00:00:03
one of the reasons that greek philosophy
00:00:05
became such an important part of western
00:00:08
civilization was because later
00:00:10
civilizations
00:00:11
valued and preserved elements of greek
00:00:14
civilization and one of the most
00:00:16
important civilizations to do this was
00:00:18
of course the civilization of ancient
00:00:20
rome so what i want to do now is i want
00:00:22
to move on to italy and talk about the
00:00:26
rise and fall of roman civilization and
00:00:29
its contributions to the development of
00:00:31
western civilization
00:00:50
a little bit further events than i
00:00:51
wanted so let's move back to the
00:00:53
beginning
00:00:57
there we are
00:01:02
rome gave us a whole bunch of things
00:01:05
he gave us christianity
00:01:08
models of law and patriotism and also
00:01:12
republican government
00:01:14
and the history of rome and its
00:01:16
achievements continue to fascinate the
00:01:18
modern world
00:01:20
for example the basic concept behind the
00:01:23
development of the star wars universe
00:01:25
comes from rome's history and tv shows
00:01:28
and movies like gladiator
00:01:31
and rome and spartacus
00:01:34
have been very popular among modern
00:01:36
audiences my guess is that most of you
00:01:38
may not have heard of some of these
00:01:40
tv shows or movies maybe gladiator
00:01:43
and rome and spartacus are a little bit
00:01:45
dated now but also very very good so if
00:01:47
you're interested in roman history at
00:01:48
all
00:01:49
um
00:01:50
or sort of popular ideas about roman
00:01:53
history both rome and spartacus are
00:01:55
actually pretty good and pretty
00:01:57
entertaining
00:01:58
the real miniseries hbo i think is
00:02:00
available on amazon prime and actually
00:02:02
is a pretty good depiction of the
00:02:04
history of the late roman republic
00:02:07
because it's based on the writings of
00:02:09
actual roman historians like the roman
00:02:10
history and suetonius
00:02:13
now roman history was made up of two
00:02:17
periods that of the republic
00:02:20
and the empire
00:02:23
back up a second
00:02:26
begin with the history of the roman
00:02:27
republic because of course
00:02:29
chronologically that comes first then
00:02:30
i'll move on to the roman empire
00:02:33
in roman history
00:02:35
just like ancient greece
00:02:37
war and the military had a profound
00:02:41
impact
00:02:42
on political developments and the romans
00:02:44
of course that i would imagine many of
00:02:46
you know were actually even more skilled
00:02:48
at war than the greeks
00:02:50
now
00:02:51
to be fair to the romans the romans did
00:02:53
develop more effective military forces
00:02:56
than the greeks but one of the main
00:02:58
reasons that they had more military
00:03:00
success than the greeks
00:03:02
was because they were willing to add new
00:03:05
peoples into their civilization
00:03:07
and give them reasons to remain part of
00:03:09
roman civilization
00:03:11
and to support it remember the greeks
00:03:13
were never really willing to incorporate
00:03:16
other peoples and other communities into
00:03:19
their own communities they always stay
00:03:21
pretty small you know and in relatives
00:03:23
terms
00:03:24
weak communities but rome
00:03:28
because they were
00:03:29
willing and able to make
00:03:31
use of the resources and aid of their
00:03:35
allies and the populations that they
00:03:37
conquered
00:03:38
roman civilization grew bigger and
00:03:41
bigger and stronger and stronger
00:03:45
now like ancient greece
00:03:47
war played a key role in rome's eventual
00:03:50
collapse
00:03:52
what happened was that due to rome's
00:03:54
military success the roman government
00:03:57
actually had a lot of trouble meeting
00:03:58
the needs of the roman army
00:04:01
at different points and not only do they
00:04:03
have trouble meeting the army's needs
00:04:04
but because they had trouble meeting the
00:04:05
army's needs
00:04:06
there were periods where they actually
00:04:07
had difficulty keeping the army under
00:04:09
control
00:04:11
and at different points in rome's
00:04:13
history the army and its leaders tried
00:04:17
to control the roman government
00:04:20
which led to political conflict inside
00:04:22
roman civilization
00:04:24
and even civil wars
00:04:27
and these political conflicts and civil
00:04:29
wars
00:04:30
they destroy democratic government in
00:04:32
ancient rome and eventually we can roam
00:04:35
to such an extent that it fell apart
00:04:38
and you could definitely see this
00:04:40
pattern in the history of the roman
00:04:42
republic which is what i'm going to talk
00:04:44
about now
00:04:48
the roman republic
00:04:50
see from the map here started as a group
00:04:53
of villages
00:04:54
that were built around the taipei river
00:04:56
in italy sometime around 750 or so bc
00:05:02
and from roughly 750 to 509 bce the
00:05:05
government of ancient rome was a
00:05:07
monarchy
00:05:10
so just like other most other ancient
00:05:12
peoples the romans were initially
00:05:14
governed by kings
00:05:17
for the rest and then but in 509 bce
00:05:20
the romans rebelled against their king
00:05:22
and created a new democratic
00:05:25
called the republic
00:05:27
and for the rest of the republic's
00:05:28
history the ryan the romans tried really
00:05:32
hard to hold on to this gun
00:05:34
and one of the reasons they tried to
