The Romans For Dummies E-Book

Guy de la Bedoyere

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 787

Beschreibung

"A must for anyone interested in the Roman Empire and its impact on world history." --Tony Robinson, star of Blackadder and Time Team This entertaining and informative guide is the perfect introduction to the amazing world of ancient Rome and its emperors, epic wars, awesome architecture, heroes, and villains. With a complete rundown of Roman history alongside fascinating insights into the lives of everyday Romans, you'll discover the amazing people and events involved in the rise and fall of one of the greatest of all ancient civilizations and how its influence is felt around the world today. If you've tuned into any of several TV shows focused on Rome and want to learn more about this fascinating part of history, The Romans For Dummies is the book for you. Schoolteachers and lecturers looking for light-hearted inspiration for lessons will also benefit from this riotous Roman adventure chronicling the rise and fall of the Empire. The Romans For Dummies is an accessible guide written in plain English giving you the fascinating facts of this ancient civilization. You'll learn about the following (and more): * How Roman society was divided into classes * The assemblies that ruled Rome * Why villas were important to the Romans * Details about the Roman army, including a Roman soldier's equipment * The wonder of Roman architecture, cities, roads, aqueducts, and sewers * Everything you ever wanted to know about gladiators and then some * The importance of Roman temples, shrines, and the gods * How Rome became a republic, an empire, and then collapsed Additionally, you'll learn about turning points in Roman history, (mostly) good and (some) bad Romans, Rome's greatest enemies, and great places to visit you won't want to miss on your next Roman holiday. Grab a copy of The Romans For Dummies to discover this and so much more. Guy de la Bédoyèreis a historian, archaeologist, and Roman expert, he is well known for his numerous books and appearances on TV, especially Channel 4'sTime Team.

Leseprobe

The Romans For Dummies®

by Guy de la Bédoyère

The Romans For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected]

Visit our Home Page on www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (44) 1243 770620.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher, the author, AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN PREPARING THIS WORK make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 978-0-470-03077-6

ISBN-10: 0-470-03077-1

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Guy de la Bédoyère is a freelance writer and broadcaster who took a history and archaeology degree at Durham University, followed by a history degree at the University of London specialising in Roman history, with papers in US history. Next came an MA in Roman Empire archaeology at University College, London. He has written many books on his specialist field of Roman Britain and is well-known for his numerous appearances on television, especially Channel 4’s Time Team in Britain. He has also written books on a variety of other historical subjects, including the papers of Samuel Pepys, and is a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society. His other interests include playing the piano, travelling in the United States, and studying genealogy. He lives in Lincolnshire, England.

Author’s Acknowledgements

I can’t list all the Roman experts I’ve met and talked to over the years who have made a difference to this book whether they know it or not, but I would like to make a special mention of Richard Reece and Neil Faulkner, both of whose idiosyncratic and original perspectives on Roman history have made me think more than they know. I’d also like to thank Daniel Mersey, Samantha Clapp, and Martin Tribe at Wiley for their comments along the way on assembling the text, and Wejdan Ismail for her help. Special mention for Tracy Barr for her editorial work in developing the text through to its final form. I’m also grateful to all those people I’ve worked with in television archaeology and history, and the viewers, for their comments and observations which have helped me cut through the waffle to see things more clearly. Finally to my wife who endured several fourteen-hour days tramping round Rome and Ostia during the research for this book, and who has put up with the Roman Empire for nearly thirty years.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Daniel Mersey

Development Editor: Tracy Barr

Content Editor: Steve Edwards

Commissioning Editor: Samantha Clapp

Copy Editor: Christine Lea

Proofreader: Charlie Wilson

Technical Editor: Cassian Hall

Executive Editor: Jason Dunne

Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe

Cover Photos: © Caesar: Bettmann/ CORBIS; Hadrian’s Wall: The National Trust Photolibrary/ Alamy; gladiator: Christie’s Images/ CORBIS; clock face: Jupiterimages; all other images Guy de la Bédoyère.

