Rome, originally a small village in central Italy, would grow into a small metropolis that would conquer and control all of Italy, southern Europe, the Middle East, Egypt and the British Isles and by the first millenium A.D., would find itself the largest and most powerful empire in the history of the world.
Much of Rome's genius was spent in the study of military strategy and technology, adminisration and law in order to support the vast world government that they had built.
The Romans adopted much of the genius of the Greeks and adapted it to Roman art, architecture, philosophy and even religion developing a Graeco-Roman culture later adopted by European civilizations.
Italy is a land of rich soil and adequate precipitation. It is, however, poor in mineral resources and almost devoid of useful harbors. The Italian people began and devoloped primarily as an agrarian society and even in the time of the late Roman Empire, the people and culture would identify its values and ideals as agrarian.
Italy was easily accessible from Europe to the north, as the Alps were not invulnerable, which was to be a constant source of conflict for the Romans, as well as for other Italian peoples.
Originally settled by an unidentified people, these people were displaced by waves of migrations into Italy from Africa, Spain and France. These people were later displaced my new migrations from north of the Alps during the Bronze Age about 1500 BC. During this same time period, people arrived in Italy from across the Adriatic Sea, east of Italy. These were a nomadic people, primarily herdsmen and were technologically superior to the indigenous peoples of Italy. They worked bronze, used horses and had wheeled carts. A war-like people, they settled the mountainous areas of Italy and are referred to as Italic though they included several ethnic groups including the Sabines, Umbrians and Latins along with many others.
About 800-700 BC, two new groups of peoples arrived to Italy and unlike earlier immigrants, these new peoples brought civilization with them. These were the Greeks and the Etruscans.
Rome was settled by an agrarian Italic people from south of the Tiber River. They were tribal and dominated Roman society both in its early and late histories. Although the exact date of the founding of Rome in unknown, archaeologists date it to be around 753 BC, though it was probably in existence as a small village prior to that date.
Early Roman government was a monarchy, though it was established with a tribal logic. The monarch held absolute power over the people, called by Romans imperium. The monarch's relationship with the people was seen as the power of a father over his household, or patriarchal in trype. This implied a relationship of mutual obligations. In early Roman society, the father of the household held immense power and the fatheer was even granted the right to sell his children into slavery or kill them if he could prove justification for doing so. This power was only limited in that the father was required to consult with the family and with the public before using his power. The father could not kill or sell his wife, however he could divorce her but only in the most extreme of circumstances. The father also served as the priest of the family. The monarch's power was limited by the people, their welfare and traditions. The monarch served as a legislator, head of the military, head of the judiciary and as chief priest of the people. His authority was limited by an unwritten constitution of traditions and laws, which he was powerless to change.
The monarchy ruled alongside a Senate and an assembly. The Senate consisted of a council of elders composed of the heads of various clans. These elders were originally clan leaders and was, therefore, a kind of clan confederacy. This Senate was given the power to veto the appointment of a king and therefore the king must have the support of the clan leaders. The Senate also judged legislation and the actions of the king to ensure that the actions of the king met with the constitution as well as traditional customs, though the Senate generally ratified all of the king's decisions.
The assembly was composed of all male citizens of Rome, originally limited to those who could prove that both parents were native Romans. The assembly's primary function was to grant imperium to the monarch ratified by the Senate and was therefore a limited democracy in which the clan leaders approved the candidate for king and the entire male population of Rome gave the king absolute rule. The assembly was organized into thirty groups based upon kinship with each group having a single vote, with a grand total of thirty votes within the assembly.
At an early date, society was divided into two groups: the patricians and the plebeians with the patricians being the most wealthy and controlling the wealth, trade, power and military. Only a patrician could serve as clan leader and therefore only patricians could sit in the Senate or hold elected offices. The majority of the people were plebeians and consisted of small farmers, hard-laborers and craftsmen who were generally employed by the patricians, though some plebeians worked their own land. The plebeians did have a small voice in government though they were represented in the government by the assembly.
During the period of monarchy, Rome greatly extended their control over surrounding territories. Indeed, the monarchy itself had been established to provide stability and security and the conquest of territory was done with the same goals in mind, as the Romans viewed their neighbors as a threat to their society. As the Roman's successfully expanded their territory, they began to receive notice by the powerful Etruscans to the north, who in the sixth century, took over the government of Rome. From the middle of the sixth century the Etruscans controlled Rome, creating bitter resentment among the Romans. An Etruscan prince of the Tarquins, the Etruscan family that ruled Rome, raped the wife of a patrician and the Romans rose in revolt and overthrew the Tarquins in 509 BC. The legend is that the Tarquin prince, Sextus Tarquinius, raped Lucretia, wife of Tarquinius Collatinus. Sextus Tarquinius was then overthrown by Lucius Junius Brutus, trusted friend of Tarquinius Collatinus. This then marked the downfall of the Etruscan civilization.
