Chapter 6 Flashcards
republic
a government where citizens vote for their leaders
patricians
wealthy landowners with lots of power
plebeians
farmers & merchants
tribunes
plebeian representatives
Twelve Tables
Rome’s laws
consuls
Rome’s “kings” with two-year terms
senate
aristocratic branch of Rome’s government
dictator
a leader with absolute power to bring Rome out of crisis for 6 months
legions
military units
Punic War
- rome won
- then Carthage won (under Hannibal)
- then rome won again
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
tried to help Rome’s poor people, got assassinated, civil war broke out after their deaths
Julius Caesar
- military leader in the first triumvirate (with Crassus and Pompey)
- was a consul and then governor of Gaul
- defeated Pompey’s army and became dictator of Rome for life
- reformed it by making jobs and expanding senate
- was assassinated
Octavian (Augustus) Caesar
- 2nd triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus
- ruled for 10 years after Caesar’s death
- made Lepidus retire and defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra
- ruled Rome unchallengedly with Pax Romana
- stabilized government
gravitas
Roman attributes (strength, bravery, discipline)
Roman Culture
- had slaves
- many gods and goddesses
- numia: spirit
- lares: guardian spirits of each family
- big gap between rich and poor
Diaspora
dispersal of the Jews
Constantine
- was anti-Christ at first
- his mom St. Monica prayed for him and then he converted during battle
- became a super-activist
Augustine
- one of the Fathers of the Church
- wrote “The City of God”
mercenaries
foreign soldiers who fought for money
Diocletian
- new emperor of Rome
- restored order (before Constantine came along)
- split Roman empire into Greek East and Latin West
Constantine (after Diocletian)
-moved capital from Rome to Byzantium, named it Constantinople
Germans
-invaded rome to escape the Huns led by Attila
Virgil
a poet of heavy themes, wrote the Aeneid
Ovid
wrote light stuff like Amores
Tacitus
-a political commentator, wrote the Annals and Histories
Justinian
- succeeded his uncle to the throne of the Eastern Empire
- was the “new Caesar”
- rules with absolute power, even over the church
- had the general Belisarius
- rebuilt Constantinople
- built the Hagia Sophia
- built public baths, schools, hospitals
- greco-roman culture!
- empire fell after he died
- plague of Justinian
- attacks from east and west
- Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Sassanid Persians
Belisarius
- recovered North Africa from Germanic invasion
- changed hands 6 times, Byzantine won out
Justinian Code
- code: 5,000 Roman laws good for the Byzantine empire
- Digest: quoted the best legal thinkers on thoughts about the law (50 volumes)
- Institutes: a textbook on how to use the laws
- Novellae: (new laws) presented legislation passed after 534
Mese “Middle Way” & Hippodrome
- Constantinople’s main street
- many merchants
- a stadium with chariot races
- very enthusiastic, many riots happened here
- the ferocious Nika rebellion, they were mad at the government for quenching a previous riot
- very enthusiastic, many riots happened here
patriarch
leading bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church
icons
religious images used by the Eastern church to help their devotions
-banned by Emperor Leo III
Cyrillic Alphabet
-alphabet for Slavic languages (Russian)
