The Roman Renaissance in the Imperial Age

9 May 2005 19:45

From the 10 century BC to the 7th century BC, the Italian peninsula was in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural period. "Ancient Italians" are the most important group. During the Bronze Age of 1000 BC, they crossed the Alps and Adriatic Sea in the north and east and came to Italy, brutally forcing many local indigenous tribes to migrate. They lived a nomadic life at first, but they have mastered the skills of making bronzes and using horses and wheeled carriages. After arriving in Italy, they formed a lifestyle dominated by agriculture. This way of life became the main way of life of its descendants in the following centuries until the decline of Roman civilization. "Ancient Italians" are made up of several nationalities, including Sabine, umbria and Latin.

In the 9th and 8th centuries BC, two new nationalities appeared on the Italian peninsula: Serus and Greeks. The ancients believed that the Cyrus came from Anatolia in the east, and some archaeological discoveries today have confirmed this. From the origin, it seems that they are not ancient Italians, just as their language is not Indo-European, and their civilization is a mixture of various factors from the East and the West. The famous Villanova civilization represents the initial development stage of the Serus people, from which we can see their extraordinary cultural progress in new fields. This new territory is located in the coastal plain between the Apennines and tyrrhenian sea in the northeast of Italy. These people live in independent and powerful city-States, which usually form alliances. These city-states were originally ruled by a monarch, and later became oligarchy ruled by parliament and elected officials. Serus were originally farming tribes, and they had well-organized troops. They use these troops to rule the surrounding ethnic groups, and they also like to run enterprises and engage in handicrafts. Tuscany and Latin America in the north should be the earliest settlements of Serus. A small number of Latin people flourished at the southern end of this territory, and the city of Rome was finally established here. Therefore, the Romans, who were only villagers in the heyday of Serus civilization, were closely related to Serus' language, thought and religion: Serus had a unique and most important influence on the transformation of Roman culture into civilization.

On the other hand, during the Mycenae civilization from16th century BC to 1 1 th century BC, the Greeks sailed vertically and horizontally in the coastal areas of southern and central Italy, and the subsequent stagnation period brought their navigation to an end. Forced to compete with the Phoenicians on the western trade routes, they established a new trade base, which further enabled the colony to develop in an all-round way in the 8th century BC. They first established a colony in Piisku, Italy (Iskiel Island in the Bay of Naples), and then pushed their forces slightly northward to the Kumi continent in Sicily and the southern coastal areas of Italy. With the contact with the Greeks, the Cyrus people soon became more mature. They created letters according to Greek characters, formed their own sculpture and painting styles, developed religious beliefs based on Greek anthropomorphic gods, and carefully formulated a set of rituals for divining the future. All these were later inherited by the Romans.

The date of the establishment of the city of Rome is uncertain, which is traditionally believed to be in 753 BC, which has been widely confirmed by archaeological discoveries, although people may have lived there before. Traditionally, the Romans attributed the establishment of Rome to the hero Romulus. He and his twin brother Remus are descendants of the hero Aeneas. Aeneas, the son of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, came to Italy after the Greeks occupied Troy. Roman historian Titus Levi described this myth as follows: The grandfather of the twin brothers was Numito, who was the king of Alba in the Alba Mountains in the southeast of Rome. Amulius, the evil brother of the king, deported the king and made Leia Silvia, the only daughter of the king, a virgin to prevent her from bearing children (virgins are not allowed to bear children), in order to prevent the descendants of the king from taking revenge. But Leia Sylvia violated his constraints, fell in love with Mars and gave birth to twins. When the twins were abandoned in the Tiber River, a female wolf nursed them. Later, a shepherd found out that his wife raised them. When they grew up, the twin brothers became the leaders of the greenwood. After remus was captured and brought to King Amulius, romulus led his men to rescue him and killed Amulius. At this time, the life experience of the twin brothers was revealed to the world, and their grandfather Numeitu reigned. The two brothers left their grandfather and set up their own city where the shepherd found them. When deciding who will be the master of the city, the Oracle told them to decide according to the birds they saw that predicted success. Remus saw six vultures standing on Revenge Mountain, and romulus saw 12 vultures standing on Baladin Mountain. The latter figure is luckier, but Remus is the first sign to see it. As a result, there was a quarrel between the brothers, and romulus finally killed Remus and became the king of the new town. He ruled for a long time, was accepted by the gods after his death, and became a respected god of war, Quirinus.

