The Ancient Romans

History and Society from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus

Matthew Dillon, Lynda Garland

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781317391340
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

This textbook provides comprehensive coverage of the political, military, and social history of ancient Rome from the earliest days of the Republic to its collapse and the subsequent foundations of the empire established by Augustus prior to his death in AD 14.

Interspersed through the discussion of the political history of the period are crucial chapters on all aspects of Roman culture, including women, religion, slavery and manumission, overseas conquests and their impact, and life in the city of Rome, giving students a full understanding of republican society, culture, and politics. With over 130 maps, illustrations, and photographs, The Ancient Romans is lavishly illustrated, with a particular emphasis on coins as a valuable historical resource. It also closely references the authors' sourcebook, Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus, second edition, allowing students to engage with the documentary evidence and written sources in a deep and meaningful way.

The Ancient Romans: History and Society from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus is an indispensable resource for undergraduate students of the Roman Republic and its society and culture, as well as offering a comprehensive and compelling introduction for the interested reader.

Chapter 1

Early Republican Rome

509–264 bc

Rome was traditionally founded in 753 bc by Romulus, descendant of Aeneas of Troy and son of the god Mars (Figure 1.1), and it was ruled by non-hereditary kings until their expulsion and the foundation of the Republic in 509/8 bc. According to Rome’s own foundation legend, the Romans were the descendants of the Trojans, through a synthesis of the myths of Aeneas (prince of Troy) and Romulus (son of Mars), his descendent through the Latin kings of Alba Longa. Romulus was said to have killed his brother Remus in a quarrel over the foundation of the city, and to have given the Romans wives through the abduction of the Sabine women (Figure 1.2). Romulus then united with the Sabine king Titus Titius and organised the new city into three tribes and 30 curiae (divisions). Romulus’ successor, Numa Pompilius, was also a Sabine (an Umbro-Oscan group). The story of the rape of the Sabine women, and the resulting mixed descent of the Romans, continued by the immigration of noble families from elsewhere in Italy in the historical period, suggests an awareness of the fact that Rome in its early years had been dependent on an admixture of different Italian groups, and the Romans thus accepted both their mixed origin and their kinship with the Latins, who spoke the same language and shared the same religious observances.

The account of the seven kings of Rome, including the mythical figure of Romulus, is primarily ahistorical. It was probably in the seventh century that the various hilltop settlements of Rome came together into one community. The rule of the last three kings (c. 616–509: Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Tarquinius Superbus), who were of Etruscan background, suggesting strong Etruscan cultural influence on Rome at this period, saw Rome becoming one of the largest of the Italian cities with an estimated population of some 25,000 inhabitants, while it began assuming a more prominent position in the region of Latium. Even so, at the beginning of the Republic Rome’s territory comprised only some 800 square kilometres, and expansion only began in earnest in the late fifth century. At the beginning of the third century, following the conquest of the Italian peninsula, the population had probably reached some 90,000 citizens.

Geography and location

The site of Rome, located some 30 kilometres from the west coast of Italy on the river Tiber, allowed for ease of communications both inland and with the sea, which was advantageous in terms of trade and communications with its neighbours (Map 1). The Tiber begins in the Apennines, Italy’s mountainous backbone, and formed the boundary between Etruria to the north and Umbria and Latium to the south. The river, which wanders through Rome as a lazy ‘s’, contributed greatly to Rome’s economy, being navigable by sea-going vessels as far as Rome, while timber and agricultural produce were brought in small boats from as far as 100 kilometres inland. The Tiber was first crossed with a narrow bridge, the pons Sublicius, in the sixth century, which was sometimes destroyed by floods; it was a special concern of the priests (Dion. Hal. 1.38.2–3: doc. 3.7).

Figure 1.1 A denarius minted by the moneyer P. Satrienus at Rome in 77 bc depicting the head of Mars and the she-wolf. On the obverse Mars wearing a crested helmet, LXII behind. On the reverse a she-wolf standing with right front paw raised, roma above. p. satrienvs in the exergue. The she-wolf, foster-mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, was the symbol of Rome.

Source: Photo courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group

Figure 1.2 A denarius minted by the moneyer L. Titurius Sabinus at Rome in 89 bc depicting the bearded head of the Sabine king Titus Tatius and the rape of the Sabine women. On the obverse Titus Tatius, with sabin to the left; on the reverse two soldiers facing each other, each carrying off one of the Sabine women. According to legend Tatius then attacked Rome, but the abducted women convinced Tatius and Romulus to make peace and rule jointly over Romans and Sabines. The moneyer is claiming Sabine descent, and there may also be here a reference to the Social War with the Italians, which was currently in progress.