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot

Layout and Graphics: Lavonne Cook, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Barry Offringa, Heather Ryan, Alicia South

Proofreaders: Jessica Kramer, Charles Spencer

Indexer: Techbooks

Brand Reviewers: Zoë Wykes, Jan Withers

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Romans – The Big Boys of the Ancient World

Chapter 1: The Romans: Shaping Their World and Ours

Being Roman

Discovering the Romans

What the Romans Did for Us

A Long Time Ago but Not That Far Away

Chapter 2: It’s the Cash That Counts: Roman Social Classes

First Things First: The Roman Family

Being on Top – Upper-crust Romans

Ordinary Citizens

Are You Being Served?

Women and Children Last!

Chapter 3: Stairway to the Stars: The Greasy Path to Power

Roman Assemblies

The Emperors

Climbing to the Top

Chapter 4: Rural Bliss – Roman Dreamland

The Roman Fantasy Self-image: We’re Farmers at Heart

Life in the City; Dreams in the Country

Villas: Bedrock of Roman Agriculture

A Quick Rural Reality Check

Chapter 5: When We Were Soldiers

Mastering the Universe: The Fighting Men

Having the Right Equipment

Holding the Fort

The Late Army

Part II : Living the Good Life

Chapter 6: The Urban Jungle

The Idea of City

Two Brilliant Ideas

All Roads Lead to Rome

Chapter 7: Making the Roman Machine Work

Trade Around the Empire

Goodies from Around the World

Money, Money, Money

Turning on the Taps

Keeping Well: Medicine

Chapter 8: Entertainments: Epic and Domestic

Introducing the Games

The Playing Fields: Arenas and Stadiums

Fighting Men: Gladiators

Fighting Animals

Epic Shows and Mock Battles

A Day at the Races – Chariot-racing

Pantos and Plays: Roman Theatre

A Night In: Entertaining at Home

Chapter 9: Divine Intervention

Cutting a Deal: Roman Religion

Roman Temples and Shrines

The Divine Mission: Roman Gods

Integrating Gods from Elsewhere

The Religion that Refused to Be Assimilated: Christianity

Burning and Burying: The Roman Way of Death

Part III : The Rise of Rome

Chapter 10: Kings? No, Maybe Not – Republicans

The Founding of Rome

The Magnificent Eight: The Kings (753–535 BC)

The Birth of the Roman Republic

Chapter 11: This Town Isn’t Big Enough for All of Us – Seizing Italy

Winning Over the Latin League (493 BC)

Having the Gaul to Invade – 390 BC

Knocking out the Samnites

Now for the Rest of Italy

Chapter 12: Carthage and the First Two Punic Wars

The Sicilian Story – the First Punic War (264–241 BC)

The Second Punic War (218–202 BC)

Trouble in the East: The Macedonian Wars

The Secret of Success: The Comeback

Chapter 13: While We’re at It – Let’s Conquer Everywhere Else, Too

How the West Was Won

The Reign in Spain, 197–179 BC

The Third Punic War (151–146 BC)

Mopping Up the East

Part IV : When Romans Ruled the World

Chapter 14: Reform and Civil War

Crisis in Rome

Enter the Gracchi

Marius the New Man – and More Unrest

Fighting Your Friends: The Social War (90–88 BC)

Think the Unthinkable: A Roman Captures Rome – Sulla (88 BC)

Well, They Started Out As Mates: The Age of the Generals

The Gang of Three: The First Triumvirate (60 BC)

Chapter 15: Daggers Drawn – The Fall of the Republic

Civil War

Caesar: Leader of the Roman World

Octavian and the End of the Republic (44–43 BC)

Antony and Cleopatra

Chapter 16: Augustus and the Caesars – Plots, Perverts, and Paranoia

Augustus (aka Octavian) and His Powers

Augustus’s Dynasty: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero (AD 14–68)

The Year of the Four Emperors (AD 68–69)

Starting Well and Finishing Badly – the Flavians (AD 69–96)

Chapter 17: The Five Good Emperors

Nerva: A Good Stopgap (AD 96–98)

Trajan: Right Man for the Job (AD 98–117)

Hadrian, Artist and Aesthete (AD 117–138)

