Roman Empire

Assassination and Another Caesar

• Caesar became a Greek-style tyrant - there was a traditional and honorable way of getting rid of tyrants
• on the Ides of March, Caesar appeared in the Senate house (unarmed) and a crowd of senators struck him down with daggers
• his murder did not restore the Republic
• instead, his death produced another crop of warlords and more bouts of civil war
• The main contenders were Mark Anthony(once a commander under Caesar and now a consul; the leading assassin), Brutus and Cassius, and Caesars grandnephew and adopted son, Octavian Caesar
• Mark and Octavian were rival loyalists of Caesar 
• they soon joined forces against Caesars assassination; formed another triumvirate together with a lesser warlord, Marcus Lepidus; eliminated opponents in a new region of terror in Rome; and defeated Cassius and Brutus in a battle in Greece
• the triumvirs declared that they intended to "restore the Republic" but they also had the senate proclaim Caesar the "divine being"
• the partners then divided the Roman world with Octavian in Rome, Lepidus in North Africa and mark in Alexandria 
• their cooperation soon turned into rivalry 
• the balance of power began swinging to Octavian 
• Anthony's love affair with Cleopatra made him unpopular
• Octavian pushed Lepidus out of power and began expanding Rome's frontiers northward 
• in 31 B.C., the rulers of the two halves of Rome's empire went to war
• Octavian beat Anthony and Cleopatra 
• then both Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide
• Octavian was now supreme warlord 

The Roman Peace

"The era of the Roman peace was one massive social, religious and cultural changes that would form a new pattern of western civilization."

• Augustus's new system of gov. kept many features of the Roman Republic, allowed subject peoples a good deal of self-rule, and brought Rome's destabilizing expansion to a halt. the result was 200 years of stability that modern scholars call the Roman Peace
• the roman version of Greco-roman civ. prevailed in the western territories and the Greek version was dominant in the east
• roman literature and art, philosophy and law, architecture and engendering were often inspired by Greek models, but roman achievements in these fields eventually equaled or surpassed the Greeks
• in the west, the native languages of conquered European barbarian people began to be replaced by Latin

the Rule of the Emperors 

Timeline

29-19 BC - Virgil composes the Aeneid

27 BC- end of roman republic and beginning of rule of roman emperors 

14 - Augustus dies and Tiberius takes over

62-70 - Jewish revolt against Rome

117 - under Trajan, roman empire reaches its great extent 

126 - pantheon built in Rome 

212 - all free inhabitants of roman empire are declared roman citizens

529 - Justinian's law code begins to be published, systematizing the laws of Rome