Romans

The Romans were obviously the inhabitants of the great city, Rome. Rome began with small number of villages on the hills of Palatine and Aventine. Romulus was said to be the first king of Rome, its foundation was traditionally dated in 753 BC. According to the legend, Romulus was descendant of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who had migrated to Latium after the Fall of Troy.

Since the legend of Aeneas and Romulus (and the early history of Rome) are already told in the Aeneid and the Tales of Rome, I will not repeat it here. Let's just say that Rome were ruled by seven kings, before the last king was overthrown, and the Roman Republic was established as a new form of government in 510 BC. The last three kings comes from Etruscan royal house from Etruria (modern Tuscany). At the time, Etruria was the most powerful and influential people. The Romans are indebted to the Etruscans, because they had taught them to develop writing, science, engineering, art and religion.

The 1st century BC, saw civil strife in Rome itself, where the Roman generals (they were also served as provincial governors) fought one another for power. In 49 BC, a new civil war erupted between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magus. After his victories over Pompey and his allies, Caesar returned to Rome where he made some political and social reforms before he was assassinated in 44 BC. A temporary alliance was formed by Octivian, Caesar's great nephew, and Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), one of Caesar's officer. They shared power in Rome, with Octavian administering the Western provinces, while Antony looked after interests in the East (such as Greece and Syria). Antony fell into charm of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt and Caesar's former mistress. When Antony divorced Octavian's sister and married Cleopatra, civil war had once troubled the empire. Octavian defeated Antony in the naval battle of Actium (western Greece), in 31 BC. Antony committed suicided in Egypt and Cleopatra followed suit, when she failed to charm Octavian.

With Octavian in sole power, the Senate decided to appoint him as their emperor (30 BC). In 27 BC, Octavian finally returned to Rome, and began a new reform to both government and in the provinces. His name was also changed to Augustus Caesar. Rome was finally healing after the long internal strife.

It should be noticed that during the civil wars in Rome, the Romans had began to give Roman citizenship to the Italian allies, after the Social War (91-89 BC). By the time of Julius Caesar, citizenship were granted to non-Italians, to the Gauls, and in the Roman Empire, to anyone who living in Roman provinces (1st century AD and onward). One notable Roman citizen was the Jew Saul, who later apostle Paul, in the New Testament of the Bible.

Augustus established a dynasty in Rome when he died in AD 14. It was followed by reigns of Tiberius (AD 14-37), Caligula (AD 37-41), Claudius (AD 41-54) and Nero (AD 54-68). The dynasty ended with Nero Caesar in AD 68, when he committed suicide when his people turned against him.

The Roman Empire reached new heights and stability with the reigns of Trajan (AD 98-117), Hadrian (AD 117-138) and Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161). Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180) had to fight a series of wars against barbarians on the frontier, and he was followed by his mad son, Commodius, who was later assassinated in AD 192. The 3rd century AD was a period of internal turmoil and civil wars, which caused the collapse of the economy.

The emperor Diocletian (AD 284-305) and his colleague Maximian restored some resemblance of order in the empire, but their successors fell into contention. Diocletian's successor was Constantius, who was the father of Constantine the Great (AD 312-337). It was Constantine was the one who moved the capital to Byzantium, which he renamed to Constantiople. Constantine was also the first to favour Christianity, but he had only accepted baptism at his deathbed.

The 4th century AD, saw increasing pressure on its frontiers by barbarians, mainly of Germanic origin. The Roman empire was permanently divided into East and West (AD 394), by the two sons of Emperor Theodosius, with Honorius in the West and Arcadius in the East. Two groups of Gothic people had done the most damage to Rome, the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. The Visigoths, led by Alaric, sacked Rome in AD 410. With this, Honorius pulled out his legions from Britain, telling this abandoned province to arrange for their own defence. The West was further troubled by Attila the Huns, whose people come from Central Asia. Attila was defeated at the Battle of Chalons in France, in AD 451. Attila died a couple years later in AD 453, but not before destroying Aquileia, in northern Italy in the previous year.

It was the Ostrogoths had killed off the empire, where Odoacer crowned himself King of Italy, when he deposed Romulus Augustus in AD 476.

To the early Roman people, their deities were simply natural forces that they worshipped. In Roman religion, they made offerings and sacrifices. The gods were at first impersonal. It was the Greek mythology that had personalised their deities. Though, the Greek gods were immortal and have great powers over the world, the gods exhibited human nature and human weaknesses. The Greek gods have emotion of human, such as anger, hatred and jealousy.
 

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