Summary: The Most Significant Events In Roman History

The Roman Empire was a powerful governing body of extensive political and social structures throughout western civilization. How did this empire fall and were internal factories responsible? Slow occurrences in succession to one another led to the fall of the empire rather than one single event. The fall of the Roman Empire was a combination of both internal and external pressures, not just one, leading up to the complete decay of the cities—Rome and Constantinople. However, one could argue how one factory played a more important role than the other.

The video called Ancient Rome – The Rise and Fall of an Empire “Revolution”, is a documentary that has many series and the first one I began with was featuring the story of Tiberius Gracchus. He is the son of Tiberius Gracchus the Elder and his mother was Cornelia Africana. In the beginning of the video it begins with show Tiberius Gracchus the Elder at his death ceremony he looked ill and quite pale with white foggy eyes with flies flying around him and Rome did a ceremony of his death. Before him was Gracchus sitting in a throne like chair and there were five dancers wearing a molded mask of Tiberius Gracchus the Elder’s face, like studied in class. It was just a big ceremony to remember him, speeches were given and then the cremation of

Although it was believed that the Roman Empire would never come to an end, inevitably it fell. The Roman Empire is an extremely historic empire that left a massive legacy behind. It collapsed during the fifth century. The empire was having serious military struggles. They received threats from other European tribes along with diminished military funding. A military who does not have proper funding will slowly fall apart. Other than the military, the Roman Empire had a few key social and cultural problems that helped with the fall of the empire in the west. The fall of the Roman Empire in the west occurred due to a rise in Christianity, contrast between rich and poor, and a decline in population.

Biblically, Jews in the City of Rome showed unpredictable tensions and riots against the civil government. “Roman Emperor, Claudius made an edict to expel the Jews from the City of Rome. Right after Claudius was assassinated, many Christian Jews moved back to Rome” (Maier, 1988, pg.355). Meanwhile, there were tensions in Judea. A growing compassion toward Zealots in Judea happened which encouraged the Roman Jews to rebel against the civil government.

Much like we see in daily in the media, power struggle has been a problem of humanity in many situations, and the Roman empire was no exception. The Roman Empire as a world power, extended its reach across parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia; however, the wars of conquest came with a price and especially effected the lie legionaries who had gone for years and where forced to sell their lands upon returning home (McKay, 110). After losing their lands many of the veterans were unable to find employment and would follow any leader until Gaius Marius recruited some of them to fight in Africa in return for land, however, the senate or the state refused to support Marius’ promise (McKay, 111). These events were one of the first destabilizing factors

The Roman Empire was undoubtedly the most powerful Empire the Mediterranean area had ever seen. However, the inevitable Roman Empire was destined to fall after the series of problems that made the once prominent empire fade away. Rome was easily the center of the world at its time and the idea that such an influential empire would eventually fall was unheard of. The Roman Empire was not built in a day; therefore it was not destroyed in one day. The powerful empire declined for many reasons, but the question still lingers “What was the true fall of the Roman Empire?”

The three Emperors during the Jewish revolt in 66-70 CE were Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. They wanted to destroy the Jewish civilization. When Titus destroyed the temple and came back to Rome, Vespasian made the Jews attend and watch as the leaders of the rebellion were executed. The Jews continued to thrive in Rome despite being persecuted. Later the Jews use the Arch of Titus as their own symbol, the Jewish states symbol is the Menorah pictured on the Arch of Titus.

In 70 AD the second temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, hence solidifying the Roman rule over the Jewish Kingdom for the next 254 years. But first lets go back a couple of years and see how the Jewish people where living before the Roman ruled. In 198 BCE the Seleucids integrated the Jewish kingdom into theirs when the lands where divided. The Jews were pleasant at first, however later on the relationship between the hellenized Jews and the religious Jews fell apart. So the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to prohibit certain Jewish religious rites and traditions. As a result this created a national rebellion led by Judas Maccabeus. These rebels became known as the Maccabees, or Hasmoneans. The Maccabean Revolt lasted from 174–135 BCE and the story of how the Maccabees purified the temple of Jerusalem when they took it back was the start of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. For this part the story goes like this. Once the Maccabees had regained control of the kingdom they returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. To their dismay they had found that there temple had been defiled by being used for the worship of foreign gods and the sacrificing of pigs. The Jewish troops where going to burn ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days to cleanse the temple of the unholy acts that had happened in there. However they discovered that there was only one day's worth of oil left but they lit the menorah anyways and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted

