Roman Empire - final notes

Gladiatorial Games

Gladiator is an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.  Gladiators: slaves schooled under harsh conditions and socially marginalized; volunteers, who were poor or non-citizens trying to achieve fame or stability (food and shelter); prisoners of war which were abundant due to Roman military successes.

Origin

The origin of gladiatorial games is debatable. 

Etruscan practice

Livy (Roman Historian) claims that it was a tradition of Capanians.

Romans initially used the games to honor their dead, as part of the funeral ritual during the Punic Wars.  They were used to celebrate military victories and religious expiation of military disasters. 

In 105 BC Rome offered its first state-sponsored gladiator games as part of a military training.  The games become increasingly profitable and popular eventually becoming an integral part of the political and social Roman world until the end of the 5^th century. 

Emperors and the Games

The games would garner Emperors respect and approval for their legislation and agents.  Emperor Augustus formalized the games as a civic and religious duty.  Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, claimed that the games bored him and tried to temper the extravagances of the games, but his attempts were ignored by his successors. 

Yes there are various accounts of female gladiators – gladiatrix.

Spartacus is a famous gladiator, because he is the prominent leader of the slave revolt that led to the Third Servile War (Gladiator War, 73 BC – 71 BC).  Little is known of him, but most historians agree that he was Thracian.  He may have served in the Roman army and imprisoned for abandoning his position. 

The Servile Wars were unrelated and unsuccessful slave rebellions.  The Third Servile War was the only war to threaten the Roman heartland and create a panic among Romans because of the many successes of the growing slave band against the Roman Army. 

The rebel army began with 78 gladiators and grew to over 120,000 men, women, and children.  They withstood the Roman Army for two years and finally defeated by the military efforts of Gen. Crassus and the threat of Pompey’s army.  Though Pompey’s army did not engage they captured 5,000 fleeing and killed them.  While most of the rebel slaves died in the field there were 6,000 survivors.  They were crucified along the Via Appia (Appian Way) a 200 -km stretch from Rome to Capua. 

Christianity

Unrest was widespread in Judaea, but the Jews differed among themselves about Roman rule. The priestly Sadducees (SA·juh·SEEZ) favored cooperation with Rome. The scholarly Pharisees (FA·rah·SEEZ) held that close observance of religious law would protect Jewish identity from Roman influences. The Essenes lived apart from society, sharing goods in common. Like many other Jews, they waited for God to save Israel from oppression. The Zealots, however, called for the violent overthrow of Roman rule. In fact, a Jewish revolt began in A.D. 66, only to be crushed by the Romans four years later. The Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

Before the revolt a man by the name of Jesus was born and he professed to be the son of God.  Jesus's preaching eventually stirred controversy. Some people saw Jesus as a potential revolutionary who might lead a revolt against Rome. Jesus's opponents finally turned him over to Roman authorities. The procurator Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus's crucifixion.

After the death of Jesus, his followers proclaimed that he had risen from death and had appeared to them. They believed Jesus to be the Messiah (anointed one), the long expected deliverer who would save Israel from its foes.

Christianity began as a movement within Judaism. After the reports that Jesus had overcome death, the Christian movement won followers in Jerusalem and throughout Judaea and Galilee.

Prominent apostles, or leaders, arose in early Christianity. One was Simon Peter, a Jewish fisherman who had become a follower of Jesus during Jesus's lifetime. Peter was recognized as the leader of the apostles. Another major apostle was Paul, a highly educated Jewish Roman citizen who joined the movement later. Paul took the message of Jesus to Gentiles (non-Jews) as well as to Jews. He founded Christian communities throughout Asia Minor and along the shores of the Aegean Sea.

At the center of Paul's message was the belief that Jesus was the Savior, the Son of God who had come to Earth to save humanity. Paul taught that Jesus's death made up for the sins of all humans. By accepting Jesus as Christ (from Christos, the Greek term for Messiah) and Savior, people could be saved from sin and reconciled to God.

