Rome Test 2

• Public roman calendars
• provide evidence of a community with enough shared values and enough structure and organization to designate days on which legal or political business was permitted or forbidden for everyone

• N=Nefastus (legal cases forbidden)
• C=Comitialis (assemblies permitted)

lists consuls for each year and sometimes also includes major events for the year, such as wars or natural disasters

annales maximi, the Pontifex Maximus, an imporant priest in Rome

list magistrates and events for a year

there are many gods, not just one “true” one

the Romans will adopt and adapt gods of other peoples and cultures

i.e.“I’ll build a great temple for you if we win this war” -Romulus’ speech, Livy 1.12

• an individual’s relation to a deity, typically, but about fulfilling obligations to higher powers
• In essence, it’s more public than private
• Roman religion may be understood to have a meaning closer to “obligation,” what one must do for a deity, than to any sense of inner connection with the divine

• The lead priest in an important collegium or school of priests in Rome
• Oversaw sacrifices, games, festivals, and the calendar
• Is in charge of the Rex Sacrorum, Vestal Virgins, Flamines, and lesser pontifices
• Position is always held by a patrician until the late 4th c. BCE

• ”The King for Sacred Rites”
• This position takes over the religious duties of the king in the Republican period
• Life-long position whose holder could not also hold a political office or sit in the senate
• Must be a patrician

• Their primary job was to preserve the sacred flame of Vesta, goddess of the hearth
• They also prepared grain mixed with salt for public sacrifices
• This is the most important public position occupied by women in ancient Rome
• There are six Vestal Virgins, each of whom serves for 30 years
• They are chosen by the Pontifex Maximus; most are from patrician families
• They must maintain sexual purity: “Extinction of the fire [of Vesta] provided the prima facie evidence that a Vestal was impure: impurity spelled danger to Rome” (Oxford Classical Dictionary 1591)
• The punishment for breaking the vow of chastity is typically death by entombment

• Priests associated with individual deities.
• There are three major flamines and twelve minor ones.
• These priests oversaw the temple of their god, much as the Vestals maintained the temple of Vesta, and were bound by elaborate rules to ensure their holiness and freedom from pollution.
• The three major flamines were always patricians and chosen by members of the pontifical college (headed by the Pontifex Maximus).

• Flamen Dialis(for Jupiter)
• Flamen Martialis (for Mars)
• Flamen Quirinalis (for Quirinus)

• Dealt with signs or omens detected in bird flight, thunder, lightning, and other natural events
• They were the “official Roman diviners” and either issued responses to questions about omens or assisted magistrates in taking the auspices (reading bird flight)
• They are vital to the transactional aspect of Roman religion, as they “see” via signs whether a god is pleased or not, so that people know what steps to take next
• They also performed inaugurations for temples
• They formed a major college of priests separate from that headed by the Pontifex Maximus
• There were originally three augurs, all patricians, and the number was increased to nine in 300 BCE, when plebeians were allowed to hold the position

they guarded and consulted the oracles in the Sibylline books, which supposedly dated from the time of Tarquinius Superbus

• Dealt with peace treaties and declarations of war.
• The fetiales formed their own college separate from that of headed by the Pontifex Maximus
• For peace treaties, they would meet with priests from the enemies and issue a curse that would befall the Romans if they broke the treaty first
• For declarations of war, they hurled a spear into enemy territory if, after having issued a public declaration against a group that the Romans believed had wronged them, that group had not made restitution
• Such a procedure allowed the Romans to assert that their wars were “just,” and not wars of aggression

• They were associated with Mars and dressed like archaic Roman foot soldiers, wearing special tunics and carrying shields and swords
• Their primary job was to protect a shield that was believed to have fallen from the sky as a gift from Jupiter during the time of Numa Pompilius.
• They had be patricians and to have both parents living

Lake Regillus

509 and 494 BCE

494, Tarquinian threats

group of Latin cities that allied against Rome under the leadership of Octavius Mamilius

• Treaty of Cassius signed with Latin cities in 493 BCE
• Spurius Cassius negotiated it

• Fidenae, Signia, Velitrae, and Norba.
• These colonies were often towns that were conquered and enrolled in the Latin League, to which they would provide troops in later Roman or Latin campaigns

