The Roman Achievement 1000BC-AD400

Question 1

Significance of Roman Empire?

Answer 1

Practically - achievements and long term consequences

ideologically- provided a mode of ‘civilised’ society that wester cultures would adopt.

Question 2

How did Roman manage for centuries to sustain biggest land Empire around Med. without major technological improvements/ lack of rudimentary transport and communication system?

Answer 2

Force - Roman power achieved and secured by military supremacy (‘hard power’)

Consent - Empire sustained through the willing/ enthusiastic acceptance of Roman rule by subject population (‘soft power’)

These enabled Romans to exercise power over wide distances.

Question 3

753BC

Answer 3

Traditional date of Roman foundations, but it was just one of many states.

Question 4

509BC

Answer 4

Roman Empire becomes a Republic (expels Kings)

Question 5

c250BC

Answer 5

Rome leading city but via a network of alliances rather than direct rule.

Question 6

What happened in 1st and 2nd Punic Wars (264-241 BC, 218-202BC)

Answer 6

Victory over Carthage, makes Roman Empire dominate power in western mediterranean.

Question 7

How does Roman power expand exponentially?

Answer 7

Via a mix of military action and absorption of client states (this option was more common than war)e.g Egypt 31 BC.

Question 8

What was the motor of the Empires expansion?

Answer 8

accidental outcome of essential defence policy of intervention overseas. It was in place to protect the interests of Romans or on the request of their allies (and then stay to protect them).

Question 9

Pax Romana?

Answer 9

Only wage war for peace, parallel American foreign policy.

Question 10

Was Roman territorial expansion opportunistic? What drove it?

Answer 10

Yes.

Main driver was the personal ambition of leading generals who needed repeated military success to balance the republican system and to cling to political power. E.g Caesar.

Question 11

When did external aggression and internal conflict climax?

Answer 11

Mid 1BC, e.g Caesar v/s Pompey.

Question 12

How did Rome go from a Republic to an Empire?

Answer 12

The assertion of direct Roman rule almost all Med shores.

The successful transition under Octavian ( also known as Augustus 31BC -14AD) to a monarchial system of rule.

Question 13

Limits of the Empire?

Answer 13

Their expansion was little following transition to Empire (Britain was the biggest one)

Question 14

The military role?

Answer 14

The military was fundamental to the creation of the Empire.

Question 15

What did Augustus’ empire restore?

Answer 15

The creation of the empire under Augustus presented as restoring conservative, traditional values. The move to a monarchial system involved the devolution of power to elites.

Question 16

Was the Empire centralised?

Answer 16

No, too vast and there was not enough Roman elites to rule all of it.

Question 17

Elites and the Empire?

Answer 17

The idea was that to persuade local elites to cooperate/ run aspects of the empire was a practical, efficient, cheap method.

You would be able to extract resources via tax with no need for an expensive central bureaucrat.

There was no significant military forces within interior of Empire because elites maintained local order. Therefore, defence armies were only concerned with the frontiers of the Empire.

Question 18

‘low input, low output empire’

Answer 18

This was the phrase associated with their heydays, 1-2 ADl

Question 19

Why did local elites cooperate if they were already powerful because they owned land?

Answer 19

They cooperate because they fear the consequences if they don’t.

Stick and carrot metaphor
stick: resistant actively, get killed/ do so passively they face exclusion from local power network.

Carrots: There is a sense of reward. Work with Rome, keep local power and status and Roman army are guaranteed security.

Many revolted, like Boadicea, but end up killed.

Question 20

Romanisation

Answer 20

Roman society is conservative and oligarchical. The empire looks to reinforce existing local power structure by incorporating them into a Roman framework.

Question 21

WAS the Empire Multicultural?

Answer 21

Local culture survived but now regarded as Roman, anything Roman would be considered civilised and the world beyond was barbaric.

Question 22

Religion?

Answer 22

Uniform, provided by many God’s of Rome’s Pantheon.

Romans saw Christianity as a threat to social order in times of crisis because it denied the validity of their religious practises. Christians seen as atheists.

Question 23

Economy?

Answer 23

attained level of economic complexity/ prosperity that is not repeated over a similar area/length of time before the modern era.

Question 24

Characterization of the Empire?

Answer 24

Uniform administration framework
universal language
culture: latine/Greek
One legal system
local diversity/ flexibility in cultural practise.
much power devolved to the elites