Following the overthrow of the Tarquins, the Romans dismantled the institution of the monarchy entirely and the age of the Roman Republic was born.
The history of Rome as a republic is a history of continuous warfare and is the basis for all of the Roman stories of virtue and values. At the top of Roman officials were the consuls, which consisted of two patricians who were elected to the office for one year. These officials replaced the monarchy and held imperium powers. They initiated legislation, served at the head of the judiciary and military and served as priests of the nation. They dressed as monarchs in purple robes and sat in the seat formerly held by the monarch, the ivory chair.
The power of the consuls was very limited in that they only served for one year before they were either re-elected or assumed private life. Either of the two consuls could veto the other and after serving as consul, they were required to serve in the Senate, forcing them to work in cooperation with the Senate. The result of these limits was a consul who did not show creativity or initiative and therefore tended to be very cautious. The consular system was changed in 325 BC to allow for proconsuls, which were consuls whose term of office was extended due to military campaigns.
Beneath the consuls were two financial officers known as quaestors and later an official known as praetor was formed. The praetorship was originally a judicial office but later became a military office or central general of Rome. The praetorship was a one year appointment but could also be extended for military campaigns. Censors were officials whose job was to classify citizens according to wealth and tax status. The office of the censors was especially vulnerable to corruption and bribery so this position was only given to the most trustworthy and virtuous men in the Republic, which were former consuls. In time, the position of censor became extremely powerful and included the power to dismiss senators from the Senate for any reason at all.
All of these officials were patricians and in its early stages the Republic was merely a transition of monarchial powers given to the wealthiest classes in Rome, the patricians. This was heavily resented among the plebeians for the life of the Republic, which lasted from 509 BC until the middle of the first century BC under Caesar.
The struggle between the patricians and the plebeians is known as "the struggle of the orders" and is the age old struggle between the wealthy holding the power and the plebeians struggling to gain equality. The patricians needed the plebeians in order to supply the labor for the society as well as the soldiers for the military. The plebeians, had they acted as a group, could shut down the Roman economy and military.
In 494 BC, the plebeians withdrew from Rome, occupying the Sacred Mount where they declared an alternative government forming a tribal assembly modeled on the Roman assembly and headed by tribunes who were the heads of the tribes. These tribunes could veto any decision of a Roman migistrate or official or legislation of the Senate. The assembly itself voted by tribe and their decisions were binding on all plebeians, though not on non-plebeians. In this, the plebeian won the right to author their own legislations.
The Law of the Twelve Tables was the result of the struggle of the orders and was written in 450 BC. These formalized and codified the Roman law and the constitution. Plebeians won the right to marry patricians in 445 BC and gained the right to be elected consul in 367 BC, when the first plebeian consul was elected. This plebeian consul would then serve a term in the Senate, breaking the patrician power of the Senate. Plebeians won the right to serve in the priesthood in 300 BC giving them religious equality. The greatest plebeian victory came in 287 BC, when it was stated that the decisions and legislation of the plebeian assembly were binding not only on plebeians but upon all Roman citizenry.
The Roman wars were originally wars of defense. The expulsion of the Tarquins led to attacks by prior Roman allies and by the Etruscans. The next Roman wars were wars whose purpose was to neutralize the threat of attack by contolling neighboring territories as well as providing a buffer zone to Rome itself. This buffer zone continued to grow until Rome had conquered the entire Italian peninsula and then the conquest of the world. Only in the latter stages of the Empire was the goal of the Roman Empire a deliberate objective.
Following the expulsion of the Tarquins in 509 BC, Rome turned towards the Etruscans themselves and allying with other Latins and the Greeks, the Romans drove the Etruscans out of Italy and the Etruscan civilization came to a brutal end. In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, the Romans steadily conquered all of the Etruscan territory.
The arrival of Indo-European people into northern Italy from across the Alps, the Gauls, checked Roman advances. In 387 BC, these Gauls roared into Italy and defeated the Roman army, captured and burned Rome and looted and plundered, demanding tribute. Once they had received the tribute, the Gauls once again, returned to central Europe leaving Rome vulnerable to all those it had previously conquered. By 350 BC, Rome was again powerful enough to assert its dominance and in the middle of the fourth century BC, Rome successfully defeated Gaulish raiding parties.
Rome was part of a Latin alliance of which Rome exerted tremendous hegemony. Roman allies began to resent the Roman hegemony over the league and demanded independence to which Rome refused. The Latin cities rose against Rome in 340 BC and by 338 BC Rome had dismantled the Latin League and took control of all of Latium.