In the process of Rome developing into a city and establishing its own politics and culture, the Romans imitated the neighboring Serus civilization. The earliest extant writing in Italy was found in the cemetery of the ancient city of Ossa Inn near Rome in the early 8th century BC. The four Greek letters carved on the clay pot show that the Latin who just founded Rome learned to use these letters soon after the Greeks adopted the Phoenician letters. The early Roman politics was the era of kingship, and the king held absolute power. He is a great legislator, leader of the army, chief justice and chief priest, and his power is only restricted by the Senate and the citizens' assembly. The Senate is the Senate Council, which is composed of different tribal leaders. According to the Constitution and traditional customs, the Senate has the right to pass or veto the appointment of the king and to judge the king's legislation and litigation. The citizens' assembly consists of all male citizens in Rome and is divided into 30 groups according to their kinship; It authorized the monarch to exercise his power and was finally formally approved by the Senate.

With the growth of Rome's power and influence, wealth began to concentrate in the hands of a few people. The nobility is the richest member in the whole society. They control most of the trade, administration and army, and only they can enter the Senate or be appointed and elected as officials. Civilians are mainly small farmers, laborers and craftsmen, who account for the majority of the population, but they rarely have the opportunity to express their opinions in the government.

After romulus (reigned for 37 years), there are six other kings in the traditional records: Numa Pompilius (reigned for 43 years), Tulus Hosty Julius (reigned for 32 years), Ankus Maches (reigned for 44 years), L Tarchi Newcastle Preskus (reigned for 38 years) and Servius Toury. During his reign, Rome greatly expanded its control over the surrounding territories. The clear purpose of establishing kingship is to provide stability and security, and to conquer the surrounding territories to serve this purpose. The Romans did not seem particularly greedy for territory and wealth; Their conquest was mainly to guard against the threat of neighboring nationalities to their own security. With the expansion of territory, the Romans attracted the attention of the powerful Cyrus in the north. In the middle of the 6th century BC, the Cyrus seized power in Rome. At that time, King Cyrus ruled the city-state, which made the Romans very disgusted. Finally, the Romans rose up in 509 BC and overthrew the rule of Tarvin, king of Serus, because he raped Luke Lady, the nobleman's wife. Although Mrs Luke's rape and junius brutus's overthrow of Talvin may be deductive stories, the overthrow of Talvin's regime undoubtedly marks the decline of El Serus's regime and civilization.

The Romans did not elect a Latin monarch, but completely abandoned the monarchy and established a * * * and political power, which indicates the arrival of the maximum expansion period of Roman power. Rome is ruled by the Senate and parliament. The consul holds the highest power and is held by two elected nobles, who are elected once a year. They exercise supreme power, create legislation, act as justices, military leaders and priests, and have absolute ruling power like kings in the Roman monarchy. They even dressed like kings, wearing purple robes and sitting on ivory thrones traditionally used by kings. However, their power is very strictly limited: they only govern for one year and then serve in the Senate; They are two people in power, and any consul can effectively prevent the other's actions or decisions by simply vetoing one vote. In this way, the Roman government tends to be conservative and cautious because the consul does not have many opportunities to show initiative and creativity.

Below the two consuls are two financial officials, called branch officials. With the development of * * * and China, officials named Preait also appeared. First as a sheriff, then as army chief of staff. In addition, the work of classifying citizens according to wealth and tax amount was originally the responsibility of the consul, and was finally undertaken by two new officials called inspectors.