Source: Photo courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group

There was no harbour at Ostia in republican times and sea-going vessels passed through the mouth of the Tiber there and were assisted on their way to Rome: Dionysius of Halicarnassus comments that merchant ships of up to 3,000 measures (bushels) were brought up river by rowing or the use of tow-lines, while heavier vessels rode at anchor off the mouth of the Tiber, where they were unloaded by river boats (Dion. Hal. 3.44.1–4: doc. 1.1). From the time of the Punic wars a small fleet was based at Ostia to protect the grain supply necessary to feed Rome’s growing population.

Strabo, writing his Geography in the early first century ad, points out some of the disadvantages of Rome’s site, in particular the difficulties involved in defending the city (Strabo 5.3.7: doc. 1.2). The ‘Servian’ wall was ascribed to the sixth king, Servius Tullius, but in fact dated to the fourth century, after the conquest of Veii in 396 bc. This wall was 11 kilometres in circumference and embraced all seven hills of Rome except the Palatine, which had its own defences (Map 2). The area within this Servian Wall comprised some 400 hectares, but by the late republican period the city had significantly outgrown it. The story of the Gallic sack of the city c. 390 bc suggests that Rome had no extensive defences prior to the ‘Servian’ wall, and Strabo praises Rome’s militarism, which (like that of Sparta) saw courage and arms as the main line of defence rather than walls and fortifications: ‘walls should not defend men, but men walls’.

The development of Rome

Under the last three kings of Rome, the city became increasingly urbanised and an important cultural centre. The city was divided into four regions (Palatina, Collina, Esquilina, Suburana), and several temples were built on the Capitol, including that of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter the Best and Greatest). The forum Boarium developed into an important trade centre with the building of the pons Sublicius, the first bridge over the Tiber, while the forum Romanum was drained by the construction of the sewer system, and both the forum and comitium were paved. Strabo notes that collapsing buildings and fires led to constant construction work in Rome, and fires must always have been a major problem (Strabo 5.3.7: doc. 1.2): notable fires in the Republic included the forum Boarium (‘cattle market’) in 213, the forum Romanum in 210, and that of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline on 6 July 83.

The seven hills which comprised the city of Rome were the Palatine, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Capitol (Map 2). The auspices were taken from the Capitol, the citadel, home of the great temple of Jupiter. The rich lived primarily on the Palatine, with the poorer citizens located in the Subura, between the Esquiline and Viminal hills, which was the centre of trade and commerce. The Esquiline was the main burial area (ILS 6082: doc. 3.78), and the Aventine was the site of numerous important cult centres, including the temple of Juno Regina after the conquest of Veii in 396 bc (Livy 5.21–22: doc. 3.57), the temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera established as part of the ‘First Secession’ in 494 (Livy 2.31–33: doc. 1.25), and the temple of Diana dedicated by the king Servius Tullius.

The pomerium

Rome had an inaugurated religious boundary, the pomerium (Gell. 13.14.1–2: doc. 1.3), which divided the city itself (the urbs) from its territories (the ager, land outside the city), and which enclosed the sacred space within which any auspices for the city (the auspicia urbana) were taken. The pomerium was established by an Etruscan ritual, involving the use of a special team of white cattle (Varro Ling. Lat. 5.143: doc. 3.17; Figure 15.6), and originally ended at the foot of the Palatine. It was then extended by Servius Tullius, and remained unchanged until Sulla enlarged it, followed by Julius Caesar and Augustus. It enclosed all the hills of Rome, except for the Aventine, and an increasing proportion of the inhabitants lived outside the pomerium as the city population continued to grow.

Senior magistrates who possessed imperium, the right to command an army, had to lay it down on crossing the pomerium into the city, as military command could not be held within Rome itself: the only exception was the celebration of a triumph for military victories, when the general and soldiers formally paraded through the city to the Capitol. On leaving Rome and crossing the pomerium the lictors (public attendants), who accompanied senior magistrates (consuls and praetors), fixed axes into their fasces (a bundle of elm or birch rods tied by red straps) to show that outside of Rome these magistrates had the right of life or death over Roman and allied soldiers, as well as the right to exact punishment within Rome. The comitia centuriata, originally a military assembly, could only be held outside the pomerium and had to meet on the Campus Martius, while the temples of introduced deities not sanctioned by the state were not allowed within the pomerium. Burial was not permitted inside the area bounded by the pomerium except as a state honour, granted to the Vestal Virgins, P. Valerius Poplicola or Publicola (cos. 508, 507, 504), and Caesar in 44 bc.