Rome began a war with a tough Latin people in 295 BC who were living in the Appenine mountains and were known as the Samnites who were allied with the remaining Etruscan cities, by Gaulish tribes and by some rebellious Italian cities. The Romans won this war in 280 BC, having won control of all of central Italy. Rome then turned south towards the Greek cities, quickly overpowering them and by the middle of the third century, Rome controlled the entire Italian peninsula.
Rome had devised a plan to control conquered territories. Conquered cities were not destroyed but rather they were granted certain rights. Some cities were granted Roman citizenship, particularly those near Rome, while others enjoyed Roman rights and some were given complete autonomy. Some were allowed to become allies but all conquered cities were required to send to Rome both taxes and troops. Roman soldiers were given captive lands in payment for their services and some of these land grants were especially lucrative. Using this method, Rome was able to establish a permanent military force in every conquered land. In an effort to reinforce these settlements, the Romans employed road-building projects using high quality, straight roads, even over mountains, in order to quickly move men and supplies and ensuring a rapid response to rebellion.
In the third century BC, the greatest naval power in the Mediterranean was the North African city of Carthage (near modern Tunis). Originally Phoenicians, the Carthaginians were the descendants of a colony of Phoenicians from their capital city of Tyre in ninth century BC, having conquered the Persians. Following the defeat of the Phoenicians of Tyre by the Assyrians in the sixth century, Carthage became an independent state, which had been steadily expanding their territory in North Africa from western Libya to the Strait of Gibraltar and ruled over most of southern Spain as well as the island of Corsica and Sardinia. Carthage controlled almost all of the commercial trade in the Mediterranean and had grown to become a wealthy and powerful force in the Mediterranean.
In the middle of the third century BC, Rome, having conquered southern Italy, came into contact with the Carthaginians, whom the Romans called as Phoenicians, or in Latin Poeni. Between Carthage and Italy lay the island of Sicily of which the Carthaginians controlled the western half. With the revolt of the city of Messana in Sicily, the Romans intervened and the first Punic (Poeni) War erupted.
The First Punic War took place 264-241 BC and was concentrated on the island of Sicily. Rome besieged the Carthaginian cities of Sicily and when Carthage responded by attempting to raise the siege with its Navy, the Romans totally destroyed that navy. For the first time ever, the Carthaginians had lost power over the sea-ways. Neither the Romans nor the Carthaginians won the war and in 241 BC, a treaty was signed in which the Carthaginians relinquished Sicily and paid an indemnity for the war. Soon Carthage faced rebellion among its mercenary troops and in 238 BC, Rome used this to its advantage by seizing the island of Corsica. Fearing the Carthaginians, Rome sought to build a buffer zone beween them. The Carthaginians were furious and even Roman historians thought it a rash act by Rome. The Carthaginians began to build their presence in Europe and sent the general Hamilcar, and later his son-in-law, Hasdrubal to Spain both to build armies and colonies. Hamilcar and Hasdrubal established allies among the Iberians and their armies swelled with recruited Iberians at an alarming rate.
The Second Punic War took place 218-210 BC. By 218 BC, Carthage had established a strong empire in Spain, increasing Carthaginian wealth and power. Fearing the increase in Carthaginian power, Rome had imposed a treaty on Carthage limiting them to the Ebro River in Spain. A small city in Spain, Saguntum, approached Rome for alliance and Rome was only too happy to oblige them, in spite of the fact that the Spanish city was in the heart of Carthaginian Spain.
Meanwhile, a young man of twenty-five, had assumed command of Carthaginian Spain. His name was Hannibal. Hannibal had given the Saguntum city a wide berth until the city, bolstered by their relationship with Rome, began to play politics with other Spanish cities. Hannibal attacked the city and conquered it. The Romans tried to solve the problem diplomatically, demanding the Carthaginians dismiss Hannibal and send him to Rome to which the Carthaginians refused. In the years following the first Punic War, the Carthaginians had established a powerful force in Spain with a terrifyingly large army. Hannibal marched that army across Europe and in September of 218, he crossed the Alps with his army and entered Italy in a war of invasion. He smashed the Roman army in northern Italy, bringing a horde of Gauls from the north with him, his army swelling to fifty thousand or more. His plan was to convince Roman allies and subject cities to join Carthage.
Rome knew that they could not defeat Hannibal's army in open warfare and asked Quintus Fabius Maximus to become absolute dictator of Rome. Fabius planned to harass the Carthaginian army until they became weak enough to deal with openly. In 216 BC, Hannibal marched into Cannae and began decmating the countryside. Fabius sent an army of eighty thousand against him but the Roman army was completely decimated, the largest defeat Rome had ever suffered. Roman allies in the south ran to Hannibal's side; the whole of Sicily united with the Carthaginians. Philip V, the king of Macedon, controlling most of mainland Greece, allied with Hannibal and began his own war against Roman possessions in 215 BC.