00:05:36
hold really hard to hold on to this
00:05:37
government
00:05:39
was because they wanted to make sure
00:05:41
they were no longer ruled by kings
00:05:44
because they feared that
00:05:47
monarchies even if occasionally he had a
00:05:49
good monarch even if he occasionally had
00:05:50
a good king who really did a lot of good
00:05:53
for
00:05:54
his people eventually what would happen
00:05:57
is that monarchies would produce a
00:05:59
tyrant a tyrant who would take advantage
00:06:01
of his position
00:06:02
and abuse his power which would of
00:06:05
course cause his subjects to suffer
00:06:08
so because
00:06:10
they
00:06:11
saw that monarchy was a flawed
00:06:14
government
00:06:15
that would eventually result in an abuse
00:06:17
of power and suffering of the people
00:06:19
under their control the romans once they
00:06:22
established the republic they really
00:06:25
wanted to keep it intact and they wanted
00:06:27
to make sure that there would not be
00:06:29
return of kings and monterey to rome
00:06:34
now the government of the roman republic
00:06:35
and so here we again this is where rome
00:06:37
was founded right here in the center of
00:06:39
it
00:06:40
this is the city of rome itself that
00:06:42
would emerge or arise from these
00:06:45
different villages um that were built on
00:06:47
that point around the time
00:06:50
the government and of course the
00:06:52
the roman republic is centered on the
00:06:54
city of rome
00:06:56
the government of the roman republic was
00:06:58
a collection of assemblies and also
00:07:02
officials
00:07:03
that represented the interests of
00:07:05
different groups
00:07:06
and not only did these
00:07:08
assemblies and officials represent the
00:07:10
interests of different groups
00:07:12
they were often in conflict one another
00:07:14
because they were trying to accomplish
00:07:16
the goals or pursue the interests of the
00:07:18
particular group
00:07:20
or groups that they represented
00:07:23
now as you may remember the government
00:07:25
of athens
00:07:27
the heart of the athenian government was
00:07:28
two assemblies the boule and the
00:07:29
ecclesia the roman republic actually had
00:07:32
four different political assemblies
00:07:35
and these assemblies they did a number
00:07:38
of things in the government of the
00:07:39
republic
00:07:41
they determined the policies that the
00:07:42
roman government would pursue
00:07:45
they passed laws
00:07:47
and they elected different people to
00:07:49
political offices
00:07:51
now these assemblies
00:07:53
as you can see from the slide here
00:07:55
with the senate
00:07:59
the centurion assembly
00:08:10
also the plebeian symbol
00:08:13
now in addition to these political
00:08:15
assemblies there was also a large number
00:08:18
of officials
00:08:19
like consuls and tribunes
00:08:21
who provided leadership for the
00:08:23
government of the republic
00:08:28
and also who did the work necessary to
00:08:31
maintain it
00:08:34
now although the republic was
00:08:36
technically a democracy because
00:08:39
all citizens had the right to
00:08:40
participate in politics
00:08:43
it probably makes more sense to call the
00:08:45
republic an oligarchy
00:08:49
an oligarchy is a government consisting
00:08:53
of a small group of people
00:08:55
whose power
00:08:57
usually comes from
00:08:59
a combination of the wealth that they
00:09:02
possess
00:09:04
and their families rank
00:09:06
society
00:09:08
so again it's a small government an
00:09:10
oligarchy is a government consisting of
00:09:12
a small group of people whose power
00:09:15
usually comes from a combination of the
00:09:17
wealth they possess
00:09:19
and
00:09:20
their families rank in society
00:09:23
and the roman republic was an oligarchy
00:09:26
in that its government was really
00:09:28
controlled by a small collection of
00:09:30
wealthy and influential people from
00:09:33
prominent families who had a privileged
00:09:36
position
00:09:37
in roman society
00:09:41
but
00:09:43
the privileged position that this small
00:09:46
group of people
00:09:48
enjoyed
00:09:49
also brought certain expectations
00:09:54
because being a member of the roman
00:09:56
elite it carried certain expectations
00:10:00
so roman nobles and wealthy elites were
00:10:04
expected to be patriotic
00:10:07
and not only were they expected to be
00:10:09
patriotic but they were expected to use
00:10:11
their money and their resources to
00:10:14
contribute to the welfare of the
00:10:16
republic and its citizens
00:10:19
so they felt an obligation to do things
00:10:21
like
00:10:22
providing food for the poor
00:10:25
and paying for public entertainment
00:10:27
and the construction of buildings for
00:10:30
the inhabitants of rome
00:10:34
and
00:10:35
this sense of patriotism
00:10:37
was
00:10:39
in many ways the glue that held the
00:10:42
republic together
00:10:45
remember there are different political
00:10:47
assemblies there are different officials
00:10:49
and their job
00:10:51
you know and
00:10:52
was in many ways to advance the
00:10:54
interests of particular groups for
00:10:56
example the plebeian assembly was
00:10:58
supposed to represent the interests of a
00:11:00
social group in ancient rome known as
00:11:02
the plebeians
00:11:03
and so you have these different
00:11:04
assemblies and these different officials
00:11:06