Raids by the Volsci or Aequi (or both) occurred nearly every year

• He’s a war hero who earns his cognomen during the siege of Corioli
• He’s later speaks out against the powers of the tribune of the plebs and seeks to restrict the plebs’ access to grain during a severe food shortage
• The tribunes then indict Coriolanus. He goes into exile among the Volsci, whom he had recently defeated in battle
• Coriolanus then leads successful raids into Latin territory and is on the verge of conquering Rome when his wife, Volumnia, and mother, Veturia, are sent to talk with him
• His mother persuades him to retreat with an impassioned speech
• Cincinnatus (hero)
• Cincinnatus is famed for dropping his plow upon hearing that Roman troops had been surrounded and trapped by the Aequi in an encampment at Algidus
• He goes to Rome where he is named dictator and assembles an army. He then marches to Algidus and defeats the Aequi
• After receiving an official triumph, he returns to his farm and resumes plowing
• All of the above is said to take place within 15 days

Coriolanus represents the intransigence of some of the patricians to the demands and the plight of the plebs, as well as the tragic situations that can result in societies marked by rapid change. (Shakespeare wrote a tragedy about him)

Veturia represents the dutiful woman who is torn between family and state and mediates a crisis among men, much as the Sabine women did

• Cincinnatus represents the ideal of the Republican farmer-soldier who does what’s required of him and does not seek individual glory.
• Instead, he’s all about work and duty

a prosperous and powerful Etruscan city

483-474 BCE

437-435 BCE

406-396 BCE

The Fabii

At first, but they’re eventually lured into an ambush and suffer a catastrophic defeat, in which only one member of the family survives

• Lars Tolumnius
• murdered four Roman ambassadors.
• He was later killed in single combat by Cornelius Cossus, a Roman soldier

• The Third Veientine War marks a turning point in Roman history, as the Romans sack Veii after a 10-year siege and end up as the dominant city in central Italy.
• With the conquest of Veii, Rome basically doubles the size of its territory

sacked Veii

• 387 BCE
• came from Po Valley
• got payed a large amount of gold
• was humiliating for Rome

“triumph.”

a vote of the people, after recommendation by the Senate. Victorious generals who were not awarded triumphs were often quite displeased, if not angered

Conflict of the Orders

• debt bondage
• similar to indentured servants but with pay

an early codification of Roman law

• mandated that one consulship per year be held by a pleb and also addressed issues of land ownership and debt payment
• Lucius Sextius Lateranus and Gaius Licinius Stolo
• All three parts of the law eventually did pass, in 367 BCE

allowed for resolutions (“plebiscites”) passed by the Plebeian council to be binding on all Romans

law that allows intermarriage of plebs and patricians

326BCE

• not only had access to the top magistracies and the top priesthoods, but a certain number of these positions, usually half, had to be filled by plebeians.
• plebeians also had the ability to enact laws that were binding on plebeians and patricians alike.

both patricians and wealthy plebs, rather than one based solely on birth, as had been the case when the patricians had more exclusive control of the mechanisms of the state

(power is held by “the best”)

(rule by a few, who are usually rich)

one in which individuals within the elite (aristocrats or oligarchs) are motivated by a love of honor and glory

(“sequence of offices” or “course of honors”)

341, 338

• perhaps most (in)famously, T. Manlius Torquatuskilled an opponent in single combat, after having been ordered not to engage the enemy. He was then put to death one of the consuls, his father (also T. Manlius Torquatus), for disobeying orders
• The other consul at the time, P. Decimus Mus, is said to have “‘devoted” himself and the enemy to the gods of the underworld, and by riding headlong into the opposing ranks brought about their destruction and his own” (Cornell 348)

self-governing city

Rome

• The Romans often supported the ruling aristocracies of allied cities, which in turn supported the Romans. (Such a dynamic often exists in imperial regimes, where a local ruling class supports a foreign power that helps to keep it in power)
• As was the case in the foedus Cassianum, allied cities shared in the spoils of wars when they fought alongside the Romans, acquiring both “movable booty” and land. Land, in particular, was very valuable to cities that were growing and needed places to establish colonies that would help to deal with problems of overpopulation and food shortages

• First Samnite War, 343-341 BCE
• Second Samnite War, 324-306 BCE
• Third Samnite War, 298-290 BCE

• a coalition of four powerful tribal groups in the Apennines south of Rome
• united by a sense of ethnic solidarity but were also part of broader community of Oscan speakers in central and southern parts of Italy

