History of Rome
                     
Ancient Rome



HISTORY OF ROMAN 
EMPIRE 


Formation of Roman Republic

For more than 200 years, kings ruled 
Rome. 

 In 509 B.C. Rome became a republic.
The Roman Senate was an assembly of 

elected representatives. It was the single 
most powerful ruling body of the Roman 
Republic.


Roman Society
 The rulers of Rome were called the Patricians. They lived in 

domus and did no physical work. Sometimes they were generals or 
senators. Patricians controlled the law since they were the only 
citizens allowed to be judges

 Working Romans were called Plebeians. They lived in insulae and 
did lots of different work: carpenters, weavers, smiths, tile 
makers, coopers, tanners potters, etc. Plebeians had the right to 
vote, but could not hold public office until 287  B.C, when they 
gained equality with patricians.

 Educated Romans were doctors, architects and money lenders.

 Unemployed Romans were given the dole (free grain).

 The lowest were the slaves, kidnapped by the Romans when they 
conquered a place. They did all the hard work in the cities and on 
the farms. A slave was a non person.


Women in Ancient Rome

Men dominated the family. His wife and 
children obeyed him

Girls were less valuable than boys and 
Girls got less education

Girls married at the age of 12.They had a 
lot of children and they often died in 
childbirth.

Roman women were not allowed to vote.


Roman Expansion

Under the leadership of ambitious 
generals, Rome’s highly trained soldiers 
took over most of the land surrounding 
the Mediterranean.

The ancient Romans called the 
Mediterranean mare nostrum, meaning 
“our sea”.


The End of the Roman Republic
 A successful Roman general and famous 

speaker, Julius Caesar, was a governor of the 
territory of Gaul and managed to take control 
of many nearby territories.

 Fearing him the Roman Senate ordered him to 
resign…but he had other ideas.

 Caesar fought for control and won, becoming 
the dictator of the Roman world, ending the 
Roman Republic.


The Roman Empire

 Less than a year after gaining power a group of 
angered Senators stabbed Caesar to death on 
the floor of the Roman Senate. (March 15, 44 
B.C.)

 This caused a civil war that lasted several 
years.

 In 27 B.C., Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian was 
named the first emperor of Rome.

 As emperor Octavian took the name Augustus.
 Augustus ruled the Roman Empire for more 

than 40 years, known as the Augustan Age. 


The Augustan Age
During the rule of Augustus the Roman 

empire continued to expand.
Augustus kept soldiers along all the 

borders to keep peace in the Roman 
world. 

During this time architects and engineers 
built many new public buildings.


The Augustan Age
During this time trade increased with 

olive oil, wine, pottery, marble, and grain 
being shipped all across the 
Mediterranean. 

Lighthouses were constructed to guide 
ships into port. 

This was also a time of great Roman 
literature.


Religion
New religions were imported from the 

East that made their appeal to citizens of 
the world: to all nations and classes

Worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis
Hebrew prophet Jesus, crucified in 

Jerusalem, risen from the dead
Christianity, persecuted and working 

underground, finally triumphed and 
became the official religion of the Roman 
world


The Rise of Christianity
After the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. a 

new religion begin to spread: Christianity. 
Christians were viewed with suspicion 

and suffered persecution and many were 
punished or killed for their beliefs. 

Things changed when Constantine 
became emperor of Rome in 306 A.D. 
During his reign Christianity became the 
official religion of the Roman Empire. 


The Fall of the Roman Empire
 Rome had quite a run…First a monarchy, then a 

republic, then an empire – all roads led to Rome for 
over 1200 years. In the Mediterranean, Rome was in 
charge. 

 Rome had some wonderful emperors. Rome also 
suffered from a series of bad, corrupt and just plain 
crazy emperors. 

 The ancient Romans tried to solve some of their 
problems by splitting the Roman Empire in half, hoping 
that would make the empire easier to manage. 

 Each side had an emperor, but the emperor in charge 
was the emperor of the western half, the half that 
included the city of Rome. 

 The Western Roman Empire did not do well. Instead of 
getting stronger, they became weaker.   

Credit: http://rome.mrdonn.org/fall.html


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