Intro to Roman history

SJSU Roman History 8/25

This course will run through 1200 years of time – 1700 if you count the first two lectures – to familiarize you with the creation of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. On the way you should become very familiar with all of the following people, places, things, terms, etc.
Etruscans
Sicily
Gauls/Celts
Scipio Africanus
Carthage
Hannibal
Julius Caesar
Actium
Mark Antony and Cleopatra
Augustus
The year of 4 Emperors
On the way we will explore multiple issues and discuss how and why Rome became the dominant Empire of the Ancient World, rather than Athens, Carthage, Persia, Judea, or Egypt.
Today we have a very limited scope. First, a preview of topics and people you will encounter during the term.
• Aeneas, the Trojan fore-father of Rome who, according to legend, came from Asia to Italy as a refugee. Although moderns disbelieve, Romans believed. Aeneas’ dual status as a son of a divinity, and a homeless refugee influenced Roman attitudes towards slavery, citizenship, and Empire. Aeneas was a famous figure in Ancient and modern art. His story was told many times in oral history, but Vergil produced a version that became the authoritative version in 19 BC.
• Etruscans – the mysterious people who inhabited central Italy ca 600, whose origin is unknown. They conquered Rome but were later pushed out and became subjects of Rome until gradually they were assimilated. Etruscan used to be the 2nd language and culture of Italy before Greek ideas reached Rome. We do not know that much about them, but use tomb paintings to reconstruct their culture.
• Carthage and the Punic Wars – Rome’s great rival and enemy was founded i8n 814 and became a great mercantile empire. Legend says Dido founded Carthage after fleeing Tyre from her brother, Pygmalion. The Carth Empire spread across N Africa and to the Pillars of Herc, but its commercial interests spread further. However, the Carths had a terrible reputation with the Greeks, who describe them as greedy, cruel, vicious, and barbaric. Rome and Carth co-existed for 300 years, but war broke out over the island of Sicily in 264 BC, marking the first of three wars in a century of conflict. The second of those wars broke out in 218 when Hannibal invaded Italy with elephants. In the third war Rome sacked Carth..
• P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus was the Roman hero of the Second Punic who studied Hannibal’s tactics and turned them against him at the fateful battle of Zama. Hannibal had invaded Italy in 218 with 30,000 men and a dozen elephants. He defeated the Romans in four successive battles at Trebia River, Ticinus River, Trasimene Lake, and Cannae. Rome lost about 100,000 men against Hannibal and several Italian allies defected to Hannibal. Rome finally learned to avoid fighting him directly and went on the offensive wherever he was not. Planning to avenge his father’s death, Scipio accepted a command in Spain and began to use Hannibal’s tactics against Carthage. In 203 he invaded Africa and drew Hannibal out of Italy. The final showdown occurred at Zama in 202 and spelled Carthage’s doom. Scipio returned in triumph to Rome where he became the first senator in Rome. When war broke out with Antiochus III of Syria, Scipio and his brother were sent to Greece to fight him. The Scipio brothers demolished him and brought back immense wealth as per the treaty, but this aroused the envy of their contemporaries who sought their political ruin. Scipio on trial, withdrew, 183.
• Julius Caesar
• Actium 2 September 31. Explain the Civil War.

Geography:
Rome lies in Central Italy on the river Tiber. Its main port is Ostia. It became the biggest city in the Anc World ca. 25 BC. Before then Rome was one of many states in Italy, and far from the biggest city. Capua was the second biggest city in Italy, near Naples. Syracuse in Sicily was even larger, but Greek speaking. The Straits of Messina, famed for Scylla and Charybdis, separate Italy from Sicily.


Reader:

Weds lecture.