who are supposed to do things to benefit
00:11:09
the group that they represented or that
00:11:11
they belong to
00:11:13
and this created the potential for a lot
00:11:16
of strife as these different assemblies
00:11:19
and officials
00:11:20
vied with one another for a position and
00:11:23
polybius talks about this in the
00:11:26
in his account of the roman republic he
00:11:28
talks about
00:11:29
how
00:11:30
you know these different
00:11:32
parts of the roman government
00:11:35
could sometimes be in competition or
00:11:37
potentially in conflict with
00:11:40
and
00:11:41
because this was the case
00:11:44
patriotism was really important
00:11:46
because
00:11:49
the sense of patriotism that romans had
00:11:52
and that the roman elite had
00:11:55
usually caused
00:11:56
romans to be pretty careful to make sure
00:12:00
that any strife that existed between
00:12:02
different groups in ancient rome never
00:12:04
got to the point where they actually
00:12:06
might become a danger to the very
00:12:09
existence they're about
00:12:10
and usually
00:12:12
um you know rome's leaders and its
00:12:15
citizens
00:12:16
were often willing to put aside their
00:12:18
personal interests
00:12:20
for the benefit of rome
00:12:23
unfortunately however what happened was
00:12:26
that warfare and the opportunities that
00:12:29
it offered became more important than
00:12:32
patriotism to roman elites
00:12:34
as time went on
00:12:39
so
00:12:40
this is a map of the area around the
00:12:43
mediterranean sea and all the little
00:12:45
stars here these were battles fought by
00:12:48
the romans and of course
00:12:50
the romans are famous for
00:12:53
their military prowess and their
00:12:56
conquests and their expansion
00:12:58
because soon after the romans created
00:13:00
the republic
00:13:02
they began to fight to establish control
00:13:04
over surrounding lands and peoples
00:13:08
now first as it makes sense the romans
00:13:11
fought with other communities in italy
00:13:15
and as the romans succeeded in defeating
00:13:19
other communities in italy and
00:13:21
incorporating them into their
00:13:23
civilization
00:13:24
they came into contact with allies of
00:13:27
the city-state of carthage
00:13:29
which was a city-state in north africa
00:13:31
see this here
00:13:34
and as the romans came into contact with
00:13:38
the allies of carthage
00:13:40
conflict arose between rome and carthage
00:13:44
itself
00:13:46
now these conflicts exploded into wars
00:13:50
three very long and destructive wars
00:13:52
that as you can see in the slide here
00:13:54
are called the punic wars
00:13:57
now the punitive war started in 264 bce
00:14:00
and they didn't come to an end until 146
00:14:03
bc
00:14:05
so the punic wars you know these battles
00:14:07
between roman carthage went on for a
00:14:09
very very long period of time and there
00:14:11
were moments especially in the second
00:14:13
punic war
00:14:14
where the carthaginians benefited from
00:14:16
the leadership of the very talented
00:14:18
generally hatable well you'll read about
00:14:20
in polybius's writings um you know
00:14:22
hannibal you know smashed a number of
00:14:25
very large and powerful roman armies and
00:14:27
and came pretty close to defeating the
00:14:29
romans militarily the romans held on and
00:14:32
eventually they prevailed in each of
00:14:35
these punic wars
00:14:37
now
00:14:38
rome was normally pretty lenient toward
00:14:40
their opponents but the romans
00:14:43
by the end of the third punic war were
00:14:45
so tired of dealing with carthage
00:14:48
that at least according to the legends
00:14:50
the romans actually
00:14:52
fully demolished the city demolish the
00:14:54
city of carthage itself and then they
00:14:56
put salt in the ground to make sure that
00:14:58
nothing would ever
00:15:00
grow there again
00:15:04
it was a really bad idea to make the
00:15:07
romans really angry
00:15:12
now the punic wars as you can see here
00:15:15
from the map they were fought all over
00:15:18
the mediterranean sea
00:15:20
and in the process of fighting with
00:15:21
carthage and its allies the romans
00:15:24
managed to take over a whole bunch of
00:15:27
territory
00:15:28
around the mediterranean in the process
00:15:32
conquering themselves an empire
00:15:34
you know
00:15:35
you know and they found themselves in
00:15:36
possession of territory from spain
00:15:40
all the way
00:15:41
to greece
00:15:46
now rome's military conflicts affected
00:15:49
the republic in a number of ways so of
00:15:51
course
00:15:52
they bought a lot of fame and renown to
00:15:55
the roman republic they also bought in a
00:15:58
lot of
00:15:59
riches
00:16:00
as a result of the romans you know
00:16:02
conquering wealth and taking land and
00:16:05
capturing slaves and bringing new people
00:16:08
in
00:16:09
but
00:16:10
one of the more negative effects of
00:16:13
rome's wars was that they provided
00:16:15
opportunities
00:16:17
for ambitious military leaders to earn
00:16:20
riches
00:16:21
popularity
00:16:23
and soldiers who are more committed to
00:16:25
them
00:16:27
to the generals
00:16:28
the ambitious political elites
00:16:30
than they were to rome's government
00:16:34
itself now
00:16:36
the individuals
00:16:39
these ambitious military leaders were
00:16:40
talking about who
00:16:42
both saw and benefited from the
00:16:45
opportunities
00:16:47
that appeared in rome's wars some
