Roman history Flashcards
(35 cards)
What was the Roman founding myth?
A story which two twin brothers who were born from the god of war Mars engaged in disputation about where the city would be located and who would rule. Because of the dispute, romulus slew remus and named the city after himself.
Timespan of the Roman Kingdom
753 B.C. to 510 B.C.
Timespan of the Roman Republic
509–27 BCE
Timespan of the Roman Empire
27 BC – 476 AD
What was the cursus honorum?
the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic. It was designed for men of senatorial rank.
What was the consulship?
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the cursus honorum after that of the censor. The consulship together exercised executive authority such as imperium, or military command.
What was the censor?
The censor (at any time, there were two) was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government’s finances.
The power of the censor was absolute: no magistrate could oppose his decisions, and only another censor who succeeded him could cancel those decisions.
Where does the word censorship originate from?
The censor’s regulation of public morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words censor and censorship.
What was the centuriate assembly
A voting assemblage of citizens to participate in a consultation which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices
What were the Punic Wars?
The three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome took place over nearly a century, beginning in 264 B.C. and ending in Roman victory with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.
What was the Carthaginian Thalassocracy?
An informal empire that was established by the city-states of Phoenicia which inhabited the lands of Northern Africa and modern Spain from 550BC - 150 BC. It was a Thalassocracy, meaning an empire which prospers at Sea.
Who are the Descendants of Phoenicia
People of Lebanon
What was the Latin League?
The Latin League was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome, organized for mutual defense.
What was the Latin War?
A conflict between the Roman Republic and the the confederate states in 338 BCE that belonged to the Latin League which emerged because of the Roman Republic’s acquisition of dominance within the league. In the aftermath of their losses they became integrated with the Roman Republic.
Who were two leaders in the Punic Wars?
Hannibal (Carthage) and Scipio Africanus the Elder (Roman Republic)
What were the Gallic Wars?
The Gallic wars were waged between 58-50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul, which is present day France, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Gallic and Germanic tribes fought to defend their homelands against an aggressive Roman campaign.
What was Caesar’s Civil War?
one of the last politico-military conflicts (49-45 BC) of the Roman Republic before it reorganization into the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations between Julius Caesar and Pompeius Magnus.
What was the First Triumvirate?
a surreptitious and informal alliance between three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic; Julius Caesar, Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Crassus. The purpose of this triumvirate was to circumnavigate and bypass the parliamentary institutions of checks and balances.
What led to Caesar’s Civil War?
The desideration of Caesar to achieve social reform while Pompey consolidated alliances with the conservative faction. Pompey began entertaining ideas of ruling with the dangerously popular Caesar. While Caesar was fighting in Gaul, Pompey and the Senate ordered Caesar to return to Rome without his army. But when Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in northern Italy, he brought his army with him in defiance of the senate’s order. This fateful decision led to a civil war.
What was Caesars’ motivation for initiating a Civil War?
Because his political and senatorial opposition at home at Rome was engaging in consultations to terminate his delegation and designation as consul upon his arrival after fighting battles in Gaul.
Ius Gentium and it’s commitments to slavery.
A concept of customary international law within the ancient Roman legal system. The victor had the right, under Ius gentium, to enslave a defeated population.
Third Servile War
the last slave rebellion against the Roman Republic which posed the greatest and hellacious threat to the Roman Republic and military. The revolt began in 73 BC with the escape of 70 slave gladiators from a gladiator school. They easily defeated the local Roman force sent to capture them and within 2 years, they had been joined by 120,000 men. Marcus Crassus was the Roman General who defeated them.
What were some of the reasons behind the fall of the Republic?
The establishment of the First Triumvirate
The radical expansion of Roman territory destabilizing social organization because of conflicting interests; the Senate’s policymaking, binded by its own term self interest, alienated large portions of society from it, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system
Senatorial corruption
Effectuating slave labor and displacing agriculturally peasant labor
Who assassinated Julius Caesar?
Highly motivated Senators
