HI121 Lecture 10: Mass History 121 Lectures 10-23
Lecture 11: The Age of Empires: Rome
• Macedonia: when it was first formed the Greeks thought of them as semi-barbaric
• Philip II (382-336 BCE) turned Macedonia into a feared state from Greece
• Macedonia crushed the Greeks
• Consolidate the Greek state getting them all to form into one and battle the Persians
• Philip II gets assassinated he has an 18-year-old son named: Alexander the Great
• Alex moved quickly to establish his power
• Ran a successful campaign
• Two years in Syria, Palestine and became the founder of Egypt and names Alexandria after him
• Persian emperor gets killed by one of his own, Alex took the title of the Persian empire
• He moves east and north east to Pakistan, in 327 BCE he entered India
• India was a bunch of warring states
• King of India was Porus and Alex fought and killed Porus
• He wanted to concur more of India, his men said enough and quite! (munity)
• So they turned back and a lot of his men died because of the deserts
Was Alexander so Great?:
• His military campaigns: different from Persia, he istead hages eethig eligio, ultue et…
• He concurred a lot
• He was so interesting
• People were always in awe and he loved Greek culture
• But at the same time, he killed so many people and risked the lives of his soldiers for his selfish reason
• He made into a new age: the Hellenization age
• Hellenization: imitating the Greek way of life
• He wanted to synchronize all the cultures and make them one
• Not everyone was happy: Jews
• This was so different from Pesia, because Persia loved their multiculturalism
• The Fall of Alex: died in 323 BCE, he died of malaria
The Roman Republic:
• A state established by alexander the great
• They had a senate and the consoles and the aristocrats
• “tated i Ital, ‘oe fought agaist its eighous
• Organized its army in legions
• When Rome started to expand it was all opportunistic
• Punic Wars: managed to concur Greek cities and coast of northern Africa, southern Spain and western
Sicily
• The romans wanted to concur Carthage
• They burned and pulled down their buildings and almost all thei people ee sold ito slae… AKA
Africa
• The gap between the rich and the poor was huge
• Series of civil war that brought it all down
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Roman Empire
• Julius Caesar won the civil wars and became a dictator and then gets assassinated
• His nephew Octavian won the second round of civil wars and lead under the name Augustus Caesar
• Called himself a citizen (he really was just an emperor)
• Made a lot of advancements with structures and roads (concrete)
• Their biggest strengths became their biggest weaknesses (military)
• They had a very militaristic culture which lead a lot of assassinations
• Suppression: governors would order executions to appease groups
• Capital punishment: eliminate the undesirables, and criminals and was public display
• The use of terror was deeply imbedded in the roman mind and brutality was carried out with more
efficiency
• When a slave murdered its master, every other slave in the house hold would be executed
• ***LOOK UP STUFF ABOUT THE GUY WHO HAD 400 SLAVES IN YEAR 60 BCE***
• Pax Romana (Roman Peace): civic culture
• They had 5 great emperors
• The romans believed that Rome had a divine mission from the gods: RULE THE FUCKING WORLD
(governance)
• Administration: Augustus Caesar, introduced a lot of new laws and admin things
• A lot of corruption in the states during the Republic Era
• He introduced an assessment for taxes
• They used Pee for things?? Shining teeth and cleaning clothes (EW)
• Wealth and Identity: there were formal definitions of status based on how much money you had,
distinction of slaves and free people
• All man are either free or salves, free men are either freeborn or freedmen, free born as those born free,
freedmen those manumitted from lawful slavery
• Within the free people there were two classifications: Honestoires (higher status people, senators, army
veterans), humiliores (the common folks)
• There were free poor people
• Cities and citizenship: planted colonies, (Coloniae and Municipia)
• Each municipal government had a constitution that Rome provided
• Becoming a roman citizen came with great things, acquire status and you could become part of the cities
administration and you could join the military and roman law
• You had to wear a Toga, a free slaved could acquire citizen rights if his master was also a citizen
• Roman Villa: medium or large estate, and then a farm attached to it
• They built villas but also cities: in grid rows, stadium in the central part of the city, it was super cramped
but still built roads
• Markets: there are lots of markets, sold so many things, Rome had a very vibrant trade, they had storage
jars called Amphorae carried nuts, wine, fish oil, glass beads, metal wear etc.
• A very small percentage of the population could afford luxury items
• The silk road: connected the roman empire all the way to china
• The Parthians lived close to the romans and worked as the middle man in the silk trade
• The oas ad the Chiese didt ko a lot aout eah othe eause the didt u dietl fo
them
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• The first direct contact between Rome and china was when emperor Taizong and Emperor Marcus
Aurelius met
• Roman Law: they developed a system of civil law that applied to all citizens
• Body of law: law of nations (the universal law, applicable to all people)
• Innocent until proven otherwise
• People who were accused could try and prove themselves not guilty
• The roman legal system impacts how law was practiced all over the world
• Laws themselves became more developed over time
• Marriage law: marriage of union of male and female and their shared life together, it is not permitted for
romans to marry their sisters and aunts, Divorce: if you see your wife drinking you have the right to
divorce your wife, if wife is a free born woman and they are seen having a conversation with a lower class
free woman you can divorce her
• Women in ancient Rome were freer, women medical doctors, women playing sports, and women
gladiators!!!!!!!!!!
• Roman Bathhouse: roman man talked a lot about sharing a bath with women
• Slavery: romans were the WORST slave runners, 35% of the population was slaves, Greek slaves were
tutors, doctors and musicians, how were the romans able to get all these slaves? Romans concurred
slaes, theefoe he the oe the didt kill the ut it as alas thee
• Slave revolts: many are very talented people so slave revolts were very common, happened in Sicily
attracted 70,000 slaves and were able to defeat many militaries
• B defiitio slaes ouldt legall a
• Roman slavery was a lot worse than any other slaves before
• Manumission: medallion around their neck saig oue a slae
• A uota: ou at fee all ou slaes ol a uate of the
• Gladiator Shows: these shows were shown in most cities and towns, they killed people and animals, the
games were held all day long, both genders were allowed to participate, criminals were sent to get killed,
on average day 5000 animals were killed
• ‘oa Cius: haiot aig, didt diffe fo the Geek oe too uh, the oe thig as the i Geee
it ast eat fo spetatos, ut ‘oe it as fo etetaiet fo the people
• Emperor Nero (look up)
• They bet on chariot racing, romans gambled a lot
• Empires: decline of rome, rebellion and deep cultural division, growing desperate
Lecture 12: The Age of Empires: India
• What makes a ruler so great: killing lots of people, concurring land, and power and nobility for their
country, longevity
• Chandragupta Maurya (founder) (340-298 BCE), Alexandrian successor state, he learned a lot from
Alexandre the Great
• The Kingdom of Magadha (5th C. BCE), he learned the style of the Persian war and became a great fighter
• There was a lot of disorder in India and decided to take advantage of it and expand India
• He began expanding northern Indian states
• The empire thrived for 140 years and established a central administration, had a great military and a civil
bureaucracy, he made a lot of enemies
• Arthasastra (author: chanakya (371-283 BCE) important historical and political record, discuss practical
advice for rulers on how to run an empire, be a king 101
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