How many "Romes" are there? It's a tricky question. There is the Rome of the Roman Republic, which lasted nearly five hundred years (510 - 27 BC). It was succeeded by imperial Rome, or the Roman Empire, which is usually held to have begun with Caesar Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD), and which lasted another five hundred years, until the Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was unceremoniously deposed by a Germanic king in 476. Even then, it's not the end of the Roman Empire. Various Germanic kings claimed to act in the name of Rome after 476, and Charlemagne and his descendants ruled over what was often called the Holy Roman Empire, from 800 all the way up to 1806. More important, there was an Eastern Roman Empire, which held scepter in the Eastern Mediterranean after 395 as a separate entity from its crumbling Western counterpart. This Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire lasted for another thousand years, with its own set of impressive achievements, until the Turks captured its capital of Constantinople in 1453. In emulation of this Second Rome, the Russian tsars claimed their own empire as the Third Rome. Seen this way, "Rome" existed as an empire until 1917, when the tsars were overthrown.

Finally, there is a Christian Rome, the center of Western Christianity. The bishops of Rome claimed rather early on that they were the successors of the apostle Peter, with special authority granted them by Christ. With Rome the capital of a great empire, the bishop of Rome gained special influence, and when the Western Roman Empire crumbled, it was often this bishop - the pope - who had the spiritual and political clout to exercise the most influence in the region. Nearly two thousand years of Christian presence - from the catacombs to St. Peter's basilica - has created a Christian Rome distinct from its pagan predecessors.

So why is "Rome" in this course restricted to the last century of the Roman Republic (146 - 27 BC) and first two centuries of the Roman Empire (27 BC - 180 AD)? The first reason is that these three centuries witnessed the height of Roman power. By 146 BC, Roman legions had conquered Greece and Carthage, two major Mediterranean powers. The latter was a particularly bitter rival of Rome in the so-called Punic Wars, and Carthage's utter destruction in 146 BC confirmed - if there was any doubt - Rome's domination of the Western Mediterranean. (Carthage's fate is also an important element in Virgil's Aeneid.) To be sure, Roman control in other adjacent areas, like Gaul (France), Egypt, most of Asia Minor and Palestine were anything but established in 146, and it would take more than a century of hard fighting before these areas, too, fell to Rome. But in hindsight, one can see a consolidation and increase in territory up to around 120 AD, when the Roman Empire reached its maximum size. The first two centuries of the imperium, from 27 BC to 180 AD, is known as the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, because of the relative quiet that the Empire enjoyed in these years. After 180 or 200, the Empire began to shrink, attacked by new enemies in Europe and Asia and torn apart from within.

The second reason is that it is worth investigating the transition from republic to empire. Founders of the United States - not to mention Italian Renaissance thinkers and many others - greatly admired the institutions and traditions of the Roman Republic, with its emphases on representative government, checks and balances, rule by law and its soaring and high-minded political oratory. Perhaps most of all, they admired Roman virtues like patriotism, hard work, piety and honesty which they believed made representative government possible. Because 18th and 19th century Americans looked to the Roman Republic for political inspiration, it is worth looking briefly at the Republic, and why it failed. Moreover, it may be worth mentioning that the Roman Republic was the only republic ever to rule over an ancient empire of world proportions - all the other empires were monarchies. The Roman Empire fit the ancient pattern better in this respect.

The third reason is that these centuries witnessed some of Rome's greatest cultural figures, including Cicero and Virgil, who both lived during the first century BC. Even more important, though, is that it was precisely in this period that Rome copied and disseminated Greek culture. This culture was already widespread throughout much of the Near East - Alexander the Great's conquests way back in the 330s and 320s BC had seen to that. This Hellenistic (or Greek-like) culture was now taken over by the Romans, who, after they had successfully conquered Greece in 168 BC, brought back thousands of Greek slaves as teachers for their children. If you think Roman architecture, religion and poetry looks pretty Greek-like (be alert to Virgil's conscious "imitation" of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in the Aeneid), be assured that it's no coincidence. Rome matters in this period because they copied, amplified and modified Greek achievements, many of them from classical Athens.

But just as important is the fourth reason, Rome's more original and more practical accomplishments. It was the age in which the Romans were able to make maximum use of their engineering, architectural and organizational skills. The Romans were not noted for the originality of their thought; rather, they were imitators of other peoples, especially of - as you've just read - the Greeks. But in building roads and aqueducts, in constructing private and public buildings (including baths), in maintaining their empire through both an effective military and a fair system of law, the Romans were great achievers. "Drains, not brains" is a quip used to describe Roman strengths; their influence owes more to their plumbing than philosophizing about the good life.

Because of Rome's many practical contributions, it is worth the effort we are taking in this course to look at Rome as a city, its achievements, its problems, its way of life. The fact that the city of Rome may have supported a population of up to one million at the time of Christ is itself an astonishing feat.

The fifth and final reason for studying this period is that the origins of Christianity can be found in the Pax Romana. Not the legalization of Christianity or its widespread acceptance; that would have to wait for the fourth century. In 180 AD - the end date of this unit - Christianity still had relatively few adherents, totaling no more than a few percent of the empire's population. Even as Christians tried to live in opposition to "the world," they were shaped, like us, by the cultural influences of their time. It is therefore important to learn how early Christianity was both formed by, and different from, the Jewish community from which it stemmed, and how it was conditioned by Roman values at the same time that missionaries like Paul and Barnabas were bringing the gospel to Gentiles. A word will also be said about reasons for Roman hostility toward Christianity, and what religious conditions enabled Christianity to nonetheless gain many adherents.

Be sure to investigate the Rome site on the timeline for further important information about the Romans and their culture. For pictures of a Roman palace click here.

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