• Oscan-speaking tribes, originally from the Apennines, are believed to have invaded the coastal regions of central and southern Italy in the 5th c. BCE, taking over cities that had previously been colonized by Etruscans or Greeks
• Relations among the various Oscan-speaking tribes were often volatile and complex. The First Samnite War broke out because the Samnites attacked another Oscan-speaking group in Campania, and Capua, a prominent city in Campania, appealed to Rome for help

• war started because two powerful groups, the Romans and the Samnites, were jockeying for control of cities and territories in Campania
• The Second Samnite War lasted for more than 20 years, but the fighting was not continuous
• The Romans took an offensive posture for the most of the war, and had frequently successes when invading parts of Campania in 326-321 BCE
• The Romans suffered a major setback, however, when the Samnites lured them into a mountain glen, known as Caudine Forks, apparently with misinformation about Samnite offensive on a Roman holding, and trapped them, forcing them to surrender

name for this surrender, in which Roman troops were forced to pass “under the yoke,” or beneath Samnite spears while unarmed, was considered a major humiliation

• The Third Samnite War began in 298, when Rome offered help to the Lucanians, whom the Samnites had attacked
• Throughout the 290s, the Romans extended the commands of consuls beyond a single year (a process known as “prorogation”), so that the commanders were technically “pro-magistrates.” Command of an army—imperium outside of Rome—was also given to several individuals who were not currently serving as consuls
• No explanation for these unusual developments is given in ancient historical accounts of the period, but scholars believe that they are signs of perceived danger in Rome. “The sources offer no explanation,” writes Cornell, “but their accounts of the events themselves suggest an answer: at this time the state faced a grave military threat” (360-61)
• This danger was likely the prospect of an alliance among powerful groups opposed to Rome—the Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls, who together represented regions in both central and northern Italy
• As was mentioned in previous lecture, it is thought the Romans began to negotiate deals with individual cities and tribes (rather than federations or groups) because they feared the possibility of peoples joining forces in opposition to them
• That fear became a reality during the Third Samnite War, when the Romans fought a large battle, in 295 BCE, against Samnites and Gauls at Sentium in Umbria

• war fought by Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus.
• Pyrrhus was asked by the people of the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy to help them in their war with the Roman Republic.

• powerful city in North Africa, in what is today known as Tunisia.
• founded in 814 BCE by Phoenician colonists from the city of Tyre

• The First Punic War starts with a conflict over the port city of Messana in northern Sicily
• The dynamics of the actual conflict are complicated and involve Hieron, the ruler of Syracuse, which was aligned with Greece, and Carthage, which had long wanted control of the eastern part of Sicily, of which Syracuse is the most important city
• The port city of Messana controlled the western part of the narrow strait between Sicily and Italy and was thus important to trade routes
• The Romans built a fleet of 120 ships in 261 and attempted to train sailors on land
• Although the Romans had a navy, their ships and sailors were inferior to those of Carthaginians, and their preliminary efforts in naval warfare ended in defeat
• To neutralize the Carthaginians’ advantage at sea, the Romans developed what was called the corvus, or “crow,” a tall pole with a spike at the end that was mounted on the prow of a Roman ship
• the Romans would sail up to a Carthaginian vessel, and instead of trying to ram it, they would drop the “crow” and lock the two ship together. Then, they would run onto the enemy ship and fight sailors unaccustomed to hand-to-hand combat, essentially “turning a sea fight into a land battle”

260

• The costs of this war are enormous for both the Romans and the Carthaginians
• The Romans lost an estimated 700 ships and Carthaginians lost an estimated 500; hundreds of thousands of soldiers and sailors on both sides died
• As these figures and duration of fighting indicates, the conflict was in many ways a war of attrition, with Romans simply outlasting and outspending the Carthaginians
• Military service was not obligatory for the Carthaginians, who relied heavily on mercenary forces rather than citizens and socii. The costs of these mercenary forces no doubt contributed to the Carthaginians’ defeat, as they had no funds to continue fighting, while the Romans continued to build fleet after fleet after fleet

Hamilcar expanded Carthage’s territory in Spain and is believed to have amassed wealth from Spain’s gold and silver mines

an oath to never enter into an alliance with the Romans, and Roman lore presents both Hamilcar and Hannibal as having an implacable hatred of them

• city that “surrendered” itself to Roman protection
• Deditio in fidem (“surrender into good faith”)

