ANCIENT ROME II - Loudoun County Public Schools



ANCIENT ROME II

A) Rule of Caesar

• Caesar returned to Rome in 45 B.C. as master of the Roman state.

• He became dictator and held the title of Imperator (King)

• He did not abolish the Senate, but it became only an advisory body.

• He pardoned his enemies and made reforms to improve economic and social conditions.

• He extended Roman citizenship to many Gauls and Spaniards to win their loyalty.

• Some senators became alarmed by Caesar's seizure of power.

• They realized that he did not intend to restore the Republic. A group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius conspired to kill Caesar.

• On the Ides of March (March 15), 44 B.C. the senators stabbed Caesar to death in the Senate.

• The assassination of Julius Caesar led to another civil war. On one side were Mark Antony and Lepidus, two of Caesar's chief lieutenants, and Caesar's grandnephew, Octavian. They formed the Second Triumvirate and then defeated Brutus and Cassius in 43 B.C.

• Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus divided Rome's empire among themselves.

• Lepidus soon lost power leaving the other two to fight it out.

• Octavian controlled the west and Antony the east where he formed an alliance with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt.

• At the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., Octavian defeated his two rivals and annexed Egypt. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

B) The Roman Empire

• The Roman Senate gave Octavian the name Augustus and made him dictator

• Augustus did not abolish the Senate or claim any autocratic powers.

• He called himself Princeps or "First Citizen."

• The reign of Augustus began a period called the "Pax Romana" (Roman Peace).

• Augustus reformed the civil service and made the government of the provinces more efficient. The Romans expanded their system of roads. Commerce and prosperity increased and cities grew.

• The Augustan Age was the high point of Roman literature and art.

• The Pax Romana continued under the five Good Emperors (96-180 A.D.) the Roman Empire reached its greatest geographic extent.

C) Christianity Develops in the Roman Empire

Christianity developed in the 1st century A.D. in the Roman controlled area of Palestine.

The people who followed the teachings of Jesus were called Christians.

Our knowledge of Jesus and his teachings comes from four books of the New Testament called the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the Gospels after the death of Jesus

His followers recognized him as the Messiah or savior who would save the Jewish people from oppression.

Jesus was known as Christ, from the Greek word Christos, which means savior.

• Jesus believed that there was only one true God, and that the people should follow the Ten Commandments.

• Jesus soon gained 12 followers (or disciples) who traveled with him as he taught and preached. Jesus taught that all who believed in him would gain the kingdom of heaven after they died.

• Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the area known as Judea, sentenced Jesus to die on the cross (crucifixion).

• According to the teachings of the apostles, Jesus rose from the dead and 40 days later ascended into heaven. The followers of Jesus(Peter and Paul) believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah for whom the Jewish people had been waiting.

• It was Paul who made Christianity an independent religion by separating it from Judaism.

• Followers of Jesus were persecuted against and forced by the emperor to fight gladiators and wild animals in the colosseum

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