All effective power is concentrated in the hands of nobles, which has aroused the resentment of civilians. From the founding of the Republic in 509 BC to the end of Caesar's hand in BC 1 century, serious conflicts often occurred between the two classes, which were manifested in the persistent pursuit of power by nobles and social and political equality by civilians. At that time, civilians produced food and provided labor, which enabled the Roman economy to develop. They were also the source of the Roman army. It can be said that aristocrats can't survive without civilians. The first written law promulgated in 450 BC, Twelve Bronze Tables Act, attempted to quell the struggle between the two classes. In 445 BC, the common people got the right to marry the nobles. In 367 BC, civilians gained the right to be elected as consuls, and then gained the right to enter the Senate. In 300 BC, civilians were allowed to participate in sacrificial activities at all levels, which made them enjoy the same status as nobles in religious affairs. In 287 BC, the legislation and decisions of the Li Min Congress were recognized as binding on all Roman citizens (whether civilians or nobles), which was the greatest victory of Li Min in power and influence. These reforms were carried out without war or bloodshed. Although the struggle between the two classes was not fundamentally solved, the civil war was avoided.

The Romans established territorial hegemony while reforming politics. At first, the war with China was mostly defensive, but soon the Romans began to control the surrounding territory to eliminate the threat of attack. In this way, the Romans occupied the whole Italian peninsula, followed by the Mediterranean world. From the 5th century BC to the 4th century BC, the Romans gradually occupied all the Latin and Cyrus territories. At the same time, they were challenged by Gauls. These Gauls are Celtic nomads. They invaded the Italian peninsula, occupied Rome in 387 BC and razed it to the ground. In 295 BC, Rome was involved in the war with the Samonettes living in the Apennines, and the rest of the Serus city, Gaul tribe and some rebellious Italian cities also joined the war. As a result of the war, Rome took control of central Italy in 280 BC. The Romans continued to conquer the southern cities of Greece and took control of the whole Italian peninsula in 265 BC.

The Romans were good at managing conquered territories, and they adopted a policy of combining enlightenment with dictatorship. They usually don't destroy conquered cities, but give them certain powers. Some cities, especially those near Rome, have been granted Roman citizenship. Other cities gained autonomy, while others formed alliances. However, all cities have to pay taxes to Rome and send troops. In addition, Roman soldiers were stationed in some conquered places and their military expenses were paid by the local government. In these places, Rome benefited, and soldiers got valuable property and became permanent military residents there. In this way, Rome maintained a permanent military base in every conquered area. In order to consolidate these bases, the Romans began ambitious road construction projects. The roads they built are of high quality, straight as a line, and even go straight to the mountains, ensuring that soldiers and materials can be quickly delivered to the rebel land. The Romans created an empire of lasting peace in the Italian peninsula by implementing the policy of combining the power granted to conquered areas with citizenship (or promising to grant them citizenship in the future) and establishing a channel to ensure a rapid and severe response to rebel areas.

In the 3rd century BC, Rome and Carthage clashed. Carthage, located in the north of Africa, is a Phoenician city-state, near today's Tunisia, with the most powerful maritime power in the Mediterranean at that time. When the Romans expanded in the Italian peninsula, the Carthaginians were extending their rule to most parts of North Africa, and they also controlled most areas from Libya in the west to the coast of Gibraltar and southern Spain, as well as Corsica and Sardinia. The two ethnic groups had sporadic contact before, but neither of them felt threatened by the other. At that time, Carthage was a powerful country, controlling all commerce and trade in the Mediterranean region. Many countries surrendered to it, providing it with soldiers and materials, and at the same time it accumulated a lot of wealth from the gold and silver mining in Spain.