Jewish relations with Rome where difficult during that time. Many Jews felt oppressed by the Romans due to heavy taxation and religious restraints. The pressures of outside influences led the Jews to feel that they were losing touch with their religious ways and having religion dictated to them in a way that that was not aligned with preserving their Mosaic laws. Jewish began to long for their ethnic identity (denHollander, 2013). When the Jewish people finally revolted against Rome the Romans overtook Jerusalem and destroyed their temple. Temple of Yahweh held great significance for those of Jewish faith. Essentially this destroyed the early church giving those of Jewish faith no where to practice their religion or offer sacrifices for atonement.

The long-awaited death in 4 BCE of Herod, the ruthless architect of an oppressive Judean police state, sparked a series of spontaneous revolts by the Jewish peasantry. Once these rebellions were subdued, the Jews continued to chafe under a series of tyrannical Roman governors until the massive revolt of 66-70. This period was marked by "widespread discontent and periodic turbulence." Direct Roman rule, along with the burdensome tribute that accompanied it, was highly offensive to the Jews, who considered themselves subjects only to God. Many, in fact, considered their conditions tantamount to slavery (Horsley and Hanson 34-5).

The society of the royal Rome was ruled by a supreme ruler and elite groups at the top, and at the base, powerless followers or poor people were represented (Harris, 2014, p.99). Interestingly, the highly skilled and trained army protected the emperor and was responsible for keeping public order (Harris, 2014, p. 99). Research shows that several first-century Judea viewed Rome as the “evil empire” and they did not have a good relationship, nor did they approve of its existence in their homeland. The Jewish Revolt of 66-73 CE was the result of the Roman’s disagreement to pay taxes to support an idol worshipping Gentile government, which was communicated in Jesus’ instruction to pay Caesar, who was the Roman emperor, what belongs to him, and

Two major forces struggled for dominance within Rome during the last century before the Common Era began. These two political forces were the citizens, whom Cicero believed should rule, and the military. The latter would assume power and according to Cicero this was the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic.[1] Cicero was correct in his stoic assessments that when the power was taken from the people and put into the hands of the few then no longer was Rome guided by moral and philosophical principals. With the power in the hands of the military Rome would now be put on a war path of conquest, greed, corruption, and self-preservation founded on fear and intimidation rather than public service, personal accountability and honesty.[2] Cicero however Novus Homo that he was, being the first elected from his family to the Consul in 63 BC, was in a loss for true company among the biggest the power players of his day.

The Roman empire was one of the most powerful empires that expanded and one we still study today. Rome’s decline was caused by three main causes economic problems, weak political power, and military weakness. These are three of the many cause of Rome’s decline but are the ones that affected Rome the most.

In Mary Beard’s book, The Roman Triumph, she explores one of the most interesting victory celebrations of the ancient world. Instead of having a small gathering, or even a raucous party, Romans brought what they had seized and carted it through the city. They even brought some people they had captured so that the crowd could know exactly who they triumphed against. This celebration gives historians a view into the Romans lifestyle. Roman triumphs also show what values were important to the Romans and where they found their significance. Using Mary Beard’s book I will demonstrate the nature of Roman triumphs by giving examples from Pompey’s triumph in 61BC, what these triumphs tell historians about the Roman world and why they are significant, and what they tell us about the values the Romans held dear.

In the book The Fall of the Roman Empire the author Peter Heather talks about the ways the Roman empire conquered the many territories surrounding them and how strong of an empire the Roman empire was. He also talks about the build up all the events that causes the empire to fall. Peter also talks about the people that helped or was involved with the build up or the collapse of the Roman empire. Peter Heather mainly wrote this book to speak of how the European barbarians that got turned into enemies through imperialism and that these Barbarians were capable of tearing apart an empire that ruled over them for many of years.Peter also, mentions all the battles and build ups that occurred throughout the Barbarians “reign” of power and speaks mainly of the battles that they went through. Peters argument is that the empire did not collapse because of social or moral collapse but he believes that the empire fell because of the Barbarians.