Antoninus Pius: Nice and Vice-free (AD 138–161)

Smelling the Storm Brewing: Marcus Aurelius (AD 161–180)

The End of the Good Old Days

Part V : Throwing the Empire Away

Chapter 18: More Civil War, Auctioning the Empire, and Paranoid Lunatics

I Think I’m Hercules: Commodus (AD 180–192)

Pertinax: The 87-Day Wonder

Didius Julianus and Civil War

Septimius Severus (AD 193–211)

Not Living Up to Dad’s Expectations – Caracalla (AD 211–217)

Chapter 19: The Age of the Thug – The Third Century’s Soldier Emperors

The First Thug on the Throne: Marcus Opelius Macrinus

Elagabalus (AD 218–222)

Severus Alexander (AD 222–235)

Valerian I (AD 253–260) and Gallienus (253–268)

Aurelian (AD 270–275)

Probus (AD 276–282)

The End of the Principate

Chapter 20: East Is East and West Is West: Diocletian and Constantine

On the Case: Diocletian (AD 284–305)

Constantine I, the Great (AD 307–337)

Constantius II (AD 337–361)

Bringing Back Pagans: Julian II ‘the Apostate’ (AD 360–363)

Chapter 21: The Barbarians Are Coming! The End of Rome

A Rundown of Barbarians

Going Downhill – Barbarians at the Door

At Last! Someone Who Knows What He’s Doing: Theodosius I the Great (AD 379–395)

Sacking Rome

Staggering On

What Became of Rome’s Western Provinces

In the East: The Byzantine Empire

Part VI : The Part of Tens

Chapter 22: Ten Turning Points in Roman History

Kicking out the Kings (509 BC)

Creating the Twelve Tables (450 BC)

Winning the Second Punic War (218–202 BC)

The year 146 BC

Augustus’s settlements with the Senate in 27 and 19 BC

Breaking the link between the emperor and Rome (AD 68–69)

Ending the tradition of conquest (AD 117–138)

Dividing the Roman world (AD 284–305)

The Edict of Milan (AD 313)

The fall of Rome (AD 410)

Chapter 23: Ten Interesting and Occasionally Good Romans

Cincinnatus (519–438 BC)

Scipio Africanus the Elder (236–185 BC)

Marcus Sergius (late third century BC)

Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 BC)

Gaius Gracchus (d. 121 BC)

Julius Caesar (102–44 BC)

Augustus (63 BC–AD 14)

Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79)

Carausius (reigned AD 286–293)

Sextus Valerius Genialis (late first century AD)

Chapter 24: Ten (Mostly) Bad Romans

Tarquinius Superbus (535–509 BC)

Coriolanus (527–490 BC)

Sulla (138–78 BC)

Sergius Catilinus (d. 63 BC)

Gaius Verres (c. 109–c. 43 BC)

Caligula (reigned AD 37–41)

Nero (reigned AD 54–68)

Commodus (reigned AD 180–192)

Didius Julianus (reigned AD 193)

Caracalla (reigned AD 211–217)

Elagabalus (reigned AD 218–222)

Chapter 25: Ten of Rome’s Greatest Enemies

Hannibal (247–182 BC)

Antiochus III (242–187 BC)

Mithridates VI, King of Pontus (120–63 BC)

Spartacus (fl. 73–71 BC)

Cleopatra VII of Egypt (69–31 BC)

Vercingetorix (fl. 52 BC, d. 46 BC)

Caratacus (d. AD 43–51)

Boudica (d. AD 61)

Simon Bar Cochba (fl. AD 132–135)

The German tribes

Chapter 26: Ten (or So) Great Roman Places to Visit

Rome and Ostia

Pompeii and Herculaneum

Ravenna

Ephesus

Aphrodisias

Sbeitla

Piazza Armerina

Hadrian’s Wall

Petra

Dendara

Bath

: Further Reading

Introduction

When I was about 12 years old, my father came home from work with a Roman coin he’d bought for me. It was very worn, with a barely visible profile of a Roman emperor’s head on one side. But I was totally fascinated by the sudden realisation that this coin had existed for a length of time I was struggling to imagine. It belonged to a truly amazing world of emperors, vast buildings, epic wars, villains, and heroes. And I could hold a part of it in my hand!