Hannibal moved across Italy unopposed, as Fabius, chastened by his defeat, refused to send an army against him. Hannibal, meanwhile grew weak in numbers and equipment and lacked the strength to siege cities as large as Rome and was unable to take the city by force. All he could do was waste the countryside.
Knowing Hannibal was dependent upon Spain for his supplies, they appointed a young and brilliant man as proconsul and handed him the imperium over Spain. Though this was unconstitutional, as this man had never served as consul, this man, Publius Cornelius Scipio (237-183 BC) would later be known as Scipio Africanus for his victory over Carthage in Africa, conquered all of Spain leaving Hannibal without a supply line in Italy.
Crossing into Africa in 204 BC, Scipio attacked Carthage itself forcing the Carthaginians to sue for peace. Part of the treaty demanded that Hannibal leave Italy. Hannibal, one of the greatest strategic generals in history, never once lost a battle and dispite winning every battle, he was now forced to lose the war. Returning to Carthage, Hannibal reinspired the Carthaginians who again rose up against Rome in 202 BC. Hannibal met his first defeat at Zama in North Africa in a battle against Scipio and Rome reduced Carthage to a dependent state. Rome now controlled the entire western Mediterranean including northern Africa. This Second Punic War established Rome as an international empire with the acquisition of northern Africa, Spain and the major islands of the western Mediterranean under their control. Philip V of Macedon had allied himself with Hannibal and now Macedon and the other Hellenistic kingdoms drew the attention of Rome.
Our Roman Ancestors
Constantius III d. 421, Emperor of Western Roman Empire, and Aelia Galla Placidia of the Roman Empire.
Theodosius I "the Great" Emperor of Western Roman Empire d. 394 and Galla of the Western Roman Empire.
Valentian I, Emperor of Western Roman Empire d. 375 and Jusitina.
Theodosius "the Elder" of the Roman Empire d. 375 and Thermantia.
Valentinian III, d. 454, Emperor of Western Roman Empire and Licinia Eudoxia of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Eudoxia of the Roman Empire and Huneric d. 484, King of the Vandals in Africa.
Caesar d. 305
Constantius I d. 306, Emperor of Western Roman Empire and Saint Helen of England.
Constantine I "Augustus the Great", Emperor of Rome, and Flavia Maxima Fausta d.326.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus d. 310 and Eutropia
Constantius II d. 350
Constantius III d. 421 Emperor of Western Roman Empire and Aelia Galla Placidia of the Roman Empire.
Marcus Antonius, Oratoren of Rome d. 87 BC.
Marcus Antonius, Crecitius of Rome d. 71 BC and Julia of Rome.
Lucius Julius III of Rome, Caesar d. 86 BC and Cossutia Fulvia of Rome
Lucius Julius II of Rome, Caesar
Sextus Julius II of Rome, Caesar
Mark Antony, Triumvir of Rome d. 30 BC and Octavia Minor of Rome
Gaius Octavius, Praetor of Rome d. 59 BC and Atia Balbus of Rome
Marcus Atius Balbus, Senator of Rome and Julia Caesar of Rome
Marcus Atius Balbus Balbus of Rome and Pompeia
Gaius Julius Caesar, Praetor of Rome d. 84 BC and Aurelia or Cornelia of Rome.
Lucius Aurelius Cotta of Rome and Rutilia of Rome
Lucius Aurelius Cotta of Rome
Gaius Julius II of Rome, Caesar and Marcia of Rome.
Quintas Marcus Rex of Rome
Lucius Julius Caesar Praetor Urbanis of Rome
Sextus Julius Caesar, Proconsul of Sicily 208 BC
Lucius Julius Caesar, Military Tribune
Lucius Julius Caesar, Council of Rome b. before 267 BC
Gaius Octavius the Citizen of Rome
Gaius Octavius, Tribune of Rome
Nero "Drusus" Claudius Germanicus Drusus, Emperor of Rome d. 9BC and Antonia Minor "the Younger" of Rome.
Tiberius Claudius Nero, Roman Emperor d. 37 BC and Livia Drusilla of Rome.
Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus of Rome and Alfidia.
Marcus Livius Drusus, Tribune of Rome b. before 91 BC.
Applus Claudius Nero of Rome
Tiberius Claudius Nero of Rome.
Tiberius Claudius I Nero Caesar Drusus, Emperor of Rome 10 BC and Aelia Paetina (Lepida)
Lucius Paullus of Rome and Vipsania Julia.
Julia Genissa Venissa Julius, Princess of Rome and Gweirydd of the Trinovantes of Britain