• Unknown how it began but Hannibal seemed very prepared for it
• Hannibal took the war to the Romans and italian allies

• crossed the Alps with 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants
• after 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry remained
• he showed Rome's italian allies that Rome couldn't really protect them

• Battle of Cannae
• Fabius and Hannibal battled
• Hannibal out-schemed the consuls with an innovative plan
• It's believes 30,000 Romans and allied troops died'
• Hannibal lost 5,700 men

• 2 Vestal Virgins had been unchaste and they were buried alive
• Romans also made a rare human sacrifice to the gods of the underworld by burying a Gallic man and Greek couple alive in the Forum Boarium

younger and inexperienced fighters

were more experienced and generally had better equipmeng

• the most seasoned and most skilled fighters.
• They would only participate in a battle if the first two lines met heavy resistance

initiate battles by advancing, tossing javelins, and falling back between the columns of the maniples

citizen army, composed of Romans or allies who were not full-time, professional soldiers

extended periods of time, and basically no Roman male was exempted from military service

• Slave owners were forced several times to supply slaves as rowers for Rome’s fleet after Cannae, with a promise that they would be reimbursed after the war ended
• Wealthy cavalry members (equites) and other wealthy members of the infantry also volunteered to fight without pay during this period
• Rome continued to impose a tax known as a tributum on citizens and allies, and at least once the rate was doubled
• Some colonies claimed by 209 that they could no longer provide men for the army, but the majority of colonies continued to do so

Capua

• they showed no mercy
• they cut off the heads of the city's leaders and sold the residents into slavery
• this sent a clear message to other Italian cities

• was 26 when he recieved command of the Roman forces in Spain
• successful assault on Carthago Nova
• won another victory in Baecula in Spain

was defeated and killed by Romans

• Scipio defeated the remaining Carthaginian forces giving Rome control of Spain
• now, no reinforcements would come to Hannibal

• about 80 miles south of Carthage
• Scipio organized a way for his troops to not be killed by Hannibal's elephants
• Romans prevailed and Carthage was forced to surrender
• Hannibal was not executed and he became leader of Carthage
• But, suspicion grew that Hannibal had been in contact with Antiochus III of Syria, Roman enemy, but when they arrived Hannibal went into exile

Africanus

These Roman forces fought against Philip, the Macedonian leader, after it was learned that he had signed a treaty with Hannibal

Rome decisively defeated Macedonia in 196 BCE and then proclaimed that it had liberated Greece. At this point, Rome demonstrated no interest in establishing a lasting presence in Greece or Asia Minor

• he Seleucid Empire became increasingly aggressive in its actions against Greek cities
• Rome defeated it decisively. The Seleucids sought peace in 188 BCE, which Rome granted, on the condition that they give up their Greek holdings

• Rome again established no permanent presence in Greece or Asia Minor
• Rome fought Macedonia again in 172 BCE, after Philip’s son Perseus had taken over and resumed hostilities against Greece
• Rome won a decisive victory against Macedonia—defeating the Macedonian phalanx formation that had bedeviled them when fighting Pyrrhus—at Pydna in 168 BCE
• Realizing that this cycle of intervention would likely continue, Rome attempted to divide Macedonia into four republics that would answer to Rome

• his attempt at diffusing Macedonian aggression in Greece failed, and Rome fought the Fourth Macedonian War against a Macedonian faction and a confederation of southern Greek cities, the Achaean League, that had allied with it
• After defeating these forces, Rome razed the Greek city of Corinth, which had been a leader of the Achaean League, in 146 BCE. Men remaining in the city were killed, and women and children sold into slavery
• This act sent an unmistakable message to other Greek cities that would consider challenging Roman military dominance

the Romans, led by Scipio the Younger, captured and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 B.C., turning Africa into yet another province of the mighty Roman Empire.

Carthago delenda est (“Carthage must be destroyed”)

• As is often the case with imperial expansion, however, the material benefits of this expansion extended primarily to the ruling class, the senators and wealthy plebeians who held political power in Rome
• The massive influx of wealth for the ruling class, combined with the effects of the frequent and long-term military deployments of the poorer citizens who made up the bulk of the Roman army, will have profoundly destabilizing effects upon Rome in the century following the destruction of Carthage
• Contributing to this instability will be the competition that such wealth sparks among the aristocratic men who can lead armies to acquire it
• All of these factors will lead to political instability and, ultimately, a breakdown of the Republican system in Rome