Roman history is a hotch-potch made up from every, or indeed, any source that historians and archaeologists have been able to get their hands on. There’s no one-stop ancient source of Roman history, no great Roman textbook that we can pick up and start with. Even the Romans were more than a bit hazy about how their world had come together. They had historians, but most of what got written down hasn’t survived. Even the works we do have are usually incomplete. What we do know is that the further the Romans looked back into their past, the more they had to fill in the gaps with myth and hearsay.

If you think back to learning about the Romans at school or watching a documentary on TV, you’d probably have come across things that sounded really exciting, like Mount Vesuvius erupting and burying Pompeii in AD 79. But you probably also got the idea that the Romans were also dreadfully serious. Some museums don’t help either because rows and rows of dusty pots aren’t very inspiring, especially if you had to troop around with a question sheet while on a school trip.

But the truth is that the Roman Empire is one of the most exciting periods in all history. Not only is it packed with real people living real lives, but it also has an unending series of remarkable events that mark the rise of a little village in Italy all the way from total prehistoric obscurity into the greatest of all ancient civilisations.

The Roman world is all around us. In Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, the debris is there to see wherever you go. From the crumbling line of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England all the way to the rock-cut tombs of Petra in Jordan, the Romans left their mark everywhere they went and created the world’s first superstate. The very fact that it’s long gone is why we should use it as a mirror for our own age. ‘All Things Must Pass,’ said George Harrison, and when it comes to empires, he couldn’t have been more correct.

About This Book

Teaching Latin goes back right to the Middle Ages. In the nineteenth century, the Victorians loved the Romans and used them as a kind of justification for what they were doing: conquering the world, basically. So Latin and ancient history were major subjects, and things didn’t change for years. Generations of schoolchildren – actually, in the 1960s I was one of them – had to learn Latin so that they could translate lines like ‘Caesar attacked the enemy’s fortifications’. The upshot was that the Romans looked like a rather boring master-race of generals and politicians, who did a lot of standing around in togas when they weren’t massacring other people. Hardly thrilling stuff and apparently completely irrelevant to today, but thanks to archaeology, cinema, and TV, they’re now enjoying something of a revival.

The story’s miles more interesting than that, so the idea behind this book is to tell it like it was: a rollercoaster of a drama packed with amazing events and amazing people. Now it’s easy to get the idea that all the Romans came from Rome, and it was just them who made the Roman Empire what it was while everyone else watched. Not a bit of it. The Romans were very clever at what they did. They turned being Roman into an idea, a way of life, that anyone could have – under certain conditions of course, like being prepared to accept the emperor’s authority without question. The fact is that millions of people did just that. They adopted Roman names, lived the Roman way, and they did that wherever they lived. There were Syrian Romans, North African Romans, Spanish Romans, and British Romans.

I can’t pretend I don’t think the Romans were brilliant, but that’s not the same as thinking they were all good, and I’d like to think I’ve acknowledged the downside to Roman life. After all, it’s difficult to defend the horrors of the amphitheatre, slavery, or the brutal massacre of innocent civilians during the wars of conquest. This book is undoubtedly my spin on the Roman world, but I’ve tried to give a balanced account, both the good and the bad.

It also goes without saying I’ve had to leave a lot out, so I chose the key events and people that made Rome what it was, those things that reflect what the Roman Empire and being Roman mean to us. Of course, the events related are entirely my choice, which you might not agree with, but that’s always been the historian’s luxury.

Foolish Assumptions

In writing this book, I’ve had to make a few assumptions about you:

You have a vague idea about the Romans from school.

You’ve probably been dragged to one or two Roman places on holiday.

You basically thought the Romans came from Rome.

You love the idea of reading history packed with murderers, megalomaniacs, mayhem, corruption, swindles, decadence, heroic valour, and crazy weirdo gods.

