A240 Block 2 Unit 1 Snapshot of a City Flashcards
1.1 Rome’s Topography
List some buildings and structure types
Building’s and areas created, infrastructure such as:-
Forum Romanum
Colosseum, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Trajan’s column, the baths of Diocletian, Titus’ arch
Basilicas (basilica Iulia), Augustus’ Mausoleum, Aqueducts,
Key to Rome’s early success - the ford across the river Tiber, then ‘competitive building and aristocratic rivalry, most of the surviving building were built during the reigns of the emperors in the first two centuries
- 2 Rome in the early 2nd century
- 2.1 Background
- 2.2 Evidence
Carthage backgrounds, coins and influence
Carthage, Livy - e.g. The War with Hannibal (he believed a moral decline had taken place), Virgil - The Aeneid, Fabius Pictor (lived through and wrote ‘2nd Punic War), Cato the Elder, Early history an amalgam of fact and fiction
Polybius - (The Histories) Wrote about the wars with Hannibal to the defeat of Carthage and Corinth (biographical material on Publics Cornelius Scipio Africanus) not without bias (several Roman authors look at him ‘through rose-tinted glasses’ Scipio - tried and went into exile
Coinage used from 4th C BCE - Assisting interpretation of history. Latin literature produced from 3rd C onwards
From 2nd C BCE Greek and Hellenistic culture begins to impact on Rome
- 2 Rome in the early 2nd century
- 2.3 Map of Rome
Scipio
3rd C BCE a fair amount of building activity, Scipio’s arch military money flooding in creating memorialising and monumentalising of victories, religious act of dedicating temples was an acceptable (politically correct) way of celebrating divine favour rather than personal enrichment
1.3 Augustan Rome
The late second C BCE - The Social War
Augusts emperor 27 BCE - brought peace and stability, a turning point in the city’s history. He embellished the city, revitalised the architecture and organisation, ( ), allowed literature to flourish (Virgil (the Aeneid), Horace (propaganda poems), Ovid, Livy (Histories), Dio Cassius - a monarchy yes but a workable and successful system
He restored power to the Senate and people of Rome (while ensuring he was first citizen) Augustus - religious term
Rex Gestate Divi Augustae (a self-composed extended epitaph and piece of propaganda set up outside his mausoleum) - lists the buildings Augustus built or restored (without putting his name on them) - ‘ I found a city of brick and left one of marble’
Suetonius praises Augustus’s work - roads, flood prevention, local administration
- 4 Domitian and Rome I
1. 4.2 Evidence
The Flavian dynasty - Vespasian (69-79),Titus (79-81),Domitian (81-96) AD (BBC Ancient Rome) - brought stability except for Domitian (labelled a bad emperor)
Attitudes and writing on Domitian largely hostile because he was autocratic, tactless and somewhat paranoid (though there was a rebellion in upper Germany) Murdered 96AD by his wife and intimates
Praisers Statius and Martial (court poets) deriders Tacitus, Pliny and Suetonius (officials and historians) Dio Cassius (written much later) - cruel, unpredictable, tyrannical, inconsistent to be called ‘‘Master and God’ Suetonius
Tension between this autocrat and aristocratic officialdom, (Tacitus (thought him jealous re Agricola but this disputed in OCD) and Pliny the younger hostile) though conscientious in his duties and enforcing morals (3 vestal virgins executed, chief vestal buried alive).
Raised army pay by 1/3 popular with army and praetorians, army grieved t his death
- 4 Domitian and Rome II
1. 4.2 Evidence
Disassociated from good building projects tarred with too many arches, too many statues, too big a palace
personal statues to be of only gold or silver
Inscribed only his own name on building projects though his projects and restorations were among the most long standing and awe-inspiring though his name has been disassociated with them
Domitian did try to be a good emperor, but these efforts were largely expunged from the literary accounts this reign
