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Rise Of The Ancient Roman Empire Essay, Research Paper

Ancient Roman Empire

Rome had a war god in its lineage and wolf milk in its belly, implying that its citizens had a knack for warfare-which they would prove again and again.

Early in Rome’s history, the city was conquered by the Etruscans, the most notable civilization in Italy before Rome’s rise to power. The Etruscans, who would influence Roman civilization, had migrated to Italy from Asia Minor, probably in the 12th century BC. Their distant past is a mystery, because their language has no relationship to any other group of languages. Their Italian homeland, Etruria, consisted of a loose confederation of city-states. They were noted for their metalworking and their fine pottery. The Etruscans were at the height of their power during the 6th century BC. By 500 BC their civilization was in decline, and at about that time the Romans rose up and claimed power in their city, establishing a republic.

A patrician class initially ruled Rome, but over time the Plebs, or common people, gained influence. As late as 390 BC, when Greece and Persia were great powers in the world, Rome was still so weak that it was sacked by the Gauls. However, during the 4th and 3d centuries BC, the Romans became masters of central and southern Italy. Roman armies entered Greece, where they were both conquerors and conquered: they defeated the Greek armies, but they were overawed by Greek culture and brought back to Rome a taste for fine art and literature.

Rome’s most powerful rival was now the distant city of Carthage, ruler of north Africa and the western Mediterranean. During the Punic Wars, Rome suffered the humiliation of seeing a Carthaginian army on its soil for more than a decade. Neither Rome nor Carthage, led by the great general Hannibal, could prevail. Finally, the Carthaginians were forced to withdraw, and Rome chased them home to Africa. In 202 BC at the Battle of Zama, Rome defeated Carthage. The two nations lived in peace for a few decades, then another Punic War erupted. Rome prevailed again, obliterating Carthage.

During the next two centuries the Roman Empire expanded rapidly, gobbling up many of the territories once ruled by Alexander the Great, including Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. While venturing out to rule the Mediterranean world, Rome also defined its own civilization and polity. Reluctantly, the city extended its prized citizenship widely to other Italian towns and downward to social classes previously disfranchised.

In 60 BC a triumvirate (three-man executive board) consisting of Gaius Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus led Rome. In 67 BC the statesman and general Pompey the Great, who had fought the Marian party in Africa, Sicily, and Spain, cleared the Mediterranean of pirates and was then put in charge of the war against Mithridates. Meanwhile his rival Gaius Julius Caesar rose to prominence, and his political ability had full scope during the absence of Pompey. As leader of the popular party Caesar strengthened his hold on the people by avenging the injured names of Marius and Cinna, pleading for clemency to the children of the proscribed, and bringing to justice Sulla’s corrupt followers.

In Marcus Licinius Crassus, a man of great wealth, Caesar found a tractable auxiliary. Catiline’s conspiracy in 63 BC , exposed and defeated by the famous orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero during his consulship, involved Caesar in the ill will in which the middle classes held popular adventurers. Pompey returned from the east and asked the Senate for the ratification of his measures in Asia and the bestowal of land on his legionaries. His demands met with determined opposition, until Caesar, posing as his friend, formed with him and Crassus the coalition known as the first triumvirate.

Caesar had come to power as a popular democratic leader. He was also a magnificent general. During the next decade he fought the Gallic Wars, leading a Roman army as far north as Britain.

Caesar returned to a nation in turmoil. Ordered to halt his army at the Rubicon River, he crossed in 49 BC and waged war for the control of Italy. Successful there, he pursued his foes into Greece and Egypt. At Alexandria, his presence resulted in one of the great tragedies in the history of scholarship: the burning of the great Library of Alexandria, depository of almost 500,000 manuscripts. But Caesar had his mind on love as well as war. Victorious, he established Cleopatra as queen of Egypt and as his mistress. In 47 BC he won the battle of Zela and sent home the most famous words ever uttered by a triumphant warrior, “Veni, vidi, vici”-”I came, I saw, I conquered.”

Caesar returned to Rome, where his presence led to both admiration and envy. In the presence of such a man, the old ideal of the Roman republic seemed to fade

The triumvirate in 59 BC fulfilled its compact. Caesar obtained the consulship and the satisfaction of Pompey’s demands, conciliated the equestrians, many of whom were wealthy members of the mercantile class, at the expense of the Senate, and had enacted an agrarian law enabling him to reward the troops. His crowning success, however, was his obtaining for five years the military command of Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum, and late of Transalpine Gaul, where he could gain glory by military conquests, and from which he could watch every political move in Italy.

The triumvirs renewed their alliance, and Caesar procured his command in Gaul for five years more. Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls for the year 55 BC, and in the following year Pompey received as his province the two Spains, with Africa, while Crassus received Syria. The death of Crassus in 53 BC brought Pompey into direct conflict with Caesar. Rome, in the absence of efficient government, was in turmoil until the

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