How This Book Is Organised

I could very easily have started at the beginning of Roman history and written about nothing thing else until I stopped, but where’s the fun in that? The Roman Empire was an ancient civilisation, full of exciting events and interesting people. In this book, you get the best of both worlds: Information about what it meant to be Roman and a rundown of Roman history. The following sections show you what you can expect to find in each part.

Part I: Romans – The Big Boys of the Ancient World

The first part is all about putting the Romans into context. The Romans might be popular today, but in fact they’ve been pretty popular ever since ancient times. Many rulers and governments along the way spotted that the Romans were good at being in charge. This part introduces you to how and why the Romans have had such an impact on later civilisations and the legacy of some of their ideas. Of course, Romans weren’t just armour-clad brutes. The Romans kept their world together through a mixture of the sword and a straightforward acceptance of the structure of their society and its laws. Part I also examines Roman society: the class system, from senator to slave; the Roman fantasy about their identity; the sheer hard practicalities of being in the army; and more. Unlike almost all other ancient civilisations in the western world, the Romans really got a handle on creating a system that actually worked, even if the man in charge was sometimes a raving lunatic.

Part II: Living The Good Life

This bit is all about daily life as a Roman in the Roman Empire. This part includes lots of things that you’ll have heard of, like gladiators in the Colosseum, chariot-racing, and roads. But there’s loads more besides, and the idea is that this part explains how people in the Roman Empire enjoyed themselves, how they got around, where and how they lived, and the gods they prayed to in the hope that they’d be protected from all the nasty things that nature could throw at them. It’s also got a bit about the Roman economy – no, not pie charts and statistics – but the international marketplace the Romans created for themselves.

Part III: The Rise of Rome

Rome was once just one of thousands of nondescript villages in Italy, so it seems almost impossible to understand how just one of them could have become so powerful. Needless to say, it didn’t happen overnight. Like many great success stories, the Roman Empire had a very rocky ride to begin with. Not only that, it also started submerged in the misty obscurity of ancient legends. This part takes you from the very earliest beginnings through the succession of wars and struggles that gradually won the Romans control of Italy. Naturally, no-one gets that powerful without others noticing, and this part also discusses the first major international wars, such as the Punic Wars when the Romans beat the Carthaginians. By the end of this part, the Romans are the most powerful people in ancient Europe, poised on the brink of total domination of the Mediterranean.

Part IV: When Romans Ruled the World

Power corrupts – we all know that – and it also breeds a sense of injustice. This part starts off with the massive struggle and crisis of the late Roman Republic when a succession of military leaders like Marius, Pompey, and Julius Caesar jockeyed for power in a conflict that climaxed in a civil war. The outcome was the Roman Empire, when for the first time one man ruled the whole show: Augustus.

Of course, nothing is ever straightforward, and the story takes us through the shenanigans of the Twelve Caesars of the first century AD and the reigns of maniacs like Caligula and Nero, with occasional bouts of sanity under the rule of Vespasian and Titus. Despite the internal problems, this was the time when the power of the Romans extended over more area than ever before. The last bit is the brilliant success of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ of the second century when the system worked, and it was once said this was the happiest time in human history.

Part V: Throwing the Empire Away

It’s tragic, isn’t it? Just when human beings start to get something right, they have to ruin it. In a way, it wasn’t the Romans’ fault. Other people wanted a slice of the action and wanted to invade the Empire. Unfortunately, the Roman Empire was now so big that governing and defending it was almost impossible. So Part V is all about how it started to go horribly wrong. The Romans didn’t help, though, because they had a succession of military adventurers, thugs, and lunatics for rulers, most of whom died a violent death after short, turbulent reigns. But in the fourth century emperors like Dioclectian and Constantine the Great made a good stab at holding everything together. But the other problems, like barbarians rattling at the gates, didn’t go away, and the coming of Christianity cut right to the very core of Roman tradition, and changed society forever. So in the end, Rome fell, though what she stood for and what she meant clung on in the Eastern Empire for another thousand years.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

This is the bit of the book where you can find the low-down on ten points in Roman history when things changed. Because that’s how it is in history. There might be long-term changes afoot, but things really change when something dramatic happens, like the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. That didn’t just change the history of the Roman Empire; it changed the history of the whole world. Next, I’ve picked out ten unusually interesting Romans whose contribution to their world and ours has marked them out as people to be reckoned with. After them come ten bad Romans because like all villains the baddies are often the most interesting people of their times. I’ve also chosen ten people who gave the world’s first superpower a monumental runaround. These are the anti-Romans. Finally, because I know by this stage in the book you’ll be champing at the bit to go and see the Roman Empire for yourself, I’ve made a list of ten unmissable places that have some of the most sensational remains there are.