In the 3rd century BC, when the Roman army reached the southern tip of Italy and bordered the Carthaginian territory in Sicily, the two great powers came into contact. In 264 BC, the first Punic War broke out between Rome and Carthage, and the focus of the war was entirely in Sicily. The Romans besieged several Carthaginian cities on the island and completely destroyed the warships that Carthage came to rescue with its own navy. Although there was no clear winner in this war, it was the first time that the Phoenicians lost their hegemony in the Mediterranean since the establishment of the Carthaginian Empire. In 24 1 BC, Carthaginians and Romans signed a treaty, and they had to give up Sicily and pay war compensation. After losing Corsica in 238 BC, the Carthaginians began to strengthen their rule in Europe. By 2 18 BC, they had established a powerful empire in Spain, and their wealth and power had been enhanced. As Carthage grew stronger, the Romans began to worry. They forced the Carthaginians to sign an agreement, promising that their territorial expansion could not cross the Ebro River (located in northern Spain). In 2 18 BC, the Roman allied forces captured the Spanish city of Sagontum, which triggered the second Punic War. The Carthaginian army stationed in Spain crossed Europe under the leadership of the young commander Hannibal. In September 2 18 BC, he led the army across the Alps into Italy and defeated the Roman army in northern Italy. In desperation, the Romans appointed quintus Fabian Maximus as dictator. He adopted the strategy of avoiding direct war with Carthage and tried to make them tired through constant harassment. However, when Hannibal's army arrived in Canny, southern Italy, in 2 16 BC and began to ravage the countryside, Fabian sent 80,000 troops to battle, and the whole army was wiped out. This was a fiasco that Rome had never had before. The Roman League in southern Italy fell to Hannibal's side, and the whole island of Sicily was also allied with the Carthaginians. Macedonian King Philip V, who ruled most of the Greek mainland, took the opportunity to form an alliance with Hannibal, and began a territorial dispute with Rome in 2 15 BC.

The situation seems to have little hope for the Romans, but Hannibal is also faced with the helplessness of the army and the lack of materials, which makes him not have enough troops to besiege a city like Rome. The Romans therefore had the opportunity to fight back. Thanks to the wise strategy of colonial governor Cornelius, Peter von Scipio, the Romans reoccupied Spain. In 204 BC, Scipio crossed Africa and reached the wall of Carthage. Hannibal lecter was forced to leave the Italian peninsula. When he returned to Carthage, the Carthaginians rallied and fought the Romans for the last time in 202 BC. Hannibal was defeated by Scipio and his army for the first time in Zama, North Africa. Rome turned Carthage into a vassal state (Carthage was finally destroyed in 146 BC), thus controlling the whole western Mediterranean, including North Africa.

Due to the alliance between Macedonian King Philip V and Hannibal, Roman soldiers pointed to the east, launched a war, conquered Philip, and then conquered other Greek kingdoms (Syria, Pagama and Egypt). The second Punic War allowed Rome to rule the known world. First, in BC 197, the Roman general Titus Quinsius Flaminius defeated Philip in Thessaly in eastern Greece and declared all Greek cities free. Antioch, the king of Syria, tried to seize Greece from the Romans, but his army was wiped out in the magnesia campaign in Asia Minor in BC 189. At first, the Romans thought that Greek cities, as free cities, would not pose a threat to Rome, but regarded themselves as "protectors" of Greece, which could prevent any centralization that threatened Rome's security. However, after the rebellion in Poerxiusi (BC 168) was put down, Rome began to exercise hegemonic rule over its allies and subordinate countries in order to guard against the emergence of the rebellion. At the same time, Roman society itself has also changed. The taxes levied on the defeated countries and the loot plundered from the occupied cities flooded the Roman treasury. In personal life, the values and morality of avoiding extravagance and waste based on traditional farming have changed dramatically. People follow the example of ancient Greece and regard luxury and beauty as status symbols. By the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Romans had clearly realized that the empire was a huge money-making machine, and it was an extremely cost-effective thing to create it.

The second Punic War caused great wealth inequality. Rome has a mountain of wealth, but thousands of civilians who make a living by farming have been destroyed by the war. People who used to be rich earned war money again and became richer. They bought all the land, so that by the middle of the 2nd century BC, the manor occupied a dominant position in Roman agriculture. These large manors were owned by wealthy landlords and cultivated by countless new slaves brought back to Italy after the Punic War and the Macedonian War. In fact, in the 2nd century BC, the Roman economy changed greatly, from the original labor economy to the slave economy. This has also caused a large number of unemployed people to flock to cities, and a large number of poor, dissatisfied and angry Roman freemen are concentrated in Rome. In 133 BC, this situation finally triggered a civil war. Tiberius Gracchus was elected as the tribune at the citizens' meeting, and proposed to limit the number of land owned to 640 acres, so that a lot of land could be deprived from the rich. Roman tycoons and the Senate opposed Tiberius Gracchus's reforms. They started a riot, and a group of senators took the opportunity to assassinate Tiberius. Ten years later, Tiberius' younger brother Gayo Gragu was also elected tribune. He asked the assembly to pass a land law similar to his brother's. In BC 12 1 year, he committed suicide by being declared an enemy of the country by the Senate, and thousands of his followers were also killed or executed. This marks the end of the rebellion in Gracchus.

