Unit 13. THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 460.

History of Ancient Rome begins in a small village in central Italy; this unassuming village had grown into a small metropolis, which conquered and controlled all of Italy, southern Europe, the Middle East and Egypt, and find itself, by the start of AD time, the most powerful and largest empire in the world.

The Romans were a military state, and they ruled over this vast territory by maintaining a strong military presence in subject countries. An immensely practical people, the Romans devoted much of their brilliance to military strategy and technology, administration, and law, all in support of the vast world government that they built.

Ancient Rome, however, was responsible for more than just military and administrative genius. Culturally, the Romans had a slight inferiority complex in regards to the Greeks, who had begun their city-states only a few centuries before the rise of the Roman republic. The Romans, however, derived much of their culture from the Greeks: art, architecture, philosophy, and even religion. However, the Romans changed much of this culture, adapting it to their own particular world view and practical needs. It is this changed Greek culture, which we call Greco-Roman culture, that was handed down to the European civilizations in late antiquity and the Renaissance.

History of Ancient Rome is usually divided into three main periods: before the rise of Rome, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. The Empire is usually divided up according to who was emperor.