Icons Used in This Book

When you flick through this book, you’ll notice little icons in the margins. These icons pick out certain key aspects of the Roman world:

This icon marks key decisive events, which helped define the shape of things to come. Sometimes these affected just Rome’s future history, but some went on to influence directly the world we live in today.

The Romans lived in the same world we do. This icon marks out events, places or things that have come down to us directly from them.

Movie-makers have often found that the Roman world is a fertile source of great stories for epic films. This icon marks out movie versions of events.

This icon indicates quotes from the Romans, things said in their own words which we can read today.

Occasionally points pop up in the text which are important to bear in mind because of what comes next. This icon marks the most important.

Technical stuff in a Roman context includes things like the staggering dimensions of an amphitheatre, or other remarkable facts, which I’ve popped in along the way.

Where to Go from Here

There are several different ways you can go with this book. You can start at the beginning and work your way through to the end. Or you could remember that in 1773 Dr Samuel Johnson was asked if he had read a book from cover to cover. He replied, ‘No, Sir, do you read books through?’ Dr Johnson would be pleased with this book (at least I hope he would have been) because you can read any part you want when you want, and as many times as you want. So if you want to know about the emperor Nero, you can dive right in at Chapter 16, but if it’s soldiers you’re after then Chapter 5 will set you up, while chariot-racing is lurking in Chapter 8. There’s no need to read any chapter you don’t want to. And one of the nicest things of all is that you can read about any bit of the Romans you want without having to learn a single Latin verb!

Part I

Romans – The Big Boys of the Ancient World

In this part . . .

R ome started out as nothing more than a village, but the Romans and their Empire became one of the most important – possibly the most important – of the ancient civilisations. The Romans made an enormous contribution to the whole meaning of power, law and order, and political thought that has affected in some way almost every country that has existed since. More than that, the Romans came up with the very letters I’m writing this down with, and even the whole idea of cities as places where people live together and expect all kinds of public services.

They created such a powerful and compelling sense of identity and protective power that neighbouring villages, then the rest of Italy, all wanted a share. Although their society was organised into a hierarchy of social divisions based on wealth, starting with senators at the top and going all the way down to the slaves at the bottom, it was a flexible and mobile system. New people could be absorbed from all round the Roman world, while others could move themselves up the social ladder.

The Romans also became powerful because of their intoxicating sense of who they were and what Rome’s destiny meant to them, based on their love of their rural fantasy past.

And, of course, let’s not forget the Roman army. There’s no getting away from the fact that a vital part of Rome’s power was her army and its incredibly systematised way of working that meant even in defeat, it always came back for more to wear its enemies down.

Chapter 1

The Romans: Shaping Their World and Ours

In This Chapter

Understanding what it meant be ‘a Roman’

Knowing how we now know what we know

Recognising how the Romans practically defined the modern image of power

Seeing how we use Roman ideas every day

Why we owe the Romans so much

One of the most famous comedy sketches set in the ancient world was dreamed up by the 1970s Monty Python team in their movie The Life of Brian (1979). Set in ancient Judaea, a remote province of the Roman Empire, Reg, leader of the rebellious anti-Roman Peoples’ Front of Judaea, is holding a morale-boosting meeting. He announces in a careworn and cynical voice, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ His fellow rebels nod in agreement and then one after another of them pipes up:

Aqueducts

Sanitation

Roads

Irrigation

Education

Medicine

Public order

Before long, the list is as long as your arm and Reg is forced to redraft his opening gambit by asking, ‘Apart from law and order, water, roads (etc) what have the Romans ever done for us?’ Silence follows until a wag adds ‘Peace’.