In the following decades, conflicts between Roman civilians and the rich continued, mainly manifested in the opposition between gaius marius, a Roman commander and consul from an ordinary family (BC 157-86) and Cornelius, Peter von Sura, a Roman commander and dictator from a rich family (BC 138-78). In 88 BC, the hostility between the two sides triggered a civil war. Marius's army was mainly recruited from the poorest classes, and he promised them trophies and land as the price of service. In this way, a new type of army came into being. Soldiers are not loyal to their country, but to their commanders. In the end, Sura defeated Marius, was granted full power to rule Roman affairs by the Senate, and became a veritable dictator. In the next few years, he returned power to the Senate, ending the power of the citizens' assembly.

Sura's reform caused a strong response. In 70 BC, two ambitious men, crassus and Pompeii, were elected as consuls, and they quickly abolished Sura's constitution. Pompeii was very popular in Rome because of its victory in Asia, while crassus suppressed the slave uprising led by Spartacus, but it was unpopular. Pompeii allied himself with other promising and increasingly important generals, the most popular of which was Gaius Julius Caesar (BC 100- 44 BC), an outstanding commander from a noble family. Crassus, Pompeii and Caesar reached an agreement and established the "first three governments", which marked the beginning of the demise of the Republic of China. Caesar won great victories in northern France, Belgium and southern Great Britain, but before he returned to Rome, the "top three politics" no longer existed. Crassus died in the Middle East war with the Parthians, while Pompeii opposed Caesar, encouraged the Senate to oppose Caesar, and declared Caesar an enemy of the country. With the support of a strong and loyal army, Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC and crossed the Rubicon River in central Italy, and a new civil war began. In 48 BC, Pompeii was defeated in salus, Greece, and was assassinated by the Egyptians in his escape place. In 46 BC, Caesar returned to Rome and instructed the Senate to appoint him as a dictator who could rule for ten years. He was granted absolute power to rule the Roman country, and was not bound by the law and constitution when necessary. Two years later, he was appointed dictator for life, with all kinds of powers in one. Caesar's absolute power made him an absolute ruler, an ancient Roman emperor and a supreme ruler. He looks more like a monarch. Some Roman nobles who were proud of the Roman Republic were extremely dissatisfied with his power. On March 15, 44 BC, a group of conspirators led by gaius cassius Long Girnus and Marcus junius Brutu assassinated Caesar.

However, the dream of the rebels' peaceful return to the * * * system has turned into another brutal civil war for thirteen years in reality. Caesar's followers established "post-three-headed politics". They fought against the conspirators and won in Filipi. The "post-triad politics" consists of Caesar's adopted son, Kyle Octavian (claiming to be Caius Julius Caesar Octavian), and Caesar's subordinates, Marco Anthony and Kyle Emilius Libida. However, Octavian, supported by the Senate, soon parted ways with Marco Anthony, supported by Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. The war between the two sides ended in 3 1 BC. Anthony and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, lost in the naval battle and committed suicide in Alexandria the following year.