00:16:49
scholars call these individuals
00:16:52
political generals quote unquote
00:16:54
political generals
00:16:56
because they were willing to use the
00:16:58
soldiers whom they led whose loyalties
00:17:01
they bought
00:17:02
to secure political power
00:17:05
and these ambitious political leaders
00:17:07
are some of the most
00:17:08
famous people in rome's history and in
00:17:10
western history more general
00:17:12
more generally
00:17:14
now for most of the republic's history
00:17:16
as i've indicated earlier
00:17:18
individuals from successful and
00:17:20
influential families tried to accomplish
00:17:22
their own personal goals
00:17:24
but because of their patriotism they
00:17:27
were also committed to the public good
00:17:29
you know and usually they were pretty
00:17:32
careful to make sure
00:17:34
that in accomplishing their own goals
00:17:37
they were not harming the republic in
00:17:39
the process
00:17:41
but in the second and first centuries
00:17:42
bce
00:17:44
rome's political generals pursued wealth
00:17:47
and power and status
00:17:50
without paying much attention to the
00:17:52
effects of what they were doing
00:17:54
on the health of the republic itself
00:17:57
so this is what happened
00:17:59
since military success was a key to
00:18:03
political success
00:18:08
or i'm sorry since military success was
00:18:10
often the key to success in the
00:18:11
political arena
00:18:13
how political arena sorry it's late in
00:18:16
the day i'm a little tired
00:18:18
um
00:18:20
since again since military success is
00:18:22
often the key to success in the
00:18:23
political arena
00:18:24
power hungry romans
00:18:26
from prominent families
00:18:29
did whatever they could to put
00:18:32
themselves at the head of one of the
00:18:34
republic's armies
00:18:36
leading soldiers like this well this is
00:18:38
a modern recreation this is a reenactor
00:18:40
um
00:18:43
who who took and posted this picture not
00:18:45
too long ago
00:18:46
but this gives you a sense of the kind
00:18:47
of military uniforms and equipment that
00:18:49
roman soldiers used
00:18:52
so
00:18:53
again so what happens is is that you
00:18:55
know
00:18:56
people who want to
00:19:00
either
00:19:01
secure a political career or an advanced
00:19:03
political care career recognize that one
00:19:06
of the best ways to
00:19:08
earn a political reputation and
00:19:10
political power is to be a successful
00:19:13
general to be a successful military
00:19:15
leader and so these kinds of people try
00:19:17
to get themselves put at the head of one
00:19:19
of the republic's armies
00:19:21
then what they would do is they would
00:19:23
use those armies and soldiers in it who
00:19:26
resembled this one
00:19:28
to try to take over new territories for
00:19:31
the republic
00:19:34
as you can see
00:19:36
you know the the colored areas in rome's
00:19:38
territories expanded quite a bit in the
00:19:41
second and first centuries because this
00:19:43
trend so again so these these political
00:19:45
generals
00:19:46
they try to
00:19:48
lead armies to take control
00:19:51
or to take over new territories for the
00:19:53
republic
00:19:54
then what they would do
00:19:56
is that they would use the plunder
00:19:59
that
00:20:00
they obtained through their military
00:20:02
victories
00:20:03
to give their soldiers money
00:20:06
and other kinds of benefits so whatever
00:20:08
they got you know if they captured
00:20:10
slaves and then sold them or they
00:20:12
acquired gold or they acquired crops or
00:20:16
they are quite other sorts of things
00:20:17
they would acquire various kinds of loot
00:20:18
and plunder in the course of their
00:20:20
military victories they would always
00:20:22
take some of the wealth that they
00:20:26
accumulated
00:20:27
and distribute it to the soldiers under
00:20:30
their command
00:20:33
and the reason they would do this
00:20:36
is they were trying to make sure that
00:20:39
their soldiers were committed to them
00:20:42
and in the process
00:20:44
roman soldiers often developed a
00:20:46
stronger commitment to the generals who
00:20:49
led them
00:20:50
and who were giving them all kinds of
00:20:52
gifts and benefits
00:20:54
than to the government
00:20:56
in rome itself
00:20:59
and
00:21:00
the ambitious generals who led such
00:21:02
soldiers in effect transformed these men
00:21:06
who were supposed to be servants of the
00:21:07
republic soldiers of the republic into
00:21:09
their own personal armies because the
00:21:12
troops followed their orders
00:21:14
rather than the orders of the roman
00:21:16
government
00:21:18
and by far
00:21:19
the most well-known of all of the
00:21:21
political generals was the individual
00:21:23
you see here and again of course one of
00:21:25
the most famous individuals in western
00:21:27
history julius caesar moved from 100
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to 44 bce
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caesar
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one of the things he did is he ended up
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using his armies to take over a whole
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bunch of land
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in goal um in what is today would be
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mostly france
