTC skill of examining causes and consequences. We’ll practice progress and decline (part of continuity and change) and historical perspectives.
Aqueduct at Segovia
The Republic: Did Expansion Lead to Decline?
The Republic of Rome
Key Learning About the Republic:
privileges of Roman citizenship – who wanted them? who didn’t want to give them away to others? Why not? What was the potential for conflict?
government balance – how did they make a monarch-like power without the power of a monarch?
dictatorship: what’s the danger of this position?
sample key words: ‘balanced’ republic, consuls, tribunes, Senators, citizenship, patrician, plebeian, Romanization, triumvirate, rex, etc .
La morte di Cesare
- Complete Alternative Interpretations of Caesar_shortened (handout).
Augustus – the First Roman Emperor but Not in Name
Bust of Augustus from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. late 30s or 40s CE. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/augustus-151325
Augustus as Priest.
Minds On: What lessons did Octavian/Augustus have to learn from what happened to Julius Caesar?
Caesar-v_Augustus_PROJECTOR-slide (quotes)
HTC: primary source evidence
What is your interpretation of Augustus after each document? How does it change with the addition of new information?
CHW3M_Augustus_Worksheet_secondary_evidence
Augustus’s Character:
smart, calculating, cunning?
He balanced changes with tradition.
Continuity and change – Caesar to Augustus.
Decline of the Roman Empire – generic factors
How did this all fall apart?
Read and annotate Decline of the Roman Empire articles (they are all pretty generic, without specific emperor names or dates). Then share with your mixed group and enter information onto the factors page.
Empire overview of decline: Articles_Decline_Rome
Currency and the Collapse of the Roman Empire (infographic) = article 5
Analyzing the Causes:
In mixed groups, using the white boards, use only the names of the causes (economic, military, etc) and draw arrows between them. Indicate if arrows are direct or indirect causes.
Identify #1 causal factor, and least important causal factor.
key words from each of the factors in decline:
- political
- corruption, disloyalty, fraud, conflict, political incompetence
- economic
- hyperinflation, heavy taxes, military spending, trade localization, unemployment, expensive infrastructure, gladiatorial games cost, trade imbalance (import more than export)
- religious
- Christian values conflicted with traditional polytheistic Roman beliefs and morality. It was a sudden change that resulted in confusion.
- social
- manumission (freeing) of slaves, loss of old Roman values of being a good citizen, reliance on slave labour made Romans behind in technology.
- external
- invasions, natural disasters and environmental decline (note that the army was mostly composed of Germanic peoples by the end, not Romans)
Timeline of Republic to Empire:
- 509 BCE start of the Republic
- 44 BCE death of Julius Caesar
- Augustus (ruled 27 BCE – 14 CE)
- Nero (ruled 54 – 68 CE)
- Trajan (ruled 98-117)
- Hadrian (ruled 117-138)
- Diocletian (ruled 284-305)
- Constantine (ruled 306-337)
- 476 CE end of the Roman Empire in the west (note that the eastern portion lasted until 1453)
Roman Emperors and Their Contributions to Decline
Where did each emperor fit into the timeline?
Tiberius – here’s a short presentation on an early emperor and his indirect contributions to decline: Tiberius_Contribution_to_Decline_Rome
We may or may not do this: We began research on how each emperor contributed (or not) to the eventual decline of Rome. CHW 3M Roman Emperors Note-taking Sheets.
It is probably best to divide research into the 5 headings that we started with today.
Emperor Research
Research will continue. PLEASE take notes in your own words in point form.
Groups will have 5 slides maximum to share the major achievements of each emperor and how he contributed (or not) to the decline of the empire.
enter your info on these slides:
After your individual research, come up with your theme (thesis, main argument) about the emperor. This should be about a sentence long and refer to how much or how little he contributed to the decline of Rome.
Preparation of slides. Make sure you use headings to clearly indicate if information is positive achievement, negative contribution, and link to decline. Don’t forget causation!!!! You can use red and green to show contributing to decline not contributing to decline.
CHW_HTC_Tracking_Sheet_Cause-Consequence
compete for best and worst!
Challenge Ms. G on Her Interpretation of Augustus
Here’s an example of how I might make an argument about how Augustus did NOT cause the decline of Rome. It’s just an example to show you how to provide the connection to generic causes of decline (highlighted in red).
TS: Augustus did not directly cause the decline of the Roman Empire though he did establish some precedents that later became causes for decline.
Ex 1: Augustus’ treatment of the Senate was fair: he took away Julius Caesar’s old appointees, making the patricians feel happier about being rid of those plebeian-friendly old pals of Caesar. While the Senate remained somewhat powerful, Augustus grew to hold just as much power as he shared power over the provinces with the Senate. He personally owned and controlled Egypt, one of the wealthiest provinces.
Arg and HTC 1: This shows that Augustus was smart enough to please the Senate yet still give himself a lot of power. One of the long-term political causes of the fall of the Roman Empire in the west was the corruption of rulers. Over time the Senate became less and less important and more power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor who could be unscrupulous and devious. Even though Augustus never called himself emperor he certainly demonstrated emperor-like power when he removed the Caesar-friendly Senators and single-handedly decided that Egypt would belong to him. He wasn’t corrupt or devious; he was just smart enough to make it work in his time.
Ex 2: Augustus was very interested in reviving and promoting the old/traditional values of the Republic related to religion and family. He did this by pleasing the priests in many ways: taxing childless couples to push them to have more children; making an example of his daughter Julia by forcing her to marry to provide him with an heir and eventually exiling her for her immoral behaviour with men; building 82 temples in Rome.
Arg and HTC 2: These examples demonstrate that Augustus did not contribute directly to the decline of Rome in the area of religion because he promoted the polytheistic state religion of Rome, not Christianity. Christianity hardly existed at the time of Augustus. Later in the empire when the new religion began to spread amongst Romans, it grew and grew in popularity amongst plebeians who were suffering both socially and economically in the empire. It grew to the point that it made the polytheistic (or pagan) emperors upset when Christians would not sacrifice to the emperor. Persecutions increased until Constantine converted and gave a voice to Christians. Later, as Christianity became the state religion, people became confused and there was uncertainty as to the status of the old Roman values. Augustus cannot be blamed for this.
Ex 3: When it came to external and military affairs, Augustus can also not be seen as a direct cause of the fall of Rome. Though Augustus did spend money on troops and did send them to fight in many places, including against the Germanic tribes, he learned a lesson later in life that could have had a great effect on his successors: don’t expand. After losing legions against the Germanic troops, he wrote in his will that future emperors should not expand Rome because it was too dangerous.
Arg and HTC 3: Once again Augustus’ actions did not directly lead to the fall of Rome. It was not Augustus’ fault that later emperors, including his own immediate dynastic successors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, did not heed his warning about the dangers of expansion. What later happened in the empire is that emperors expanded, causing them to have more and more troops to defend the frontiers. These troops were expensive to maintain. When Rome began to stagnate and emperors invited in Germanic troops to be paid to be in the Roman army, they might have foreseen that these troops would not be loyal to the Roman Empire. Augustus once again showed his smart mind by warning about the risks of expansion and thus should not be blamed for future emperors not seeing the consequences.
CS: For the most part Augustus is innocent of causing the later decline of Rome; the only thing he indirectly contributed to is gathering emperor-like power into his hands.
Themocracy