The forum Romanum

The forum Romanum, the political centre of Rome, lay at the foot of the Capitol (Map 2): a forum was a square or market-place, the common meeting-place of a Roman town, serving as a market area and for all other forms of collective activity. Rome also possessed the forum Boarium (cattle market) and forum Holitorium (vegetable market), with the forum Romanum primarily the place of public business. Between 635 and 575 the forum was paved and became the site of ceremonial buildings rather than a residential area. From this period Rome’s political and religious life appears to have been centred on the forum, with the regia (royal dwelling), senate house (curia; Figures 13.1, 13.9) and comitium (assembly area) located there, as well as the temple for the goddess Vesta (Figures 3.3, 7.5; Maps 2, 3). A marshy area, the lacus Curtius (‘lake of Curtius’), lay in the centre of it, so named because according to legend a chasm in the earth at this spot was closed by the self-sacrifice (devotio) of one M. Curtius in 362, who in accordance with an oracle spurred his horse into it in full armour (Map 3).

Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome (616–579 bc), was said to have adorned the forum and surrounded it with shops and colonnades (Dion. Hal. 3.67.4: doc. 1.5), while the seventh king Tarquinius Superbus (534–509) was reputed to have canalised the stream of the Cloaca Maxima (‘Great Sewer’) which ran through it: the forum, however, was always subject to inundation. The Sacred Way (via Sacra), which ran through the forum and was part of the triumphal route to the Capitol, was lined with shops, the ‘old shops’ mentioned by Plautus (Curc. 480: doc. 1.6), while newer ones were constructed in the northern part of the forum in front of the basilica Aemilia.

Popular assemblies and judicial proceedings took place in the forum, and the political complex comprised the curia (senate house), comitium (assembly place), and rostra (the speakers’ platform). The comitium at the north-east was a circular structure, with the rostra on its southern side, and the curia, the meeting-place of the senate, adjacent to the north (Figures 13.1, 13.9). The forum was extensively remodelled in the latter half of the first century bc, with Caesar’s forum Julium, dedicated in 46, built over the older comitium, while the speakers’ platform, the rostra (‘beaks’), was adorned with the beaks, the curved ends of the prow, of the ships captured at the battle of Antium in 338 by C. Maenius (Livy 8.14.12: doc. 1.65).

The forum was also the site of some of the oldest temples in Rome, including the temple of Saturn, the treasury, to the south-west dedicated in 498, and that of Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, in the south-east in 484. The temple of Concordia, constructed c. 366, stood on the western side of the forum, allegedly dedicated by Camillus to celebrate the end of the ‘Conflict of the Orders’, and the temple of Vesta, the house of the Vestals, and the regia or domus publica, the residence of the pontifex maximus, the chief priest, lay to the east (Map 3). The tabularium, records office, was built in 78 bc at the western end of the forum behind the Temple of Concord. The forum also housed the temples of Janus and Venus Cloacina (Venus of the Sewers: Figure 3.17). In the second century bc a number of basilicas (colonnades) were constructed: the Basilica Aemilia at the north-eastern corner, the Basilica Porcia near the curia, and the Basilica Sempronia to the north. It was also in the forum that funeral eulogies for prominent men were delivered, and funerary games, with their accompanying gladiatorial contests and theatrical performances, were held there with temporary seating erected for the occasion; Gaius Gracchus in 122 forcibly removed the seats so that the poor could see the contests free of charge.

Life in the forum

In a vivid description of public life in Rome, the comic poet Plautus describes the ways in which the forum in the early second century bc functioned as the key religious, political, and commercial centre of Rome, as well as the main meeting-place and lounging-spot for citizens and others (Plaut. Curc. 467–...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of maps
• List of genealogical trees
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Glossary
• Some useful definitions
• List of consuls 88 bc–ad
• Genealogical (family) trees
• 1 Early Republican Rome: 509–264 bc
• 2 The public face of Rome
• 3 Religion in the Roman Republic
• 4 The Punic wars
• 5 Rome’s Mediterranean empire
• 6 Slaves and freedmen
• 7 Women, sexuality, and the family
• 8 Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
• 9 Gaius Marius
• 10 The ‘Social’ War
• 11 Lucius Cornelius Sulla ‘Felix’
• 12 The collapse of the Republic
• 13 The civil war and Caesar’s dictatorship
• 14 Octavian’s rise to power
• 15 The age of Augustus
• General index