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now once political generals like julius
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caesar succeeded in winning victories
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and transforming their troops into their
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personal armies they tried to use them
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to control the republic's government
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by killing
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and intimidating
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political rivals
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or
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potential opponents
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the best political generals like caesar
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didn't just try to use force to exercise
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political power
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they also became very very popular as a
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result of their military victories
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and they gave food and entertainment and
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other gifts to the inhabitants of the
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city of rome in order to win their
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support
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and
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rome's poor was more than willing to
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rally around victoria's generals who
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kept them fed and entertained and happy
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and
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the reason why general would do this is
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because they wanted their votes
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if the people if if a general became
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popular if he became beloved because of
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the
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celebrity that he acquired by being so
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successful at war by winning victories
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and also by you know handing out all
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kinds of gifts and food and
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entertainment to the people of rome
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after he won victories
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what would happen is then is then the
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populace of rome would then vote for
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these people and elect them into
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important positions in the republic's
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government like that of consul
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and unfortunately and tragically what
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happened
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was that several political generals like
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caesar in the second and first centuries
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bce
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competed with one another to become the
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leader of the roman republic
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and this competition
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led to frequent civil wars from around
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88 bce to 30 bce so again the civil wars
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happened from around 88 bce to 30 bce
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and these civil wars were fought between
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different political generals like julius
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caesar
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finally though by 30 bce octavian caesar
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who was the grand the grand nephew of
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julius caesar
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succeeded in beating his adversaries
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and became the last political general's
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death
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it was octavian caesar
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after his victories
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returned the roman republic
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into the roman empire i'll talk about
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that
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in the next video
