The Legacy of Rome on the World Today*

• The Fall of the Roman Empire
  By the year 500, western half of Roman empire had collapsed
• three main reasons of Rome’s fall

• never solved the problem of how to peacefully transfer political power to new and capable leader
• when emperor died, rivals often fought for crown
• armies had real power, could either help leaders into power or destroy them
• emperors often were murdered by rivals
• after 180 C.E. (common era), Rome had lots of weak and/or dishonest rulers
• to support Roman armies, heavy taxes had to be paid by citizens
• these taxes hurt the economy
• drove many into poverty
• trade suffered
• spirit of citizenship declined
• huge size of empire made it hard 2 defend
• by 300s, Germanic tribes pressing west border
• many of these people recruited into army and settled inside empire
• had little loyalty to rome

• in 330 C.E., emperor Constantine moved capital of Rome 850 mi east to Byzantium
• renamed city New Rome
• Later named Constantinople
• Now called Istanbul in Turkey
• before constantine, emperors tried to co-rule
• after constantine, power became divided between 2 emperors, one in Rome and one in Constantinople
• rome became capital of just western part of empire
• soon, Germanic tribes invading posed a threat
• 410 CE, one Germanic tribe attacked rome
• 476, last emperor in west driven from throne
• western half of empire began to change into separate kingdoms with different rulers
• eastern empire continued for another 1,000 yrs
• today, named Byzantine empire
• Byzantines wove Roman heritage into own civilization
• though never able to put old empire back together
• ends ancient world, legacy continues to affect our lives today

Art

• adopted aspects of other cultures
• modified and blended them into their own culture
• especially influenced by greeks
• “Greco-Roman art”
• realistic statues
• skilled
• imitated greek sculpture
• particularly good at making statues lifelike
• wealthy romans
• homes had colorful murals and mosaics
• frescoes
• painted on moist plaster with water-based paints
• showed three dimensional landscapes and other scenes
• encouraged art
• paid thousands of painters, sculptors, craftspeople to create art
• left behind many examples
• inspired future generations
• 1000 yrs after the fall of the empire, Roman art was rediscovered during the period called the Renaissance
• great artists, michelangelo, revived the Greco-Roman style in their paintings and sculptures
• Sistine Chapel: ceiling=scenes from the Bible painted by michelangelo in 1500s
• continued to influence painters/sculptors
• popular in US
• imitate to give their art dignity and nobility
• Washington DC reflect it strongly
• sense of style & luxury to everyday objects
• highly decorative bottles of blown glass
• bottle for wine in the shape of a cluster of grapes
• arts of gem cutting and metalworking
• art from=popular=cameo
• gem carved to show a portrait of a person’s head or scene
• jewelry, decorate vases, etc.
• FIND ALL IN ART FORMS TODAY
  
  
  
  
  Architecture and Engineering
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Roman builders learned from Greeks, Etruscans & others
  • then added their own genius to take feats of construction & new heights
  • romans learned how to use the arch, vault and dome
  • to build huge structures
  • Vault is an arch used to support a ceiling or roof
  • Dome is a vault in the shape of a hemisphere that rests on a circular wall
  • Romans were the first to make widespread use of concrete
  • made concrete by mixing broken stone with sand, cement and water
  • then allowing the mixture to harden
  • with concrete, they were able to build bigger arches than anyone
  • attempted before
  • roman baths and public buildings had many great arches
  • Pantheon
  • magnificent temple that still stands in rome
  • famous for its huge domes
  • also invented new kind of building
  • the stadium
  • were large open air structures
  • Colosseum
  • used concrete to build the tunnels into the famous stadium of Rome
  • tunnels made it super easy for spectators to reach their seats
  • modern football stadiums still use this feature
  • Grand style of roman buildings inspired many architects through the centuries
  • Triumphal arch
  • a huge monument built to celebrate great victories
  • Famous modern example is the Arc de Triomphe (arch of triumph)
  • monument celebrates the victories of the french emperor Napoleon
  • in early 1800s
  • today, it is the national war memorial of France
  • Many Roman influence in the design of many stuff
  • like churches, banks, government buildings
  • example: Capitol Building, Home of U.S. Congress
  Language
  
  
  • Roman language, Latin, affects use everyday
  • Latin alphabet (roman latin=23 letters, english=26 letters)
  • many words come from Latin
  • proverbs are still in use
  • reverse side of a US dime
  • motto, E pluribus unum (“Out of many, one”)
  • many European languages developed from Latin
  • Italian, Spanish, and French
  • English=Germanic language, strongly influence by French-speaking Normans, who conquered England in 1066 CE
  • borrowed heavily from latin, both directly and by way of French
  • influence of latin in words we use today
  • calendar comes from the one adopted by Julius Caesar
  • name of several months come from Latin
  • August honors Caesar Augustus
  • September comes from Latin words meaning “the seventh month”
  • Roman year started in March
  • October means “the eighth month” in Latin
  • Can you guess the meanings of November and December?
  • english words start with latin prefixes
  • is a set of letters at the beginning of a word that carries its own meaning
  • attaching a prefix to a root word creates a new word with a new meaning
  • pre=in front of
  • fix=fasten or attach
  • Roman numerals
  • a system of letters to write numbers
  • used on clocks, sundials, first pages of books, buildings, movies
  • combine seven letters to express larger numbers
  • after=add
  • VIII = 5+3=8
  • before=subtracts
  • IX = 10-1=9
    Philosophy and Law
    • greatly influenced by Greeks
    • also made contributions of their own that they passed on to future generations
    • A Philosophy Called Stoicism
    • came from Greeks
    • upper-class Romans made it their own
    • Stoics believed that a divine (godly) intelligence ruled all of nature
    • person’s soul was a spark of that divine intelligence
    • “living rightly” = living in a way that agreed with nature
    • truly good thing in life=have a good character
    • virtues; self-control/courage
    • disagreed with those who said that happiness meant only avoiding pain and experiencing pleasure
    • true happiness=peace of mind that came from living up to Stoic ideals
    • prized duty & welfare of the community over their personal comfort
    • famous Roman Stoic=Marcus Aurelius
    • thoughts in a book
    • “ Don not worry if you encounter ungratefulness, insults, disloyalty, or selfishness. If you think and act rightly, none of these things can hurt you.”
    • Famous for bearing pain & suffering bravely and quietly
    • call someone who behaves this way “stoic”
    • Laws and Justice
    • stoics’ beliefs about justice and nature fit very well with Roman ideas about law
    • roman law: covered marriages, inheritances, contracts between ppl, and countless other parts of daily life
    • european countries like france/italy modern law codes are based in part of ancient roman laws
    • Roman idea of justice
    • believed that there was a universal law of justice that came from nature
    • by this natural law, every person had rights
    • spread this idea by applying it  to all citizens of the empire
    • judges in Roman courts tried to make just or fair decisions that respected people’s rights
    • not always live up to their ideals
    • courts didn’t treat the poor and slaves as equal to the rich
    • emperors made bad laws
    • but the ideals of justice and natural rights live on
    • like judges in roman courts, modern-day judges make decisions based on these ideals as well as on written law
    • similarly, many people today believe that all humans have basic rights that no written law can take away