<h5 id="the-early-empire">THE EARLY EMPIRE</h5> <ul> <li>The Roman Empire was divided into the ’early’ and ’late’ empire, with the third century marking the transition. The early empire was culturally diverse, with many languages spoken and Latin and Greek being the most widely used for administration.</li> <li>The Roman Empire was ruled by an emperor, and the Senate, a body representing the aristocracy, played a significant role. The army, a paid professional force, was another key institution, with soldiers putting in a minimum of 25 years of service.</li> <li>The Roman Empire was organized into provinces, all subject to taxation. The emperor relied on the urbanization of the empire, with great urban centers and local upper classes collaborating with the Roman state in administering their own territories and raising taxes.</li> <li>The army and administration were increasingly drawn from the provinces in the late first, second, and early third centuries, as citizenship spread to these regions. The senatorial class, however, continued to dominate the senate at least till the third century.</li> <li>The Roman emperor managed to govern such a vast territory through the collaboration of local upper classes and the urbanization of the empire. The army and administration were drawn from the provinces, and the senate was dominated by individuals of Italian origin till the third century.</li> <li>Cities in the Roman sense had their own magistrates, city council, and a territory containing villages under its jurisdiction. Living in a city offered advantages such as better provision during food shortages and famines than the countryside.</li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="the-third-century-crisis">THE THIRD-CENTURY CRISIS</h5> <ul> <li>The third century marked a period of internal strain for the Roman Empire, following two centuries of relative peace and prosperity.</li> <li>A new and aggressive dynasty, the Sasanians, emerged in Iran in 225, expanding rapidly towards the Euphrates and claiming to have annihilated a Roman army of 60,000 and captured the eastern capital of Antioch.</li> <li>Germanic tribes, including the Alamanni, Franks, and Goths, began moving against the Rhine and Danube frontiers, leading to repeated invasions and the abandonment of much territory beyond the Danube.</li> <li>The rapid succession of emperors during this period (25 emperors in 47 years) indicates the significant challenges faced by the empire.</li> <li>Roman emperors of this period were frequently engaged in military campaigns against what they referred to as ‘barbarians’.</li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="gender-literacy-culture">Gender, Literacy, Culture</h5> <ul> <li>In Roman society, the nuclear family was prevalent with adult sons and brothers not living together. Slaves were included in the family.</li> <li>Women in the late Republic had considerable legal rights in owning and managing property. They could become primary heirs of their father’s property and remained independent property owners.</li> <li>Divorce was relatively easy and could be initiated by either husband or wife. However, women were often subject to domination by their husbands and were married off at a younger age than men.</li> <li>Literacy varied greatly across the empire, with casual literacy being widespread in some areas like Pompeii, but not in others like Egypt.</li> <li>The cultural diversity of the empire was vast, with different languages, religions, dress, food, and social organization being spoken and practiced at many levels.</li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="economic-expansion">ECONOMIC EXPANSION</h5> <ul> <li>The Roman Empire had a significant economic infrastructure, including harbors, mines, quarries, brickyards, and olive oil factories.</li> <li>Key traded goods were wheat, wine, and olive oil, primarily sourced from Spain, Gaul, North Africa, Egypt, and Italy.</li> <li>Amphorae, clay containers used for transporting liquids like wine and olive oil, provide valuable information for archaeologists about trade routes, production areas, and consumption patterns.</li> <li>Economic competition between regions, such as Spanish olive growers and Italian producers, led to market capture based on product quality and pricing.</li> <li>The empire experienced shifts in major exporting regions over time, with North African producers dominating in the 3rd and 4th centuries, followed by the Aegean, southern Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine in the 5th and 6th centuries.</li> <li>Regional prosperity depended on effective production, transport, and product quality, with fertile regions like Campania, Sicily, and Byzacium being the most densely settled or wealthiest parts of the empire.</li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="controlling-workers">Controlling Workers</h5> <ul> <li> <p>Slavery was a significant institution in the ancient world, but the majority of labor in the Roman economy was not performed by slaves. This was especially true in the empire as a whole, where slaves were an investment and used sparingly due to economic considerations.</p> </li> <li> <p>The Roman upper classes were often brutal towards their slaves, but ordinary people sometimes showed compassion. An example of this is seen during the reign of Nero, where a crowd gathered to save slaves from execution after their master was murdered by one of them.</p> </li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="social-hierarchies">SOCIAL HIERARCHIES</h5> <ul> <li>The early Roman empire had a social structure consisting of senators, leading equestrian class members, respectable people attached to great houses, the unkempt lower class, and slaves.</li> <li>By the late empire, the senators and equites had merged into a unified aristocracy, with many families of African or eastern origin. The ‘middle’ class now included those in imperial service, merchants, and farmers. Below them were the humiliores, a large rural and urban labor force, including many slaves.</li> <li>The late Roman aristocracy was enormously wealthy but less powerful than military elites. They drew annual incomes of up to 4,000 lbs of gold from their estates.</li> <li>The late empire’s monetary system was based on gold due to exhausted silver mines and a lack of silver. The bureaucracy, paid in gold, was affluent and often corrupt.</li> <li>Despite being an authoritarian regime, a strong tradition of Roman law had emerged by the fourth century, protecting civil rights and allowing powerful bishops to confront emperors.</li> </ul> <p>======</p> <h5 id="late-antiquity">Late Antiquity</h5> <ul> <li>Late antiquity, used to describe the final period in the evolution and break-up of the Roman Empire, refers to the fourth to seventh centuries.</li> <li>Diocletian initiated significant changes in the state structure, including abandoning territories, fortifying frontiers, reorganizing provincial boundaries, and separating civilian and military functions.</li> <li>Constantine consolidated these changes and made Christianity the official religion, introduced a new gold coin (solidus), and established a second capital at Constantinople.</li> <li>The period saw considerable economic growth, monetary stability, urban prosperity, and expansion of governing classes.</li> <li>The Christianization of the empire was a gradual and complex process, with polytheism persisting, especially in the western provinces.</li> <li>The East witnessed general prosperity and expanding population, while the West saw political fragmentation with the establishment of ‘post-Roman’ kingdoms by Germanic groups.</li> </ul> <p>======</p>