The end of the war also marked the demise of Rome and the country. Octavian seized all the power that Caesar once had, but did not make any formal changes to * * * and the state system. He established himself as an absolute ruler. At first he called himself "the head of state" (the chief citizen of Rome, which is the origin of the word modern prince), and later he called himself "Augustus" (majestic or supreme). In his last words, he boasted that he had completed the mission of restoring peace and order in the empire. He placed soldiers in farmland, making the dream of equal land ownership almost come true since the second Punic War. He transformed the Roman army from a volunteer army into a standing army. These armies spread all over the empire, and they spread the Roman language and culture to Europe and the Mediterranean. Finally, Augustus began a huge architectural plan and acted as the protector of art, thus bringing Roman culture to an unprecedented peak. Outstanding writers were supported by the Fuehrer himself and his assistant Messanes, including the famous Virgil (70 BC-BC 19), Horace (65 BC-8 BC) and Ovid (43 BC-AD 18). They further promoted Augustus' political reform ideologically, among which Virgil's masterpiece Aeneas is an epic about the hero Aeneas creating Roman civilization. Augustus also generously sponsored art and sculpture with the enthusiasm of sponsoring literature. He carried out many large-scale construction projects, including the Temple of Apollo and other temples on Mount Baladin, and the Roman Square.

Rome experienced a series of profound changes after Augustus died in 14. From Augustus to Trajan (98- 1 17), Rome ruled more territories in North Africa, most of Britain, parts of Germany, Eastern Europe near the Black Sea, Mesopotamia and northern Arabia, and the empire gradually became stronger. At home, Rome tried to establish its own new quasi-monarchy system. Augustus declared himself "the chief citizen of Rome", and his successors took off the veil of hypocrisy and directly called themselves "Caesar" to show their royal blood. After Augustus died, the Roman regime was more like a monarchy. Although Augustus was still elected by the Senate, in fact, the emperor in power chose his successor before his death.

The early Roman emperors were all descendants of Caesar. Augustus' successor was Tiberius (reigned from 14 to 37), followed by gaius, known as caligula (reigned from 37 to 4 1 year), followed by Claudius (reigned from 4 1 year to 54) and Nero (reigned from 54 to 68). The rule of Tiberius and later caligula proved the emperor's hegemony. Caligula, in particular, was notorious for his brutal and crazy rule throughout Roman history. After the assassination of caligula in 4 1 A.D., Claudius was acclaimed as emperor by the Roman Guards, and all traces of * * * and China's rule had disappeared. When the army can legalize the emperor's rule, it is obvious that ambitious generals will use their army to improve their political status.

During the reign of Nero, the last emperor of Giuria Dynasty, the Romans began to persecute and execute members of Christianity, a new mysterious religion from the East. The founder of Christianity was a Jewish missionary, Jesus of Nazareth. He lived under the rule of Augustus and Tiberius, and was later executed by the Romans. Two other founders, Peter and Paul, were also executed. The latter devoted all his life to transforming Christianity from Jewish belief into a religion acceptable to Greece and Rome.

In 68 AD, the troops stationed in Gaul rioted and Nero was ousted. In the second year, at least four emperors ascended the throne, and each emperor was backed by a powerful army. Rome was in chaos, but General Titus Flavi Wepadre (reigned in 69-79 AD) succeeded in long-term rule and established his own dynasty-Flavi Dynasty. After him, his son Titus (79-8 1) succeeded to the throne, followed by Titus Flavius Domitianus (8 1-96), and he began to set off the second wave of persecution of Christians.

In 96 AD, Titus Flavius Domitianus was murdered. As he had no heir, the Senate elected Marcus Cocceius nerva, whom he trusted, as emperor. This is the beginning of the period of five wise emperors praised by Roman historians later. The five emperors were: Marcus Cocceius nerva (reigned in 96-98), Trajan (reigned in 98- 1 17) and Hadrian (reigned in1138). Political power was successfully transferred from one emperor to another, and each emperor was elected and passed by his predecessor and approved by the Senate. This period was the most stable period of Roman empire rule after Augustus. This situation came to an end when Marcus Aurelius chose his son Commodus (180- 192 in office) as his successor.

During this period, Roman culture, politics and law were widely spread. The Romans actively built large-scale urban residential areas within the empire (especially those areas without urban culture) and gave these cities the same rights as the Romans. The upper class ruled these cities, so they were more loyal to the emperor. The empire became the only centralized government under the control of Roman bureaucrats. Culturally, this period was as creative as that of Augustus. During Nero's period, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), the greatest philosopher in Roman history, lived. He believed in the Stoic theory of ancient Greece? %