The teachings of early Christianity were passed on orally. Written materials also appeared, however. Paul and other followers of Jesus had written letters, or epistles, outlining Christian beliefs for communities they had helped found around the eastern Mediterranean. Also, some of Jesus' disciples, or followers, may have preserved some of the sayings of Jesus in writing and passed on personal memories. Later, between A.D. 40 and 100, these accounts became the basis of the written Gospels—the "good news" concerning Jesus. These writings give a record of Jesus' life and teachings, and they form the core of the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible.

By 100, Christian churches had been established in most of the major cities of the eastern empire and in some places in the western part of the empire. Most early Christians came from the Jews and the Greek-speaking populations of the east. In the second and third centuries, however, an increasing number of followers were Latin-speaking people.

The basic values of Christianity differed markedly from those of the Greco-Roman world. In spite of that, the Romans at first paid little attention to the Christians, whom they regarded as simply another sect of Judaism. As time passed, however, the Roman attitude toward Christianity began to change.

The Romans tolerated the religions of other peoples unless these religions threatened public order or public morals. Many Romans came to view Christians as harmful to the Roman state because Christians refused to worship the state gods and emperors. The Romans saw the Christians' refusal to do so as an act of treason, punishable by death.

The Roman government began persecuting (harassing to cause suffering) Christians during the reign of Nero (A.D. 54–68). The emperor blamed the Christians for the fire that destroyed much of Rome and subjected them to cruel deaths. In contrast, in the second century, persecution of Christians diminished. By the end of the reigns of the five good emperors, Christians still represented a small minority, but one of considerable strength.

The Romans persecuted Christians in the first and second centuries, but this did nothing to stop the growth of Christianity. In fact, it did just the opposite, strengthening Christianity in the second and third centuries by forcing it to become more organized. Fear of persecution meant that only the most committed individuals would choose to follow the outlawed faith.                       

Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire and so the role of the bishops, who began to assume more control over church communities, changes. The Christian church was creating a new structure in which the clergy (the church leaders) had distinct functions separate from the laity (the regular church members).

The Roman Catholic Church is governed through the Emperor and the Patriarchs, namely the Patriarchs (Bishops) of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, in that order of precedence.  The bishop of Rome becomes the office of the Pope.

The Decline

For almost fifty years, from 235 to 284, the Roman throne was occupied by whoever had military strength to seize it. During this period there were 22 emperors. Many of these emperors met a violent death.

At the same time, the empire was troubled by a series of invasions. In the east, the Sassanid Persians made inroads into Roman territory. Germanic tribes poured into the Balkans, Gaul, and Spain. Not until the end of the third century were most of the boundaries restored.

Invasions, civil wars, and plague came close to causing an economic collapse of the Roman Empire in the third century. There was a noticeable decline in trade and small industry. A labor shortage created by plague (an epidemic disease) affected both military recruiting and the economy. Farm production declined as fields were ravaged by invaders or, even more often, by the defending Roman armies. The monetary system began to show signs of collapse.

Armies were needed more than ever, but financial strains made it difficult to pay and enlist more soldiers. By the mid-third century, the state had to rely on hiring Germans to fight under Roman commanders. These soldiers did not understand Roman traditions and had little loyalty to either the empire or the emperors.

The major breakthrough of invaders into the west came in the second half of the fourth century. The Huns, who came from Asia, moved into eastern Europe and put pressure on the Germanic Visigoths. The Visigoths, in turn, moved south and west, crossed the Danube River into Roman territory, and settled down as Roman allies. However, the Visigoths soon revolted. The Romans' attempt to stop the revolt at Adrianople in 378 led to a crushing defeat for the Romans.

Increasing numbers of Germans now crossed the frontiers. In 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome. Another group, the Vandals, poured into southern Spain and Africa. They crossed into Italy from northern Africa and, in 455, they too sacked Rome. (Our modern word vandal is taken from this ruthless tribe.)

In 476, the western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic head of the army. This is usually taken as the date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire.   The Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, however, continued to thrive with its center at Constantinople.

Leading causes:

		-Christianity's emphasis on a spiritual kingdom weakened Roman military virtues.
		-Traditional Roman values declined as non-Italians gained prominence in the empire.
		-Lead poisoning through leaden water pipes and cups caused a mental decline in the population.
		-Plague wiped out one-tenth of the population.
		-Rome failed to advance technologically because of slavery.
		-Rome was unable to put together a workable political system.