Introduction to World Civilization Dersi 6. Ünite Sorularla Öğrenelim

Their main legend of origin was recorded in the great work The Aeneid, written by Virgil (70 - 19 BCE).

Rome (or Roma, as it was originally and as it is still named in modern Italian) was said to have been ruled at first by Romulus, an Etruscan who crowned himself king.

Two founders (Romulus and Remus) suckling as babes on a mother wolf.

Latin went on to become mother to dozens of Romance languages spoken to this day. What are they?

Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romansch, Romanian, and Ladino.

The Etruscans were a people with probable origins in Anatolia, in Asia, perhaps migrating west at the end of the Hittite empire, but of whom little is known to this day. Their language was derived from Greek and remains untranslated, and much about them remains covered in mystery. They dominated wide swaths of Italy between the eight and the fifth centuries before Christ and spurred on great growth, only to be defeated by the Greeks at sea and because of attacks over land from the region that is now France.

As Rome conquered new land, they deported some conquered people, Romanized others, and brought new people into the colony. Out it sent long-time residents and in it sent people, settlers, from all around the Roman Empire. Why?

Because by this method the loyalty of the people of the new province was to Rome itself. The people of the territory were now held together only by what they shared via exposure to Rome, and that was the language and culture and traditions, mores and folkways, of the entire empire. It had lost much of its old identity; now it was Roman.

What did Romans believe in in the early years of the Republic?

Romans believed in ancient myths and worshipped spirits that they thought governed their households. Generally, the deities were agricultural in nature, such as Robigo, the averter of plant rust.

There were two interesting classes of Roman deities in the early days of the Empire. What were they?

• The lares were guardian deities who would protect whatever was in their immediate vicinity. So, families dined at a table on which stood one of these objects. Yet theywere not only household gods; lares couldbe found certain neighborhoods, protecting roads or entire towns. Shrines to themwere found at the entrances to towns, forexample, and they were worshipped by all, regardless of social standing. Their cults lasted until the early Fifth Century CE.

• There were also penates, household deities useful for rituals. These deities, originally associated with the sources of food, suppos-edly protected the inner core of people.

What deities did Romans absorb by the third century BCE?

As the Republic aged, the public religion grew to absorb more cosmopolitan, especially Greek, ideas of the deities. Thus, among the prominent gods of the later Republic years were six male gods: Jupiter, the all- important sky god, resembled the Zeus of Greece. Other male gods included Neptune (Poseidon to the Greeks), Mars (Ares to the Greeks), Apollo (he had the same name in both cultures), Vulcan (Hephaistos to the Greeks), and Mercury (Hermes to the Greeks). There were also six female gods, starting with Juno, who, based on the Etruscan belief, was a moon goddess and originally stood as a representation of women but evolved to become more like the Greek Hera, wife of Zeus. Joining her were Minerva (Athena to the Greeks), Venus (Aphrodite to the Greeks), Diana (Artemis), Vesta (Hestia to the Greeks), and Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks). These gods would protect human beings who respected and honored them, the Romans thought.

When the Christians, like the Jews, refused to pay homage to Roman gods and the dead emperors, now seen as gods by the Romans, the empire turned against them and advocating Christianity was punishable by death.

In 380 CE.

The Senate, housed at the Forum, was called upon to advise the consuls and ratify their decisions.

In the early years, roughly 80 % of the citizens were not patricians but rather plebeians, the lower classes. Excluded were slaves who did not matter for republican purposes and who were treated with a savagery that modern man would condemn totally.

What were the most important institution underlying Rome’s expansion to include societies east and west?

• There also came the Roman rule of law, a gift that keeps on giving to civilized humanity to the present day.

• The Roman religion, as well, with its various gods, was in evidence around the empire, often serving as a device to unite people with Rome.

• A uniform system of administration came with the spread of Rome’s domains, bringing tax collectors and others over the huge distances that often separated the capital from the provinces.

• And, very dramatically, with the vastexpanse controlled by Rome there came thegreat mixing of peoples. Individuals were on the move throughout the empire. When Dacia was declared Roman, many who lived there moved out while people flowed in from all around the empire, with their commonality, their identity being Roman.

Infrastructure was necessary for the Roman bureaucracy to pursue successfully one thing. What was it?

It was the glaring absence of equality in the life of the Romans that led, during the last century BCE, to the break out of a civil war in Rome.

Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) fell in 1453 CE.

Rome fell in 476 CE.